Dr. Willis's practice of physick being the whole works of that renowned and famous physician wherein most of the diseases belonging to the body of man are treated of, with excellent methods and receipts for the cure of the same : fitted to the meanest capacity by an index for the explaining of all the hard and unusual words and terms of art derived from the Greek, Latine, or other languages for the benefit of the English reader : with forty copper plates.

A little before Dinner let him take a draught of Sherry.

When you have used these Medicins for some time, and have a mind to leave them off, take these that follow in their stead.

In the room of the Spirit take a Dose of the following Electuary every night and morning, with the destilled Water, or Viper Wine.

Take of the rind of Citron wet preserved ℥ j. ss. of Myrabolans preserved ℥ j. of Natmeg * 1.1 and preserved Ginger, each ℥ ss. of the Confection of Jacinth and Alchermes, each ʒ iij. of Pearl prepared, and of red Coral prepared, each ʒ j. ss. with Syrap of the juice of Cher∣mes: and make an Electuary.

For your ordinary Drink take Physick Ale, prepared in manner following; that is to say, into a Vessel of iv. Gallons put the following Bag: * 1.2

Take an old Cock half boyled and cut into small pieces, and of the Leaves of Sage and Harts tongue dried, each ij. handfuls, Dates shredded in number vj. of the shavings of Sassafras ℥ ij. shred them and bruise them, and then mix them, and make a Bag, to be put in after the Ale hath done working.

2. The second intention, that undertakes to mend the ill temper or depraved nature of the spirits and the bloud, is performed by the same remedies, which are proper in the * 1.3 hypochondriacal and melancholy Distemper; wherefore from the Cure of those Diseases, which I have formerly set forth, the Forms of their Prescriptions may be made use of in this place.

3. As to the third Intention, which instructs us in the due Method of using Cloths, Air, Fire, and Food, far the regulation of the Pores, it doth not much concern a Physician. * 1.4 For the Parties affected, measuring themselves and their strength accor∣ding to their own imagination, put on such Cloths, keep themselves close up in their Chambers, lie in Bed, and sit by the Fire, even as long or as much as they please, never hearking to the advise either of Friends or Doctors. Whatever other People tell them concerning those things, they for the most part reject in confidence of their own ex∣perience, and the good or hurt which they have found. The onely counsel that they most commonly use to take, and is most helpful, is this, that they ought to change the Air and the Soil where they live, which oftentimes alters their minds also. For let them be never so imprisoned in their Houses or close Chambers, yet when they go into foreign Countries, where they breath in hotter and more serene Air, it is hardly credible how soon they recover. So much of depraved or perverted Transpi∣ration; the Theory of which Distemper, I therefore delivered the more fully, because it is left untouched by others: Now let us return thither, from whence we digressed, and treat of excessive Sweating.

There remains still another sort of this Distemper, called immoderate Sweating, which is, not as the former, an effect or symptom af any present or past Disease; but is at the very first beginning either a Disease by it self, or the Parent of some morbid Distemper. To the former of which belongs chiefly that pestilent Sweating, which * 1.5 was heretofore amongst our Countrymen, and therefore through the whole World called by the name of The English Sweat; into the caufe of which we will by and by inquire. But to say nothing here of the bloud, black, or blue foetid, or sweet Sweat, (of which good Authors make mention, and of some whereof we have now and then made observation) I have often taken notice, that some People have fallen into an habit of sweating, without any manifest cause; and then that the evacuation being daily augmented, hath increased many times to great excess; in so much, that the moisture (of the whole Body seemed to be poured forth into Sweat. And indeed it is no won∣der that this Distemper, when it is once begun, should daily augment; for those that sweat much or often, are very thirsty, and consequently drink to excess, and so the more they drink the more they sweat: by which means these two do mutually take the turns of the Cause and the Effect, and by a long series produce one another. There lives yet in this Kingdom a noble Lady, famous for her extraordinary, or rather * 1.6 stupendous sweating these many years last past, who every night doth not onely wet, or rather deluge her Linen and all the cloths about the Bed, but likewise puts a Basin under her thighs, into which several ounces, nay according to the vulgar relation, se∣veral pounds of meer Sweat drop from her; and in the mean time she is forced by her continual urgent thirst, to drink more than ordinary, whereby as her strength is re∣stored, so her sweating is prolonged. I had the story of this strange indisposition, not onely from other persons of good credit, but from the Ladies own mouth, though I never was consulted in order to the recovery of her health. But she took several remedies from several Physicians, tried many methods concerning Diet, and the re∣gulation of the Six Non-naturals, drank Waters of almost every kind, and tried the Air of foreign Countries, especially of France; but notwithstanding all this, the Noble Lady is still troubled with this extraordinary dropping. Now seeing I have yet known nothing of what happened about the beginning, progress, and alteration of this Distem∣per, or what was observable concerning those things that gave her ease or pain, and that I had the honour only once to see, and talk with her no more than just en passant, it * 1.7 will not be easie for me to give you the reason of this case: but however I may be allowed to guess, that in this, as in other instances of Nature, the Serum of the Bloud being apt to separate too easily, left the ordinary paslages of evacuation through the reins, lymphaeducts, and other ways, and having first occasionally begun to go this way through the pores of the skin, and afterward facilitated its motion by a kind of habit, affected, and constantly observed the same; to which perhaps we may add, that the predominancy of the fluid Salt in the bloud and nervous juice, causeth a con∣tinual fusion of the Bloud, and a plentiful separation of the Serum. To cure this Distem∣per, now since it is confirmed by a long habit, and that the oeconomy of Nature also is quite inverted by it, I cannot tell whether any Medicins or Method of Physick would do any good upon her. For my part, I did not think fit to propose any to her, when I had formerly the opportunity to speak with her. If that great Remedy for a vitiated Transpiration, to wit, Change of Air, be repeated, I would have her go no more to France, but Denmark or Swedeland.

It would be pertinent in this place to treat a little concerning the English Sweat, * 1.8 which was formerly so rife, not onely among our Countrymen at home, but also a∣broad, and that in a very fatal degree. But yet seeing this Distemper hath not been known within an Age last past, and we cannot know the nature of it but by the Writings of others, I must not contrive any Hypothesis concerning the nature and causes thereof, but onely after the Story, which I take of it out of Authors, lay before you my own Conjectures.

The English Sweat began in the year 1485 about the beginning of the Month August, * 1.9 and continued to the end of October; and though Sennertus saith that this Malady was from that time 40 years familiar and continually in this Country, yet our Countrymen, both Physicians and Historians, who lived either at that time or near it, observed that it had perfect and great intervals: and when it returned only four times in the space of 66 years, to wit, in the year 1506. 1517. 1528. 1551. it raged scarce ever above 6 months, and sometimes was gone in 3 months time, and that there was always a very wet season be∣fore it came. But every year that it was rife, it destroyed a vast number of men in all places, in so much that when and whereever it reigned, a third part of the People were missing in a short time. So great was the malignity thereof, that as soon as it invaded any City, it would every day seize upon five or six hundred persons, and of

those that were sick at first, scarce the hundredth man escaped. I thought good here to insert that compendious and methodical description of this Disease which Senner∣tus hath given us, and which is also consonant to that of our own Authors. Those that were seized with this Distemper, were presently weakened without any Bubo, * 1.10 Carbuncles, Breaking out, or Languidness, and fainted in their Spirits with extreme feebleness in their limbs, restlessness, heart-burning, head-ach, frequent, quick, and unequal pulses, with very great palpitation of the heart; but they flowed with per∣petual and copious Sweating, which was not ended before the Distemper was over, which happened within 24 hours. For those that did not provoke Sweat, nor use Cordials, and those that endured heat more impatiently and caught cold, they all died suddenly within 24 hours. But afterward when the nature of this Distemper was known, and that it did People good to provoke Sweat and use Cordials to fortifie themselves, fewer died of it. [Sen. of Fevers b. 4. ch. 15.] Concerning the Cure of it Poly∣dore Virgil writes somewhat more accurately. After many Experiments and Obser∣vations * 1.11 made by the sick, from things that were helpful and hurtful, it came to pass at last, that they found out a present remedy for each person, which was this. If any man were taken with Sweating in the day time, that he should forthwith go to bed in his cloths; if in the night and in bed, then that he should lie still, and not stir out of the place for four and twenty hours together; and that in the mean time he should so load himself with cloths, as not to provoke the Sweat very strongly, but let it drop gently from him of its own accord; that he should eat nothing, if he could endure to abstain so long; nor drink more of his usual warmed liquor, than was moderately enough to quench his thirst. But all the while that he was about this Cure, he should take care not to put so much as his hand or his foot out of the Bed to cool or refresh them, which to do is mortal. Others say, that all that space of a night and a day, the Party was totally to abstain from sleeping. This Distemper, be∣cause it usually ended, after so short a time, in life or death, was called by many Phy∣sicians, Febris Ephemera, or a Fever of a days continuance. Those that recovered of this pestilent sweating, after they had continued for a time well, fell many of them into it a second, and some of them also a third time.

From these appearances, that we may presume to give you the reason of this dire * 1.12 Distemper, in the first place we may guess, that the formal reason, and likewise the conjunct cause of that pestilent sweating consisted in this, that the Bloud being infe∣cted by meeting with some malignant or venomous matter, and consequently there∣upon dissolved in its temperament, and melted into Serum, was immediately put into a sweat, (as being the universal, and also the most copious way of evacuation) in or∣der to expel that virulent mixture; by which evacuation, if perchance it happened that all the venomous particles were straight carried off, the Distemper ended in a short time with health, but otherwise very often with death.

But here I must in order make inquiry, whether that malignant matter was first generated in the Bloud, or whether it flowed into it from other parts? If you say the former, you must suppose that the mass of Bloud, as in the Plague, had contracted a putrefactive quality by the malignant constitution of the season and the Air; which afterward, either of its own accord, in as much as it was raised to a fulness, or by con∣tagion, did, as it had been set on fire, break forth into a dangerous, and oftentimes corruptive swelling. But that which makes me not believe it to be so in this malig∣nant * 1.13 Sweating, is this above all other things, that no signs appeared either before, or after, or in the fit of the Blouds being corruptive or much vitiated. For besides that this Fever is not very high, nor attended with Spots, Breakings out, Buboes, and other signs of the Blouds being venomed or in a great heat, it also is over in a night and a day; which scarce ever uses to happen in Distempers that are deeply rooted within the mass of Bloud.

Wherefore I am rather inclined to think that the original cause of this Distemper, * 1.14 being first founded in the nervous liquor, is from thence communicated to the bloud, whilest the tragedy of this malignant sweating is transacted. For I suppose that the aforesaid liquor, which moisteneth all the fibres in the whole Body, and is the vehicle of the animal spirits in all parts, is degenerated, through the unseasonableness of the year, from its due crasis, that is to say, from its spirituo-saline volatile nature, toward a sower, or other more vitiated, and at last, malignant quality; and when it comes to that state of depravation, that either of its own accord, through fulness, or being stirred up by the ferment of the contagion, it begins to swell, or dissolve, being forced out of those irritated parts, and flowing into the mass of Bloud, it presently poisons it throughout, relaxeth the constitution of it, and puts it into a most excessive heat, or boyling, in order to expel and throw that off. Hence plenteous Sweats (because

this is not onely the nighest but the largest way of evacuation) break forth; by which extreme endeavour of Nature, if perchance it so happen that all the poison is reman∣ded out of the bloud into the habit of the Body, and that thence it be quite cast out by an universal and sometime continued Sweat, health in a short time appears, like Sun-shine after Clouds are totally dispersed; but if the venomous particles are not suddenly nor altogether routed by that fermentation and endeavour to separate them, into which the Bloud is put, in order to expel the malignant matter, the mass of Bloud becomes, not onely by being deprived of its Serum, but vitiated, and over∣powered in its Nature, unable any longer to prolong, or keep in the vital flame.

From hence it will be no hard matter to assign what are the causes of its Symptoms, * 1.15 and the reasons of the empirical or quack Cure thereof. For whereas when the Dis∣ease was upon them, or about the first approach of it, before the Fever seemed to be kindled, immediately an unusual languishing, a faintness of the spirits, a great weak∣ness in the limbs, an headach, palpitation of the heart with frequent, quick, and une∣qual pulses, and other indispositions in the nerves did afflict the persons that were sick of it, it was a sign that the nervous parts were affected or put out of order before the bloud, and that from them the malady derived its original.

2. Whereas plentiful Sweat (which was not onely symptomatical, but sometimes also critical) arises about the beginning of this Fever, quite contrary to what it doth in most others, the reason is, because the morbifick liquor which flowes out of the nervous fibres and other parts into the mass of bloud, is thencc immediately thrown back upon its very first arrival, nor is it permitted to stay any considerable time in the bloud, or to be intimately mingled therewith. For when a man is not very well, the nervous liquor scarce ever agrees with the bloud; wherefore if at any time that flows into this, it is presently forced out again, and being, before it is infected with the leyish tincture, sent away through the reins, it causeth a flux of clear Urin; which I have often observed to happen in convulsive Distempers. But if the nervous liquor being degenerated or depraved, flows back continually into the Bloud, it produces sometimes * 1.16 an unbloudy Flux or Dysentery (such as I before described) and sometimes a Diabetes, as I shewed you in the foregoing Discourse. But I have formerly evinced that can∣crous strumous, schirrhous, and other ill tumours do arise by reason of the lesser and more private setlings or stagnations of the same humour. Now in the Distemper, of which we at present treat, that nervous liquor, if it be very malignant and pestilent, it poisons the Bloud at the first touch, and dissolveth it into a Serum which must be im∣mediately carried off by Sweat; for otherwise if it be suffered to stay some hours in the mass of Bloud, to circulate, and be intimately commixt with it, it totally corrupts, and plainly mortifies the same: hence in that method of curing it, found out by fre∣quent experiments, they take such diligent care, that upon the first approach of the Distemper, the Parties that are troubled with it are the same moment (without staying to pluck off their cloths, or to go into bed) covered all over with the Bed-cloths and composed to sweat, continuing thereupon an equal sweat through their whole Body, for 24 hours; in so much that in the mean time they are not suffered to stir hand nor foot, or to take either meat, or sleep; that is, they do nothing at all, to make that pe∣stilent liquor mix either in greater quantity or more intimately with the Bloud, or to hinder the sudden and total exclusion thereof. Now if such sudden, plenteous and equal sweating caused by the instinct of Nature and regulated by Physick, be conti∣nued so long, that all the venom exhales through the pores of the skin, the Patients perfectly recover without breakings out in the skin, a lingring Fever, long weakness, nightly sweats, and other consequences of vitiated Blood. But in as much as the ner∣vous liquor, after its corruptions are so purged forth, is apt again in the same manner to be depraved, and after that, being disturbed through fulness or contagion, to flow back out of the nervous parts into the Bloud, and to envenom that likewise, it there∣fore happened, that some men after they were perfectly well, were seized by the same Distemper a second, yea sometimes a third time. It will not be necessary here to subjoin any forms of Prescriptions in this case, because the whole business of the Cure depends for the most part upon a right ordering of the Patient. Besides it would be very absurd to prescribe a remedy or a method to cure a Disease that is so unusual among us, and which we hope will never return again; or if perchance it doth hereafter come upon us again, it is uncertain, whether we ought to observe the same rules in curing of it.

Notes

• * 1.1

  An Electuary.
• * 1.2

  Physick Al•…•….
• * 1.3

  2. The second Intention.
• * 1.4

  3. The third Intention, which is, the al∣teration of the Pores.
• * 1.5

  The third sort of sweating, which is a Dis∣ease of it self.
• * 1.6

  A notable Sto∣ry of it.
• * 1.7

  The reason of it.
• * 1.8

  Of the English Sweat.
• * 1.9

  The Story of it.
• * 1.10

  The Description of it out of Sennertus.
• * 1.11

  The Cure of it is described out of Polydore Virgil.
• * 1.12

  The reason of it inquired into.
• * 1.13

  The primary cause of it.
• * 1.14

  In the nervous liquor.
• * 1.15

  The reasons of the symptoms.
• * 1.16

  An unbloudy Dys••ntery and a Diabetes pro∣ceed from the same cause as this Disease does.