A treatise of the small-pox and measles describing their nature, causes, and signs, diagnostick and prognostick, in a different way to what hath hitherto been known : together, with the method of curing the said distempers, and all, or most, of the best remedies : also, a particular discourse of opium, diacodium, and other sleeping medicines : with a reference to a very great case / by Gideon Harvey ...

CHAP. III. Containing Arguments, proving, That the Measles and Small-Pox are not caused by any impurity in the uterin Blood.

1. NAture having in all other particulars shewed the greatest providence for Humane Kind, that in this of its production she should be so defective, is very strange; since the Fruit of Vegeta∣bles is engendred out of their most pure and exquisitely defecated Sap, whose purity is so much the more exalted, by as much as the Fruit in all sensible and insensible Qualities, excels all the parts of the Plant, and is preserved with the greatest de∣fences of coverings; strong ones without, to resist all external In∣juries; and fine tender soft ones within, to prevent any hurt it might receive from them; all which is

very evident in great and small Nuts, and many other Fruits, as if Nature design'd to put her last hand to the perfecting of them. If you apply your Observation to the Fruits of Animals, which as they stand in a degree higher in the Works of Na∣ture, derive their production from Juices refined to a much higher ex∣altation; for instance of which, we need look no further than an Egg, whose Yolk can so little be thought to be affected with the least taint or impurity, that rather, in the judgment of all, it's held to be of the purest and sweetest Juice, and most carefully walled up in a fine Shell. Can it then be thought by any Rational, besides Arabians, and such as are included in the same Category of Sense, that Man, the highest Work of Nature, should receive his first nutrition and aug∣mentation from a polluted Maternal Blood? To me it is beyond all doubt, That the nutrition of the Foetus, or

Infant in the Womb, is from the pu∣rest, and most refined extract of the Maternal mass, through the branches of the Hypograstrick, and some of the branches of the Spermatick Arte∣ries, terminating in the fundus uteri, or upper part of the Womb, which being thickest, and very closely cemented in the inside, with a fine and very glutinous and tenacious mucus, nothing of Blood can be thought to distill monthly from thence; but from the lower part, near the Os internum, and from the Cervix, out of branches of the Sper∣matick Artery, in which parts there being many large spongy Pores, the Blood doth oft stagnate, and thence oft-times grows impure, acid, putrid, and somewhat foetid. Moreover, it is not beyond suspicion, that there may be a communication with the internal hemorrhoidal Vessels, which are frequently found to transport very impure and foetid Blood. That these menstruous vessels are implanted

near the Os internum uteri, and some without the Os, in the collum, appears plainly in some Women that have their ordinaries the whole course of their pregnancy, or Child-bearing. Wherefore it cannot rationally be supposed, that Man being the no∣blest of the Creation, being so care∣fully wrapt within two such thick Vellum (if I may so fay) Inclosures or Coats, and in a part so close, thick and strong, as the Womb, where nothing can be apprehended to pass of impurity through all those Cases, should derive his first Constitution from impure, variolous, menstruous, and recrementitious Blood; but it must be granted, that out of the pu∣rest, and most refined Blood, the parts are nourish'd; unless you do con∣ceive, that Nature hath been more bountiful in her providence, in the production of the Fruit of Vegeta∣bles, and all other Animals, whose Young, as Chickens, Pigs, Lambs, and others, consist of a Flesh abun∣dantly

more sweet and delicate, than of Hens, Swine, and Sheep, and consequently engendred out of the purest Blood, and Juices of the Old ones.

2. To illustrate this matter further, it's very observable, That the care and prospection of Nature in the propa∣gation of Mankind is so extraordina∣ry, that where the Mother hath been sufficiently poxt, yet the Blood that's transmitted for the nutrition of the Foetus, is so depurated, that she hath brought forth a strong and sound Infant, living to a great Age.

3. Many Women that never had the Measles or Small-pox in their Lives, have brought into the world found Children, which notwithstand∣ing have been taken two or three years after with the Small-pox: Now can it be imagined, that a Mother can impart an Impurity to her Conception, which she never was tainted with her self?

4. Since it cannot be supposed, without Injury to the Female Sex of the Northern Climes, that they on∣ly are subject to this Taint and In∣fection, but that Women all the world over must be imbued with the same pollution, (which leads me to the second Doctrine) it must follow, that all Men, Women and Children must be smutted once, or oftner in their life-time, with this variolous Distemper; the contrary whereof is evidenced by a conside∣rable number of Men and Women, that have escaped both Measles and Small-pox, though attaining to their Sixtieth, Seventieth, or Eightieth year. The Reply, That had they lived longer, they would have un∣dergone those Diseases, might be as well appliable to such as had reacht an even term with Old Parr, and therefore doth not merit an Answer; though I will not deny, but all are, or have been imbued with those im∣pure, contagious Effluvia after their

Birth, that have a power to pro∣duce the Small-pox or Measles: But on the other hand I do also assert, That in those that lived to a great Age, and never lay under those Di∣stempers, Nature had either thrown them off insensibly through the pores, or by some eruptions, blotches or pimples, too flight to be taken notice of by those that were af∣fected with them, or being accom∣panied with causes of other Distem∣pers, have been expelled together. However it's agreeable with univer∣sal experience, that three fourths of those Northern Regions do once or oftner in their life-time pass that sort of purification, many once, some twice, and some very few three times.

In the more Southern hot Cli∣mats, as most parts of Asia, Africa, and South America, the Measles and Small-pox are so rare, that few know what they are, or what Names to give them, and fewer that ever

were sensible of those Diseases.

5. It's most certain, that neither Hippocrates or Galen were acquaint∣ed with any Names that denoted the Measles or Small-pox, unless you will restrain the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to them, which generally expressing efflorescencies and eruptions, and being by them no where applied to Symptoms, that accompany those impure Distempers, can in no wife be intended for that signification some Authors do accept it in, but only for all sort of heats, pimples, red, purpre, or black spots in ma∣lignant and pestilential Fevers; thô some will have it, that pimples only were by them named 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and all sort of malign spots 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, vid. Hipp. de morb. pop. & Gal. de morb. epid. As for the words of pustulae or pimples, and papulae, signifying Red Gum, neither of them being particularly appli∣cable to Measles or Small-pox, it's a great sign they knew nothing of the matter.

6. It's very remarkable, that thô those Southern people are not sub∣ject to undergo those Distempers of the Measles and Small-pox in their own Country, yet no sooner they arrive in these Northern Regions, or soon after, but are commonly sur∣prized with one or other of them, or both successively, at some uncer∣tain Interval, one after another. And what is more astonishing, the Dogs and Pigs that are brought over hither from Guiny, undergo the same Distempers. Moreover, the Swine here have been frequently observed to have Measles, and also Small-pox; and the like may be taken notice of in Dogs and Chick∣ens.