As all Insects abound with a Diuretick Salt, so Cantharides more than any others; therefore the Learned Bacchius [(97)] goes farther, and from the Authority of Rhazes and Joannes Damascenus, advises to give these in Substance for many Days together. The Preparation of this Antidote, (so he calls it) is by infusing the Cantharides in Soure Butter-milk Twenty Four Hours, then drying them, and with the Flower of Lentils and Wine making them up into Troches of a Scruple Weight, of which one is to be taken every Day, By which means he assures us, that tho’ the Patient make bloody Urine, yet that Milk largely drank will abate that Symptom, and that an Hydrophobia will be happily prevented. Boccone [(98)] tells Us, That in Upper Hungary They give Cantharides to Men bitten by a Mad Dog, Five to a Dose; and to Beasts in greater Quantity. But of the inward Use of these Flies more in its proper Place.
In short, all the Specifics in this Case are such as do either absorb a peccant Acidity in the Stomach, or carry it off by Urine; as Terra Lemnia, highly commended by Galen [(99)], Garlick, Agrimony, Oxylapathum, and many others, of which a Catalogue may be seen in S. Ardoynus. So the Alyssum or Madwort, celebrated for this use by the Ancient Physicians, as well that described by Diascorides, which is a Species of Leucoium, as the other of Galen, which is a Marrubium, is very manifestly a Bitter, Stomachic, and Diuretic Plant [(100)]. The Lichen cinereus terrestris, recommended in the Philosophical Transactions [(101)], Operates the same way.
But the greatest and surest Cure of all, is frequent Submerging or Ducking the Patient in Water. The first mention I find of this is in Cornelius Celsus [(102)]; whether he had it from the Ancient Grecian Physicians, or it was the Discovery of his own Age, matters but little to our Purpose; certain it is, that he collected his Principal Rules of Bathing from Cleophantus, who, as Pliny says [(103)], did, besides many other delightful things, first introduce the Use of Baths; As appears by comparing the Writings of the One with the Fragments of the Other, preserv’d in the Works of Galen. And that from Asclepiades, who afterwards so far improved this Part of Physick, that he discarded almost all inward Medicines, he might learn this Management, is not improbable; for the Hydrophobia (as we before took Notice) having been first regarded in the time of this great Physician, ’tis very likely that among other Advantages of his new Method, he might commend it for the Cure of so deplorable a Malady.
However it be, This Practice was in this last Age with great Authority revived by the Ingenious Baron Van Helmont [(104)], who having in his own Country seen how great Service it did, has at large set down both the manner of the Operation; and, Consonant to the Principles of his own Philosophy, shewn the Reason of its good Effects. Since him Tulpius [(105)], an Observer of very good Credit, takes notice, that tho’ he saw many, yet that never one miscarry’d, where it was in time made use of.
As all Baths do chiefly act by the sensible Qualities of Heat and Cold, and the Gravity of their Fluid; so we need go no farther to fetch the Reason of the great Advantage of this Method in the present Case, than to the Pressure of the Water upon the Body of the Patient.
Every one knows how plentifully plunging into cold Water provokes Urine, which proceeds no doubt from the constriction hereby made of the Fibres of the Skin and Vessels. Thus this outward Cure differs not much in effect from the inward Medicines beforementioned, but must necessarily have the better of them in this Respect, that when the Fermenting Blood stretches its Vessels, the exceeding weight of the ambient Fluid resists and represses this Distension, and so prevents the Effects of It. For this Reason the Salt Water of the Sea is especially chosen for this Business, because its greater Gravity than that of Fresh does more powerfully do all this, and break the beginning Cohæsion of the Parts of the Blood.
Thus we may, without having recourse to the Fright and Terror, with which this Method, when rightly practis’d, (by keeping the Party under Water for a considerable time, till he is almost quite drowned) is usually accompanied, probably enough account for the Advantages of this Immersion. Tho’ it is not unlikely that this new Fear may have some good Effect in the Case too, for not only Convulsions, but Agues, and other Diseases, have oftentimes been happily Cured, merely by terrifying and surprising the Patient.
The Reason of this will easily be understood by him who knows what Alterations the Passions of the Mind do make in the Fluid of the Nerves and Arteries; of which in another Place.
It may for our present purpose suffice to take Notice, That as in Consideration of the last mentioned Effect upon the Mind, Van Helmont commends this same Practice in all Sorts of Madness, and Chronical Deliria; so upon the account of the before hinted Alterations on the Body, Bathing was, among the Ancients, the common Cure of Melancholy, and such like Distempers [(106)]. And as the younger Van Helmont [(107)] to confirm his Father’s Notions, tells Us, that one Dr. Richardson did with wonderful Success make use of this Management in these Cases, so in like manner Prosper Alpinus [(108)] takes Notice, that the Egyptians do at this Day perfectly recover Melancholy Persons by the same Method, only with this Difference, that they make their Baths warm.
He that compares what has been already advanc’d concerning Deliria, with the Bellinian Theory of Melancholy and Maniacal Distempers, and reflects upon the Nature of Baths, and their manner of Acting, will see so much Reason in this Practice, as to be sorry that ’tis now-a-days almost quite laid aside and neglected. For we must observe, that altho’ there be some Difference in the Treatment and Cure of Deliria, whether Maniacal or Melancholy, when they are Originally from the Mind, as the Effects of Care, Trouble, or the like, and when from an Indisposition of the Body; yet that both do agree in this, that they require an Alteration to be made in the Blood and Spirits; inasmuch as the Mind, by often, nay, almost continually, renewing to it self any one Idea, of Love, Sorrow, &c. does so constantly determine the Spirits and Blood, one and the same way, that the Body does at last as much share in the Alteration, as if it had been primarily affected, and consequently must have, in some manner, the same Amendment. Upon this Score Baccius [(109)] asserts the admirable Use of Temperate Baths, in all kind of Distractions; and assures us, that not only common Deliria, but even the Dæmoniaci, Phanatici, Lycanthropi themselves, &c. are cured by frequent Washings in fresh Water, and a moist and Nourishing Diet.