Page 490
CHAP. II How poysons being small in quantity, may by their only touch cause so great alterations.
IT seemeth strange to many, how it may come to pass, that poyson taken or admitted in small quantity, may almost in a moment produce so pernicious effects over all the body, and all the parts, faculties, and actions; so that being admitted but in a little quantity, it swells up the body into a great bigness. Neither ought it to seem less strange, how Antidotes and Counter-poysons, which are opposed to poyson, can so suddenly break and weaken the great and pernici∣ous effects thereof, being it is not so likely that so small a particle of poyson or Antidote can divide it self into so many,* 1.1 and so far severed particles of our body, There are some (saith Galen) who think, that some things by touth onely, by the power of their quality, may alter those things which are next to them; and that this appears plainly in the fish Torpedo, as that which hath so powerful a quality, that it can send it alongst the fishers rod to the hand, and so make it become torped or numb. But on the contrary, Philosophers teach that accidents, such as qualities are, cannot without their subjects remove and diffuse themselves into other subjects.* 1.2 Therefore Galens other answer is more agreeable to reason, that so many and great affects of poysons, and reme∣dies arise either from a eertain spirit or subtil humidity; not truly, for that this spirit and subtil hu∣midity may be dispersed over the whole body and all the parts thereof which it affects, but that little which is entred the body, as cast in by the stroak of a Spider, or the sting of a Scorpion, in∣fects, and corrupts all the next parts by contagion with the like quality, these other that are next to them, until from an exceeding small portion of the blood, if the stroke shall light into the veins, it shall spread over the whole mass of blood; or of phlegm, if the poyson shall chance to come to the stomach, and so the force thereof shall be propagated and diffused over all the humors and bowels. The doubt of Antidotes is less, for these being taken in greater quantity, when they shall come into the stomach, warmed by the heat of the place, they become hot, and send forth vapors, which suddenly diffused over the body by the subtility of their substance, do by their contrary forces dull and weaken the malignity of the poyson: Wherefore you may often see, when as Antidotes are given in less quantity then is fit, that they are less prevalent, neither do they answer to our expectation in overcoming the malignity of the poyson; so that ir must necessarily follow thar these must not onely in qualities, but also in quantity be superior to poysons.