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A title has been added to the original blank cover.

A COLLECTION OF Chirurgical Tracts.

Written and Collected

By WILLIAM BECKETT,

Surgeon and F. R. S.

LONDON:

Printed for E. Curll, in Rose Street, Covent-Garden. And Sold by C. Rivington in St Paul’s Church-Yard, Mess. Birt, Ware, Longman, Hitch, Wood and Company, in Amen Corner, Paternoster-Row, J. Clark, in Duck-Lane, and J. Hodges, on London-Bridge. 1740.

(Price Four Shillings.)

THE
CONTENTS

To the Honourable
Sir Hans Sloane, Bart.
PRESIDENT
OF THE
Royal Society, and M. D.

Sir,

IT is with the greatest Satisfaction that I now lay before you the Performance of those Commands, with which you were pleased to honour me, of collecting the Chirurgical Pieces which were singly published by Mr Beckett in his Life time.

This Gentleman might be said to have been begotten in his Profession, as being the Son of Mr Isaac Beckett, Surgeon of Abington in Berkshire, where he was born in the Year 1684.

He received his Education under Mr Pledwell, then Master of the excellent Free Grammar-School belonging to that Town, served four Years of his Apprenticeship with his Father, and the three last with Mr Joseph Bateman, of St Thomas’s Hospital in Southwark.

Mr Beckett died, Sir, at his Sister’s House in Abington, November the 25th 1738, in the 54th Year of his Age, and lies interred in St Hellen’s Church there.

Of this his Native Place, he drew up a Brief Account of it’s History and Antiquities.[1]

A faithful Account of his Writings is prefixed to this Volume; your Generous Patronage of which, he would himself have looked upon as the greatest Honour and Friendship that could be conferred on his Labours, and for which, I most humbly request your Acceptance of the Grateful Acknowledgments of,

Sir,
Your Obedient,
And Obliged,
Humble Servant,
June 29,        E. C.
1740.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE WRITINGS OF WILLIAM BECKETT, Surgeon, and F. R. S. VIZ,

IN the Year 1709, He Published, I. Chirurgical Remarks, Occasioned by the Death of a Child, whose Case was printed in that Year by Daniel Turner, Surgeon. To these Remarks Mr Beckett subjoined, An Account of a Wound of the Brain by a Bullet; with Reflections thereon. And at the End of this Tract, Mr Beckett gave an Advertisement that He had almost ready for the Press, Annotations and Practical Observations on the Learned and Ingenious Monsieur Gendron’s Enquiries into the Nature, Knowledge and Cure of Cancers.

II. In the Year 1711, He published New Discoveries relating to the Cure of Cancers. Wherein the painful Methods of cutting them off, and consuming them by Caustics are rejected, and that of dissolving the Cancerous Substance is recommended; with various Instances of his Success in this Practice on Persons reputed incurable. Also a Solution of Four curious Problems concerning Cancers, viz. I. Whether the Cancerous Juice is corrosive or not. II. Whether Cancers are contagious or not. III. Whether if the extirpating a Cancerous Breast happens to be successful, it ought to be looked upon as a Consequence of performing the Operation better than our Predecessors. IV. Whether a Salivation will Cure a Cancer.

This Treatise came to a Second Edition the following Year 1712: To which, besides some Corrections, Mr Beckett added Two other Problems with their Solutions, viz. V. Whether Cancers are curable by Caustics. VI. Whether Cancers are curable by Internal Medicines. In this Piece all that he promised relating to Gendron is inserted. And to the present Third Edition He subjoined, by way of Postscript, a very valuable Receipt for the Cure of Cancers, which he informs us was communicated to him by his late eminent Brother Surgeon Mr Dobyns of Snow-Hill. He had it from Mr Pain a Gentleman of Northamptonshire, in whose Family it had been, in the highest Esteem, for above 200 Years. Mr Beckett likewise adds, that he transcribed it from the Original Manuscript.

At the End of the Second Edition of his Treatise on Cancers, Mr Beckett gave an Advertisement that “He was then preparing for the Press, Chirurgical Collections, which would consist of His own Observation of uncommon Cases, also, the most curious things relating to Surgery, taken from the Performances of the German Eruditi, in their Acta Lipsiæ, the Miscellanea Curiosa, Philosophical Transactions. Memoirs for the Curious, Voyages, Travels, Natural Histories of Counties, and many other things that would afford useful Observations. In this Collection was to be a great number of Figures of Cases, Instruments, Machines, &c. all curiously engraven on Copper Plates. This Undertaking was wholly designed for the Improvement of the Art of Surgery; and the Introduction to it was to give an Account of our famous English Writers in Physic and Surgery, for many hundred Years past.”

The great and deserved Practice which attended Mr Beckett’s New Method of curing Cancers, obliged him to postpone the Publication of his Chirurgical Collections, as above recited; and which, upon a mature Deliberation, he changed into a much more extensive and useful Design; and, by Mr Innys at the West-End of St Paul’s, and Mr Hooke in Fleet-street, Booksellers, He published Proposals for printing by Subscription in 2 Volumes 4to, An Account of the Lives, Characters, and Writings, both Manuscript and Printed, of the most eminent British Authors in Physic, Surgery, Anatomy, Pharmacy, Botany and Chemistry, from the Conquest to the Year 1721. To which was to be added, A large Collection of Records, principally taken from the Tower, containing Grants of particular Favours and Privileges to the most noted Physicians and Surgeons by the Kings of this Realm for many hundred Years; whereby, besides other curious Affairs not to be met with elsewhere, the Time in which they lived was to be ascertained, as to several of them, has hitherto remained absolutely undetermined. The whole faithfully collected and reduced to the most exact Order of Time.

This Work was proposed at the Price of one Guinea in Sheets.

Between the Years 1717 and 1720, Mr Beckett published in the Philosophical Transactions, Three Letters concerning the History of the Antiquity of the Venereal Disease. I. To Dr Douglass. II. To Dr Wagstaffe. III. To Dr Halley. Proving That Disease to have been known and cured in England long before the Discovery of the West-Indies.

Of these Pieces Dr Astruc, a French Physician, full of the Vanity peculiar to his Countrymen, seems doubtful as to their Proof, because he had never seen the Manuscripts, nor rare printed Authorities, cited by Mr Beckett; and treating of Dr Turner’s Syphilis, speaks slightly of that Gentleman, because he is of the same Opinion with Mr Beckett.

From the Publication of a small Pamphlet consisting but of 24 Pages, 8vo, Intituled, “A Letter from a Gentleman at Rome, to his Friend in London, giving an Account of some very surprizing Cures in the King’s-Evil by the Touch, (of the Chevalier De St George) lately effected in the Neighbourhood of that City, 1721. Wherein is contained the compleatest History of this miraculous Power, formerly practiced by the Kings of England, ever yet made public; the Certainty of which is confirmed by the most eminent Writers of this Nation, both Catholics and Protestants, as, Malmsbury, Alured, Brompton, Polydore Virgil, Harpsfield, &c. and Drs Tooker, Heylin, Mr Collier, Mr Echard, &c. Translated out of the Italian.” And the following Motto prefixed by the Catholic Translator, viz.

King Edward the Confessor, was the first that cured this Distemper, and from him it has descended as an Hereditary Miracle upon All his Successors. To dispute the Matter of Fact, is to go to the Excess of Scepticism, to deny our Senses, and to be incredulous even to Ridiculousness. See Collier’s Ecclesiast. History Vol. I.

Mr Beckett took an immediate Occasion to explode all these Legendary Assertions, and fully proved the Truth of Mr Collier’s positive ipse dixit to lye on the other side of the Question, in two Letters which he Published, I. To Dr Steigerthal, intituled “A Free and Impartial Enquiry into the Antiquity and Efficacy of Touching for the King’s-Evil.” II. To Sir Hans Sloane in “order to a compleat Confutation of that supposed supernatural Power descending from Edward the Confessor to the succeeding Kings of England. Also, A Dissertation concerning the ancient Method made use of, for the curing Diseases by Charms, Amulets, &c.” To which is added, A Collection of Records.

When in the Year 1722, it was feared that we should be visited with the Plague in England, after it had raged so violently at Marseilles in France; Dr Mead published his Preservative against Pestilential Distempers. And, among several other New Pieces written, and Old ones revived upon this Occasion, Mr Beckett voluntarily lent his helping Hand for the good of his Country, by giving his Judgment, and Publishing (Anonymously) A Collection of Pieces Written during the Plagues, which happened in the two last Centuries.

Mr Beckett’s Chirurgical Observations, made at St Thomas’s Hospital Southwark; Published last Summer, were prepared for the Press by Himself, and Inscribed to Sir Hans Sloane and the Royal Society.

TO

Sir HANS SLOANE.

Honoured Sir,

THE last Paper Mr Beckett ever wrote, was an Address to you for a private Favour; in which he says, he likewise had reason to believe that Dr Mead would be his Friend. He therein acquainted you that he had, “contracted such a Cold by sitting to write, with his Neck against a North-Window, as he feared would be his Death; and if so, adds he, it may be said I dye a Martyr to the Improvement of the History of Physic and Surgery.” Thus concluded his Paper which he did not live to sign; it was found among his Collections relating to the Lives of the British Physicians, Surgeons, &c. He had copied fair, for the Press, the greatest part of his Papers; and tho’ it was an unfinished Work, yet from his Character, and the great Pains he had taken, I knew it would be very acceptable to the Public. Accordingly I put it to the Press, and intended to have published it in two Volumes in Octavo. Young Dr B * * * *, was recommended to me as a proper Editor: I sent for him and shewed him the Papers; but soon found, that he was much too young both in Character and Ability for such an Undertaking. I printed one Sheet, in Octavo, (of which there were but two Copies taken off) upon this, Dr Milward informed me, that he had been for some Years compiling An Universal History of Physic. He expressed his Desire of purchasing Mr Beckett’s Papers, and being fully convinced, from his Learning and Candour, that he would do Justice to the Author’s Memory, I readily let him have them. And Sir, that you, might in some measure be apprized of Mr Beckett’s Plan, I have to this Volume prefixed his Introduction to the Work.

I Remain,
Honoured Sir,
Your Most Obliged,
And Obedient,
Humble Servant,
E. Curll.

INTRODUCTION

TO THE

HISTORY

OF

Physic and Surgery.

Concerning the Antient State of Learning, and the Antiquity of the Practice of Physic and Surgery.

BRITAIN has been very happy in furnishing the World, in very early Times, with a great Number of famous and learned Men. Of the first Sort were the Druydæ, who, it is said, had their Original and Name from Druys Sarronius the fourth King of the Celts, who died Anno Mundi 2069. Next the Bardi, who celebrated the illustrious Deeds of famous Men, who had their Name from Bardus Druydus the fifth King of the Celts. Cæsar assures us, (and a noble Testimony it is) that the Learning of the Druydi, was first invented in Britain, and from thence transferred to France; and that, in his Time, those of France came over hither to be instructed. A celebrated German Writer, as quoted by Mr Ashmole in the Prolegomena to his Theat. Chem. says, that when the World was troubled with Pannonic Invasions, England flourished in the Knowledge of all good Arts, and was able to send her learned Men into other Countries to propagate Learning: And instances in Boniface, a Devonshire Man, and Willeboard, a Northern Man, which were sent into Germany for those Purposes. Mr John Leland, a famous Antiquary, in the Reign of King Henry VII, who was excellently well acquainted with our British Authors, assures us, upon his own Knowledge, that we have had a great Number of excellent Wits and learned Writers, who, besides their great Proficiency in Languages, were well acquainted with the Liberal Sciences. And Bishop Nicholson, in his Historical Library says, I think we may without Vanity affirm, that hardly any Kingdom in the World has out-done England, either in the Number or Goodness of her Authors; and that even in the darkest Ages our Lamps shone always as bright as any of our Neighbourhood. When School-Divinity was in Fashion, we had our Doctores Subtiles, Irrefragabiles, &c. But as the History of the Learning of this Nation in general is not my present Design, I shall confine myself more particularly to what relates to Physic and Surgery. An Historical Account of the Antiquity and Progress of which Faculties, with the successive Improvements they have received, has not hitherto been attempted by any Hand. And indeed the Difficulty which must attend an Undertaking of this Nature, must be very great, by reason of the little Knowledge we are able to get, in this Kind, from those Manuscripts which yet remain among us. The ancient Britains, who went without Cloaths, may be very well presumed to live without Physic; but external Accidents they must be liable to, as well in their Wars as from other Causes; and History informs us, they had Methods of Cure for such Misfortunes. The Saxons, while they possessed England, had their Leeches, a sort of Surgeons, but very little skilled in Methodical Practice. But under the Normans that Science began to be much more improved. About this Time the Monks and Fryars, and others in Religious Orders, out of a pretended Charity to their suffering Fellow-Creatures, intruded themselves into the Practice of Physic and Surgery, and continued it many Years, notwithstanding the Decree of the Council of Tours in 1163, where Pope Alexander III. presided; which forbids any Religious Persons going out of their Cloisters, to hear the Lectures in Law or Physic; and that it is absolutely forbidden, that any Sub-Deacon, Deacon, or Priest, exercise any Part of Surgery in which actual Cauteries or Incisions are required. Most of the Physicians who practised in England about this Time, were likewise well skilled in the Mathematics and other Parts of Philosophy; but the Surgeons of those Times were so much addicted to Astrology, as make some Parts of their Writings very obscure. After this both Physic and Surgery began to flourish much more, by the public Encouragement given very early by many of our Kings to several of the Practitioners in both Faculties, as will appear by the List of our Kings Physicians and Surgeons, to be inserted in it’s proper Place. Hector Boëtius informs us, that Josina, King of Scotland, who lived above a hundred Years before our Saviour, well understood the Nature of Scotch Plants, and their Use in Physic and Chirurgery; and John Bale, afterwards Bishop of Ossory in Ireland, assures us, he wrote a Book, de Herbarum Viribus. Buchanan relates, the Scotch Nobility were anciently very expert in Chirurgery, and it is particularly remarked of James IV, King of Scotland, Quod vulnera scientissime tractaret. It is said, that when Scribonius Largus attended the Emperor Claudius in his Expedition to Britany, he wrote a British Herbal, or Description of divers Plants in this Island. And our most learned and famous King Alfred, is said to have written a Book upon Aristotle de Plantis. Cinfrid, a famous Physician, is mentioned by that early Writer Venerable Bede, in his Histor. Ecclesiasticar. page 307, 308. And Ernulphus, another eminent Physician, in the Time of Nigellus, the second Bishop of Ely, is likewise recorded in the Anglia Sacra, Vol. I. p. 625. Many more Particulars might, in all Probability, have been met with relating to my present Design, had not one very great Misfortune attended the Suppression of the Abbies, which was the Destruction of a prodigious Number of Manuscripts. John Bale, before-mentioned, though an utter Enemy to Popery and Monastic Institution, remonstrates against this Piece of Barbarity, in pretty strong Terms, to King Edward VI. Covetousness, says he, was at that Time so busy about private Commodity, that public Wealth was not any where regarded. A Number of them, which purchased those superstitious Mansions, reserved of those Library-Books, some to serve their Jacks, some to scour their Candlestics, and some to rub their Boots, and some they sold to the Grocers and Soap-sellers, and some they sent over Sea to the Book-binders, not in small Numbers, but at Times whole Ships full. Yea, the Universities of this Realm, are not all clear in this detestable Fact: But cursed is the Belly which seeketh to be fed with so ungodly Gains, and so deeply shameth his natural Country. I know, says he, a Merchantman (which shall at this time be nameless) that bought the Contents of two noble Libraries for forty Shillings Price; a Shame it is to be spoken. This Stuff hath he occupied instead of gray Paper, by the Space of more than these ten Years, and yet he has Store enough for these ten Years to come. A prodigious Example is this, and to be abhorred of all Men, which love their Nation as they should do. Yea, what may bring our Nation to more Shame and Rebuke, than to have it noised abroad, that we are Despisers of Learning? I judge this to be true, and utter it with Heaviness, that neither the Britons, under the Romans and Saxons, nor yet the English People under the Danes and Normans, had ever such Damage of their learned Monuments, as we have seen in our Time. Our Posterity may well curse this wicked Fact of our Age, this unseasonable Spoil of England’s most noble Antiquities. Bale’s Declaration upon Leland’s Journal, published 1549. And Dr Thomas Fuller, in his Church History, speaking of the same Thing, tells us, Divinity was prophaned, Mathematics suffered for Correspondence with evil Spirits, Physic was maimed, and a Riot committed on the Law itself. However, notwithstanding this Devastation which was then made among our Manuscripts, our Colleges, and some of our Libraries, will furnish us with a great Number relating to almost all Parts of Learning: Some of which, more especially the most ancient ones, I shall here first give a Catalogue of, and then some more modern ones, confining myself to those which more especially relate to Physic and Chirurgery. And, first, we have in the Norfolk Library, belonging to the Royal Society,

Libellus de Arte Medicinali in Lingua Pictica conscriptus. And in Cottonian Library,

Præcepta nonnulla Medicinalia; partim & Divina ad dierum rationem Saxonice. Galbe. A. 2. 3. 1.

Exorcismi quidam & Medicinalia; partim Latine partim Saxonice. Galbe. A. 2.

Medicinalia quædam Saxonice & Latine Vitel. B. 3. 4.

Herbarium, Latine & Hibernice ordine Alphabetico. Vitel. F. 14. 34.

Tractatulus de Morbis, Latine & Hibernice mutilis initio & fine.

Astronomica quædam & Medica Literis Saxonicis Membr. in Corpus Christi Coll. in Oxon.

S. Dustan de Lapide Philosophorum. In the same College.

Tractatus Botanicus in Lingua Cambro-Britannica. In Jesus Coll. Oxon.

Medicinales Quæstiones Magistri Henrici de Wynton super Isagogen Joannitii. In New College Library in Oxon.

Liber Phlebotomiæ. By the same Author, in the same Library.

Tractatus de effectibus quatuor Qualitatum, secundum magistrum Ursonem. In New College Library.

Practica Chirurgiæ. Tho. Sculling, continens quatuor partes. In New College Library.

Guilielmi Scoti Medici Watlingtoniensis celeberrimi Liber de differenciis Urinarum.

Joannis Ketham Chirurgia parva.

De Virtutibus Herbarum & notabila Chirurgica.

Liber rerum Medicinalium quondam spectans ad Pharmacopolam Edw. IV. Regis Angliæ in quo continentur Medicamina quam plurima pro Rege & Magnatibus præparata. In Mr Hen. Worsley’s Library.

William de Pine, his Chyrurgery.

Receipts and Observations for curing Emrods, Fistula’s, Leprosy, Aches in the Joints, Tetters, Worms, Cramps, and Noli me tangere, in a very ancient Hand. By Robert Williams of Cockwood.

A Treatise containing the whole Rules of Physic and Surgery, M. S. Vetus. Formerly in Dr Tyson’s Library.

Medicines of Master Willeam du Jordyne, given to King Henry, Regent and Heuter of the Reume of Fraunce. In Mr Thoresby’s Library.

A approbat Treite for the Pestilence, studied by the grettest Doctours of Fysick amongs Thuniversitie of Cristen Nations yn the Time of St Tho. of Canterburie. In the same Library.

A Book of Surgery, wrote in the Year 1392. Divided into three Parts. The first of Anatomy. The second of Wounds, Imposthumes, Dislocations, and Fractures of Bones. The third, the Antidotary of Surgery. Formerly in Dr Tyson’s Library.

Friar Theodore Chalk’s Chirurgical Receipts, on Vellum. Dedicated to Archbishop Valentine.

Here beginnen gud Medicenes for all Yevels yat any man may have yat gud Leches have drawn out of ye Bokes yet Galien Aschipeus Ypocras hadden. For yai were the best Leches yat were in ye World. On Vellum, in my Possession.

I proceed now to give an Account of some of our early Writers, besides those already mentioned. And first of Maugantius, who was by Birth a Briton, a famous Physician and Mathematician; who, says Leland, for his eminent Learning, was made President of a noble College (in those Days) of two hundred Philosophers; which Geofrey of Monmouth extols to the Skies, under the Name of Legionum Urbs; which Bale supposes to be Chester, excelling all other British Cities, at that Time, in Wealth and Roman Structures. This Place being most pleasantly situated, Astrologers, and other Artists, settled in it to observe the Motions of the Stars, and undertook to forewarn Mankind from the Comets, and certain Indications of the Planets, what should come to pass. Hence Maugantius, said to be superior to all others in this Art, being questioned by King Vortiger, whose chief Physician he was, about the prodigious Conception of Ambrose Merlin, after a Recital of various Philosophical Reasons, did, at length, it seems, give him Satisfaction therein. This Person, who was the most renowned Scholar of his Country, and who is said to have composed several Books, flourished in the Year of Christ 470, when King Vortiger was much distressed by the invading Anglo-Saxons. I have before observed, that there were several Dignitaries of the Papal Communion as well as those of inferior Orders, besides the Monks, who very early took upon them to practise Physic; and that they were absolutely forbid to exercise that Profession, by the Roman Assembly, in 1139. Of this Sort was Frabricius, or Faricius, as he is sometimes written, who practised Physic not long before this Time. He was the eighteenth Abbot of the Monastery of Abington in Berkshire; to whose Care Godfrey de Vere committed himself, to be cured of a grievous Disease he then laboured under; and, as an Acknowledgment for the Care the Abbot had taken of him, he bequeathed to the Abbey before-mentioned, the Church belonging to his Estate, in the Village of Kensington, near London, with 240 Acres of Land, &c. which was confirmed by the King; a Copy of which Grant will be given in the Antiquities of that Town, and the History of it’s Abbey. This Abbot departed this Life the VIIth of the Calends of March, Anno 1117. Soon after him flourished Athelardus, a Monk of Bath, who was so diligent in searching out the Mysteries and Causes of Natural Things, that he deserves to be equalled with some of the ancient Philosophers. Having a very promising Genius, while very young, and continuing, as he grew up, to improve his Parts, and fit himself for great Affairs, he left his native Soil, and, with much Alacrity, went to visit foreign Parts. In his Travels through Egypt and Arabia, having found many Things he sought after, he came Home again with good Fruit of his Labours and Improvement of his Learning. He was, without Dispute, in Philosophy, Astronomy, Physic, Mathematics, and Rhetoric, no ordinary Proficient. Some of his Works he Dedicated to Richard, Bishop of Bayeux: In the first Work he treats of the Principles, Qualities, and Effects of Natural Things, against the vain Opinions of the old Philosophers. In the Preface it appears, he wrote in the Year 1130, under the Reign of Henry I. I might here enlarge upon the great Fame and Merits of John Giles, a Native of St Albans, who made such Progress in the Study of Physic, that he was made Professor of that Faculty at Paris and Montpelier, and Physician to Philip, King of France. After his Return to his own Country, he was, according to Matthew Paris, consulted by Robert Grosthead, the learned Bishop of Lincoln, in his last Illness; of which he died in 1253. He has written, De re Medica, and de Prognosticis, and some other Things. He flourished about the Year 1230, in the Reign of King Henry III. Hugh de Eversham, deserves in this Place to be remembred, who was a Man of great Learning, a Physician by Profession, and perhaps the best of his Age. He was well known in many Countries, being a great Frequenter of the Universities. With the severer Studies of his Art, he mingled the pleasant Science of the Mathematics, and particularly Geometry and Astronomy. This made him known to many in France and Italy, and among the rest, to Pope Martin IV, who invited him, by Letters, to come to him, and solve some Questions in Physic, which were then newly started: Accordingly he went without Delay, and performed what was required readily and learnedly. He published Super Opere Febrium Isaac. Medicinales Canones. Problemata quædam, and some other Things. He flourished the Year 1281; when he was created Cardinal Presbyter of St Laurence, by the said Pope Martin, in the Reign of Edward I. He is said to have died by Poison at Rome, Anno 1287; although Cicæonius, to palliate this Matter, says he died of the Plague.

Chirurgical Remarks ON A Wound of the Head RECEIVED

By a Child from the Blow of a Cat-Stick in throwing at a Cock on Shrove Tuesday, 1709.

Addressed to
Mr WILLIAM COWPER, Surgeon.

SIR,

I do not question but you have had the Curiosity to read over a very remarkable Case in Surgery, not only upon Account of the Recommendation the Name of the Author[2] gives it, but partly because I know you have been for a long time of opinion, That this Age wou’d distinguish it self by the Advances that Medicine has, and will receive; I need not observe, to a Man of your Capacity, how just, according to my Opinion, our Author has been in relating all the Particulars of the Case he gives us the History of: Nor need I intimate to you how peculiarly the Prescriptions were adapted to the several alterations that were observable in that little Patient: I will only take the freedom to make some Remarks on a considerable Circumstance, which perhaps we shall find obstructed so methodical a Procedure, in order for a Cure.

Our Author is of opinion, That his Death was owing to the effused Blood from some Vessel upon the Pia Mater, which had been ruptured by the Concussion or Shock of the said Vessel, from the Force of the Blow; which Blood pent in (for want of a Discharge) had formed an Abscess, thereby deluging the Surface of the Brain with Matter: And this, tho’ continually draining off thro’ the Orifice in the upper Membrane, yet some part thereof lying beyond the Elastic Power of the said Membrane to raise up, and out of the Reach of Medicine to deterge and mundifie, was at length imbibed by the Vessels, where missing the Salutary Crisis, sometimes observed in the Empieme and Pleuritic Cases, it was conveyed by the Circulation to the Heart, and at length, we are to suppose, somehow effected the Nervous System, bringing on the fatal Spasm.

Thus you see, Sir, how plain and consequential the Account of the Child’s Death is; but even here, I hope, I shall do no Injustice to the Author, if I inform you, I cannot perswade my self that the Matter was imbibed by the Vessels, purely because some part thereof lay beyond the Elastic Power of the Dura Mater to raise up, and out of the Reach of Medicine to deterge and mundifie, as our Author’s Words are; but that it is reasonable to believe, that some part of it was reassumed by the Vessels, when it could no longer discharge it self as before; for if you will give your self the trouble of looking back to the 32d Page, you will find, that no sooner was the Orifice choaked up by a caked Matter, but the mischievous Effects of the Suppression of the Discharge soon began to discover themselves by the Rigours the Child was attended with; and we find our Author soon after fearful of such a thing.

By this we may see how circumspect we ought always to be, lest we interrupt the Design of Nature when she is about to expel any morbifick Matter, the ill Effects that attend it oftentimes discovering themselves after different Manners; We look upon a continued Discharge of Matter to be, as it were, a natural Evacuation, and that it’s immediate Stoppage, without other Means, being made use of to divert and evacuate it, to be succeeded by a greater Fulness and Distention of all the Vessels, as is observable upon the Suppression of the Menses, Hemorrhoides, or insensible Transpiration, there is this Difference to be observed that the ill Accidents that attend the Stoppage of the Discharge of Matter are not so much owing to the Distention and Plenitude of the Vessels, but according to the ill Quality of it, ’tis disposed to render the Patient feverish more or less, which is generally ushered in by Rigours, and sometimes succeeded by Spasmodic Contractions.

For a further Illustration of this, we will take the liberty to relate the Case of a Man of about Forty Years of Age, who was for a considerable time incommoded in his Business, by reason of a violent Contusion he had received on the Upper-part of his Left Arm, a little below the Shoulder: After some time it was succeeded by an Apostemation, upon the opening of which I was informed, a considerable Quantity of Matter discharged, which was not of any ill Colour or Smell, the Matter continuing to make its Exit the same way for several Weeks, at length formed a Sinus, which might be easily traced to the Upper and Fore-part of the Os Humeri. The external Orifice of this was endeavoured to be dilated, but it not only put the Patient to a great deal of Pain, but pent in the Matter, and caused the contiguous Parts to tumifie very much. About this time the Axillary Glands began to swell and pain him, and by their Pressure on the Limphaticks the whole Arm became Oedematous; soon after some part of the Matter made it’s way out under the Arm, upon which it almost ceased to flow from the Sinus on the upper-part of it. In short, upon this the Patient found himself very much indisposed, he lost his Appetite, was attended with Shiverings, became feverish, and at length died violently convulsed.

On Dissection we found the Surface of the Lungs to be interspersed with blackish Specks, the left Lobe adhered to the Pleura, and the Pericordium contained a much greater Quantity of Liquor than usual, though its Colour was natural. The Right Auricle and Ventricle of the Heart were very much distended, and the Diameter of the Arteria Pulmonaris considerably enlarged: on the Division of the Integuments of the Abdomen, a very large Quantity of yellowish fœtid Matter discharged it self, which was somewhat viscid; we found that the Intestines floated in this, for the Abdomen was full of it. In the lower-part of the Concave Side of the Liver there was a very large Abscess discovered, which contained a Fluid of the same Colour and Consistence with that which we took notice of before. There was an Orifice in the lower part of the Abscess capable of admitting the End of one’s Finger; by which, without doubt, Matter discharged it self into the Abdomen. The Spleen was of a very odd Figure: On it’s convex Side there were a Multitude of Streaks, that proceeded from all Parts of it, and centered in one Point, which proceeded only from the Disposition of the Fibres of it’s internal Membrane. It was almost full of Blood, which in the middle was corrupted, and stank abominably. After it was cleared from the contiguous Parts to which it adhered, and taken out of the Body, it weighed four Pounds and a half.

There might have been something more observable upon the Dissection of this Body, but the short time that was allotted for it did not give us an Opportunity of making that strict Enquiry as seemed to be necessary. Blancard. in his Anat. Pract. Rationalis, p. 252. has much such an Observation as this which we have related. See likewise Schenckius, Lib. 3. Obs 26. But I do not doubt, Sir, but you have made some curious Remarks on Cases of this Nature, tho’ I am pretty positive you will agree with me in this, That the immediate Cause of the Death of the Person we have been speaking of, was the giving a sudden Check to the Discharge of the Matter. It was the Work of Nature in this Case (and what she was endeavouring to perform) to disburden herself of those disproportionate and offensive Particles, which by their Continuance in the Body would but have occasioned an irregular Motion of the Fluids, and consequently a Discomposure of it’s whole Frame: For the animal Body being nothing else but a Congeries of Canals, filled with different Liquors, it must necessarily suffer very much, and it’s Actions be irregular, if any Heterogeneous Particles become incorporated therewith. We must here allow, that in Discharges of Matter of a long Continuance, sometimes the Diameters of the Fibres and Vessels may be so much enlarged, that the nutritious Juices may be thrown out with the other, and so occasion a general Emaciation: But this may be easily rectified at the Beginning, without Detriment to the Patient, by making use of some spirituous and moderately astringent Remedies, to recover the natural Tone of the too lax Fibres and Vessels, and give the Matter a proper Consistence. It is to be observed in such Cases as these are, that the Part from whence the Matter discharges, if it be the Leg or Thigh, first loses it’s former Fulness and Dimensions, tho’ soon after there appears an Emaciation of the whole Body. Such an Abscess as we discovered in the Liver of the Person before mentioned, we are inclined to believe might have been found in the Child, had the Abdomen been dissected; for several Authors have assured us, it has frequently been observed to be the Consequent of Fractures of the Skull, tho’ I am apt to believe it never happens, but when the Matter has received a Check in it’s Discharge.

I shall now take the Liberty to observe, that the imprudent Application of Repellents to some Tumours, and inconsiderate Healing of old Ulcers, with the unhappy Method of Procedure, in order to the Cure of some Diseases, very often discover themselves, by their being succeeded by very ill Effects. Non tamen in omnibus Huxionibus repellentia adhibere licet, (says Sennertus) Partibus ignobilibus, præcipue iis, ad quas natura interdum humores protrudere solet, ut sunt Glandulæ post aures, & in collo, sub axillis, in inguinibus adhibenda non sunt, ne humor ex iis repulsus ad partes principes & nobiles feratur.

The same Author informs us in his Paralipom. ad lib. 5. Pract. Med. of a Boy, fourteen Years of Age, that died upon the Accession of an Epileptic Fit, which was caused by the striking in of the Scab by the imprudent Use of Liniments. And Baglivi allows, that the irregular Cure of the same Disease may be succeeded by a Spitting of Blood, an Apoplexy, Dropsy, lingering Fevers, &c. The Healing of old Ulcers, without having a Respect to those Circumstances that ought to precede such an Undertaking, generally lays the Foundation for a Train of mischievous Accidents; for the Patient soon begins to be sensible of an Unactiveness of the whole Body, is sleepy, has a weak Digestion, Head-ach, and is feverish, which is attended with very profuse Night-Sweats; and these we have several times observed to be the Forerunners of the Patient’s Death, though sometimes all these ill Accidents may be prevented by an Imposthumation in some part of the Body or other.

Now to account for such remarkable Alterations, in such Subjects, we are obliged to take notice, that here is the Suppression of the Evacuation of a Humour, that had been constantly discharged for a long time; and this, we have before observed, will cause a greater Fulness and Distention of all the Vessels. Now the Quantity of the Blood being very much encreased by the Addition of this viscid Juice, the Celerity of its Motion must be considerably abated, upon which Account it will enlarge the Diameters of the Vessels, by relaxing their Coats, and pass with so great a Difficulty through the Capillary Vessels, that if it arrive at any Part where the Fibres have lost their due Tensity and Spring, it is disposed to stagnate, and produce an Imposthumation. If this does not happen, as the Motion of the Blood continues to be very languid, the Quantity of Spirits filtrated in the Brain will be less upon two Accounts: First, Because as the Blood moves more slowly, all the Parts of the Body through which it circulates, will receive a much less Quantity of it in a given Time, than they must have done, had it moved with a greater Celerity. Secondly, The Viscidity of the Blood, together with it’s Motion diminished will lessen the Quantity of Spirits, according to the 20th and 22d of Dr Wainright’s Propositions of Animal Secretion.

Now this being so, it is no wonder to observe such an Inactivity of the Parts, Sleepiness, weak Digestion, &c. to attend a Person under such Circumstances: For the Quantity of Spirits being so much diminished, the Parts can never be sufficiently influenced by them to perform their respective Functions with that Force as usual. To this we may add, that they are in a great measure deprived of their Power and Spring, and Sensation in general is not near so strong and lively. From hence it is evident, that when Nature has found a Passage whereby she may disburden herself of any excrementitious Humours, we ought for a considerable time to give proper Internals, and make use of some other Method, as by Issues, or such like, whereby we may divert the Course of the Matter, which, if I may so say, has been so long together determined to pass the same way. Beside this Advantage which will accrue by that Method, there may be near the same Quantity of Humours evacuated; and so those unhappy Accidents, will be prevented, and the Ulcer cured.

I am perswaded, that it is not without a great deal of Difficulty that we can sometimes divert the Tendency of Humours to a Part; and I can bring several Instances of Sores that have been healed, where the suppressed Matter has discovered it self, by an Aposthume near the Place where the Sore was, a short time after it had been healed.

Fælix Wurtz, who was a very judicious Surgeon, informs us, That it sometimes happens, that in a little time after a Patient has been cured of a Wound of the Head, he feels violent Pains there, which indicates that Matter is collected in the Part. He adds, That many die of it, by reason the Cause is not understood by some Surgeons. This Remark proves, that the Wounds were not kept open long enough, or else that the Surgeon acted imprudently in not making use of proper Means to divert the Tendency of the Humours to that Part; not but it will abundantly more easily happen to those Parts that are depending, and where the Weight of the viscid Fluid will incline it to settle.

I knew a lusty Fellow, about twenty five Years of Age, that had an Ulcer on the internal Ancle of his left Leg near twelve Years: It had been cured three or four times, but he always found himself very much indisposed after it, till it broke out again, and the Matter had a free Discharge: At length, upon his coming from Sea, it was healed again, upon which he was seized with a violent Pain in his Head, Loss of Appetite, which the next Day was succeeded by a violent Fever and Looseness. His Physician ordered, among other Things, a large Blister-Plaister, to be applyed to the Leg on which the Ulcer had been. The Patient recovered; but what was very observable, was, that the Sore the Blister-Plaister had made terminated in an ugly Ulcer, which would not heal, though various Applications were made use of. If Nature had been in this Case compelled, as it were, and forced to a Compliance in the healing of this Ulcer, it is probable the Matter would have been thrown upon another Part, and so occasioned a Disease there.

By this we may see how cautious we ought to be not to proceed in a Method contrary to the Dictates of Nature; for if we do, we consequently disturb her regular Motions, upon which she oftentimes commences a new Work, which, if it does not tend to the Subversion of the whole Oeconomy, there ensues a Permutation of the Disease, by the Translation of the Matter from one Part to another.

It would be impossible to recount all the obscure Motions Nature makes use of to accomplish such Ends: We will only mention some where the Disease has been perfectly changed from what it was before by such Methods. Mear gives us an Instance of a Dropsie of the Breast, which succeeded an ill-cured Hydrocele. Hildanus observes, that an inveterate Ulcer of the left Leg being unhappily healed up, the Patient died of a Pleurisy some Months after.

To this I may add an Observation of a Man that had an old Ulcer on each Leg, which being attempted to be cured, as the Matter gradually lessened, he was deprived of his Sight. There was no Alteration to be observed in the Eyes of this Person, but only a Dilatation of the Pupils, as is generally observed in a Gutta Serena, which was judged to be his Case. In short, upon the running of the Sores, though he had been perfectly blind, he effectually recovered his Sight again.

I will not tire you, Sir, with the Recital of any more Cases of this Nature. What has been hitherto said, I hope is sufficient to incline you to believe, that the immediate Cause of the Death of the Child I spoke of in the former part of the Letter was the Suppression of the Matter, which had continued to discharge in such large Quantities so long together. And that such a sudden Stoppage of a Discharge of Matter may procure a Patient’s Death, though the Symptoms that proceed may be different. I have likewise shewn the Difficulty there is in Diverting the Tendency of the Matter to a Part, and mentioned how one Disease is sometimes converted into another: But of what Use these Remarks may be I leave you to judge. To me it seems reasonable enough to suppose, that as a regular Method of Practice is not the Effect of a Man’s Sagacity, but the Product of repeated Experiences, every thing that occurs may tend, by a proper Application, to the Illustration of the Art. What else has made some Men so famous for their Prognosticks? Had not our great Master Hippocrates a Respect to the Suppression of the Discharge of Matter from Ulcers, when he expressed himself thus, Ulcus lividum & siccum, aut cum virore pallidum lethale est? And this we have known to be true in several Cases.

Well then, does not this sufficiently prove, that where we have Cause to fear a Suppression of the Discharge, we ought to remove any Impediment that may embarass Nature in her Work, and advise a proper Method to promote the precipitating the morbific Matter? For so shall we, by joining our Forces with those of Nature, still keep her in due Course; and that when she is grown languid, and departing from her former Measures.

You must excuse me, if I digress a little to take notice of an Observation that some Authors have made, viz. That from a dangerous Fracture of the Skull, after Death the Liver has been often found impostumated. They have been likewise very sollicitous to know which way the Matter could be conveyed to so remote a Viscus; but it would be needless for me to offer what has been said in this Case, because it seems to be evident enough, that a Part of it is reassumed by the Vessels; which, with that should have been discharged from the Mass of Blood, is by the Circulation deposited in that Part. But here we may start a considerable Problem, which is, How comes it to pass that the Morbific Matter if it’s Discharge is suppressed, is thrown upon the Liver rather than any other Part? In order to the Solution of this, we ought to consider, That the Spleen is subservient to the Liver in performing its Office, by giving the Blood a Check in it’s Progress, whereby it’s Velocity is lessened; otherwise so thick a Juice as the Bile could not be separated from it. Now the Motion of the Blood being rendered abundantly slower in this Part, it is no wonder that the Morbific Particles separate themselves from it, while the Filtration is carrying on, and by their Assemblage form an Abscess in the Part.

You may perhaps expect, Sir, that I should make an Apology to excuse the Length of my Letter; but I assure you, the Pleasure I have taken in writing it would oblige me to make it of a larger Extent, if I did not find I should be forced to take notice of some things, which may perhaps have a Place elsewhere. I have only this to add, that if through the little time I have taken to write it in, I have in any part omitted to pay that Respect as is due to you, I shall very readily ask your Pardon. In the mean time I must own my self to be,

Your very much obliged Servant,

W^m. Beckett.

Southwark,
Aug. 22, 1709.

OF A

Wound of the Brain

By a BULLET.

To the Same.

IF you remember, Sir, in the History of the Child’s Case, which I have before mentioned, it was observed, that notwithstanding the violent Pressure upon the Brain, by the depressed Pieces of the fractured Skull; yet the little Patient laboured under no worse Symptom, than a Head-ach, and was in a Condition to walk about the Chamber. This was really very remarkable; but if you will be pleased to give your self the Trouble of reading the following Account, I do not question but you will meet with something much more surprizing.

On November the 4th, 1707, it happened, that during an Engagement between a small English Vessel and a French Privateer, near Margate, one of our Men was unfortunately wounded by a Bullet, which past through the middle of the Os Frontis. The Surgeon aboard the Ship immediately enlarged the Wound, by making an Incision through the Integuments, but could not discover the Bullet; whereupon he dressed him up, and the same Day being set ashore, he was dispatched for London. On Thursday the 6th Day of the same Month, he arrived, having walked much the greater part of the way in that time, which is about 66 Miles; the same Day his Surgeon endeavoured to extract some Pieces of the Bone, which discovered themselves through that Aperture which was made by the Bullet, but without Success; for they consisted chiefly of the internal Table, which were much larger than the Hole in the external: Upon this the Wound was immediately drest up, and a second Attempt was made a Day or two after; but it proved as successless as the former. In the mean time, the Patient continued to be very hearty and well, and seemed to be no more indisposed than if he had only received a slight Wound of the Head. The opening the Skull with the Trepan was proposed, and which would probably have been put in Practice in a Day or two’s time: But on the Sabbath-Day Morning following, after he had rested well all Night, he was seized with such violent convulsive Motions as were very surprizing; during which he expired. The Body being laid on a Table to be dissected, all it’s Parts appeared so prodigiously inflated, that the Person, when a live, being one of the largest Stature, it seemed perfectly monstrous. A Puncture being made in any Part through the Integuments, there was nothing discharged but a subtile Matter or Air; immediately after which the Part subsided, though before on a Compressure of the Fingers it would receive such an Impression as is observed in Oedematous Tumours; but it would suddenly return to it’s former State. The Surface of several of the Parts appeared livid and vesicated. The Skull being opened, the Bullet dropped out of the Brain, all the Fore-part of which was corrupted, and abounded with a thick yellowish Juice, of a very offensive Smell; there were two or three very large Pieces of the inner Table of the Skull, with some smaller that were found among the lacerated Membranes, and lodged in the corrupted Brain.

This Case is so particular, that it may not be amiss if we make some Reflections on it.

We are very well assured, Sir, that it has been a Matter of very great Surprize to several ingenious Men, to consider how the various Operations of the Body have continued to be performed, when those Parts which were so absolutely necessary to the Well-being of the Animal, have been naturally or accidentally disordered to such a degree, as to suffer a perfect Confusion of their Parts: And of this we find Variety of Instances in those Authors, who have very obligingly applied themselves to relate the Histories of deceased morbid Bodies. But that the Brain it self, which is the very Source and Principle of all Animal Functions, should, after it has undergone such a Violation as we have observed, continue several Days without incommoding the Person in the least respect, is really very remarkable; for if we do but consider what an absolute Necessity there is for a constant Supply of Animal Spirits, to empower the Parts to perform their mechanical Actions, and at the same time reflect on the Disorder and Corruption of that Part, whose Office it was to secrete a sufficient Quantity of those Spirits, we might very reasonably expect a considerable Alteration in the whole Body. One might very well think, that from the Deficiency of Spirits that would ensue, the Parts could no longer continue to perform their Actions, but must gradually lose their Power and Spring, and at length become in a manner destitute of Motion: For we can scarce perswade our selves, that Nature in this Case is so provident as to suffer the Cerebellum and Medulla Spinalis to filtrate the Spirits in a greater Quantity, that they might supply the Exigencies of the Body.

There still remains some considerable Phænomena to be accounted for, as the convulsive Motions, the prodigious Inflation of the Body, &c. As to the former, it may be perhaps accountable from the violent Conflict we may imagine to have happened on the mutual Engagement of the Juice that was found so plentiful in the corrupted Brain, and that which had undergone no Alteration from it’s original Purity. Add to this, that the Animal Spirits in the Nerves receiving some ill Impressions by the Accession of some of those impure Particles, could no longer sally out upon the Command of the Will to any particular Part, but must consequently so irritate the Nerves, as to cause their Extremities to contract themselves; upon which Account the Blood becomes imprisoned in the muscular Fibres, which abridging their Length by enlarging their Diameters, the Parts must necessarily suffer involuntary Contractions: At the same time those minute Capillary Extremities, which terminated in the Miliary Glands, were probably so contracted, or crispt up, as perfectly to close the Orifices of the excretory Ducts of those Glands, which are the only sudatory Pores: By this means all that vast Quantity of Matter which is usually discharged by insensible Transpiration, became imprisoned underneath the Integuments of the Body, and so distended all its Parts to such a prodigious Degree, as was observed. This Constipation of the excretory Ducts, and crisping up of the Extremities of the Nerves, might likewise have a considerable Effect on the small Branches of the Arteries and Veins which accompanied them; for by this means the Blood they contained might be obliged to stagnate in the Glands, which must occasion an Enlargement of the Diameters of those minute Vessels; and so the livid Colour which was extended on several Parts might be probably procured: Besides this, the Blood being in such a comprest State, some of its more fluid Parts might be exprest from it, which lodging underneath the Cuticula, might make the Parts appear to be vesicated; there is nothing more certain, than that Animal Bodies perspire after Death; or that the perspirable Matter continues to pass off as long as the Body retains any Warmth. This is confirmed by an Experiment of Sir Thomas Browne, in his Pseudodoxica Epidemica, where he tells us, That “upon exactly weighing and strangling a Chicken in the Scales, upon an immediate Ponderation he could discover no sensible Difference in Weight; but suffering it to lie 8 or 10 Hours, till it grew perfectly cold, it weighed most sensibly lighter. The like, says our Author, we attempted and verified in Mice, and performed their Trials in Scales that would turn upon the 8th or 10th part of a Grain.”

I am, Sir,
  Yours, &c.
W. B.

NEW DISCOVERIES CONCERNING CANCERS.

ADDRESSED TO

Charles Bernard, Esq;

Serjeant-Surgeon,

AND

Surgeon in Ordinary, to Her Majesty Queen

ANNE.

SIR,

I LOOK upon it as a peculiar Happiness, to live in an Age when Men of our Profession consider, that as the Art is capable of receiving daily Improvements; useful Discoveries, confirmed by Experiments, ought to receive the joint Concurrence of their good Wishes; notwithstanding, they may contradict an Opinion that has been almost universally received. These we shall always find, are the Gentlemen who in opposition to those Bigots whose Tempers discover them to be the Votaries of a few opinionative Men, endeavour to guide their Judgments by Reason, backed with judicious Observations, and whatever Arguments are produced, will never go about to controul Matters of Fact. It is a grand Truth that Necessity gave Being to Physick and Surgery, and Experience is the only Way to bring them to Perfection; but it is much to be lamented by them that are Well-Wishers to those Arts that the Persons which are perhaps capable of advancing them most, devote themselves so much to speculative Fictions (the Effects of teeming Brains) that some have pretended with a magisterial Air to dictate, even to Experience itself. In such a Case it would be needless to go about to offer Arguments sufficient to disengage their Inclinations, Time only must discover to them their Error, when it makes them sensible they have, to no Purpose, persisted in the Pursuit of frivolous Niceties; for in reality, the Benefit of Mankind in general is deduced from Practical Truths. The Thoughts of this are sufficient to inspire every generous Soul with an ardent Desire of discovering something that may be of so universal an Advantage: As for my own Part, I was not animated to concern my self in the Undertaking I have engaged in, by a Prospect of gaining that Honour that is often liberally bestowed on those that mint new Hypotheses, or make new Discoveries; my only Design was to inform my self, whether some of those Diseases, which are generally reputed incureable, are not actually in themselves curable, and by this means to wipe off a Reproach which has been cast on Nature, when in reality it proceeds only from our own Weakness, and the Infirmity of our Art. A diligent Application to those Distempers which baffle us most, has been frequently recommended by very reputable Authors, and some of those who have obliged us with the Histories of Diseased Persons, have very often mentioned considerable Cures, which have been happily performed after the Patients have been looked upon by some as incurable. Hippocrates tells us, Lib. 2 Aph. 52. Si Medico secundum rectam Rationem Facienti, Curatio non statim succedat, non est tamen mutanda Methodus, quamdiu id restat quod à Principio visum est. I am fully persuaded that most Practitioners in Surgery have at some Time or other, by an industrious Application, been successfull where Art could not warrant a Cure. As to the Disease I propose to make the chief Subject of this Letter, tho’ it be generally branded with the Character of Incurable, I must freely own I never could discover any thing essential to it in general that should make it so; it is true, there are many Diseases that are not to be cured, where certain Circumstances are conjoined, which very much contribute to the Misfortune; tho’ Others of the same Class exempt from those Adherents may, perhaps, be happily enough cured; Thus for Instance. In Cancers we have but little Reason to expect a Cure in a Person that is old, if the Cancer has been of many Years standing, and is firmly fixed to the Ribs; but if the Patient be not so far advanced in Years as to be uncapable of receiving the Benefit of Nature by the regular Discharge of the Menses and the Cancer be loose; notwithstanding, it be Ulcerated, over-spread with fungous Flesh, discharge a filthy Matter, and smell very offensively; we do upon Experience affirm that such a Patient may be cured. We must own we cannot be of the Opinion of the Paracelsians, who affirm there is no Disease but what is curable in any Patient, for the Reason we have given; nor can we with the Galenists, agree that the Gout, Dead-palsie, Stone, Cancer, &c. are Diseases absolutely incurable; because Experience discovers the contrary. We find that Mr Boyle is of the same Opinion, and thinks it were no ill Piece of Service to Mankind, if a severe Collection were made of the Cures of such Persons as have been judged irrecoverable by the Doctors; that Men might no longer excuse their own Ignorance by the Impotency of Nature, and bare the World in Hand, as if the Art of Physick and their Skill, were of the same Extent. There seems to be one very effectual Way to rescue the medicinal Art from the Aspersions of some bold Persons; and that is that of a certain Number of regular Practitioners in Physick and Surgery, each of them should apply himself to the Study of one particular Disease: By this means we should soon find they would be capable of surmounting those Difficulties that have all along baffled the most Judicious of the general Practicers. How odd, and disagreeable this Opinion may seem to some Men I know not; but I assure you, Sir, I find it of a very ancient Date; for Herodotus, a Greek Historian informs us, that before his Time, the Physicians in Egypt used to apply themselves to the Study and Advancement of one Disease in particular. Baricellus, and Lionardo di Capoa, observe the same likewise, in Relation to the Practice of Physick in that Country. Baglivi, in the Scheme he lays down for erecting of Colleges for the Improvement of Physick, tells us, that every Fellow of his Literate Society must have one Disease allotted him for the Task of his whole Life; and which elsewhere he says is not sufficient for the illustrating the Province of one Disease; but that we lie under a Necessity of taking in Materials from all Hands. But there is no Man that we know of, has spoke more agreeably of this Matter than Dr Harris, in his Pharmacologia Anti-Empirica, he owns that he took more than ordinary Pains in one particular Disease, and assures us he verily believes if learned Men, after a compleat Acquisition of the universal Method of Physick, and a necessary Search into the Nature and Cures of those manifold Infirmities and Diseases, which, with a kind of infinite Variety, do afflict Mankind, would, with their utmost Vigour and Resolution, prosecute the Knowledge of some one Disease eminently above others; they would, most certainly, find a particular Providence attending and assisting them in so good and honest a Design. He adds, a few Pages farther, that wherever a Man’s Thoughts are intent and fixed, wherever his Genius does naturally incline, and all his Aims and Application do continually tend, whether it be to pertinent or insignificant Matters; whether it be to useful, or else meerly curious Things; if he has but tolerable Parts, and Education corresponding, he can hardly ever miss; it is hardly possible he should miss the becoming Eminent, and in great Measure perfect, (I mean perfect (says he) according to the Modulum of Human Capacity) in that one Point. But there is one Thing to be recommended to the Consideration of the Person, who takes upon him the Enquiry into the Nature of one particular Disease, which perhaps he might be very liable to err in, if not cautioned against; and that is, that he be not too bold and rash in his Attempts; for, as Galen says, The Physician’s Art is not like that of an Artificer, who may make what Experiments he pleases, to satisfy his Curiosity; because if he spoils the Materials he works on, no Body is endangered by the Miscarriage: In Corpore autem humane (adds he) ea tentare quæ non sunt Experientium comprobata Periculo non vacat, cum temerariæ Experientiæ Finis sit totius Animantis internecio. I believe we shall find that one of the grand Reasons, why Persons, generally speaking, have been so negligent in making any Attempts on Cancers, has been the seeming Discouragement they have all along met with from Authors. The Caution Hypocrates has given us in his Thirty eighth Aphor. Sect. 6. has scarce been omitted by any one considerable Person that has wrote of this Subject, tho’ perhaps the Sentence has often had an Exposition put upon it, contrary to the Author’s Meaning; but of this, more in it’s proper Place. I proceed now to give an Idea of Cancers in the Breast from an external Cause; and this I shall do without concerning my self with the Opinion of the Ancients; for since we have been so happy as to live in an Age which will be remarkable for the many surprising Discoveries which have been made in Anatomy: We should be reckoned unworthy the Advantages we enjoy, if we did not study to apply them to the Benefit of Mankind in general. The more inquisitive and learned Part of the World, are at this time very well assured that the Animal Body is an exquisitely framed Machine, and that it’s Composure is little else than a Compages of branching and winding Canals, which are kept to a moderate Degree of Extention, by Fluids of different Natures; and that the Motions of these were first determined by the divine Architect: Thus in a natural State, the whole Fabrick is governed by certain Laws impressed on the Fluids; and we often find the unhappy Consequences of the Discomposure of a Part, to discover themselves first by an Interruption of the Motion of the animal Juices. Thus in a Cancer of the Breast which proceeds from a Blow or Bruise (as upon strict Enquiry we have found they most commonly do) is it not probable that by such means a Confusion of the true Order of the little Glandulous Grains and their excretory Ducts may happen? and at the same time an extravasated Lympha may lodge in such a spungy Texture, which in time becoming viscid, will coalesce with the Glandular Substance, and form a Mass considerably compact? Now this being so, it is reasonable to believe that as the Lymphatic Juice continues its Motion till it arrives at the indurated Part, its Passage must be embarrassed there; upon which, it will soon be qualified for an Union with the remaining Part of the glandulous Substance of the Breast; and so the whole be perfectly changed from what it was before. This Hypothesis is in a great Measure grounded on Experiments; for if we express a Juice from some of the Cancerous Mass, and hold some of it in a Spoon over a Fire, there immediately flys off a small Vapour, and the Remainder hardens not unlike the white of an Egg boiled; this shows it to have the Properties of the Lympha; for the Chymical Analysis of that Liquor assures us it is a Composition of a great deal of fixt Sulphur, a little Volatile, some Phlegm, and much Volatile Alkalie; to which some add a little Earth: Now while the Volatile Alkalie keeps the Sulphur dissolved, the Lympha remains in a State of Fluidity; but when, by making the same Experiment, the Volatile Alkalie is evaporated, the Remainder hardens, and forms a pretty compact, whitish Substance. From hence the judicious SURGEON may easily deduce the Reason why these Sort of Tumours can never be brought to Suppuration. We shall not be so particular as to mention those Cancers which proceed from internal Causes, nor several other things which relate to the former; for what we have here said, we look upon to be commonly the Method of the Formation of them; and as such, we did endeavour to calculate Remedies that should peculiarly operate on the Mass, so as to dis-unite the firm Cohæsion of its Parts, and dispose them to separate and come away, without any great Inconvenience to the Patient; which is what we would recommend with all the Earnestness imaginable to those that are desirous of discovering a Method of curing Cancers. We were before sensible that it was possible for one Body to operate on another determinate Body, without being able to have any such Effect on innumerable Others; as Quicksilver will desolve Gold, Aqua-fortis Iron, Vinegar the Shell of an Egg, Oyl common Sulphur, &c. which will not have any such Effect on several other Bodies; for there is nothing more certain than that the Operations of Dissolvents are so determined by the various Texture of the Bodies on which they are employed, that a Liquor that is capable to corrode a more hard and solid Body, may be unable to disunite the Parts of one more soft and thin, if of a Texture indisposed to admit the small Parts of the Menstruum. It may be expected I should say something in relation to that which is generally looked upon to be the grand Cause of the Incurableness of Cancers, I mean the acid Humour in the Blood. But if those Gentlemen who are fond of entertaining this Opinion, do but consider that Cancers are often formed in a perfect State of Health; and that during the Time the Cancerous Substance dissolves, and comes away according to our Method, the Sides will run a digested Matter, and heal by the Application of dry Lint only; they will be of my Opinion, that neither the Atrabile of the Ancients, the corrosive Alkalious Salt of the Chymists, nor the predominant Acid of the Rest of the Moderns, are capable of procuring those Alterations that Cancers are sometimes attended with. If we trace the Writings of our Predecessors to their earliest Date, we shall find that many of them have made Mention of the Roots of the Cancer, which they took to be the large blew Veins that are often extended on its Surface; and the entire Removal of these they thought to be absolutely necessary, or the Patient could not be cured: But I believe there is no Body at this Time that considers the Mechanism of the Parts in such a Condition, but will agree they are the necessary Consequents of it, and that their Absence, or Presence is of no Importance; that the Cancer is sometimes attended with Adherents, or Appendices, which may very well resemble Roots, we are assured; but these generally lay deep, and not easily discovered; the most considerable One that ever we saw was very near Five Inches long, and of an unequal Bigness, some Part of it did not exceed the Largeness of a Goose’s Quill, but some others were near as big as the Top of the Thumb, which resembled so many Knots in it, it divided in the Middle, and continued separated about an Inch and a Half, and then re-united, it was of a more tender Substance than the Body of the Cancerous Mass, but of the same Colour, and was probably the Juice that was last applied to the Cancer, which assumed a Form agreeable to the Cavities it lodged it self in. Such Adherents as these are, I am more inclined to believe, are the Cause of the unsuccessful Attempts on Cancers, than any Acid in the Blood; for I am of opinion there are few Persons unacquainted with Medicines that are capable of correcting its Acidity when it happens; and had the Cure of Cancers depended on that, I am positive they would not at this Time have had such ill Character. We have before shewed that Cancers have generally their Rise from a Blow or Bruise, and that when the Body is in an healthful Condition, and the Blood and Lympha temperate and sweet: Now if there always is an Acidity of the Blood when Persons are afflicted with Cancers, the Cancers must sometimes cause it, and not the Acid in the Blood the Cancers, as is the Opinion of most of the Moderns. What has been hitherto said, is sufficient to prove that if Men will be always so sluggish as to acquiesce in the Dictates and Dogmatical Positions of their Predecessors, and not exert their Faculties in endeavouring to undeceive themselves; we must no longer expect our Art will receive any Advancements, but as Slaves to their Opinions content our selves with what we know already. Were not Parisani, Riolan the Son, and Plempius, so much in the Interest of the Ancients, that when our Country-man, the assiduous Harvey, had discovered the Circulation of the Blood, they not only opposed his plain Demonstrations, but engaged in vigorous Disputes against him, tho’ at the last they were obliged shamefully to recant their Follies. Celsus tells us, Vix ulla perpetua Præcepta Ars Medicinalis recipit; scarce any of the Precepts of the Medicinal Art are perpetual. And shall we engage then in the List with a few opinionative Men, that ground their Course of Practice on those Methods only, in which they have been brought up, and implicitly assent to the Conjectures of others. No certainly, this would be to strangle Truth, and extinguish the Vigour of our Wits with precarious Authorities. Consonant to this, Dr Paxton, in his lately published Treatise, tells us, Thus Men, out of a trifling Distrust of their own Parts, will not use them; or out of Laziness of Temper, will not employ them, chusing rather to be wise or learned, by being adorned with Others Whimsies, than undergo any Labour, Fatigue, or Trouble of being really so. I believe there are some Men that would rather contradict their Senses than deny the Authority of a darling Opinion: Of this, we have a sufficient Proof in an Instance, related by an Italian Author before-mentioned. He tells us, That a certain Publick Reader long Time versed and grown Old in the Books of Aristotle being one Day present at a Dissection, and clearly seeing that the Vena Cava takes its Rise from the Liver, confessed with Astonishment what his Senses discovered to him, but that he ought not therefore, by crediting his Senses, to contradict his Master, who constantly affirms all the Veins in Man’s Body to have their Original from the Heart; because, said he, it is much more easy for our Senses to be sometimes deceived, than the Great and Sovereign Aristotle. I here seriously confess, I have as much Veneration for Antiquity as any Person whatsoever; but it would be ridiculous, if, as One says, we should so far forego our own Judgments as always to follow the Foot-steps of Others, and to be certain of nothing our selves: For this would be to see with others Eyes, to hear with others Ears, and to understand with other Men’s Intellects; so that whenever we make Quotations from the Ancients to strengthen our Opinions, we ought to do it judiciously, and fully consider, whether their Notions of Things are consonant to the Experience of these Times. To prove to you, Sir, that I have not proceeded to apply my self to the Cure of so formidable a Disease, without a Precedent, I shall instance to you that Fuschius, a learned Italian Surgeon, had such a wonderful Reputation for it formerly, that some Authors say he was distinguished by a particular Title, which discovered his Success. His Method I have made use of, and tho’ by passing thro’ several Hands (the Author being mentioned by few) it has been stampt with wonderful Encomiums, I have not hitherto found it deserves it, notwithstanding I did not omit the most minute Circumstance in preparing the Medicine, or prosecuting the Directions; but in its proper Place, I shall take particular Notice of this, and several other Remedies, that have been recommended by some Authors, as substantial and extremely useful; for if in One or Two Instances they have been crowned with Success, by Degrees they are handed down as infallible in all Diseases of the like Form. To the former Account I may add, that Monsieur Alliot, Physician to the Duke of Lorrain, has applied himself to the Cure of this Disease very successfully, as a Schedule he published at Paris some Years ago informs us; we are likewise assured by Mr Boyle that Dr Haberfield, one of the Principal Physicians of Bohemia, has had extraordinary Success in the Cure of Cancers; and the Sieur Gendron, Doctor of Physick in the University of Montpelier, has done extreamly well on that Head; the latter of these Gentlemen I cannot mention, without making an Apology for not Publishing our Annotations on his Enquiries relating to Cancers which was promised at the latter End of our Chirurgical Remarks, Printed above a Year ago; but I assure you, Sir, I was more inclined for some Reasons to offer what is therein contained, with several Observations made with the greatest Exactness, and to which, perhaps I may have an Opportunity of making several Additions, in a particular Treatise, so that the whole may conspire to finish a compleat Account of this Disease. I had at first a Design of enlarging considerably on this Subject in this Letter by adding various Things, but considering they might better find a Place in what I just now mentioned, and that you did not desire an exact History of the Disease, I resolved to omit them. I shall now proceed to give you some Instances of the Success of our Method, as being what you are most solicitous of, the Cases I shall relate shall be each of them different from the other, for I know you do not approve of that pompous Method of some Persons, that enumerate abundance of Instances of Cures when perhaps there is no great Difference in the Cases or the Method of treating them.

The most considerable Case that offered it self during our first Enquiries into the Nature of Cancers, was that of a Woman, who about Four Years before received a Blow on one of her Breasts, upon which it began to swell, grow painful, and after some time became all over livid, and of so prodigious a Bigness and Weight, that she was obliged to keep it suspended by a Napkin round her Neck: But in regard our Method was not put in Practice till by other Applications it was become ulcerated, we shall speak of it as such. The Patient, then, at this time complained of a very violent Pain, which extended it self to the Back and Shoulder, by the Communication of the Nerves (for those of the Breast come from the fifth Pair of the Spine, and from a Plexus about the Clavicels.) To remedy this, she had taken no small Quantity of Hypnotic Medicines, which, without Doubt, destroy the due Texture of the Blood, and so become prejudicial to the Patient, and disadvantagious to the Surgeon that proposes a Cure. But because Persons generally find some Relief by Opiates, as they retard the determined Motion of the Blood, straiten the Nerves, and check the tumultuous and disorderly Influx of the Spirits; so, probably, in these Cases, their Use will be continued. Besides the acute Pain, the Cancer was over-spread with fungous Flesh, its lower Part extreamly hard, knotty, blackish, and its Basis seemed inclinable to fix; the Matter which was discharged was thin, reddish, and stank abominably. This was the Condition of this poor Woman, when we first applied our grand Dissolvent; the Pain she was attended with the first and second Day after was inconsiderable, nor did she complain of more afterwards, than would have been procured by the most mild and easy Remedy the Dispensatory affords. In four Days Time we found a very evident Alteration for the Better; for the Consistence of the Matter was changed, and the Surface of the Cancerous Mass became somewhat soft, we continued the Use of the same Medicine, and in a few Days more some part of the Cancer came away with the dressing. In short, in about six Weeks time, the whole Substance was entirely gone, and nothing remained to be done but to heal the Ulcer, which was effected in about a Fortnight. During the time she was under Cure we gave her a proper internal Medicine, not calculated to destroy the Acidity of the Blood, but to dispose the whole Cancerous Mass, with its Appendices to come away, which might otherwise, as the Seeds of the Disease, cause it to spring again: Thus was this Patient, (after so great a Fatigue she had undergone before she came to me) perfectly cured, and has continued so to this Time, without any manner of Inconvenience as she lately told me, it being a long time since she has been well.

A Gentlewoman near fifty Years of Age, by some Accident received a Blow on her left Breast, which in a few Days was succeeded by a considerable Tumour, whereupon she applyed herself to a Surgeon, who immediately let her Blood, ordered her to take the Lap. Hibern. in Posset-Drink, and embrocated the Breast with Ol. Succini: By the use of these Means the Swelling was much abated, a small Hardness only remaining, which did not exceed a small Wallnut in Bigness; in this State, with very little Pain, she continued above a Year; but being persuaded to apply an Emp. de Ran. cum Mer. to it, it encreased very apparently, was extreamly painful, and in Seven Months time became as big as a large Egg: After this she made use of a Woman who was reputed Famous for these Cases; but by One or Two of her Applications the Tumour became as big again as before: In short it continued to encrease gradually from that time, till the whole Breast, which was of a monstrous Bigness, and which was judged not to weigh less than Eight Pound, in time became entirely Cancerous. It was at this time that I saw it the Skin was very livid, looking sleek and shining, and seemed ready to open, as being scarce capable of longer containing such a prodigious hard Mass as laid concealed under it, and was in all Probability as big as the Breasts of the Ammonian Women, of which Juvenal thus speaks, In Meroe, crasso majorem Infante Mamillam. She had been with various experienced and reputable Surgeons before, among which was One not long ago deceased, who was justly looked upon as an Ornament of his Profession; but not one would willingly attempt a real Cure by cutting it off, or any other Way: They only prescribed some palliating Remedies to remove the Pain and prevent its Breaking. I was animated by my former Successes, and prevailed with my self to undertake it, not thinking I was at all blameable if my Success in so extraordinary an Affair contradicted the Prognosticks of so many worthy Gentlemen; and though it did, I shall at all times think my self obliged to pay a Deference to them. I began the Cure by removing the Integuments from the upper Part of the Cancerous Substance, but did not wait for a Separation of the Slough the Escarotick made for fear of being incommoded in my Procedure by a Fungus; For this Reason I mixed some of our Dissolvent with a digestive Ointment, by which Means I had a Part of the Cancerous Mass came away with it, without any Trouble to my Patient. I continued this Method of Dressing several Days longer, with very little Alteration; but upon a Complaint of a Pain between the Shoulders, I was obliged to change my Medicine, and foment the Cancer with an Infusion of some of those Herbs that contain many Volatile attenuating and active Particles. And here I cannot but remark, by the by, that Applications to the pained Part would have been of no Effect, as I have many times observed, and particularly in a Woman which had a Cancerated Breast, that was violently afflicted with a Pain in her Arm on the same Side, which would not be removed by any of the Applications the Person that had the Care of her made use of the affected Arm. To this I might subjoin a very pertinent Case from Galen; but I fear I shall digress too far. The Pain of my Patient’s Back being removed, I proceeded to apply the Dissolvent, which so softened the Superficies of the Cancerous Mass that in Three or Four Days Time I could take off above a Quarter of a Pound of it with the Edge or Back of my Incision Knife, and my Patient not so much as feel me, this I continued to accustom my self to, because it would have been more tedious to have waited for the coming away of the Cancerous Mass of it self. Sometimes I varied my Applications as I saw Occasion, but, as my Patient confessed, I scarce put her to any more Pain during the Time her Breast was dissolving (abating for the Pain of her Back) than there is in the dressing of an Issue. The prodigious Bigness of the Cancerous Mass made the Cure the more tedious, for it was above Three Months before all of it was entirely dissolved and gone; but this being at length surprisingly and very happily effected the Cancerous Ulcer (the last Part of the Cancer that came away left) was incarned and cicatrized by an Infusion of vulnerary Herbs, to which was added a small Quantity of Tincture of Myrrh: Thus was this Cure entirely compleated and my Success in it confirmed that French Proverb, which says, It is better to be condemned to die by the Doctor, than by the Judge. I did not make use of that internal Medicine I mentioned in the former Case, because here I found no pressing Necessity for the Use of it, but some other proper Physick was taken to dispose the Ulcer to heal, as one would have done in any other Case. Upon the whole of this Cure, I cannot say whether I had more Trouble with the Cancer, or in endeavouring to oblige my Patient to a strict Observance of some of the Non-Naturals she so often erred in. There is nothing can create a greater Trouble to the Surgeon, than to find Patients negligent of their Healths, by not endeavouring to prevent or regulate Miscarriages, nor taking so much Care of themselves, as they expect the Surgeon should take of them. The Rules and Directions of Physicians and Surgeons, given to their Patients, we have Reason to believe were not so often violated formerly; for in some Places they obliged themselves very strictly to the Observance of them, and some Historians give us an Account that Selucus made a Law; that if any of the Epizephyrian Locrians drank Wine, contrary to the Physician’s Direction, though they escaped the ill Consequents that might have attended it, Death was their Punishment, because they did contrary to what was prescribed them.

A Woman about Thirty Years of Age had been for a considerable Time afflicted with a hard painful Tumour under her Tongue, for the Cure of which she had applied her self to various Persons, but without Success. When I saw her I found the Swelling to be hard, painful, of a livid Appearance, and incommoded her so much in speaking, that she could not pronounce her Words articulately. I was of the Opinion of some Gentlemen that had seen it before me, viz. That it was undoubtedly Cancerous, and as such I proceeded to cure it; but I met with more Difficulties in this Case than I at first expected, for after I thought the Cancerous Substance had been entirely dissolved, and I had reduced the Ulcer to a very narrow Compass, it began to swell again, and in a short Time enlarged it self to almost the Bigness it was at first: This put me upon a Necessity of making an Incision into the Body of the Tumour, that I might commodiously come at the remaining Part, and so dispose some little Dossels of Lint, armed with our Dissolvent, that they might have their desired Effect, and this in every Respect answered what we proposed; so that we proceeded immediately to incarn the Ulcer, which we did by a Lotion prepared of an Infusion of some vulnerary Herbs, and Mel. Rosar. Thus was this Woman perfectly cured, and has continued well about a Year.

Because I have always found greater Difficulty in treating Cancers of the Mouth and Lips than those of the Breast, I will here relate an Instance of one upon the lower Lip that proved extreamly troublesome. It sometimes happens that one, or more, of those Glands which are spread on the Inside of the Cheeks and Lips, called Buccales and Labiales, receive some Damage by a Bite or Blow; upon which they generally tumefy very much, become painful, and in Process of Time (if proper Means are not made use of) may become Cancerous. Such was the Case of a Woman about Thirty Years of Age, who having had a Blow on her lower Lip, neglected it till it was considerably tumefied, grew very painful, and became extreamly troublesome to her. The Circumference of the Swelling when I saw it, which was many Months after the Blow was received, was very much inflamed, and a small Quantity of Icorous Matter discharged from several small Pustules, which over-spread it; the Middle, which was the Body of the Cancer, was hard, of a whitish Colour, and moveable; it’s Sides being only connected to the contiguous Parts by some small Filaments that were detached from it. The same Thing Doctor Gendron has discovered in an ulcerated Cancer on the Forehead of the Servant of a certain Marquess, as he observes in his Third Chapter of the Tract we have before mentioned. I began with my Patient by applying cool and temperate Remedies, till the Inflammation was considerably abated; after this I applied our Dissolvent, which operated so mildly that my Patient was not sensible of near so much Pain as before she was apprehensive of: In short, the Body of the Cancer was removed and a good digested Matter discharged from the Sore. Now all the Difficulty was after what Manner we should proceed to dispose the little Cancerous Branches in the Skin to come away, but this we effected after the following Manner; the Consistent of the Medicine we before applyed, was such as was no way qualified for rooting out the Cancerous Filaments, whereupon we were obliged to procure it’s Dissolution in a proper Menstruum, though it required a considerable Time to do it; by this means, we soon found, that what before was ineffectual was now capable of effecting what we desired. This being done, the Ulcer was incarned by a Sarcotick Infusion (for I never use Ointments in these Cases) and cicatrized by the common drying Plaisters. It is to be observed, that the Scar still continues hollow (it having been healed near Two Years) and not like those that are the Consequents of well ordered simple Ulcers.

The following Observation contains an Account of one that was cured of an incipient Cancer in her Breast, by Internals. I was the rather inclined to set down the whole Process of this Cure, because by these, or such like Medicines, Persons under the same Circumstances may perhaps be cured, though by some they may be thought incurable. The Case is this; A Gentlewoman, Thirty Years of Age, of a thin spare Habit of Body, by some Accident received a Blow upon One of her Breasts, which put her to an immediate Pain, and that very acute; but it lessened upon her being let Blood, and the Application of a discutient Plaister: However, in a few Days, some of the glandulous Grains of the Breast became indurated, and in Process of Time, by their Increase, they were rendered painful. At this Time she sought out for fresh Advice, and continued Two Months under the Care of a Person she was recommended to; but Things not succeeding according to Expectation, she became a Patient to Three or Four more. During this Time the Lump continued to encrease but slowly, and at the Expiration of Six Months it appeared to be a very hard painful Tumour in the Middle of the Breast, but no bigger than a Hen-Egg; whereupon it was thought proper to commence her Method of Cure by exhibiting the following Pills. ℞ Pill. Tartar. Quercetan. ʒß. Calomel gr. viii. F. Pill. N^o. 5. These were likewise continued twice a Week during the whole Cure; after this, was ordered the following Infusion, ℞ Vin. Rhenan. ℔ii. Milleped. ℥ii. Ocul. Canc. ℥ß Croci. ʒii. This was not to be taken alone, but when it had stood Four and Twenty Hours, three or four Spoons-full of it was to be mixed with a Draught of the ensuing Dietetick-Drink, and taken in the Morning, and at Four of the Clock in the Afternoon. ℞ Rad. Sarsaparill. ℥ii. Chinæ ʒvi. Fig. Sassafr. ℥i. Corn. Cervi, ℥Sem. Correand. ℥ß. Sant. Rub. ʒii. Coq. in aq. Font. Congiis 4 per Horæ dimidium, deinde stent Clause super Cineres Calidos per Horas xii; postea ebulliant ad tertiæ Partis Consumptionem. By the Continuance of these Means about two Months, and observing a regular Method of living, the Cure of this Patient was effected; though by some she had been looked upon as incurable, unless she would submit the cutting it out, which is not often attended with Success.

Perhaps, Sir, here you may object, that it is acting disengenuously, and not like a Friend, to give you an Account of those Persons only where I have succeeded. To this I answer, that excepting one Woman, that was emaciated almost to the last Degree by the excessive Discharge of a fætid Icorous Matter from her Breast, and an Abscess under her Arm, and who was carried off by a violent Loosness, I never had a Person miscarried under my Care, where I proposed a Cure. That poor Woman I suffered my self to be persuaded to take care of, having but little Prospect of effecting it, yet my Endeavours succeeded so well, that had it been in our Power to put a Stop to her Loosness, I am of opinion she might have been cured.

What has been hitherto said, I do not question but is sufficient to satisfy you, that this formidable Disease is not so rebellious, but that it may be sometimes conquered by Art; and I might here relate a Case I have at this present Writing, wherein not only a Part of the Cancer was fixed, but there were hard Cancerous Knots extended to the Arm-pit; and yet this seems to be almost well; the Ulcer that remains, and which heals daily, not being much broader than a Crown Piece. But in regard the Patient is not entirely cured, I shall reserve this Relation untill another Opportunity; though I will embrace the present to assure you that I am,

SIR,
Your very respectful Brother,
and Humble Servant,
W^m. Beckett.

Hatton-Garden,
July 12, 1711.

A Solution of some Curious Problems concerning Cancers.

PROBLEM I.

Whether the Cancerous Juice is Corrosive, or not.

WE cannot come to a certain Knowledge of the Principles of the Juice which is lodged in the Cancerous Substance, although it enjoyed the very same Properties, of that which is discharged from an ulcerated Cancer, from the Account which Authors have given of the latter; for they have differed very much in determining the Nature of the Salts, with which they suppose it abounds. Helmont, Van Horne, and most of those Gentlemen that were Chymically inclined, were of Opinion they belonged to the Alkaline Family, but a far greater Number than those, have thought they are Acid. Riolan, the Father, Vide Rio­la­nus, Cap. 13. Sect. 2. in his Chirurgical Works, without giving his Opinion what the constituent Parts of the purulent Matter are, affirmed it to be as strong as Poison, and that no Death could be devised too cruel for such a One as should give it to a Man. This brings to my Remembrance a very unhappy Accident a Gentleman informed me of that befel Mr Smith, one of the Surgeons of St Thomas’s Hospital, who being so curious as to taste the Juice of a cancerated Breast presently after it was extirpated, found himself very strangely affected by it, in a very short Time; he washed his Mouth with various Things, but nothing could free him from that penetrating, malignant, and nauseous Savour, he was continually attended with; in short, he became consumptive, and in a few Months died a Martyr to the Art of Surgery. I confess when I received this Account it did not a little surprize me, because I had several times had the Curiosity to do the very same Thing, at the Hospital where that unfortunate Genman made the Experiment. I never found any remarkable Sharpness in it, though it was always attended with a very unpleasant Savour. I proceeded at first very cautiously in making this Attempt; for I deluted some Drops of the Juice in several Spoons-full of fair Water, till at length, not finding any Inconvenience from it, I came to the Juice it self. We cannot imagine the Death of that Gentleman before-mentioned, was procured by the Action of any corrosive Salts, whether Acid or Alkaline, which would have caused a Corrosion of the Parts, but that it is only accountable from the extraordinary Stench and Malignity of the Matter, which impressing its Virulency on the Animal Juices must undoubtedly disturb their regular Motions, and cause the utmost Confusion of the whole Oeconomy. It must certainly be a very tragical Scene, to observe how Nature, by so inconsiderale Means, confounds and insults, over the Animal System; but still there is nothing we are more certain of, than that her Method of Procedure is always consistent to the Rules she acts by. Since the writing of this, looking over a little Tract which informs us of the Rarities in New-England, I met with a Relation which discovers to us the peculiar and odd Quality of the Juice of a cancerated Breast, or Wolf, as our Author calls it. He tells us that an indulgent Husband, by sucking his Wife’s sore Breast to draw out the Poison, lost all his Teeth, but was attended by no other Inconvenience. Now this does not prove that so strange an Effect should succeed the sucking the Ulcer, because of the Corrosiveness of the Matter; for had it been so, such tender Parts as the Gums, Lips, and Tongue, could not have escaped so well as to have received no Damage by it.

Problem II.

Whether Cancers are contagious, or not.

THERE has been a very great Disagreement in the Sentiments of our Predecessors as to this Point; but Zacutas Lusitanus proposes to prove it by Reason and Experience. His Reasons are, First, because in an ulcerated Cancer there is a Cadaverous Vid. Zacut. de Prax. Med. ad­mi­rand. Lib. 1. Obs. 15. Stench and Rottenness, which infects the Neighbouring Parts with it’s Virulency. Secondly, Because a Cancer is the same Disease as an Elephantiasis, and Leprosy of a particular Part. To this, Sennertus in his Posthumous Works answers, that all corrupted and fætid Substances are not contagious; for in a Gangrene and Sphacellus, there is the greatest Corruption and offensive Smell, yet we do not find that a Person is killed by it: He adds, though a Cancer has some Similitude to an Elephantiasis, they are different Diseases. Lusitanus deduces his Experience from an Observation of a poor Woman, that having an ulcerated Cancer in her Breast, and lying with three Children, they were affected after the same Manner by the Contagion. He says that Two of them died, but the Third, which was of a stronger Vid Sennert. Paralipom. ad Part. 1 Cap. 19. Constitution, had the Cancer cut off by a Surgeon and was cured. Sennertus is of Opinion that these Children did not contract the Disease by Contagion, but that it was by Hereditary Succession. We likewise find that Cardan, Lib. de Venen. Cap. 12. is of Opinion that Cancers are not contagious. However, we will not make any particular Enquiry into these Authors Reasons, when they so strenuously maintain this Point; but only relate a remarkable History, which will prove the contrary, if the Cancerous Matter comes to an immediate Contract with a soft and glandulous Part. The Relation I had (some time ago) from a Gentleman not long since deceased, who, out of a pious Disposition, had devoted himself for several Years last past, to be serviceable to the greatest Objects of Charity. He informed me that a Tradesman’s Wife in Nottingham, being so unhappy as to labour under a Cancer in one of her Breasts, her Husband was of Opinion he could relieve her by sucking it; accordingly he put this Method in Practice, in hopes without doubt he could effect a Cure, by drawing the Cancerous Matter out of the Nipple; he continued his Attempts for some Time, but found it did not answer his Design; for though a small Quantity of Matter was discharged Vide Galen. in Aph. Hip. Com. Lib. 6 Aph. 38. this way, the Disease still became worse, and she terminated her Life soon after. Two Months were scarce expired before the Husband of the Deceased came up to London, upon Account of a swelling he had arose on the Inside of the upper Jaw; he applied himself to some ingenious Surgeons for Advice, who assured him he must undergo the drawing of Several Teeth on that Side of the Jaw which was affected, and have the Swelling, and Part of the Jaw-Bone (if necessary) cut away; he went away very much disatisfyed with so harsh a Proposal, and became a Patient to a Person, who undertook to cure him with Gargels, and such inconsiderable Remedies; however, by the Use of these Things he was of Opinion he became much better, and thought he should be cured. Upon this he retired into the Country to his Business, but in less than a Month’s Time he was obliged to come up again, and have the former Method put in Practice. But the Event was according to that Expression of Galen, Quibus item sunt Cancri in cavitate Corporis, aut Palato, sede utero, si secentur, aut urantur, ulcera cicatrice induci non possunt. For the Sore could never be brought to cicatrize, but the Cancer continu’d to spread, till it had extended in self over most of the internal Parts of the Mouth, and to the inner Part of the Nose: In this unhappy Condition, he lived some time, but at last became so frightful an Object, and the Stench that continually proceeded from the Parts was so offensive, that he retired himself from the World, and finished his miserable Life in a Garret. Since the finishing the Solution to the foregoing Problem, I met with a Surgeon (a Foreigner) who giving me an Account of the present State of the Practice of Surgery in the Country where he lived, and relating some considerable Cases which had happened within his own Knowledge, in answer to my Desire, among other things, told me, without any particular Intimation from me, he knew a very odd Accident, which happened upon a Woman’s having an ulcerated Cancer in her right Breast, which was, that she being poor, for want of other Conveniences, suffered two Children she had to lie with her in that Condition; at length one of them, a Girl about five Years old, began to be afflicted with a small painful Tumour in one of her Breasts, which encreasing to near the Bigness of an Egg, became Livid, and entirely Cancerous; the Mother died some time after, and the Child did not long survive her; but the other Child continued well. Several Surgeons gave their Sentiments of this Case; some thought it to be an Hereditary Indisposition; but considering the Mother had no Appearance of a Cancer before or at the Birth of the Child, I cannot but readily embrace the Opinion of those Gentlemen, that were inclined to believe that it was contracted by Contagion, seeing the Position of the Child’s Body was such in Bed, that that Part of it which was affected was almost always disposed to rub against the Dressings soaked in Matter, (for I understand the Mother took but very little Care to change them often.) Now it is not at all probable, that the malignant Effluvia, which continually pass off from the Cancerous Mass, and the putrefied Matter, can dispose a Person at any little Distance to be affected with the like Disease, for then the other Child would have became a Sufferer; but it may happen in some extraordinary Cases, where the corrupted Fluid has attained an exalted Pitch of Malignity, to communicate some of its more active Particles to the Blood and Spirit; and so causing a very great Disorder in their Motions produce a violent Fever, and Confusion of the whole Oeconomy, so as to occasion a Person’s Death. But see a remarkable Case in Tulpius, Lib. 4. Obs. 8. That there are several cutaneous Diseases that may be propagated by Contagion, if a Person lies with another, is by all allowed of; and that the lying with a Person that has a Cancer may be attended by such a Disease, from the Proofs we have brought, I suppose will be agreed to be equally as certain. But this cannot happen unless the matter be very malignant, and be suffered, by the Negligence of the Patient, to come to an immediate Contact, with a Part of the Body of the other Person; for then, without doubt, it may contuminate the Fluids, and incline them to assume a Viscidity, to which the Effluvia will immediately adhere, because they are best qualifyed for a Union with those Substances that are viscous. To this we may add, that in those Persons that are nearly related, the Malignity may be more easily communicable because of their Analogy to each other; for consonant hereto, Diemerbroeck Vide Diemer­broeck de Pest. Page 58. says in his Treatise of the Plague, that Kindred more easily receive the Infection from one another. But see more in that Author’s excellent Book where you have likewise some curious Thoughts relating to Contagion.

PROBLEM III.

Whether if the extirpating a Cancerous Breast happens to be successful, it ought to be look’d upon as a Consequence of Performing the Operation better than our Predecessors.

BY the Account we receive from Authors we cannot be positively assured, whether there was any particular established Method in the first Ages of this Art, for the Performance of this Operation: This we are only assured of that there are some Circumstances which Vide Ætius Tetrab. 4. Ser. 4. Cap. 44. relate to it, that have been taken Notice of; the most considerable of which is, that the actual Cautery was to be applied immediately after the Abscision; this they advised, not only to put a Stop to the Flux of Blood, but likewise to correct the ill Quality of it: It is to be observed, that they ordered always, upon such an Occasion, Defensatives to be applied to the contiguous Parts, to prevent their being inflamed; but for as much as they were sensible the actual Cautery would procure an Eschar, they recommended the Use of Digestives to separate it; after which, they proposed to heal it as Vide Arceus, lib. 2. Cap 3. de Curand. Vulnerib. a common Ulcer. The very next Advance this Operation received, that we have met with, was by that Accurate Writer Franciscus Arceus, who obliged the World with an exact and methodical Account of the whole Method of Procedure in extirpating a Cancer in the Breast; though this Author would only venture on those that were not Ulcerated, those that were he looked upon as incurable. We do not find that this Method was recommended to the World by any remarkable Histories of Cures effected by it; whether it proceeded from the Unsuccessfulness of the Attempts, or its Disuse, we cannot determine. Fabritius Hildanus likewise made a considerable Step towards the Encouraging the Performing this Operation; and he assures us, he has more than once done it with Success; he did not only influence his Cotemporaries to revive an Operation, that was, perhaps, almost grown out of Date, by the Histories of some Cases he recites; but obliged them with the Figure of a Pair of Forceps, which in this Operation are very convenient to engage the Breast, and thereby prevent the Pain the Patients are sometimes put to, by piercing the Breast with Needles armed with Silk to suspend it. There are several Ways of performing the Operation, mentioned by later Practitioners, but at this Time there are few that are willing to be concerned in it. A very considerable Author speaking of extirpating a Cancerous Breast, advises us to take care we do not cut the Pectoral Muscle in the Operation: But we have seen a very remarkable Case of this Nature, where a Part of that Muscle was cut away, and the Cartilages of the two of the Ribs laid bare, and the Patient happened to be cured. Now if our Predecessors had so great a Respect to the avoiding the wounding of this Part, as to make their Incisions too superficial, their Operations must be in all Probability unsuccessful; for we are very well assured by Experience, that their actual Cauteries will have no good Effect here, nor will they consume the remaining Part of the Cancerous Mass. We have elsewhere shewed, that this Substance upon boiling becomes hard and friable; and we will here take the Liberty to give our Opinion of the Use of Cauteries in this Case. The Cancerous Substance we take to be nothing more than a Transformation of the small glandulous Bodies, which form the Breast, and a Lymphatick Juice, intimately incorporated therewith, into a hard, close, whitish, and (by common Medicines) indissolvable Mass. In some Cases, perhaps, it may receive some Addition from some Juices, which may distil from the contiguous Fibres. This being granted, what Benefit, can we reasonably imagine, will ensue on this painful Method? Will not the Fire, by causing the more Fluid Parts of the Mass to evaporate, actually dry up, torrefy, and harden it; and so dispose it for displaying a Train of mischievous Effects, on the contiguous Parts? and all this without any very apparent Decrease of it too: Nay, the very reducing of it to such a Consistence, which very much resembles a Piece of burnt Horn, is sufficient to procure a perpetual Pain, seeing Medicines can hardly soften it, so as to reduce it to its first State.

PROBLEM IV.

Whether Salivation will Cure a Cancer.

THE extraordinary Success this Method has been attended with, in some Cases of the greatest Difficulty, has so far recommended it to the World, that it is at this Time become of so great Repute, that there are few Persons but what will willingly embrace it, if proposed to them, provided they have found former Methods prove ineffectual. We once knew a Person, who laboured under an ulcerated Cancer in her Breast, advised to it, and who had certainly under-gone it, though contrary to the Opinion of some Persons concerned, if in three or four Days time she had not been reduced to such a weak Condition, that it put an End to the Controversy. That a Salivation has cured the most malign and spreading Ulcers, and those that have been of several Years continuance, notwithstanding their Edges have been high, inverted and assumed the Consistence of a callous Body, we have found by several Instances; but that it should cure a Cancerous Ulcer, an Ulcer which is chiefly seated in a transformed animal Substance, and which has no Correspondence with the contiguous Parts, is what we cannot believe. One of the principal Effects of Mercury, if prudently given, is, that it attenuates the Juices, clears the Canals, destroys the ill Quality of that Fluid that has a Hand in causing any Obstruction, and renders the Juices temperate and sweet. By effecting this, it is, that it cures so many different Diseases, which perhaps have not so great a Diversity in their Causes, but have different Appearances, which depend upon the Variety of Parts, where the Cause operates. From hence any One may judge, that a Person who discovers a certain Method of curing Cancers by Medicines only, will find that it will not consist in a Secret for purifying the Juices, which can have no Effect on the Cancerous Mass, so as to procure it’s Dissolution; and without a Remedy for which his Method will be always unsuccessful. Mercklin, in his Treatise de Transfus Sanguinis, page 35, tells us we have no Reason to believe we may have Success from Transfusion in a Cancer, nor indeed would Injections succeed better; though, perhaps, by this Means, it is possible so to alter the Fluids, that Ulcers, not Cancerous, may be cured in a short Time, as it once happened to a certain Person, who being under Cure for an inveterate Pox, had some Rosin of Scammony infused in the Essence of Guaiacum, injected into his Veins, which Vomited him excessively; but his Ulcers were healed in three Days Time. From what has been hitherto said, it is evident, that a Salivation can never cure a confirmed Cancer, because it is not capable of procuring a Dissolution of that hard Substance, which is the real Cancer it self. The Glands we have observed, with the extravasated Lympha, and its Vessels, are perfectly changed to a different Substance to what they were before, all which make a Mass of such a Nature, that it will be impossible to procure it’s Dissolution by any inward Means. If the Cancer was nothing more than a Coagulation of the Juices in the Vessels, or other Canals, or Pipes, the Cure might be much more easily effected, but as the Cancer is conjoined with such Circumstances as we have mentioned, we may affirm the Cure will be altogether impossible without the whole Substance with it’s Appendices or Branches (which we have found they often have) be taken away; or a perfect Dissolution of all of it be procured by some external Remedy, which is capable of operating on it after such a peculiar Manner, as to dissolve the Cancerous Substance, without having any such Effect on the contiguous Parts.

PROBLEM V.

Whether Cancers are Curable by Causticks.

THE Difficulty that those of our Predecessors who had Courage enough to attempt the Cure of Cancers, must unavoidably meet with, obliged them to enter upon several Methods of Practice, in order to be capable of surmounting it; and there have not been wanting for these several hundred Years last past, some Gentlemen in the Republick of Medicine that have proposed to conquer this Rebellious Disease, by the use of some particular Causticks, they have recommended. It is foreign to my Design, to give an Account of the Composition of the several Remedies, they have been big with the Expectation of Success from; I shall only take notice of one or two not very pompous Preparations, that by some Persons I know, have been looked upon as extraordinary as any that have been transmitted to us. Guido, who I think I may justly say is one of the best Authors of so ancient a Date, has been very lavish of his Encomiums on Arsnick, and after him Fallopius, Rodericus a Castro, Ossenius, Penotus, Faber, Borellus, and others, have recommended it in some particular Preparations. That of Fuschius, who is said to have cured abundance of Persons of Cancers, in England, Germany, and Poland, having had the most said in it’s Commendation, required our more particular Notice; Hartman calls it Pul Benedictus, which whether it deserves that Title, we will leave to the Reader to judge, after we have faithfully recounted the Effects of it. Its Preparation is as follows: ℞ Arsenici albi ℥i subtilissime pulverisetur per dies 15 de die tertio in tertium affundatur Aq. vitæ, ut cooperiat pulverem, post triduum Aq. vitæ abjiciatur, ac nova affundatur, ac misceantur. Rad Dracunouli Major, mense julio vel Agu. collect & in taleolas scissæ ac in loco ventis perflatili exsiccatæ ℥ii. Fuliginis Camini splendidi ℥iii redigantur omnia in subtilissimum pulverem super lapidem marmoreum, & servetur in Vase bene clauso vitreo. Ante annum vero ad usum non erit it a commodus. This Powder I applied to a Cancerated Breast of a Woman, under thirty Years of Age, after having made a Sore by applying one of the milder Causticks; the first Night it was made use of, it caused a great deal of pain, and the next Day, the Breast appeared very much tumefied and inflamed, a small quantity of Gleet, having discharged on the Bolster: in short for fifteen Days she was not free from pain, she had a Fever, was attended with frequent Vomitings, Faintings, and several other Disorders. I could afford her but very little Relief by Internals, or the most cool and temperate Applications to the Breast; nor was it in my Power to remove the dressing, it adhered so fast to the Sore. There was a Discharge of a bloody ferous Juice for twelve Days in a moderate quantity, after which the Matter thickened, and it began to smell somewhat offensive, at the end of fifteen Days the Dressing dropped off, and with it came away about two Ounces of the cancerous Mass. The Reader may easily imagine that making so small a Progress in such a time, and that at the Expence of so much Pain, I could easily prevail with my self to desist from the Undertaking, for the second Application would have been attended with the same Inconveniencies as the first, which to any Persons that entertains such a concern for his Patients as he ought to do, must be very fatiguing; in short, after this I made use of that Remedy I had elsewhere mentioned, and which from its Effect was properly enough called a Dissolvent, with this by the Blessing of God the Cancerous Substance was consumed in about three Weeks, and a perfect Cure compleated in not many Days after, the Patient which I saw lately continuing perfectly well, it being the first Case that ever Providence directed me to the use of the Remedy in. Hildan has an Observation very pertinent to what we have before related; he tells us, that the Powder so much celebrated by Penotus, and which is much the same with that just now mentioned, being applied to a Cancer, was succeeded by such ill Symptoms, that it killed the Patient in a few Days. We are informed in the communicated Observations of Riverius, that a Foreigner extirpated a Cancer, that had began to Ulcerate in the Breast of a Woman of fifty Years of Age, by the following Application: ℞ Arsenici ʒi. Salis Armoniaci ℥ii. Sublimat. crud. ℥iiii. Aq; Fortis ℥i. These were to be distill’d to Dryness, then an equal Weight of distill’d Vinegar put thereto, which was to be distilled again, till the remaining Matter, became of the Consistance of a Paste. The Surgeon bathed the Cancer with hot Wine, and rubbed it with Cloths for some time to irritate it, then he spread some of his Composition on a Bolster six times less than the Tumour, and applied it; in twenty four Hours time, it made an Escar as large as the Swelling, so that it wholly consumed the Cancer; after the Separation of the Escar he incarned the Ulcer and cicatrized it. It is very observable, that he did not engage in this painful Process, without immediately causing a Fever, which was attended with a Vomiting, Loosness, and much Provocation of Urine; which Symptoms lasted two or three Days, for Nature was disordered by the destructive Quality of a venemous Remedy. Paracelsus, Faber, and some others, make mention of Arsnical Preparations, that procure but little Pain in their Operation; I had a Design of making a Trial of some of these Remedies, had I not in my Enquiries met with what was very satisfactory to me, though after knowing what I have related, I should have always cautiously avoided the use of any Remedy, in which the Arsnick had not undergone such a Preparation as I should have approved of, because I am assured it may procure very mischievious Symptoms, though in Substance, it do not so much as touch the Skin, witness the Amulets, in which it has been the chief Ingredient, and of which there have been such direful Accidents related by Crato, Massaria, and Zacutus Lucitanus. I do not think it impossible, but that Arsnick may be prepared after such a manner as may, by the addition of some convenient Body, or depriving it of its noxious Particles, qualify it for effecting uncommon things in the Cure of this Disease, without causing the Surgeon to repent the use of it. I remember that Helmont somewhere says one may easily enough correct several sorts of Poisons, so that they shall not be deprived of their Force, when we destroy their Virulency. Many Instances of this Nature we meet with in Mr Boyle, and some others; but that which makes most for my present purpose, is, what is mentioned by the last Honourable Gentleman, of a very ingenious Man he knew, that was famous, as well for his Writings, as for a Remedy to cure ulcerated Cancers in Womens Breasts, without any considerable Pain. He assured our Author that his Medicine was indolent, and mortified the ulcerated Parts as far as they were corrupted, without disordering the Party, and this Remedy it seems partly by the Confession of the Gentleman, was reasonably enough supposed to be a Dulcification of Arsnick; one would think that the mention of this very Remedy, with Monsieur Alliot’s, and that recommended in the preceeding Letter, should be sufficient to influence the inquisitive of our Profession to farther Enquiries, which must be certainly an Undertaking, worthy the noblest Spirits. To conclude, we cannot say, but there are many Cancers that may be cured by Causticks, but the Person that is to undergo it, may very well answer, as a certain Patient did, who’s Thigh was to be cut off, Non est tanto digna dolore Salus. The Preservation of Life would be too dear bought at the Price of so much Pain. This puts me in Mind of what is related of Galienus the Emperor, who it seems had for a considerable time been very grieviously afflicted with a Sciatica, a certain Physician undertaking to cure him, performed indeed his Promise, but nevertheless made him undergo a thousand painful Experiments; whereupon, the Emperor one Day sent for, and thus said to him, Take Fabatus two Thousand Sesterces, but withal, be informed I give them not for curing my Sciatica, but that thou may’st never cure me again.

PROBLEM VI.

Whether Cancers are Curable by internal Medicines.

THOUGH this Problem at first View may seem to be too near allied to that which proves the Impossibility of curing cancerous Tumours, whether ulcerated or not, by Salivation; yet in regard there are some Persons, that tell us the Disease is superable by some internal Remedies, which operate after a quite different Manner, to those generally given to procure a Salivation, we shall enquire into one of the most considerable of them, related by a Person whose Memory we have a very great Value for. And we shall the rather take Notice of this particular Remedy, because we have elsewhere spoke of the Success of it. It were no very difficult Matter for me to mention several internal Medicines, out of our Chirurgical Writers, more especially those that have been Favourers of Chemistry; but I shall purposely decline it, because to speak freely, I suspect that most of the Remedies, though much has been said in the Praise, have not been sufficiently examined by those that recommended them. To this we may add, that had the Authors of them considered the vast Difference there is to be observed in Cancers, they would not have so suddainly and positively determined, that their Medicines were of use in these Cases in general; seeing we must have regard to absolutely different Intentions, in those that are not ulcerated, and those that are, and those that are a hard Tumour, and those that are flat, and likewise when they are conjoined with Circumstances, which are often enough to be met with. The Honourable Mr Boyle in his Usefulness of experimental Philosophy, tells us, that he was informed by credible Persons, of a certain English Woman above sixty Years of Age, who had lain long indisposed with a Cancer in her Breast, in an Hospital in Zeeland, and was by Doctor Harberfeld, with one single inward Remedy perfectly cured in three Weeks; the Relation was made by a Doctor of Physick, who was an Eye Witness of the Cure, and another Person who not only saw the Cure, but knew the Woman before, and out of Charity, carried her to him that healed her. Our Author was informed, that the Chemical Liquor the Doctor constantly made use of, does in the Dose of about a Spoonful or two, work suddainly and nimbly enough by Vomit, but hath very quickly ended it’s Operation, so that within an Hour, or less, after the Patient has taken it, he is commonly well again, and very hungry. He adds, that having some of the Liquor presented him, he found the Taste to be offensive enough, and not unlike that of Vitriol, which by the Taste and emetick Operation, was guessed to be it’s principal Ingredient. The Relators assured our Author they had been in England, as well as elsewhere partly Eye Witnesses, and partly Performers of wonderful Cures by the help of it alone, under God, in the King’s Evil; insomuch, that an eminent Gentleman of this Nation, hath been cured by it, when that Distemper had brought his Arm to such a pass, that the Surgeons had appointed a time to cut it off. Now, who is there, that upon reading this Account would not think the Doctor a very happy Man, that was Master of so valuable a Secret; but alas! How satisfactory would it be to the World if the hundredth part of the Remedies that have been handed down to us, had a Power of effecting those things that are ascribed to them, without being attended with any ill Consequences. I assure you, Reader, I have made use of this very Remedy, for since I mentioned it as the Doctor’s having great Success from it; I met with the true Preparation of it, as it was communicated to Sir Kenelm Digby by Doctor Havervelt, or Haberfield, for the Cure of Cancers, the King’s Evil, and old Ulcers. It is as follows. ℞ Dantzick Vitriol, calcine it till it be yellow, then grind it with Salt, or Salt Petre, the ordinary proportion with this Sublime Mercury, which Sublime once again by it self, then take only the Cristaline part of it; of this take ℥i, grind it to a Subtile Powder in a Glass Mortar with a Glass Pestle. Put this into a Glass Bottle, and pour upon it a Quart of Fountain Water, stop the Bottle close, and let it stand thus for some Days, shaking it often; after it is well settled pour off the clear, and filtre it; take a Spoonful of this Liquor, which put into a Vial, and put to it two Spoonfuls of fair Water; shake the Vial well, and let the Patient Drink it in the Morning Fasting: As to the quickness of its Operation, and the making the Patient Hungry, I found it at first to agree with what Mr Boyle says of it; but upon giving it three or four times, the Patient would afterward complain of a Languidness, which was ushered in by a Sickness at the Stomach; after this, they would be attended with a Heat or Soreness of the Throat, immoderate Thirst, convulsive Motions of the Stomach, &c. Some of which Inconveniencies would continue for many Hours together. It was upon Account of the Melancholy Reflections of bringing the Patients into such Disorder, and their Unwillingness to endure such Fatigues, that I had never Courage enough to proceed in this Method. I cannot but say, upon the Alteration I found in a Patient of mine, from the use of six Doses of this Medicine, that it may as well as some other churlish Remedies, cure some flat ulcerated Cancers, where there is no Tumour to dissolve, in Persons that are capable of often repeating it, which I think is sufficient to put us upon farther Enquiries, that we may be able to accomplish such Undertakings without bringing upon the Patient such a Train of mischievous Accidents.

POSTSCRIPT.

What follows is taken from a Manuscript which at this time 1714–15, belongs to one of the Family of the Pains, that have for a long time pretended to cure Cancers: In the Margin is this Note, (Used by my Father, and Grandfather, and Brothers, and known as a thing excellent by long Practice in our Family of the Pains:) The Book was lent me by my Brother Dobyns, who had it from one of the Family, a Patient of his.

The Red Caustick.

To eat all Superfluous Cancerous and Schirrous Matters gathered hard in the Edges or Sides of any Ulcer or Cancer, breeding upon the Mouth, Face, Nose or Valva. Take of Bole Armoniac one Ounce, of yellow Arsnic three Ounces, powder them and searse them fine, pare an Apple or two and take of the Pulp and put so much of it to the Powder (beating of it together in a Mortar) as will make it of the stiffness of Dough, then make it up into round Balls of the bigness of a Walnut, dry them in a Chamber-Window till they be hard enough. When you use these Balls shave a little off from them into your Hand, and moisten the same with a little Spittle, and rub it well about the hard Foot of the Noli me Tangere, and all over the Head of the same, and after that you have gathered him up into the Ligature and knit him hard up (for it seems they used a Ligature smeared with the Medicine) then apply your Preparation before-mentioned, and lay fine Holland Raggs dipt in the following Red Water, all over the said Caustic, and so let it lye till it fall off its self. Note, The Quantity of Caustic laid on, ought not to be much, and yet sufficient to work its effect. It worketh with great Pain for twelve Hours or more, and after that by Fits, like the Tooth-Ach; as the Pain worketh off it causes great Inflammation and Swelling about those Parts it is applied to, but this does not continue above four or five Days; so meddle not with it till the Caustick comes off. Then you may for three or four Days dress the Inflammation with Diachylon Plaister, or the Red Water warm.

The Red Water for a Cancer.

Quench unslacked Lime in boiling Water, which let stand six Hours, the clear Water poured off, put to the Fire again; to a Gallon and half of which, put Camphir ℥ß Aloes Succatrine ℥ß. Common Bole ℥ii White Copperas or Allum ℥ii all powdered, which boil in the Liquor a little while: He sometimes gave a Pill made of Deflograted Red Precipitate, which sometimes made them spit a little.

The Musilage Plaister to dissolve Schirrous Knots in the Breast.

Take of the white and inward Bark of the Witch-Hasel half a Handful, cut it short and stamp it, then take of the Roots of Marsh Mallows, Holy-hock Roots two or three Roots, clean them and throw away the Pith, stamp all together, then take of Fenugreek and Linseed of each two Ounces powdered, put all in an Earthen-pot, then take a Pint of white Wine or Water, heat it scalding hot, put it to the Things aforesaid, cover it close, stirring it every Day for nine Days, then strain out the Musilage Liquor with which you make the following Plaister. Take a Pint of Salad Oyl, Cerus finely powdered 8 Ounces, boil them together, constantly stirring them, a sufficient time, which you may know by its coming clear off a Pewter Dish when dropt on, let it cool a little and put in your Musilage, which stir till it be as white as you would have it, and until almost all the Musilage be boiled away, then remove it from the Fire and put to it four Ounces of yellow Wax, probably Galbanum may be better, which when dissolved and the Plaister cold, work up for use. This Plaister is sometimes used with equal Parts of Galbanum.

THE CASE OF Dr JAMES KEIL, Represented by JOHN RUSHWORTH.

I Should not have been induced to make these Papers publick, barely on account of the rash Censures, that are frequently cast upon the Practice of Surgery, not attended with Success; tho’ that Consideration alone, in the Case of a Person of such Value and Eminency in Physick, as Dr KEIL is known to have been, may be thought sufficient to have moved me to it: But being certainly informed, That several Physicians and Surgeons have before, and since his Death, given themselves the Liberty to reflect, not only upon me for Using, but also upon the Deceased for submitting to the Methods that were taken with him; I think I shall not discharge my Duty, either to my Friend, or to my Self, or indeed to the Profession, if I do not, as far as I am able, endeavour to set what was done in a True Light.

In order thereunto, it may be requisite to look back to the Time He first mentioned any Disorder in his Mouth to me, which was in August 1716. He then told me, He had preceived a Fulness in his Mouth for very many Years; but in the last Three or Four Years it was much encreased, and by the Bulk began to be troublesome to him, tho’ not in the least painful: Upon examining it, I found the Tumour not only large, but also to fluctuate, and therefore told him, until I was satisfied what was contained in it, I could not come to a Resolution, as to the manner of treating it; but, if he pleased, I would make an Incision into it, and then would tell him what I thought was fit to be done; He was very well satisfied, and resolved I should proceed accordingly.

Upon Opening it, there appeared to be nothing contained in it, but Blood; not in the least altered in Colour, Consistence, or Smell, from what is contained in the Vessels. The Tumour presently sunk very much, and I dilated the Incision with my Probe-Scissers, and pressed in some Dossels; and then told him, it was a fleshy Tumour, called a Sarcoma, and that the Blood contained in it was only accidental; and that the best way of extirpating it was by the actual Cautery; but I let him know, that I feared it would be more troublesome to him, and take longer Time to cure, than he seemed to expect.

We presently sent for the best Instrument-Maker the Country afforded, and gave him Directions: But that Night: talking with him of his Case, I desired him to consider, Whether it might not be thought a Slight, by the Learned of both Professions, if I should Perform the Operation, upon a Man of his Character, without a Consultation; there being no Reason (but the Loss of his Time) to be in haste. At first he seemed unwilling to lose so much Time, yet upon Consideration, he resolved for London the next Day, where several Physicians and Surgeons were consulted; they all agreed, it was a simple Sarcoma, and that the actual Cautery was the properest, if not the only means of curing it. This Account I received from the Doctor by Letter; as also, that the Surgeons, upon probing, found the Bone bare, and from the ill Smell concluded it was foul: “Which, said the Doctor it was impossible for you to discover; because after I left Northampton, Two Dossels of the first Dressing dropt out.” I was very glad to hear That, for those Dossels lodging so long, in that warm Part, I was in hopes might be the Occasion of the fœtid Smell; which the Surgeons, not being acquainted with, might fairly be induced to take for that of a foul Bone: Which I mentioned to the Doctor by the first return of the Post; and also, that I was farther encouraged in that Hope, by considering that the Blood, that was discharged at the first Opening, was not at all altered, neither was any Smell perceived, until after the lodging of those Dossels.

Whether the Doctor ever mentioned this my Opinion, to the Surgeons in Town, I know not; but when he returned to me, to have the Operation performed, he seemed discouraged by the Opinion the Surgeons gave of the Bones being foul. But I thought I might make bold to confirm him, in my former Opinion, the ill Smell ceasing without the Assistance of Medicines. The Consequence proved the Assertion: For when, by several Applications of the Cauteries, I had removed the whole Tumor, it was plain to me, the Bone was not affected; and the Part healed as smooth, and with as much Ease, and in as short a Time, as ever I met any thing of that Nature, and the Doctor continued well, without the least Disorder or Complaint, a Year and about Eight Months.

But then in April 1718. He shewed me a small Ulcer, near that Part of the Mouth that was before affected, and told me, He perceived it began upon eating some hot Meat, that stuck to it: At first this healed without much Trouble, but soon excoriated again; and then I could not again perfectly skin it: For as soon as it was almost healed, it would begin to excoriate a-fresh at the Edges, which is what is usual in Phagedænical Ulcers. And tho’ I could digest it, and keep it easy, yet it got ground of me, and spread towards the Teeth; and, near the Root of One of the Molares, laid the Bone bare, which appeared to me at the first not to be injured, but being long exposed became foul. It not exfoliating in due Time, with the Tincture that is commonly used, I proposed the touching of it with a small Cautery, I being able very easily to come at it without making use of a Cannula; which, by confining the Heat, very much injures the neighbouring Parts: The good Effect of which Practice, of not making use of a Cannula, where you can conveniently omit it, I had good Experience of in Doctor KEIL’s former Case: For tho’ he had several Cannulas made in London, by the best Hand, yet after Twice using of them, I told the Doctor, That if a Patient could be trusted, it would be much more easy to him, and the Surgeon would see much better to use the Cautery, than when obstructed by a Cannula. The Doctor was pleased with the Thought, and pressed me, at the next making use of the Cautery, to do it without the Cannula: The Advantage he had by it was, that it bore four Burnings, and said, It gave him not the Pain, or Trouble he had from but One before, and that the Parts were much less Disordered by it afterwards. But to return:

It will not I suppose be doubted, but that proper internal Means were all along made use of: But the Ulcer still appearing to me more threatening, his Friends pressed him, and I more than any, that he would go again to Town, and have the best Advice it could afford; and I resolved to accompany Him, in the Beginning of August 1718. And I cannot forbear saying I was surprized, when, upon a Consultation, my Brothers, Palmer and Brown, made light of it; and, without so much as hearing what I had to say, concluded, That it was chiefly owing to the Bones being foul; and that by drawing a Tooth or Two which they said were affected, and by Purging with Mercurius dulcis, all would be well; and so they took their Leave. Says the Doctor to me, “What say you to this?” I answered him, That I feared they would find themselves again mistaken as to the Surgery Part; and that as to the Mercury, though a good Medicine, He knew he had taken it already several Times, without any considerable Advantage. The Doctor smiled and said, “But since I came so far for Advice, I will not only give them a Tooth, but also try again what Effect Mercury may have.”

Another Meeting was ordered, and the Tooth-Drawer to be there: Upon Drawing the Tooth, it appeared to be very sound. The First Dose he took of Mercury, whether by Cold, or any other Accident, I know not, very much disordered him. I could not conveniently be absent any longer, and therefore the next Day returned into the Country, and do not know how many more Doses the Doctor then took; but in a few Days I received a Letter from him, in which he said, “I know nothing that has succeeded right with me, since I came here: You know what State you left me in, and I was a great deal worse for some Days afterwards; though I hope the Mercury has had no ill Effect, yet I should have been loath to have been so swelled in those Parts, as I have been, willingly. The old Ulcers are not yet healed, they tell me indeed, there is no Appearance of any new Ones, and that the most effectual Methods, which have been taken here, will infallibly prevent every thing, &c.”

But by his next, which I soon received, I had the melancholy News from him, That the Ulcer was broke out again larger than ever, and therefore that he would be down with me in a Day or two, and he came accordingly, but in a worse State than ever before. And though it again digested, and did as before near heal, yet the returns were quicker, and upon every new Eruption it was larger and worse; and so continued to be, notwithstanding all the good internal Methods continually used by the concurring Advice of Dr Mead, Dr Friend, and several other Eminent Physicians; which no doubt was owing to the malignant Nature of it.

And therefore in the Beginning of February last, I could no longer forbear expressing my Fears to the Doctor that it would terminate in a raging Cancer. He was too sensible of it, and told me, “That since I thought I could keep it within Bounds no longer, He was resolved to try what a Salivation would do:” And though I could say nothing as to the Advantage he might expect from it, yet I frankly owned to him, that if it was my own Case, I should be of his Opinion, that I might make bolder with my self, than with any other Patient: But desired by all means, he would first hear if his Friends, the Physicians and Surgeons in London, had yet any other Method to propose, or else would approve of that. He wrote to them, the Answer was long in coming, which made the Doctor express himself to me with more Warmth, than I ever knew him to do before: (For he was a Man of the greatest Command of himself, as well as of the sweetest Temper) “What, says he, is not their Silence enough? And will not you, whom I take for my Friend (for fear of losing your Reputation) assist me in what I desire?” With a great deal more to assure me of his Confidence in me, and of his Opinion of my Ability to take Care of him in the Course. I am not so vain, as to mention all his kind Expressions, yet if it be desired, by any of his Friends, I will give them the Satisfaction of seeing the Letters I had from him, when he was absent from me in London.

At this Time his Brother, Doctor John Keil, came to him from Oxford; and, as I understood afterwards, had seen Dr Friend there, who was for having him salivated at London: But the Doctor being determined to the contrary, did not at that Time acquaint me with it, but began his Course, which I desired might be in the mildest Method, by small Doses of Calomel, encreased gradually, which Method pleased him very well: But Dr Friend (to whom Dr John Keil constantly sent an Account of our Proceedings) gave it as the Opinion of Mr Palmer and Mr Brown, that it should be done by Unction: I gave my Reason to the Patient against it, but they still pressed it, notwithstanding the ill Symptoms, that I thought, at that Time, forbad it; which Symptoms they had been acquainted with. They still persisting, I desired the Doctor would give me leave to write my Opinion my self to Mr Brown, which I did hastily in the following manner.

Good Brother,

I Have seen Dr Friend’s Letter to Dr Keil; and Dr Friend I understand has been so kind as to consult you, and several Others in the Case; whose Judgments, though I have all due Regard for, yet in the present Circumstances (though I give the Preference to Unction in some stubborn Cases) I dare not encourage it in this: For my Reason at first, for beginning so mildly, was, that in this uncommon Case, we might by degrees, make some Judgment of the Effects of Mercury, and then proceed accordingly: For had I not been prevented by the Accidents you have, by Dr Friend, been acquainted with, I should have been very desirous to have gone at least to the Heighth mentioned by Dr Friend. But since I find, by encreasing the Quantity of the Dose to a Scruple (of which he has taken four) it has not affected the Glands at all, or made him Spit the more; but his Stomach is much more oppressed by it, with vast Quantity of Phlegm, viscous to a degree I have not met with, and gives him more than common Disturbance, not to be relieved but by often Vomiting, to which purpose the Turpith, has answered very well for the present: My great Fear is, all things considered, that if I should proceed to Unction, and it should produce the same Effect, that it will be too many for him. If my Fears are too great, my more than common Concern and Friendship is some Excuse for me; as also I desire it may be to You, for this tedious Account from, Sir,

Yours, &c.

Feb. 22d, 1718.

J. Rushworth.

I not receiving, in due Time, an Answer to this, and the Patient being reduced to a great Weakness, and to so great a Disorder, that he could not bear Talking to, I writ these few Lines for him to consider of.

Dear Sir,

AS your Case now stands, I must own my self a Coward: Though Dr Friend is much mistaken to think I am either unacquainted with, or fear the common Accidents that often arise in Salivating: But that irregular and uncommon Effects are, in extraordinary Cases, produced by Mercury, Hale’s Case is to me a sufficient Precedent, of which I have formerly told you the Particulars; and though your Friends in Town took no Notice of the unusual Disorder in your Stomach, yet I should think myself Inexcusable if I should not. And if, upon using an Unction, any irregular Ferments should again arise, weak as you now are, I should dread the Consequence. In these Circumstances, I think it most prudent for me, to advise you, to let what is already taken, go fairly off, and if you find it not effectual, you may with much better Prospect, when you have Strength, begin de Nova, by Unction, and have an Opportunity to have it done by the infallible Men.

Upon this the Doctor no longer, at present, pressed me to use the Unction, and in a few Days, the Force of what he had taken being somewhat spent, he began to get Strength, and the very great Slough (which was one of the Accidents mentioned to Dr Friend) not only cast off, but also healed, as did also the old malignant Ulcer, and all the Parts of the Mouth looked very smooth and well; and the Doctor was very chearful, and in great Hopes of gaining the Point.

At this Time, it being eighteen Days since I wrote to Mr Brown, I received a Letter from him, in which he mentioned nothing to the Purpose. This, I must confess, did not a little warm me; and I the same Night wrote to him again, but never received any Answer: Perhaps he thought mine too hot; if so, if he desires it, both mine, and his that occasioned it, shall be produced.

The Doctor seeing what had been done to have so good Effect, and hoping what was before advised by Mr Palmer and Mr Brown, would effectually prevent any return of his Disorder, resolved to use a Mercurial Unction. He had now more Strength, and therefore I complied with him; I began with a small Quantity, and encreased it every Time, until I had used even a larger Quantity than had been proposed by Dr Friend: But it not in the least affected the Glands, or made him to spit near so much, as when he took the Calomel; neither did the Unction or Calomel produce the Smell, which generally attends Mercurial Courses; and to my great Surprize and Concern, whilst he was using the Unction, the Ulcer broke out again. And by this we were discouraged from proceeding any farther; and in due Time the Doctor endeavoured to Purge this off, but he had always so untoward a Constitution, that neither now, nor at any Time before, could he by Purges have any regular Evacuation; which was, no doubt in his Case, very Injurious to him.

Now I perfectly desponded: But a Friend and Kinsman of the Doctor’s, a Surgeon of no small Reputation, assured him, that he had known, when other Methods failed, a Mercurial Fumigation had answered: And what is it that a rational Man will not try to prevent the excruciating Pains of a Cancer? When the Doctor mentioned this to me, I confessed I knew nothing of that Practice, and always had an ill Opinion of the Fumes of Mercury: And he also owned to me, that he was wholly unacquainted with it; but satisfied in his Friend, and therefore would try it: He began the Course according to his Friend’s Directions; I never pretended to order any thing afterwards; but however still frequently visited my Good Friend, though with an aking Heart. The Fumigation not only made him spit, whilst he was using it, but also for some Hours afterwards; and the Patient continued to use it for several Days, but without any good Effect upon the Ulcer. In about ten Days after he had left off the Fumigation, a very hard Tumour began to arise, upon the Muscles of the lower Part of the Face and Neck, and increased very fast, and in a very short Time spread it self from Ear to Ear: and, by the Bulk, in a great measure prevented his Swallowing, and soon suffocated him. He was Chearful, and to all outward Appearance tolerably easy to the last, and had what he now desired, a gentle Release, July 16, 1719.

And thus, to the Misfortune of Mankind, it is manifest to me, that Mercury is not adequate to this Herculean Distemper: but however, this Case, and That I mentioned before to the Doctor, gives me good Reason to believe, that Mercurials do at least blunt the Acrimony of the Humour, and so procure Ease. For, though that Patient had most acute Pains, before he entered into a Mercurial Course, yet afterwards he was easy all a long, as he told me; for I was called in but a few Days before he died. These, and other melancholly Cases, should not however, I think, wholly discourage Surgeons from making rational Attempts upon a Distemper, which I fear is more frequently met with, than formerly, in this Part of the World: It is to be hoped, there is in Nature a Specific that may answer; and happy will that Man be who shall discover it. He will deserve to be placed next to the Great Hippocrates, and also to be rewarded, by the Publick, equally with him that shall find out the Longitude.

I will not pretend to determine, how far the Fumigation might contribute to the sudden growth of the Tumour mentioned, but I should be very glad that the Surgeon who recommended it, would be so ingenuous, as to vindicate himself, by giving Instances of it’s Innocency, and of the Advantages he has met with in the Practice of it.

And now I heartily beg Pardon of the Friends of the Deceased, who shall give themselves the Trouble of Reading this Account, that I could not bring it into a narrower Compass.

Having truly related what was done, in the Case of Dr Keil, I hope it may appear, that I have acted an honest, and not an unskilful Part in it: If what was prescribed by others of greater Fame, when it came to be tried, had not better Success, I presume I shall no longer be blamed for it. No Man would willingly lose any Reputation, who is to live by it. I question not, but the best Surgeons in the World will allow, there are Cases for which there is no Remedy: And he who frankly owns thus much, no more loses any Reputation, than the Quack, that promises greater Matters than he afterwards performs, gets any: And I think they, who have censured me, would have done more ingenuously, if they would rather have looked upon the present Case as incurable by any Surgeon, than have thrown their Aspersions upon me, as not treating it properly.

N. B. The foregoing remarkable Case of Dr Keil, was published by Mr Rushworth of Northampton, Surgeon at Oxford, in the Year 1719[3]. Under the Imprimatur of Robert Shippen, Vice-Can. Oxon.

Some curious Observations made (by my Friend John Ranby, Esq; Surgeon to his Majesty’s Household, and F. R. S.) in the Dissection of Three Subjects, 1728.

THE first, a Man aged 70 Years, who died of a Suppression of Urine, occasioned by a Stone stopping in the Urethra, just within the Glans, of the bigness of a Horse Bean. This Appearance, with the Symptoms that had attended this miserable Man, gave me reason to expect something remarkable in the urinary Passages. The Ureters and Pelvis were very much distended; which is common where great Numbers of Stones have descended down them, from the Kidneys to the Bladder. The Bladder contained about 60 Stones, the largest of which was about the Size of a Walnut, the others smaller; and just within the Neck, was a hard Tumour, as big as a Nutmeg, which almost closed the Orifice: and indeed the Situation of this Tumour was such, that it not only made the passing the Catheter very difficult, and hindered our feeling the Stones, by directing the Instrument upwards: but likewise would alone produce the Symptoms of the Stone in the Bladder, by obstructing the free Discharge of Urine through the Urethra, the inner Membrane of which appeared as if lacerated in several Places, and the Tube filled with a glutinous Matter tinged with Blood. On the back Part of the Vesiculæ Seminales, near the Prostata, were several Stones, as large as Peas, which closely adhered to the adjacent Membranes.

The second, a Boy aged 10 Years, killed by a Blow on the Skull; whose Spleen weighed two Pounds, and possessed almost all the left Side of the abdominal Cavity. The Bladder, when distended to its greatest Capacity, would not contain an Ounce.

The third, a Man aged 25, who died of a Pocky Hectick, and some Days before complained of a painful Swelling in the Testicle, which he said came the Night before. I examined it, and found it to be a Hernia Aquosa, and would have punctured it, if I had not felt (besides the Water) a hard Body, which I could by no Means reduce. In a few Days he died, which gave me an Opportunity of being satisfied. Opening the Scrotum, and separating the common Membranes to the Processus Vaginalis, it contained about 4 Ounces of Water, besides a great Part of the Omentum; some Portions of which adhered to the Bottom of the Cavity, and the Albuginea that immediately covers the Testicle.

It has been likewise thought proper to preserve a small Treatise of curing Consumptions by a new Method, of administring Specific-Medicines, more especially such as proceed from Ulcers of the Lungs.

This excellent Piece was written by the late eminent Mr Thomas Nevett, of Fen-Church Street, Surgeon.

A NEW M E T H O D Of Curing CONSUMPTIONS BY Specific Medicines. INTRODUCTION.

I Remember a remarkable Passage in some Observations upon the Bermudus Berries, by a Doctor of Physic in the Country, addressed to the Hon. Robert Boyle, Esq; who professeth he had been for 50 Years an exact Observer of the Methodus Medendi; yet saith the Doctor for my part I firmly believe, that (Universal Evacuations being premised) the greatest Cures wrought in the World, are by the use of Specifical Medicines. The higher the Attainments of any have been in Understanding, the more freely have they acknowledged that the greatest part of those things they did know, was the least of those things they did not know; such Men account it not shameful to renounce an Errour, tho’ ever so ancient, when persuaded thereunto by Truth and plain Demonstration: There are other narrow Spirits (abundantly satisfied in their own Knowledge) who believe the Art of Physic hath been taught by our Ancestors, in such an absolutely perfect manner, as that nothing remains to the Industry and Diligence of Posterity; it being too much their Humour to undervalue every Medicine that they themselves are not Masters of, because they prefer their private Interest to the public Good: But in the mean time where is that cordial Love to Mankind, which is one of the Badges of true Christianity? Nay, where is the Exercise of Reason? For how can a Man give his Opinion against a thing that he never heard of before, or at least never experienced? I am sure, this unjustifiable Practice is the way to put a stop to all useful Knowledge and Improvements: It is therefore expected from the Ingenious and Candid Reader, that he should adhere to the Cause of Truth, by whomsoever it is pleaded, weigh every Invention, not in the deceitful Balance of Custom, but in the just and even Scales of Reason; approve what is agreeable, and reject what is contrary to it.

That I who am by Profession a Surgeon, should in such a polite and inquisitive Age, venture my Thoughts in public concerning a Physical Case, may be to some matter of Admiration, and to others of severe Censure; especially such as may think I have invaded their Province. As for the latter, I am persuaded nothing that I can say will remove their Prejudices; and for the former, I shall only tell them, that being alarmed by some of the Symptoms mentioned in the following Discourse, whereby I plainly perceived the Constitution of my own Body inclined to a Consumptive State, I strenuously applied my Mind to study the Nature of this Disease, and to find out, if possible, some noble Specific Medicines, which might indeed deserve that Name, and be able to oppose the growth of so fatal a Distemper, which hath insensibly flattered so many into the Chambers of Death. What I then laboured for, and searched after, I have since (by the Blessing of God) found, and with great Advantage experimented on my self and many others, and now think fit to disclose for the good of All, not doubting but if a more excellent Method and Medicine than hath hitherto been generally administered, or prescribed, be treasured up in the Hands of any Person whatsoever, he doth more faithfully perform the part of a just Steward, by a due Improvement, than a close Concealment of it. And on the same Account, I judge it more my Duty to serve my Native Country, than mind the Clamours of censorious Critics; not at all questioning but in a little time, the Efficacy of these Medicines will at once bring Health to the Patient, and Reputation to their Author: And the World will be convinced of the Power of these Remedies, by their Effects; tho’ ignorant Persons may be apt to contemn and neglect, till their Opinions be altered by Experience, and their Prejudices removed by Demonstration.

Of the Nature, Causes, and Symptoms of Consumptions.

I. A Consumption, in general, is a wasting of all the solid parts of the Body, for want of a due Distribution, or Assimilation of the Nutritious Juices.

By some learned Men this is observed to be the Endemical Distemper of England; and indeed our Weekly-Bills at once declare both the Strength of the Disease, and the Weakness of the Medicines wherewith it’s Cure hath been hitherto attempted. Besides, that which seems to justify this Observation, is the pernicious Custom of the Inhabitants of this island, who immoderately and unseasonably indulge their Appetites with several sorts of Meats and Drinks, whereby the Tone of the Stomach is so vitiated, as that it cannot perfectly ferment and volatilize the Chyle, which is commonly the internal procatartic Cause of most Distempers among us, and consequently of Consumptions from those Distempers, from whence comes a Colliquation of the Chyle in Lienteries and Dysenteries, tormenting Cholic and Iliac Pains, hypocondriac Melancholly, hysteric Fits, scorbutic Twitches, troublesome Catarrhs, sluggish Passage of the Chyle thro’ the milky Veins, scrophulous Tumours and Inflammations of the mesenteric Glands, spasmodic Contractions or Convulsions of the Nerves, preternatural Fermentation of the Blood and Spirits, Cachexies, Atrophies, Obstructions, Fevers hectical, inflammatory and putrid, Exulcerations of the Lungs and Marasmus, with many other Diseases, whence come they originally and for the most part, but from the Weakness, ill Habit and Indisposition of the Stomach?

Now the proper Action of the Stomach is Chylification; for tho’ the Meat we take into our Mouths receives some Alteration there in Mastication, by the fermenting Juice that flows from the salivatory Glands, together with the acrimonious Particles, and fermentaceous Spirits of Liquors which we drink, yet it is not turned into a thick white Juice, ’till it hath passed down thro’ the Oesophagus, or Gullet, into the Stomach, where by the help of it’s Fibres it is closely embraced, and mixed with specific fermentaceous Juices, separated by it’s inner Coat, and impregnated by the Saliva, then by a convenient Heat there is made a mixture of all; for that the fermentaceous Particles entering into the Pores of the Meat, do pass thro’ agitate and eliquate it’s Particles, dissolving the whole Compages, in which the purer parts were intimately united with the Crass, and making them more fluid, so that they make another form of Mixture, and unite among themselves into the resemblance of a milky Cream, after which together with the thicker Mass with which they are yet involved, by the Constriction of the Stomach they pass down to the Guts, where by the Mixture of the Bile and Pancreatic Juice they are by another manner of Fermentation quite separated from the thicker Mass, and so are received by the Lacteal Vessels, as the thicker is ejected by Stool.

After the purer part of the Chyle hath been thus strained thro’ the narrow and oblique Pores of the milky Veins, by the continual and peristaltic Motion of the Intestines, it is yet farther attenuated and diluted with a very thin and clear Lympha from the Glands of the Mesentery to expedite its passage thro’ those numerous Meanders into the common Receptacle, from whence by the constant Supply of such like Lympha from the small Glands of the Thorax, it is safely conveyed thro’ the Ductus Chyliferus Thoracius, subclavian Vein, and the Vena Cava into the Heart.

The Chyle now mingled with the Blood, passeth with it thro’ the Arteries of the whole Body, and returns again with the Blood by the Veins to the Heart, undergoing many Circulations before it can be assimilated to the Blood; for every time the new infused Chyle passeth thro’ the Heart with the Blood, the Particles of the one are more intimately mixed with those of the other, in it’s Ventricles, and the Vital Spirit, and other active Principles of the Blood work upon the Chyle, which being full of Salt, Sulphur and Spirit, as soon as it’s Compages is loosned by it’s Fermentation with the Blood, the Principles having obtained the Liberty of Motion, do readily associate themselves, and are assimilated with such parts of the Blood as are of a like and suitable Nature.

After the Chyle hath been thus elaborated, it becomes fit as well to recruit the Mass of Blood, as to nourish the whole Body, seeing it consists of divers Principles and Parts of a different Nature; therefore, according to the various Use and Necessity of every part, and also that it may conform and fashion it self to the different Pores and Passages, it is severally appropriated; the most volatile and subtil part is separated in the Brain, and adapted to refresh the Animal Spirits, the glutinous to nourish the Body, and the sulphureous to revive the native Heat: And in it’s Passage with the Blood thro’ all the parts of the Body, all the Mass of Chyle that is capable of being turned into Blood is sanguified; the serous and saline part precipitated by the Kidneys, and evacuated by Sweats or insensible Transpirations, the bilious is deposited in the Liver, and the rest of its Excrements retire to the several Emunctories of the Body.

Thus it comes to pass by the wonderful Sagacity of Nature, such extraordinary Provision is made, that the purer part of the Chyle by these ways and means is more purified; and when it is thus purified and sublimed, it is more capable of reinforcing the Blood and Spirits, as also of corroborating the Tone of every particular Part: Whereas when the Chyle is sour and dispirited, the Blood necessarily becomes vappid, the animal Spirits which reside in the System of the Nerves are infected with a Morbid Disposition, and all parts of the Body begin to flag and waste. For indeed there is no other way to recruit the daily Expence of Blood and Spirits, but by a continual Influx of laudable Chyle into the Blood-Vessels, which Chyle is made by the Fermentative Juice of the Stomach, and this Fermentative Juice supplied from the Mass of Blood, so that there plainly appears to be a fixed Correspondence betwixt the Blood and the Chyle, and a necessary Dependance all the Humours in the Habit of the Body have on the Stomach; from whence it is reasonable to infer, That if the Chilifying Faculty of the Stomach be depraved, the Blood and Humours must necessarily sympathize therewith, and in a manner proportionable to the Distemper of this part.

II. The immediate Cause of a Consumption of the Lungs is store of sharp, malignant, waterish Humours, continually distilling upon the soft spungy Substance of the Lungs, stuffing, inflaming, impostumating, and exulcerating them, whereby their Action, which is Respiration, or a receiving-in and driving-out Air is depraved, as will more clearly appear by the following Description of these Parts. It will not be impertinent to our Discourse if we should usher in the Description of the Lungs, with a short Account of the Trachea, Aspera Arteria, or Wind-pipe.

III. The Trachea or Aspera Arteria is a long Pipe, consisting of Cartilages and Membranes, which beginning at the Throat or lower part of the Jaws, and lying upon the Gullet, descends into the Lungs, thro’ which it spreads into many Branchings, and is commonly divided into two parts, the Larynx and Bronchus; the Larynx is the upper part of the Wind-pipe, the Bronchus is all the Trachea besides the Larynx, as well before as after it arrives at the Lungs.

The Substance of the Lungs is soft, spongy and rare, curiously compacted of most thin and fine Membranes, continued with the Ramifications of the Trachea or Wind-pipe, which Membranes compose an infinite number of little, round and hollow Vesicles, or Bladders, so placed as that there is an open Passage from the Branches of the Aspera Arteria, out of one into another, and all terminate at the outer Membrane that investeth the whole Lungs: These little Bladders by help of their muscular Fibres contract themselves in Expiration, and are dilated in Inspiration, partly by the Pressure of the Atmosphere, and partly by the elastic Power of the Air, insinuating it self into these Vesicles thro’ the Windpipe and it’s several Branches: Their Lobes are two, the right and left, parted by the Mediastinum, each of which is divided into many lesser Lobules, according to the Ramifications of the Aspera Arteria; they have all sorts of Vessels that are common to them with other parts, as Arteries, Veins, Nerves, Lympheducts, but peculiar to themselves they have their Bronchia, or the Branches of the Wind-pipe, for bringing-in and carrying-out Air so necessary to Life, that we cannot Live without it: And when we consider their admirable Structure, (as well as the Structure of every individual part of our Body) how ought we to adore the infinite Wisdom of our Creator! Now when these small Vesicles or Bladders are replete with extravasated Serum, or purulent Matter, the natural Tone of the Lungs is so weakned, that we cannot enjoy the Benefit of free and full Respiration, hard, scirrhous Tumours and Tubercles are bred, attended with a dry and troublesome Cough, Oppression of the Breast, difficult and short Breathing, preternatural Heats, Exulcerations, and other deplorable Symptoms, according to the Degrees of Obstruction, and different Nature of the included Humours.

IV. The external Procatartic Cause of a Consumption of the Lungs is cold Particles of Air, constipating the Pores of the Body, whereby the Serum which ought to expedite the Motion, and temperate the Heat of the Blood is separated from it, and thrown upon the Glands of the Larynx, and the spungy Substance of the Lungs themselves: For as the Lympha helps the Motion of the Chyle, so the Serum accelerates the Circulation of the Blood, being carried about with it thro’ the smallest Capillary Vessels and remotest parts of the Body, lest it should be inflamed with a burning Heat, or stagnate by excessive Thickness; during which circular Motion they are both called by the same common Name, but when some Portion of Serum is separated from the Mass of Blood, and retreats to some one or more of the Emunctories; according to their various Dispositions, it derives a Name from those particular Parts on which it seizeth, as when it distils upon the Eyes, we call it Opthalmia, when upon the Nose Coryza, and when upon the Thorax it goes by the proper Name of a Catarrh.

Now forasmuch as there is nothing makes a Separation of the Blood more commonly than the want of usual Transpiration, so nothing more conduceth to the Preservation of Health, than that the Pores of the Body should continually let out the hot Streams and Vapours that arise from the Ebullition of the Blood; but when after taking Cold the Skin and Habit of the Body are on a sudden stopped up, that the sulphureous and waterish Excrements of the Blood cannot pass through the Pores, they are again resorbed into the Mass of Blood, from whence proceeds a feverish Disposition; unless they are carried off by Stool, or precipitated by the Kidneys, are sometimes translated to the Glandulous Parts of the Lungs, where by Degrees contracting more and more Heat and Sharpness they inflame and exulcerate these tender Parts.

Nevertheless tho’ a Consumption of the Lungs is sometimes thus caused by taking Cold, yet this comes to pass but seldom, unless in such Bodies whose Mass of Blood being rendered Cachectic, thro’ frequent Influxes of dispirited Chyle, is pre-disposed to receive, and unable to free it self from this New Influx of Catarrhous Rheum: For suppose Two Persons in like manner deprived of the Benefit of usual Transpiration, by some great Cold, which tho’ troublesome in the beginning, because of a violent and continual Distillation of Extravasated Serum upon the Glandulous Coat of the Wind-pipe, and other adjacent Glands, yet in the One of these it survives not the accidental feverish Disposition of the Blood, occasioned by the Stoppage of the Pores: For as soon as the Ferment ceaseth, the separated Humours, partly for want of a new Influx of Serum, and partly by the natural Heat of these Parts, are concocted into a thick sort of Phlegm, and coughed up; after the Expectoration of which separated Serum the glandulous Parts presently recover their natural Tone, without any Remains of a Tumour, Cough, Shortness of Breath, or other Inconvenience; but in the other this feverish Ferment, occasioned by taking Cold, is not transitory, but so habitually fixed by means of some previous Indisposition, as to encrease the Effervescence and Colliquation of the Blood and Spirits; from whence all the Glands which are seated in the upper part of the Larynx, as also the glandulous Coat of the Wind-pipe it self are overflown with a Deluge of hot distempered Humours, the Substance of the Lungs distended with hard Tumours, the Branches of the Wind-pipe comprest, and the Wind-pipe it self from these Swellings irritated to Cough, by a continual tickling, which promotes a frequent spewing out of hot sharp Humours all along the Aspera Arteria, till at length these Tubercles growing very large, begin to inflame and suppurate; immediately upon the breaking or opening of those Apostemes, sometimes such a Flood of corrupted Matter is poured out of their Baggs or Cavities, into the Branches of the Trachea, as compleatly suffocates and choaks the Patient; but at other times this Purulent Matter, mixt with streaks of Blood, and some thin Phlegm that is continually discharged from the glandulous Coat of the Wind-pipe, is coughed up by degrees, and then this deplorable Case requires Specific Medicines, to cleanse and heal these Ulcers.

V. Such kind of Consumptions whose Original is store of malignant acrimonious Humours, which are most apt to inflame and putrify, may be termed acute, when compared to others that proceed from Humours more mild and benign. There may be likewise some difference made by omitting Bleeding, and committing some egregious Errors in Diet, Exercise, Passions of the Mind, or any other of the Non-Naturals: However, all Consumptions of the Lungs ought to be reckoned in the Number of Chronical Distempers, because they are contracted and augmented by degrees, and no other way to be remedied; yet this doth not prove them incurable in their own Nature, for Reason and Experience both teach the contrary: And indeed I must confess, it was from the marvelous Success of these Remedies that I first imbibed this Notion, viz. Ulcers of the Lungs are in themselves curable. Sometimes a Fever or other acute Distemper may be jugulated, when either Nature or Art carries off the Morbific Matter by a sudden Crisis or plentiful Evacuation, but all hopes of dispatching a confirmed Consumption of the Lungs instantly are groundless, seeing many inveterate Obstructions must be removed, abundance of tough glutinous Humours attenuated and evacuated, the whole Mass of Blood and Spirits rectified, the Habit of the Body meliorated, and the Tone of several parts recovered, before we can eradicate this fixed Distemper.

What will be the Issue and Result of this Consumptive-Disease, may rationally be prognosticated from it’s several Stages or Degrees: For when the Mass of Blood by a continual Influx of sour dispirited Chyle is reduced to a sharp and hectical State, and the Serum which is separated from this corrupted Blood only stuffs the Bladders and Glandules which are dispersed thro’ the Body of the Lungs, this Distemper may be said to be in it’s Infancy or beginning, (and if sovereign Remedies were then presented, they might obtain an easy Conquest) but the Increase is attended with a greater Distention of the Glands and Bladders, as also an Inflammation of these Tubercles tending to suppuration: For when the Animal Spirits which are necessary to the natural Fermentation of the Blood are vitiated with unwholesome Particles of a foggy and thick Air, and the Humour which for a long time hath been contained in the Baggs or Cavities of the Lungs is over-heated by some extraordinary Ebullition or Fermentation of the Blood, with a total Suppression of Expectoration, the Cough becomes more violent, the Fever inflammatory, and all parts more tabid. In it’s further Progress or State all Symptoms advance apace towards their Extremity, Suppuration now succeeds the Inflammation of these Tubercles, for that the Purulent Matter is either breeding or already made, the Inflammatory Hectic is changed into a putrid Intermitting Fever, attended with an Universal Colliquation of the Nutritious Juices and plentiful Separation of them from the Mass of Blood by all ways of Evacuation that Nature affords; whence the Patients strength suddainly decays, and in a short time he is reduced to the highest State of a Marasmus, with an Hippocratic Face.

VI. Thus having demonstrated to the meanest Capacity the Power of this prevailing Evil, with it’s efficient and material Causes, Reason it self presently suggests nothing less than great and noble Medicines can tame a Distemper so formidable. It is no less obvious to the Understanding of every one that professeth any thing of Physic, that the sooner the Cure is begun the better, the more moderate the Patient is in the use of the Six Non-Naturals, the more likely to succeed; the Spring-time is the best Season, Universals are to be premised, extraordinary Symptoms and Circumstances peculiarly attended, and such like things must run through the whole Course of Practice.

No doubt but the Chalibeate Mineral Waters when impregnated with the Volatile Salts and Spirits of a serene Air, pleasant Society, delightful Recreations, Morning and Evening Walks, regular Diet, Freedom from Business, vexatious Thoughts, Exercise[4], and the rest may be serviceable: But if the Jesuit were sentenced to perpetual Exile, I think the Consumptive have no reason excessively to lament, for I can tell them who hath a Febrifuge Antihectical, without a Grain of the Jesuit, more excellent far than the Peruvian Bark, because it makes a safe, not a treacherous Peace, and can give a Reason of it’s working so stupendiously, tho’ they who know not how a thing can be done, think it impossible to be done.

For my part, I do not believe any Medicine can work a Cure in the way of a Charm, yet they who either know or use no other (at least for the most part) than ordinary Medicines, cannot conceive how such wonderful Effects can be wrought, unless by Inchantment[5].

The common Method of Cure is by Bleeding to abate the Effervescence or Colliquation of the Blood, and prevent the Tumour and Inflammation of the Lungs, by Vomits to relieve the Stomach opprest with store of ill Humours, and remove divers Obstructions of several Bowels and small Vessels, by Stomach-Purges gently to carry down the peccant Humours; and lastly by Diuretics and Diaphoretics with some mixture of an Opiate, plentifully to carry off the Colliquated Serum by Urine, or the Pores of the Skin, without raising a fresh Catarrh by a new Commotion of the Blood. After a due Administration of these universal Evacuations, (which in their respective Seasons are highly necessary) the frequent Use of Pectoral Apozems and Pulmonary Linctuses is next enjoined, to retund the Acrimony of the Humours which ouze out of the Wind-pipe, by their mucilaginous and incrassating Quality, and so mitigate the troublesome Cough. How far serviceable to this end and purpose the neatest Forms of such Dispensations that I ever yet saw may be, I will not dispute, only this I must take leave to say, because to me (as also to the unprejudiced I humbly conceive) it seems evident that such fulsom Ingredients of which they are compounded, are more apt to spoil a weak than recover a lost Stomach, and consequently not the fittest Medicines Consumptive Persons may have recourse to: For how many by woful Experience have found the constant and frequent use of such Anti-Stomachics led them from one Degree of this Malady to another, ’till their decaying Appetite hath been quite overthrown, (and consequently their hectic Heat inflamed) their Bodies so emaciated, as to render them uncapable of necessary Evacuations, and they themselves at last given over to a Milk Diet, Asses Milk, some Chalibeate Mineral Waters, or such like Liquids, to which the poor distressed Stomach ecchoes aloud, Miserable Comforters all! If therefore I can, as I have Reason to believe, with Medicines less offensive in Quantity, and more useful in Quality, restore the lost Appetite, and do the same, if not greater Service towards the Concocting and Expectorating that load of separated Serum with which the Pipes of the Lungs are stuffed, (which will easily be perceived by the Patient in a few Weeks with due Care and Management) I think I have gained a great Point, forasmuch as the Recovery of the Stomach may reasonably be looked upon as an Earnest of the Cure.

The Medicines I do here recommend to my Countrymen as Specific in the Cure of Consumption of the Lungs, arising from the fore-mentioned Causes, have a peculiar Faculty of warming, comforting and strengthening weak Stomachs, attenuating and gently carrying off that load of Tartareous Matter which is lodged in their rugous Coat, depraving both Appetite and Digestion. In their Passage thro’ the whole Circumference of the Guts, they likewise dissolve that crusted Slime and Filth which hinders the Pressure of the Chyle into the Milky Vessels by the Peristaltic Motion of their Spiral Fibres: Thus having removed these Fundamental Obstructions, they hasten together with the Chylous Mixture, which by this time is somewhat Invigorated towards the Relief of the Sanguineous Mass, presently upon their Conjunction the Blood revives, and by degrees becomes brisk and vigorous, able to cope with, and give some check to the preternatural hectic Heat, stop the Influx of the Rheum into the Glandulous Substance of the Lungs, concoct that which is already collected, and release the Animal Spirits, intangled with a vitious disposition of the Nervous Juice. Having gained these Advantages, things begin to look with another manner of Aspect, the Habit of the Body grows firmer, the Mind chearfuller, the Countenance fresh and brisk, the emaciated Parts gather Flesh and Strength, the Lungs and Glands of the Larynx recover their natural Tone, and the whole Constitution improves towards a State of Health. Moreover, These Anti-Phthisics are really impregnated with such Volatile Spirits and Salts, that as Lightning they penetrate the remotest Corners of the Body, exterminating the very Seeds and Roots of this grievous Disease, powerfully and effectually, yet pleasantly and securely, if plentifully taken in the manner of a Diet: For thus in time they chear up the drooping Animal Spirits, fortify the System of the Nerves, and so influence the whole Sanguineous Mass, as that the Blood it self becomes the most precious of all natural Balsoms, marvellously cleansing the putrid Ulcers of the Lungs, and finally reducing them to a perfect Cicatrix.

Wherefore let none be deceived by the flattering Nature of this Distemper in the beginning, nor give themselves over for lost in the highest State, because these reviving Cordials are calculated for the weakest Constitutions, seeing at the same time they offend the Diseased Matter on the one Hand, they support Nature from sinking under any Evacuations on the other. It is therefore my Advice to the Consumptive, or Consumptively-inclined, and their Interest (by way of Prevention) to acquaint themselves in time with these Sovereign Antidotes. Better Counsel I cannot give to the best of my Friends, if they are desirous to save themselves a great deal of Pain and Misery, as well as Charges, and render their Lives comfortable to themselves and serviceable to others.

The Warmness of these Medicines, which is the only Objection that ever I met with in the use of them, is so far from being a real Discouragement, as that upon serious and judicious Considerations, it becomes a Notable Argument to enforce the taking of them; for otherwise they would be too weak to engage the Original Cause of hectic, burning and putrid Fevers; whereas by this active Principle of Heat, they work so effectually upon the whole Mass of Chyle, as to separate the sharp and dispirited from the nutritious Particles thereof, thoroughly insinuate themselves into all the Avenues of the Adversary, cut and divide the tough viscous Humours which distemper the Veins, Arteries and Nerves, destroy the Acidity of the Nervous Juice, recover the Natural Temper of the Animal Spirits, sweeten the Mass of Blood, by separating the Impurities thereof by the Cutaneous Glands, gently forcing a Transpiration of the Feverish Particles of the whole, and so banish that Preternatural Heat which is Proof to all common Remedies. And that Diseases which carry in their outward Appearance a shew of preternatural Heat are thus to be treated with warm Medicines, is indeed observable to every discerning Eye: For the most malignant Fevers are attacked and conquered by the briskest and warmest Alexipharmics and the most violent Erysipelas, or St Anthony’s Fire, is discussed and breathed out by strong and spirituous Fomentations, but are both of them exasperated by refrigerating or cooling Medicines, and their preternatural Heat more and more increased, till the one at length terminates in the cold sweats of Death, and the other in a compleat Mortification.

To multiply Encomiums of this kind is remote from my intended Brevity, therefore take this remarkable one for all: The Efficacy of Specific Medicines may be experienced from Mr Boyle’s unparalelled Treatise, herein referred to, and from the full Descriptions I have given any Chymist of Eminence, upon consulting each respective Patient’s Case, can effectually prepare them. But I would more particularly recommend for this Purpose the Skilful Mr Boyle Godfrey, in Covent-Garden.

Tho. Nevett.

A

MODEST DEFENSE

OF

PUBLICK STEWS

Price 2s. 6d.

THE NATURAL SECRET HISTORY OF BOTH SEXES: OR, A Modest Defense OF PUBLIC STEWS.

With an Account of the Present State
of Whoring in these Kingdoms.

By LUKE OGLE, Esq;

THE FOURTH EDITION.

LONDON:

Printed in the Year M.DCC.XL.

TO THE

SOCIETIES

FOR

Reformation of Manners.

Gentlemen,

THE great Pains and Diligence You have employ’d in the Defence of Modesty and Virtue, give You an undisputed Title to the Address of this Treatise; tho’ it is with the utmost Concern that I find myself under a Necessity of writing it, and that after so much Reforming, there should be any Thing left to say upon the Subject, besides congratulating You upon Your happy Success. It is no small Addition to my Grief to observe, that Your Endeavours to suppress Lewdness have only serv’d to promote it; and that this Branch of Immorality has grown under Your Hands, as if it was prun’d instead of being lopp’d. But however Your ill Success may grieve, it cannot astonish me: What else could we hope for, from Your persecuting of poor strolling Damsels? From your stopping up those Drains and Sluices we had to let out Lewdness? From your demolishing those Horn-works and Breast-works of Modesty? Those Ramparts and Ditches within which the Virtue of our Wives and Daughters lay so conveniently intrench’d? An Intrenchment so much the safer, by how much the Ditches were harder to be fill’d up. Or what better could we expect from Your Carting of Bawds, than that the Great Leviathan of Leachery, for Want of these Tubs to play with, should, with one Whisk of his Tail, overset the Vessel of Modesty? Which, in her best Trim, we know to be somewhat leaky, and to have a very unsteady Helm.

An ancient Philosopher compares Lewdness to a wild, fiery, and headstrong young Colt, which can never be broke till he is rid into a Bog: And Plato, on the same Subject, has these Words; The Gods, says he, have given us one disobedient and unruly Member, which, like a greedy and ravenous Animal that wants Food, grows wild and furious, till having imbib’d the Fruit of the common Thirst, he has plentifully besprinkled and bedewed the Bottom of the Womb.

And now I have mentioned the Philosophers, I must beg Your Patience for a Moment, to hear a short Account of their Amours: For nothing will convince us of the irresistible Force of Love, and the Folly of hoping to suppress it, sooner than reflecting, that those venerable Sages, those Standards of Morality, those great Reformers of the World, were so sensibly touch’d with this tender Passion.

Socrates confess’d, that, in his old Age, he felt a strange tickling all over him for five Days, only by a Girl’s touching his Shoulder.

Xenophon made open Profession of his passionate Love to Clineas.

Aristippus of Cyrene, writ a lewd Book of ancient Delights; he compar’d a Woman to a House or a Ship, that was the better for being used: He asserted, that there was no Crime in Pleasure, but only in being a Slave to it: And often used to say, I enjoy Lais, but Lais does not enjoy me.

Theodorus openly maintain’d, that a wise Man might without Shame or Scandal, keep Company with common Harlots.

Plato, our great Pattern for chaste-Love, proposes, as the greatest Reward for public Service, that he who has perform’d a signal Exploit, should not be deny’d any amorous Favour. He writ a Description of the Loves of his Time, and several amorous Sonnets upon his own Minions: His chief Favorites were Asterus, Dio, Phædrus, and Agatho; but he had, for Variety, his Female Darling Archeanassa; and was so noted for Wantonness, that Antisthenes, gave him the Nick-name of Satho, i. e. Well-furnish’d.

Polemo was prosecuted by his Wife for Male-Venery.

Crantor made no Secret of his Love to his Pupil Arcesilaus.

Arcesilaus made Love to Demetrius and Leocharus; the last, he said, he would fain have open’d: Besides, he publickly visited the two Elean Courtezans, Theodota and Philæta, and was himself enjoy’d by Demochares and Pythocles: He suffer’d the last, he said, for Patience-sake.

Bion was noted for debauching his own Scholars.

Aristotle, the first Peripatetic, had a Son call’d Nichomacus, by his Concubine Herpilis: He lov’d her so well, that he left her in his Will a Talent of Silver, and the Choice of his Country-Houses; that, as he says, the Damsel might have no Reason to complain: He enjoy’d, besides the Eunuch Hermias, others say only his Concubine Pythais, upon whom he writ a Hymn, call’d, The Inside.

Demetrius Phalereus, who had 360 Statues in Athens, kept Lamia for his Concubine, and at the same time was himself enjoy’d by Cleo: He writ a Treatise, call’d, The Lover, and was nick-nam’d by the Courtezans, Charito, Blespharus, i. e. A Charmer of Ladies; and Lampetes, i. e. A great Boaster of his Abilities.

Diogenes, the Cynic, us’d to say, that Women ought to be in common, and that Marriage was nothing but a Man’s getting a Woman in the Mind to be lain with: He often us’d Manual Venery in the public Market-place, with this Saying. Oh! that I could assuage my Hunger thus with rubbing of my Stomach!

But what Wonder if the old Academics, the Cyrenaics, and Peripatetics, were so lewdly wanton, when the very Stoics, who prided themselves in the Conquest of all their other Passions, were forc’d to submit to this?

Zeno, indeed, the Founder of that Sect, was remarkable for his Modesty, because he rarely made Use of Boys, and took but once an ordinary Maid-Servant to Bed, that he might not be thought to hate the Sex; yet, in his Commonwealth, he was for a Community of Women; and writ a Treatise, wherein he regulated the Motions of getting a Maidenhead, and philosophically prov’d Action and Reaction to be equal.

Chrysippus and Apollodorus agree with Zeno in a Community of Women, and say, that a wise Man may be in Love with handsome Boys.

Erillus, a Scholar of Zeno’s, was a notorious Debauchee.

I need not mention the Epicureans who were remarkable for their Obscenity.

Epicurus used to make a Pander of his own Brother; and his Scholar, the Great Metrodorus, visited all the noted Courtezans in Athens, and publicly kept the famous Leontium, his Master’s Quondam Mistress. Yet, if you will believe Laertius, he was every Way a good Man.

But what shall we say of our Favourite Seneca, who, with all his Morals, could never acquire the Reputation of Chastity? He was indeed somewhat Nice in his Amours, like the Famous Flora, who was never enjoy’d by any Thing less than a Dictator or a Consul; for he scorn’d to intrigue with any Thing less than the Empress.

Now, if those Reverend School-Masters of Antiquity, were so loose in their Seminals, shall we, of this Age, set up for Chastity? Have our Oxford Students more Command of their Passions than the Stoics? Are our Young Templars less Amorous than Plato? Or, is an Officer of the Army less Ticklish in the Shoulder than Socrates?

But I need not waste any Rhetoric upon so evident a Truth; for plain and clear Propositions, like Windows painted, are only the more Obscure the more they are adorn’d.

I will now suppose, that you have given up the Men as Incorrigible; since You are convinc’d, by Experience, that even Matrimony is not able to reclaim them. Marriage, indeed, is just such a Cure for Lewdness, as a Surfeit is for Gluttony; it gives a Man’s Fancy a Distaste to the particular Dish, but leaves his Palate as Luxurious as ever: for this Reason we find so many marry’d Men, that, like Sampson’s Foxes, only do more Mischief for having their Tails ty’d. But the Women, You say, are weaker Vessels, and You are resolv’d to make them submit; rightly judging, if You cou’d make all the Females Modest, it would put a considerable Stop to Fornication. It is great Pity, no doubt, so Fine a Project should Miscarry: And I would willingly entertain Hopes of seeing one of these Bridewell Converts. In the mean Time it would not be amiss, if You chang’d somewhat your present Method of Conversion, especially in the Article of Whipping. It is very possible, indeed, that leaving a Poor Girl Penny-less, may put her in a Way of living Honestly, tho’ the want of Money was the only Reason of her living otherwise; and the stripping of her Naked, may, for aught I know, contribute to Her Modesty, and put Her in a State of Innocence; but surely, Gentlemen, You must all know, that Flogging has a quite contrary Effect. This Project of pulling down Bawdy-houses to prevent Uncleanness, puts me in Mind of a certain Over-nice Gentleman, who cou’d never fancy his Garden look’d sweet, till he had demolish’d a Bog-house that offended his Eye in one Corner of it; but it was not long before every Nose in the Family was convinc’d of His Mistake. If Reason fails to Convince, let us profit by Example: Observe the Policy of a Modern Butcher, persecuted with a Swarm of Carnivorous Flies; when all his Engines and Fly-flaps have prov’d ineffectual to defend his Stall against the Greedy Assiduity of those Carnal Insects, he very Judiciously cuts off a Fragment, already blown, which serves to hang up for a Cure; and thus, by sacrifising a Small Part, already Tainted, and not worth Keeping, he wisely secures the Safety of the Rest. Or, let us go higher for Instruction, and take Example by the Grazier, who far from denying his Herd the Accustom’d Privilege of Rubbing, when their Sides are Stimulated with sharp Humours, very Industriously fixes a Stake in the Center of the Field, not so much, you may imagine, to Regale the Salacious Hides of his Cattle, as to preserve his Young Trees from Suffering by the Violence of their Friction.

I could give You more Examples of this Kind, equally full of Instruction, but that I’m loth to detain You from the Perusal of the following Treatise; and at the same Time Impatient to have the Honour of Subscribing Myself

Your Fellow-Reformer,
and Devoted Servant,
Phil-Porney.

PREFACE.

LEST any inquisitive Reader should puzzle his Brains to find out why this Foundling is thus clandestinely dropt at his Door, let it suffice him, that the Midwife of a Printer was unwilling to help bring it into the World, but upon that Condition, or a much harder, that of my openly Fathering it. I could make many other reasonable Apologies, if requisite: For, besides my having follow’d the modest Example of several other pious Authors, such as that of Εικων Βασιλικη, of the Whole Duty of Man, &c. who have studied rather their Country’s Publick Good, than their own Private Fame; I think, I have also play’d the Politick Part: for should my Off-spring be defective, why let it fall upon the Parish. On the other hand, if accidentally it prove hopeful, ’tis certain I need be at no further Trouble. There will then be Parents enough ready to own the Babe, and take it upon themselves. Adoption amongst the Machiavellian Laws of the Muses is strictly kept up, and every day put in Practice: How few of our now bright Noblemen would otherwise have Wit? How many of our present thriving Poets would else want a Dinner? ’Tis a vulgar Error to imagine Men live upon their own Wits, when generally it is upon others Follies; a Fund that carries by much the best Interest, and is by far upon the most certain Security of any: The Exchequer has been shut up, the Bank has stopt Payment, South-Sea has been demolish’d, but White’s was never known to fail; and indeed how should it, when almost every Wind blows to Dover, or Holyhead, some fresh Proprietor amply qualified with sufficient Stock.

I am in some pain for the Event of this Scheme, hoping the Wicked will find it too Grave, and fearing the Godly will scarce venture beyond the Title-Page: And should they, even, I know they’ll object, ’tis here and there interwoven with too ludicrous Expressions, not considering that a dry Argument has occasion for the larding of Gaiety to make it the better relish and go down. Besides, finding by the exact Account tack’d to that most edifying Anti-Heidegger Discourse,[6] that eighty six Thousand Offenders have been lately punish’d, and that four hundred Thousand religious Books have been distributed about Gratis (not to mention the numberless Three-penny Jobs daily publish’d to no Ends, or Purpose, but the Author’s;) I say, finding all these Measures have been taken, and that Lewdness still so much prevails, I thought it highly proper to try this Experiment, being fully convinc’d that opposite Methods often take place. Own, Preferment-Hunter! when sailing on with the Tide avails nothing, does not tacking about steer you sometimes into that snug Harbour, an Employment? Speak Hibernian Stallion! when a meek fawning Adoration turns to no Account, does not a pert assuming Arrogance frequently forward, nay, gain the critical Minute? And say,[7] Mesobin! where a Purge fails, is not a Vomit an infallible Recipe for a Looseness?

To conclude; when my Arguments are impartially examin’d, I doubt not but my Readers will join with me, that as long as it is the Nature of Man (and Naturam expellas furca licet usque recurret) to have a Salt Itch in the Breeches, the Brimstone under the Petticoat will be a necessary Remedy to lay it; and let him be ever so sly in the Application, it will still be found out: What avails it then to affect to conceal that which cannot be concealed, and that which if carried on openly and above-board, would become only less detrimental, and of consequence more justifiable?

Be the Success of this Treatise as it happens, the Good of Mankind is my only Aim; nor am I less hearty or zealous in the Publick Welfare of my Country, than that Noble Pattern of Sincerity, Bishop B——t, who finishes his Preface with the following Paragraph. And now, O my G—, the G— of my Life, and of all my Mercies, I offer this Work to Thee, to whose Honour it is chiefly intended; that thereby I may awaken the World to just Reflections on their own Errors and Follies, and call on them to acknowledge thy Providence, to adore it, and ever to depend on it.

A

Modest Defence, &c.

THERE is nothing more idle, or shows a greater Affectation of Wit, than the modern Custom of treating the most grave Subjects with Burlesque and Ridicule. The present Subject of Whoring, was I dispos’d, would furnish me sufficiently in this kind, and might possibly, if so handled, excite Mirth in those who are only capable of such low Impressions. But, as the chief Design of this Treatise is to promote the general Welfare and Happiness of Mankind, I hope to be excus’d, if I make no farther Attempts to please, than are consistent with that Design. The Practice of Whoring has, of late Years, become so universal, and its Effects so prejudicial to Mankind, that several Attempts have been made to put a Stop to it; and a certain Society of Worthy Gentlemen have undertaken that Affair with a Zeal truly commendable, tho’ the Success does but too plainly make it appear, that they were mistaken in their Measures, and had not rightly consider’d the Nature of this Evil, which we are all equally sollicitous to prevent, however we may differ in our Opinions as to the Manner. And tho’ the Method I intend to propose, of erecting Publick Stews for that purpose, may seem at first sight somewhat ludicrous, I shall, nevertheless, make it appear to be the only Means we have now left for redressing this Grievance. As this Redress is the whole Scope and Design of this Treatise, I hope to be acquitted of my Design, when I have prov’d the following Propositions: That publick Whoring is neither so criminal in itself, nor so detrimental to the Society, as private Whoring; and that the encouraging of publick Whoring, by erecting Stews, will not only prevent most of the ill Consequences of this Vice, but even lessen the Practice of Whoring in general, and reduce it to the narrowest Bounds which it can possibly be contain’d in. But before we proceed, it is requisite that we examine what those mischievous Effects are which Whoring naturally produces, that we may the better judge whether or no they will be prevented by this Scheme.

The greatest Evil that attends this Vice, or could well befall Mankind, is the Propagation of that infectious Disease, called the French-Pox, which in two Centuries, has made such incredible Havock all over Europe. In these Kingdoms it so seldom fails to attend Whoring, now-a-days mistaken for Gallantry and Politeness, that a hale, robust Constitution is esteem’d a Mark of Ungentility; and a healthy young Fellow is look’d upon with the same View, as if he had spent his Life in a Cottage. Our Gentlemen of the Army, whose unsettled way of Life makes it inconvenient for them to marry, are hereby very much weaken’d and enervated, and render’d unfit to undergo such Hardships as are necessary for defending and supporting the Honour of their Country: And our Gentry in general seem to distinguish themselves by an ill State of Health, in all probability the Effect of this pernicious Distemper: for the Secrecy which most People are obliged to in this Disease, makes the Cure of it often ineffectual; and tho’ the Infection itself may possibly be remov’d, yet for want of taking proper Methods, it generally leaves such an ill Habit of Body as is not easily recover’d. ’Tis to this we seem to owe the Rise of that Distemper, the King’s-Evil, never known till the French Disease began to prevail here. But what makes this Mischief the more intolerable, is, that the Innocent must suffer by it as well as the Guilty; Men give it to their Wives, Women to their Husbands, or perhaps their Children; they to their Nurses, and the Nurses again to other Children; so that no Age, Sex, or Condition can be intirely safe from the Infection.

Another ill Effect of this Vice, is, its making People profuse, and tempting them to live beyond what their Circumstances will admit of; for if once Men suffer their Minds to be led astray by this unruly Passion, no worldly Consideration whatever will be able to stop it; and Wenching as it is very expensive in itself, without the ordinary Charges of Physic or Children, often leads Men into a thousand other Vices to support its Extravagance: Besides, after the Mind has once got this extravagant Turn, there naturally follows a Neglect and Contempt of Business; and Whoring of itself disposes the Mind to such a sort of Indolence, as is quite inconsistent with Industry, the main Support of any, especially a trading, Nation.

The murdering of Bastard Infants is another Consequence of this Vice, by much worse than the Vice itself: and tho’ the Law is justly severe in this Particular, as rightly judging that a Mind capable of divesting itself so intirely of Humanity, is not fit to live in a civiliz’d Nation: yet there are so many ways of evading it, either by destroying the Infants before their Birth, or suffering them afterwards to die by wilful Neglect, that there appears but little Hope of putting any Stop to this Practice, which, besides the Barbarity of it, tends very much to dispeople the Country. And since the Prosperity of any Country is allow’d to depend, in a great measure, on the Number of its Inhabitants, the Government ought, if it were possible, to prevent any Whoring at all, as it evidently hinders the Propagation of the Species: How many thousand young Men in this Nation would turn their Thoughts towards Matrimony, if they were not constantly destroying that Passion, which is the only Foundation of it? And tho’ most of them, sooner or later, find the Inconvenience of this irregular Life, and think fit to confine themselves to One, yet their Bodies are so much enervated, by the untimely or immoderate Increase of this Passion, together with the Relics of Venereal Cures, that they beget a most wretched, feeble, and sickly Offspring: We can attribute it to nothing else but this, that so many of our ancient Families of Nobles are of late extinct.

There is one thing more we ought to consider in this Vice, and that is the Injury it does to particular Persons and Families; either by alienating the Affections of Wives from their Husbands, which often proves prejudicial to both, and sometimes fatal to whole Families; or else by debauching the Minds of young Women, to their utter Ruin and Destruction: for the Reproach they must undergo, when a Slip of this nature is discover’d, prevents their marrying in any Degree suitable to their Fortune, and by degrees hardens them to all Sense of Shame; and when they have once overcome that, the present View of Interest as well as Pleasure, sways them to continue in the same Course, till at length they become common Prostitutes.