Francis Fuller

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.

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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.

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 Essenti 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.