_MADAM,_
I find your _Author_ to be as great an enemy to Issues, Cauteries,
Clysters, and the like, as he is to Blood-letting and Purging;
especially to Issues, which he counts to be blasphemous against
the Creator, and blames much the Schools for prescribing them. But
concerning Blood-letting and Purging, I have declared my opinion in
my former Letters; and if you desire my judgment of Clysters and
Issues, I must needs tell you, that it is well known these many ages,
that in such diseases which lie in the guts, and cause pain in the
head, and stop the ureteres, Clysters have been very beneficial, but
wise Physicians do not prescribe them, unless upon necessity: As for
example; if the disease in the Guts proceed from cold or wind, they
prescribe a Sack-Clyster, with oyl of Walnuts; and if the disease in
the guts proceed from a sharp or bitter humor, then they prescribe
Milk, or Posset, sweetned with Sugar: the same if the guts be too
full of excrements or slime. But in case of diseases in the head or
stomack, they prescribe attractive Clysters, to wit, such as draw down
from the upper into the lower parts, wherein the Physical drugs are;
and if the guts be too dry, or dryer then their nature requires,
they prescribe moistening Clysters, such as have not onely wetting,
but slimy qualities. And surely Clysters properly and timely applyed,
are a safe, speedy, easie and profitable medicine, and far more safe
then Chymical Salts, Tartars, Spirits, or the like. Next concerning
Issues and Cauteries, your _Author_, I say, is so much against them,
as he counts them a blasphemy; for says he,[1] _I have beheld always
an implicite blasphemy in a Cautery, whereby they openly accuse the
Creator of insufficiency in framing the emunctories; for I have bidden
above a thousand Issues to be filled up with flesh._ Also, _That which
God hath made whole and entire, that it might be very good, seems to
the Schools, that it should be better if it be kept wounded._ Truly,
_Madam_, in my opinion, it is no blasphemy at all, neither directly
nor indirectly, to make Issues, but a meer superstition to believe the
contrary, _viz._ that they are blasphemy, and a great folly not to make
them when need requires it to the preservation of ones health. _God has
made our body whole and intire_, says your _Author_: by which he will
prove that no holes must be made in the body to let out excrementious
matter, and therefore he thinks that body to be whole and intire which
is without an Issue, when as yet our bodies have numerous issues,
which are the pores of the skin, to let out sweat; and therefore if
he counts that body not to be whole and intire that has Issues, then
no humane body is intire. Certainly, no Artificial Issue will make
the body maimed, but it will nevertheless continue whole and intire
although it has Issues. He says it is Blasphemy; But how will he prove
it? Surely not by the Scripture; and if not by the Scripture, then it
is a blasphemy according to his own brain and fancy. 'Tis true, God
gave no express Command to make Issues; but according to your _Author_,
God did never create Diseases, and so there was no need either to
make such Issues in bodies as to let out distempered Matter, or to
give any command for them; but we might as well say, we must not use
any Physick, because it is not so natural to man as food, and serves
not for the nourishment of the body, but onely to keep off, or drive
out diseases: Also no stone must be cut, but man must rather indure
torment and death. But setting aside this superstitious doctrine of
your _Author_, it is evident enough, and needs no proof, that Cancers,
Fistulas, Wenns, Eating-evils, Madness, Fevers, Consumptions, Rheumes,
Pleurisies, and numerous other diseases, are not better cured then by
Issues, or making of wounds, either by Lancets, Pen-knifes, Scissers,
Rasors, Corrosives, Causticks, Leeches, or the like. And although
your _Author_ says, That _that Matter which proceeds from, or out of
an Issue, is made in the lips of the wound, and not in the body; for
it cannot possibly drain or draw out any moisture, either from within
or between the skin and the flesh, having no passages_: Yet if this
were so, how come Fistulas, Cancers, and the like diseases, to have
passages from within the body to the exterior parts, so, as to make
a wound, out of which much sharp and salt humor issues? which humor
certainly is not made in the lips of the wound, but in the body: Also
whence comes the humor that makes the Gout? For though the swelling and
inflammation will sometimes appear exteriously, yet after some time
those tumors and humors retire back into the body from whence they did
flow; but he might as well say that Pit-falls or Sluces do not drain
Land from a superfluity of Water, as that Issues do not drain the body
of superfluous humors. Wherefore I am absolutely of opinion, that the
Practice of the Schools is the best and wisest Practice, as well in
making Issues, letting blood, Purging by Siege or Vomits, as any other
means used by them; for by Issues I have seen many cured, when no
other medicines would do any good with them; and letting blood, I am
confident, hath rescued more lives, then the Universal Medicine, could
Chymists find it out, perchance would do. So also Clysters and Vomits,
skilfully applied, have done great benefits to the life of men; for
every part and member hath its peculiar way to be purged and cleansed;
for example, Clysters principally cleanse the Guts, Purges the Stomack,
Vomits the Chest, Sneezing the Head, Bleeding the Veins, and Issues
drain the whole body of naughty humors: All which remedies, properly
and timely used, keep the body from being choak'd with superfluities.
There are several other ways of cures besides for several diseases, but
I leave those to learned and skilful Physicians, who know best how and
when to use them to the benefit and health of their Patients, although
your _Author_ finds much fault with them, and blames them for suffering
men to die miserably; but God has given power to Nature to make certain
dissolutions, although uncertain diseases, and uncertain remedies.
Neither hath she in her power to give Immortal Life to particular
Creatures, for this belongs to God alone, and therefore no Universal
Medicine will keep out death, or prolong life further then its thread
is spun, which I doubt is but a Chymæra, and an impossible thing,
by reason there are not onely so many different varieties in several
diseases, but in one and the same disease, as no Universal remedy
would do any good. But your _Author_ is much pleased with Paradoxes,
and Paradoxes are not certain Truths: Wherefore it is better, in my
judgment, to follow the old approved and practised way of the Schools,
grounded upon Experience and Reason, then his Paradoxical Opinions.
To which Schools, as your _Author_ is a great Enemy, so I am a great
Friend, as well as,
Madam,
_Your Ladiships_
_humble Servant._
[1] Of Cauteries.