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Title: Medicina Gymnastica
       or, A treatise concerning the power of exercise, with
       respect to the animal oeconomy; and the great necessity
       of it in the cure of several distempers

Author: Francis Fuller

Release Date: October 18, 2020 [EBook #63497]

Language: English

Character set encoding: UTF-8

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We whose Names are here Subscrib’d, having perus’d this Discourse,
Entitled, _Medicina Gymnastica, &c._ Judge it well Worthy to be
Communicated to the Publick.

_Datum in Comitiis Censoriis ex ædibus nostri Collegii, ~Febr, 2.
1704/5~._

    _Edwardus Brown_, Præses.

    _Walt. Charlton_, }
    _W. Vaughan_,     }
    _Walt. Harris_,   }
    _Jo. Hawys_,      } Censores.

    _Joh. Bateman_, Regist.




                         _Medicina Gymnastica_:

                                  OR, A

                                TREATISE

                             Concerning the

                           POWER of EXERCISE,

                           With Respect to the

                            Animal Oeconomy;

                                 AND THE

                    Great Necessity of it in the Cure

                                   OF

                           Several Distempers.

                       By _FRANCIS FULLER_, M. A.

                   The Second Edition, with Additions.

                                _LONDON_:

                   Printed for ROBERT KNAPLOCK, at the
            _Angel_ and _Crown_ in St. _Paul_’s Church-Yard.
                                 MDCCV.




THE PREFACE.


_The Generality of Men, have for a long time had too Narrow Thoughts
of Physick, as if it were in a manner Confin’d to little more than
Internals, without allowing themselves the Liberty of common Reasoning,
by which they easily might have found that the Humane Body is liable to,
and requires several Administrations of a very Different Nature, and
that it is very unreasonable to suppose, that since there are so many
ways for Diseases to enter upon us, there should be so few for Health
to return by. Internals do indeed make up the far greatest part of the
Means of Cure, but yet there are Considerable Cases, where the very
Nature of the thing requires other Methods; and this would appear very
obvious, if it were not for our too Partial Consideration of the Body
of Man, by attributing too much to the Fluids, and too little to the
Solids, both which, tho’ they have a Mutual Dependance upon one another,
yet have each of ’em some Proprieties, and if out of Order, require
something particular in the Application to restore ’em again. Consent
in the Solids, answers to Mixture in the Fluids; and as an ill Ferment,
as soon as it comes into the Blood, diffuses and mixes it self with the
whole Mass, and cannot often be extirpated, till the Medicine given for
that end, has been taken so long as to be diffus’d and intimately mix’d
with the Blood likewise; so a Violent Seizure in one of the Solid Parts,
commonly draws all the rest into Consent, and a particular Application
to the Place primarily affected shall do no good, when a Universal one
shall Cure; and a thing which would be trivial and Vain, if us’d as
a Topick, shall by a Universal Administration prove of the greatest
Importance. We see Contraries often prove Remedies to one another in the
Juices, and Poisons become Beneficial, when oppos’d to certain Humours,
why should we not then allow of the same Rule, in the Containing Parts of
the Body? If by a Supine Course of Life, the Nervous parts are weakned
and relax’d, why should we not suppose the contrary way of Living, the
most likely to repair ’em? Since the Vigour of those parts is acquir’d by
Use; they are the Active part of the Man, and not always liable to the
Impressions of the Fluids, for tho’ you invigorate the Blood ever so much
by the most generous Medicines, the Nerves may remain Effete and Languid
notwithstanding; but if the Nervous parts are extended and exercis’d,
the Blood and the Humours must necessarily partake of the Benefit, and
soon discover it by the Increase of their Heat and Motion. There is so
much of a Relative Nature in every thing, that can concern the Health
or Distemperature of the Individual, that there is scarce any thing so
prejudicial, or seemingly Absurd, but may in different Circumstances
prove as Advantageous. The World has lately had full Evidence of the
good Effects of an Intense Cold, equally apply’d to all the Parts of
the Body at once, which Method of Curing would, not many Years agoe,
have been thought very Extravagant, and certainly Destructive. On the
contrary, there are other Cases, where a Warm Bath is only prevalent; and
though some People have suppos’d it to be only a kind of a last Resort,
when other things have been try’d in Vain, yet it is quite otherwise,
it being impossible to remove some Diseases of the Limbs, without an
universal equal Relaxation. Again, quite different from this is the equal
Distribution of a greater Degree of Heat throughout the whole Body, which
is procur’d by Habitual Exercise; in the former Method, the Parts are
relax’d, in this they are strengthned, and in every Respect the Effects
are widely different, tho’ in both ways there is a considerable Encrease
of Heat. But to carry this enquiry farther, there are some Distempers,
and those not altogether so rare neither, in the Cure of which no
Positive Physick of any sort whatsoever, can be serviceable, nothing
but a gradual Substraction of the Cause, an Alterative abstinence, if
I may so speak, being necessary; as there have been some Gouts in some
temperate Persons, of a strong and rank Constitution, which nothing
could remove but a very low Diet, and an entire Abstinence from Flesh;
to them Flesh being as Wine is to others, who Contract that Distemper
by their Excess: and the same Observation holds good likewise in the
~Opthalmia~, and some other Cases of the Eyes, as any that will duly
weigh the Circumstances of some Persons often subject to ’em, will find
Reason to believe, so that some Men are by their Constitutions condemn’d
to an Antidiluvian Diet of Roots and Vegetables, or else to suffer worse
Inconveniences; and when those happen, it is absurd to expect, by the
most Celebrated Remedy to cure the Disease, when the Cause continues.
These are Instances of several Methods, widely differing from one
another, and yet of absolute Necessity in their particular Cases, which
shews us, that we ought not to be so eager after Courses of Pharmacy in
all Cases, without distinguishing where other ways are most rational. It
is one thing to dispose Nature to collect her own Strength, and throw
off her Enemy; and it is another to assist her by the ~Corpuscula~, the
Minute parts of a Medicine given inwardly; the first way has Regard to
the whole Animal Oeconomy; the second reflects the Blood and Juices
chiefly; the first may succeed, where the second cannot, because here the
Laws of Motion, and the Rules of the Oeconomy are enforc’d, and brought
to be assisting to a Recovery of Health, which in some few Cases can’t be
effected by a private and simple Attempt upon the Blood only._

_These are Notices which don’t lie so far out of the reach of any Man,
that will give himself leave to animadvert upon the Misfortunes of
his Neighbours, but that they may discern’d; and if they were duly
considered, there could be no room for Empiricism, for that is founded
on the Folly, or Negligence of Mankind; and if Men will give themselves
up to Expectation, and resolve to be always alike Passive, in Hopes the
Miracle will be wrought upon ’em, without any Concurrence on their part,
it is but just they should suffer something from the Pedantry, the little
things of the Profession, which they are so dispos’d to receive._

_As for the Exercise of the Body, which is the Subject of this ensuing
Discourse, if People would not think so superficially of it, if they
would but abstract the Benefit got by it, from the Means by which it is
got, they would set a great Value upon it; if some of the Advantages
accruing from Exercise, were to be procur’d by any one Medicine, nothing
in the World would be in more Esteem, than that Medicine would be; but
as those Advantages are to be obtain’d another way, and by taking some
Pains, Mens Heads are turn’d to overlook and slight ’em. The habitual
increasing of the Natural Heat of the Body, as I took Notice above, is
not to be despis’d; but if we consider that it is done without charging
Nature with any subsequent Load, it ought to be more valuable, for I may
by some generous Medicine, or a Glass of Wine, raise Nature to a great
Pitch for a time, but then when these Ingredients come to be digested and
resolv’d into their Principles, Nature may be more oppress’d with the
Remains of the Medicine, than she was at first reliev’d by it: Therefore
if any Drug could cause such an Effect, as the Motion of the Bodies
does, in this Respect, it would be of singular Use, in some tender Cases
upon this very Account; but then add to this the great Strength, which
the Muscular and Nervous parts acquire by Exercises, if that could be
adequately obtain’d likewise by the same Internal Means, what a Value,
what an extravagant Esteem, would Mankind have for that Remedy, which
could produce such wonderful Effects? But since those Benefits are to be
procur’d another way, how difficult is it to bring People to conceive it?
To build up such a Belief in the Minds of Men, is to raise a Structure,
the Foundations of which, can be laid with no less Difficulty, than the
removing of the Rubbish of a Vulgar Error._

_As for what I have said, relating to the Balsamick Method in the Cure of
Consumptions, tho’ I may perhaps give Offence to many, yet I am sure I
speak the Thoughts of some of the greatest of the Profession, if not of
the generality of Physicians, who have for a great while, had a secret
Regret, at the ill Success of those Means, which nothing could have
stifl’d and suppress’d, but the Difficulty of agreeing to substitute
better. This I do not pretend to do neither, this would be too daring
an Enterprize for me; I only point out some few Mistakes, which one of
my little Consideration, may sometimes discern in the Actions of those
of greater Condition. And perhaps when these Mistakes are rectified,
the Business is done, as well as if I had discovered to the World, some
wondrous Medicine, dignifi’d with as many and as swelling Titles, as an
Eastern Monarch; for it seems to me to be a great Mistake, to wait for
some Medicine of a great Character, to be the Specifick, or Certain or
Adequate Remedy of this Disease. I am inclin’d to think, that the Cure
must result as much from some Circumstances of Management, as from any
Medicine. ~I~ believe we have the best of Medicines for this Case, in
our Hands, if we did but take Pains to obviate some minute Circumstances,
that make those Medicines often prove deficient; if the Success did
not vary by Reason of such small Emergencies, ~I~ don’t know how we
should account for what we find to be true, ~viz.~ that some common and
despicable Medicines shall in one Person produce a wonderful Cure, and
in another do nothing at all, tho’ as far as Humane Wisdom can discern,
the Case is exactly the same in both; and why should it seem strange,
if this should happen in Cases, so fine as those of the Lungs, when we
see in several Manufactures the Accuracy and Perfection of an Operation
shall depend upon a certain ~Finesse~, the ~Criterion~ of which is scarce
to be describ’d, but to be learn’d only by Numerous Repetitions. A Man
may be told the Ingredients of a Composition, and the way of working
’em up; may see it done, and not be able to distinguish the Nicety of
the Circumstances, which conspire to make the Work consummate. Do not
we know, that in the ~Dyers~ Trade, (to give but one Instance) their
Mixtures shall sometimes miscarry, and the best Artist not be able to
shew a Reason for it; now if it is thus in matters of Artifice, I think
we may with great reason suspect something of a like Nature, in some few
Cases of the Humane Body; in these Maladies of the Breath, there is a
~Finesse~ peculiarly distinguish’d from the Circumstances of any other
Diseases, as is apparent from the Power of so fine a Body as the Air; and
therefore we need not think it so strange, that a little matter should
be able to give a good or bad turn. And if this will be allow’d to be
good Reasoning; what can be so likely to obviate such Miscarriages, as
a due application to that most moderate and easie Exercise, which I
have apply’d to the Cure of this Distemper? That a mild Exercise will
do something like this, may be learnt from the Effects of those which
are more violent; we know very well what has follow’d upon going into
the ~Bagnio~, after violent Exercises, the Blood of those Persons who
have done so, has so been exalted in its Crasis, as to be upon that
very account, fatally Preternatural; tho’ upon the first Thought, One
would be apt to conclude, that such violent Perspirations should rather
impoverish the Blood; but it is quite contrary, just as in Hot Climates,
tho’ People Sweat profusely, yet they are rather the more Brisk and
Lively for it. And thus Moderate Exercise, by Augmenting the Natural Heat
of the Body, will enrich the Fluids, and by encreasing the Velocity of
the Circulation, every the minutest Particle will be brought much oftner
to the Test of the Strainers, than otherwise it would have been; so that
both the Venous Fluid and the Spirits will after an Eminent Manner be
exalted, and as it were Rectifi’d in the making. Therefore it cannot be
a doubt, that these means may improve a Medicine, when it comes into the
Blood, supply its deficiency, and remove the Inscrutable Inpediments in
the Cure of so nice a Disease, as this I am speaking of._

_These things are not owing to Notion and Speculation, but to Practical
Observation; I cannot tell otherwise how to explain what I have seen
to be the Effects of such means; I have seen a Poor Gentleman at
~Hampstead~, in the most deplorable extremity of a Consumption, betake
himself to Riding twice or thrice a day, upon his Waters, put a stop for
a time to his Distemper, and keep Death as it were at a Bay for some
Weeks; which plainly shew’d, that if he had done so sooner, his former
Medicines would undoubtedly have took effect; and how shall I account
for this, but after some such manner as I have here insisted on? This
is the Sum of my Thoughts on this Case, and if it does not strike the
Imaginations of some People with so much Surprize, as other Pharmaceutick
Discourses, I cannot help it; nay, if any should be so hard upon me, as
to alledge that I am quite mistaken in the Cure of this Disease, when far
advanc’d, let it be so; yet I hope they will allow me thus much, that it
appears plain enough, for the Nature and Power of Exercise, that we ought
to distinguish in this Distemper in like manner, as we do in another,
which it would not be good Manners to mention, at the same time with the
Consumption of the Lungs; in which latter Case, if a Young ~Debauchee~
happens to get a Misfortune, he does not let it run on till it come under
another Denomination, but looks out for a present Cure, which may then
be certainly obtain’d; and so I think it is no less obvious, if Exercises
be as efficacious as I assert, that it is our Choice, whether a Cough
shall run on to a Consumption; that is, I understand, that when a Cough
comes to last above a Month, and begins to chop in its Indications, to
require one while incrassating Medicines, another while attenuating ones;
I say it is high time to look out, and set upon a resolute Course of
Riding; that by a Series of Journeys, continued Day after Day without
intermission, the obstructed Perspirations may be restor’d, which may
then be easily effected, because the Body not being then much impair’d,
so many Millions of Succussions coming close upon one another, must
affect both the Strainers of the whole Body, and the Juices to be
strain’d; and he who can oppose a Truth so manifest, must fly in the Face
of Nature, and deny the Principles of the Oeconomy._

_Having had some Occasion to mention the Ancients, and since Gymnastick
Courses made a great part of their Physick, perhaps some will think I am
setting up for one of those who cry up the Ancients upon all occasions,
out of pure Enmity to the Authors of Modern Discoveries, but they will
find themselves mistaken; I neither affect to be of a Party in Physick,
or Singular; I seldom yet knew any one, who cry’d up ~Acids~, or cry’d
down ~Bleeding~, who extoll’d the ~Ancients~ universally, and vilifi’d
the ~Moderns~, but if he really understood what he pretended to, had
some By-end to serve in so doing. I owe the Ancients no more Respect,
than what is due to those upon whose Shoulders we stand, and upon whose
Rudiments we have Built; we know their Ætiology was all wrong, their
Pharmacy in general was Rough and Barbarous. (I say in General, for
there are some few Cases in which their Medicine will perhaps last for
ever,) but yet the ways they took to supply their want of Medicine
were very commendable, and may shame us; their exquisite diligence
in establishing certain Diagnosticks, and their Recourse to various
Exercises, to help out what they wanted in other means; ’tis the last of
these which has given me occasion to take Notice of ’em, and I think it
will appear in the following Discourse to be of so much Importance, that
not only in their days, but in ours also, the Art of Curing may be said
to be in some Measure imperfect without it, there being some Cases in
which the Use of Exercises will be absolutely necessary as long as Nature
shall last._

_I have this more to add, that I did not take this Subject out of Choice
but Necessity, ’tis not owing to Theory and Speculation, but Experience;
the severest Experience, which my own Misfortunes have given me but too
much occasion to make in a Distemper, which some Years ago I happen’d to
be afflicted with, as I have related in the ~Appendix~ to this Treatise;
’twas under that severe Discipline I made most of the Observations of
this Treatise; and tho’ mine was an Anomalous and singular Case, yet
from what I perceiv’d to be the immediate Effects of that Exercise in
common to all, and from the manner by which it caus’d my Distemper to
give way, I could not but discern in what other Cases it was likely to
be of the same Consequence, and I have had so very many Serious and Calm
hours to confirm me in these Notions, that I cannot think I have extended
’em too far._

_As for what Reception these Papers are like to meet with, tho’ ~I~
have ventur’d abroad in a Cause so obsolete, in an Age so fruitful in
Pharmacy, and abounding in Splendid Discoveries; and tho’ I am destitute
of a New Hypothesis, that Specious Image of Truth, that Idol to which
the Learned all bow down; yet, if what I have advanc’d be strictly
Conformable to Truth, and of real Necessity in some few Extremities, I
hope I may pass, upon the Merits of my Subject, tho’ without Flourish and
Ornament._




_Medicina Gymnastica_:

OR, A TREATISE

Concerning the

_Power of Exercise_

With Respect to the

Animal Oeconomy.


That the Use of Exercise does conduce very much to the Preservation of
Health, that it promotes the Digestions, raises the Spirits, refreshes
the Mind, and that it strengthens and relieves the whole Man, is scarce
disputed by any; but that it should prove Curative in some particular
Distempers, and that too when scarce any thing else will prevail, seems
to obtain little Credit with most People, who tho’ they will give a
Physician the hearing when he recommends the frequent Use of Riding, or
any other sort of Exercise; yet at the bottom look upon it as a forlorn
Method, and the Effect rather of his Inability to relieve ’em, than of
his Belief that there is any great matter in what he advises: Thus by a
negligent Diffidence they deceive themselves, and let slip the Golden
Opportunities of recovering, by a diligent Struggle, what could not be
procur’d by the Use of Medicine alone.

Whether this proceeds from the Customs of these Northern Nations, so
different from those of the Ancients, and of more Southern Countries,
who seem to have plac’d almost as much in their Methods of Exercise, as
in their internal Physick; or whether from the narrow Notions most People
have conceiv’d of the Art of Physick, as if it imply’d little more than
Internals only, without considering that External, Mechanical, and all
other Means whatsoever, that give Relief, properly belong to it; this I
shall not pretend to determine, but this I think I may venture to affirm,
That most Men indulge themselves in the Expectation of more sudden
Relief, than the Nature of the Case will admit of, as if they thought
that Medicine was always to take like a Charm, without putting ’em to the
Expence of much Time or Pains; they do not consider the wonderful Variety
of the Disorders of Nature, and the Stubbornness of some Cases, which
will not permit the Sick to be wholly passive, but indispensably oblige
him to conspire with his Physician, and strive indefatigably to exalt
his Constitution to a degree requisite to supply the Defect of internal
Physick; which industrious striving on the part of the Sick, being what
is here meant by Exercise, and which it is my purpose to represent, as
more efficacious than it is generally believ’d to be; I think it proper,
first to explain what I mean by it in this place.

By _Exercise_ then, I understand all that Motion or Agitation of the
Body, of what kind soever, whether voluntary or involuntary, and all
Methods whatsoever, which without the Use of Internals, may (or without
which Internals alone may not always) suffice to enable Nature to expel
the Enemy which oppresses her; confining my self to the Consideration
of it only as it may prove Curative, not as Palliative, or barely
Preservative.

And here, before I attempt to demonstrate how Exercise proves so
beneficial in some few Cases, it may not be amiss to premise briefly
some of the ways Nature takes to relieve her self, when in danger of
being oppress’d, which may serve to illustrate my following Discourse;
as likewise some Instances of the Efforts of Nature, caus’d by external
Application, or at least by such Internals as cannot be suppos’d to
be Cordial or Vinous, or to be assimilated with the Blood and Animal
Spirits.

_First_, then; We may observe how Nature acquits her self of what we
commonly call a Cold, wherein a considerable quantity of the _Materia
perspirabilis_ is detain’d, by a sudden Constriction of the Pores of the
Skin, we shall find, that after some time the saline Particles growing
turgid, vellicate some Fibres of the fifth Pair of Nerves dispers’d
about the Nose, which by consent draw the Diaphragm into a Convulsive
Motion, by which the Air is press’d out of the Lungs thro’ the Nose with
some Violence; and by the shock the Glands of those Parts are open’d,
and the Humour, which was detain’d, is let out. This is _Sneezing_; to
which frequently is join’d _Gauping_ or _Retching_, another Method of
Nature to shake off a Load that she finds growing upon her; this is
more often repeated than _Sneezing_, and may be conceiv’d to dilate some
internal Parts by those Stretchings out of the Limbs, and more plentiful
Inspiration; _Sanctorius_ tells us in the 31st _Aphorism_ of his _fourth_
Section, that, _Corpora Oscitatione & Pandiculatione horæ dimidiæ spatio
magis perspirant, quàm tribus horis alterius temporis_, and compares it
to a Cock’s clapping his Wings after his Rest; so that it is manifest,
that even in that vulgar Affect there is an Alteration caused in the
Body, that is not Contemptible.

To these may be added the _Singultus_ or Hiccough, by which the
Ventricle, when too full, endeavours to relieve her self, either by
throwing off some of the rarifi’d Contents by the Gullet, or perhaps by
the _Pylorus_.

_Lastly_, Let us consider how _Laughter_ affects us, and it will appear,
that this Contrivance of Nature, wherein the Body does sympathize with
the Mind, proves so beneficial, by the playing of the Muscles of the
_Thorax_, and the pressing out of the saline Particles, so frequently
and sensibly as it does in some chearful People, to whom it is more
habitual than others, insomuch that it comes to be Proverbially, a Cause
of Fatness. All these Instances shew, that Nature seems to receive more
Relief from the Compression or acting of the containing Parts strictly
taken, than most Men easily imagine.

As to extraordinary Efforts of Nature, to pass by what happens upon
a sudden Surprize, Fear, Passion, or the like; it is certain, that
Torture will raise the Spirits for some time very much, and there are
as great Effects follow upon Irritation, which does not come up to the
perfect Notion of Torture. What wonderful Effects do we see produc’d by
strong Emeticks given by Surgeons in some Cases of the Limbs and extreme
Parts? Where a Person so griev’d has oftentimes a robust Constitution
and perfect Health, there the Medicines, tho’ given inwardly, cannot be
suppos’d to act after the common manner of Alteratives, by passing into
the Blood, by the Spirituousness of their Parts, or the like; for the
Person being in Health needs no Alteration to be made in the Blood, and
other Juices, which are as good as they can be desir’d to be; but by the
Irritation of the Fibres in the Ventricle, the Spirits are rais’d to
the highest pitch they are capable of, and brought to communicate that
Elasticity to the whole Body, all the Springs of Life are wound up,
all the Pumps of Nature (if I may so speak) set a playing, and by these
means the Agony is extended to the extreme Part affected, and the Matter
fixt there is attenuated and brought to flow, that it may be absorb’d by
the Blood, and discharg’d in the Circulation; Nay, we may take notice
of the great Power of a more gentle Irritation of those Fibres in those
weaker _Hysterical_ People, whose Spirits are of so fine a Make, or so
scatter’d and weakened, that they can’t long bear Fasting, without very
troublesome Symptoms following upon it, for they, we may perceive, are
in a sense strengthen’d at those times that the Contents of the Stomach
happen to be so rarifi’d, as to cause a gentle _Ægritudo_, a lingring
Sickness and Nauseousness, tho’ not sufficient to cause ’em to vomit,
for they shall then dispense with the want of that Food, without which
at other times they could not possibly subsist with any tolerable Ease,
and find themselves as strong and as free from their Tremors, Shiverings,
and other ill Symptomes, as if they had eat and drank plentifully; and
likewise during that Sickness the Salts shall come off plentifully
in the Urine, which will then recover its proper Colour, tho’ it was
before as limpid as common Water; from hence it is manifest, that the
Animal Spirits may be made to expand, dilate, or in some ways act upon
themselves, without the encreasing their quantity by such internal
Medicines as may be suppos’d to be converted into their Substance.

Having premis’d these things, I shall proceed to enquire, after what
manner Nature endeavours to clear her self of some few Distempers, which
I shall consider in their proper place, and likewise how she may the
more easily succeed in those Endeavours, if duly assisted by moderate
Exercise; which Assistance, if it at first View may seem too slow and
gentle to produce so great Effects, will yet with the Allowance justly
due to all sorts of Alterative Physick, _viz._ of a Habit or frequent
Repetition, appear to be sufficient to procure those Ends I shall assign
to it.

There is this Difference between the most compleat Productions of Humane
Artifice, and that Divine Piece of Mechanism, the Body of Man, that the
former are always the worse for wearing, and decay by Use and Motion; the
latter, notwithstanding the Tenderness of its Contexture, improves by
Exercise, and acquires by frequent Motion an Ability to last the longer;
and tho’ the Circulation, and continual and infinite Succession of
Particles, are the immediate Cause of Life, yet the Health, the Strength,
the Well-being of the Individual, is in great part owing to the Effects
of a General Motion superinduc’d to these internal Motions; which it is
so far from disordering, that it aids and assists ’em to a greater degree
than we are wont to imagine; for in our Considerations of the Animal
Oeconomy, we seem to regard Nature only as in a quiescent State, without
a due Allowance for the Alterations caus’d by the Motion of the whole,
which yet are confess’d by all to be sometimes of great Consequence:
for that General Motion acting both on the Fluids and Solids of the
Body, may sometimes prove the last and best Resort for the Restoring the
_Æquilibrium_ between ’em.

As for the Fluids; One would think the Shape and Make of the
Blood-Vessels were sufficient alone to lead us into an Opinion of the
Necessity of Exercise; by reason they all terminate in a Cone, they must
needs resist the Passage of the Blood incomparably more than they would
have done if they had been Cylindrical; and tho’ all the Branches of the
Capillary Arteries, would, if taken Collectively, make a greater Diameter
than that of the great Artery, yet the Consistence of the Blood, and
the extreme Fineness of those invisible Meanders, require the frequent
Pressure and Assistance of the Muscles to encrease the Circulation, which
accordingly we always find very much augmented by those Means; yet ’tis
the Result of this swifter Current of the Blood, which should be most
valuable to us, I mean the better Digestion and Mixture of the various
Particles convey’d into the Blood. I believe it will be allowed on all
hands, that the best way to bring an Animal Fluid to a greater degree of
Perfection, is Digestion; and the Excellency of that Operation consists
in the just Degree of Heat which causes it; or, to speak perhaps more
properly, in the just Agitation or intestine Motion of the Particles
which may be suppos’d to occasion that Heat. The Standard or Measure of
this Heat or Agitation in the Animal Oeconomy, is to be taken from what
we observe in a Man in perfect Health, and in the Prime of his Age; when
his Blood flows with its due Velocity, when there is an uninterrupted
Secretion of all that is disagreeable to it, and it is wrought up to its
florid Consistence, and a just proportion between the Serous and Grumous
parts. Now this we may successfully imitate by repeated Exercise, when
the Blood happens to be impoverish’d and Languid, we may encrease the
Velocity of the Circulation, and consequently the Heat following upon it,
by which a great many crude Particles will be attenuated and ripen’d,
either for Mixture or Secretion, and there will be an equal Distribution
of the attenuated Particles to the several Emunctories of the whole Body,
by reason of the Solids co-operating with the Fluids; whereas it is often
quite otherwise, when an internal Medicine is given design’d for one
Secretion only, which may promote that, and perhaps hinder another; as a
Medicine which agrees with the Stomach, sometimes offends the Head; for
the Nervous Parts being, as it were, Passive in the Case, the Secretions
cannot be so equally performed as when the whole Body is exercis’d.
I would not be here mis-understood, as if I suppos’d that this first
Effect of Motion, this Digestion, would avail in many Cases, as where an
ill Ferment is lodg’d in the Glands, or where the Morbifick Particles
have been long a forming, and are strongly combin’d in the Blood, but
this may take place where a greater degree of Agitation is absolutely
necessary; as when the Blood is Effete and Languid, when the Chyle comes
into it dispirited, and when even a proper Medicine proves offensive
and burthensome, and there is scarce Power enough left in the Blood to
master its Particles, and apply ’em to their proper Uses; then, I say,
’tis time to make the Solids assist the Fluids in the dispensing of this
Load which lies so hard upon ’em, which by gentle and close Exercise may
be more easily done than many imagine; besides there may be a Distemper
occasion’d by Particles of a looser Texture in the Blood, than is usual
in most Cases, where Nature may contend and struggle with the hostile
Particles, and yet not be able to get the Victory; where there may not be
a perfect Fever, nor yet a quiet Coalition between the Blood and those
foreign Particles. In such a Distemper as this, it must needs be very
proper to give a due Agitation to the Blood, to prepare those Particles
for the several Emunctories that are ready to receive ’em: and this
may be perform’d by a just Digestion, if we do but consider how much
the Body is adapted to it, and how much more Noble the Digestions are
in the Animal Oeconomy, than those produc’d by humane Contrivance. In
all artificial Digestions the Particles which are to be separated by
the Agitation of the Liquor, must either evaporate, or subside; but in
the Body there are a multitude of excretory Ducts ready to receive the
Particles, of such a determinate Figure, as renders ’em excrementitious,
and proper to be cast off; so that nothing is left but what is proper
to the Animal Fluids, and which the Vehemence of the Motion mixes and
unites at the same time that it breaks and moulds the others for their
proper excretory Chanels; so that the Agitation is in this Case (as Dr.
_Grew_ very well expresses it in his Treatise of _Mixture_) as “_carrying
the Key to and fro, till it hit the Lock; or within the Lock, till it
hit the Wards_.” How do we know the exact Degree of Agitation, that
is requisite to unite the Particles of the Fat, which are continually
flowing in a very great quantity into the Blood, with the Aqueous, by the
Means of sulphureous or saline Particles? Do we not frequently observe in
scorbutick Persons, who have lead a sedentary Life, that their Urines are
cover’d with an oily Film of several Colours? and is it not very natural
to suppose from thence, that the Blood wants a due Motion to keep those
oily Parts united with the others? But it is no wonder, if these things
are not well consider’d, when there is scarce any who makes Allowance
enough for the quantity of the fat Particles, which are continually
passing into the Blood, which must needs be very great, seeing the
whole Skin is lin’d with its Vessels, besides what is heap’d up about
the _Omentum_ and the Kidneys; so that Unctuous Medicines are copiously
intruded upon the Habit of the Body when there is a great Wasting of the
Flesh, without regarding that the Blood is not able to master the natural
_Pinguedo_, but gives it down daily, in all probability, for want of a
just degree of Agitation or Digestion, to keep it suspended in the Blood,
and to apply it to its proper Uses, and prepare it for its proper Vessels.

Besides the Power of Exercise on the Secretions of Particles purely
Excrementitious, and the better Mixture of those which are Homogeneous;
it is to be consider’d, that there are in the Oeconomy Secretions made
to return with Advantage into the Blood, out of which they are made; and
the Consideration of the Nature of these does afford us fresh Reasons
to set a Value upon the Use of Exercise, because the Body is so fram’d
and adapted, as to require it, in order to the furthering and increasing
these Operations; and if in the Business of Fermentation, which is
only a gradual Separation of the Must from the Spirituous Particles of
the Liquor, we find that the Motion of the Vessels in which the Liquor
fomenting is contain’d, does so much improve that Operation, as we are
convinc’d it does, by the Effects of the Carriage by Sea on Wines and
other Liquors in Casks; of how much greater Importance must the Motion
of the Body be, in order to the perfecting the Animal Fluids, in a System
of Mechanism so contriv’d, as to expect and demand such an Assistance?
Where the Solids are so fine-spun, as to determine the very Shape of the
Particles of a Fluid; and where they are so dispos’d, that a Fluid never
passes by ’em but it carries off some Melioration and Improvement, and
therefore cannot well arrive too frequently at those Passages where it
receives so happy an Alteration. Let us suppose the Blood to pass the
most extreme Parts twelve times in an Hour, when the Body is not mov’d;
if the Motion of the Body encreases this to fifteen or sixteen times in
an Hour, it will necessarily follow, that the Quantity of the Secretions
by the Liver, the Spleen, the Brain, and the rest of the Glands, which
separate the beneficial Juices, of which I am speaking; the quantity of
these, I say, must needs be augmented; which in Process of Time, when
this is brought to a Habit, must be of some Consequence. To insist but
on one of these Secretions; I take it to be no Paradox, that the more a
Man stirs himself, the more Animal Spirits are made in the Brain; tho’ it
will be strait retorted, that by the very same Motion and Exercise, there
will be a Waste of the Spirits by Perspiration, more than proportionable
to the Overplus that is made in the Brain; and tho’ I grant this, it will
not suffice to discompensate the Benefit which the Blood reaps from the
Augmentation of the Quantity of the Animal Spirits infus’d into it (if
I may so speak) from the Brain; because the true Animal Spirits have
their Work to do in the Blood, before they come to pass off at the Skin;
they are not of that Fugitive Make, which at first Thought most Men are
apt to suppose ’em to be; they seem to be destin’d to contemperate the
Acrimony of the Blood, to embrue it with a Plastick Quality, and may
serve to execute other Functions, besides that of Motion; so that it is
not at all to be wonder’d, if a Person, much accustom’d to Exercises,
notwithstanding the daily Expence of a greater Perspiration, should have
his Blood of a better Condition, and more Rich than that of another
Person living a sedentary Life, by reason of the greater Impression, the
greater Tincture (if I may be allow’d so to speak) of this most exquisite
and inimitable Fluid.

These Things are not to be stated exactly, and yet they are not to be
accounted altogether precarious; for tho’ we shall never perhaps be
able to know exactly what the Animal Spirits are, yet we may make a
shift to distinguish what they are not. According to the common Notions,
a well-prepar’d volatile Salt, after it has pass’d the Lacteals, and
comes into the Blood, might be taken to be a pure Animal Spirit; and
yet, undoubtedly, the Fluid, prepar’d by the Glands of the Brain, has
something in it transcendently preferable to any thing that can be
the Effect of Art. Whether those Glands are so dispos’d, as to unite
some Nitro-Aerial Particles with others proper to serve as a Vehicle
to ’em, is not to be determin’d by me or any Body else; but it may not
be altogether so absurd, to guess at some such thing, since we know
nothing in Nature that can afford Particles of that Elasticity as Nitre
does; and we may discern, that the Animal Spirits seem to consist of
a _Fulgur_, an _Impetum faciens_, something that is Irraditating; and
yet withal there seems to be something extremely Mild and Plastick, and
as it were Tenacious, combin’d with the Elastick. I hope I don’t run
into an _Hypothesis_; I would carry this no farther than it can be kept
in Countenance by _Phænomena_ arising in the Cure of Distempers; for
thus we see in the Nervous Atrophy, tho’ the Spirits, taken as _Impetum
facientes_, pass freely, and are not obstructed, as in the Palsie, yet
the Benign Plastick Quality seems to be wanting, because the Habit of
Body does not thrive, tho’ the Spirits are brought all over it; and
that the Spirits, when they are in their true Purity, are concern’d in
Nutrition, is plain enough; because the intercepting of ’em, by cutting
off a Nerve, always causes the wasting of the Part to which that Nerve
lead.

Thus I have endeavour’d to shew some of the secret Advantages accruing
to us from the frequent Use of Exercise; and by which it will appear,
that the Fluids of the Body are of such a Texture, as will admit of
Improvement from the greatest Rapidity of their Current, that is
consistent with the Organs thro’ which they are convey’d.

But, _Lastly_, to put these things past all Doubt, by a well-known
Observation; we need but consider what is sometimes the Effect of
too much Exercise upon taking a Purging Medicine, and that is an
_Hypercatharsis_. The Particles of the Drug being sublim’d, and render’d
more active by the greater Agitation in the Body, display a much greater
Violence than otherwise they would have done in a Person of the same
Constitution, who had given himself to Repose. This has been long ago
observ’d by _Hippocrates_, in the _fourteenth_ and _fifteenth Aphorisms_
of his _fourth Section_; From whence it naturally follows, that the
Motion of the Body may cause great Alterations in the Blood; may very
much improve any Juices that are convey’d into it; and that in some nice
Cases, where the Alterative Physick is very mild, and perhaps given in
too small a Quantity, it is absolutely necessary to have Recourse to
the Use of Exercise, to give an Energy to it, that it may produce the
desired Effect.

Having thus briefly consider’d the Power of the Use of Exercise, I come
now to shew, after what manner it affects the Solids; and that I take to
be, _first_, by giving a greater Tension to ’em, or restoring the true
Tone of the Parts, by curing the Relaxation by which they were weakned.

That I may explain what I mean by this _Tension_ or _Tone_ of the Parts,
it will be necessary to consider, _first_, how great is the Benefit
we daily receive by only changing the Position of our Bodies, from an
Horizontal to an Erect Position when we quit our Beds, where in the
time of Sleep the Body has been relaxed; and this will appear best by
the ill Consequences which follow upon a Person’s being confin’d by an
Accident to keep his Bed for a few days; for such a one always finds upon
his getting up again, that his Spirits are disorder’d; he finds himself
Vertiginous in some measure, and a great deal weaker than he was, before
he betook himself to that Posture: From whence it evidently appears,
that Standing or Sitting, the familiar Exercises (if I may so call ’em)
of the most sedentary Life, are absolutely requisite to keep up the
Balance on the part of the Solids, even in a State of Health, and that
more violent Exercises are as requisite to recover this Balance, when
sunk by Sickness. I know it may be objected here, that this Observation
is chiefly owing to the Custom of changing the Posture of the Body
alternately, in such a space of time, and that the breaking of that
Custom occasions those Disorders; but this will not suffice; for an erect
Position is essential to the well being of the Body of Man: and if the
Infant was not at such an Age brought to it by degrees by the Nurse,
tho’ it might grow up to the Bulk of a Man, and live many Years, yet it
would be a kind of bedridden Creature; Paralytick, as to the Use of its
Limbs, tho’ with the Sense of Feeling; and much weaker internally, for
want of that Advantage, which the Fluids receive from the Solids by this
most familiar degree of Tension; which we experience in Standing, which
Posture has ever been esteem’d as a Tonick Motion.

But the Stiffness or Strength of the solid Parts will appear more evident
by that sensible encrease of the Strength, which Men experience when
they set themselves upon any vigorous Exercise; which continues, till
thro’ the Greatness of the Perspiration they grow tyr’d, and relax
again; or, to borrow an Illustration from Beasts, It will appear by what
_Jockeys_ observe, who when they design to take the Bearings of a Running
Horse, that is, measure the Extent of his Stroaks, they usually let him
gallop a Mile or more first, as supposing that he can’t come upon his
Legs (as they term it) till he has run a considerable time; that is, he
can’t strike out so far, tho’ press’d ever so much to it, upon his first
setting out, as he can after he has run some time: which explains what
I assert, That a proper or due degree of Exercise, enables the Nerves
to dilate themselves sufficiently to take a greater Quantity of Animal
Spirits, or some other way, to us unknown, gives ’em a better Tone, or
Elater, and consequently fits ’em for more vigorous Actions.

But to bring the Sense of this Tension nearer to a Case of Sickness; Let
any Man reflect, how he found himself after an Acute Distemper, wherein
the solid Parts were mightily relax’d by the Heat of the Fever; when a
Man in that Case rises first from his sick Bed, and makes a shift to walk
a very little in his Chamber, tho’ he quickly grows faint, and wants
some Cordial to refresh him; that is, Tho’ his Vital Spirits sink, as
the Antients lov’d to express it, yet he perceives a certain Stiffness,
Tension, or Strength in the solid Parts, by that first attempt to walk,
which never leaves him, but encreases daily, till he recover his perfect
Health.

These are some familiar Instances of the Sense we have, after what manner
we come to acquire more Strength upon the Use of Exercise, and which
every Man almost may recollect, that he has experienc’d more or less in
himself; tho’ in other Cases the solid Parts are always strengthening
by Exercise, without so plain a Sense of it, as in the Instances above
mention’d; as we see what excessive Strength some Men gradually acquire
by a constant Practice of vehement Motions, begun when they are young,
which growing upon ’em by degrees, they are not so sensible of the
Encrease of it. This is the Case of Tumblers, Rope-dancers, and the like,
in whom the Nervous and Solid Parts must be incomparably more wound up,
more tense than in other People; and thus we see the strongest Men are
often thin and Raw-bon’d, as we call it; that is, tho’ daily hard Labour,
and great Perspiration carry off a great deal of the grosser Fluids of
the Body; yet are the Muscles not Flaccid, but Tense and Firm, capable
of greater Actions than the Muscles of those who seem to have a better
Habit of Body; which plainly indicates, that Exercise does communicate
some Strength to the Nervous Parts, which cannot be any other way
procur’d; and that we may argue from the greater to the less; that if
healthy Persons may acquire such monstrous Strength by Use, People that
are Valetudinary may, by setting themselves upon a resolute and diligent
Practice of moderate Exercise, obtain a proportionable Increase of
Strength.

It may be expected, perhaps, that I should endeavour to explain, how the
Fibres come to receive a greater Power to act, by being often put upon
Action, and to shew wherein the Elater, the Spring of the Solids, does
consist; but this has been attempted so largely by an Eminent Author, Dr.
_Baglivi_, and so much to the Disgust of very many, that it’s better to
rest contented with plain Experience, than to frame an _Hypothesis_ for
the _Modus_ of so abstruse a Method of Nature, which, in all likelyhood,
Mankind will ever be ignorant of; but as far as we may reasonably guess,
by frequent Distension the Nerves receive a greater quantity of Animal
Spirits, because the Limb which is most us’d, grows biggest; and there
is reason to induce us to suspect, that the Fibre it self strengthens
by Use, has a peculiar Faculty to exert it self more and more, as often
as the _Imperium Voluntatis_, the _Fiat of the Will_, sets it upon
Motion. But unless we knew the Bond of Union, and understood how the
Rational Soul acts upon the Animal Powers, we must be content to be most
ignorant, the nearer we approach in our Disquisitions to that Union; but
the Experimental Knowledge of these Parts sufficiently reproves those
who hope to be deliver’d from some Distempers seated in the Solids,
without acting suitably to the Nature of the Solids, the Subject of
their Distempers: As for Instance; Suppose a Person, by frequent and
unnecessary Use of the Bagnio, and more unnecessary Bleedings; by the
Use of hot Liquors, and a perfect Disuse of all Bodily Exercise; by
Passions of the Mind, and other Irregularities, is brought into the very
worst of Hysterick Symptomes, with a Flaccidity and Relaxation of the
whole Nervous System; How ridiculous is it, for such a Person to expect
to be perfectly restor’d to a firm Habit of Body by internal Alteratives,
and Methods little different from those things which occasion’d the
Distemper; which tho’ they may give wonderful Relief in the Paroxysm,
yet can never restore the Tone of the Solids, which must be treated in
a manner proper to themselves, by Frictions, Exercise of the Body, the
Cold Bath, and the like; which are very likely to be able to succeed to
a perfect Cure? For why ought we not to suppose, that as all Fluids have
more or less a Tendency to purifie and exalt themselves by Fermentation,
the Solids should otherwise have a Propensity proper to their Make, to
recover themselves by a due Tension? And what can be more reasonable
and natural, than to conclude, that if a Supine and Luxurious Course
of Life has enervated the Body, an Active and Vigorous one should
restore it? If it be objected, That gentle Emeticks have gone a great
way towards procuring a perfect Recovery from some Hysterick Cases; I
have premis’d already, that they act upon the Fibres, and put ’em upon
frequent Contractions, much after the same manner as a total Exercise of
the Body; and therefore in this last Case, where the first Passages are
not in Fault, their way of acting illustrates what I assert, that the
Solids must be made to strengthen themselves, and recover their Spring
by frequent Endeavours. But for Alteratives, strictly taken, I think
it may be justly a Question, Whether there is that Medicine in Nature,
that can remove this Distemper, when it has been of long continuance,
tho’ the World has been taught above an Age ago by _Paracelsus_ and his
Followers, to expect what I fear is not within the Extent of Nature; and
the Impudence of Empiricks is so great, as to promise every thing that
is absurd and Romantick; which keeps People up with hopes, that they
may be so happy as to meet with that mighty Secret, which even in the
quantity of a few drops, shall as it were charm away the most troublesome
and riveted Distemper, and so instead of being Cur’d, they are Kill’d
by Expectation; when the Power of Recovering their Health was in their
own hands, if they had resolutely set about the proper means; like the
Country-Fellow in the Fable, who when his Cart stuck fast in the Mire,
must needs be calling upon _Hercules_ to come and help him, when with
setting his own Shoulders to the Wheels, he might easily have got clear.

But moreover, a second Advantage arising from Exercise, is, that it
gives the Solid and Nervous Parts a grateful Sensation, which in some
Cases is not contemptible; a gentle Agitation of the Spirits being able
to remove some Pain situated in those Parts, which perhaps nothing else
would remove so surely and so soon. To explain the manner of this by a
trivial Observation (if any thing in Nature can be so) let us consider,
how we can separate the _Cuticle_ from the true _Cutis_ without Pain;
it can’t be done with an Instrument without extream Pain, it can’t be
done by Vesicatories without some Pain; but it may be done with Chafing
without any Pain at all, or rather with some Pleasure, till you leave
off Rubbing, and the Air comes to act upon the naked Fibres. Now this
can’t be attributed to the Heat of the Part only, for then hot Medicines
apply’d to the Skin; would do it as easily but must be suppos’d to be
owing to a certain Agitation of the Spirits in the Extremity of the
Fibres, which affects ’em with so agreeable a Sensation, as to surmount
even the Pain of a Separation of their Covering, the Scarf-Skin. Now
it will be allow’d by all, that whatsoever Sensation there is in the
Extremity of the Fibre, the same there is at the Origine of it in the
Brain; so that a pleasant Sensation in the Extremity, must needs be
the same in the common _Sensorium_; and therefore ’tis easie to account
for the good Effects of Frictions of the Limbs in some sort of Fits, by
giving a new and different Motion to the Spirits, and thereby disengaging
’em from their disorderly Motions. And then if acting thus upon the
Extremity of the Fibres produces such an Effect in ’em, ’tis natural
to imagine, that that Motion, or gentle Concussion, which much after
the same manner, in some proportion acts upon the whole Body of the
Nerves, must affect ’em with a Sensation proportionably agreeable, and
may prove sufficient to dispose the Spirits to leave their Displosions,
and irregular Motions, when they happen to be so discompos’d, and
consequently remove the troublesome Watchings and painful Symptomes
occasion’d by those Displosions, when other Means prove ineffectual. Thus
we see how natural it is for those Hysterick Persons, who are vexed with
obstinate Watchings, to fall into a true and refreshing Slumber, by the
Motion of a Chariot, when Opiats will have no effect upon ’em, but rather
encrease their Watchings: The Spirits being the most stubborn Part of the
Animal Oeconomy, and not always to be compel’d, even by that potent Drug.

The abstruse Nature of this Part of the Animal Oeconomy, will not permit
us to come at a fair Explication of these Phænomena, any otherwise, than
by what we at different times experience; for we must first understand,
as the Author of the _Dispensary_ very well expresses it.

    _How the same Nerves are fashion’d to sustain_
    _The greatest Pleasure, and the greatest Pain._

                                 Dispens. _pag. 3._

But we may discern, that the very Interruption of Pain is some degree
of Pleasure; and that the lesser degrees both of Pain and Pleasure have
something of a Relative Nature in ’em; a Person that is afflicted with
some Pain, finds some Alleviation of it by tumbling and tossing in his
Bed; which tumbling and tossing, at another time, would be a sort of
Pain; and if any one thinks this ought to be imputed to Phancy, rather
than Reality, I answer, ’Tis such a Phancy as none can be free from; and
the denying a Person, in such Circumstances, the Liberty of gratifying
it, would be the greatest Cruelty, and a high Aggravation of the Pain:
Besides, in Pains of the Membranes, proceeding from the Corrosion of
Sharp Humours thrown upon ’em, where the Part cannot but be very sensible
of the Pain those Particles cause; yet even in this Case, the Spirits
may be interrupted or diverted from the performing so acutely their
Office of Sensation, by being put into different Motions. I knew a hardy
labouring Man, who hapning to be seiz’d with a violent Pain in his Hip,
for two or three Nights, as soon as he came to Bed, kept beating his bare
Hip with a Bed-staff a great while together, before he could get any
Rest, and by that Means blunted the Pain, and tired himself into Sleep;
(tho’ afterwards he removed both the Pain and the Cause, by running a
Packneedle himself thro’ part of his Hip); now if thus much may be done
in the Membranous Parts, where the Cause of the Pain is _ab extra_, what
may not be done in Nervous Cases, where the Disorders of the Spirits are
the prime Occasion of the Pains, if we can communicate to those Spirits,
a Motion contrary to that Motion which occasions the Pains, which
certainly may be done, by moderate and agreeable Exercise?

From these Considerations I cannot but be induc’d to think, that in all
obstinate Pains, caus’d by the irregular Motions of the Spirits, and in
the true Hysterick Colick, one of the most frequent of those sort of
Pains; it would be more natural, and in no wise absurd, to recommend
to the Patient, the Use of a Chaise, or light Calash, even in the
Paroxysm it self, than the Fatigue of Medicines; the best of which,
except Opiates, so often prove delusive. That Exercise is convenient
for Women, with Liberty to sit or lie; and tho’ the Motion at first may
seem a little troublesome, and the Shocks too rude; yet I think, upon
what I have hinted before, there is great Reason to expect, that after
a little Patience the Spirits would be brought to relent, and disengage
themselves from the _Plexus’s_, where they occasion so great Pain. I am
the more confirm’d in this Opinion, because there is a Pain which seems
more deeply rooted, even in the Tendons of the Muscles, _viz._ the Cramp,
which will frequently go off, by changing the Posture the Part was in,
when it was first seiz’d; and especially by getting out of the Bed, and
walking a little while, when no Pressure or Ligature will remove it,
unless the Person rise; by which undoubtedly the Spirits are call’d back
into some of the superiour Muscles, or some way or other put into a new
sort of Motion.

This Opinion may be corroborated likewise by what has been experienc’d
by some Hysterick People, who when they have lain perhaps half a Night
restless and disturb’d, and without the least Inclination to Sleep,
upon getting out of their Beds, and walking a turn or two about the
Room, shall find themselves quite alter’d, and when they come into the
Bed again, sleep well; so that if so sudden and short an Alteration of
the Posture of the Body, can produce so good an Effect, much more may
be expected from the Exercise I have above mention’d; wherein the sick
Person may at once enjoy the Convenience of a Cradle, and the Vehemence
of a Exercise.

I might pursue this Notion, in considering the _Scorbutick Rheumatism_;
in which Case the Persons afflicted are generally strong, and able to
undergo any sort of Exercise; and therefore all the sorts of Exercise
which I shall hereafter mention, will agree with ’em: But it will be
needless to multiply words, that Distemper being chiefly seated in the
Nerves, what I have said already will serve to illustrate the Advantage,
which Persons griev’d with that Distemper might receive from a resolute
and prudent Use of Exercise.

I hope these Observations on the Solids, will suffice to shew the Power
of Exercise on this part of our Bodies; and if any of these Speculations
may seem too nice, I would be understood, that I consider ’em as brought
to a Habit, as frequently and closely repeated; not as the Use of
Exercise is generally abus’d, being frequently undertaken, but seldom
gone thro’ with. ’Tis the want of a due Notion of a Habit, which has
occasion’d the Neglect of this valuable Medium in Physick: Did People
allow but the same regard to this, as they do to all other Alterative
Physick, it would soon appear, how great Effects it could produce.

How ridiculous would a Man seem, who, when his Physician had recommended
some Medicine to be taken to the quantity of a Drachm, or half a Drachm,
should go and take half an Ounce of it, and then exclaim against the
Medicine, that it disturb’d him, and did him a great deal of Mischief,
and that he would never take it more: Or if instead of taking a moderate
Quantity twice a day, for a considerable time, he should take that
moderate Quantity but once in two or three days, and then exclaim that
the Medicine was ineffectual? He that should act thus, would be thought
to be a very unreasonable Person; and yet after this manner most sick
People set upon the Use of Exercise. You shall have a Man ride fifteen
or twenty Mile, when he should ride seven or eight, come home very much
tyr’d, resolve never to be so serv’d again; and so perfectly lay aside
all hopes of any good from the more moderate Use of that Exercise:
Another shall ride out five or six Mile once in two or three days, finds
no great matter of Relief, despairs of any Success from that Course,
thinks it a trivial Thing, a meer Phancy, when the Physician does not
know what to do, and so he wholly leaves off too: Now allowing moderate
Exercise to be a Medium for the Recovering our Health, this is a very
unfair way of making use of it; for when once a Distemper will not be
driven out by rough Means, by Purging and Vomits, but we must come to
Alterative Physick, the Work must go on gradually, and that Physick must
be us’d without Intermission. What is the difference between Aliment
and a Medicament, but this? The first is chang’d into our Nature; the
last changes our Nature. Now it would be as ridiculous for a Man to
expect that gentle Drugs or gentle Means should alter his Constitution,
if taken with great Intervals, as it would be for a Man to expect that
the Bulk of his Body should keep up or encrease, tho’ he eat but once
in two or three Days; and whatever Regard is due to internal Alterative
Physick, the same is due to the moderate Use of Exercise; for if by
it the Secretions are equally promoted, and the Subject-Matter of the
Disease brought to despume slowly; it is highly requisite, that these
Means should be closely repeated, with Moderation; that Nature may not
be confounded and weakned, instead of being reliev’d; and without any
irregular Intermission, lest the Springs should run down again; lest the
Disease should have time to ruine faster than the Means of Cure can build
up.

We see, by continual dropping, so soft a Body as Water can act upon a
Stone; we see by incessantly following his Blow, the Smith can bring Heat
into his Bar of Iron; so that where the Act it self, simply consider’d,
is weak and trivial, yet the Habit is of the greatest Efficacy.

Neither ought this to discourage any, who will give themselves leave
to consider, how slow, and yet how sure, some of the Despumations of
general Secretions of Nature; are wherein, if the Certainty and Security
will compensate for the Slowness of the Progress, they have Reason to
acquiesce and submit, when there is no other Remedy left. How often has
it been observ’d, that in some Paralytick Cases, after a considerable
Use of the Hot Baths, the sick Person has gone away disconsolate,
without any present sensible relief, and yet found himself cur’d in a
Month or two after; the Morbifick Matter being just mov’d and brought to
flow, when he left off Bathing, and yet not perceptible to himself; and
if Nature can be enabled to make such real tho’ flow, and for a time,
insensible Advances towards Health, in a Subject half dead; may not we,
with a great deal more Reason, expect the same and much more in a Person
who has his Nerves free, the Use of his Limbs; and who, notwithstanding
his Decay, is able to set upon a Course of Exercise? If Men were not
wanting to themselves in a Resolution to undergo with Patience the
Fatigue of Reducing Nature indispos’d to its former State, by slow
Measures, when violent are absolutely to be omitted; they would at last
be really convinc’d, that Health, as well as Sickness, may approach
insensibly; and that their tedious Struggles, and seemingly fruitless
Endeavours did gain ground upon the secret and intimate Springs of the
Oeconomy, before they come to be sensible of any the least Relief: for
when once upon the use of such gradual Means, there appears a sensible
Amendment, the Point is almost gain’d, and the Work more than half done:
As we see that upon the Return of the Sun, after Winter, towards us, ’tis
some Months before the Earth shews any great Signs of his Influence;
yet when once it displays the Effects of it, we can very well discern,
that they are such as must have been brooding long before we perceiv’d
’em. And why should not some Distempers go off leisurely, when we see
so many come upon us so? There seems to be a Parity of Reason for it,
tho’ it is no very comfortable Consideration. We know the Poison of a mad
Dog encreases in the Body for a Month or more, before it displays its
fatal Symptomes; and there is a great deal of Reason to believe, that a
Cancerous Humour is some Years ripening, before it creates any Trouble
to the Person in whose Body it is bred; Why should it seem strange then,
that some Diseases require a gentle and gradual Conflict of two or three
Months, when perhaps they have been a longer Time growing upon the
Patient?

What I have said would make the greater Impression, could we but have a
History of the fatal Miscarriages which have hapned upon preposterous
Methods of Cure; an History, which, I doubt, would prove a very
Voluminous one; that Rashness being too usual in both Acute and Chronical
cases; In the first, Many are apt to force an Indication, rather than
wait for one. In the latter, The World abounds with Examples of the
Folly and Impatience of Mankind. To instance but in the Dropsie; Who is
there almost, who cannot furnish you with the Story of one, who, from a
hopeful Condition in the use of Diureticks, and Corroborative Things,
cast himself into the Grave, by violent Purgatives, recommended by some
compassionate Friend or other, to carry off the Waters at once, with a
Beadroll of Stories to vouch its Success; when the other Method, with
a little Patience, had certainly brought him to his former Health,
and perhaps in much less time than his Disease was contracted. So
difficult it is for unhappy Man to bear the Penalty of some Months, for
the Demerits of some Years; and by Manly Consideration to keep from
entangling himself in his Chain, instead of getting out of it.

I am not unaware here, how hard it is to frame Arguments that can have
Force enough to prevail against the Apprehensions of the Pain and Trouble
to be undergone in the first Attempt of Exercise, which most sick People
have conceiv’d; and which are oftentimes so strong, as to blind the
Mind, or bribe the Will and there is no way to deal with those People,
but by Precedents; by shewing ’em, that those Difficulties have in many
Cases been easily overcome: And here the Cold Bath offers it self, a
severe Method of Cure taken up lately among us, and which upon the
first Consideration carries Terrour enough in it; which if anyone had
presum’d to recommend some Years ago, he would have been thought one of
the most Wild and Barbarous of Men; and yet we see now the tenderest of
the fair Sex dares commit her self to that terrible Element; and upon
the first Experiment the Fears and Amusements vanish. How severe is the
Sickness upon a Man’s first going to Sea; equal seemingly to the Effects
of any strong Poison; and yet Nature soon accustomes her self to that
Motion which is the Cause of it, and the Sailor quickly grows well! And
here it must not be suppos’d, that any salt Vapours arising from the
Sun, do contribute to this Vomiting, for it is now well known to every
one, who had but the least smattering in Distillations, That Salt will
not rise with a much greater Heat than that of the Sun; besides it is
observable that the oldest or most accustomed Sailors shall Vomit in bad
Weather, when the Ship is put into an unusual and irregular Motion; so
that it is plain, that the Motion of the Ship is the only cause of that
Sea-sickness: if therefore Nature can so soon suit her self to a Motion
that can cause such terrible Symptomes, how unreasonable, how Childish
it is for any one to object against the Use of Exercise, because of the
common and (in comparison of Sea-sickness) trivial inconveniencies which
must be born in the first Tryals! Some strong People shall be confounded
with a very few Glasses of Wine; and yet if those very People fall to
keeping of Company, and addict themselves to Wine but a little while,
they shall drink vast quantities without any Disorder. The first Pipe
of Tabacco disturbs Nature to the utmost, but after two or three more,
she becomes pleas’d with that, which before disturb’d her. In the Animal
Oeconomy, every thing is so wonderfully contriv’d, and made to conspire
for the Preservation of Life, that Nature can adapt her self to all
Circumstances; she can expand her self to bear the Luxury of a Palace,
and contract her self to the short Allowance, the Bread and Water of a
Prison; she can be easie under a Bloated Habit of Body, and she can make
a shift to suit her self to the Expence of Fluxes and other Evacuations;
accustoming her self so to bear ’em, that the longer they last, they
may be in some Proportion the more familiar. But above all, she, with
the most Ease, accustoms her self to the Use of Exercise; she may be
said to delight her self in that, it being in a manner, _de Essentiâ
Naturiæ_, and therefore it is in vain, when Exercise is really necessary,
for a Person to complain after the first Tryal, and say, I’m tyr’d, my
Bones are sore, my Head akes, I’m ready to faint, or the like; for all
this must be endur’d, and upon patiently repeating the Motion, tho’ no
Abatement appear for some Days, yet the Reward will come At last: and as
these Symptomes go off, the strength of the sick Person will encrease.

From these Considerations I think it sufficiently appears, that what I
have before hinted, is not at all unlikely, _viz._ That in some Cases, a
distemper’d Person may acquire, by suitable Exercise habitually us’d, a
degree of Strength, as much greater, than that of other sick People in
the same Circumstances, who wholly neglect all Exercise, as the Strength
and Agility of Robust Men, bred up to Violent Motions, is greater than
the Strength of other People, who tho’ Healthy, yet are not us’d to such
Things, and therefore incomparably Weaker.

Having thus Explain’d the Power of Motion, both on the Solids and Fluids,
and having shew’d how necessary it is, that such Motion or Exercise
should be continued to a Habit, that it may be render’d sufficient to
procure those Ends it is directed to; I hope after these Considerations,
it will appear pretty plain, that Exercise may deserve to be taken as a
_common Aid_ to Physick, (to use the Term which _Asclepiades_ gave it)
and ’tis under that Notion, that I propose it as so Beneficial a Medium
in the Art of Curing; so that Exercise in this Sence is to Physick, as
Bandage is to Surgery, an Assistance or Medium, without which, many other
Administrations, tho’ ever so Noble, will not succeed. It is a kind
of Reserve, but yet of that Efficacy, that the thing you most depend
upon, and tho’ in it self very powerful, may yet receive its _Derniere
Puissance_ from this Reserve. And to this it is that we most undoubtedly
attribute the wonderful Success which the Antients had in their Curing
with such indifferent Materials, as their Pharmacy afforded ’em.

This will prove an Aid in a double Respect, _viz._ both of the Distemper,
and of the Medicine.

In Respect of the Medicine; It is to be consider’d, that some Medicines
may require it, to enhance their Virtue; others to remove some
Inconvenience attending their Operation, which may deter People from
using ’em so liberally as they ought to do.

As to the Former, the ordinary Circulation of the Blood, may not suffice
to Answer the Nature of some Medicaments, and call out their utmost
Efficacy; just as we see the heat of our Sun will cherish and keep alive
some Exotick Plants, but yet will not suffice to bring ’em to their
utmost Perfection, to flower and seed; so that Exercise in this Case, is
like the just and exact Incubation to the Egg; that which Animates the
Drug, and gives it a Power to produce the Effect it is directed to. A
Medicine may not avail any more without Exercise, than Exercise without a
Medicine, and yet when both are us’d together, there may be a Result from
that Union, of the greatest Importance.

Therefore, before I come to speak of the Distempers, most liable to the
Power of Exercise, I shall take Notice of two or three Remedies, which
seem to demand this sort of Assistance.

The First, is the Decoctions of Woods; it is the general Complaint of
those who take these for any Time, that they pall their Stomachs; to
obviate which, if it be requisite that a Person should persist in this
Course, nothing can be more proper than Riding, or some other gentle
Exercise, because it will keep up the Vigour of the Spirits; and how
much the Appetite depends upon that, is easie to imagine, besides that
the Intention, the _Diaphoresis_, is likewise promoted thereby.

Another Medicine which should be followed with Exercise, is the
Chalybeate, especially in Dropical Subjects; not for fear it should
lye heavy upon the Stomach, as the Vulgar think, but because in these
People, the Contents of the Stomach are much rarefi’d and flatulent, and
the Steel is apt to cause Distentions and Gripes, and other troublesome
Symptomes; so that it is necessary, the whole Body should be well warm’d,
that those Particles may be discuss’d, and the Stomach qualifi’d to bear
the Chalybeate; besides, that acquired Heat will enable it, after it
comes into the Blood, to display its Effects the sooner, either as a
Corroborative, or a Diuretick. In Hysterick and Hypochondriacal Persons,
this Medicine, gives trouble after another manner, by Costiveness, by
Head-ach, and Heating the whole Body too much; now all these are much
qualifi’d by Exercise, for it will procure a Ventilation of many of those
Particles, which the Medicine agitates and throws upon the Membranes.

I might proceed to enquire into the Nature of _Balsamicks_, but that I
shall have occasion, as I proceed, rather to say something against their
Use, in one of the Distempers, which I shall consider; but if they are
to be us’d, what I have already said in Relation to the Fluids, will
shew that a great deal depends upon a proper degree of Agitation in the
Blood, for the uniting and throughly mixing the Particles, of a Medicine
of this Nature, that it may be transmitted to the designed Part to some
Purpose; and as it would be convenient a Balsamick should be taken in a
larger quantity, if the Stomach of sick People could bear it; so during
the Time of Exercise, while the Body is heated, the Stomach can bear a
greater quantity than at other times, without any Sense of Irritation,
or Inclination to throw it up. But I shall forbear to enlarge any more
on these things, and go on to the Distempers, which seem most Naturally
to demand this kind of Assistance; in Treating of which it will be easie
to discern in every several Case, how the Gymnastick Part will agree, or
fall in with the Pharmaceutick.




OF THE _CONSUMPTION_.


The First of the Distempers then, is the _Consumption of the Lungs_; I
take this to fall under the Power of Exercise; for these two Reasons.

_First_, Because the Morbifick Particles, which are the immediate Cause
of the Disease, seem to be of a looser Texture, to be less intimately
combin’d in the Blood, than in most Chronical Cases, the Particles which
occasion each Distemperature seem to be.

_Secondly_, Because this Case requires the carrying off the Acrimonious
Particles, by equal Secretions, rather than by any one particular
Emunctory of the Body.

The _First_ Reason seems to appear manifest enough, from the habitual
Heat and Disturbance, which are generally complain’d of, sometimes
even upon the first Breaking out of the Cough, and from the continual
Quickness of the Pulse; all which shew, that there is an imperfect
struggle of Nature, frequent and partial Ebullitions, which don’t arise
to a degree sufficient to clear Nature of that which oppresses her;
but yet plainly indicate, that the hostile Particles do not unite, or
accord with the Blood, so much as the Particles of each Disease do
in other Cases; as for Instance, in Scrophulous and even in Cancerous
Cases, tho’ the Blood is loaded with so pernicious and even corrosive a
Humour, yet we find no Disorder in the Beat of the _Artery_, no irregular
Heats, but for some Reasons or other, in the make of their Particles,
they pass better with the Blood, and the Disease is longer protracted;
now I think it seems to be a Natural Consequence, that where there is an
Ebullition or Contention of Particles, there is no Union; and that a more
general and natural Heat, superinduc’d by Exercise, by the Solids acting
uniformly upon the Fluids, may produce a Ventilation of many of those
Particles, which Nature contends so much with.

The _Second_ Reason, _viz._ The Necessity of equal Secretion, is
occasion’d by the Effects of this Hectical Disposition, which by bringing
a Languor upon the Spirits, a Relaxation or Flaccidity of the Muscular
Parts, and even of the Lungs it self, renders Nature unable to bear any
particular Secretion without great Disturbance: Thus we see upon the use
of the gentlest Purging Medicine, the Cough is encreas’d, and the whole
Body for a Time, more than ordinarily disturb’d; the same happens upon
the Use of _Sudorificks_, and indeed scarce any particular Secretion can
be considerably enforc’d, without some Inconvenience following upon it;
so that it must needs be the most proper Method, if we can attain to it,
to enable Nature to do the Work her self, by gentle and even Despumation,
of the acrimonious Particles, at all the Emunctories.

To procure this good Effect I propose the first of those Exercises,
which I shall consider more amply in its proper Place, which is Moderate
Riding. This Exercise is undoubtedly the most likely to cause an equal
Exaltation of the Fluids, to restore the Tone, and Elasticity of the
Ducts, so that the hot fretting Particles may be cast off; some of ’em
by insensible Perspiration at the Skin, others by the Kidneys, others
by the many _Salival_ Glands, others by the Glands of the _Intestines_,
where the very acrimonious Particles, forc’d out by that Exercise, which
in a special manner acts upon those Parts, may be very much alter’d while
they lye in the _Intestine_, undergo a sort of _Cohobation_, and in all
likelyhood may some of ’em become inflammable, and so dispos’d, as to
prove Nutritious, when suck’d up into the Blood, as some of the Contents
of the Intestines always are. This is communicating, _ab extra_, a Power
to Nature to act upon her self; which must needs be more agreeable than
to put a Force upon her, when she is Languid, and not able to master both
the Drug and the Distemper.

It would be of great Consequence, to People Afflicted with this
Distemper, if they would be brought to consider seriously the Distinction
of the Oeconomy into the Parts containing, and the Parts contain’d,
that is the Solids and Fluids, and the happiness of being able to Exert
the Strength of the Solids, and make the Muscular and Nervous Parts
assist the Blood and Spirits. There are Distempers wherein a Man is so
Unhappy, as to have one Part of himself only Passive; as in Fevers, the
Intenseness of the Heat, affects the Spirits and Nerves to that Degree,
that all Power of Standing or Going is taken away. In a Palsey, the Hopes
lye all in the Fluids or Liquor Contain’d: In other Cases, the larger
Glands are so much alter’d in themselves, that the Motion of the Body
would be to no Purpose; but here in this Distemper, we are Treating of,
the Case is quite otherwise, if the Sick Person will but Entertain a
Resolution to help himself, will employ all the Springs and Fibres of his
Body, and by that means take the Labouring Oar from lying always on the
Blood alone, he will have no Reason to despair.

Thus I have consider’d how the Use of Moderate Riding will conduce to
the conveying off the Subject matter of the Disease. The next Indication
is the Strengthning the Tone of the Lungs and Muscular Parts, which in
this Distemper grow Flaccid, I might add of the Stomach too, but that
we can help that Bowel by many excellent Internal Remedies. Now I would
fain know of any Man, how we can reach the Flaccidity of the Lungs, by
Internal means, till the Distemperature of the Blood is remov’d, when it
will go off in Course, but would be done much sooner, if we assisted both
the Solids and Fluids at the same time; now that the very Lungs itself
may appear, not to be out of the reach of a Habit of Exercise, let any
one consider the strength of that Part, which Divers acquire by frequent
Diving; or to come nearer to our Purpose, take any two Men equally, us’d
to Hard Labour, of equal strength as near as we can guess whereof one has
accustom’d himself to Running, the other never done so, all the World
knows that the Practis’d Footman shall Run a great deal farther, and much
faster than the other can do: Tho’ in the Common Sense of the Expression,
this latter has a Clear Wind as we say, and is in perfect Health; which
invincibly proves, that the Lungs tho’ a Bowel, are capable of a Habit,
and that with a Proportional Allowance, the gentle, easie Exercise, of
Riding, must introduce a New Habit, into the Lungs of a Consumptive
Person, and so recover the Tone of that Bowel.

I know it will be reply’d here, that _Balsamick_ and healing Medicines
are suppos’d to strengthen the Parts they are directed to, that they are
generous Medicines, of fine Parts, and consequently fitted to Communicate
a firmness, a Spring to the Nervous and Membranous Parts of the Lungs;
and if it could be prov’d that they did Heal so much as they have been
pretended to do; I would readily allow they did Strengthen those Parts,
but I have had some considerable Opportunity, to observe the Use of those
Medicines, and I never could find that if Alteratives fail’d, Balsamicks
would do any great good; that is, taken strictly as Balsamicks, upon a
Healing Intention. I doubt not, but in the beginning of the Distemper, as
Alteratives they may be of Service, especially the milder sort; by the
pleasant sensation they Create, and the Consent of the Parts they will
give present Abatement of the Cough, and when brought into the Blood,
may by Promoting a _Diurisis_, or by precipitating some of the Acrimony,
help to carry off the Cause of the Cough, after the Alterative way, but
that when there is any Ulceration in the Lungs, and the Blood is loaded
with Hot and fretting Particles, they should then heal so much, I cannot
conceive. If we will but give our selves leave to examine a little
closely how they act, when externally apply’d to a Sore, we shall not
perhaps find, that they are all of ’em such immediate Healers; some of
’em are too fine and Stimulating to be us’d as Eupoloticks, but rather
prove Digestives, and therefore must be more likely to cause a too great
Agitation in the Blood of these People, than a healing of the Ulcer;
I know it may be here reply’d; that they are very proper to cleanse
the Ulcerated parts of the Lungs in order to their better healing; but
I can’t imagine how it should come about, that there should be such
great need of cleansing the _Ulcuscula_ in a part of so Spongy and
Membranous a Substance as the Lungs, where there can be no redundancy of
Parenchymatous Juices to feed the Ulcers; besides it is to be consider’d,
that the constant Motion of the Lungs, will help so deterge the Ulcerated
part, just as if we should suppose a Man, that has an Ulcer in his Leg,
should be squeezing the Lips of it together all day long, we can’t doubt
but he would by that means work out the _Pus_, the Slough, and all the
mispurities of the Sore, and in like manner, the Heaving and Subsiding of
the Lungs will hinder any thing from Bedding or Lodging it self long in
a part that is really Ulcerated. And alass! here is the grand difficulty
in a way to a Cure, we can’t easily bring so arid a Substance, as that of
the Lungs to unite, when lacerated, because of its continual Motion; so
that there is all the reason in the World, for us to heap in only healing
Medicines, strictly taken, without any thing that may prove in the least
stimulating. Therefore, wherever Balsamicks have done any great good; I
cannot think it has been any other way, than by deriving of the Acrimony
from the Blood, and not by immediately healing the Part affected; so
that tho’ these are Noble Medicines in Colicks and Simple Affects of the
Stomach, where the State of the Blood is quite different, yet here they
are too Generous. They are like the Sword of a Gyant, in the Hands of
a Dwarf, that will not help but Oppress. And as for the Oily Medicines,
which may be call’d a sort of milder and Artificial _Balsamicks_, we
ought to consider, that the Blood is Replenish’d with a better Oyl than
any we can immediately supply it with; I mean the Fat, which to the
quantity of a Pint at least is continually passing, into, and out of the
Blood: And yet in this Ill Habit of Body it wasts daily, and does not
Unite with the other Fluids as in a state of Health. What then can we do
by the Poor Addition of a few Drachms of Unctuous Stuff, which after it
has pass’d the Stomach enters the Blood, to the quantify of a few Grains,
and does not the least good, in Reparation for the unpleasantness in the
Taking, and the Uneasiness it sometimes causes in the Stomach of the
Sick Person?

I hope these Reflections will not be misinterpreted, as if I endeavour’d
after some little Hypothetical Notion as a wedge to make way for any
Design of mine; they will appear but too real to any that have been
Conversant with this Distemper. I could wish it was all Hypothesis and
Fiction, and that these Medicines would perform all that is expected
from ’em, but then, to what must we attribute the Ravage this Disease
makes, which is known to all, to be a Melancholy truth? Not to the want
of _Balsamicks_ certainly, for both Poor and Rich, can make a shift to
procure enough of ’em. The Lozenge and Linctus are in every Bodies hand,
but this must be attributed to their leading People, to take a wrong Aim,
to level at the Symptom instead of the Disease, these specious Medicines
induce ’em to be intent on the Cure of that, which is most Troublesome
_viz._ the Cough, when they should lay the Ax to the Root of the Tree, be
more intent on the Cure of the Habit of Body, and not let it be overrun
with a Poisonous Acrimony. I am confident Legions of the Dead might have
been above Ground, if they had but conceiv’d the Fallacy of these means,
if they had but stuck close to the proper Quantities of any one good
Alterative, they might have Plung’d out of their several Maladies; but by
placing all their Hopes in things directed to the Cough, they have far’d
like the Dog, which bites at the Stone that is thrown at him, instead
of Biting him which threw it, not knowing that such diligent plying of
these Medicines is a kind of Embalming a Man before his Death, and an
Ill boding Presage that in a little time, he will be in a Condition to be
Embalmed after it.

From what I have said it is plain, that I take the Negative way (if I may
so Speak) of Curing this Disease, to be the most rely’d on, that is, the
deriving the Acrimony, which causes the Cough and other Symptomes to the
several Excretory Channels, and clearing the Blood of it; for the Blood
when freed from such Acrid Particles will prove the best of Balsams it
self. Therefore the milder Antiscorbuticks, the Bitters, Decoctions of
Woods, and even the milder Balsams, do all contribute their Assistance
upon this Intention, in the first State of this Disease, and do very
often secure the Person that makes use of ’em, and when they have not
prevail’d alone, if the Use of Exercise had been superadded to ’em, they
would undoubtedly at that time have been render’d effectual. But yet I
am not so bound up in an Opinion, but that I am convinc’d there is such
a thing, as a positive relief in this Case, in the strict Sense of the
Expression; that is, a Healing of the part fretted or Ulcerated, but then
I believe, it must be done by things of a milder Nature, than our Common
_Balsamicks_. The Waters of our Hot Bath, are able to do a great deal,
by the Healing Ocres in which they abound, and there are other things
which seem qualifi’d for this end; But that Qualification necessarily
supposing they should be extreamly Mild and Temperate, and upon the
account of that Temper, it being likewise possible they may sometimes
miss taking Effect; it is these considerations, have induc’d me to apply
the Assistance of Exercise to the Temperament of those Medicines, that by
such means they may be render’d able, always to Answer expectation. But
that both the Nature of the Medicine, and the Assistance of the Exercise
may appear the clearer, it will not be amiss, to consider two or three of
these Medicines.

The first of ’em is a vegetable which has always been accounted a
Pectoral; but after the Rate we use it, I much question whether it may
not be said to be wholly indifferent; this is _Coltsfoot_, a Plant
seemingly dry, and little likely to effect what I have known it do.

I shall here venture to give a Relation of some of the strange Effects
of it, which are so seemingly incredible, that if I had not full
Assurance of the Fact I should not offer it, and tho’ it is not of a Cure
of the same Distemper, which I am treating of, yet I hope it will not be
thought a Digression, because the Obstinacy of the Humour, which is the
cause of that Disease, which this Herb did remove, is so much greater
than in the Case I am upon, that it may serve to give us Reason to expect
great Relief from it, in the Cure of the Consumption likewise, to which
it has always been apply’d, if us’d after the same manner, and in the
same quantity, as it was in that Case, it was therefore a Scrophulous
Subject that it reliev’d, but one so Deplorable, that the Hospitals
can’t often shew the like. The Young Gentlewoman had above twelve Sores
upon her, she had had the Regular help of Physicians, but was left off
as incurable, when a Person who was no Physician, and did not pretend
to any thing like dealing in Medicines, only he had reason to know the
neglected Virtues of this Plant, came accidentally to the House, when
the Gentlewoman’s Mother was Lamenting her Daughter’s Condition; after
having given her Reason, to expect something from his Medicine, he
promis’d to make it for her, but made her send 10 Miles, twice a Week to
his house for the Decoction of the Herb, that he might conceal it from
’em, because he knew they would undoubtedly despise it, if they knew
what it was: He therefore made very strong Decoctions of it, till the
Liquor was Glutinous and Sweetish, of which she was to Drink as much as
she could every day at what times she pleased, this she followed above
four Months; in which time most of her Sores were dry’d up, and in a
little time more, she was perfectly Cur’d. And of this I have reason
to be certain, because I liv’d in the House where it was made, all the
time, and the Person who made it, did not make a Secret of it for Gain,
but only that it might not be slighted. This instance I have thus amply
related, that it may serve as a hint that this Herb when it is us’d as
a Pectoral, ought to be us’d after another manner than we generally do.
And that when we do make use of Vegetables, in a manner suitable to
their Nature; we may find Cause to come to a Temper, as to our Opinions
concerning ’em, notwithstanding the great Plenty of generous Medicines,
which Chymistry affords us. I have caus’d the Decoction of this Herb to
be made after the same manner, and have given it where I did not expect
a Cure, and thought that I had reason to believe, it did in some Measure
prove Nutritive. And we find by _Reusner_ in his Observations publish’d
by _Velschius_, that it has been us’d as an Analeptick, he tells us that
_Hillerus_, the Marquiss of _Brandenburgh_’s Physician, did restore
Children out of _Atrophy_’s, by making ’em eat of this Herb fry’d after
the manner of Clary.

The next thing I shall take Notice of, as peculiarly adapted to this
Case is _Liquorice_. This Plant was ever reputed by the Ancients for
the greatest quencher of Thirst in Nature, and therefore they call’d
it _Adipson_, and upon that account, _Galen_ tells us it was given to
Dropsical people, _Theophrastus_ calls it _Scythica_, and _Pliny_ gives
us the Reason of it, and tells us the _Scythians_ where wont to Live 12
Days upon _Liquorice_, and a little Cheese made of Mare’s Milk; so that
it was in Reputation, likewise for sustaining Nature, and enabling People
to bear Hunger. Its effects on Pains in the Stomach, the Bladder and
the like, are numerous; and some of ’em very well attested, and perhaps
there is scarce any Alterative that the Ancients take more Notice of than
this, except their admir’d _Silphium_; and we may gather from all, that
it is one of the greatest Correcters of Acrimony in general, and that it
is very temperate and safe, because the Juice of it has been drank in
considerable quantities, and that fermented too; after this account of
it, let us see how we use it; we boil about an Ounce or an Ounce and
a half, in a Decoction of a Quart or two with other Ingredients; this
is a wonderful Concession, but then in our Lozenges, there we do it to
some purpose, about equal Parts of Juice of _Liquorice_ and _Sugar_,
make up a Stupendious Medicine indeed, not remembring at the same time
a good Remark of _Tragus_’s, _viz._ that _Sugar_ and _Liquorice_ are
directly contrary, he Glories, speaking of _Liquorice_, that we have
found a Sweet, that will quench the Thirst, whereas most other Sweets
will cause Thirst, and instances in _Sugar_, which if it be true, can any
thing imply more of Contradiction than Our Practice? If we were to make
Sweetmeats for Children only, it would be allowable to mix all the Sweets
in the Universe together; but when the Blood of a Poor Consumptive
Wretch, is heated and loaded with Acrimony, to spoil the most agreeable
Drug in Nature, by mixing it with its contrary, only because the form
of a Medicine requires it; this, with all Submission, is what I think
cannot easily be excus’d; this is to Cheat People with the _Bellaria_ of
Physick, and Tickle Men into the Grave.

I know what will here be the Objection _viz._ that these things are
design’d only for the Cough, and not expected to Cure the Habit of
the Body, and that therefore they may be allow’d to be a good sort of
Composition for that Palliative Service they are directed to; but this
will not suffice, for there is not one in ten that makes use of these
Medicines, but relies on ’em for the Cure of the whole Distemper; and
therefore this is the broken Reed that has deceiv’d so many; especially
of the Poorer Sort, and which leads ’em in such numbers into the
Hospitals to end their Days there, after they have lost the Opportunities
of Recovery by depending on these Trifles. And if any one must needs
take offence at some of these Expressions, let him consult _Ludovicus_,
an allow’d Judge of these matters, in his _Pharmacia Moderno seculo
applicanda_, he will find what is his Opinion of these things in the
19th _Page_ of his _first Dissertation_, speaking of the _Confectiones
communes & Candisatæ Conservæ recentiorum siccæ (simplicis sui Pulvere
plerumque debiliores) Martis Panes, Pandaleon, & antiquariæ Saponeæ
Confecturæq; reliquæ_, he says, _Væ Hecticis tabidisq; quando tandem ad
ejuscemodi Refectiva, sesamo atque papavere sparsa, pineis Pistaceis, &c.
damnantur: Arentes hinc fauces (quamvis difficulter interdum) lenitas
vidimus, curatum neminem, quin potius intensiores inde depascentes
febres, dejectum magis appetitum, festinatosque Fluxus colliquativos_.
And speaking before, _pag. 9._ of _Decoctions_ and _Infusions_, he says,
_Procertis interdum Circumstantiis in Pectoralibus & Vulneraris dilutiora
hæc contractioribus dosibus commodiora deprehenduntur_; and, it seems,
he thinks this Observation, relating to the Use of _Pectorals_, to be
of such Moment, that he makes it one of the Heads of his _Additionary
Comment_ or _Appendix_, where, _pag. 582._ he has these Words; _Natura
interea nihilominus, præ Essentiis Extractisq; pectoralibus, præq; fauces
in internis ibi ardoribus tantisper lenientibus Morsulis, Trochiscis
atque mixturis antihecticis, antiphthisics, diffusius quidpiam & ad
remotiora perveniens unà ut plurimum velle videtur_.

These Citations plainly shew, that he thought those sugar’d Compositions
no apposite Remedy for Persons in such Circumstances, but that whatever
Remedy is made use of, it ought to be made to dilute as much as possible;
which does agree with the Reason, which I shall shew anon, for the
plentiful use of those mild Vegetables. I have made these Citations at
large, that what I have said may not be thought to be any Figment of
mine, but that I may appear, that I have Precedent as well as Reason on
my Side. But to return to the Root I was upon—Besides the mixing of Sugar
with Liquorice, to what purpose is the Aqueous part of its Juice exhal’d;
what harm would that soft _Lympha_ do to People, who have a continual
Thirst upon ’em? To what purpose must the Juice be inspissated, in order
to acquire an Acrimony by lying, not to speak of its Adulterations?
These are things which I could not forbear animadverting upon, because
they put us out of the right use of a Medicine, than which there is not
perhaps a greater _Analeptick_ to be found, if it were taken in the
same quantity as other Juices are taken. A Medicine that is a kind of a
Balsam _in Ficri_, and the most likely to be wrought up to Perfection in
the Blood, and of which the Fresh Juice ought undoubtedly be taken to a
Spoonful or two several times a day. But thus it is, we give a thing the
Name of Physick, and then stand aghast at it, and take it with Guard and
Circumspection, as if it were not possible that any thing should prove a
Medicine, and yet be taken in an Alimentary way.

There is another Plant, the _Cynogloss_, which seems not unlikely to be
of Use in this Case, because it seems to have something of a like Gleamy
Substance in it; it has been deliver’d down to us under some mistaken
Notions, as if it caused Sleep, which perhaps have been occasion’d by its
Cooling and Styptick Quality; but a late Author of unquestion’d Judgment
and Experience has us’d it pretty much in Decoctions with _Turnips_,
and says, it has no such quality, but recommends it to People in this
Distemper; to these may be added some of our Vulneraries, of which there
is great Variety of all Rates, of all degrees of heat; and among ’em one
of the Temperate sort, never enough to be valu’d, _viz._ the _Comfreys_,
and which in Consumptions, upon spitting of Blood, may be expected to do
great things; These Roots may be so manag’d by a good hand as to be eat
as Food. The Female Retailers of Physick would perhaps take it Ill, if
among these things I should forget their Preparations of _Turnips_ and
_Snails_, which may all have their time of being serviceable, either as
Food or for Variety, and what is more, all these things are Compatible
with a Milk Diet too; these things may be taken in small quantities at
different times from the taking of the Milk; tho’ if taken with it, they
could cause no Coagulation, and so a mild and Medicated Chyle may be
continually passing into the Blood to the great Advantage of the Sick.

These Instances are sufficient to shew the Nature of those things, which
I take to be the most adequate Remedy in this Case; _viz._ that they
ought to be such as are of a Medium, between common _Balsamicks_ and
_Acids_, and that they are such, as seem most likely to prove Nutritive
to People in so weak a Condition; the reason why I set such a value
upon these moderate things, is taken from the state of the Blood of
People in such Circumstances, which seems unable to manage stronger
Medicines, the least tendency to a _Diaphoresis_ being some disturbance
to those Persons; so that what is to be done, must be by things which
may suit with the Blood, and as it were grow upon it, that may be
transubstantiated into its _Crasis_ after an Alimentary way; there must
be a continual Rill of these temperate Juices into the Blood, without
the observing of Physical Hours, and then ’tis to be hop’d the Blood may
renew by degrees, and the Acrimony may decrease for want of Fuel; and
thus we may perhaps better obviate the Periodical Ebullitions of the
Hectick, by substracting their Cause, than by stifling the Hectick by
keeping in the Cause; I have not Scope here to explain my self, but I
think the common Causes assign’d for those Fits, don’t seem sufficient;
I can’t think the Ripening of a Tubercle able to do so much, that little
quantity of _Pus_ can’t contain a _Putredo_ sufficient for such effects,
not to say the same Hectick happens, where no Tubercle has broke; to
be short, it seems to me most probable, that when the Blood is so much
saturated with disagreeable Particles, as in Consumptive Persons it is,
as these Particles encrease and grow upon those Particles which make up,
the Proper, Genuine, Inseparable Essence of the Blood in its true, State;
I say as the first gain ground, there is so great a Correspondence and
Harmony in the Oeconomy, that these latter must contend and resist the
other, tho’ in the Contention, Nature gains no great Advantage, but
only fights and retires till she is quite overcome; this seems to me no
unlikely Idea of the Hectick, and if it be true, the best way must be to
substract the quantity of the Morbisick Particles, by using such a Food,
as cannot possibly afford Matter for ’em.

Having, then consider’d these Medicines, I will suppose it granted
me, that they are proper in this Case; I won’t say that they shall be
Sufficient to Cure of themselves, (tho’ I don’t doubt but they may in
some Constitutions do the Work themselves) but I will only suppose,
that they do greatly dispose towards it, which _Postulatum_ will, I
conceive, be readily granted me; I will suppose likewise, that Riding
(the Exercise I propose in this Case) does likewise dispose towards a
Cure, which _Postulatum_ will be granted too; I will suppose farther,
that these two Courses are Compatible, and may be us’d together; as the
Medicines help the Fluids, the Exercise helps both the Fluids and Solids;
which _Postulatum_ cannot be deny’d me neither; what then naturally
Results from this, but that they be both us’d in Conjunction? And is it
not more than probable, that these two Methods joyn’d, shall effect that
which neither of ’em can singly? Do not we see enough of this every Day
in Natural Occurrences, where one, two or three things, indifferent in
themselves, shall, when blended together, produce a valuable Effect,
which none of ’em could alone? And shall these things be observ’d in
lesser Arts, and be slighted when a Man’s Health is at Stake? Seeing we
abound so in Compound Medicines, why may we not for once take up with
a Compound Method of Cure, (if I may so speak) that is, if we cannot
obtain Health by one sort of means alone, why may we not expect it from a
Complication?

Thus I have run up these Arguments to a Head; I have shewn that the
Medicines appropriated to this Case, ought to be very Mild and Temperate,
upon the account of that less prevalent quality, there may be Hazard,
lest they should not always prove equally effectual; and therefore to
supply any such Defect, I substitute a most easie Natural Gymnastick
Course, as a common Aid to the weakness of the Medicines, and an
assistance to that part of the Oeconomy, which those Medicines can’t
reach. Whether this is not most suitable to, and consistent with the even
Tenour of Nature, tho’ it may not relish so much of the Magnificence
of Art, I must submit to those who are best Judges; to me it seems to
promise enough, and carry more Healing with it, than some things that are
dignifi’d with the great Titles of _Gilead_ and _Peru_.

If after all there are any People who will think, I have taken too much
upon me, in venturing to attack the _Balsamick_ Method, if they cannot
think slightly of Medicines, which will give such present mitigation of a
Cough, and which are so Fragrant and Costly, let ’em enjoy their Opinion,
and persist in the use of them; and if they find ’em at any time not
so effectual as they could desire, let ’em but superadd the Power of
Exercise, and they will doubtless find ’em much improv’d; and if they
come by that Means to succeed, I shall not envy their good Effects.

Besides these two main Indications, there is something more to be
consider’d in the Cure of the Consumption; and that is, how we may
obviate the Moisture of the Air; which is a very troublesome Enemy to
Consumptive People, of what Constitution soever, who dare not make use
of Generous Liquors to fence against it; for that Practice would be
prejudicial upon another Account: Now what can be more Natural in this
Case, than the raising the Spirits to resist this Moisture, by a gentle
Motion of the whole Body, which at the same time, causes a greater
Degree of Heat, and that equally diffus’d all over the Body, which must
needs rarify in some measure, the moist Air, and besides, make the hot
and acrimonious Particles in the Blood, supply the place of warm Internal
Medicines, which in another Person would have been proper to have been
given, to oppose the Moisture of the Air? Now this is much the same,
that the Change of Air can effect in the Body of a Sick Person, for ’tis
the equal Influence, the universal moderate Rarefaction of a warm Air,
that makes it so beneficial, and if we will cast in the benefit of the
Tension, which is caus’d by moderate Riding, together with the Equality
of the Heat, it will appear to be very little short of what is usually
expected from a Journey into a Foreign Air, and I could here give an
Instance of a Gentleman, who, when he was in the South of _France_,
found but little Relief, any longer than when he was on Horse-back;
and who after his return to _England_, found that Riding supported him
as much, as the Change of Air; So that upon the Consideration of the
equal promoting of the insensible Perspiration, and the Benefit, which
at the same time accrues to the Solid Parts, this Exercise which I have
so much insisted on, may be allow’d to be almost, if not altogether, an
Equivalent to a Warmer Climate.

_Lastly_, I shall urge but this one more Reason for this Exercise, which
is not taken from a Natural, but a Prudential Consideration, from the
particular Humour of most People in this Distemper, who are strangely
inclin’d to think themselves in no great Danger, even tho’ the Distemper
is far advanc’d; they don’t love to be told the Truth, tho’ it is ever
so necessary; but an honest Physician is to them, as _Micaiah_ was to
_Ahab_, he never has any thing good to say of ’em; they think they are
strong enough in the Main; they’ll tell ye, they should be as well as
ever, if their Scurvey Cough, or the weight on their Breast was but
remov’d: Now the Genius of the Sick must be consider’d, and these People
who have so good an Opinion of themselves, may in some Sense be indulg’d
and wrought upon, to exert their Imaginary Strength in Gentle Riding, and
then they may perhaps come to enjoy that which is real.

I might now proceed farther, to consider in what degree of this Distemper
Riding will be beneficial, whether any thing is to be expected from it
in the second and last State of it; but this would be to run out beyond
my Design of Brevity; only I shall take Notice, that it is no rare thing
to meet with Consumptions, without any Putrid Fever, or any Reason to
believe an Ulcer in the Lungs, or perhaps so much as Tubercles, but
a continual Hectick, and a precipitate Wast of Nature by the Direful
Acrimony and ill Quality of the _Serum_, as Doctor _Benet_, in his
_Theatrum Tabidorum_ observes, _Pag. 109._ _Tabidorum languor sine
pulmonum aut visceris cujuslibet corruptelâ tacitâ vi obrepens Anglis
infestissimus est, & nisi primis obediverit remediis (quod rarissimè
evenit) funestus._ In this Case I can’t but be of Opinion, that Riding
well manag’d would be serviceable, tho’ undertook very late, if there is
any tolerable Measure of Strength left to put it in Practice.

I must here again repeat, that when I here speak of Riding, I understand
the Habit of Riding, the want of which Distinction, has made it
ineffectual to many a Man; He that in this Distemper above all others
rides for his Health, must be like a _Tartar_, in a manner always on
Horse-back, and then from a weak Condition, he may come to the Strength
of a _Tartar_. He that would have his _Life for a Prey_, must hunt after
it, and when once he finds his Enemy give way, must not leave off, but
follow his Blow, till he subdue him beyond the Possibility of a Return.
He that carries this Resolution with him, will I doubt not experience the
Happy Effects of the good old Direction, Recipe _Caballum_; he will find
that the _English_ Pad is the most noble Medium, to be made use of for
a Recovery from a Distemper, which we in this Nation, have but too much
reason by way of Eminence to stile _English_.




OF THE _DROPSIE_.


The Second Distemper which I shall consider as subject to these Measures,
is one _Species_ of the _Dropsie_; that is, the _Anasarcous_ Kind, from
which likewise I except those, which are attended with a hard Liver, or a
remarkable Obstruction of some of the _Viscera_.

This kind of _Dropsie_, thus circumstantiated, does at first View, seem
not to need the Assistance of any extraordinary means to help towards
a Cure, it being the most Curable of all Dropsies; and we have daily
Instances of its giving way to Common Medicines, nevertheless there are
such exceptions in this most Favourable Case, as give trouble enough
to a Physician sometimes, and requires more than usual Application; as
for Instance; sometimes a Person happens to be brought so low by an
Unseasonable Purge, that afterwards Diureticks and Corroboratives will
have no effect upon him, but the Case becomes deplorable, without the
Rupture of any _Lympheducts_ or other the like Difficulty.

_Secondly_, when People decline in Years, there are some extraordinary
means requisite to make the Remedies exert themselves with like Success,
as they do in Younger Persons.

_Thirdly_, in Hysterick Women it is difficult to carry off the load of
Water by common means, without some such Method as I shall hereafter
mention; because their Spirits are so low, that they can bear no
considerable Evacuation.

_Fourthly_, when a Dropsie comes upon an _Asthmatick_ Person, there are
particular Difficulties arise, and the singular Advantages of constant
and gentle Exercise in this Case are universally known.

These four different Circumstances of this Distemper, may suffice to shew
that I have Colour enough for my calling in the Gymnastick Method into
this Case, and ’tis the first of the Exceptions, I mean the ill Effects,
which sometimes follow upon the Use of Purgatives, which have chiefly
occasion’d me to inquire, whether we ought in this plain Case, thus
circumstantiated to halt between two Opinions, between Purgatives and
Diureticks, without endeavouring to establish a certain Praxis upon Just
Foundations.

There are none will deny, but Diureticks are the most proper and natural
Remedies in this Case, if they would always succeed, because directed to
the proper Emunctory, the Kidneys, and because they can go hand in hand,
with the Corroborative Medicines to be given at the same time; I take it
for granted therefore, that whenever Purgatives are us’d in this Case,
it is because the Diureticks don’t take quick enough, or in order to
carry off the load of _Serum_, that the Diureticks may the sooner display
their good effects, because it will be alledg’d that the _Serum_ becomes
so Ropy and Glutinous in the Passages and Capillary Parts, that the
Diuretick cannot always act upon it. But tho’ this is granted, it will
not suffice to warrant the Use of the stronger Purgatives, because their
manner of Acting cannot agree with this Distemper, and because those
difficulties objected, may be overcome by other means.

_First_, the very Nature of strong Purgers, makes against this Case, it
seems very preposterous, to have recourse to such Deleterious Drugs, to
those _Mortis Catapultæ_ (as _Ludovicus_ calls the _Esula’s_ and such
like Purgatives) in Order to the Restoring an impoverish’d Blood; if
they acted only by Stimulating the Intestines, something might be said;
but since it is indisputable that they pass into the Blood, and act
powerfully upon it, there is no doubt to be made, but they fuze and
divide it, and break its Globules, and consequently make as much Water as
they carry off, which is the very Reason why Sweating is laid aside, and
Salivation, tho’ they both seem so proper to carry off Watery Humours; I
know it may be alledg’d in Defence of these Medicaments, that the _36th_
and _37th Aphorisms_, of the _Second Section_ seem to imply, that a Sick
Person would receive less Harm from ’em, than one that is in Health;
but yet this will not excuse their Use in our Case, because tho’ the
Viscousness of the _Serum_, may blunt the Particles of those Drugs for
a time, and hinder ’em from working so quickly, yet when once they are
throughly imbib’d, and begin to exert their Force, they ravage the very
Principles of Life, and can by no means be fit for a Person in so low a
condition. But admit that the Water is carry’d off by these means, the
Blood will be left as poor at least as it was before the Dropsie first
appear’d; and then how can we be sure the Waters will not rise again?
Suppose an _Anasarca_ follows upon an _Hæmorrhage_, which is very common,
and you draw off the Water by Purging; will not the Person be just in
_Statu quo_, upon supposition that the Medicines in their working did not
impair Nature? but that is not to be granted, because it is impossible
to suppose, that such _Drastick_ Medicines, should not prey upon Nature,
even while they are assisting her; and can we be assur’d that the Blood
will not run into the same Colliquation it did before? Besides, may there
not be some reason to suspect that the very quantity of the _Serum_,
supposing it is not too Turgid indeed, may sometimes be serviceable,
to the promoting the activity of the Diuretick, even as we find in the
true _Ascites_, it is of some use in the Cavity of those Persons, because
they often can’t spare it, without certain Ruine? We don’t know how much
the confidence of the Fluid may conduce to the keeping its homogeneous
Particles combin’d, and we ought to be very tender of doing any thing,
that might tend to dissolve the _Crassamentum_, the Globules, which are
as it were the very _Semen Sanguinis_ (if I may so speak); for how far
Nature would endure such measures, before the Sanguification would be
totally subverted, would require a Dissertation, longer than my Scope
will permit; but that this is sometimes done is not improbable, and I
take this to be the Case of a Young Fellow I knew, who falling into a
slight Dropsie, goes to an _Empirick_ somewhere about _White-Chappel_,
from whom he had a Dose of Pills, which gave him about 30 Stools, which
sunk him so much that his Nails turn’d black, and he died in two or three
days time; Here ’tis very likely the Signification was entirely extinct,
and the Blood chang’d into a Preternatural Fluid, and all by the great
Power of these Deleterious Drugs; and tho’ ’tis likely the Quack did not
know the proper Dose of his Medicines, yet one would think, this was no
more than what might be expected from Ten Grains of _Elaterium_, which
yet has been allow’d by an Eminent Writer.

Besides the weak State of the Blood, the Ventricle is always more or less
impair’d in this Distemper, and consequently unable to be put to bear
the violent _Stimuli_ of the stronger Purgers, without Danger of having
its Tone irrecoverably ruin’d.

It may likewise be Prudent to forbear Purging in this Case, left happily
there should be some greater Obstruction in the Liver, than we are
aware on, for then it might be follow’d with ill Consequences; ’tis
true, if that Bowel is really _Schirrous_, it may be discern’d, or a
great Tendency toward it, will shew it self sometimes in the Greeness
and Virulency of the Bile mixt in the Excrements, together with other
Indications; but a slight disorder there, is not always regarded, and
Brick-colour’d turbid Urines are so common in all kind of Dropsies, that
we may not discern that the Blood does abound too much with Bile, and
so a Purge given at such a time may do a great deal of Mischief, for
the Bile is of a light Nature in Comparison of the _Phlegm_, and moves
easily, and no Man knows what he does when he rouzes it; I knew an ill
accident happen once upon a Purge, given by a very Eminent Physician, to
a Gentleman in a _Jaundice_, which put him into the most extravagant and
fatal _Hypercatharsis_: thus bold Administrations to such weak Subjects,
may be attended with Tragical Accidents, but the milder and gradual
measures may succeed, without such dangerous Risks, if we consider what
have been the Difficulties which have lay in the way, and hindred the
Operation of our Diureticks.

The ill Success of our Diuretick Method in this Distemper, is very much
owing to our giving those Medicines in so small a Quantity, and to our
not changing ’em for some of a quite different Nature, when one sort
us’d pertinaciously does not take; that the quantity must be encreas’d,
there needs no better Argument, than what is brought for the use of
Purgers; for if the Blood can dispense with the Particles of a Purgative,
it will certainly bear a great quantity of those which are Diuretick
only. What Wonders has that Golden Remedy of _Pythagoras_ done, the
_Acetum Scylliticum_, when given to a proper quantity? And what may not
be expected from the _Sal Succini_, which may be given to a Dose large
enough to irritate the Fibres of the Stomach, and in some measure supply
the place of a gentle Purger; but when it is come into the Blood it may
prove Cordial as well as inciding? And now I am speaking of augmenting
the Quantity of our Diureticks, I can here affirm a very strange Effect
that follow’d upon an excessive Dose of _Millepedes_ in an odd kind of
a Rheumatick Case, for the Cure of which, several things had been try’d
in Vain, by very good Advice; the _Millepedes_ were given to a quantity
scarce credible, to several Ounces, and gave a Relief in a little time
that exceeded all expectation. This with other instances something of the
like nature, every where to be met with, may convince, us that we ought
to advance the quantity of these Medicines, to which if we apply the Use
of Exercise, the highest Advantages may be expected: For to grant as much
as the favourers of the Purging Method can demand, that by reason of the
foremention’d Ropiness of the _Serum_, the Diureticks and Chalybeates
will but distend the parts, and make the Juices grow Turgid. Is there no
way to remove the Dam, but by shaking all Nature at the same time? Must
we blow up the House to get the Enemy out? To what purpose do we talk
so much of the Animal Oeconomy, if we reduce its Rules to Practice no
more than we do? We are taught the Benefit arising from the Constriction
of the Muscles upon the Vessels; and can there be any Case which does
more apparently call for it than this? When it is hazardous to attempt
by inward Violence to dislodge the Viscous Concretions, certainly it
is high time to do it by Muscular Force. This _Hippocrates_ seems to
be experimentally convinc’d of, by his frequent inculcating the Use of
Exercises in this Distemper, Δεῖ ταλαιπωρέειν _you must labour_, is his
constant Expression, whenever he speaks of the Dropsie; which, whoever
considers the Conciseness that is in all the Writings of that Great Man,
will be apt to imagine that it carries its Weight with it, and implies
the absolute necessity of acting upon the Lentor of the Phlegm, by the
playing of the Muscles. Besides Exercise will help to restore the Tone
of the Parts, which is sometimes spoil’d by too great a Distension, even
so much as to be in a manner benum’d, which _Helmont_ seems to lay much
stress on, when he, according to his odd fantastick way, calls it the
_Anger of the Archæus_, that won’t let the Waters pass; and if there
is this kind of Spasmodick Affect in the Parts leading to the Kidneys,
then certainly there is as much Reason for one in a Dropsie to get into
a Coach upon his taking his Medicines, that the frequent jolting may
assist their Operation, as there is for one in a Fit of the Gravel so
to do. The Heat that is acquir’d by the Motion of the Body, must needs
comfort the Parts, and rarifie a great deal of the Moisture, so that it
may the more easily pass the Membranes, as they are dilated by Exercise;
and if we can by squeezing, make Water pass through Leather, the whole
Skin dry’d and prepar’d, may it not much more easily pass the Membranes
of a living Animal, when work’d and stretch’d by Motion, and assisted
by the Warmth which that Motion produces? These may be thought little
things by some, but they will be found to be of great Consequence; by
such minute Measures, Nature can produce great Effects; and by a Neglect
of these things, many a great Life has been lost, in Dependence upon
something of a greater Name, that has had no Relation to the Genuine
proceedings of Nature.

These are some of the Reasons which have convinc’d me of the Preference
of the Diuretick Course, and which I think can’t be overthrown, by all
the Examples of the Success of Purgers, because if we compute the Ill
Effects of ’em likewise, and set ’em to balance the good, the very Cures
done by ’em, will seem but as so many _Splendida Peccata_. We ought not
hastily to quit safe Means for those which are dangerous, only because
they are a little more expeditious; when a Case is within our Reach,
we ought to Establish our Prognosticks upon sure ground, tho’ they may
not be so quick as could be wish’d; we have other Dropsies that are
dubious enough, but in this Case we ought to study to bring things to
a certainty as much as possible; which how can we do unless our Methods
are Uniform? It behoves the Patrons of Purgatives to assign some certain
Rule, to render the Use of ’em alwayes safe, which seems impossible to
be done; and it behoves those who are for insisting on Diureticks, to
find out some such Measures, as may make these milder Medicines always
Efficacious; which is what I have been attempting to do; and which, if I
don’t flatter my self, I think I have made to appear plain and obvious;
for if we can’t arrive at some comfortable certainty in this Case, I
don’t know in what we can do so; for we are so happy as to have those
things as will certainly act upon such a Crasis of the Blood, as will
revive and enrich it, when decay’d, tho’ not always in the like space
of time; and when they act too slowly, we can enforce their Virtue, by
these ways I have been speaking of.

These things are no Figment of mine, they have been the Practice of
Ancient Times, and are so natural a Result from a due Consideration
of the Animal Oeconomy, that I cannot enough wonder that in so many
Discourses upon those Fundamental Rules, there has been so little
Notice taken of the Effects of the Motion of the whole individual, as
superinduc’d to the internal Motions, that make up the Oeconomy; for
if this had been duly regarded, it could not but have been reduc’d to
Practice, and apply’d particularly to the Cure of this Distemper.

_Lastly_, I know these are hard Sayings to some People, who send for
a Physician, as for one that deals in Charms, and can remove all their
Afflictions, while they are wholly Passive; and they would take it very
ill that they should be compell’d to a sort of Labour, while they carry
about ’em a Load in their Limbs; but yet for all this, Nature will be
Nature still; and if this be her Voice it must be obey’d. He that is in
a Dropsie ought to be Alarm’d, and look upon himself as in something the
like Case with those Criminals whom the _Dutch_, upon their refusing to
Work, confine to a Cellar, and let the Water in upon ’em, that they may
be in a Necessity either of Pumping or Drowning. And I believe there are
but few, but who, upon their being convinc’d of the real and surprising
Benefit of these Means, would readily undergo the Fatigue of ’em; and
things may be so manag’d, that Exercise may not be so troublesome as the
Sick imagine; an easie Pad will quickly grow familiar; and where the Legs
happen to be so very much distended, that there may be some danger, lest
the Skin should be rub’d off, a Chaise may serve the turn.




OF THE _Hypochondriacal DISTEMPER_.


The third and last Case, which I shall expresly consider, is the
_Hysterick_ or _Hypochondriacal_ Case; in the Cure of which the several
Exercises, which I shall hereafter Recommend, may all be us’d. This
Distemper falls the most under a Gymnastick Method, because the least
proper to be treated with much Internal Physick; this is a Distemper
which will not drive, as we say, but if kindly treated will lead, that
is, will not be expell’d by Purging, Bleeding, Sweating or the like, but
must be treated by more gentle and leisurely Methods; ’tis a Distemper of
the Spirits, and the Vessels which immediately convey ’em; and therefore
those means by which they are more immediately affected, are the most
likely to prove beneficial. Here it is, if ever, strictly true, that a
little Matter gives the turn, but then that little matter must be equally
apply’d; we must give an equal lift to all the Parts of the Oeconomy at
the same time, we must not apply to the Fluids, and neglect the Solids.
’Tis the want of this Distinction, which I take to be the Ground of
all our mistakes in the Cure of this Distemper; we cure but half the
Man, When I meet with a Languid Hysterick Pulse, I can easily raise it,
and give a full Beat to the Artery, by Anti-Hysterick Medicines; but
then what becomes of the Nerves, they are not much help’d by this, But
sometimes impair’d by it? but then let the same Person have Recourse
to some moderate Exercise, his Pulse shall rife as high as upon the
use of Internals, but with this Difference, that the Nerves as well as
the Blood partake of the Benefit. For we may distinguish between this
natural advance of the Bodily heat, which is procur’d by Exercises, and
that which is acquir’d by Medicines, just as we may between the Effects
of the Kindly Heat of the Sun, and those of an Artificial Fire: Now in
the matter of the Vegetation of Plants, and the Management of some sorts
of nicer Workmanship, tho’ the greatest Care and Industry be us’d to
raise a gentle heat, which to our Senses and even to the Measure of the
Thermometer, may seem equal to that of the Sun, yet it shall never be
able to produce the same exquisite effects, as the heat of the Sun does.
And so we see in this Case the mildest and seemingly most agreeable Gumms
prove Purgers to some of these People, others again can’t bear _Castor_,
without some troublesome inconveniences; and how much soever some People
may be Rapt up with their _Sal Volatile_, and such like Preparations,
I can perhaps give an instance of more wonderful Relief given in this
Case, by a more Common Cordial, than ever those splendid Medicines could
produce; it may not be amiss to relate it in this place, because it
serves to illustrate my Design in shewing that nothing that has the least
seeming Violence in it, or rather that nothing, which is not very mild
and agreeable to Nature, can be of very great moment in the Cure of
this Distemper. The Instance then I mean, was communicated to me by an
Eminent Physician, and very Learned Writer, and is this; He was call’d
to see a Maid which had been severely Tormented with Hysterick Fits for
several days, and had taken plenty of the Remedies usual in that Case,
without any effect; upon which he was resolv’d to try, what a good large
Dose of a true generous Wine would do, considering she was a Servant, and
consequently could not be suppos’d to be accustom’d to that Liquor, which
would have render’d his attempt fruitless; he therefore prescrib’d some
Pouders of no Efficacy, to obviate the Phancy of the By-standers, and
order’d the Apothecary to ply her with some Wine of his own procuring,
that he could depend upon, till she had taken a quantity, which to her
might be reckon’d very large; this succeeded like a Charm, after a good
Sleep, she was freed of all her terrible Symptoms the next Morning, tho’
before she could scarce stir her head from the Pillow, but she fell into
a Fit. And I have twice had the Occasion, to see something of the like
nature my self; the first was, where a large Dose of Wine took off some
very ill Symptoms, occasion’d by strong Purgers, erroneously repeated in
a certain Nervous Case. But the Person had not been us’d to drink Wine,
otherwise it could not have produc’d such a happy effect. I instance in
these things only to shew, that the Remedies which are most proper and
adequate to this Case, must be such as have something of an inimitable
Mediocrity in ’em; and that Exercises do produce Alterations in the
Body, which resemble the effects of such a singular and Noble Mean, is
not improbable, in regard they act so equally (as I observ’d before)
both upon the Solids and Fluids. And one would think the Ill Success of
any thing, but like Violence, should lead us to some such Measures as
these. One would be apt to think that when a Distemper, which carries as
little, or may be, the least danger of Life in it, of any whatsoever,
tho’ so very troublesome, when this nevertheless becomes one of the most
difficult to be perfectly rooted out, one would think, I say, that this
odd Circumstance, so like to Contradiction, should prompt us to look out
for the real Reason of it.

Upon these Considerations I can’t but admire, that the same
Administrations, or with very little difference, (excepting the
Chalybeates which may be allow’d in both Cases) are thought proper for
Temperate Women, and Men of Intemperance, when they happen to fall into
the Hypochondriacal Affect, as is frequently enough known; one would
think that when the Disorder in these latter is owing to the excess of
a Liquor, both wholsom enough and Cordial enough in it self, which by
its too frequent use has relax’d the Nerves, and consequently impair’d
the Spirits, there should be little likelyhood it should be remov’d, and
taken off by hot Medicines in a Solid form, which perhaps don’t differ so
much as most People imagine, in their real intrinsick Energy from that
Noble Liquid, to which these Gentlemen owe their Malady; I say, one would
think that some such surmises as these, should naturally lead us to an
immediate attempt, upon the parts affected, _viz._ the Nerves, which must
be done by means suitable to ’em, that is by Exercise.

Wherever there is a Dejection of the Mind, and a Propensity to
Phantastick and Imaginary Fears, there is reason to suspect the Solids,
that is, the Nerves are more in fault than we think for; we may consider
that when a Man is Drunk, he seldom loses his intellectual Faculties
to any great degree, till the Nerves are quite stress’d with the Load
of Wine, and his Feet go commonly before his Reason; and if this were
a proper place, perhaps, I could shew some Reasons for us to suspect
the same, in the Deliriums of People in a Feaver, that the intense heat
must first evidently impair the whole body of the Nerves, before the
Understanding will be quite lost. We don’t know what a great deal of
Rotation and irregular Agitation the Spirits strictly taken will bear,
without any Damage receiv’d; but when the Nerves, the Container of those
Spirits, are considerably affected, the Spirits contain’d must partake
of the Mischief. We know but little of that inconceivable connexion of
Soul and Body, but the wonderful Bond of Union, seems to terminate very
much in the Fibre. For we may observe, that those Poisonous Vegetables
which intoxicate, and attack the Rational Faculty, do chiefly display
their Power on the Nerves, ’tis in their very Nature, and in the
least quantity to hurt the Nerves; and when Wine, tho’ in its Quality
most agreeable, is by the Quantity and Repetition of it, made to be
prejudicial to the Nervous System, I can’t imagine, how other Cordial
Medicines, which must still in some Measure keep up the Stress upon the
weakned Nerves can be the adequate Remedy of this Disease, but that the
Nerves, must be assisted after their own way, after a manner suitable to
their Nature, that is by Exercises; for it is, and ever will be one of
the Properties of a Fibre, to be the stronger for Motion, the better for
wearing; and it is but a Law of Nature, arising from the Necessity of the
Constitution, that while the Fluids are continually wasting and running
off the faster, for the Motion of the whole Individual, the other part of
the Constitution, the Solids, the Fibres should by the same Means reap
some Advantages proper, and in some measure sufficient to Balance the
Consequences of such a _Dispendium_.

All this receives certain weight from the Argument which is so Naturally
suggested to us, by the familiar and daily Observations, which every one
cannot but make on the Health of the Poorer sort of People, especially
their immunity from this Distemper. That it is matter of wonder that the
Spasms, the Tremors, the Shiverings, the Watchings, and all the very
numerous Plagues of an Hysterick Person, should not be able to rouze
People into a Quest of Health, upon Measures suitable to the Causes of
things; that such Painful experience should not animate ’em, into a
Resolution to exchange the Pains of a sedentary, for the Indolence at
least, not to say, the Pleasures of an Active Life. I am confident no one
could forbear making these Inferences, and reducing ’em to practice, who
has been any considerable time infested with this Distemper, were it not
for the present Comfort and false Hope, which are conceiv’d from some
Palliative Remedies, in too much use in this Case; I mean Vinous Spirits,
and Compositions Distill’d upon ’em, which because in the beginning of
this Distemper, they are found to be comfortable and really useful,
entice People to have recourse to the use of ’em, oftner than they
ought to do, and in time seduce ’em so much by that Delusive flash of
Ease, which they give in the first Moments of their Drinking, that they
cannot have a due Regard to the Evil Consequences of such a Practice;
these Liquors prove a meet Charm, they creep into the Understanding,
and teach People to impose upon themselves, and fansie Excuses for the
use of ’em, till they come to be so blinded as to think that Health it
self, is scarce an equivalent for the Pleasures which must be deny’d,
in the Abstinence from ’em. They who have brought themselves to such a
Custom, are not unlike some of our Debtors, who after they have been some
time in a Prison, and learn’d the way, of living an Idle Life upon other
Folks Cost, tho’ under Confinement, they lose all sense of Liberty, and
never desire to subsist again, upon the severe Conditions of Industry and
Labour; and so those who have learn’d to sip of this Spirituous _Lethe_,
quite forget the value of Health and Strength; they can drown their
Vapours, blunt their Pains, and rub on without great danger a good while,
and therefore as for brisk Exercise, the Cold Bath, and the like, they
desire to be excus’d; there’s too much Danger in the Practice, there’s
a _Lyon in the Way_; and thus a sickly complaining Life they lead,
because they will not take Courage, to use the Just endeavours after a
real State of Health. These I take to be some of the Reasons, why this
Distemper is so seldom totally extirpated, and is become the _Opprobrium_
both of the Patient and Physician; for else it would be impossible, that
People should generally resist the Consequence of that Observation which
I hinted before: For if the Labour of the Poor generally secures ’em
from this Distemper, and if this Distemper, whenever it seizes, is of so
nice and tender a Nature, that it will scarce allow of any of the common
Methods us’d in the Cure of other Distempers, certainly it behoves the
Persons so griev’d, to try whether those Means which are Preservative
to others, may not prove Curative to them; which, by reason that the
Subject of the Distemper, _viz._ the Spirits and Nerves are primarily
affected by Exercise, proves highly probable. For why there should be
such dependance on Internals universally, and even in this Case, I can’t
see; to me it seems almost as Ridiculous, as if a Workman should use
but one sort of Tool in working on Wood, Stone, Brass, and all other
Materials.

I need not here take Notice of any of the particular Symptoms of this
variable Disease, they all being liable to the same Regimen; I have
already in another place hinted what Relief may be procur’d by this
Method in the Hysterick Colick, and in the obstinate Watchings, which
will scarce submit to the use of _Laudanum_, or at least without ill
Consequences. Therefore I shall conclude they all fall under the Power
of a Resolute COURSE of EXERCISE.

The Exercises most proper here are _Riding_, and the use of the _Cold
Bath_; the first prepares for the second; which Rule if some People, who
are the most weakly, wou’d observe, they might secure themselves, from
some of those few Accidents that have befel the too rash entrance into
the Cold Bath. Instead of Riding on horse-back, Women may take a Chaise,
which will allow of swift Motion, and comes little short of the Horse
for Agitation of the Body; tho’ I can’t see any breach of _Decorum_, if
a Lady, attended with a Servant, should ride on Horse-back daily for
Health, if she like it best; as for those, who upon the Account of their
being very Fat, have some Reason to be cautious, how they go into the
Cold Bath, lest some Apoplectick Symptoms should ensue, they may have
recourse to another of those Exercises, which I shall treat of, _viz._
the use of the _Brush_, or _Chafing_, which if us’d in good earnest, will
not prove so trivial as perhaps some People imagine it to be.

These are the Chief Exercises which I would recommend in this Case, and
which if us’d with Prudence and Application, I doubt not are able to
effect a compleat and Eradicative Cure of this Distemper, as certainly as
more violent internal Means are expected to succeed in any other Case,
the Spirits and Nerves being not so much more untractable, than the Blood
and Humours, if treated after a manner suitable to their Nature.

What I have said of these three Cases, may serve to illustrate the
necessity of this Method in some few other Cases, which I need only
Name; as the _Scorbutick Rheumatism_, which being a Nervous Case, will
admit of the three Exercises I have mention’d, which if strenuously put
in Practice at proper Seasons, will do Wonders in the removing of those
Pains. The _Nervous Atrophy_ is another Case, which may be remov’d by a
Gymnastick Method, when all the Pompous Internal Medicines will not avail.

_Lastly_, there is one more Case, to which Riding seems to be in a
peculiar manner appropriated, and that is, that Decay of Nature which is
occasion’d by Passions of the Mind, which we commonly call, Breaking
the Heart; here the Spirits are broke, and ruined by the stress of
Thought, the Mind drinks up the Vital Fluids, and the Ravage proceeds
so fast, that nothing can avail, but what can in some Measure interrupt
the Eagerness of Thought, and repair in Proportion to the wast of the
Spirits, which Riding seems most likely to do, because it gives an
Alacrity beyond that of Wine; because the Briskness of the Motion, must
take a Man off from close thinking, and such Exercise continued long,
even to some Journeys, must by Tiring incline to Rest, and break off
those voluntary Wakings and anxious Thoughts, which are so pernicious;
and if some intervals of Ease can be gain’d in this Case, there is hopes
that Reason or Religion may take place, and the Passions may be laid:
For ’tis the first Fury that is the most Dangerous and Violent; if that
can be manag’d, the Point is gain’d, and there is nothing like Hurrying
the Body, to divert the Hurry of the Mind.

These are most of, if not all, the Cases which fall under the Power
of Exercise as Curative; as for the Benefit which may be obtain’d by
Exercise, in the Gravel, the Gout, and the like, it is purely Palliative,
and therefore out of the Scope of my intention in this Treatise: I shall
now proceed to consider briefly, those several Sorts of Exercise, which
seem proper to my Design.

And here I shall not insist upon the various Exercises of the Ancients,
or all those in Use now in our Days, but shall make choice of but a
few, that seem most Compatible with the Weakness and Infirmities of Sick
People, and the particular Circumstances of those Distempers which I have
already mention’d, and I shall begin with the chief of ’em, which is that
of RIDING.




OF THE EXERCISE OF RIDING.


Upon several Accounts, this may be esteem’d the best and Noblest of all
_Exercises_ for a Sick Person; whether we consider it with Respect to the
Body or the Mind; if we Enquire after what manner it affects the Body, we
shall find that it is a kind of mixt Exercise, partly _Active_ and partly
_Passive_; the lower parts of the Body, being in some measure employ’d,
while the upper parts are almost wholly Remiss or Relax’d; nay, where a
Man is easie, is sure of his Horse, and rides loose, there is very little
Action on his Part, but he may give himself to be as careless almost
as if he were Seated on a Moving Chair; so that he may be said to be
Exercis’d rather than to Exercise himself; which makes the Case widely
different from almost all other sorts of Exercise, as Walking, Running,
Stooping, or the like; all which require some Labour, and consequently
more Strength for their Performance; in all which, the Muscular Parts
must be put to some Stress, and some of the Secretory Vessels made
to throw off too much, while others throw off too little; whereas in
Riding, the Parts being incomparably more relax’d, there is a better
Disposition towards an equal Secretion of the Morbisick Particles, and
a less Expence of the Animal Spirits, the chief Agents in all regular
Secretions; so that a Sick Person may by this means be greatly reliev’d
and not tir’d, whereas by other more violent ones, it is possible he may
be tir’d and not reliev’d.

As for the Parts which are more immediately acted upon by this Exercise;
it is very plain they are the whole Contents of the Lower Belly, so
that the Glands of the _Mesentery_ and the Intestines, so frequently
accus’d of Obstructions, may in a special manner be clear’d, and
their Tone recovered by such repeated Agitation; which is a thing so
manifest and allow’d, that it would be needless to multiply Words in the
explaining of it. But there is another sort of Assistance communicated
to the Intestines, which is not so much heeded, and that is the great
Alteration, which is made by this Agitation, in some of the Morbifick
Particles, as they come to be squeez’d out of their several Glands
into the Intestines, which in the time of Riding is doubtless in a
much greater quantity than at other times. These Particles must not be
suppos’d to be barely carryed off as Excrementitious, but to undergo a
Change in their Texture, to be several times in a manner Cohobated, from
Acid and Acrimonious, to be Volatiliz’d, and in some measure render’d
inflammable; that there is some such Alteration made in the more liquid
part of the Contents of the Intestines, before they come to grow hard in
a true State of Health is easie to prove, and I believe agreed on by most
Enquirers into the Oeconomy of Nature, and that there is some Defect
in these Operations of the Bowels, in some sick People, is evident from
the Consistence, Smell, and other Qualities of these Contents, different
from what they are found in a State of Health; and that this Defect may
be remov’d by this Exercise, seems not improbable, if we consider how
immediately Riding affects those parts, that it acts as a Topick, by
those infinite Succussions coming close upon one another, which must
needs cause a greater Heat than ordinarily, and a better Mixture of some
of the Similar Particles, and a Rarefaction of others, which after they
are thus differently Modefi’d and alter’d, are many of ’em as it were
chaf’d in again by that continual Agitation, and the Steam of their
inflammable Parts is of Use, to keep Nature even under the Exercise;
that there is something like this to be observ’d in the actions of the
Bowels might be confirm’d, by what Glysters are known to do. I would not
willingly verge towards the Fraud of an Hypothesis; I may be allow’d to
have had some more than Common Occasion, to put me upon making these
Observations, having some time ago been so unhappy as to labour under as
severe a Flux, as perhaps ever was known, which held me about a Year and
a Half, attended with Vomitings, and most unsupportable Nervous Symptoms;
during all which time nothing reliev’d me, in the greatest Paroxisms of
it, like gentle Riding, in so much that at last I was forc’d to be in a
manner always on Horseback, to have the Pressure on my Bowels rebated,
and my Spirits a little refresh’d. The Comfort which I found by that
means, I think must be attributed to some such _Phænomena_ as I have
above mention’d; for tho’ I will grant, that Riding was more beneficial
to me under those Circumstances, than it would be to another, because
of those Nervous Symptoms; yet how Particles so exquisitely Pungent and
Acrimonious, should be retain’d and blunted and made useful, as appears
from the Evil Consequences of too many Evacuations; how this should
come about, but after such a manner as I have above hinted, I cannot
understand; ’tis easie for those who think in hast and superficially, to
be deceiv’d with the first appearance of things; but when once Men are
calm enough, or under a Necessity to think closer, they are more likely
to come to the Truth of such _Phænomena_ as these; and to those who do
allow themselves to deliberate before they are Positive, I doubt not but
what I have asserted, will appear reasonable; and perhaps I should not be
so much out of the way, if I should add, that some of the _Stercoraceous_
parts of the Contents of the Intestines, are not in a strict Sence to
be reckon’d Excrementitious or useless, since tho’ I don’t believe
Digestion is perform’d by Putrefaction, yet I believe Putrefaction is a
great Medium for the opening of Bodies, and the extracting inflammable
Parts out of ’em; as we see a little Greenish _Hay_, when it comes to
be Putrefi’d, shall become inflammable; and there being inflammable
Particles in the Intestines, ’tis probable they may owe their Origine to
some such Cause, and not to the first Chylification in the Ventricle. I
would not be thought to bring these Reasons, as if I believ’d Riding
would Cure a Flux, I don’t believe any such thing, unless upon some very
singular Circumstances, and therefore I have not plac’d it among those
Distempers, which appear to be Curable by Exercise; but I only draw this
Consequence from the Palliative Relief, which Riding will afford in the
time of a long Flux, that some pernicious and disagreeable Particles, may
receive such an Alteration while in the Intestines, as to become fit to
be re-absorb’d by the several Vessels of those parts, and convey’d with
great Advantage into the Blood again, which is making things to go on in
a Round towards a Cure; Nature her self doing the Work, without forcible
Evacuations, which tho’ never so gentle in some fine Constitutions, can
scarce be born, and without much Physick, the very Morbifick Matter
being so alter’d and dispos’d in one part of the Body, as to be useful in
another. I have insisted the longer on this Point, that I might make it
as plain as possible, because I think it is of so great Moment in some
Distempers and some Constitutions.

What relates to the Breast, I have had occasion to Explain before;
and for the Head, tho’ I can’t say it is immediately affected by this
Exercise as the Lower Belly is, yet there is one Benefit accrues to
it from Riding, which by reason of the Disuse of Exercise in Cases of
Sickness, is not taken Notice of, and it is this, the great inclination
to Sleep, which a Sick Man finds if he lies down on his Bed as soon as
he comes off his Horse; for as the Motion of a Coach does more or less
dispose all People to Sleep, and the swifter it goes, the more we are
inclin’d to Doze; So the Motion of a Horse being swifter, and the Posture
relax’d as to the Head and upper Parts, tho’ a Man does not perceive any
thing of such an inclination, while he is Riding and upon his Guard,
without any thing to lean on, yet there is so much of the Impression of
that Motion remains upon him, for sometime after he lights off his Horse,
that if he throws himself presently upon his Bed, especially if he drinks
some small Draught of wholsom Ale or Wine first, he will quickly be in a
Sleep, which upon several Accounts must then be very Beneficial; this is
a Truth so certain and so valuable to distressed, infirm People, whose
Nights are often more troublesome than the Days, that it is a wonder
what should keep Men from attending to Nature, and falling into such just
Measures that Art it self cannot afford. What can be more applicable to
all the Circumstances of Consumptive People, than after that by Moderate
Riding, they have dispos’d the Humours for each Secretion, they should by
such short and Refreshing Sleeps compleat those Secretions? When moreover
by these Means, they may be enabled to deny themselves those latter or
Morning Sleeps, in which they are so apt to run into Colliquations; I
know some may please to be so witty as to call this Nursery, rather than
a Management worthy of a Physician; but yet I will appeal to any that are
Sober, Calm, and free from Prejudice, whether if they allow that this
Exercise, does dispose to Sleep as I affirm, upon this Supposal, any
thing can more exactly hit the miserable Circumstances of those Persons.
To the Sick, these little things are of great Moment, and in such
seemingly little things as these, the Accurate Management of the Ancients
consisted, by which they were sometimes enabled to accomplish, that which
we, for want of those Measures, do sometimes fall short of.

As to the other Property of this Exercise, it may be convenient for me
to make some Apology, before I enter upon the Mention of it, because it
is such, as cannot be well understood, but by those who are Conversant
with _Sanctorius_, upon one of whose above-mention’d Maxims it does
depend, _viz._ Upon that which shews the great Increase of the insensible
Perspiration by _Pandiculation_ and Gauping; now I hope the taking
Notice of this, will not be thought odd in an Age, of which it is one of
the Good Qualities, that Men will not take up with the old superficial
Way of accounting for things by Occult Qualities, _Putredo_’s, and the
like, but enquire into the _Modus_ of the more Abstruse Actions of
Nature, and will be convinc’d, that whatever are the legitimate Measures
that she takes, they cannot be thought little or uncouth, seeing ’tis by
such _Minima_, that she comes to be able to compleat her great Things.
If therefore by Gauping, this Perspiration is so very much promoted, as
has been discovered, and adjusted by the Experiments of that Admirable
Author, we may reflect upon how little things our Deliverance from
Feavers, and other Inconveniences, does depend; nothing being more
common upon taking Cold, Surfeits, or the like, than for People to Gaup
often, till the offensive Matter is let out, and consequently it is
very apparent, that whatsoever will promote the Pandiculation must be
beneficial, when the Perspiration is obstructed; and this, tho’ it cannot
be effected by any Internal, may be done by Riding, which will dispose
all People, the Healthy as well the Sick, more or less to it. I know it
may be alledg’d, that all People when they are tyr’d, are more or less
apt to Gaup and Retch, but yet it cannot be said, that Thirty Miles
Riding is a Tyring to a Healthy Man; and yet let any one observe, if that
or less will not dispose all People to this Affect, unless they over-rule
it by Drinking of great Quantities of good Liquor, which I believe will
not always suppress it neither; but for those who are Sickly, the least
Use of this Exercise disposes ’em to this Method of Nature, which perhaps
no other Exercise will do, unless they are tyr’d by it; which shews how
much Riding is preferable to other Exercises for Sick People, because it
does some way or other act upon the Secret Springs of Nature, after a
more peculiar manner, and therefore more proper for the promoting that
easie and even Evacuation.

There is another Property of Riding, that it always gives a Freshness
to the Countenance of those who use it, which lasts for some time, and
will appear upon but once Riding, and the weakest and most infirm Person
shall discover something of this in his Cheeks after this Exercise; now
I would fain know, what Noble Cordial, whether Solid or Liquid, can
do thus? They may cause a Flushing, but can produce nothing of this
Natural Aspect; and what can more plainly discover to us, that there is
something inimitable which results from the equal and gentle Pressures
of the innumerable and invisible _Vascula_ of the whole Body together,
and that that Action which can produce such an Appearance upon but one
single Application to it, may be sufficient to display the greatest and
most wholsome effects when continued on gradually, as it ought to be;
and to object against the Certainty of these Measures, because they must
be slow, is just as Wise as it would be to assert, that the hand of the
Dial does not move, or the Budding Leaf encrease, because we cannot
discern the Motion of either of ’em. Nothing certainly could keep us
from Regarding these Tendencies of Nature, but the excessive Variety of
Medicines, with which we are so gloz’d, that we over look Her gradual
Progressions, either to Sickness or Health, and think to force Her in
all Cases by the Power of Art; whereas in a great many Cases, she will
baffle the boldest Administrators, when by gentle and suitable means she
may be reduc’d, to her true State. The Famous _Cornaro_’s Case, and many
others might be alledg’d to shew how great Changes may be procur’d, by
a strict attendance to the demands of Nature, and that it is seldom too
late to aid Her in a Natural way, agreeable to her Weakness and without
the Oppression as I may call it at such a time, instead of the Assistance
of much Physick.

Add to all this the Vivacity, the Gayety which does alwayes more or less
result from brisk Motion, whether it is caus’d by the spirits expanding
themselves, or the Fibres dilating themselves to take in a greater
quantity of the Spirits, it is hard to determine, and perhaps of no
great consequence if we could; but that I may represent the Sense we may
conceive of this, I think I have no reason to be asham’d to borrow for
once more an Illustration from that Noble Beast, to which this Exercise
I am treating of is owing; It is a known Case then, that if you take
a Horse of the best Spirit, and of the best Keeping, provided he is
not Vicious, as they call it; if you mount this Horse, and walk him or
keep him to a pretty slow pace, you’ll find him quiet enough, but if
you once put him on to a larger Pace, he can’t contain himself, but
will grow troublesome, and press for a swifter Career, than perhaps his
Rider would desire; which plainly shews, that there is something in the
Animal Oeconomy, which _crescit eundo_, which gathers by Motion, and
which can’t perhaps be made to display it self so well any other way;
for this must not be thought to be wholly owing to high Feeding, but to
the degree of the Motion; for the same Sprightliness or Courage will
appear proportionally in any sort of Motion: And but a slow Motion in
some Cases does not want its good Effects; those who are Judges of the
Art of War, tell us that it is not best for a Body of Men to stand still
and expect the Enemy, but to keep in Motion while they are drawing to
the Battle; and in the time of a Siege, they make it a Rule, to remove
their Men from one Post to another; that their Spirits may be kept
up by their being in a continual Diversion. We are as subject to the
Impressions of Motion, as to those of Sound and Harmony, and both are
able sometimes to inspire a Flash of Courage into the Mind, that is not
to be despis’d; and as one was of Use to drive away the Evil Spirit of
Old, so the other may be of Service, to dispel the Hypochondriack Cloud,
the desponding imaginations of Sick Persons; a Man may be able by this
means to rouze himself, and shake off that _Incubus_ of the Brain, that
lies brooding of Causeless Fears and Doubts, to the great hindrance of
all his Endeavours after Health; it is no small matter for a Person to
hope and believe that he shall do well, it is some Advance towards a Cure
to have so much Courage, Ἤν φόβος καὶ δυθυμὶη, &c. _Si Metus & Tristitia
multo tempopore perseverent, Melancholicum hoc ipsum_; As _Hippocrates_
observes in one of his _Aphorisms_ of his _fifth Section_, Fear and
Sadness are sufficient to create a Distemper, and therefore may be very
well thought to obstruct greatly the Cure of one; those Passions cause
the Motion of the Heart, and the Beat of the _Artery_ to be weaker and
consequently must proportionably lessen insensible Perspiration, which
depends so much upon the Vigour of that Motion: We see a more than usual
Application to Business and Intensness of Thought for but a few Days,
shall cause an Alteration in the Countenance of a Healthful Man, and make
him begin to look Pale and Wan; how much more then must it prejudice a
Sick Man, to be always musing on his Distemper, which he can hardly well
forbear neither, when he knows there is real Danger in this Case? but
all this Anxiety will be very much prevented and interrupted by Riding,
and a Man will naturally come to take heart and think well of his Case,
when he finds he can procure such Temporary or Periodical Relief, if I
may so call it, such intervals of Ease, as in the time of Riding, he is
sure more or less to enjoy.

These things are so agreeable to Nature and Reason, that I am confident
they can’t but gain reception with those who are acquainted with this
Exercise; no Man can be an Enemy to Riding, but he who is ignorant of
it; and the generality of Men are by their Employments and Affairs kept
so much from the Practice of it, that they for the most part judge of it
by what they have experienc’d on a Journey, where an indifferent Horse,
bad Ways, and other Inconveniencies, make Riding rather a Toil than a
Pleasure: Whereas he who designs to make his Riding turn to account, must
make it a Pleasure; he must retire to some Place, where he can have the
open Field for his Range, he must find out a Horse that entirely suits
his Humour, and then it will not be easie for him not to delight in a
Creature which will perform all he expects from him, that takes Pleasure
in what he is put upon, and delights in his Rider; a Creature, which
(considering the many other Beasts that are Serviceable for Draught or
Burden) seems to be made almost only for the Defence, the Pleasure and
Health of his Master; and which has so many excellent Qualities above all
other Beasts, that there is no Man upon Earth, whose Gravity or Dignity
is so great, as not to allow him with some Pleasure to take Notice of
’em, if the Exercise alone will not satisfie; there is Variety of the
Pleasures of the Field, some of which any Man may make agreeable to his
Humour; there is variety of Chace, both Violent and Moderate, a variety
so great, that Providence seems to have appointed it to be subservient to
this Exercise, that Men may divert themselves with Pleasures, that will
keep up the Vigour of the Mind, instead of those soft Effeminate ones,
which generally take place more or less, where this is laid aside; add to
all this the pleasure a Man conceives when he finds his Health returning,
which will make him delight in the means of his Recovery, and persue with
Cheerfulness that which before perhaps seem’d indifferent to him; so
that an Active Life, when a Man has laid aside his timorous Prejudices,
and is let into the tast of it, will be found not only to have its
Advantages, but its Charms too; and he who indulges himself long in it,
will think it not a Paradox, that there should be an Active Luxury,
which may exceed all the Passive Enjoyments of Sloth and Indolence. I
have insisted the more on the Pleasure as well as the Benefit of this
Exercise, because there are some Constitutions of so fine a Make, or else
so impair’d by some Hereditary Stain, that it must be slow and gentle
means that can Act upon ’em to any purpose, and the taking Pleasure in
those Means must greatly contribute to the Relief they are intended to
give.

Tho’ what I have said, may I hope carry weight enough with if, to
convince any that will give themselves leave to enquire into the Causes
of things; yet because Examples have so great a sway with some I shall
add a few instances of the Effects of this Exercise, and I shall first
relate the History of the Cure of Dr. _Seth Ward_, then Bishop of
_Salisbury_, which I have Translated from Dr. _Sydenham_.

_Nostrorum quidem in Sacris Antistes, Vir Prudentia, &c._ “One of our
Prelates, a Man Eminent for Wisdom and Learning, after that he had for a
long time given himself intemperately to his Studies, and with the whole
Stress of his Mind, which in him is very great, apply’d himself too much
to close Thinking; he fell at length into the Hypochondriacal Distemper,
which continuing a good while, all the Ferments of his Body were
vitiated, and all the Digestions quite subverted. He had more than once
gone thro’ the Chalybeate Course, He had try’d almost all the Mineral
Waters, with Purgings often repeated; as likewise Antiscorbuticks of all
kinds, and Testaceous Powders, in order to the Sweetning of his Blood.
Thus what with the Disease, and what with the Cure, continu’d for so many
Years together, being just not quite destroy’d, he was seiz’d with the
Colliquative _Diarrhœa_, which in the Consumption, and other Chronical
Distempers, when all the Digestions are quite spoil’d, is wont to be
the Forerunner of Death: When he at length consulted me, I presently
consider’d, that there was no more place left for Medicines, since he had
taken so many, and those so efficacious to so little purpose; I advis’d
him therefore for the Reasons above-mention’d, to commit himself wholly
to Riding for a Cure, beginning first with small Stages, such as were
most suitable with so weak a Condition; in so much, that if he had not
been of a piercing Judgment, that could discern the Reason of things,
he would not have been induc’d, to try that sort of Exercise. I desir’d
him to persist daily in that Practice, till in his own Opinion he was
well, encreasing his Stages gradually every day, till he could come to
Ride as many Miles in a Day, as the more Prudent and Moderate Travellers
usually do in one day, when upon the account of their Affairs, they set
out on a long Journey; that he should not be sollicitous as to what he
Eat or Drank, or have any regard to the Weather; but that he should like
a Traveller, take up with whatsoever he met with. To be short, he set
upon this Course gradually, Augmenting the Distance of his Ridings, till
at length he came to ride twenty, nay thirty Miles a Day and as soon as
he perceiv’d himself better after a few days tryal, he was Animated with
the wonderfulness of the Event, and persever’d in the same Course for
some Months; in which space of Time, he rode several Thousand Miles, as
he told me himself, until he was not only well, but had acquired a strong
and robust Habit of Body.”

And Dr. _Sydenham_, tells us in the same place, that he Cur’d some of his
Relations of Consumptions, by putting ’em upon Riding much, of whom he
says, that it was altogether out of the Power of Medicine to help ’em.
_Cum certò sciam me, vel Medicamentis quantivis pretii, aut aliâ Methodo,
quæcunque demum ea fuerit, nihil magis iisdem proficere potuisse, quam si
multis verbis hortatus fueram ut recte valerent._

A Clergyman, with whom I am acquainted, living in the Country, happen’d
some years ago, to fall into a lingring _Diarrhœa_, which hung upon him
some Years, and eluded the force of the best Medicines of all sorts,
and brought him so low, that he had no hopes of Recovery left; when he
was in this Condition, a Physician of the City advis’d him to try what
Riding would do, not a slight tryal or two, but a close application to
it; and his Physician told me himself, that he charg’d him to keep to a
brisk Motion, and gallop as much as he could, enjoyning withal a very
strict Diet, that if the Disease should be check’d by the Exercise, it
might not by any improper Food, have occasion to break out again. He set
upon this Course in his own Grounds, which are very large and spatious,
and by these means was restor’d to perfect Health again. ’Tis manifest,
this Case was a Colliquative _Diarrhœa_, which at long run had sunk all
the Digestions and brought Nature into a kind of Universal Gleet, so that
it came to be properly and solely the Object of Exercise; whereas a New
_Diarrhœa_ or Dysentery, when the Humours are Turgid and Acrimonious, is
solely the Object of Medicine, and so far from being to be Cur’d this
way, that nothing would be more absurd than to attempt it; for ’tis the
debilitated Fibres that Exercise restores, and immediately affects; and
whenever Exercise makes an Alteration in the Fluids, it does so by
the frequent Working and Constriction of the Fibres, which in a fresh
_Diarrhœa_, before the Genuine Acrimony that occasions it is spent, would
be to no purpose.

A _Northamptonshire_ Gentleman, who about two Years and a half ago, came
up to Town, and liv’d in _Hogsdon_ Square, was taken Ill and sent for me;
I found the chief thing he complain’d of was a Colick, but he had other
Symptoms, which made me suspect he was beginning to be Cachectick. He was
averse to much Physick, and took nothing but the _Elixir Salutis_, which
gave him Ease, but he continued indispos’d; and seeing he was unwilling
to take any more things, I advis’d him to ride out a little, he having
a good Pad of his own breeding in the Town; he told me, if he rode at
all, he would ride Forty Mile; I reply’d, I thought a much less distance
would serve, and indeed as much as I was for that Exercise, I thought
five or six Miles would have tyr’d him; for he was much weakned, and his
Arms trembled exceedingly, when he lifted ’em up, which was caus’d purely
by the Distemper, for he was not given to drink. However, after I had
started that Advice, he persisted in his Design, and in two or three days
set out and rode I think to _Bedford_, or thereabouts, Forty Mile in a
Day, which, as he told me afterwards, made him so stiff, that he was laid
up for five or six days; but it stav’d off all those Cachectick Symptoms
that appear’d before, and in about a Month he return’d well to Town, and
with so Florid a Countenance, that it could be owing to nothing but that
Exercise; and he continu’d so for near a Twelvemonth, when these Symptoms
of an ill Habit of Body, which I clearly discern’d was begun, broke out
again, and continue upon him still. This Example may suffice to shew,
that the Weakness which People commonly alledge for a Reason against
Riding, is no Reason at all; it being, in some Sense, their Weakness
which makes it requisite.

I will here likewise mention an Instance of the good Effects of Walking,
the most common and unpromising Exercise; which I had from Dr. _Baynard_.
About Twenty Years agoe a certain Gentleman came from the _West-Indies_
for the sake of our Hot Bath, for the Cure of a Sort of Palsie, which
was occasion’d by the Dry-Gripes of that Countrey, kind of _Colica
Pictonum_, which if not cur’d in time, usually terminates in a Palsie;
This Gentleman got a Calash to carry him to the Bath; but it came into
his Head, that he would by the way try to walk as much as he could, and
when he found himself tir’d would get into his Calash; upon this Attempt
he found his Limbs come to him more and more every day; and before he
quite reach’d the Bath, he was perfectly well. And here it is remarkable,
that _Bontius_, as great an Admirer as he was of fragrant Exoticks, in
his _Medicina Indorum_, treating of a Sort of Palsie which some of the
_Indians_ call _Beriberii_, not much unlike to, if not the same with that
I have lately mention’d, he makes it his first Rule in the Cure of that
Distemper, That the Sick shouldn’t give way to it, but set upon vigorous
Exercise, _Sed hoc imprimis curandum est, ne (si ullo modo fieri possit)
te lecto affigas decumbendo; sed vel ambulando, vel equitando, vel simili
aliquo motu validiore omni conatu te exerceas_.

Dr. _Baynard_ has likewise given me, in the following Letter, an Account
of his Recovery from a Consumption, some Years agoe.

    SIR,

    _In Answer to your Request, concerning my Illness, as near as
    I can remember, I here give you in short the Matter of Fact.
    In the Month of ~October, Anno 1694~, I was sent for to my
    old Friend and Acquaintance, Colonel ~Warwick Bamfield~, at
    ~Hardington~ in ~Somersetshire~; I being then in ~London~, and
    had been very ill all the Summer at ~Bath~; my Case was, as I
    and other Physicians thought, a true and confirm’d ~Phthisis~;
    for I had an habitual Heat and continual Cough, Night and Day,
    a very quick and frequent Pulse; I spit Blood, and exputed a
    viscous tough Matter, sometimes Green, Yellow, Ash-colour’d,
    and that in great Quantity. It would sink in Water, and smell
    ill and fœtid when cast upon live Coals. My Flesh went off,
    my Stomach decay’d, and I had that ~Livor Genarum~, as tabid
    People usually have, Night-Sweats, &c. so that every Body gave
    me over as lost and gone; but through a constant and cool
    Regimen in Dyet, chiefly Milk and Apples, sometimes with Honey
    and Sugar of Roses, and a distill’d Milk, with the temperate
    and cool Pectorals, together with constant Riding Night and
    Morning in the Air, and that on the highest Hills and Places I
    could find. I thank God, in two Months time my Hectic abated,
    Cough ceas’d, Flesh came on, and my Stomach return’d; and by
    continuing Riding, and other Field-Exercises, I recovered to
    a Miracle: And this present Year 1705, falling into the same
    Distemper, I was cured by the same Means, but chiefly Riding.
    This is very well known, and observed by all that knew me at
    the ~Bath~; And I wish others, in my Case and Circumstances,
    may find the like happy Success. I am_,

          DEAR SIR,

                          Your humble Servant,

                                                  _Edw. Baynard_.

I shall here insert a Relation of a very strange Cure by Riding, which
was communicated to me by Dr. _Sydenham_, the Son of the Eminent Writer
of that Name; who was likewise pleas’d to acquaint me, That he himself
took a Journey into _Scotland_, that he might get rid of a Cough, which
seem’d to threaten a Consumption, and that his Journey took it off.
But the Cure I am going to mention, was of a Gentleman who is related
to the Dr. and now living in _Dorsetshire_, who was brought so low by
a Consumption, that there seem’d to be no Possibility of a Recovery,
either by Medicine or Exercise; but it being too late for the first
to do any good, all that was to be done, was to be expected from the
latter, tho’ the Dr. did not think that Riding would then do. However the
poor Gentleman, seeing there were no other Hopes left, was resolv’d to
attempt to ride into the Country; but was so extremely far gone, that at
his setting out of Town, he was forc’d to be held up upon his Horse by
two Porters; and when he got to _Branford_ or _Hounslow_, the People of
the Inn, into which he put, were unwilling to receive him, as thinking
he would die there, and they should have the Trouble of a Funeral;
but notwithstanding, he persisted in his Riding by small Journeys to
_Exeter_, and got so much Strength by the way, that tho’ one Day his
Horse as he was drinking, lay down with him in the Water, and he was
forc’d to ride part of the Day in that wet Condition, yet he got no Harm
by it, but came to the abovemention’d place considerably recovered; where
thinking he had then gain’d his Point, he neglected to ride any more for
some time; but finding himself relapsing, he remember’d the Caution which
Dr. _Sydenham_ had given him at his setting out, That if he should be so
happy as to begin to recover, he should not leave off Riding too soon,
for he would infallibly relapse and die, if he did not carry on those
Measures long enough; so he betook himself to his Horse again, and rode
till he obtain’d a perfect Recovery.

And I have lately met with a Gentleman of this City, who upon the Advice
of the same Physician, set upon a Course of Riding, and recovered of
a Consumption, in which he was very far advanc’d; and had try’d a
Milk-Diet, and other proper means to no purpose, and all along spit Blood
very much. This Gentleman set out on a Journey to _York_, and by Riding
close Day after Day for about Ten Weeks; in which space of time, he rode
by Computation a Thousand Mile, he return’d healthy and well to Town.

It is to be consider’d from these two last Cases, that the Riding
through Variety of Airs in a long journey, is of great Consequence to
Consumptive People, and is much better than riding constantly in one Air;
besides the new Scenes that appear every Day in a long Journey, create
some sort of Amusement in the Minds of Sick Persons, that is not to be
thought altogether contemptible.

But I have been the more willing to insert these two last Cases, because
they do manifestly justifie that well-grounded Distinction, or as I
think, I may rather call it, Discovery of that Excellent Physician,
whom I have so often cited, _viz._ That it may be too late to force any
one Secretion to good purpose; and yet it may not be too late to move
all the Secretions of the Body at once, equally and gently by moderate
Riding; which I doubt not will be found, by all who shall try it, to be
a real Truth, and of the greatest Importance, tho’ it happens to be so
difficult of Access to the Understandings of some People, and so cross
to the Expectations of this Age, that there are Thousands of _Naaman_’s
Opinion to be found, who will choose to suffer any thing, rather than be
convinc’d, that there can be so much Healing in the _Waters of Jordan_.

I could give several more Instances of this Nature; I could bring the
Example of a Young Lady, the Heiress of a very Eminent Family, who ow’d
what ease she had under a certain Distemper, chiefly to frequent Riding
on Horseback, and to whom the being put out of that Method prov’d Fatal,
when Her ordinary Physician being out of the way, another, who mistook
her Case, took wrong Measures. But I only mention this, to shew that it
may not be so incongruous a thing, and altogether without Precedent,
to recommend these Measures in some pressing Circumstances, even to
that tender Sex; who if they knew the surprising Advantages, that may
sometimes be obtain’d by this Exercise, would I doubt not break through
the Mode to come at ’em: No Woman living would bear some of the severer
Hysterick Symptoms, if she knew any way to get rid of ’em; and I am
widely mistaken if some of those Symptoms, do not as it were point out
to us the clearest Indications for these Measures; as in those Women
who have been long distress’d and broke with this Distemper, we may
observe sometimes, that their Spirits are so scatter’d, or the Nerves so
impair’d, that they can’t well bear any thing that pleases, or displeases
very much, without some disorder; if they happen to desire a Thing very
earnestly, they can’t wait a little while for it, without some visible
uneasiness; and tho’ they are sensible of this, and their Reason is as
strong as ever, yet they can’t command themselves, because the Animal
Spirits, the _Medium_ by which the Rational Soul exerts it self, are so
broke and confounded. The same is likewise indicated by those intense
Hysterick Shiverings, which sometimes tho’ more rarely are to be met
with. Now if Women, who happen to be thus Tormented, believ’d that a
Recourse to this Exercise would relieve ’em, I leave it to any one to
judge, whether they would dispute the putting it in Practice.

What I have said concerning Exercise, I hope may suffice to convince any
Man, that the Power of Healing is not confin’d to the Drug only, but
that this course may come in for a share also, and be esteem’d upon a
Level in due place with common Physick. And if I should venture to say
something greater of it, I should not speak my own Fondness or Phancy,
but the Opinion of one who is known to have been a very Ample Judge of
the Demands of Nature, I mean Dr. _Sydenham_, with whose Encomium on this
very Exercise, as he has given it us in his _Dissertatio Epistolaris_,
and his Treatise of the Gout, I shall conclude. In the first of those
abovecited Places he has these Words. _At verò nihil ex omnibus quæ mihi
hactenus innotuere, adeo impensè sanguinem spiritusque fovet firmatque,
ac diu multumque singulis fere diebus Equo Vehi. Cum enim in hac
Gymnasticæ specie impetus fermè omnis in Ventrem inferiorem fiat, in quo
Vasa Excretoria (quotquot fœculentiis, in sanguinis massa stabulantibus,
educendis à naturâ instituuntur) sita sint, quæ tanta functionum
perversio, aliáve Organorum Naturalis impotentia vel fingi potest, cui
tot succussionum millia eodem die ingeminata, idque, sub dio, opem non
attulerint? Cujus Calidum innatum usq; adeò deferbuerit, ut hoc motu non
excitetur & denuo effervescat? Quæ verò sive præternaturalis substantia,
sive succus depravatus in aliquo harum partium sinu recondi potest, qui
non hoc Corporis Exercitio, vel in statum naturæ consentaneum perducatur,
vel quaquaversùm dissipetur elimineturque? Quid quod sanguis perpetuo hoc
motu indefinenter agitatus ac permistus quasi renovatur ac vigescit._
And in his Treatise of the Gout, he thus expresses himself with some
Exultation. _Sanè diu multumq; mecum reputavi, quod si cui innotesceret
Medicamentum, quòd & celare vellet, æquè efficax in hoc Morbo_ (scilicet
Podagrâ) _ut & in Chronicis plerisque, ac est Equitatio constans &
assidua, opes ille exinde amplissimas facilè accumulare posset._




OF CHAFING.


The next I shall recommend, is a Cutaneous Exercise; _Chafing of the
Skin_, or as we usually call it, the Use of the _Flesh-Brush_. It is
very strange that this Exercise, which was in such universal request
among the Ancients, of which they have wrote so copiously, have given
us so many Rules and Distinctions for the use of it, which they put in
Practice, in almost all Distempers, and without which, scarce any Man of
tolerable Circumstances pass’d a day, either in Sickness or in Health; I
say, it is strange, that what was so much esteem’d by them, should be so
totally neglected and slighted by us, especially when we consider that
their Experience agrees so exactly with our Modern Discoveries in the
Oeconomy of Nature, _viz._ That there is so great a disproportion between
the Evacuations perform’d by the Skin insensibly, and all the others put
together; that the first exceeds all the rest by many Ounces. One would
be apt to think, that this Theory should convince us, that the Ancients
did find their Account in those diligent Frictions, and that they really
answer’d their Expectations in the several Cases, in which they made
use of ’em; and that we, who live in a Colder Climate, have much more
reason to expect great advantages from this Method, if we would use it
to some purpose, with Continuation and close Repetition. If a Person
happens to be a little more costive than ordinary, what a Concern is he
in for it? What Doses of Purging Physick are repeated to take off this
suppos’d Evil; which at the same time is frequently obviated by a larger
_Diaphoresis_, which at such times is often sensible in the Palms of the
Hands, and very often not sensible, but yet real, and to the greater
Benefit of the Person, than a Laxity of the Intestines would have been.
But if six or eight Ounces of the _Materia Perspirabilis_ is kept in,
which is of far worse Consequence, than the like Weight of the _Fæces_;
no body is very solicitous about that: and if it discover it self in a
Cold or Headach, presently there is Recourse to Purgatives; and if it
be the Summer time, perhaps the Purging Waters are drank so long _de
die in diem_, till Nature lose the way she has been accustom’d to; and
perhaps never comes to be able to make the same Discharges for Quantity
by insensible Perspiration, as she did before she was thus violently
forc’d out of her way. This was not the way of the Ancients, they were
for stimulating and soliciting that part, which was primarily defective,
that they might reduce it to an Ability to make its wonted Discharges;
so that where there is a great Lett of insensible Perspiration, which
in some Cases is easily discover’d by the Smoothness and Dryness of
the Hands, it is certainly most natural to endeavour to stimulate the
Glands of the Skin by rubbing; which by the Colour it brings into the
Skin, Sufficiently shews what it is able to do, if us’d long enough.
And certainly we ought to have regard to this sort of Discharge above
others, because it can supply the Defect of others, better than any of
the others can supply the Defect of this; and because it is perform’d by
those Vessels, which are by all now allowed to be the grand Emunctory of
the Body, that is, by the true Skin, and all its innumerable Glands.

These Reasons are so Natural, that I can’t imagine what should have
hinder’d the putting this Method in Practice in some Cases at least,
unless it be, what I have somewhere observ’d before, the general
Impatience of most People, who can’t be brought to think well of a
Method which does not surprize with some present Alteration, without
considering, that if such a Method will after a time cause a good
Alteration, it is worth their while to wait for it, and perhaps the best
Course that the Nature of the Case will admit of. Now that the Efficacy
of a _general Chafing_ may be made to appear so valuable, as to encourage
any one to wait for the Effects of it, let us but consider it in a
particular familiar Case, which is the Cure of a _Ganglion_, a Tumour in
a Tendon, occasion’d by some extravasated Juices between the Coats. This
little white Swelling is commonly taken off by frequent Rubbing; and tho’
no Alteration appear for a Week or two, yet if you persist longer, it
certainly vanishes; which plainly shews, that if _Chafing_ can produce
such an Effect, in a Part which is cold, and comparatively exanguous,
what may we not expert from it, when apply’d to the _Cutis_, which is so
warm and succulent, and ready to give forth such copious Exhalations?
This Instance, in my Opinion, does sufficiently illustrate the thing,
tho’ we see the good Effect of it in another Case too, _viz._ The
_Rickets_, which is caus’d by the neglect of exercising and _Chafing_ the
Limbs of the Child, and which every Nurse knows may be Cur’d by so doing,
if it has not been of long Continuance; or at least that those Exercises
are equally prevalent with all the Internal Administrations.

If these things are so, why should not we carry on this Method to some
of the other Cases too? Why should not we go to work even in a true
Rheumatism, after the Inflammation is abated; to fetch out the _Mucous
Gelatinous_ Substance, which has been thrown put into the _Interstices_
of the Muscles? This course would mould and break that Viscous Matter,
and render it more fit to be absorb’d and carry’d off, or discuss’d, by
dilating the Membranes, and making ’em more fit for a Transpiration; and
withal would secure the Cutaneous Parts, from too great a Flaccidity, by
keeping up the Spring of the small Fibres; whereas warm Fomentations,
tho’ they procure a wonderful Transpiration, yet they are apt to leave
the part relaxed, and sodden in a manner, if they are apply’d too often;
and thus it is easie to imagine, how proper this Course is in the other
Nervous Scorbutick Rheumatism, and what good Effect it will produce, if
us’d with Discretion, at proper Seasons; with other Exercises likewise.

There are moreover some _Atrophies_ where this is like to prove of
singular Use, by reason of the στεγνωσις (as _Galen_ calls it, in his
third Book, _de Sanitate Tuendâ_) the dryness and stiffness of the Skin,
which at that time, seems to be fix’d to the part that it covers, and
not to fit loose as at other times, and the Pores are obstructed, and
the Skin of a different Hue, from what it is in most other Cases. Here
it’s easie to perceive that _Chafing_ must be of wonderful consequence,
the reason of which _Galen_ gives us in a Chapter or two in the
abovementioned Book, where he Treats expresly of this very Affect.

_Lastly_, it must needs be very beneficial to those Hysterical and
Hypochondriacal People, who are very Fat; and upon that account, cannot
use much Exercise, and have reason to be cautious, how they venture into
the Cold Bath, and therefore I have not perfunctorily advanc’d this
Method, where I have already treated of that Case, but upon good grounds;
as these People can’t well bear any of the sensible _Evacuations_, it is
but necessary we should have recourse to the promotion of the insensible
one; and perhaps if we knew the true cause of that Distemper, it would
be found to arise in great part, from some Lett in that insensible
Perspiration, and therefore it would be proper to endeavour the Removal
of such an Obstruction by outward Means, because so few internal ones
are agreeable; and if any one thinks the Breathing, that is caus’d by
_Chafing_, too trivial to be call’d an Evacuation, they may be fully
inform’d out of _Hippocrates_ and _Galen_, that they thought it to
deserve that Name, and therefore they distinguish’d one degree of it
for attenuating of gross Bodies. If therefore this can be brought to
appear a sufficient Evacuation for these People, it is certain it is
most conducive upon other accounts; because it raises and cherishes the
Spirits at the same time. Upon this account of refreshing the Spirits,
the Ancients made it a great part of their Ἀποθεραπία, that is, their
Method for refreshing _Athleticks_, after their violent Exercises; and
every Old Woman now among us, falls to rubbing the Limbs of any body that
happens to be taken with an Hysterick Fit, for it diverts the Spirits
from flowing too much to the Parts affected, and long acting upon the
Extremity of those most sensible Fibres of the Skin, must needs agitate
the Spirits considerably, and give some Strength likewise to those Parts
that are so _Chafed_.

A great deal more might be added on this neglected Subject; but I think
I have said enough to prove what I above asserted, _viz._ The exquisite
Agreement, between the Practice of the Ancients, and our Theory of the
_Cutaneous_ Parts; and if this will not encourage any to hope for the
like Advantage from the same Methods now in our days, nothing that I can
say more will avail.




_Of being Exercis’d to bear_ COLD.


The next and last _Gymnastick_ Method I proceed to, is the Use of the
_Cold Bath_; if any should wonder to find me rank this, among the several
sorts of Exercise, they may consider, that it was ever reputed for one
among the Ancients, and not without Reason; since it makes the Spirits
recoil, and act with more united Vigour, upon the Subject-matter of the
Disease, and so a Cure may be made by them alone, without any Medicinal
Virtue, receiv’d through the Pores, as in other outward and Topical
Applications; this comes up to the Notion of an Exercise, because it
enables Nature to accomplish the Work of Healing her self.

I shall not attempt to account for the Advantages of this Practice,
because that has been done already so copiously by Sir _John Floyer_
and Dr. _Baynard_, and the World has already begun to experience the
good Effects of it, and there are Examples enough, every where known, to
justifie the recourse to it, in the Cases to which I apply it; and ’tis
to be hop’d now, that Men will begin to consider the Folly and Mischief
of the too warm Regimen, which in health does often prepare ’em for
Sickness, and in Sickness does often increase the Disease, and hasten
Death, a Regimen which would be much more proper, for one that is to have
a sudden passage into a warm Country, than for us who are to prepare our
selves for the bearing of the Cold; a thing which we cannot fly from,
and therefore ought to resist it; and which is not so formidable or
dangerous, as for a great while has been thought. The Inhabitants of this
Nation formerly went Naked, and were more Healthy than we are now; and
the People of _Canada_, and all the Cold Continent behind _Newfoundland_,
go much after the same manner, without any Inconvenience from it, but
are rather fortifi’d against the Accidents they would be subject to, if
their Pores were too much open’d and relax’d by too much warmth; and
we may very well distinguish the Rational, from the Savage Part, by as
thin a Habit as Decency will permit. It is a strange thing, that People
should be fond of suppling their Skins, and keeping their Pores too
open; as if a Man did not as really perspire, when there is no sensible
Moisture upon the Skin, tho’ not so much, as when he is all bedew’d with
Exhalations, which should not be sent out in so great Quantity, but upon
brisk Exercise. If Men knew how much Sweat impairs the Skin, and inclines
it to wrinkle, as _Sanctorius_ tells us in one of his _Aphorisms_, they
would be fully perswaded, that Nature can make her Discharges by finer
and better ways, than those which are so perceptible, and that Flannel is
scarce necessary or convenient on this side Old Age. The nervous parts of
the Skin have certainly a very great Elasticity, and are capable of being
strengthned by good and suitable Management, even to a Habit, as well as
those of other Parts; and we see, that when the Glands of the Skin do
throw out a very sensible quantity of Sweat in some particular Parts,
these Parts grow accustom’d to the Air, or other Moisture, and receive
little or no hinderance in their discharges from it; as we see the Palms
of the Hands shall sweat copiously, notwithstanding the External Air
immediately striking upon ’em; and none are more Strong and Healthy, than
those who are wont to have their Feet wet without changing their Shooes
and Stockings for it. The Stomach plac’d in the midst of the Body, and
consequently exquisitely warm, is so adapted, as to bear large Draughts
of the Coldest Liquor, without the least Damage, unless the Body has
been extremely heated; and tho’ its Office seems to require great and
continual Heat, yet it is not obstructed in it, by the admission of Cold
things, nor are its Glands benumn’d or constring’d, so as to hinder
the Secretion of digesting Juices; and can we suppose the Fabrick of
the Skin less perfect, and exquisite, when by its position it is to be
immediately subject to the effects of the External Air? Can we think its
Vessels are not endu’d with a strength sufficient to answer the Force and
Weight of the incumbent Air? And its Glands of such a make, as that the
Particles they strain shall be of so fine a Texture as to pass the Skin,
when it seems to us to be too close to permit any transition? We make but
indifferent use of a very good Theory, that _Sanctorius_ has furnish’d us
with, if we give way to these Thoughts, and encourage too frequently the
promoting of Sensible Perspirations; which, be they in never so small a
degree, are the effect of some Violence upon Nature, and consequently not
to be compar’d with the other more Even and Regular Secretion.

Besides, we may argue from the Effects of too much Heat, and from the
Distempers of Hot Countries, to instance but in one Disease (which when
it seizes any one among us, their chiefest Care is to be secur’d from the
Cold,) and that is the Colick, which is the Epidemical Distemper of Hot
Countries, not of Cold, and so common at _Surat_, that about Noon the
whole Town shall smell of _Assa Fœtida_, which they mix in most of their
Dishes, to preserve ’em from that Tormenting Distemper, which the Heat of
the Air does not exempt ’em from, but exposes ’em to it, by rarefying the
Blood and Humours, and opening their Pores; by which Method I don’t doubt
but many a one among us has brought an Accidental Colick to be habitual;
for being scar’d by the first Fit, they have endeavour’d to secure
themselves from another, by these very Means which prove most likely to
bring it on. If any one thinks this strange, let ’em remember what hapned
when Muffs were worn universally, some Men were wont to let ’em hang upon
their Bellies for the most part; and I have heard a Healthy Man complain,
that upon leaving off his Muff for a day or two after such a Custom, he
has been grip’d; from which any one in the World will infer, that the
keeping the Part too warm, prepar’d it for the Ill Effect of the Air, and
that the same may happen in any part of the whole Body; so that it is a
Folly for People, in most Cases where the Lungs are not concern’d, to
nurse up a Distemper, which was at first perhaps in great part owing to
a tender way of living, and by continuing that Course of Life, must be
rather encreas’d than perfectly rooted out. A great deal more might be
urg’d, if my Scope would permit me, to induce People to believe the good
effects that will follow upon the Exercising themselves in bearing _Cold_.

I shall proceed next to shew, what was the Opinion of the Antients,
concerning Exercise in the Cure of several Distempers, and shall collect
their Sentiments as briefly as possible; that as in a Sketch they may
appear at one View.




_The PRACTICE of the ANCIENTS._


We find then that much about the time of _Hippocrates_, the _Gymnastick_
Method began to be introduc’d into the Art of Physick; whether it was
brought up by the School of the _Cnidians_, or any other Society of
Physicians, or whether _Herodicus_ first joyn’d it to the Dietetick, and
so brought it into Request, I shall not undertake to determine; but we
find by _Hippocrates_, in his _third_ Book, _de Dietâ_, _Sect. 12._ That
with some sort of Glory he assumes to himself the Honour of bringing that
Method to a Perfection, so as to be able to distinguish Πότερον τὸ σιτίον
κρατέει τοὺς πόνους, ἤ ὁι πόνοι τὰ σιτία, ἢ μετρίως ἔχει πρὸς ἄλληλα.
_Utrum cibus superat labores, aut labores cibos, aut moderatè inter se
habeant_; as he expresses it. Pursuant to this, we find him in several
places of his Works, recommending several Sorts of Exercises upon proper
Occasions; as _first_, Friction or _Chafing_, the Effects of which he
explains in his _Second_ Book, _de Diæta_, _Sect. 42._ And tells us, that
as in some Cases it will bring down the Bloatedness of the Solid Parts,
in other Cases it will incarn and cause an Increase of Flesh, and make
the part Thrive; for, says he, _Carnes Calefactæ ac siccatæ alimentum
in seipsas per venas trahunt, deinde augescunt_. He advises Walking, of
which they had two Sorts, their round and streight Courses. He gives his
Opinion of the Ἀνακίνηματα or Preparatory Exercises, which serv’d to
warm and fit the Wrestlers for the more vehement ones. In some Cases
he advises, the Παλὴ, or common Wrestling, and the Ἀκροκείρησις, or
Wrestling by the Hands only, without coming close. The Κωρυχμαχία, or the
Exercise of the _Corycus_, or the hanging Ball. The Χειρονομίη, a Sort of
dextrous and regular Motion of the Hands, and upper parts of the Body,
something after a Military manner. The Ἀλίνδησις, or rowling in Sand; and
once we find mention’d with some Approbation the Ἤπειροι Ἵπποι, _Equi
Indefiniti_, by which I suppose he means Galloping, long Courses in the
open Field. These various Exercises are more amply describ’d by several
Authors, and _Mercurialis_ has Collected a very good account of ’em; they
may seem strange to those who don’t consider what great Expences the
Ancients were at in Building Academies, or Places every way convenient
for these purposes; and as odd as some of these may be thought by us
now, they were as commonly practis’d in those days, as Cupping is now in
our _Bagnio’s_. And tho’ _Hippocrates_ gives his Direction concerning
these things, after his usual manner, in short Terms, yet ’tis plain he
depended much on ’em, because he so frequently inculcates the Distinction
of this or that sort of Exercise, to such and such a Distemper; and the
People of those Times might find greater Benefit from those Exercises,
than we do now from some of ours, which I doubt not are altogether as
good; because they apply’d the Exercise to such or such a Medicine as
the Physician thought fit, which gave it a greater Energy; and after
its Operation had recourse to another milder Method, to take off the
Heat or Disorder which might have been caus’d by the Medicine. In
these Practices they were so dexterous and successful, that tho’ their
Ætiology strictly taken, was wrong, yet if a Man diligently attends to
their Reasoning from Effects, he may be satisfi’d, that they were able by
these Methods to do some wonderful Cures; and indeed they sometimes had
such surprizing Success, that the abovemention’d _Herodicus_, an Eminent
Master of Exercises, thought he could Cure all Distempers by those Means,
and went Empirically to work upon the Bodies of those who put themselves
under his Care, and was so extravagant, as to attempt to Cure Fevers by
such Methods, for which he is ridicul’d by _Hippocrates_, in the _Sixth
Book_ of his _Epidemicks_, and the _Third Section_.

As for _Galen_, he follows _Hippocrates_ in this, as close as in
other things, and declares his Opinion of the Benefit of Exercises in
several places; his _Second_ Book, _de Sanitate Tuendâ_, is wholly
upon the Use of the _Strigil_, or the Advantage of Regular _Chafing_;
he has wrote a little Tract, _de Parvâ Pilâ_, wherein he recommends an
Exercise, by which the Body and Mind are both at the same time affected.
In his Discourse to _Thrasibulus_, which is a Dispute, whether the
Preservation of the Health properly belongs to the Art of Physick, or
to the Gymnastick Art, he inveighs against the _Athletick_, and other
violent Practices of the _Gymnasium_, but approves of the more moderate
Exercises, as subservient to the Ends of a Physician, and consequently
part of that Art.

The other _Greek_ Writers speak much the same thing, and the Sense of
most of ’em in this matter is contracted in _Oribasius_’s Collections.
I shall only take Notice that they rely’d much on Exercise in the Cure
of the _Dropsie_, wherein we almost totally neglect it; _Porrò motus,
si quid aliud_ (says _Trallian_, one of the latest of ’em) _Hydropicis
conducit, præcipuè qui fit per Mare, Equum, & Lecticam iis autem qui
viribus constant, etiam Itio est utilissima_; which is no more than what
_Hippocrates_ has advis’d before, in his _de internis Affection_. _Sect.
28._ He orders for one that has a Dropsie ταλαιπωρεέτω περιόδοισι πολλισι
δι’ ἡμήρης, _Laboret circuitus multos de die._ And he makes use of the
same Word in his Epidemicks, and almost always when he speaks of the
Regimen of a Dropical Person, implying that tho’ it be a labour for such
People to move, yet they must undergo it; and this is so much the Sense
of _Hippocrates_, that Mons. _Spon_ has Collected it into one of the New
_Aphorisms_, which he has drawn out of his Works. _Celsus_ says of this
Case, _Concutiendum multâ Gestatione Corpus est_; and in another place,
_Facilius in Servis quàm in Liberis tollitur, quia cum desideret famem,
sitim, mille alia tædia, longamq; patientiam, promptius his succurritur,
qui facilè coguntur, quam quibus inutilis libertas est_. I have made
choice of these Citations, that I may not be thought to have apply’d the
Use of Exercise to the Cure of the Dropsie, without Precedent; and if the
Ancients in their Practice found the good Effects of it, we have much
more reason to expect greater Advantage from such Measures, since we have
a Medicine we use in this Case, which seems particularly to demand it; I
mean the Chalybeate, of which I have already spoke elsewhere.

But to return to my former Design; not only the _Greeks_ but the _Latin_
Writers also, are full of these Methods. The _Romans_ rather exceeded,
than came short of the _Greeks_, in the Prosecution of _Gymnastick_
Courses; and _Asclepiades_, who liv’d in the Time of _Pompey_ the Great,
was the Man who brought them into the most Universal Request. He call’d
Exercises _the common Aids of Physick_, and wrote a Treatise, _de
Frictione, & Gestatione_, which is mention’d by _Celsus_, in his Chapter
_de Frictione_, but the Book is lost. He carry’d these Notions so far,
that he invented the _Lecti Pensiles_, or Hanging Beds, that the Sick
might be rock’d to sleep; which took so much at that time, that they
came afterwards to make these Beds of Silver, and they were a great part
of the Luxury of that People; he had so many particular ways to make
Physick agreeable, understood so well the Τὸ Βέλπον of his Profession,
was so exquisite in the invention of Exercises to supply the Place of
much Physick, that perhaps no Man in any Age ever had the happiness to
obtain so general an Applause; and _Pliny_ says, he by these means made
himself the Delight of Mankind.

About his Time the _Roman_ Physicians sent their Consumptive Patients to
_Alexandria_ in _Ægypt_, and with very good Success, as we find by both
the _Pliny’s_; this was done partly for the Change of Air, but chiefly
for the Sake of the Exercise by the Motion of the Ship, and therefore
_Celsus_ says, _Si vera a Phthisis est, opus est longâ Navigatione_; and
a little after he makes _Vehiculum & Navis_ to be two of the chiefest
Remedies; and I am apt to believe they were the more inclin’d to make
use of the Sea-Carriage, as an Exercise, for the sake of the Vomiting,
which happens at the Beginning of it, that they might thereby supply
their Want of gentle Emeticks, which at times are so beneficial in that
Distemper, in which scarce any of the Emeticks which they then knew,
can be us’d with Safety, and it was a great part of their Industry and
Sagacity to make good what they wanted in Pharmacy by other Means. As for
the other more common Exercises, that were daily practis’d, as it is very
manifest from _Celsus_, _Cælius Aurelianus_, _Theodorus Priscianus_, and
the rest of the _Latin_ Physicians. And we don’t want Instances of the
Cures wrought by these means. _Suetonius_ tells us, that _Germanicus_
was Cur’d of a _Crurum Gracilitas_, as he expresses it, I suppose he
means an _Atrophy_, by Riding; and _Plutarch_ in the Life of _Tully_
gives us an account of his Infirmness, and that he recovered a great
Measure of Health by Travelling, and excessive Diligence in Rubbing
and _Chafing_ his Body; and he himself in his _Brutus, seu de claris
Oratioribus_, relates his Case, That he was so weak, that his Friends
and Physicians advis’d him to leave off Pleading, which struck him so,
that he thought he would undergo any Fatigue, rather than lose the Glory
of his Profession, and so betook himself to Travelling, which with other
regular Courses brought him to his Health again. _Pliny_, _lib. 31.
Cap. 6._ tells us _Annæas Gallio_, who had been Consul, was Cured of
a Consumption by a Sea Voyage; and _Galen_ gives us such Accounts of
the good Effects of particular Exercises, and all People so unanimously
apply’d themselves with Patience and Resolution to these Practices, that
it cannot be suppos’d, but they must have been able to produce great and
good Effects.

If any one should ask me how it comes to pass that Riding, which I have
substituted as equivalent to any or all the Exercises of the Ancients,
in the Case of Sickness, was so little regarded by their Physicians, but
other less valuable Exercises insisted on; it may be reply’d, that the
Ancients could not recommend Riding to weak People, because of their
manner of Riding; they had not the same convenience, as we have; for in
those days they rode without Stirrups, which must needs be tiresome to
weak Persons. We find by comparing of Medals, that the Stirrup was an
Invention of a much later date, than any of the Authors I have quoted, I
think by about Seven Hundred Years; so that Riding was only an Exercise
for Healthy and strong Men; besides Horses were not so common in the
_Levant_, or in _Italy_, as they are with us; they were reserv’d for
Military Men, or at least for Men of Plentiful Fortunes, and the Ass and
the Mule serv’d for common Carriage; the Horse was a formidable Creature
to People that were not accustom’d to him, and especially to weak
Persons. We see such a Jolly Fellow as _Martial_, could advise his Friend
_Priscus_, to have a Care how he hunted, _Lib. 12. Epig. 14._

    _Parcius utaris, moneo, rapiente Veredo_
    _Prisce, nec in Lepores tam violen ter eas._

And in the Close of the Epigram,

    _Quid te fræna juvant temararia! Sæpius illis,_
    _Prisce, datum est equitem rumpere, quam Leporem._

And that this Humour still remains in those Countries, tho’ we have a
better way of Riding, is evident from Dr. _Baglivi_, who tells us in
the _Corollaries_ of the _8th_ Chapter of his _first_ Book, _de Fib.
Motrice_, That he Cur’d two Hypochondriacal Persons, _Hominem Nobilem
ac alium Divitem_, a Gentleman and another rich Man, that he says were
desperately Ill, by Riding on Asses in the Country Air; and I believe
all will agree to think they were desperately Ill, who could despense
with the Ass-trot, when their Circumstances would have afforded them
the Carriage of a better Creature. The _Italians_ plainly discover
likewise, how little they are addicted to Horsemanship, in that Proverb
of theirs which says, _That a Galloping Horse is an open Sepulchre_; and
according to this Opinion, they manage their Horse-Races at _Florence_,
for they make their Horses run without Riders upon ’em, something after
the manner of a Paddock-Course; and to make ’em run the faster, they clap
a Saddle upon ’em, cover’d with a Sort of Tinsey Stuff, that may make
a fluttering with the Motion of the Horse, and fright him that he may
run the faster; and instead of Stirrups, there hangs down Straps from
the Saddle, at the end of which, there are Balls full of sharp Spikes,
which leap up and down, and prick the Horse as he runs. This ridiculous
way of Running their Horses, shews how great is the Prevalence of that
habitual Timorousness, which keeps ’em from the Enjoyment of the best and
most useful sort of Riding, as the Ancients could distinguish very well,
as we find by _Oribasius_, in his Chapter _de Equitatione_, who after
he has said, that Riding slowly was tiresome, (which was for want of
Stirrups) he goes on to tell you, _Si vehementer impellatur_ (viz. Equus)
_quamvis totum corpus laboriosè concutiat, tamen aliquid utilitatis
affert, siquidem magis quam omnes aliæ Exercitationes, Corpus et
præsertim Stomachum firmat, et sensuum instrumenta purgat, eaque reddit
acutiora_. This is a sufficient _Encomium_ of Riding, coming from the
Mouth of one of the Ancients, who relied so much upon other Exercises,
tho’ we in these Northern Parts want no Recommendation from them, of a
thing so much experienc’d by our selves; only we slight and neglect this
Advantage, as we do many others, because it is common.

I have now with sufficient Brevity, consider’d how much the Ancients
depended on the Assistance of Exercises in their Practice; and I leave
it to any one, that is not prejudic’d, to judge whether this may not
pass for one Reason, why they cur’d so well with so bad a Theory, and
such indifferent Materials; when we, with our Circulation and Splendid
Pharmacy, are not perhaps able to outdo ’em proportionably to our larger
Acquisition of Knowledge; I say, I think this may be one Reason, for
I know there is another may be alledg’d likewise, and I think I speak
without any undue Aggravation.

The Power of Exercises us’d at proper Seasons, and with great and exact
Patience, must needs be very great; and if it be true, that in the
_Roman_ Common Wealth there was no profess’d Physician for the first Five
Hundred Years, there is no way to account for it but by their incredible
Temperance, and Variety of Exercises; the few Chronical Distempers they
had among ’em, were in all likelyhood, for the most part subsequent to
Acute Distempers, which no Temperance can always prevent, and the little
vegetable Physick, which they could not but know, with their resolute
and indefatigable Application to some of their Exercises, might suffice
to help ’em to get clear of ’em. This may perhaps by some be thought
rather a Gloss than an Argument, who do no duly consider their wonderful
Patience in this respect; the _Pletherismus_, and _Pitylismus_, two odd
uncouth Exercises mention’d by _Galen_, are sufficient to convince any
Man, that they that would heartily drudge at them in the middle of the
_Stadium_, would do any thing that was possible to recover their Health,
and might expect the very utmost Benefit that could be obtain’d from the
various Motion of the whole, or any part of the Body.

I will grant, that they carried these things too far, the whole Education
of the _Athletæ_ was blameable; I will grant likewise that they were
too Nice in the Exercises for the Preservation of Health; I can’t
admire _Pliny_’s Course of Life, which he gives us an Account of in the
_Thirty sixth Epistle_ of his _Ninth_ Book. _Ubi hora quarta vel quinta
(neque enim certum dimensumq; tempus) ut dies suasit, in Xystum me, vel
Cryptoporticum confero, reliqua meditor & dicto, vehiculum ascendo, ibi
quoque idem quòd ambulans, aut jacens, durat intensio, mutatione ipsa
refecta paulum redormio, deinde ambulo, mox orationem Græcam Latinámve
clarè & intentè; non tam vocis causa, quam Stomachi lego, pariter
tamen & illa firmatur iterum Ambulo, ungor, exerceor, Lavor_. Nor can
I approve of _Spurinnas_ abundant Regularity, as _Pliny_ relates it in
his _first_ Epistle of his _third_ Book, he tells us, thus _Spurinna_
manag’d himself, _Ut manè lectulo contineretur, hora secunda indueretur,
ambularetque millia passuum tria, mox legeret, vel colloqueretur, deinde
consideret, tum vehiculum ascenderet, peractisq; ita septem millibus
passuum, iterum ambularet mille, iterum resideret, vel se Cubiculo aut
Stylo redderet; ubi hora balnei nunciata foret, (quæ erat byeme nona,
æstate octava) in sole, si caruisset vento, ambularet nudus, dein pila
moveretur vehementer, & diu; postmodùm lotus accumberet, & paulisper
cibum differret_. This is a great deal too much, this is over-doing, Life
is not worth such anxious Regularity, a generous Negligence is much more
preferable in a State of Health; but if a Man happens to be seiz’d with
a Distemper of such a Nature, that Exercise is absolutely necessary to
the Removal of it, he would be wanting to himself, and very much to be
blam’d, if he should think any Fatigue too great to be undergone for the
sake of a Recovery; and I fansie there is scarce any Man in this Case,
but would take Pains enough, provided he thought they would not be in
Vain, which most People are now apt to suppose, because the World has
lost the Sense of the Efficacy of Exercises, since the _Goths_ over-run
the Southern Nations of _Europe_, and abolish’d and suppress’d many of
their Customs, that they might the easier introduce their own; so that
in this respect we are in opposite Extreams, if they prosecuted these
Measures too much, we do too little; and I am very sensible how difficult
a thing it is, with the best of Arguments, to influence those who are
propense to the contrary of what you propose. And we are so habituated
to other Methods and other Expectations, have so many Conveniences for
Support and Palliation under a Sickness, that most People are supinely
content rather to rub on in a Sickly Condition, that does not carry the
greatest Danger with it, than resolutely endeavour by vigorous Means
to be quite deliver’d from it. And if it be a Distemper that threatens
immediate Peril, these Means are presently thought too trivial to have
any Weight in the Cure, and People can with more Ease despair of Help,
than struggle with Pain in hope of an uncertain Cure; so that in some
Cases, it may be very well said of the Wise, the Rich, the Valiant, and
the Mighty, as was formerly said of one of King _David_’s Generals; who,
because he was kill’d upon a Surprize, (which yet no Humane Precaution
can always prevent,) was lamented with that severe _Epicedium, Died
~ABNER~ as a Fool dieth_?




THE APPENDIX.


I did not design, either when I begun or when I ended this Treatise, to
add the following Account of my own Distemper, which gave me the unhappy
Occasion of many of these Observations, both because it is no new thing
for Nervous Cases to vary extremely in their Anomalous Symptomes, and
because the Rise of the Distemper was eminently owing to my own Rashness
and Folly; but having since been importun’d by some of my Friends to make
it Publick, I have been the more easily prevail’d with so to do, because
I conceive there scarce ever was any Instance, either among the Ancients
or in our days, which does so palpably illustrate the Power of my Subject.

My Distemper was caus’d thus; I happen’d several Years ago to catch a
Certain Cutaneous Infection, more troublesome than dangerous, and which
I might easily have got rid of, if I had had but so much Prudence or
Patience as to have submitted to the Common, tho’ not very agreeable
Method of Cure; but I must needs take to a more cleanly, but desperate
Course, by making an Application to my Skin of a Substance well charg’d
with a dangerous Mineral, and which I us’d to such a Time, and after so
extreamly Rash a manner, as I believe never one did before me; I wore it
for several Months by times, keeping it on till the Humour disappear’d,
and then leaving it off till it broke out again; thus I did till I
began to consider that this would not last always, and so I quite laid
it aside; but the Mischief was begun, tho’ I was not aware of it; for
about a Month after I had left off that Pernicious Practice, I wak’d
one Morning with an unusual Giddiness, and in a little time after, I
found several Convulsions begin to come upon me, not only slight ones,
in the Capillary Arteries of my Eyes and other Parts, but some deeper;
as sometimes I should have one of my Hands drawn in, my Fingers brought
to the Palm of my Hand involuntarily. When I found things thus, knowing
what I had done, I was not a little terrifi’d, as any one may imagine,
but by applying to a good Physician, by the Help of Bleeding and other
proper Means, the Severity of the Symptomes went off, and I remain’d
only with a Giddiness, which was very troublesome, but notwithstanding
which, I might be said to be in pretty good Health, as having a good
Habit of Body, and being more strong and robust, than many People that
are free from such an Inconvenience; and thus I continued for several
Years without any great Alteration happening, except that once upon
Drinking the Bath-Waters too long, that vertiginous Rotation was so
increas’d, that I was laid up for a Month with it, being scarce able to
go about without Staggering like a Drunken Man; this, considering the
Strength I had notwithstanding, made it reasonable to suspect, as most
that I consulted did, that there might be some Mercurial Particles lodg’d
in some Excretory Ducts of my Brain, but this Extremity abated, and I
remained Healthy under that Giddiness for several Years, till happening
once to be more indispos’d than usually, upon the taking of a Chalybeate,
the Humour struck deeper into the Nerves of the Pectoral Muscles, so that
I found my Shoulders sometimes begin to be contracted involuntarily,
and upon walking, I found a Shortness of Breath, which I could plainly
discern, was caus’d _ab extra_, that is, by the Preternatural Pressure
of those Muscles, upon my Breast, which I have sometimes resisted so
far, when it has happen’d to come upon me in the Streets, before I could
get to a House that I knew, that it has made my Eyes flash, and brought
other Epileptick Symptoms upon me, in so much that I have been forc’d
to take into a Shop, and desire leave to rest me for a time. These
things continued on me a Year or more, during which time, if I had then
known the Prevalency of Riding, I might have prevented a long Scene of
Sickness; for declining under these Spasms of my Breast, I was at length
quite confin’d to my Home, for near Three Months, all the while growing
worse and worse, in Spite of the Power of any Medicines I took; when it
happen’d that I was casually directed to the Use of Riding by the great
Alteration I found in me, upon being one Day carried out in a Coach
about a quarter of a Mile, when I was in that low Condition, that made
me reflect on some of Dr. _Sydenham_’s Notions, which, like others, I
had before slighted and disregarded, and I determined to try what Riding
would do; in Order to which, I remov’d to _Hamstead_ for the Conveniency,
where I rode at least twice a Day for the Space of Seven Weeks, without
so much as intermitting one day; and I had Encouragement enough to keep
close to it; for I found as Manifest a Progress in my Recovery, as ever
was discern’d in any thing that is either Natural or Artificial; and I
can’t here omit one thing very Remarkable, and which gave me the greatest
Assurance of Success, and which shews beyond Contradiction, how peculiar
this Exercise is to Cases of the Nerves; after I began to Ride, I found
constantly upon the Use of that Exercise, a Tingling in the Ends of my
Fingers, which was accompanied with a Sense of a gentle glowing Heat;
and as I grew stronger, and persisted in those Means, I perceiv’d this
Sensation proceed farther, for then I felt it in the Crown of my Head,
and at length in my Tongue, in my Eyes, and at last all over my Body.
This I acquainted my Physician with, who thought it a certain Pledge
of my Recovery, as being assur’d that it was caus’d by the Spirits
Recovering the Passage of the Nerves as in a State of Health, and so it
prov’d; for as they pass’d farther and farther in the same manner, the
Sense extended it self to my Wast, where I should have, after Riding,
a Sense of Tingling and Heat, as strong, as if I had expos’d my Breast
to the Sun, or pour’d warm Water upon it; any one may imagine what a
Pleasure this must needs be to one in my Circumstances, to find my self
as it were, _Renasci_, and all the parts of my Body gradually receive a
kind of New Life. By this it is plain, how much I was Relax’d before,
and how agreeable to the Nature of the Nerves, that most Excellent
Exercise is. This _Phænomenon_ has given me very Serious Reflections,
when I have known some, who have stood almost in as much need of the same
Measures as my self, tho’ their Indispositions have Rise from different
Causes, and in whom in all Likelyhood the same Method of Riding would
have produc’d some of the same hopeful Symptoms; I say, it has given me
serious and troublesome Reflections; when upon such Occasions, I have
not thought it proper, to recommend the same Means, or shew the Reasons,
why I would recommend ’em, as being sure that if I did, they would be
rejected with Derision. So that I have often with some Regret admir’d the
Incongruity of the Circumstances of Humane Life, how little Reason Man
has to be Proud, notwithstanding his Wisdom and Councel, when even in
the greatest Concerns of his Life, Custom, Mode, Phancy, and many other
Circumstances, may so envelop him with Prejudice, that it may so happen,
that in some Cases of Distress, one Man may be Morally certain, of what
will help another, and yet it may be the most absurd thing in the World,
to disclose it to him, and impossible to convince him if he should. I
have the more amply related this unusual Circumstance, because it seems
to me to illustrate above any thing whatsoever, the Influence of Riding,
on the Nerves or Solid Parts of the Body; and as strange and unheard of a
Symptom, as it may seem to some, I can averr it is a most Solemn Truth,
and what I had frequent and reiterated Occasions to observe.

After I had by these Means recover’d a good Measure of Health, I enjoy’d
it about a Year and a Half, by the Help of Riding at due Intervals;
and I was pretty strong, and able to make considerable Journeys, which
my Affairs then required. But in those Journeys, I was so unfortunate,
as to abuse that most excellent Expedient, that I had receiv’d so much
Good from; for, thinking my self stronger than I really was, and Riding
long Journeys beyond my Strength, I was took of a sudden, and in the
midst of a Journey, with the strangest sort, of _Deliquium_ that perhaps
ever was heard of, in which I was forc’d to drink such quantities of
Spirituous Liquors, as at another time would have made me more than
ordinarily Drunk, which then could scarce keep Life in me; to these
sort of Fits after some time was added a _Diarrhœa_ of a peculiar and
singular kind, which was attended with a Nauseousness and Inclination to
Vomit, more than is usual in that Case; and when the _Diarrhœa_ at any
time happen’d to be a little more violent than ordinarily, a Spontaneous
Vomiting ensu’d, as violent as if I had taken a strong Emetick; and
what is remarkable, those Nights after my Vomiting, I should Sweat to
that degree, as to make my Shirt and Sheets as wet, as if they had been
dipt in Water; upon which, instead of being weakned, I was refresh’d,
and freed from the greater severity of these Symptoms for some Days;
which plainly shew’d, how pernicious that Psoradick Salt was which the
Mercurial Particles had repell’d, and intimately mix’d in my Blood.
Thus I had three Calamities upon me at once; a Flux, a Vomiting, and
the _Deliquiums_ I spoke of before; the last of which had something so
incredible in ’em, that tho’ most severely true, and known to several
in this City, yet I shall forbear to relate it in this place, lest I
should be thought to exceed the Truth, by telling that which scarce
ever had a Parallel; I shall only say, that the Gripes and Vomiting
were comparatively a Pleasure to this, I do not speak in Heat, but
Seriously and Calmly, that the Vomiting, tho’ so frequent and severe, was
desireable, if compar’d with these most strange Faintings; which were so
tormenting and insupportable, that if I had been Stab’d, or had had my
Flesh cut with Knives, I am certain I could much easier have born it.
Under this Complication of Misery, I was deny’d likewise the Ease, which
is to be obtain’d by _Laudanum_, which I was prohibited by the Nature
of my Circumstances, and by very good Advice, directed to abstain from
it. And as for Emeticks, there was no using of them for other Reasons;
so that the Business was left wholly to Stypticks, which not putting
the least stop to my Distemper, I resolv’d to betake my self to Riding
again, having Rested so long, and would try if using it moderately and
frequently, might not keep up my Spirits, as formerly it has done, and
it prov’d according to my Hopes; for by diligent and fervent Application
to these Means, I made a shift to support my self, and keep things in an
_Æquilibrium_, under these pressing Circumstances, insomuch that I held
out, even under such Severities, as I have related, no less a time than a
Year and Nine Months, when at length these Evils gain’d upon me, and my
Vomitings were so frequent, and incredibly violent, that they took away
the Use of my Limbs, when I was forc’d to be lifted every time upon my
Horse, that I might continue my Riding, tho’ it were but to gain a little
Periodical Ease; till that Seizure on my Limbs encreasing, I was confin’d
to my Chamber, my Legs and Thighs swell’d, and in the Opinion of three
Physicians, whose Assistance I then had, I was very near the End of this
(as it was Literally to me a) Tedious _Journey of Life_. When it pleas’d
God, that in this Extremity, one of those Physicians was so happy, as to
direct me to a Mild Chymical Medicine, too seldom us’d for that intent,
which stop’d my Vomiting, and created a sudden and surprising Change in
me; the swelling of my Legs went off in less than three Weeks, and in
about six Weeks time, from that emaciated Condition, I was as Fleshy, as
in a perfect State of Health. By this it is plain, that the great stress
of Vomiting threw off the Humour, and that the Swelling of my Legs was in
part, if not altogether, Critical, and that the habituating my self so
very much to Riding, did enable Nature to throw off the Humour that way,
and support her under the Shock of those numerous Vomitings. After this,
by the Use of Chalybeates, taken for a great while together, and with
Riding upon it, I recovered as good an Appetite and Digestion, as I had
before these Vomitings came upon me, and my Flux entirely stop’d; and for
these two Years last past, I thank God I have liv’d an Easie and Happy
Life.

Thus I have given a succinct and true Account, of a Long and Severe
Distemper, which it has pleas’d Almighty God to lay upon me; by which
it is plain, that as some Men are distinguish’d by Riches, Honours, and
the like; others may be as remarkable in the Degrees of their Affliction
and Anguish, and may be forc’d to pass not only Days, but Years of that
which we call Life, after such a Manner, that if it were not for higher
Considerations, it would be far better not to be. That in the very best
of a Man’s Years, in the time of Hopes, Prospects, and Advantages, a Man
may be so wretched as to be debar’d the Capacity of making use of ’em,
and in a Sense, Buried Alive.

But since I have offer’d the World a Relation of my Distemper, I shall
make bold to take Notice of two or three things observable in it, which
may perhaps be of use to some, tho’ the very same Distemper, I hope will
never be the Lot of any one. And this the rather, because those Remarks
are agreeable to my Subject.

_First_ then, I think it is very clear, from the Circumstances of my
Case, that where Indications arise, which run Counter to one another,
which every one knows is the worst of Difficulties a Physician meets
with, in such an Emergency, nothing can be so lively to balance between
’em, as the having recourse to some proper Exercise, if possible; for
it is hard but it will suit with one of those Circumstances, and not
improbable, that it will give help in both.

_Secondly_, From the Cessation of my Gripes as soon as ever I got on
Horseback, I am convinc’d that Pain may be very much obviated or
mitigated by the Motion of the Body, that is, by those Means a Man may
make a shift to set loose from it. It was a piece of Extravagant Nonsense
in the Scepticks, to pretend to Reason with Pain, and account it no Evil;
a Man might as well pretend to Fence against Hunger with Resolution, and
be accounted blameable for Starving through Want of Victuals; undoubtedly
Pain is the greatest of Evils to the Body, and that which we cannot but
endeavour to free our selves from; but till that can be done, it will be
a Happiness, if we can so manage things, as to perceive less of it, or
as I said before, sit loose from it; and that I think may certainly be
obtain’d from the Motion of the Individual, of such or such a kind, as
the Pain will best admit of. Not only Thought, but the Perception of
a Pain, may be in some Measure interrupted by a swift Motion, for that
Perception cannot strike so strong at such a time; a Man that should let
himself to Muse on a full Gallop, would think but very incoherently,
and if Thought it self may be thus broke off, certainly the Sensation
of Pain, which can be no quicker than Thought, may be likewise happily
interrupted and rendered more Dull. These Considerations would be of
real Service to Persons afflicted with Scorbutick Pains, if they could
induce ’em to a Resolute Practice of Riding; for all those Pains in the
Shoulders, Back, or Hips, would gradually abate in the time of that
Exercise, as well as by the Habit of it, the Cause would be remov’d. But
moreover there are other Sorts of Gestation or Voiture, that are suitable
with the keenest Pains, as the Motion of a Boat, a Litter, a Chair, a
Swing, and the like, in these there are no _Motûs Contrarietas_, as Dr.
_Sydenham_ calls it, no Jolting, which in some Cases, as in the Gout,
is not tolerable; but they may be apply’d to the severest Cases, and I
doubt not would sooth the Spirits, and give great Relief. And here I
cannot but think that a good Mechanick might invent some Machine, after
the manner of the _Petaurus_, or the great Swing of the Ancients, which
might be of the greatest Service to People in the Extremities of the
Gout, by diverting the Sensation, and turning the Edge of the Pain: A Man
that has been laid up for several Weeks, would certainly find by such a
Motion, as great an Alteration, as one who has been confin’d to his Bed
for some time does upon his first getting up, which is very great; and
certainly if the _Romans_, out of Luxury and Wantonness, could be Swung
to Sleep in Hanging Beds of Silver, it may be allow’d, that a Person in
Torment may use the same Means to obtain Ease. I don’t know why a Motion
upon a Round, should not do some Service in this Case, for there would be
a sort of Sickness in the Stomach, caus’d by the Rotation, which would
withdraw the Spirits from the Place of the Pain; and moreover undoubtedly
dispose to Sleep. These things cannot be thought Extravagant, if they
can suffice to give any the least Ease to Men under such Pains, as those
of the Gout, when the _Carnificina_ lasts so long, as to exceed in some
Measure all Humane Patience; when _Non rectius Podagræ quam Iracundiæ
Paroxysmus omnis did potest_, as Dr. _Sydenham_, who knew too well what
it was, says of it; I say, in such Extremities, nothing ought to be
thought Ridiculous, that can afford the least Ease. I could say; much
more on this Subject; I could Name a very Worthy Gentleman, who not long
ago had such an odd sort of a Colick, that he found nothing would relieve
him in the Fits of it, so much as lying with his Head downwards; which
Posture prov’d always so Advantageous to him, that he caus’d a kind of
Frame to be made, to which he caus’d himself to be fastned with Bolts,
and then his Servants were to turn him with his Head downwards; after
which manner, he hung till his Pain went off: And I hope none will say it
was unbecoming a Grave and Wise Man, to make use of such odd Means to get
rid of an unsupportable Pain. But I have perhaps already said more than
will be relish’d by some of those Gentlemen, who are so happy as to be
really Ignorant, or to have but very slight, and imperfect Notions of the
Nature of Pain; and before they censure me, they would do well to peruse
Mr. _Collier_’s Excellent Essay upon Pain; where they will find such an
Account of it, and such Instances of the Behaviour of Healthy and Strong
Men under it, that they will the more easily admit, that for the Sick
and Infirm, it may be in some Measure feasible to avoid, as it were, the
Sensations of Pain, and, as much as can be, sit loose from it.

The next and last thing which I shall take Notice of, in my Distemper, is
the Frequency of those Vomitings, and that notwithstanding they lasted
so long on me, I receiv’d no harm from ’em. It is a great Misfortune
in the business of a Physician, that he finds so many people averse to
that sort of Physick, whereby he is compell’d to prosecute a Cure by
more uncertain and inefficacious Means; whereas if those Persons did but
consider, they might easily find Arguments to convince ’em, that there is
no such Danger as they apprehend, in the use of Moderate Emeticks, where
there is no _Mala Conformatio_, nothing in the make of the Breast that
forbids it. They may consider that the Vomiting which comes upon going to
Sea, tho’ it lasts sometimes two or three days together, and all the time
seems as violent as that we procure by our Emeticks, yet it never hurts
any one, and does not much weaken those who have undergone it. I know two
Gentlemen who were Sick all the time of their being upon the Sea, one of
’em all the time of his Passage to and from the _West Indies_, and yet
they receiv’d no hurt by it. And I don’t know but I my self have Vomited
as much as any ten Men Living, and yet am not in the least hurt by it.
And we are furnish’d with Medicines, so gentle and commendable, that they
may be repeated at reasonable Intervals, without the least Danger of any
ill Consequence.

From these Considerations of the great Ἐυφορία with which we bear
Vomiting, tho’ it seems so troublesome while it lasts; I am convinc’d
that it may be accounted for after the same manner, as Gymnastick Effects
are; besides that the rising of the Pulse upon the Stimulating and
Irritation of the Fibres of the Stomach, and the excessive Pressure and
Shock of the Glands of several parts, with the other _Phænomena_ of
Vomiting, shew that it does partake of the Nature of an Exercise, and
it is a great Happiness for the Individual, that the Author of Nature
has allotted such Secondary Uses of the Stomach, Diaphragm, and other
parts imploy’d in Vomiting, that they should not only serve to through
up what is disagreeable, but strengthen the whole Oeconomy in that very
Act. And here if it be allow’d, that the Irritation of the Ventricle
does raise and strengthen so much, I can’t but think I may venture to
propose it, as worthy the Consideration of the best Judges of these
Matters, whether when we use Emeticks, we ought to rest our Expectations
upon a few Momentary Efforts, when we see Nature will bear the carrying
on of the same Measures so much longer; that is, whether it would not
be more expedient in some Cases, to give our safe and gentle Emeticks
in lesser quantities, than we do, _viz._ so as to make the Person Sick,
but not to a degree sufficient to make him throw up the Contents of his
Stomach, and when that quantity of the Medicine has pass’d off after that
manner like an Alterative, to repeat the same Dose, and so continue on
that Sickness for several hours, without raising it to that degree, as
to force the Person to Vomit above once or twice in all the time. This,
I say, I think is worth Consideration, and may be of singular Advantage
in some Cases of a Consumption, and in Hysterick Cases, when we do not
give Vomits to cleanse the Stomach only; for by this means we can Elevate
Nature very much, and procure a just _Diaphoresis_, when perhaps by the
best of Cordials we may only create a Colliquation; and after this manner
the Springs will be wound up more gradually; when if the Emetick passes
off with strong Efforts, and very quick, after the usual manner, we give
Nature only a Wrench, the effects of which are soon over. I would not be
here understood, as if I would put this in Practice, I do not pretend to
Authority sufficient for such Innovations, I only presume to offer these
things, by way of Problem; and one of my Stature may sometimes happen to
start a hint, which those who are Taller in Wisdom and Understanding may
cultivate and improve to Perfection.

These are some of the Thoughts which the Severities of a most tedious
Distemper have suggested to me, which if they can be of any use, to help
to guide others to that which may deliver ’em from their Calamities,
it would be a great Satisfaction and Recompence to me for my Pain,
to perceive that it has conduc’d to another’s Ease. But if these
Speculations shall not be worthy to have such an Effect, I hope I shall
be Pardon’d upon the Account of my good Intentions; especially seeing lam
not singular, but have so very many Companions of those who have troubled
the World with things of little or no Moment.

_FINIS._

Printed by JOHN MATTHEWS, in _Pilkington-Court, Little-Britain_, 1705.





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