health Lifetime

Since what Philosophers say of Naturalists and Physicians, that Ubi Physicus definit, ibi Medicus incipit; may be applied in another Sense to this present Treatise, it being designed THERE to Begin, WHERE Venereal Cures generally End: I shall not here trouble my Readers with any Account at all of the Venereal or Secret Disease, but refer them to the Three and Twentieth Edition of the Practical Scheme of that Distemper, and Broken Constitutions; to be had Gratis where this Book is given away: wherein is given an Account of a certain Specifick Remedy for that Disease, which of late Years has cured; with great Privacy, Certainty and Expedition great Numbers of Persons, to their entire Satisfaction, from the slightest Infection, to very bad Cases indeed, without Fluxing, Astringents, and other such pernicious and dangerous Methods of Cure. For which Reason to say any thing on that Matter wou'd be only Crambe repetita, and by consequence rather Tiresome than acceptable to 'em: My present Design therefore is to Continue here, and not to Repeat that Subject, by presenting my Readers with a small Discourse which shall Commence, and take its Beginning, where Treatises on the Secret Disease, and Veneral Cures usually End. So that this Book is not designed for Persons who have any Degree or Stage of the Secret Disease Actually upon them, till after they are esteem'd Cured, and have taken Leave of their Physician: And THEN 'tis, that I address this present Work to them: In which to proceed in Order and Method I must take notice to my Reader, that A GLEET (to apply here the Language of Dr. Keil in another Sense, in the Preface to his Treatise of Anim Secretion) being a Disorder of one particular Part of the Animal Oeconomy, whatever adds any new Light to the Knowledge of This, must necessarily clear the Discovery of the Cause, Seat, and Nature of That, and by consequence establish its Cure upon a surer Foundation than hitherto has been done, by enabling us to make a truer, and more certain Judgment of the Disorder. Since therefore the Animal Body is now known to be a pure Machine, and many of its Motions and Actions are demonstrated to be the necessary Consequences of its Structure, it as necessarily follows that the Symptoms of Diseases in general, and of

GLEETS

in particular are likewise the necessary Consequences of the Alteration of the Structures of certain particular Parts of this Oeconomy. Insomuch that a

Gleet

(as hereafter will clearly be shewed) as necessarily follows from a Change of this Oeconomy and Structure of the Part which is its proper Seat, as perfect Health without any Disorder of a

Gleet

at all, is the consequence of the perfect Oeconomy of the Part before any such

Change

happened.

If a

Pendulum

of such a Length makes a

Clock

to go ex¦actly true; does not the Alteration of this

Pendulum

as necessa¦rily cause it to go too fast or too slow? and when all the

Movement

is known to be in good Order, does not the quick or slow

Motion

of the

Clock,

as necessarily shew the Fault of the

Pendulum?

It is the same thing in that

Part of the Animal Body,

which is the

Seat of a Gleet:

For the same

Reasonings

hold good,

caeteris paribus

in all Sorts of

Machines,

whose

Motions

are the necessary

Consequences

of their

Structures.

Now suppose a Person to be entirely ignorant of the

Structure

of a

Clock

or

Watch;

it is impossible he should ever be able to put it in right Order, tho' he had never so exact a

History

of its irregular

Motions.

Tis on this Account that the

Ancients

not acquainted with our

Modern Anatomical Discoveries;

were wholy ignorant of the true

SEAT

of the

Infirmity

we here treat of; the

Know-

of which is the only thing capable of informing our

Judgment

as to the

Cause

and

Cure

of it. This so puzled them in explicating it's

Nature

and

Origin;

that some placed it in one thing, and some in another, but None of them in the right; for which reason it was, that the generality of them missing of its Cure, it began to be reputed an

Infirmity

and

Weakness

truly not much less the

Opprobrium Medicorum,

then the

Gout,

and on this Account it is, that a

Gleet

(especially if of any date) having eluded the Skill of very able

Physicians,

has been by the greatest part of them pronounced incurable; which Reproach is not at all to be wondered at, since the

Seat

and

Nature

of it was so little understood, and therefore might still have remained so, had it not been for those most excellent Discoveries of late made by that great and ingenious Anatomist Mr.

Cowper,

whose nice Observations of the inward Frame and Structure of That particular Part where a

Gleet

is situated, has given more Light and Information in this our present Question, than all the Writings of the Ancients put together (the best of which upon this Subject were only the Effect of a happy Guess, and nothing at all of Certainty or Demonstration) ever did before. If therefore the Anatomical World, in these latter Years, had not been indefatigable in the Pursuit of farther Discoveries, we might have set down to this Day by the glimmering Lights of the old Anatomists, and satisfy our selves with their Chance Guesses as well in this as many other Matters. So that to this Ignorance of the true Seat of the Disorder, has seen all along owing the frequent want of Success in its Cure. For how can any Person be supposed to form a true Method of Cure for any Ailment or Infirmity, the Seat (and by Consequence the Nature and Cause) of which he is not first rightly apprised of?

As to the Motive of publishing this present Treatise, (which I shall endeavour to perform with as much Circumspection and Wariness, as the Nicety of the Subject will possibly admit of; and therefore, throughout the whole, I shall take care not to sully the Chastest Imagination, or give any the least Offence to the most Modest of Mankind.) 'tis Twofold:

1st. The great Uneasiness (notwithstanding a daily Change of Linnen) which a great many Gentlemen and others oftentimes for many Years labour under, by reason of this Infirmity continually upon them, which tho' for the present may give no other Trouble, than as it is opposite to Cleanliness, being no pleasant Companion at all to a Clean Neat Person, yet will in time impair and break the very best of Constitutions, and bring on a Consumption, as hereafter will clearly be shewed.

2ly The great Inconvenience Persons afflicted with

Gleets,

and other such Weaknesses, frequently labour under, from the great Quantities of Physick exhibited to them for their Cure, which even it self is a Disease, and oftentimes serves for little else than breaking a sound Constitution, or making a bad one worse.

In Order therefore to explicate more clearly the true Cause and Nature of

Gleets

and other such Weaknesses; and thereby be led into the truest and most rational Method of their Cure, it will first of all be absolutely necessary to examine a little the Anatomy of That particular Part, where this Weakness is situated. As 1st, Its inward Structure and Make. 2ly. What Alterations this its Structure is subject to, and capable of. 3ly. What Effects such Alterations are likely to produce. And lastly, Whether or no these Effects are such as Gentlemen and others find in themselves, who have the Unhappiness of a

Gleet,

and other such Weaknesses upon them.

CHAP. I.

Some few Anatomical Observations necessary to be taken Notice of, in order to a right Knowledge of the true Cause, Seat, and Nature of

Gleets,

and other such Weaknesses.

BY a GLEET is understood an

Involuntary

and almost constant Efflux or

Dripping

away of Matter from a Human Body, and that in much the same Quantity, whether the Person be asleep or awake. From which Definition it naturally offers it self to our Consideration, to enquire into the Cause of this Efflux of Matter, and how it happens that such a Quantity of Matter should thus Involuntarily come away. Which Difficulty will easily be remov'd by examining the inward Anatomical Structure of the Part where this Weakness is situated, which is the only thing that can give Light to our present Question: And then to examin if there is naturally any Liquor separated in that Part, capable of becoming the Matter of that Epidemical Weakness and common Companion of Mankind, usually called a GLEET.

It is observable by Anatomy, that in the Nervo-Spongious Substance of the Urethra or Urinary Passage, there are several Glandulous Openings, first discovered by that great Anatomist Mr.

Cowper,

which serve as so many excretory Ducts or Channels designed by Naure constantly to convey and furnish a certain viscid, clammy, Mucous kind of Liquor or Moisture into the Urinary Passage; The Use of which Liquor is to lubricate and besmear, by its Viscidity, the Pipe or Passage, and thereby to preserve and defend it from being fretted and corroded by the sharp Salts of the Urine which is daily passing thro' it, and which, without this defensative Liquor, would certainly be Fretted, and become Raw, and by consequence Sore, as

any

Fleshy Part wou'd be, that should have such a salt sharp acrimonious fretting Liquor as Urine so often passing on it, unless it were preserved by some such proper Defensative, as the continual anointing or besmearing it with some such smooth, soft, balsamick, unctious Substance would be: Insomuch that were it not for this unctious Liquor or Moisture that Nature is continually supplying the Urinary Passage with, by means of those Glandulous Openings abovementioned, to keep it thus moist, it would in a little time become so fretted and Raw, by the Sharpness of the Urine daily passing thro' it, that

All Mankind wou'd have a perpetual Scalding and Heat of Urine;

by which I do not mean, that the Urine in it self would be Hotter, in that Supposition, than it is now, but that the Passage being raw and sore for want of that defensative slimy Moisture, which now protects it, it wou'd be fretted by the Saltness of the Urine, and so wou'd smart, and seem as it were to Burn and Scald, whenever the Urine passed thro' it: Just as any other Raw Sore Place divested of its Scarf-Skin, wou'd smart and seem as it were to burn if one shou'd throw Urine, or Salt Water upon it.

This being thus establish'd from the nice Anatomical Inspection of the Urethra, we are now to consider what Changes and Alterations these Glandulous Openings in the Passage, are subject to, and capable of: And then whether or no such Changes can furnish us with such a large Supply of Matter as daily is experienced

Involuntarily

to Drip away from Persons who have that Weakness commonly called a

Gleet

upon them. So that a thorough Enquiry into this Matter will lead us directly into an exact Knowledge of the true Seat, Cause, and Nature of

Gleets,

without being put upon any Necessity of having Recourse to any other Part, that in reality has no manner of Claim to fall under our present Consideration: As for Example, the

Prostatae,

or Seminal Vessels, which tho' vulgarly esteem'd to furnish the Matter of a

Gleet,

yet have no Share at all in it; and for this Reason it is, that the Vulgar commonly, tho' very ignorantly and improperly call a

Gleet

a

Gonorrhaea,

which are widely different, as hereafter will appear; the true and only Seat of a Gleet, being the Urethra, or Urinary Passage, as by and by will clearly be made appear.

Our next Endeavour therefore must be to examine how the

Urethra

only and the Glandulous Openings abovementioned which it contains, are able to furnish so great a quantity of Matter, as is observed to be

involuntarily

discharged in the course of a

Gleet.

In order to which we must consider, That Nature designing these Glands in the Urethra constantly to furnish and supply a certain Moisture to the whole Pipe or Passage, which may defend it from being fretted by the sharp Urine so frequently passing through it, as has been already shewed, the Orifices or Mouths of these Glands in entire healthy, sound, hail Persons are in some measure, (if I may use the Comparison

servata

always

debitâ proportione

) like the Sphincter Muscles of the

Anus,

Bladder, &c. I mean by this, that the openings of these Glands, notwithstanding their being so very small, have a certain Springiness and Elasticity proportionable to their Bigness and Size, belong ing to them, by which they are endowed with a certain power of straitning, contracting and drawing themselves, togather more or less upon every Emission of that Moisture Nature designs them to supply the Urethra with: just as the Sphincter Muscle of the Bladder is endowed with a Power of retaining, holding, and keeping in the Urine. And by this means it is, that just so much and no more of this Moisture is thrown out of these Glands into the Urethra, than is just necessary for the Lubrication and Moistening of it, preparatively for the passage of the Urine. Nor is this at at all to be questioned,

viz.

That the Orifices and Mouths of these small minute Glands in the passage, have every one of them a proper power of opening and contracting themselves, proportionable to their bigness and size, not unlike, as I just now said, to the Sphincter Muscles in other Parts of the Body, since we see that even a small Mite, taken for Example out of corrupted Cheese, and which is scarce discernable by the naked Eye, yet by the help of a good Microscope, it appears to be an Animal as compleatly furnished with all necessary Parts, as other Animals whose size makes them the conspicuous Objects of our unassisted Sight So that as by reason of the strength and vigour of the Sphincter Muscles, for Example of the Bladder; the Neck and Mouth of it is endowed with a power of straitening, contracting and closing it self together after every Emission of Urine, every one experiences in themselves a power of either holding or letting go their Water: So, much in the same manner, by reason of the strength and vigour of the Orifices of these Glandules, they are endowed with not an unlike power of straitening, contracting, and drawing themselves together (which I desire my Reader always to suppose to be in a degree proportionable still to their Bigness) after every Emission of the mucous slimy Liquor they contain: Which strength being once lost, the power also of retaining and keeping in this Liquor is also lost with it. The State then and Condition of these Glandulous openings (or as Dr.

Drake

calls them

Mucous Glands

) from their thus furnishing and supplying the Passage with this Mucous Liqor,) being thus consider'd in healthy Persons. Our next Enquiry must be into the state of these Mucous Glands in Persons afflicted with a

Gleet.

Which state we shall soon be apprised of by considering that when a Person has been under Cure for the Secret Disease, the fatigue of Antivenereal Medicines, especially if ill administred, by a frequent pressure upon, and irritation of these Glands, has rendred them flaccid, limber, weak, and loose, which before were healthy, vigorous, springy and strong. The truth of these Assertions (abstracting from the reasonableness they carry along with them) will appear by giving my Reader an Account of the state of these Glands as they have been observed in some Anatomical Dissections made of that particular part where all

Gleets

are seated, I mean the Urethra or Urinary Passage.

That great Anatomist Mr.

Cowper

tells us, that to inform himself the better in this Point, he Dissected the Urinary Passage of several Criminals who had been Executed: Some of which were healthy found Persons: The others were Executed with

Gleets

upon them. In the healthy sound Persons, he found these Glandulous openings to be so firm, as to have had a perfect Elasticity, or Springiness: Insomuch that upon pressing them, he says, they discharged a certain quantity of a transparent viscous Liquor, such as it shews it self, and ought to be

in statu sano;

whereas if these Glands had not had such a firmness and strength, in which consisted their power of retaining or letting go the viscid clammy Liquor they contain; this Liquor would have slipped out of them without any Pressure at all: And by consequence, its not owzing out, but upon such a pressure, was an evident mark of their springyness and strength. He also observed the whole Urethra to be besmeared and lined with a Liquor of a viscous clammy contexture, which he supposed to have been discharged from these

Glandulae Mucosae,

in order to lubricate the Passage.

But in the Urethra of Criminals Executed with a

Gleet

actually upon them, and which they had had many Years, the Case was quite different. He observed the Mucous Glands to be limber, flaccid, and loose, very much stretched and dilated: And their Orifices by the help of a nice Microscope to be visibly open, and thereby totally destitute of their Strength and Vigour, from whence he judiciously concluded, that they were also entirely deprived of their retentive Faculty and Springyness, having no power left of contracting themselves upon any emission of that mucous clammy Liquor they contain, as those other Glands could do in the Criminals that were Executed in perfect Health. After this he examined in the Executed Criminals that were thus dissected, the state of the

Prostatae,

the

Vesiculae Seminales

and the

Parastatae,

all which he found to be as perfectly sound and entire, as in any healthy Person he ever dissected in his life; which is a convincing Proof, that neither the

Prostatae, Vesiculae Seminales

nor the

Parastatae

have any the least share at all in the Seat or Cause of a

Gleet.

This will appear still more clear, by an Example from Persons who have a

Diabetes

upon them: For from the loss of the Springiness and Tone of the Sphincter Muscle of the Bladder; the Neck and Mouth of it is so weakened and relaxed, as to be deprived of its retentive Faculty, through a want of that power of contracting and drawing it self together after any Emission of Urine which healthy Persons experience in themselves: from whence it follows, that the Urine comes away involuntarily from them, being altogether deprived of both that Expulsive, as well as Retentive power which healthy Persons have.

These Observations being thus premised, and which are fully sufficient to convince any one whose Eyes are not shut against demonstration, that what the Ancients generally thought as to the Cure of Gleets was built upon a very wrong Foundation:

viz.

An erroneous Notion of its Cause and Seat. We must now enquire how it happens that this change of state of these Mucous Glands,

viz.

from an Elastick, Springy, and strong state, to a limber, loose, and flaccid one can produce and be the Cause of that quantity of Matter which continually drips and comes away in the course a

Gleet:

Or in other Terms, (but the meaning is still the same) whether or no the productive cause of a

Gleet

i. e. the Relaxation of the Orifices of the mucous Glands in the Urethra can so far encrease the quantity of Liquor naturally produced by these Glands, as to be such as is daily experienced by Gentlemen and others who have this Infirmity upon them.

CHAP. II.

How the Weakness and flaccid State abovementioned of the Mucous Glands, and their Orifices or Mouths in the Urethra, are the true Cause of

Glects,

THE Springiness and retentive Faculty of the Mucous Glands in the Urethra of healthy sound Persons who are supposed never to have had the Secret Disease upon them consisting in their Strength and Power of either disating or contracting their Orifices or

Ostiola,

(as in the foregoing Chapter has been shewed) by which Power of retaining or letting out the viscous Liquor they contain, they discharge just so much and no more of it, than is just necessary for the lubrication and besmearing of the Passage: it must of Necessity follow, that when these Glands are, by the long Use of Medicines, or other means, as a long Continuance of the Disease

&c.

so weakened as to become limber, flaccid, flabby, and loose, they must also be deprived of this retentive Power or Faculty. Insomuch that altho' these Glands in healthy sound Persons, who never had the Misfortune of the

Secret Disease,

are naturally so Springy and Strong as to discharge and let out into the Urethra, just so much and no more of the slimy Liquor designed by Nature to besmear, and as it were cover over the whole Tube or Passage, and there by defend it from the Sharpness of the Urine: Yet in most Persons who have been ever cured of the Secret Disease, the Case is generally speaking not so. For the Orifices or

Ostiola

of these Glands in these

Cured

Persons, are so weakened and relaxed by the Fatigue of the Disease, and its Cure, as to be in a manner always open, by which means the Mucous Liquor they contain, is continually slipping out of them into the Urethra; the Openings of these Glands not having Springiness, Elasticity, nor Strength left to contract themselves, and thereby to keep it in as formerly; by which means the contained Liquor involuntarily and continually comes out into the Urethra, and by successive Quantities of it pushing one after another drips and owzes away

Involuntarily

from the Body.

The Difficulty then that now remains is to conceive how such very small Glands and their Orifices can furnish such a Quantity of Matter, as is daily experienced to flow away in some

Gleets,

and how the Mucous Liquor which is naturally discharged out of these Glands into the Urethra in healthy Persons, should be increased to such a degree as 'tis in Persons who have a

Gleet.

This Difficulty will easily be removed to any Person who will but allow that the Mucous Glands in the Urethra, altho' so very small in themselves as to be invisible to the Naked Eye, unless assisted by the Help of a Microscope, yet they may naturally secerne such a Quantity of Fluid in any determinate Time, as is fully sufficient to become the Matter of (that common Accident now adays) a

Gleet.

To illustrate this Matter, I hope it will be allowed that these Mucous Glands, as little as they are, may naturally discharge into the Urethra for its Lubrication, as much of this Liquor in one Minute as may weigh at least one Quarter of a Grain: This in an Hour will be 15 Grains, or a Quarter of a Dram: In 24 Hours, or a natural Day, it will amount to 6 Drams, which is 3 Quarters of an Ounce; a Quantity sufficient in all reason to give that Uneasiness to the Person, as well as Wetness to the Linnen, which is usually experienced by those under the uncomfortable Circumstances of a

Gleet:

And which is more than either the

Vesiculae Seminales

or the

Prostatae

can continue to furnish in any considerable Space of Time, without infinite more Detriment to the Body, than Persons afflicted with

Gleets

usually experience. Hence it is evident that the Glands the Urethra are full as capable of being the Springs that supply the Liquor that Drips away in a

Gleet,

as the

Prosta¦tae,

or any other pretended Part situated at a Distance.

If you ask, how these Glands in the Urethra can discharge so great a Quantity of Fluid in the time of a

Gleet,

above what they do in their natural State. I answer, that it is manifest from the Animal OEconomy, that if any Gland or excretory Duct be Weakened, and deprived of its retentive Faculty, the Quantity of Liquor that it discharges, by Reason of that Weakness, is considerably augmented in Proportion to the greater or less Degrce of Weakness with which these Glands or Ducts are affected: Just as a little Powder of

Cantharides

applied any where, by breaking thro' the Texture of the Cuticular Scarf-Skin, does so weaken the Glands as soon to excite a Blister, and by it thus weakning the Glands, makes them discharge a Quantity of Matter immensly greater than what wou'd naturally flow away from that Part by insensible Perspiration only. Much in the same Manner the Orifices of these Glands being weakened and relaxed, have thereby lost their retentive Faculty, and therefore cannot hold in the Liquor they contain, but lets more of it slip away than the mere Lubrication of the Urethra requires, and therefore it continually is discharging it self by that Dripping, which is commonly called a

Gleet.

Hence all the Difficulties about a

Gleet

are overcome in a few Words; Its Symptoms become obvious upon a small Principle so clear in Anatomy, as to carry not only Evidence along with it, but also more clearly explicates all the Symptoms and Effects of it, than hitherto is observed to have been done.

But besides a

Gleet

from the abovementioned Causes it frequently happens, that some Persons after even a safe and sure Cure of the Secret Disease, especially where the Infection has been confiderable, have for a long Time after been vexed with the Appearance of a little owzing of a slimy transparent Substance not so much as the Quantity of a Drop at a Time; which upon their Linnen looks sometimes of no ill Colour, tho' also sometimes it will give it a yellowish Tinge no bigger perhaps than a great Pin's Head, which frequently alarms 'em, they thinking some Infection lies still lurking, when the Cause in reality has been over-weakness, and overheating of the Parts

&c.

and which, upon endeavouring to carry off by Purging, has rather increased, by relaxing the Vessels, and weakning their Springiness and and Tone: Persons with such

Gleets

as these, have generally little Threads, and Skins, or such like, swimming in Variety of Figures about their Urine, and the Orifice of the Urinary Passage is frequently gumm'd up therewith. These

Gleets

usuall attend hot sanguine Constitutions, and in Time brings on pains and Weakness in the Loins, and has at last terminated in incureable Consumptions, whereas if some strengthning Medicines peculiarly adapted to those Parts, had but at first been judiciously applied, not only the Disorder it self might have been timely cured, but also these ill Consequences happily prevented. By which Medicines I understand such as are appropriated to restore the injured Parts to a State of Soundness, as well as to preserve them so. Thus if the Tone of the Parts be but reestablished by Proper Restorative Medicines, their acquired Strength will enable them to resist the Ingress of new Supplies of peccant Matter, and turn them off to be discharged another way. Thus the Cure is attained without Violence, Pain, or Inconvenience to the Patient: and in this Sense it is (generally speaking) to be understood, that sometimes a

Gleet

will remain after the best of Cures.

CHAP. III.

Of Self Abuses in particular, and how they are the Causes of

Gleets,

Simple Gonorrhaeas, and other dreadful Effects.

THE Missortune I here mean is that which the Holy Scriptures mention,

Gen.

c. 38. v. 10, of

Onan,

Whose Name only will put my Reader at once in mind, not only of the Sin, but also of the terrible Punishment, which Almighty God instantly and out of hand inflicted upon him, expressed in these Words,

And therefore the Lord Cut him off, because he had done a Detestable Thing. Ideo percussit eum Dominus quod rem

DETESTABILEM

faceret,

says the Vulgate Edition. And yet notwithstanding so very severe an Expression of the Scripture, this Unhappy Misfortune is so frequent, and crying an Offence, especially amongst the more Flourishing Part of Man kind, that there is a great deal of Reason to imagin that many Delinquents would never have been such, if they had but been throughly apprised of the Heinousness of the Crime, and the very sad Consequences to the Body, as well as the Soul, which follow from it; And which indeed is the Motive that has induced me to the writing of this Chapter.

But as it is very difficult to write on a Subject of so nice a Nature as this is, within the reach of the meanest Capacities, without making some Encroachment upon the Rules and Bounds of Decency, and the Risque of giving some Offence, notwithstanding it may proceed from a Design to promote Virtue, and discourage Vice: I shall therefore rather choose to express my self so as to be less intelligible to some, by leaving several Things to my Readers private Consideration, than by an overfreedom of Expression, to run the hazard of putting that into any chast Mind, which every Person ought with the utmost Christian Courage and Care to stifle and destroy. Subjects of this Nature being as Dr.

Baynard

calls it,

Res faeda dictu,

and the Scripture,

a detestable Thing,

and what (if mere Necessity did not urge) St.

Paul

forbids even to be so much as NAM'D amongst Christians,

Nec nominetur in vobis:

For which reason if ever Caution, Care, and Circumspection is necessary in the Treating of any Moral Subject in the World, 'tis most certainly in this: Wherein St.

Paul

thought he could express the Enormity of the Crime by no Word more Emphatical and Expressive, than by imposing a

perpetual Silence

of it amongst those Persons, whose not only Name, but Life and Conversation, spoke them to be Christians; for which Reason it was, that an Ancient Author thought he could give no better a Mark to distinguish between Christians and Heathens, who being totally absorpt, drown'd, and given up to a Reprobate Sense, Uncleanness, and their own Passions, they dishonour'd their own Bodies, (to use the Expression of the Scripture) then the Purity of Life and Conversation in the Former, and not in their outward Name and Profession only; and therefore says he, We Christians

Non magn

Loquimur, sed

VIVIMUS.

I doubt not but those Persons whose guilty Conscience shall tell them that they are concerned in this present Chapter, will understand the Meaning of it, without much Explication: And 'tis to them I recommend it, with my hearty Desire of their most serious Consideration of what is contained in it: And as for those whom it no way concerns, and by consequence who understand it not (O happy Ignorance!) I cougratulate them their unspotted Innocence,

Rara Avis in terris,!

I'll endeavour to say nothing which shall endanger their loosing, but rather confirm their happy keeping it.

To proceed therefore in our Subject: By this Doctrine is excluded every even the least Impure and Immodest Action as unlawful, and to be banished the Conversation of Christians, whose Characteristick Mark ought to be Modesty, as being thereby the very

T

s of the Holy Chost;

than which Consideration St.

Paul

thought he could produce no one more powerful, to disswade Christians from all manner of Uncleanness whatsoever. The Apostles Argument is this: That if Material Temples, dedicated only to the external Worship of Almighty God, are in no wise to be prosaned; much less Spiritual ones, such as our Bodies are, in which the Spirit of Almighty God inhabits. This Reflection of St.

Paul,

gives us clearly to understand, that whenever we give our selves over to Uncleanness, our Bodies are no more the Temples of the Holy Ghost: For which Reason he tells us expressly, that not being our own, by consequence we are not at our own Disposal, being

Bought with a great Price,

and ought therefore to be so far from Abusing and defiling our selves, that we ought to glorify God in even our BODIES, which are God's, as well as our Spirits, all which is utterly destroyed by those Misfortunes this Chapter here treats of.

My Reader may therefore take this for a general Rule, that a Christian is bound to shun whatever Sensualizes the Soul, and tends only to gratify unlawful (i. e. out of a Conjugal State) Passions, it being always unlawful out of that State, to draw any immodest Pleasure from our own Bodies, on any Pretence whatsoever.

To condemn therefore, and disswade against a Sin, so very displeasing to Almighty God: So detrimental to the Common-Wealth: And so highly injurious to our selves, requires no Arguments which are not entirely agreeable to Truth, and can stand the Test of the strictest Reason.

First,

Its being a very great Offence against Almighty God, sufficiently appears, in that there is not a Place in Holy Writ, where Sins of Uncleanness are condemned, but that Unhappy One this Chapter treats of, is amongst others hinted at, with a Conclusion, that

Nothing Impure, nor who acts any such Abominable Things, shall ever inherit the Kingdom of God:

but are to

have a Part in the Lake that burns with Fire and Brimstone:

And altho 'tis a Saying no less true than Terrible, of an Ancient Author, that Sinners are always

Sure

of their Sin, and

Uncertain

of their Pardon; yet from what has hitherto been said, all Persons herein concerned ought seriously to betake themselves to true Repentance, and that betimes too, lest by Neglect in the End they misfortunately find themselves in the Circumstances of

Antiochus,

of whom it is related, that

Orabat Scel

sius Dominum, a quo non esset misericordiam consecuturus.

The Case of too many delay'd ('till on a Death-Bed) Repentance. Nor ought the Example of the Good Theif's late Repentance, to embolden any Delay. Because (as an Ancient Author very well says,) that the Scripture furnishes us with this Example, that we may not

Despair:

But it is the only one, that we may not

Presume.

The best Mark therefore of a true and sincere Repentance, is to leave off Sinning betimes, and returning no more to it after a Conversion:

Noli amp

us pec care, ne aliquid tib

deterius contingat.

2ly, The Detriment which this Misfortune brings to a Common-Wealth in general, no less appears from so many noble Families being frequently extinct for want of Heirs, which, were it to be trac'd up to its true Origin, is owing to nothing else but the Misfortune we here treat of, by which the Strength of Youth has been so profusely squandred away, that very few can afterwards much boast of the Fruits of a Married State. But suppose such Persons have Children, which happens not often, they are most commonly Weak; Puny, Little Things, that either die soon, or if they happen by Chance and mere Force more of Physick than the Kitchen, to grow up, they become Tender Sickly Persons, always ailing and complaining of one Malady or another.

What a Pleasure is it to see, says an Ancient Author, a Man at the Age of Fourscore, with a Wife near the same Antiquity, both blessed with healthy hail Constitutions, fresh wholesome Looks, sound Minds, and perfect Senses, (

Mens Sana in Corpore sano,

as

Juvenal

says) with active, strait, upright Limbs, walking without the adventitious Support of either Stick or Staff, and chearful Tempers, residing over a healthful numerous Progeny perhaps to the 3d. or 4th Generation; and all these Blessings owing under Almighty God to the Temperance and Continence of their Youths: And now willing in a good Old Age, to resign their Breath in Peace.

Et factus est in Pace locus ejus.

— When if we do but turn our Eyes upon Licentious Livers, we shall find them surrounded with a whole Legion and Complication of Diseases: Lean Jaws, hagged pale livid Looks, hollow Eyes sunk into their Heads, feeble Hams, Legs without Calves, limping and hobling with a Stick, Gouty unactive Limbs, continually complaining of Weaknesses and Pains in the Small of their Backs; in fine, worn and wasted away in the Prime of their Years by such self-Defilements: And in their latter Years, by Gleets, Gonorrhaeas and Consumptions, their Spirits sunk, Body wasted, Strength decayed, still shifting about for change of Air; trying all the Baths in Christendom; always consulting one Physician or another, and yet after all, upon the least Rigour of any Season, or any other small Accident, to give up their sinful (and 'tis well if not almost despairing) Breath; and all this from having Enervated, Exhausted, Consumed, and Worn out their Bodies and Strength with the SINS OF THEIR YOUTHS, and by which Means they are now become a Jest to others, and oftentimes thought (tho' how unjustly, plainly appears to any one that only confiders the unhappy Conduct of their flourishing Youthful Days) the Reproach of Physitians, and a Torment to themselves; and all these

ain of Disorders the sole Effect of their Abusing

emselves in their Youths. What Pangs and Tortures have such Persons in reflecting on the past Actions of their Lives, who hardly come at half the Age they might reasonably have expected to arrive at, find themselves enervated, exhausted, consumed, and WORN OUT by the SINS OF THEIR YOUTHS? What a dismal Thing is it for a Person thus to to see that they are old, and have destroyed themselves oftentimes before they are even 30 Years of Age? Insomuch that no Sin draws its Slaves and Votaries into a greater Abyss of Evils and Ruin than this.

As to the Injuries Persons do themselves by this miserable Practice, they are no less evident, since of such Persons who have these Abominarions in their Youth prostrated and enervated their Strength, very few ever come to that Strength and Robustness, which otherwise they would have arrived at, befides Stranguries, Gleets, Gonorrhaeas, and other such Weaknesses, far more difficult to be Cured than those Contracted from either the Secret Disease or its Cure: So that we'll suppose 2 Persons to be afflicted with Gleets: One of these Gleets is purely the Effect of the Secret Disease and its Cure, in a Person whom we will suppose never to have been in all their Life Guilty of the Misfortune this Chapter treats of. The other Gleet is not only the Effect of the Secret Disease and its Cure, but also is on a Person whom we'll suppose to be concerned in this Chapter: This last Gleet is much harder to Cope with and Cure, than the Former: The Reason of this will be obvious to every Person who does but consider, that such detestable Actions, being altogether Unnatural, by consequence are so many Violences, Strains, & Forces upon and against Nature; & therefore not only the Mucous Glands in the Passage, but even the

Prostatae, Parastatae,

&

Seminal Vessels

themselves, are so extremely Relaxed, Debilitated, Weakned, & Enervated thereby, that it is no wonder that the whole Constitution pays dearly for it afterwards; as the Gonerality of Persons too fatally experience, who ever in their Youths have been guilty of this abominable Practice; Insomuch that many Young Persons, who were strong and lusty before they abandoned themselves to this Vice, have been so entirely Worn out and Ruined by it, as to become Old before half their Years came on: For by thus robbing themselves of their Strength, and empoverishing their Spirits by depriving their Bodies of its Balmy and Vital Juice by this abominable Practice, they have become so dry and emaciated, as to be sent to their Graves, a great many Years sooner than otherwise they would have been.

Perhaps my Reader may ask of me, that since the Weakness of Mankind and Propension to Ill is so very great, that if we run thro' the whole Decalogue, there is not one Precept whose Transgressors deserve more Commiseration and Pity than this: What way must Youth preserve themselves from it? No one's Strength being to be depended on in this Point, for those who think themselves secure, St.

Paul

charges to take Care least they fall: So that if we trust only to our Reason, we shall find in the End that this is no manner of Match at all to our Inclinations, which are infinitely stronger: Insomuch that whoever beats a Parley with Sensual Pleasures, is already capitulating with his Enemy, and will be vanquished at last. The great Preservative then is chiefly to avoid Idleness, and fly all Occasions of Ill:

Apprehende Fugam,

(says an Ancient Author)

si vis habere Victoriam.

For

Qui tangit Picem,

as surely

inquinabitur ab eâ,

As he who loves

Periculum,

most certainly sooner or later

in illo peribit.

And therefore they will find to their Sorrow, that a short Fleeting Pleasure of only a Moment,

in fine mordebit ut Coluber:

Like a poor silly Fly hovering about the Flame, thinking it to be as sweet as it appears fair, perishes at the first Tryal. And however such Persons may thro' the Instigation of the Devil flatter themselves, that whenever the Fact is committed, that it is but a trifling Fault; yet it has so Tarnished their Soul, that afterwards they can have no Innocence to boast of, having prodigally Barter'd it for a momentary Satisfaction, as

Esau

did with his Birth-right, for the transient Sensuality of a Mess of Pottage; the Barrier that fenced their Chastity being broke, the Enemy to Purity and Holiness makes daily Incursions, and ravages thro' every Passage of the Conquered Soul. And altho' by a demure outward Be haviour and Carriage, the Eyes of Men may be deceived, yet an All-seeing God cannot be hinder'd from witnessing an Act which his Holiness so much abominates, as to exclude us (without true Repentance for it) eternally from the Kingdom of Heaven: A Loss, to ballance which our Saviour expressly tells us, that the whole World is not an Aequivalent,

What Profit is it to a Man to gain the whole World, if he loses his own Soul.

How many unhappy Souls are there in the World, who never would have been guilty of enormous Crimes, if they had not in their Youths been initiated in Sin by this unhappy Practice? And how many again are there, whose Affairs in the World Almighty God has attended with Judgments ever since, as a Punishment of such horrid Facts committed formerly in their Youth. To avert all which the only way is to practice Virtue betimes, and early to leave off these Abominations: And whatever Difficulty is experienced in overcoming a vicious Habit, the persons must consider, that it is a Burden of their own making, and therefore they ought the more chearfully to undergo the overcomeing it.

CHAP. 4.

Of a

Simple Gonorrhaea,

whence it proceeds, and how it differs from a common

Gleet.

BEsides the Infirmity hitherto treated of, there is yet another sort of Weakness of much worse Consequence, and which for the resemblance it bears to a Gleet, is often confounded under the same Name by Persons unacquainted with the Difference, whereas in rigour 'tis no such thing, and is properly called a

Simple Gonorrhaea,

to distinguish it from that virulent Efflux of Matter commonly, tho' very improperly called a Gonorrhaea, and is That which afflicts Persons who have actually the Secret Disease.

A

Simple Gonorrhaea

is an involuntary Emission of a real seminal Matter by reason of the Caruncles through which it owzes from the Neck of the Vesiculae seminales into the Urethra being so injured, weakned and relaxed in their Fibres, as to permit the seminal Matter insensibly to come away. This is an Infirmity that may indeed, but does not often happen; and when it does, the Person in a little time grows lean, pale, weak and feeble, especially about the Loins, and is soon brought into a

Tales Dorsalis,

and if not speedily taken care of, to his Grave. So that notwithstanding the vulgar call almost every involuntary emission of Matter from a human Body a Gonorrhaea, ye

this Infirmity last mentioned is only and truly a

Gonorrhaea

or Efflux of real and true seminal Matter. Wherea

neither in a

Gleet,

nor in any Stage or Degree of the Secret Disease, any true Seminal Matter comes away, as i

manifest from what has been already said of a Gleet; and also in the First Chapter of the Practical Scheme abovementioned concerning a Gonorrhaea. So that a

Gleet,

which is commonly tho most improperly called a Gonorrhaea, is in reality nothing but only a dripping or owzing away of that mucous slimy Liquor, separated by the Glands in the Urethra for the lubrication of it, as has been above fully said, and generally speaking, free from any Venereal Infection: So that a Person may have a

Gleet

upon them a considerable time without being so visibly emaciated and weakened as they wou'd be in a very small time by a Simple Gonorrhaea: Tho' nevertheless, to let a Gleet run on from Year to Year as many do, without seeking a Remedy for it, is a most certain Means to bring on a Consumption, as hereafter will be shewed.

A Simple Gonorrhaea is caused by Falls, Strains, lifting too great a Weight, Wrestling, violent Riding, Running, Jumping, carrying of heavy Burdens, &c. and is so very difficult an Infirmity to Cure, as oftentimes to be even incurable. But as for a

Gleet,

'tis only after Venereal Cures, or some certain over-strainings and Self-abuses, too much or unskilful Purging, &c. Insomuch that through a very great weakness and relaxation of the Orifices of the Glands in the Urethra from the above-mentioned Causes, a great many Persons have been left with seeming incurable Gleets upon them, tho' under the Care of otherwise reputed ingenious Men in their Profession: For which Reason it is, that few Persons get clear of a Clap without more or less of a Gleet.

From what has hitherto been said, it appears that the true Seat of a simple Gonorrhaea is in the seminal Vessels: Whereas the Seat of a virulent Running and a Gleet is in no other Part than the Urethra, as fully has already been shewed, and also in the First Chapter of the Practical Scheme. And 'tis for want of a true distinction in this Point that so many People are ruined by improper Applications, from an erroneous Notion of the Seat of the Disease.

Moreover, besides the above-mentioned causes of a Simple Gonorrhaea; an efflux of Matter very much resem

ing it frequently follows from the Prostate Glands themselves, having been in a manner so worn, as to be almost

aten, fretted, and corroded away; or at least have been extreamly relaxed and debilitated by their being so continually ulcerated as they frequently are in many Patients under Cure for the Secret Disease: Or if not this, they at least have been ver

much heated and distended by repeated strong Purgations; by which means the Tone of the Parts had been so relaxed and destroyed, as to cause a thin seminal Matter almost continually to flow away from the Urethra, which Fluxion, tho' commonly called a Gleet, yet in rigour 'tis a kind of a simple Gonorrhaea, and is frequently the consequence and result of preposterous management and ill finished Cures.

Chap. 5.

Of Weaknesses in Women.

THese are Infirmities I should here take no Notice of, if it were not for the sake of a great many Virtuous Persons labouring under them, who to besure will send for this little Book in expectation of Assistance from it, and in hopes thereby to avoid the Shock of discovering and making known those Ailments to others which most who labour under them use their utmost diligence to Screen and Hide: That therefore this present little Tract may not be defective, but fully answer whatever can be expected from its Title: These Weaknesses being inconveniences which altho some Women are more subject to then others, yet at some time or another so many labour under them, that scarce any are wholly exempt from them: And what is still worse, out of such great Numbers as are afflicted with them, very few ever get a true and solid Cure, either thro a difficulty in themselves to discover 'em: Or a neglect of their Cure, by thinking them trivial Infirmities, which time will Cure, without considering the ill consequences they will produce: Or for want of Judgment in those that undertake their Cure, they thro a bashfulness of discovering their Case to Persons of Skill, consult only such whose knowledge reaches no farther then

Turpentine Pills, Bole Armenick

&

Astringents, Arch-Angel, Clary

and other such like things, as insignificant to many, as the Judgment was defective that prescribed them.

I must here therefore take Notice, That the Imperfections observable in most Accounts of these Weaknesses (for by this Name of WEAKNESS, I shall always for Decency sake throughout this Chapter mean the Subject it treats of) hitherto published, and the shocking expressions in describing them, have induced me to say some thing on this subject, which I'll endeavour to do in such a manner as may lead those of my Readers to whom this Chapter only belongs, into a true knowledge of their State, and Method of its Cure, with as little Information to others not concerned in it (I mean the Men) as possibly the Subject will admit of.—These Weaknesses are of much the same Nature as

Gleets

in Men: For as the abovementioned relaxed and weakned Mucous Glands in the

Urethra

or

Urinary Passage,

separate and discharge that Matter which constitutes a GLEET in Men; so (observing a requisite Proportion) other Cervical Glandules or small Vessels of the same Nature proportionably in the Neck of the Womb in Women, and designed for much the same Use of lubricating it, separates & discharges also the Matter of these Weaknesses; So that these Glandules being rendred Weak, Lax, and Loose, & thereby deprived of their natural due Tone and Springyness, either from the ill Constitution of the Stomach, and a Serosity or Crude Chyle in the Mass of Blood, depraved by Distempers, or some ill Accidents, by which Means those Vessels cannot sufficiently retain the proper Humor separated by them from the Blood, for much the same use proportionably as in Men,

viz.

to Lubricate or Moisten the Passage tho for another end, but let it Gleet thus involuntarily and slide away. And altho Women being of a more cold and moist Habit of Body then Men; & on that account, & some others more liable to be afflicted with these WEAKNESSES then Men are with Gleets: Yet a Gleet in Men, and these Weaknesses in Women are oftentimes one & the same Disease, & owe their Origin very often to the same Causes, which generally in Men are Venereal ones, tho not always so in Women: but sometimes Hard and Difficult Labours, Colds or Hurts in Lying in, especially in weak and diseased Habits of Body, and many other Accidents which attend the Sex. But to speak the Truth: Gleets in Men most commonly owe their beginning to the Secret Disease, and so sometimes does also these Weaknesses in Women; the Infection of which having been carried off, the Eibres in the Ostiola or Excretory Ducts of

he Glands so often abovementioned, are not easily resto

ed in either Sex, to their pristine Tone, Strength, and Vigour, but will remain relaxed and weak: From whence

Weeping or Dripping properly called a Gleet in Men, and Weaknesses in Women, will, (especially in an ill habit of Body) for a long time after remain; unless proper Measures be taken for a Cure.

From what has been hitherto said plainly appears what a Simple Gonorrhaea (which very seldom happens) and what a Gleet in Men; and what Weaknesses in Women are (which are very common Infirmities.) They are all (generally speaking) free from any Infection, & can never (let Practitioners say what they please to fright timorous Patients) degenerate into the Venereal Disease. These Weaknesses as well as Gleets in Men are generally esteem'd very hard to Cure, and so indeed frequently they are, but if proper Measures and Means be but taken; both Men & Women, may in a competent time, and without much inconvenience be freed from these troublesome and disagreeable Companions, especially to Neat and Cleanly Persons.

There are few Women especially of the Weaker Sort, but at one time or other are aflicted with these Weaknesses, they being an Infirmity often attendant upon, and caused by concomitant or preceeding Distempers: Insomuch that generally speaking whatever Disease reduces a Woman to a languid weakly State, it is commonly succeeded by this Indisposition: For which Reason Women that are naturally of a more weak Constitution or Habit of Body than ordinary, are more subject to these Weaknesses than others.

Some Women indeed have these Weaknesses much more moderate than others, and not continually, but at certain Times only, without causing any great or remarkable Prostration of Strength 'till after a Year or 2 or more: But then it becomes more violent and dangerous, weakning the Body excessively, and is then much more hard to cure. This being a known and undoubted Truth, that the longer these Weaknesses have afflicted the Patient, and the larger in Quantity they are, the longer Time will be required, and the more difficult will it be, to accomplish the Cure, the Humors being more habituated to come away, and the Glandules in the Vessels more weakned and spoiled.

It is equally as hard a matter as it is useful for a Physician sometimes to distinguish well between these Weaknesses and other Distempers which resemble them, their Consequences and their Cure being widely different: For Numbers of Women who have met with ill Husbands, have labour'd under the Venereal or Secret Disease for some Years together, still imagining it to be that Weakness this present Chapter treats of.

Thus it being very difficult for Women to distinguish these Distempers, and yet absolutely necessary that they should, it may (generally speaking,) be done by this Rule of

Hippocrates,

which altho' for Decency sake I shall be very cautious in expressing, yet those Persons to whom this Chapter belongs, and is design'd for, will sufficiently comprehend. The Rule is this. That these Weaknesses, of which this present Chapter Treats, ceases in Women at certain Periodical Times, and do not trouble them 'till such Times are over. Whereas a Venereal Running remains constantly upon the Patient, and does nor cease at any Time.

Many are the deplorable Ill Effects of these Weaknesses, (the unhappy Companion of Womankind) if not in time remedied; but as this Subject s more proper for the following Chapter, where I shall treat at large of the ill Consequences of these Weaknesses, I shall refer my Readers to it.

CHAP. VI

Of the Ill Consequences and Effects of

Gleets,

and other such Weaknesses

A Great many Persons not knowing, or at least not reflecting, and considering the ill Consequences of

Gleets

and other such Weaknesses, look upon them as trivial Infirmities which Time and Patience will Cure: Whereas, altho' at present, these Infirmities may give no other uneasiness or trouble than what is opposite to Neatness and Cleanliness, being no grateful Companions to a clean neat Man, yet by their continuance greatly empair the Health, by wasting the Body, and bringing it into a visible Consumption. The reason of which is: A

Gleet

may in some measure, and not improperly be compared to an Issue, which seems as a Receptacle for the Humors of the whole Body, but more especially of the adjacent Parts to run to; so that Persons who have a

Gleet,

or any other like Weakness upon them, have thereby a constant Drain to their Body, which as has been already shewed, by a continual discharge of that Matter which comes away, not only exhausts it of that Mucous Liquor, which is a strength and support to the Parts where a

Gleet

is situated, but also draws away thereby a constant supply of those other Juices, wherein the Vigor and Strength of the Constitution consists: The reason of which is, that near these Parts both of Men and Women, there are certain Emunctories placed, whose use is to receive the superfluous Humors or Recrements of the whole Body, and discharge them thro' the genital Parts: So that the greater this discharge of Humors is, the more are the Parts not only weakn'd by it, & the more incessantly & plentifully do these Humors flow, but also the Nutritious Juices destined to the nourishment and support of the Neighbouring Parts, flows down with it, and are evacuated. So that at length by reason of this loss of the Nutritious Juice, which flowing to the same Place, is also corrupted and continually sent away, not only Weakness and Pains, together with a Pining and Wasting of the neighbouring Parts, but of the whole Body does succeed, from a poor weak and dispirited Chyle the Blood abounds with. And to this Cause it is, that the greatest part of Broken and decay'd Constitutions are owing. But as I have treated at large on this Subject of Spoiled and Broken Constitutions by Fast Living, former ill Cures, Salivations, and Mercury in the 3d Chapter of my

Practical Scheme,

to be had GRATIS where this Book is Given away; I shall not repeat that Subject here, but refer my Reader to it.

The Body therefore being thus emptied and drained of those Nutritious Juices, which in healthy, hail, sound Persons, are its support: In length of time excessive Pains and Weakness, especially in the Loins and small of the Back, ensues; together with a debility and weakness in the Nerves and Joints, Pale, Faint and livid Looks, especially about the Eyes, Melancholy, loss of Appetite, decay of Spirits and Strength, a remarkable Wearyness over the whole Body, swelling in the Legs, and an universal decay of Strength.

So that these Symptoms not stoping in time, (as most Persons in the begining deceive themselves they will, fancing a

Gleet

to be an inconsiderable Thing, and that it will wear off of it self, in process of Time) they increase, and are followed also by others, as an almost continual Thirst, a hectical Disposition, Atrophy, and wasting of Flesh, till at length the Body is so drained, as to be brought into the highest degree of a Consumption.

All which Symptoms are occasioned by the great loss of the Mucous Liquor of the Glands, which being thus weakned and relaxed, have their Meatus's or openings so widened, and loosened, as not be able to restrain the Flux or dripping away of the Matter, whereby the withering of the whole Body, with a dryness and Siccity of the Nerves and Nervous Juices must necessarily in a short time ensue.

As for the effects or ill Consequences of a real Simple Gonorrhaea, they are no less dismal then speedy; For in a little time, says Dr.

Willis,

from the vast Efflux of real seminal Matter, the whole Strength is prostrated, a

Tabes dorsalis

presently ensues, and terminates in the Grave.

It remains now to speak a Word or two of the ill effects and consequences of Weaknesses in Women, as I have already done of

Gleets

in Men, as I promised above in the foregoing Chapter. Since therefore what I have already said in this Chapter, is to be proportionably applied to Women: The Effects of these Weaknesses are Pains in the small of the Back and Head, want of Appetite, bad Digestion, Weariness, and Restlessness, sometimes swellings of the Legs, pale livid Countenance.

&c.

And as this Evil is mostly occasioned by foregoing Distempers, (tho also sometimes by sudden Frights, violent Exercise, irregular Living,

&c.

) so it weakens the Body also more and more, bringing the whole human Frame into a pining desperate State, unless cured by proper Remedies skillfully administred in time, no evil in the World, that usually happens to Women, being of so very ill consequence to the Looks, Complexion, Mind, Habit, Strength, and whole Body as this.

Insomuch that if this great Evil (which too often proves the BANE and Ruin of Woman kind) be not timely remedied, it certainly causes either untimely Barrenness, or if they have Children, they are weak, infirm, and diseased, and the Blood and Juices become more and more impoverished, till an inevitable Consumption, Dropsy and other Distempers, prove only the Forerunners of immediately ensuing Death.

CHAP. VII

How to know when a

Gleet,

or other such Weakness is free from, or partakes still of the Relicks of a former

Venereal

Infection.—Or (which is the same thing) Signs to know when a Person is properly Well, and the Malignity carried off, after former Cures, altho' they may have a

Gleet

or other such Weakness still remaining upon them.

THE Design of this Chapter being to shew how every Person that has received an Injury, and been under Cure for it, may know whether the Malignity be wholy carried off or not: And if there be any Running or Gleeting still remaining afterwards, whether it proceeds from any Secret Infection still lurking behind, or from Medicines taken for a Cure, or from a natural Weakness of the Parts, which some Persons from a more then ordinary delicacy and tenderness of Constitution are liable to, notwithstanding the utmost Care both of themselves, and the Person under whose Hands they were during their Cure; My Reader is to take notice, that after a due evacuation and clearing of the Body of the Venereal Infection, the mattery running which before was Yellowish, Green or Bloody, looses by Degrees both it's colour and quantity, and comes at last to a perfect Whiteness or Transparency, resembling very much the white of an Egg, and is Slimy, Mucilaginous, and Ropy; and the Parts are easy and cool: All which are admirable Signs, and the strongest Presumption that the Malignity is carried off, and the Person cured and well. But since it frequently also happens that a Person may be said to be (not ill) cured, altho' these signs of a good Cure, may not be altogather so very perfect as here they are described to be, we must examin this matter still a little farther, for the full Satisfaction of the most timorous of my Readers.

It has indeed been a common Opinion that in

Gleets,

when the Matter that comes away is still discouloured being either yellowish or green, that it is a certain Sign, (and indeed an only one) of a remaining Infection, and an imperfect or ill Cure. 'Tis true, that when the Matter that comes away in a

Gleet,

or other such Weakness, is not discouloured at all, but is pure White, Glutinous and Ropy, and the Parts in all respects entirely cool and easy, there is no difficulty to pronounce such

Person entirely free from Infection, & (not ill) cured; because if there were any Infection and Malignity still remaining behind, these signs would not be so perfect a

here I suppose them to be: But yet for all this, it is no

always a certain sign and consequence of either an actua

lurking Infection, or a former ill Cure, when even these signs are not so very perfect. The reason of this is; that in some Habits of Body the Owzing Matter which constitutes a

Gleet

will in some length of time, and in diseased habits of Body, in its Separation from the Blood be so permixt with some certain Corrosive (but not at all Venereal) Particles, as thereby to be so colliquated and altered in it's Texture and Cohesion of it's constituent Parts, as to appear a sort of Pus, Sanies or Matter something discoloured, that will very much resemble the Relicks and Remains of a Venereal Infection, or an ill Cure: And if a Person should think to change this Colour by Purging, one might, as Dr

Harvey

observes, Purge a Person's Life away as soon as change either it's Colour, or cause it's entire Abatement. So that the Practitioner imagining that all yellowish Runnings are malignant (which is a vulgar Error) goes on still in hopes of changing it, 'till at length the Parts are so weakned, that the Poor Patient has a

Gleet

fixt upon him, and thereby rendred worse instead of better, and perhaps at last told they are incurable.

To shew the Truth of this, it is to be observed that the imprudent Continuation of Venereal Catharticks, rather keeps on the yellowness of the Running then abates it, by keeping up the humors in a constant Ferment and Ebullition, and thereby inflaming and frothing them up into a yellow Bilous Spume or Scum, which is daily separated in the Parts, that are now become as it were a Cistern, to which Custom has made an open Channel, and converted the Orifice of the Urethra into (as it were) an Issue, to which the depraved humors of the Body, and especially of the adjacent Parts flow: And which humors, as the Blood (even in very well cured Persons) is tinctured with Choler, and depraved and altered by a long Course of Physick, do also proportionably partake more or less of a yellowish Colour. Hence it plainly appears, that some Returns of yel

wish small Runnings after some Cures of the

Secret sease

do not always indicate any remaining Infection,

lay any blame or aspersion upon the former Cure;

is yellowness frequently owing it's origin to the yel

ow Liquors of the Blood. Besides, when the efflux

f a

Gleet

is thus continued, the Glands and Vessels are

hereby every Day more and more weakned, by which

he Liquors will be separated more impure and mixed,

hen they were formerly in a healthy State, at the same Glands: And therefore it is manifest how Gall mixing with the Liquor will make it come away of a yellowish Colour. This is not only in Reason possible, but what we find true by daily experience, in Ulcers and common Sores, from whence a yellowish Matter will flow, owing it's colour purely to the bilous part of the Blood, separated and secerned by the adjacent Glands. Hence as Dr.

Cockburn,

takes notice, it frequently happens that virulent Runnings in Persons who have the

Secret Disease

actually upon them have been cured, when the yellowness has continued to the last Drop; which could not be, if the yellowness were always a part, or mark of the Contagion.

CHAP. VIII.

Of the most Rational and True Method of Cure of

Gleets, Simple Gonorrhaeas,

and other such Weaknesses in either Sex, proceeding from former Cures,

&c.

AS I have endeavoured hitherto demonstratively to deduce the Seat and Nature of a

Gleet,

and other such Weaknesses from it's Symptoms, and the Anatomical Structure of the Part it affects, without engaging in any of the Hypotheses of the Ancients; so I'll now endeavour to draw such consequences from the Nature of the Infirmity thus discovered, which will prove the plainest and most satisfactory Course that can be taken to arrive at the most exact ways of curing it; especially since the common Methods of Cure of late Years in Practice, are found from their want of Success not sufficiently grounded on Reason and Experience. It being a manifest truth, that the best Methods of Cure are always taken from a

Rational

Notion of the Nature and Cause of a Disease: Human

Reason

being never of greater use in any part of human Life, then it is in the Practice of Physick. For as Dr.

Mead

says in the Preface to his Essays on Poisons, He alone is the most likely Person to Cure any ailment or disorder in a human Body, who best understands the human Oconomy, the Texture of the Parts, the Motions of the Fluids, and by consequence the Source and

Origin

of the Disorder, according to that of Celsus,

Recte Curaturum, quem prima origo Causae non fefellerit.

Having therefore above in the second and following Chapters, clearly accounted for the most Rational Cause of

Gleets,

Simple

Gonorrhaeas

and other Weaknesses, the subject Matter of this present Treatise: I hope also as clearly now to shew the most Rational Method of their Cure: As follows:

In omnibus contrarietas Remedio est,

is an Aphorism of the great Hippocrates, and holds good in the Cure of our present Infirmity, as well as in the Cure of any other particular disorder of the Body whatsoever. Insomuch that if there be a Heat and Inflammation in any Part, recourse must be had to those things that are Cooling. In cold Diseases to warm Medicines. If any Humor is sharp and corrosive, it must be reduced to a due degree of softness by mollifying Medicines. If any parts are injured, and weakned, strengthning, healing and Balsamick ones must be made use of before ever a Cure can be effected, in order to restore the debilitated Parts to their first Tone and Vigour. So that in our present Infirmity which we have now before us, we find from what has been hitherto said, the following obstacle, and which must necessarily be removed before ever we can hope to reinstate the Patient,

viz.

— The openings of the Mucous Glands so often abovementioned in the Urethra being weakned, loosned, and relaxed by the above mentioned Causes, are thereby become flabby, limber and loose, which before in a sound State were springy, vigorous and strong; so that by this means the

Ostiola

or Mouths of them being deprived of their natural Power of (in some measure proportionable at least to their bigness,) contracting and drawing themselves together after every Emission of that Mucous slimy Liquor they contain, are by consequence always open, by which means this Liquor is continually owzing out from them and coming away. This being the true state of our present Question, and the rational Obstacle we have now to encounter with, as sufficiently appears from what has been above said: 'Tis natural to conclude, that the only true and rational Method of Cure of

Gleets,

and any other Weaknesses of the same kind whether in Men or Women, must consist, in one word for all, without any manner of Evasion or going round the Bush, in affecting the very Place it self from whence the dripping Liquor is discharged; and this is done by STRENGTHNING these Glands, and thereby restoring their Openings and Mouths to their former power of contracting, and constringing themselves after every Emission of the Mucous Liquor they contain; by which means a certain Bar and Hindrance will be put to their discharging more of it, then is wisely intended by Nature, as just enough for the lubrication and moistening of the Passage and no more, and for which end alone she has designed it. This being once effected, just so much and no more of this Liquor will afterwards proceed from these Glands, as just the defence of the Urethra requires as a Preservative against the sharpness and saltness of the Urine as it passes thro: it being an established Maxim in Philosophy, That upon the removal of any Cause, the effect presently ceases. So that wherever the Cause lies,

That

must be applied to, before ever we can expect the effects to cease. But how to bring this about,

Hic Labor, hoc Opus est,

it's Residence being in a part which Nature seems particularly to have affected the concealment.

Hence my Reader may plainly see, that the great difficulty which has now puzled so many Ages in the Cure of

Gleets

and other such sorts of Weaknesses, is all (from only a few evidently demonstrable Principles above established) reduceable, to one only single intention of Cure,

viz.

to Strengthen these Glands. 'Tis no wonder then that the Ancients found such difficulty in this matter, as after all possible endeavours sometimes to leave their Patients at best only

in statu quo;

tho' in rigour this may be very much doubted, it being pretty certain that neither the continuance of a

Gloet,

nor any of the common Methods of its Cure, have been ever as yet found to improve a Constitution, or to change it, otherwise, then from a strong to a weaker one.

Our next Enquiry then must be, how this Intention of Cure is to be brought about and effected with the greatest Ease and Security to the Patient, and what t

Nature of those Medicines must be that can perform i

In order to which we must consider, that since

Glee

procced from the Mucous Glands in the Urethra, an

the contiguous Parts being particularly weakned thro' long Continuance of the Secret Disease, and its Cure Repeated Self-Abuses

&c.

the Intention of Cure mus

consist in Strengthning and Contracting these relaxe

Glands and Parts adjacent, and thereby restore them t

their former natural State of Vigour and Soundness, after having been thus injured, and debilitated either by the Distemper, or its Cure, Reiterated Self-Abuses, o

other whatsoever Causes. And for want of such a Method as this 'tis, that a great many Persons (altho, otherwise perfectly well) come to have seemingly incureable

Gleets

fixt and entailed upon them. For which reason it is that a

Gleet

is always more or less difficult to Cure, as it is of greater or less Continuance, or is occasioned by more or less Frequent self Abuses, or a more or less virulent Humor which gave the preceeding Infection; by every one of which causes the

Glands

are always more or less stretched, weakned and debilitated

The Method then I here aim at in the Cure of our present Infirmities, is by such Medicines as are appropriated in a peculiar manner, and by a Singular Specifick quality, Influence, and tendency to the Injured and debilitated Glands in the Urethra and parts adjacent chiefly above any other Part or Parts of the Body whatsoever, and thereby not only so to act upon and affect THEM in particular as to strengthen close and constringe their Mouths and Orifices, but also to preserve them hereafter in this sound State. So that these Glands being reestablished by this Method of Cure, their acquired Vigour will enable them to resist any future ingress of faster supplies of the Matter they separate and secerne, then is just necessary and no more for the moistening and lubrication of the Urethra, and so turning them off to be discharged by Nature another way. So that whilst the Ancients were Trifling with

Their

long tedious and uncertain Methods of Cure, Wonders are performed by

This.

Besides, this Method of Cure succeeding to the Satisfaction of the Patient, is a strong Confirmation of the Truth of the Theory above established: Whereas

n the other hand, most other Methods formerly prac

isedby the Ancients, either did not succeed at at, or

f at any time they did, it was not 'till after a very

ong while.

From what has been hitherto said, it plainly appears that this our Method of Cure is not only effectual in Men, but will be found upon Tryal to be inferiour to few, for those Weaknesses mentioned above in the 4th Chap. in Women.

I will not here trouble my Readers in proving that in Nature there are some certain Medicines which being taken into the Stomach, will immediately tend towards and make their Way to, some one particular part of the Body

Electively

and preferably to any other: Having fully cleared that Difficulty in the 8th, 9th, and 10th Chapters of the 3d Edition of My New SYSTEM of the GOUT and RHEUMATISM, to be had Gratis where this Book is Given away. I desire them therefore to read those Chapters, wherein I have clearly shewn how Medicines by a particular Specifick Quality they are endowed with, will (being taken into the Stomach) tend to and have an influence over some one peculiar Part of the Body, which they are designed particularly to relieve, rather then any other, as is there clearly shewed in Medicines appropriated to the Cure of the GOUT. All which I hope will fully convince any Person of the Possibility of a Strengthning Restorative Medicine's being taken into the Stomach, and from thence to tend towards and make it's way (by means of the Bloods Circulation) immediately to that Part in particular above any other in the Body whatsoever, which is the true Seat of a

Gleet,

I mean the Urethra or Urinary Passage. This Point therefore being fully discussed in those Chapters of the abovementioned System, I'll say nothing more of that Subject here, but refer my Reader to the perusal of that Book, which he may have for only Asking for, at the Places abovementioned where this Book is Given away.

As to the Change of the Colour of the

Gleet,

&c. since it generally proceeds as above has been said from a mixture of Choler, Bile, Gall, and several Impurities with the Blood, by consequence to cleanse and Rectifie the ill Crasis of

This,

will effectually change the ill Colour of

That.

Care therefore must be taken that al

Strengthning Medicines that are made use of in the Cure of

Gleets,

be also endowed with a certain detergent Faculty, by which they may in their passage to those Parts they are chiefly designed for, so Cleanse, Sweeten and Purify the Blood, as at the same time that they Strengthen the Glands in the Urethra, they may also change the Colour of the Liquor these Glands contain: And by thus changing of it's ill Colour, it's Substance if too thin will also

secundario

&

per accidens

be changed at the same time. For since whenever the Matter Dripping & Owzing away in

Gleets

and other such Weaknesses is too thin, it proceeds from its being Colliquated (and if I may use the Expression as it were in a manner melted down and Liquid) by those Impurities which are mixed and blended with it out of the Mass of Blood: These Impurities and Foulnesses being once cleansed out of the Blood, the Mucous slimy Matter will naturally reassume again its own natural Tenacious and Glutinous Consistence, as it has in

Statu sano.

My Reader perhaps will ask me whether or no this Method of Cure is proper in

all sorts

of

Gleets

and other such Weaknesses. To which I Answer, that when a

Gleet

is purely such, and entirely free from any Relicks or Remains of former Infection, the abovementioned Method of Cure is inferiour to few in the World. If therefore the

Gleet

or other such Weakness be what proceeds from a former Cured Injury, and that the Person had no manner of such Infirmity upon them before they received and were Cured of that Injury, it is absolutely necessary for the Patients safety first of all to be satisfied, that there is no remaining Malignity attending it, which my Reader will sufficiently be instructed in from what has been above said in the foregoing Chapter. But if Persons are any ways doubtful whether or no the

Gleet

may still Partake of any Preceeding Infection, it will be necessary to clear the Body and by Consequence the

Gleet

or any other such Weakness of whatever former Infection it may be still blended, and mixed with, least instead of Cureing a Person of a

Gleet,

something of worse Consequence be fixt and rivetted upon him. What therefore is most proper for every such doubtfu

Person to do previous to the Taking of the following

Great Restorative

is fully mentioned in the Directions Sealed up along with it: And which Method will effectually carry of all the Remainder of any Former Taint or Infection whatsoever out of any Person's Body, in order to be perfectly and safely Cured of their

Gleet

by the following

Restorative:

So that how effectual so ever any other (usually practised) Method of Cure of

Gleets,

&c. may be, it will scarce prove a more Safe one then This. The Chief consideration we have of the Goodness of any Method of Cure, is its Efficacy, Safety, & Time wherein we are Cured by it. All which being, after repeated Experiments, found to be best Answered by the Method here proposed, then by any other whatsoever of the Ancients, I presume I shall do no small piece of Service to that unhappy part of Mankind that labours under these uncomfortable Infirmities, in publishing it.

Hence it appears that

Gleets

and other such Weaknesses are not so difficult of Cure as a great many Persons make them to be, who after all their Endeavours to rid the Patients of them to no purpose, dismiss them at last with their Opinion that they'll never be cured, assuring them at the same time, it will never hurt them, & that Nature at length will Wear and throw it off, and the like: Which a great many give Credit to, in hopes of finding it true, 'till time has made this Error too manifestly appear, for instead of Natures overcoming it, & their finding no inconvenience by it, it has grown worse and worse, and proved at last so very inconvenient, that the poor Patient has born it with no small Uneasyness.

CHAP. IX.

Of a certain Strengthning Restorative Medicine for the Cure of Gleets and other such Weaknesses.

THE Learned Dr.

Cockburn

in his Treatise of a

Gonorrhaea,

2d

Edition,

pag. 210. lays this down for a general Rule in Physick:

Viz.

That no Medicine is to be received for its singular Use, 'till it has had many Tryals in proper Circumstances;

i. e.

'till it has been used on a Number of People equally ill, or that it has its Effects, when no reasonable hopes are left of a Cure by the best of other Medicines Skilfully administred. Hence it is by consequence to be concluded that when a Medicine has shewed its Efficacy in these Circumstances, it not only may, but even ought to be received by every Person solicitous for their Health and Welfare.

After therefore having proceeded thus far with this Treatise, I should be injurious to my Readers thus to explicate the Origin, Cause, Symptoms, Effects, and ill Consequences, together with the most rational Method of Cure of their Infirmities, if I should leave them there, perhaps something Wiser then they were before as to the just now enumerated Heads, but not a bit the nearer to a Cure. In order then not to entertain them with meer Speculations, I'll endeavour to give them some Practical Assistance, by proposing here to the World, a truly Great and Noble Remedy for those Weaknesses and Disorders here treated of.

The Medicine I propose is a most excellent

Balsamick Restorative,

which for Recovering Nature in those many Weaknesses so frequently abovementioned has not many equals. It being a most Noble Strengthner in all Weaknesses, whether from Hard Labours, Over-strainings, Wrenches, Miscarriages, Self-Abuses, & other Secret Injuries and their Cures, in either Sex. Its efficacy also reaches still farther, being of admirable Use to Cure Pains, Weaknesses, and all Imbecilities of Nature, either in the Back, Reins, Loins, or elsewhere; to remove or take away any Stoppage of Urine, by effectually and yet gently (as Nature seems to defire) carrying off all Mucous, Filthy, Sanious and Infectious Matter Slime or Gravel lodged in the Reins, and elsewhere by ill Cures or other Causes; & which either produces a Sharpness in the Urine, or a too frequent Provocation to make it: And thereby recovers the lost Tone of the Seminal Vessels and Mucous Glands in the Urethra so often abovementioned. Destroying thereby all Relicks of Venereal Venom that lurking in the Body insensibly wasts and decays the Flesh and Strength.

And least my Readers should suspect the possibility of the Operation of a Medicine taken in at the Mouth, and from thence conveyed into the Stomach, on a Part so remote from it, as that is which I have proved above in the 2d Chap. to be true, real, and indeed only Seat of a

Gleet

and other such Weakness: I must refer them to what I have said on this Subject in the 9th & 10th Chapters of my abovementioned System of the GOUT &

Rheumatism.

In which Chapters is as clearly shewed as so Nice & Intricate a Subject will admit from the Principles of the Modern Philosophy, how 'tis very possble for a Medicine to be taken in at the Mouth, and conveyed into the Stomach, and from thence to be mixed with that Portion of the Mass of Blood which it finds circulating in the Vessels there, by which means of the Bloods Circulation it is soon carried about the Body, & by consequence to That very individual part it is designed to relieve: As is fully proved in those Chapters of the just now mentioned System, of the Operation of the Anti-Arthritick Medicine there proposed to act upon even the very utmost and remotest extremities of the Body,

viz.

Those Joints which usually the Gout seizes. I desire therefore my Readers, that since, they may have that

System

for only Asking for, they will be pleased to peruse the 9th & 10th Chapters of it, and apply them to this Subject, that I may not repeat the same Matter here over again. For as a Medicine taken for the Gout if it be a true and real

Anti-Arthritick,

never attempts to exert its principal Force of acting till it arrives along with the Blood, at the Glands of those very Joints it is designed to relieve; just so the Great

Restorative

and Stengthing Medicine I here propose, being taken a few Drops of it, in a little Wine, Ale, or Beer, is thereby carried down into the Stomach, from whence it mixes it self (being of a Spirituous Volatil Nature) with the Mass of Blood, and is carried with it about the Body, and among other Parts, to that which is the true Seat of those Infirmities here treated of. Being arrived there by a particular Specifick influence it bears over, & Tendency to that Part above any other, and the Mucous Glands contained in it, it there begins to exert its force and to operate, by Strengthning, Healing, and Restoring the Mouths and Ostiola of those little Glands, to their former Elasticity, Springyness and Vigour, by which means they will naturally again recover that Power they formerly had of Constringing themselves as naturally they ought to do after every Emission of the Mucous slimy Liquor they Contain, and which Nature has wisely designed for the Lubrication of the Passage, as has sufficiently been above explicated. This being once performed by this Great

Restorative

Medicine, and the Mouths of these Glands being recovered from their looseness and flabbyness, to an Elastick Springy State, by consequence a Bar will thereby be put for the future, by which just so much and no more of this Mucous slimy Liquor will be let out & come away, then just the Moistening & Lu brication of the Passage in a hail sound state requires: By which means, a

Gleet

which perhaps for a long time has afflicted the Patient will be taken away, and the Parts restored to their former due state of Health and Strength.

The property of this great

Restorative

is not only Traumatick,

i. e.

only to Heal and thereby to strengthen the Mucous Glands in the Passage and the Womb-Vessels, by gently straitening them, and reducing them to their natural Tone, but also to deterge and cleanse them of whatever Filth they may by their Weakness have contracted, never disordering the Body, but keeping it in a due State. 'Tis not unpleasant to take, & being once received in a proper Vehicle as a Glass of Wine, Ale, Beer,

&c.

into the Stomach, it (by means of the Bloods Circulation) displays its Vertues after a wonderful manner, effectually answering the intentions of Cure. Besides all which it is a very great purifier & sweetner of the Blood and Juices, and thereby invigorates, enlivens, and strengthens the whole Body, taking away Weaknesses, and Pains in the Back, Loins, and elsewhere, rendring the Person brisk, lively, healthy, and strong, and puts an end to those troublesome Companions commonly called

Gleets,

& other such Weaknesses.

So that to a Person even never so well in Health that should take of it, it will cleanse, sweeten, and purifie the Blood, and thereby wonderfully enliven, animate, strengthen, and invigorate the whole Constitution, but above all in a more particular manner then ordinary those Parts which being hidden in the Body are too remote for any Manual Operation to act upon, as the Seminal & Urinary Vessels, the Prostatae, Parastatae, and Mucous Glands in the Urethra. This Noble

Medicine

being to be taken by Drops may be carried in the Pocket, and taken as well abroad as at home, without any manner of uneasiness, trouble, suspicion, or confinement, for Example at the Tavern, Coffee-House, or any other Publick Place, by which means Gentlemen and others will be Cured in a manner insensibly and before they are almost aware of it. Its Operation is principally by Urine, but nevertheless it will in most Constitutions so assist Nature as to promote the having one Stool in about 24 Hours. Nothing does exceed this admirable Remedy in the abovementioned Cases, where either too much Purging has over relaxed and weakned the Tone of the Parts, or too free a use of

Mercury,

and other Pernicious methods of Cure have been made Use of, restoring the Body to a due State of health and Strength.

This Great

Restorative

in fine neat Bottles is Sealed up (with the Print of the Anodyne NECKLACE which the late Dr.

Paul Chamberlen

in his life time Recommended for Childrens TEETH so often abovementioned, to distinguish it from any COUNTERFEIT) together with Printed Directions in

English

and

French

for its Use, so clear, easy, full, and plain that Persons may Cure themselves with it in any remote Country, Season, Climate, or Part of the World, (for if well Corked it will not grow worse with keeping) Price a Guinea. And is to be had at the Places mentioned above in the Title Page of this Book.

APPENDIX.

HAving above in the Title Page of this Book made mention of a Certain Anodyne NECKLAGE Recommended by the late Dr.

Paul Chamberlen

for the Easy Breeding and Cutting of Children's

Teeth,

&c. I'll here subjoin Two Testimonies published by Dr.

Chamberlen

in favour of this Soverain

Necklace,

and the

Specifick Remedy

and

Elixir,

mentioned in the

Practical Scheme,

in Opposition to some

Counterfeits

a broad in the World.

WHereas a NECKLACE has been Published under Pretence that it is the same with that which is Recommended by me (tho nothing at all LIKE it.) I hereby declare to the World, that I know nothing of it, nor its Author, who pretends to Decry, what nevertheless he tries to Counterfeit. I do not deny but that I have for some time, and do still Approve of and Recommend to the World that most Admirable NECKLACE for Childrens Teeth,

&c.

As also,

The Specifick Romedy

and

Elixir

for the Secret Disease and Broken Constitutions, Sold up one Pair of Stairs, at the Sign of this

Nocklace

without

Temple-Bar,

&c. All which I know (from my Experience of them) to be most Excellent Things, and worth any one's having in those Circumstances. For which Reason I Recommend to every ones serious Perusal, That most Excellent little

Practical Scheme

and

Essay

which the Ingenious Author has writ upon them, and gives away Gratis in most

European

languages. But if any other

Necklace

besides this (which is the ONLY one that I Recommend, and is a very valuable Secret,) As also, if any other

Specifick Remedy

or

Elixir

for these Distempers, are at any time under my Name Published by Persons who live by Pyrating and Counterfeiting other

Men's

Secrets, it is a manifest Imposition upon me and the Publick. Therefore I hereby Caution all Persons to be ware of such Counterfeits.

From my House in

Great Suffolk-street,

near the

Hay-Market,

Mar.

22. 1717.

Paul Chamberlen, M. D.

THE SPECIFICK REMEDY: ELIXIR: And NECKLACE for Childrens TEETH, at the Sign of this Necklace without Temple-Bar, &c. I Approve of and Recommend. All others I disown as Spurious and Counterfeit.

From my House in Great Suffolk-Street,

Apr.

18. 1717.

Paul Chamberlen,

M. D.

The CONTENTS.

THE Preface. Page 2.

Chap. 1. Some few Anatomical Observations necessary to be taken Notice of, in order to a right knowledge of the true Cause, Seat, and Nature of

Gleets,

and other such Weaknesses. p. 4.

Chap. 2. How the Weak and Flaccid State abovementioned of the Mucous Glands, & their Orifices or Mouths in the Urethra, are the true Cause of

Gleets.

p. 9.

Chap. 3. Of Self-Abuses, &c. p. 13.

Chap. 4. Of a Simple Gonorrhaea, whence it proceeds, and how it differs from a Common

Gleet.

p. 19.

Chap. 5. Of Weaknesses in Women. p. 21.

Chap. 6. Of the ill Consequences and Effects of

Gleets

and other such Weaknesses. p. 24.

Chap. 7. How to know when a Gleet or other such Weakness is free from, or partakes still of a former Venereal Infection. Or (which is the same thing) Signs to know when a Person is properly well, and the Malignity carried off, after former Cures, although they may have a Gleet, or other such Weakness still remaining upon them, p. 27

Chap. 8. Of the most Rational and True Method of Cure of Gleets, Simple Gonorrheas, and other such Weaknesses in either Sex, proceeding from former Cures, &c. p. 29

Chap. 9. Of a certain Strengthning Restorative Medicine for the Cure of Gleets, and other such Weaknesses, p. 35

Appendix. Containing two particular Testimonies of the late Dr.

Paul Chamberlen

in Favour of the

Specifick Remedy, Elixir, Necklace,

&c. p. 39

ADVERTISEMENT.

IF any Gentlemen, Traders, Merchants, Captains, or Mates of

Ships,

Sea-Surgeons or others trading Abroad to the

East

or

West-Indies, Turkey, Africa,

The

South-Sea,

or elsewhere will take either of The SPECIFICK REMEDY or ELIXIR mentioned in

The Practical Scheme:

Or of the Soveraign ANODYNE NECKLACES, Recommended by the late Dr.

Paul Chamberlen

for the Easy Breeding and Cutting of Childrens TEETH; and mentioned in the

Essay

writ upon them: Or if the

Anti-Arthritick Tincture

mentioned in the System of the GOUT and RHEUMATISM, Or of the

Great Restorative,

mentioned in this Treatise of

Gleets,

all which now Sell, and have done for these several Years past extraordinary well, not only here in

London,

where the Call for them encreases every Day, but also Abroad, being in great Esteem and Reputation not only throughout both Parts of

Great-Britain, Ireland,

and most of our Plantations, (great quantities having of late been exported by Merchants, Captains of

Ships,

Sea-Surgeons, and others) But also are now very much esteemed in

France, Holland, Germany,

and several other Countries and Courts of

Europe,

being continually sent for thither to the entire Satisfaction of all that use 'em: They shall have room for very large Profit at the Sign of the Anodyne NECKLACE for Children's TEETH without

Temple-Bar

above-mentioned. For which Reason the Author, being willing to encourage the Exportation of 'em for the general Good of Mankind (which hitherto has incontestably appeared to be so, from the many Certificates of their success from several Parts, incerted from time to time in the Publick Prints: and the general consent of all who use 'em of both Sexes) for that End, has now published This Scheme not only in

English

&

French

but also an Abstract & Epitome of it, in most other

European

Languages, for the Use and Benefit of all

European

Foreigners; but especially

Merchants

and others

Trading

to

France: Germany: Holland: Spain: Italy: Portugal: Sweden: Denmark: Poland: Muscovy: Turkey,

&c. They having obtained Reputation now in several of these Countries.

Here therefore I'll take occasion to acquaint my Reader, that a great many

Practitioners

in

Physick,

but especially

Sea-Surgeons,

have of late (after having made several repeated successful Tryals upon their

Patients

HERE IN LONDON) had

over

and

over

again great quantities with very great Allowance by Wholesale of these

Remedies

at the Sign of the NECKLACE abovementioned, to carry with them to Sea, they all now finding it their Interest and indeed their cheapest way to buy these

Remedies

to cure their own Patients with. As the Gentleman (the Sea-Surgeon) was pleased to say, who some time ago by Dr.

Chamberlen',

express Advice took along with him over-Sea a large Quantity of them. Also another Gentleman, own'd in his Letter incerted in the Practical Scheme, p. 35. that out of 23 Persons that took of the

Specifick Remedy,

only One missed of his Cure, and that the Person confessed was by his own Mismanagement. So that of late Years it has been a common Practice of several Surgeons, and other Practitioners in Physick to buy these

Romedies

to cure their own Patients with. By which they have gained both Money and Reputation. See more of the Allowance by WHOLESALE in my SYSTEM of the GOUT and RHEUMATISM and Philosophical Essay upon the Anodyne

Necklace.

Given gratis where this Book is given away.

So that now seldom or never a Week passes but some Surgeon or other, more especially of those belonging to the Sea, Buys of those Remedies, and of the Anodyne NECKLACES for Children's TEETH by Wholesale, at the Sign of this

Necklace

without

Temple-Bar,

where

ery large Profit is given. But of these

Necklaces

I de

re my

Reader

to peruse a particular Treatise by it self, Entituled,

A Philosophical Essay upon this

Necklace,

&c.

Given

Gratis

at those Places where this Book is given away.

I desire my Reader to give me leave to trouble him him here with an Account of a particular Cure of the GOUT, performed by the

Anti-Arthritick Tincture

mentioned in the New System of the

Gout

and

Rheumatism,

& of some few other Cures, of other Ailments & Disorders.

The following Certificate was sent (entirely unknown to the Author) to

London

inclosed in a Letter to Mr.

Pinckard

Attorney at Law, over the

Water-Stairs

in

Durham-Yard

in the

Strand,

part of which Letter is as follows.

Dear Son,

Histon,

Jan. 8. 1718.

THis is to acquaint you, how I have been attacked, and how wonderfully also I have been relieved by the Tincture for the GOUT, which you sent me last Spring. I desire This Testimony which I here send you, may be Published, and I will Testify the Truth of it to all Persons enquiring of me about it, as I desire also the same of you to do,

&c.

I Robert Needham

the Elder, of

Hilston

near

Monmouth, Gent.

having been above

33

Years afflicted with the GOUT, and many of those Years I had it in my Shoulders, Elbows Hands, Knees and Feet, and this frequently altogether at one and the same time; and thereby obliged for near six Weeks together at a time to lie both Night and Day in my Cloaths, and my Stomach paul'd, and my self reduced to the utmost Weakness. I abovementioned, do for the Benefit of others, hereby Certify that some time ago I was violently seized in both my Feet with the GOUT, expecting the same or worse Treatment I usually had, but then and for some small Time after I continuing to take of the Remedy prepared for this End by the Author of the New System of the GOUT and Rheumatism, having sent for it from

London,

to have in readiness by me; through God Almighty's Blessing, in three Days time it carry'd off all Pain, preserved my Stomach very well, and kept my Body very easie, and in such good Temper, that I could walk about my House, and do now walk abroad without a Cane or Staff, which for most part of

6

Months past I could not do, having frequently Pains in my Ancles and Feet, of which I am now entirely freed.

Witness my Hand

this 30

th of

December 1717.

Robert Needham.

HAving been extream ill with wandring Pains, and broken Constitution, &c. so very bad, and was so weak and worn away, that all my Friends were of Opinion that I was in a Consumption. I applied my self to several Physicians, but to no Effect, till I bought that famous Specifick Elixir for Broken Constitutions, mentioned in the Practical Scheme, which has perfectly Cur'd me, so that I am as well as ever I was in my Life, and publish this, that others labouring under the same

Misfortune

may happily find Relief, as I have done, as I am ready to satisfie any Person that will call upon me at my House, Brace's Coffee-House in Silver-street near Woodstreet.

Nov.

20. 1717.

William Smith.

A Young Lady having had

(from her Infancy)

the Evil so broke out in great Holes in her Body, that for 26 Years she could never go alone or stir out of her Chamber without help, being indeed a most miserable Object, continually weeping whole Days and Nights scarce having one easy Hour, her Life being a perpetual

Torment

to her.

Fifty Guineas

were offered to Dr.

Brigs

in

Bloomsbury,

if he could Cure her: Dr.

Chamberlen,

Dr.

Mead,

Dr.

West,

and several other eminent

Physicians, Mr. Giffard, Mr. Tocket,

and several other Skilful

Surgeons

were all Eye-witnesses of this her Condition, being given over by all as incurable, and indeed she utterly despaired of ever being Cured; at last Dr.

Chamberlen

advised her to take of the

Specifick Remedy:

she only took a few times of it, by which the Holes and Sores, which for 26 Years had drained her

Body

to a perfect Skeleton, are now healed up; she is brisk & well, & can go up & down Stairs, & abroad alone, which she could never do in her Life before, & blesses the happy Day that even Dr

Chamberlen

advis'd her to it. The Lady her self is willing to see & satisfy any

Person

about it, at the

Green Door

in

Water-street,

behind

Arundal-street

in the

Strand.

A Young

Gentleman

3 Years ago, got the Secret Disease in a violent manner, and soon after the

Injury

received applied himself to a certain eminent & noted

Surgeon

(for his Practice in

Venereal Cures

) in

London,

who Salivated him, but did not Cure him. After which he took a Certain Remedy Sold in

Town,

which is a COUNTERFEIT of This

Specifick Remedy,

but as it was a

Counterfeit

of this true Remedy, it proved to no more purpose then his

Salivation,

but he grew worse after it, being Ulcerated, & in a very deplorable

Condition,

insomuch that he was thought by all his

Friends

past Cure. But in

November

1717 by taking of this famous Specifick Remedy, he was perfectly Cured, as I will fully satisfie any

Person,

who will be pleased to enquire for

Mr. Peter Riscorla

at my House the

Green Ball

in

Cow-cross

near

West-Smithfield.

Where for the Good of the Publick, or any that labour under the like

Misfortune,

the

Gentleman

will be seen, and give an Account himself of the truth of this.

HAving had the

Kings-Evil

for 30 Years past to such a degree, that the continual

Running

of the many Sores & Blotches of the Distemper had drained my Body almost to a

Skeleton,

insomuch that I was brought so low that for some Years past I have been entirely confined at home. I used all

Means

the Hospital & several

Physicians

could prescribe, but to no manner of purpose. At last hearing of the many Cures performed by the famous

Specifick Remedy

belonging to the

Practical Scheme,

recommended by the late Dr.

Paul Chamberlen,

I went in a Coach to the

Sign

of the

Anodyne Necklace

for

Childrens

TEETH without

Temple-Bar,

to fetch the Remedy not being able to go a Foot, having been confined at home for several Years, & having taken now of this

Wonderful Remedy

most of my

Blotches, Holes, & Sores,

are finely healed up, & I am so well recovered, that I have gone a foot thro the City, to the

Astonishment

of all who knew me. Of the Truth of which, I will satisfie any

Person

at my House.—

Geo. Wadk

ns,

Barber & Perewig-maker at the Blew Boar in White-Chappel.—

Dec.

17. 1717.

FRom a Distemper of 16 Years standing; the Result of which were

Scabs

&

Nodes

in my Body, as big as

Nuts; Blotches

&

Sores

from Head to Foot, & some of them in my Legs, large enough to lay an Egg in; my Body so weak, & my Flesh so rotten, that upon my stretching it, it would rend asunder, as tho cut with a

Knife.

I

William Forbush,

Cap-maker over against

Queen Elizabeth's-Head

in

Church-Lane,

near

White-chappel,

am now relieved & made whole by God Almighty's

Blessing

on the

Specifick Remedy & Elixir,

mention'd the

Practical Scheme

of the

Secret Disease

&

Broken Constitutions.

The

Amazement

of all my

Friends

at my Cure, when declared

Incurable

by many

Physicians,

will, no doubt, raise the Curiosity of several to see me, to whom I shall, with incredible Pleasure, declare the Fact more at large, with many surprizing Particulars.

April

3. 1718.

William Forbush.

TO all

Persons

afflicted & LAID UP with the GOUT I hereby testifie that having had a confirmed GOUT these 9 Years past to such a Degree that I was an entire Cripple, & not able to go without

Crutches,

having lost almost the total use of my Limbs by it. I took all

things

I could hear of, but to no purpose, till I took of that most excellent

Anti-Arthritick Remedy

belonging to the

New System

of the

Gout & Rheumatism,

by which I am to a

Miracle

recovered, cured, & restored to the perfect use of my Limbs, being as able to go without my

Crutches

as ever I could in my Life, which before I happily took of this Remedy, I could never do. Of the Truth of which I will satisfie any

Person.—Tho. Wiggins, Printer

at the

Black Bull

in

Oster-Laue,

near

West-Smithfield.

Dec. 17. 1717.

I

James Davis,

at his

Majesty's Printing-House in Black-Fryars,

was about 7

Years

ago seized with a

violent Fever,

which

settling

first in my Feet, & then

flying

into my Head, & all over my Body,

attended

with a prodigious

Swelling & Inflammation,

made me

uncapable

of

getting

out of my

Bed

for several

Months,

& so has

continued

ever since,

excepting

some small

Intervals.

I had the Advice of several

eminent Physicians & Surgeons,

as Dr

Cade,

Dr

Mills,

Dr

Levet,

& others, who were all

Eye-witnesses

of this my

unhappy Condition,

& who by the various

Removings

of my Distemper, knew not what to call it, yet ordered me

Medicines,

but to no purpose: About 3 Years ago I went to St.

Bartholomew

's Hospital, & was an

Out-Patient

several

Months,

where the

Physicians

told me it was a

violent

GOUT, but cou'd have no Ease. Having thus had the Advice of the

Learned

without Success, I began to hearken to every Bodies

Instructions, sending

for &

taking

all the

Medicines

I could hear of. And as the

Expence

was large, so was their

Number

I think innumerable, which only added to my

Misfortune,

not hearing of any

Person

so

violently

afflicted as my self. Being in this miserable

Condition,

& given over by all as

Incurable,

the GOUT still increasing so

violently,

that my

Joints

became so KNOTTED, that I was rendred quite unable to follow my

Business,

& destitute of all Relief; some Time ago, I was recommended by a

Gentleman

to the

Anti-Arthritick Tincture

mentioned in a New System of the Gout & Rheumatism given away

Gratis,

&c. I had not taken above a Doses before I found a great

Alteration.

The GOUT which was then in my Stomach, abated, & by some continuance of the Remedy I still grew sensibly better every Day; so that I am now free from all

Pain & Stiffness

in my

Joints,

& as well in

Health & Strength

as ever I was in my Life. This

Benefit

I have received by

God's Blessing,

& that inestimable Remedy being so very great I desire this may be published for the Good of others. The

Truth

of which I am ready to testify, living in

Printing-House-Street

in

Black-Fryars.

Octob. 6. 1717.

James Davis.

I could reckon up great numbers more of other such undeniable Testimonies of Cures by these Remedies, on Persons even given over by all others: But having trespassed on my Readers Patience too long already, I'll make an end, desiring Him to peruse the several News Papers of these

5

years last past wherein he will find great numbers of Authentick

Certificates

of surprising Cures wrought by them. For to recite the particular Cases of every one that has happily experienced the good effects of this

Specifick Remedy

&

Elixir,

only since

March 1713,

that the

1st Edition

of this Book was published, wou'd swell this little Treatise far beyond my present design: Therefore I'll leave every one to the perusal of the

News Papers,

& then to be informed of the Persons themselves as to their Success. All which are as sufficient as even

10000

more wou'd be to convince any Person of the great virtue & efficacy of these Remedies. Persons indeed may go from place to place to seek a Cure, but when they have sought and tried all they can, they will scarce find a Better nor Surer then by these Remedies, as any

Person who trys them will to their Comfort find.

ADVERTISEMENT. Given Gratis the Four following Books,

viz.

1st. THE 25th Edition in English and French (and also Abridged in most other

European

Languages) Dedicated to Dr.

Chamberlen,

of

The Practical Scheme

of Secret Injuries and Broken Constitutions, by Fast Living. Former ill Cures, Salivations, and Mercury. Published ever since

March

1713.

2ly. The New System of the GOUT and

Rheumatism,

drawn from Reason, Anatomical Observations, and Experience.

3ly. A Rational Account of the true Seat, Cause, Nature, and Cure of

Gleets,

and other such WEAKNESSES, usually attending Persons after former Cures, Self-abuses,

&c.

4thly. The Philosophical Essay, Dedicated to the Royal Society upon the Celebrated Anodyne NECK LACE, Recommended by the late Dr.

Paul Chamberlen

for Children's TEETH,

&c.

Pr. 5

s.

— Published by reason of the great increase of late Years in the Bills of Mortality, by which it appears that in and about

London

(the same may be said of

Paris,

or any other great City) generally speaking near upon 12000 Children have Yearly died of their Teeth, and Convulsions and Fevers caused thereby, before this Admirable Physical Necklace was published in the World. Besides the great Numbers of Women that are daily lost in Child-bed: And the Multitudes of Persons that die of Distempers of the Head. — Whereas since this Necklace has been published, the Bills of Mortality have so decreased as to be less than ever they have been known to be before: More Children dying of their Teeth, then of all other Distempers put together whatsoever. — So that indeed no Family ought to be without one of these NECKLACES: for the great Numbers of Children who of late Years have Worn it, have not only Bred, and Cut their Teeth easily, and all the while thrived extremely, but even Multitudes have been retrieved by it from the Jaws of Death in a Nights time, after all hopes were past to the Astonishment of all People: The Property of this most Excellent

Necklace

being to take off Fevers, Fits, Convulsions, Loosnesses, &c. beyond Expectation.

These 4 Books (all by the Author of

The Practical Scheme

) are given

gratis.

At the following Places,

viz.

Up one Pair of Stairs between the Rose Tavern and Pamphlet-Shop at the Sign of this NECKLACE without Temple-Bar.

At Mrs Garways at the R. Exchange-Gate next

Cornhil.

At Mr Coopers the Corner of Charles Court in the Strand.

At the Unicron an Apothecary's Shop, on St. Margaret's Hill in the Borough, Southwark.

And (for the convenience of Sea-saring persons) at the Indian Handkercher facing the New Stairs in Wapping.

FINIS.SInce what Philosophers say of Naturalists and Physicians, that

Ubi Physicus definit, ibi Medicus incipit;

may be applied in another Sense to this present Treatise, it being designed

THERE

to

Begin, WHERE

Venereal Cures generally

End:

I shall not here trouble my Readers with any Account at all of the Venereal or

Secret Disease,

but refer them to the Three and Twentieth Edition of the

Practical Scheme

of that Distemper, and Broken Constitutions; to be had Gratis where this Book is given away: wherein is given an Account of a certain

Specifick Remedy

for that Disease, which of late Years has cured; with great Privacy, Certainty and Expedition great Numbers of Persons, to their entire Satisfaction, from the slightest Infection, to very bad Cases indeed, without Fluxing, Astringents, and other such pernicious and dangerous Methods of Cure. For which Reason to say any thing on that Matter wou'd be only

Crambe repetita,

and by consequence rather Tiresome than acceptable to 'em: My present Design therefore is to

Continue

here, and not to

Repeat

that Subject, by presenting my Readers with a small Discourse which shall

Commence,

and take its

Beginning,

where Treatises on the Secret Disease, and Veneral Cures usually

End.

So that this Book is not designed for Persons who have any Degree or Stage of the Secret Disease

Actually

upon them, till after they are esteem'd Cured, and

have taken Leave

of their Physician: And

THEN

'tis, that I address this present Work to them: In which to proceed in Order and Method I must take notice to my Reader, that

A

GLEET

(to apply here the Language of Dr.

Keil

in another Sense, in the Preface to his Treatise of Anim

Secretion) being a Disorder of one particular Part of the Animal Oeconomy, whatever adds any new Light to the Knowledge of

This,

must necessarily clear the Discovery of the Cause, Seat, and Nature of

That,

and by consequence establish its Cure upon a surer Foundation than hitherto has been done, by enabling us to make a truer, and more certain Judgment of the Disorder. Since therefore the Animal Body is now known to be a pure Machine, and many of its Motions and Actions are demonstrated to be the necessary Consequences of its Structure, it as necessarily follows that the Symptoms of Diseases in general, and of

GLEETS

in particular are likewise the necessary Consequences of the Alteration of the Structures of certain particular Parts of this Oeconomy. Insomuch that a

Gleet

(as hereafter will clearly be shewed) as necessarily follows from a Change of this Oeconomy and Structure of the Part which is its proper Seat, as perfect Health without any Disorder of a

Gleet

at all, is the consequence of the perfect Oeconomy of the Part before any such

Change

happened.

If a

Pendulum

of such a Length makes a

Clock

to go ex¦actly true; does not the Alteration of this

Pendulum

as necessa¦rily cause it to go too fast or too slow? and when all the

Movement

is known to be in good Order, does not the quick or slow

Motion

of the

Clock,

as necessarily shew the Fault of the

Pendulum?

It is the same thing in that

Part of the Animal Body,

which is the

Seat of a Gleet:

For the same

Reasonings

hold good,

caeteris paribus

in all Sorts of

Machines,

whose

Motions

are the necessary

Consequences

of their

Structures.

Now suppose a Person to be entirely ignorant of the

Structure

of a

Clock

or

Watch;

it is impossible he should ever be able to put it in right Order, tho' he had never so exact a

History

of its irregular

Motions.

Tis on this Account that the

Ancients

not acquainted with our

Modern Anatomical Discoveries;

were wholy ignorant of the true

SEAT

of the

Infirmity

we here treat of; the

Know-

of which is the only thing capable of informing our

Judgment

as to the

Cause

and

Cure

of it. This so puzled them in explicating it's

Nature

and

Origin;

that some placed it in one thing, and some in another, but None of them in the right; for which reason it was, that the generality of them missing of its Cure, it began to be reputed an

Infirmity

and

Weakness

truly not much less the

Opprobrium Medicorum,

then the

Gout,

and on this Account it is, that a

Gleet

(especially if of any date) having eluded the Skill of very able

Physicians,

has been by the greatest part of them pronounced incurable; which Reproach is not at all to be wondered at, since the

Seat

and

Nature

of it was so little understood, and therefore might still have remained so, had it not been for those most excellent Discoveries of late made by that great and ingenious Anatomist Mr.

Cowper,

whose nice Observations of the inward Frame and Structure of That particular Part where a

Gleet

is situated, has given more Light and Information in this our present Question, than all the Writings of the Ancients put together (the best of which upon this Subject were only the Effect of a happy Guess, and nothing at all of Certainty or Demonstration) ever did before. If therefore the Anatomical World, in these latter Years, had not been indefatigable in the Pursuit of farther Discoveries, we might have set down to this Day by the glimmering Lights of the old Anatomists, and satisfy our selves with their Chance Guesses as well in this as many other Matters. So that to this Ignorance of the true Seat of the Disorder, has seen all along owing the frequent want of Success in its Cure. For how can any Person be supposed to form a true Method of Cure for any Ailment or Infirmity, the Seat (and by Consequence the Nature and Cause) of which he is not first rightly apprised of?

As to the Motive of publishing this present Treatise, (which I shall endeavour to perform with as much Circumspection and Wariness, as the Nicety of the Subject will possibly admit of; and therefore, throughout the whole, I shall take care not to sully the Chastest Imagination, or give any the least Offence to the most Modest of Mankind.) 'tis Twofold:

1st. The great Uneasiness (notwithstanding a daily Change of Linnen) which a great many Gentlemen and others oftentimes for many Years labour under, by reason of this Infirmity continually upon them, which tho' for the present may give no other Trouble, than as it is opposite to Cleanliness, being no pleasant Companion at all to a Clean Neat Person, yet will in time impair and break the very best of Constitutions, and bring on a Consumption, as hereafter will clearly be shewed.

2ly The great Inconvenience Persons afflicted with

Gleets,

and other such Weaknesses, frequently labour under, from the great Quantities of Physick exhibited to them for their Cure, which even it self is a Disease, and oftentimes serves for little else than breaking a sound Constitution, or making a bad one worse.

In Order therefore to explicate more clearly the true Cause and Nature of

Gleets

and other such Weaknesses; and thereby be led into the truest and most rational Method of their Cure, it will first of all be absolutely necessary to examine a little the Anatomy of That particular Part, where this Weakness is situated. As 1st, Its inward Structure and Make. 2ly. What Alterations this its Structure is subject to, and capable of. 3ly. What Effects such Alterations are likely to produce. And lastly, Whether or no these Effects are such as Gentlemen and others find in themselves, who have the Unhappiness of a

Gleet,

and other such Weaknesses upon them.

CHAP. I.

Some few Anatomical Observations necessary to be taken Notice of, in order to a right Knowledge of the true Cause, Seat, and Nature of

Gleets,

and other such Weaknesses.

BY a GLEET is understood an

Involuntary

and almost constant Efflux or

Dripping

away of Matter from a Human Body, and that in much the same Quantity, whether the Person be asleep or awake. From which Definition it naturally offers it self to our Consideration, to enquire into the Cause of this Efflux of Matter, and how it happens that such a Quantity of Matter should thus Involuntarily come away. Which Difficulty will easily be remov'd by examining the inward Anatomical Structure of the Part where this Weakness is situated, which is the only thing that can give Light to our present Question: And then to examin if there is naturally any Liquor separated in that Part, capable of becoming the Matter of that Epidemical Weakness and common Companion of Mankind, usually called a GLEET.

It is observable by Anatomy, that in the Nervo-Spongious Substance of the Urethra or Urinary Passage, there are several Glandulous Openings, first discovered by that great Anatomist Mr.

Cowper,

which serve as so many excretory Ducts or Channels designed by Naure constantly to convey and furnish a certain viscid, clammy, Mucous kind of Liquor or Moisture into the Urinary Passage; The Use of which Liquor is to lubricate and besmear, by its Viscidity, the Pipe or Passage, and thereby to preserve and defend it from being fretted and corroded by the sharp Salts of the Urine which is daily passing thro' it, and which, without this defensative Liquor, would certainly be Fretted, and become Raw, and by consequence Sore, as

any

Fleshy Part wou'd be, that should have such a salt sharp acrimonious fretting Liquor as Urine so often passing on it, unless it were preserved by some such proper Defensative, as the continual anointing or besmearing it with some such smooth, soft, balsamick, unctious Substance would be: Insomuch that were it not for this unctious Liquor or Moisture that Nature is continually supplying the Urinary Passage with, by means of those Glandulous Openings abovementioned, to keep it thus moist, it would in a little time become so fretted and Raw, by the Sharpness of the Urine daily passing thro' it, that

All Mankind wou'd have a perpetual Scalding and Heat of Urine;

by which I do not mean, that the Urine in it self would be Hotter, in that Supposition, than it is now, but that the Passage being raw and sore for want of that defensative slimy Moisture, which now protects it, it wou'd be fretted by the Saltness of the Urine, and so wou'd smart, and seem as it were to Burn and Scald, whenever the Urine passed thro' it: Just as any other Raw Sore Place divested of its Scarf-Skin, wou'd smart and seem as it were to burn if one shou'd throw Urine, or Salt Water upon it.

This being thus establish'd from the nice Anatomical Inspection of the Urethra, we are now to consider what Changes and Alterations these Glandulous Openings in the Passage, are subject to, and capable of: And then whether or no such Changes can furnish us with such a large Supply of Matter as daily is experienced

Involuntarily

to Drip away from Persons who have that Weakness commonly called a

Gleet

upon them. So that a thorough Enquiry into this Matter will lead us directly into an exact Knowledge of the true Seat, Cause, and Nature of

Gleets,

without being put upon any Necessity of having Recourse to any other Part, that in reality has no manner of Claim to fall under our present Consideration: As for Example, the

Prostatae,

or Seminal Vessels, which tho' vulgarly esteem'd to furnish the Matter of a

Gleet,

yet have no Share at all in it; and for this Reason it is, that the Vulgar commonly, tho' very ignorantly and improperly call a

Gleet

a

Gonorrhaea,

which are widely different, as hereafter will appear; the true and only Seat of a Gleet, being the Urethra, or Urinary Passage, as by and by will clearly be made appear.

Our next Endeavour therefore must be to examine how the

Urethra

only and the Glandulous Openings abovementioned which it contains, are able to furnish so great a quantity of Matter, as is observed to be

involuntarily

discharged in the course of a

Gleet.

In order to which we must consider, That Nature designing these Glands in the Urethra constantly to furnish and supply a certain Moisture to the whole Pipe or Passage, which may defend it from being fretted by the sharp Urine so frequently passing through it, as has been already shewed, the Orifices or Mouths of these Glands in entire healthy, sound, hail Persons are in some measure, (if I may use the Comparison

servata

always

debitâ proportione

) like the Sphincter Muscles of the

Anus,

Bladder, &c. I mean by this, that the openings of these Glands, notwithstanding their being so very small, have a certain Springiness and Elasticity proportionable to their Bigness and Size, belong ing to them, by which they are endowed with a certain power of straitning, contracting and drawing themselves, togather more or less upon every Emission of that Moisture Nature designs them to supply the Urethra with: just as the Sphincter Muscle of the Bladder is endowed with a Power of retaining, holding, and keeping in the Urine. And by this means it is, that just so much and no more of this Moisture is thrown out of these Glands into the Urethra, than is just necessary for the Lubrication and Moistening of it, preparatively for the passage of the Urine. Nor is this at at all to be questioned,

viz.

That the Orifices and Mouths of these small minute Glands in the passage, have every one of them a proper power of opening and contracting themselves, proportionable to their bigness and size, not unlike, as I just now said, to the Sphincter Muscles in other Parts of the Body, since we see that even a small Mite, taken for Example out of corrupted Cheese, and which is scarce discernable by the naked Eye, yet by the help of a good Microscope, it appears to be an Animal as compleatly furnished with all necessary Parts, as other Animals whose size makes them the conspicuous Objects of our unassisted Sight So that as by reason of the strength and vigour of the Sphincter Muscles, for Example of the Bladder; the Neck and Mouth of it is endowed with a power of straitening, contracting and closing it self together after every Emission of Urine, every one experiences in themselves a power of either holding or letting go their Water: So, much in the same manner, by reason of the strength and vigour of the Orifices of these Glandules, they are endowed with not an unlike power of straitening, contracting, and drawing themselves together (which I desire my Reader always to suppose to be in a degree proportionable still to their Bigness) after every Emission of the mucous slimy Liquor they contain: Which strength being once lost, the power also of retaining and keeping in this Liquor is also lost with it. The State then and Condition of these Glandulous openings (or as Dr.

Drake

calls them

Mucous Glands

) from their thus furnishing and supplying the Passage with this Mucous Liqor,) being thus consider'd in healthy Persons. Our next Enquiry must be into the state of these Mucous Glands in Persons afflicted with a

Gleet.

Which state we shall soon be apprised of by considering that when a Person has been under Cure for the Secret Disease, the fatigue of Antivenereal Medicines, especially if ill administred, by a frequent pressure upon, and irritation of these Glands, has rendred them flaccid, limber, weak, and loose, which before were healthy, vigorous, springy and strong. The truth of these Assertions (abstracting from the reasonableness they carry along with them) will appear by giving my Reader an Account of the state of these Glands as they have been observed in some Anatomical Dissections made of that particular part where all

Gleets

are seated, I mean the Urethra or Urinary Passage.

That great Anatomist Mr.

Cowper

tells us, that to inform himself the better in this Point, he Dissected the Urinary Passage of several Criminals who had been Executed: Some of which were healthy found Persons: The others were Executed with

Gleets

upon them. In the healthy sound Persons, he found these Glandulous openings to be so firm, as to have had a perfect Elasticity, or Springiness: Insomuch that upon pressing them, he says, they discharged a certain quantity of a transparent viscous Liquor, such as it shews it self, and ought to be

in statu sano;

whereas if these Glands had not had such a firmness and strength, in which consisted their power of retaining or letting go the viscid clammy Liquor they contain; this Liquor would have slipped out of them without any Pressure at all: And by consequence, its not owzing out, but upon such a pressure, was an evident mark of their springyness and strength. He also observed the whole Urethra to be besmeared and lined with a Liquor of a viscous clammy contexture, which he supposed to have been discharged from these

Glandulae Mucosae,

in order to lubricate the Passage.

But in the Urethra of Criminals Executed with a

Gleet

actually upon them, and which they had had many Years, the Case was quite different. He observed the Mucous Glands to be limber, flaccid, and loose, very much stretched and dilated: And their Orifices by the help of a nice Microscope to be visibly open, and thereby totally destitute of their Strength and Vigour, from whence he judiciously concluded, that they were also entirely deprived of their retentive Faculty and Springyness, having no power left of contracting themselves upon any emission of that mucous clammy Liquor they contain, as those other Glands could do in the Criminals that were Executed in perfect Health. After this he examined in the Executed Criminals that were thus dissected, the state of the

Prostatae,

the

Vesiculae Seminales

and the

Parastatae,

all which he found to be as perfectly sound and entire, as in any healthy Person he ever dissected in his life; which is a convincing Proof, that neither the

Prostatae, Vesiculae Seminales

nor the

Parastatae

have any the least share at all in the Seat or Cause of a

Gleet.

This will appear still more clear, by an Example from Persons who have a

Diabetes

upon them: For from the loss of the Springiness and Tone of the Sphincter Muscle of the Bladder; the Neck and Mouth of it is so weakened and relaxed, as to be deprived of its retentive Faculty, through a want of that power of contracting and drawing it self together after any Emission of Urine which healthy Persons experience in themselves: from whence it follows, that the Urine comes away involuntarily from them, being altogether deprived of both that Expulsive, as well as Retentive power which healthy Persons have.

These Observations being thus premised, and which are fully sufficient to convince any one whose Eyes are not shut against demonstration, that what the Ancients generally thought as to the Cure of Gleets was built upon a very wrong Foundation:

viz.

An erroneous Notion of its Cause and Seat. We must now enquire how it happens that this change of state of these Mucous Glands,

viz.

from an Elastick, Springy, and strong state, to a limber, loose, and flaccid one can produce and be the Cause of that quantity of Matter which continually drips and comes away in the course a

Gleet:

Or in other Terms, (but the meaning is still the same) whether or no the productive cause of a

Gleet

i. e. the Relaxation of the Orifices of the mucous Glands in the Urethra can so far encrease the quantity of Liquor naturally produced by these Glands, as to be such as is daily experienced by Gentlemen and others who have this Infirmity upon them.

CHAP. II.

How the Weakness and flaccid State abovementioned of the Mucous Glands, and their Orifices or Mouths in the Urethra, are the true Cause of

Glects,

THE Springiness and retentive Faculty of the Mucous Glands in the Urethra of healthy sound Persons who are supposed never to have had the Secret Disease upon them consisting in their Strength and Power of either disating or contracting their Orifices or

Ostiola,

(as in the foregoing Chapter has been shewed) by which Power of retaining or letting out the viscous Liquor they contain, they discharge just so much and no more of it, than is just necessary for the lubrication and besmearing of the Passage: it must of Necessity follow, that when these Glands are, by the long Use of Medicines, or other means, as a long Continuance of the Disease

&c.

so weakened as to become limber, flaccid, flabby, and loose, they must also be deprived of this retentive Power or Faculty. Insomuch that altho' these Glands in healthy sound Persons, who never had the Misfortune of the

Secret Disease,

are naturally so Springy and Strong as to discharge and let out into the Urethra, just so much and no more of the slimy Liquor designed by Nature to besmear, and as it were cover over the whole Tube or Passage, and there by defend it from the Sharpness of the Urine: Yet in most Persons who have been ever cured of the Secret Disease, the Case is generally speaking not so. For the Orifices or

Ostiola

of these Glands in these

Cured

Persons, are so weakened and relaxed by the Fatigue of the Disease, and its Cure, as to be in a manner always open, by which means the Mucous Liquor they contain, is continually slipping out of them into the Urethra; the Openings of these Glands not having Springiness, Elasticity, nor Strength left to contract themselves, and thereby to keep it in as formerly; by which means the contained Liquor involuntarily and continually comes out into the Urethra, and by successive Quantities of it pushing one after another drips and owzes away

Involuntarily

from the Body.

The Difficulty then that now remains is to conceive how such very small Glands and their Orifices can furnish such a Quantity of Matter, as is daily experienced to flow away in some

Gleets,

and how the Mucous Liquor which is naturally discharged out of these Glands into the Urethra in healthy Persons, should be increased to such a degree as 'tis in Persons who have a

Gleet.

This Difficulty will easily be removed to any Person who will but allow that the Mucous Glands in the Urethra, altho' so very small in themselves as to be invisible to the Naked Eye, unless assisted by the Help of a Microscope, yet they may naturally secerne such a Quantity of Fluid in any determinate Time, as is fully sufficient to become the Matter of (that common Accident now adays) a

Gleet.

To illustrate this Matter, I hope it will be allowed that these Mucous Glands, as little as they are, may naturally discharge into the Urethra for its Lubrication, as much of this Liquor in one Minute as may weigh at least one Quarter of a Grain: This in an Hour will be 15 Grains, or a Quarter of a Dram: In 24 Hours, or a natural Day, it will amount to 6 Drams, which is 3 Quarters of an Ounce; a Quantity sufficient in all reason to give that Uneasiness to the Person, as well as Wetness to the Linnen, which is usually experienced by those under the uncomfortable Circumstances of a

Gleet:

And which is more than either the

Vesiculae Seminales

or the

Prostatae

can continue to furnish in any considerable Space of Time, without infinite more Detriment to the Body, than Persons afflicted with

Gleets

usually experience. Hence it is evident that the Glands the Urethra are full as capable of being the Springs that supply the Liquor that Drips away in a

Gleet,

as the

Prosta¦tae,

or any other pretended Part situated at a Distance.

If you ask, how these Glands in the Urethra can discharge so great a Quantity of Fluid in the time of a

Gleet,

above what they do in their natural State. I answer, that it is manifest from the Animal OEconomy, that if any Gland or excretory Duct be Weakened, and deprived of its retentive Faculty, the Quantity of Liquor that it discharges, by Reason of that Weakness, is considerably augmented in Proportion to the greater or less Degrce of Weakness with which these Glands or Ducts are affected: Just as a little Powder of

Cantharides

applied any where, by breaking thro' the Texture of the Cuticular Scarf-Skin, does so weaken the Glands as soon to excite a Blister, and by it thus weakning the Glands, makes them discharge a Quantity of Matter immensly greater than what wou'd naturally flow away from that Part by insensible Perspiration only. Much in the same Manner the Orifices of these Glands being weakened and relaxed, have thereby lost their retentive Faculty, and therefore cannot hold in the Liquor they contain, but lets more of it slip away than the mere Lubrication of the Urethra requires, and therefore it continually is discharging it self by that Dripping, which is commonly called a

Gleet.

Hence all the Difficulties about a

Gleet

are overcome in a few Words; Its Symptoms become obvious upon a small Principle so clear in Anatomy, as to carry not only Evidence along with it, but also more clearly explicates all the Symptoms and Effects of it, than hitherto is observed to have been done.

But besides a

Gleet

from the abovementioned Causes it frequently happens, that some Persons after even a safe and sure Cure of the Secret Disease, especially where the Infection has been confiderable, have for a long Time after been vexed with the Appearance of a little owzing of a slimy transparent Substance not so much as the Quantity of a Drop at a Time; which upon their Linnen looks sometimes of no ill Colour, tho' also sometimes it will give it a yellowish Tinge no bigger perhaps than a great Pin's Head, which frequently alarms 'em, they thinking some Infection lies still lurking, when the Cause in reality has been over-weakness, and overheating of the Parts

&c.

and which, upon endeavouring to carry off by Purging, has rather increased, by relaxing the Vessels, and weakning their Springiness and and Tone: Persons with such

Gleets

as these, have generally little Threads, and Skins, or such like, swimming in Variety of Figures about their Urine, and the Orifice of the Urinary Passage is frequently gumm'd up therewith. These

Gleets

usuall attend hot sanguine Constitutions, and in Time brings on pains and Weakness in the Loins, and has at last terminated in incureable Consumptions, whereas if some strengthning Medicines peculiarly adapted to those Parts, had but at first been judiciously applied, not only the Disorder it self might have been timely cured, but also these ill Consequences happily prevented. By which Medicines I understand such as are appropriated to restore the injured Parts to a State of Soundness, as well as to preserve them so. Thus if the Tone of the Parts be but reestablished by Proper Restorative Medicines, their acquired Strength will enable them to resist the Ingress of new Supplies of peccant Matter, and turn them off to be discharged another way. Thus the Cure is attained without Violence, Pain, or Inconvenience to the Patient: and in this Sense it is (generally speaking) to be understood, that sometimes a

Gleet

will remain after the best of Cures.

CHAP. III.

Of Self Abuses in particular, and how they are the Causes of

Gleets,

Simple Gonorrhaeas, and other dreadful Effects.

THE Missortune I here mean is that which the Holy Scriptures mention,

Gen.

c. 38. v. 10, of

Onan,

Whose Name only will put my Reader at once in mind, not only of the Sin, but also of the terrible Punishment, which Almighty God instantly and out of hand inflicted upon him, expressed in these Words,

And therefore the Lord Cut him off, because he had done a Detestable Thing. Ideo percussit eum Dominus quod rem

DETESTABILEM

faceret,

says the Vulgate Edition. And yet notwithstanding so very severe an Expression of the Scripture, this Unhappy Misfortune is so frequent, and crying an Offence, especially amongst the more Flourishing Part of Man kind, that there is a great deal of Reason to imagin that many Delinquents would never have been such, if they had but been throughly apprised of the Heinousness of the Crime, and the very sad Consequences to the Body, as well as the Soul, which follow from it; And which indeed is the Motive that has induced me to the writing of this Chapter.

But as it is very difficult to write on a Subject of so nice a Nature as this is, within the reach of the meanest Capacities, without making some Encroachment upon the Rules and Bounds of Decency, and the Risque of giving some Offence, notwithstanding it may proceed from a Design to promote Virtue, and discourage Vice: I shall therefore rather choose to express my self so as to be less intelligible to some, by leaving several Things to my Readers private Consideration, than by an overfreedom of Expression, to run the hazard of putting that into any chast Mind, which every Person ought with the utmost Christian Courage and Care to stifle and destroy. Subjects of this Nature being as Dr.

Baynard

calls it,

Res faeda dictu,

and the Scripture,

a detestable Thing,

and what (if mere Necessity did not urge) St.

Paul

forbids even to be so much as NAM'D amongst Christians,

Nec nominetur in vobis:

For which reason if ever Caution, Care, and Circumspection is necessary in the Treating of any Moral Subject in the World, 'tis most certainly in this: Wherein St.

Paul

thought he could express the Enormity of the Crime by no Word more Emphatical and Expressive, than by imposing a

perpetual Silence

of it amongst those Persons, whose not only Name, but Life and Conversation, spoke them to be Christians; for which Reason it was, that an Ancient Author thought he could give no better a Mark to distinguish between Christians and Heathens, who being totally absorpt, drown'd, and given up to a Reprobate Sense, Uncleanness, and their own Passions, they dishonour'd their own Bodies, (to use the Expression of the Scripture) then the Purity of Life and Conversation in the Former, and not in their outward Name and Profession only; and therefore says he, We Christians

Non magn

Loquimur, sed

VIVIMUS.

I doubt not but those Persons whose guilty Conscience shall tell them that they are concerned in this present Chapter, will understand the Meaning of it, without much Explication: And 'tis to them I recommend it, with my hearty Desire of their most serious Consideration of what is contained in it: And as for those whom it no way concerns, and by consequence who understand it not (O happy Ignorance!) I cougratulate them their unspotted Innocence,

Rara Avis in terris,!

I'll endeavour to say nothing which shall endanger their loosing, but rather confirm their happy keeping it.

To proceed therefore in our Subject: By this Doctrine is excluded every even the least Impure and Immodest Action as unlawful, and to be banished the Conversation of Christians, whose Characteristick Mark ought to be Modesty, as being thereby the very

T

s of the Holy Chost;

than which Consideration St.

Paul

thought he could produce no one more powerful, to disswade Christians from all manner of Uncleanness whatsoever. The Apostles Argument is this: That if Material Temples, dedicated only to the external Worship of Almighty God, are in no wise to be prosaned; much less Spiritual ones, such as our Bodies are, in which the Spirit of Almighty God inhabits. This Reflection of St.

Paul,

gives us clearly to understand, that whenever we give our selves over to Uncleanness, our Bodies are no more the Temples of the Holy Ghost: For which Reason he tells us expressly, that not being our own, by consequence we are not at our own Disposal, being

Bought with a great Price,

and ought therefore to be so far from Abusing and defiling our selves, that we ought to glorify God in even our BODIES, which are God's, as well as our Spirits, all which is utterly destroyed by those Misfortunes this Chapter here treats of.

My Reader may therefore take this for a general Rule, that a Christian is bound to shun whatever Sensualizes the Soul, and tends only to gratify unlawful (i. e. out of a Conjugal State) Passions, it being always unlawful out of that State, to draw any immodest Pleasure from our own Bodies, on any Pretence whatsoever.

To condemn therefore, and disswade against a Sin, so very displeasing to Almighty God: So detrimental to the Common-Wealth: And so highly injurious to our selves, requires no Arguments which are not entirely agreeable to Truth, and can stand the Test of the strictest Reason.

First,

Its being a very great Offence against Almighty God, sufficiently appears, in that there is not a Place in Holy Writ, where Sins of Uncleanness are condemned, but that Unhappy One this Chapter treats of, is amongst others hinted at, with a Conclusion, that

Nothing Impure, nor who acts any such Abominable Things, shall ever inherit the Kingdom of God:

but are to

have a Part in the Lake that burns with Fire and Brimstone:

And altho 'tis a Saying no less true than Terrible, of an Ancient Author, that Sinners are always

Sure

of their Sin, and

Uncertain

of their Pardon; yet from what has hitherto been said, all Persons herein concerned ought seriously to betake themselves to true Repentance, and that betimes too, lest by Neglect in the End they misfortunately find themselves in the Circumstances of

Antiochus,

of whom it is related, that

Orabat Scel

sius Dominum, a quo non esset misericordiam consecuturus.

The Case of too many delay'd ('till on a Death-Bed) Repentance. Nor ought the Example of the Good Theif's late Repentance, to embolden any Delay. Because (as an Ancient Author very well says,) that the Scripture furnishes us with this Example, that we may not

Despair:

But it is the only one, that we may not

Presume.

The best Mark therefore of a true and sincere Repentance, is to leave off Sinning betimes, and returning no more to it after a Conversion:

Noli amp

us pec care, ne aliquid tib

deterius contingat.

2ly, The Detriment which this Misfortune brings to a Common-Wealth in general, no less appears from so many noble Families being frequently extinct for want of Heirs, which, were it to be trac'd up to its true Origin, is owing to nothing else but the Misfortune we here treat of, by which the Strength of Youth has been so profusely squandred away, that very few can afterwards much boast of the Fruits of a Married State. But suppose such Persons have Children, which happens not often, they are most commonly Weak; Puny, Little Things, that either die soon, or if they happen by Chance and mere Force more of Physick than the Kitchen, to grow up, they become Tender Sickly Persons, always ailing and complaining of one Malady or another.

What a Pleasure is it to see, says an Ancient Author, a Man at the Age of Fourscore, with a Wife near the same Antiquity, both blessed with healthy hail Constitutions, fresh wholesome Looks, sound Minds, and perfect Senses, (

Mens Sana in Corpore sano,

as

Juvenal

says) with active, strait, upright Limbs, walking without the adventitious Support of either Stick or Staff, and chearful Tempers, residing over a healthful numerous Progeny perhaps to the 3d. or 4th Generation; and all these Blessings owing under Almighty God to the Temperance and Continence of their Youths: And now willing in a good Old Age, to resign their Breath in Peace.

Et factus est in Pace locus ejus.

— When if we do but turn our Eyes upon Licentious Livers, we shall find them surrounded with a whole Legion and Complication of Diseases: Lean Jaws, hagged pale livid Looks, hollow Eyes sunk into their Heads, feeble Hams, Legs without Calves, limping and hobling with a Stick, Gouty unactive Limbs, continually complaining of Weaknesses and Pains in the Small of their Backs; in fine, worn and wasted away in the Prime of their Years by such self-Defilements: And in their latter Years, by Gleets, Gonorrhaeas and Consumptions, their Spirits sunk, Body wasted, Strength decayed, still shifting about for change of Air; trying all the Baths in Christendom; always consulting one Physician or another, and yet after all, upon the least Rigour of any Season, or any other small Accident, to give up their sinful (and 'tis well if not almost despairing) Breath; and all this from having Enervated, Exhausted, Consumed, and Worn out their Bodies and Strength with the SINS OF THEIR YOUTHS, and by which Means they are now become a Jest to others, and oftentimes thought (tho' how unjustly, plainly appears to any one that only confiders the unhappy Conduct of their flourishing Youthful Days) the Reproach of Physitians, and a Torment to themselves; and all these

ain of Disorders the sole Effect of their Abusing

emselves in their Youths. What Pangs and Tortures have such Persons in reflecting on the past Actions of their Lives, who hardly come at half the Age they might reasonably have expected to arrive at, find themselves enervated, exhausted, consumed, and WORN OUT by the SINS OF THEIR YOUTHS? What a dismal Thing is it for a Person thus to to see that they are old, and have destroyed themselves oftentimes before they are even 30 Years of Age? Insomuch that no Sin draws its Slaves and Votaries into a greater Abyss of Evils and Ruin than this.

As to the Injuries Persons do themselves by this miserable Practice, they are no less evident, since of such Persons who have these Abominarions in their Youth prostrated and enervated their Strength, very few ever come to that Strength and Robustness, which otherwise they would have arrived at, befides Stranguries, Gleets, Gonorrhaeas, and other such Weaknesses, far more difficult to be Cured than those Contracted from either the Secret Disease or its Cure: So that we'll suppose 2 Persons to be afflicted with Gleets: One of these Gleets is purely the Effect of the Secret Disease and its Cure, in a Person whom we will suppose never to have been in all their Life Guilty of the Misfortune this Chapter treats of. The other Gleet is not only the Effect of the Secret Disease and its Cure, but also is on a Person whom we'll suppose to be concerned in this Chapter: This last Gleet is much harder to Cope with and Cure, than the Former: The Reason of this will be obvious to every Person who does but consider, that such detestable Actions, being altogether Unnatural, by consequence are so many Violences, Strains, & Forces upon and against Nature; & therefore not only the Mucous Glands in the Passage, but even the

Prostatae, Parastatae,

&

Seminal Vessels

themselves, are so extremely Relaxed, Debilitated, Weakned, & Enervated thereby, that it is no wonder that the whole Constitution pays dearly for it afterwards; as the Gonerality of Persons too fatally experience, who ever in their Youths have been guilty of this abominable Practice; Insomuch that many Young Persons, who were strong and lusty before they abandoned themselves to this Vice, have been so entirely Worn out and Ruined by it, as to become Old before half their Years came on: For by thus robbing themselves of their Strength, and empoverishing their Spirits by depriving their Bodies of its Balmy and Vital Juice by this abominable Practice, they have become so dry and emaciated, as to be sent to their Graves, a great many Years sooner than otherwise they would have been.

Perhaps my Reader may ask of me, that since the Weakness of Mankind and Propension to Ill is so very great, that if we run thro' the whole Decalogue, there is not one Precept whose Transgressors deserve more Commiseration and Pity than this: What way must Youth preserve themselves from it? No one's Strength being to be depended on in this Point, for those who think themselves secure, St.

Paul

charges to take Care least they fall: So that if we trust only to our Reason, we shall find in the End that this is no manner of Match at all to our Inclinations, which are infinitely stronger: Insomuch that whoever beats a Parley with Sensual Pleasures, is already capitulating with his Enemy, and will be vanquished at last. The great Preservative then is chiefly to avoid Idleness, and fly all Occasions of Ill:

Apprehende Fugam,

(says an Ancient Author)

si vis habere Victoriam.

For

Qui tangit Picem,

as surely

inquinabitur ab eâ,

As he who loves

Periculum,

most certainly sooner or later

in illo peribit.

And therefore they will find to their Sorrow, that a short Fleeting Pleasure of only a Moment,

in fine mordebit ut Coluber:

Like a poor silly Fly hovering about the Flame, thinking it to be as sweet as it appears fair, perishes at the first Tryal. And however such Persons may thro' the Instigation of the Devil flatter themselves, that whenever the Fact is committed, that it is but a trifling Fault; yet it has so Tarnished their Soul, that afterwards they can have no Innocence to boast of, having prodigally Barter'd it for a momentary Satisfaction, as

Esau

did with his Birth-right, for the transient Sensuality of a Mess of Pottage; the Barrier that fenced their Chastity being broke, the Enemy to Purity and Holiness makes daily Incursions, and ravages thro' every Passage of the Conquered Soul. And altho' by a demure outward Be haviour and Carriage, the Eyes of Men may be deceived, yet an All-seeing God cannot be hinder'd from witnessing an Act which his Holiness so much abominates, as to exclude us (without true Repentance for it) eternally from the Kingdom of Heaven: A Loss, to ballance which our Saviour expressly tells us, that the whole World is not an Aequivalent,

What Profit is it to a Man to gain the whole World, if he loses his own Soul.

How many unhappy Souls are there in the World, who never would have been guilty of enormous Crimes, if they had not in their Youths been initiated in Sin by this unhappy Practice? And how many again are there, whose Affairs in the World Almighty God has attended with Judgments ever since, as a Punishment of such horrid Facts committed formerly in their Youth. To avert all which the only way is to practice Virtue betimes, and early to leave off these Abominations: And whatever Difficulty is experienced in overcoming a vicious Habit, the persons must consider, that it is a Burden of their own making, and therefore they ought the more chearfully to undergo the overcomeing it.

CHAP. 4.

Of a

Simple Gonorrhaea,

whence it proceeds, and how it differs from a common

Gleet.

BEsides the Infirmity hitherto treated of, there is yet another sort of Weakness of much worse Consequence, and which for the resemblance it bears to a Gleet, is often confounded under the same Name by Persons unacquainted with the Difference, whereas in rigour 'tis no such thing, and is properly called a

Simple Gonorrhaea,

to distinguish it from that virulent Efflux of Matter commonly, tho' very improperly called a Gonorrhaea, and is That which afflicts Persons who have actually the Secret Disease.

A

Simple Gonorrhaea

is an involuntary Emission of a real seminal Matter by reason of the Caruncles through which it owzes from the Neck of the Vesiculae seminales into the Urethra being so injured, weakned and relaxed in their Fibres, as to permit the seminal Matter insensibly to come away. This is an Infirmity that may indeed, but does not often happen; and when it does, the Person in a little time grows lean, pale, weak and feeble, especially about the Loins, and is soon brought into a

Tales Dorsalis,

and if not speedily taken care of, to his Grave. So that notwithstanding the vulgar call almost every involuntary emission of Matter from a human Body a Gonorrhaea, ye

this Infirmity last mentioned is only and truly a

Gonorrhaea

or Efflux of real and true seminal Matter. Wherea

neither in a

Gleet,

nor in any Stage or Degree of the Secret Disease, any true Seminal Matter comes away, as i

manifest from what has been already said of a Gleet; and also in the First Chapter of the Practical Scheme abovementioned concerning a Gonorrhaea. So that a

Gleet,

which is commonly tho most improperly called a Gonorrhaea, is in reality nothing but only a dripping or owzing away of that mucous slimy Liquor, separated by the Glands in the Urethra for the lubrication of it, as has been above fully said, and generally speaking, free from any Venereal Infection: So that a Person may have a

Gleet

upon them a considerable time without being so visibly emaciated and weakened as they wou'd be in a very small time by a Simple Gonorrhaea: Tho' nevertheless, to let a Gleet run on from Year to Year as many do, without seeking a Remedy for it, is a most certain Means to bring on a Consumption, as hereafter will be shewed.

A Simple Gonorrhaea is caused by Falls, Strains, lifting too great a Weight, Wrestling, violent Riding, Running, Jumping, carrying of heavy Burdens, &c. and is so very difficult an Infirmity to Cure, as oftentimes to be even incurable. But as for a

Gleet,

'tis only after Venereal Cures, or some certain over-strainings and Self-abuses, too much or unskilful Purging, &c. Insomuch that through a very great weakness and relaxation of the Orifices of the Glands in the Urethra from the above-mentioned Causes, a great many Persons have been left with seeming incurable Gleets upon them, tho' under the Care of otherwise reputed ingenious Men in their Profession: For which Reason it is, that few Persons get clear of a Clap without more or less of a Gleet.

From what has hitherto been said, it appears that the true Seat of a simple Gonorrhaea is in the seminal Vessels: Whereas the Seat of a virulent Running and a Gleet is in no other Part than the Urethra, as fully has already been shewed, and also in the First Chapter of the Practical Scheme. And 'tis for want of a true distinction in this Point that so many People are ruined by improper Applications, from an erroneous Notion of the Seat of the Disease.

Moreover, besides the above-mentioned causes of a Simple Gonorrhaea; an efflux of Matter very much resem

ing it frequently follows from the Prostate Glands themselves, having been in a manner so worn, as to be almost

aten, fretted, and corroded away; or at least have been extreamly relaxed and debilitated by their being so continually ulcerated as they frequently are in many Patients under Cure for the Secret Disease: Or if not this, they at least have been ver

much heated and distended by repeated strong Purgations; by which means the Tone of the Parts had been so relaxed and destroyed, as to cause a thin seminal Matter almost continually to flow away from the Urethra, which Fluxion, tho' commonly called a Gleet, yet in rigour 'tis a kind of a simple Gonorrhaea, and is frequently the consequence and result of preposterous management and ill finished Cures.

Chap. 5.

Of Weaknesses in Women.

THese are Infirmities I should here take no Notice of, if it were not for the sake of a great many Virtuous Persons labouring under them, who to besure will send for this little Book in expectation of Assistance from it, and in hopes thereby to avoid the Shock of discovering and making known those Ailments to others which most who labour under them use their utmost diligence to Screen and Hide: That therefore this present little Tract may not be defective, but fully answer whatever can be expected from its Title: These Weaknesses being inconveniences which altho some Women are more subject to then others, yet at some time or another so many labour under them, that scarce any are wholly exempt from them: And what is still worse, out of such great Numbers as are afflicted with them, very few ever get a true and solid Cure, either thro a difficulty in themselves to discover 'em: Or a neglect of their Cure, by thinking them trivial Infirmities, which time will Cure, without considering the ill consequences they will produce: Or for want of Judgment in those that undertake their Cure, they thro a bashfulness of discovering their Case to Persons of Skill, consult only such whose knowledge reaches no farther then

Turpentine Pills, Bole Armenick

&

Astringents, Arch-Angel, Clary

and other such like things, as insignificant to many, as the Judgment was defective that prescribed them.

I must here therefore take Notice, That the Imperfections observable in most Accounts of these Weaknesses (for by this Name of WEAKNESS, I shall always for Decency sake throughout this Chapter mean the Subject it treats of) hitherto published, and the shocking expressions in describing them, have induced me to say some thing on this subject, which I'll endeavour to do in such a manner as may lead those of my Readers to whom this Chapter only belongs, into a true knowledge of their State, and Method of its Cure, with as little Information to others not concerned in it (I mean the Men) as possibly the Subject will admit of.—These Weaknesses are of much the same Nature as

Gleets

in Men: For as the abovementioned relaxed and weakned Mucous Glands in the

Urethra

or

Urinary Passage,

separate and discharge that Matter which constitutes a GLEET in Men; so (observing a requisite Proportion) other Cervical Glandules or small Vessels of the same Nature proportionably in the Neck of the Womb in Women, and designed for much the same Use of lubricating it, separates & discharges also the Matter of these Weaknesses; So that these Glandules being rendred Weak, Lax, and Loose, & thereby deprived of their natural due Tone and Springyness, either from the ill Constitution of the Stomach, and a Serosity or Crude Chyle in the Mass of Blood, depraved by Distempers, or some ill Accidents, by which Means those Vessels cannot sufficiently retain the proper Humor separated by them from the Blood, for much the same use proportionably as in Men,

viz.

to Lubricate or Moisten the Passage tho for another end, but let it Gleet thus involuntarily and slide away. And altho Women being of a more cold and moist Habit of Body then Men; & on that account, & some others more liable to be afflicted with these WEAKNESSES then Men are with Gleets: Yet a Gleet in Men, and these Weaknesses in Women are oftentimes one & the same Disease, & owe their Origin very often to the same Causes, which generally in Men are Venereal ones, tho not always so in Women: but sometimes Hard and Difficult Labours, Colds or Hurts in Lying in, especially in weak and diseased Habits of Body, and many other Accidents which attend the Sex. But to speak the Truth: Gleets in Men most commonly owe their beginning to the Secret Disease, and so sometimes does also these Weaknesses in Women; the Infection of which having been carried off, the Eibres in the Ostiola or Excretory Ducts of

he Glands so often abovementioned, are not easily resto

ed in either Sex, to their pristine Tone, Strength, and Vigour, but will remain relaxed and weak: From whence

Weeping or Dripping properly called a Gleet in Men, and Weaknesses in Women, will, (especially in an ill habit of Body) for a long time after remain; unless proper Measures be taken for a Cure.

From what has been hitherto said plainly appears what a Simple Gonorrhaea (which very seldom happens) and what a Gleet in Men; and what Weaknesses in Women are (which are very common Infirmities.) They are all (generally speaking) free from any Infection, & can never (let Practitioners say what they please to fright timorous Patients) degenerate into the Venereal Disease. These Weaknesses as well as Gleets in Men are generally esteem'd very hard to Cure, and so indeed frequently they are, but if proper Measures and Means be but taken; both Men & Women, may in a competent time, and without much inconvenience be freed from these troublesome and disagreeable Companions, especially to Neat and Cleanly Persons.

There are few Women especially of the Weaker Sort, but at one time or other are aflicted with these Weaknesses, they being an Infirmity often attendant upon, and caused by concomitant or preceeding Distempers: Insomuch that generally speaking whatever Disease reduces a Woman to a languid weakly State, it is commonly succeeded by this Indisposition: For which Reason Women that are naturally of a more weak Constitution or Habit of Body than ordinary, are more subject to these Weaknesses than others.

Some Women indeed have these Weaknesses much more moderate than others, and not continually, but at certain Times only, without causing any great or remarkable Prostration of Strength 'till after a Year or 2 or more: But then it becomes more violent and dangerous, weakning the Body excessively, and is then much more hard to cure. This being a known and undoubted Truth, that the longer these Weaknesses have afflicted the Patient, and the larger in Quantity they are, the longer Time will be required, and the more difficult will it be, to accomplish the Cure, the Humors being more habituated to come away, and the Glandules in the Vessels more weakned and spoiled.

It is equally as hard a matter as it is useful for a Physician sometimes to distinguish well between these Weaknesses and other Distempers which resemble them, their Consequences and their Cure being widely different: For Numbers of Women who have met with ill Husbands, have labour'd under the Venereal or Secret Disease for some Years together, still imagining it to be that Weakness this present Chapter treats of.

Thus it being very difficult for Women to distinguish these Distempers, and yet absolutely necessary that they should, it may (generally speaking,) be done by this Rule of

Hippocrates,

which altho' for Decency sake I shall be very cautious in expressing, yet those Persons to whom this Chapter belongs, and is design'd for, will sufficiently comprehend. The Rule is this. That these Weaknesses, of which this present Chapter Treats, ceases in Women at certain Periodical Times, and do not trouble them 'till such Times are over. Whereas a Venereal Running remains constantly upon the Patient, and does nor cease at any Time.

Many are the deplorable Ill Effects of these Weaknesses, (the unhappy Companion of Womankind) if not in time remedied; but as this Subject s more proper for the following Chapter, where I shall treat at large of the ill Consequences of these Weaknesses, I shall refer my Readers to it.

CHAP. VI

Of the Ill Consequences and Effects of

Gleets,

and other such Weaknesses

A Great many Persons not knowing, or at least not reflecting, and considering the ill Consequences of

Gleets

and other such Weaknesses, look upon them as trivial Infirmities which Time and Patience will Cure: Whereas, altho' at present, these Infirmities may give no other uneasiness or trouble than what is opposite to Neatness and Cleanliness, being no grateful Companions to a clean neat Man, yet by their continuance greatly empair the Health, by wasting the Body, and bringing it into a visible Consumption. The reason of which is: A

Gleet

may in some measure, and not improperly be compared to an Issue, which seems as a Receptacle for the Humors of the whole Body, but more especially of the adjacent Parts to run to; so that Persons who have a

Gleet,

or any other like Weakness upon them, have thereby a constant Drain to their Body, which as has been already shewed, by a continual discharge of that Matter which comes away, not only exhausts it of that Mucous Liquor, which is a strength and support to the Parts where a

Gleet

is situated, but also draws away thereby a constant supply of those other Juices, wherein the Vigor and Strength of the Constitution consists: The reason of which is, that near these Parts both of Men and Women, there are certain Emunctories placed, whose use is to receive the superfluous Humors or Recrements of the whole Body, and discharge them thro' the genital Parts: So that the greater this discharge of Humors is, the more are the Parts not only weakn'd by it, & the more incessantly & plentifully do these Humors flow, but also the Nutritious Juices destined to the nourishment and support of the Neighbouring Parts, flows down with it, and are evacuated. So that at length by reason of this loss of the Nutritious Juice, which flowing to the same Place, is also corrupted and continually sent away, not only Weakness and Pains, together with a Pining and Wasting of the neighbouring Parts, but of the whole Body does succeed, from a poor weak and dispirited Chyle the Blood abounds with. And to this Cause it is, that the greatest part of Broken and decay'd Constitutions are owing. But as I have treated at large on this Subject of Spoiled and Broken Constitutions by Fast Living, former ill Cures, Salivations, and Mercury in the 3d Chapter of my

Practical Scheme,

to be had GRATIS where this Book is Given away; I shall not repeat that Subject here, but refer my Reader to it.

The Body therefore being thus emptied and drained of those Nutritious Juices, which in healthy, hail, sound Persons, are its support: In length of time excessive Pains and Weakness, especially in the Loins and small of the Back, ensues; together with a debility and weakness in the Nerves and Joints, Pale, Faint and livid Looks, especially about the Eyes, Melancholy, loss of Appetite, decay of Spirits and Strength, a remarkable Wearyness over the whole Body, swelling in the Legs, and an universal decay of Strength.

So that these Symptoms not stoping in time, (as most Persons in the begining deceive themselves they will, fancing a

Gleet

to be an inconsiderable Thing, and that it will wear off of it self, in process of Time) they increase, and are followed also by others, as an almost continual Thirst, a hectical Disposition, Atrophy, and wasting of Flesh, till at length the Body is so drained, as to be brought into the highest degree of a Consumption.

All which Symptoms are occasioned by the great loss of the Mucous Liquor of the Glands, which being thus weakned and relaxed, have their Meatus's or openings so widened, and loosened, as not be able to restrain the Flux or dripping away of the Matter, whereby the withering of the whole Body, with a dryness and Siccity of the Nerves and Nervous Juices must necessarily in a short time ensue.

As for the effects or ill Consequences of a real Simple Gonorrhaea, they are no less dismal then speedy; For in a little time, says Dr.

Willis,

from the vast Efflux of real seminal Matter, the whole Strength is prostrated, a

Tabes dorsalis

presently ensues, and terminates in the Grave.

It remains now to speak a Word or two of the ill effects and consequences of Weaknesses in Women, as I have already done of

Gleets

in Men, as I promised above in the foregoing Chapter. Since therefore what I have already said in this Chapter, is to be proportionably applied to Women: The Effects of these Weaknesses are Pains in the small of the Back and Head, want of Appetite, bad Digestion, Weariness, and Restlessness, sometimes swellings of the Legs, pale livid Countenance.

&c.

And as this Evil is mostly occasioned by foregoing Distempers, (tho also sometimes by sudden Frights, violent Exercise, irregular Living,

&c.

) so it weakens the Body also more and more, bringing the whole human Frame into a pining desperate State, unless cured by proper Remedies skillfully administred in time, no evil in the World, that usually happens to Women, being of so very ill consequence to the Looks, Complexion, Mind, Habit, Strength, and whole Body as this.

Insomuch that if this great Evil (which too often proves the BANE and Ruin of Woman kind) be not timely remedied, it certainly causes either untimely Barrenness, or if they have Children, they are weak, infirm, and diseased, and the Blood and Juices become more and more impoverished, till an inevitable Consumption, Dropsy and other Distempers, prove only the Forerunners of immediately ensuing Death.

CHAP. VII

How to know when a

Gleet,

or other such Weakness is free from, or partakes still of the Relicks of a former

Venereal

Infection.—Or (which is the same thing) Signs to know when a Person is properly Well, and the Malignity carried off, after former Cures, altho' they may have a

Gleet

or other such Weakness still remaining upon them.

THE Design of this Chapter being to shew how every Person that has received an Injury, and been under Cure for it, may know whether the Malignity be wholy carried off or not: And if there be any Running or Gleeting still remaining afterwards, whether it proceeds from any Secret Infection still lurking behind, or from Medicines taken for a Cure, or from a natural Weakness of the Parts, which some Persons from a more then ordinary delicacy and tenderness of Constitution are liable to, notwithstanding the utmost Care both of themselves, and the Person under whose Hands they were during their Cure; My Reader is to take notice, that after a due evacuation and clearing of the Body of the Venereal Infection, the mattery running which before was Yellowish, Green or Bloody, looses by Degrees both it's colour and quantity, and comes at last to a perfect Whiteness or Transparency, resembling very much the white of an Egg, and is Slimy, Mucilaginous, and Ropy; and the Parts are easy and cool: All which are admirable Signs, and the strongest Presumption that the Malignity is carried off, and the Person cured and well. But since it frequently also happens that a Person may be said to be (not ill) cured, altho' these signs of a good Cure, may not be altogather so very perfect as here they are described to be, we must examin this matter still a little farther, for the full Satisfaction of the most timorous of my Readers.

It has indeed been a common Opinion that in

Gleets,

when the Matter that comes away is still discouloured being either yellowish or green, that it is a certain Sign, (and indeed an only one) of a remaining Infection, and an imperfect or ill Cure. 'Tis true, that when the Matter that comes away in a

Gleet,

or other such Weakness, is not discouloured at all, but is pure White, Glutinous and Ropy, and the Parts in all respects entirely cool and easy, there is no difficulty to pronounce such

Person entirely free from Infection, & (not ill) cured; because if there were any Infection and Malignity still remaining behind, these signs would not be so perfect a

here I suppose them to be: But yet for all this, it is no

always a certain sign and consequence of either an actua

lurking Infection, or a former ill Cure, when even these signs are not so very perfect. The reason of this is; that in some Habits of Body the Owzing Matter which constitutes a

Gleet

will in some length of time, and in diseased habits of Body, in its Separation from the Blood be so permixt with some certain Corrosive (but not at all Venereal) Particles, as thereby to be so colliquated and altered in it's Texture and Cohesion of it's constituent Parts, as to appear a sort of Pus, Sanies or Matter something discoloured, that will very much resemble the Relicks and Remains of a Venereal Infection, or an ill Cure: And if a Person should think to change this Colour by Purging, one might, as Dr

Harvey

observes, Purge a Person's Life away as soon as change either it's Colour, or cause it's entire Abatement. So that the Practitioner imagining that all yellowish Runnings are malignant (which is a vulgar Error) goes on still in hopes of changing it, 'till at length the Parts are so weakned, that the Poor Patient has a

Gleet

fixt upon him, and thereby rendred worse instead of better, and perhaps at last told they are incurable.

To shew the Truth of this, it is to be observed that the imprudent Continuation of Venereal Catharticks, rather keeps on the yellowness of the Running then abates it, by keeping up the humors in a constant Ferment and Ebullition, and thereby inflaming and frothing them up into a yellow Bilous Spume or Scum, which is daily separated in the Parts, that are now become as it were a Cistern, to which Custom has made an open Channel, and converted the Orifice of the Urethra into (as it were) an Issue, to which the depraved humors of the Body, and especially of the adjacent Parts flow: And which humors, as the Blood (even in very well cured Persons) is tinctured with Choler, and depraved and altered by a long Course of Physick, do also proportionably partake more or less of a yellowish Colour. Hence it plainly appears, that some Returns of yel

wish small Runnings after some Cures of the

Secret sease

do not always indicate any remaining Infection,

lay any blame or aspersion upon the former Cure;

is yellowness frequently owing it's origin to the yel

ow Liquors of the Blood. Besides, when the efflux

f a

Gleet

is thus continued, the Glands and Vessels are

hereby every Day more and more weakned, by which

he Liquors will be separated more impure and mixed,

hen they were formerly in a healthy State, at the same Glands: And therefore it is manifest how Gall mixing with the Liquor will make it come away of a yellowish Colour. This is not only in Reason possible, but what we find true by daily experience, in Ulcers and common Sores, from whence a yellowish Matter will flow, owing it's colour purely to the bilous part of the Blood, separated and secerned by the adjacent Glands. Hence as Dr.

Cockburn,

takes notice, it frequently happens that virulent Runnings in Persons who have the

Secret Disease

actually upon them have been cured, when the yellowness has continued to the last Drop; which could not be, if the yellowness were always a part, or mark of the Contagion.

CHAP. VIII.

Of the most Rational and True Method of Cure of

Gleets, Simple Gonorrhaeas,

and other such Weaknesses in either Sex, proceeding from former Cures,

&c.

AS I have endeavoured hitherto demonstratively to deduce the Seat and Nature of a

Gleet,

and other such Weaknesses from it's Symptoms, and the Anatomical Structure of the Part it affects, without engaging in any of the Hypotheses of the Ancients; so I'll now endeavour to draw such consequences from the Nature of the Infirmity thus discovered, which will prove the plainest and most satisfactory Course that can be taken to arrive at the most exact ways of curing it; especially since the common Methods of Cure of late Years in Practice, are found from their want of Success not sufficiently grounded on Reason and Experience. It being a manifest truth, that the best Methods of Cure are always taken from a

Rational

Notion of the Nature and Cause of a Disease: Human

Reason

being never of greater use in any part of human Life, then it is in the Practice of Physick. For as Dr.

Mead

says in the Preface to his Essays on Poisons, He alone is the most likely Person to Cure any ailment or disorder in a human Body, who best understands the human Oconomy, the Texture of the Parts, the Motions of the Fluids, and by consequence the Source and

Origin

of the Disorder, according to that of Celsus,

Recte Curaturum, quem prima origo Causae non fefellerit.

Having therefore above in the second and following Chapters, clearly accounted for the most Rational Cause of

Gleets,

Simple

Gonorrhaeas

and other Weaknesses, the subject Matter of this present Treatise: I hope also as clearly now to shew the most Rational Method of their Cure: As follows:

In omnibus contrarietas Remedio est,

is an Aphorism of the great Hippocrates, and holds good in the Cure of our present Infirmity, as well as in the Cure of any other particular disorder of the Body whatsoever. Insomuch that if there be a Heat and Inflammation in any Part, recourse must be had to those things that are Cooling. In cold Diseases to warm Medicines. If any Humor is sharp and corrosive, it must be reduced to a due degree of softness by mollifying Medicines. If any parts are injured, and weakned, strengthning, healing and Balsamick ones must be made use of before ever a Cure can be effected, in order to restore the debilitated Parts to their first Tone and Vigour. So that in our present Infirmity which we have now before us, we find from what has been hitherto said, the following obstacle, and which must necessarily be removed before ever we can hope to reinstate the Patient,

viz.

— The openings of the Mucous Glands so often abovementioned in the Urethra being weakned, loosned, and relaxed by the above mentioned Causes, are thereby become flabby, limber and loose, which before in a sound State were springy, vigorous and strong; so that by this means the

Ostiola

or Mouths of them being deprived of their natural Power of (in some measure proportionable at least to their bigness,) contracting and drawing themselves together after every Emission of that Mucous slimy Liquor they contain, are by consequence always open, by which means this Liquor is continually owzing out from them and coming away. This being the true state of our present Question, and the rational Obstacle we have now to encounter with, as sufficiently appears from what has been above said: 'Tis natural to conclude, that the only true and rational Method of Cure of

Gleets,

and any other Weaknesses of the same kind whether in Men or Women, must consist, in one word for all, without any manner of Evasion or going round the Bush, in affecting the very Place it self from whence the dripping Liquor is discharged; and this is done by STRENGTHNING these Glands, and thereby restoring their Openings and Mouths to their former power of contracting, and constringing themselves after every Emission of the Mucous Liquor they contain; by which means a certain Bar and Hindrance will be put to their discharging more of it, then is wisely intended by Nature, as just enough for the lubrication and moistening of the Passage and no more, and for which end alone she has designed it. This being once effected, just so much and no more of this Liquor will afterwards proceed from these Glands, as just the defence of the Urethra requires as a Preservative against the sharpness and saltness of the Urine as it passes thro: it being an established Maxim in Philosophy, That upon the removal of any Cause, the effect presently ceases. So that wherever the Cause lies,

That

must be applied to, before ever we can expect the effects to cease. But how to bring this about,

Hic Labor, hoc Opus est,

it's Residence being in a part which Nature seems particularly to have affected the concealment.

Hence my Reader may plainly see, that the great difficulty which has now puzled so many Ages in the Cure of

Gleets

and other such sorts of Weaknesses, is all (from only a few evidently demonstrable Principles above established) reduceable, to one only single intention of Cure,

viz.

to Strengthen these Glands. 'Tis no wonder then that the Ancients found such difficulty in this matter, as after all possible endeavours sometimes to leave their Patients at best only

in statu quo;

tho' in rigour this may be very much doubted, it being pretty certain that neither the continuance of a

Gloet,

nor any of the common Methods of its Cure, have been ever as yet found to improve a Constitution, or to change it, otherwise, then from a strong to a weaker one.

Our next Enquiry then must be, how this Intention of Cure is to be brought about and effected with the greatest Ease and Security to the Patient, and what t

Nature of those Medicines must be that can perform i

In order to which we must consider, that since

Glee

procced from the Mucous Glands in the Urethra, an

the contiguous Parts being particularly weakned thro' long Continuance of the Secret Disease, and its Cure Repeated Self-Abuses

&c.

the Intention of Cure mus

consist in Strengthning and Contracting these relaxe

Glands and Parts adjacent, and thereby restore them t

their former natural State of Vigour and Soundness, after having been thus injured, and debilitated either by the Distemper, or its Cure, Reiterated Self-Abuses, o

other whatsoever Causes. And for want of such a Method as this 'tis, that a great many Persons (altho, otherwise perfectly well) come to have seemingly incureable

Gleets

fixt and entailed upon them. For which reason it is that a

Gleet

is always more or less difficult to Cure, as it is of greater or less Continuance, or is occasioned by more or less Frequent self Abuses, or a more or less virulent Humor which gave the preceeding Infection; by every one of which causes the

Glands

are always more or less stretched, weakned and debilitated

The Method then I here aim at in the Cure of our present Infirmities, is by such Medicines as are appropriated in a peculiar manner, and by a Singular Specifick quality, Influence, and tendency to the Injured and debilitated Glands in the Urethra and parts adjacent chiefly above any other Part or Parts of the Body whatsoever, and thereby not only so to act upon and affect THEM in particular as to strengthen close and constringe their Mouths and Orifices, but also to preserve them hereafter in this sound State. So that these Glands being reestablished by this Method of Cure, their acquired Vigour will enable them to resist any future ingress of faster supplies of the Matter they separate and secerne, then is just necessary and no more for the moistening and lubrication of the Urethra, and so turning them off to be discharged by Nature another way. So that whilst the Ancients were Trifling with

Their

long tedious and uncertain Methods of Cure, Wonders are performed by

This.

Besides, this Method of Cure succeeding to the Satisfaction of the Patient, is a strong Confirmation of the Truth of the Theory above established: Whereas

n the other hand, most other Methods formerly prac

isedby the Ancients, either did not succeed at at, or

f at any time they did, it was not 'till after a very

ong while.

From what has been hitherto said, it plainly appears that this our Method of Cure is not only effectual in Men, but will be found upon Tryal to be inferiour to few, for those Weaknesses mentioned above in the 4th Chap. in Women.

I will not here trouble my Readers in proving that in Nature there are some certain Medicines which being taken into the Stomach, will immediately tend towards and make their Way to, some one particular part of the Body

Electively

and preferably to any other: Having fully cleared that Difficulty in the 8th, 9th, and 10th Chapters of the 3d Edition of My New SYSTEM of the GOUT and RHEUMATISM, to be had Gratis where this Book is Given away. I desire them therefore to read those Chapters, wherein I have clearly shewn how Medicines by a particular Specifick Quality they are endowed with, will (being taken into the Stomach) tend to and have an influence over some one peculiar Part of the Body, which they are designed particularly to relieve, rather then any other, as is there clearly shewed in Medicines appropriated to the Cure of the GOUT. All which I hope will fully convince any Person of the Possibility of a Strengthning Restorative Medicine's being taken into the Stomach, and from thence to tend towards and make it's way (by means of the Bloods Circulation) immediately to that Part in particular above any other in the Body whatsoever, which is the true Seat of a

Gleet,

I mean the Urethra or Urinary Passage. This Point therefore being fully discussed in those Chapters of the abovementioned System, I'll say nothing more of that Subject here, but refer my Reader to the perusal of that Book, which he may have for only Asking for, at the Places abovementioned where this Book is Given away.

As to the Change of the Colour of the

Gleet,

&c. since it generally proceeds as above has been said from a mixture of Choler, Bile, Gall, and several Impurities with the Blood, by consequence to cleanse and Rectifie the ill Crasis of

This,

will effectually change the ill Colour of

That.

Care therefore must be taken that al

Strengthning Medicines that are made use of in the Cure of

Gleets,

be also endowed with a certain detergent Faculty, by which they may in their passage to those Parts they are chiefly designed for, so Cleanse, Sweeten and Purify the Blood, as at the same time that they Strengthen the Glands in the Urethra, they may also change the Colour of the Liquor these Glands contain: And by thus changing of it's ill Colour, it's Substance if too thin will also

secundario

&

per accidens

be changed at the same time. For since whenever the Matter Dripping & Owzing away in

Gleets

and other such Weaknesses is too thin, it proceeds from its being Colliquated (and if I may use the Expression as it were in a manner melted down and Liquid) by those Impurities which are mixed and blended with it out of the Mass of Blood: These Impurities and Foulnesses being once cleansed out of the Blood, the Mucous slimy Matter will naturally reassume again its own natural Tenacious and Glutinous Consistence, as it has in

Statu sano.

My Reader perhaps will ask me whether or no this Method of Cure is proper in

all sorts

of

Gleets

and other such Weaknesses. To which I Answer, that when a

Gleet

is purely such, and entirely free from any Relicks or Remains of former Infection, the abovementioned Method of Cure is inferiour to few in the World. If therefore the

Gleet

or other such Weakness be what proceeds from a former Cured Injury, and that the Person had no manner of such Infirmity upon them before they received and were Cured of that Injury, it is absolutely necessary for the Patients safety first of all to be satisfied, that there is no remaining Malignity attending it, which my Reader will sufficiently be instructed in from what has been above said in the foregoing Chapter. But if Persons are any ways doubtful whether or no the

Gleet

may still Partake of any Preceeding Infection, it will be necessary to clear the Body and by Consequence the

Gleet

or any other such Weakness of whatever former Infection it may be still blended, and mixed with, least instead of Cureing a Person of a

Gleet,

something of worse Consequence be fixt and rivetted upon him. What therefore is most proper for every such doubtfu

Person to do previous to the Taking of the following

Great Restorative

is fully mentioned in the Directions Sealed up along with it: And which Method will effectually carry of all the Remainder of any Former Taint or Infection whatsoever out of any Person's Body, in order to be perfectly and safely Cured of their

Gleet

by the following

Restorative:

So that how effectual so ever any other (usually practised) Method of Cure of

Gleets,

&c. may be, it will scarce prove a more Safe one then This. The Chief consideration we have of the Goodness of any Method of Cure, is its Efficacy, Safety, & Time wherein we are Cured by it. All which being, after repeated Experiments, found to be best Answered by the Method here proposed, then by any other whatsoever of the Ancients, I presume I shall do no small piece of Service to that unhappy part of Mankind that labours under these uncomfortable Infirmities, in publishing it.

Hence it appears that

Gleets

and other such Weaknesses are not so difficult of Cure as a great many Persons make them to be, who after all their Endeavours to rid the Patients of them to no purpose, dismiss them at last with their Opinion that they'll never be cured, assuring them at the same time, it will never hurt them, & that Nature at length will Wear and throw it off, and the like: Which a great many give Credit to, in hopes of finding it true, 'till time has made this Error too manifestly appear, for instead of Natures overcoming it, & their finding no inconvenience by it, it has grown worse and worse, and proved at last so very inconvenient, that the poor Patient has born it with no small Uneasyness.

CHAP. IX.

Of a certain Strengthning Restorative Medicine for the Cure of Gleets and other such Weaknesses.

THE Learned Dr.

Cockburn

in his Treatise of a

Gonorrhaea,

2d

Edition,

pag. 210. lays this down for a general Rule in Physick:

Viz.

That no Medicine is to be received for its singular Use, 'till it has had many Tryals in proper Circumstances;

i. e.

'till it has been used on a Number of People equally ill, or that it has its Effects, when no reasonable hopes are left of a Cure by the best of other Medicines Skilfully administred. Hence it is by consequence to be concluded that when a Medicine has shewed its Efficacy in these Circumstances, it not only may, but even ought to be received by every Person solicitous for their Health and Welfare.

After therefore having proceeded thus far with this Treatise, I should be injurious to my Readers thus to explicate the Origin, Cause, Symptoms, Effects, and ill Consequences, together with the most rational Method of Cure of their Infirmities, if I should leave them there, perhaps something Wiser then they were before as to the just now enumerated Heads, but not a bit the nearer to a Cure. In order then not to entertain them with meer Speculations, I'll endeavour to give them some Practical Assistance, by proposing here to the World, a truly Great and Noble Remedy for those Weaknesses and Disorders here treated of.

The Medicine I propose is a most excellent

Balsamick Restorative,

which for Recovering Nature in those many Weaknesses so frequently abovementioned has not many equals. It being a most Noble Strengthner in all Weaknesses, whether from Hard Labours, Over-strainings, Wrenches, Miscarriages, Self-Abuses, & other Secret Injuries and their Cures, in either Sex. Its efficacy also reaches still farther, being of admirable Use to Cure Pains, Weaknesses, and all Imbecilities of Nature, either in the Back, Reins, Loins, or elsewhere; to remove or take away any Stoppage of Urine, by effectually and yet gently (as Nature seems to defire) carrying off all Mucous, Filthy, Sanious and Infectious Matter Slime or Gravel lodged in the Reins, and elsewhere by ill Cures or other Causes; & which either produces a Sharpness in the Urine, or a too frequent Provocation to make it: And thereby recovers the lost Tone of the Seminal Vessels and Mucous Glands in the Urethra so often abovementioned. Destroying thereby all Relicks of Venereal Venom that lurking in the Body insensibly wasts and decays the Flesh and Strength.

And least my Readers should suspect the possibility of the Operation of a Medicine taken in at the Mouth, and from thence conveyed into the Stomach, on a Part so remote from it, as that is which I have proved above in the 2d Chap. to be true, real, and indeed only Seat of a

Gleet

and other such Weakness: I must refer them to what I have said on this Subject in the 9th & 10th Chapters of my abovementioned System of the GOUT &

Rheumatism.

In which Chapters is as clearly shewed as so Nice & Intricate a Subject will admit from the Principles of the Modern Philosophy, how 'tis very possble for a Medicine to be taken in at the Mouth, and conveyed into the Stomach, and from thence to be mixed with that Portion of the Mass of Blood which it finds circulating in the Vessels there, by which means of the Bloods Circulation it is soon carried about the Body, & by consequence to That very individual part it is designed to relieve: As is fully proved in those Chapters of the just now mentioned System, of the Operation of the Anti-Arthritick Medicine there proposed to act upon even the very utmost and remotest extremities of the Body,

viz.

Those Joints which usually the Gout seizes. I desire therefore my Readers, that since, they may have that

System

for only Asking for, they will be pleased to peruse the 9th & 10th Chapters of it, and apply them to this Subject, that I may not repeat the same Matter here over again. For as a Medicine taken for the Gout if it be a true and real

Anti-Arthritick,

never attempts to exert its principal Force of acting till it arrives along with the Blood, at the Glands of those very Joints it is designed to relieve; just so the Great

Restorative

and Stengthing Medicine I here propose, being taken a few Drops of it, in a little Wine, Ale, or Beer, is thereby carried down into the Stomach, from whence it mixes it self (being of a Spirituous Volatil Nature) with the Mass of Blood, and is carried with it about the Body, and among other Parts, to that which is the true Seat of those Infirmities here treated of. Being arrived there by a particular Specifick influence it bears over, & Tendency to that Part above any other, and the Mucous Glands contained in it, it there begins to exert its force and to operate, by Strengthning, Healing, and Restoring the Mouths and Ostiola of those little Glands, to their former Elasticity, Springyness and Vigour, by which means they will naturally again recover that Power they formerly had of Constringing themselves as naturally they ought to do after every Emission of the Mucous slimy Liquor they Contain, and which Nature has wisely designed for the Lubrication of the Passage, as has sufficiently been above explicated. This being once performed by this Great

Restorative

Medicine, and the Mouths of these Glands being recovered from their looseness and flabbyness, to an Elastick Springy State, by consequence a Bar will thereby be put for the future, by which just so much and no more of this Mucous slimy Liquor will be let out & come away, then just the Moistening & Lu brication of the Passage in a hail sound state requires: By which means, a

Gleet

which perhaps for a long time has afflicted the Patient will be taken away, and the Parts restored to their former due state of Health and Strength.

The property of this great

Restorative

is not only Traumatick,

i. e.

only to Heal and thereby to strengthen the Mucous Glands in the Passage and the Womb-Vessels, by gently straitening them, and reducing them to their natural Tone, but also to deterge and cleanse them of whatever Filth they may by their Weakness have contracted, never disordering the Body, but keeping it in a due State. 'Tis not unpleasant to take, & being once received in a proper Vehicle as a Glass of Wine, Ale, Beer,

&c.

into the Stomach, it (by means of the Bloods Circulation) displays its Vertues after a wonderful manner, effectually answering the intentions of Cure. Besides all which it is a very great purifier & sweetner of the Blood and Juices, and thereby invigorates, enlivens, and strengthens the whole Body, taking away Weaknesses, and Pains in the Back, Loins, and elsewhere, rendring the Person brisk, lively, healthy, and strong, and puts an end to those troublesome Companions commonly called

Gleets,

& other such Weaknesses.

So that to a Person even never so well in Health that should take of it, it will cleanse, sweeten, and purifie the Blood, and thereby wonderfully enliven, animate, strengthen, and invigorate the whole Constitution, but above all in a more particular manner then ordinary those Parts which being hidden in the Body are too remote for any Manual Operation to act upon, as the Seminal & Urinary Vessels, the Prostatae, Parastatae, and Mucous Glands in the Urethra. This Noble

Medicine

being to be taken by Drops may be carried in the Pocket, and taken as well abroad as at home, without any manner of uneasiness, trouble, suspicion, or confinement, for Example at the Tavern, Coffee-House, or any other Publick Place, by which means Gentlemen and others will be Cured in a manner insensibly and before they are almost aware of it. Its Operation is principally by Urine, but nevertheless it will in most Constitutions so assist Nature as to promote the having one Stool in about 24 Hours. Nothing does exceed this admirable Remedy in the abovementioned Cases, where either too much Purging has over relaxed and weakned the Tone of the Parts, or too free a use of

Mercury,

and other Pernicious methods of Cure have been made Use of, restoring the Body to a due State of health and Strength.

This Great

Restorative

in fine neat Bottles is Sealed up (with the Print of the Anodyne NECKLACE which the late Dr.

Paul Chamberlen

in his life time Recommended for Childrens TEETH so often abovementioned, to distinguish it from any COUNTERFEIT) together with Printed Directions in

English

and

French

for its Use, so clear, easy, full, and plain that Persons may Cure themselves with it in any remote Country, Season, Climate, or Part of the World, (for if well Corked it will not grow worse with keeping) Price a Guinea. And is to be had at the Places mentioned above in the Title Page of this Book.

APPENDIX.

HAving above in the Title Page of this Book made mention of a Certain Anodyne NECKLAGE Recommended by the late Dr.

Paul Chamberlen

for the Easy Breeding and Cutting of Children's

Teeth,

&c. I'll here subjoin Two Testimonies published by Dr.

Chamberlen

in favour of this Soverain

Necklace,

and the

Specifick Remedy

and

Elixir,

mentioned in the

Practical Scheme,

in Opposition to some

Counterfeits

a broad in the World.

WHereas a NECKLACE has been Published under Pretence that it is the same with that which is Recommended by me (tho nothing at all LIKE it.) I hereby declare to the World, that I know nothing of it, nor its Author, who pretends to Decry, what nevertheless he tries to Counterfeit. I do not deny but that I have for some time, and do still Approve of and Recommend to the World that most Admirable NECKLACE for Childrens Teeth,

&c.

As also,

The Specifick Romedy

and

Elixir

for the Secret Disease and Broken Constitutions, Sold up one Pair of Stairs, at the Sign of this

Nocklace

without

Temple-Bar,

&c. All which I know (from my Experience of them) to be most Excellent Things, and worth any one's having in those Circumstances. For which Reason I Recommend to every ones serious Perusal, That most Excellent little

Practical Scheme

and

Essay

which the Ingenious Author has writ upon them, and gives away Gratis in most

European

languages. But if any other

Necklace

besides this (which is the ONLY one that I Recommend, and is a very valuable Secret,) As also, if any other

Specifick Remedy

or

Elixir

for these Distempers, are at any time under my Name Published by Persons who live by Pyrating and Counterfeiting other

Men's

Secrets, it is a manifest Imposition upon me and the Publick. Therefore I hereby Caution all Persons to be ware of such Counterfeits.

From my House in

Great Suffolk-street,

near the

Hay-Market,

Mar.

22. 1717.

Paul Chamberlen, M. D.

THE SPECIFICK REMEDY: ELIXIR: And NECKLACE for Childrens TEETH, at the Sign of this Necklace without Temple-Bar, &c. I Approve of and Recommend. All others I disown as Spurious and Counterfeit.

From my House in Great Suffolk-Street,

Apr.

18. 1717.

Paul Chamberlen,

M. D.

The CONTENTS.

THE Preface. Page 2.

Chap. 1. Some few Anatomical Observations necessary to be taken Notice of, in order to a right knowledge of the true Cause, Seat, and Nature of

Gleets,

and other such Weaknesses. p. 4.

Chap. 2. How the Weak and Flaccid State abovementioned of the Mucous Glands, & their Orifices or Mouths in the Urethra, are the true Cause of

Gleets.

p. 9.

Chap. 3. Of Self-Abuses, &c. p. 13.

Chap. 4. Of a Simple Gonorrhaea, whence it proceeds, and how it differs from a Common

Gleet.

p. 19.

Chap. 5. Of Weaknesses in Women. p. 21.

Chap. 6. Of the ill Consequences and Effects of

Gleets

and other such Weaknesses. p. 24.

Chap. 7. How to know when a Gleet or other such Weakness is free from, or partakes still of a former Venereal Infection. Or (which is the same thing) Signs to know when a Person is properly well, and the Malignity carried off, after former Cures, although they may have a Gleet, or other such Weakness still remaining upon them, p. 27

Chap. 8. Of the most Rational and True Method of Cure of Gleets, Simple Gonorrheas, and other such Weaknesses in either Sex, proceeding from former Cures, &c. p. 29

Chap. 9. Of a certain Strengthning Restorative Medicine for the Cure of Gleets, and other such Weaknesses, p. 35

Appendix. Containing two particular Testimonies of the late Dr.

Paul Chamberlen

in Favour of the

Specifick Remedy, Elixir, Necklace,

&c. p. 39

ADVERTISEMENT.

IF any Gentlemen, Traders, Merchants, Captains, or Mates of

Ships,

Sea-Surgeons or others trading Abroad to the

East

or

West-Indies, Turkey, Africa,

The

South-Sea,

or elsewhere will take either of The SPECIFICK REMEDY or ELIXIR mentioned in

The Practical Scheme:

Or of the Soveraign ANODYNE NECKLACES, Recommended by the late Dr.

Paul Chamberlen

for the Easy Breeding and Cutting of Childrens TEETH; and mentioned in the

Essay

writ upon them: Or if the

Anti-Arthritick Tincture

mentioned in the System of the GOUT and RHEUMATISM, Or of the

Great Restorative,

mentioned in this Treatise of

Gleets,

all which now Sell, and have done for these several Years past extraordinary well, not only here in

London,

where the Call for them encreases every Day, but also Abroad, being in great Esteem and Reputation not only throughout both Parts of

Great-Britain, Ireland,

and most of our Plantations, (great quantities having of late been exported by Merchants, Captains of

Ships,

Sea-Surgeons, and others) But also are now very much esteemed in

France, Holland, Germany,

and several other Countries and Courts of

Europe,

being continually sent for thither to the entire Satisfaction of all that use 'em: They shall have room for very large Profit at the Sign of the Anodyne NECKLACE for Children's TEETH without

Temple-Bar

above-mentioned. For which Reason the Author, being willing to encourage the Exportation of 'em for the general Good of Mankind (which hitherto has incontestably appeared to be so, from the many Certificates of their success from several Parts, incerted from time to time in the Publick Prints: and the general consent of all who use 'em of both Sexes) for that End, has now published This Scheme not only in

English

&

French

but also an Abstract & Epitome of it, in most other

European

Languages, for the Use and Benefit of all

European

Foreigners; but especially

Merchants

and others

Trading

to

France: Germany: Holland: Spain: Italy: Portugal: Sweden: Denmark: Poland: Muscovy: Turkey,

&c. They having obtained Reputation now in several of these Countries.

Here therefore I'll take occasion to acquaint my Reader, that a great many

Practitioners

in

Physick,

but especially

Sea-Surgeons,

have of late (after having made several repeated successful Tryals upon their

Patients

HERE IN LONDON) had

over

and

over

again great quantities with very great Allowance by Wholesale of these

Remedies

at the Sign of the NECKLACE abovementioned, to carry with them to Sea, they all now finding it their Interest and indeed their cheapest way to buy these

Remedies

to cure their own Patients with. As the Gentleman (the Sea-Surgeon) was pleased to say, who some time ago by Dr.

Chamberlen',

express Advice took along with him over-Sea a large Quantity of them. Also another Gentleman, own'd in his Letter incerted in the Practical Scheme, p. 35. that out of 23 Persons that took of the

Specifick Remedy,

only One missed of his Cure, and that the Person confessed was by his own Mismanagement. So that of late Years it has been a common Practice of several Surgeons, and other Practitioners in Physick to buy these

Romedies

to cure their own Patients with. By which they have gained both Money and Reputation. See more of the Allowance by WHOLESALE in my SYSTEM of the GOUT and RHEUMATISM and Philosophical Essay upon the Anodyne

Necklace.

Given gratis where this Book is given away.

So that now seldom or never a Week passes but some Surgeon or other, more especially of those belonging to the Sea, Buys of those Remedies, and of the Anodyne NECKLACES for Children's TEETH by Wholesale, at the Sign of this

Necklace

without

Temple-Bar,

where

ery large Profit is given. But of these

Necklaces

I de

re my

Reader

to peruse a particular Treatise by it self, Entituled,

A Philosophical Essay upon this

Necklace,

&c.

Given

Gratis

at those Places where this Book is given away.

I desire my Reader to give me leave to trouble him him here with an Account of a particular Cure of the GOUT, performed by the

Anti-Arthritick Tincture

mentioned in the New System of the

Gout

and

Rheumatism,

& of some few other Cures, of other Ailments & Disorders.

The following Certificate was sent (entirely unknown to the Author) to

London

inclosed in a Letter to Mr.

Pinckard

Attorney at Law, over the

Water-Stairs

in

Durham-Yard

in the

Strand,

part of which Letter is as follows.

Dear Son,

Histon,

Jan. 8. 1718.

THis is to acquaint you, how I have been attacked, and how wonderfully also I have been relieved by the Tincture for the GOUT, which you sent me last Spring. I desire This Testimony which I here send you, may be Published, and I will Testify the Truth of it to all Persons enquiring of me about it, as I desire also the same of you to do,

&c.

I Robert Needham

the Elder, of

Hilston

near

Monmouth, Gent.

having been above

33

Years afflicted with the GOUT, and many of those Years I had it in my Shoulders, Elbows Hands, Knees and Feet, and this frequently altogether at one and the same time; and thereby obliged for near six Weeks together at a time to lie both Night and Day in my Cloaths, and my Stomach paul'd, and my self reduced to the utmost Weakness. I abovementioned, do for the Benefit of others, hereby Certify that some time ago I was violently seized in both my Feet with the GOUT, expecting the same or worse Treatment I usually had, but then and for some small Time after I continuing to take of the Remedy prepared for this End by the Author of the New System of the GOUT and Rheumatism, having sent for it from

London,

to have in readiness by me; through God Almighty's Blessing, in three Days time it carry'd off all Pain, preserved my Stomach very well, and kept my Body very easie, and in such good Temper, that I could walk about my House, and do now walk abroad without a Cane or Staff, which for most part of

6

Months past I could not do, having frequently Pains in my Ancles and Feet, of which I am now entirely freed.

Witness my Hand

this 30

th of

December 1717.

Robert Needham.

HAving been extream ill with wandring Pains, and broken Constitution, &c. so very bad, and was so weak and worn away, that all my Friends were of Opinion that I was in a Consumption. I applied my self to several Physicians, but to no Effect, till I bought that famous Specifick Elixir for Broken Constitutions, mentioned in the Practical Scheme, which has perfectly Cur'd me, so that I am as well as ever I was in my Life, and publish this, that others labouring under the same

Misfortune

may happily find Relief, as I have done, as I am ready to satisfie any Person that will call upon me at my House, Brace's Coffee-House in Silver-street near Woodstreet.

Nov.

20. 1717.

William Smith.

A Young Lady having had

(from her Infancy)

the Evil so broke out in great Holes in her Body, that for 26 Years she could never go alone or stir out of her Chamber without help, being indeed a most miserable Object, continually weeping whole Days and Nights scarce having one easy Hour, her Life being a perpetual

Torment

to her.

Fifty Guineas

were offered to Dr.

Brigs

in

Bloomsbury,

if he could Cure her: Dr.

Chamberlen,

Dr.

Mead,

Dr.

West,

and several other eminent

Physicians, Mr. Giffard, Mr. Tocket,

and several other Skilful

Surgeons

were all Eye-witnesses of this her Condition, being given over by all as incurable, and indeed she utterly despaired of ever being Cured; at last Dr.

Chamberlen

advised her to take of the

Specifick Remedy:

she only took a few times of it, by which the Holes and Sores, which for 26 Years had drained her

Body

to a perfect Skeleton, are now healed up; she is brisk & well, & can go up & down Stairs, & abroad alone, which she could never do in her Life before, & blesses the happy Day that even Dr

Chamberlen

advis'd her to it. The Lady her self is willing to see & satisfy any

Person

about it, at the

Green Door

in

Water-street,

behind

Arundal-street

in the

Strand.

A Young

Gentleman

3 Years ago, got the Secret Disease in a violent manner, and soon after the

Injury

received applied himself to a certain eminent & noted

Surgeon

(for his Practice in

Venereal Cures

) in

London,

who Salivated him, but did not Cure him. After which he took a Certain Remedy Sold in

Town,

which is a COUNTERFEIT of This

Specifick Remedy,

but as it was a

Counterfeit

of this true Remedy, it proved to no more purpose then his

Salivation,

but he grew worse after it, being Ulcerated, & in a very deplorable

Condition,

insomuch that he was thought by all his

Friends

past Cure. But in

November

1717 by taking of this famous Specifick Remedy, he was perfectly Cured, as I will fully satisfie any

Person,

who will be pleased to enquire for

Mr. Peter Riscorla

at my House the

Green Ball

in

Cow-cross

near

West-Smithfield.

Where for the Good of the Publick, or any that labour under the like

Misfortune,

the

Gentleman

will be seen, and give an Account himself of the truth of this.

HAving had the

Kings-Evil

for 30 Years past to such a degree, that the continual

Running

of the many Sores & Blotches of the Distemper had drained my Body almost to a

Skeleton,

insomuch that I was brought so low that for some Years past I have been entirely confined at home. I used all

Means

the Hospital & several

Physicians

could prescribe, but to no manner of purpose. At last hearing of the many Cures performed by the famous

Specifick Remedy

belonging to the

Practical Scheme,

recommended by the late Dr.

Paul Chamberlen,

I went in a Coach to the

Sign

of the

Anodyne Necklace

for

Childrens

TEETH without

Temple-Bar,

to fetch the Remedy not being able to go a Foot, having been confined at home for several Years, & having taken now of this

Wonderful Remedy

most of my

Blotches, Holes, & Sores,

are finely healed up, & I am so well recovered, that I have gone a foot thro the City, to the

Astonishment

of all who knew me. Of the Truth of which, I will satisfie any

Person

at my House.—

Geo. Wadk

ns,

Barber & Perewig-maker at the Blew Boar in White-Chappel.—

Dec.

17. 1717.

FRom a Distemper of 16 Years standing; the Result of which were

Scabs

&

Nodes

in my Body, as big as

Nuts; Blotches

&

Sores

from Head to Foot, & some of them in my Legs, large enough to lay an Egg in; my Body so weak, & my Flesh so rotten, that upon my stretching it, it would rend asunder, as tho cut with a

Knife.

I

William Forbush,

Cap-maker over against

Queen Elizabeth's-Head

in

Church-Lane,

near

White-chappel,

am now relieved & made whole by God Almighty's

Blessing

on the

Specifick Remedy & Elixir,

mention'd the

Practical Scheme

of the

Secret Disease

&

Broken Constitutions.

The

Amazement

of all my

Friends

at my Cure, when declared

Incurable

by many

Physicians,

will, no doubt, raise the Curiosity of several to see me, to whom I shall, with incredible Pleasure, declare the Fact more at large, with many surprizing Particulars.

April

3. 1718.

William Forbush.

TO all

Persons

afflicted & LAID UP with the GOUT I hereby testifie that having had a confirmed GOUT these 9 Years past to such a Degree that I was an entire Cripple, & not able to go without

Crutches,

having lost almost the total use of my Limbs by it. I took all

things

I could hear of, but to no purpose, till I took of that most excellent

Anti-Arthritick Remedy

belonging to the

New System

of the

Gout & Rheumatism,

by which I am to a

Miracle

recovered, cured, & restored to the perfect use of my Limbs, being as able to go without my

Crutches

as ever I could in my Life, which before I happily took of this Remedy, I could never do. Of the Truth of which I will satisfie any

Person.—Tho. Wiggins, Printer

at the

Black Bull

in

Oster-Laue,

near

West-Smithfield.

Dec. 17. 1717.

I

James Davis,

at his

Majesty's Printing-House in Black-Fryars,

was about 7

Years

ago seized with a

violent Fever,

which

settling

first in my Feet, & then

flying

into my Head, & all over my Body,

attended

with a prodigious

Swelling & Inflammation,

made me

uncapable

of

getting

out of my

Bed

for several

Months,

& so has

continued

ever since,

excepting

some small

Intervals.

I had the Advice of several

eminent Physicians & Surgeons,

as Dr

Cade,

Dr

Mills,

Dr

Levet,

& others, who were all

Eye-witnesses

of this my

unhappy Condition,

& who by the various

Removings

of my Distemper, knew not what to call it, yet ordered me

Medicines,

but to no purpose: About 3 Years ago I went to St.

Bartholomew

's Hospital, & was an

Out-Patient

several

Months,

where the

Physicians

told me it was a

violent

GOUT, but cou'd have no Ease. Having thus had the Advice of the

Learned

without Success, I began to hearken to every Bodies

Instructions, sending

for &

taking

all the

Medicines

I could hear of. And as the

Expence

was large, so was their

Number

I think innumerable, which only added to my

Misfortune,

not hearing of any

Person

so

violently

afflicted as my self. Being in this miserable

Condition,

& given over by all as

Incurable,

the GOUT still increasing so

violently,

that my

Joints

became so KNOTTED, that I was rendred quite unable to follow my

Business,

& destitute of all Relief; some Time ago, I was recommended by a

Gentleman

to the

Anti-Arthritick Tincture

mentioned in a New System of the Gout & Rheumatism given away

Gratis,

&c. I had not taken above a Doses before I found a great

Alteration.

The GOUT which was then in my Stomach, abated, & by some continuance of the Remedy I still grew sensibly better every Day; so that I am now free from all

Pain & Stiffness

in my

Joints,

& as well in

Health & Strength

as ever I was in my Life. This

Benefit

I have received by

God's Blessing,

& that inestimable Remedy being so very great I desire this may be published for the Good of others. The

Truth

of which I am ready to testify, living in

Printing-House-Street

in

Black-Fryars.

Octob. 6. 1717.

James Davis.

I could reckon up great numbers more of other such undeniable Testimonies of Cures by these Remedies, on Persons even given over by all others: But having trespassed on my Readers Patience too long already, I'll make an end, desiring Him to peruse the several News Papers of these

5

years last past wherein he will find great numbers of Authentick

Certificates

of surprising Cures wrought by them. For to recite the particular Cases of every one that has happily experienced the good effects of this

Specifick Remedy

&

Elixir,

only since

March 1713,

that the

1st Edition

of this Book was published, wou'd swell this little Treatise far beyond my present design: Therefore I'll leave every one to the perusal of the

News Papers,

& then to be informed of the Persons themselves as to their Success. All which are as sufficient as even

10000

more wou'd be to convince any Person of the great virtue & efficacy of these Remedies. Persons indeed may go from place to place to seek a Cure, but when they have sought and tried all they can, they will scarce find a Better nor Surer then by these Remedies, as any

Person who trys them will to their Comfort find.

ADVERTISEMENT. Given Gratis the Four following Books,

viz.

1st. THE 25th Edition in English and French (and also Abridged in most other

European

Languages) Dedicated to Dr.

Chamberlen,

of

The Practical Scheme

of Secret Injuries and Broken Constitutions, by Fast Living. Former ill Cures, Salivations, and Mercury. Published ever since

March

1713.

2ly. The New System of the GOUT and

Rheumatism,

drawn from Reason, Anatomical Observations, and Experience.

3ly. A Rational Account of the true Seat, Cause, Nature, and Cure of

Gleets,

and other such WEAKNESSES, usually attending Persons after former Cures, Self-abuses,

&c.

4thly. The Philosophical Essay, Dedicated to the Royal Society upon the Celebrated Anodyne NECK LACE, Recommended by the late Dr.

Paul Chamberlen

for Children's TEETH,

&c.

Pr. 5

s.

— Published by reason of the great increase of late Years in the Bills of Mortality, by which it appears that in and about

London

(the same may be said of

Paris,

or any other great City) generally speaking near upon 12000 Children have Yearly died of their Teeth, and Convulsions and Fevers caused thereby, before this Admirable Physical Necklace was published in the World. Besides the great Numbers of Women that are daily lost in Child-bed: And the Multitudes of Persons that die of Distempers of the Head. — Whereas since this Necklace has been published, the Bills of Mortality have so decreased as to be less than ever they have been known to be before: More Children dying of their Teeth, then of all other Distempers put together whatsoever. — So that indeed no Family ought to be without one of these NECKLACES: for the great Numbers of Children who of late Years have Worn it, have not only Bred, and Cut their Teeth easily, and all the while thrived extremely, but even Multitudes have been retrieved by it from the Jaws of Death in a Nights time, after all hopes were past to the Astonishment of all People: The Property of this most Excellent

Necklace

being to take off Fevers, Fits, Convulsions, Loosnesses, &c. beyond Expectation.

These 4 Books (all bSInce what Philosophers say of Naturalists and Physicians, that

Ubi Physicus definit, ibi Medicus incipit;

may be applied in another Sense to this present Treatise, it being designed

THERE

to

Begin, WHERE

Venereal Cures generally

End:

I shall not here trouble my Readers with any Account at all of the Venereal or

Secret Disease,

but refer them to the Three and Twentieth Edition of the

Practical Scheme

of that Distemper, and Broken Constitutions; to be had Gratis where this Book is given away: wherein is given an Account of a certain

Specifick Remedy

for that Disease, which of late Years has cured; with great Privacy, Certainty and Expedition great Numbers of Persons, to their entire Satisfaction, from the slightest Infection, to very bad Cases indeed, without Fluxing, Astringents, and other such pernicious and dangerous Methods of Cure. For which Reason to say any thing on that Matter wou'd be only

Crambe repetita,

and by consequence rather Tiresome than acceptable to 'em: My present Design therefore is to

Continue

here, and not to

Repeat

that Subject, by presenting my Readers with a small Discourse which shall

Commence,

and take its

Beginning,

where Treatises on the Secret Disease, and Veneral Cures usually

End.

So that this Book is not designed for Persons who have any Degree or Stage of the Secret Disease

Actually

upon them, till after they are esteem'd Cured, and

have taken Leave

of their Physician: And

THEN

'tis, that I address this present Work to them: In which to proceed in Order and Method I must take notice to my Reader, that

A

GLEET

(to apply here the Language of Dr.

Keil

in another Sense, in the Preface to his Treatise of Anim

Secretion) being a Disorder of one particular Part of the Animal Oeconomy, whatever adds any new Light to the Knowledge of

This,

must necessarily clear the Discovery of the Cause, Seat, and Nature of

That,

and by consequence establish its Cure upon a surer Foundation than hitherto has been done, by enabling us to make a truer, and more certain Judgment of the Disorder. Since therefore the Animal Body is now known to be a pure Machine, and many of its Motions and Actions are demonstrated to be the necessary Consequences of its Structure, it as necessarily follows that the Symptoms of Diseases in general, and of

GLEETS

in particular are likewise the necessary Consequences of the Alteration of the Structures of certain particular Parts of this Oeconomy. Insomuch that a

Gleet

(as hereafter will clearly be shewed) as necessarily follows from a Change of this Oeconomy and Structure of the Part which is its proper Seat, as perfect Health without any Disorder of a

Gleet

at all, is the consequence of the perfect Oeconomy of the Part before any such

Change

happened.

If a

Pendulum

of such a Length makes a

Clock

to go ex¦actly true; does not the Alteration of this

Pendulum

as necessa¦rily cause it to go too fast or too slow? and when all the

Movement

is known to be in good Order, does not the quick or slow

Motion

of the

Clock,

as necessarily shew the Fault of the

Pendulum?

It is the same thing in that

Part of the Animal Body,

which is the

Seat of a Gleet:

For the same

Reasonings

hold good,

caeteris paribus

in all Sorts of

Machines,

whose

Motions

are the necessary

Consequences

of their

Structures.

Now suppose a Person to be entirely ignorant of the

Structure

of a

Clock

or

Watch;

it is impossible he should ever be able to put it in right Order, tho' he had never so exact a

History

of its irregular

Motions.

Tis on this Account that the

Ancients

not acquainted with our

Modern Anatomical Discoveries;

were wholy ignorant of the true

SEAT

of the

Infirmity

we here treat of; the

Know-

of which is the only thing capable of informing our

Judgment

as to the

Cause

and

Cure

of it. This so puzled them in explicating it's

Nature

and

Origin;

that some placed it in one thing, and some in another, but None of them in the right; for which reason it was, that the generality of them missing of its Cure, it began to be reputed an

Infirmity

and

Weakness

truly not much less the

Opprobrium Medicorum,

then the

Gout,

and on this Account it is, that a

Gleet

(especially if of any date) having eluded the Skill of very able

Physicians,

has been by the greatest part of them pronounced incurable; which Reproach is not at all to be wondered at, since the

Seat

and

Nature

of it was so little understood, and therefore might still have remained so, had it not been for those most excellent Discoveries of late made by that great and ingenious Anatomist Mr.

Cowper,

whose nice Observations of the inward Frame and Structure of That particular Part where a

Gleet

is situated, has given more Light and Information in this our present Question, than all the Writings of the Ancients put together (the best of which upon this Subject were only the Effect of a happy Guess, and nothing at all of Certainty or Demonstration) ever did before. If therefore the Anatomical World, in these latter Years, had not been indefatigable in the Pursuit of farther Discoveries, we might have set down to this Day by the glimmering Lights of the old Anatomists, and satisfy our selves with their Chance Guesses as well in this as many other Matters. So that to this Ignorance of the true Seat of the Disorder, has seen all along owing the frequent want of Success in its Cure. For how can any Person be supposed to form a true Method of Cure for any Ailment or Infirmity, the Seat (and by Consequence the Nature and Cause) of which he is not first rightly apprised of?

As to the Motive of publishing this present Treatise, (which I shall endeavour to perform with as much Circumspection and Wariness, as the Nicety of the Subject will possibly admit of; and therefore, throughout the whole, I shall take care not to sully the Chastest Imagination, or give any the least Offence to the most Modest of Mankind.) 'tis Twofold:

1st. The great Uneasiness (notwithstanding a daily Change of Linnen) which a great many Gentlemen and others oftentimes for many Years labour under, by reason of this Infirmity continually upon them, which tho' for the present may give no other Trouble, than as it is opposite to Cleanliness, being no pleasant Companion at all to a Clean Neat Person, yet will in time impair and break the very best of Constitutions, and bring on a Consumption, as hereafter will clearly be shewed.

2ly The great Inconvenience Persons afflicted with

Gleets,

and other such Weaknesses, frequently labour under, from the great Quantities of Physick exhibited to them for their Cure, which even it self is a Disease, and oftentimes serves for little else than breaking a sound Constitution, or making a bad one worse.

In Order therefore to explicate more clearly the true Cause and Nature of

Gleets

and other such Weaknesses; and thereby be led into the truest and most rational Method of their Cure, it will first of all be absolutely necessary to examine a little the Anatomy of That particular Part, where this Weakness is situated. As 1st, Its inward Structure and Make. 2ly. What Alterations this its Structure is subject to, and capable of. 3ly. What Effects such Alterations are likely to produce. And lastly, Whether or no these Effects are such as Gentlemen and others find in themselves, who have the Unhappiness of a

Gleet,

and other such Weaknesses upon them.

CHAP. I.

Some few Anatomical Observations necessary to be taken Notice of, in order to a right Knowledge of the true Cause, Seat, and Nature of

Gleets,

and other such Weaknesses.

BY a GLEET is understood an

Involuntary

and almost constant Efflux or

Dripping

away of Matter from a Human Body, and that in much the same Quantity, whether the Person be asleep or awake. From which Definition it naturally offers it self to our Consideration, to enquire into the Cause of this Efflux of Matter, and how it happens that such a Quantity of Matter should thus Involuntarily come away. Which Difficulty will easily be remov'd by examining the inward Anatomical Structure of the Part where this Weakness is situated, which is the only thing that can give Light to our present Question: And then to examin if there is naturally any Liquor separated in that Part, capable of becoming the Matter of that Epidemical Weakness and common Companion of Mankind, usually called a GLEET.

It is observable by Anatomy, that in the Nervo-Spongious Substance of the Urethra or Urinary Passage, there are several Glandulous Openings, first discovered by that great Anatomist Mr.

Cowper,

which serve as so many excretory Ducts or Channels designed by Naure constantly to convey and furnish a certain viscid, clammy, Mucous kind of Liquor or Moisture into the Urinary Passage; The Use of which Liquor is to lubricate and besmear, by its Viscidity, the Pipe or Passage, and thereby to preserve and defend it from being fretted and corroded by the sharp Salts of the Urine which is daily passing thro' it, and which, without this defensative Liquor, would certainly be Fretted, and become Raw, and by consequence Sore, as

any

Fleshy Part wou'd be, that should have such a salt sharp acrimonious fretting Liquor as Urine so often passing on it, unless it were preserved by some such proper Defensative, as the continual anointing or besmearing it with some such smooth, soft, balsamick, unctious Substance would be: Insomuch that were it not for this unctious Liquor or Moisture that Nature is continually supplying the Urinary Passage with, by means of those Glandulous Openings abovementioned, to keep it thus moist, it would in a little time become so fretted and Raw, by the Sharpness of the Urine daily passing thro' it, that

All Mankind wou'd have a perpetual Scalding and Heat of Urine;

by which I do not mean, that the Urine in it self would be Hotter, in that Supposition, than it is now, but that the Passage being raw and sore for want of that defensative slimy Moisture, which now protects it, it wou'd be fretted by the Saltness of the Urine, and so wou'd smart, and seem as it were to Burn and Scald, whenever the Urine passed thro' it: Just as any other Raw Sore Place divested of its Scarf-Skin, wou'd smart and seem as it were to burn if one shou'd throw Urine, or Salt Water upon it.

This being thus establish'd from the nice Anatomical Inspection of the Urethra, we are now to consider what Changes and Alterations these Glandulous Openings in the Passage, are subject to, and capable of: And then whether or no such Changes can furnish us with such a large Supply of Matter as daily is experienced

Involuntarily

to Drip away from Persons who have that Weakness commonly called a

Gleet

upon them. So that a thorough Enquiry into this Matter will lead us directly into an exact Knowledge of the true Seat, Cause, and Nature of

Gleets,

without being put upon any Necessity of having Recourse to any other Part, that in reality has no manner of Claim to fall under our present Consideration: As for Example, the

Prostatae,

or Seminal Vessels, which tho' vulgarly esteem'd to furnish the Matter of a

Gleet,

yet have no Share at all in it; and for this Reason it is, that the Vulgar commonly, tho' very ignorantly and improperly call a

Gleet

a

Gonorrhaea,

which are widely different, as hereafter will appear; the true and only Seat of a Gleet, being the Urethra, or Urinary Passage, as by and by will clearly be made appear.

Our next Endeavour therefore must be to examine how the

Urethra

only and the Glandulous Openings abovementioned which it contains, are able to furnish so great a quantity of Matter, as is observed to be

involuntarily

discharged in the course of a

Gleet.

In order to which we must consider, That Nature designing these Glands in the Urethra constantly to furnish and supply a certain Moisture to the whole Pipe or Passage, which may defend it from being fretted by the sharp Urine so frequently passing through it, as has been already shewed, the Orifices or Mouths of these Glands in entire healthy, sound, hail Persons are in some measure, (if I may use the Comparison

servata

always

debitâ proportione

) like the Sphincter Muscles of the

Anus,

Bladder, &c. I mean by this, that the openings of these Glands, notwithstanding their being so very small, have a certain Springiness and Elasticity proportionable to their Bigness and Size, belong ing to them, by which they are endowed with a certain power of straitning, contracting and drawing themselves, togather more or less upon every Emission of that Moisture Nature designs them to supply the Urethra with: just as the Sphincter Muscle of the Bladder is endowed with a Power of retaining, holding, and keeping in the Urine. And by this means it is, that just so much and no more of this Moisture is thrown out of these Glands into the Urethra, than is just necessary for the Lubrication and Moistening of it, preparatively for the passage of the Urine. Nor is this at at all to be questioned,

viz.

That the Orifices and Mouths of these small minute Glands in the passage, have every one of them a proper power of opening and contracting themselves, proportionable to their bigness and size, not unlike, as I just now said, to the Sphincter Muscles in other Parts of the Body, since we see that even a small Mite, taken for Example out of corrupted Cheese, and which is scarce discernable by the naked Eye, yet by the help of a good Microscope, it appears to be an Animal as compleatly furnished with all necessary Parts, as other Animals whose size makes them the conspicuous Objects of our unassisted Sight So that as by reason of the strength and vigour of the Sphincter Muscles, for Example of the Bladder; the Neck and Mouth of it is endowed with a power of straitening, contracting and closing it self together after every Emission of Urine, every one experiences in themselves a power of either holding or letting go their Water: So, much in the same manner, by reason of the strength and vigour of the Orifices of these Glandules, they are endowed with not an unlike power of straitening, contracting, and drawing themselves together (which I desire my Reader always to suppose to be in a degree proportionable still to their Bigness) after every Emission of the mucous slimy Liquor they contain: Which strength being once lost, the power also of retaining and keeping in this Liquor is also lost with it. The State then and Condition of these Glandulous openings (or as Dr.

Drake

calls them

Mucous Glands

) from their thus furnishing and supplying the Passage with this Mucous Liqor,) being thus consider'd in healthy Persons. Our next Enquiry must be into the state of these Mucous Glands in Persons afflicted with a

Gleet.

Which state we shall soon be apprised of by considering that when a Person has been under Cure for the Secret Disease, the fatigue of Antivenereal Medicines, especially if ill administred, by a frequent pressure upon, and irritation of these Glands, has rendred them flaccid, limber, weak, and loose, which before were healthy, vigorous, springy and strong. The truth of these Assertions (abstracting from the reasonableness they carry along with them) will appear by giving my Reader an Account of the state of these Glands as they have been observed in some Anatomical Dissections made of that particular part where all

Gleets

are seated, I mean the Urethra or Urinary Passage.

That great Anatomist Mr.

Cowper

tells us, that to inform himself the better in this Point, he Dissected the Urinary Passage of several Criminals who had been Executed: Some of which were healthy found Persons: The others were Executed with

Gleets

upon them. In the healthy sound Persons, he found these Glandulous openings to be so firm, as to have had a perfect Elasticity, or Springiness: Insomuch that upon pressing them, he says, they discharged a certain quantity of a transparent viscous Liquor, such as it shews it self, and ought to be

in statu sano;

whereas if these Glands had not had such a firmness and strength, in which consisted their power of retaining or letting go the viscid clammy Liquor they contain; this Liquor would have slipped out of them without any Pressure at all: And by consequence, its not owzing out, but upon such a pressure, was an evident mark of their springyness and strength. He also observed the whole Urethra to be besmeared and lined with a Liquor of a viscous clammy contexture, which he supposed to have been discharged from these

Glandulae Mucosae,

in order to lubricate the Passage.

But in the Urethra of Criminals Executed with a

Gleet

actually upon them, and which they had had many Years, the Case was quite different. He observed the Mucous Glands to be limber, flaccid, and loose, very much stretched and dilated: And their Orifices by the help of a nice Microscope to be visibly open, and thereby totally destitute of their Strength and Vigour, from whence he judiciously concluded, that they were also entirely deprived of their retentive Faculty and Springyness, having no power left of contracting themselves upon any emission of that mucous clammy Liquor they contain, as those other Glands could do in the Criminals that were Executed in perfect Health. After this he examined in the Executed Criminals that were thus dissected, the state of the

Prostatae,

the

Vesiculae Seminales

and the

Parastatae,

all which he found to be as perfectly sound and entire, as in any healthy Person he ever dissected in his life; which is a convincing Proof, that neither the

Prostatae, Vesiculae Seminales

nor the

Parastatae

have any the least share at all in the Seat or Cause of a

Gleet.

This will appear still more clear, by an Example from Persons who have a

Diabetes

upon them: For from the loss of the Springiness and Tone of the Sphincter Muscle of the Bladder; the Neck and Mouth of it is so weakened and relaxed, as to be deprived of its retentive Faculty, through a want of that power of contracting and drawing it self together after any Emission of Urine which healthy Persons experience in themselves: from whence it follows, that the Urine comes away involuntarily from them, being altogether deprived of both that Expulsive, as well as Retentive power which healthy Persons have.

These Observations being thus premised, and which are fully sufficient to convince any one whose Eyes are not shut against demonstration, that what the Ancients generally thought as to the Cure of Gleets was built upon a very wrong Foundation:

viz.

An erroneous Notion of its Cause and Seat. We must now enquire how it happens that this change of state of these Mucous Glands,

viz.

from an Elastick, Springy, and strong state, to a limber, loose, and flaccid one can produce and be the Cause of that quantity of Matter which continually drips and comes away in the course a

Gleet:

Or in other Terms, (but the meaning is still the same) whether or no the productive cause of a

Gleet

i. e. the Relaxation of the Orifices of the mucous Glands in the Urethra can so far encrease the quantity of Liquor naturally produced by these Glands, as to be such as is daily experienced by Gentlemen and others who have this Infirmity upon them.

CHAP. II.

How the Weakness and flaccid State abovementioned of the Mucous Glands, and their Orifices or Mouths in the Urethra, are the true Cause of

Glects,

THE Springiness and retentive Faculty of the Mucous Glands in the Urethra of healthy sound Persons who are supposed never to have had the Secret Disease upon them consisting in their Strength and Power of either disating or contracting their Orifices or

Ostiola,

(as in the foregoing Chapter has been shewed) by which Power of retaining or letting out the viscous Liquor they contain, they discharge just so much and no more of it, than is just necessary for the lubrication and besmearing of the Passage: it must of Necessity follow, that when these Glands are, by the long Use of Medicines, or other means, as a long Continuance of the Disease

&c.

so weakened as to become limber, flaccid, flabby, and loose, they must also be deprived of this retentive Power or Faculty. Insomuch that altho' these Glands in healthy sound Persons, who never had the Misfortune of the

Secret Disease,

are naturally so Springy and Strong as to discharge and let out into the Urethra, just so much and no more of the slimy Liquor designed by Nature to besmear, and as it were cover over the whole Tube or Passage, and there by defend it from the Sharpness of the Urine: Yet in most Persons who have been ever cured of the Secret Disease, the Case is generally speaking not so. For the Orifices or

Ostiola

of these Glands in these

Cured

Persons, are so weakened and relaxed by the Fatigue of the Disease, and its Cure, as to be in a manner always open, by which means the Mucous Liquor they contain, is continually slipping out of them into the Urethra; the Openings of these Glands not having Springiness, Elasticity, nor Strength left to contract themselves, and thereby to keep it in as formerly; by which means the contained Liquor involuntarily and continually comes out into the Urethra, and by successive Quantities of it pushing one after another drips and owzes away

Involuntarily

from the Body.

The Difficulty then that now remains is to conceive how such very small Glands and their Orifices can furnish such a Quantity of Matter, as is daily experienced to flow away in some

Gleets,

and how the Mucous Liquor which is naturally discharged out of these Glands into the Urethra in healthy Persons, should be increased to such a degree as 'tis in Persons who have a

Gleet.

This Difficulty will easily be removed to any Person who will but allow that the Mucous Glands in the Urethra, altho' so very small in themselves as to be invisible to the Naked Eye, unless assisted by the Help of a Microscope, yet they may naturally secerne such a Quantity of Fluid in any determinate Time, as is fully sufficient to become the Matter of (that common Accident now adays) a

Gleet.

To illustrate this Matter, I hope it will be allowed that these Mucous Glands, as little as they are, may naturally discharge into the Urethra for its Lubrication, as much of this Liquor in one Minute as may weigh at least one Quarter of a Grain: This in an Hour will be 15 Grains, or a Quarter of a Dram: In 24 Hours, or a natural Day, it will amount to 6 Drams, which is 3 Quarters of an Ounce; a Quantity sufficient in all reason to give that Uneasiness to the Person, as well as Wetness to the Linnen, which is usually experienced by those under the uncomfortable Circumstances of a

Gleet:

And which is more than either the

Vesiculae Seminales

or the

Prostatae

can continue to furnish in any considerable Space of Time, without infinite more Detriment to the Body, than Persons afflicted with

Gleets

usually experience. Hence it is evident that the Glands the Urethra are full as capable of being the Springs that supply the Liquor that Drips away in a

Gleet,

as the

Prosta¦tae,

or any other pretended Part situated at a Distance.

If you ask, how these Glands in the Urethra can discharge so great a Quantity of Fluid in the time of a

Gleet,

above what they do in their natural State. I answer, that it is manifest from the Animal OEconomy, that if any Gland or excretory Duct be Weakened, and deprived of its retentive Faculty, the Quantity of Liquor that it discharges, by Reason of that Weakness, is considerably augmented in Proportion to the greater or less Degrce of Weakness with which these Glands or Ducts are affected: Just as a little Powder of

Cantharides

applied any where, by breaking thro' the Texture of the Cuticular Scarf-Skin, does so weaken the Glands as soon to excite a Blister, and by it thus weakning the Glands, makes them discharge a Quantity of Matter immensly greater than what wou'd naturally flow away from that Part by insensible Perspiration only. Much in the same Manner the Orifices of these Glands being weakened and relaxed, have thereby lost their retentive Faculty, and therefore cannot hold in the Liquor they contain, but lets more of it slip away than the mere Lubrication of the Urethra requires, and therefore it continually is discharging it self by that Dripping, which is commonly called a

Gleet.

Hence all the Difficulties about a

Gleet

are overcome in a few Words; Its Symptoms become obvious upon a small Principle so clear in Anatomy, as to carry not only Evidence along with it, but also more clearly explicates all the Symptoms and Effects of it, than hitherto is observed to have been done.

But besides a

Gleet

from the abovementioned Causes it frequently happens, that some Persons after even a safe and sure Cure of the Secret Disease, especially where the Infection has been confiderable, have for a long Time after been vexed with the Appearance of a little owzing of a slimy transparent Substance not so much as the Quantity of a Drop at a Time; which upon their Linnen looks sometimes of no ill Colour, tho' also sometimes it will give it a yellowish Tinge no bigger perhaps than a great Pin's Head, which frequently alarms 'em, they thinking some Infection lies still lurking, when the Cause in reality has been over-weakness, and overheating of the Parts

&c.

and which, upon endeavouring to carry off by Purging, has rather increased, by relaxing the Vessels, and weakning their Springiness and and Tone: Persons with such

Gleets

as these, have generally little Threads, and Skins, or such like, swimming in Variety of Figures about their Urine, and the Orifice of the Urinary Passage is frequently gumm'd up therewith. These

Gleets

usuall attend hot sanguine Constitutions, and in Time brings on pains and Weakness in the Loins, and has at last terminated in incureable Consumptions, whereas if some strengthning Medicines peculiarly adapted to those Parts, had but at first been judiciously applied, not only the Disorder it self might have been timely cured, but also these ill Consequences happily prevented. By which Medicines I understand such as are appropriated to restore the injured Parts to a State of Soundness, as well as to preserve them so. Thus if the Tone of the Parts be but reestablished by Proper Restorative Medicines, their acquired Strength will enable them to resist the Ingress of new Supplies of peccant Matter, and turn them off to be discharged another way. Thus the Cure is attained without Violence, Pain, or Inconvenience to the Patient: and in this Sense it is (generally speaking) to be understood, that sometimes a

Gleet

will remain after the best of Cures.

CHAP. III.

Of Self Abuses in particular, and how they are the Causes of

Gleets,

Simple Gonorrhaeas, and other dreadful Effects.

THE Missortune I here mean is that which the Holy Scriptures mention,

Gen.

c. 38. v. 10, of

Onan,

Whose Name only will put my Reader at once in mind, not only of the Sin, but also of the terrible Punishment, which Almighty God instantly and out of hand inflicted upon him, expressed in these Words,

And therefore the Lord Cut him off, because he had done a Detestable Thing. Ideo percussit eum Dominus quod rem

DETESTABILEM

faceret,

says the Vulgate Edition. And yet notwithstanding so very severe an Expression of the Scripture, this Unhappy Misfortune is so frequent, and crying an Offence, especially amongst the more Flourishing Part of Man kind, that there is a great deal of Reason to imagin that many Delinquents would never have been such, if they had but been throughly apprised of the Heinousness of the Crime, and the very sad Consequences to the Body, as well as the Soul, which follow from it; And which indeed is the Motive that has induced me to the writing of this Chapter.

But as it is very difficult to write on a Subject of so nice a Nature as this is, within the reach of the meanest Capacities, without making some Encroachment upon the Rules and Bounds of Decency, and the Risque of giving some Offence, notwithstanding it may proceed from a Design to promote Virtue, and discourage Vice: I shall therefore rather choose to express my self so as to be less intelligible to some, by leaving several Things to my Readers private Consideration, than by an overfreedom of Expression, to run the hazard of putting that into any chast Mind, which every Person ought with the utmost Christian Courage and Care to stifle and destroy. Subjects of this Nature being as Dr.

Baynard

calls it,

Res faeda dictu,

and the Scripture,

a detestable Thing,

and what (if mere Necessity did not urge) St.

Paul

forbids even to be so much as NAM'D amongst Christians,

Nec nominetur in vobis:

For which reason if ever Caution, Care, and Circumspection is necessary in the Treating of any Moral Subject in the World, 'tis most certainly in this: Wherein St.

Paul

thought he could express the Enormity of the Crime by no Word more Emphatical and Expressive, than by imposing a

perpetual Silence

of it amongst those Persons, whose not only Name, but Life and Conversation, spoke them to be Christians; for which Reason it was, that an Ancient Author thought he could give no better a Mark to distinguish between Christians and Heathens, who being totally absorpt, drown'd, and given up to a Reprobate Sense, Uncleanness, and their own Passions, they dishonour'd their own Bodies, (to use the Expression of the Scripture) then the Purity of Life and Conversation in the Former, and not in their outward Name and Profession only; and therefore says he, We Christians

Non magn

Loquimur, sed

VIVIMUS.

I doubt not but those Persons whose guilty Conscience shall tell them that they are concerned in this present Chapter, will understand the Meaning of it, without much Explication: And 'tis to them I recommend it, with my hearty Desire of their most serious Consideration of what is contained in it: And as for those whom it no way concerns, and by consequence who understand it not (O happy Ignorance!) I cougratulate them their unspotted Innocence,

Rara Avis in terris,!

I'll endeavour to say nothing which shall endanger their loosing, but rather confirm their happy keeping it.

To proceed therefore in our Subject: By this Doctrine is excluded every even the least Impure and Immodest Action as unlawful, and to be banished the Conversation of Christians, whose Characteristick Mark ought to be Modesty, as being thereby the very

T

s of the Holy Chost;

than which Consideration St.

Paul

thought he could produce no one more powerful, to disswade Christians from all manner of Uncleanness whatsoever. The Apostles Argument is this: That if Material Temples, dedicated only to the external Worship of Almighty God, are in no wise to be prosaned; much less Spiritual ones, such as our Bodies are, in which the Spirit of Almighty God inhabits. This Reflection of St.

Paul,

gives us clearly to understand, that whenever we give our selves over to Uncleanness, our Bodies are no more the Temples of the Holy Ghost: For which Reason he tells us expressly, that not being our own, by consequence we are not at our own Disposal, being

Bought with a great Price,

and ought therefore to be so far from Abusing and defiling our selves, that we ought to glorify God in even our BODIES, which are God's, as well as our Spirits, all which is utterly destroyed by those Misfortunes this Chapter here treats of.

My Reader may therefore take this for a general Rule, that a Christian is bound to shun whatever Sensualizes the Soul, and tends only to gratify unlawful (i. e. out of a Conjugal State) Passions, it being always unlawful out of that State, to draw any immodest Pleasure from our own Bodies, on any Pretence whatsoever.

To condemn therefore, and disswade against a Sin, so very displeasing to Almighty God: So detrimental to the Common-Wealth: And so highly injurious to our selves, requires no Arguments which are not entirely agreeable to Truth, and can stand the Test of the strictest Reason.

First,

Its being a very great Offence against Almighty God, sufficiently appears, in that there is not a Place in Holy Writ, where Sins of Uncleanness are condemned, but that Unhappy One this Chapter treats of, is amongst others hinted at, with a Conclusion, that

Nothing Impure, nor who acts any such Abominable Things, shall ever inherit the Kingdom of God:

but are to

have a Part in the Lake that burns with Fire and Brimstone:

And altho 'tis a Saying no less true than Terrible, of an Ancient Author, that Sinners are always

Sure

of their Sin, and

Uncertain

of their Pardon; yet from what has hitherto been said, all Persons herein concerned ought seriously to betake themselves to true Repentance, and that betimes too, lest by Neglect in the End they misfortunately find themselves in the Circumstances of

Antiochus,

of whom it is related, that

Orabat Scel

sius Dominum, a quo non esset misericordiam consecuturus.

The Case of too many delay'd ('till on a Death-Bed) Repentance. Nor ought the Example of the Good Theif's late Repentance, to embolden any Delay. Because (as an Ancient Author very well says,) that the Scripture furnishes us with this Example, that we may not

Despair:

But it is the only one, that we may not

Presume.

The best Mark therefore of a true and sincere Repentance, is to leave off Sinning betimes, and returning no more to it after a Conversion:

Noli amp

us pec care, ne aliquid tib

deterius contingat.

2ly, The Detriment which this Misfortune brings to a Common-Wealth in general, no less appears from so many noble Families being frequently extinct for want of Heirs, which, were it to be trac'd up to its true Origin, is owing to nothing else but the Misfortune we here treat of, by which the Strength of Youth has been so profusely squandred away, that very few can afterwards much boast of the Fruits of a Married State. But suppose such Persons have Children, which happens not often, they are most commonly Weak; Puny, Little Things, that either die soon, or if they happen by Chance and mere Force more of Physick than the Kitchen, to grow up, they become Tender Sickly Persons, always ailing and complaining of one Malady or another.

What a Pleasure is it to see, says an Ancient Author, a Man at the Age of Fourscore, with a Wife near the same Antiquity, both blessed with healthy hail Constitutions, fresh wholesome Looks, sound Minds, and perfect Senses, (

Mens Sana in Corpore sano,

as

Juvenal

says) with active, strait, upright Limbs, walking without the adventitious Support of either Stick or Staff, and chearful Tempers, residing over a healthful numerous Progeny perhaps to the 3d. or 4th Generation; and all these Blessings owing under Almighty God to the Temperance and Continence of their Youths: And now willing in a good Old Age, to resign their Breath in Peace.

Et factus est in Pace locus ejus.

— When if we do but turn our Eyes upon Licentious Livers, we shall find them surrounded with a whole Legion and Complication of Diseases: Lean Jaws, hagged pale livid Looks, hollow Eyes sunk into their Heads, feeble Hams, Legs without Calves, limping and hobling with a Stick, Gouty unactive Limbs, continually complaining of Weaknesses and Pains in the Small of their Backs; in fine, worn and wasted away in the Prime of their Years by such self-Defilements: And in their latter Years, by Gleets, Gonorrhaeas and Consumptions, their Spirits sunk, Body wasted, Strength decayed, still shifting about for change of Air; trying all the Baths in Christendom; always consulting one Physician or another, and yet after all, upon the least Rigour of any Season, or any other small Accident, to give up their sinful (and 'tis well if not almost despairing) Breath; and all this from having Enervated, Exhausted, Consumed, and Worn out their Bodies and Strength with the SINS OF THEIR YOUTHS, and by which Means they are now become a Jest to others, and oftentimes thought (tho' how unjustly, plainly appears to any one that only confiders the unhappy Conduct of their flourishing Youthful Days) the Reproach of Physitians, and a Torment to themselves; and all these

ain of Disorders the sole Effect of their Abusing

emselves in their Youths. What Pangs and Tortures have such Persons in reflecting on the past Actions of their Lives, who hardly come at half the Age they might reasonably have expected to arrive at, find themselves enervated, exhausted, consumed, and WORN OUT by the SINS OF THEIR YOUTHS? What a dismal Thing is it for a Person thus to to see that they are old, and have destroyed themselves oftentimes before they are even 30 Years of Age? Insomuch that no Sin draws its Slaves and Votaries into a greater Abyss of Evils and Ruin than this.

As to the Injuries Persons do themselves by this miserable Practice, they are no less evident, since of such Persons who have these Abominarions in their Youth prostrated and enervated their Strength, very few ever come to that Strength and Robustness, which otherwise they would have arrived at, befides Stranguries, Gleets, Gonorrhaeas, and other such Weaknesses, far more difficult to be Cured than those Contracted from either the Secret Disease or its Cure: So that we'll suppose 2 Persons to be afflicted with Gleets: One of these Gleets is purely the Effect of the Secret Disease and its Cure, in a Person whom we will suppose never to have been in all their Life Guilty of the Misfortune this Chapter treats of. The other Gleet is not only the Effect of the Secret Disease and its Cure, but also is on a Person whom we'll suppose to be concerned in this Chapter: This last Gleet is much harder to Cope with and Cure, than the Former: The Reason of this will be obvious to every Person who does but consider, that such detestable Actions, being altogether Unnatural, by consequence are so many Violences, Strains, & Forces upon and against Nature; & therefore not only the Mucous Glands in the Passage, but even the

Prostatae, Parastatae,

&

Seminal Vessels

themselves, are so extremely Relaxed, Debilitated, Weakned, & Enervated thereby, that it is no wonder that the whole Constitution pays dearly for it afterwards; as the Gonerality of Persons too fatally experience, who ever in their Youths have been guilty of this abominable Practice; Insomuch that many Young Persons, who were strong and lusty before they abandoned themselves to this Vice, have been so entirely Worn out and Ruined by it, as to become Old before half their Years came on: For by thus robbing themselves of their Strength, and empoverishing their Spirits by depriving their Bodies of its Balmy and Vital Juice by this abominable Practice, they have become so dry and emaciated, as to be sent to their Graves, a great many Years sooner than otherwise they would have been.

Perhaps my Reader may ask of me, that since the Weakness of Mankind and Propension to Ill is so very great, that if we run thro' the whole Decalogue, there is not one Precept whose Transgressors deserve more Commiseration and Pity than this: What way must Youth preserve themselves from it? No one's Strength being to be depended on in this Point, for those who think themselves secure, St.

Paul

charges to take Care least they fall: So that if we trust only to our Reason, we shall find in the End that this is no manner of Match at all to our Inclinations, which are infinitely stronger: Insomuch that whoever beats a Parley with Sensual Pleasures, is already capitulating with his Enemy, and will be vanquished at last. The great Preservative then is chiefly to avoid Idleness, and fly all Occasions of Ill:

Apprehende Fugam,

(says an Ancient Author)

si vis habere Victoriam.

For

Qui tangit Picem,

as surely

inquinabitur ab eâ,

As he who loves

Periculum,

most certainly sooner or later

in illo peribit.

And therefore they will find to their Sorrow, that a short Fleeting Pleasure of only a Moment,

in fine mordebit ut Coluber:

Like a poor silly Fly hovering about the Flame, thinking it to be as sweet as it appears fair, perishes at the first Tryal. And however such Persons may thro' the Instigation of the Devil flatter themselves, that whenever the Fact is committed, that it is but a trifling Fault; yet it has so Tarnished their Soul, that afterwards they can have no Innocence to boast of, having prodigally Barter'd it for a momentary Satisfaction, as

Esau

did with his Birth-right, for the transient Sensuality of a Mess of Pottage; the Barrier that fenced their Chastity being broke, the Enemy to Purity and Holiness makes daily Incursions, and ravages thro' every Passage of the Conquered Soul. And altho' by a demure outward Be haviour and Carriage, the Eyes of Men may be deceived, yet an All-seeing God cannot be hinder'd from witnessing an Act which his Holiness so much abominates, as to exclude us (without true Repentance for it) eternally from the Kingdom of Heaven: A Loss, to ballance which our Saviour expressly tells us, that the whole World is not an Aequivalent,

What Profit is it to a Man to gain the whole World, if he loses his own Soul.

How many unhappy Souls are there in the World, who never would have been guilty of enormous Crimes, if they had not in their Youths been initiated in Sin by this unhappy Practice? And how many again are there, whose Affairs in the World Almighty God has attended with Judgments ever since, as a Punishment of such horrid Facts committed formerly in their Youth. To avert all which the only way is to practice Virtue betimes, and early to leave off these Abominations: And whatever Difficulty is experienced in overcoming a vicious Habit, the persons must consider, that it is a Burden of their own making, and therefore they ought the more chearfully to undergo the overcomeing it.

CHAP. 4.

Of a

Simple Gonorrhaea,

whence it proceeds, and how it differs from a common

Gleet.

BEsides the Infirmity hitherto treated of, there is yet another sort of Weakness of much worse Consequence, and which for the resemblance it bears to a Gleet, is often confounded under the same Name by Persons unacquainted with the Difference, whereas in rigour 'tis no such thing, and is properly called a

Simple Gonorrhaea,

to distinguish it from that virulent Efflux of Matter commonly, tho' very improperly called a Gonorrhaea, and is That which afflicts Persons who have actually the Secret Disease.

A

Simple Gonorrhaea

is an involuntary Emission of a real seminal Matter by reason of the Caruncles through which it owzes from the Neck of the Vesiculae seminales into the Urethra being so injured, weakned and relaxed in their Fibres, as to permit the seminal Matter insensibly to come away. This is an Infirmity that may indeed, but does not often happen; and when it does, the Person in a little time grows lean, pale, weak and feeble, especially about the Loins, and is soon brought into a

Tales Dorsalis,

and if not speedily taken care of, to his Grave. So that notwithstanding the vulgar call almost every involuntary emission of Matter from a human Body a Gonorrhaea, ye

this Infirmity last mentioned is only and truly a

Gonorrhaea

or Efflux of real and true seminal Matter. Wherea

neither in a

Gleet,

nor in any Stage or Degree of the Secret Disease, any true Seminal Matter comes away, as i

manifest from what has been already said of a Gleet; and also in the First Chapter of the Practical Scheme abovementioned concerning a Gonorrhaea. So that a

Gleet,

which is commonly tho most improperly called a Gonorrhaea, is in reality nothing but only a dripping or owzing away of that mucous slimy Liquor, separated by the Glands in the Urethra for the lubrication of it, as has been above fully said, and generally speaking, free from any Venereal Infection: So that a Person may have a

Gleet

upon them a considerable time without being so visibly emaciated and weakened as they wou'd be in a very small time by a Simple Gonorrhaea: Tho' nevertheless, to let a Gleet run on from Year to Year as many do, without seeking a Remedy for it, is a most certain Means to bring on a Consumption, as hereafter will be shewed.

A Simple Gonorrhaea is caused by Falls, Strains, lifting too great a Weight, Wrestling, violent Riding, Running, Jumping, carrying of heavy Burdens, &c. and is so very difficult an Infirmity to Cure, as oftentimes to be even incurable. But as for a

Gleet,

'tis only after Venereal Cures, or some certain over-strainings and Self-abuses, too much or unskilful Purging, &c. Insomuch that through a very great weakness and relaxation of the Orifices of the Glands in the Urethra from the above-mentioned Causes, a great many Persons have been left with seeming incurable Gleets upon them, tho' under the Care of otherwise reputed ingenious Men in their Profession: For which Reason it is, that few Persons get clear of a Clap without more or less of a Gleet.

From what has hitherto been said, it appears that the true Seat of a simple Gonorrhaea is in the seminal Vessels: Whereas the Seat of a virulent Running and a Gleet is in no other Part than the Urethra, as fully has already been shewed, and also in the First Chapter of the Practical Scheme. And 'tis for want of a true distinction in this Point that so many People are ruined by improper Applications, from an erroneous Notion of the Seat of the Disease.

Moreover, besides the above-mentioned causes of a Simple Gonorrhaea; an efflux of Matter very much resem

ing it frequently follows from the Prostate Glands themselves, having been in a manner so worn, as to be almost

aten, fretted, and corroded away; or at least have been extreamly relaxed and debilitated by their being so continually ulcerated as they frequently are in many Patients under Cure for the Secret Disease: Or if not this, they at least have been ver

much heated and distended by repeated strong Purgations; by which means the Tone of the Parts had been so relaxed and destroyed, as to cause a thin seminal Matter almost continually to flow away from the Urethra, which Fluxion, tho' commonly called a Gleet, yet in rigour 'tis a kind of a simple Gonorrhaea, and is frequently the consequence and result of preposterous management and ill finished Cures.

Chap. 5.

Of Weaknesses in Women.

THese are Infirmities I should here take no Notice of, if it were not for the sake of a great many Virtuous Persons labouring under them, who to besure will send for this little Book in expectation of Assistance from it, and in hopes thereby to avoid the Shock of discovering and making known those Ailments to others which most who labour under them use their utmost diligence to Screen and Hide: That therefore this present little Tract may not be defective, but fully answer whatever can be expected from its Title: These Weaknesses being inconveniences which altho some Women are more subject to then others, yet at some time or another so many labour under them, that scarce any are wholly exempt from them: And what is still worse, out of such great Numbers as are afflicted with them, very few ever get a true and solid Cure, either thro a difficulty in themselves to discover 'em: Or a neglect of their Cure, by thinking them trivial Infirmities, which time will Cure, without considering the ill consequences they will produce: Or for want of Judgment in those that undertake their Cure, they thro a bashfulness of discovering their Case to Persons of Skill, consult only such whose knowledge reaches no farther then

Turpentine Pills, Bole Armenick

&

Astringents, Arch-Angel, Clary

and other such like things, as insignificant to many, as the Judgment was defective that prescribed them.

I must here therefore take Notice, That the Imperfections observable in most Accounts of these Weaknesses (for by this Name of WEAKNESS, I shall always for Decency sake throughout this Chapter mean the Subject it treats of) hitherto published, and the shocking expressions in describing them, have induced me to say some thing on this subject, which I'll endeavour to do in such a manner as may lead those of my Readers to whom this Chapter only belongs, into a true knowledge of their State, and Method of its Cure, with as little Information to others not concerned in it (I mean the Men) as possibly the Subject will admit of.—These Weaknesses are of much the same Nature as

Gleets

in Men: For as the abovementioned relaxed and weakned Mucous Glands in the

Urethra

or

Urinary Passage,

separate and discharge that Matter which constitutes a GLEET in Men; so (observing a requisite Proportion) other Cervical Glandules or small Vessels of the same Nature proportionably in the Neck of the Womb in Women, and designed for much the same Use of lubricating it, separates & discharges also the Matter of these Weaknesses; So that these Glandules being rendred Weak, Lax, and Loose, & thereby deprived of their natural due Tone and Springyness, either from the ill Constitution of the Stomach, and a Serosity or Crude Chyle in the Mass of Blood, depraved by Distempers, or some ill Accidents, by which Means those Vessels cannot sufficiently retain the proper Humor separated by them from the Blood, for much the same use proportionably as in Men,

viz.

to Lubricate or Moisten the Passage tho for another end, but let it Gleet thus involuntarily and slide away. And altho Women being of a more cold and moist Habit of Body then Men; & on that account, & some others more liable to be afflicted with these WEAKNESSES then Men are with Gleets: Yet a Gleet in Men, and these Weaknesses in Women are oftentimes one & the same Disease, & owe their Origin very often to the same Causes, which generally in Men are Venereal ones, tho not always so in Women: but sometimes Hard and Difficult Labours, Colds or Hurts in Lying in, especially in weak and diseased Habits of Body, and many other Accidents which attend the Sex. But to speak the Truth: Gleets in Men most commonly owe their beginning to the Secret Disease, and so sometimes does also these Weaknesses in Women; the Infection of which having been carried off, the Eibres in the Ostiola or Excretory Ducts of

he Glands so often abovementioned, are not easily resto

ed in either Sex, to their pristine Tone, Strength, and Vigour, but will remain relaxed and weak: From whence

Weeping or Dripping properly called a Gleet in Men, and Weaknesses in Women, will, (especially in an ill habit of Body) for a long time after remain; unless proper Measures be taken for a Cure.

From what has been hitherto said plainly appears what a Simple Gonorrhaea (which very seldom happens) and what a Gleet in Men; and what Weaknesses in Women are (which are very common Infirmities.) They are all (generally speaking) free from any Infection, & can never (let Practitioners say what they please to fright timorous Patients) degenerate into the Venereal Disease. These Weaknesses as well as Gleets in Men are generally esteem'd very hard to Cure, and so indeed frequently they are, but if proper Measures and Means be but taken; both Men & Women, may in a competent time, and without much inconvenience be freed from these troublesome and disagreeable Companions, especially to Neat and Cleanly Persons.

There are few Women especially of the Weaker Sort, but at one time or other are aflicted with these Weaknesses, they being an Infirmity often attendant upon, and caused by concomitant or preceeding Distempers: Insomuch that generally speaking whatever Disease reduces a Woman to a languid weakly State, it is commonly succeeded by this Indisposition: For which Reason Women that are naturally of a more weak Constitution or Habit of Body than ordinary, are more subject to these Weaknesses than others.

Some Women indeed have these Weaknesses much more moderate than others, and not continually, but at certain Times only, without causing any great or remarkable Prostration of Strength 'till after a Year or 2 or more: But then it becomes more violent and dangerous, weakning the Body excessively, and is then much more hard to cure. This being a known and undoubted Truth, that the longer these Weaknesses have afflicted the Patient, and the larger in Quantity they are, the longer Time will be required, and the more difficult will it be, to accomplish the Cure, the Humors being more habituated to come away, and the Glandules in the Vessels more weakned and spoiled.

It is equally as hard a matter as it is useful for a Physician sometimes to distinguish well between these Weaknesses and other Distempers which resemble them, their Consequences and their Cure being widely different: For Numbers of Women who have met with ill Husbands, have labour'd under the Venereal or Secret Disease for some Years together, still imagining it to be that Weakness this present Chapter treats of.

Thus it being very difficult for Women to distinguish these Distempers, and yet absolutely necessary that they should, it may (generally speaking,) be done by this Rule of

Hippocrates,

which altho' for Decency sake I shall be very cautious in expressing, yet those Persons to whom this Chapter belongs, and is design'd for, will sufficiently comprehend. The Rule is this. That these Weaknesses, of which this present Chapter Treats, ceases in Women at certain Periodical Times, and do not trouble them 'till such Times are over. Whereas a Venereal Running remains constantly upon the Patient, and does nor cease at any Time.

Many are the deplorable Ill Effects of these Weaknesses, (the unhappy Companion of Womankind) if not in time remedied; but as this Subject s more proper for the following Chapter, where I shall treat at large of the ill Consequences of these Weaknesses, I shall refer my Readers to it.

CHAP. VI

Of the Ill Consequences and Effects of

Gleets,

and other such Weaknesses

A Great many Persons not knowing, or at least not reflecting, and considering the ill Consequences of

Gleets

and other such Weaknesses, look upon them as trivial Infirmities which Time and Patience will Cure: Whereas, altho' at present, these Infirmities may give no other uneasiness or trouble than what is opposite to Neatness and Cleanliness, being no grateful Companions to a clean neat Man, yet by their continuance greatly empair the Health, by wasting the Body, and bringing it into a visible Consumption. The reason of which is: A

Gleet

may in some measure, and not improperly be compared to an Issue, which seems as a Receptacle for the Humors of the whole Body, but more especially of the adjacent Parts to run to; so that Persons who have a

Gleet,

or any other like Weakness upon them, have thereby a constant Drain to their Body, which as has been already shewed, by a continual discharge of that Matter which comes away, not only exhausts it of that Mucous Liquor, which is a strength and support to the Parts where a

Gleet

is situated, but also draws away thereby a constant supply of those other Juices, wherein the Vigor and Strength of the Constitution consists: The reason of which is, that near these Parts both of Men and Women, there are certain Emunctories placed, whose use is to receive the superfluous Humors or Recrements of the whole Body, and discharge them thro' the genital Parts: So that the greater this discharge of Humors is, the more are the Parts not only weakn'd by it, & the more incessantly & plentifully do these Humors flow, but also the Nutritious Juices destined to the nourishment and support of the Neighbouring Parts, flows down with it, and are evacuated. So that at length by reason of this loss of the Nutritious Juice, which flowing to the same Place, is also corrupted and continually sent away, not only Weakness and Pains, together with a Pining and Wasting of the neighbouring Parts, but of the whole Body does succeed, from a poor weak and dispirited Chyle the Blood abounds with. And to this Cause it is, that the greatest part of Broken and decay'd Constitutions are owing. But as I have treated at large on this Subject of Spoiled and Broken Constitutions by Fast Living, former ill Cures, Salivations, and Mercury in the 3d Chapter of my

Practical Scheme,

to be had GRATIS where this Book is Given away; I shall not repeat that Subject here, but refer my Reader to it.

The Body therefore being thus emptied and drained of those Nutritious Juices, which in healthy, hail, sound Persons, are its support: In length of time excessive Pains and Weakness, especially in the Loins and small of the Back, ensues; together with a debility and weakness in the Nerves and Joints, Pale, Faint and livid Looks, especially about the Eyes, Melancholy, loss of Appetite, decay of Spirits and Strength, a remarkable Wearyness over the whole Body, swelling in the Legs, and an universal decay of Strength.

So that these Symptoms not stoping in time, (as most Persons in the begining deceive themselves they will, fancing a

Gleet

to be an inconsiderable Thing, and that it will wear off of it self, in process of Time) they increase, and are followed also by others, as an almost continual Thirst, a hectical Disposition, Atrophy, and wasting of Flesh, till at length the Body is so drained, as to be brought into the highest degree of a Consumption.

All which Symptoms are occasioned by the great loss of the Mucous Liquor of the Glands, which being thus weakned and relaxed, have their Meatus's or openings so widened, and loosened, as not be able to restrain the Flux or dripping away of the Matter, whereby the withering of the whole Body, with a dryness and Siccity of the Nerves and Nervous Juices must necessarily in a short time ensue.

As for the effects or ill Consequences of a real Simple Gonorrhaea, they are no less dismal then speedy; For in a little time, says Dr.

Willis,

from the vast Efflux of real seminal Matter, the whole Strength is prostrated, a

Tabes dorsalis

presently ensues, and terminates in the Grave.

It remains now to speak a Word or two of the ill effects and consequences of Weaknesses in Women, as I have already done of

Gleets

in Men, as I promised above in the foregoing Chapter. Since therefore what I have already said in this Chapter, is to be proportionably applied to Women: The Effects of these Weaknesses are Pains in the small of the Back and Head, want of Appetite, bad Digestion, Weariness, and Restlessness, sometimes swellings of the Legs, pale livid Countenance.

&c.

And as this Evil is mostly occasioned by foregoing Distempers, (tho also sometimes by sudden Frights, violent Exercise, irregular Living,

&c.

) so it weakens the Body also more and more, bringing the whole human Frame into a pining desperate State, unless cured by proper Remedies skillfully administred in time, no evil in the World, that usually happens to Women, being of so very ill consequence to the Looks, Complexion, Mind, Habit, Strength, and whole Body as this.

Insomuch that if this great Evil (which too often proves the BANE and Ruin of Woman kind) be not timely remedied, it certainly causes either untimely Barrenness, or if they have Children, they are weak, infirm, and diseased, and the Blood and Juices become more and more impoverished, till an inevitable Consumption, Dropsy and other Distempers, prove only the Forerunners of immediately ensuing Death.

CHAP. VII

How to know when a

Gleet,

or other such Weakness is free from, or partakes still of the Relicks of a former

Venereal

Infection.—Or (which is the same thing) Signs to know when a Person is properly Well, and the Malignity carried off, after former Cures, altho' they may have a

Gleet

or other such Weakness still remaining upon them.

THE Design of this Chapter being to shew how every Person that has received an Injury, and been under Cure for it, may know whether the Malignity be wholy carried off or not: And if there be any Running or Gleeting still remaining afterwards, whether it proceeds from any Secret Infection still lurking behind, or from Medicines taken for a Cure, or from a natural Weakness of the Parts, which some Persons from a more then ordinary delicacy and tenderness of Constitution are liable to, notwithstanding the utmost Care both of themselves, and the Person under whose Hands they were during their Cure; My Reader is to take notice, that after a due evacuation and clearing of the Body of the Venereal Infection, the mattery running which before was Yellowish, Green or Bloody, looses by Degrees both it's colour and quantity, and comes at last to a perfect Whiteness or Transparency, resembling very much the white of an Egg, and is Slimy, Mucilaginous, and Ropy; and the Parts are easy and cool: All which are admirable Signs, and the strongest Presumption that the Malignity is carried off, and the Person cured and well. But since it frequently also happens that a Person may be said to be (not ill) cured, altho' these signs of a good Cure, may not be altogather so very perfect as here they are described to be, we must examin this matter still a little farther, for the full Satisfaction of the most timorous of my Readers.

It has indeed been a common Opinion that in

Gleets,

when the Matter that comes away is still discouloured being either yellowish or green, that it is a certain Sign, (and indeed an only one) of a remaining Infection, and an imperfect or ill Cure. 'Tis true, that when the Matter that comes away in a

Gleet,

or other such Weakness, is not discouloured at all, but is pure White, Glutinous and Ropy, and the Parts in all respects entirely cool and easy, there is no difficulty to pronounce such

Person entirely free from Infection, & (not ill) cured; because if there were any Infection and Malignity still remaining behind, these signs would not be so perfect a

here I suppose them to be: But yet for all this, it is no

always a certain sign and consequence of either an actua

lurking Infection, or a former ill Cure, when even these signs are not so very perfect. The reason of this is; that in some Habits of Body the Owzing Matter which constitutes a

Gleet

will in some length of time, and in diseased habits of Body, in its Separation from the Blood be so permixt with some certain Corrosive (but not at all Venereal) Particles, as thereby to be so colliquated and altered in it's Texture and Cohesion of it's constituent Parts, as to appear a sort of Pus, Sanies or Matter something discoloured, that will very much resemble the Relicks and Remains of a Venereal Infection, or an ill Cure: And if a Person should think to change this Colour by Purging, one might, as Dr

Harvey

observes, Purge a Person's Life away as soon as change either it's Colour, or cause it's entire Abatement. So that the Practitioner imagining that all yellowish Runnings are malignant (which is a vulgar Error) goes on still in hopes of changing it, 'till at length the Parts are so weakned, that the Poor Patient has a

Gleet

fixt upon him, and thereby rendred worse instead of better, and perhaps at last told they are incurable.

To shew the Truth of this, it is to be observed that the imprudent Continuation of Venereal Catharticks, rather keeps on the yellowness of the Running then abates it, by keeping up the humors in a constant Ferment and Ebullition, and thereby inflaming and frothing them up into a yellow Bilous Spume or Scum, which is daily separated in the Parts, that are now become as it were a Cistern, to which Custom has made an open Channel, and converted the Orifice of the Urethra into (as it were) an Issue, to which the depraved humors of the Body, and especially of the adjacent Parts flow: And which humors, as the Blood (even in very well cured Persons) is tinctured with Choler, and depraved and altered by a long Course of Physick, do also proportionably partake more or less of a yellowish Colour. Hence it plainly appears, that some Returns of yel

wish small Runnings after some Cures of the

Secret sease

do not always indicate any remaining Infection,

lay any blame or aspersion upon the former Cure;

is yellowness frequently owing it's origin to the yel

ow Liquors of the Blood. Besides, when the efflux

f a

Gleet

is thus continued, the Glands and Vessels are

hereby every Day more and more weakned, by which

he Liquors will be separated more impure and mixed,

hen they were formerly in a healthy State, at the same Glands: And therefore it is manifest how Gall mixing with the Liquor will make it come away of a yellowish Colour. This is not only in Reason possible, but what we find true by daily experience, in Ulcers and common Sores, from whence a yellowish Matter will flow, owing it's colour purely to the bilous part of the Blood, separated and secerned by the adjacent Glands. Hence as Dr.

Cockburn,

takes notice, it frequently happens that virulent Runnings in Persons who have the

Secret Disease

actually upon them have been cured, when the yellowness has continued to the last Drop; which could not be, if the yellowness were always a part, or mark of the Contagion.

CHAP. VIII.

Of the most Rational and True Method of Cure of

Gleets, Simple Gonorrhaeas,

and other such Weaknesses in either Sex, proceeding from former Cures,

&c.

AS I have endeavoured hitherto demonstratively to deduce the Seat and Nature of a

Gleet,

and other such Weaknesses from it's Symptoms, and the Anatomical Structure of the Part it affects, without engaging in any of the Hypotheses of the Ancients; so I'll now endeavour to draw such consequences from the Nature of the Infirmity thus discovered, which will prove the plainest and most satisfactory Course that can be taken to arrive at the most exact ways of curing it; especially since the common Methods of Cure of late Years in Practice, are found from their want of Success not sufficiently grounded on Reason and Experience. It being a manifest truth, that the best Methods of Cure are always taken from a

Rational

Notion of the Nature and Cause of a Disease: Human

Reason

being never of greater use in any part of human Life, then it is in the Practice of Physick. For as Dr.

Mead

says in the Preface to his Essays on Poisons, He alone is the most likely Person to Cure any ailment or disorder in a human Body, who best understands the human Oconomy, the Texture of the Parts, the Motions of the Fluids, and by consequence the Source and

Origin

of the Disorder, according to that of Celsus,

Recte Curaturum, quem prima origo Causae non fefellerit.

Having therefore above in the second and following Chapters, clearly accounted for the most Rational Cause of

Gleets,

Simple

Gonorrhaeas

and other Weaknesses, the subject Matter of this present Treatise: I hope also as clearly now to shew the most Rational Method of their Cure: As follows:

In omnibus contrarietas Remedio est,

is an Aphorism of the great Hippocrates, and holds good in the Cure of our present Infirmity, as well as in the Cure of any other particular disorder of the Body whatsoever. Insomuch that if there be a Heat and Inflammation in any Part, recourse must be had to those things that are Cooling. In cold Diseases to warm Medicines. If any Humor is sharp and corrosive, it must be reduced to a due degree of softness by mollifying Medicines. If any parts are injured, and weakned, strengthning, healing and Balsamick ones must be made use of before ever a Cure can be effected, in order to restore the debilitated Parts to their first Tone and Vigour. So that in our present Infirmity which we have now before us, we find from what has been hitherto said, the following obstacle, and which must necessarily be removed before ever we can hope to reinstate the Patient,

viz.

— The openings of the Mucous Glands so often abovementioned in the Urethra being weakned, loosned, and relaxed by the above mentioned Causes, are thereby become flabby, limber and loose, which before in a sound State were springy, vigorous and strong; so that by this means the

Ostiola

or Mouths of them being deprived of their natural Power of (in some measure proportionable at least to their bigness,) contracting and drawing themselves together after every Emission of that Mucous slimy Liquor they contain, are by consequence always open, by which means this Liquor is continually owzing out from them and coming away. This being the true state of our present Question, and the rational Obstacle we have now to encounter with, as sufficiently appears from what has been above said: 'Tis natural to conclude, that the only true and rational Method of Cure of

Gleets,

and any other Weaknesses of the same kind whether in Men or Women, must consist, in one word for all, without any manner of Evasion or going round the Bush, in affecting the very Place it self from whence the dripping Liquor is discharged; and this is done by STRENGTHNING these Glands, and thereby restoring their Openings and Mouths to their former power of contracting, and constringing themselves after every Emission of the Mucous Liquor they contain; by which means a certain Bar and Hindrance will be put to their discharging more of it, then is wisely intended by Nature, as just enough for the lubrication and moistening of the Passage and no more, and for which end alone she has designed it. This being once effected, just so much and no more of this Liquor will afterwards proceed from these Glands, as just the defence of the Urethra requires as a Preservative against the sharpness and saltness of the Urine as it passes thro: it being an established Maxim in Philosophy, That upon the removal of any Cause, the effect presently ceases. So that wherever the Cause lies,

That

must be applied to, before ever we can expect the effects to cease. But how to bring this about,

Hic Labor, hoc Opus est,

it's Residence being in a part which Nature seems particularly to have affected the concealment.

Hence my Reader may plainly see, that the great difficulty which has now puzled so many Ages in the Cure of

Gleets

and other such sorts of Weaknesses, is all (from only a few evidently demonstrable Principles above established) reduceable, to one only single intention of Cure,

viz.

to Strengthen these Glands. 'Tis no wonder then that the Ancients found such difficulty in this matter, as after all possible endeavours sometimes to leave their Patients at best only

in statu quo;

tho' in rigour this may be very much doubted, it being pretty certain that neither the continuance of a

Gloet,

nor any of the common Methods of its Cure, have been ever as yet found to improve a Constitution, or to change it, otherwise, then from a strong to a weaker one.

Our next Enquiry then must be, how this Intention of Cure is to be brought about and effected with the greatest Ease and Security to the Patient, and what t

Nature of those Medicines must be that can perform i

In order to which we must consider, that since

Glee

procced from the Mucous Glands in the Urethra, an

the contiguous Parts being particularly weakned thro' long Continuance of the Secret Disease, and its Cure Repeated Self-Abuses

&c.

the Intention of Cure mus

consist in Strengthning and Contracting these relaxe

Glands and Parts adjacent, and thereby restore them t

their former natural State of Vigour and Soundness, after having been thus injured, and debilitated either by the Distemper, or its Cure, Reiterated Self-Abuses, o

other whatsoever Causes. And for want of such a Method as this 'tis, that a great many Persons (altho, otherwise perfectly well) come to have seemingly incureable

Gleets

fixt and entailed upon them. For which reason it is that a

Gleet

is always more or less difficult to Cure, as it is of greater or less Continuance, or is occasioned by more or less Frequent self Abuses, or a more or less virulent Humor which gave the preceeding Infection; by every one of which causes the

Glands

are always more or less stretched, weakned and debilitated

The Method then I here aim at in the Cure of our present Infirmities, is by such Medicines as are appropriated in a peculiar manner, and by a Singular Specifick quality, Influence, and tendency to the Injured and debilitated Glands in the Urethra and parts adjacent chiefly above any other Part or Parts of the Body whatsoever, and thereby not only so to act upon and affect THEM in particular as to strengthen close and constringe their Mouths and Orifices, but also to preserve them hereafter in this sound State. So that these Glands being reestablished by this Method of Cure, their acquired Vigour will enable them to resist any future ingress of faster supplies of the Matter they separate and secerne, then is just necessary and no more for the moistening and lubrication of the Urethra, and so turning them off to be discharged by Nature another way. So that whilst the Ancients were Trifling with

Their

long tedious and uncertain Methods of Cure, Wonders are performed by

This.

Besides, this Method of Cure succeeding to the Satisfaction of the Patient, is a strong Confirmation of the Truth of the Theory above established: Whereas

n the other hand, most other Methods formerly prac

isedby the Ancients, either did not succeed at at, or

f at any time they did, it was not 'till after a very

ong while.

From what has been hitherto said, it plainly appears that this our Method of Cure is not only effectual in Men, but will be found upon Tryal to be inferiour to few, for those Weaknesses mentioned above in the 4th Chap. in Women.

I will not here trouble my Readers in proving that in Nature there are some certain Medicines which being taken into the Stomach, will immediately tend towards and make their Way to, some one particular part of the Body

Electively

and preferably to any other: Having fully cleared that Difficulty in the 8th, 9th, and 10th Chapters of the 3d Edition of My New SYSTEM of the GOUT and RHEUMATISM, to be had Gratis where this Book is Given away. I desire them therefore to read those Chapters, wherein I have clearly shewn how Medicines by a particular Specifick Quality they are endowed with, will (being taken into the Stomach) tend to and have an influence over some one peculiar Part of the Body, which they are designed particularly to relieve, rather then any other, as is there clearly shewed in Medicines appropriated to the Cure of the GOUT. All which I hope will fully convince any Person of the Possibility of a Strengthning Restorative Medicine's being taken into the Stomach, and from thence to tend towards and make it's way (by means of the Bloods Circulation) immediately to that Part in particular above any other in the Body whatsoever, which is the true Seat of a

Gleet,

I mean the Urethra or Urinary Passage. This Point therefore being fully discussed in those Chapters of the abovementioned System, I'll say nothing more of that Subject here, but refer my Reader to the perusal of that Book, which he may have for only Asking for, at the Places abovementioned where this Book is Given away.

As to the Change of the Colour of the

Gleet,

&c. since it generally proceeds as above has been said from a mixture of Choler, Bile, Gall, and several Impurities with the Blood, by consequence to cleanse and Rectifie the ill Crasis of

This,

will effectually change the ill Colour of

That.

Care therefore must be taken that al

Strengthning Medicines that are made use of in the Cure of

Gleets,

be also endowed with a certain detergent Faculty, by which they may in their passage to those Parts they are chiefly designed for, so Cleanse, Sweeten and Purify the Blood, as at the same time that they Strengthen the Glands in the Urethra, they may also change the Colour of the Liquor these Glands contain: And by thus changing of it's ill Colour, it's Substance if too thin will also

secundario

&

per accidens

be changed at the same time. For since whenever the Matter Dripping & Owzing away in

Gleets

and other such Weaknesses is too thin, it proceeds from its being Colliquated (and if I may use the Expression as it were in a manner melted down and Liquid) by those Impurities which are mixed and blended with it out of the Mass of Blood: These Impurities and Foulnesses being once cleansed out of the Blood, the Mucous slimy Matter will naturally reassume again its own natural Tenacious and Glutinous Consistence, as it has in

Statu sano.

My Reader perhaps will ask me whether or no this Method of Cure is proper in

all sorts

of

Gleets

and other such Weaknesses. To which I Answer, that when a

Gleet

is purely such, and entirely free from any Relicks or Remains of former Infection, the abovementioned Method of Cure is inferiour to few in the World. If therefore the

Gleet

or other such Weakness be what proceeds from a former Cured Injury, and that the Person had no manner of such Infirmity upon them before they received and were Cured of that Injury, it is absolutely necessary for the Patients safety first of all to be satisfied, that there is no remaining Malignity attending it, which my Reader will sufficiently be instructed in from what has been above said in the foregoing Chapter. But if Persons are any ways doubtful whether or no the

Gleet

may still Partake of any Preceeding Infection, it will be necessary to clear the Body and by Consequence the

Gleet

or any other such Weakness of whatever former Infection it may be still blended, and mixed with, least instead of Cureing a Person of a

Gleet,

something of worse Consequence be fixt and rivetted upon him. What therefore is most proper for every such doubtfu

Person to do previous to the Taking of the following

Great Restorative

is fully mentioned in the Directions Sealed up along with it: And which Method will effectually carry of all the Remainder of any Former Taint or Infection whatsoever out of any Person's Body, in order to be perfectly and safely Cured of their

Gleet

by the following

Restorative:

So that how effectual so ever any other (usually practised) Method of Cure of

Gleets,

&c. may be, it will scarce prove a more Safe one then This. The Chief consideration we have of the Goodness of any Method of Cure, is its Efficacy, Safety, & Time wherein we are Cured by it. All which being, after repeated Experiments, found to be best Answered by the Method here proposed, then by any other whatsoever of the Ancients, I presume I shall do no small piece of Service to that unhappy part of Mankind that labours under these uncomfortable Infirmities, in publishing it.

Hence it appears that

Gleets

and other such Weaknesses are not so difficult of Cure as a great many Persons make them to be, who after all their Endeavours to rid the Patients of them to no purpose, dismiss them at last with their Opinion that they'll never be cured, assuring them at the same time, it will never hurt them, & that Nature at length will Wear and throw it off, and the like: Which a great many give Credit to, in hopes of finding it true, 'till time has made this Error too manifestly appear, for instead of Natures overcoming it, & their finding no inconvenience by it, it has grown worse and worse, and proved at last so very inconvenient, that the poor Patient has born it with no small Uneasyness.

CHAP. IX.

Of a certain Strengthning Restorative Medicine for the Cure of Gleets and other such Weaknesses.

THE Learned Dr.

Cockburn

in his Treatise of a

Gonorrhaea,

2d

Edition,

pag. 210. lays this down for a general Rule in Physick:

Viz.

That no Medicine is to be received for its singular Use, 'till it has had many Tryals in proper Circumstances;

i. e.

'till it has been used on a Number of People equally ill, or that it has its Effects, when no reasonable hopes are left of a Cure by the best of other Medicines Skilfully administred. Hence it is by consequence to be concluded that when a Medicine has shewed its Efficacy in these Circumstances, it not only may, but even ought to be received by every Person solicitous for their Health and Welfare.

After therefore having proceeded thus far with this Treatise, I should be injurious to my Readers thus to explicate the Origin, Cause, Symptoms, Effects, and ill Consequences, together with the most rational Method of Cure of their Infirmities, if I should leave them there, perhaps something Wiser then they were before as to the just now enumerated Heads, but not a bit the nearer to a Cure. In order then not to entertain them with meer Speculations, I'll endeavour to give them some Practical Assistance, by proposing here to the World, a truly Great and Noble Remedy for those Weaknesses and Disorders here treated of.

The Medicine I propose is a most excellent

Balsamick Restorative,

which for Recovering Nature in those many Weaknesses so frequently abovementioned has not many equals. It being a most Noble Strengthner in all Weaknesses, whether from Hard Labours, Over-strainings, Wrenches, Miscarriages, Self-Abuses, & other Secret Injuries and their Cures, in either Sex. Its efficacy also reaches still farther, being of admirable Use to Cure Pains, Weaknesses, and all Imbecilities of Nature, either in the Back, Reins, Loins, or elsewhere; to remove or take away any Stoppage of Urine, by effectually and yet gently (as Nature seems to defire) carrying off all Mucous, Filthy, Sanious and Infectious Matter Slime or Gravel lodged in the Reins, and elsewhere by ill Cures or other Causes; & which either produces a Sharpness in the Urine, or a too frequent Provocation to make it: And thereby recovers the lost Tone of the Seminal Vessels and Mucous Glands in the Urethra so often abovementioned. Destroying thereby all Relicks of Venereal Venom that lurking in the Body insensibly wasts and decays the Flesh and Strength.

And least my Readers should suspect the possibility of the Operation of a Medicine taken in at the Mouth, and from thence conveyed into the Stomach, on a Part so remote from it, as that is which I have proved above in the 2d Chap. to be true, real, and indeed only Seat of a

Gleet

and other such Weakness: I must refer them to what I have said on this Subject in the 9th & 10th Chapters of my abovementioned System of the GOUT &

Rheumatism.

In which Chapters is as clearly shewed as so Nice & Intricate a Subject will admit from the Principles of the Modern Philosophy, how 'tis very possble for a Medicine to be taken in at the Mouth, and conveyed into the Stomach, and from thence to be mixed with that Portion of the Mass of Blood which it finds circulating in the Vessels there, by which means of the Bloods Circulation it is soon carried about the Body, & by consequence to That very individual part it is designed to relieve: As is fully proved in those Chapters of the just now mentioned System, of the Operation of the Anti-Arthritick Medicine there proposed to act upon even the very utmost and remotest extremities of the Body,

viz.

Those Joints which usually the Gout seizes. I desire therefore my Readers, that since, they may have that

System

for only Asking for, they will be pleased to peruse the 9th & 10th Chapters of it, and apply them to this Subject, that I may not repeat the same Matter here over again. For as a Medicine taken for the Gout if it be a true and real

Anti-Arthritick,

never attempts to exert its principal Force of acting till it arrives along with the Blood, at the Glands of those very Joints it is designed to relieve; just so the Great

Restorative

and Stengthing Medicine I here propose, being taken a few Drops of it, in a little Wine, Ale, or Beer, is thereby carried down into the Stomach, from whence it mixes it self (being of a Spirituous Volatil Nature) with the Mass of Blood, and is carried with it about the Body, and among other Parts, to that which is the true Seat of those Infirmities here treated of. Being arrived there by a particular Specifick influence it bears over, & Tendency to that Part above any other, and the Mucous Glands contained in it, it there begins to exert its force and to operate, by Strengthning, Healing, and Restoring the Mouths and Ostiola of those little Glands, to their former Elasticity, Springyness and Vigour, by which means they will naturally again recover that Power they formerly had of Constringing themselves as naturally they ought to do after every Emission of the Mucous slimy Liquor they Contain, and which Nature has wisely designed for the Lubrication of the Passage, as has sufficiently been above explicated. This being once performed by this Great

Restorative

Medicine, and the Mouths of these Glands being recovered from their looseness and flabbyness, to an Elastick Springy State, by consequence a Bar will thereby be put for the future, by which just so much and no more of this Mucous slimy Liquor will be let out & come away, then just the Moistening & Lu brication of the Passage in a hail sound state requires: By which means, a

Gleet

which perhaps for a long time has afflicted the Patient will be taken away, and the Parts restored to their former due state of Health and Strength.

The property of this great

Restorative

is not only Traumatick,

i. e.

only to Heal and thereby to strengthen the Mucous Glands in the Passage and the Womb-Vessels, by gently straitening them, and reducing them to their natural Tone, but also to deterge and cleanse them of whatever Filth they may by their Weakness have contracted, never disordering the Body, but keeping it in a due State. 'Tis not unpleasant to take, & being once received in a proper Vehicle as a Glass of Wine, Ale, Beer,

&c.

into the Stomach, it (by means of the Bloods Circulation) displays its Vertues after a wonderful manner, effectually answering the intentions of Cure. Besides all which it is a very great purifier & sweetner of the Blood and Juices, and thereby invigorates, enlivens, and strengthens the whole Body, taking away Weaknesses, and Pains in the Back, Loins, and elsewhere, rendring the Person brisk, lively, healthy, and strong, and puts an end to those troublesome Companions commonly called

Gleets,

& other such Weaknesses.

So that to a Person even never so well in Health that should take of it, it will cleanse, sweeten, and purifie the Blood, and thereby wonderfully enliven, animate, strengthen, and invigorate the whole Constitution, but above all in a more particular manner then ordinary those Parts which being hidden in the Body are too remote for any Manual Operation to act upon, as the Seminal & Urinary Vessels, the Prostatae, Parastatae, and Mucous Glands in the Urethra. This Noble

Medicine

being to be taken by Drops may be carried in the Pocket, and taken as well abroad as at home, without any manner of uneasiness, trouble, suspicion, or confinement, for Example at the Tavern, Coffee-House, or any other Publick Place, by which means Gentlemen and others will be Cured in a manner insensibly and before they are almost aware of it. Its Operation is principally by Urine, but nevertheless it will in most Constitutions so assist Nature as to promote the having one Stool in about 24 Hours. Nothing does exceed this admirable Remedy in the abovementioned Cases, where either too much Purging has over relaxed and weakned the Tone of the Parts, or too free a use of

Mercury,

and other Pernicious methods of Cure have been made Use of, restoring the Body to a due State of health and Strength.

This Great

Restorative

in fine neat Bottles is Sealed up (with the Print of the Anodyne NECKLACE which the late Dr.

Paul Chamberlen

in his life time Recommended for Childrens TEETH so often abovementioned, to distinguish it from any COUNTERFEIT) together with Printed Directions in

English

and

French

for its Use, so clear, easy, full, and plain that Persons may Cure themselves with it in any remote Country, Season, Climate, or Part of the World, (for if well Corked it will not grow worse with keeping) Price a Guinea. And is to be had at the Places mentioned above in the Title Page of this Book.

APPENDIX.

HAving above in the Title Page of this Book made mention of a Certain Anodyne NECKLAGE Recommended by the late Dr.

Paul Chamberlen

for the Easy Breeding and Cutting of Children's

Teeth,

&c. I'll here subjoin Two Testimonies published by Dr.

Chamberlen

in favour of this Soverain

Necklace,

and the

Specifick Remedy

and

Elixir,

mentioned in the

Practical Scheme,

in Opposition to some

Counterfeits

a broad in the World.

WHereas a NECKLACE has been Published under Pretence that it is the same with that which is Recommended by me (tho nothing at all LIKE it.) I hereby declare to the World, that I know nothing of it, nor its Author, who pretends to Decry, what nevertheless he tries to Counterfeit. I do not deny but that I have for some time, and do still Approve of and Recommend to the World that most Admirable NECKLACE for Childrens Teeth,

&c.

As also,

The Specifick Romedy

and

Elixir

for the Secret Disease and Broken Constitutions, Sold up one Pair of Stairs, at the Sign of this

Nocklace

without

Temple-Bar,

&c. All which I know (from my Experience of them) to be most Excellent Things, and worth any one's having in those Circumstances. For which Reason I Recommend to every ones serious Perusal, That most Excellent little

Practical Scheme

and

Essay

which the Ingenious Author has writ upon them, and gives away Gratis in most

European

languages. But if any other

Necklace

besides this (which is the ONLY one that I Recommend, and is a very valuable Secret,) As also, if any other

Specifick Remedy

or

Elixir

for these Distempers, are at any time under my Name Published by Persons who live by Pyrating and Counterfeiting other

Men's

Secrets, it is a manifest Imposition upon me and the Publick. Therefore I hereby Caution all Persons to be ware of such Counterfeits.

From my House in

Great Suffolk-street,

near the

Hay-Market,

Mar.

22. 1717.

Paul Chamberlen, M. D.

THE SPECIFICK REMEDY: ELIXIR: And NECKLACE for Childrens TEETH, at the Sign of this Necklace without Temple-Bar, &c. I Approve of and Recommend. All others I disown as Spurious and Counterfeit.

From my House in Great Suffolk-Street,

Apr.

18. 1717.

Paul Chamberlen,

M. D.

The CONTENTS.

THE Preface. Page 2.

Chap. 1. Some few Anatomical Observations necessary to be taken Notice of, in order to a right knowledge of the true Cause, Seat, and Nature of

Gleets,

and other such Weaknesses. p. 4.

Chap. 2. How the Weak and Flaccid State abovementioned of the Mucous Glands, & their Orifices or Mouths in the Urethra, are the true Cause of

Gleets.

p. 9.

Chap. 3. Of Self-Abuses, &c. p. 13.

Chap. 4. Of a Simple Gonorrhaea, whence it proceeds, and how it differs from a Common

Gleet.

p. 19.

Chap. 5. Of Weaknesses in Women. p. 21.

Chap. 6. Of the ill Consequences and Effects of

Gleets

and other such Weaknesses. p. 24.

Chap. 7. How to know when a Gleet or other such Weakness is free from, or partakes still of a former Venereal Infection. Or (which is the same thing) Signs to know when a Person is properly well, and the Malignity carried off, after former Cures, although they may have a Gleet, or other such Weakness still remaining upon them, p. 27

Chap. 8. Of the most Rational and True Method of Cure of Gleets, Simple Gonorrheas, and other such Weaknesses in either Sex, proceeding from former Cures, &c. p. 29

Chap. 9. Of a certain Strengthning Restorative Medicine for the Cure of Gleets, and other such Weaknesses, p. 35

Appendix. Containing two particular Testimonies of the late Dr.

Paul Chamberlen

in Favour of the

Specifick Remedy, Elixir, Necklace,

&c. p. 39

ADVERTISEMENT.

IF any Gentlemen, Traders, Merchants, Captains, or Mates of

Ships,

Sea-Surgeons or others trading Abroad to the

East

or

West-Indies, Turkey, Africa,

The

South-Sea,

or elsewhere will take either of The SPECIFICK REMEDY or ELIXIR mentioned in

The Practical Scheme:

Or of the Soveraign ANODYNE NECKLACES, Recommended by the late Dr.

Paul Chamberlen

for the Easy Breeding and Cutting of Childrens TEETH; and mentioned in the

Essay

writ upon them: Or if the

Anti-Arthritick Tincture

mentioned in the System of the GOUT and RHEUMATISM, Or of the

Great Restorative,

mentioned in this Treatise of

Gleets,

all which now Sell, and have done for these several Years past extraordinary well, not only here in

London,

where the Call for them encreases every Day, but also Abroad, being in great Esteem and Reputation not only throughout both Parts of

Great-Britain, Ireland,

and most of our Plantations, (great quantities having of late been exported by Merchants, Captains of

Ships,

Sea-Surgeons, and others) But also are now very much esteemed in

France, Holland, Germany,

and several other Countries and Courts of

Europe,

being continually sent for thither to the entire Satisfaction of all that use 'em: They shall have room for very large Profit at the Sign of the Anodyne NECKLACE for Children's TEETH without

Temple-Bar

above-mentioned. For which Reason the Author, being willing to encourage the Exportation of 'em for the general Good of Mankind (which hitherto has incontestably appeared to be so, from the many Certificates of their success from several Parts, incerted from time to time in the Publick Prints: and the general consent of all who use 'em of both Sexes) for that End, has now published This Scheme not only in

English

&

French

but also an Abstract & Epitome of it, in most other

European

Languages, for the Use and Benefit of all

European

Foreigners; but especially

Merchants

and others

Trading

to

France: Germany: Holland: Spain: Italy: Portugal: Sweden: Denmark: Poland: Muscovy: Turkey,

&c. They having obtained Reputation now in several of these Countries.

Here therefore I'll take occasion to acquaint my Reader, that a great many

Practitioners

in

Physick,

but especially

Sea-Surgeons,

have of late (after having made several repeated successful Tryals upon their

Patients

HERE IN LONDON) had

over

and

over

again great quantities with very great Allowance by Wholesale of these

Remedies

at the Sign of the NECKLACE abovementioned, to carry with them to Sea, they all now finding it their Interest and indeed their cheapest way to buy these

Remedies

to cure their own Patients with. As the Gentleman (the Sea-Surgeon) was pleased to say, who some time ago by Dr.

Chamberlen',

express Advice took along with him over-Sea a large Quantity of them. Also another Gentleman, own'd in his Letter incerted in the Practical Scheme, p. 35. that out of 23 Persons that took of the

Specifick Remedy,

only One missed of his Cure, and that the Person confessed was by his own Mismanagement. So that of late Years it has been a common Practice of several Surgeons, and other Practitioners in Physick to buy these

Romedies

to cure their own Patients with. By which they have gained both Money and Reputation. See more of the Allowance by WHOLESALE in my SYSTEM of the GOUT and RHEUMATISM and Philosophical Essay upon the Anodyne

Necklace.

Given gratis where this Book is given away.

So that now seldom or never a Week passes but some Surgeon or other, more especially of those belonging to the Sea, Buys of those Remedies, and of the Anodyne NECKLACES for Children's TEETH by Wholesale, at the Sign of this

Necklace

without

Temple-Bar,

where

ery large Profit is given. But of these

Necklaces

I de

re my

Reader

to peruse a particular Treatise by it self, Entituled,

A Philosophical Essay upon this

Necklace,

&c.

Given

Gratis

at those Places where this Book is given away.

I desire my Reader to give me leave to trouble him him here with an Account of a particular Cure of the GOUT, performed by the

Anti-Arthritick Tincture

mentioned in the New System of the

Gout

and

Rheumatism,

& of some few other Cures, of other Ailments & Disorders.

The following Certificate was sent (entirely unknown to the Author) to

London

inclosed in a Letter to Mr.

Pinckard

Attorney at Law, over the

Water-Stairs

in

Durham-Yard

in the

Strand,

part of which Letter is as follows.

Dear Son,

Histon,

Jan. 8. 1718.

THis is to acquaint you, how I have been attacked, and how wonderfully also I have been relieved by the Tincture for the GOUT, which you sent me last Spring. I desire This Testimony which I here send you, may be Published, and I will Testify the Truth of it to all Persons enquiring of me about it, as I desire also the same of you to do,

&c.

I Robert Needham

the Elder, of

Hilston

near

Monmouth, Gent.

having been above

33

Years afflicted with the GOUT, and many of those Years I had it in my Shoulders, Elbows Hands, Knees and Feet, and this frequently altogether at one and the same time; and thereby obliged for near six Weeks together at a time to lie both Night and Day in my Cloaths, and my Stomach paul'd, and my self reduced to the utmost Weakness. I abovementioned, do for the Benefit of others, hereby Certify that some time ago I was violently seized in both my Feet with the GOUT, expecting the same or worse Treatment I usually had, but then and for some small Time after I continuing to take of the Remedy prepared for this End by the Author of the New System of the GOUT and Rheumatism, having sent for it from

London,

to have in readiness by me; through God Almighty's Blessing, in three Days time it carry'd off all Pain, preserved my Stomach very well, and kept my Body very easie, and in such good Temper, that I could walk about my House, and do now walk abroad without a Cane or Staff, which for most part of

6

Months past I could not do, having frequently Pains in my Ancles and Feet, of which I am now entirely freed.

Witness my Hand

this 30

th of

December 1717.

Robert Needham.

HAving been extream ill with wandring Pains, and broken Constitution, &c. so very bad, and was so weak and worn away, that all my Friends were of Opinion that I was in a Consumption. I applied my self to several Physicians, but to no Effect, till I bought that famous Specifick Elixir for Broken Constitutions, mentioned in the Practical Scheme, which has perfectly Cur'd me, so that I am as well as ever I was in my Life, and publish this, that others labouring under the same

Misfortune

may happily find Relief, as I have done, as I am ready to satisfie any Person that will call upon me at my House, Brace's Coffee-House in Silver-street near Woodstreet.

Nov.

20. 1717.

William Smith.

A Young Lady having had

(from her Infancy)

the Evil so broke out in great Holes in her Body, that for 26 Years she could never go alone or stir out of her Chamber without help, being indeed a most miserable Object, continually weeping whole Days and Nights scarce having one easy Hour, her Life being a perpetual

Torment

to her.

Fifty Guineas

were offered to Dr.

Brigs

in

Bloomsbury,

if he could Cure her: Dr.

Chamberlen,

Dr.

Mead,

Dr.

West,

and several other eminent

Physicians, Mr. Giffard, Mr. Tocket,

and several other Skilful

Surgeons

were all Eye-witnesses of this her Condition, being given over by all as incurable, and indeed she utterly despaired of ever being Cured; at last Dr.

Chamberlen

advised her to take of the

Specifick Remedy:

she only took a few times of it, by which the Holes and Sores, which for 26 Years had drained her

Body

to a perfect Skeleton, are now healed up; she is brisk & well, & can go up & down Stairs, & abroad alone, which she could never do in her Life before, & blesses the happy Day that even Dr

Chamberlen

advis'd her to it. The Lady her self is willing to see & satisfy any

Person

about it, at the

Green Door

in

Water-street,

behind

Arundal-street

in the

Strand.

A Young

Gentleman

3 Years ago, got the Secret Disease in a violent manner, and soon after the

Injury

received applied himself to a certain eminent & noted

Surgeon

(for his Practice in

Venereal Cures

) in

London,

who Salivated him, but did not Cure him. After which he took a Certain Remedy Sold in

Town,

which is a COUNTERFEIT of This

Specifick Remedy,

but as it was a

Counterfeit

of this true Remedy, it proved to no more purpose then his

Salivation,

but he grew worse after it, being Ulcerated, & in a very deplorable

Condition,

insomuch that he was thought by all his

Friends

past Cure. But in

November

1717 by taking of this famous Specifick Remedy, he was perfectly Cured, as I will fully satisfie any

Person,

who will be pleased to enquire for

Mr. Peter Riscorla

at my House the

Green Ball

in

Cow-cross

near

West-Smithfield.

Where for the Good of the Publick, or any that labour under the like

Misfortune,

the

Gentleman

will be seen, and give an Account himself of the truth of this.

HAving had the

Kings-Evil

for 30 Years past to such a degree, that the continual

Running

of the many Sores & Blotches of the Distemper had drained my Body almost to a

Skeleton,

insomuch that I was brought so low that for some Years past I have been entirely confined at home. I used all

Means

the Hospital & several

Physicians

could prescribe, but to no manner of purpose. At last hearing of the many Cures performed by the famous

Specifick Remedy

belonging to the

Practical Scheme,

recommended by the late Dr.

Paul Chamberlen,

I went in a Coach to the

Sign

of the

Anodyne Necklace

for

Childrens

TEETH without

Temple-Bar,

to fetch the Remedy not being able to go a Foot, having been confined at home for several Years, & having taken now of this

Wonderful Remedy

most of my

Blotches, Holes, & Sores,

are finely healed up, & I am so well recovered, that I have gone a foot thro the City, to the

Astonishment

of all who knew me. Of the Truth of which, I will satisfie any

Person

at my House.—

Geo. Wadk

ns,

Barber & Perewig-maker at the Blew Boar in White-Chappel.—

Dec.

17. 1717.

FRom a Distemper of 16 Years standing; the Result of which were

Scabs

&

Nodes

in my Body, as big as

Nuts; Blotches

&

Sores

from Head to Foot, & some of them in my Legs, large enough to lay an Egg in; my Body so weak, & my Flesh so rotten, that upon my stretching it, it would rend asunder, as tho cut with a

Knife.

I

William Forbush,

Cap-maker over against

Queen Elizabeth's-Head

in

Church-Lane,

near

White-chappel,

am now relieved & made whole by God Almighty's

Blessing

on the

Specifick Remedy & Elixir,

mention'd the

Practical Scheme

of the

Secret Disease

&

Broken Constitutions.

The

Amazement

of all my

Friends

at my Cure, when declared

Incurable

by many

Physicians,

will, no doubt, raise the Curiosity of several to see me, to whom I shall, with incredible Pleasure, declare the Fact more at large, with many surprizing Particulars.

April

3. 1718.

William Forbush.

TO all

Persons

afflicted & LAID UP with the GOUT I hereby testifie that having had a confirmed GOUT these 9 Years past to such a Degree that I was an entire Cripple, & not able to go without

Crutches,

having lost almost the total use of my Limbs by it. I took all

things

I could hear of, but to no purpose, till I took of that most excellent

Anti-Arthritick Remedy

belonging to the

New System

of the

Gout & Rheumatism,

by which I am to a

Miracle

recovered, cured, & restored to the perfect use of my Limbs, being as able to go without my

Crutches

as ever I could in my Life, which before I happily took of this Remedy, I could never do. Of the Truth of which I will satisfie any

Person.—Tho. Wiggins, Printer

at the

Black Bull

in

Oster-Laue,

near

West-Smithfield.

Dec. 17. 1717.

I

James Davis,

at his

Majesty's Printing-House in Black-Fryars,

was about 7

Years

ago seized with a

violent Fever,

which

settling

first in my Feet, & then

flying

into my Head, & all over my Body,

attended

with a prodigious

Swelling & Inflammation,

made me

uncapable

of

getting

out of my

Bed

for several

Months,

& so has

continued

ever since,

excepting

some small

Intervals.

I had the Advice of several

eminent Physicians & Surgeons,

as Dr

Cade,

Dr

Mills,

Dr

Levet,

& others, who were all

Eye-witnesses

of this my

unhappy Condition,

& who by the various

Removings

of my Distemper, knew not what to call it, yet ordered me

Medicines,

but to no purpose: About 3 Years ago I went to St.

Bartholomew

's Hospital, & was an

Out-Patient

several

Months,

where the

Physicians

told me it was a

violent

GOUT, but cou'd have no Ease. Having thus had the Advice of the

Learned

without Success, I began to hearken to every Bodies

Instructions, sending

for &

taking

all the

Medicines

I could hear of. And as the

Expence

was large, so was their

Number

I think innumerable, which only added to my

Misfortune,

not hearing of any

Person

so

violently

afflicted as my self. Being in this miserable

Condition,

& given over by all as

Incurable,

the GOUT still increasing so

violently,

that my

Joints

became so KNOTTED, that I was rendred quite unable to follow my

Business,

& destitute of all Relief; some Time ago, I was recommended by a

Gentleman

to the

Anti-Arthritick Tincture

mentioned in a New System of the Gout & Rheumatism given away

Gratis,

&c. I had not taken above a Doses before I found a great

Alteration.

The GOUT which was then in my Stomach, abated, & by some continuance of the Remedy I still grew sensibly better every Day; so that I am now free from all

Pain & Stiffness

in my

Joints,

& as well in

Health & Strength

as ever I was in my Life. This

Benefit

I have received by

God's Blessing,

& that inestimable Remedy being so very great I desire this may be published for the Good of others. The

Truth

of which I am ready to testify, living in

Printing-House-Street

in

Black-Fryars.

Octob. 6. 1717.

James Davis.

I could reckon up great numbers more of other such undeniable Testimonies of Cures by these Remedies, on Persons even given over by all others: But having trespassed on my Readers Patience too long already, I'll make an end, desiring Him to peruse the several News Papers of these

5

years last past wherein he will find great numbers of Authentick

Certificates

of surprising Cures wrought by them. For to recite the particular Cases of every one that has happily experienced the good effects of this

Specifick Remedy

&

Elixir,

only since

March 1713,

that the

1st Edition

of this Book was published, wou'd swell this little Treatise far beyond my present design: Therefore I'll leave every one to the perusal of the

News Papers,

& then to be informed of the Persons themselves as to their Success. All which are as sufficient as even

10000

more wou'd be to convince any Person of the great virtue & efficacy of these Remedies. Persons indeed may go from place to place to seek a Cure, but when they have sought and tried all they can, they will scarce find a Better nor Surer then by these Remedies, as any

Person who trys them will to their Comfort find.

ADVERTISEMENT. Given Gratis the Four following Books,

viz.

1st. THE 25th Edition in English and French (and also Abridged in most other

European

Languages) Dedicated to Dr.

Chamberlen,

of

The Practical Scheme

of Secret Injuries and Broken Constitutions, by Fast Living. Former ill Cures, Salivations, and Mercury. Published ever since

March

1713.

2ly. The New System of the GOUT and

Rheumatism,

drawn from Reason, Anatomical Observations, and Experience.

3ly. A Rational Account of the true Seat, Cause, Nature, and Cure of

Gleets,

and other such WEAKNESSES, usually attending Persons after former Cures, Self-abuses,

&c.

4thly. The Philosophical Essay, Dedicated to the Royal Society upon the Celebrated Anodyne NECK LACE, Recommended by the late Dr.

Paul Chamberlen

for Children's TEETH,

&c.

Pr. 5

s.

— Published by reason of the great increase of late Years in the Bills of Mortality, by which it appears that in and about

London

(the same may be said of

Paris,

or any other great City) generally speaking near upon 12000 Children have Yearly died of their Teeth, and Convulsions and Fevers caused thereby, before this Admirable Physical Necklace was published in the World. Besides the great Numbers of Women that are daily lost in Child-bed: And the Multitudes of Persons that die of Distempers of the Head. — Whereas since this Necklace has been published, the Bills of Mortality have so decreased as to be less than ever they have been known to be before: More Children dying of their Teeth, then of all other Distempers put together whatsoever. — So that indeed no Family ought to be without one of these NECKLACES: for the great Numbers of Children who of late Years have Worn it, have not only Bred, and Cut their Teeth easily, and all the while thrived extremely, but even Multitudes have been retrieved by it from the Jaws of Death in a Nights time, after all hopes were past to the Astonishment of all People: The Property of this most Excellent

Necklace

being to take off Fevers, Fits, Convulsions, Loosnesses, &c. beyond Expectation.

These 4 Books (all by the Author of

The Practical Scheme

) are given

gratis.

At the following Places,

viz.

Up one Pair of Stairs between the Rose Tavern and Pamphlet-Shop at the Sign of this NECKLACE without Temple-Bar.

At Mrs Garways at the R. Exchange-Gate next

Cornhil.

At Mr Coopers the Corner of Charles Court in the Strand.

At the Unicron an Apothecary's Shop, on St. Margaret's Hill in the Borough, Southwark.

And (for the convenience of Sea-saring persons) at the Indian Handkercher facing the New Stairs in Wapping.

FINIS.y the Author of

The Practical Scheme

) are given

gratis.

At the following Places,

viz.

Up one Pair of Stairs between the Rose Tavern and Pamphlet-Shop at the Sign of this NECKLACE without Temple-Bar.

At Mrs Garways at the R. Exchange-Gate next

Cornhil.

At Mr Coopers the Corner of Charles Court in the Strand.

At the Unicron an Apothecary's Shop, on St. Margaret's Hill in the Borough, Southwark.

And (for the convenience of Sea-saring persons) at the Indian Handkercher facing the New Stairs in Wapping.

FINIS.