His first Argument against Phlebotomy.

Had they but considered how this vital moysture [the Blood] ebbs and flows in goodness and pravity, p. 6, 7 • upon slight accid • ntal occasions of any exorbitant passions, as fear, sorrow, anger, &c. the manifold impressions of the ambient Air, ill Diet, immoderate exercise, divers excessive evacuations, and long retention of any excrement: did they rightly understand how bloud, like Mercury, may be polymorphised, and changed into different shapes, and at length be retroduced to the same state and condition, as when it was in its primitive essence: certainly then these Dogmatists would never be so forward to pierce poor man's skin, rashly let out and throw away that substantial support of life, foolishly and falsely apprehending that to be totally corrupt, and deprived of what it was in its former being, and in no wise capable to be retrograde, and return to it self again; because it seems to their eyes when it appears abroad discoloured, invested with a contemptible apparel, as yellow, p 18. green • white, blue, &c. — supposing it to be corrupt, and so unfitting to be retained within the verge of life. It is no such matter, I can maintain: for this superficial alteration proceeds from the Air, spoiling it of its pristine goodness, not that it was really corrupted in the vein. For the demonstration of this, I will undertake, upon forfeiture of a great penalty, to open the vein of a Cacochymic body, emitting about two or three ounces of the visible aforesaid degenerate matter, then stopping the Orifice, make use of proper remedies to this Individual, whose habit I doubt not so to alter in the space of about a fortnight, that no such putrid matter as they improperly call it, shall be found in any vein whatsoever opened; which may fully satisfie any sober enquirer after truth, that the corruption was never really existent in that, whilst it was in the vein, which, in so short a time is thus redintegrated: for Corruption being an absolute privation of that formal essence of the thing: and sith there is no retrogradation in this kind, that an E • s losing its form by dissolution, should assume it again, Nam à privatione ad habitum non datur regressus: it infallibly follows, that this juyce thus restored, Technic • s, by Art, was never truly corrupted, as they would have it. Hence it follows, that the fair pretence of the Galenists, that the juyce drawn out of the Patient, forasmuch as it is corrupt in the porringer, is happily discharged: appears a mere imposture, contrived on purpose to stop the mouth of those who scruple and question Phlebotomy.

This is the principal Argument which he hath against Phlebotomy; yet doth he so handle it, as that the onely evidence it carries with it, is, that the Author is a most illiterate person.

It is very ignorantly done of him, to make as if the Galenists in general did let their Patients bloud, merely for a Cacochymy, or depravation of the bloud, as if it were a Rule amongst them, that Whensoe • er the blood is depraved, vitiated, and corrupted, it ought to be emitted by Phlebotomy. Whereas there is not any tenet amongst them more general, then that Cacochymicat bodies require purging; the Plethorick, or such as are in danger to be surcharged with excess of blood, require Phlebotomy; nor do they recede from this resolution, but in urgent cases, and with deliberation: and many are so cautious herein, that if the bloud appear in the porringer to be of an evil colour, Vallesius method-medend l. 2. c. 4. and very corrupt, they enjoyn us to stop the vein presently, and not continue or repeat the evacuation. I shall set down the words of Horatius Angenius. Hic vulgarium Medicorum error detegendus est. Horat. Augen. de miss. sangu. l. 9. c. 24. Putant quo sanguis impurior fuerit, & à sua natura magis alienus, eo plus detrahendum, & in hoc mirifice sibi placent, in vulgusque proponant admodum utilem factam fuisse vacuationem, quod corruptissimum pessimumque sanguinem vacuaverint. Tu vero cui in animo est humano generi prodesse, & Medicinam inculpate exercere, contra facies; quanto enim magis sanguinem videbis à propria natura discedere, tanto minorem quantitatem vacuabis, & aliquando (nisi copia urgeat cacochymiae permista) à venaesectione prorsus abstineto. Nor is this the judgment of a single writer; hundreds are of the same opinion: the Learned L. Septalius Animadv. Medic. l. 4. sect. 2. is of the same judgment. In sanguine detrahendo cavendum maxime, ne, quanto putriorem, & deterioris conditionis sanguinem è vena profluere viderimus, tanto majorem quantitatem effluere sinamus: quod plurimos facere observamus: tali enim existente sanguine, & pauciores subesse spiritus constat, & vires facillime solent collabascere. Even Galen and Avicen are alledged for it: Petrus C • stel. de abusu Phlebot. pag. 73. And it ought with less reason to be objected in England, because our Physicians generally (as likewise are the Germans) seem not so prodigal of the bloud of their Patients, as to make a Cacochymie, much less, a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or total corruption of the sanguineous mass to be the proper indication for bleeding: nay, most that hold Blood-letting in great diseases arising from Cacochymie, to be a necessary remedy, (not indicated by the depravation of the bloud, but violence of the disease;) they are cautious in the quantity which they take away, because in such an habit of body the strength of the patient is seldom great enough to bear much. Alex. Massaria Apolog. l. 11. disp. 11. c. 14. Out of which it is manifest, that what he sayes about the impurity of the bloud in the porringer, that 'tis an excuse or imposture used by the Galenists in defence of Phlebotomy: it is a fiction of his own, not made use of directly by any but the followers of Botallus: the rest will give him other reasons for their practice, than a Cacochymie alone, or total corruption of the mass of bloud.

A farther mistake it is in him, that he represents the Galenists as such pittiful fellows, that should not know but that each corruption of the bloud is incorrigible, and therefore let it out. It is true, that we do hold, that it is possible for the bloud to be so vitiated, as to be incorrigible, and that one may assoon hope to see the regress from a total privation, as it restored. This hath been observed in pestilential diseases sometimes, and in sphacelated parts: and perhaps I may be allowed to reckon as such, the bloud of that person in Fernelius, Fernel. Physiolog. l. 6. c. 7. which was universally coagulated in the veins; so as to be taken out as 'twere branches of coral: River. obs. communicatae à Pachequo, obs. 46. And that Woman's in the observations of Pachequus, whose bloud in a continual fever did issue out, upon Phlebotomy, as cold as Ice, or Snow: the like to which, in the spotted fever is taken notice of, as a fatal prognostick by Petrus à Castro. Petr. à Castro, de febre malign. pag. 90. If • lempius give me leave, I would reckon in putrid fevers, that bloud to be incorrigibly depraved, which doth not coagulate, and is destitute of its fibres, Fernel. Therapent. Univ. l. 2. c. 17. Sennert. de febr. l. 2. c. 1. since Fernelius and others esteem of such as an evident testimony of the highest putrefaction. It is also true, that we do hold, that where diseases are ordinarily, or frequently curable, yet by accident from the idio-syncrasie of the patient, or some other intervening cause, the bloud may be continued in such a vitiated estate, as to be incorrigibly corrupted, and yet its essential form not lost; as in case of Cancers, Hypochondriacal and Scorbutical distempers, Scirrhosities of the Liver, Spleen, and Mesentery, Leprosies, knotted Gout, calculous indispositions, &c. I might mention other cases, but they relate not to the present controversie, and I have already said enough to shew the ignorance of this Baconist. To come nearer to the main matter; It is true, that we do hold, that in many distempers, as in the Scurvey, putrid Fever, and some others, the mass of bloud is so putrified and corrupted, that even that which is termed more stricktly Blood, is depraved sundry wayes: for, if the vessels that generate and convey the Chyle, and the Chyle it self be corrupted, 'tis impossible but that which is produced and supplied daily out of the Chyle, should participate of it pravity, and so much the more in that they flow intimately commixed in the same Arteries and Veins: But that in such cases we hold the Blood to be so depraved, as to have lost its formal essence totally and irrecoverably, is most notoriously falle: and any man may see hence, that this Ignoramus understands not the Galenical way, but deserted it, before he had acquainted himself therewith. This he might have learned from Galen, in his Comment upon Aphor. 17. • . 2. We do hold that the blood and associated humours may come to a partial putrefaction, and yet be recovered again: and 'tis this recovery and redintegration that we design by our practice, and if we cannot effect it totally, yet that we aim at, is, to concoct the several humours, so that what there is of them that is alimentary, and agreeable to nature, may be mitified and retained, and the rest so digested, as that it may be with ease and safety ejected the body, and so the Mass of bloud regain its former lustre and amicableness: This being the grand intention of the received Method of Physick, 'tis one thing to debate Whether blood-letting, practiced according to Art, (for we are not otherwise concerned in the Quarrel) be a suitable proper means to atchieve our purposes? And another, to say, that we pierce poor mans skill, and rashly throw away the support of life, out of a vain apprehension, that it is totally corrupt, and depraved of its former being, and no wise capable of being retrograde. This cannot be said without an apparent injury unto us: We know the variety and fallaciousness of colours, and by our rules, can well conjecture how far the Humours are vitiated, what may be concocted in order to the nutriment and benefit of nature, and what maturated to a convenient ejectment; And we do utterly deny the consequence of this Argument, though we grant the Assumption: Viz.

If the bloud be of such a nature that it may be recovered to its pristine colour and vigour, without Phlebotomy, then ought not men to use Phlebotomy.

But the Bloud, like Mercury, may be polymorphised and changed into divers shapes, and at length be reduced to the same state and condition, as when it was in its primitive es • sence. Ergo.

The Assumption I can grant, but not where such a practitioner as G. T. is made use of. I doubt not but the followers of Erasistratus could effect it by their Fastings, Frictions, Bathes, and other remedies used by such judicious men: I grant, that robust nature doth daily produce such rectifications of the bloud, in many that make no use of a Physician: But as willing as I am to gratifie my Adversary, I should not yield thus much to Helmont, or such as practice with Arcana, and commanding Medicaments.

To the sequebe of the Major, I reply, that albeit that Nature may oftentimes do miracles, yet are not miracles to be presumed upon: It is possible for the sick to recover without any means, yet are means to be used; the omission thereof is imprudent, and criminal, but the use thereof (if the Physician be knowing and discreet) safe, and as secure as the condition of our mortality permits any thing to be: A few dayes or hours of the encreasing distemper will more impair the strength of the sick, than the loss of a little blood, which, in the condition it is, adds not to the vigour or nutriment of the diseased; the dammage will be easily repaired, and perhaps all this nicety will be to no purpose, for, after a multitude of vexatious (sometimes dangerous) symptomes, Nature may produce in the almost exhausted patient, a violent eruption of bloud, and thereby terminate that malady which might have been alleviated, or allayed before. Fluxus sanguinis largi ex naribus solvunt multa, Hippocr. Epid. sect. 1. l. 2. ut Heragorae. Non agnoscebant medici. The Bloud for which they are so sollicitous, Nature her self is not so careful to preserve it, but that frequently in the beginning and progress of diseases, she alleviates her self by discharging it out of the nose, and that in greater quantities of more florid blood than the Lancet would take away: This evacuation is of all the most facile, the most easie to be regulated by the Physician (since he can stop it when he will) and the most innocent in the beginning and increment of diseases.

Sanguinis eruptiones & haemorrhagiae hanc habent praerogativam prae aliis evacuationibus, Fienus de signis medicis, par. 2. c. 1. sect. 8. & Francise. Rubeu • Nocturn. exe • cit. in Histor. Medic. • xc • c. 6. p. 98, 99, 100. quod ipsae etiam in principio & in aliis temporibus, etiamsi non adsint signa bonae coctionis, possunt esse magis utiles, quam aliae evacuationes, quae • ere semper sunt malae, ex eo quod sanguis semper per apertas partes fluunt, & semper libere & commodum exire possit, nec eget praeparatione & concoctione, sicut alii humores, qui per alias evacuationes excerni debent.— In evacuatione, quae per venas apertas fit, nullam merito expectamus concoctionem; Prospe • Alpin. de praesag. vita & mo • te, l. 7. c. 2. & hinc Medici secta vena in morbis acutis in principio mittunt sanguinem; hinc & spontinae sanguinis vacuationes bonae erunt: Addatis, sanguinis eruptiones copiosas, nedum utiles fieri, propterea quod sanguis malus una excernatur, sed etiam quoniam ejusdem sanguinis evacuatio universum corpus refrigerat, caloremque transpirabilem, & corpus difflabile facit. Quare hac ratione excretiones sanguinis optimae erunt, quae in statu apparent, plene cocto existente morbo, sed neque ea, quae cum cruditatis signis fiunt, erunt plane abhorrendae & timidae. — In fine, that prudence which obligeth us to self-preservation, obligeth us to the most probable courses in order thereunto: and What can seem more rational, than that which NATVRE directs us unto, that whereby she so happily mitigates and concludes diseases, that which so many Ages have recommended unto us, and in the use whereof, not only Greece and Rome, but all Nations universally, as well • arbarous as Civil are agreed on?

And thus much shall suffice for an answer to his first Argument: I now proceed to the second.

p • 32 The Blood is the support of Life; and we are taught by Divine Writ, that in the Bloud, that Spiritus rubens is Life.

I answer, That the Scripture, in the places aimed at, cannot be understood literally, and properly: for then the words infer, that the Beasts have no other soul than the bloud, Deut. 22.23. onely be sure that thou eat not the bloud; for the b • oud is the soul, and thou mayest not eat the soul with the flesh. Thus it runs in the Original, though our Translation renders it Life. And so Levit. 17, 10, 14. in which last place 'tis said, that the bloud is the soul of all flesh. Nay, in Genesis c. 9. v. 5. Concerning man, 'tis said, The bloud of your souls will I require. It remains then, that deserting the literal sense, we fly to some that is Analogical: And hence it is that most Divines take the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 for Life. Thus Exod. 21.23. Thou shalt give life for life, is not incongruously rendred instead of Thou shalt give soul for soul. Thus the Civil Lawyers frequently stile Loss of Life by the phrase of Animae amissio. But however these passages may be popularly current, yet in Phylosophy and Physick, when we would speak distinctly, and argue firmly, 'tis not to be allowed of for Truth, that the Blood, or Spiritus rubens, (as our Helmontian most non-sensically terms: for, as great a Pyrotechnist as he would seem, 'tis past his Art to demonstrate, that it is a Spirit, or Chimically to educe a Spiritus rubens out of it) is Life: Scaliger de subtil. exercit. 10 • . sect. 5. Fernel. Phisiolog. l. 5. c. 16. for Life is nothing else but the union of the soul with, and its presence in the body: or, to declare it by its effects, 'tis the conservation of all those faculties and actions which are proper to the animated creature; as Death is the extinction of them. Out of which 'tis evident, that Blood is no more properly called Life, than 'tis possible for the Definition of Life to be acmodated to Blood: that is not at all. But since common discourse doth allow us often to fix the principal denomination upon the chief instruments; and that the Scripture explains it self, Levit. 17.11. and what my Adversary in one place calls the LIFE, in another, he terms it, the • rin • ipal sup • ort of Life: let us consider how far that is true: That the Bloud is not so much as a part of the body, Valies. 〈◊〉 . philos. c. 5. p. 102. Fe • n • l. Physiol • g. l. 2. c. 1. (but the Aliment thereof) is the assertion of most Authors; it is not continuous to the rest of the body, but floateth as Liquor in a vessel: and in vulgar speech, no man takes the loss of bloud for a mutilation, or dismembring: and there are sundry distempers and phaenomena, which conclude in favour of the spirits, (or what is Analagous to them) and the Nerves, to assert their pre-eminence above the Blood, and its Vessels: and whatever may be said concerning Generation, (which is very disputable) 'tis a certain mistake in our Helmontian, to make the Bloud the principal matter for sensation (whereas sanguine persons are not the greatest wits, and the senses are most quick in women during their lyings in, after a great effusion of bloud, as also in dying persons) or motion, which is not in paralytick members, though the Bloud flow unto them continually, as it was wont before. Plempius fundam. medic. l. 2. c. 1. I add, that there is not any convincing Argument to prove that the Bloud is animated: I confess the conjunction of the soul and Body, and operations consequent thereunto, are most mysterious unto me: and I think it no less true that our Life is a constant miracle, then that we are at first wonderfully framed: nor can I determine what particular use the soul makes of all the parts and ingredients of our humane bodies: But this appears unto us daily, that the conjunction betwixt the Soul and Blood, and the dependance of our Life thereon, is not so great, or intimate, as that upon the effusion of a little, no, nor of a great deal of the bloud, Death, or any debility, extraordinary and durable, should ensue unavoidably: and if it happen but sometimes, 'tis apparent thereby, that 'tis but accidental, and not a proper consequence of that effect: 'Tis manifest, that the operations of the Soul are not restrained to one determinate proportion of bloud in every body: nor to the same in any: albeit that there seem requisite in all Animals, that there be some bloud, Botallus de ••• gu. mi •• . • . 34. or what is equipollent thereunto: 'Tis also mani • est, that this Bloud, (for which some are so sollicitous) doth continually expend and waste it self in nutrition, (and that even the nourished parts are in a continualexhaustion) so that without supply, it would degenerate • nto choler, (except in those miraculous fasts) and diminish to little or nothing: as appears upon great fastings, and several diseases. 'Tis no less manifest, that upon great evacutions of bloud, by wounds, or otherwise, when the Bloud hath been so exhausted, that very little can be imagined to remain, yet in a few dayes the veins and arteries do fill again, Id ibid. c. 33. sect. 7, 8. & c. 35. and nature is so replenished and vigorated, that this lost bloud seems not only as good, in order to the functions of life, but better, in order to health and strength, since the production of this last (in the end of diseases) is accompanied with convalescence, whereas the precedent did not hinder the indisposition.

Out of what hath been said, the Answer to this Objection is facile: viz. The Blood is not so the seat and residence of the Soul, nor so absolutely necessary to Life (granting all that can be desired of us) as that some of it may not be let out, without present danger, or irreparable detriment: so that, if the motives for Phlebotomy be cogent, or so probable, as to render the Action prudential, no difficulty can arise from this scruple. It is written in Deut. 24.6. No man shall take the upper or nether milstone to pledge; for he taketh a man's life [or soul] to pledge. Here the milstone is called the life or soul of a man, as much, and as properly, as ever the Blood is any where else: But, though there be a prohibition for a man to deprive his poor neighbour thereof, as of the support of his Life, yet undoubtedly none was ever interdicted by virtue of this precept, to help the distressed Miller to pick and dress his Milstones.

His third Argument is this.

Moreover, one would think, p. 7. it should put a stop to their prodigal, profuse bleeding, if they did but consider, with what difficulty Nature brings this Solar Liquor to perfection, how many hazards of becoming spurious and abortive, it pusses through; how easily it is stained by an extraneous tincture; how often intermixed with something allogeneous and hostile to it; how many elaborate circulations, digestions, and refinings it undergoes, before it be throughly animated, and made fit for the right use of the immortal Soul.

One would imagine by this Objection, that the Generation of the Bloud, were as difficult a work, and required as much of sollicitude, as the Philosophers stone; and that the least errour would disappoint the process, and eject the poor soul out of its tenement and mansion. But there is not any such thing; he that considers the perpetual supply of Chyle, by the Ductus Thoracicus, and with how much ease it is transformed a great part into Blood, by the similar action of that which pre-existed in the veins, (together with the concurring aid of the Heart, and sanguiferous emunctory vessels; and the previous alterations in the stomach and intestines) will imagine neither the production of Bloud, nor the reparation of it, to be so tedious and hard a matter: Nor is it true, that the Bloud is so easily stained with hostile tinctures, since it is a liquor that is in perpetual depuration, and hath the convenience of so many out-lets to discharge it self by. Neither will every crudity, in the immature Chyle, or bloud, render the blood unfit for the use of the immortal soul: there is extraordinary, and unimaginable difference betwixt the bloud of one person and another, (as appears upon distillation, burning, and mixing it with other liquors) yet are all these within the latitude of Health, and with equal perfection, exercise the operations of Life: Nor doth every allogeneous mixture vitiate or deprave the bloud; for the Chyle, Bloud, and Flesh, retain some particles of the original food taken into the stomach: hence it is, that sheep fed with pease-straw (though as sat as others) yield a flesh differently tasted from other mutton: the like is to be observed in the feeding of other Animals generally: Nor is this more evident in other Animals, than 'tis in Men; for not to mention those Medicaments, which, by the alteration they make in the Vrine, do demonstrate they have passed along, and been once mixed with the bloud; as Cassia, Rhubarb, Annise-seeds, &c. Domin. de Marchettis, Anatom. c. 9. In fonticulis observavi, quod si praecedente die aliquis allium aut cepam comederit, pus quod in fonticulo est odorem allii aut cepae obtinebat: sanguis autem qui per fonticulum expurgatur, non nisi per venas expurgari potest; unde possumus dicere, quod sanguis acutum odorem detinere possit. The like phaenomenon is to be observed in wounds and ulcers, which feel detriment, according to the various food and drink of the patient.

Domin. de Marchettis; Anatom. c. 10. Paraus chirurg. l. 16. c. 49.

Simon Pauli de febt. malignis sect. 11.

Nay, in pleurisies, and other wounds, it hath been taken notice of, that the purulent matter hath discharged it self by the veins, (re-mixing with the bloud) into the intestines, and by urine. The Bloud of some persons in perfect health, hath been observed to stink worse than rotten eggs, even as it was issuing from the arm, upon Phlebotomy; yet when it was cold, it did not stink, nor seemed to differ from the best bloud, except that it was of a more beautiful red than is usual. I conclude therefore, that in this Argument many falsities are contained, and there is nothing of such • orce, as to deterr a prudent Physician, who understands the rules of his Art, and those cautions which are suggested to us in Phlebotomy, to let his Patient bloud, and emit some of this solar Liquor.

His fourth Argument.

They should never attempt,p. 89, 90. yea rather abhorr, to enervate in the least, by the Lancet, the strength, with its correlative bloud and spirits, without which there is no hopes of attaining a desired Cure. For it is a most established verity, taught by Hippocrates, that Naturae sunt morborum medicatrices, the most assured means of sanation, is to keep up the vital pillars, without which, all falls to ruine. So that Van Helmont is without controversie in the right, when he sayes, utcunque rem verteris, ignorantiae plenum est procurata debilitatu [anare velle. i.e. make the best you can thereof, It savours of gross ignorance, to assay to heal, by bringing one into a weak condition. And p. 84. de febr. Satis sit, satis sit Medico (saith the same Author) quod aeger alioquin inexcusabili debilitate labascat, per morbum, medias, inappetentias, inquietudines, dolores, anxietates, vigilias, sudores, &c. neque idcirco fidus auxiliator debet debilitatem addere debilitatibus; fraudulentum est sublevamen quod venae sectio affert; ejusque tam incertum est remedium quod nemo medentum hactenus ausit polliceri sanationem inde futuram. One would think it is enough, and too much, for the poor sick man to be brought low with the disease, fasting, want of appetite, restlesness, pains, anguish, watchings, sweatings; wherefore, in such a case, whosoever is a trusty supporter, ought in no wise to add weakness to weakness: all the succour the Lancet can afford is deceitful, and all the address thereby is of such uncertainty, that no Physician dare venture to make a promise of a perfect cure by this means, and to keep one from a relapse.

I must except against the authority of Van Helmont, in the case, as of a person whose credit is sufficiently taken off, by what I have alledged elsewhere: I must not be concluded, but by the judgment of

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 .

Arist. Ethic. l. 10. c. 9.

Io. Franc. Ripa, tract. de peste. c. 7. s • ct. 17.

Arist. l. 8. Phys. c. 3. t. 22. & 1 de ort. & inter. c. 3. t. 59.

understanding practitioners: and in Physick, I must not allow him to have been an intelligent person; and it is notorious, that he was a man of no practi • e, and consequently no fitting judge of the efficacy and inefficacy of Medicaments. It is a saying in the Civil Law • plus valet umbra experti senis, quam eloquentia juvenis: And those Philosophers, who would, upon certain prejudicate opinions, and pretences of reason, determine of Medicinal cases, are exploded even by Galen: nothing is firm in Physick, but what is confirmed by an happy experience: and 'tis an imbecillity of judgment (saith the great Stagirite) to desert experience, and adhere to reason. If Helmont was neither conversant in the Experiments of others, nor did himself experiment the inconveniences of Phlebotomy, what doth his Assertion or Negation signifie in the case? Besides, 'tis but a single testimony against the Experiments of judicious men in all Ages and Countries. As for his Reason, 'tis most infirm. We must not adde imbecillity to imbecillity: even this is notoriously false in Physick: for, by the same reason, we should not reduce them to a slender diet, no nor so much as sweat them; for after much sweating, every man feels himself weaker for the present; the same may be said of vomits and Emeto cathurties (so much commended by my Adversary) that, during their operation, they add to the imbecillity and sickness of the Patient: upon this reason, none might scarifie a Gangrene, cut of the sphacelated part, or make use of several vexatious operations in chirurgery. Besides, who would not allow us to create him a little trouble or weakness, (easie to be repaired) thereby to recover him from a greater evil? there are some times when the lesser of evils becomes eligible, and puts on the qualification of being Good: Steph. Roderic. Castrens. quae ex quib. l. 4. c. 7, 8. there are some times when we are directed to cure one distemper by introducing another. But to proceed; I do deny that Nature is debilitated by bleeding in diseases, if the rules of our Art be observed: for, we daily see, that after bleeding, Nature doth with more ease and speed discharge her self of the disease; and usually thereupon ensues signs of concoction in the urine, a pronity to sweat, and an inclination to solubility of body, and a more strong pulse: which, as they are our daily observation, so they do demonstrate, that Nature is not weakned thereby. Heretofore it was usual, after consideration of all due circumstances, to let the sick bleed, even till he swooned away: and that with very good success, in those Fevers called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Iodoc. Lommius de curand. • ebr. conti • . c. 3. Sub quo casu Hippocrates atque Galenus veniti non sunt, donec animus deficeret, semel detrahere sanguinem. Quam ipsi rem ratione & experientia ducti tentaverunt. Profusa namque hac inanitione primum homo in contrarium agitur statum, celerrime ex de fectu animi refrigeratus: With this opinion of J. Lommius, doth Citesius ag • e • , de ufu Phleb • t • m. c. 4. post autem alvus subinde prorumpit, vel bilis ubertim evenitur, vel certe copiosis sudoribus corpus perfunditur, atque hinc alios protinus contingit convalescere; alios plurimum juvari. This they practiced in the beginning of such Fevers, and the practice did so far ennoble Galen, that 'twas proverbially said of him, that He stabbed Fevers. He relates of himself, that he took away at once from a Patient six pound of blood, and presently put an end to the Fever, the party not finding any diminution of his natural strength thereupon. Galen. de sang. miss. c. 14. But this kind of excessive Phlebotomy hath been long discontinued by Physicians, not that they could absolutely condemn it, but out of cautiousness, lest the ill success afterwards should be imputed unto them: yet some Countrey-surgeons do still continue it. I knew one in Warwickshire, who would, in the beginning of any Fever, bleed the Patient thirty or forty ounces, or more, in case he did not fanit: and, really, with great success in rustick bodies. A Captain in the Parliament-Army assured me, that when the spotted fever was in the Camp, their Chirurgeon did, in the beginning of the distemper, bleed them till they fainted; then put them to bed, giving them a good Cordial, so they sweat, and recovered presently. He himself was served so; the Chirurgeon bled him in the open field, the bloud fell on the ground, to the quantity (as he guessed) of a quart, when a Lipothimy approached, he put him to bed, and giving him a Cordial, he fell into a sweat, and was recovered perfectly in very few dayes. There is no doubt but the practice was justifiable in men of a convenient habit of body to bear it, and where neither the climate, (which Cite •• us de usu P • leb •• om. c. 5. Rolfinc. meth. medic. spec. c. 4. sect. 2. c. 11. o • tentimes is particularly repugnant to large Phlebotomy) nor idiosyncrasie, (which Rolfinc. ubi supra. sometimes happens) or evil diet preceeding, or the particular malignity of the venenate disease, nor the prejudicate opinion of the people do contraindicate. It hath authority from Hippocrates, Galen, Avicenna, and many others: Nature doth seem to direct us thereunto, by her own excessive evacuations in that kind, by which diseases are frequently acted: Dilect. Lusit • n • de venae sectione cap. 14. Artic. • . and no evacuation is to be accounted immoderate, which is beneficial. By this, and expurgation, even to Lipothymy, in the first beginning of several diseases, men were cured presently, nor did the maladies proceed to those times which in the usual method they make their progress through. In my Exercitations against Dr. Sydenham (as yet unfinished) I have entreated largely of the several methods of curing, which I shall not now transcribe. As for that way of bleeding which is now generally in use (though practised with a great latitude in several Countries, and by several Physicians in the same Countrey) it is most manifest that if due circumstances be regarded, and all other medicaments dexterously administred, it is so far from debilitating Nature, that it adds to its strength, mitigateth the present symptomes, prevents the violence of the future, and concocteth the disease apparently. I will not undertake to justifie the demeanour of each particular Physician, any more than I will answer for their intellectuals and skill in Physick: It is not the reading of Sennertus and Riverius, with a little knowledge of the new discoveries in Anatomy, and a few Canting terms about Fermentation, texture of bodies, or such like knick-knacks and Conundrums of the novel Philosophers which accomplish a man for practice: These men will never come to be ranked with Vallesius, Mercatus, Fernelius, Dure • us, Rondeletius, Massarius, Septalius, Claudinus • Crato, or Rulandus. If Experience be our Guide, le • us inform our selves by the Histories of such as they have given us of Epidemical and pestilential diseases, and of particular cases, as also the cures, and following them let us come to practise, and, not deserting our own reason, let us be cautioned by them: These others for want of judgment to consider each circumstance cannot make an Experiment, G. Fletcher's History of Russi • , c. 28. p. 279. or relate it: whilest they extenuate the credit of the ancient and modern Physicians that are not Innovators, (though more observing and experimental than themselves) they do it only to excuse their ignorance in that kind of Learning, and whatever they have of the Lord Bacon • they have this of the Russe in them, that they neither believe any thing that another man speaketh, nor speak any thing themselves worthy to be believed. For such as these, or any else that do not practise Phlebotomy according to the rules of Art, I cannot make any Apology: nor do I think that their errours ought to extend so far as to disparage all Physicians who demean themselves prudently and discretely: Notwithstanding all our care, some Patients will dye; no Physician can secure all men from what their frail condition hath subjected them unto: If our Method and Medicaments be such as the general rules of Medicine, and an Experience generally happy do warrant,P. Z • cchias Qu. Medico legal: l. 9. consil. 40. 'tis as much as can be expected from us; and the Imperial Laws allow of this defence, though they punish the immethodical and novel Experimentators, and the Ignorant. Sicut Medico imputari eventus mortalitatis non debet, Vide. I. Franc. Ripio tract. de pes • e, c. 7. §. 64, 65, 78, • 04 • ita quod per imperitiam commisit, imputari ei debet: pretextu enim humanae fragilitatis delictum decipientis in periculo hominis innoxium esse non debet.

To conclude this Argument, I say, that although it often happens that diseases are cured by sole Phlebotomy: Evenit ut saepius missio sanguinis sola curationem perficiat—Misso sanguine saepe sponte naturae expurg • tur corpus alui profluvio, Valles. Meth. Med. l. 2. c. 3. vomitu, aut sudore succedente—Yet no wise Artist will rely upon that alone, but with the addition of other auxiliary medicaments: Herein Spain and France are pretty well agreed:Vide Riolon. de circulat. Sanguin. c. xx. Vallis. meth, medend. l. 4. c. • . And as no wise man will undertake to cure by bleeding alone; so it is most foolishly done of our Helmontian to demand, or expect it, as he doth here.

I come now to his fifth Argument.

The means to let out bad blood without removing the efficient cause thereof,Pag. 105, 106. is no direct method of healing.

Now Phlebotomy lets out bad blood without removing the efficient cause thereof. Ergo, Phlebotomy is no direct Method of healing.

The Major is proved thus: Whatsoever suffers the cause to remain, can never remove the effect: For manente causa manet effectus.

Now Phlebotomy suffers the cause to remain, Ergo, it can never remove the effect.

The Minor is made good by frequent experience: If the cause of bad blood were cut off, the Feaver or Scorbute depending (according to Dr. Willis) upon the degeneration, Sal and Sulph. therein, would quickly cease: but we plainly see the contrary; for after the veins are much depleted, the disease becomes more truculent, and oftentimes mortal; which could never be if this depraved blood were any other than a product or an effect of an essential morbisick cause. The same agent which in sanity sanguifies regularly without any considerable defection, in sickness becomes exorbitant, sending out a vitious juyce into all parts: be it good or bad, it still springs from a root, which continually feeds the branches: so that it cannot be other than great folly and wrong to the Patient, to let out that juyce, though it seem never so corrupt, when another of the like condition must needs enter into its place, derived from the shop the duumvirate, where it first receives a previous rudiment, which ought in all reason rather to be reformed, than to give vent to those easily evanid particles inseparably joyned with this ruddy liquor, how ill soever represented. If all contained in the reins (supposed to be corrupt) were discharged, yet as long as the ferments principally of the first and sixth digestion deviate from their right scope,He should rather have regarded the • co • d then sixth digestion. there would in a short space be a succedaneous repletion of a matter equally contemptible, yea worse, in respect of an enervation of strength, than before.

This Argument, though our Helmontian rely so much upon it, is a pure Paralogisme.

First, He supposeth that we use Phlebotomy in all diseases, as a direct method of healing: which is not true, except in some maladies, as Apoplexies, Squinancies, Haemorraghies or great eruptions of blood, some Atrophies, and sometimes in Feavers: in which 'tis frequent with us, to rely solely or principally upon Phlebotomy: yet even here we would think it very improper to admit of our Phlebotomy to be stiled our direct Method o • curing, because it is but a part of our Method, which will include, if not some other prescriptions, yet at least dyet. In many cases we use Phlebotomy as one part of our Method, but not as the principal: as when we use it antecedently to other remedies Pharmaceutical and dietetical, to prepare way for, or facilitate their happy operation. I am not now to write Institutions in Physick for the documentising of this Disciple of my Lord Bacon, 'tis enough that he may learn any where almost (as in Vallesius, Mercatus, Claudinus, and Plempius) that we propose more than one scope to our selves in Blood-letting; neither is it ever (except in diseases arising from a partial or total Plethora) our direct method of healing: If it be but a part and necessary or useful part thereof, we are sufficiently justified. Thus his Major is enervated: for if he would have opposed the modern practise, he ought to have urged it thus.

The means used to let out bad blood without removing the efficient cause thereof, is no direct Method of healing, nor an useful or necessary part thereof.

This is manifestly false, as I shall shew anon. As to his Minor, That Phlebotomy lets out bad bloud without removing the efficient cause thereof. This would the Ancients deny, who bled their Patients in many cases until they swooned or fainted, with great success • and we must say it is not absolutely true, there being no Practitioner (I believe) but hath seen some cases in which sole Phlebotomy hath effected the cure: he may see many Instances of this in Botallus, and that in diseases where the body was undoubtedly cacochymical: I have seen Agues tertian and anomalous perfectly cured with once bleeding in women with child: and in children I have seen some Atrophies so cured, that the principal cause of their recovery was to be attributed to their Bleeding: the like I have observed in several Chronical diseases, even in inveterate quartanes: as also others have done: nor is there any thing more common almost in our Cases, than the relation of several diseases absolutely cured by single Phlebotomy; which I shall not transcribe here, but in my large discourse of Phlebotomy (in Latine) I intend to represent all such cases at large, with their circumstances, and the History of Phl • botomy with all that variety of success, which judicious Practitioners relate of it in several diseases, and persons. I add now, that No man can be an accomplished practitioner who is not versed in the History of Diseases, and particular cures: for the general rules and directions make no more a Physician, than such a knowledge in Law would do a Lawyer; the res judicatae import more with us than they do in Law • cases; and as Reports of the Iudges in special cases must be known by a compleat Lawyer, so must our Book-cases be our presidents, and regulate our practise. Brune Se •••• lius de mor •• incurabit, p • 57 • Duobus enim tanquam cruribus innititur Medicina, neque solis theoreticis rationibus contenta, insuper etiam practicas experientias particularium requirit, & indefessam ad singulos casus intentionem.

Thus is his Minor false, as was his other Proposition: and it should have run thus. But Phlebotomy lets out the bad blood without removing the efficient cause thereof, or conducing thereunto.

But he proceeds to defend the Minor thus. If the Cause of bad blood were removed, then would the effect cease: but oftentimes we see that notwithstanding such a depletion the disease continues, and if it be not mortal, yet it becomes more truculent. Here he commits the same errour that before, expecting a greater effect from Phlebotomy than we propose generally to our selves in it: we do it sometimes for revulsion of the matter flowing to any part, as in some Pleurisies, Squinancies, the Colick Bilious, and Rheumatismes, &c. wherein we never rely solely upon bleeding, and though oftentimes the effect transcend our expectation, yet do we not presume upon it. Sometimes we let blood for prevention of future diseases, as in great contusions and wounds: Sometimes we let blood only to prepare way for future Pharmacy, Valle • . meth. medend. l. 2. c. 3. Ita plerumque in febribus mittitur sanguis, qui non superat naturalem mensuram, neque simpliciter, neque in hoc homine, sed quia nisi mittatur, ob febrilem calorem, qui adest, & succorum putrescentium mistionem, corrumperetur, ac fortasse malignè; & cutis rarefactioni, & ventilationi, & vasorum relaxationi ad futuram expurgationem necessari • , impedimento esset. Itaque mittitur, non quia multa subest copia, sed quia ea quae subest, tunc est inutilis, & noxia, ac proinde, facultate ferente deponenda, etsi causa morbi non inclinet ad ideam sanguinis, modo non ab ea plurimum evariet, i. e. Thus in feavers we usually let blood, not that the blood abounds above its due proportion, either in general, or in reference to this or that individual; but because the blood which flows in the veins is infected with a feavourish heat, and would be corrupted thereupon, and by reason of the intermixed humours now inclined to putrefaction, and that perhaps joyned with malignity, for the prevention thereof, and least that plenitude and depravation of the Blood should hinder that transpiration in the habit of the body, ventilation of the blood, and laxity in the vessels, which is requisite for the subsequent purge, do we use Phlebotomy: not imagining that there is any superfluous abundance of blood, but that there is then in the body some that may well be spared, and which, if the Patient hath strength to bear it, may with prudence be let out to prevent so great dangers as are imminent, and to secure unto us the good effect of the subsequent Physick. And if the disease do sometimes encrease upon Phlebotomy, it behoveth wise persons to distinguish whether those symptomes happen by reason of bleeding, or only succeed it in course, the disease being in its increment: for this makes a great difference in the case: as also whether amidst those symptomes (which are in due course most violent in the progress and state of the disease; whereas we bleed usually in the beginning only) there be not some that yield signs of concoction and melioration, which if they do, as we may justly attribute those hopeful consequences in part to Phlebotomy, so we need not be amazed at the present truculency of the disease; which affrights none but the ignorant: If notwithstanding all our care, and due administration of Medicaments according to Art, the Patient do dye, yet is neither Phlebotomy nor the other Physick to be blamed, but we ought rather to reflect upon Physick, that 'tis a conjectural skill in the most knowing men, and that we are not as Gods to inspect into the bowels and secret causes of diseases, that besides the special judgment of God upon particular persons, all diseases are not curable in all individuals, either by reason of the variety of dis • empers complicated, which interfere with and contra-indicate one to the other, or for some unknown idiosyncrasy, or other intervening cause which defeats our Methods, as well as it disappoints the Arcanum of Pepper-drops. I must here take an occasion to remind this Helmontian, that he doth ill to disparage Phlebotomy, by reason that after it there may follow some truculent Symptomes, and yet to reject that imputation where his Dietetical rules are in dispute.P. 168, 169 • Volles. in Hippocr. de victu in morb. anot. l. 3. When he gives his vinous and spirituous liquors in Feavers (a practise not peculiar to the Helmontians, but allowed, with regard to due circumstances, by Hippocrates not only in diaries but acute-feavers: so Galen would have told this Ignoramus) if any seemingly frightful Symptomes appear, as extraordinary heat, an inquietude, a little raving, a swerving from right reason, the Patient must not be startled in a vulgar manner, but be satisfied that these are but the effects or fruits of an Hormetick motion in the Spirits excited and increased by good liquors, easily united with them for the routing and pu • ting to flight every way whatsoever doth disturb its vital government. — Though Hippocrates say it is good in all diseases, that the Patient retain his senses; though he reckon inquietude and restlessness in the sick amongst evil signs, yet our Helmontian dissents from him whatever time of the disease it be, and whatsoever other circumstances attend thereon: • . 169. For oftentimes madness, deviation from the right understanding, a Lethargical or sleepy disposition suddenly break forth. Nihil est quod tam magnifice prodest quod non aliquo ex modo obest. What matters it, if the heat be magnified (besides the main purpose) to some small trouble, if ten times greater benefit accrue to the sick. It is impossible any Physician should perform his duty as he ought, if he boggle at the foppery of heat and cold, meerly momentany and transient, often deluding our senses. Surely he that is thus negligent of the Animal faculty in its principal operations, may bear with a pitiful Galenist for not regarding much the loco-motive strength, whilst he is as sollicitous as any Helmontian to support the vitals: and let any one judge which is most likely to impair the vital faculty, a little blood-letting duly administred, or such an increase of the feavourish heat, restlessness, deliriums, phrensies, lethargies, as our Author here despiseth.

I must not yet dismiss him: not that I intend to laugh at his six-fold digestion (he might as well make a dosen of digestions) but it is necessary that I tell him that the production of good or evil blood doth alwayes depend upon one root that feeds the branches: for 'tis possible that the stomack, and pancreatick, or bilious mixtures in the guts may not be faultless, and yet the blood of the Patient either not vitiated, the errors of the first concoction being amended by the primigenial sanguifying Blood (for 'tis the Blood in the vessels which principally sanguifies) or if it be depraved, Ballonius Epidem. & ephemerid. l. 1. p. 101. yet not so as to generate any disease, or abbreviate the life: for cacochymical persons with a little can live more long, and more free from diseases than those of a purer and more generous blood: Nor is it less true that oftentimes it happens that the blood is infected with recrementitious, heterogeneous and noxious mixtures from obstruction of the pores, or other occasional causes, wherein the stomach and vitals (otherwise sound and vegete) are only oppressed and distempered by accident, some of those impure humours being discharged upon them: and in these cases repeated Phlebotomy alone may cure:Vide Riolan. de circulat. sang. c. xx. If the credit of Botallus will not satisfie him herein, let him believe his beloved Hippocrates, a man who did extraordinarily practise blood-letting, so as that the French do impatronise him to their Phle • otomy; he tells us this story. A certain man amongst the Oeniada was sick when he was fasting, Hippocrat. Epidem. l. 5. c. 11 • 6. he felt as it were a great suction in his stomach, and a violent pain: and after he had eaten any meat, as it digested, his pains returned, He grew very tabid, and wasted away in his body; his food yielding him no sustenance, but what he took came away in ill-concocted and adust stools. But when he had newly taken any sustenance, at that instant he felt none of that vexatious pain and suction: He took for it all manner of Physick, both emeretics and catharti • s; but without any alleviation. But being let blood alternately in each arm (or hand) till he had none left in his body [that was vitious] he amended upon it,

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 .

See Ant • n. Benivenius his medicinal observa • . c. 44.

and was perfectly cured. — Read but that case you that are so timorous, with the Comment of Van der Linden in his Selecta Medica c. xiii. and tell me if upon Phlebotomy as ill blood alwayes succeed as is let out. I could add more parallel stories: But to demonstrate unto this Pyrotechnist that single Phlebotomy will amend and inrich the mass of Blood, I propose this case, An ancient Gentlewoman of a very strong and corpulent habit of body, but frequently troubled with hysterical and hypochondriacal vapours, was taken with a violent catarrh upon her stomach, together with great pains in her right and left hypochondria, as if the liver and spleen had been tumified: sometimes she complained of an insupportable acidity in her stomach, and sometimes a saline humour molested her: Sometimes she fell into cold clammy sweats, sometimes her sweats were so hot that she complained as if her skin were burnt: and even when her stomach felt any alleviation, she complained of a burning fire as it were in her bowels near and in the region of her liver: a perpetual sputation did follow her. I being sent for, after several Medicaments prescribed methodically, but with little or no alleviation, I proposed earnestly that she should be let blood, notwithstanding she were above sixty years old: I took away eight ounces or more: She found immediate alleviation: there seeming no default in the blood or serum, I burned the blood in an arched fire, it came to ignition, but flamed not at all: but crackled like Bay-salt, and after some while a sudden eruption of ventosity made such a noise as equalled the cracking of a Chesnut in the fire: She took a stomack-powder of Ivory, Pearl, Crabs-eyes, &c. and was pretty well for three or four dayes, but upon a small fright relapsed: I bled her again as before, and in that short time (in which she had taken very little sustenance; but behold this blood (which looked no better than the other) did burn with a vivid and lasting flame as well as any I ever tryed in my life, and without any sign of flatulency: She recovered presently after with some further Medicaments, but not so as to be perfectly well at stomach of a long time. I doubt not but if others would try that way of burning blood, they would soon be convinced the Phlebotomy makes a great alteration therein.

But I proceed to his other Argument.

This is taken out of Van Helmont, p. 107, 103. whose Latine words I shall not transcribe now, but only the English.

Let them make it appear if this do not imply a contradiction, that a Feaver hath the property to pollute the blood, and that this property can be taken away a posteriori, by a posterous manner, to wit, by withdrawing what is putrified. For if first the fouler blood be let out, they open a vein again: all this while they overthrow and confound the strength, and so thereby wholly disappoint a Crisis. But suppose sometimes a fresh ruddy blood run out, they presently cry as cock-sure, that a whole troop of diseases is cut off at the first dash, as if the resting place of the Feaver did only extend from the heart to the bending of the arm, and the good blood did take up its abode about the liver.

This Argument proceeds upon a most gross falshood in that part of it, where we are supposed to place such a value upon the colour of the blood as by the goodness or ruddiness thereof we should esteem our selves as cock-sure that a whole troop of diseases is cut off at the first dash: whereas no intelligent Physician ever thought so: Ballonius Epidem, l. 2. p. 191 for we do say that the blood of all men is not alike, neither as to colour nor consistence naturally: and therefore in diseases we do not expect to see such, nor intend to make any alteration to such a degree as transcends the natural estate of the body: for 'tis our business to preserve each man his natural habit, be it bilious, melancholy, or phlegmatick. We do also say that in diseases the blood may be corrupted in its substance and vitiated, and yet the colour amended, or not altered. Ballonius Epidem. l. 2. p. 192 Saepe ad speciem & visum purus est sanguis, qui alioqui 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 malus est: ut contra impurus cernitur specie, qui non ita 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 malus est.— And Iacob. Thevart his Scholiast doth observe, that several times in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 sanguis laudabilis ipsa sectione apparet, Ballon. Epid. l. 2. p. 167. & qualitatibus alienis praeditus est, est enim acriusculus & biliosus nimis. Nay we are so far indefinitely from pronouncing a cure upon the ruddy colour of the blood, that in malignant Feavers we make a quite contrary prognostick. Petrus a Castro de febre malig. puncticul. p. 90. Pessimum signum est [in febre maligna puncticulari] & timoris plenum, cum sanguis v • na scissa extrabitur, si purus, rubicundus, & inculpatus educatur, venenositatem superare indicium est, aut putredinem in penitioribus cordis latitare. In meipso olim observarem; nam ter per hanc febrem misso sanguine, nulla prorsus nota putredinis apparebat, alii • signis immani ferocitate saevientibus. The same is asserted and illustrated by fatal instances in Simon Pauli, Simon Pauli digress. de febr. malign. • . 12.14. which it would be too long to transcribe here. Having demonstrated unto him these errors, I say further that we do not hold the blood to be putrified in all Feavers, as in Diaries, nor (many of us) in intermittent: not to mention others: and in those Feavers wherein 'tis said the Blood doth putrifie, we do let blood often to prevent putrefaction, and not alwayes to cure it by Phlebotomy: and we do it in order to cure the putrefaction, we do not pretend to emit all the putrified blood thereby, but only to alleviate nature of a part thereof, that so she may better overcome the rest; especially being assisted by other Medicaments. So that the whole assertion is false, if it import that any intelligent Physician designs to cure a putrid Feaver solely and directly by letting out the putrid blood by repeated venae-section. I will not deny but some in France and Spain have gone about to do it, but the practise is generally condemned by Physicians of the best repute, and therefore ought no more to be charged on us, especially in England,

Valles. meth. medend. l. 4. c. 2.

Castell •• de abusu venae-section. p. 60.

then the miscarriages of any bold Experimentor, or Baconical practitioner at London upon the Colledge of Physicians. This insolent Disciple of my Lord Bacon understands not the rudiments of our Physick, nor knows what we aim at in the use of Phlebotomy, there being sundry occasions why we use it, and sundry effects what we expect from it. Neither is he less deceived in saying that Phlebotomy (duly administred) overthrows the strength of the Patient (I mean that strength which is necessary to the concoction of the disease) and so thereby wholly disappoints the Crisis. For it is manifest that by those profuse Phlebotomies of the Ancients the Crises were accelerated: and in ours promoted. This is not only manifest out of Hippocrates and Galen, but confirmed unto us by the certain experience of Forrestus, Forrest. de sebre l. 12. in Scholio • and those learned Florentine Physicians who composed the Academy there for the renewing of the Hippocratical and Galenical Method in opposition to the most prevalent Avicennists. Novae Acad. Florentinae opuscula adv. Avice •• . p. 43, & p. 55. Nos igitur Galeno sisi (quoniam sic conducit magis, dum vires ferant) sanguinem misimus plurimum, nam bilibre pondus & trilibre in acutis febribus: aut magnis aliis morbis superavimus; atque id non nodo impune, sed & tanta aegrorum tolerantia, ut nil supra eligi potuerit.— Quam rem abunde nobiscum experientia nosti (ut nos quoque aliquantisper experientiam oftentemus) ut qui praeter caetera,Ibid. p. 99. quorum Paulo ante mentio fuit, & venae qu • que sectione abunde usi sumus, atque id citra discrimen: quin et exactam illam vivend • formulam, veteribus quidem familiorem, neotericis vero ne nomine quidem ipso notam, instituimus. Quo factum est, ut jam crises multae appareant, ac velut novus naturae ordo, aegris faelicissime faveat: Cum antehac vel pharmacis agitata, velintempestivo victu impedita, nullas ostenderet, aut admodum raras, easque non nisi in rusticis atque infima plebe, qui nec pharmacorum multitudine, neque ciborum aut potionum, fa • igari, aut impediri quirent. I have more willingly cited this passage because the renown of that Academy was such that it gave a check to the grandieur and pr • v • lence of the Arabian Method, and the truth of what they say cannot be questioned by any that knows the persons, and the revolution they brought about in Europe: and hence we may learn the reason of that difference which seems frequently to occur betwixt the ancient diseases and their critical motions and terminations, and what we generally find: It ariseth not from any such great change in the nature and types of maladies, as some have ignorantly writ of late: nor as this Bacon-face talks, because we reiterate moderate Phlebotomy: but because we do not follow at all the Method of Hippocrates and Galen in the curing of diseases: However we pass for Galenists and Hippocratical Physicians, yet in truth we are not such: our practise is made up most out of the Arabian Method, and Medicaments, and is a mixture of the Grecian and Sarracenical Physick, together with those accessionals which improved Chymistry hath introduced:P. Castell •• de abusu Phlebotom. p 6, 7. and since we disturb Nature with our vomits and minoratives in the beginning, and neither bleed, dyet or otherwise Physick our Patients according to the ancient prescriptions, do we wonder to see another face and issue of maladies than was heretofore? Or, doth not he rather deserve to be wonder'd at, that should expect in so different circumstances for resembling effects? I believe our Helmontian with his Emeto-cathartis, and exquisite Arcana (so far transcending all the shop-medicaments, or received Chymical preparations) doth see as few Crises as any Phlebotomist: and may not I then retort upon him, that he by his practise wholly disappoints a Crisis? Nay, doth not he tell us, that in his way? there will be no need to stand gaping for a crisis, p. 101. sith that may be anticipated, and all secured before that time, if there be a regular procession: And may not the present Galenists justifie themselves in the same manner, since they can better warrant their process and Medicaments; by a longer succession of Experiments happily made by judicious men, then this ignorant Helmontian Innovator?

Another Argument of his is this.

If it be so that striking a vein often in a long tedious disease, p. 110. is a preparatory for a sharp Feaver, as Doctor Willis and I both herein jump right in our observation: then am I certain that Phlebotomy repeated in an acute sickness, is a door set open and an in-let for a long infirmity, so that this mode of defalcating the vigour of the Spirits doth for the most part (as I have strictly heeded many years) disarm and plunder Nature in such sort that it cannot resist the Assaults of every petty infirmity, witness those multitudes who after sharp conflicts fall either into relapses, or Agues, Scorbute, Dropsies, Consumptions, Atrophy, Jaundise, Asthmaes, &c. which might be easily prevented, if a mature regular course were taken to give convenient Emeto-cathartics, Analeptics, Diaphoretics, which safely and speedily cleanse the Stomach, keep up the strength and breath, that we need not fear any mischief from this late invention, Redundance of Sulphur, or Salt in the blood, no more than choler, phlegm, and melancholy in the Ancients.

p. 108.The observation of Doctor Willis is this: de febr. p. 75. Prae caeteris vero observatione constat, quod crebra sanguinis missio Homines febri aptiore: reddat. i. e. Now above all, it is certainly known according to observation, that often bleeding makes men more apt to fall into a Feaver: Again he follows it close. Hinc • it ut qui crebro mittunt sanguinem, non tantum in febres proclives sint, verum etiam pinguescere soleant propter cruorem succo Sulphureo plus impregnatum: i. e. Hence it comes to pass, that they who often breath a vein, are not only prone to fall into Feavers, but also are wont to grow fat by reason the blood is full of Sulphur. In another place to this purpose he drives it home. Qui sanguinem habent sole volatilisato bene saturatum ij sunt minus febribus obnoxii: hinc etiam qui saepius sanguinem emittunt ad febres aptiores sunt. They whose blood abounds with volatile Salt, are not subject unto Feavers: for this cause, they that use Phlebotomy often are more liable to Feavers.

p. 109. G. T. understands not what a procatarctick cause is: it is here a causa 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 .From hence—G. T. forms this Epilogisme. Well then the Doctor and I agree thus far in the main, that frequent bleeding procures Feavours; which is sufficient to back my Assertion, that Phlebotomy is no good method of healing, sith it is plainly a procatarctick cause of Feavers. For whatsoever means exhausting the strength (as I can demonstrate this course doth, more or less, sensibly or insensibly) inviting or making way for Feavers, instead of preventing of them, is not to be approved of or allowed in curing the Scurvey or other diseases: unless we do act like Tinkers, some whereof are reported to amend one hole and make another: for how can it possibly consist with the honour and credit of a Physician, quem creavit Altissimus, to go about to correct the blood by often letting it out in a Chronick disease, and likewise withall to usher in, or as it were to be a Pander to the introduction of an Acute feaver, which in a short space dissipates that strength which this Phlebotomical harbinger hath in part worsted?

In this Argument there are so many defaults (which are obvious to be seen) that I must recommend again to these Baconical Philosophers, a Caution I have more than once given them; which is to omit in all their discourses those vexatious coujunctions, Causals and Illatives: 'Tis meer pedantry for them to be tyed up by such particles, the idle foppery of Grammarians, and Logicians, and men of common sense. The Reason, if reduced to form, runs thus.

That which inclines unto a Feaver is not a proper remedy in a Feaver. But frequent blood-letting inclines to Feavers. Ergo.

The Major is false every way, whether it be supposed that Phlebotomy produce such an effect per se and directly; or by accident, and only in some persons, in some circumstances. For were it true that Phlebotomy did directly and wheresoever it is used introduce a Feaver, yet it may so happen that a Feaver may be expedient to some Patients for the prevention of greater evils, and sometiems for the curing of them: and in these cases 'tis as much prudence in a Physician to acquiesce in, or run the fortuitous hazard of a lesser or less dangerous evil, as 'tis for States-men in the Body politick. Nature doth often cure one disease by introducing another: and commuting the more dangerous into another of lesser hazard: as any intelligent Physician knows, who understands the Metaptosis and Metastasis of diseases. I am not obliged to read to these Disciples of my Lord Bacon a course of Medicine. Vide Steph. Roder. Castren: Ou • e ex q̄uibus. V • lles. in Epidem. l. 4. p: 448. in historia Alcippi. & ibid. p. 401. in hist. femulae emptitiae. Hieremias Thriverius Brachelius in lib 4. Aphor. 57. There is an Aphorisme of Hippocrates to this purpose. Quia convulsione ant distentione nervorum tenetur, febre superveniente liberatur. Upon which words Hieremias Thriverius doth thus comment. Alio modo febris convulsionem tollit ex plenitudine, alio rursum modo distentionem: convulsionem enim curat, quia plenitudinem discutit; distentionem vero quia insigniter universum corpus incalefacit: forte etiam distentio convulsionis genus nescit. Quicquid autem sit, utrique febris confert, ac potissimum diaria, imo & putrida minus periculi affert, quam ipsa distentio. Frustra ergo conflictantur in ea questione Neoterici, an putridam febrem convenit excitare in convulsione ex plenitudine, V • lle • . controvers. Medic. l. 8 c. x. Hieron. Rubeus in C. Celsum. l. 5. sect. 4 aut flatulento tumo • e. Which that it may be lawfully and prudentially done (but not by every fool) is a judged case amongst us: and were it not lawful, the Argument would by a parity of reason extend to several operations in Chirurgery. It is the judgment of Celsus long ago, with which I conclude. Sed est circumspecti quoque hominis, & novare interdum, & augere morbum, C. Celsus de Medicina l. 3. c. 9. & febres accendere; quia curationem, ubi id, quod est, non recipit, potest recipere id quod fu • urum est.

The Major being thus false in that sense which was most pertinent to his purpose: 'tis most ridiculous in the other: For who will not immediately laugh at him that should thus determine? That which may in some persons, and in some circumstances incline unto a Fe • ver, is never the proper remedy of • Feaver? And how can this Bacon-face upbraid us herewith, who doth himself prescribe to his Patients in Feavers the most generous liquors of the subtilest smack, p. 169. exhibited largely, without insisting upon the nicety of any danger from heating? and yet his Sack and other generous liquors may ingender Feavers, and other distempers in the healthy. In fine, Whoever rejected the use of a thing for the abuse, or condemned peremptorily any cause for accidental inconveniencies following thereon, but such a Dulman as this Helmontian, and his brethren the disciples of my Lord Verulam.

'To the Minor I reply: that for the observations made by this insipid pretender to Pyrotechny, I regard them not at all: he hath not judgment enough to make one. Novae Acad. Florent. opuscul. p. 21. Ego vero sicuti experientiam multi facio, dummodo commodum expertorem nacta sit: Ita si unicuique qui se expertum dicat temere credidero, ridiculus profecto habear: ut qui & fori circulatores ac loquales vetulas, agrestes quoque sacerdotes in pretio habeam. Nam si quaeras, omnes uno verbo, quae proponunt se expertos dicunt. It is true I have a great reverence for the name of Experience, and the bare mention thereof commands an attention from me: But it hath been the peculiar misfortune of my education, that I have been taught, not rashly to assent: nor to believe every thing that is told me, since there is nothing but may be spoken by some body. I can be so civil, and so curious as to give the Relator an hearing, how mean soever he be, but before I credit him, I must consider whether the thing be possible? and withall (because my knowledge is not the adequate Measure of possibilities in nature) Whether it were done? If the thing did succeed, I inquire, Whether it will constantly, or most commonly follow upon the like causes and circumstances? Or whether it is a rare accident? In the two first cases, the knowledge thereof makes a P • ysician the better Artist: the latter adds to his general Science of natural Phaenomena, but not at all to his Art, except in cases as rare as the Phaenomenon related. In Artibus, inquit Galenus, duo sunt praeceptorum genera, Io. Riolan. in resp. ad dubia Anatomica Barthol. p. 75. unum eorum quae perpetuam habent veritatem: alterum, quae utplurimum ita se habent, & tolerantur: quae raro fiunt, ibi locum non habent. At hodie multi sibi placent in scribendis & obtrudendis observationibus raris, tanquam novis Artium mysteriis: sed rara non sunt Artis. I do also consider the quality of the Relator: Ar. Rhet. l. 2. c. 4 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . the vain-glorious and ambitious are easily deceived, because they passionately desire the thing should be so, and 'tis for the credit of such Observators, if it be so: the young are easily imposed upon by the little experience they have of things, the credulity that is in them naturally, and the good opinion or hopes they have of the integrity of others; and because they are conceited of their own knowledge (though the prospect of things be narrow) they are prone to opiniatrity, and vehement in their assertions, though too unsetled, and impatient, (as well as ignorant) to weigh any thing maturely and with all its requisites. I do not weigh the greatness and opulency or Relators, but value them as they are Artists, for such only can judge in their own Faculties: And when controversies arise the Stagirite deluded me into an opinion, that the most probable tenet was that which the most, or the most intelligent did profess. This Pyrotechnist upon many reasons deserves not any credit: he writes Books as Mountebanks paste up Bills, to invite custom: the Medicines he recommends are such as by the sale thereof he would advantage himself: all he publisheth is in a subserviency to this end; and 'tis not his skill, but this ignorance that is concealed in his Arcana: all that ever sweet William or Andrew related upon a Quack-salvers stage deserves as much of heed and esteem, as what— G. Thompson talks. I do not ask thy pardon Oh! most illiterate and dull disciple of my Lord Verulam, for dissenting from Thee. But I with submission and deference beg leave for not adhering to Doctor Willis: No man of understanding can condemn his practise: he hath not altered the Authentick methods, but given new and plausible reasons for an Ancient procedure: This Character is due unto him, that scarce any man surpassed him in his thoughts, when awake; and 'tis his peculiar happiness, that his Dreams are pleasant and coherent. Amongst all that have written about Phlebotomy, and its abuses, I never met with one that recounted this for one evil consequence thereof, that it inclines men to Feavers: I find P. Castellus to reckon up twenty five evil accidents which sometimes ensue thereupon: Claudinus propo • eth frequent Phlebotomy as a remedy for s •• ness. Venae sectio omnino convenit; imo sunt, qui nihil magis ad detrahendam corporis molem valere existimant, quem crebram sectionem venae. Empiric. rational. l. 1. §. 1. c. 4. but this is none of them. Nor do I see that it is reconcileable to that effect of Phlebotomy, whereby it refrigerates the habit of the body, and the common distempers which follow the Abuse of it, are cold: If it be true that it inclineth people to be fat, and fat people are neither so hot, nor incident to Feavers, as the lean and bilious (though otherwise more weak) there is reason why my doubts should increase upon me. It might, with some colour, have been said, that excessive Phlebotomy did dispose to the Rheumatisme and Gout; but not to Feavers; except by accident, that some persons having contracted a grosser and more sanguine habit of body upon Phlebotomy, and (such complexions being most capable of any malignant or pestilential and contagious infection, not by reason of their phlebotomy, but from the habit of body, which whether natural or adventitious is lyable to those casualties) falling upon any excess or other occasional cause into the Small-pox, or Sanguine feavers, the observation hath been raised into repute. It is a thing I have not seen to happen vulgarly: nor doth any Author • that I know, take much notice of that other effect, how Phlebotomy inclines to fat: I have read in Ioannes Fuchsius a Bavarian that such a thing hath fallen once, Io. Fuchsius Compend. abus. p. 2. c. •• or so, under his observation, in a Lady: and Doctor Primrose denies the matter of fact, Primros. de vulgi error. l. 4. c. 50. that Phlebotomy will make those that are inclined to be fat, fatter: though persons that are extenuated and emaciated with sickness may by bleeding acquire a greater corpulency: And certain it is that in those Countreys where Phlebotomy is most used, there are fewest fat men, and women: as Spain, France, and Italy, or Egypt, in this last region, it is their particular study, and a distinct profession, Prosper Alpinus de med. Egyptiorum, l. 3. c. 15, 16. to make people fat, but 'tis by other courses then Phlebotomy. In short, I my self have been let blood above fourscore times, and yet am lean: and so far from being feavourishly inclined, that I never had any except the Measils once, and Small-pox twice: and twice a tertian Ague: and I find no imbecillity or prejudice in the least that should induce me to repent what I have done, or resolve against it for the future: But we must distinguish upon what is produced by any thing as its cause, and what is only a concomitant thereof: If it ten thousand times proves otherwise, we must not impute the growing fat of one Patient to Phlebotomy indefinitely, but rather to some alteration the disease (in which it was applyed) hath wrought in his body, to his Analeptic diet, and course of life, subsequent thereunto; or to his individual temper. And perhaps it may be not impertinent to add here, that as Distillation and the burning of the blood of a Multitude of persons hath convinced me that there is no such deflagration of blood, as that learned Physician imagines, nor any vital fermentation in the blood depending upon the Chymical ingredients of Salt, Sulphur, and Spirit, &c. so neither is the Blood of corpulent persons (I never tryed the Obese; because they do not bear Phlebotomy; except once in a Youth lately was extream fat, and in danger of an Apoplexy, and it did not burn with so vigorous and lasting a flame as that of many lean men, but by its crackling gave testimonies of much Salt: yet the Serum was insipid) it is not properly sanguine, but pituitous.

But to resume the discourse: I expected to have seen the Minor proved by our Helmontian; but although I find that he saith his observation did jump with that of Doctor Willis, that Phlebotomy did incline to Feavers: Yet my Reader may see that in the first part of the Argument, as I have urged it in his own words, he reckons amongst the evil consequences of bleeding none that proceed from an opulent and sulphureous blood transcending the dominion of the spirit that remains after Phlebotomy, but such as argue an impoverishing of the blood, or a cold indisposition. I will repeat it again, to shew how justly I censure his Logick, and so dismiss the Argument.

If it be so, that striking a vein often in a long and tedious disease, is a preparatory for a sharp Feaver, as we both herein jump right in our observation: then am I certain that Phlebotomy repeated in an acute Sickness, is a door set open, and an in-let for a long infirmity, so that this mode of defalcating the vigour of the spirits doth for the most part (as I have strictly heeded many years) disarm and plunder Nature in such sort that it cannot resist the assaults of every petty infirmity, witness those multitudes of relapses, or Agues, Scorbute, Dropsies, Consumptions, Atrophy, Iaundise, Asthmaes, &c.

The proof of the Minor here is not only defective: but the mischief is,Dr. Willis de • ebr. p. 197. that Doctor Willis, who judiciously useth Phlebotomy, commends it in Feavers both in the beginning and augment of those that are putrid, (and also in Diaries) as the principal remedy (inprimis conducit) and speaks in the place cited by our Helmontian only of a customary letting blood in time of health:Dr. Willis de • ebr. p. 1 • 6. edit. 1662 • Whereas this Bacon-faced Pyrotechnist, saith that their Wits jump in this, that often striking a vein in a long and tedious disease is a preparatory for a sharp Feaver: Let any man read the place and see how he abuseth that excellent Practitioner, whose words are, Prae caeteris vero observatione constat quod crebra sanguinis missio homines febri aptiores reddat, quare dicitur vulgo, quibus sanguis semel detrahitur, eos, nisi quotannis idem faciant, in febrem proclives esse. I am sorry he should seem to give a reason for a vulgar error: for once or twice bleeding doth no more create a Custom, or dispose Nature to an anniversary commotion in the blood, than one Swallow makes a Summer: But certain it is, (I speak of our cold Climates, not of those hotter where sweat and transpiration often prevent those determinate motions of nature) that such here as are very much accustomed to bleeding, keep certain times for it, their bodies will require it at that time, and, if they refrain it, they will feel an oppression and dulness, or lassitude, and may fall into a Feaver, but Aches, Rheumatisme, Gout are more likely, except other accidents concur to produce a Feaver: if the ebullition be no greater than to produce a Lassitude, 'tis possible (in some bodies) that the Scurvy, Cacochymy, Cachexy, Dropsie, Asthmaes, Cephalalgyes may ensue: for the morbifique ferment, like the scum boyled into the broth; may mix inseparably with the blood, and vitiate for ever that great sanguifier with an unexpressible pravity: But he that thinks 'twill be so in diseases, when the Patient is phlebotomised, neither understands the motions of nature, nor the effects of a sound recovery. Instead of Doctor Willis this illiterate Baconist (who professeth to be so well versed in the way called Galenical) should have (as he argues) made his recourse to Avicen and his followers, who are (in many cases) fearful of Phlebotomy, least it should produce an ebullition yf choler, or crudity: which two inconveniencies may produce all that—G. T. talks of. Thus sometimes Tertians have been doubled, Hor. Augen. de miss. sangu. l. 4. c. 19. nay turned into irrecoverable continual Feavers. But all the cases relating thereunto concern not an intelligent Physician, who understands what is past, present and to come, and knows when to presume, when to fear. But I intend not to teach these fellows: it were better for the Nation, and them too, that they were Coblers, or day-labourers, than Practitioners in Physick: a Doctoral Diploma, though purchased, will not sufficiently qualifie them for the profession; and as little doth the title of Experimental Philosophers, and Verulamians, avail them.

The next Argument of his that I come unto, and which is more than once inculcated, as if he thought it a Demonstration, is this, as I may form it.

If it be not fitting, nor useful to bleed in the Pest, which is a Feaver 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , it is not fitting, nor useful to bleed in any ill-conditioned Feaver whatsoever.

But it is not fitting, nor useful to bleed in the Pest. Ergo.

The Consequence of the Major is thus proved. It is no less criminal to suffer the Blood to spin out in any ill-conditioned Feaver whatsoever,p. 82. then in that which is so 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 .p 99. And, Albeit our Phlebotomists do extenuate the matter, setting a fair gloss upon it, pretending that in malignant Feavers of the inferiour clast, Plethorick or Cacochymical indications do manifestly require their utmost assistance before • hat inconsiderable venome lying occult: I must, by their favour, be bold to tell them they will never solidly and sp • edily make a sanation of any great Feaver, or any other disease, till they handle it in some manner like the Plague: for there is quiddam deleterium, a certain venenosity in most maladies; as I can prove ex facto.

The Minor is thus proved. For whosoever at any time,p. 81. upon what pretence soever of caution, attempts Phlebotomy for the cure of the Plague, takes a course rashly to jugulate the Patient, unless some extraordinary redemption happen. Certainly here Doctor Willis (who allows to persons accustomed to bleeding, and in plethorick bodies, the humours being very turgent, though seldome, and with great caution, to bleed) speaks by rote, for had he Anatomised the Pest, investigated the nature of that atrocious stroke, as I have, feeling the smart of it three several times, he would as soon allow of piercing a vein in him who hath taken an intoxicated draught, as at any time in this case, where the Stomach alone is the place from whence the poyson is to be exulated. 'Tis no wonder if the Galenists strait injoyn bleeding, where they find a seeming foulness in the less malignant Feavers, when they dare be tampering with it in the greatest.—The only noted Sluce through which the poysonous matter of all malignant Feavers passes away,p. • 5. is the universal Membrane, the Skin, on which the Stomach hath no small influence, governing this Catholick coat at its pleasure, in so much that no successful sweat or eruption can be expected as long as the Duumvirate lies prostrate under any insulting calamity. Wherefore the Arch-design of the Physician is to cherish, corroborate, and remove all impediments of this eminent part, that it may protrude, explode, or ejaculate from its bosome to the utmost limits, whatsoever is virulent, closely supplanting the fortress of life. Now whether bleeding be any competent Medium to atchieve this, let any one indifferently versed in the knowledge of the Pest be Judge, wherein no honest able Artist dare open a vein, because it will attract the Miasme inwardly, hindring the extrinsecall motion of the Archaeus, for the expulsion of what is mortiferous.

Before I come to answer particularly to the Argument, give me leave to animadvert upon some passages in this discourse. As to the Du • mvirate, I do not understand whether he be absolutely of Helmont's mind, or no, making the Pylorus of the Stomach to be the place where the Soul is radically seated, and whence it displayes it self principally in the management of the Oeconomy of the body; joyning the Spleen with the Stomach as an Associate in that Soveraignty. There is not any thing more foolish than the dreams of Helmont; had our Baconist any understanding of humane nature, any converse with modern Writers, the vanity of the Duumvirate would have been manifest unto him: I advise him to read the Fundamenta Medica of the excellent Maebius, where he treats of the Stomach and Spleen: where he alledgeth nothing for himself, why should I insist on any thing. The general Archaeus of the Stomach and that appropriate to each part seem to me to import no more, nor to be more intelligible than the innate heat of each part, and that other influencing each part and disseminated from the Heart: If the innate heat of each part be called a particular ferment, it matters not much: I comprehend it as little still: How the operations of Nature are performed I know not, nor ever shall understand by Canting terms, or Similitudes: That the notion of Fermentation is equivocal, or not to be accommodated to the Stomach and its digestion, Maebius fundam. med. de usu ventriculi, p. 178. but by a certain Animal heat, I think Maebius hath evinced: and I cannot be satisfied with the reply of Kergerus: Kerger. de fermet. §. 3. c. 2. and if the notion of an implanted ferment and fermentation be suspicious there, where there is the most to be alledged for it, I may be pardoned for scrupling to fix it elsewhere; but to be content thus to manage the Question, as if it were branched into these Interrogatories.

Whether the Pest be a Feaver 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ?

Whether in the Pest it be lawful and beneficial to let blood?

Whether all ill-conditioned great Feavers, and most maladies have in them a particular venome, deleterium quiddam, and are to be cured by Corroboratives, and Diaphoreticks, without Phlebotomy?

The distinct solution of these Questions will make the answer to his Argument very facile: and I will not retrench upon the not-to-be-perceived Empire of the Duumvirate, nor inquire by what means the stomach hath such an influence upon the Skin as to govern it as it pleaseth.

The first Question if I were to determine it out of —G. T. in his Treatise of the Pest, I would resolve in the Negative upon this reason. If the Pest be a Feaver 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , then is a Feaver inseparable from it, and that term ought to be put into its definition. But— G. T. doth not define the Pest by a Feaver, and grants that the Pest in some produceth no Feaver at all. Ergo—

His definition of the Pest is this. The Pest is a contagious disease, G. T. of the Pest: c. 1. p. 8. for the most part very acute, rising from a certain peculiar venemous Gas, or subtile poyson, generated within, or entering into u • • rom without: at the access or bare apprehension of which, the Archaeus is put into a terrour, and forthwith submitting to the aforesaid poyson, invests it with its own substance, delineating therein the perfect Idaea or image of this special kind of sickness distinct from any other. He that can accommodate this Definition to a Feaver, or find anything of a Feaver in it more than of the Colick, or Dysentery, Diarrhaea, understands more than I; for even these have been Contagious, as well as Epidemical: Perhaps he will reply, that the Pest is alwayes so: But in this, notwithstanding his boasting here he understands the Pest, and (whereas Rondeletius and other Galenists dissected many that died of the Plague) he did anatomise one that deceased of it, yet doth he not know the Nature of it: For the Pest is not alwayes contagious, there being recorded many cases in which the Pest hath seised one person, Isbrand. a Diemerbrook de pest. l. 1. c. 7. • . 1. p • 1 • . edit. 1665. Amsterdami. & Zacchias Qumedico legal. l. • . tit. 3. Qu 1. § • 13.14. G • T. of the Pest. c. 3. p. 42. and extended no further. However if the words Contagious disease do not include a Feaver 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , there is not any mentioned in the definition: and if they do, then is also the Scabbado, and Leprosie, &c. a Feaver 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , since each of these is a Contagious disease. In sum, He grants that the Pest may invade without a Feaver, in these words.—It produces a manifest Feaver in this man, and in that none at all, or hardly any sensible.—These words do not become a man that Holds the P • st to be a Feaver 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and carries on the Hypothesis so far as to make all malignant, putrid, Feavers to participate thereof, and bear some resemblance thereof: and (which is pretty) that almost all maladies (either Feavers,

Isbr. a Diemer •• de Peste l. 1. c. xii.

So Van der Mye during the siege of Breda, relates causes of such as had the Plague, and yet during the whole time of their Sickness had no Feaver.

Van der My • de mor •• s Bred p. • 1 • 1 ••

or not) fall under the same predicament.

But I pass from—G. T. inquire into the true nature of the Pest according to the most learned and judicious Practitioners that ever attended in it. The most accurate Isbrandus a Diemerbrook relates how many in the Pest at Mymmegen (where he was Visitant) had the Pest without any signs of a Feaver: nor was this to be seen only in such as dyed suddenly, but in those that had Botches and Carbuncles, yet went up and down and pursued their business, without being any way feaverish: of which number himself was one. And he with the allegations of many Authors and Histories of Plagues justifies his Definition, in which he forbears to make the Pest to be a Feaver. In like manner Casper Hofman living in Norimberg, C. Hofmann. Antifer • elius Le • m, 64. when the Town was besieged and the Plague raging, had the Pest himself with a Carbuncle on his shoulder, sed sine alio symptomate, and taking due care of himself, without consining himself to his bed or chamber, he recovered: He instances in others that escaped, I. N • rdiu • in Lu • ret. l. 6. p. 527. in the same condition. With these agreeth Nardius, who was chief Director in the Plague at Florence in 1630. Alex. M • ss • r. de pest. l. 1. • inter opera) p. 498. & Forrest. de • ebr. l. 6. obs. x. Sennert. de • ebr. l. 4. c. 1. Dudith. inter apist • Schoet. •• 52. And the most learned Massarias who was Physician at Vicenza when the Plague reigned there in 1577. Out of all which it is manifest that the Pest is not a Feaver 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , since there may be a Pest in which the sick party hath not any Symptome of a Feaver: 'Tis true that many learned men do desine the Pest by a Feaver, and do hold that there is no Plague without one; but since they confess that sometimes neither Pulse, nor Vrine, or any Symptome discover the least characterisme of a Feaver, 'tis against common sense to assert what they do in such cases. F • teor • ebrem hanc pro putredinis • ut d • ffl • tionis conditione, copia aut incremento, modo majorem, modo minorem exis • ere, quam in nonnullis Synochum, Tertianam continuam, & Febrem quem. cunque ardentem incendio & calore aequasse, non ego tantum, sed & Collegae mei, Doctores hujus urbis Medici clarissini, aegri • in publico No •• c • mio decumbentibus operam praes • antes observarunt. M • nderer. de pestilentia. c. 6. It is granted that usually the Pest is accompanied with a putrid malignant Feaver of a very uncertain T • pe; which sometimes appears not before the Botch and its suppuration, sometimes it begins with the first attacque of the venome. If what I have said be true, and that the Pest may be without any sign of a Feaver, or any sensible indisposition, I much doubt the reality of his opinion who talks so much of the affrighted Archaeus, and the troubles which essentially and inseparably befal the Duumvirate of the Stomach and Spleen upon this invasion or insurrection of the pestilent venome: and I am more confirmed in my jealousie, because I have read that some of them that have had the Plague, have not felt any symptome about their Stomach, not so much as a debility of appetite, but sometimes they have complained first of their heads being discomposed, Sennert. de • ebr. l. 4 c 1. de pestilent. P ••• us de Pest. l • 1. c. xii. and most commonly of anxieties about their Heart. But 'tis not my intention to write a Treatise of the Plague: 'tis a disease I never saw, though at Fulham-pest • house and at Windsor I gave such Prescripts and Medicines in the beginning of the Plague as did equal in effect any of the Arcana of this Helmontian. As for the knowledge this talkative person should acquire by dissecting one body, it is but little; it argues want of reason in him to conclude generally from one case: the Glory of the Act is much abated in this, that Bontius, and Rondeletius in the presence of many Students dissected several; Rondeletius de febr. de febre pestilentiali. and (which is more) this last denies the Carcasses of such as dye of the Plague are not infectious; so doth Fracastorius, Iordanus, Gregorius Horstius: I allow that this last is not a constant truth, and that there are some Observations recorded by which it appears that the Carcasses of such as dyed of the Pest (before putrefaction) have been infectious. But to shew with how much injustice he triumphs over the Galenists for his having dis • ected one single body, I shall let the World see that the Galenists (without proclaiming the fact, Volcherus C • ister dissected many in the Hungarian Pestilential feaver: so did •• ssenius, and Rul • ndus. or causing a Picture of it to be cut) have done as much, and that the variety of Pests, and the different effects they produce in bodies is demonstrable. At Palermo in Sicily in 1647. there was a Plague, in which upon the dissection of many bodies by a sort of fellows, all whose knowledge did not enable them to cure a cut-finger, whose skill is but words, and advances nothing: these Galenists did Anatomise them. Haec visa: vasa omnia venae cavae sanguine ita nigro, Ioseph. Mancusus pro se • cub. vena def. p. 153, 154. adusto, atrabilari, turgida ac repleta, ut fusi atramenti similitudinem prae se ferret. Idem sanguis tum in corde, tum in faucibus repertus fuit, pulmones atque hepar tumefacti, inflammati, ventriculus bile turgidus, nulla in venis Meseraicis, nulla in intestinis laesio. Eadem haec uniformiter in singulis • uerunt observata. If it be said, that 'twas no great attempt; because it was no very mortal Pest; yet this is certain, that it lay in the mass of blood, and that the Duumvirate was not so much concerned, as G. T. could have wished; nor the blood in the vena porta altered according to Circulation: Well: that last at Naples I am sure was as pernicious as ours at London; and there the Colledge of Physicians caused many to be dissected: I have not met with the Programme published by them, but the Duumvirate gains nothing by what I do read. Nam dissecta cadavera, C • rol. V • lesius de Bourgdieu de pest. p. 239. hepar, pulmonem, intestina, nigris maculis interstincta, cor vero atro sanguine concreto luridum praebuere, ut Medici Senatus Neapolitani programmata die secunda Iunii edita promulgarunt. Neither doth it appear that what this Pyrotechnist saw in the body, after the man was deceased, was either the cause or seat of his distemper when he first fell sick: the last strugglings for life might express many liquors into the stomach, and vitals, and they upon their commixture, setling, and refrigescence create, other Phaenomena than were meerly the effects of the Pest. 'Tis averred by C. Celsus, C. Celsus medicina l. 1. pref. Neque quicquam est stultius, quam quale quid vivo homine est, tale existimare esse moriente, imo mort • o.

That I may the better decide the subsequent controversies, it will be requisite I represent a more exact Definition of the Plague; and to do that well, I must distinguish upon the word Pest, which is either taken in a general sense,

Coyttarus de purpura c. 7. p. 54.

Massari • s de p • st. l. 1. (inter • per • ) p. 497.

and so comprehends any Epidemical contagious disease of which many in the same Country do dye, be it attended with a Feaver, or destitute of one, be it occasioned by any speci • ick malignity, or anomaly of the Air, or arise from evil diet, or imported by contagion. Thus the Epidemical contagious and pernicious Colick recorded in Aegineta, was a Pest: thus Squinancies, Catarrhs, Pleurisies, Peripneumonies, Diarrhaeas,

Bapt. Codronchius de morb vulgaribus. c. •

Io. Cr • to assert. de febr. pest. p. 13.

Dysenteries, the Measils, Smallpox, have been pestilential: nay the Garrotillo or Strangulatory disease in Spain, Sicily and Naples, though it seized upon and infected scarcely any but Children, was a Pest, and esteemed so by Aetius Cletus and others Thus it was deem • d at Venice to be a Pest of which so many once died,

Aetius Cletus de • orb • Strangulator. c 2.

Mer • atus, Consult. med. 14.

Dudithius inter Epist. Scholtzhii. Ep. 51.

though there were not any other Symptomes perceivable in it, but a tumor of the testicles accompanied with sudden death. Legi superioribus menstibus libellum Veneti • ujusdam, qui ex • erientiam te stem citat, multos ex peste mori • os esse, quibus testiculi intumescebant solum, nullo •• aeterea symptomate aegrotos illos invadente. I • ma • ters n • t what is the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of the disease, which way t • e venenate matter inclines, or what part it principally • ffects; a C • rbuncle in the throat (as in the Garrotillo) is as pestilential as a Carbuncle on the hand, or toe, if it be as epidemical, contagious, and mortal. Ballonius Ephemer. l. 2. p. 237. So the Chin-cough may be pestilential upon the like qualifications: and I believe that to be the disease whereof Ballonius speaks, that it was Epidemical amongst the Children in France in 1579. He calls it Tussis Quinta, and admires how it came by that name, and so doth his Scholiast Mr. Th • v • rt: undoubtedly it was transmitted from England, and thence came that name, which the French mistook for Tussis Quinta, and Quintana: that is the disease I am sure he describes: he saith none ever writ of it: and I believe it to be true as to forreign Physicians. Such mistakes will hereafter make work for Criticks; who will make strange glosses hereupon, as on the Milordus of H. ab Heere, and the Cerevisia Trihopenina in Mercatus; the first imports no more by unus ex iis quos Angli Milordus vocant, Mer • at. de recto med. pr •• s • d. usu. l. 1 c. 2. then one whom the English call My Lord: and the other intends nothing by Cer • visia Trihopenina than Three-half-penny Ale, and contra distinguisheth from Cerevisia dupla, or double Beer. But to resume my discourse; I add that in such times as there are diseases of sundry types, and several symptomes, so as that they may seem to be different and sporadical diseases only, yet in case they be malignant, vulgar, pernicious, they are to be accounted either as so many Pests, or as one, under several disguises: for it is not alwayes true that in the time of the Pest all other diseases cease, Hippocrates Epidem. l. 3. cum notis Vallesii. p. 279, 280, 281. as is evident out of Hippocrates: Thus Pestilential Peripneumonies, Squinancies, and Pleurisies did at the same time rage in Germany, (as Wierus relates) near the Rhine in 1564. Wierus Obs. l. 1. de epidem. pleurit. &c. And during the Siege of Breda amongst the Garrison at the same time, besides the vulgar Plague many pestilential diseases, as Tenesmes, Vander Mye de morbis Bredanis, p. 4, 5. Dysenteries, Cephalalgies, and Catarrhs, which retaining their distinct types, were withall pestilential: nor is it strange that I should reckon upon all these as radically one disease; for in the vulgar pest, Ale • . Massar. de pest. l. 1. inter opera. p. 510, 511. such was that at Athens, there are reckoned up as one Pestilence a multitude of diseases that, were it not for that common mixture of a pestilential venome, must have been reduced to several heads. Thus in the spotted Feaver at Lubec did Neucrantzius observe that almost all manner of diseases were the effects of that Pest: Neueranztius de purpura, p. 65. Purpurae venenata qualitas intro concepta, ut tota specie nobis adversa, ita ad morbos totius substantiae merito refertur. Quamvis enim ultro concedam nullum fere morborum aut symptomatum genus dari, quod non in purpura sese offerat: isti tamen morbi consuetis non cedent remediis: & in singulis morbis ac symptomatibus peculiare atque abditum quid apparebit, quod experto & prudenti Medico supra sortem istorum, sed simplicium, morborum esse, imo a caeteris similibus totius substantiae morbis se vindicare, totoque genere inimicam illam qualitatem, in qua essentialis morbi hujus proprietas posita est, manifesto declarare videatur. Sic lues venerea nulli non morborum conjungitur, qui tamen non illis consuetis remediis, sed alexiteriis junctis se curari postulant, adeo ut plerumque fallant non solum aegrotantes, sed ipsos etiam medicos, docente Fabio Paulino lib. 1. comment in pestem Atticam Thucydidis, p. m. 37. Idem in Scorbuto Arctois locis medicinam facientes experimur, qui cuilibet morborum & symptomatum conjungi solet, ut nullis in reliquo corpore sceletyrbes indiciis morbi qualitas uni membro impressa aliquando haereat, medicos non raro ludat, curationemque moretur.

Under the aforesaid Definition of Pests I include all those that are called Pestilential feavers, such as the Sweating sickness, Hungarian and Spotted feaver, the Hectick and Semitertian pest, of which you may read in Schenckius: Schenckiu • Obs. Medic. l. 6. for by the doctrine de Conjugatis, a Pestilent Feaver is a Feaver that hath the Pest. This is not meerly a Logical Quirk; several Practitioners averre it: and particularly Mindererus: R • ymond. Minderer. de pest. c. 6. whose words in opposition to such as distinguish betwixt a pestilential Feaver and the Pest, are these. Febris pestilens (ut illorum distinctione utar) aut vera est, aut non vera; si vera est, nil aliud est nise Pestis ipsissima, & ut doctissimus Hieron: Mercurialis loquitur a vera peste inseperabilis: si non vera, jam nihil vel parum commercii cum peste habebit, & sic pestilens non erit, nisi ob similitudinem aliquam symptomatum (quod forsan Galenus voluit) ita eam appellare placeat, & sic inter malignas annumerabitur: quod si gradum intenderit & vere pestilens effecta fuerit, nil nisi pestis erit: alioquin simile esset dicere hic Saxo est aut Suevus, ergo non Germanus: aut hic Hetruscusest ergo non Italus. Vnde febres malignas 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 & aequivoce pestilentes quando que dici observandum. i.e. A pestilent Feaver (to use their distinction) is either really such, or it is not so: if it be really such, then it can be nothing but the Pest it self, and as the learned Mer • urialis observes, no more distinct therefrom than it is from it self: If it be not such really, then it is not to be accounted pestilential, except you please to nick-name it so by reason of some resembling symptomes (which it may be was the sense of Galen) whereas it ought to be reputed only malignant, above which degree if it rise and become truly pestilential, 'tis nothing else than the Pest: And to say otherwise is as absurd as to argue, this is a York-shire or a Devon-shire man, therefore no English-man. Id. ibid. Neucr • n • zius de purpura c. x. p. • 50. From whence it is evident that Feavers purely malignant are but equivocally stiled pestilential: and all that are pestilential are sorts of Pests. Thus when Pestilential Pleurisies, Squinancies, Cholerick passions, Lethargyes, Erysipelas's do rage, they loose their usual denomination, and become so many Pests (or the same) attended with a Pleurisie, Squinancy, Cholerick passion, Lethargy, or Erysipelas &c. And then those otherwise formal diseases become but symptomes, and accidental consequences of the Pest which vary not the essence thereof. Nor is it necessary to the truth of the Definition, that all these Pests should be actually Epidemical, or afflict all sorts of men; or be alwayes equally mortal: for the spotted Feaver is as much included here, though it extend no further than one single person,

Neucrantz. de purpur • , c. 3. p. 35

Isbr. a Diembrook de Pest. l 1. c. 1. §. 3. &c. 2. sect 3. Minderer. de pest. c. 6.

and so is a pestilential Catarrh, or Cough, as our Physicians include the Plague (commonly so called) under Epidemical diseases, though sometimes it extends not its contagion beyond one family, or destroy but one person. It hath happened that a Pestilential Peripneumony accompanied with spitting of blood was more fatal than any vulgar Plague ever heard of: Schenckius Obs. med. l. 6. such was that in 1348. written of by Guido de Cauliaco (who lived then) it posted from the East to the West, Coyttarus de febr. purp. c. 5. and scarcely left surviving then the tenth part of mankind, if so much. And the Spotted Feaver hath sometimes been more pernicious than the Plague in France: Again, I must say that sometimes even these Pests may not be pernicious or mortal: Such was that Pestilent Epidemical Cough in 1580. which over-ran all Europe,

〈…〉 Ob. • . 6. obs. 3.

I • Sporischius de febr. Epid. c. 4. p. 128. V • ll •• ola in append ad loc. commun. c. 2.

yet, as sick as 〈◊〉 were, there dyed not one of a thousand: yet doth not this derogate from my opinion, since not only those that write of it do allow it to have been pestil • ntial; but even in the vulgar Plague, where it is expected most should dye, at Millaine in 1576. and 1577.

Septal. de Pest. l. 1. c. 14. p. 23.

Septalius, who was Physician in it, records it, that many more survived than died at that Uisitation: yet, says he, would I have no body to deny it the title of a Plague, for it had all other signs of the Plague.

There is a great discrepancy betwixt the violence and symptomes of the same pestilential disease in its beginning, progress and end; betwixt such a disease (to appearance the same) when it rages at one time and at another, in one season of the year and in another; upon some sorts of men above others, and some Nations above others (though living together, and using the same dyet and course of life) whereupon circumspect Physicians maturely considering that this variety cannot be alwayes imputed to the discrepancy of dyet, or difference of seasonableness in years, or such like circumstances, they have allowed of a great variety of venomes, or gradations of putrefaction, and esteem these Pests, though they do agree in one generical nature, and some resemblance of symptomes and effects, yet to arise from different poysons, or graduations of putrefaction; and hence it is that no two Plagues are ever almost cured alike; nor is it possible for to find out one universal Antidote against them all: As in poysons some are Septic, and Arsenical; some of another nature, as the poyson of Scorpions, Vipers, the Serpent Dipsas, &c. of Napellus, Aconite, &c. so in Pests, by the effects, it is no vain fancy in the Paracelsians, Quercetan. redivivus. Art. medic. pract. p. 39, 40, &c. and Quercetan, or Mindererus to guess that there is a variety of venomes in qualities corresponding much with those known poysons, and analogous unto them.

His consideratis, observatoque variarum pestilitatum diversis locis ac temporibusMindererus de • pe •• e. c. 3. grassandi modo, magistra rerum experientia docebit, venenum pestis adeo esse varium & diversum ut singulae propemodum pesti suae sit peculiaris juncta mali • ia inferendae neci sufficien • , • ujus discrimen a nocendi modo & symptomatum varietate petendum siet. Diligentissime proinde haec venenositatis & pestis animadvertenda, & curationem suscepturis observanda. Et enim si pestis graves somniculositates, ingentes sapores Lethargos & comata invexerit longe aliter tractari sese postulabit, quam si vigilas inquietudines aut ingentes cordis siccitates intulerit. Venenum enim pestilentiale modo Dipsadis, modo Vipera, modo Cicutae, modo Naepelli aut alterius exhibiti toxici naturam aemulatur, cui in curatione singulari diligentia attendendum.

Prout igitur his, per peculiaria ac cuique propria antidota succurrimus, ita & pesti, modo per haec, modo per alia alexipharmaca obsistendum admonemus.

Et nos quandoque haec ipsa studiosius considerantes, pestem ab exhibitis venenis aut animalium venenatorum citu; morsu ac percussione immissis vix quicquam differre cognovimus.

Concerning the Spotted Feaver was observed by that solid and circumspect Practitioner Paulus Neucrantzius. P. Neucran • zius de purpura, c. 6. p. 69, 70. An etiam purpurati veneni essentiae diversitas variare purpurae symptomata poterit? Ita censeo. Namque ea late admodum patet, & universo ambitu venenorum fere circumscribitur, variatque ut illa varia & prope innumera sunt. Hinc plerumqu • continuarum febrium indolem ementita; interdum anginae malignae epidemiae, pleuritidis, colicae, alteriusve morbi specie, singulari quasi partium delectu, affligere, atque hujus aut alterius veneni deleteriam vim aemulari videtur, ut morbum hunc novis plerum que symptomatibus emergere medici observarint. Vt enim in peste varietatem veneni memorant Authores, qua eadem interdum Antimonii, interdum Arsenici, Napelli, aut alterius venenatae materiae virus exprimit, symptomatum similitudine, & alexipharmacorum diversitate: ut quae uni pestil • ntiae saluti fuere, succedentibus annis in altera peste consuetos effectus negent; ita & in purpura ac malignis sebribus eandem affectuum diversitatem, nec eadem remedia semper prodesse advertere licet. Sed nec diversis solum temporibus purpuram diversos characteres exprimere, sed in una & eadem Epidemiae constitutione, modo hos, modo alios referre, credendum, eadem essentiali sed specialissima veneni diversitate; qua ut specie ab altera variat, ita pro indolis suae conditione diversa symptomata procreat, aemula & hic 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 pestis constitutione, in qua in eadem tempestate diversos specie morbos, qui ex illa maligna aeris impressione perniciosam vim acceperint, grassatos fuisse notum, ex epidem. l. 3. sect. 3. I might illustrate this further by the difference betwixt the Sweating Sickness, and other Pests at one time, and another: But I have said enough to shew that notwithstanding my Definition, I do allow that Pests may not alwayes be equal or equally pernicious, or equally contagious, and yet retain their name: there may be such different degrees of venoms, or that superlative putrefaction, and yet the species not be varied. I speak dubiously about the terms of venome and superlative peculiar putrefaction, because the case is intricate, what to call it. I know the Philosophy of this Age, which consists most in Similitudes, will more approve of venome; but if it be hard to defend Putrefaction in order to the production of Pests, 'tis no less difficult to illustrate Contagion by Poysons; and in reference to the practise of Physick in Pests, I think I can demonstrate that the Galenical notion of putrefaction is the most utile. Some men think they make a great improvement in a Science, if they illustrate it by a new Metaphor, or introduce a novel term, the import whereof is no more emphatical or perspicuous than the former; yet this must be deemed a new discovery, and by the imputation of ignorance, Students are deterred from reading the best Authors.

Thus we climb downward, and advance as much as he that turn' • Donne's Poems into Dutch.

It remains now that I proceed to define the Plague in that sense to which it is in vulgar speech 〈◊〉 : and amongst the several definitions that are giv • n of i • by judicious and experienced Practitioners, I sh • ll six upon that of Mindererus, as the most • x • ct and conformable to the reality of the Phaenomena.

Filindererus de pest. c. 6. The Pest is a venenate malady, very deadly, and contagious, primarily affecting the H • art, and commonly attended with a Feaver, BOTCH, CArbuncie, and Spots or Tokens.

This Definition whosoever would see well illustrated, let him • ead the Author, and also Isbrandus a Diembrook, Palmarius and Quercetan: not to mention others. It appears evidently hereby that this Pest is but a species of that other more general no • ion: It ariseth from a peculiar sort of putrefaction, or venome, and though it have symptomes different from its contradistinct species, though it be peculiarly called the Pest, Isbr. a Diemb. l. 1. c. 1. the Sickness, the Plague, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , il morho, la malady; and such as make it a superlative putrefaction, to shew that it is but of a different degree from the others, may alledge that sometimes malignant pestilential Feavers have turned into this Pest n • turally, Schenckius obs. l. 6. & Hieron R •• era in C. Cels. l. 3. c 7. p. 143. Riverius prox. l. 17. sect. 3. c. 1. or upon an evil method of curing. Exact Defi • itions are no more to be insisted on in Physick, than in Law; 'tis enough that they are commonly • rue, and that a iudicious Practitioner knows when they hold, and when they fail. I have demonstrated that th • Plague (so called vulgarly) is not so pernicious alwayes as the Spotted feaver, or pestilential peripneumony: it is not alwayes contagious. •• br. a Diemb. l. 1 c 12. §. 4. Tales sunt illae s • bres, quas Galenus, 3. epid. comm. 57. & alibi, pestilentes sine peste vocat, quales se non raro observasse testatur Amatus Lusitanus cent. 7. curat. 27. Imo Quercetanus in Alexic. & Riverius s • ct.. 3. de febr. cap. 1. dicunt hujusmodi febres non semel visas fuisse cum verae pestis indiciis (puta Anthracibus & Exanthematibus) & tamen a vera peste longe diversas suisse, P. Zacchias though he do hold that the Pest is most commonly contagious, yet he proves it is not necessary it should be alwayes s • . Quest. Medico. legal. l • . tit. Qu. 2 s • ct 21, 22. quia non erant contagiosae. Has febres Saxionia & Riverius appellant Pestilentes sporadicas; Crato & Liddelius, pestilentes privatas: alii pestilentes spurias. — I shall add a passage of Crato, which is not that to which this Author refers, but which He, who lived so long, and was so competent a Iudge by the Experience of many pestilential diseases, as his dying words doth import to the World: Initio vero hoc tenendum, quod supra etiam monui; Io Crato assert. lib de • ebr, pestilent. p. 18 pestilentes morbos hoc quidem habere proprium, ut sint plurimis perniciosi, graves & lethales. Vt autem per contagium communicentur, nisi putredo ad istam malignitatem in iis divenerit, ut morbidam expirationem transmittant in alia corpora, non necesse est. Plurimos enim interire nullis prorsus contagionis indiciis extantibus, apparet. Pestilentes igitur privatos, nisi putredo in iis orta morbidum expiret, Id. ibid. p. 20. astantibus innoxios esse affirmamus— Accedit ad hoc quod nostra quoque aetate in multis regionibus orientalibus & Meridionalibus, Pestilentias plurimis exitiosas fuisse constat: in quibus neminem contagione contaminatum, nec ullos a consuetudine aegrotantium refugisse legimus. i. e. In the first place it is to be held for a certain truth, that pestilential diseases have their properties, that they are deadly to most, being very afflicting, and mortal. But that they should be contagious, it is not necessary, except the putrefaction be come to that height as to produce such a morbid exhalation as may infect other bodies. For it is most apparent that many dye, and yet there is not any sign of contagion to be demonstrated by its proper effect, of having introduced the like sickness in others. We do therefore avow, that those we call private Pests do not prejudice or infect those that attend the sick party.—Besides, even in our Age several deadly Plagues have destroyed multitudes in the Eastern and Southern Climates of the World, which yet have not diffused themselves by contagion unto others, so that none have declined to converse with the sick.

Whereas it is said in the Definition that it primarily affects the Heart, it is not to be understood so constantly, though generally a great debility and disorder of the pulse, and prostration of the strength ensue: for sometimes an indisposition in the Stomach is the first sensible symptome the Patient feels: and sometimes the Head is first and primarily affected, as in those that are Lethargical and Soporous, or Vertiginous. I read that A. Paraeus going to visit one sick of the Plague, A P • raeus Chirurg. l. 21. c. 12. and hastily taking up the bed-clothes, that he might see and dress a Bubo which he had in his groin, and two Carbuncles upon his belly: presently a sudden thick, noisome vapour issuing from the Carbuncles that were apostimated, and broak, pierced his nostrils and discomposed his brain, so that he swooned away, and fell as it were dead and senseless upon the floor: afterwards coming a little to himself, he was giddy, and every thing seemed unto him to turn round, so that he had fallen to the ground again had he not laid hold of something whereby to support himself: All the comfort he had was, that he found no indisposition about his heart, no pain, no palpitation, nor any sign of any powerful and fixed debility of his strength. Which confirmed him in an opinion that only the animal spirits were tainted with that pestilent exhalation; in which he was more satisfied, by reason that he sneesed presently ten times with so great a violence, that his nose fell to bleeding, and that evacuation (as he thought) freed him from the vene • at • impression: for he felt no other ill effect afterwards.

In that I say it is commonly attended with a Feaver; it is upon the grounds already alledged: I add that P. Paaw the great Physician at Leiden (in those Provinces the Plague is frequent) denies that the vulgar Pest is to be defined by a Feaver. P. P •• w tract. de Pest. c. 2. For it is not an usual Feaver, neither sanguine, or putrid: there happens oftentimes no signs of either of those in the Plague. It is not a malignant Feaver; for neither is the type and characterisme thereof to be discovered here, no nor the least sign of heat frequently. You will say that sometimes 'tis a common Feaver, sometimes malignant: but neither is that true, for albeit frequently, nay, for the most part it be accompanied with a Feaver, sooner or later, yet is that but a symptome thereof and separable from it: they have different originals; the Pest a venome; the Feaver a putrid heat. All poysons do not ingender a Feaver in him that takes them: why should we think otherwise of Plagues? In short, Experience shews that sometimes there is no sense of any great or unusual heat in the infected, no thirst, no alteration in the Pulse, Vrine, or Respiration: where that which is essentially consequent to a Feaver is not to be found, 'tis but reasonable to deny the antecedent to be there. I refer the unsatisfied for to be further convinced by Sennertus. Sennertus de febr. l. 4. c. 1.

As to the Botches about the Ears, Arm-pits, and Groin, and the Spots (or Tokens) and Carbuncles, those are so no necessary to this Pest (though many die before any appear) that the populace is rather suspicious, than convinced, till they be seen.

Having premised this long discourse, which I hope will seem neither useless, nor tedious to any Reader, the solution of the ensuing Questions will be brief.

Concerning Phlebotomy in the Pest, whether it be useful or legitimate, it is a question not to be resolved otherwise than by distinguishing upon the Pest: If it be taken in a general sense, I answer that it hath been frequently practised with great and visible success in several Epidemical, cont • gi • us and frequently mortal diseases, as the

Coy • tarus de purpurat. febr. c. 12, 13.

P • t • u • a Castro de • ebr. puncticular. sect. 6. & in dedicatori • epist.

Dilect. Lisnan de venae sect c. 9. art. 4. p 1 • 9

Septal. de Pest. l. 5. c. 17. p. 217.

Spotted Feaver, the

Bartholin. de Angina puer. exercit. 5.

• everin de abscess p. 449. Men • t • s consult. • 4.

Paedanchone or strangulatory disease of the Children in Spain, Sicily and Naples: In the

Cobelcho • er. cent. 5. cut. x. in Scholio.

R • land de • ebr. Vngoric. p 270. & alibi.

Hungarian Feaver also: and in Epidemical catarrh (when it was in Holland) Forrestus did with great success bleed, in 1580. Obs. Medicin. l. 6. obs. 3. But I must also say, that our Experimental Physicians in these cases do sometimes interfere one with another; and at least it is manifest that most of those diseases have been cured without bleeding: that it is to be administred with great caution; yet is it never more true that Medicaments are as it were the hands of the Almighty, then when in such diseases Phlebotomy is prudently used: all circumstances must be duly weighed to the administration thereof; and there are so many fatal instances of the • vil success, that though they are ballanced by contrary Exp • riments made in all Countries, yet ought the wisest to be timorous; and the ignorant ought to consider, that since in such diseases most dye by the violence thereof (and this is their nature) it ought not to seem strange, if Phlebotomy prove as ineffectual, as other Remedies do. In such diseases, 'tis not rashly to be attempted in the beginning of the disease (as Coyttarus in his excellent discourse observes) but when it is in his progress, and that the nature and tendency of the poyson is manifest, and the strength of the Patient better judged of, if indications require it, nothing is more beneficial; not that it is then administred to evacuate the poyson (as our ignorant Helmontian doth suppose) but to allay the putrid Feaver, and concoct it; for revulsion in pestilential Pleurisies, and Squinancies, (wherein each wise man divides his cares betwixt the malignity and the disease it self) to prevent further putrefaction or those inconveniences which some direful symptomes men • ce the Patient with. 〈1 paragraph〉

In the more limited sort of Pest, commonly termed the Plague, as the disease is usually more pernicious than in those others, so do Physicians multiply their fears, and Patients their suspicions. They are much divided upon the point; and though the generality of modern Writers oppose Phlebotomy, (or suspect the good issue) nor can the happy instances for the contrary (though they may be alledged in all Countries) suffice to imbolden the present Age. The happy practise of Botallus is not regarded:

Botallus de ven • sectione, c 7.

Massarias de Pest. l. 1.

Roderic • a Fonseca in append ad Iacchin. de febr. p. 354: Septal. de pest • l. 5. c. 14.

Forrestus Obs. l. 6. obs. 17.

C. Hofmann. Anti Fernel. lemm. 64.

Prosper Alpin. de medic. Aegyptior. l. 2. c. 7. p. 54.

Prosper. Alpin. medic. meth. l. 5. c. 9.

Massarias (as learned and as well versed as he was in the Plague) is not able to convince men: Not Rodericus Fonseca at Lisbone, not Septalius at Millain, not the cautelous Forrestus, who let them blood in the Pest at Delph within eight hours after infection, though it were occasion'd from f • mine and misery, and that with good success: not the president of Hosman in the Plague at Norimberg: Not the constant practise of the Egyptians, who in all pestilential diseases, and plagues do bleed largely the sick parties, as Prosper Alpinus relates; and whose example and experience did so convince him, that in that excellent Book of his de Medicina Methodica he thus expresseth himself for the cure of pestilent Feavers, and the Plague. Itaque laxata a • vo lenitorio Pharmaco, ad vacuationem sanguinis declinandum. Primo secta interna vena cubiti dextri in ea copia mittatur, quam vires permittent: & in altero die, si corpus sanguine abundaverit, & vires permiserint, ex altero brachio evacuatio sanguinis erit repetenda: in pueris, & in viris, & mulieribus albidioribus sanguis mittendus itidem erit copiosus cruribus scarificatis, ex qua scarificatione, facta sanguinis evacuatio in febribus pestilentibus est utilissima, quia cum ipsa quantum sanguinis volumus, evacuamus, sine virium magna jactura (quod e longinquis partibus educatur) sine violentia, & quod maxime in hisce febribus videtur desiderandum, quoniam ex ea evacuatione a supernis partibus adinfernas • iat revulsio: Vnde mirum non est, si nos saepius in hisce aegrotis vigilias, vel dolorem capitis, vel delirium, vel surditatem, vel aliud symptoma simile continuo sublatum viderimus, praesertimque si copiosa • acta fuerit evacuatio. De hac Oribasius ita scripsit: Et sane dum pestilentia vehemens Asiam deprehendisset,In lib. 7. c. 20. multosque perdidisset, meque etiam morbus attigisset, secunda morbi die remissione febris facta, crus scarificavi, duasque libras sanguinis detraxi, hacque de causa periculum vitavi. In pueris & infantibus in quibus una cum pestilenti febre vel exanthemata vel variolae apparuerint, perpetuo summam utilitatem ab hac evacuatione subsecutam vidimus; qua Aegyptii Arabesque nullum utilius praesidium in hisce febribus esse long a experientia cognoverunt. Not all this can either justifie or excuse a Galenist unto these Helmontians: I add the opinion of Erastus who lived in Germany, which Climate and Nation may seem to correspond better with the English; after he had given his reasons for Phlebotomy administred in the beginning, in plethorick bodies, and where nothing doth contra-judicate, especially in such as were used to bleed, or had any sanguinary evacuation at the nose or other parts, stopped on a sudden: and after he had refuted the Arguments of such as would cure the Pest in his time with Alexipharma • s and sweating only; he adds, Equidem una consuetudo fere praestare videtur, Th. Brastus epist. 25. ut nostris hominibus venae sectio in hoc morbo minus nocere videatur. In hac peste prorsus multi ex rusticis vicinorum pagorum nullo alio remedio affugerunt. I might cite the judgment of many more in this case, as Rondeletius, Mercatus, Trincavellus, Io. Costaeus, Altomanus, Pereda, Andernacus, Sarracenus, Massa, Mongius, Citantur ab Isbrando a Diemerbrook de pest l. 3. c. 3. §. 1. Paschalius, Mercurialis, Zacuius Lusitanus, Bayrus, Carolus Valesius du Bourgdieu, Ioel, Thevartius (upon Ballonius's Epidemia p. 50, 51.) Hieronymus Rubeus upon Celsus: Of the Ancients Aetius, Avicenna, Avenzoar, and that Latine Hippocrates. C. Celsus who particularly sayes, C. Cels. Medicin l. 3, c 7. Si vires sinunt, sanguinem mittere optimum est; praecipueque si cum ardore febris est. But I conclude with this assertion, that in the Controversie about Phlebotomy in the Plague,

Caeterum in contrariam sententiam abeunt complures alii, iidemque doctissimi Medici, docentes omnino secand • m esse venam, nec minores paucioresve adducunt felices successus. Hieron. Rubeu • in C. Celsum. l. 3. c 7. p. 140.

Massarias de Pest. l. 2. (inter opera) p. 531. F. Platerus de • ebr. (inter opera) p. 161.

the number of them that defend it exceeds that of those which oppose it, and their learning, judgment, practise, the reasons, the Experiments they alledge at least, equals what their Adversaries can pretend unto: Some Arabians have advised in the beginning of the Plague (before the disease hath impaired their strength) that the infected should bleed even until they swooned: And Platerus informs me, that some having pursued that counsel avow that they have cured many, and therefore dislike all minute Phlebotomy in comparison of that which is so copious: thus Bayrus in his Treatise of the Pest commands, that if the Patient be robust, plethorick, and the pestilential Feaver be accompanied with a violent putrid Feaver, he bleed largely. But to deal candidly in this affair, I do think that of the Germans the most are averse from Blood-letting in the Plague, and depend upon Sudorifics.

Because our Helmontian doth so opiniater it about the Plague, and would reduce all Feavers (almost all diseases to be cured like it) and insults over the Galenists for their ignorance in the cure, and upbraids them with their ill success in that malady, I shall briefly represent some of the reasons of their evil success; and the arguments they urge against sweating in all Pests, in the beginning, and process of the cure; as also sum up their practise about Phlebotomy.

When I consider the general desolation which the Plague hath made in all parts of Europe, notwithstanding the various wayes used for the cure thereof, and that Ge • many and the Netherlands can no more boast of an infallible cure, no nor • f a better success than Florence, Veni • e, Rome, Naples, Paris, or Sevill, methinks it is apparent that the recommendation of Medicaments or M • thods of curing in the Plague ariseth from the observation that some by the happy use of such a course, or such a Medicament, have (perhaps amidst d • ngerous and seemingly deadly symptomes) been recovered: And herein Septalius, and Massarias, and others, say as much for themselves, as Minder • rus, or Sennertus: And what Celsus saith of Hippo • rates, Herophilus and Asclepiad • s; I cannot but call to mind when I reflect on the several Methods of Physick endeared unto us by judicious Practitioners: C. Celsus in pre • . Medicinae. Si rationes sequi velinius, omnium posse videri non improbabiles: si curationes, ab omnibus his aegros perductos esse ad sanitatem. So just I am to those excellent Practitioners: It is certain that in Physick we do oftentimes commit the Fallacy of non causa pro causa, and attribute those effects to one Medicament, or Method, which either did but accidentally ensue th • reon, it contributes nothing to the effect (but only happening to be insisted on at or before the time that the Phoenomenon discovered it self) or only removing something that hindered the natural production of the effect, or only acting as a partial cause therein, or meerly strengthening or making room for nature that the effect might more easily result. Thus we dir • ctly yield the glory of one or more successful cures to a wrong original, and delude our selves and others not only with vain hopes in the remedy or method, but with new Hypoth • sis raised upon these frail foundations, and with the same levity reject the Medicaments and Methods of others, with which we celebrate our own; nay oftentimes with more; for those foundations are most sure which are laid by the most men, if they be judicious and observing, and have endured the test of more ages and tryals. If presumption and arrogance could have entombed the Pest, the most insolent but worst of Physicians, that is Van Helmont had secured man-kind against its ill effects: and what man could have dyed, or languished under the Gout, or other Chronical distempers, if the Rhodomontades of Paracelsus, Penaltus, Severinus Danus, had contained any solidity? But experience hath shewed us that we have only exchanged, not amended our practise, the Tinctures, the Essences, the Elixirs, however graduated, or how gloriously soever denominated, do not exempt us from that condition humane nature is subjected unto; the general intentions of curing cito, tuto, jucunde are old: the performance now answers not the pretenses: the Athanasia, Iucunda, Mysterium, Ambrosia (of which you may read in Galen) If I were to chuse my Medicaments by the sound they make, would seem as good as the Anima Auri, Tinctura polyaceia, or Pulvis pestifugus; and better than the Alexistomachon, for that like 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , would affrighten me, as if it were a Medicine to drive away a mans stomach. And if I were to word my discourse I would more willingly use a known tongue, than an unknown, and write Secretary rather than the Vniversal Character: If I cannot acquire knowledge above others, there is more of vanity than glory in the ostentation of a new-fashioned ignorance. I write this because I am convinced, because I do not believe that there is any thing more intelligible in the modish word veno •• , then in the profound, sordid or superlative, ••• trefaction wherein the Galenists placed the 〈◊〉 If such a putridity be unimaginable (which ye • 〈…〉 graduated above what we see, and unto which 'tis evident that diseases sometimes gradatim do arrive) it is certain th • t there is no such thing as the Arsenical or Napelline poyson in the Pest; but somewhat forsooth Analogous thereunto, Mindererus de pest c. 3. as Mindererus and Sennertus assure us: and here we are put upon Gradations again by which Cerusse and Lithargyre, Napellus and Thithymal, Cantharides and Dipsas are to be transmuted into, or graduated up to Arsenic. Most assuredly in this Age the Chimaeras have exchanged their pasture, and being clo • ed or starved with feeding upon the Second intentions, they are now luxuriously dieted with Metaphors and Similitudes. I would not therefore have this following discourse to be construed as an Apology for the failures of the Galenists, but of all judicious Practitioners, even of different principles, who intermeddle with the Plague.

The first reason of their miscarriage, is the difficulty or rather impossibility of discovering of the Plague oftentimes in its first approach, and sometimes the disease continues and makes a progress hopeful and promising for several dayes: Sennert. de febr l. 4. c. 1. and then manifests it self in the sudden death of the Patient: Anton Benivenius obs. Medicin. c. 54. H. Florentius in notis ad • . P •• re de pest. p. 154, 155. of the truth hereof I need no Instances: the only care a Practitioner can shew is (after that frequent Funerals have informed him of an approaching or raging Pest) to tend his Patients whatever the distemper be (little or great) as if it were the Plague: and yet that this supposition is fallacious, I can demonstrate out of the Histories of several Plagues, particularly that of Vicenza, and Breda. Here then our Physician is no more to be blamed, than he is for not being an Angel, or a Deity.

Another reason is, that the sick parties do not come to our Practitioner upon the first and smallest sense of the disease; for after the Pest hath seised upon them a few hours (eight or twelve hours) Sennertus himself could not cure one in an hundred: Sennertus de febr. l. 4. c. 6. and of this Erastus complains (who was for bleeding) that most that died came not unto him till that the Plague had too far seised their spirits, and debilitated them so as to render all means ineffectual, Erastus ep. 25. p. 90. though he tryed Sudorifics, and complyed with all Hypothesis in his practise. I must here note that the diversity of Plagues, as to their nature, and continuance, makes a greater latitude in the opportunity or timing of Medicines, than to restrain it to eight or ten hours; but this cannot be known till the Plague hath lasted some while.

A third reason is the great difference betwixt the Nature of one Plague and another, so that neither one Method nor the same Medicaments will serve in all Pests, no nor in any two hardly: besides the particular diversification which the Pest receives according to idiosyncrasy and constitution of each infected person. And for this reason Nicolaus Ellain in his Treatise of the Plague (commented upon by the renowned Guido Patin) refused to write down a special cure of the Pest in that book. N. Ellain de pest. apud Guibert. Med. Offic. p. 533. Quantum ad curationem spectat, eam attingere nolui, quia periculosissimum est ex solis universalibus regulis curationem instituere, idemque calopodium singulis quibusque adaptare. Iuris peritorum effatum est, Theorias generales non informare animum practicum, qui consistit in singularibus. Si haec propositio in jure vera existit, potiorem locum in Medicina habere debet, in affectu presertim adeo anomalo atque insolenti, cujus ut Protei, nunquam fa • ies eadem est. Nulla enim pestis alteri similis est, nisi in uno, quod scilicet ea correpti maximam partem i • ereant. Constans opinio est, tot fere species morborum pestilentium esse, quot annorum, quibus in vulgus grassantur. Varianda proinde curatio ex affectus, causarum, symptoma, tumque varietate: ratioque habenda temporis, regionis, sexus, aetatis, temperamenti, peculiarisque cujusque naturae (quam Graeci idiofyncrasiam vocant) pluriumque aliarum conditionum a Medico expendendarum. Insignis igitur abusus foret in peste curanda eadem uti Methodo. i. e. As for the cure of the Plague, I would not intermeddle with it; because it is a most dangerous th • ng to form a particular practise out of general rules alone, and as it were to work all peoples shooes upon the same last. It is a Maxime amongst the Lawyers, that General Theories do not accomplish a Practitio • nr, whose business lies in particular and promiscuous Cases. If this • e true in Law, I am sure it ought to hold good in Physick, especially in a disease so anomalous and so seldom happening, as this is, and whose Type is as changeable as that of Proteus, never exactly the same. For no Pest ever was like unto the other perfectly, except it were in this one qualification, that most that are infected dye thereof. With him agrees Gerardus Columbs de • ebr. pestil. c. 24. p. 253 • It is a constant opinion in many, that there hath been, and alwayes will be almost as many sorts of Pests, as there have been, or can be Pests: And therefore the cure thereof must be varied according as the disease, its causes, and symptomes vary: and particular regard must be had to the season and course of the year, the countrey, the sex, the age, the temperament, and the individual constitutions of persons, and many other circumstances which a judicious Physician must consider. Wherefore it would seem an abuse and imposture to prescribe or follow in every Pest the same Method. The truth of which Assertion is so universally assented unto, Mindererus de pest. c. 3. that Mindererus doth caution us diligently to attend unto the course and symptomes of the Plague, and to vary our Method and Medicaments accordingly, and tells us that in individual persons (and not only in the Plague it self) we shall find reason to guess that the pestilential poyson admits of an unexpressible discrepancy and variety; And partly from its native variety, partly from concurrent circumstances in the Patient, and Ambient, &c. and combination with sundry humours and i • tire commixing with them, it grows up and is improved into new sorts of venome. And from hence, he saith, ariseth a grand difference in the cure as well as • ffects of each Pest, so that a multitude of tryals must be circumspectly made, the motion of Nature in the recovery of the Patient observed, and many die, or involuntarily, yet unavoidably, be dispatch'd, before the right Method can be known. Hoc enim in incognitis, usu persaepe eveni • , ut non nisi aliorum damno sapiamus, & ex complurium strage quos morbus perdidit caeteros servare discamus; nihil interim l • udis Medica facultate ab hoc amittente, utpote quae plus studii in incertis observandis, quam in lucidis jam & p • rspectis malis, commodo consilio amovendis removendisque sollicita impendit; etenim & Magistratus ad occultum • urem deprehendendum debita adhibens media, non minus suo officio fungitur, quam si hunc ipsum comprehensum, capite plecti aut morte multari praeceperit. Since then it is manifest that there is so great a variety in general amongst Plagues, and so great a discrepancy in particular Plagues, arising from individual constitutions and other circumstances, since the different motions of Nature are such, that sometimes it is terminated happily by sweat, sometimes by stool, sometimes by urine, or an haemorhagy. Since it is a disease that so seldome happens (especially here amongst us) that 'tis impossible for any man to acquire a practical dexterity in knowing, or curing it: there is not any intelligent person will condemn the Galenists, or other prudent Physitians for ignoran • e; but rather deplore the misfortune of Man-kind w • ic • is subjected to so monstrous and pernicious a malady as this is; and by a pious and penitent life rather study to divert the Divine judgment, than to depend upon what is Humane.

These discourses will satisfie any man of the vanity of those pretences of an Vniversal Medicine for all Plagues; or of acquiring any superlative skill by the dissecting of one infected Body, or feeling one sort of Plague twice or thrice; whereas not only each Pest differs in specie, but often in individuo: and undoubtedly, according as the venome, and venenate symptomes differ, so would the several bodies if dissected.

As to the reasons why the Galenists do not suspend the cure of the Pest intirely upon Diaphoreticks, and repeated Sudorifics, I find that they do urge these.

They do conceive that a Physician is obliged to be the Assistant of Nature in all diseases, except it manifestly appear that she acteth irregularly, or by way of such an irritation, as to comply therewith were to destroy the Patient: they know what their Method obligeth them unto; and what necessity doth often put them upon: that some diseases are cured with more facility than others; that 'tis the nature of some diseases not to be cured at the same time, nor in the same manner: that as men are oftentimes forced to make the best of a bad market, so in some indispositions they know what they desire, but know not how to effect it, but by means extraordinary, and by a greater difference to the distemper than it is their inclination to submit unto:Scire enim quid fi • ri Oport • at, magna res non est, sed quibus rationibus illud efficias, id vero arduum. Galen 6. m. m c. 2. 'tis not ignorance and folly, nor the want of generous Medicaments, which makes them comply, but a tendern • ss of the lives of the sick, and the discharge of a good conscience; which last obligeth him alwayes to the safest way, and not to follow either doubtful and questionable opinions in Physick (which may pass for probable, P. Zacchias Qu. Medicolegal. l. 6. • it. 1. qu. 7. §. 2. id ibid. §. 7, 8 if that be such against which it is one thousand to one that it is false) or to prescribe Medicaments which the rules of Art and Experience do not • ustifie. Wherefore they do imagine that a Physician ought to imi • ate Nature when she does well (and well she does, when she cures the disease) and since Nature doth in several Plagues acquit her self sundry wayes, that therefore they ought not to confine themselves to one: Particularly, since some Plagues have been cured by spontaneous Erastu • . epist 25 p 97. c. 2. & Th • v • r • . in Schol. ad Ball • n. Epid • m • l. 50, 51. • ch •• kiu • (ex Paraeo) l. 6. p. 770. Haemorrhagyes at the nose, others by Stools, 'tis most irrationable to expect that any should do otherwise in so dangerous a malady, than to consider the ul • roneous emotions thereof, and accordingly to demean himself.

Secondly: Seeing that Hippocr. sect. 4. Aphor. 36, 37, & 42. E • ast • p. 25. p. 99. all Sweats in the beginning of a disease are rather bad, than good: since in the Plague few or none are ever freed Erast. epist. 25. p. 9 • c. 2. by spontaneous Sweats: since Nature takes

• d. ibid. p. 98.

Erast. ubi supra. p. • 9.

another course by discharging it self into the glandules of the Ears, Arm-pits, and Groin: They do not think that they ought to pursue that M • thod. Ex his arbitror, patet, Sudores statim ab initio febris hujus per vim adeo calidorum medicamen • orum evocatos, non tam utiles esse quam aliqui putant. Siquidem spiritus evacuantur, vires dejiciuntur, sanguis agitatur, turbatur, magisque acuitur febris, quod subtile est in sanguine excernitur, sicque crassior intus relicta materia citius & facilius interficit. Ideirco magis videtur factum & consilium eorum approbandum, qui ab his medicinis calidis abstinent, sive sudent aegri ab initio, sive non sudent. Certum namque est, Sudorem sponte sub initium morbi prodeuntem, diaphoreticum & symptomaticum, non laudabilem & criticum esse.

Thirdly they argue; that since there is such danger least the Patient infected should dye for want of strength before the disease be cured, and that above all others the vital indication to preserve the strength ought to be most prevalent with a Physician, and regulate him in the administring of his remedies: since the regard hereunto makes them to quit their usual course of dyet, and even compel their Patients to eat plentifully, and drink wine ('tis no Helmontian Proposal, Isbr. a Diem. brook de pest. l. 3 c. 2. §. 1.6 & l. 2. c. 6. §. 14. C. Celsu • l. 3. c. 7. but transmitted to as from Antiquity) they conceive it not fit in the beginning of the Plague to debilitate the sick with a violent and tedious Sweat (perhaps to be reiterated twice or thrice in twenty four hours) whereby the spirits will be extreamly dissipated (much more than in Phlebotomy) the humours good and bad promiscuously evacuated, and the blood and grosser humours (which are not exhausted by Sweat, and in which commonly the Pest is seated, as is manifest from the Botches and Carbuncles) continue infected still. Sane spiritus per sudores affatim & copiose vacuari satis indicant prostratae afflictaeque vires post longum sudorem: Erast. ep. 25. p. 97. Crasse & inquinati sanguinis nihil aut particulam exiguam educi, probant accidentia, quae fere omnia fiunt post sudorem deteriora.

Fourthly, Though they do very much commend the intentions of such as would presently and without any delay expel the morbific poyson; yet they conceive that where the Plague ariseth from previous evil humours congested in the body by an unseasonable year, evil diet, or the like, that then the case differs much from what it is when it is contracted by a forreign contagion; and therefore whatever reasons may be alledged in the last case, they cannot admit the Method as universal: they do apprehend that in the first case the putridity is incorporated and become as it were innate to the mass of blood, and is no more to be eliminated by Sweat, then mustiness in drink is exterminated by its working out the yeast: Besides, they do not perceive that the sick receive such benefit when Nature discharges it self into the Skin by the Spots, or Tokens, that they should imitate that operation by promoting sweat: they are afraid that potent sweats may divert Nature from her usual and intended course of discharging it self into the Glandules, and whilest a double evacuation is purposed by the Physician, the Patient may find the benefit of neither, the sweat being so powerful as to disturb that other motion; and the humours in which the venome is incorporated being so gross (why else should Nature never take the more facile and expedite way of the Skin, but the more difficult of the Glandules?) as not to be exonerated in that manner.

Lastly, Supposing the Plague to be a venenate disease they do not conceive that all poysons are to be cured one way, and that by sweat, especially as soon as ever they are taken: much more if they be of a Septic nature: they do not believe sweating to be the remedy for Arsenic, or Lapis infernalis, should any take them. But if it were, yet sometimes there is such a plethoric habit of body, and the veins are so distended either naturally or through the febrile agitation of humours, that 'tis imprudent and dangerous to promote sweat, till Phlebotomy be premised: for thereby the febrile heat will be mitigated, obstructions removed, the blood ventilated and capable of a further rarefaction in order to sweat, and transpiration promoted, and Nature inclined to sweat; for bleeding doth not draw in the humours, or poyson, but carries it out to the circumference, as experience doth testifie, and consequently is rather subservient unto, than opposite to the indication that others go upon.

These are the most solid Objections I have met with upon the subject: in which whatever is suggested is not so to be understood, as if the Galenists did not know that their Adversaries use or pretend to use Cordial and Alexipharmacal Diaphoretick • : as on the contrary none but this Baconical — G. T. would suppose, that when a Galenist speaks of Phlebotomy, that he intends to use nothing else. Those judicious persons do consider the variety of Pests, that some of them are by forreign contagion, and seise upon healthy bodies: in these they are willing that the venome be eliminated presently by sweat, except the Plethoric habit make it necessary to bleed first, and then they sweat them afterwards immediately: taking all imaginable care for to preserve their strength: they also know that in such times as the Patients have been used to an ill diet, and debilitated through poverty and misery, that in such cases even Galen would not allow bleeding: for how requisite soever it may be for the disease, such persons cannot bear it: They know that some Plagues are attended with little or no Feaver, yet attended with symptomes dangerous and mortal; in these cases they are for Cordial-Alexipharmacal Diaphoreticks, and promote sweat as earnestly as any Helmontian: in others the Plague is attended with a Synochus and putrid Feaver, in these they divide their cures, and regard both the Feaver and the pestilential venome, &c. according as the strength of the Patient will bear (they consider not only his present but future strength) they proceed to Phlebotomy: sometimes they observe the Plague to be so gentle, that the infected can go up and down and feels little or no indisposition in himself: in this case they only continue the motion of Nature by mild Alexipharmac • , that the Botch or Carbuncle do not strike in again, and perform the rest by a sollicitous Chirurgery. In fine, as there is nothing more rational than all their solicitude in cures: so they know that in so desperate a disease, there is no course to be left unattempted: the way by Alexipharmaca and Sudorifies come from them, and is properly theirs: but they urge no method generally in any disease almost; knowing that the same distemper may be cured several wayes by men proceeding upon contrary indications, and yet the Art not violated: Hippocrat. Epidem. l. 6. sect. 7. cum notis Vallesi • , p. 7 • 8, 739. and in the Plague, as they know the great variety thereof in specie & individuis, so their directions leave us in a great latitude upon emergencies: They understand that saying of Celsus: Nam quo celerius ejusmodi tempestates corripiunt, C. Celsus medicin. l. 3. c. 7. de febr. pest. eo maturius auxilia, etiam cum quadam temeritate, rapienda sunt. As also that, Cum eadem omnibus convenire non possint, Id, ibid. c. • . fere quos ratio non restituit, temeritas adjuvat. To conclude, if there be any thing that requires a dexterous Physician, 'tis this disease: And if any thing can make him such, 'tis the diligent reading and understanding of the Galenists; who have in this case transcended themselves, and replenished their discourses with so prudent cautions, such excellent observations, and experiments, that may raise admiration in all that are conversant therein, and satisfie the World, that those notional men, following the ancient Methods of Science, have out-done all that ever the ignorant rash Experimentators of this Age could imagine. I have a long time designed a Collection of all the choice Experimental Writers upon Epidemical diseases, whether pestilential, or not; together with the Histories of diseases that are otherwise of a facile cure, and are changed by the mixture of a pestilential venome: for as there is nothing more dangerous and intricate then such diseases, so there is nothing wherein the generality of Physicians are less aquainted: 'tis ar • effe •• of the novelty and curiosity after knick-knacks which infatu • tes this Generation, and will ruine the next: there is so much of pedantry in reading, 'tis so much more pleasant, and divertive to talk of, to make Observations about freezing, then to read over Galen de typis, that I do not wonder to find D. M. not to understand what the Type of a disease is: but I do wonder how he durst say I was intollerably ignorant in the Rudiments of Physick, for speaking as Galen, and the best Physicians do: I may accommodate to these impudent Scholiasts that saying of Hippocrates. They that are sick, and do not know themselves to be so, have an imbecillity in their Intellectuals. Such men are p • ss • ssed with a desire to prepare their own Medicaments, contrary to Law: and neglect the study of necessary and useful Books in their Profession, which is contrary to all Reason: 'Tis easie to foresee that the nex Age will scarce be furnished with a wise Statesman, Physician, or Civilian; and perhaps scarce yield an accomplished Divine, or an intelligent Sheriffe, or Iustice of Peace. And this evil is become remediless, by reason that the contempt of Vniversity-learning, and neglect of studying, hath so decayed the Trade of Book-selling, that no man that is desirous can furnish up a Library; which I find too true, being not able to repair the loss of a choice Collection of Physick-books, which were consumed by the fire at London.

Having thus explained the nature of the Pest, I return to the Argument of—G. T. which gave occasion thereunto. That the Pest is neither a Feaver 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , nor indeed a Feaver at all, I have demonstrated: That there are some Pests in which Phlebotomy may be used, I have also made evident: As also that it was not without Singular prudence that the excellent and learned Physician Doctor Willis did pronounce that Phlebotomy was seldome, and not without great caution, De febr. p. 235 to be practised in the Pest: because the blood being too much exhausted, and the vessels subsideing, the necessary inclination to transpire and sweat, is not so easie to be promoted, or continued. I have likewise evinced that the Pest doth not consist properly in a Poyson, but in somewhat Analogous thereunto: and consequently since similitudes are not identified, 'tis foolishly argued by—G. T. that because upon the taking of Po • son Phlebotomy is useless: therefore it is so in the Pest. But neither is the antecedent true alwayes; as any man acquainted with t • e Medicinal History of Poysons doth know: for although upon the first taking, they are to be attempted with peculiar Antidotes, yet if afterwards they produce a Feaver in the Patient, or if there be danger of it, Phlebotomy is both used and allowed, by the Authority of Paulus, Avicenna, and Haly-Abbas and other eminent Physicians: Ioseph. M • ne • sus de sec. venae cubiti in febr. putr. malig. p. 141, 142 • particularly by I. Caesar Claudinus in his Emperica rationalis l. 6. sect. 1. c. 1. It is also perspicuous out of what I have said, that 'tis false to say that All Feavers, be they ill conditioned, or others, have any resemblance with, or are to be cured like the Pest: much less is it true of most Maladies whatever. Whereas this Impertinent goes about to prove it thus: Because there is quiddam deleterium in them, or a certain venenosity. If he take Quiddam deleterium and a certain venenosity for one and the same thing: it is most false: shew me the effects thereof such as are visible in the Pest, and I may grant there is somewhat Analogous: but I cannot see any such thing, nor that they need any such such cure: It is possible—G. T. may with his Pepper-drops, or Essence of Ginger, and such like hot Medicaments drive out some Pustules in the Skin, in most Maladies (and even where were none) but I shall not conclude thence that either the indisposition was venenate, or that he did impoyson him, though that be a facile thing to do where the same person acts the Doctor and Apothecary;

C. Tacit. Annal. l. 4. & l. xii.

W. C. may learn what Medicus circum • oraneus is out of Menagius's Am •• fu • at. jur. civil. c. 3 • .

and usually done heretofore as any School-boy may know out of Tacitus: or Tully, pro Cluentio, where two are mentioned, the one the City-Physician, who was called Medicus; such were retained by Salary, the other is termed Pharmacopola circumforaneus, that is a Doctor who kept several Markets, making and vending his own Medicaments, which gave him the opportunity of grati • ying Oppianicus his Mother in law: a courtesie the other had oftentimes done for him before: I believe there were no Apothecaries at that time in that place, Lindenbrogius Codex legum Antiq. inter constitut. Sicula • . but in 1220, or 1221. when Physick was first made an Vniversity-Faculty, and Doctors thereof created in imitation of those in Theology, then were the Profession of Physick, and that of the Apothecary made distinct, and that with so mnch caution, that it is a question amongst the Imperial Lawyers, Whether a Physician may have any manner of Contract with An Apothecary, though to drive on other Traffick than that of Pharmacy? In the Lombard-Chronicles there are many cases of Princes (and no doubt than others) by Physicians: there was one Sedechias in the dayes of Charles sirnamed the Bald, in France: and in the reign of Queen Elizabeth one Doctor Lopez, and Giulio. If some mens reading extends not to this knowledge, I would have taught D. M. and W. C. this and much more, had not the Artifice and interest of some men debarred me from publishing it. If any man can shew me any Dispensatory made by any European Physicians (since there was so much as a Graduated Doctor) that was previous to the distinct Profession of Apothecaries, I will own then (though it be a certain untruth) that the practise (I do not say practising) of the Apothecary in the Quartane, was contrary to the rules of Physick, and the case well proposed by D. M. All men are at the mercy of such as write what they will, and defame as they please, and permit not others to vindicate themselves, nor undeceive the World. 'Tis ungenerous to pinnion a mans hands, and then beat him. In reference to that Controversie, I add that the Statutes of the Colledge command the Physicians to send their Bills to an honest Apothecary: St • t. Colleg. L •• din. Miss. in biblioth. 〈◊〉 . And our Laws make the Colledge Judges of all Receipts, as well as Methods of Physick: which Act as it conforms with the general practise of Europe, so it is very prudential; for hereby provision is ma • e not only against noxious Medicaments (and the high prizes of Arcana) but illegitimate Methods of practise, by which last it is as easie to destroy a man, as by poyson, and more privately: How the designs of the Experimentators will consist with our Laws, and be accommodated to them, I know not: I know a Physician may be tryed upon giving his own Medicaments if the Patient miscarry; how he shall defend himself, I know not: I have not seen any reason alledged, that is likely to convert the Magistrates throughout Europe to permit it: or to gain a repeal of the two last Edicts in Denmark against it: 'Tis an evil president to dispute against wise Laws: 'tis worse to act against them: and what consequences it will bring upon the Land, to see one Profession retrench upon another, let the Lawyers judge: The beginner of this Novelty, the Lord Bacon, stopped not at Natural Philosophy, but carried on his humour to attempt or project a change of our Laws. I do recommend it to the consideration of our Sages in the Law, that if Physick, Divinity and other Faculties be overthrown by a company of Wits, whether it be probable that they shall long continue free from the attempts of the Omniscient—

But I shall resume the examination of the remaining Arguments of my Adversary.