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.
[4] Particularly that of _Riding_; relating to which, consult Mr FULLER’s _Medicina Gymnastica_.
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.