Select observations on English bodies of eminent persons in desperate diseases first written in Latin by Mr. John Hall ... ; after Englished by James Cook ... ; to which is now added, an hundred like counsels and advices, for several honourable persons, by the sam

DIRECTIONS For such as drink the Bath-Water. Collected by H. S.

Revised and approved by Sir Alexander Frasier, principal Physician to his Majesty.

THere being many unthought of In∣conveniences, and many unexpected Accidents, which frequently befall such as resort unto, and make use of the hot Baths in Europe, by way of drinking them medi∣cinally; the best provision that can be made against such perillous Contingencies, is, that the Patient regulate himself according to the most rational and exact Rules of Physick; and having duly prepared the Body according to them, before he begin to drink, that he pursue a most orderly Course of Diet, and

cautelously deport himself in all those Circum∣stances, which Physicians include under that Notion.

Upon this account it is, that the universal Con∣sent and Practice of Mankind seems to have enacted this into a standing Law, That none should wantonly, and with contempt of all Dietetical Rules, make use of those Mineral Drinks; but that all Cir∣cumstances relating thereto, should be conformable to Moderation and Temperance.

It behoveth therefore such Persons to avoid, during such a Course, all surcharge of Meat, all excess of Drink; that they neither indulge them∣selves with too much sleep, nor maccrate or en∣flame their Bodies by immoderate watching; that they neither debilitate Nature by so violent exercise as may introduce a Lassitude; nor retard the distribution, digestion, and evacuation of those Mineral Waters by Sloth and In-activity; that such excrementitious Collections, as Nature customarily produceth in human Bodies, be duly evacuated, and neither too long retained, nor too precipitously discharged; that the Mind be com∣posed into such a cheerfulness and gaiety, as may prevent all disorderly Passions and Lusts.

The Effect of the Bath-Waters being drunk, is, to discharge the whole Body from all Impurities that are incorrigible; to correct those that are ca∣pable of Amendment; to free the innate heat or Fer∣ments of each part which are oppressed through any surcharge, or peccancy of Humors; and to restore or revive those that otherwise languish, or are some way decayed.

And this is done, not by any one manner of Operation in them, but by their complicated working at one time of sundry evacuations. It is manifest, that they operate by Stool several times, once, twice, thrice, four times, or more. It is no less evident that they operate by Vrine, so as to dis∣charge themselves oftentimes in a greater quantity than what is drunk, commonly in an equal quan∣tity, and frequently in a proportion somewhat less; of the last instance there being several de∣grees observable. It is also manifest, that they promote not only insensible Transpiration, but Sweat; the latter being more or less copious, according to the Constitution of the Patient, antecedent Prepara∣tion, and the ambient, whether taken abroad in the open Air, or in Bed. The Effects they have in re∣ference to Transpiration insensible, are particularly evinced by this Observation of the Laundresses in Bath, That those which drink the said Waters, do foul their Linnen more than other People do, or than themselves do at other times, when yet it is equally worn.

I doubt not, but that others as well as my self, may have observed, that several Hypochondriacal Persons have found another Operation in those Wa∣ters, viz. That upon drinking them they have found their Spittle attenuated, a••d the discharge thereof by Salivation encreased at the begin∣ning. The like Effect I have seen in some Pulmonicks.

Neither is it to be supposed, that these Waters discharge themselves purely in an insipid, limpid, aqueous Vrine. For (not to mention sundry ways, I have tried and discovered Heterogeneous Contents

in such Urine) I have seen a Person deeply and inveterately Hypochondriacal, who avoided his Wa∣ters at the beginning (and yet they passed well) deeply tinged with Choler, as much as is to be seen in the Colick Bilious. I have also seen Persons, whose Lungs, Head, and Habit of Body, were oppressed with viscid Phlegm, to avoid Urines, which though pale, yet by the lasting consistence of viscid Bubbles, and ever great Froth thereon up∣on any agitation, sufficiently shewed the mixture of the dissolved Phlegm. And when they pass much in the night, they come away more or less tinged, according to the Nature of the Patient, the Disease, the Method and Circumspection used for his Cure.

The Operation of these Waters being such, as it is not difficult for an intelligent Physician to con∣jecture in what Diseases it is requisite or beneficial to drink these Waters; so it will likewise seem evident, that a due preparation is necessary for such as expect benefit thereby. Neither will any knowing Physician imagin, that the exhibi∣ting of one Dose of purging Pills, a Potion, or a Bolus, is a sufficient Preparative for the successful drinking of these Waters. For seeing that a stable Health consists herein principally, that the Excre∣ments of the first, and subsequent Concoctions be dis∣charged by all those ways whereby these Waters do operate. And since that in morbid Persons there are not only Depravations in the Chyle, Mass of Blood, and other Alimentary Juices; but also in the Chyliferous, Sanguiferous, Lymphatic Vessels Nerves and Glandules, (not to mention other things) the universal Amendment whereof is no

less requisite to a constancy of Health, than it is to Liquors, what they are, and through what Canals they run; no understanding Person will conclude otherwise than that according to the several Con∣stitutions and Indispositions of Patients, there must be different Preparations made, (and those in confor∣mity to the Methods which solid Physic prescribes) before they can propose to themselves any great or durable benefit by the use of these Waters.

Let us then inculcate that Aphorism of Hippocra∣tes to all such as shall repair to these Waters, Cor∣pora qui purgare volet, fluida efficiat oportet: He that would conveniently purge any Person, must dis∣pose the Humors to a fluidity, and relax the Pas∣sages first, by which they are to be evacuated. To the most beneficial operation of Medicaments, it is requisite that there be an universal 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that the Humors be fluxile, and the Passages pervious: The which is so much the more to be regarded in respect to the Bath-Waters, because they do not as other Medicaments, operate after one determi∣nate manner, but more catholicly. But more espe∣cially Obstructions of the Mesentery are to be re∣garded, because the Waters are more particularly to pass through those parts.

Let us also lay down this for another Rule, that these Waters are not to be looked upon as being in themselves an entire Course of Physic, but that subsidiary Helps of Purges, and other Medicaments, appropriated to respective Diseases, will be requi∣site to the compleating of their Effects. And if the solitary or immethodical use of these Waters hath ever been successful, (which is not to be denied) the f••rtunate Rashness of such Persons ought not

to be drawn into a President, by the considering part of Mankind; there being so many Instances of their being unsuccessful, and sometimes preju∣dicial, through the neglect or ignorance of this Caution.

These things being premised, the Manner of drinking these Waters, which the Gene∣rality of Persons ought to follow, and which Reason it self dictates, is this:

I. That they begin with drinking of the Waters, and conclude (if their condition permit) with bathing. For Bathing is but a particular and local Remedy, Drinking a more general or universal. Therefore according to the established Maxims of Physic, the latter ought to precede the former. Besides, the drinking of these Waters, by open∣ing Obstructions, attenuating some, and evacua∣ting other Humors, doth prepare the way for Bathing, whereby the Reliques are evacuated by sweat, and the habit of the Body corroborated. But reiterated Bathing doth not prepare the Body for drinking; if it open the Pores, and discuss some Humors, it attracts into the Habit of the Body others that are crude, gross, and unfit to be discussed by sweat or transpiration; it puts the Humors lodged in the Hypochondria into an Aestu∣ation and Turgency, and raiseth Vapors as well as Defluxions upon the outward and inward Parts. Also Bathing, being accompanied with sweating, hinders evacuation, by Stool and Vrine, and con∣sequently puts Nature into a Course altogether opposite to what is to be expected and wished in

the drinking of the Waters. From whence it is ma∣nifest, that to begin with a Course of Bathing and Sweating, and to terminate with a Course of drink∣ing the Waters, is not only irrational, but dange∣rous, viz. Sicui potus & lavacrum utendum sit, is per plures dies anteà bibat, & posteà lavet, non è contrà;* 1.1 ex potu tamen purgatio ferè intelligitur; ex Balneo autem alte∣ratio, rectificatio{que}, & confortatio mem∣brorum. At hoc inter prima Medicinae instituta est, purgari priùs debere corpus quàm alterari, & confortari.—Non ante copius esse locum re∣mediis, quàm universo corpori generali∣bus praesidiis sit prospectum in confesso est apud omnes,* 1.2 & ratio suadet: Ali∣oquin enim pleno corpore adhibita fluxi∣ones majores in partes concitarit jam an∣te imbecilles & morbo la••efactatas, ex quo fit ut non tantùm optatum finem praeposterâ curandi ratione instituta mini∣mè consequamur, sed & geminato morbo majus aegroto malum creemus. Jam verò aquas medicatas Baln••o u∣surpatas in l••calium numero esse notius est, quam ut pluribus probari debeat.

I cannot but here take notice, that sometimes, when the Waters have not passed well by Vrine, I have caused the Patient to go once or so into the Crosse Bath, and there caused them to stay about half an hour, or more; and after that commanded them to rise without sweating much; and hereby, (together with Phleboromy) I have effected that the Waters have passed freely afterwards: the Vrinal Passages being relaxed and opened by the moderate Heat, and other Qualities of that Bath. Also in

Persons of a Phlegmatic Constitution, be it natu∣ral or morbid, I have directed that they should use the Cross-Bath for a week (neither continuing long in, nor sweating much afterwards,) before they drunk these Waters; there being no fear that in such the Hypocondriacal Aestuations should arise, or that any Catarrhous Pains should happen; but rather that the cold and viscid Humors should be at∣tenuated, the Vrinal Passages expedited, and the Body with ease prepared for subsequent Physic, and drinking of the Waters.

II. That they begin to drink these Waters by degrees, proceeding from a smaller quantity to a greater; and having arrived to the largest Dose, there to stay several days; and then by the like degrees contract their draughts, until they desist. The whole Course of drinking being thus finished in fourteen days, or twenty days at most.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Andr▪ Baccius de Thermis, l. 2. c. 10. & l. 3. c. 1.
• * 1.2

  Joan. Paul••••. de Fonte B••l∣lensi. lib. 2. c. 3. vid. & A••dr▪ L••bar. de 〈◊〉〈◊〉. Ta∣beranis, lib. 2. c. 13.