_MADAM,_
In your _Authors_ Treatise of Fevers, I find one Chapter[1] whose
Inscription is, _A Perfect Curing of all Fevers_, wherein he declares
the secrets of the Cures of Fevers, consisting all in Chymical
Medicines. But considering, that if all Fevers could be cured by such
Medicines, then all Physicians would strive to obtain them; I can
hardly believe (by your _Authors_ favour) that any such perfect curing
of all Fevers can be effected, but that your _Authors_ prescriptions,
if they should come to the tryal, might fail as well as any other.
Likewise he mentions a Medicine of _Paracelsus_, Named _Diaceltesson_,
or the _Coraline Secret_; which, he says, cures radically the Gout no
less then Fevers: Which if so, I wonder why so many Great, Noble and
Rich Persons, groan so much under the pains of the Gout; certainly
it is not for want of cost to have them prepared, nor for want of an
ingenious and experienced Chymist; for this age doth not want skilful
workmen in that Art, nor worthy and wise Physicians, which if they knew
such soveraign medicines, would soon apply them to their Patients;
but I suppose that they finding their effects to be less then the
cost and labour bestowed upon them, forbear to use them. Moreover, he
mentions[2] another remedy for most diseases, by him call'd _Driff_,
prepared also by the Art of Chymistry; but I believe all those remedies
will not so often cure, as fail of cure, like as the Sympathetical
Powder; for if there were such soveraign medicines that did never fail
of a successful effect, certainly men being curious, inquisitive,
and searching, would never leave till they had found them out. Also
amongst Vegetables, the herb _Chameleon_ and _Arsmart_ are in great
request with your _Author_; For, says he, _they by their touching
alone, do presently take away cruel diseases, or at leastwise ease
them._ Which if so, I wonder that there is not more use made of them,
and they held in greater esteem then they are; Also that your _Author_
doth not declare the vertue of them, and the manner and way how, and
in what diseases to use them, for the benefit of his neighbour, to
which end, he says, all his labours and actions are directed? But
again, your _Author_ confirms, as an Eye-witness, _That the bone of
the arm of a Toad presently has taken away the Tooth-ach at the first
co-touching._ Which remedy, if it was constant, few, in my opinion,
would suffer such cruel pains, and cause their teeth to be drawn out,
especially if sound. Likewise of the mineral _Electrum or Amber_ of
_Paracelsus_, he affirms[3] to have seen, that _hung about the neck, it
has freed those that were persecuted by unclean spirits_, and that many
simples have done the like effects; but surely, _Madam_, I cannot be
perswaded that the Devil should be put away so easily; for he being a
Spirit, will not be chased by corporeal means, but by spiritual, which
is Faith, and Prayer; and the cure of dispossessing the Devil belongs
to Divines, and not to Natural Philosophers or Physicians. But though
exterior remedies, as Amulets, Pomanders, and the like, may perform
sometimes such effects as to cure or preserve from some diseases, yet
they are not ordinary and constant, but meerly by chance. But there are
more false remedies then true ones, and if one remedy chance to work
successfully with one distempered person, it may fail of its success
applyed to others in the same kind of distemper; nay, it may cure
perhaps one and the same person of a distemper once, and in the return
of the same disease effect little or nothing; witness those remedies
that are applyed in Agues, Tooth-aches, and the like, especially
Amulets; for one and the same disease in several persons, or in one and
the same person at several times, may vary and change so often, and
proceed from so different causes, and be of so different tempers, and
have such different motions, as one and the same medicine can do no
good: And what would the skill of Physicians be, if one remedy should
cure all diseases? Why should they take so much pains in studying the
various causes, motions, and tempers of diseases, if one medicine had a
general power over all? Nay, for what use should God have created such
a number of different simples, Vegetables, and Minerals, if one could
do all the business? Lastly, your _Author_ rehearses[4] some strange
examples of Child-bearing Women, who having seen terrible and cruel
sights, as Executions of Malefactors, and dismembring of their bodies,
have brought forth monstrous births, without heads, hands, arms, leggs,
&c. according to the objects they had seen. I must confess, _Madam_,
that all Creatures are not always formed perfect; for Nature works
irregularly sometimes, wherefore a Child may be born defective in some
member or other, or have double members instead of one, and so may
other animal Creatures; but this is nevertheless natural, although
irregular to us: but to have a Child born perfect in the womb, and the
lost member to be taken off there, and so brought forth defective,
as your _Author_ mentions, cannot enter my belief; neither can your
_Author_ himself give any reason, but he makes onely a bare relation
of it; for certainly, if it was true, that the member was chopt, rent
or pluckt off from the whole body of the Child, it could not have
been done without a violent shock or motion of the Mother, which I am
confident would never have been able to endure it; for such a great
alteration in her body, would of necessity, besides the death of the
Child, have caused a total dissolution of her own animal parts, by
altering the natural animal motions: But, as I said above, those births
are caused by irregular motions, and are not frequent and ordinary; for
if upon every strange sight, or cruel object, a Child-bearing-woman
should produce such effects, Monsters would be more frequent then they
are. In short, Nature loves variety, and this is the cause of all
strange and unusual natural effects; and so leaving Nature to her will
and pleasure, my onely delight and pleasure is to be,
Madam,
_[Your] faithful Friend, and humble Servant._
[1] _Ch._ 14.
[2] In the _Ch._ named _Butler_.
[3] Ch. Of the manner of entrance of things darted into the body.
[4] _Ch._ Of things injected into the body.