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

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?