Part 31

I will not dispute your _Authors_ opinion concerning the Plague of Men, which he says,[1] _doth not infect Beasts, neither doth the plague of Beasts infect Men_; but rather believe it to be so: for I have observed that Beasts infect onely each other, to wit, those of their own kind, as Men do infect other Men. For example: the Plague amongst Horses continues in their own kind, and so doth the Plague amongst Sheep; and for any thing we know, there may be a plague amongst Vegetables, as well as amongst Animals, and they may not onely infect each other but also those Animals that do feed on those infectious Vegetables: so that Infections may be caused several ways; either by inbreathing and attracting or sucking in the Poyson of the Plague, or by eating and converting it into the substance of the body; for some kinds of poyson are so powerful, as to work onely by way of inbreathing. Also some sorts of Air may be full of infection, and infect many Men, Beasts, Birds, Vegetables, and the like; for Infections are variously produced, Internally as well as Externally, amongst several particular Creatures; for as the Plague may be made internally, or within the body of a particular Creature, without any exterior infection entring from without into the body, so an external Infection again may enter many several ways into the body. And thus there be many contagious diseases caused meerly by the internal motions of the body, as by fright, terror, conceit, fancy, imagination, and the like, and many by the taking of poysonous matter from without into the body; but all are made by the natural motions or actions of animate matter, by which all is made that is in Nature, and nothing is new, as _Solomon_ says; but what is thought or seems to be new, is onely the variation of the Motions of this old Matter, which is Nature. And this is the reason that not every Age, Nation, or Creature, has always the like diseases; for as all the actions of Nature vary, so also do diseases. But to speak of the Plague, although I am of opinion, that the Plague of Beasts doth not infect Men, unless they be eaten; nor the plague of Men, Beasts; yet Magistrates do wisely in some places, that in the beginning of the plague of Men, they command Dogs and Cats to be kill'd, by reason, as your _Author_ saith, _The skins and flesh of Brutes may be defiled with our Plague, and they may be pestiferous contagions unto us._ I will add one thing more, which doth concern the Poyson of Measels, whereof your _Author_ is saying,[2] That _it is onely proper to humane kind._ What kind of Measles he means, I know not; but certainly Hogs are often affected with that disease, as is vulgarly known; but whether they be different diseases in their kinds, and proceed from different motions, I will let others inquire. And so I rest,

Madam,

_Your faithful Friend_

_and Servant._

[1] In the Plague-grave, _ch._ 17.

[2] _Ch._ Call'd, _The Lunar Tribute_.

XL.

_MADAM,_

Concerning the disease of the Stone, your _Author_ seems to be of an opinion, That the stone in the Bladder, and the stone in the Kidnies, are not made after one and the same manner: For, says he,[1] _The Bladder and the same Urine in number procreates a duelech of another condition, then that which is made in the Kidney._ And truly, _Madam_, it may be so; for there are several ways or modes in irregularities, as well as regularities, and not every kind is alike, no not every Particular, but there is some difference between them: Wherefore, it may very well be, that the corporeal motions that make the stone in the Kidneys, are not just alike to those that make the stone in the Bladder; and as each sort of stone is different, so their particular causes ought to be different; but this is to be observed, that generally all diseases which produce hardness, are made by contracting, condensing and retenting motions, and therefore the remedies of them must be dilating, rarifying and dissolving. Next your _Author_ says, _The Stone is not bred by heat, but heat is rather an effect of the stone; neither is a certain muscilage, or a slimy, snivelly Phlegme the cause or matter of the stone, but the stone is the cause of the phlegme._ But, in my judgment, it seems more probable, that a slimy matter is more proper for a stone to be made of, then that a stone should make slime, except it be in its dissolution; that is, when the stone, as in its generation or production it did change from a slimy or liquid substance to a stone by condensing and contracting motions, doth, by dilating and rarifying motions, dissolve again into such a liquid and slimy body. I will not say always, to wit, that the stone must needs be resolved into a slimy matter, but oftentimes it may be so. Neither can I absolutely affirm that either heat or cold onely is the cause of a stone; for some may be produced by hot, and some by cold contractions and densations, there being as many several sorts of stones as there are of other Creatures: But this is to be well noted, that as some sorts of hot contractions do make stones, so some sorts of hot dilations do dissolve them: The like of cold contractions and dilations. Again: your _Author_ speaking of the womb wherein the stone is made; _Every generated thing or being_, says he, _must of necessity have a certain place or womb where it is produced; for there must needs be places wherein things may be made before they are bred._ I answer: As there is not any body without place, nor any place without body, so the womb is not the place of the body generated, neither before nor after its generation, no more then a man can be said to be in a room when he is not there, but every body carries its place along with it. Moreover, concerning the voiding of bloody Urine, which happens sometimes in the disease of the Stone, my opinion is, That it doth not always proceed from the Stone, but many times from the breaking or voluntary opening of some Veins. But as for the cure of the disease of the Stone your _Author,_[2] is pleased to affirm, _That no disease is incurable_, and so neither the disease of the Stone, _For he himself has cured many of the Stone to which they had been obedient for some years._ Indeed, _Madam_, I fear his words are more cheerful then effectual; however it may be possible, if the Kidneys be no ways impaired, or the Bladder hurt; but if there be some such imperfection in either or both, then it is as much, in my opinion, as to say, Man can do more then Nature doth: Neither can I believe, that then any of your _Authors_ Chymical preparations, as _Aroph, Ludus, Alkahest_, and the like, if they were to be had, would do any good, no nor _Daucus_, or wild Carrot-seed, if the disease be as yet curable, will prove an effectual remedy for it, although your _Author_ is pleased to relate an example of a man, to whom it did much good; for I can affirm the contrary by other the like Examples, that it never did any good to those that used it; nor the liquor of the Birch-tree, whose venue and efficacy I do not believe to be so great as your _Author_ describes:[3] But for the stoppage of Urine, Marsh-mallow and oyl of Almonds, which he despises, I approve to be good, and better then any of his Unknown, Chymical Secrets; for those Chymical Medicines, as he himself confesses, are hard to be had, especially _Alkahest_, which is onely to be obtained by a Particular favour from Heaven, and is rather a supernatural Gift, then a natural remedy. But your _Author_ doth wisely, to commend such remedies as can never, or with great difficulty be obtained, and then to say that no disease is incurable. And so leaving him to his unknown secrets, and those to them that will use them, I am resolved to adhere to the Practice of the Schools, which I am confident will be more beneficial to the health of,

Madam,

_Your real and faithful_

_Friend and Servant._

[1] Of the Stone, _ch._ 6. See the _ch._ called, _A Numero-Critical Paradox of supplies_.

[2] _Ch._ 7.

[3] _Ch._ 8.

XLI.

_MADAM,_

Your _Author_ speaking of the _Gout_, and of that kind of Gout which is called _Hereditary_, says, _It consists immediately in the Spirit of Life._ First, as for that which is called an Hereditary Disease, propagated from Parents upon their Children; my opinion is, That it is nothing else but the same actions of the animate matter, producing the same effect in the Child as they did in the Parent: For example; the same motions which made the Gout in the Parent, may make the same disease in the Child; but every Child has not his Parents diseases, and many Children have such diseases as their Parents never had; neither is any disease tied to a particular Family by Generation, but they proceed from irregular motions, and are generally in all Mankind; and therefore properly there is no such thing as an hereditary propagation of diseases; for one and the same kind of disease may be made in different persons, never a kin to one another, by the like motions; but because Children have such a neer relation to their Parents by Generation, if they chance to have the same diseases with their Parents, men are apt to conclude it comes by inheritance; but we may as well say, that all diseases are hereditary; for there is not any disease in Nature but is produced by the actions of Nature's substance; and if we receive life and all our bodily substance by Generation from our Parents, we may be said to receive diseases too; for diseases are inherent in the matter or substance of Nature, which every Creature is a part of, and are real beings made by the corporeal motions of the animate matter, although irregular to us; for as this matter moves, so is Life or Death, Sickness or Health, and all natural effects; and we consisting of the same natural matter, are naturally subject as well to diseases as to health, according as the Matter moves. Thus all diseases are hereditary in Nature; nay, the Scripture it self confirms it, informing us, that diseases, as well as death, are by an hereditary propagation derived from _Adam_ upon all Posterity. But as for the Gout, your _Authors_ doctrine is,[1] _That Life is not a body, nor proper to a body, nor the off-spring of corporeal Proprieties_,[2] but a _meer No-thing_; and that _the Spirit of Life is a real being, to wit, the arterial blood resolved by the Ferment of the heart into salt air, and enlightned by life_,[3] and that the Gout doth immediately consist in this spirit of life. All which how it doth agree, I cannot conceive; for that a real being should be enlightned by Nothing, and be a spirit of Nothing, is not imaginable, nor how the Gout should inhabit in the spirit of life; for then it would follow, that a Child, as soon as it is brought forth into the world, would be troubled with the Gout, if it be as natural to him as life, or have its habitation in the Spirit of Life. Also your _Author_ is speaking of _an Appoplexy in the head, which takes away all sense and motion._ But surely, in my opinion, it is impossible that all sense and motion should be out of the head; onely that sense and motion, which is proper to the head, and to the nature of that Creature, is altered to some other sensitive and rational motions, which are proper to some other figure; for there is no part or particle of matter that has not motion and sense. I pray consider, _Madam_, is there any thing in Nature that is without motion? Perchance you will say, Minerals; but that is proved otherwise; as for example, by the sympathetical motion between the Loadstone and Iron, and between the Needle and the North, as also by the operation of Mercury, and several others; Wherefore there is no doubt, but all kinds, sorts and particulars of Creatures have their natural motions, although they are not all visible to us, but not such motions as are made by Gas, or Blas, or Ideas, &c. but corporeal sensitive and rational motions, which are the actions of Natural Matter. You may say, Some are of opinion, that Sympathy and Antipathy are not Corporeal motions. Truly, whosoever says so, speaks no reason; for Sympathy and Antipathy are nothing else but the actions of bodies, and are made in bodies; the Sympathy betwixt Iron and the Loadstone is in bodies; the Sympathy between the Needle and the North is in bodies; the Sympathy of the Magnetic powder is in bodies. The truth is, there is no motion without a body, nor no body without motion. Neither doth Sympathy and Antipathy work at distance by the power of Immaterial Spirits, or rays, issuing out of their bodies, but by agreeable or disagreeable corporeal motions; for if the motions be agreeable, there is Sympathy; if disagreeable, there is Antipathy; and if they be equally found in two bodies, then there is a mutual Sympathy or Antipathy; but if in one body onely, and not in the other, there is but Sympathy or Antipathy on one side, or in one Creature. Lastly, concerning _swoonings or fainting fits_, your _Authors_ opinion is, that they _proceed from the stomack_: Which I can hardly believe; for many will swoon upon the sight of some object, others at a sound, or report, others at the smell of some disagreeable odour, others at the taste of some or other thing that is not agreeable to their nature, and so forth: also some will swoon at the apprehension or conceit of something, and some by a disorder or irregularity of motions in exterior parts. Wherefore, my opinion is, that swoonings may proceed from any part of the body, and not onely from the stomack. But, _Madam_, I being no Physicianess may perhaps be in an error, and therefore I will leave this discourse to those that are thorowly learned and practised in this Art, and rest satisfied that I am,

Madam,

_Your Ladiships_

_humble Servant._

[1] Of the disease of the Stone, _c._ 9.

[2] Of the subject of inhering of diseases in the point of life.

[3] Of the Spirit of Life.

XLII.

_MADAM,_

Your _Author_[1] is inquiring whether some cures of diseases may be effected by bare co-touchings; and I am of his opinion, they may; for co-touchings of some exterior objects may cause alterations of some particular motions in some particular parts of matter, without either transferring their own motions into those parts, (for that this is impossible, I have heretofore declared) or without any corporeal departing from their own parts of matter into them, and alterations may be produced both in the motions and figures of the affected parts: but these cures are not so frequent as those that are made by the entring of medicines into the diseased parts, and either expel the malignant matter, or rectifie the irregular and disordered motions, or strengthen the weak, or reduce the straying, or work any other ways according to the nature and propriety of their own substance, and the disposition of the distempered parts: Nevertheless, those cures which are performed exteriously, as to heal inward affects by an outward bare co-touching, are all made by natural motions in natural substances, and not by _Non_-beings, substancelesse Ideas, or spiritual Rays; for those that will cure diseases by _Non_-beings, will effect little or nothing; for a disease is corporeal or material, and so must the remedies be, there being no cure made but by a conflict of the remedy with the disease; and certainly, if a _non_-being fight against a being, or a corporeal disease, I doubt it will do no great effect; for the being will be too strong for the _non_-being: Wherefore my constant opinion is, that all cures whatsoever, are perfected by the power of corporeal motions, working upon the affected parts either interiously or exteriously, either by applying external remedies to external wounds, or by curing internal distempers, either by medicines taken internally, or by bare external co-touchings. And such a remedy, I suppose, has been that which your _Author_ speaks of, a stone of a certain Irish-man, which by a meer external contact hath cured all kinds of diseases, either by touching outwardly the affected parts, or by licking it but with the tip of the Tongue, if the disease was Internal: But if the vertue of the Stone was such, as your _Author_ describes, certainly, what man soever he was that possessed such a jewel, I say, he was rather of the nature of the Devil, then of man, that would not divulge it to the general benefit of all mankind; and I wonder much, that your _Author_, who otherwise pretends such extraordinary Devotion, Piety, and Religiousness, as also Charity, _viz._ that all his works he has written, are for the benefit of his neighbour, and to detect the errors of the Schools meerly for the good of man, doth yet plead his cause, saying, That _secrets, as they are most difficultly prepared, so they ought to remain in secret forever in the possession of the Privy Councel_, what Privy Counsels he means, I know not; but certainly some are more difficult to be spoken to, or any thing to be obtained from, then the preparation of a Physical Arcanum. However, a general good or benefit ought not to be concealed or kept in privy Councels, but to be divulged and publickly made known, that all sorts of People, of what condition, degree, or Nation soever, might partake of the general blessing and bounty of God. But, _Madam_, you may be sure, that many, who pretend to know Physical secrets, most commonly know the least, as being for the most part of the rank of them that deceive the simple with strange tales which exceed truth; and to make themselves more authentical, they use to rail at others, and to condemn their skill, onely to magnifie their own: I say, many, _Madam_, as I have observed, are of that nature, especially those, that have but a superficial knowledg in the Art of Physick; for those that are thorowly learned, and sufficiently practised in it, scorn to do the like; which I wish may prosper and thrive by their skill. And so I rest,

Madam,

_Your Ladiships_

_humble Servant._

[1] In the _ch._ call'd _Butler_.

XLIII.

_MADAM,_

Your _Author_ is pleased to relate a story[1] of one that died suddenly, and being dissected, there was not the least sign of decay or disorder found in his body. But I cannot add to those that wonder, when no sign of distemper is found in a man's body after he is dead; because I do not believe, that the subtillest, learnedst, and most practised Anatomist, can exactly tell all the Interior Government or motions, or can find out all obscure and invisible passages in a mans body; for concerning the motions, they are all altered in death, or rather in the dissolution of the animal figure; and although the exterior animal figure or shape doth not alter so soon, yet the animal motions may alter in a moment of time; which sudden alteration may cause a sudden death, and so the motions being invisible, the cause of death cannot be perceived; for no body can find that which is not to be found, to wit, animal motions in a dead man; for Nature hath altered these motions from being animal motions to some other kind of motions, she being as various in dissolutions, as in productions, indeed so various, that her ways cannot be traced or known thorowly and perfectly, but onely by piece-meals, as the saying is, that is, but partly: Wherefore man can onely know that which is visible, or subject to his senses; and yet our senses do not always inform us truly, but the alterations of grosser parts are more easily known, then the alterations of subtil corporeal motions, either in general, or in particular; neither are the invisible passages to be known in a dead Carcass, much less in a living body. But, I pray, mistake me not, when I say, that the animal motions are not subject to our exterior senses; for I do not mean all exterior animal motions, nor all interior animal motions; for though you do see no interior motion in an animal body, yet you may feel some, as the motion of the Heart, the motion of the Pulse, the motion of the Lungs, and the like; but the most part of the interior animal motions are not subject to our exterior senses; nay, no man, he may be as observing as he will, can possibly know by his exterior senses all the several and various interior motions in his own body, nor all the exterior motions of his exterior parts: and thus it remains still, that neither the subtillest motions and parts of matter, nor the obscure passages in several Creatures, can be known but by several parts; for what one part is ignorant of, another part is knowing, and what one part is knowing, another part is ignorant thereof; so that unless all the Parts of Infinite Matter were joyned into one Creature, there can never be in one particular Creature a perfect knowledg of all things in Nature. Wherefore I shall never aspire to any such knowledg, but be content with that little particular knowledg, Nature has been pleased to give me, the chief of which is, that I know my self, and especially that I am,

Madam,

_Your constant Friend,_

_and faithful Servant._

[1] _Ch._ 61. called, _The Preface_.

XLIV.

_MADAM,_