Oriatrike or, physick refined. The common errors therein refuted, and the whole art reformed and rectified: being a new rise and progress of phylosophy and medicine, for the destruction of diseases and prolongation of life / written by ... John Baptista Van Helmont ...; now faithfully rendered into English ... by J[ohn] C[handler]. Sometime of M.H. Oxon.

  • Helmont, Jean Baptiste van, 1577-1644.
Date:
[1662]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Oriatrike or, physick refined. The common errors therein refuted, and the whole art reformed and rectified: being a new rise and progress of phylosophy and medicine, for the destruction of diseases and prolongation of life / written by ... John Baptista Van Helmont ...; now faithfully rendered into English ... by J[ohn] C[handler]. Sometime of M.H. Oxon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1142/1232 (page 1090)
    fog a the FU^ue-G rave] cing the principality of healing, treated of the Plague asjcwerc of an enemy unknown unto him: Therefore he afcribeth the Plague, fometimes to the heaven , at another time to the Sun, and fometimes to the elements alone, and oft times to Pythonifies or women of a prophecying fpiric, witches, and to fpirits, as well thofe infernal, as ele¬ mentary Deafters*, being for the moft part forgetful of the doftrine of his own Paramire^ where he propofeth plagues of the being of nature, of the being of poyfon ( as if any Pla^’ue could exift void of poyfon, or as if fome poyfon were not natural) of the being of the Stars (as chough the Stars were above nature, or without it ) of the being of witches ( thefe be attributes unto Incuhi or devils in mens fhapes, hobgoblins, fylphs, &c.) he diftinguilihech them alfo againft the being of the Stars, leaft peradventure witches may be the wife men which are faid to bear rule over the Stars, and of a God-like being,and he there forgat his own and an imaginative being, the remembrance whereof noc- wiihftanding, he ought to have had before the reft: unleffc he had rather that an ima¬ ginative being cannot caufe difeafe, or chat it is no where vigorous, but in the pofTef- lion of Witches. And moreover, as I judge a plague fent from the hand of Gcd, to defpife the re¬ medies of nature ^ fo alfo, if there were any proper unto devils, or witches ( which is not a thing to be believed ) yet at leaft it ftiould in no wife owe its original unco the heaven: For otherwue,if there were a witch-Plague, it would be far more cruel than' accuftomed ones are, by reafonofan external poyfon being adjoyned . and a readinelTc- of its ading, fpeedied and enlarged through the wrath of the evil fpirir. P. Boucher a Minorite Frier, in his oriental or Eaftern pilgrimages, tels as an eye-witrefte, That although Egyp be otherwife exceeding fub;cd to the Plague ; yet that every year, be¬ fore the inundation of a lingular dew falls down,which they call Elchal'im, at the coming whereof, as many as lay lick of the Plague are readily and univerlally cured, and are prefervedas healthy there from, by the fame dew. For if this be true, neither hath it been fufficiently fearched into by Prince Radz^viE, yet not any thing can be drawn from thence, whereby we may know that the Plague is naturally caufed by the heaven; ftnee from thence at leaft it follows, that fome meteors are healthy, but others hurtful to iome, which none hath hitherto denied. For although the Sun , the day before the inundation of Nile , returns every year, al- moft unto the fame phee; yet the fame ftars do not return as companions together with him : And then, that dew is not the off-fpring of the heavens or ftars,nor of a meteori- cal BUs of the heaven : but the day before the inundation of A7/V<r, the more high land o£ x^thlofia, being more hot and fouthern, was long lince overflown , which fends forth a great vapour from it, filled with Nitre ( for the whole water Of Nlltu is nitrous) which vapour is not only refolved into a dew ( the dew elfewherc weepes Honics, Tere>,iabin oc the fatnefte ofiwood bony, found in good quantity in* the fummer months, with a manna-ie BeiDg,andZ/4«^l4««/w,being as it were gummy things; and among us the May dew daily abounds with a fugary fait ) and accompanies Nile running : but it well walheih the whole aire of tyEgjp, even by moiftening it, and refrelheth the bodies of the Tick, not much otherwife than as a fhovver doth the earth after long dritfis. At leaftwife , I being adm'oniflisd by the holy fcripturcs, defpife the footh‘fayers of heaven. Therefore if the heaven be the caufe of a deftroying or devouring Plague, ic ought likewife to be the caufe of every other Plague: Becaufe the fame Being, in the Species, obtaines the fame coriftirutivecaufes, from which the Species it felf rccieveth its identity or famelinelfe. Therefore I conftantly deny, that a peftilent pOylbn is bred by the heaven, or difmilfed from the ftars: but all Plagues which are not fingularly fenc from God, forafeourge, are cither endemical ones or proper to a Country, or framed by a certain terrour. Bucthofe which are borrowed , as being drawn in from contagion , do follow fheir own feed and ferment: But an endemical Plague , although it fe drawn in from with¬ out,occafionally , yet it is not to be reckoned for the plague, unlelfe the terrour of our Archeus do firft frame a poyfonousof fpre fear conceived from the endemical B6-' ing , even as (hall by and by be manifefted. moreover, that any Plague is en¬ demical : For although the aire may invite the bodies of many unp diverfc confulions of putrefaftion ^ yet ic is in no wife the original caufe of a Peftilencial poyfon : For as all putrefaflion diifers from the Plague; fo in like manner alfo, the poyfon of the Plague differs from any corruption that is the daughter of a meteor: The which, un- lefleit be rightly and perfe(flly known, the nature of the Plague alfo, (liall not be able to be any way underftood: and much lefl'e a radical healing of the fame pro¬ moted. ' For