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CHAP. VI. The Consideration of a Quartane Ague.

1. A Quartane hath deluded the Rules of the Schooles. 2. Why they know not how to cure a Quartane. 3. That the wonted excuses in other events of Diseases do fail. 4. A presage from a Quartane, in other Fevers. 5. The examination of a Quartane according to the account of the Schooles. 6. The weaknesses of Galen himself. 7. Failings noted in Physitians. 8. Constrain∣ed words in the confession of Physitians. 9. An argument against black Choler in the Spleen, and the privy shifts of Physitians. 10. The true reason whence the Spleen waxeth hard about the end of a Quartane Ague, and the errour of the Schooles is discovered. 11. Some remarkable things in a Quar∣tane. 12. The manner of be-drunkenning, and the Organs thereof. 13. A notable thing concerning a Vegetable Spirit of VVine out of Juniper-berries 14. VVhy VVines are ordinarily gratefull to Mortals. 15. After what man∣ner the Arteries draw their Remedles. 16. An impediment in abstracted Oyles, which is not in the Salts of the same. 17. The manner of making of the Cardiack or Heart-passion, which they also call the Royal Passion. 18. Di∣vers Chronical Diseases are from the Stomach. 19. The ignorance, and sin∣cerity of the age of Hippocrates. 20. There is no Seat for a Quartane left in the Schooles. 21. A few remarkable things concerning Madnesses, are declared. 22. The Seat of foolish Madnesses.

SUrely I have demonstrated in an entire Treatise, that there never were Humours in Nature, which the Schooles of Medicine presuppose for the Foundation of their Art; and that Treatise should profesly have respect hitherto, unless it had been ere∣long to be repeated in a work of other Diseases: Because they have every where na∣med all Diseases by those Humours.

But it shall be sufficient in this place, to have demonstrated by the way, That Fe∣vers [unspec 1] do in no wise owe their original unto those Humours, whether they are entire, or putrified ones.

Now I will speak something concerning a Quartane Ague: but not that it differs from its Cousin-German Fevers in its matter, and efficient cause, or is cured otherwise than after one and the same manner, and by the same meanes, whereby other Fevers are overcome: but because a Quartane hath never been vanquished by the broken forces of the Schooles: and so it hath made mocks at the Commentaries of Physitians and their vain Speeches concerning black Choler, concerning the Spleen as the sink of black, and burnt Choler, and of loosening Medicines bringing forth black Choler by a Choyce.

A Quartane Ague therefore, hath long since exposed the Doctrine of the Universities, and the promises of these unto Laughter, as being vain Trifles and wan Fables without strength: For truly a desperate curing by Arts, hath made manifest the feeble help of Medicines, the vain promises of Dispensatories, and the undoubted ignorance of the causes of Fevers. Good God! it is now manifest, that Physitians cannot onely not cure the Leprosie, Gout, Palsey, Asthma, Stone, Falling-sicknesse, and other Diseases contein∣ed under the large Catalogue of uncurable ones, which are never cured of their own ac∣cord: but they have not known how to take away so much as a Quartane Ague, which patiently expects, and deludes every endeavour of Physitians: The which notwithstand∣ing Nature cures by her own power, to the disgrace of the Schooles! For they who at∣tempt their Cures onely by the cuttings of a vein, Sarrifyings, Leeches, Vesicatories, and

purgings of the Belly; and so by diminishments of the Body, and Strength, and stick whol∣ly in Heathenish Doctrines, are even excluded by Nature from the true knowledge of Causes, and Remedies.

Because first of all, None of their Medicines reacheth unto the Seat of a Quartane, [unspec 2] but it first paying Tribute through the Toles or Customes of every Digestion, is stript of every Faculty requisite unto so great a malady. For neither ought I to draw out that thing from elsewhere, or to prove it by many Arguments: Be it sufficient, That the Succours of Physitians have been hitherto unprosperous: For they purge and cut a vein, and then they leave the rest to be boren by Nature; And in the mean time, they cer∣tainly know that they shall profit nothing by Remedies of that sort, nor that they ever have profited thereby: I wish at least, that they had not done hurt. They ought there∣fore to confess, that Remedies, and also all the suppositions of Art faileth them in this Disease; Yea, neither that the wonted privy evasion of uncurableness in other Dis∣eases is of value unto them: For all the powers of the Universities being conjoyned, cannot perform so much as Nature can, and doth do without them of her own free [unspec 3] accord.

But moreover, The same shamefulnesse of ignorance, and every way impotency which a Quartane hath discovered in the Schooles, They should be compelled to con∣fesse [unspec 4] in the other curings of Fevers also; if those did not hasten to an end of their own ac∣cord. Wherefore I now conjecture, That the out-law a Quartane, in the Age that is forth∣with to come, shall distinguish false Physitians from true ones, whom the Almighty hath Chosen, Created, and Commanded to be Honoured.

The Schools therefore define a Quartane according to the account of other Fevers, by a heat kindled besides nature, first in the heart from the humour of black Choler be∣ing [unspec 5] putrified, and diffused by the utmost small brances of the veins into the habit of the body: The seat of which putrified Choler, they nevertheless acknowledge to be in the Spleen.

I importunately crave at your hands, I beseech you let the profession of Medicine tell me, what harmony they can ever utter from so great dumness? And whether it be not to have blinded the minds as well of the sick, as of young beginners with prattle? Let them ex∣plain, why that heat is not first kindled in the Spleen, where the cause, or humour sit∣teth, [unspec 6] which by its putrefaction (as they say) is the cause of an unnatural heat? even as while a Thorn being thrust into the finger, sticking fast therein, the finger it self first rageth with heat, and that long before the putrefaction of inflammation? Why is a Quartane so stubborn, if at every fit nature opens a passage for it self, whereby it may disperse the putrified black Choler thorow the veins into the habit of the body, even in the very rigour of cold, and straightness of the veins? After what manner shall the same black Choler in number be as yet putrified after a year and an halfs space, and afford an hard Spleen, if at every fit it be dispersed into the habit of the body? How, if it was from the beginning in the Spleen, with so daily a fornication of putrified matter, hath it not long since putrified the Spleen? The which (especially) is accounted by the Schools to be nothing but a sink of the worst excrement? After what manner doth a Quartane after so many moneths retire as better, of its own accord, to the disgrace of Physitians, while as notwithstanding, it shall of necessity be more dry, gross, and shall more putrifie than at its first fits?

Again, What humour which from its rise is evil and putrified, can be at length digested? Doth nature become foolish, that she at length, after a divorce, and a year an a halfs time begins to digest the humour which in the beginning she had refused to digest, it being already before of necessity plainly putrified? What reason is there of the change of her will? Hath it then first repented Nature of her deed? How shall she not weary her self, which hath almost worn her self out in striving so many months with a putrified, and the worst of Humours, That she might exclude that which hath now hardened in her possession, and which was offensive in so many respects? For if in three days space, as much of black choler be kept as is sufficient for a fit, what is this to the Spleen? or what shall it make to the digestion of the primitive, and putrified black Choler? If black cho∣ler be daily of necessity made a new, be laid up into the spleen, and from thence be brought into the stomack its emunctory? How shall nature so many months be forgetful of the passages, expulsions, and rites of that Emunctory? and shall not be mindful of these, but nigh the end, which is so tiresome? What if Senna, Epithymam, and the Arsenick which is entertained in the stones of Armenia, and Lazulus, do fetch out black Choler on every side (especially out of its natural Iun) and this be the total, un∣doubted

cause of a Quartane, and accused by so many Rules, Authors, and consent of ages: Why therefore do they not take away, diminish, or any way shorten a Quar∣tane?

But Physitians after so many torments, forsake their sick, being weakened under the custody of despair, and commended to the government of the Kitchin. At length, what will that much and stinking balast of liquor avail them, which these Medicines be∣ing drunk, the credulous sick person casts forth without profit, and perceives his strength to be diminished hereby?

Is not that saying of Hippocrates true? If those things which are convenient are drawn out, the sick feel themselves the better, and easily bear such purgings of the belly. For why although such solutive medicines are immoderately taken even unto the last breath of life, yet doth the Quartane Ague slacken nothing of its power?

Learn ye therefore ye younger Physitians, of me an old man, That your Humours, and laxative Medicines are nothing but meer delusive doatages, whereby in subscribing to each other, ye have been deluded by Heathens, unto whom the gift of healing was not given: Because Galen never saw so much as Anatomy, however magnificently he [unspec 6] triumphs concerning it, and of the use of parts; He never saw Argent-vive or Quick-silver, and all Simples he borrowed word for word out of Diascorides, the name of this man being suppressed: He never I say, knew even Rose-water.

Is it not a shame that ye should wipe away some moneys, that ye hand forth the cuttings [unspec 7] of a vein, and now and then the more gentle purgers without hope of amendment? And ye mutter many things among your selves even to a loathing, concerning the digestion of black Choler, concerning the little cloud or that which swimmeth in the urine, when as notwithstanding, ye being full of distrust, must confess That these words lay hid in your breast from the beginning:

Against a Quartane Ague we have nothing, we let out blood, and purge, and after∣wards [unspec 8] know nothing: The sick party must expect the term or end thereof with patience: Because against a Quartane there is no remedy in our Cabinets: Nature ought to help her self.

In the mean time, the Spleen swells harder, and oft-times the Ancles also together [unspec 9] with it: If therefore black Choler should be the containing cause of a Quartane, and should afford an hard Spleen, how at length doth the Ague cease, the total cause there∣of remaining in the Spleen? After what manner it being now hardened in the Spleen, shall it be better evacuated, than while nature attempted the banishment thereof by the Fever. At length, after what sort shall it better depart, being hardened, than being fluide in the beginning? Hath it, the Ague ceasing, lost its putrefaction? To wit, while it threatens a Dropsie, and the Spleen being harder, swelleth? The which notwithstan∣ing are tokens of its former naughtiness. But whether black Choler alone among natu∣ral things shall return from the putrefaction of it self into its former state? But if the Ague ceaseth, because the black Choler was consumed by so many Circuites, Why now doth it more obey the Physitian than while there was no extension of the bowel? Why now at length do you hope for aids from Capers, Tamarisk, and Ammoniacum, the which while the Ague remained were sluggish? If the same black Choler surviveth, why doth that cease, the Fever being safe? But if the black Choler hath departed with the Fever, why do ye prescribe remedies for the more fluide black Choler? But if ye feign black Choler to be brought unto the Splee by an Imposthume, what is that bowel more noble than the Spleen, which without sense or feeling, Complaint, and con∣tagion hath so long endured black Choler besides nature? And which had suffered so many fits of Fevers? Why was not that imposthume made while the faculties were as yet entire, they being the more fit for expelling of the enemy? Why not, while the matter was the more fluide?

How wil ye salve this, That the Spleen is the Emunctory of black Choler, if it hath behooved this Choler to be at length brought to the Spleen from elsewhere, after so ma∣ny labours and anguishes? Why therefore have the hardness, and swelling of the Spleen at length increased unto a proportion, with labours? Surely it is a wonder that it hath hitherto been unknown, that the Spleen under the tortures of a Quartane hath suffered many things; from all the particular digestions whereof, that ballast is left for the swelling of the Spleen, without the errour of local humours: And that therefore the hardness of the [unspec 10] Spleen is from those erroneous transchanged superfluities, and therefore the greater, by how much the foregoing affliction of the Spleen was the more grievous; To wit; That the Spleen swels from what was produced by the Quartane, but that it is not the very

occasional matter of the Quartane and much less, any black Choler, because it is that which was never in nature; Wherefore also it happens, that such a hardness vanisheth from the Spleen of its own accord, that the strength being retaken, nature per∣fects her own digestions; Wherefore the cure of a hard Spleen is not seated so much in the moystening, softening, and purging of black Choler, as in refreshing of the facul∣ties of Digestion.

For the Confirmation whereof, we must know, That the Spleen is bespangled with [unspec 11] perhaps four hundred arteries; neither that any bowel at all is enriched with so frequent a propagation of Arteries as the Spleen is: And then we must know, That the Seat of a Quartane is not only in the very body of the Spleen, but in the very Arteries thereof themselves; if not in them all, at least in some of them: Which one only point, hath made the cure of a Quartane difficult.

Thirdly, at length we must know, That an Artery draws no juyce to it self out of the sto∣mack, intestines, or from elsewhere: For to what end should it draw that juyce unto it self, since it shall not produce any good to it self thereby? For that Chyle or juyce being at∣tracted, doth as yet want foregoing means whereby it can ever be brought unto the perfection of arterial blood: Otherwise, the Arteries had drawn unto themselves more vexation but by a little sucking of a forreign liquor, than they are able to wear out by long pains for the future.

I grant indeed, that the Arteries do ordinarily, and immediately attract a be-drunkening [unspec 12] spirit of the stomack, which is bred almost in every vegetable, which is disobliged from the composed body through art, only by vertue of a serment, and at length is drawn out by the fire.

For example, If the berries of Juniper are boyled in water under an Alembick, an [unspec 13] essential oyl, and water do presently after rise up, and are collected: At length if those berries are then in the next place, steeped by a ferment, the distillation being afterwards repeated, a water most gently burning, or an Aquavitae is extracted; yet less, than if from the same berries an oyl were not first withdrawn. Thirdly, at last, if the remain∣ing berries being strained thorow a searse, are boyled into an Electuary, thou hast now obtained solutive Medicine excelling all the compositions of the shops. An Artery therefore willingly snatcheth to it self the burning spirit of life, a guest of the vegetable nature, out of the stomack (which the Grecism of the Schools never saw, or knew) the which otherwise nature by her first instruction prepares out of the digested Chyle: surely she rejoyceth, that she hath found a liquor with much brevity, from whence she may make vital spirit for her self.

For in this respect Wines are regularly pleasing to Mortals, they exhilarate the heart, [unspec 14] and do make drunk, if they are drunk down in more than a just quantity: For the spirit of Wine is not yet our vital spirit, because it is as yet wanting of an individual limitation, that the vital inflowing Archeus the Executer of our functions may from thence be framed: Wherefore since neither the Mesentery, nor Liver are ordained for the framing of vital spirit, the heart rejoyceth immediately and readily to suck to it that spirit (be∣ing already before prepared) through the arteries, out of the stomack.

Whence it follows, If the arteries attract unto themselves the Spirit of Wine like [unspec 15] unto vapours, they shall also draw the odours of Essences: For from hence are faintings, yea and on the other hand, restaurations: But the arteries draw not Oils, although essential, and grateful ones, because they suck not the substance of liquor, and much less oils: Therefore that a Medicine may be received by the heart, and by this heart attracted in∣wards, it ought to be that which yields a good smell, and to be unseparably married to the spirit of wine.

Wherefore Wines that are odoriferous, do more readily bedrunken than others, because the odours which are married to the spirit of wine are most easily admitted un∣to the heart, head, womb, &c.

But oylie odours being abstracted from their Concrete bodies, do rather affect by de∣filing, than materially enter into the Arteries: For therefore through the immoderate∣ness [unspec 16] of Wine, and the errours of life, not only a meer spirit of Wine is allured into the arteries, but also something of juyces together with it:

Whence at length difficult heart-beatings grow up in the gluttons of Wine, and the meer or pure spirit of Wine by an importunate daily continuance, strikes the reed of [unspec 17] the artery within, disturbs the local, and proper digestions thereof; wherefore also a part of the arterial nourishment degenerating, stirs up divers miseries, even durable for life.

For it happens in the Artery of the stomack, that the spirit of wine joyning it self by its own importunity to the spermatick nourishment of the artery, in the course of dayes [unspec 18] stirs up un-obliterable Vertigo's or giddinesses of the head, continual head-aches, the Fal∣ling-sickness, I say Swoonings, Drowsie Evils, Apoplexies, &c. For in the family-ad∣ministration of this member, as it were that of the heart, it obtains its own animosities du∣rable for life, which are not to be extirpated but by the greater Secrets.

The same way also sudden or unexpected death hath oft-times made an entrance for it self; because such a vitiated matter is never of its own free accord drawn out from thence: For although the Archeus be apt at length to consume his own nourishment; yet he doth not obtain this authority over excrements degenerated by a forreign coagu∣lation, and so for that cause not hearkening to the vital power or vertue: For therefore that part hath assumed the title of the heart, stirs up swoonings from an easie occasion, Falling-sicknesses also after the twenty fourth year; and likewise such affects as are at∣tributed to the heart, are accounted uncurable by those who have not much laboured in extracting the more potent faculties of medicine.

Hippocrates (by leave of so great a man, and of such an age, I speak it) was igno∣rant of this seat of the falling evil; because he was he who being constituted in the en∣trance [unspec 19] of Medicine, faithfully delivered unto posterity, at least, his own observations, and Medicinal administrations sprung from these:

For he said, If Melancholy passeth into the body, it breeds the Falling Sickness; But foolish madness, if it peirce the soul.

If therefore black Choler passing over into the body, and soul, causeth the Falling-sick∣ness [unspec 20] and Madness: Whither therefore shall it proceed, that it may generate a Quartane Ague?

The Schools especially rejoyce in so great an Author for their humour of black Cho∣ler; But they are forgetful of a Quartane, which far departs from the Falling-sickness, and Madness: For after whatsoever manner they shall regard it, a Quartane shall either not be made from black Choler, or this shall not be in the body, nor in the soul while it makes a Quartane.

But as to what pertains to Madness, and the Falling-sickness, as if they were se∣parated [unspec 21] only in the diversity of passages; or that the same humours did sometimes eva∣porate, or were materially entertained in the Inns of the principal faculties: Surely it is a ridiculous, although a dull, and plausible devise, to have found out the cause of all dis∣eases in so narrow a quaternary of humours.

For first of all, The Falling Evil doth much more strictly bedrowsie, and alienate the powers of the soul, although Madnesses do that far more stubbornly or constantly: Wherefore the aforesaid diseases are far otherwise distinguished (let the Genius's of Hippocrates spare me) than in the changing of their wayes, and bounds: And which more is, the general kind of foolish Madness, shall differ by its species in its proper mat∣ter, and proper efficient: as is to be seen in madness from the biting of a mad dog, or stroak, or sting of the Tarantula: For the cause of things had not as yet been made known in the age of Hippocrates; the knowledge whereof, the Prattle of the Greeks hath hitherto suppressed: Neither also are wrothful doatages made from yellow Choler, bruitish ones from black Choler, and jesting or merry ones from blood: Surely other∣wise we should all of us be daily jocound doaters, or deprived of blood: For feverish doa∣rages are especially fetcht out of a feverish matter, creeping into the shops of dreams, and not from elsewhere; But not that it forsakes the body, that it may enter into the mind. And likewise a doating delusion should never happen in a burning Fever, in a Synochus, or continual Fevers: but alwayes in Quartanes, and black Cholery Diseases. Truly, a Doatage is already from the very Beginning of Fevers: To wit, where the Fever and the Cause of the Doatage are jointy in the Root. For the malice being encreased, and the Organs weakened by little and little, the Doatage or Delusion ascends unto the maturity of its own perfection.

So in Wine, and also in some Simples, yea and likewise in feverish Excrements, a hidden Doatage is covered: neither doth it bewray it self, unlesse the power thereof shall ascend into a Constitutive mixture. At leastwise, all things do by the same Royal wax, according to the Genius of their own malice, Rage on the Organs of the Phan∣tasie, even as elsewhere concerning Madnesses. The Seed therefore of the doating De∣lusion lurked from the Beginning in the feverish matter, which at length is promoted unto its due malignity.

If therefore Madnesses differ in their matter, and efficient cause, That is, in their

whole Species, and Being: Surely the Falling-sicknesse, and Madnesse, do much farther differ from each other, and do more differ in a forreign Seed, than that one onely black Choler being exorbitant in its Seats, should bring forth both. Even as elsewhere concerning the Dunmvirate.

Madnesses (I will say in one word) are all nourished by the arteries, and in the Inn [unspec 22] of the Hypochondrial or Midriffes: According to that saying, In whom a vein beats strongly in the Midriffs, those are estranged in their mind: Therefore also they oft∣times want an exciting disturbance before they relapse into a Mania or bruitish mad∣ness; Because this is bred by a perturbation very like unto that.