The wards of the key to Helmont proved unfit for the lock, or, The principles of Mr. William Bacon examined and refuted and the honour and value of true chymistry asserted / by John Case ...

CHAP. V. Whether there may be an Ʋniversal Medicine, or not.

MR. Bacon declares thus. According to my Hypothesis, I conceive there may be; for if there be but one formal Cause of Diseases, and also to prove it so, because in Womens Causes: for he tells us, that the same Medicine which preventeth Miscrrriages, the same to turn the Child in the Mothers Womb, and to bring it away; and truly, says he, I have a Medecine of mine own may well be called Panaceas, and besides it may well deserve the Name of Polyaceas.

I must Answer Mr. Bacon plainly, that he doth not understand the Bodies of men or Physick. I cannot compare him to any thing, but that great Mahomet, who deluded the People by a Pi∣geon which he brought up, and trained to take Pease out of his Ear, and so made the People believe that it was an Angel from Heaven which informed him of all Transactions, and by that means he was worshipped as a God.

Now 'tis convenient to give some Reasons to convince the World that there is no such Medicine as a Panaceas, or Universal Medicine for almost all Diseases.

First, some slender Arguments, viz. Are all Mens Children of one Substance and Constitution? or can one Pair of Shooes serve one Pair of Feet? And also of all the multitude of People in the

World, are not each of them discernable one from another? some∣times you may see two will resemble one the other at first sight, but bring them together, and discern them both with a strict Eye, and you shall soon perceive a great alteration.

But some may say that there may be an Universal Medicine in case of an Universal Distemper, as Pestilence, Small-pox, Feavers, &c. which generally happens in Cities, Towns, and Countries. No, there cannot be any Universal Medicinal Rules for one particu∣lar Person: For it is well and often observed in the time of the Plague, some are taken with a Giddiness in the Head, some a Pain in the Side, some no Pain at all before they fall down dead: some Persons have the Sore break out in one place, some in ano∣ther. And so in all other general D••seases, which will be tedious here to nominate, which may tend all to one Distemper. The Reasons why it is so, I will give you else-where. Also it is well known that the four Complexions do not agree one with the other; for what is good to Cure the Sanguine, is prejudicial to the Me∣lancholy: Experience tells me, that a small Portion will purge the Sanguine Man, but a double Portion will hardly purge the Melancholy man, because his Nerves are very close. I am cer∣tain, and do very well know, that many lose their Lives by the Delusions of such new Fellows, and Pretenders to an Univer∣sal Medicine.

Some have a good Receipt for the Pox; Some have a good Receipt for a Feaver; Some have a good Receipt for the Scurvey; Some will say they had it from a very learned Person, and that they keep it (not as it is) as a rare Jewel: I will not deny but that it may be good to its kind, but it may want a true Applicati∣on. I have Experience that many dye with the Running of the Reins and Pox, because they put their Lives into the Hands of such Men that do not understand the nature of their Bodies, for it is well known by Woful Experience, that these Distempers break out several ways according to the Nature and Constitution of the Bodies of men and Women: For in some it remains in the Secret Places, in some Persons in the Head, and in other some in the Legs, and Shin-Bones. This one Argument should be enough to Convince the Ignorant, viz. that several Natures being mixt together, should make so great a War and Disturbance in the bodies

of Men and Women. Some Seed is very hot, and some very cold, and by consequence your own Reason will tell you, that what is good for one Body, is sometimes prejudicial to another. There may be an Universal and Nutrimental assistance to the Sick, viz. good Cordials, and the Quintessence of good things, and these the Vitals and Digestive Faculty eagerly suck in, and revive and nou∣rish more than ordinary; as in Cold, Fire is an Universal help and assistance: But this cannot be taken in a Physical sense.

God by his Providence hath sufficiently furnished us with Na∣tural Things, both for Nourishment, and Physical Uses, known to all; but still they want the true application thereof; and if it were not so, Men would be very unwise to bestow so many Pounds in educating their Sons, and bringing them up to understand Things of this Nature or the Little World.

I am here obliged to give you some Account why it is so diffi∣cult to know the Humour abounding, and perpetual motion of Mans Body, I have shewn already how the Bodies of Mankind are nourished and guided in the first Chapter, and therefore shall not rehearse here again; but begin thus:

The Natural Faculty and Vertue reside in the Liver to nourish the Body, and is dispersed through the Body by the Veins.

From this are bred four particular Humours, viz. Blood, Cho∣ler, Phlegm, and Melancholy: Blood is made of Meat perfectly Concocted; it is by a third Concoction transmitted into Flesh, the superfluity of it into Seed, its Receptacle is the Veins, by which it is dispersed through the Body.

Choler is made of Meat more thin, perfectly Concocted, it is the spume or froth of Blood, Cleanseth all the Humours, heats the Body, and nourisheth the Apprehension as the Blood doth the Judgment; it fortifies the Attractive Faculty, as Blood doth the Digestive, and moveth Man to Activity and Valour; its Recep∣tacle is the Gall.

Phlegm is made of Meat not perfectly Digested, it so fortifies the Vertue Expulsive, as makes it slippery and fit for Ejection; it fortifies the Brain by its con••similitude with it: yet it spoils ap∣prehension by its Antipathy, the Heart thereby sustaining it, and the whole Body from the Fiery Effects, with continual motion; its Receptacle is the Lungs.

Melancholy is the Sedement of Blood, fortifying the Retentive Fa∣culty and memory, and makes them sober and stedfast for study, stays the unbridled toys and fooleries of Lustful Thoughts, and reduces them home to the Centre; it is like a Grave Counsellor to the whole Body, its resident place is the Spleen.

Blood is the chief of all these four humors, yet without the other three, viz. Choler, Phlegm, and Melancholy man connot subsist.

These four Humours, are the four Elements, which mans Bo∣dy is guided by, which I treated on in the First Part of this Book.

Reader, view over the Nature and Consistence of these four Humours or Elements, and let your Reason be your Guide, whe∣ther one sort of Medicine will serve to Conquer these four Ele∣ments: No, not if the World, and the whole Frame thereof, could stand or subsist with two only, as you see 'tis impossible to be, by the First Part of this Book.

The advice and counsel we ought to have of a Physitian is this, viz. Physick the sick person ought to take.

Or what dyet, &c.

Or what Vein to open.

Or what humour to purge, and how much and what dose, whe∣ther in Pills or Potion, or the like.

Now there is no Physitian, or Pretender hereunto, unless he is well skilled in the perpetual motion of these four Elements: for without this Art the Physitian can never safely judge, viz. when to purge or Evacuate, either by Potion or by Vomit, or by Let∣ting of Blood, or for what Humour, or by what Quantity, in all which Cases Astrology prescribes Rules: and without these, no one can attain to the Art of Physick; otherways they are but like Blind Men that grope out their way with a Staff.

I have shewn already in the First Part of this Book, that the Principles of the Elements, and Natural Bodies proceed from Fire, but the main Principles, and Beginning and Ending of the Life of mankind is taken from the Horoscope to be the First motion of Time.

I will open by Example all or most Authentique Writers, yea, Picus himself, attributing the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea to the Moon, as a true and positive Cause, according to Gallen's. Precepts, Lib. 1. Chapt. 2. de Locis affectis, and his practice of

the Pyoney Root in Curing the Epilepsie, Lib. 6. de simplicibus Medecis.

Quo tangente afficimur, & quo seperato Cessat affectus, Causam esse apud omnes in Confesso est, sic enim & ignem ustulationis, & gladi∣um sectionis Causam esse Credimus.

We see by Experience that the Moon placed in the Heavens at such a Position, the Sea Flows, and at such a Position it Ebbs: after this way may be taken the first beginning of life and motion of mankind, viz. from the Horoscope and fixed stars, and from the seven Planets, viz. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury, Luna, at the minute of time the Child is born, and according to their motion to the Square and Opposition Aspect one with the other, or from the opposite places from whence they were at first.

And according to these Perpetual motions of the heavens as you see, so are the four Elements and humours of mans Body changed, saith Hippocrates and Galen. But because these Rules do not lie in my way here, I refer the Reader to Mr. John Gadbury's Book of Nativities, Mr. John Partridge his Works, or such like Inge∣nious Persons.