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<DATE>6-7-07</DATE>
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<NAME>John Latta</NAME>
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<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="1">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<HEAD>Deliramenta Catarrhi: OR, THE INCONGRUITIES, IMPOSSIBILITIES, and ABSURDITIES Couched under the Vulgar Opinion of DEFLUXIONS.</HEAD>
<P>The Author, That great Philo&s;opher, by Fire, <HI>Joh. Bapt. &V;an Helmont, &amp;c.</HI></P>
<P>The Tran&s;lator and Paraphra&s;t D^r. CHARLETON, Phy&s;ician to the late KING.</P>
<Q><P><GAP DESC="foreign">.</P> <BIBL>&para;. Ari&s;t. de Caelo. 1. cap. 10.</BIBL></Q>
<P><HI>LONDON,</HI> Printed by <HI>E. G.</HI> for <HI>William Lee</HI> at the &s;igne of the Turks-head in <HI>Fleet-&s;treet.</HI> 1650.</P>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="translator to the reader">
<PB REF="2">
<PB REF="2">
<HEAD><HI>The Tran&s;lator to the Judicious and</HI> (therefore) <HI>unpreju|dicate Reader.</HI></HEAD>
<P>_SO malevolent, &s;evere, and uncha|ritable have the Cen&s;ures of ma|ny (yet &s;uch onely, I conceive, who&s;e <HI>parcel-literature,</HI> and incapacity of the more &s;olid and weighty <HI>Notions</HI> of <HI>Philo&s;ophy,</HI> delivered in mo&s;t <HI>proper</HI> and <HI>&s;ignificant language,</HI> have depraved their <HI>Appetite</HI> of <HI>Knowledge,</HI> and made them fit to dige&s;t nothing, but crude <HI>Sallads</HI> gathered in the <HI>Poets Elizium,</HI> and &s;oft <HI>Ro|mances,</HI> oyled with the effeminate <HI>Extracts</HI> of the <HI>Stage,</HI> and &s;piced with &s;ome new <HI>French-Engli&s;h</HI> idioms) been of my precedent <HI>exerci&s;e;</HI> that the <HI>World</HI> might expect from me rather a <HI>Vindication</HI> of that, then the <HI>Publication</HI> of a &s;econd, of the &s;ame kind. But as I ever level|led my endeavors at a far nobler <HI>end,</HI> then the
<PB REF="3">
nothing of vulgar <HI>Applaus:</HI> &s;o al&s;o have I de|clared the temper of my <HI>Genius</HI> to be too <HI>Stoi|cal,</HI> to feel the weak a&s;&s;aults of that cowardly Pygmie, <HI>detraction;</HI> whom han&s;omly to <HI>over|come,</HI> is to <HI>&s;corne.</HI> For common ob&s;ervation will ju&s;tifie, that no man ever entered the li&s;ts with that ignorant <HI>Bug-bear,</HI> but lo&s;t much by the encounter: his <HI>judgement</HI> inevitably re|ceiving &s;uch <HI>VVounds,</HI> as the reputation of his <HI>Courage</HI> could never cure, or compen&s;ate.</P>
<P>Nor &s;hall I at all recede from this <HI>Maxime,</HI> though I here adventure to profe&s;&s;e, that next to the di&s;charge of that duty, which, as a <HI>Scholer,</HI> I owe unto the Publique, in the <HI>Explanation, Improvement,</HI> and <HI>Communication</HI> of ob|&s;cure <HI>Truths;</HI> the mo&s;t forcible <HI>motive,</HI> that incited me to be&s;tow a few recreative houres on the <HI>Tran&s;lation,</HI> and <HI>marginal Paraphra&s;e</HI> of this piece of <HI>Helmont,</HI> was to have an oppor|tunity of letting the&s;e <HI>Semi-criticks</HI> know: that though they have <HI>privately accu&s;ed,</HI> yet would it have &s;tood more with their Honour <HI>publickly</HI> to have <HI>convicted</HI> me of &s;uch <HI>improprieties</HI> of expre&s;&s;ion, or unnatural <HI>perver&s;ions</HI> of my <HI>Au|thors</HI> &s;en&s;e, as might make me alter any thing of moment in the former, or change my &s;tile in the pre&s;ent di&s;cour&s;e.</P>
<P><PB REF="3">
For though I am &s;ufficiently con&s;cious to my &s;elf of more <HI>defects,</HI> and greater <HI>unevenne&s;&s;e</HI> of my <HI>Pen,</HI> then the acute&s;t of my <HI>Calumniators</HI> can di&s;cover; and do account it more noble to detect my own, then others Frailties: yet I dare appeal to the &s;ober Deci&s;ion of any, who&s;e <HI>Stu|dies</HI> hold any proportion with the <HI>Subject,</HI> (and &s;uch onely can I allow for competent <HI>Judges)</HI> whether <HI>the fine and my&s;terious nature of many things, treated of in that di&s;cour&s;e, might not have &s;uffered a gro&s;&s;e Eclip&s;e, if dre&s;t in a meer-Engli&s;h veil?</HI> Whether it be a Crime in me to trace the foot&s;teps of tho&s;e Worthies, who have infinitely botb enriched and ennobled our Language, by admitting and naturalizing thou&s;ands of forraigne Words, pro|vidently brought home from the <HI>Greek, Ro|man, Italian,</HI> and <HI>French</HI> Oratories; which, though in the untraveld ears of our <HI>Fathers</HI> they would have &s;ounded as har&s;h, as St. <HI>Pauls</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign"> <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Ineffabilia verba. 2. Cor. 12. c. ver. 4.</NOTE>; yet have a few years made &s;o familiar unto us, that now even <HI>Children</HI> &s;peak much of <HI>Latine,</HI> before they can well read a word of <HI>Engli&s;h?</HI> And to draw in to the Cen|ter of the &s;candal, whether <HI>I</HI> have merited the Epithite of <GAP DESC="foreign"> <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Qui venu|&s;tatem ver|borum, non &s;en&s;uum a|cumen in&s;e|ctatur.</NOTE> of one that praefers
<PB REF="4">
the noveltie, or affected elegance of the <HI>Phra&s;e,</HI> to the nerves and importance of the <HI>&s;en&s;e;</HI> meer|ly becau&s;e I rendered &s;ome <HI>Phy&s;ical Notions</HI> in <HI>terms</HI> mo&s;t amply and adequately exhibiting their <HI>qualities;</HI> and tho&s;e no other, but &s;uch as are mo&s;t frequent in the <HI>Schools:</HI> and attempted to paint the <HI>beauty</HI> and <HI>life</HI> of <HI>Helmonts</HI> &s;pruce <HI>Conceptions,</HI> in <HI>Colours</HI> mo&s;t &s;trong and natural; though borrowed from the more praeci&s;e, di&s;tinctive, and emphatical <HI>Tinctures</HI> of forreigne <HI>Arti&s;ts?</HI></P>
<P>I can not but applaud the <HI>Spirit,</HI> and happy <HI>Phan&s;ie</HI> of this <HI>Tetra&s;tick,</HI>
<Q><L>Legi&s;ti no&s;tros? ri&s;i&s;ti, <HI>Romule,</HI> libros? <NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Ca&s;p. Hof|mannus</HI> in praefatione &s;ua ad <HI>lib. de Generat. Ho|min.</HI> &para;</NOTE></L>
<L>Ut vidi, ut ri&s;i, <HI>Romule Dive,</HI> tuos.</L>
<L>Quae Cau&s;a effectus paris in tam di&s;pare cau&s;a?</L>
<L>Ri&s;i&s;ti <HI>ingenium</HI> tute, ego <HI>&s;tultitiam.</HI></L></Q>
And when any of the tribe of <HI>Zoilus</HI> &s;hall &s;hew us &s;omething of their own, I may perchance be furni&s;hed with an opportunity of <HI>Applying</HI> them.</P>
<P>But le&s;t I fall upon a <HI>Parergie,</HI> and loo&s;ly de|viate into that &s;ini&s;ter path, which my re&s;oluti|ons abhor; I return directly to my duty, which is to give the impartial <HI>Reader</HI> the <HI>Rea&s;on,</HI> which per&s;waded me to exhibite my <HI>Explana|tion</HI>
<PB REF="4">
of <HI>Helmonts</HI> unfrequent, and new coyned, or new-applied <HI>Termes</HI> of Art, in <HI>Latine.</HI> In a word, I conceived that the <HI>Quality</HI> of the <HI>Subject,</HI> intimated by each of tho&s;e paradoxi|cal <HI>Appellatives,</HI> being &s;uch as falls under the comprehen&s;ion of none, but the leading part of learning, and chiefly tho&s;e, who have more then looked into the my&s;terious Temple of <HI>Ae&s;|culapius,</HI> did nece&s;&s;arily require it: and that no <HI>Engli&s;h,</HI> how plain &s;oever, could have dri|ven their ample meaning into tho&s;e skulls, which are &s;o thick, as not to admit it in <HI>Latine.</HI></P>
<P>As concerning the <HI>Verity</HI> of the&s;e <HI>Para|doxes,</HI> in&s;per&s;ed upon the en&s;uing <HI>Treati&s;e,</HI> though I have formerly declared my Aver&s;a|tion to attempt any <HI>Commentary</HI> on, or deci|&s;ive <HI>A&s;&s;ertion</HI> of any of his <HI>Innovations;</HI> in regard I ever found his rea&s;on &s;tronger at <HI>De|moli&s;hing</HI> the Doctrines of the Antient Pillars of our Art, then <HI>Erecting</HI> a more &s;ub&s;tantial and durable <HI>Structure</HI> of his own, his <HI>Witt</HI> more acute and active at <HI>Contradiction,</HI> then his <HI>judgement</HI> profound and authentick at <HI>Probation:</HI> yet &s;hall I u&s;urp the liberty to &s;ay, that many of the <HI>Grounds</HI> of his quarrell a|gain&s;t the <HI>Schools,</HI> in this particular of <HI>Ca|tarrhs,</HI>
<PB REF="5">
are &s;ufficiently ju&s;tifiable; and that if any member in the whole body of <HI>Phy&s;ick</HI> needs to have its errors purged, &s;tupidity corrected, di&s;tortions rectified, and leanne&s;&s;e reformed, doubtle&s;&s;e this Capitall one of <HI>Defluxions</HI> may chiefly de&s;erve the indu&s;try of the pre&s;ent, and gratefull improvement of the future Age. Nor &s;hould I have onely &s;aid it, had not my <HI>expe|ctation,</HI> that &s;ome more judicious and elegant hand will &s;hortly &s;et about that &s;o nece&s;&s;ary, charitable, and honourable task, whi&s;pered me, that this difficult, and (therefore) infinitely de|&s;iderable piece of knowledge, would unavoyd|ably have &s;uffered irreparable <HI>detriment, di&s;paragement,</HI> and <HI>ob&s;curity</HI> from the Con|tagion of my unequall undertaking. And I am bold to promi&s;e, that if any &s;ober mind, imbued with that u&s;efull Le&s;&s;on of <HI>Ari&s;totle,</HI> <NOTE PLACE="marg">Metaphy&s;i|corum <HI>lib.</HI> 3. <HI>cap.</HI> 1. <HI>&amp; de</HI> Coelo <HI>lib.</HI> 1. <HI>cap.</HI> 10.</NOTE> <GAP DESC="foreign">, &s;hall come to the di&s;pute, denudate of all intere&s;t, and purged from all the dreggs of <HI>Adhaerence</HI> to either &s;ide; he &s;hall &s;oon be convicted, that in all that long flux of time betwixt the daies of <HI>Hippocrates</HI> and us, no one (at lea&s;t that ever came to our view) among the numerous &s;warm of
<PB REF="5">
<HI>Pathologi&s;ts</HI> <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Writers on the Di&s;ea&s;es and Symp|toms inci|dent to the body of man.</NOTE>, hath di&s;cour&s;ed of the <HI>nature</HI> and <HI>cau&s;es</HI> of &s;uch <HI>Di&s;ea&s;es</HI> as are in vulgar practice confidently referred unto the <HI>Di&s;tilla|tion</HI> of <HI>Rheums</HI> from the head upon parts of inferior &s;ituation, with &s;uch cleare and un|controulable rea&s;ons, as not to have left very large gapps, for the ea&s;ie illation of the&s;e <HI>&s;cru|ples</HI> and <HI>objections</HI> rai&s;ed by <HI>Helmont</HI> a|gain&s;t them. In brief; whoever &s;hall &s;o far contribute towards the advance of his own knowledge, as to receive the <HI>Arguments</HI> here oppo&s;ed to the traditional Theory of <HI>Catarrhs,</HI> with that equal ju&s;tice of improving them to that height, with which they are offered; will, I doubt not, afford us his concurrent vote: that the chiefe impediment to their prevailing upon the beliefe of many di&s;&s;enters, will be their <HI>No|velty. For hardly doe we part with tho&s;e Doctrines, which in&s;tilled into our tender and un wary yeers, have grown up together with our under&s;tandings, and hold our credulities en&s;laved to an implicite confor|mity, by the tyrannous title of Prae&s;crip|tion.</HI> A deplorable <HI>remora</HI> to the timely ex|antlation of <HI>Truth,</HI> long &s;ince di&s;covered and complained of by the <HI>grave</HI> and yet mo&s;t <HI>acute
<PB REF="6">
Stagirite,</HI> in the&s;e words: <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Metaphy|&s;ic. <HI>lib.</HI> 2. <HI>cap.</HI> 3.</NOTE> <GAP DESC="foreign">. <HI>Quemadmodum enim con&s;uevi|mus, ita judicamus dici debere, &amp; quae praeter haec non apparent &s;imilia; &s;ed quia non con&s;uevimus, ignotiora &amp; magis pere|grina. Con&s;ueta enim notiora &s;unt.</HI> I &s;hall here &s;o far exerci&s;e your <HI>Candor</HI> and <HI>Patience,</HI> as to tolerate a &s;hort <HI>Digre&s;&s;ion</HI> (though perti|nent and material) concerning this Cardinal cau&s;e of <GAP DESC="foreign">, or <HI>Indocibility.</HI> The <HI>De&s;crip|tion</HI> of this vice of the minde, &s;ince mo&s;t ample and elegant, I &s;hall borrow from that Noble <HI>En|quirer</HI> into <HI>Truth, Mr. Hobbs,</HI> in his ine&s;tima|ble manual of <HI>Human Nature.</HI> <Q><HI>If the minds of men (&s;ays he) were all of white Paper, they would, for the mo&s;t, be equally di&s;po&s;ed to ac|knowledge what&s;oever &s;hould be in the right method, and right ratiocination, delivered unto them: but when men have once acquie&s;|ced in untrue opinions, and regi&s;tred them as authenticall methods in their minds; it is no le&s;&s;e impo&s;&s;ible to &s;peak intelligibly to &s;uch men, then to write legibly upon a peece of Paper already &s;cribled over. The immediate</HI>
<PB REF="6">
cau&s;e <HI>therefore of</HI> Indocibility, <HI>is</HI> Prejudice; <HI>and of prejudice, fal&s;e</HI> opinion <HI>of our own knowledge.</HI></Q> The <HI>Naturall Rea&s;on</HI> of it I &s;hall adventure to deduce from the &s;lender stock of my own <HI>Philo&s;ophy.</HI> We judge of the <HI>truth</HI> or <HI>fal&s;hood</HI> not onely of things &s;ubject to the apprehen&s;ion of <HI>&s;ence,</HI> but al&s;o of <HI>Philo&s;ophi|call</HI> and <HI>Religious</HI> opinions, as we have been accu&s;tomed from the minority of our &V;nder|&s;tandings: and although many times we are greatly deluded, yet cannot the arm of the &s;tron|ge&s;t rea&s;on bend us from our accu&s;tomed judge|ment. The ground of this is, that not onely the <NOTE PLACE="marg">Cur &s;olitae opiniones placeant: in&s;olitae, et&s;i firmioribus rationibus bus innixae, di&s;pliceant.</NOTE> <HI>Images,</HI> or bare <HI>Ideas</HI> (I mean not tho&s;e <HI>inten|tionall &s;pecies,</HI> &s;o much talked of in common Philo&s;ophy, for I believe I could prove that there are no &s;uch in Nature) of tho&s;e things have an exi&s;tence in the brain; but certaine <HI>Notes</HI> or marks of <HI>Rejection</HI> or <HI>Approba|tion</HI> are al&s;o &s;uperadded unto them, and deeply impre&s;&s;ed upon the brain. The&s;e <HI>Images</HI> there|fore being again offered unto the mind, we per|ceive not only the things them&s;elves; but at the &s;ame in&s;tant, even without any hae&s;itancy or ac|curate examination, yea though mo&s;t convincing
<PB REF="7">
and firme arguments are &s;ometimes brought to the contrary, with great violence, we <HI>approve</HI> or <HI>reject</HI> them according to the <HI>conformity</HI> or <HI>di&s;proportion</HI> of tho&s;e <HI>Notes</HI> formerly regi|&s;tred. The remove of which ob&s;truction &s;hall be the con&s;tant bu&s;ine&s;&s;e not onely of my &s;tudies, but al&s;o of my earne&s;t prayer.</P>
<P><HI>Quae in Schola &amp; Cathedra aliquando praeter tationem, plerumque ad acuenda ingenia juven|rutis, in</HI> theoria <HI>proponuntur, &s;unt toleranda: quae vero in</HI> praxi <HI>in perniciem aegrorum prae&s;cribun|tur, potius execranda &amp; damnanda, quam admit|tenda e&s;&s;e, exi&s;timo.</HI></P>
<Q><L>Quid verum, atque decens curo, &amp; rogo, &amp; omn is in hoc &s;um.</L>
<L>Condo, &amp; compono quae mox depromere po&s;&s;im.</L>
<L>Ac ne forte roges, quo me duce, quo lare tuter?</L>
<L>Nullius addictus jurare in verba magi&s;tri,</L>
<L>Quo me cunque rapit tempe&s;t as, deferor ho&s;pes.</L>
<L>Nunc agilis fio, &amp; mer&s;or civilibus undis,</L>
<L>Virtutis verae cu&s;tos, rigidu&s;que &s;atelles.</L>
<L>Nunc in Ari&s;tippi furtim praecepta relabor:</L>
<L>Et mihi res, non me rebus &s;ubjungere conor.</L></Q>
<P>Poeta Philo&s;ophus ad vada Maeandri concinuit.</P>
<CLOSER><SIGNED>VV. CHARLETON.</SIGNED></CLOSER>
</DIV1>
</FRONT>
<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="treatise">
<PB N="1" REF="7">
<HEAD>The Errors of Phy&s;icians Concerning DEFLVXIONS.</HEAD>
<DIV2 TYPE="summary">
<HEAD>The Summary.</HEAD>
<P>1. WHo is the Lord paramont of Di&s;ea&s;es and Nature, 2. Some &s;uppo&s;itions, by way of premi&s;es. 3. The conclu&s;ion. 4. Proved from experiments. 5. The explication of the Po&s;ition. 6. The Lungs the part which fir&s;t dyes. 7. Why the Author de&s;erted the Schools. 8. The forerunner of mi&s;eries to old men. 9. Purging medicaments, why de&s;tructive to old men. 10. The te&s;timonies that Phy&s;i|cians give of their own ignorance, Fatall: becau&s;e too late. 11. That Axiome of Phy&s;icians de&s;umed from the u&s;e of things beneficiall and hurtfull, worthy their blu&s;hes. 12. Errors of Phy&s;icians. 13. The ground of Paracel&s;us his incon&s;tancy. 14. The Generalogy of a Catarrh, or Rheume, like an old wives fable. 15. Di&s;ea&s;es imputed to Catarrhs. 16. How great calamity arifeth to mankinde from thence. 17. By what means they make the &s;ick their perpetuall &s;laves. 18. The ordinary &s;ubter&s;uge of the Schools. 19. Thirteen Po&s;itions. 20 Nine|teen Conclu&s;ions emergent from tho&s;e Po&s;itions. 21. By a &s;ufficient enumeration of Parts. 22. A Dilemma. 23. Some Ab&s;urdities. 24. Ignorance in the Schools, the &s;ole Mother
<PB N="2" REF="8">
of Catarrhs. 25 The &s;ame Ignorance, the fountain of Ab|&s;urdities in their method of Cure. 26. Shame, the Cau&s;e of the Schools in&s;tability, 27. A deniail of principles granted in the Schools 28. Whence heat is de<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">ived to the Liver. 29, The proof from un&s;ucce&s;&s;efull remedies. 30. the Tooth-ach ex|amined. 31. The dige&s;tion of the Tooth and Nails, different from the Dige&s;tion of all other parts. 32. A Catarrh upon the inward parts, demon&s;trated impo&s;&s;ible, 33. The Po&s;e, or Cold in the head, de&s;cribed. 34. Ab&s;urdities dependent on the opi|nion of a Catarrh falling upon the &s;tomack. 35. An enquiry concerning the dropping of Rheume upon the Lungs. 36. What di&s;tills from the <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 word">, in the beginning of a Cold, and what in the continuance. 37. An Argument <HI>ab im<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="2 letters">&s;&s;i i<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter"></HI> again&s;t the Cau&s;e of the Cough, delivered by the Schools. 38. The ori|ginall of the matter cau&s;ing affections of the Lungs, declared. 39 The vanity and infertility of remedies, from want of know|ledge. 40. The decoctions of China, Zarza, &amp;c. neither dry up excrementitious humors, nor prevent their generation. 41. Some Ab&s;urdities growing upon this root. 42. What s to be ob&s;erved in Affections of the Lungs, 43. The doctrine of the Schools, concerning the motion of the Lungs, fal&s;e. 44. The u&s;e of he Lungs, not yet knowne to the Schools. 45. 21. Peremtory rea&s;ons again&s;t the vulgar opinion of the u&s;e of the Lungs. 46. The error of the Schools, concerning the u&s;e of the Midrife, confirmed by 8. Arguments 47. 7. Con|clu&s;ions en&s;uing thereon. 48. Why the remedies of Phy&s;ici|ans are inefficacious and barren. 49 That the means vulgarly u&s;ed for the prevention and re&s;traint of Catarrhs, are meer fop|peries, and dreams worthy onely the heads of old women. 50. <HI>Galen</HI> wholly ridiculous in his Books of the con&s;ervation of health. 51. The Ignorance of the Schools, right worthy our pitty and tears. 52 The di&s;&s;ection of a living Dog, hath de|ceived the Schools. 53. A new Error, concerning Lohochs, or Lambativ medicaments. 54. They depend on the &s;uppo&s;i|tion of a Fal&s;ity. 55. Some probations. 56. Whence the delu&s;ion of Catarrhs was fir&s;t introduced. 57. The refutation of an unrea&s;onable and wild per&s;ua&s;ion. 58 What that is, which impo&s;eth upon our &s;en&s;e, under the delu&s;ive di&s;gui&s;e of a De&s;tillation. 59. What the &s;econd and &s;ucceeding matter. 60. Mens ignorance of the <HI>Latex,</HI> or <HI>fountain o<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter"> &s;erous humors,</HI> hath been the ba&s;is to the opinion of Catarrhs. 61. Preoccupation. 62. The torture of night. 63. The incon&s;tancy of Paracel|&s;us.
<PB N="3" REF="8">
64. Tho&s;e liquid parts, which are not yet made commu|nicants of vitality in our bodies, hold no corre&s;pondence with the &s;tarrs. 65. The marrow not accountable among&s;t the li|quid parts of the body. &para;</P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 TYPE="part">
<P>_SEa&s;onable it is for us, now to declare, that the large Catalogue of Di&s;ea&s;es, imputed to a <HI>de&s;tillation</HI> of <HI>Rheume,</HI> from the head even to the extremity of the toes, with|out any ob&s;tacle impeding the de&s;cent, is an old wives fable, invented by the com|mon <HI>adver&s;ary</HI> of mankind, on purpo&s;e, le&s;t the <HI>Cau&s;es</HI> of <HI>Di&s;ea&s;es</HI> being known, their <HI>Remedies</HI> might at the &s;ame time be revealed. However it may be, yet at le&s;t is it hence manife&s;ted, that the Schooles are, even to this very day, &s;educed by the errors of the <HI>Gentiles,</HI> in the point of the <HI>Generation</HI> of <HI>Rheume,</HI> its <HI>defluction, man|ner, way, matter, means, places,</HI> and <HI>organs;</HI> as al&s;o of its <HI>Re|vul&s;ion</HI> and <HI>Remedies.</HI> For fal&s;e and ab&s;urd mu&s;t that &s;uper|&s;tructure be, which is founded on an ab&s;urd and impo&s;&s;i|ble Principle. For which rea&s;on, the vain and ridiculous hope, which is erected upon <HI>Cauteries</HI> and <HI>Fontanels,</HI> is in like manner &s;taggered and ruined: as I &s;hall, in con|venient place, demon&s;trate.</P>
<P><HI>Nature</HI> her&s;elfe is the &s;ole <HI>Ae&s;culapius</HI> of di&s;ea&s;es: and the <HI>Phy&s;ician</HI> no more but her <HI>Adjutant;</HI> according to that <NOTE PLACE="marg">1.</NOTE> worthy Maxime of <HI>Hippocrates.</HI> But the &s;en&s;e of that re|lates onely to &s;uch di&s;ea&s;es, which <HI>nature,</HI> by her own &s;in|gle power, u&s;ually cureth. But when &s;he hath been &s;o fata|ly foyled, that &s;he cannot by her own &s;trength ari&s;e again to maintain the conflict; the <HI>Phy&s;ician,</HI> elected by the im|men&s;e benignity of the <HI>Almighty Lord of Nature,</HI> and in who&s;e balance all di&s;ea&s;es carry the &s;ame weight, <HI>(i. e.)</HI> are equaly curable (&s;uch is he, who hath, among a multitude
<PB N="4" REF="9">
of others of the &s;ame order, obtained &s;ome one <HI>&V;niver&s;al Medicine)</HI> remains no longer her &s;ervant: but is become her <HI>Interpreter, Rector</HI> and very potent <HI>Lord.</HI> Let the name of my <HI>Lord Je&s;u</HI> be exalted to eternity, who ever vouch&s;a|feth his munificence to <HI>Little ones,</HI> abjected in their own hu|mility! For the Nature of a &s;ick man being the chiefe re|ceiver of <HI>Morbifick impre&s;&s;ions,</HI> and the <HI>&s;en&s;itive mover</HI> to|wards the contrary; the Patient mu&s;t, then at lea&s;t, when the di&s;ea&s;es entertained become prevalent, yield to their conquering &s;word, or at be&s;t, in the future, <HI>live a Calami|tous death,</HI> unle&s;&s;e he &s;hall be relieved and re&s;tored to his primitive integrity, by the <HI>auxiliary</HI> hand of the <HI>Phy&s;ician.</HI> Yet is it not in the lot of every Phy&s;ician, to arrive at <HI>Co|rinth,</HI> to a&s;cend to that excellent knowledge: but his one|ly, who hath the happy qualifications of a <HI>Vocation, Electi|on, Exercitation,</HI> and <HI>Commi&s;&s;ion.</HI> For in the le&s;&s;e accom|pli&s;hed dayes of Hippocrates, the tran&s;cendent virtues of <HI>Catholique medicines</HI> remained in the darkne&s;&s;e of undi&s;co|very (and in truth, even in our brighter dayes, they con|tinue but jejune, and eclip&s;ed with prejudice and deri&s;ion, among&s;t vulgar Phy&s;icians) upon which con&s;ideration, he is de&s;ervedly to be excu&s;ed, in that he conceived the whole bu&s;ine&s;&s;e of the conque&s;t of di&s;ea&s;es to lye upon the &s;houl|ders of <HI>Nature,</HI> as being the &s;ole <HI>protectre&s;&s;e</HI> of <HI>life.</HI> &para;</P>
<P>Again, I have el&s;ewhere &s;hewed, that, even from the fir&s;t moment of the conception of an <HI>Embrion,</HI> there is a&s;&s;igned <NOTE PLACE="marg">2.</NOTE> to every peculiar member one <HI>Implantate</HI> or <HI>Originary Spi|rit,</HI> as immediate pre&s;ident and Governour thereof, and another <HI>Influent Spirit,</HI> deradiant from the heart, as the <HI>ex|cieator</HI> and a&s;&s;i&s;tant of the former; which yet is not deter|mined to perfection, nor individually di&s;po&s;ed, unle&s;&s;e fir&s;t &s;ubdued to a qualification requi&s;ite by the praeparatory power of the <HI>Implantate.</HI> I have al&s;o taught, in another place, that every member enjoyes the capacity of <HI>Vegeta|tion,</HI> according to the virtue of its peculiar <HI>Ferment</HI> origi|nally inoculated into its principles; and that, for this rea&s;on, there can be no expectance of any <HI>tran&s;mutation,</HI>
<PB N="5" REF="9">
conductive to a new <HI>generation,</HI> unle&s;&s;e by the mediation of that <HI>Ferment.</HI></P>
<P>And from hence, by naturall con&s;equence, we may un|der&s;tand, that <HI>all vegetation is made by the &s;pirits;</HI> and that &s;o all debility of dige&s;tion in the members doth depend upon the diminution of the <HI>&s;pirits</HI> and their peculiar <HI>Fer|ment,</HI> according to that in &s;acred Writ: <HI>My &s;pirit</HI> (the involucrum or con&s;ervatory of the Ferment) <HI>&s;hall be attenu|ated and</HI> (therefore) <HI>my dayes &s;hortned.</HI> So that a member, which in its integrity affords no vi&s;ible excrement, mu&s;t produce a large and con&s;tant &s;ource of unnatural humor, when once wounded, injured, dimini&s;hed, or impeded in the vigour of its appropriate Ferment. And, finally, it fol|lows from hence, that according to the degrees of the in|jury and variety of Cau&s;es inferring that injury; there mu&s;t be generated a difformity and di&s;&s;imilitude of excre|ments re&s;pectively. &para;</P>
<P>Di&s;ea&s;es, therefore, have their origine, not from one fountain, particularly from the Head (from whence the <NOTE PLACE="marg">3.</NOTE> Schools wildly imagine all <HI>Catarrhs</HI> to drop down) but from a &s;ingle <HI>Idiopathy,</HI> or proper indi&s;po&s;ition of every part, &s;uperinduced upon the <HI>topicall</HI> or dome&s;tick <HI>Ferments.</HI> Thus, to example, <HI>Wounds,</HI> long after their &s;anation, break <NOTE PLACE="marg">4.</NOTE> forth again, and frequently introduce durable <HI>&V;lcers,</HI> and <HI>Apo&s;tems:</HI> and upon change of <HI>Weather,</HI> many years after their perfect con&s;olidation, fall into a reincrude&s;cence, and fre&s;hly renew their torture. Thus <HI>Coughs, Pleuri&s;ies, Spittings of blood,</HI> and <HI>Eri&s;ypelous tumors,</HI> or inflammations, have their &s;et vici&s;&s;itudes, and, after con&s;iderable intermi&s;|&s;ions, reinvade. For &s;ome exce&s;&s;ive montain <HI>Cold,</HI> or o|ther <HI>Damp</HI> &s;uddenly &s;urpri&s;ing, the nightly <HI>Aer,</HI> mari&s;h or uliginous <HI>Fog,</HI> or malignant <HI>Fume</HI> belched from the acide bowels of <HI>Mines,</HI> doth frequently, with one a&s;&s;ault, &s;o vio|late and ruine the <HI>Ferments</HI> of the <HI>brain,</HI> or <HI>Lungs,</HI> that from thenceforward, during the whole after-life, they become the too fertil <HI>magazines</HI> of various <HI>excrements.</HI> After this manner al&s;o in the eyes, ears, teeth, jaws, &amp;c. Excrements
<PB N="6" REF="10">
(not &s;uch as the mucous or &s;limy excretions of the brain) are ordinarily occa&s;ioned by the irregularity or diminuti|on of the Ferments peculiar to tho&s;e parts. So <HI>Coughs</HI> and <HI>A&s;thmas,</HI> or difficulties of re&s;piration fir&s;t begin: and per|&s;ever by a continued Ferment. Not, in &s;ooth, by rea&s;on of <NOTE PLACE="marg">5.</NOTE> a vi&s;cid Phlegme dropping continually from the head; but engendered in the womb of the Lungs, by a violation of their dome&s;tick Ferment. For the Lungs more ea&s;ily &s;ub|mit to the inva&s;ion of any forraigne injury, then the o|ther parts of the body: in regard, <HI>the Lungs is of all mem|bers the fir&s;t that grows old, decayed, and dies.</HI> As is mani|fe&s;t <NOTE PLACE="marg">6.</NOTE> from the Cough generally infe&s;ting old men, and from the rattling in the throats of all dying men, though they peri&s;h by any other di&s;ea&s;e, and not by affections of the Lungs. For this is proper to the Lungs, in this re&s;pect, that they continually &s;uck in crude Aer, and being neer to the heart oppre&s;&s;ed, lavi&s;hly expend their own &s;trength, and by rea&s;on of that exhau&s;tion, decay much the &s;ooner. &para;</P>
<P>In the fir&s;t place I di&s;&s;ent from the Schools, becau&s;e I ve|ry well know this kind of vitio&s;ity in nature to belong to <NOTE PLACE="marg">7.</NOTE> the parts <HI>containing,</HI> and not to the humors <HI>contained.</HI> For excrementitious humors of this kind contained, are cer|tain productions, which are begotten by the <HI>Archeus,</HI> or vi|tall pre&s;ident of the particular parts, depraved by &s;ome no|xious inquination precedent.</P>
<P>In the &s;econd, I di&s;&s;ent from them al&s;o in this point, <NOTE PLACE="marg">8.</NOTE> that I &s;tand a&s;&s;ured, that this evill is <HI>topicall</HI> and <HI>primary,</HI> and not communicated by <HI>Deuteropathy</HI> or <HI>con&s;ent</HI> with the head. For the Coughs of old men, which for the plura|lity di&s;courage all hopes of re&s;tauration, ari&s;e from this root; that in the lowe&s;t and &s;malle&s;t branches of the <HI>Re&s;pi|ratory Artery,</HI> or pipe of the Lungs, there doth con&s;tantly re&s;ide &s;uch a quantity of excrement, generated in the Lungs, which doth not onely ob&s;truct the tubes or con|duicts: but al&s;o, by the contagion of its pre&s;ence, deprave and dimini&s;h the <HI>Local Ferment;</HI> whereupon there is hour|ly produced a new &s;ource or &s;upply of excrements, as the
<PB N="7" REF="10">
plentifull maintainance of Coughs, which in men once entered the calamitous confines of old age, are hardly cu|red, by remedies known to vulgar heads: in regard &s;uch re|medies neither <HI>arrive</HI> at the <HI>part affected,</HI> nor, in troth, are they endowed with any <HI>re&s;tauratory faculty.</HI> The&s;e kinds of excrementitious humors, therefore, are no other but <HI>topi|call defects</HI> of the parts mi&s;affected: and every particular part hath its particular debility, whether innate or acqui|&s;ite, from a diminution of its <HI>vegetative Ferment.</HI></P>
<P>And thus it is evident, that the various &s;treams of excre|ments <NOTE PLACE="marg">9.</NOTE> flowing from the various parts of the body, are all derived from this one fountain. &para;</P>
<P>On the&s;e firm grounds I apprehend, fir&s;t, <HI>That all repeti|tions of Purgations, in the&s;e affections, are fru&s;traneous and hurtfull:</HI> in re&s;pect, they levell their power onely again&s;t the productions, or <HI>Effects,</HI> and not again&s;t the <HI>Cau&s;es;</HI> and chiefly becau&s;e &s;uch vi&s;cid excrements, &s;eated remotely from the &s;tomack, are too &s;tubborn and refractory to yield to the laxative operation of <HI>Purgers.</HI> You may pleas to adde, that although <HI>Laxatives</HI> may &s;eem to have afforded ea&s;e and relief, for a day or two after their u&s;e; in&s;omuch as the ma&s;&s;e of crude and inconfected blood in the mezara|ick veins being voided by &s;tool, there mu&s;t of nece&s;&s;ity &s;uc|ced the more &s;paring di&s;pen&s;ation of blood through the body, and penury of nouri&s;hment in the Lungs, and by con&s;equence a le&s;&s;e quantity of excrement be rejected: yet do they, by &s;ub&s;tracting from the nece&s;&s;ary aliment of the whole, and by leaving behind them an evill tincture in the in&s;truments of common dige&s;tion, every day more and more infringe the univer&s;all oeconomy of the body, and impugne the con&s;erving vigour of nature.</P>
<P>This when Phy&s;icians darkly, as through a veile, di&s;co|ver, <NOTE PLACE="marg">10</NOTE> and remain ignorant, that they have afforded no be|nefit to their Patients, by the exhau&s;tion of the laudable ju|ces of the body, and the diminution of naturall vigour; they at length remit them to the &s;ober rules of <HI>Diet,</HI> and <HI>kitchen phy&s;ick,</HI> as the onely hopefull means of their reco|very,
<PB N="8" REF="11">
and &s;o leave them, by the painfull u&s;e of <HI>Fontanels,</HI> and reiterated moderate <HI>Purges,</HI> to run out their remaining &s;ands, <HI>medicaly</HI> (i. e.) <HI>mi&s;erably.</HI> By which Conce&s;&s;ion, fir&s;t, they in&s;inuate that whole&s;ome and moderate diet is to be preferred to mo&s;t of tho&s;e unfaithfull medicaments of the &s;hops: and upon the te&s;timony of their own un|happy experience, conclude, that the Patient ought to ab&s;tain from them, as hurtfull, and at be&s;t but rarely to be u&s;ed. Our wi&s;h is, that now, after &s;o many de&s;tructive ex|hau&s;tions of &s;ick mens &s;trength, they would &s;it down con|tented, and in the future no more attempt, by the &s;ame fruitle&s;&s;e means, to dreigne the hopes, bodies, veins, &s;trength, and pur&s;es of the &s;ick. At le&s;t, I wi&s;h, that they would be mindfull of their own Axiome, wherein they unanimou&s;ly con&s;ent, <HI>That the chiefe&s;t indication of the cure, is to be de&s;umed from the benefit or harme which things already u&s;ed have introduced.</HI> Which rule, although it be worthy the blu&s;hes of learned men, and onely fit for the conformi|ty <NOTE PLACE="marg">11.</NOTE> of Empyricks: yet, it may be wi&s;hed, that, by the in|&s;truction thereof, they would be reclaimed from the pra|ctice of their former errors, and no longer in Coughs and Con&s;umptions return to tho&s;e inefficacious remedies, which they have ob&s;erved, never to have been beneficiall to any. For then would all <HI>Purgatives, Phlebotomy, Errhines,</HI> <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Errhinum <HI>e&s;t medicamentum, quod naribus in|ditum, ex cere|bro, &s;ine &s;ternu|tatione, humo|res &amp; prae&s;ertim pituitam eva|cuat.</HI></NOTE> <HI>Apophlegmati&s;mes,</HI> <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Apophleg|mati&s;mi <HI>&s;unt remedia, quae in ore aliquan|diu detenta, e|ju&s;que cavum leniter ferientia, per emi&s;&s;aria palati, capio&s;am pituitam &egrave; cere+bro deducunt; quae&s;en&s;impo&s;tea frequenti &s;puta|tione facil&egrave; ex|cluditur.</HI></NOTE> <HI>Lambatives, drinks of China, Zarza, Sa&s;&s;afras, Cauteries</HI> in the Coronal &s;uture, and other de|ceitfull remedies of the &s;ame order, be wholly layed a&s;ide, which are brought into u&s;e by Phy&s;icians, that they might not appeare to have received their fees for nothing. It is al&s;o to be wi&s;hed, they had &s;uffered them&s;elves to be in&s;tru|cted from their own practice, that while they pointed their endeavours directly again&s;t the <HI>Ablation, Revul&s;ion, Deri|vation,</HI> and <HI>precaution</HI> of &s;ecundary <HI>Effects,</HI> viz. the <HI>Excre|ments</HI> wept from the injured <HI>Archeus</HI> of the particular part: they at the &s;ame time tacitely confe&s;&s;ed, that they neither under&s;tood their originals, nor &s;et about the Cure of them, according to the ju&s;t method of beginning at the remove
<PB N="9" REF="11">
of their <HI>primary Cau&s;es.</HI> And they had farther di&s;covered, that a medical Cour&s;e of Diet, is but a wild, languid, in|valid and indeed de&s;perate kind of remedy; and <HI>Kitchen A|phori&s;mes</HI> too contemptible a <HI>militia</HI> to encounter &s;o formi|dable an Adver&s;ary, already entered upon the borders of life, and ready to di&s;&s;olve the <HI>di&s;cordant Harmony</HI> of the whole Compo&s;ition, by the generall diffu&s;ion of its tyran|ny. No wonder therefore, if the Common people, ob&s;er|ving the vanity of &s;uch Cures, have taken occa&s;ion to create this proverbe, <HI>The be&s;t phy&s;ick, is to take no phy&s;ick.</HI> &para;</P>
<P>More then once have I lamented, out of a deep Commi|&s;eration <NOTE PLACE="marg">12.</NOTE> of the hard Condition of man, while I read over whole Centuries of the Councels of Phy&s;icians, and chief|ly their Commentaries on the 9. <HI>Rha&s;. ad Alman&s;orem,</HI> where they run over all di&s;ea&s;es of the body, from the Crowne of the head to the &s;ole of the foot; that digging into the Center of each di&s;ea&s;e (as they believe and glory) and there exploring the Grandfather, or procatarctick Cau&s;e thereof, they ever and anon lay the blame on &s;ome one <HI>&s;ingular di&s;temper,</HI> either naturall or acquired: but yet with &s;uch a re&s;erve of uncertainty, that they dare not pre|ci&s;ely determine, whether they ought to account that <HI>di|&s;temper</HI> for the <HI>di&s;ea&s;e,</HI> or onely for the <HI>Antecedent Cau&s;e</HI> of the di&s;ea&s;e, about which they Con&s;ult. But to prevent mi&s;take, and to be &s;ure of the right, generally in all infir|mities they accu&s;e both <HI>heat</HI> and <HI>cold.</HI> For example, in mo&s;t, they cry out upon a <HI>Frigidity</HI> of the <HI>&s;tomack,</HI> either &s;olitary, or combined with an exce&s;&s;ive <HI>Heat</HI> of the <HI>Liver;</HI> whence they foretell <HI>Catarrhs</HI> to be engendered, and ma|ladies of tho&s;e parts, upon which &s;uch rheumes &s;hall be rai|ned downe: and this hint they pur&s;ue unto the explora|tion of the nature not onely of very many <HI>Internall,</HI> but al&s;o of mo&s;t <HI>Externall</HI> and Cutany defects. And with &s;uch <HI>Theorical</HI> and <HI>Practical</HI> decretals do the &s;chools &s;ea&s;on the brains of their Di&s;ciples. For thus are infirmities of the eyes, ears jawes, tongue, teeth, che&s;t, arms, loyns, and thighs, charged upon the account of Catarrhs. Thus
<PB N="10" REF="12">
have Coughs, Con&s;umtions, difficulties of re&s;piration, Pleuri&s;ies, Inflammations of the Lungs, Apoplexies, Pal|&s;ies, &s;uddain Deaths, Impo&s;tumes, Spittings of blood, found their pedigrees deduced from Di&s;tillations. Thus finally, is the &s;tomack infe&s;ted with Vomiting, Nau&s;eou|ne&s;&s;e, dejection of Appetite, and debility of Concoction: as al&s;o the Liver and Spleen become mi&s;affected. For crude and indige&s;tible Phlegme being dropped downe from the retort of the Head, Ob&s;tructions, Hardne&s;&s;es, Drop&s;ies, Apo&s;tems, Schirrous tumors, Fevers, torments of the bowels, &amp;c. are li&s;ted under the conduct of Catarrhs.</P>
<P>To which Epidemick tradition of Catarrhs, <HI>Paracel&s;us,</HI> though otherwi&s;e above mode&s;ty triumphing in his inven|tion <NOTE PLACE="marg">13.</NOTE> of <HI>Tartars,</HI> and the 3 fir&s;t <HI>Hypo&s;taticall Principles,</HI> <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Princ pia Hypo&s;tatic a <HI>&s;unt, quae majo|ri v<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter"> ac effica|cia prae reliquis pollent; unde in Schola Her|meticaCheironia virilia, virtuo|&s;a dicuntur, &s;unt&abque;</HI> Sulphur, Mercurius, <HI>&amp;</HI> Sal. Sal <HI>e&s;t prin+cipium hypo&s;ta|ticum, cum vi fermentandi &amp; coagulandi. E|jus &s;ignatura e&s;t, ut intrin&s;e|cus &s;it fu&s;il<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="blotted" EXTENT="1 letter">, metallorum in|&s;tar &amp; fixus: ex trin&s;ecus autem combu&s;tibilis et incinerabilis.</HI> Sulphur <HI>principium e&s;t hypo&s;taticum, cum vi maturandi, tingendi, homogenea attrahendi, heterogenea repellendi, tendendi a centro ad circumferentiam, &amp; vici&s;&s;im. Hujus &s;ignatura e&s;t, ut intra &s;it fixum, oleagino&s;um &s;ive pingue: extra inflammabile e&s;&s;e &amp; fugitivum.</HI> Flamma quippe <HI>e&s;t</HI> Sulphur volatile. Mercurius <HI>e&s;t principium hypo&s;taticum, cum vi vegetativa et in&s;taurativa. Hujus &s;ignatura interna e&s;t &s;overe ignem potentem: externa vero e&s;t liquidum, glutino&s;um, incombu&s;tibile &amp; frigidum e&s;&s;e.</HI> Joh. Raicus tract. de podagra.</NOTE> doth <NOTE PLACE="marg">14.</NOTE> frequently &s;ub&s;cribe, and alwayes openly acknowledge the name of Defluxion <HI>(flu&s;&s;en)</HI> &s;taggering into &s;elf-contra|diction, under the drunken guidance of that great Lady, <HI>Incertitude.</HI></P>
<P>And this fabulous &s;cene of Defluxions, which indeed is very well worth our &s;erious tears, do the Schools &s;o poli&s;h and trim up, and deliver from hand to hand down to po&s;te|rity; that it now dares plead pre&s;cription, and u&s;urpe the &s;acred dignity of truth: yea common Idiots, by their own infirmities made <HI>pa&s;&s;ive Phy&s;icians,</HI> tire my ears with a tedi|ous lecture of their Catarrhs. Whereupon, &s;ince it is a taske extremly difficult, and &s;uch as my Genius abhorrs, to root out a cu&s;tomary doctrine from the minds of men unac|quainted with more rationall wayes of learning, and in the place thereof, implant the &s;eeds of &s;olid truth; chiefly when vulgar heads are of that temper, that, like new ve&s;&s;els, they
<PB N="11" REF="12">
hardly part with that odour, wherewith they were fir&s;t &s;ea|&s;oned: it is my cu&s;tome, even among per&s;ons of honour, to affect &s;ilence, not to preach upon the di&s;ea&s;e, or its Cau&s;es, &s;everal kinds, and remedies; but quietly concealing my de|te&s;tation of the ea&s;ie theory of the Schools, and di&s;&s;embling an ignorance of all, go away as con&s;enting to whatever hath been &s;aid. Yet, in &s;ome places, I adventure to leave a hint, that I am otherwi&s;e in&s;tructed, that Fools are not con|&s;tellated to a capacity of medicinal Principles, nor my &s;elfe to be their Paedagog. At be&s;t, I cannot but admire, that no man hath hitherto, after &s;o long a revolution of time, ever di&s;covered, and made animadver&s;ions on the palpable and &s;uperlative ignorance of Phy&s;icians: but that the grey-haired dreams of the Grecians have drawne the whole Chri&s;tian World after them, into a &s;ervitude. <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Vocabulum hic ab authore u&s;urpatum, e&s;t</HI> Latria; <GAP DESC="foreign"> <HI>autem exprimit nedum</HI> cultum divinum, <HI>quo &s;en&s;u legitur a|pud Job. Evan|gel. cap.</HI> 16. <GAP DESC="foreign"> <HI>a&s;t etiam</HI> &s;ervi|tutem, <HI>&s;uxta illud Sophoc. in Ajace,</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign">: <HI>&amp; illud prover|bium Phocylid.</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign">, <HI>tempori &s;er|vire.</HI></NOTE> that is ridiculous, lying, and pernicious to humane &s;ociety. To particular; they generally conclude that the head from whence their <HI>Nilus</HI> of <HI>Defluxions</HI> doth originally &s;pring, is a <HI>Cold Di&s;tem|per</HI> of the <HI>&s;tomack,</HI> and an <HI>hot di&s;temper</HI> of the <HI>Liver:</HI> and that the greate&s;t part of mankinde is in &s;ubjection to this tyranny. The manner of its generation they deliver thus; <HI>That the &s;tomack, ince&s;&s;antly, during the whole act of Concoction, receiving an acce&s;&s;e of immoderate heat from the Liver, mu&s;t of nece&s;&s;ity, all that while, &s;end up whole clouds of vapours into the braine: and that by rea&s;on the brain is, by its native temperament Cold, and &s;et, like a cover over a boyling pot, or the head of an Alembick, in the highe&s;t region of the body; all tho&s;e vapours that a&s;cend into it, are againe conden&s;ed into Water; Which, &s;ince ac|cording to the propen&s;ity of its nature, it mu&s;t tend downwards, doth afford an ample &s;ource to di&s;tillations, and a generall main|tainance to mo&s;t di&s;ea&s;es. That if this torrent fall down upon the eyes, ears, palate, teeth, &amp;c. tho&s;e parts have very good rea&s;on to bewaile, and with plenty of rheume lament their unkinde de&s;tiny, in being &s;o neer neighbours unto, and lying within reach of this tyrant, the Brain: but if upon the Lungs, it is quickly the inevi|table</HI> <NOTE PLACE="marg">15.</NOTE> <HI>occa&s;ion of Coughs, Difficulties of re&s;piration, and in fine of Con&s;umtions, of palpitations or tremblings of the heart, and &s;o of
<PB N="12" REF="13">
immature death. But if the &s;tream be turned upon the &s;tomack, then doth the &s;tomack &s;uffer the ju&s;t puni&s;hment of its former di|&s;temper, by admitting debility of Concoction, Crudities, Vo|mits, Orexies</HI> <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign">, <HI>cibi appetentia pro|prie dicitur; quo &s;en<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">u et</HI> Juvenal. <HI>u&s;urpavit pro vehementi eden|di aviditate, ra|bidam facturus orexim.</HI></NOTE> <HI>or in&s;atiate Appetites, Swounings, fainting Pains of the mouth of the &s;tomack, Ob&s;tructions, Laskes, durable Fluxes of the belly, violent ejections of Choler upward and down|ward, fits of the Colick, Atrophies, or univer&s;all leane&s;&s;e from decay of Nutrition, Drop&s;ies, Schirrous tumors, and all other defects of the in&s;truments officiall to common Dige&s;tion: yea Fe|vers, Putrefactions of the blood in the veins, as al&s;o &s;tones of the Spleen,</HI> <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Calculi <HI>enim quando&abque; in Li|ene reperiuntur, materi&acirc; hac</HI> tar|tare&acirc; <HI>longa die in e<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">dem coacer|vat&acirc;, &amp; ratio|ne interni &amp;</HI> nativi coagula|tionis princi|pij, <HI>in lapideam indurat&acirc; duriti|em. Hi autem ante mortens vix deprehen|duntur, et me|dicinam &s;per|nunt.</HI></NOTE> <HI>Kidneys, and Bladder, have their ordinary materials from the &s;lime of this Defluxion. That if the&s;e rivulets creep in|to the inmo&s;t clo&s;ets of the brain, then &s;uddain death, Apoplexies, and Pal&s;ies immediately en&s;ue: but if in the hinder part of the head, by the neck they chanee to wander into the Nerves, Arteries, and Mu&s;cles, then mu&s;t Gouts, Pal&s;ies, Pleure&s;ies, and Convul|&s;ions of the receiving parts, unavoidably be introduced: yea all Chirurgicall defects, as Pains, Apo&s;tems, and the numerous pro|geny of &V;lcers, do they father upon Catarrhs.</HI></P>
<P><HI>That if this deluge be not evacuated and dreigned by &s;ome of the forementioned &s;luices, but becomes a &s;tanding pond, from who&s;e oppre&s;&s;ion the brain is not able to deliver it &s;elf, neither by the Aquaeducts of the no&s;trils, nor the laborious pump of Coughs: Oh! then in&s;tantly follows, a &s;tupid drou&s;ine&s;&s;e, an inexpugna|ble propen&s;ity to out &s;leep Endymion,</HI> <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>remitte ocu'os ad pag.</HI> 68. &icirc;n tract. de mag|netica vulner. curat. <HI>&amp; ibi fu&s;&egrave; explicatum invenies, quid apud medicos de&s;ignatur per</HI> Catochen.</NOTE> <HI>Catoches, a Lethargy, Verti|go, Apoplexy, lo&s;&s;e of Memory, and perdition of Sences.</HI></P>
<P>For be&s;ides the&s;e forementioned <HI>di&s;tempers</HI> of <HI>Heat</HI> and <HI>Cold,</HI> and <HI>Defluxions</HI> nece&s;&s;arily re&s;ulting from thence; the Books, Orations, Councels, Conver&s;ations, Chairs and Practices of Phy&s;icians &s;ound of nothing: and &s;o the whole bulk of the <HI>Art of healing,</HI> &s;eems, now a dayes, to be moved upon the &s;lender hinges of <HI>Purgations, Phlebotomy, Scarifica|tions, Baths, Sweatings, Cauteries,</HI> and, in &s;hort, upon no o|ther then the <HI>diminutions</HI> of &s;trength, and emaciations of the body, or ex&s;iccations of <HI>Rheumes.</HI> <NOTE PLACE="marg">16.</NOTE></P>
<P>To which end, they impo&s;e upon their Patients, the de|coctions of the roots of <HI>China, Zarza,</HI> and the wood of
<PB N="13" REF="13">
<HI>Sa&s;&s;afras,</HI> brought from the <HI>Ea&s;t-Indies,</HI> upon de&s;igne of drying up the luxuriant moy&s;ture of the brain: for the mo&s;t part mea&s;uring the extent of the <HI>Pharmaceuticall</HI> and <HI>Diateticall Theory,</HI> by the rule of <HI>Heat</HI> and <HI>Cold.</HI></P>
<P>And by this means, they never relea&s;e the &s;ick out of their hands: but perpetually oblige them, like purcha&s;ed <NOTE PLACE="marg">17.</NOTE> <HI>Bond&s;laves,</HI> to the irk&s;ome ob&s;ervance of their Precepts; though with manife&s;t de&s;pair. In regard, while Phy&s;icians remain ignorant of the fundamentals and <HI>Cau&s;es</HI> of the di&s;|ea&s;e, and by the light of their own un&s;ucce&s;sfulne&s;&s;e read the vanity of their <HI>Operations,</HI> they mu&s;t &s;tand convicted of the impo&s;&s;ibility of the <HI>Sanation:</HI> upon this ground, that the naturall <HI>Frigidity</HI> of the <HI>&s;tomack,</HI> doth <HI>Antipractically,</HI> or by Counter violence, impugne the <HI>Heat</HI> of the <HI>Liver;</HI> and &s;o tho&s;e remedies which would be <HI>beneficiall</HI> to the <HI>&s;tomack,</HI> mu&s;t prove <HI>offen&s;ive</HI> and dangerous to the <HI>Liver,</HI> and &s;o tran&s;po&s;itively.</P>
<P>All which impo&s;tures, &s;ince they con&s;pire to the extirpa|tion of the race of <HI>Adam,</HI> to the de&s;olation of Common|wealths, <NOTE PLACE="marg">18.</NOTE> and utter oblivion of familyes; I could not but think it my duty (what in me lay) wholly to &s;ubvert and di&s;mantle this ex&s;ecrable here&s;ie of medical Doctrine: and &s;o much the more compul&s;ion had I upon my con&s;cience to attempt it, in con&s;ideration that this Pe&s;tilence hath po&s;&s;e&s;|&s;ed the heads of our <HI>Europeans,</HI> ever &s;ince the dayes of <HI>Galen,</HI> untill now. <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Proprio dida|ctro, inquit</HI> Hel|montius; <GAP DESC="foreign"> <HI>enim &s;onat idem, quod</HI> minerval <HI>latine, five prae|mium doctrinae.</HI></NOTE> For <HI>rich</HI> men learn this Doctrine from the co&s;tly dictates of their <HI>Pur&s;es,</HI> and what they have learnt, they &s;oon communicate to others: and thus all di&s;ea&s;es have their &s;tories written in the mon&s;trous Romance of <HI>Defluxions.</HI> Again&s;t which I &s;hall declare, by <HI>Po&s;itions</HI> gran|ted in the Schools. &para;</P>
<P N="1">1. The <HI>&s;tomack</HI> of man, during life, is actually <HI>Warme,</HI> and its interior membrane or Coate bedewed with a cer|tain <NOTE PLACE="marg">19.</NOTE> <HI>moy&s;ture.</HI></P>
<P N="2">2. And impo&s;&s;ible it is, that any <HI>aquous humidity</HI> &s;hould be actually &s;eething in the body, and not at the &s;ame time &s;end forth plenty of <HI>Vapours</HI> from it &s;elf.</P>
<P N="3"><PB N="14" REF="14">
3. The &s;uperiour way from the &s;tomack, is the <HI>Gullet,</HI> or <HI>oe&s;ophagus,</HI> being a membrane round long and hollow, as a Pipe or Cane, extended from the &s;tomack even up unto the jawes, and in &s;ub&s;tance the &s;ame with the interior Coate of the &s;tomack.</P>
<P N="4">4. This Gullet, by the privilege of its native con&s;titu|tion, is ever actually <HI>moy&s;t,</HI> and con&s;tantly (except at times of &s;wallowing) actually <HI>&s;hut</HI> (otherwi&s;e, di&s;torted in avoy|dance of a <HI>Vacuum,</HI> it would laterally fall together, no o|therwi&s;e then a bladder that wants &s;ome gue&s;t to fill its Ca|vity:) and the &s;ides thereof mutually meet and touch each the other, by the compul&s;ion of that nece&s;&s;ity of Nature, which forbids a <HI>&V;acuity.</HI> For the Gullet containg in it, neither meat, drink, nor aer, would of nece&s;&s;ity be empty, &s;hould it remain open. But that it is not open, is evident from this, that otherwi&s;e, at the &s;wallowing downe of eve|ry mor&s;ell of our Diet the Aer, which would be beneath the mor&s;ell, and oppo&s;e the de&s;cent thereof, were the mor|&s;ell proportionate in gravity to the <HI>renitency</HI> of the <HI>Aer,</HI> mu&s;t be rammed downe into the cavity of the &s;tomack; and &s;o there mu&s;t follow for every mor&s;ell &s;wallowed a <HI>Belch,</HI> or redi&s;charge of that aer, by the &s;uperior outlet of the &s;to|mack. Finally, &s;ince the membrane of this Gullet is always moy&s;t, the &s;ides thereof would of nece&s;&s;ity fall together, if not di&s;tended by &s;ome force: which is never ob&s;erved in the di&s;&s;ections of <HI>dead,</HI> nor could be of any u&s;e in <HI>living bodies.</HI></P>
<P N="5">5. The mouth of the &s;tomack is &s;hut up by a <HI>Natural</HI> mo|tion, and not by a <HI>Voluntary.</HI></P>
<P N="6">6. And <HI>Anatomy</HI> affords no other knowledge of the Gul|let, more then that it is narrow, lockt up beneath by the <HI>Py|lorus</HI> or inferior orifice of the &s;tomack, and in the neck of man on all &s;ides compre&s;&s;ed by very many ve&s;&s;els circum|jacent.</P>
<P N="7">7. The <HI>Gullet</HI> neither &s;ucks in, nor containes any Aer: for by rea&s;on of its proper motion, naturall to it as a moy&s;t membrane, and want of any body to di&s;tend it from within, it falls together on all &s;ides.</P>
<P N="8"><PB N="15" REF="14">
8. The <HI>Gullet</HI> is not opened longwayes, but during the de&s;cent of Aliment. Which if very dry, makes a &s;tand in the pa&s;&s;age, nor ea&s;ily de&s;cends, unle&s;&s;e driven down by li|quor &s;uperadded: which could not be, if the <HI>Gullet</HI> contai|ned aer beneath the mor&s;ell, unle&s;&s;e there followed a <HI>Belch</HI> upon the deglutition of each mor&s;ell. Yet the top of the <HI>Gullet,</HI> about the <HI>Larinx</HI> or head of the wind-pipe, is com|monly open.</P>
<P N="9">9. The lower end of the Gullet is contracted by an aliene power, and is therefore never opened but by the violence of &s;ome aliment or other tenent, either entering into, or ex|pul&s;ed from the &s;tomack: Or upon the knocking of <HI>Hun|ger,</HI> it may be unlocked by a <HI>&s;trange key,</HI> i. e. not by its own motion, &s;ince the <HI>humidity</HI> of its &s;ides naturally di&s;po&s;eth them to <HI>Concidence,</HI> or falling together.</P>
<P N="10">10. No <HI>Aer,</HI> and much le&s;&s;e <HI>Vapour,</HI> ari&s;eth out of the &s;tomack, and a&s;cends, without giving the loud report of a <HI>Belch.</HI></P>
<P N="11">11. Though that heat, which is nece&s;&s;ary to the &s;tomack, immediately cau&s;eth the exhalation of vapours: yet it fol|lows not, that the &s;ame heat &s;hould protrude tho&s;e vapours upward, with &s;o great violence as is required to break open the dore of the &s;tomack, being fa&s;t lockt, and di&s;tend the Gullet, &s;ince any one of the&s;e contradictory <HI>The&s;es</HI> being con|ceded, it will be a genuine <HI>inference,</HI> that every man mu&s;t be troubled with continuall belchings.</P>
<P N="12">12. In the &s;tomack, as in all other ve&s;&s;els moderately hot, every watery vapour doth &s;ooner, upon the le&s;t compre&s;&s;i|on, return to its primitive con&s;i&s;tence, and unite again in drops; then to be of power &s;ufficient to elevate and di&s;tend a clo&s;ely compre&s;&s;ed membrane of con&s;iderable magnitude. Where we ob&s;erve, by the by, That <HI>Vapours are not the Cau&s;e of Belchings:</HI> but onely the <HI>Gas &s;ilve&s;tre,</HI> <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Gas <HI>bifurca|tum, ab</HI> Hel|montio <HI>no&s;tro fabricatum inveni: primum &s;cilicet</HI> Aquae, <HI>&s;ive</HI> Meteoron; <HI>&s;ecundum</HI> &s;ylve&s;tre. Ga. Me|teoron <HI>de&s;ignat</HI> Aquam, <HI>in vaporem, per geniale aeris frigus (ubi omnia eo &s;emel deducta con|&s;umuntur, &amp; in pri&s;tinum aquae elementum retrocedunt) re&s;olutam. Quinam vapor alterius <HI>utique &s;ortis e&s;t, qu&agrave;m vapor per</HI> Calorem <HI>&s;u&s;citatus: eo itaque re&s;pectu, paradoxi licentia, in nominis mag&egrave; convenientis ege&s;tate, halitum illum</HI> Gas <HI>nominavit Author, non longe &acirc;</HI> Chao <HI>veterum &s;ecretum.</HI> Gas <HI>autem</HI> &s;ylve&s;tre, <HI>e&s;t &s;piritus quidam naturae hominis plan&egrave; ho&s;tilis, atque &aacute; prunoribus nondum cognitus; qui nee va&s;i<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="blotted" EXTENT="1 letter"> cogi, nec in corpus vi&s;ibile reduci, ni&s;i extincto prius &s;emine, pote&s;t. Corpora enim continent hunc &s;piritum, &amp; quandoque tota in eju&s;modi forum halitum ab&s;cedunt: non quidem quod actu in&s;it ip&s;is (&s;iquidem detineri non po&s;&s;et, im&ograve; totum concretum avolaret) &s;ed e&s;t &s;piritus concretus, &amp; more corporis coagulatus, excitaturque acqui&s;ito</HI> Fermento, <HI>ut in vino fermentante, omphacio, pane, hydromellite, itemque ruber ille ex Chry&s;ulca operante eructatus: vel</HI> additamento peregrino, <HI>ut ex auro, adjecto &s;ale Armeniaco: vel tandem per aliquam</HI> Di&s;po&s;itionem Alterativam, <HI>qualis e&s;t A&s;&s;atio, re|&s;pectu pomi. Hujus autem ignoti ho&s;pitis tum</HI> ortus, <HI>tum</HI> ho&s;tilitatis <HI>atque implacabilli ferociae, quae nobis in&s;idiatur capitaliter, exege&s;i ulterius paul&ograve; inhaerendum: e&acirc; poti&s;&s;imum relatione, ut nedum</HI> Quidditas <HI>atque</HI> Nativitas <HI>hujus</HI> Gas <HI>innote&s;cant ijs, quibus contigerit nondum omnia</HI> Helmontij <HI>my&s;teria perlu&s;trare; &s;ed etiam ut i&s;tud</HI> epitheton (&s;ylve&s;tre) <HI>non incongruenter illi appen&s;um common&s;tretur. Prim&ograve; itaque quoad</HI> e&s;&s;entiam <HI>ejus quidditati|vam; meditare, turpiter admodum e&s;&s;e delu&s;os qui credid&ecirc;re</HI> Gas uvarum e&s;t vini &s;piritum <HI>in mu&s;to.</HI> Gas <HI>enim uvarum &amp; mu&s;ti, ex fermento ebullitionis concept<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter"> excitatum, e&s;t tan|tum in via ad vinum; non autem Vini, in &s;uajam dignitate con&s;tituti &s;piritus. Intercedens enim inter utruneque</HI> Fermentalis Di&s;po&s;itio, <HI>rem praecedentem di&s;ponit in &s;ui tran&s;mutatio|nem, ut inde aliud</HI> ens <HI>fiat. Siquidem extra dubitationis aleam e&s;t,</HI> omnem tran&s;mutationem formalem prae&s;upponere Fermentum corruptivum. <HI>Secund&ograve;, quoad</HI> Nativitatem Gas <HI>in uva; nota. &V;ua ill<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;a a&s;&s;ervatur &amp; ex&s;iccatur: &s;i vero pellis ejus &s;emel fuerit di&s;rupta, &amp; vulnerata, illa mox fermentum ebullitionis concipit, hincque tran&s;mutationis initium. Vina ergo &V;varum, pomorum, baccarum, mellis, itemque &s;tores &amp; &s;rondes &s;emel di&s;cer|pta atque contu&s;a, fermento arrepto, bullire ac ferve e incipiunt; unde</HI> Gas. &V;ltim&ograve;, quan|tum ad ejus</HI> Malitiam <HI>ac feritatem attinet, oenopoli &s;ciant, vinorum</HI> Gas, <HI>&s;i multa vi intra cados coerceatur, vina furio&s;a, mala atque n<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">civa reddere. Quapropter &amp; morbidum</HI> Gas, <HI><GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">v&acirc; affatim come&s;t&acirc;, pluries aegritudines anxias c<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">ncitavit. Siquidem</HI> Fermenti <HI>&s;piritus tu|multuantur, &amp; cum dige&s;tioni no&s;trae &s;int inobedientes, &s;piritui Vitali &s;e per vim a&s;&s;ociant, im&ograve; &s;i quid &s;udore tenus excerni &s;it paratum, id &s;ua fermeati aciditate grume&s;cunt, atque in|&s;ignes pariunt moleflias, tormina, diarrhaeas, dy&s;enterias. Sed Etymi</HI> Gas <HI>explicationi &s;atis &s;uperque hactenus in&s;udatum.</HI></NOTE> or a certain <HI>Wilde &s;pirit</HI> exhaling from &s;ome aliment.</P>
<P N="13"><PB N="16" REF="15">
13. That granting a <HI>Natural &s;pirit</HI> of the yet imperfect blood in the Liver, all the veins, by rea&s;on of their con&s;tant heat, would either about the parts of the Liver, or in their capillary branches, generate Catarrhs, which the Schools have baulked in their hunting of di&s;ea&s;es. &para;</P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 TYPE="conclusions">
<PB N="17" REF="15">
<HEAD><HI>The Conclu&s;ions erected on the premi|&s;ed Conce&s;&s;ions.</HI> &para;</HEAD>
<P>FRom the&s;e <HI>Po&s;itions,</HI> confe&s;&s;ed by generall <HI>Con&s;ent,</HI> and demon&s;trated by the ocular evidence of <HI>Anatomy,</HI> it na|turally follows, in the fir&s;t place</P>
<P N="1">1. That no vapour can a&s;cend from the &s;tomack to the head; and the materiall Cau&s;e of Catarrhs, vulgarly belie|ved, mu&s;t faile, and the very groundwork of the doctrine of Defluxions be demoli&s;hed.</P>
<P N="2">2. If &s;o great a mi&s;t of <HI>ignorance</HI> hath &s;urrounded the world in things <HI>manife&s;t</HI> and <HI>obvious</HI> to the ob&s;ervation of <HI>&s;en&s;e:</HI> what Cimmerian blindne&s;&s;e may not be &s;u&s;pected, in the common theory of &s;uch things as lye more <HI>deep</HI> and <HI>ab|&s;tru&s;e,</HI> and therefore have their <HI>Cau&s;alites</HI> onely di&s;cernable by the opticks of the mo&s;t acute <HI>Rea&s;on?</HI></P>
<P N="3">3. That &s;ubmitting our beliefe to the doctrine of the Schools, a <HI>healthy</HI> and <HI>hot &s;tomack</HI> would generate more and greater &s;howers of Catarrhs, then an <HI>unhealthy, weak</HI> and <HI>cold</HI> one; which is point blanck contratry to the opinion commonly embraced.</P>
<P N="4">4. That, in order to the <HI>Cure of Defluxions,</HI> according to the con&s;equence of their theory, we ought to endeavour the <HI>Refrigeration,</HI> rather then the <HI>Calefaction</HI> of the &s;tomack.</P>
<P N="5">5. That all men would of nece&s;&s;ity be equaly obnoxious to Catarrhs, and &s;o continually infirme.</P>
<P N="6">6. Upon this ground, that all men have their <HI>Gullet, Brain,</HI> and <HI>Stomack</HI> actually hot, equaly moy&s;t, and con&s;titu|ted in the &s;ame <HI>Figure.</HI></P>
<P N="7">7. That every man would naturally, like &s;wine, belch at every &s;tep he treads: &s;ince the inde&s;inent <HI>heat</HI> and <HI>moy&s;ture</HI> mu&s;t unavoydably tran&s;mit continuall Clouds of vapours from the &s;tomack.</P>
<P N="8">8. That although we &s;hould de&s;cend to allow, that a vapour exhaled from the &s;tomack might be of force &s;uffici|ent
<PB N="18" REF="16">
to di&s;tend the Gullet; yea and be evaporated without ructation: yet would it remain of exceeding difficulty to infer an apprehen&s;ion, that this vapour would not &s;ooner be di&s;charged by the annexed and open tubes of the mouth and no&s;trils, then make a long and difficult progre&s;&s;e up to the brain, by the narrow Meanders and blockt up avenews of a membrane. That this Vapour, &s;teaming up from the furnace of the &s;tomack, would nece&s;&s;arily carry along with it a ful&s;ome <HI>Hautgou&s;t</HI> of the meat then &s;uffering the act of Concoction, by the variety of ungratefull <HI>odours</HI> acquaint the no&s;e with the un&s;avoury &s;tory of its various mutations, and be horridly offen&s;ive both to our &s;elves and company: and thus if all tho&s;e frequent belches were thus &s;trongly per|fumed by Corruption, our very <HI>breath</HI> al&s;o, continually bla&s;ted with them, would &s;ave us the trouble of forreigne poy&s;ons, di&s;parage the fatall emi&s;lions of the Ba&s;ili&s;ck, and be as dangerous to Conver&s;ation, as the fumes of the <HI>Lago di Tripergola</HI> <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Avernus, Gr. <GAP DESC="foreign">, quo nullae aves ac|cedunt, ob te|trum ejus odo|rem: propter quam graveo|lentiam, etiam h&icirc;c de&s;cen&s;us ad inferos olim e&s;&s;e credebatur. Gas &s;ylve&s;tre.</NOTE> in Campania, or the &s;ulphureous farts of our <HI>Grandmother,</HI> when delivered from the <HI>Colick,</HI> by the Cri&s;is of an <HI>Earthquake.</HI></P>
<P N="9">9. That &s;ince the <HI>Materiall cau&s;e</HI> of belching is a nimble <HI>Wild &s;pirit,</HI> ari&s;ing for our <HI>Aliment,</HI> and far more &s;ubtil then a <HI>vapour;</HI> but yet doth never invade the Brain, unle&s;&s;e, upon &s;hutting the mouth, it chance to advance to the forepart of the head, through the funnell of the palat, and be thence exploded by the no&s;trils: a&s;&s;uredly, much le&s;&s;e can <HI>vapours,</HI> that are more gro&s;&s;e and corporeal, a&s;cend &s;o high as to in|&s;inuate them&s;elves into all the narrow creeks and intricate Cells of the brain.</P>
<P N="10">10. That the&s;e <HI>volatile</HI> and <HI>fugitive &s;pirits,</HI> the cau&s;ers of <HI>ructation,</HI> are never carried in a <HI>direct</HI> path, up to the region of the brain; but in an <HI>oblique,</HI> leading through the <HI>organ</HI> of <HI>&s;melling:</HI> and therefore they never afford an <HI>odour,</HI> or be|come &s;ubject to the perception of the <HI>odoratory nerves,</HI> but when the mouth is &s;hut, at the in&s;tant of their eruption; much le&s;&s;e can a vapour from the &s;tomack, by its own &s;pon|taneous motion, arrive at the remote&s;t clo&s;ets of the brain.</P>
<P N="11"><PB N="19" REF="16">
11. That though we condi&s;cend, that <HI>Vapours,</HI> the ma|terial cau&s;e of <HI>Catarrhs,</HI> may in &s;ome degree ari&s;e up to the head, at lea&s;t to the organ of &s;melling: yet can we not con|ceive, that this can happen, but when the mouth is &s;hut; and &s;o whoever gapeth, can never be infected with <HI>Defluxions,</HI> and by inference, to keep the mouth open, at the time of ructation, is a mo&s;t ea&s;ie and infallible precaution of the generation of rheums.</P>
<P N="12">12. That &s;ince two bodies cannot &s;o far rebell again&s;t the con&s;erving <HI>Laws of Nature,</HI> as mutually to penetrate each the others dimen&s;ions, in one and the &s;ame place; and &s;ince the pa&s;&s;age from the jawes up into the brain is exceeding narrow, oppleted (for there is no <HI>vacuity</HI> in tho&s;e organs) barrocadoed above and &s;o impervious (for our very breath, though violently compre&s;&s;ed by &s;topping of the mouth and no&s;trils, cannot force open a way into the ca&s;tle of the brain:) therefore cannot a vapour, ari&s;ing from the &s;to|mack, approach the <HI>ba&s;is</HI> of the brain. By example, a <HI>Cane</HI> or hollow <HI>Tube,</HI> that is clo&s;ely luted in the upper orifice, held in an erect po&s;ition over a &s;team of hot vapours, doth not admit them to a&s;cend through its perforation, by rea|&s;on of the Aer, wherewith it was before po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ed.</P>
<P N="13">13. Granting, that a vapour may clime upwards; yet would it not meet with any <HI>Plane</HI> or <HI>Concave,</HI> upon which it might, by <HI>Conden&s;ation,</HI> be reunited into drops: and much le&s;&s;e any part of &s;uch figure, which re&s;embleth the head of an <HI>Alembick,</HI> or <HI>Pot-lid.</HI> But in the <HI>ba&s;is</HI> of the brain, whe|ther we gratis allow a vapour to a&s;cend, is a narrow place, called the <HI>Pelvis,</HI> or <HI>brain tunnell;</HI> which &s;endeth two &s;mall <HI>tubes,</HI> or outlets, toward the <HI>no&s;trils,</HI> and as many back|ward toward the <HI>neck.</HI> Which two <HI>po&s;terior cavities</HI> onely could the a&s;cendent vapour in&s;inuate it &s;elf into; and tho&s;e two are ever repleted with a <HI>muccous</HI> or vi&s;cid <HI>excrement,</HI> and perpetually, by a kind of guttulous di&s;tillation, di&s;charge it down into the <HI>Palat,</HI> as the proper <HI>Emunctories</HI> or dreignes of the brain, de&s;tined to the evacuation of the &s;limy redun|dant humors. And therefore albeit we concede, that a va|pour
<PB N="20" REF="17">
can a&s;cend &s;o high: yet neverthele&s;&s;e can we find no <HI>place</HI> for the <HI>Concretion</HI> of a <HI>Catarrh.</HI></P>
<P N="14">14. Should a vapour, if the exhalation of any &s;uch from the &s;tomack be po&s;&s;ible, a&s;cend &s;o high as this &s;lender <HI>Tun|nell</HI> of the brain; yea &s;hould it, in &s;o &s;mall a place, be con|den&s;ed into <HI>rheume,</HI> and that rheume drop downe again to|gether with the <HI>Muccus,</HI> or indigenary excrement: yet would it prove of much le&s;&s;e offence or danger, then that <HI>muccus,</HI> the ordinary excrement of the brain. All which the <HI>Shools</HI> them&s;elves have by <HI>Anatomy</HI> di&s;covered, and may (pleas them to &s;uffer the ea&s;ie trouble of a &s;erious pen&s;itati|on) a&s;&s;uredly know to be inevitable: but, alas! they have eyes, and &s;ee not; they have ears, and, we may ju&s;tly feare, they will not hear.</P>
<P N="15">15. That although the <HI>materiall Cau&s;e</HI> of <HI>Ructation</HI> be the <HI>Gas</HI> of our aliment, and impregnated with the particular <HI>odour</HI> thereof: yet the <HI>vapour</HI> of any meat whatever is con|verted into no other, then an <HI>in&s;ipid</HI> and <HI>harmle&s;&s;e Water.</HI> By example, let any &s;limy juice, or &s;pitle be artificially di|&s;tilled, in any ve&s;&s;el, by a mo&s;t gentle heat, exactly propor|tioned to the &s;ame degree, which is in the &s;tomack of a li|ving man: yet, undoubtedly, &s;hall you draw off nothing, but an <HI>in&s;ipid</HI> and <HI>thin Water,</HI> wholly devoyd of the lea&s;t glutino&s;ity; and le&s;&s;e any <HI>&s;alt, acid,</HI> or <HI>&s;harp Catarrh.</HI></P>
<P N="16">16. That albeit the <HI>muccus,</HI> or phlegmatick excrement of the brain, fall down upon the jawes, and frequently in|troduceth various mi&s;affections upon them, according to its various indi&s;po&s;itions or deflexions from its naturall con|&s;titution: yet neither the <HI>matter,</HI> nor <HI>defluxion</HI> thereof can endure the rea&s;on of a <HI>Catarrh;</HI> no more then the <HI>&V;rine,</HI> drop by drop trickling down from the kidneys into the bladder, ought to be e&s;teemed a <HI>Catarrh.</HI> Wherefore, if this <HI>muccus,</HI> whether <HI>in&s;ipid, &s;alt</HI> or <HI>&s;harp,</HI> whether <HI>fluid</HI> or <HI>thick,</HI> drop|ping down upon tho&s;e parts, which, as peculiar <HI>Emunoct|ries,</HI> are naturally ordained to the evacuation of it, may not be accounted a <HI>Catarrh,</HI> however evil <HI>Accidents</HI> it impre&s;&s;e upon tho&s;e parts; &s;o neither the <HI>urine,</HI> though it deprave the integrity of the bladder.</P>
<P N="17"><PB N="21" REF="17">
17. How much le&s;&s;e ought the defluxion of any <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="2 letters">ctiti|ous <HI>humor,</HI> or imaginary <HI>excrement,</HI> who&s;e <HI>nativity</HI> and <HI>tran&s;|m<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;&s;ion</HI> are delivered to be by a <HI>manner, means, places,</HI> and <HI>voyages,</HI> naturally impo&s;&s;ible, to be accounted a <HI>Catarrh?</HI></P>
<P N="18">18. If the Brain, while it enjoyeth the influence and ir|radiation of <HI>vital heat,</HI> be not actually <HI>cold:</HI> without doubt, the rea&s;on of the <HI>Conden&s;ation</HI> of <HI>vapours</HI> into <HI>rheume,</HI> mu&s;t be &s;taggered into an impo&s;&s;ibility. But if it be, by &s;ome de|grees, <HI>le&s;&s;e hot</HI> then the other parts of the body: mu&s;t we then be driven upon this ab&s;urdity, that a vapour doth, as if endowed with <HI>&s;en&s;e</HI> and an arbitrary power of <HI>Election,</HI> enquire out and pitch upon the colde&s;t part, as mo&s;t accom|modate to its future reduction into a humor? becau&s;e, by the dictates of naturall propen&s;ity, it rather de&s;ires by <HI>coagu|lation</HI> to be <HI>returned</HI> into its <HI>primitive,</HI> then by <HI>re&s;olution</HI> to <HI>continue</HI> in the <HI>pre&s;en<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter"></HI> condition?</P>
<P N="19">19. Or is it driven on by the crowd of other vapours, and on all &s;ides recoyled from the <HI>hotter parts</HI> of the body, up to the <HI>brain,</HI> as to the <HI>colde&s;t?</HI> if &s;o, there would be a con|tinuall tempe&s;t in the &s;ounde&s;t bodies, and nought but <HI>Le|panto Gu&s;ts,</HI> and Catarrhs in the be&s;t temperd heads: which to believe, is a madne&s;&s;e beyond the power of Hellebor, and a dotage too ab&s;urd to be excu&s;ed by the large&s;t candor. &para;</P>
<P N="20">20. But laying a&s;ide the&s;e <HI>Po&s;itions</HI> (which can, upon no nece&s;&s;ity of nature, be verified) as worthy onely a &s;hort con|futation; we come now to prove, that &s;hould all the de|mands of the &s;chools, hitherto mentioned, be freely gran|ted them: yet could they be of no advantage, as to the ma|nife&s;tation of the <HI>Cardinal</HI> point in controver&s;ie, viz. the manner, rea&s;ons, and wayes of the <HI>Defluxion of Catarrhs.</HI></P>
<P N="21">21. For fir&s;t the&s;e rivulets of rheume cannot make their progre&s;&s;e to the <HI>outward</HI> parts of the head, betwixt the <HI>skull</HI> and <HI>skin:</HI> &s;ince, indeed the Schools them&s;elves declare, that <HI>Vapours,</HI> the <HI>Antecedent matter</HI> of <HI>Catarrhs,</HI> do mount up from the Stomack to the <HI>Ba&s;is,</HI> or lowe&s;t part of the brain, and there fix upon a <HI>Plane</HI> (imaginary, nor ever yet di&s;co|vered by any Anatomi&s;t) in who&s;e lower &s;uperficies they
<PB N="22" REF="18">
in&s;tantly enterprize <HI>conden&s;ation,</HI> and then, immediately after concretion, be rained down, like a malignant mill|dew, upon the members &s;ubjacent. Far di&s;tant, in &s;ober truth, from this, that this forreigne adver&s;ary, this meer excrement, an ob&s;cure alien to the brain, and &s;ole occa&s;ion of &s;o many and incorrigible infirmities, having in the low|e&s;t <HI>Plane</HI> of the brain transformed it &s;elf into <HI>Water;</HI> &s;hould thence either penetrate through the very &s;ub&s;tance of the brain, in the gro&s;&s;e di&s;gui&s;e of <HI>Water:</HI> or at length return again to inve&s;t it &s;elf in the thinner dre&s;&s;e of a vapour, and wantonly take up quarters in the forementioned <HI>Plane.</HI></P>
<P N="22">22. Not in the form of a vapour; for if a vapour flying up from the &s;tomack, arive at the bottome of the brain, and by the native <HI>cold</HI> of that part be <HI>concreted</HI> (as they &s;ay) into <HI>Water:</HI> beyond all di&s;pute, by rea&s;on of the &s;ame opportu|nity of <HI>cold,</HI> it will continue <HI>Water,</HI> nor ever in that place be reduced back into a <HI>vapour</HI> again; untill <HI>Nature</HI> her &s;elf run mad, and fall upon contradictory operations, &s;uch as &s;hall out do the confu&s;ion of her primitive <HI>Chaos.</HI></P>
<P N="23">23. If therefore, this Vapour be once changed into Wa|ter, by the inevitable activity of local Cold, it is too hard for the mo&s;t incircum&s;pect credulity to be per&s;waded, that this <HI>Water,</HI> of knowne ho&s;tility again&s;t the native oecono|my of the head, &s;hould be kindly invited, nay gredily drawne into the mo&s;t &s;ecret and otherwi&s;e inacce&s;&s;ible clo&s;ets thereof: much le&s;&s;e that it can attaine &s;o great thinne&s;&s;e and <HI>&s;ubtility,</HI> as, notwith&s;tanding the re&s;i&s;tance and compre&s;&s;ive endeavours of non admi&s;&s;ion made by the parts invaded, to pierce through the very body of the <HI>Brain,</HI> its <HI>Membranes, Sutures, Skull,</HI> and <HI>Perio&s;tion,</HI> or coate environing the skull; then &s;top at the weaker counter&s;carfe of the <HI>skin,</HI> and there begin its <HI>defluxion.</HI> And, be&s;ide many other inevitable ab&s;ur|dities, this Water can be at mo&s;t but a kinde of <HI>Rain-water;</HI> and therefore wholly unfit to be made a &s;ource of <HI>vi&s;cid Ca|tarrhs,</HI> who&s;e duration depends on their <HI>glutino&s;ity:</HI> yea Catarrhs ari&s;ing from this aqueous originall, would, upon the fir&s;t acce&s;&s;e of heat, vani&s;h by tran&s;piration, &s;ooner then
<PB N="23" REF="18">
the thinne&s;t &s;weat; unle&s;&s;e the <HI>Galeni&s;ts</HI> can &s;hew, how wa|ter made of vapours exhaled from the &s;tomack, doth for ever after become <HI>fixed;</HI> as al&s;o, that by touching onely up|on a certain <HI>Plane</HI> (which the di&s;&s;ecting knife hath never yet lighted upon) in the head, it doth acquire a <HI>&s;alt</HI> and <HI>&s;harp</HI> tincture. Again, the <HI>skin</HI> &s;urrounding the skull, being far more <HI>rare</HI> and <HI>porous</HI> then the skull (through which it is al|lowed to pa&s;&s;e, by <HI>tran&s;udation)</HI> mu&s;t, according to the rules of probability, give way to the extermination of this water, either by in&s;en&s;ible <HI>tran&s;piration,</HI> or by <HI>&s;weat,</HI> much &s;ooner, then impri&s;on it &s;o clo&s;ely, as to force it, by &s;eek|ing other vents, to introduce tho&s;e various maladies vul|garly imputed thereunto. To which we may adde, that the skin obtended upon the skull, doth mo&s;t clo&s;ely and <HI>tena|ciou&s;ly</HI> adhere unto it; nor can the &s;ingle <HI>declivity</HI> of the place &s;uffice to the <HI>diffu&s;ion</HI> of the rheume, and the violent <HI>avul&s;ion</HI> of the skin from the bone. Moreover this Water, generated of vapours &s;teaming from the &s;tomack, ought, of unexcu&s;able nece&s;&s;ity, to have &s;ome internall <HI>Pul&s;or,</HI> or <HI>Dri|ver,</HI> to ram it through the &s;ub&s;tance of the brain, mem|branes, skull, and perio&s;tion. But this <HI>driver</HI> mu&s;t not be <HI>heat;</HI> for then would it cea&s;e to be Water, and in a mo|ment, re-a&s;&s;ume the con&s;i&s;tence of a vapour: which is wildly imagined to be conden&s;ed into water, by the frigidi|ty of the brain. Further, Catarrhs are ob&s;erved to be mo&s;t frequent in <HI>old</HI> and infirm bodies, and Climates mo&s;t infected with <HI>Cold:</HI> Wherefore this <HI>driver,</HI> in all probability, mu&s;t be <HI>Cold,</HI> (which &s;ober Philo&s;ophy affirmes to cau&s;e a <HI>Con|&s;triction</HI> and fa&s;tne&s;&s;e in the parts) who&s;e bu&s;ine&s;&s;e is to pro|trude this water through the brain, and in &s;ooth in the gro&s;&s;e form of Water; contrary to the ordinary energy of naturall qualities. And this impul&s;ive force mu&s;t be either in the <HI>Water,</HI> bred of meer vapours fuming from the &s;tomack; or in the <HI>brain,</HI> by which it is compelled, together with its membranes and skull, to open at the advent of this Water. Finally, &s;ince this kind of rain-water, made out of conden|&s;ed vapours, is conceived to hang in pendulous manner on
<PB N="24" REF="19">
the Iowe&s;t &s;uperficies of the ba&s;is of the brain; nor can be there deteined in any quantity above a drop or twain, at mo&s;t (for the narrowne&s;&s;e of the Cavity forbids the admi&s;|&s;ion of more) it mu&s;t nece&s;&s;arily, either immediately fall downward in &s;ucce&s;&s;ive drops: or the brain mu&s;t con&s;tantly play the &s;pung, and <HI>imhibe</HI> it drop after drop, &s;o fa&s;t as it is conden&s;ed. Moreover, this excrementitious Water ought to have, be&s;ides the forementioned <HI>Driver,</HI> a <HI>Conductor,</HI> which may di&s;tend the skin, and in order to the generation of the Pleuri&s;ie cau&s;e an avul&s;ion of the membrane lining the che&s;t from the ribs, as an Harbinger to prepare a lodging for it: and as well this Conductor, as Driver, ought to be of far more power then our own indigenary <HI>Bla&s;.</HI></P>
<P N="24">24. I &s;hall at length expo&s;e at any rate, to common &s;ale, the&s;e impo&s;tures and delu&s;ive dreams of the Schools: that no man may&punc; the vizard of vulgar credulity being at the &s;ame time detected, longer &s;uffer by the unfortunate purcha&s;e of fal&s;e wares. Nor could I hitherto &s;ufficiently admire, how the world could be &s;o gro&s;&s;ely cincumvented by the traditi|on of <HI>Catarrhs:</HI> in a bu&s;ine&s;&s;e, I &s;ay, &s;o fooli&s;h, vain, and altogether impo&s;&s;ible, that <HI>men,</HI> the Charter of who&s;e Crea|tion doth entitle them to <HI>Rea&s;on,</HI> &s;hould thus pro&s;titute their credultities to a Legend of <HI>Ab&s;urdities,</HI> nay ab&s;olute <HI>Impo&s;&s;ibilities,</HI> and forfeit the dignity of their tran&s;cendent endowment upon the &s;ingle &s;eduction of onely one idle fault, namely <HI>Ignorance.</HI> That they upon their lazy and indirect di&s;qui&s;itions, not finding any Cau&s;e, on which to charge their large account of di&s;ea&s;es, have impo&s;ed upon the implicite beliefe of vulgar heads, drowned in a deluge of &s;tupidity, the&s;e ridiculous fictions of Catarrhs.</P>
<P N="25">25. But the <HI>&s;weat,</HI> at lea&s;t, is impregnated with a mani|fe&s;t <HI>&s;altne&s;&s;e;</HI> upon which hint, the <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Latex, <HI>apud</HI> Helmontium, <HI>qui</HI> humorum quaternarium <HI>adnihilare peni|tu&punc;s contendit, e&s;t idem aquo us li|quor, quem &s;an|guini ubique per omne veno&s;um genus arcti&s;&s;im&egrave; a&s;&s;ociatum, &s;cholae nominarunt</HI> Serum; <HI>illumque tam</HI> urinae, <HI>qu&agrave;m</HI> &s;udoris <HI>pariter atque</HI> lachry|marum <HI>communem &s;ecere materiam. De hoc pe|culiarem, et no&s;tro quidem judicio &s;ufficientem li|brum, cui in&s;criptio</HI> Latex Humor neglectus, <HI>panxit</HI> Helmont: <HI>quo plan&egrave; o&s;tendit, ingens ab ip&s;a etiam natura po&s;itum e&s;&s;e, inter</HI> urinam <HI>&amp;</HI> laticem, <HI>quem frequenter extravenato &s;anguini innatare cernimus, di&s;crimen; tam quoad materiae e&s;&s;entiam, quam</HI> u&s;us <HI>utriu&s;que &s;ive de&s;tinationes.</HI> Scopos <HI>autem &s;ive fines, quibus in&s;ervire voluit</HI> Laticem, <HI>brevi verborum &s;erie &s;ic comprehen|dam.</HI> 1. <HI>Latex, ex &s;ua natura pene in&s;ipidus, pro primo &s;copo habet, ut contemperet cruoris</HI> aci|ditatem, <HI>eandemque arceat; et poti&s;&s;imum po&s;t labores, a&s;tus, &s;udo<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">es perfu&s;os, balnea, &amp;c. nam in tanta per&s;pirabilitate cruor valde conden&s;aretur, ni&s;i haberet aqueam partem admixtam pro &s;udore.</HI> 2. <HI>Cum in omni crudiori chylo, cremore, &amp; cruo|re, &s;it aliquid excrementum; &amp; cruor &s;ub dige|rendo &s;alem excrementitium re&s;ervet, etiam dum in purum alimentum convertitur: e&s;t ip&s;i pr<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">in Latex opportunus &s;ocius, qui in &s;e recipiat hunc &s;alem, eumque everrat.</HI> 3. <HI>&V;t materialiter cau|&s;et, ne ullum den&s;ioris compaginis re&s;iduum, in ultima alimoniae evaporatione remaneat: Sed &s;i|mul per Diapnaeam explodatur, ratione Fermenti arterialis (ut</HI> Helmont in Blas Humano) <HI>vel ra|tione &s;udoris eluatur. Sudor namque materialiter, nil ni&s;i Latex e&s;t, cui acce&s;&s;it Sal &s;uperfluus.</HI> 4. <HI>Cum oculus liquore opus haberet, ut ejus palpebra inno|cu&egrave; moveretur, &amp; lingua&s;aliv&acirc; eguit, ut ma&s;tica|tos cibos madore temperaret; ab&s;urdumque foret, totum cibum &egrave; ma&s;&s;a cruoris humectari: idcirco per venas Latex delatus e&s;t, unde &s;aliva, lacryma, &amp;c. fierent. Nam dum in Anginis, &amp; infami Mercu|rij &s;alivatione, plus ju&s;to &s;aliva profluit, alvus con&s;ueto &s;iccior evadit. Latex ergo in cruoris ma&s;|&s;a innoxius vagatur, ad loca opportuna defertur, di&s;tributivae facultati prompt&egrave; au&s;cultans.</HI> 5. <HI>Quod &s;uo madore compe&s;cat, ne pulmo de hi&s;cat, &s;iccitate aeris attracti. Ad ip&s;ius autem Authoris libel|lum recurrent &s;tudio&s;i, ubi omnium de hoc the|mate uberiorem doctrinam habebunt.</HI> &para;</NOTE> <HI>Latex,</HI> or <HI>Fountain of &s;erous &s;treams</HI> in the body, might with much more plau&s;ible rea&s;on have been adopted to the generation of Rheume, as being a very convenient mother to own &s;uch a production: then an imaginary vapour, which requires to be conducted through &s;o many in&s;en&s;ible ambages, and blind Meanders,
<PB N="25" REF="19">
and who&s;e po&s;&s;ibility of exi&s;tence cannot be a&s;&s;erted, without the joynt conce&s;&s;ion of a thou&s;and ab&s;urdities, and bold violations of the unalterable decrees of Na|ture. For the accu&s;tomed <HI>&s;altne&s;&s;e</HI> of the <HI>latex,</HI> may bear the imputa|tion of being the <HI>Cau&s;e</HI> of <HI>Pains</HI> and other erratick accidents, with neerer relation to veri&s;imility; then an <HI>in&s;ipid Water,</HI> tran&s;mitted upwards from vapours&punc; which have no real Idea, but in the di|&s;tracted imaginations of either the Contrivers, or Abettors of this Fable. Again, when this Wa|ter hath travelled through the Brain, Membranes, Skull, and Perio&s;tion, doth it then grow weary, feeble, and unable to con|tinue on its progre&s;&s;e, and pene|trate the ea&s;ier perforations of the skin? or hath the former labori|ous pilgrimage &s;o refracted its power of tran&s;udation, and im|paired its memory, that it hath forgotten the way? Why doth the skin, which by rea&s;on of its numerous evaporatories, or capil|lary poro&s;ities, is ordained to tran&s;mit the gro&s;&s;er matter of &s;weat, re&s;i&s;t the tenuity of that Water, which hath &s;o nimbly run through the impervious skull? But &s;hould this Water be once colle|cted into a pond, under the <HI>&s;calp;</HI> then would it either there &s;well
<PB N="26" REF="20">
into a tumid Cataract, or be dreigned downward in a &s;len|der thread of &s;ucce&s;&s;ive drops: or were the collection about the temples, it would &s;oon become &s;ubject to the di&s;covery of our touch: and &s;hould it be rained down, yet could it not avoid to infer a manife&s;t <HI>Tumor</HI> of in&s;ipid water, upon the <HI>terminus ad quem,</HI> or part <HI>recipient.</HI> And if in &s;mall quantity, it would &s;oon be di&s;cu&s;&s;ed by &s;weat. However, it can never fall down upon, nor be congregate amid&s;t the <HI>Mu&s;cles;</HI> &s;ince each of them is &s;trongly guarded by the out|work of a particular cro&s;&s;e membrane, wherewith their &s;ub|&s;tance is immediately covered. Be&s;ides, there is neither <HI>way</HI> for its defluxion from the head, betwixt the skin and perio|&s;tion; nor <HI>place</HI> to entertain it among&s;t the interco&s;tall <HI>Mu&s;cles,</HI> in order to the generation of a <HI>Pleuri&s;ie.</HI> For can that <HI>in&s;ipid Water,</HI> which occa&s;ioned no <HI>pain</HI> or mole&s;tati|on, while it remained under the skin and hair of the head, within few minuts after its arrivall at the interco&s;tall Mu&s;|cles, kindle a violent <HI>Pleuri&s;ie,</HI> together with &s;uch intolerable <HI>torments;</HI> and onely by its <HI>de&s;cent</HI> and &s;ingle <HI>gravity</HI> avell the <HI>Pleura,</HI> or lining of the thorax, from the ribs, which is firmly annexed and immediately adheres unto them by the mediatory ligation of numerous &s;olid <HI>Fibers?</HI> Certainly, that <HI>immanity</HI> and tincture of implacable tyranny mu&s;t be ac|quired from no other impregnation, then what may ac|crew unto it during its <HI>Defluxion.</HI> To proceed, no Catarrh can de&s;cend upon the <HI>Teeth,</HI> or impeach their <HI>Nerves;</HI> which on either &s;ide from the ba&s;is of the brain are implanted into the mandible: &s;ince they are &s;o exactly proportioned to the diameter of their receptacles, and &s;o entirely fill them up, that there can remain none the &s;male&s;t cranny for the intru|&s;ion of one drop of rheume; and much the le&s;&s;e for this, that <HI>Water cannot enter any &s;mall perforation, that is &s;hut be|neath.</HI> If &s;o, unfeignedly, we have no weighty engagement lies upon our rea&s;on, to enforce a&s;&s;ent; that this rheume &s;hould cu&s;tomarily fall foule and infe&s;t one <HI>&s;ingle tooth,</HI> and &s;uch onely as is <HI>Carious,</HI> or hollowed by putrefaction. We &s;hall add, that a Catarrh collected into a &s;howre underneath
<PB N="27" REF="20">
the &s;calp, &s;hould, according to the <HI>vieinity</HI> and <HI>rectitude</HI> of conveyances, rather &s;tream down upon the <HI>Cheeks,</HI> then the bottome of the <HI>Gums,</HI> through their fle&s;hy Contexture, and per&s;i&s;ting non-incorporate to the blood, trace the impervi|ous paths of the nerves, through the mandible, untill it in|vade &s;ome one particular tooth. Yea though this phanta|&s;tick deluge might be allowed to drop down from above, and &s;o be thought the cau&s;e of pain, in the <HI>upper</HI> jawe: yet no man can &s;wallow &s;o un&s;avory an ab&s;urdity, as that Wa|ter, not at all participant of vitality, can by any means, or at any time, infe&s;t the <HI>lower.</HI> What if this vagabond rheume chance to decline towards the <HI>eyes,</HI> or <HI>ears?</HI> in&s;ooth, the malitious matter thereof mu&s;t, from the conceited <HI>Plane</HI> of of the brain, fir&s;t pa&s;&s;e through the chief <HI>Ventricle</HI> thereof: and &s;o in that royall place become a &s;econd and more fatall cataract; yea occa&s;ion &s;uddain <HI>Death</HI> more probably, then an <HI>Ophthalmy,</HI> or bare inflammation of the eyes. Again, I <NOTE PLACE="marg">Ophthalmia <HI>e&s;t annatae oculi tu|nicae inflamma|tio, &acirc; &s;anguine acri, venulas ip|&s;ius di&s;tendente, exorta. Con&s;ule practic<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">s.</HI></NOTE> well remember, that the <HI>&s;eat</HI> of a <HI>Pleuri&s;ie</HI> is not betwixt the <HI>skin,</HI> or externall membrane univer&s;ally &s;wathing the body, and the <HI>interco&s;tall mu&s;cles</HI> (whither, notwith&s;tanding, the de|fluxion might more directly &s;tream down from the perio&s;ti|on, then toward the internall parts) but either in the very &s;ub&s;tance of the <HI>oblique mu&s;cles;</HI> or between tho&s;e and the <HI>Pleura</HI> immediately en&s;hrouding the Che&s;t, from which part the di&s;ea&s;e hath de&s;umed its denomination. By what &s;luces therefore can a defluxion be derived from the head unto this place? I grant, indeed, by way of &s;uppo&s;ition, that a certain <HI>Muccus,</HI> or phlegmatick and glutinous excrement, doth, even in Children and men of the &s;ounde&s;t con&s;titutions, &s;lide down by the palat into the &s;tomack: yet this &s;tands in no relation at all to a <HI>Catarrb;</HI> nor is that muccus bred from that cried up <HI>vapour</HI> of the fir&s;t concoction; but is an unpro|fitable <HI>Excrement,</HI> begotten &agrave; <HI>Cu&s;tode errante,</HI> <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Inaudita pri|us</HI> Helmotij <HI>in|ter</HI> Paradoxa, <HI>ex profe&s;&s;o ut e&s;|&s;entiae, Cau&s;ae, modique fiendi morborum, novis ejus in</HI> Phy&s;iologia <HI>theorematis melius accom|modarentur, fabricata, haud infimum tenet locum hocce, de</HI> Cu&s;tode Errante, <HI>ingenium. &V;i+autem qu&agrave;m brevi&s;&s;im&egrave;, &amp; pro captu marginis, quid &s;ibi voluit per</HI> Cu&s;todem, <HI>et quid per eundem</HI> errantem, <HI>explicemus; animadvertendum e&s;t, quod Author, cum in&s;ignem aquae cataractane &egrave; naribus, in principio</HI> Coryze (Frigus <HI>nuacuparunt ru&s;tici) ordinari&ograve; effluxi&s;&s;e cerneret; et uberrimum pariter</HI> Mucci <HI>proventum a pulmonibus tu&s;&s;iendo explo&s;um: ut anti|quatam, de</HI> Catarrho <HI>ex vaporibus in planum Cerebri delatis, eodem in loco rur&s;um concretis, atque dein tandem guttulatim, partim per nervos olfactorios antror&s;um, partim retror&s;um per laryngem in exiles pulmonum tubos delabente, doctrinam pe&s;&s;umdaret;</HI> Cu&s;todes duos, <HI>unum in</HI> Cerebro, <HI>alterum in</HI> Larynge, <HI>&acirc; &s;apiente reram Parente con&s;titutos e&s;&s;e, affirmare au&s;us e&s;t.</HI> Priori <HI>in provinciam delegatum e&s;t, ut quoties Cerebrum ab externo aliquo malo lace&s;&s;i|tum atque vitiatum fuerit, toties pote&s;tate &s;ua alterativa, &s;ive tran&s;mutationis energia, muci|lagino&s;um quoddam Excrementum, ex &s;anguine in &s;ub&s;tantiam Cerebri mox rit&egrave; a&s;&s;imilando, vel (ut</HI> Helmontij <HI>verbis utar) ex totalitate Alimenti, priu&s;quam aleret, fabricet; quo, tanquam lorica, partes frigore percul&s;ae circumtegantur &amp; ab immani ho&s;te &s;artae tectaeque con|&s;erventur. Atque hanc pote&s;tatem,</HI> Mucci <HI>hujus</HI> effectricem, Cu&s;todis <HI>etymo opportun&egrave; quadrare, con&s;entaneum e&s;t.</HI> Alteri, Laryngis <HI>nimirum</HI> Prae&s;idi, <HI>munus fere idem e&s;t; puta; ut quoties aeris inexcu&s;abilis injuria partem utranque,</HI> i. e. <HI>Cerebrum &amp; Pulmonem adoriatur, toties &egrave;</HI> Latice <HI>&amp;</HI> Cruore <HI>crudiori, Muccum etiam quendam, tanquam ve&s;tem, &s;ive inter&s;ti|tium objiciat; in quem aer ferociens, partim depo&s;it&acirc; primi ictus inclementi&acirc;, mite&s;cat. Quamdiu enim</HI> Cu&s;tos <HI>rect&egrave; valet, atrocitatis a&euml;ris victrix &s;uperat: dum ver&ograve; ob perfractum robur, primae &s;uae de&s;tinationi ex voto &s;atisfacere nequit; &s;altem multum</HI> Mucci <HI>fabricat, ut conceptam eluat labem, quam primit&ugrave;s non fuit &s;eparando. Sed ah! ubi vel externa injuria major e&s;t, qu&agrave;m quae &s;inat &s;e &s;ic deliniri; altiu&s;ve ferit ip&s;am laryngis aut pulmonum &s;ub&s;tan|tiam: jam</HI> titubat Cu&s;tos. <HI>Nec &s;olum de&s;umit auxilium abs</HI> Latice, <HI>Sed ip&s;am</HI> proximi alimenti &s;ub&s;tantiam <HI>alienat, tran&s;mutatque in mucco&s;am collam; unde</HI> Phthi&s;is <HI>mox &s;equitur.</HI></NOTE> by the <HI>Guar|dian</HI> of the brain, &s;educed into a perver&s;ion of its office, as hath been clearly declared in convenient place.</P>
<P><PB N="28" REF="21">
I grant moreover, that in the <HI>Gout,</HI> and other con&s;imilar di&s;ea&s;es, frequently the guilt may be imputed unto a certain <HI>&s;alt excrementitious &s;tream,</HI> fretting the parts a&s;&s;aulted: but of &s;uch, onely the <HI>Latex,</HI> or &s;ource of aqueous &s;ero&s;isy in the body, is the <HI>Mint, Caement,</HI> and <HI>Supply;</HI> and not an a|&s;cent of vapours from the &s;tomack into the brain, not a mi&s;celany of non-exi&s;tent juices, nor a feigned <HI>Defluxion</HI> of <HI>Phlegme</HI> mixt with <HI>Choler.</HI></P>
<P N="26">26. For the Schools them&s;elves, &s;urrounded with <HI>&s;hame,</HI> that the <HI>Head,</HI> being on all &s;ides brimfull of the brains, might be a <HI>Magazine</HI> for the collection of <HI>Catarrhs,</HI> and mo&s;t <HI>Di&s;ea&s;es</HI> charged upon their <HI>Defluxion;</HI> have (alack, and alas for wo) unju&s;tly accu&s;ed the <HI>&s;tomack</HI> of continual &s;moaking with vapours, and &s;o contributing <HI>matter</HI> to their producti|on: but finding the &s;tomack not-guilty in healthy men, yet pre&s;ently, in the <HI>Gout,</HI> they incriminate upon a <HI>Defluxion,</HI> and as benighted in a dark mi&s;t of their &s;hame, whi&s;per out
<PB N="29" REF="21">
this fal&s;e impeachment, nor adventure to &s;peak it out, as al|leaged from the te&s;timony of po&s;itive <HI>knowledge.</HI> For they at fir&s;t da&s;h, &s;teal the <HI>Que&s;tion,</HI> borrow a kind of acrimoni|ous <HI>Choler,</HI> and <HI>&s;alt Phlegme</HI> from the &s;imple trea&s;ury of the <HI>blood,</HI> and leave the controver&s;ie undecided: whether tho&s;e <HI>Humors</HI> are to be derived from the <HI>Liver,</HI> &s;eparated, by a kind of <HI>Critical percolation</HI> in the veins, from the remaining laudible ma&s;&s;e of blood, and &s;o excluded and di&s;charged upon the <HI>joynts;</HI> or whether a certain <HI>Water,</HI> tartareous <HI>Muccus,</HI> or other anonymous <HI>Excrement</HI> be tran&s;mitted thi|ther from the head, underneath the skin. For yet they re|main unre&s;olved; and are the more confounded in this, that they cannot manife&s;t, what this cunning <HI>Separator,</HI> or Win|nower of various humors, blended together in one form and con&s;i&s;tence; or what that <HI>Conductor</HI> &s;hould be, who &s;hould tran&s;port the&s;e humors &s;evered from the blood, incontami|nate with any alien tincture in &s;o difficult a pa&s;&s;age, where many more &s;olid &s;ub&s;tances are to be penetrated, onely to the <HI>Conjunctures</HI> and <HI>Articulations:</HI> and now &s;elect and pitch upon this, and anon upon another determinate part: but leave unimpaired the more <HI>feeble</HI> and <HI>&s;upine,</HI> and every day make a fre&s;h conque&s;t and &s;ubdue &s;ome one new joynt; yea invade that member, which is become more capable of re&s;i|&s;tance by <HI>Nodes</HI> and <HI>Oppilations.</HI> Whatever, therefore, the Schools dotingly pratle concerning vapours elevated from the &s;tomack, and reconden&s;ed in the brain, as the material Cau&s;e of Catarrhs; let all pa&s;&s;e for a Chri&s;tma&s;&s;e tale, or drunken Beldams dream. &para;</P>
<P N="27">27. For the <HI>&s;tomack</HI> is never <HI>Cold</HI> below its native conve|nient temper; indeed the <HI>Dige&s;tive Ferment</HI> <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Fermentum dige&s;tivum, <HI>e&s;t proprietas quaedam e&s;&s;enti|alis, con&s;i&s;tens in</HI> vitali <HI>quadam</HI> Aciditate, <HI>ad tran&s;mutationes ciborum in ventriculo potens; ideoque &amp; &s;pecificae proprietatis. Non e&s;t autem fermentum i&s;tud dige&s;tivum, in &s;ola</HI> Aciditate <HI>aliquali fitum. Neque enim acetum, vel jus Citri farinam fermentat: imo nec farina fermentata proinde e&s;t fermentum &s;tomachicum; &s;ed hoc e&s;t</HI> Acidum e&s;urinum, &s;tomachicum, &s;pecificum &amp; humanum; <HI>ita quidem per &s;ingulas brutorum &s;pecies</HI> Specific&egrave; <HI>di&s;tinctum, quod ip&s;is &s;it ap|propriatum. Mures namque, Glires, &amp; Sues citius fame pereunt, qu&agrave;m Pha&s;eolum edant. In</HI> homine <HI>ver&ograve; plerumque ad</HI> Generis <HI>amplitudinem aspirat. Interim plures Ca&s;eum horrent, vi|num, lac, vel alia &s;pernunt; quia non conficiunt. Ideoque quaecunque luctantur cum no&s;tra di|ge&s;tione, obver&s;antur</HI> Fermenti <HI>illius</HI> proprietati &s;pecificae, <HI>fermentumque conculcare nituntur.</HI></NOTE> (to which, and
<PB N="30" REF="22">
not to <HI>heat,</HI> the <HI>Faculty</HI> of <HI>Concoction</HI> ought immediately to be attributed; as we have in another tract concerning that particular Theme, to ample &s;atisfaction evinced) may &s;uffer <HI>Diminution:</HI> nor can the <HI>Liver</HI> a&s;cend to an exce&s;&s;ive <HI>Heat,</HI> above that con&s;tant degree of <HI>Vital flame,</HI> which fir&s;t entitled it to <HI>Animation;</HI> for in &s;everity of truth, there is no other heat in our bodies, but what was fir&s;t kindled in our heart by that Ve&s;tal &s;park, or <HI>vital light,</HI> which immediately and &s;olely con&s;tituteth the <HI>E&s;&s;ence</HI> of <HI>Life.</HI> And this the rea&s;on is, why every <HI>Carca&s;e</HI> doth &s;uddainly grow <HI>cold,</HI> as the heart of Winter, &s;o &s;oon as the <HI>Vital flame</HI> is extingui&s;hed. <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Princium <HI>i&s;tud</HI> Formale, <HI>cujus beneficio &amp; munere</HI> Animalium <HI>Corpora, alioqui frigida, concale&s;|cunt, edendi&s;que</HI> Vitae <HI>actionibus apta redduntur, non e&s;&s;e</HI> Calidum innatum, <HI>&s;ive</HI> Humidum primigenium <HI>in&s;ito &s;piritu &amp; calore undique perfu&s;um, contra</HI> Ari&s;totelem, <HI>eju&s;que</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign">, <HI>acerrim&egrave; velitatur</HI> Author: <HI>tradens pa&s;&s;im per &s;uas lucubrationes, pro axiomate aeternae veritatis; quod in cunctis viventibus in&s;it</HI> Lumen quoddam Vitale, <HI>imme|diat&egrave; &amp; fontalit&egrave;r &acirc;</HI> Patre Luminum (Formas <HI>enim rerum omnium immediate</HI> &acirc; Deo crea|ri, <HI>&s;erio docet, in</HI> Lib. de Formarum ortu) <HI>dimanans, cordique, dum adhuc e&s;&s;et in utero recens embryonatum, tanquam proprio conceptaculo implantatum, in quo</HI> Vita <HI>e&s;&s;entialit&egrave;r con&s;i&s;tit, atque cujus marcor</HI> Senium, <HI>extinctio</HI> Mortem <HI>nece&s;&s;ari&ograve; infert. Inquit enim, de</HI> Vita <HI>&s;olerter perorans; Vita e&s;t lumen &amp; initium formale, quo res agit quod agere ju&s;&s;a e&s;t.</HI> <Q><HI>Hoc autem lumen, a Creatore rebus infu&s;um, datur unico in&s;tanti; prout &acirc; &s;ilice ignis excutitur, &s;ub formae identitate ac unitate clauditur, perque genera et &s;pecies e&s;t di&s;tin|ctum. Non e&s;t autem lumen igneum, cumbu&s;tivum, humidi radicalis con&s;umptivum. Tam in pi&s;ce vitale e&s;t, qu&agrave;m in Leone; tamque in papavere, qu&agrave;m pipere. Nec etiam in no|bis deficit Calor, ob humidi radicalis con&s;umptionem: nec vici&s;&s;im humidum deficit, Calo|ris defectu; &s;ed &s;ol&acirc; duntaxat pote&s;tatum Vitalium, adeoque et luminis diminutione &amp; ex|tinctione. Fu&s;iorem vero Argumenti hujus explicationem me legi&s;&s;e memini, in tract.</HI> Hu|midum radicale <HI>nuncupato; quor&s;um benevolos, avido&s;que doctrinae Helmontij ex in&s;tituto remittendos volui.</HI></Q> &para;</NOTE></P>
<P N="28">28. But the offen&s;ive <HI>Heat</HI> of the <HI>Liver</HI> belongs to it one|ly by <HI>Accident.</HI> For example, let a <HI>cold Thorne</HI> or needle be pricked into any mans finger (an <HI>in&s;tance</HI> frequently men|tioned by me, and largely explained in my di&s;cour&s;e of <HI>Fe|vers)</HI> and thereupon &s;hall in&s;tantly en&s;ue a violent <HI>Pul&s;ation,</HI> occa&s;ioned by the pain, an angry <HI>Incale&s;cence,</HI> and <HI>Tumor</HI> of the <HI>part.</HI> <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Quicquid in &s;anis edit acti|ones &s;anas: id|ip&s;um in morbis edit actiones vi|tiatas. Spiri|tus enim i&s;te ca|lefacit hominem naturaliter in &s;anitate, idem qui in febribus ae&s;tuat. per ex|emplum. Spina querna digito infixa, actu et potentialiter frigida, mox in digito excitat calorem praeter naturam. Non qui|dem, quod calidi humores affluant, qua&s;i per &s;pinam e&ograve; convocati, expecta&s;&s;ent &s;pinae vulnus, &amp; qui alia~s &s;uis &s;edibus temperati &s;edi&s;&s;ent. Siquidem cruor vulneri proximus, primus ac|currit, aditum venienti cruori praeripit. Et ip&s;e per &s;e quoque non calet: Sed ex gratia vitalis &s;piritus. Itaque inflammatio, &amp; tumor cum pul&s;a duro, dolore, &amp; calore, &agrave; &s;olo &s;piritu cau|&s;alit&egrave;r; ab infixa ver&ograve; &s;pina occa&s;ionaliter duntaxat procedunt.</HI> Helm. de Febr. cap. 1. &para;</NOTE> Not becau&s;e this <HI>Thorne</HI> is <HI>hot,</HI> nor that the <HI>blood</HI> then in vicinity to the wound had any immoderate <HI>offerve&s;|cence</HI> before the infixation of the thorne: but that exce&s;&s;ive <HI>Ardor</HI> is kindled upon the entrance of the thorne into the
<PB N="31" REF="22">
fle&s;h. Now let the &s;ame rea&s;on hold good, as concerning the <HI>Liver;</HI> for if that at any time conceive an unnatural <HI>Ar|dor,</HI> it is cau&s;ed by &s;ome <HI>Thorne,</HI> or forreigne impre&s;&s;ion which doth not indicate, in order to the extinction of that conflagration, any <HI>Refrigeration,</HI> but a totall <HI>Ablation</HI> or eradication of it. For <HI>Refrigeration</HI> of the <HI>Liver</HI> is &s;o far from working even a bare palliative <HI>Cure</HI> of this <HI>Ardor,</HI> that indeed it renders the mi&s;chief <HI>de&s;perate,</HI> for the future.</P>
<P N="29">29. And this, I earne&s;tly wi&s;h, the Schools may be plea&s;ed &s;oberly to ob&s;erve; as al&s;o their vain and impo&s;&s;ible figment of the <HI>Heat</HI> of the <HI>Liver,</HI> and the manifold <HI>Errors</HI> in their <HI>Method</HI> of <HI>Sanation,</HI> all &s;treaming from this fountain. May they &s;eriou&s;ly ob&s;erve al&s;o, how barren and un&s;ucce&s;&s;eful all &s;uch <HI>Remedies</HI> have proved, which have been directed (with grief I &s;peak it) to the <HI>Head, Stomack,</HI> and <HI>Liver,</HI> for the <HI>Cure</HI> of <HI>Catarrhs.</HI> Manife&s;t therefore it is, that a <HI>Catarrh hath, in nature, neither Material Cau&s;e for its Generatton, Place for its Conception, Conduiets for its Traduction, Receptaries for its cu&s;tomary Admi&s;&s;ion, nor &s;ufficient activity to make good its Penetration through the &s;ub&s;tance of the brain, Membranes, Skull, and Perio&s;tion.</HI> For where in all this admirable Fabrick of the body can we find, that Nature (who&s;e Providence can be found no way deficient) hath built any hou&s;e of office, or <HI>clo&s;e&s;tool,</HI> meerly for the reception of <HI>Preternatural Ex|crements:</HI> nor can it &s;tand with the lawes of veri&s;imility, that a <HI>meer excrement</HI> generated in any part, &s;hould be endow|ed with an <HI>Arbitrary Power</HI> to tran&s;plant it&s;elfe at plea&s;ure from one place to another. And upon the conce&s;&s;ion of the doctrine of rheumes, the <HI>Trepan</HI> would every day, be of as much u&s;e for the letting out of <HI>Catarrhs,</HI> as to give vent to the <HI>Purulent Effluxions</HI> of wounds in the head.</P>
<P N="30"><PB N="32" REF="23">
30. But why &s;hould a Catarrh cea&s;e <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="blotted" EXTENT="2 letters">flow downwards, immediately after the Tooth, which aked, is pulled out? whither becau&s;e it hath &s;o &s;oon forgotten its way thither? And if the matter thereof be originally tran&s;mitted from be|low, whither, I be&s;eech you, in relation to its natural Ten|dencie, &s;hould it then run? or upon what new part &s;hall that ancient rivulet of rheume be diverted, which con&s;tantly u&s;ed to creep into the channel of the teeth, and in&s;inuate it &s;elfe through tho&s;e &s;lender perforations, which the <HI>Nerves,</HI> a&s;well within, as without, above as below, entirely po&s;&s;e&s;&s;e and fill up? Doth the <HI>&s;tomack,</HI> for&s;ooth, <HI>cea&s;e,</HI> or not <HI>dare</HI> to con|tinue the exhalation of vapours, and the communication of the fuell for Catarrhs, after the drawing of a tooth? or doth the whole &s;tore of rheume, yea &s;uch as &s;hall be generated in the future, flow forth together with the blood, at the in|&s;tant of the tooths evul&s;ion? or upon the generation of fle&s;h in the <HI>mortice</HI> of the drawn tooth, and &s;o the cutting off all way of effu&s;ion, doth the Catarrh dry up? But &s;ure the Catarrh could not attempt a pa&s;&s;age through the rocky and <HI>impenetrable &s;ub&s;tance</HI> of the tooth? If not; what hindred it from &s;welling, by re&s;tagnation, into a nece&s;&s;ary <HI>Apo&s;tem</HI> in the parts adjacent? why doth it frequently, when <HI>one tooth</HI> is pulled out, find a new channel and drive again&s;t <HI>another?</HI> Doth the evul&s;ion of the <HI>first tooth</HI> turne the cour&s;e of the &s;tream upon the <HI>&s;econd?</HI> Doth the <HI>conductor</HI> of the rheum grow <HI>blind,</HI> and can no longer find its way to the remaining <HI>nerve</HI> of the drawn teeth, or at lea&s;t to the <HI>carnous excre&s;cence</HI> that &s;ucceeds the tooth? or can it with more ea&s;e drill a hole through a &s;econd firme tooth, then pa&s;&s;e the &s;pongy fle&s;h that ari&s;eth upon the ejectment of the former? why can it not con&s;tantly keep po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion of that <HI>Current</HI> which it &s;elf digged? And &s;o con&s;erve an outlet for it &s;elfe, before the new tenant of fle&s;h take livery and &s;ei&s;en? Mi&s;erably, in|&s;ooth, is this rheum deluded by the Chirurgeon, which thin|king, according to its cu&s;tome, to invade &s;ome one Tooth, and finding it removed, mu&s;t be con&s;trained to return back, by the &s;ame way it came, and execute its malice upon &s;ome
<PB N="33" REF="23">
more noble part; which it torments, in revenge of the af|front done by the Chirurgeon. <HI>No tooth, therefore, aketh by rea&s;on of a Defluxion:</HI> but becau&s;e, upon a detection of the Gum, it becomes <HI>too &s;en&s;ile;</HI> or that, in another ca&s;e, the mat|ter of its ultimate or mo&s;t depurated <HI>Aliment,</HI> being defe|ctively a&s;&s;imilated, conceives <HI>putrefaction</HI> at the root of the tooth: and hence that intolerable <HI>Paine.</HI> 31. For the <HI>Dige&s;tion</HI> of the <HI>Teeth</HI> and <HI>Nayls</HI> is di&s;tinct from the Dige&s;tion of all other parts, in this particular; that the Dige&s;tion of <HI>tho&s;e</HI> is performed in <HI>dome&s;tick ve&s;&s;els,</HI> or the very interior &s;ub&s;tance of each particular part; but of the&s;e in <HI>ve&s;&s;els</HI> onely <HI>contigu|ous</HI> to their <HI>roots.</HI> &para;</P>
<P N="32">32. But that no Catarrh can fall down upon the <HI>Inwards,</HI> the Stomack, Lungs, Liver, Kidneys, &amp;c. is in part already manife&s;ted, from that generall evidence alleaged again&s;t the <HI>po&s;&s;ibility</HI> of its <HI>materiall Cau&s;e, waies</HI> of <HI>tran&s;portation,</HI> and <HI>manner</HI> of <HI>production:</HI> and may, in part, be evinced from this, that nothing can fall down upon the <HI>Palat,</HI> much le&s;&s;e into the <HI>Stomack,</HI> contrary to our will, but what may in|&s;tantly be ejected by <HI>ex&s;creation.</HI> For we never &s;wallow down the naturall <HI>Muccus&punc;</HI> ordinarily dropping from the head upon the root of the tongue; but <HI>unawares:</HI> nor is any Catarrh &s;o far participant of the power of <HI>election,</HI> as cun|ningly to lie in ambu&s;h, till we are lockt up in the arms of &s;leep, and then a&s;&s;ault us when we are unfit to endeavour its evacuation. May all <HI>Fables,</HI> and <HI>Dreams</HI> of impo&s;&s;ibilities be henceforth utterly exiled from the Confines of the &s;acred <HI>Art</HI> of <HI>Healing.</HI> &para;</P>
<P N="33">33. What&s;oever, therefore, is di&s;tilled from the head upon the jawes; is the <HI>Muccus,</HI> or ordinary excrement of the brain, either in its <HI>naturall</HI> and due con&s;titution: or <HI>altered</HI> from it, into various <HI>irregularities,</HI> re&s;pective to the indi&s;|po&s;itions of the <HI>Cu&s;tos,</HI> or <HI>Prae&s;ident</HI> of tho&s;e parts. But this <HI>Muccus</HI> is, in totality of e&s;&s;ence, di&s;tinct from that <HI>Excre|ment,</HI> expectorated from the <HI>Lungs,</HI> by <HI>Cough.</HI> And then, what means this ra&s;h inadvertency of the Schools, when they direct, that, by exact in&s;pection, we examine the &s;pitle
<PB N="34" REF="24">
by Cough, whether it be <HI>watery, frothy, diaphanous, liquid, white, concreted, yellow, a&s;h-coloured,</HI> or <HI>tawny?</HI> whether <HI>round, globular,</HI> of a con&s;i&s;tence fit for <HI>impetuous defluxion?</HI> To what purpo&s;e, &s;ay I, doe they command us to make our augurie and explorations of the <HI>Di&s;ea&s;es</HI> of the <HI>Che&s;t</HI> and <HI>Lungs;</HI> if, as them&s;elves opinion, tho&s;e excrements we &s;pit up, be <HI>Catarrhs,</HI> and originally derived from the head? For &s;o a rheum, following upon &s;ome <HI>con&s;tipation</HI> of the <HI>os Eth|moides,</HI> or &s;pongy bone, by the <HI>Muccus</HI> ordinarily de&s;cen|ding into the no&s;trils; would be diluted with a crude and aqueous <HI>Muccus;</HI> for this cau&s;e, that provident <HI>Nature</HI> would hither &s;end a plentifull torrent of the <HI>Latex</HI> for the <HI>ablution</HI> of that, who&s;e thickne&s;&s;e and vi&s;cidity cau&s;ed the ob&s;truction. And if the <HI>materiall cau&s;e</HI> hereof be primitively deduced from the &s;tomack; why, when the &s;pongy bone is ob&s;tructed, doth the &s;tomack of a man perfectly in health, grow outragious, play the tyrant, and oppre&s;&s;e the brain with too great a charge of vapours? How can tho&s;e vapors, when conden&s;ed above the palate, arrive at the <HI>odoratorie Nerves,</HI> &s;eated in the forehead, and there put on the form of a <HI>&s;alt water,</HI> to <HI>wa&s;h</HI> and <HI>rince</HI> away the <HI>ob&s;truction</HI> from the <HI>&s;pongie bone?</HI> From whence can vapours, of their own na|ture, <HI>in&s;ipid</HI> and <HI>harmle&s;&s;e;</HI> in their &s;hort pa&s;&s;age only ac|quire &s;o much <HI>&s;alt;</HI> which they &s;hould melt and precipitate downwards together with them&s;elves, and, by this new <HI>acri|monious impraegnation,</HI> introduce frequent <HI>&s;quinancies,</HI> and other <HI>inflammations</HI> of the throat and jawes? &para;</P>
<P N="34">34. Why doth this <HI>rheum,</HI> elevated formerly from the <HI>&s;tomack,</HI> and by no other tran&s;mutation, but only a bare <HI>Conden&s;a|tion</HI> into water (which is demon&s;trated, by the mechanick experiments of <HI>Pyrotechny,</HI> to be nece&s;&s;arily <HI>in&s;ipid</HI> and <HI>gentle)</HI> changed from its primitive con&s;i&s;tence of a vapour; when once it falleth upon the <HI>&s;tomack,</HI> occa&s;ion &s;o many and grievous mi&s;chiefs therein: which yet not long before, du|ring its commixture with other parts of the <HI>Chyle,</HI> was <HI>gratefull</HI> and <HI>benefieiall</HI> to the &s;ame? Whence can it obtain this <HI>Ho&s;tility?</HI> What, from the <HI>Brain,</HI> one of the mo&s;t noble
<PB N="35" REF="24">
parts of the body, and richly endowed with <HI>vitall principles?</HI> And if this <HI>Vapour</HI> hath only touched upon the lowe&s;t <HI>Plane</HI> of the brain (as them&s;elves affirme) and in&s;tantly fall down from thence, &s;o &s;oon, as it multiplies up to the quantity of <HI>one &s;ingle drop;</HI> and &s;ince no third place can be found, to deteine each &s;ucce&s;&s;ive drop: therefore can this <HI>perver&s;ity,</HI> or evill tincture, ari&s;e unto this <HI>rheum,</HI> neither from the <HI>mo|mentany &s;tay</HI> in the plane of the brain, nor from the <HI>Conta|gion</HI> of any <HI>malignant part,</HI> nor finaly from any <HI>&s;eminality</HI> or infu&s;ion of <HI>depravity</HI> received from thence. Unle&s;&s;e, per|chance, they &s;hall be able to give in evidence, that, be&s;ides the bare <HI>conden&s;ation</HI> of the <HI>vapour</HI> into <HI>rheum,</HI> there interve|ned &s;ome <HI>Third cau&s;ality,</HI> from which the <HI>Acrimony, &s;altne&s;&s;e,</HI> and <HI>virulency</HI> of the <HI>Defluxion</HI> was derived: which hitherto they have neglected to prove.</P>
<P N="35">35. But &s;ince the numerous <HI>Comments,</HI> concerning <HI>Catarrhs</HI> and <HI>Pulmonary</HI> maladies, have grown up into huge <HI>Volumes, Councels,</HI> and <HI>Di&s;pen&s;atories:</HI> I conceive it my proper bu&s;i|ne&s;&s;e to declare, that no theory of the Schools was ever more full of <HI>negligence, ab&s;urdity</HI> and <HI>danger,</HI> then this of Defluxions; on this account, that hitherto they have e&s;tee|med no &s;inne more veniall, then <HI>Homicide,</HI> committed out of incogicancy and circum&s;pection; provided that the earth cover over their Crimes, and they become excu&s;ed of mur|der upon the allegation of &s;ome <HI>Axiomes</HI> of vulgar tradi|tion. And hence, amids my compa&s;&s;ionate meditations, have I thought, that the Devil <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Con&s;ule cla|ri&s;&s;imum <GAP DESC="foreign"> illum, Dom. Selden, de dis Syris &s;yntag.</HI> 2. <HI>cap.</HI> 14.</NOTE> <HI>Moloch</HI> fits Doctor of the Chair, and hath down to our daies infatuated the world with the whim&s;ey of Catarrhs. Who&s;e materiall Cau&s;e, Nativity, Place of conception, Efficient, manner of Generation, re|ceptary, progre&s;&s;e, and collection, are equally unwarrantable by truth, becau&s;e ab&s;olutely impo&s;&s;ible in nature. The&s;e ab&s;urd doctrines therefore none hath broached and promul|gated, but the <HI>old Serpent,</HI> the Father of lies; with de&s;igne to depopulate <HI>Humanity.</HI> For whatever di&s;tils from the head is the native <HI>Muccus</HI> and pure <HI>Excrement</HI> of the brain, gene|rated within its proper confines; and no forreigner brought in from the &s;tomack. &para;</P>
<P N="36"><PB N="36" REF="25">
36. This Muccus, is con&s;tantly <HI>white, thick, vi&s;cid</HI> and <HI>in|noxious;</HI> while the <HI>Cu&s;tos,</HI> or Lord Pre&s;ident of the head, con|tinues &s;ober, well di&s;po&s;ed, and conformes its dominion to the whol&s;ome Statutes of its primitive tru&s;t: but when it degenerates into exorbitancies, and irregular operations, and the powers committed to its admini&s;tration are perver|ted into abu&s;es; then doth the <HI>Muccus</HI> grow <HI>unnaturall, wild, watery, acute, &s;alt, &s;harp, yellow, tenacious,</HI> &amp;c. and like a virulent torrent, &s;hower down upon the palate from the funnel of the brain, by the mo&s;t convenient and obvious floodgate.</P>
<P N="37">37. For that matter, which in the beginning of a <HI>cold,</HI> or po&s;e in the head, trickles down in the form of a thin water, is not &s;imply and meerly the <HI>muccus:</HI> but <HI>&s;alt Latex,</HI> where|with nature endeavours to rince away that excrementitious <HI>Phlegme,</HI> which, as a forraine adver&s;ary, hath encroached upon the <HI>&s;pongie bone,</HI> bordering upon the brain, and <HI>ob|&s;tructed</HI> its &s;luices; as I have already hinted. Nor is that matter, which comes <HI>yellow</HI> and <HI>vi&s;cid,</HI> in the <HI>declination</HI> or exit of a Cold, the &s;ame with the fir&s;t <HI>Latex,</HI> nor any the &s;malle&s;t mea&s;ure of time deteined and in&s;pi&s;&s;ated in the &s;ame place; (as the Schools notwith&s;tanding confidently teach) &s;ince if &s;o, the whole cavity of the skull, though all the brains were taken out, would not &s;uffice to the reception of &s;o va&s;t a quantity of Excrement: but this new kind of <HI>Muc|cus</HI> is fre&s;hly created every &s;ucce&s;&s;ive moment, and differs from the naturall and <HI>healthy Muccus,</HI> in diver&s;ity of <HI>colour, &s;tinke, vi&s;cidity,</HI> and <HI>acrimony.</HI> Be&s;ides, its ridiculous to ap|prehend this <HI>putrid Muccus,</HI> under the notion of an <HI>excre|ment</HI> well <HI>concocted</HI> and <HI>in&s;pi&s;&s;ated</HI> out of the former <HI>Latex;</HI> which is accidentally advenient, <HI>praeternaturall,</HI> and depends upon a forrein <HI>vitious cau&s;ality.</HI> Now, that the <HI>Latex</HI> makes the fir&s;t flood in a <HI>cold,</HI> is manife&s;t from this ob&s;ervation; that alwaies, for two daies, in every cold, the belly is more &s;low in the exclu&s;ion of its excrements, and the quantity of urine much dimini&s;hed: which clearly evinceth that the <HI>&s;alt current</HI> is in part <HI>diverted</HI> upon the <HI>brain.</HI> Again, this
<PB N="37" REF="25">
<HI>Latex</HI> evaporated in a convenient ve&s;&s;ell, by a gentle heat, containeth nothing in its con&s;i&s;tence, that can be <HI>in&s;pi&s;&s;ated</HI> into a thickne&s;&s;e equall to that of the <HI>Muccus:</HI> but how much of the <HI>Muccus,</HI> the <HI>Latex</HI> &s;hall dilute, and rince away from the &s;pongy bone, by its thinner &s;tream; exactly &s;o much, and no more of a <HI>mucilage,</HI> or glutinous &s;ub&s;tance, may be found in it. &para;</P>
<P N="38">38. But however it be, and whatever that be which &s;lides down from the Brain upon the Palate and root of the tongue: yet cannot the lea&s;t &s;ingle drop thereof enter into the Lungs, but before it de&s;cend &s;o low, it mu&s;t endanger the life by <HI>&s;uffocation.</HI> For if one drop of liquor, &s;lipping down the <HI>a&s;pera Arteria</HI> or <HI>Wind-pipe</HI> unawares, whil&s;t we are drinking, threaten the deplorable <HI>Fate</HI> of <HI>Anacraeon</HI> <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Had we &s;aid <HI>cro&s;&s;e</HI> fate, the Epithite had been more ge|nuine, and had more clearly hinted the prepo&s;terous rarity. For how unu&s;uall and <HI>unnaturall</HI> an Accident was it, for the invincible &s;tu|pidity of a <HI>Poet</HI> to flow from his <HI>inspi|ration:</HI> and a volatile <HI>mu&s;e</HI> to be conden|&s;ed into eter|nall dulne&s;&s;e, by the &s;pright|ly fruit of the <HI>Vine,</HI> the &s;ame <HI>In&s;pirer,</HI> who&s;e active flames had &s;o often warmed and exalted her to the &s;ublimity of rapture?</NOTE>: what would not &s;o great a quantity of <HI>rheume,</HI> as is frequent|ly rejected by Cough, even to the filling of &s;everall ba&s;ons in a very &s;hort time, doe as to the inference of <HI>&s;uffocation?</HI> And far from the &s;ober and rationall waies of <HI>Probability</HI> mu&s;t his <HI>credulity</HI> wander, who can &s;ubmit to a per&s;wa&s;ion, that the <HI>&s;leep</HI> of a few &s;hort houres can in&s;en&s;ibly convey whole ba&s;ons full of rheume into the Lungs; and that &s;o impetuous a flood of <HI>Phlegme</HI> can run down through the narrow chink of the <HI>Epiglottis,</HI> or <HI>Flap</HI> of the <HI>Larinx,</HI> with|out the manife&s;t hazzard of praefocation. In the daies of yore I ingeniou&s;ly confe&s;&s;e, being deluded by the &s;ophi&s;try of the &s;chools, during my <HI>pedanti&s;me</HI> and credulous pupil|lage, I di&s;po&s;ed my patients, afflicted with affections of the Lungs, into &s;uch a po&s;ture, as that laying their faces <HI>down|ward</HI> upon their pillows, they might &s;leep in a <HI>prone po&s;ition;</HI> with de&s;igne, that the <HI>rheume</HI> (for&s;ooth) might run out by the <HI>No&s;trils,</HI> which would otherwi&s;e have flowed into the <HI>Lungs:</HI> and upon this &s;core, I promi&s;ed immunity from the perill of <HI>Defluxions.</HI> But the following morne derided my ignorance and folly, with an argument borrowed from the con&s;tant per&s;everance of the <HI>Cough</HI> and <HI>ex&s;creation</HI> of rheum. For then did I di&s;cover, that an <HI>Orthopnaea,</HI> or extreame dif|ficulty of <HI>Re&s;piration,</HI> which con&s;trains men to fetch their
<PB N="38" REF="26">
breath in an <HI>erect po&s;ture,</HI> put but a &s;light valew upon the doctrine of Catarrhs, and amply convinced it as frivilous and incon&s;i&s;tent with truth. Since I ob&s;erved many to be &s;trangled in that prone and horizontall po&s;ition; which yet was, with great gravity and confidence, pre&s;cribed by the Schools, as the only barracado, or damm, to intercept the antecedent matter of the Catarrh. Upon which ob&s;er|vation I fir&s;t built this ju&s;tifiable po&s;ition; <HI>that every parti|cular member of the body, once di&s;affected, doth forge and coyne a very great quantity not onely of its naturall and ordinary excre|ment; but al&s;o of new, alien, and adver&s;e.</HI></P>
<P N="39">39. Thus from the <HI>eyes,</HI> according to the variety of their di&s;affections, trickle down continued rills of a <HI>purulent efflu|xion,</HI> or of <HI>&s;alt</HI> and corro&s;ive <HI>tears,</HI> let forth with out the key of <HI>pa&s;&s;ion:</HI> and when the <HI>Throat</HI> is blockt up by a <HI>&s;quinaney,</HI> there continually hangs downe a rope of vi&s;cid Phlegme from the tongue. And upon this root grew that branch of my judgement; that <HI>the Lungs are equally &s;ubject to the &s;ame law, with other members.</HI> So that as often as they are a&s;&s;auled, irritated, injured, wounded, oppre&s;&s;ed, or tainted by any inquination of the <HI>aer,</HI> or contagion of malignant <HI>vapours</HI> belched from the &s;ulphureous and bituminous bow|els of <HI>Mines:</HI> &s;o often mu&s;t they produce various <HI>te&s;timoni|als</HI> of their pre&s;ent <HI>langour,</HI> upon the credit of their own <HI>irregularities;</HI> and not that, upon any &s;uch occa&s;ion, tho&s;e &s;o de&s;tructive and venenate <HI>excrements</HI> can fall in&s;en&s;ibly from the <HI>brain</HI> (who&s;e integrity of con&s;titution remains, for the mo&s;t part, in &s;uch Ca&s;es, inviolate) and be received among&s;t the &s;lender Conduits of the <HI>Windpipe.</HI> And hence grew my <HI>Wonder</HI> al&s;o, how the Schools could ob&s;erve, that the <HI>matter</HI> running from the no&s;trils, in a <HI>Cold,</HI> did in the de|clination or <HI>Cata&s;trophe</HI> much degenerate from what it was in the <HI>Prologue</HI> and fir&s;t act; and imitate the proper and or|dinary excrement of the brain: and yet, at the &s;ame time, not di&s;cover; that the &s;ame <HI>perver&s;ion</HI> or abu&s;e of <HI>power</HI> lay in <HI>Common</HI> to the <HI>Lungs,</HI> a&s;well as to other members of the body. According to their rule, whatever is avoyded from the
<PB N="39" REF="26">
he <HI>Lungs,</HI> mu&s;t be fathered upon the <HI>brain,</HI> mu&s;t thence fall downe <HI>in&s;en&s;ibly</HI> (ridiculous) into the <HI>Windpipe,</HI> there, by a certain <HI>pepa&s;mus,</HI> <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign">, Maturatio: <HI>ita dicitur humo|rum praeter na|turam, morbos efficientium</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign">; <HI>qua|&s;ique</HI> Alteratio <HI>in meliorem for|mam; ut</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign">, <HI>e&s;t naturalium concoctio&punc; vide</HI> Hippocrat. &amp; Galen. in epi|demiis. &para;</NOTE> or <HI>maturation,</HI> be &s;tewed into a con|&s;i&s;tence more &s;it for its future exantlation, and all that while be lodged in the &s;mall-bored pipes of the Lungs, without cau&s;ing any inten&s;e <HI>Anhelation,</HI> or difficulty of breathing. When (alas) it can e&s;cape the ob&s;ervation of no man, that a far greater quantity of matter is frequently expectorated by Cough, in di&s;ea&s;es of the Lungs, in the &s;pace of one moneth, then the whole cavity of the Che&s;t can conteine. Upon which con&s;ideration, we are bold to affirme, <HI>That the yellow, a&s;hcoloured, and ful&s;om &s;pittle of men in Con&s;umtions, are errors of the</HI> Cu&s;tos, <HI>or Pre&s;ident of Vegetation in the Lungs, and materially the blood, degenerated into a white, yellow, &s;tinking ex|crement;</HI> <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Cu&s;tos, <HI>qui laryngi &amp; pul|mon bus prae&s;i|det, ubi &s;emel</HI> in&s;anit, <HI>rectoque ju&s;titiae de tramite deviat, nedum</HI> humorem aquo&s;um <HI>&egrave; v<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="blotted" EXTENT="1 letter">|nis advocat &s;ui in auxilium; a&s;t etiam</HI> ip&s;am alimenti proximi &s;ub&s;tantiam <HI>exhaurit, cor|rumpit, et in muccum infamem tran&s;mutat: tant&ograve; viz. vi&s;cerls alimento proximiorem, quant&ograve; alti&ugrave;s ad colorem ex flavo rutilantem, &amp; rubedini vicinius acce&s;&s;erit; reditque ab illo lap&s;u in pri&s;tinum, dum &agrave; rufo ad flavedinem paleae, atque inde demum ad albuminie o vi &s;imilitudi|nem propri&ugrave;s appropinquarit. Hinc vice ver&s;a, in</HI> Hecticis <HI>cruentus evadit muccus, et cine|rum ob&s;curorum colorem a&s;&s;umit: dum ip&s;amet alimenti &s;ub&s;tantia ab&s;cedit tran&s;mutata, defi|cientemque ibidem vitae integritatem pandit. Tunc nimirum faetidus cadaveris incipientis odor in anhelitu, deliquia prodit</HI> Archei Pulmonarij. <HI>Sed haec ad mentem Helmontij.</HI></NOTE> which being thus exhau&s;ted, there mu&s;t of nece&s;|&s;ity en&s;ue an <HI>Atrophy,</HI> or univer&s;al <HI>Famine</HI> in the body. &para;</P>
<P N="40">40. Un&s;ucce&s;&s;efull, therefore, and deplorable are the Pre|&s;criptions of <HI>Cephalick</HI> remedies, in di&s;ea&s;es of the Lungs; vain are the drinks of cooling <HI>Pti&s;ans,</HI> vain are <HI>Lambatives, Syrups,</HI> and whatever el&s;e is &s;wallowed down into the <HI>&s;to|mack:</HI> as &s;uch that mu&s;t &s;uffer a <HI>Ca&s;tration</HI> of their <HI>virtues</HI> in their tedious journey, and undergo many formal tran&s;muta|tions, before they arrive at the <HI>part affected.</HI></P>
<P N="41">41. And what can &s;mell more of the <HI>Fool,</HI> then to give <HI>De|coctions</HI> of the <HI>Indian Roots,</HI> to dry up rheums? for how can <HI>China, Zarza,</HI> or <HI>Guajacum</HI> conduce to <HI>ex&s;iceation,</HI> when drank in a <HI>liquid</HI> forme? What can they dry up, which would not be more pernicious and de&s;perate when dried up, then it could be in the more harmele&s;&s;e con&s;i&s;tence of a <HI>Liquor?</HI></P>
<P N="42"><PB N="40" REF="27">
42. Why are &s;uch things referred to <HI>Ex&s;iccation;</HI> which, in the policy of rea&s;on, want onely &s;ome <HI>inhibitive Cour&s;e</HI> to prevent their <HI>Cau&s;ation:</HI> and when they are &s;tolne into ex|i&s;tence, require not an <HI>evaporation</HI> of their liquid and fugi|tive parts; but an entire <HI>ejection</HI> and eradication of their whole? Why do the Schools, in mo&s;t of their di&s;qui&s;itions, look onely open the <HI>effects</HI> and obvious <HI>Exteriors:</HI> and ne|ver pur&s;ue their &s;earch back to the <HI>Cau&s;es</HI> and more remote <HI>Proto-principles?</HI> What though the&s;e forreigne and barbarous <HI>drugs</HI> procure a general <HI>&s;weat,</HI> and &s;o dimini&s;h the requi|&s;ite quantity of the <HI>Latex,</HI> to the great and almo&s;t irrepara|ble detriment of the Patient: do they therefore &s;trike at the <HI>root</HI> of the di&s;ea&s;e, and de&s;troy the <HI>Cardinal efficient</HI> thereof? while by a &s;pare <HI>diet,</HI> and plentifull <HI>&s;weats,</HI> they fir&s;t dimini&s;h the nece&s;&s;ary mea&s;ure of <HI>blood;</HI> and &s;econdarily cau&s;e an un|avoydable <HI>leanne&s;&s;e</HI> of the whole body. All which the Schools have drawne into practice, upon the de&s;igne of ex|&s;iccation of &s;uperfluities; wildly imagining to compre|hend, the <HI>competent quantity of blood, Generation</HI> of the exo|tick <HI>Excrement,</HI> and ea&s;ie <HI>Expul&s;ion</HI> of the &s;ame, under the &s;ingle &s;ynonyma of Ex&s;iccation. But (alas) will the radi|cal <HI>indi&s;po&s;ition</HI> of the Lungs be hereby <HI>rectified?</HI> will the <HI>Transforming Vulcan,</HI> or <HI>Frantick Cu&s;tos,</HI> which doth there coyne loath&s;ome and con&s;umptive <HI>Excrements</HI> out of the laudable <HI>blood,</HI> be by this ineffective means &s;ubdued, lulled a&s;leep, weakned, and reduced to its primitive &s;obriety, and convenient admini&s;tration of its power? which enraged Vulcan doth never, no not when the &s;ick are emaciated to li|ving skeletons, remit or di&s;continue the execution of its fury. Turne from us, oh thou <HI>&s;oul of goodne&s;&s;e!</HI> that de|plorable Calamity, which the &s;otti&s;h <HI>Sanhedrim</HI> of <HI>Pagans,</HI> and herd of blind <HI>Doradoes,</HI> pretending to the &s;acred my|&s;teries of <HI>Phy&s;ick,</HI> which more &s;tudy their own gains, then the &s;afety of their afflicted brother, have drawne upon all Chri&s;tendom. &para;</P>
<P N="43">43. The Cardinall point of the <HI>Cure</HI> lyes onely in this; that the irregular and erroneous <HI>impre&s;&s;ion</HI> (which I call, the
<PB N="41" REF="27">
<HI>Factor</HI> of <HI>corruption,</HI> or <HI>Vulcan,</HI> re&s;ident in the Lungs) be expunged and eradicated. For thats the only Publican, which by an un&s;upportable Exci&s;e, impoveri&s;heth the whole Com|mon-wealth of the body, and makes nature bankrupt, by exhau&s;ting the &s;tock of aliment from the membranes, veines, Cartilages of the Windpipe, and all the &s;ub&s;tance of the Lungs; and converting the &s;ame into &s;ordid and ulcerous excrements, which are continually pumpt up by Cough. But if there hath preceded an eruption of blood in any ve&s;|&s;ell of the lungs, if the matter expectorated be &s;anguine, and the di&s;ea&s;e hath proceeded to an ulcer; In &s;uch a ca&s;e, learn the right confection of &s;uch admirable Medicaments, wherewith <HI>Paracel&s;us</HI> was wont to cure the Con&s;umption. For tho&s;e, &s;ince being taken inwardly they cure even a <HI>Cancer</HI> or any other <HI>corroding malignant &V;lcer,</HI> have more then a pretence to the cure of <HI>&V;lcers</HI> in the <HI>Lungs:</HI> And if any medicament drank down into the &s;tomack, doe a cure of an ulcer in the <HI>thigh</HI> or <HI>foot:</HI> why &s;hould it not doe the &s;ame in the <HI>Lungs?</HI> But what will the Schools doe? they continue ignorant of the Cau&s;es, ignorant of the Remedies, and wavering twixt negligence and uncertainty, &s;u&s;pend all further enquiry; and yet confidently cry down the u&s;e of <HI>Mercury diaphoretick,</HI> fixed into a &s;weetne&s;&s;e equall to that of Hony; and the volatile Tincture of <HI>Lilium</HI> <NOTE N="a" PLACE="marg">Lilium <HI>e&s;t Tinctura Para|cel&s;i ex &s;tibio&punc; Nam alcool &s;tibii in clau&s;o reverberio detinebat per m<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">n&s;em, ut evaderet leve, &amp; volaticum, prime album, inde luteum, ex quo rubrum, &amp; tandem violaceum (quod</HI> Lilium Antiquorum <HI>alii nuncupant) ex quo, per vini &s;piritus ad</HI> xx. <HI>digitos affu&s;os, tincturam extrahebat, &s;epara|toque po&s;tliminio &s;piritu,</HI> Nobili&s;&s;imam Lilii E&s;&s;entiam <HI>paratam e&s;&s;e dicebat, in omni morbo prae&s;tanti&s;&s;imam. Arcani hujus praeparationem Paracel&s;us haufi&s;&s;e videtur ex libris Ba&s;ilii Va|lentini Monachi, de Antimonio; qui extarunt ante plu&s;quam</HI> 200 <HI>annus.</HI></NOTE>: as al&s;o the Milke or Element of Pearle <NOTE N="b" PLACE="marg">Lac <HI>&s;ive</HI> Ele|mentum Perlarum <HI>fit, cum</HI> Margaritae <HI>in lacteum querdam cremorem (ex quo prius concre|vi&s;&s;e merit&ograve; credantur) repetitis mult<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">ties &s;olutionibus, liquoris &s;olutivi evaporationibus, &amp; &s;piritus vit<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">ioli affu&s;ione, di&s;&s;olvuntur. Cum autem</HI> Helmontius, <HI>ne procis uniones projeci&s;&s;e videatur, eju&s;modi artificium coram mundo propalare recu&s;et; l<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">ct<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">ri, poti&s;&s;imum cui</HI> Hermetis <HI>adyta intra&s;&s;e nondum contigit gratum fore duximus, &s;i rectum ac minim&egrave; laborto&s;um conficiendi Lac Margaritarum modum, paginae hujus margini in&s;eramus, parc&acirc; verborum &s;erie.</HI> Margari|tas, <HI>in porphyrite in farinam &s;eu laeverem tritas, mitte in cucurbitam. Affunde men&s;truum acutum &s;olvens (puta &s;uccum Limonum) ut duobus digitis excedat. Claude vitrom exact&egrave;. Colloca in cineres calentes, ut &s;olvantur Perlae. Si una vice id non fit, muta men&s;truum; donec tota &s;ub&s;tantia delituerit. Solutiones di&s;tilla ad &s;iccum. Affunde aquam &s;tillatitiam dulcem. Macera: di&s;tilla; quod ter repete, aut donec acrimonia abierit. Calc&punc; huic affunde optimum ex malvatico vino spiritum. Digere, di&s;tilla blande. Redde alium: digere, di&s;tilla, idque repete donec oleo&s;itas &s;piritus Perlas in oleum mutaverit. Quod cum novo &s;piritu digerere, &amp; per alembicum extrahere queas, tandemque ab&s;tracto &s;piritu, per &s;e dare. Si</HI> Tabulas <HI>vis cape quantum vis: affunde &s;piritum Vitrioli, &amp; fiet</HI> Lac. <HI>Ex hoc &s;ecedet Calx candida. Ab&s;trahe humorem, &amp; cum &s;acchari Chry&s;tallini q &s;. aqua ro&s;acea &s;oluti, fac</HI> Tabulas Perlatas.</NOTE>.</P>
<P><PB N="42" REF="28">
For unle&s;&s;e the whole body throughout be tinged or be|dewed with &s;ome <HI>&s;upereminent Bal&s;am;</HI> &s;eldome or never are <HI>internall ulcers</HI> brought to <HI>Con&s;olidation.</HI> And the <HI>Lungs,</HI> being a part that fir&s;t &s;ubmitteth to old <HI>age</HI> and <HI>death,</HI> can very hardly make a &s;afe retreat back to their primitive &s;trength, when once a&s;&s;aulted by any &s;trong infirmity, the Forlorne-hope of Death: but having their forces once rou|ted, ea&s;ily re&s;igne to the tyranny of the Conqueror; and therefore &s;eldom receive any recruit or a&s;&s;i&s;tance from Com|mon remedies. &para;</P>
<P N="44">44. Upon the reputation of which rea&s;on, hath the an|tique errour of the Schools (who, &s;ooner then they will be brought to acknowledge any <HI>deficiency</HI> in their blew and invalid <HI>Medicaments,</HI> are ready to impeach <HI>Nature</HI> her&s;elfe of imperfection, and transfer the blame upon the mo&s;t <HI>glo|rious Author of Nature,</HI> by implicit accu&s;ing him of <HI>improvi|dence</HI> and drow&s;ie <HI>omi&s;&s;ion)</HI> &s;ucceeded even down to our daies. They po&s;itively affirm (for&s;ooth) that the four <HI>lobes</HI> of the lungs are, during life, unce&s;&s;antly <HI>expanded</HI> and <HI>com|pre&s;&s;ed,</HI> by a &s;hort vici&s;&s;itude of contrary motions, like a paire of Bellows, for the u&s;e of <HI>Re&s;piration;</HI> &s;o that the Aer in&s;pired, is drawn only into the Lungs, but pa&s;&s;eth no fur|ther into the cavity of the Che&s;t. Which opinion, truely, hath been of bloody di&s;advantage in the method of healing: though at the &s;ame time, it &s;erved the Schools of Phy&s;ici|ans for a weake &s;anctuary, and childi&s;h eva&s;ion. For upon the ince&s;&s;ant and inexcu&s;able nece&s;&s;ity of the Dilatation and Con&s;triction of the lungs, or perpetuall motion of their &s;ub&s;tance, have they endeavoured to contrive an excu&s;e for their practice: which leaves all <HI>&V;leers</HI> of the <HI>lungs,</HI> all <HI>Con|&s;umptions</HI>
<PB N="43" REF="28">
&amp;c. as <HI>de&s;perate,</HI> and beyond the art of <HI>Ae&s;culapius.</HI> Well a day, as if they could cure an <HI>ulcerous</HI> inveterate <HI>Can|cer,</HI> or quiet <HI>Fi&s;tula</HI> of the <HI>Anus,</HI> or <HI>eyes,</HI> at plea&s;ure! Which Error I thus encounter. &para;</P>
<P N="45">45. In the Aer there perpetually &s;aile up and down whole Clouds of du&s;t atomized; and therefore, by a continuall nece&s;&s;ity, together with our breath we &s;uck in whole &s;warms of the&s;e du&s;ty atomes: and by con&s;equence, the whole cavity of the Che&s;t would in a very &s;hort time be filled with dirt, if nature had not provided us of lungs, in who&s;e narrow Meanders, and almo&s;t impervious poro&s;ities, the&s;e Atomes of Du&s;t might be &s;topt and hindered from fur|ther advance. And in this relation, the Lungs have no other way of di&s;charging their excrements, but by <HI>Ex&s;creation;</HI> that the du&s;t drawn in together with the Aer, might be pumpt out of the Pipes of the Lungs, at the &s;ame in&s;tant the ordinary excrements of the che&s;t are avoyded. A <HI>u&s;e,</HI> indeed, which hath hitherto layne ob&s;cure and neglected by the Schools; who have unanimou&s;ly denied the Lungs to be pervious. The haire, indeed, wherewith the no&s;trils are fringed, like a net, catcheth all the &s;mall fibres or threds of Atomes flying in the aer, and hinders their further ingre&s;&s;e: and the numerous folds, and annulary Cartilages of the A&s;pera Arteria, are like &s;o many labyrinths to arre&s;t and fix the finer du&s;t, that it &s;inke not to the bottome of the Lungs. In order to our proofe, That <HI>the Lungs are immove|able,</HI> <MILESTONE N="A"> we have a very &s;ufficient argument from the foremen|tioned u&s;e of them: and not onely that, but further al&s;o, <MILESTONE N="B"> that the &s;ub&s;tance of the Lungs is uncapable of <HI>Expan&s;ion</HI> and <HI>Con&s;triction.</HI> And therefore the Lungs of <HI>Birds</HI> (&s;erving to the &s;ame common u&s;e of re&s;piration, as well in them, as <MILESTONE N="C"> us) in regard they are, by many vi&s;ible fibres, clo&s;ely annexed and chained to the ribs, cannot by &s;ucce&s;&s;ive or reciprocall <HI>Dilatation</HI> and <HI>Con&s;triction,</HI> make up the compari&s;on of a pair of bellows. Again, the whole fabrick of the Lungs con&s;i|&s;teth <MILESTONE N="D"> of three large ve&s;&s;els, or tubes, equally di&s;per&s;ed through the whole <HI>(viz.</HI> the <HI>Arteriall Vein,</HI> the <HI>&V;enall Artery,</HI> and
<PB N="44" REF="29">
<HI>A&s;pera Arteria,</HI> or Windpipe) of a &s;anguine <HI>Parenchyma,</HI> or blood concreted into a &s;olid ma&s;&s;e; and a peculiar <HI>Mem|brane,</HI> or &s;carfe en&s;hrowding all the re&s;t. Now the three <HI>Ve&s;&s;els</HI> are <HI>Canals</HI> or Conduits, equally divaricated and di|&s;tributed through their whole &s;ub&s;tance; and the two for|mer are ever repleted with blood, and therefore ab&s;olutely impo&s;&s;ible it is &s;or them to receive in any of the Aer drawn in by in&s;piration: but the third is ever open, filled with Aer, and &s;o incapable of any new in&s;pired aer, untill the aer drawn in at the la&s;t dilatation of the Che&s;t, be fir&s;t di&s;charg|ed down into the capacity of the Che&s;t; for which rea&s;on, undoubtedly the a&s;pera arteria, as al&s;o the Membrane en|&s;hrowding the Lungs, are full of &s;mall <HI>perforations.</HI> For this third Canale, con&s;i&s;ting al&s;o of Cartilagineous or gri&s;tly rings, made contiguous each to other, by the intervention of a horny membrane, is ever di&s;tended and open; no other|wi&s;e then the main trunk of the Windpipe. The fourth part of the Lungs, is their parenchymatick Fle&s;h, altogether as incapable to admit the advenient Aer. To conclude, the fifth part is a membrane, &s;erving as a Coat to inve&s;t the whole &s;tructure. This &s;umm'd up and con&s;idered, the re&s;ult mu&s;t be; <HI>that no part of the Lungs bath any room to entertaine any of the &s;malle&s;t parcell of the Aer brought in by in&s;piration: and that no part of them can, without violence and the dilacera|tion of their &s;ub&s;tance, endure the reciprocall motion of Dilatation and Con&s;triction.</HI> A miracle it is to me, I profe&s;&s;e, that the Schools, notwith&s;tanding the uncontroulable evidence of this verity, can yet &s;nort in their inveterate Lethargy: that though they &s;tand convinced, and allow of all our allega|tions, as true beyond all Scepticity; yet doe they not, even to this very day, cea&s;e to preach up their ab&s;urd opinion, that the Lungs are continually, by a reciprocation of con|trary motions, like tho&s;e of a paire of bellows, di&s;tended and recompre&s;&s;ed. Again, the third of the&s;e ve&s;&s;els, or fore|mentioned Tubes (though we &s;hould grant it not to be <MILESTONE N="E"> continually repleted with aer, but an ab&s;olute vacuity, un|po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ed by any aer at all) in re&s;piration (when yet it re|mains
<PB N="45" REF="29">
open at all times, nor can the &s;ides thereof meet toge|ther by <HI>concidence,</HI> like a bladder, the cartilagineous rings forbidding it) can receive onely &s;uch a <HI>proportion</HI> of new aer, as may re&s;pond to its <HI>capacity;</HI> but &s;ince at every in&s;pi|ration we draw in &s;o much aer, as mu&s;t fill a larger capacity, then the dimen&s;ions of the whole Lungs can be extended unto: it &s;eems of undeniable nece&s;&s;ity, that the aer is not in&s;pired onely into the pipes of the <HI>A&s;pera Arteria,</HI> of them|&s;elves uncapable of con&s;triction and dilatation, but is car|ried further down, even into the cavity of the Che&s;t. For <MILESTONE N="F"> a clo&s;e, when any man hath received a wound with a dag|ger or poyniard, through the interco&s;tal mu&s;cles; tis di&s;|cernable with half an eye, whether or no the &s;tab hath pe|netrated into the cavity of the Che&s;t: for if yea, then is the aer, upon con&s;triction of the Che&s;t, exploded by the ori|fice of the wound in &s;o &s;trong a &s;tream, that it will blow out the flame of a candle at con&s;iderable di|&s;tance; which could not &s;tand with po&s;&s;ibility, if the aer attracted by in&s;piration did not pa&s;&s;e through the Lungs into the cavity of the Che&s;t. And the Con|&s;equence of this is, that the <HI>Lungs have no motion at all.</HI> A principal Argument, for the illu&s;tration of this <HI>pa|radox,</HI> is, that in the brea&s;t is &s;eated a double <HI>membrane,</HI> perpendicularly inter&s;ecting the cavity thereof, from the neck down to the midrife, and therefore called the <HI>Media&s;ti|num,</HI> or partition wall, provided by nature to guard the heart from the injuries of aer. This <HI>Media&s;tinum</HI> divides the cavity of the Che&s;t into a right and left. Now mani|fe&s;t <MILESTONE N="G"> it is, upon the conviction of the former experiment, that the aer &s;uckt in by in&s;piration, is drawne directly downe into the cavity of the Che&s;t; as al&s;o that the <HI>Lungs</HI> are, for the &s;ame rea&s;on, devoyd of all motion. A &s;econd <HI>Argument,</HI> no le&s;&s;e obvious or &s;atisfactory, may be collected from the <HI>purulent expectorations in Pleuri&s;ies.</HI> For in the&s;e di&s;ea&s;es are ever rejected by cough &s;uch excrements, as were fir&s;t generated of blood extravenated and putrified, in the parts adjacent to the ribs, and membrane en&s;hrowding the
<PB N="46" REF="30">
hollow of the Che&s;t: and therefore it is of nece&s;&s;ity, that the coat of the Lungs mu&s;t be full of con&s;iderable <HI>poro&s;ities,</HI> or <HI>perforations,</HI> which &s;uffice to the ea&s;ie tran&s;mi&s;&s;ion of blood and thick purulent matter. All the&s;e things the Schools &s;ee, know, confe&s;&s;e, and write of: and yet are &s;o effronted by cu&s;tome, that they adventure to deny, that the aerattra|cted by in&s;piration, is carried through the Lungs down in|to the hollow of the Che&s;t; but affirme that the &s;ub&s;tance of the Lungs is perpetually agitated, twixt expan&s;ion and com|pre&s;&s;ion, like a pair of bellows. They concede, indeed, that the Lungs have many pores or &s;mall perforations, through which the extravenated blood and apo&s;temated matter in Pleuri&s;ies are imbibed and &s;pungd up: but will by no means grant, that the more &s;ubtile and penetrative Aer can be tran&s;mitted through tho&s;e pores into the cavity of the Che&s;t. Nor is there, why we &s;hould wonder at this ob&s;ti|nate infatuation; &s;ince they &s;peculate onely <HI>dead</HI> bodies, in which the pores of the membrane inve&s;ting the Lungs are clo&s;ed up by the conden&s;ing hand of death: and the &s;ame con&s;tantly happens in the <HI>optick Nerves,</HI> the <HI>&s;pinal marrow, inter&s;tice</HI> or midle partition of the <HI>heart,</HI> and <HI>orifices</HI> of the <HI>me&s;araick veins</HI> looking into the guts. The Lungs of any bea&s;t float upon the water, while they are boyling whole, but minced into &s;mall gobbets, they pre&s;ently &s;ink to the bottom: the rea&s;on belongs to the impletion of the A&s;pera arteria with aer. And if boyling water (pardon us the im|pertinency) cannot find acce&s;&s;e into the &s;ub&s;tance of the Lungs, while they are decocted; which way (we be&s;eech you) can the gro&s;&s;er matter of a frigid Catarrh hope to force an entrance into it, at plea&s;ure? The &s;ame is al&s;o de|mon&s;trable by an <HI>experiment,</HI> as ea&s;ily made as mentioned. Let any man, by a &s;trong <HI>efflation,</HI> breath out all the aer in <MILESTONE N="H"> his che&s;t, as much as po&s;&s;ibly he can; then with a ribon mea&s;ure the <HI>circumference</HI> of his body, neer the point of the <HI>&s;wordlike Cartilage,</HI> above the pit of the &s;tomack: and again, by as &s;trong <HI>inflation,</HI> fill his brea&s;t with aer, and mea&s;ure it <MILESTONE N="I"> the &s;econd time, and he &s;hall find, by comparing the diffe|rent
<PB N="47" REF="30">
mea&s;ures, that more aer is attracted into the che&s;t by in&s;piration, then can be conteined in the dimen&s;ions of the Lungs. And much more, when he &s;hall allow for that pro|portion of aer which tending directly downwards, de|pre&s;&s;eth the <HI>midrife</HI> upon the <HI>&s;tomack.</HI> Try the &s;ame expe|riment, another way; draw in &s;o much breath, as you can; then blow it immediately forth into a bladder, and you &s;hall finde, as before, that the <HI>quantity of aer</HI> in&s;pired doth by ma|ny degrees exceed the <HI>magnitude</HI> of the <HI>Lungs.</HI> But in the <MILESTONE N="K"> mean time, be plea&s;ed to remember, that all the &s;maller tubes of the rough Arterie, as well as the upermo&s;t large canale, remain con&s;tantly wide open, as being di&s;tended by their Annulary Catilages, and mu&s;t therefore be repleted with Aer, &s;ince <HI>nature and an ab&s;olute vacuity are incompati|ble.</HI> No doubt, but the belly and brea&s;t owe their <HI>intume|&s;cence</HI> to the in&s;piration of aer; if therefore the Lungs were capable of di&s;ten&s;ion (which yet &s;eems to us impo&s;&s;ible) yet could they not be di&s;tended to a capacity &s;ufficient to admit the tenth part of that aer, which the <HI>Thorax</HI> upon in&s;pira|tion doth ordinarily receive; allowing for that aer, which doth depre&s;&s;e the <HI>midrife</HI> downwards, and remain in the ever di&s;tended pipes of the rough <HI>Arterie,</HI> in avoydance of <HI>va|cuity.</HI> By inference therefore, the motion of the Thorax doth argue the motion of the Lungs unnece&s;&s;ary. Should <MILESTONE N="L"> we grant, that the Lungs could fill the whole cavity of the che&s;t (which the mo&s;t impudent ignorance dares not a&s;&s;ert) then would it &s;ound concordant to rea&s;on, that the eleva|tion of the ribs &s;hould dilate the Lungs: but &s;ince the <HI>aer,</HI> by the laws of its con&s;titution, is &s;ubject to <HI>Dilatation</HI> and <HI>Compre&s;&s;ion</HI> (as common Philo&s;ophy phra&s;eth it) therefore could not the elevation of the ribs draw in a &s;ufficient quan|tity of aer. Yea, &s;ince that attraction cannot but be violent (as being a <HI>&s;hift</HI> Nature is put upon, for the prevention of a <HI>vacuum)</HI> i. e. &egrave; diametro adver&s;e to naturall and vital mo|tion: it follows, that the <HI>motion of the ribs is not ordeined nor conductive to the dilatation of the Lungs.</HI> And &s;ince the Lungs have, neither in them&s;elves, nor by in&s;u&s;ion from any other
<PB N="48" REF="31">
part, any principle or <HI>Cau&s;alitie of peculiar Motion;</HI> other then that dependent on the motion of the ribs (according to the Schools:) it re&s;ults a &s;erene and irrefutable truth, that they have no motion at all; but from the fir&s;t to the la&s;t moment of Animation, continue quiet, without <HI>va|riation</HI> of <HI>Figure,</HI> or <HI>enlargement</HI> and <HI>contraction</HI> of <HI>Dimen|&s;ions.</HI> What clearer manife&s;t of folly and invincible do|tage <MILESTONE N="M"> can there be, then to confe&s;&s;e, that all the twigs, or &s;maller Canals of the rough Arterie are con&s;tantly wide open, as being nece&s;&s;arily di&s;tended by the contexture of the ringlike Cartilages: and yet at the &s;ame time confi|dently to maintain, that all the &s;ame Canals, upon the at|traction and explo&s;ion of aer, in the reciprocal motions of Re&s;piration, are dilated and compre&s;&s;ed? Be&s;ides all this, the Schools, in their lectures, deliver it for e&s;tabli&s;ht <MILESTONE N="N"> beyond di&s;pute, that the <HI>Diaphragme</HI> or midrife doth, as <HI>prime</HI> and <HI>&s;ole Efficient,</HI> &s;uffice to the ordinary u&s;e of <HI>Re&s;pira|tion:</HI> and yet anon they fall foul on their own maximes, and &s;ub&s;titute the <HI>interco&s;tal mu&s;cles,</HI> as <HI>Coadjutors,</HI> or Auxi|liaries, to the performance of that office. Again, there frequently ari&s;e out of the &s;tomack &s;uch <HI>belchings,</HI> as carry along with them the lively expre&s;&s;ions of <HI>odours</HI> formerly re|ceived into the Lungs by in&s;piration: therefore are the <HI>Lungs and midrife per&s;pirable,</HI> that is drild full of &s;mall poro|&s;ities. In earne&s;t, tis worthy our mo&s;t pa&s;&s;ionate tears, that the Schools have, for &s;o many ages together, unhapily mi&s;pent their &s;weat and oyle, in fripperies, childi&s;h page|antry, and compo&s;ing Romances more wild then tho&s;e of the Talmud or Ario&s;to. I &s;hall urge another ea&s;ie and fami|liar experiment; if, in a prone decumbency, that is lying with your face to the earth, you place one hand on your belly, and the other on your ribs, and at the &s;ame time draw your breath at a moderate rate, you &s;hall then plainly per|ceive, that the <HI>mu&s;cles of the Abdomen are the onely operators in the bu&s;ine&s;&s;e of re&s;piration:</HI> that the belly being lifted up, the midrife is drawn downward; and con&s;equently that the cavity of the <HI>Abdomen</HI> is by &s;o much enlarged, by how
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much the plane or <HI>diameter</HI> of the midrife (in it&s;elf lax and <MILESTONE N="O"> undi&s;tended) is le&s;&s;e then its <HI>&s;emicircle,</HI> when it is drawne downward, and &s;o much the larger, by how much the more lax the plane of the midrife is. Nay whats more, if you bind in your ribs with a &s;treight girdle, and then fetch your breath very gently, you &s;hall &s;en&s;ibly perceive the belly to be reciprocally elevated and depre&s;&s;ed, the ribs all the while remaining quiet, without any vi&s;ible motion at all; and by con&s;equence, that the Lungs in this ca&s;e, &s;hould we grant them to move at other times (which truth forbids) can remain quiet a whole day together, if the con&s;triction la&s;t &s;o long. But in <HI>&s;ighing, o&s;citation, &s;ternutation,</HI> and <HI>in|ten&s;e</HI> <MILESTONE N="P"> <HI>re&s;piration,</HI> or panting for breath (and in no other ca&s;e) the <HI>mu&s;cles</HI> of the <HI>Thorax,</HI> running along betwixt the <HI>ribs,</HI> are &s;en&s;ibly perceived to officiate, and by a kind of <HI>&s;ub|&s;titute admini&s;tration,</HI> concurre to the action of re&s;piration. For the ribs are <HI>&s;emicircles</HI> propendent downward, or ar|ched into a lateral convexity; to each of which is annexed one of the <HI>interco&s;tal mu&s;cles,</HI> which bend them upward, and by a kind of familar violence dimini&s;h their convexity in the dilatation of the Che&s;t. And as they become <HI>greater,</HI> <MILESTONE N="Q"> as to their <HI>concave,</HI> when they are bent into a <HI>diminution</HI> of their <HI>convexity;</HI> in that relation al&s;o do they become <HI>roun|der,</HI> as to the figure of the che&s;t; and &s;o by con&s;equence make the <HI>cavity</HI> of the thorax <HI>wider.</HI> Thus Orthopneuma|tick <MILESTONE N="R"> men, or &s;uch as by extreme difficulty in re&s;piration are con&s;trained to keep their bodies in an upright po&s;ture, heave up their &s;houlders high, every time they re&s;pire, by leaning their elbows or hands hard upon the pummels of their chairs; to the end, they may in &s;ome part relieve them&s;elves in that extremity, by the enlargement of the che&s;t, and greater detru&s;ion of the midrife. A certain ma|tron, wife to <HI>Patritius,</HI> in hard travale (for the child came <MILESTONE N="S"> forth prepo&s;terou&s;ly, with the buttocks forward) by a large in&s;piration of acr, &s;triving to promote her throws, and expedite the birth, broak the <HI>membrane</HI> environing her che&s;t, betwixt the &s;eventh and eighth ribs; yet without any ma|nife&s;t
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&s;ence of <HI>pain</HI> (for a greater pain ever ob&s;cures a le&s;&s;e) any <HI>Apo&s;teme,</HI> or other <HI>Accident</HI> ordinarily &s;ub&s;equent up|on wounds or dilaceration of that &s;o &s;en&s;ible a part. Some few dayes after her childbed, as often as &s;he held her breath long, or extended her che&s;t, in &s;inging, panting, &amp;c. <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">A&s;&s;ellando <HI>(ob&s;caenum &s;ane vocabulum, et haud raro pro congre&s;&s;u vene|reo apud</HI> Marti|alem, <HI>alio&s;que la&s;civiores au|thores u&s;urpa|tum) hic mode|&s;tiori quidem metaphra&s;i,</HI> Panting <HI>redde|re placuit.</HI></NOTE> &s;he felt a very large <HI>tumor</HI> of <HI>wind</HI> bunch up betwixt her ribs; which &s;unk down again, when &s;he compre&s;&s;ed it with her hand, and let her che&s;t fall in again at the efflation of her breath. And from that time to her death, &s;he never &s;lept, but with a &s;wath drawne hard upon that part of her brea&s;t. Which in&s;tance puts it among&s;t truths mo&s;t manife&s;t, that the aer attracted by in&s;piration is carried through the Lungs into the cavity of the che&s;t. The &s;ame have I ob&s;erved al&s;o in a very <HI>Noble Lady,</HI> who got this misfortune in her tra|vaile; that whenever &s;he held her breath, &s;he had one &s;ide of her throat blowne up, like a bladder di&s;tended with aer, to &s;uch a mon&s;trous greatne&s;&s;e, that no care or art could <MILESTONE N="T"> conceal it from the &s;tanders by. It makes very much al&s;o to our pre&s;ent purpo&s;e, that I have, with mo&s;t &s;erious attenti|on, <MILESTONE N="V"> con&s;idered all <HI>Pulmoniacal</HI> and <HI>A&s;thmatick</HI> Patients, and found, that, for the plurality, they &s;leep with great ea&s;e and quiet on one &s;ide, and can hardly fetch their breath on the other. For we have no rea&s;on to doubt, but this maladie is <HI>Idiopathical</HI> to the Lungs, <HI>i. e.</HI> not occa&s;ioned by <HI>deuterapa|thy</HI> or con&s;ent with any other mi&s;affected part: as al&s;o, that in that &s;ide of the Lungs, which re&s;pecteth the prone &s;ide on which the &s;ick man then lies, and which mu&s;t in that prone po&s;ition bob and fret again&s;t the membrane lining the che&s;t, tho&s;e <HI>pores</HI> are <HI>con&s;tipated</HI> or ob&s;tructed, through which the aer u&s;ed to be tran&s;mitted into the cavity of the che&s;t: and moreover, that the pores of either Lobe of the Lungs de|pendent upon or facing the downward &s;ide, are either all, or at le&s;t the greate&s;t part of them (which we may know by ob&s;erving the degrees of extraordinary re&s;piration; for the more or le&s;&s;e difficulty of re&s;piration, may be a certain rule to direct our compute of the greater or le&s;&s;er number of pores ob&s;tructed) by &s;ome lap&s;e of providence in di&s;ordered
<PB N="51" REF="32">
nature, or forreigne contingency ob&s;tructed. By which Argument it is manife&s;t, that the <HI>Lungs</HI> are not <HI>Expanded</HI> and <HI>Contracted,</HI> like bellows, but <HI>pervious</HI> and tran&s;pirable, by rea&s;on of their numerous perforations: through which the aer &s;moothly gliding into the hollow of the che&s;t, doth con&s;tantly hold an equal proportion to the magnitude thereof, as well in its <HI>diduction</HI> as <HI>contraction.</HI> And hence is it, that men &s;ick of di&s;ea&s;es in the Lungs draw their breath more ea&s;ily when they <HI>&s;it up,</HI> then when they <HI>lye down:</HI> for the Lungs, when they hang directly downward in a free <HI>pendulous po&s;ition,</HI> have on all &s;ides tho&s;e pores open and fit for the <HI>tran&s;vection</HI> of <HI>aer,</HI> which have not yet &s;ubmitted to the oppre&s;&s;ion of <HI>ob&s;tructions.</HI> &para;</P>
<P N="48">48. Beyond all excu&s;e therefore do the Schools erre, when they deliver, as an oraculous truth, that the <HI>midrife is the &s;ole and prime Motor of the Lungs;</HI> and, in that relation, the <HI>proper and principiative efficient of Re&s;piration.</HI> More particularly, that when the midrife doth <HI>contract</HI> it&s;elf to|wards its own <HI>Center,</HI> it then makes the <HI>Expiration;</HI> but when it relaxes toward the <HI>Circumference,</HI> the <HI>In&s;piration:</HI> and &s;o the quantity of aer in&s;pired mu&s;t in exact proportion re&s;pond to the mea&s;ure of the midrifes <HI>expan&s;ion</HI> or relaxa|tion. Our rea&s;ons the&s;e, 1. Since all <HI>voluntary Motion</HI> is performed by a <HI>Mu&s;cle,</HI> as the part &s;olely and principally adapted by <HI>Nature</HI> to that action, by a <HI>retraction</HI> of the <HI>taile</HI> toward the <HI>head</HI> thereof; therefore, if their opinion &s;tand allied to verity, mu&s;t the <HI>midrife</HI> be a <HI>prime, heteroclite,</HI> and mo&s;t <HI>principal Mu&s;cle,</HI> and the <HI>head</HI> thereof &s;eated in its <HI>Cen|ter.</HI> 2. If the midrife be an organ primarily executive of motion; then, though the Mu&s;cles both of the Abdomen and ribs cea&s;e from all Contraction and relaxation of them|&s;elves, would the midrife maintain the &s;ucce&s;&s;ive motions of re&s;piration, by its own <HI>&s;ingle power:</HI> Which experiment po&s;itively denies. 3. Yea the mu&s;cles of the Abdomen, which are ordinary mu&s;cles, would have no motion proper to them&s;elves, but be moved, at &s;econd hand, by the pre|vious motion of the midrife. 4. Vain and u&s;ele&s;&s;e would
<PB N="52" REF="33">
the contrivement of nature be, and her architecture imper|fect in &s;uperfluity, in making the abdominal mu&s;cles; and the belly might have as conveniently been cloathed with the &s;ingle coat of the Carnous Membrane, as with the bomba&s;t and duplications of &s;o many mu&s;cles. 5. Since every organ of Voluntary motion doth execute its function by <HI>Traction,</HI> or drawing the part, into which its <HI>tendon</HI> is in&s;erted, to|wards it&s;elf; the brea&s;t, according to this error of the Schools, would be drawne very much inward by the <HI>Traction</HI> of the midrife, and the <HI>wa&s;t</HI> convelled into the dwindling figure of an Houregla&s;&s;e. <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Clep&s;ydra <HI>in archetypo: quaee&s;t organum quod|dam artificiale, quo ex aqua, de vitro in vitrum deor&s;um, per ex|ile foramen, gut|tulatim de&s;til|lante, horas metiri &s;olebant antiqui. Hodie vero, hominum ingeniis ad nobiliores machinationes feliciter provectis, exole&s;cunt Clep&s;ydrae; hi&s;que &s;uper venere</HI> Clep&s;ammidia, <HI>quibus horas men&s;uramus per <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">ffluxum Arenae: ut &amp;</HI> Horologia Automata, <HI>quorum orbiculi &s;erratim dentati (graece</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign">, <HI>ut</HI> Ari&s;t. Mechanic.) <HI>&s;e&s;e mutu&ograve; protrudentes, vel &aacute; chalybe arcu|atim ten&s;o, &amp; machinae infixo, vel ponderibus appen&s;is circumgyrantur.</HI></NOTE> 6. Further, the <HI>Expiration</HI> would not be a <HI>quiet</HI> or ce&s;&s;ation from motion; but an ab&s;olute <HI>mo|tion</HI> of the midrife contracted. 7. And &s;o the <HI>Expiration</HI> would, even in mo&s;t healthy men, be more difficult and la|borious then the <HI>In&s;piration;</HI> 8. Since then the <HI>In&s;piration</HI> would not be a <HI>motion,</HI> but a relaxion or <HI>quiet</HI> of the mid|rife from its Contraction. &para;</P>
<P N="49">49. Hence upon rationall deduction I conclude, 1. That the true and proper u&s;e of the Midrife hath hitherto remai|ned unknown. 2. That the u&s;e of the Lungs hath never yet been met with, by the too lazy and jejune &s;crutinies of the Schooles. 3. That the exact manner and rea&s;on of Re&s;pi|ration hath al&s;o e&s;caped the vulgar exploration of Anthro|pologi&s;ts. 4. That Anatomi&s;ts have never made a ju&s;t and perfect di&s;covery, which are the prime and principall in|&s;truments of re&s;piration. 5. That the mu&s;cles of the Ab|domen doe alone &s;uffice to maintain ordinary and mode|rate re&s;piration. 6. That the Lungs are never moved by any naturall expan&s;ion and Compre&s;&s;ion of their &s;ub&s;tance; but &s;erve onely as a &s;ieve, or <HI>pecolatory,</HI> for the &s;eque&s;tration of the atomes of du&s;t from the mo&s;t &s;imple and pure aer, which is immediately tran&s;mitted into the concave of the
<PB N="53" REF="33">
Che&s;t. 7. That the deplorable difficulty of curing di&s;ea&s;es in the Lungs, e&s;pecially where their <HI>Continuity</HI> is <HI>infringed,</HI> doth not ari&s;e from this, that they are unce&s;&s;antly agitated by a vici&s;&s;itude of <HI>Compre&s;&s;ion</HI> and <HI>Expan&s;ion,</HI> and in that re&s;pect de&s;titute of that re&s;t and <HI>quiet,</HI> which is nece&s;&s;ary to the <HI>con&s;olidation</HI> of a <HI>di&s;union</HI> (which hath ever been allea|ged and admitted as an excu&s;e for the languid and ineffe|ctuall operation of vulgar remedies) but from hence, that the &s;mall <HI>apertures</HI> or extreme orifices of their perforations are blockt up by <HI>ob&s;tructions,</HI> who&s;e remove is a task too difficult for the infirme fingers of common pulmonary me|d<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="blotted" EXTENT="3 letters">ments, and onely to be hoped for from the Herculean energy of &s;ome <HI>Chymicall Panchre&s;ton</HI> <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">An univer&s;all Medicine.</NOTE>. To which we may &s;ubjoyn, that nothing, be&s;ides <HI>aer,</HI> can arrive at the extreme pores of the Lungs, and that aer is, by rea&s;on of the <HI>oppila|tions,</HI> there arre&s;ted, and impri&s;oned, and doth al&s;o by de|grees <HI>ex&s;iecare</HI> the ob&s;tructing glutinous humors. From which depraved root there &s;prings up a whole grove of preternaturall <HI>productions</HI> which in their maturity put on the de&s;tructive blo&s;&s;omes of <HI>Aridity, Acrimony,</HI> and <HI>Malignity:</HI> and in the <HI>&s;ummer</HI> or ripening of the&s;e <HI>&s;eeds</HI> of evill (which mu&s;t, alas, be the <HI>autumne</HI> of <HI>life)</HI> there mu&s;t grow a <HI>race|mation</HI> or bunch of de&s;perate <HI>Accidents,</HI> &s;uch as extreame anxiety in re&s;piration, Apo&s;tems of the Lungs, exe&s;ion or corro&s;ion of their ve&s;&s;els, &s;pitting of blood, ulceration, con&s;umption, and in the cata&s;trophe Death. For let us &s;uppo&s;e, that all the aer attracted by the expan&s;ion of the Che&s;t, is ordinarily tran&s;mitted into the capacity thereof, through a <HI>thou&s;and</HI> minute <HI>tubes</HI> or divarications of the <HI>A&s;|pera Arteria;</HI> and that this ju&s;t number of perforations in the Lungs is &s;ufficient to the con&s;ervation of health, as to the intere&s;t of <HI>re&s;piration:</HI> if therefore but a <HI>hundred</HI> of the&s;e be &s;topt up by <HI>ob&s;tructions,</HI> then mu&s;t the party &s;uffering this con&s;tipation, become, by one <HI>tenth part,</HI> more &s;hortwinded, in long and inten&s;e motion, or a&s;cending up hill, then other|wi&s;e he ought to be. &para;</P>
<P N="50">50. From this advantage we have a cleare and un-inter|rupted
<PB N="54" REF="34">
pro&s;pect into the field of <HI>Pulmonary remedies,</HI> and may at fir&s;t glance di&s;cover, that <HI>Syrups, Lambatives, Loochs, &amp;c.</HI> are lame and de&s;picable reliefes of nature; &s;ince they never <HI>arrive at the parts di&s;tre&s;&s;ed,</HI> but are either <HI>diverted</HI> into the &s;tomack, inte&s;tines and other places wholy unconcerned in their operations; or &s;o <HI>impaired</HI> in their <HI>activity</HI> by a tedious pilgrimage through many Concoctions and tran&s;|mutations, that they lo&s;e their primitive faculties, and grow too languid and evirate to encounter the di&s;ea&s;e. Nay what's more &s;ad, that if they did arrive in the zenith of their <HI>&s;eminal</HI> powers and unrefracted qualities at the camp of the di&s;ea&s;e: yet, like cowardly and treacherous <HI>Auxiliaries,</HI> they would <HI>aggravate</HI> the charge of Nature, and <HI>ruine</HI> that part, who&s;e <HI>a&s;&s;i&s;tance</HI> they pretend. Here al&s;o our enquiry meets a han&s;ome argument, why no one of the forementioned infirmities of the Lungs may hope a Cure from any Plant in the Phy&s;icians garden, or Confection in the Apothecaries &s;hop; unle&s;&s;e <HI>Fire,</HI> di&s;creetly governed by the learned hand of <HI>Chymi&s;try,</HI> and blown into a temper &s;uitable to that <HI>Ignis non lucens,</HI> or invi&s;ible flame irradiating all our fa|brick of frigid Clay, &s;hall <HI>graduate</HI> &s;ome medicament into a Noble <HI>Entelechie,</HI> and make its <HI>bal&s;ame</HI> friendly and familiar to the principles of life, as natures own.</P>
<P N="51">51. But as for tho&s;e <HI>Precautions</HI> of <HI>Catarrbs,</HI> which en|joyne the u&s;e of <HI>Coriander &s;eed,</HI> and other &s;uch vain foppe|ries, after &s;upper, for the prevention of fumes ari&s;ing out of the &s;tomack; how much more worthily, in the judge|ment of &s;ober rea&s;on, doe they de&s;erve our <HI>pitty,</HI> then our <HI>confidence?</HI> For if the <HI>generation</HI> of vapours, from their cau&s;es <HI>(humidity</HI> as the <HI>material,</HI> and the innate <HI>heat</HI> of the &s;tomack, the <HI>efficient)</HI> and their <HI>a&s;cention</HI> be naturall; what can <HI>Coriander</HI> doe to hinder that the&s;e naturall <HI>effects</HI> &s;hould not follow on the neck of their <HI>cau&s;es?</HI> Can <HI>Coriander</HI> in|&s;per&s;ed upon boyling water in any &s;mall neckt ve&s;&s;ell, im|pede the exhalation or a&s;cention of vapours out of the water? At the &s;ame rate let us pri&s;e tho&s;e magnified trifles and &s;erious nothings of the Schools, when they with great
<PB N="55" REF="34">
ceremony pre&s;cribe, that the haire mu&s;t not be kembed, nor the head rubbed at <HI>night,</HI> but <HI>morn</HI> (for&s;ooth) not towards the <HI>forehead,</HI> but <HI>backward;</HI> le&s;t Catarrhs, obeying the <HI>po&s;i|tional friction,</HI> be drawn forward. Nor doe we want ju&s;t cau&s;e for our complaint, that both Gates leading into the divine Temple of Ae&s;culapius are blockt up by heaps of fran|tick Chimaera's and the fabulous traditions of doting bel|dames; &s;ince the true and proxime <HI>cau&s;es</HI> of di&s;ea&s;es have to this very day, remained lockt up in the dark of undi&s;covery: nor have tho&s;e <HI>Moles in Philo&s;ophy</HI> ever digged deep enough into the Center of their <HI>Seminalities</HI> and fir&s;t <HI>principles,</HI> or &s;weat &s;ufficiently in their exantlation.</P>
<P N="52">52. For how frivolous is the doctrine of <HI>Galen,</HI> through all his five books of the <HI>Con&s;ervation of health?</HI> In all which long and hollow tract you &s;hall hear of nothing, but the echo's of <HI>Baths, Frictions,</HI> and <HI>Apotherapia</HI> <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Apoteraxia <HI>in&s;cribitur ex|emplari Elzevi|ranio; &s;ed vel ex Helmontii calamo ad alia ocy&ugrave;s fe&s;tinante, vel compo&s;itoris incuria, hoc vitium &s;uam duxi&s;&s;e origi|nem con&s;enta|neum e&s;t. Nul|lum enim vo|cabulum tale (quod &s;ciam) apud Galenum reperire<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter"> e&s;t:</HI> Apotherapia <HI>autem quam plurimu in locis eju&s;dem</HI> lib. de Con&s;. &s;anit. u&s;urpatur, <HI>cujus proprius &s;copus e&s;t, ut la&s;&s;itudinem, quae immodico exercitio &s;uccedere &s;olet, admoto oleo, &s;ubmoveat atque prohibeat.</HI> Con&s;ul. Galen. lib. de &s;an. tuend. 2. cap. 6. &amp; 3. cap. 2.</NOTE>, or Unction after violent and athletick exerci&s;e. And though I have with commi&s;eration ob&s;erved the poverty and barrenne&s;&s;e of <HI>Galen</HI> generally diffu&s;ed through all his longwinded di&s;|cour&s;es; yet in no one piece of his voluminous workes have I more manife&s;tly taken the altitude of his <HI>wit,</HI> then where with extreme &s;eriou&s;ne&s;&s;e, he pre&s;cribes the &s;everall di&s;tinctions of <HI>po&s;itionall Frictions</HI> to be u&s;ed (for&s;ooth) <HI>longwaies, tran&s;ver&s;e, oblique,</HI> and <HI>circular;</HI> and the&s;e, like the ridiculous Ceremonics of <HI>Necromancers,</HI> to be ob&s;erved with punctual and &s;trict obedience, under no le&s;&s;e then capitall penalty. For <HI>Rome</HI> was infe&s;ted with fewer di&s;ea&s;es, and tho&s;e more gentle and benigne, and warmed her&s;elfe at fewer funeral fires, in her fir&s;t five innocent and growing Centuries; then after &s;he had triumphed over conquered <HI>Greece,</HI> and among other Trophies brought home the &s;atall and infectious <HI>Libraries</HI> of <HI>Phy&s;icians.</HI> And all <HI>Europaeans,</HI> who harbour few or no Phy&s;icians, will, without any re|luctancy to their experience, confirme the &s;ame.</P>
<P N="53"><PB N="56" REF="35">
53. The Schools with &s;erious gravity wonder, that &s;o va&s;t a quantity of <HI>Muccus,</HI> or glutinous gelly, &s;hould ordi|narily be avoyded by &s;tool, upon the operation of <HI>Colo|quintida;</HI> and yet that the quantity of <HI>expectorations</HI> in di|&s;ea&s;es of the Lung, &s;hould be thereby no whit dimini&s;hed: and &s;o while with in&s;olent o&s;tentation, they glory that they have found out the <HI>Antecedent cau&s;e of Defluxions;</HI> at the &s;ame time enchanted by the effects of <HI>Purgatives,</HI> they will by no force of argument be brought to confe&s;&s;e the fal&s;ity of their <HI>Phlegmatick</HI> axioms. Now <HI>Coloquintida, Seammony, Elaterium, &amp;c. dry</HI> the body more in one day, then the <HI>Decoction</HI> of <HI>China</HI> can in three moneths. What benefit then can, in rea&s;on, be hoped from <HI>China,</HI> where more ex&s;iccating <HI>Purgatives</HI> confe&s;&s;e their invalidity: and their u&s;e mu&s;t needs be <HI>horrid?</HI> From this, who &s;o purblind in his under&s;tanding, as not to &s;ee, that the paedantick Schools, adhering to the doctrines of their <HI>Ance&s;tors,</HI> have &s;et up their re&s;t in this, that <HI>the writings of the antient Eth|nicks ought to be their Ne ultra in Philo&s;ophy;</HI> that they are not obliged to any deeper di&s;qui&s;itions, or further explorations, but onely to order their Cures, according to the antique and thredbare <HI>Theorems</HI> of <HI>Phy&s;ick.</HI> And though they cannot but ob&s;erve their <HI>Practice</HI> &s;hame their <HI>confidence,</HI> and the <HI>&s;uc|ce&s;&s;e</HI> fall &s;hort of what their &s;pecious <HI>Canons</HI> promi&s;e: yet doe they not blu&s;h to veile over their bloody ignorance, nor feel compunction at their inhumane re&s;olve, that they had rather their afflicted Patients &s;hould &s;till remain &s;u&s;pended betwixt the calamities of the <HI>Di&s;ea&s;e,</HI> on one &s;ide, and the more murderous tortures of their <HI>Purgers,</HI> on the other; then take the pains to &s;tudy and explore any more rational and probable means of their redre&s;&s;e. And, &s;ober truth makes me confe&s;&s;e it, &s;o many Myriads of <HI>Incogitancies</HI> and <HI>Ab&s;urdities,</HI> could never have thus long continued in the Schools, con&s;i&s;ting of men &s;o acute, judicious, prudent, and experienced (among whom I as willingly as ju&s;tly confe&s;&s;e my &s;elfe the mo&s;t de&s;picable and unworthy) had they been plea&s;ed to abate any thing of their implicite <HI>&s;ub&s;cription,</HI>
<PB N="57" REF="35">
and recede the le&s;t &s;tep from the <HI>Axioms</HI> of <HI>Pagans.</HI> But, alas, they are clo&s;ely be&s;ieged by the grand <HI>enemy</HI> of primi|tive truth; who holds them captived to the tyranny of his <HI>Delu&s;ions,</HI> by the chain either of <HI>Arrogancy, Incircum&s;pecti|on, Cruelty, Avarice, Lazine&s;&s;e, Stupidity,</HI> or, in fine, of <HI>&s;hame</HI> to be reformed. Good Je&s;u! when wilt thou be plea&s;ed to ca&s;t this devil out of the Schools? when will the mea&s;ure of the&s;e fatall evils be full, and the Vintage of the&s;e &s;oure Grapes come; that, at length, by the comfortable &s;un|&s;hine of thy truth, this Aegyptian night may be exhaled, and this mi&s;t of horrid calamities that &s;its heavy on the heads of all the wretched &s;onnes of <HI>Adam,</HI> be di&s;pelled? Thy an&s;wer is, there can be no remedy for his blindne&s;&s;e, who wilfully and &s;tubbornly &s;huts his eyes again&s;t the light of a confe&s;&s;ed verity. Therefore,</P>
<Q><L><HI>Ju&s;t God!</HI> all things are ju&s;t, thou do&s;t approve;</L>
<L>Thou unmov'd <HI>Rule</HI> of <HI>Truth,</HI> and <HI>Font</HI> of <HI>Love!</HI></L>
<L>But &s;ince we &s;corn'd thy wi&s;er <HI>Lawes</HI> t'obey</L>
<L>Wee'r made to <HI>Fools</HI> a <HI>Scorn,</HI> to <HI>Quacks</HI> a <HI>Prey.</HI></L></Q>
<P N="54">54. Some <HI>Anatomi&s;ts</HI> there are who have di&s;&s;ected a living Dog; and when they came to the <HI>Larynx,</HI> drenched him with milke, or other broth, tinged with <HI>Saffron</HI> or <HI>Bole Ar|meniack,</HI> to the end they might perceive whether any part of the liquor entered the lungs: and found that a very &s;mall quantity thereof gave a tincture to the &s;ides of the <HI>A&s;pera Arteria.</HI> On this they cried out, that there mu&s;t be an in|&s;en&s;ible and ordinary de&s;cent of excrements from the brain into the Lungs; and enacted for an e&s;tabli&s;ht truth, that <HI>Lambatives,</HI> &s;ince they are carried immediately into the <HI>Larynx,</HI> and thence &s;lide down into all the mo&s;t &s;lender and remote <HI>tubes</HI> of the <HI>A&s;pera Arteria,</HI> mu&s;t be the &s;ole and ex|treme remedy of <HI>Con&s;umtions,</HI> and the mo&s;t prevalent means to Con&s;olidate <HI>&V;lcers</HI> in the Lungs. An experiment, in troth, of very much <HI>cruelty</HI> to the <HI>Dogge;</HI> but of farre more cru|elty and unhappy con&s;equence to <HI>Man:</HI> &s;ince, at the per|&s;wa&s;ion hereof, the Schools have delivered it from hand
<PB N="58" REF="36">
to hand <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>Hic Author proculdubio al|lu&s;it ad</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign"> <HI>Antiquorum, &acirc;</HI> Pau&s;an. <HI>&s;ic de&s;criptam. In Academia Promethei ara e&s;t: unde homi|nes in urbem accen&s;as lampadas ferentes decurrunt. Sequiturque victoria eum qui facem accen|&s;am con&s;ervarit; nam &s;i extincta fuerit, alteri &s;uccedenti ea traditur: eademque ratione tertio &s;ucce&s;&s;ori, &s;i &s;ecundus non pervenerit ad metam, cum lampade accen&s;a. Quod &s;i nemini ardentem deferre licuerit, palma in medio relinquitur.</HI></NOTE> down to po&s;terity, as an impraegnable verity; and making erroneous and unju&s;ti&s;iable inductions upon mi&s;ta|ken and onely imaginary po&s;itions, have &s;ub&s;cribed unto fopperies &s;o pernicious.</P>
<P>For, Fir&s;t, what can they expect that <HI>Syrups</HI> and <HI>Lamba|tives</HI> &s;hould doe, in the &s;lender branches or divarications of the <HI>A&s;pera Arteria,</HI> more then inevitably introduce the mi&s;|chiefe of <HI>ob&s;tructions?</HI> To what end, therefore, &s;hould the&s;e ful&s;ome <HI>Loochs</HI> naturally and ordinarily affect that way of de&s;cent into the lungs, or be tran&s;mitted thither, or there entertained? &s;ince in that place they can neither be dige&s;ted, nor changed into good and nutritive or bal&s;amicall juyce; nor yet conduce to the cure of either the purulent effluxions from ulcers, or vi&s;cid Muccus expectorated. And further, if &s;ome part of our liquor &s;hould ordinarily drop into the lungs, then would the ordinary <HI>&s;pitle</HI> of healthy men <HI>&s;avour</HI> of the <HI>broths</HI> eaten, or <HI>&s;yrups</HI> lickt down. And although our fir&s;t <HI>&s;pitle</HI> &s;ometimes reli&s;h of the <HI>&s;yrups,</HI> or other liquid re|medies, newly &s;wallowed down; yet &s;uch ari&s;eth not from the <HI>Lungs,</HI> but <HI>Palate</HI> and other parts &s;eated in vicinity to the jawes: nor doe the &s;ucceeding &s;alivous rejections, for that rea&s;on, confe&s;&s;e an inquination or tincture of &s;uch <HI>Lambatives,</HI> as in another ca&s;e the &s;ucceeding &s;pitle returns fuliginous exhalations or <HI>fumes,</HI> received into the Lungs, a good while after their fir&s;t admi&s;&s;ion. Again, were this fea|zible, then would any man, who &s;hould lick up &s;everall ounces of Syrup, in one evening, be, ere many minuts, reduced to the bo&s;ome of his cold grandmother, by the inevitable de&s;truction not onely of an <HI>A&s;thma,</HI> but even of <HI>&s;uffocation</HI> en&s;uing; for a part of tho&s;e Syrups mu&s;t fill up and choak the great pipe or cavity of the rough arterie. Seriou&s;ly, our wonder may be excu&s;ed, if we &s;tand amazed,
<PB N="59" REF="36">
how the Schools, &s;educed by &s;o blew and dull an experi|ment of a Dogge, have baulked the ob&s;ervation, that this coloured broth, or Milk died with Saffron, was rapt down in the Larynx, not by the ordinary way of Deglutition; but <HI>unawares</HI> and <HI>preposterou&s;ly,</HI> the poore di&s;tracted animal howling amids his torments, and &s;o opening the <HI>Epiglottis.</HI> Not that the &s;ame is done of cu&s;tome in <HI>healthy,</HI> or fre|quently ob&s;erved in <HI>rheumatick</HI> per&s;ons. For preci&s;ely, if a man in an extreme fit of the <HI>&s;tone,</HI> endeavouring to make water, doth chance unwittingly to open the porthole of his ar&s;e, and confront an Iri&s;h man; mu&s;t it therefore be the proper function of the <HI>Sphincter</HI> of the bladder, when it re|laxeth it &s;elfe, and gives way to the efflux of the urine, ordinarily al&s;o to unlock the &s;phincter of the <HI>port Ae&s;quiline?</HI> For tis no rarity, for parts of the body, when their oecono|mie is infringed and di&s;turbed into tumult and confu&s;ion, by exce&s;&s;ive <HI>pain</HI> and torture, to perform their functions <HI>depravedly;</HI> and draw other parts al&s;o, to which they are allied by vicinity of &s;ituation, or connexion, into the &s;ame <HI>di&s;order</HI> and irregularity. Their beliefe had been more &s;e|curely placed upon that <HI>Hi&s;tory</HI> of one &s;uffocated with a &s;mall <HI>fether,</HI> and of another with a <HI>haire,</HI> unfortunately &s;lipping into the rough arterie. For &s;o had they &s;tood confirmed, without di&s;pute or hae&s;itancy, that <HI>the Lungs can never admit any forraigne intru&s;ion,</HI> or receive the &s;malle&s;t grain, without con&s;iderable dammage and hazardous anx|iety; nay that &s;uch as are afflicted with <HI>difficulty</HI> of <HI>re&s;pira|tion,</HI> can by no means endure &s;o much as <HI>fragrant &s;uffumiga|tions,</HI> for rea&s;ons alledged by us, in our di&s;cour&s;e <HI>de Blas humano</HI> <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Blas <HI>importat vim</HI> Motus, <HI>tum</HI> Localis, <HI>tum</HI> Alterativi; <HI>idque nedum</HI> &s;uperis, <HI>e&s;t eti<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">m</HI> inferis. Blas Humanum <HI>ver&ograve; duplex con&s;tituitur apud</HI> Helmontium <HI>no&s;trum. &V;num nempe</HI> Naturale, <HI>quod &s;ingulis vi&s;ce|ribus, prima ex conformatione, implantatum radicaliter, per energiam radialem, vel effluvium incorporeum, in partes &s;ui regimini conf<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">gnatas, agit &s;treu<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">&egrave; &amp; monarchialiter: hoc e&s;t, pote&s;tate ab&s;oluta, independenti, non locorum vicmitati, connexion<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">, aut &s;upinitati obligata, &amp; quolibet corporis &s;itu aequ&egrave; truculent&egrave;r. Per exemplum. In Foemina hy&s;terica, ex utero (cujus &s;ceptro univer&s;am &s;oeminei &s;exus oeconomiam, ab&s;olute &s;ubditam, &s;eri&ograve; contendit</HI> Helmont) <HI>in&s;piratur</HI> blas pote&s;tativ<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="2 letters"> <HI>in reliqua vi&s;cerum, quod &s;itum eorundem primigeneum, figuram, officiae, im&ograve; &amp; cra&s;in etiam nativam mutet penitus, alienetque pro &s;ui arbitrio. &V;nde huic utiqu<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter"> radiali</HI> Regiminis actioni, <HI>nequaquam autem putaticiis &s;cholarum vaporibus, humorumve rever&agrave; non-entium exhalationibus, quocunque etiam mia&s;mate contagio&s;o impraegnatis, rit&egrave; condonan|das decrevit qua&s;libet uteri exorbitationes atque indignationes. Alio<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter"> perinde huju&s;cemodi</HI> Blas Humani Naturalis <HI>effectus, nobis evidenter &s;atis con&s;piciendos exhibuit ip&s;a Natura, in &s;ingulis</HI> Dige&s;tionum <HI>officinis. E&s;t namque con&s;tans Authoris dogma,</HI> Fel <HI>&amp;</HI> jecur <HI>&s;ua per|ficere munia, non quidem corporali contactu, congre&s;&s;u, aut commi&s;tione &s;ui; nec denique am|plectendo &amp; recipiendo &s;uum intra gremium: a&s;t per</HI> Aporrhaeas incorporeas, <HI>influxum ra|dialem, &s;ive</HI> Fermentum in&s;piratum. <HI>Fel enim dimittit fermentale blas in inte&s;tina: &amp; jecur &s;uum in venas me&s;enterii. Alterum</HI> Voluntarium: <HI>quod per internum velle &s;ibi motor exi&s;tit, &s;ive quod voluntate animalium ad motum localem dirigitur. Huic autem the&s;i, &s;at firmo tan|quam fundamini,</HI> Helmont <HI>&s;uper&s;truxit &s;uum ariem, ad i&s;tud &s;cholarum axioma diruen|dum, quo incautae admodum docuere;</HI> In omni motu locali &s;tatuendum de nece&s;&s;itate pri|mum motorem immobilem&punc; <HI>In &s;uo namque tramite, cui titulus</HI> Blas Humanum, <HI>ab illo &s;at demon&s;tratum exi&s;timo, aliquid e&s;&s;e in &s;ublunaribus, quod &s;eip&s;um localiter &amp; alterative moveat, ab que Coelorum Blas, &amp; motore immobili naturali.</HI> Voluntas <HI>enim primum e&s;t eju&s;modi movens. movetque &s;eip&s;um quoque</HI> Ens Seminale, <HI>tam in &s;eminibus, quam horum con&s;ti|tutis. Hinc in&s;uper quaecunque In&s;en&s;itiva moventur, per quandam veluti Naturae</HI> Volun|tatem <HI>moventur, habentque &s;aas naturales nece&s;&s;itates &amp; fines. Fu&s;ior hujus paradoxi expli|catio petatur ab ip&s;o Authore.</HI></NOTE>.</P>
<P><PB N="60" REF="37">
If therefore <HI>Suffumigations</HI> and <HI>aromatick exhalations,</HI> &s;uch as promi&s;e a gratefull &s;uccour to the Lungs in their oppre&s;|&s;ions, be injurious and burden&s;ome; what will not gro&s;&s;er and <HI>&s;limy Lambatives</HI> do, though we grant them to arrive at the lower ve&s;&s;els of the lungs, with all their vertue and efficacy about them? No man, that ever &s;aw but one di&s;&s;e|ction, will deny, that when ever any thing is &s;wallowed down into the &s;tomack, at the &s;ame in&s;tant the <HI>Larynx</HI> is &s;hut clo&s;e by the <HI>Epiglottis,</HI> or trap doore, that carries the figure of an <HI>Ivy-leafe;</HI> &s;o that not the &s;malle&s;t atome can &s;lip into the Lungs. And I have known &s;ome men <HI>&s;trangled,</HI> who had their Epiglottis not &s;hut &s;ufficiently clo&s;e but on one &s;ide, by rea&s;on of a <HI>Convul&s;ion</HI> of one part, and a re&s;olu|tion or <HI>Pal&s;ie</HI> of the other. &para;</P>
<P N="55">55. And here we are falne upon the detection of another collateral Error of the Schools; in particular, their unad|vi&s;ed A&s;&s;ertion, that <HI>Lambatives &s;wallowed down gently and by degrees, the head being at the &s;ame time reflected into a po&s;ition looking above the horizon, de&s;cend into the Lungs; but not tho&s;e, that are &s;wallowed down greedily, and at once.</HI> If &s;o, I demand,
<PB N="61" REF="37">
whether the dog under the di&s;&s;ecting knife, did <HI>lick</HI> and <HI>by de|grees</HI> &s;wallow downe the coloured liquor; or <HI>chop</HI> it down <HI>at once?</HI> To what purpo&s;e did the Anatomi&s;ts poure it into his throat to be drank at one &s;wallow or gulp, if they knew before hand, that it could not fall into the Lungs, unle&s;&s;e lickt down gently? But letting this <HI>Hypothe&s;is</HI> &s;tand, that the Lungs ab&s;olutely abhor the admi&s;&s;ion of all external things, meer Aer and &s;uch as is not incorporated to Fumes and Exhalations onely excepted: and then it will nece&s;&s;a|rily follow, that whether any thing be lickt down gently, or drank down ravenou&s;ly at once; yet &s;till the <HI>Pre&s;ident</HI> of the <HI>Epiglottis,</HI> or <HI>janitor</HI> of the Lungs attends the execution of his function, and ob&s;erves the <HI>Clau&s;ure</HI> of the <HI>Larynx;</HI> &s;ince thereupon depends no le&s;&s;e then the hazard of life. This, I conceive, may make it indubious to the mo&s;t preju|dicate, that <HI>Lambatives and &s;yrups,</HI> though they may, by in|troducing an <HI>unctuous &s;urface</HI> upon the parts, make them more <HI>&s;mooth,</HI> &s;lippery, and &s;o more fit for the rejection of vi&s;|cid excrements flowing from the palate and other parts ad|jacent; yet are they of no &s;mall <HI>detriment</HI> to the <HI>&s;tomack,</HI> nor can, in the le&s;t degree, or large&s;t latitude of intention, af|ford ea&s;e or benefit in affections of the <HI>Lungs.</HI> But the Schools reply, that the &s;alivous rheume or defluxion, doth <HI>in&s;en&s;ibly,</HI> and by its own <HI>&s;pontaneous laps,</HI> or natural ten|dency, di&s;till into the <HI>Larynx;</HI> and that, in this relation, <HI>Lambatives</HI> mu&s;t be beneficial and &s;anative.</P>
<P N="56">56. But neither of the&s;e articles can &s;tand; &s;ince into what po&s;ition &s;oever the neck be di&s;po&s;ed, or however in|flected, yet the &s;ame care and warine&s;&s;e of <HI>Nature</HI> to praevent that nothing drop or in&s;inuate into the Lungs, is con&s;tant|ly continued. I beheld a <HI>Tumbler,</HI> not long &s;ince, &s;tand up|on his head, his hands and feet inverted, and in that po|&s;ture drink a gla&s;&s;e of wine. I appeal to <HI>Anatomy,</HI> and wil|lingly &s;ubmit my hand to the ferula.</P>
<P N="57">57. Many there are, out of who&s;e mouthes, while they &s;leep, run whole torrents of &s;pitle; who if they chance to &s;leep in a &s;upine po&s;ture, that is on their backs, it in&s;tantly
<PB N="62" REF="38">
happens, that they mu&s;t turn them&s;elves on one &s;ide, or a|wake and &s;it up, <HI>nature</HI> being affrighted by the terror of the <HI>danger</HI> imminent: and if any of the &s;pitle fall accidentally and unawares into the Larynx; thenceforward, untill all be again exploded, they cough unce&s;&s;antly. But, to come home to the center of the bu&s;ine&s;&s;e; what comfort or &s;uc|cour can <HI>&s;ugar,</HI> mixt with the cadaverous <HI>Lungs</HI> of a <HI>Fox,</HI> or imbued with the juice of <HI>Coltsfoot,</HI> adfer to the Lungs; when they utterly abhor the intru&s;ion of any forreigner, admit nothing but Aer unle&s;&s;e by accident and <HI>ex improvi&s;o,</HI> and when any thing is entred into their confines, immediately reject it with great anxiety and labour? Can &s;uch a remedy &s;uffice to the <HI>re&s;tauration</HI> of the decayed <HI>Faculties?</HI> Can this cut up <HI>Catarrhs</HI> by the root, or expunge the <HI>&s;eminal mia&s;me,</HI> or original impre&s;&s;ion fixt upon the <HI>Archeus?</HI> I profe&s;&s;e, on which hand &s;oever I turn me, on what part &s;oever I place my di&s;qui&s;itions, I cannot di&s;cover, that the Schools war again&s;t di&s;ea&s;es, with any other weapons, but the wilde dreams of the Gentiles, or &s;trike at any thing beyond their <HI>effects</HI> and &s;econdary <HI>Productions,</HI> leaving the head and prin|cipal <HI>Cau&s;alities</HI> una&s;&s;aulted; and all this, by rea&s;on of their ignorance of the <HI>E&s;&s;ence</HI> and <HI>Cau&s;es</HI> of <HI>Di&s;ea&s;es.</HI> And hence hath the name of <HI>Phy&s;ician</HI> falne under the facete reprehen|&s;ion of <HI>Comedians,</HI> and this proverbial reproach, that Phy|&s;icians care not what they &s;hould think, what do, or how order their meditations, in order to their obedience unto that &s;trict Precept: <HI>Be ye merciful, as your Father which is in heaven, is merciful,</HI> grown into u&s;e. And, as St. <HI>Bernard,</HI> concerning the <HI>Clergy</HI> feeding upon the &s;ins of the people, in re&s;pect they live upon no other revenews, but <HI>Almes;</HI> &s;o I concerning <HI>Phy&s;icians.</HI> For they con&s;ider not, whether they di&s;charge their duty to the <HI>Commandment,</HI> or &s;atisfie the debt of <HI>Charity;</HI> who banquet and grow fat upon the defections, languors, and infirmities of the people. Often have I pondered, but di&s;cover I cannot, how the&s;e Plagues of Aegypt, the&s;e clouds of palpable darkne&s;&s;e, were intro|duced upon the Schools; unle&s;&s;e from hence, that being
<PB N="63" REF="38">
&s;ea&s;oned with evil principles, and infected with unju&s;tifia|ble traditions, they frequently met with <HI>Affections,</HI> which, ac|cording to their outward appearance, and without &s;cruple or &s;tricter indagation, they in&s;tantly referred to the fabu|lous &s;cene of <HI>Catarrhs.</HI></P>
<P N="58">58. For <HI>in&s;tance,</HI> a certain &s;ick per&s;on, invaded with a head ach, &s;oon after feels a dull and ponderous pain in the neck, a difficulty and indi&s;po&s;ition to motion; and the lea|den plummets of <HI>Morpheus</HI> are too light to draw down the curtains of his eyes; on the neck of the&s;e Accidents en&s;ues a manife&s;t pain and imbecillity of the loyns, which &s;eems to be traduced down to the thighs, and thence to make a pro|gre&s;&s;e to the legs and feet. Hereupon it is decreed, that <HI>Pain</HI> (&s;ince an <HI>Accident</HI> of <HI>inhaerence) cannot tran&s;migrate from one &s;ubject to another;</HI> unle&s;&s;e &s;omething <HI>Material,</HI> &s;ucce&s;|&s;ively trickling down from the brain along the mu&s;cles of the &s;pine, and by a &s;pontaneous motion ari&s;ing from its own tendency to declivity, remove from a <HI>&s;uperior</HI> to an <HI>inferior</HI> part: which may very accommodately make out the recei|ved <HI>Appellation</HI> of a <HI>Catarrh.</HI> It mu&s;t become our method of exploring <HI>verity,</HI> to examine and detect the dotage and improbability of this per&s;wa&s;ion concerning <HI>defluxions,</HI> by the judicial te&s;t of <HI>Anatomy.</HI></P>
<P N="59">59. For if this <HI>dolorifick matter</HI> di&s;till, by &s;ucce&s;&s;ive drops, from the brain by the neck; no man can doubt, but that it mu&s;t be tran&s;ported thither, either through the <HI>Ventricles</HI> of the brain, or through the <HI>&s;ub&s;tance</HI> and <HI>membranes</HI> of the brain, or betwixt the <HI>Pia</HI> and <HI>Dura mater,</HI> or betwixt the <HI>Dura mater</HI> and the <HI>Skull,</HI> or, in fine, betwixt the <HI>Skull</HI> and the <HI>Skin.</HI> For the Con&s;equence is warrantable from a &s;uf|ficient enumeration of the parts. But, fir&s;t, not through the <HI>Ventricles</HI> of the brain; &s;ince that could not come to pa&s;&s;e without the inevitable introduction of an <HI>Apoplexy,</HI> or univer&s;al <HI>Pal&s;ie:</HI> if the doctrine of the Schools, concerning the origination of the&s;e di&s;ea&s;es, &s;tand firme. For if the matter of the Defluxion be excluded from the cavities in the fore part of the brain, and thence di&s;charged upon the
<PB N="64" REF="39">
fourth ventricle, and &s;o carried into the &s;pinal marrow &s;ucce&s;&s;ively; it cannot but horridly offend tho&s;e noble parts, and being an alien and acrimonious excrement, cau&s;e de&s;perate and invincible ob&s;tructions, and by con&s;equence an <HI>Apoplexy</HI> or <HI>Pal&s;ie.</HI> Secondly, the matter of this Defluxi|on cannot, <HI>per</HI> <GAP DESC="foreign">, by <HI>tran&s;udation</HI> through the &s;ub|&s;tance of the brain, be fir&s;t accumulated between the brain and its thinner inve&s;tment, the <HI>Pia mater,</HI> and thence delaps; &s;o that both Coats may yet keep their continual di&s;tance and <HI>&s;eparation</HI> from the very marrow of the &s;pine: in regard the defluxion in its de&s;cent cannot but commit a <HI>divul&s;ion</HI> and <HI>&s;olution</HI> of <HI>unity,</HI> in the medullary roots of the nerves, according to their <HI>longitude;</HI> (i. e.) as they run out in their di&s;tinct di&s;&s;eminations. Which wanteth not a multitude of ab&s;urdities. In like manner, &s;hould the Catarrh be rained down betwixt the <HI>two membranes;</HI> each of tho&s;e &s;lender in|ve&s;tments, provided by nature to envellop the &s;pinal marrow, would be <HI>double:</HI> which Anatomical in&s;pection could never yet ju&s;tifie. And &s;hould we allow it &s;o to be, it would not onely impede the <HI>motion</HI> of the <HI>Mu&s;cles;</HI> but al&s;o excite ex|treme <HI>torture,</HI> and <HI>convul&s;ive retractions</HI> of the Nerves. So there lieth an <HI>Error</HI> in the <HI>The&s;is;</HI> &s;ince the <HI>Nerve,</HI> indeed, is the <HI>organ delative of the mandates of the Will,</HI> (i. e.) the media|tory in&s;trument by which the Will tran&s;mits her &s;piritual Mercuries on an errand to the mu&s;cles: but not <HI>Executive of Voluntary motion,</HI> (i. e.) not the immediate executioner of the commands given out. More plainly thus; the Will is <HI>Queen Regent;</HI> the <HI>Animal &s;pirits,</HI> the <HI>Nuncij,</HI> or Emba&s;&s;a|dors; the <HI>Nerve,</HI> the in&s;trument of their <HI>tran&s;vection</HI> or de|lation from the brain, or white-hall of the &s;oul, to the member to be imployed; and the <HI>mu&s;cle,</HI> the <HI>executioner</HI> of her de&s;ignes. That a Nerve is not the executioner of Vo|luntary motion, may be clearly argued from hence; that very few nerves, in <HI>thickne&s;&s;e</HI> exceeed a thread of double twi&s;ted &s;ilk. Now a Nerve, being in&s;erted into the exter|nal part of its peculiar mu&s;cle, cannot probably convey the rheume down to the midle of the mu&s;cle, without inferring
<PB N="65" REF="39">
a <HI>Pal&s;ie</HI> of that part, from its own <HI>ob&s;truction,</HI> or a <HI>convul&s;ion</HI> from the <HI>aerimony</HI> and virulency of the <HI>Defluxion.</HI> Again, if they &s;hall affirme, that the Catarrh doth trickle down be|twixt the <HI>Dura mater</HI> and the <HI>Skull;</HI> I may appeal for deci|&s;ion to <HI>Anatomy,</HI> which autoptically demon&s;trateth, that the <HI>perforations</HI> of the &s;pondils of the &s;pine, through which the nerves are threaded in their elongations from their ori|ginal, the &s;pinal marrow, are &s;o exactly fitted to their mag|nitude, that not a hair can be thru&s;t between, without a &s;en|&s;ible Compre&s;&s;ion of the nerve; &s;o that, by con&s;equence, there can be no void &s;pace left for the intru&s;ion of a Catarrh into the mu&s;cles, from the &s;pinal marrow. We add, that though our Adver&s;aries could find out a <HI>place;</HI> wherein this fictitious rheume may be <HI>congregated;</HI> or <HI>pa&s;&s;age</HI> for its <HI>deflu|xion</HI> upon the &s;pinal marrow, and <HI>diffu&s;ion</HI> thence through the <HI>perforatiens</HI> of the &s;pondils into the mu&s;cles: yet, we be|lieve, it would amu&s;e their &s;ophi&s;try, to give a plau&s;ible rea&s;on of the <HI>&s;ucceeding progre&s;&s;e</HI> thereof, and fully to make out, how a humor, once delap&s;ed upon a nerve running out betwixt two &s;pondils, can remigrate, or return back a|gain to invade other nerves &s;ucce&s;&s;ively one after the other. What, doth the wanton rheume grow weary of one nerve, and to &s;atisfie its de&s;ire of change, at plea&s;ure remove to another? Tis a <HI>Quaere</HI> not unworthy a &s;ub&s;tantial determi|nation, how a deluge of &s;alt rheume can &s;tream along a tender and extremly &s;en&s;ible nerve, without cau&s;ing a <HI>&s;tu|per,</HI> or <HI>dull in&s;en&s;ibility,</HI> in that member into which it is in|&s;erted? Can it in&s;inuate into the tendinous <HI>head,</HI> and thence creep along into the <HI>taile</HI> of a <HI>mu&s;cle?</HI> Can it retreat thence again, to a&s;&s;ault other mu&s;cles &s;ucce&s;&s;ively, as the &s;ituation of the &s;econd is more <HI>prone</HI> or <HI>declive</HI> then of the former, and that then the third, &amp;c? or, if there may be a new &s;upply of the defluxion, con&s;tantly &s;ucceeding, imagined to flow from parts above, to fre&s;h ones below; how comes it to pa&s;&s;e, that the &s;uperior parts, fir&s;t invaded, obtain an im|munity from the mi&s;chiefe? For &s;ince the rivulet of rheume doth &s;pring from one <HI>fountain,</HI> the <HI>brain;</HI> and run in one
<PB N="66" REF="40">
continued <HI>Chanel,</HI> the <HI>&s;pinal marrow:</HI> why &s;hould it not rather follow the <HI>old</HI> tract, then wander into a <HI>new,</HI> and undergo the difficulties of forcing, and as it were mining out a fre&s;h current? Why doth it, as if carried on by an a|dulterous uncon&s;tancy, de&s;ert its antiently accu&s;tomed bed; and affect the embraces of a <HI>fre&s;h,</HI> nay frequently a <HI>feeble</HI> part? Why doth it for&s;ake its frequented quarters, and range in que&s;t of &s;trang and never yet frequented lodgings? Hath it &s;uch an Appetite or malitious propen&s;ity inherent, that goads it on to variety of objects, whereon to &s;ate its ho&s;tility? For conclu&s;ion; that this Error can expect no &s;anctuary, in the po&s;&s;ibility of the rheums defluxions be|tween the <HI>skull</HI> and the <HI>skin,</HI> and through the firme &s;ub|&s;tance of the <HI>Mu&s;cles,</HI> each being inve&s;ted with a tunicle &s;ufficiently compact and thick: may be amply collected from our precedent di&s;qui&s;itions. &para;</P>
<P N="60">60. All this being &s;ummd up, by the impartial Arithme|tick of <HI>Rea&s;on,</HI> and examined by mature <HI>judgement;</HI> the to|tal <HI>Product</HI> mu&s;t amount to this: that there can be no <HI>way, medium, connexion,</HI> or <HI>dependence,</HI> by which a <HI>Catarrh</HI> may &s;ub&s;i&s;t, in verity. And &s;ince no rheume or material princi|ple can be found out to have de&s;cended, even in any of tho&s;e di&s;ea&s;es, for who&s;e &s;ake chiefly the Schools fir&s;t invented this Chimera of <HI>Catarrhs:</HI> Know all the friends of truth, that as often as any peregrine <HI>Aer</HI> or bla&s;t, any offen&s;ive <HI>odor,</HI> any putrefactive <HI>Ferment,</HI> or exotick <HI>Seminality</HI> is impre&s;&s;ed upon, or conceived in the <HI>Influent &s;pirit;</HI> &s;o of|ten is that contaminate and degenerate &s;pirit excommu|nicated from the participation of <HI>Vitality</HI> by the &s;evere ju|&s;tice of the incen&s;ed <HI>Archeus.</HI> And the <HI>Genius</HI> or di&s;po&s;ition of this depraved <HI>Seminality</HI> conceived, is of no le&s;&s;e power then this, that it can tran&s;mit the <HI>Influent &s;pirit,</HI> made an alien to its primitive purity by the a&s;&s;umption of an <HI>exotick Ferment,</HI> rather to parts &s;eated at di&s;tance and in the <HI>&s;uburbs,</HI> then &s;uch as are neighbours to the <HI>Bialto</HI> or palace of life. As we &s;hall at large declare in our di&s;cour&s;es
<PB N="67" REF="40">
of the <HI>Gout</HI> <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>In tractatu</HI> (Volupe Vi|ventium mor|bus antiquitus putatus, <HI>nomi|nato) ad quem</HI> Helmont. <HI>&s;uos h&icirc;c remittit le|ctores,</HI> Arthri|tidis <HI>naturam, cau&s;as, atque nativitatem, brevit&egrave;r ad hunc modum de&s;crip|tas videre e&s;t.</HI> Podagra <HI>(in|quit) e&s;t Chara|cter morbidus, &s;eminalit&egrave;r in &s;piritu vitae in|&s;ertus, qui &s;uae maturitatis ter|minis, fructum acidum fermen|talem gignit, &s;permaticis par|tibus confermen|tabilem. Non exi&s;tit ergo Po|dagra in cruore; multoque minus in excrementis. Verum Podagrici primum agitantur in</HI> praecordijs, <HI>&amp; tom internas potuum atque ciborum, quam externas aeris vici&s;&s;itudines &s;entiunt; im&ograve; &amp; &s;aep&egrave; has futuras prae&s;agiunt. Quare patiuntur &s;ebriles motus primum, circa officinam &s;piritus Vitalis, ac quidem paroxy&s;mi initiis. Etenim primi motus &egrave; praecordiis a&s;cendunt, &s;edem animae &s;en&s;itivae adoriuntur. Conceptus namque in praecordiis Character,</HI> Lunae <HI>atque</HI> Mercurij <HI>typos explicat: atque deinde in corde perficitur. Formatus antem &s;ive maturatus Character, spiritum ibidem febrilem induit, quatenus inficit. Qui &s;imul atque acorem &s;ymboli vitae five &s;ermentalem con|cepit, motu febrili abigitur &s;quallens, &amp; ad loca de&s;tinata (crudi viz. spermatis in &s;ynenia Ar|ticulorum) febriliter defertor. Spiritus, inquam, &s;ic infectus, et non humor (quod notandum) &s;ynoniam in &s;e tran&s;parens, cum</HI> Aciditate fermentali <HI>coagulat in gr<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">mum opacum. Ad<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">o <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">t prae ponticitatis conceptae gradu, calores, delores, tumore&s;que pedagrae di&s;tinguantur.</HI> Laticem <HI>ver&ograve; advocari</HI> doforis <HI>buccina, &amp; per venas dimitti, ad eluend<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">m, certum e&s;t. Itaque ron quod dolet, quod tumet, vel ardet, Podagra e&s;t: &s;ed hujus &s;unt</HI> producta. <HI>N<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">que enim per pi|lam bombardae &s;ublato pede, ablata e&s;t &s;imul podagra, &s;ive Arthritis: &s;iquidem in &s;en&s;atione per organum &s;en&s;us, fit tantum con&s;en&s;us partium, &amp;c. Sed horum &s;<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">des e&s;to penes Authorem,</HI> &para;</NOTE>, of the <HI>duumvirate</HI> <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">Lege jus duumviratus Helmentij.</NOTE>, and el&s;ewherere. For thus <HI>Mercury,</HI> externally applied by Unction, &s;ubtily runs through all the body and invades the throat, tongue and teeth. Farther, when this vitiated <HI>&s;pirit</HI> arrives at the place, to which it was di&s;patched; in&s;tantly it there imbueth the <HI>nutriment</HI> of that part with its putrefactive <HI>Ferment,</HI> tran&s;|planteth and transformeth it into a conformity or analogy to the idea of the <HI>Seminality:</HI> and that nutriment thus in|quinated, by &s;ucce&s;&s;ive expirations or <HI>Afflations,</HI> and for|reigne impre&s;&s;ions, doth di&s;order and pervert the &s;unctions of the <HI>dige&s;tive Faculty;</HI> and by this means doth not onely generate a plentiful harve&s;t of <HI>Excrements;</HI> but al&s;o &s;tigma|tize, or impre&s;&s;e this depravity&punc; upon the <HI>Implantate &s;pirit</HI> of that part, &s;o deeply, that it can hardly be expunged during the whole after life. All which the Schools, like mendicants, precarious de&s;ume from the brain; &amp; erroneou&s;ly impute to their four imaginary <HI>Humors,</HI> and the defluxion of <HI>Rheums.</HI> On which Con&s;ideration, my Theory &s;tands point blanck in defiance to the doting tradition of Catarrhs; as po&s;itive|ly denying and wholly &s;ubverting their <HI>material Cau&s;e,</HI> re|ceptaries or <HI>places</HI> of <HI>concretion, efficient Cau&s;e,</HI> and <HI>manner</HI> of <HI>Generation</HI> and <HI>Defluxion:</HI> and &s;eparating the true <HI>Cau&s;es, Effects,</HI> and method of <HI>Sanation,</HI> far from the ridiculous fictions of a <HI>Catarrh.</HI> &para;</P>
<P N="61"><PB N="68" REF="41">
61. By this time, we believe, it is plain and unque&s;tion|able, that no &s;alt, acid, &s;harp, phlegmatick, or Cholerick humor can di&s;til from the brain; but that, whenever the <HI>Influent</HI> &s;pirit, polluted with &s;ome alien and putrefactive <HI>impre&s;&s;ion,</HI> doth arrive at any part of the body; then doth nature, without delay, &s;end thither the <HI>Latex,</HI> or &s;our&s;e of &s;erous humidity, to <HI>expung</HI> this impre&s;&s;ion, or at lea&s;t rin&s;e away the <HI>Excrements,</HI> there growing from the depra|vation of the <HI>dige&s;tive Faculty.</HI> For the <HI>Spirit,</HI> once vitiated by any forreigne <HI>Contagion,</HI> wildly rangeth at plea&s;ure through the <HI>nerves, arteries,</HI> yea and the very <HI>habit</HI> of the bo|dy; whereupon, the &s;ick &s;eeming to feel as it were the de|fluxion, or trickling down of a cold rheume, the <HI>brain</HI> is immediately accu&s;ed as treacherous, and the grand author of this ryot and irregularity in nature. Now &s;ince the <HI>La|tex</HI> is &s;ent to the part newly invaded by this malignant im|pre&s;&s;ion, not as the primitive <HI>Cau&s;e</HI> of the evill (though fre|quently, by accident, it doth <HI>foment</HI> and aggravate the mi&s;|chief, and &s;o make the vitio&s;ity more durable) but as a <HI>re|lief,</HI> or &s;tream to wa&s;h away the impre&s;&s;ion: hereupon have the Schools, to this day, remained doubtful, and dur&s;t ne|ver go &s;o far as po&s;itively to determine; whether in the <HI>Gout</HI> the <HI>Catarrb</HI> is derived from the <HI>head,</HI> by the <HI>Nerves:</HI> or whe|ther tran&s;mitted from the <HI>Liver</HI> onely, by the <HI>Veins.</HI> And thus evident it is, that the Phlegme and Choler of the Schools flow not from one fountain, or Cataract; as though the <HI>brain</HI> were the <HI>Common &s;ewer</HI> of all the&s;e impurities. A|gain, as for the la&s;t refuge, whereunto the Schools flye, for protection of their impo&s;&s;ible dream of Catarrhs; namely the <HI>Declivity</HI> or downwardne&s;&s;e of the &s;ituation of the mem|bers, as in relation to the brain, and the facility of the pa&s;|&s;ages: it may ea&s;ily appear to be too rotten and fragile to afford them &s;helter. Since as in dead bodies there are none of the&s;e <HI>re&s;pective &s;ituations,</HI> but onely in living; &s;o al&s;o all motion of humors in the body is immediately cau&s;ed by the <HI>Influent &s;pirit,</HI> as the onely <HI>impetum faciens,</HI> and mediately derived from the <HI>Principle</HI> of <HI>vitality</HI> in who&s;e occonomy
<PB N="69" REF="41">
the <HI>A&s;cent</HI> of humors is of no more difficulty then the <HI>de&s;cent.</HI> For in living bodies, no humor oweth its motion down|ward, to the declive tendency of its <HI>Gravity:</HI> but, in impar|tial truth, to the aim or direction of that <HI>mi&s;&s;ive power,</HI> which levelled it at this or that determinate part. Hitherto con|cerning the <HI>impre&s;&s;ion</HI> of an <HI>External</HI> depravity upon the <HI>In|fluent &s;pirit:</HI> it follows that we declare the probability and manner how the &s;ame <HI>&s;pirit</HI> may <HI>conceive,</HI> and as it were <HI>batch</HI> an <HI>internal</HI> Character, or dome&s;tick tincture of corruption. It comes to pa&s;&s;e not &s;eldome, that the <HI>Latex</HI> contaminated by the admixture of &s;ome forreine <HI>Salt,</HI> doth therewith in|fect the <HI>Influent Spirit,</HI> &s;o that it in&s;tantly becomes degene|rate from its requi&s;ite &s;implicity and purity; though not by rea&s;on of any external injury of the <HI>aer,</HI> offen&s;ive <HI>odor,</HI> &s;ulphureous <HI>Fume,</HI> &amp;c. but from a <HI>breath</HI> or bla&s;t of <HI>Conta|gion</HI> conceived <HI>in the part affected:</HI> yea that taking a di&s;like or abhorrence from the <HI>Latex</HI> (as being polluted, and &s;o uncapable of its vital irradiation) it grows enraged and forgeth within it&s;elf a <HI>character</HI> of <HI>anger</HI> and <HI>reuenge.</HI> After this the uncivil <HI>Latex,</HI> like a rude &s;ouldier that intrudes him&s;elfe into quarters again&s;t the will of the Landlord, forceth it&s;elf into the &s;ociety of the offended <HI>Influent &s;pirit;</HI> and though unfit for its conver&s;ation, as well in regard of its <HI>Acidity,</HI> as immoderate <HI>quantity,</HI> yet it &s;till followeth and hangs upon its skirts. In which relation, the mo&s;t hopefull remedies for mo&s;t of the&s;e di&s;ea&s;es which cau&s;e <HI>erratick</HI> paines, as al&s;o for <HI>internall Ulcers,</HI> mu&s;t be <HI>Baths, Sudaries,</HI> and <HI>Stoves</HI> or <HI>Hot-hou&s;es:</HI> for by procuring liberall and pro|fu&s;e <HI>&s;weats,</HI> and by that means <HI>exhau&s;ting</HI> the <HI>Latex,</HI> as the <HI>&s;econdary</HI> and <HI>fomenting materiall Cau&s;e,</HI> they &s;eem more di|rectly perpendicular to health, and conducible to the pacification of <HI>Archeus</HI> his wor&s;hip; then the more in|effectuall and languid <HI>Solutives</HI> and <HI>Ex&s;iccatives</HI> of the Schools. &para;.</P>
<P>Vaine, therefore, is the &s;tory of a <HI>Catarrhs</HI> ari&s;ing ori|ginally from the &s;tomack into the head: and its <HI>Conden&s;a|tion, Concretion,</HI> and <HI>Congregation</HI> in the ventricles of
<PB N="70" REF="42">
the brain. Vaine are the de&s;criptions of its <HI>Defluxion,</HI> be|tween the coats of the <HI>&s;pinal marrow,</HI> or between the <HI>skull</HI> and <HI>skin,</HI> upon the <HI>Mu&s;cles.</HI> And, of nece&s;&s;ity, vain and de|plorable mu&s;t &s;uch <HI>Remedies</HI> be, as are admini&s;tred when the <HI>Cau&s;es</HI> of the Di&s;ea&s;es are wholy unknown. Vain al&s;o are <HI>Cauteries</HI> and <HI>Fontanels,</HI> for the <HI>Revul&s;ion</HI> and <HI>Exhau&s;tion</HI> of <HI>Humors,</HI> that have no real exi&s;tence in nature. And to con|clude, vain are the <HI>Decoctions of China, Guajacum, Sa&s;&s;afras,</HI> &amp;c. <HI>ex&s;iccating Drinks;</HI> &s;ince the evill ari&s;eth, at lea&s;t is oc|ca&s;ionally aggravated by tbe <HI>Latex,</HI> and mu&s;t be fomented by any immoderate quantity of humidity. From whence we have a faire opportunity to collect, that &s;ober and par|&s;imonious <HI>drinking</HI> doth very much conduce to health; nay to the cure of <HI>&V;lcers</HI> in the Lungs, as al&s;o of the <HI>Goute.</HI> Since the <HI>Latex,</HI> which according to the Primitive in&s;titution of nature ought to be <HI>in&s;ipid,</HI> upon the exce&s;&s;ive drinking of eager Wines, &s;uch are <HI>French, Rheni&s;h,</HI> and <HI>Sherry,</HI> doth acquire a manife&s;t <HI>Acidity,</HI> or &s;owerne&s;&s;e, and in&s;tantly communicate the &s;ame to the blood; from whence pro|ceed <HI>Corro&s;ions,</HI> &s;harpe <HI>Spa&s;mes</HI> and <HI>Convul&s;ions, errat|tick paines,</HI> and chiefly the <HI>Gout.</HI> But of the hi&s;tory and nece&s;&s;ity of this <HI>Latex,</HI> we have written a particular Di&s;|cour&s;e. &para;</P>
<P N="62">62. You may plea&s;e to remember, that the <HI>primitive Mate|rial of all concreted &s;ub&s;tances, is onely Water</HI> <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><HI>De rerum naturalium pri|mordiis, per Mechanica Pyrotechniae experimenta, &s;uo de more, inquirens Author, in</HI> tract. de Elementis; <HI>duo duntaxat reperit</HI> Primitiva Elementa: Aerem <HI>&s;cilicei &amp;</HI> Aquam. (Ig|nem <HI>namque Ens Anomalon, &amp; adnihilationis ordinari&ograve; capax:</HI> Terram <HI>vero, &s;ecundarium tant&ugrave;m elementum, &s;ive fructum ex Aqua, virtute &s;eminum, concretum, e&ograve; quod tandem cen|vertibilis &s;it in aquam, per privationem &s;uae e&s;&s;entiae, e&s;&s;e exi&s;timat.) In hanc autem &s;ententiam &s;e incidi&s;&s;e fa&s;&s;us e&s;t, exinde quod per Hermetis ignem didici&s;&s;et, omne corpus vi&s;ibile, puta &s;axum, lapidem, gemmam, &s;ilicem, arenam, marcha&s;itam, argillam, terram, vitrum, calcem, &s;ulphur, &amp;c. tran&s;mutari in</HI> Salem <HI>actualem: &amp; quod Sal i&s;te, aliquoties cum</HI> Sale Circulato Paracel&s;i <HI>cogobatus, &s;uam omnin&ograve; fixitatem amittat, tandem tran&s;mutetur in aquam in&s;ipi|dam; &amp; quod aqua i&s;ta aequiponderet &s;ali &s;uo, unde manavit. Nec in contrarium valet, quod imperitus aliquis for&s;an objiciet;</HI> Vitrum <HI>e&s;&s;e ultimum artis &s;ubjectum, quodque nec igne nec arte deleri, aut in aquam re&s;olvi unquam po&s;&s;it. Erudietur enim, &s;i Vitri pollinem pluri Alchali colliquaverit, ac humido loco exp<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="2 letters">uerit; mox totum vitrum reduci in aquam limpidi&s;&s;imam: Cui &s;i affundatur Chry&s;ulca, add<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="2 letters">o quantum &s;aturando Alchali &s;ufficiat, inveniet &s;tatim in &s;undo arenam &s;idere, eodem pondere, quo prius faciundo vitro aptabatur. Idem etiam sperari po&s;&s;it effectus ex &V;niver&s;ali illo Men&s;truo,</HI> Liquore A<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="2 letters">hahe&s;t; <HI>qu<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter"> omnia totius univer&s;i corpora tangibilia perfect&egrave; reducit in aquam diaphanam, ab&s;que ulla &s;ui mutatione</HI> (i. e. <HI>quoad Formam e&s;&s;entialem, &s;ive nativam &s;eminis dotem) viriumv&egrave; diminutione. Hujus autem &s;iupendi &s;ane Magnal<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">s praeparationem, &acirc;</HI> Paracel&s;o, <HI>vel</HI> Ba&s;ilio Valentino Monacho <HI>olim inventam, &amp; ab</HI> Helmontio, <HI>veluti</HI> Arcanum <HI>nemini, ni&s;i dato prius Sacramenti pig<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">ore, revelandum, &s;ubdol&egrave; defo&s;&s;am; me aliquando, ubi dabitur occa&s;io, coram mundo liber&egrave; promulgaturum, &s;pondeo.</HI> &para;</NOTE>: and all <HI>fruits</HI> or productions of mixt bodies ari&s;e from the &s;ame principle.
<PB N="71" REF="42">
Let us therefore grant, that the <HI>Latex,</HI> being naturally <HI>in|&s;ipid,</HI> doth, upon the acce&s;&s;e and fermentation of any <HI>&s;emi|nality,</HI> or fructifying tincture, in&s;tantly grow <HI>Acide.</HI> By example, in the beginning of the Spring, if you make an inci&s;ion in the rind of a <HI>Vine</HI> or <HI>Birch</HI> tree, neer the <HI>root,</HI> there will di&s;till forth a very great quantity of thin <HI>in&s;ipid</HI> liquor, which is nothing but the water fre&s;hly attracted out of the earth: but if the inci&s;ion be made higher in the &s;tock or branches, then will the liquor be a little Acid. The rea&s;on is the &s;ame in the <HI>Latex,</HI> which being naturally in&s;i|pid, doth, if contaminated by the contagion of any ferment admixed, acquire a &s;en&s;ible Acidity, and inherit any for|reine quality, or tincture devolved from the vitio&s;ity of our aliment. This <HI>Latex</HI> the Schools have wholy neglected, and indeed becau&s;e they confounded it with the <HI>&V;rine.</HI> Tis a blind and rude method of exploring the &s;ecrets of nature, to make no di&s;tinction betwixt the <HI>Generatum,</HI> or producti|on, and the <HI>Materia ex qua,</HI> or materiall cau&s;e thereof; no difference betwixt the <HI>Mother</HI> and the <HI>Daughter;</HI> as if the <HI>Muccus</HI> ordinarily dropping from the brain by the no&s;trils, the <HI>&s;alivous humidity</HI> of the jawes and tongue, the <HI>Water</HI> effu&s;ed betwixt the omentum, mu&s;cles of the belly and the skin, in the drop&s;ie, and the <HI>&V;rine,</HI> were all one and the &s;ame matter, namely the <HI>liquor</HI> we ordinarily drink. The <HI>Liver</HI> therefore being mi&s;affected, and invaded by any ho&s;tile impre&s;&s;ion, if it &s;ound a retreat to the <HI>Latex,</HI> and call back the &s;treams thereof to its own a&s;&s;i&s;tance; doth not convert it
<PB N="72" REF="43">
into <HI>&V;rine,</HI> but makes it the <HI>material</HI> cau&s;e of <HI>oedematous</HI> <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg"><GAP DESC="foreign">, <HI>ab</HI> Hippocrat. lib. de natura hominis, <HI>appellantur tumores 'laxi, molles, indolentes, ad digiti compre&s;&s;ionem cedentes, &agrave; pituita tenui, &s;eu frigidtore &amp; humidore parte ma&s;&s;ae &s;anguineae ortum ducentes.</HI> &para;</NOTE> <HI>Tu|mors,</HI> or an <HI>Ana&s;arca</HI> <NOTE N="a" PLACE="marg">Ana&s;arca <HI>e&s;t tertia</HI> hydropis <HI>&s;pecies; quam quod univer&s;a corporu moles aqua lenta &amp; concreta &s;uffundatur,</HI> Ana&s;arcam <HI>&amp;</HI> Leucophlegmatiam <HI>(turpiter enim hallucinatur</HI> Aretaeus, in 2. de diuturn. affect. cap. 1. <HI>dum di&s;crimen quoddam inter Ana&s;arcam &amp; Leuco|phlegmatiam imaeginatur) Graeci nuncuparunt. Illius autem originem &amp; naturam fu&s;e aperiit</HI> Hipocrat. lib. <GAP DESC="foreign">. &para;</NOTE>.</P>
<P N="63">63. I am not a per&s;on &s;ubject to &s;uch extravagancies and wild &s;ingularities, as to affirme, that the <HI>Pleuri&s;ie, Tooth-ache,</HI> and other &s;uch maladies, who&s;e tortures were in&s;ufferable, were they not in &s;ome &s;ort moderated by their <HI>acutene&s;&s;e,</HI> or brevity of duration, are no <HI>real Entities.</HI> For I too well know, and lament their tyranny over us. I admit them as <HI>Di&s;ea&s;es:</HI> but oppo&s;e the vulgar tradition of the <HI>cau&s;es, maner, means, waies, end</HI> or de&s;tinations of <HI>Catarrhs.</HI> Tho&s;e fictitious and incon&s;i&s;tent cau&s;es I deny, and explore other more reall and probable; in who&s;e remove, the direct way to the re&s;tauration of <HI>heath</HI> doth con&s;i&s;t. I acknowledge that any man, upon the rupture of an <HI>Apo&s;teme</HI> in the Lungs, may die &s;uddenly: yet I po&s;itively deny, that a <HI>Catarrh</HI> is the <HI>cau&s;e</HI> of this <HI>Apo&s;teme,</HI> or that <HI>death</HI> is u&s;hered in by a <HI>Defluxion.</HI> And with much more earne&s;tne&s;&s;e I deny, that an <HI>Apo&s;teme</HI> in the Lungs can be generated from <HI>vapours</HI> ex|haled from the <HI>&s;tomack,</HI> and reconden&s;ed in the brain. For which rea&s;on I account not a <HI>Con&s;umption</HI> the daughter of a <HI>Defluxion</HI> of rheume upon the Lungs; but the genuine i&s;&s;ue of their own <HI>Archeus</HI> &s;educed into irregularity, and a de|praved execution of the power delegated to his admini&s;tra|tion. I conced that the <HI>Gout</HI> may be prae&s;aged a day or two before the inva&s;ion of its paroxy&s;me from the &s;en&s;ation of the motion of the <HI>&s;alt matter</HI> which runs to the joynts like a drop of &s;calding liquor: but cannot allow a <HI>Catarrh</HI> to be the cau&s;e thereof, &s;ince I know a&s;&s;uredly that its material principles, manner of generation, waies of di&s;tillation and places of concretion and collection, are prodigious
<PB N="73" REF="43">
figments, irreconcilable to truth. But the <HI>Latex,</HI> ordained by nature to wa&s;h away the impurities from all parts official to concoction (like the river Alpheus brought by <HI>Hercules</HI> to clean&s;e the &s;table of Augeas) is of it&s;elf <HI>innocent</HI> and <HI>in|&s;ipid:</HI> but in its cour&s;e meeting with the pollutions of <HI>&s;a|line tinctures,</HI> re&s;ulting from impure and inconvenient ali|ment, it &s;oon degenerates into <HI>hurtfull</HI> and <HI>acrimonious,</HI> and breeds <HI>Apo&s;temes, &V;lcers,</HI> and <HI>pruriginous maladies,</HI> as the <HI>Itch, Scabbs,</HI> &amp;c. I cannot fool my own credulity &s;o far, as to apprehend any probability in the common opinion, that vapours can a&s;cend out of the &s;tomack into the plane of the brain, be there conden&s;ed into water, where is a con&s;tant <HI>actual heat;</HI> and thence penetrate through the &s;ub&s;tance and double inve&s;tment of the brain. Nor can I &s;hake hands with that impertinent here&s;ie of <HI>Paracel&s;us,</HI> that the aer drawn in by in&s;piration is carried down directly to the &s;tomack, and other <HI>vi&s;cera</HI> of the lower belly: but allow that a very &s;mall quantity thereof is in&s;en&s;ibly &s;trained through the capillary perforations of the midrife. For in long compre&s;&s;ion of the breath, neither any con&s;iderable intume&s;cence of the Abdomen can be ob&s;erved; nor doth the breath, upon its efflation, &s;mell of any thing conteined in the parts below the Midrife. In like manner can no va|pours of Wine or other inebriative liquor, ari&s;e up to the head, unle&s;&s;e by the Arteries <NOTE N="*" PLACE="marg">See Doctor <HI>Browne</HI> in the &s;econd book of vulgar er|rors. cap. 6. &s;ect. 7. 1 edi|tion.</NOTE>. For whatever procureth vertigoes or giddine&s;&s;e in the head, &s;woonings and other in|toxicating Accidents, belongs to another Common-wealth, then that Eutopia of vapours. Nor from the <HI>Wembe</HI> can vapours be tran&s;mitted into the head; however vulgar <HI>Pa|thologie</HI> affirmes, that wild and durable <HI>perturbations</HI> of the <HI>Animall Faculties,</HI> and a &s;trong <HI>con&s;<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">pition</HI> of <HI>rea&s;on,</HI> are derivatory from <HI>malignant and narcotiall exhalations</HI> ari&s;ing out of tbe wombe. For tho&s;e &s;urious motions and actions of the <HI>matrix</HI> are not to be a&s;cribed to any <HI>&s;ympathy</HI> depen|dent on the nece&s;&s;ity of <HI>Per&s;pirability;</HI> but to the <HI>mon<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">machy</HI> or civil war of that peculiar Monarchy of the wombe, wherein women &s;eem to be &s;trangled by an a&s;cention of
<PB N="74" REF="44">
&s;ome certain globular body, or lump, up to their throat. This action is a commotion or tumult of the offended &s;pi|rits re&s;iding in that part, or an error in the government of the <HI>Archeus,</HI> or <HI>uterine Pre&s;ident</HI> enraged, to who&s;e arbitary power all parts of the body mu&s;t doe hon age and con|form: as I have amply explained in my Treati&s;e called <HI>Ignota actio Regiminis.</HI> For the dominion of which the <HI>Womb</HI> hath over all parts of the body, is no le&s;&s;e ab&s;olute or diffu&s;ive, then that whereby the <HI>Testicles</HI> di&s;tingui&s;h a Cocke from a Capon, a Bull from an Ox, and a man from an Eunuch; as wil in the Figure of the body, as the blood, fle&s;h, skin, and animo&s;ity. &para;</P>
<P N="64">64. But in regard all tho&s;e di&s;ea&s;e conceived to proceed from Catarrhs, the contaminated <HI>Latex</HI> hath obtained a peculiar &s;uperintendency or domination over the other humors of the body, and re&s;ponds to the nature of <HI>Water:</HI> therefore doe all <HI>Accidents</HI> accompanying &s;uch infirmities ob&s;erve their periodicall <HI>exacerbations</HI> mo&s;t toward night; the influence of the <HI>Moone, queen regent of all humane &s;ub|&s;tances,</HI> operating tho&s;e vici&s;&s;itudes, or cau&s;ing ebullitions in us at tho&s;e houres. And the&s;e Accidents di&s;play their ho&s;tility mo&s;t upon the <HI>brain,</HI> weakned by any native or acquired di&s;temper praeceding: as al&s;o upon the <HI>Nerves</HI> and <HI>Membranes,</HI> as parts who&s;e &s;mall &s;tock of <HI>Vitall heat</HI> makes them le&s;&s;e able to re&s;i&s;t or &s;ubdue the impre&s;&s;ions of exter|nall <HI>Cold.</HI> And hence is it, that <HI>Con&s;umptive, Hydropick, Gouty</HI> and <HI>decaying,</HI> bodies carry an infallible Almanack in their bones, pre&s;age change of weather, and by the Augurie of their pains are &s;orewarned of en&s;uing tempe&s;ts: which I have, for that rea&s;on, Chri&s;tned <HI>Tortura Noctis,</HI> the torture of night. It is my &s;erious <HI>&V;<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">inam,</HI> and may be many others, that this way of progno&s;tication had not co&s;t us &s;o deare, as the &s;ufferance of &s;uch intolerable angui&s;h and anxiety. For almo&s;t every week ob&s;erves unto us, that men once inured to weare the fetters of the <HI>Gout,</HI> or tainted with any imper|fection of the <HI>lungs,</HI> yea &s;uch as are onely troubled with <HI>cornes</HI> on their feet, are &s;uddainly awakened out of their
<PB N="75" REF="44">
Profounde&s;t &s;leep, by the twinges and cruell mementoes of their infirmities, again&s;t change of weather: and by this &s;mart adverti&s;ement can at midnight tell, that <HI>Juno</HI> hath put on her &s;able weed of Clouds, and that the un|con&s;tant <HI>winds</HI> are tackt about to another point of the Compa&s;&s;e.</P>
<P N="65">65. <HI>Paracel&s;us</HI> was plea&s;ed to opinion, that <HI>Mercury</HI> was Lord Paramont, or <HI>Pre&s;ident</HI> over the <HI>Alimentary liquor,</HI> through the whole body: and for that rea&s;on, in another place <HI>(de morbis miner alibus)</HI> both in name and reality, he confounds this <HI>Planet</HI> with the <HI>terre&s;trial Moon.</HI></P>
<P N="66">66 But we, on more &s;ub&s;tantial and preci&s;e grounds, &s;tand a&s;&s;ured, that each <HI>nutritive humor</HI> of the body doth conform to the regiment, and obey the <HI>alterative influence</HI> of that <HI>&s;eminall part,</HI> unto which it is proximly to be <HI>a&s;&s;imilated:</HI> nor doe the <HI>liquid &s;ub&s;tances</HI> in the body hold any <HI>corre&s;pon|dence</HI> with the <HI>Stars,</HI> &s;o long as they are not radically inocu|lated into the &s;tock of <HI>Vitality,</HI> i.e. untill, by the irradia|tion of the <HI>internal Sol,</HI> or <HI>vital Spirit,</HI> they are rarified and exalted into a finene&s;&s;e requi&s;ite to their <HI>participation of lif<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="faint" EXTENT="1 letter">.</HI> Which is a convincing argument, that the <HI>Marrow in the bones is an homogeneous part of the body; but no alimentary or liquid &s;ub&s;tance:</HI> &s;ince it is evidently &s;ubordinate to the <HI>Moon;</HI> and the brain, to who&s;e influential power the <HI>bones</HI> are &s;ubject. And thus all di&s;ea&s;es conceived to tyrannize over man, under the mi&s;taken name of <HI>Defluxions,</HI> as al&s;o the <HI>&V;eneral Contagion,</HI> or <HI>French Pox, Contractions</HI> of the &s;inews, <HI>torments</HI> of the <HI>joynts,</HI> &amp;c. fall under this one generall title or denomination, <HI>Tortura Noctis:</HI> in this intere&s;t, that their <HI>Paroxy&s;mes</HI> or periodicall inva&s;ions depend upon the <HI>motions</HI> or <HI>ebullitions</HI> of the <HI>Latex,</HI> are regulated by the in|fluence of our <HI>Moon,</HI> and ob&s;erve their tides or vici&s;&s;itudes in exact conformity to the various <HI>motions, po&s;itions,</HI> and <HI>configurations</HI> or reciprocal <HI>A&s;pects</HI> of the <HI>Planets.</HI> &para;</P>
</DIV2>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
</DIV1>
</BODY>
</TEXT>
</EEBO>
</ETS>
