Use Matters An Alternative History of Architecture 1° Edition Kenny Cupers (Editor)
- 1. Use Matters An Alternative History of Architecture 1° Edition Kenny Cupers (Editor) - PDF Download (2025) https://ebookultra.com/download/use-matters-an-alternative- history-of-architecture-1-edition-kenny-cupers-editor/ Visit ebookultra.com today to download the complete set of ebooks or textbooks
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- 5. Use Matters An Alternative History of Architecture 1° Edition Kenny Cupers (Editor) Digital Instant Download Author(s): Kenny Cupers (editor) ISBN(s): 9780415637329, 0415637325 Edition: 1° File Details: PDF, 10.08 MB Year: 2013 Language: english
- 7. Use matters: an alternative history of architecture From participatory architecture to interaction design, the question of how design accommodates use is driving inquiry in many creative fields. Expanding utility to embrace people’s everyday experience brings new promises for the social role of design. But this is nothing new. As the essays assembled in this collection show, interest in the elusive realm of the user was an essential part of architecture and design throughout the twentieth century. Use Matters is the first to assemble this alternative history, from the bathroom to the city, from ergonomics to cybernetics, and from Algeria to East Germany. It argues that the user is not a universal but a historically constructed category of twentieth-century modernity that continues to inform architectural practice and thinking in often unacknowledged ways. Kenny Cupers is Assistant Professor of Architectural History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
- 8. Use matters: an alternative history of architecture Edited by Kenny Cupers
- 9. First published 2013 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2013 selection and editorial material, Kenny Cupers; individual chapters, the contributors The right of the editor to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Use matters : an alternative history of architecture / edited by Kenny Cupers. -- First edition. pages cm Includes index. 1. Architecture and society--History. 2. Functionalism (Architecture) I. Cupers, Kenny, editor of compilation. NA2543.S6U84 2014 724’.6--dc23 2013015537 ISBN: 978-0-415-63732-9 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-415-63734-3 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-88414-1 (ebk) Book design by Nienke Terpsma, typeset in Neue Helvetica and Letter Gothic Std.
- 10. Acknowledgements Introduction Kenny Cupers I SUBJECTIVITY AND KNOWLEDGE Chapter 1 ISOTYPE and modern architecture in Red Vienna Eve Blau Chapter 2 Architectural handbooks and the user experience Paul Emmons and Andreea Mihalache Chapter 3 Laboratory modules and the subjectivity of the knowledge worker William J. Rankin Chapter 4 Architects, users, and the social sciences in postwar America Avigail Sachs Chapter 5 Spatial experience and the instruments of architectural theory Brian Lonsway II COLLECTIVITY, WELFARE, CONSUMPTION Chapter 6 The shantytown in Algiers and the colonization of everyday life Sheila Crane
- 11. Chapter 7 New Swedes in the New town Jennifer S. Mack Chapter 8 Henri Lefebvre: for and against the “user” Łukasz Stanek Chapter 9 Designed-in safety: ergonomics in the bathroom Barbara Penner Chapter 10 Intelligentsia design and the postmodern Plattenbau Max Hirsh Chapter 11 WiMBY!’s new collectives Michelle Provoost III PARTICIPATION Chapter 12 Landscape and participation in 1960s New York Mariana Mogilevich Chapter 13 Ergonomics of democracy Javier Lezaun Chapter 14 Counter-projects and the postmodern user Isabelle Doucet
- 12. Chapter 15 The paradox of social architectures Tatjana Schneider Notes on contributors Index
- 13. Acknowledgements The origin of this book lies in the April 2011 conference “Before and Beyond: Architecture and the User,” organized at the School of Architecture and Planning of the State University of New York at Buffalo as part of my tenure as the Reyner Banham Fellow. Many thanks go to the speakers and contributors who made that event a success. I would also like to thank the School—and Omar Khan and Robert Shibley in particular—for their support, financial and otherwise. Adam Levin’s editorial assistance has been crucial to the publication of this book, as was the critical feedback of Hadas Steiner, Curt Gambetta, Mariana Mogilevich, Gerard Forde, and many others. Gratitude also goes to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for its financial support of the publication and to Nienke Terspma for her graphic design work.
- 14. Introduction This collection of essays examines how architecture has dealt with the question of use and how use, in turn, has shaped architectural thinking and practice over the past century. Utility is central to what architects do in practice as they deal with clients, norms, and building regulations. It is also a category of architectural theory, too often glossed over as that one part of the Vitruvian triad distinguishing architecture most clearly from art. Whether through the register of type, function, program, experience, event, or performance, the production of architecture relies on both concrete knowledge and latent imagination of how it is used. But utility also governs an unknowable universe of everyday experience that remains outside of the designer’s direct control. If a lot of architecture’s meaning is made not on the drafting board but in the complex lifeworld of how it is inhabited, consumed, used, lived or neglected, that world is at once central and peculiarly under- explored. In recent years, this blind spot of architecture has become particularly pertinent to practitioners. From the resurgence of activism and social engagement in architecture to the development of new spaces of interaction using the latest technologies, the interest in the agency of the user across many creative disciplines today delivers new promises for the social role of design.1 Against the view—still widely held—that such an agenda undermines
- 15. architecture’s autonomy or its formal potentials, this volume explores instead how use has been a critical motor of architectural invention. Accepted wisdom has it that the extent to which architecture takes into account those who use it is a matter of the designer’s personal ethics, dividing the discipline into a formalist and a user-friendly camp. No matter how clear this front line may seem to contemporary observers, it is hardly an unchanging fact that transcends shared preconceptions or historical change. As this collection of essays shows, the user is neither a timeless humanist category nor a simple externality of design. It has a history of its own, both within and beyond architecture. What does it mean to talk about users rather than subjects, people, clients, inhabitants, consumers, or citizens? How do we situate “the user” vis-à-vis the realms of domesticity, the market, or government? How do those we identify as using, experiencing, or inhabiting it actually use, experience, or inhabit architecture? And how does knowledge of this trickle back into the conception and production of architecture? If use cannot be understood as a simple consequence of planning or design, it is far from clear in what ways it constitutes architecture—as a practice, a discipline, and as built space. Collectively, the chapters in this volume argue that the user is not a universal, but a historically constructed category of twentieth- century modernity that continues to inform architectural practice and thinking in often unacknowledged ways. Over the course of the past century, architecture has laid claims to the organization of life through unprecedented experimentation with new technologies, mass production, consumption, and planned urbanization. The category of the user became central to these claims because it allowed architects to address both what informs and what follows the controllable process of design. Functionalism was but one of the manifestations of architecture’s social ambitions, albeit a
- 16. particularly successful one in ideological and discursive terms. Over subsequent decades, the notion of the user transformed to give rise to a number of emerging paradigms—from programming and participatory planning to architectural populism and interaction design. Its emergence and transformation was not just the result of a single discipline, but of changing market forces, government interventions, new technologies, different fields of knowledge and expertise, and unexpected social or cultural dynamics. The user is not the product of architecture alone; nor does it transparently denote the actual or imaginary people that populate it. The user is both a historical construct and an agent of change, too often relegated to the margins of architectural history. The chapters in this collection thus explore the changing stakes for architecture presented by the user across the modern, the postmodern, and the contemporary condition. In doing so, they make up an alternative history of architecture. Against the dominant periodization of twentieth-century architecture based on authorship, form, or discourse, the contributors provide a more relational history of architecture that connects the accounts of architects, projects, and ideas with a larger social, spatial, and material history. Their primary geographies are European and American—speaking perhaps less of the state of scholarly knowledge than the dynamics out of which the user emerged as a particular register of discourse and intervention. What is known and cultivated as architectural invention shows clear bias towards a relatively small set of authored works—often by a self-proclaimed avant-garde. When use was addressed in this rarified discursive context, its complexity tended to be both reduced and romanticized. From Rudofsky’s “architecture without architects” 2 to Jencks’ and Silver’s “adhocism,” architects have tended to interpret architectural phenomena located outside their professional purview as nothing but anonymous improvisation—a simple
- 17. reversal of the cherished distinctions of authorship and intention.3 A more lucid view was offered from the outside. In How Buildings Learn, Stewart Brand provided a rare and brilliant reading of the history of buildings through their changing uses over time, but its influence in architectural discourse remained limited.4 Another much-needed study came from the architect Jonathan Hill, whose theoretical examination was more successful in linking architects’ intentions with users’ creativity but relied heavily on linguistic analogy, following in the footsteps of postmodern architectural theory.5 A history of the relationship between architecture and use requires paying attention to a more diverse set of actions and actors and to the many determinants of both marginal and mainstream architectural production. Covering a wide range of practices, the contributors to this volume thus explore how various fields of knowledge and design have worked to define and shape specific uses and users, from the smallest room in the house to the problems of urban life at large. They examine the ways in which architectural knowledge has developed in relationship to other disciplines, from social science and ergonomics to industrial design, landscape architecture, and urban planning. They explore reciprocities and contradictions between intention and practice. And they reverse the dominant view that places architecture and everyday use in opposing realms of reality, experience, and action. Finally, the combination of contributions by both scholars and contemporary practitioners brings historical arguments into dialogue with contemporary debates in architecture. At least four different disciplinary lenses can be trained on the notions of use and the user. Anthropological approaches to material culture have long focused on the relationship of objects to their makers and their users, but its transposition to architecture can imply reading environments as objects.6 Phenomenological
- 18. approaches in architecture have approached use in as much as they replaced function with sensory experience, but did so by reducing it to a transhistorical intention of architecture.7 The work of Henri Lefebvre and the generation of Anglo-American studies following in its wake undoubtedly provide the most robust theoretical framework for approaching use in architecture. Their shift in focus from architectural concepts and experiences to the production of space has inspired both architectural history and contemporary discourse.8 And last, more recent developments in social studies of science and technology, in which the notion of the user has become a growing domain of inquiry, promise a fresh, more pragmatic look at architecture.9 some of their theoretical arguments, which revolve around the mutual shaping of design and use and emphasize the active role of users, remain limited, however, by the reduction of architecture to a social technology. While this collection selectively takes up some of these lenses, its overall contribution lies not in bringing them together but in historicizing some of the concepts and categories they are based on. If history is the analysis of the forces from the past that together make up the present, this book traces three such genealogies. The first part begins with the construction of the modern subject in the first decades of the twentieth century, the second with the changing role of the state and the market at mid- century, and the third with the advent of participation in the 1960s and 1970s. These constitute the three major historical forces without which today’s discussion of the user in architecture cannot be understood. The parts are chronologically organized and run up to the present, ending with a contribution by a contemporary practitioner or theorist who takes up a more explicit position with regards to the theme of each part.
- 19. I The first part, “Subjectivity and Knowledge,” explores how attention to the user emerged in architectural modernism during the interwar period and spawned new types of knowledge to support the production of architecture up to the present. The chapters depart from dominant accounts of architecture’s role in the construction of modern subjectivity by shifting the focus of analysis from avant- garde representations of subjectivity to its actual production through architectural and spatial practice. The import and popularity of literary criticism in architecture over past decades allowed scholars to speak of architecture as constructing a subject in the same way a text could construct a reader.10 In the worst case, that meant that it sufficed to describe the formal attributes of a single architectural object to present sweeping claims about modern or postmodern subjectivity. The chapters in this part analyze how such discursively and formally constructed representations of subjectivity are both shaped by and affect the realities of architectural production and experience. In doing so, they reveal how knowledge has shaped the relationship between architecture and use, from the emergence of new types of architectural knowledge in the interwar period, to their transformation in the research economies of the postwar decades, and their role in the contemporary developer-led production of architecture. The figure of the user is directly tied to the historical emergence of the mass subject in late industrial capitalism. While the origins of this type of subjectivity can be traced well into the nineteenth century, its repercussions were most directly interrogated by the modernist avant-garde. Mass production, rapid urbanization, the development of mass culture, and the proliferation of new technologies in everyday life exacerbated interest in the unknowable universe of architecture’s consumption and use.
- 20. Scholars have located the construction of a new, modernist subjectivity in the artistic import of such regimes of production and experience. Its architectural exemplars include Hannes Meyer’s Coop-Zimmer—a stage set for a new, modernist, and anti- bourgeois subject—and Grete Lihotzky’s Frankfurt Kitchen—in which Taylorist analyses of bodily movement were mobilized to construct the modern kitchen and with it, the new housewife.11 Here, the notion of use in architectural modernism appears to be interchangeable with that of function and is predominantly carried by the application of scientific management principles to architecture. Yet, if the metaphor of the human subject as machine is indeed located at the basis of the idea of the user in architecture, its contemporary legacy lies not so much in the way it inspired architectural form but in the underlying systemization of architectural knowledge.12 Not Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, or Le Corbusier, but much less heroic figures like Ernst Neufert helped shape that legacy. His Architects’ Data, first published as Bauentwurfslehre in 1936, has become a universal reference and can be found on almost every architect’s desk across the globe. It bases architectural design directly on norms and standards of human inhabitation and use. The standardization of use may have been at the basis of architectural modernism, but its goals and methods were fundamentally contested. Departing from the dominant narrative of functionalism, in Chapter 1 Eve Blau examines architectural approaches based on radically different concepts of use and thus alternative constructions of the modern subject in architecture. Shifting the focus from Germany to Austria, Blau demonstrates how Josef Frank and Otto Neurath, in their engagement with municipal socialism in Red Vienna, advanced a modern project that served rather than dictated use and informed new strategies for the circulation of knowledge among citizens.
- 21. In mainstream practice, however, such strategies would often take a different turn. Through their examination of the modern architectural handbooks appearing during the 1930s, Paul Emmons and Andreea Mihalache argue in Chapter 2 that representations of the user as universal and the human body as constant fostered not only standardization in architectural practice and design but also a particular register of experience. They demonstrate how architectural handbooks like American Graphic Standards were fundamentally inspired by scientific management and by the social ambition to create an enlightened technocracy for the common good. Once this particular notion of the user was disseminated in architectural practice it fostered a normalization of architectural experience. Until well into the 1960s, the standardization of use promoted in various strands of architectural modernism was not generally perceived as limiting the freedom of the individual subject. On the contrary, standardization and freedom were often seen as part of the same coin. In Chapter 3, William J. Rankin focuses on this conjunction in his analysis of the corporate laboratory and its role in mid-twentieth-century knowledge capitalism. Architects and science administrators rendered modularity a logical part of both liberal capitalism and scientific knowledge production. The modern laboratory, as it facilitated the corporate management of science, blurred the distinctions between control and freedom of the user. Architecture, as a discipline and a profession, also participated enthusiastically in the emerging economies of scientific research during the postwar decades in the United States. In Chapter 4, Avigail Sachs demonstrates how user-oriented research and design emerged as part of this process. By subjecting the uses of space to social scientific inquiry under the labels of environment–behavior research, human factors research, or environmental design research, professionals and experts brought the user to the center
- 22. of their field during the 1960s and 1970s. Focusing on the development of architectural expertise, Sachs reveals the politics of knowledge involved in such attempts to bring users into the realm of design. Since then, the backlash of postmodernist architects against what they dismissed as crudely positivistic and obstructive to artistic freedom has divorced such research from architectural discourse. Meanwhile user-oriented research has been selectively but enthusiastically adopted in the production of commercial and developer architecture, as Brian Lonsway shows in Chapter 5. Placing the notion of the user in the context of the contemporary “experience economy,” he shows how salient concepts from architectural discourse—from Kevin Lynch’s cognitive mapping to Christian Norberg-Schulz’s architectural phenomenology—have been harnessed by a range of professionals in the production of commercial environments. Treating users as first and foremost consumers, large-scale real estate development has successfully scientized and then commercialized architectural experience. Rather than shying away from it, critical architects would do well to address such applications as an essential part of their field today, he concludes. II The second part, “Collectivity, Welfare, Consumption,” explores the relationship between architecture and use in definitions of collectivity, welfare regimes, and the realms of collective and private consumption. Its argument is that the notion of the user in architecture is contingent upon the ambiguity between citizenship and consumerism—a condition that became especially paradigmatic in the economies of the postwar decades in Europe and North America. In this context, the rise of the user as a central,
- 23. often bureaucratic concern was triggered by the development of large-scale programs of mass housing and public services. Despite accepted wisdom that such building production was a direct expression of interwar modernist dogma, the collected chapters argue that they were in fact shaped by a complex encounter between architectural, economic, and social principles in postwar capitalism. From mass-produced housing and urban renewal programs to the construction of New Towns, architects, planners, scientists, developers, and policy makers were now more than ever engaged in the large-scale re-organization of everyday life. The upshift was not just quantitative; it also had qualitative consequences. Initially, the problem of use could be reduced to a matter of norms, standards, and statistics. But in the context of growing economic prosperity, the notion of users tended to shift from standard, passive beneficiaries of services to active participants with diversified consumer lifestyles.13 While the notion of the user initially emerged in the context of industrialized production, mass consumption, and large-scale government intervention, it evolved to contest exactly those basic qualities of mass, scale, and uniformity. Scholars have explored how architectural approaches to use changed as a result of the development of capitalism from Fordism to post-Fordism during the postwar decades. On the one hand, this seemed to imply the demise of the notion of function—based on ideas of standardization, homogeneity, and productivity—and the emergence of new architectural strategies such as flexibility, programming, and polyvalence.14 Their premise was to diversify architecture by giving more autonomy to use. On the other hand, they also appear to remain in line with some basic principles of interwar modernism. While architectural flexibility was hailed as a way to redeem functionalism from the physical rigidity in which it often resulted, Adrian Forty has shown that proponents of flexibility
- 24. still shared similar convictions about architecture’s functional determination.15 An unstated assumption was that the arrival of architectural postmodernism and its embrace of architectural meaning constituted the real break in attitudes towards the user. The chapters in this part examine how these architectural approaches to the user were in fact fundamentally shaped by larger forces of political economy, colonialism, migration, consumerism, and the bureaucratic apparatus of the state. If the conditions of use are caught somewhere in between citizenship and consumption, the chapters examine the divergent politics of that uncertain position. They look at the history of architecture’s relationship with the user through the tension between state and market, public and private, universality and individuality, standardization and uniqueness. While the turn to the user may appear in some ways to be an effect of the welfare state, its development was fundamentally shaped by the politics of colonialism. In Chapter 6, Sheila Crane focuses on the analysis of everyday dwelling practices in the shantytown in Algiers to demonstrate how the notion of the user was defined less by internal critiques in the architectural modernism of the postwar CIAM (International Congresses of Modern Architecture) than by the policies of the French colonial regime. The interest of architects and sociologists in the everyday cultures of Algerian dwelling then appears as a colonization of use more than an attempt to emancipate inhabitants. Even at the heart of the postwar European welfare state, political and architectural intentions rarely matched their consequences. Jennifer S. Mack, in Chapter 7, focuses on how middle-eastern immigrants transformed one of Sweden’s well-known New Towns over decades of residential mobility and incremental appropriation. As with New Towns elsewhere in Europe, its design was meant to foster a sense of collectivity through national belonging, defined as membership in the welfare state. Mack shows how the immigrants
- 25. built a new community within the original confines of the town center, thereby unexpectedly reaffirming the designers’ intention to create a community space for all Swedish citizens. State bureaucracies and the architects they employed were neither unaware of the consequences nor unwilling to rethink the premises of their interventions. In France, social critiques of state- sanctioned modernist urbanism were continually recuperated by the same state bureaucracy responsible for those developments. In Chapter 8, Łukasz Stanek focuses on the urban sociology and theoretical concepts of Henri Lefebvre to assess the pitfalls and potentials of this kind of institutionalization of critique. Because it was a process to which he himself was a witness, Lefebvre approached the notion of the user ambivalently, seeing it as both an instrument of control and as a vehicle for the creation of a revolutionary, political form of collectivity. Not only in the realm of public welfare or collective consumption, but also in the most private domains of consumption did the politics of design and use surface at this time. Focusing on Alexander Kira’s attempts to radically redesign the bathroom, Barbara Penner in Chapter 9 reveals how his ergonomic design philosophy, akin to Ralph Nader’s advocacy for safety design in the automotive industry, was meant to accommodate for a greater variety of bathroom uses and users’ bodily differences. The call for government to regulate industry where it concerned matters of safety in private use and consumption, however, was not easily transposed to bathroom design, and certainly not to architecture more generally. In both Western and Eastern Europe, architectural approaches to the user intersected with political ideologies in often unexpected ways. Max Hirsh explores this encounter in the postmodern experiments of late-socialist urbanism in Chapter 10. Focusing on a series of mixed-use redevelopment projects during the 1980s, he
- 26. Other documents randomly have different content
- 27. Gentlewoman’s Mother was Lamenting her Daughter’s Condition; after having given her Reason, to expect something from his Medicine, he promis’d to make it for her, but made her send 10 Miles, twice a Week to his house for the Decoction of the Herb, that he might conceal it from ’em, because he knew they would undoubtedly despise it, if they knew what it was: He therefore made very strong Decoctions of it, till the Liquor was Glutinous and Sweetish, of which she was to Drink as much as she could every day at what times she pleased, this she followed above four Months; in which time most of her Sores were dry’d up, and in a little time more, she was perfectly Cur’d. And of this I have reason to be certain, because I liv’d in the House where it was made, all the time, and the Person who made it, did not make a Secret of it for Gain, but only that it might not be slighted. This instance I have thus amply related, that it may serve as a hint that this Herb when it is us’d as a Pectoral, ought to be us’d after another manner than we generally do. And that when we do make use of Vegetables, in a manner suitable to their Nature; we may find Cause to come to a Temper, as to our Opinions concerning ’em, notwithstanding the great Plenty of generous Medicines, which Chymistry affords us. I have caus’d the Decoction of this Herb to be made after the same manner, and have given it where I did not expect a Cure, and thought that I had reason to believe, it did in some Measure prove Nutritive. And we find by Reusner in his Observations publish’d by Velschius, that it has been us’d as an Analeptick, he tells us that Hillerus, the Marquiss of Brandenburgh’s Physician, did restore Children out of Atrophy’s, by making ’em eat of this Herb fry’d after the manner of Clary. The next thing I shall take Notice of, as peculiarly adapted to this Case is Liquorice. This Plant was ever reputed by the Ancients for the greatest quencher of Thirst in Nature, and therefore they call’d it Adipson, and upon that account, Galen tells us it was given to Dropsical people, Theophrastus calls it Scythica, and Pliny gives us the Reason of it, and tells us the Scythians where wont to Live 12 Days upon Liquorice, and a little Cheese made of Mare’s Milk; so that
- 28. it was in Reputation, likewise for sustaining Nature, and enabling People to bear Hunger. Its effects on Pains in the Stomach, the Bladder and the like, are numerous; and some of ’em very well attested, and perhaps there is scarce any Alterative that the Ancients take more Notice of than this, except their admir’d Silphium; and we may gather from all, that it is one of the greatest Correcters of Acrimony in general, and that it is very temperate and safe, because the Juice of it has been drank in considerable quantities, and that fermented too; after this account of it, let us see how we use it; we boil about an Ounce or an Ounce and a half, in a Decoction of a Quart or two with other Ingredients; this is a wonderful Concession, but then in our Lozenges, there we do it to some purpose, about equal Parts of Juice of Liquorice and Sugar, make up a Stupendious Medicine indeed, not remembring at the same time a good Remark of Tragus’s, viz. that Sugar and Liquorice are directly contrary, he Glories, speaking of Liquorice, that we have found a Sweet, that will quench the Thirst, whereas most other Sweets will cause Thirst, and instances in Sugar, which if it be true, can any thing imply more of Contradiction than Our Practice? If we were to make Sweetmeats for Children only, it would be allowable to mix all the Sweets in the Universe together; but when the Blood of a Poor Consumptive Wretch, is heated and loaded with Acrimony, to spoil the most agreeable Drug in Nature, by mixing it with its contrary, only because the form of a Medicine requires it; this, with all Submission, is what I think cannot easily be excus’d; this is to Cheat People with the Bellaria of Physick, and Tickle Men into the Grave. I know what will here be the Objection viz. that these things are design’d only for the Cough, and not expected to Cure the Habit of the Body, and that therefore they may be allow’d to be a good sort of Composition for that Palliative Service they are directed to; but this will not suffice, for there is not one in ten that makes use of these Medicines, but relies on ’em for the Cure of the whole Distemper; and therefore this is the broken Reed that has deceiv’d so many; especially of the Poorer Sort, and which leads ’em in such numbers into the Hospitals to end their Days there, after they have
- 29. lost the Opportunities of Recovery by depending on these Trifles. And if any one must needs take offence at some of these Expressions, let him consult Ludovicus, an allow’d Judge of these matters, in his Pharmacia Moderno seculo applicanda, he will find what is his Opinion of these things in the 19th Page of his first Dissertation, speaking of the Confectiones communes & Candisatæ Conservæ recentiorum siccæ (simplicis sui Pulvere plerumque debiliores) Martis Panes, Pandaleon, & antiquariæ Saponeæ Confecturæq; reliquæ, he says, Væ Hecticis tabidisq; quando tandem ad ejuscemodi Refectiva, sesamo atque papavere sparsa, pineis Pistaceis, &c. damnantur: Arentes hinc fauces (quamvis difficulter interdum) lenitas vidimus, curatum neminem, quin potius intensiores inde depascentes febres, dejectum magis appetitum, festinatosque Fluxus colliquativos. And speaking before, pag. 9. of Decoctions and Infusions, he says, Procertis interdum Circumstantiis in Pectoralibus & Vulneraris dilutiora hæc contractioribus dosibus commodiora deprehenduntur; and, it seems, he thinks this Observation, relating to the Use of Pectorals, to be of such Moment, that he makes it one of the Heads of his Additionary Comment or Appendix, where, pag. 582. he has these Words; Natura interea nihilominus, præ Essentiis Extractisq; pectoralibus, præq; fauces in internis ibi ardoribus tantisper lenientibus Morsulis, Trochiscis atque mixturis antihecticis, antiphthisics, diffusius quidpiam & ad remotiora perveniens unà ut plurimum velle videtur. These Citations plainly shew, that he thought those sugar’d Compositions no apposite Remedy for Persons in such Circumstances, but that whatever Remedy is made use of, it ought to be made to dilute as much as possible; which does agree with the Reason, which I shall shew anon, for the plentiful use of those mild Vegetables. I have made these Citations at large, that what I have said may not be thought to be any Figment of mine, but that I may appear, that I have Precedent as well as Reason on my Side. But to return to the Root I was upon—Besides the mixing of Sugar with Liquorice, to what purpose is the Aqueous part of its Juice exhal’d; what harm would that soft Lympha do to People, who have a
- 30. continual Thirst upon ’em? To what purpose must the Juice be inspissated, in order to acquire an Acrimony by lying, not to speak of its Adulterations? These are things which I could not forbear animadverting upon, because they put us out of the right use of a Medicine, than which there is not perhaps a greater Analeptick to be found, if it were taken in the same quantity as other Juices are taken. A Medicine that is a kind of a Balsam in Ficri, and the most likely to be wrought up to Perfection in the Blood, and of which the Fresh Juice ought undoubtedly be taken to a Spoonful or two several times a day. But thus it is, we give a thing the Name of Physick, and then stand aghast at it, and take it with Guard and Circumspection, as if it were not possible that any thing should prove a Medicine, and yet be taken in an Alimentary way. There is another Plant, the Cynogloss, which seems not unlikely to be of Use in this Case, because it seems to have something of a like Gleamy Substance in it; it has been deliver’d down to us under some mistaken Notions, as if it caused Sleep, which perhaps have been occasion’d by its Cooling and Styptick Quality; but a late Author of unquestion’d Judgment and Experience has us’d it pretty much in Decoctions with Turnips, and says, it has no such quality, but recommends it to People in this Distemper; to these may be added some of our Vulneraries, of which there is great Variety of all Rates, of all degrees of heat; and among ’em one of the Temperate sort, never enough to be valu’d, viz. the Comfreys, and which in Consumptions, upon spitting of Blood, may be expected to do great things; These Roots may be so manag’d by a good hand as to be eat as Food. The Female Retailers of Physick would perhaps take it Ill, if among these things I should forget their Preparations of Turnips and Snails, which may all have their time of being serviceable, either as Food or for Variety, and what is more, all these things are Compatible with a Milk Diet too; these things may be taken in small quantities at different times from the taking of the Milk; tho’ if taken with it, they could cause no Coagulation, and so a mild and Medicated Chyle may be continually passing into the Blood to the great Advantage of the Sick.
- 31. These Instances are sufficient to shew the Nature of those things, which I take to be the most adequate Remedy in this Case; viz. that they ought to be such as are of a Medium, between common Balsamicks and Acids, and that they are such, as seem most likely to prove Nutritive to People in so weak a Condition; the reason why I set such a value upon these moderate things, is taken from the state of the Blood of People in such Circumstances, which seems unable to manage stronger Medicines, the least tendency to a Diaphoresis being some disturbance to those Persons; so that what is to be done, must be by things which may suit with the Blood, and as it were grow upon it, that may be transubstantiated into its Crasis after an Alimentary way; there must be a continual Rill of these temperate Juices into the Blood, without the observing of Physical Hours, and then ’tis to be hop’d the Blood may renew by degrees, and the Acrimony may decrease for want of Fuel; and thus we may perhaps better obviate the Periodical Ebullitions of the Hectick, by substracting their Cause, than by stifling the Hectick by keeping in the Cause; I have not Scope here to explain my self, but I think the common Causes assign’d for those Fits, don’t seem sufficient; I can’t think the Ripening of a Tubercle able to do so much, that little quantity of Pus can’t contain a Putredo sufficient for such effects, not to say the same Hectick happens, where no Tubercle has broke; to be short, it seems to me most probable, that when the Blood is so much saturated with disagreeable Particles, as in Consumptive Persons it is, as these Particles encrease and grow upon those Particles which make up, the Proper, Genuine, Inseparable Essence of the Blood in its true, State; I say as the first gain ground, there is so great a Correspondence and Harmony in the Oeconomy, that these latter must contend and resist the other, tho’ in the Contention, Nature gains no great Advantage, but only fights and retires till she is quite overcome; this seems to me no unlikely Idea of the Hectick, and if it be true, the best way must be to substract the quantity of the Morbisick Particles, by using such a Food, as cannot possibly afford Matter for ’em.
- 32. Having, then consider’d these Medicines, I will suppose it granted me, that they are proper in this Case; I won’t say that they shall be Sufficient to Cure of themselves, (tho’ I don’t doubt but they may in some Constitutions do the Work themselves) but I will only suppose, that they do greatly dispose towards it, which Postulatum will, I conceive, be readily granted me; I will suppose likewise, that Riding (the Exercise I propose in this Case) does likewise dispose towards a Cure, which Postulatum will be granted too; I will suppose farther, that these two Courses are Compatible, and may be us’d together; as the Medicines help the Fluids, the Exercise helps both the Fluids and Solids; which Postulatum cannot be deny’d me neither; what then naturally Results from this, but that they be both us’d in Conjunction? And is it not more than probable, that these two Methods joyn’d, shall effect that which neither of ’em can singly? Do not we see enough of this every Day in Natural Occurrences, where one, two or three things, indifferent in themselves, shall, when blended together, produce a valuable Effect, which none of ’em could alone? And shall these things be observ’d in lesser Arts, and be slighted when a Man’s Health is at Stake? Seeing we abound so in Compound Medicines, why may we not for once take up with a Compound Method of Cure, (if I may so speak) that is, if we cannot obtain Health by one sort of means alone, why may we not expect it from a Complication? Thus I have run up these Arguments to a Head; I have shewn that the Medicines appropriated to this Case, ought to be very Mild and Temperate, upon the account of that less prevalent quality, there may be Hazard, lest they should not always prove equally effectual; and therefore to supply any such Defect, I substitute a most easie Natural Gymnastick Course, as a common Aid to the weakness of the Medicines, and an assistance to that part of the Oeconomy, which those Medicines can’t reach. Whether this is not most suitable to, and consistent with the even Tenour of Nature, tho’ it may not relish so much of the Magnificence of Art, I must submit to those who are best Judges; to me it seems to promise enough, and carry more
- 33. Healing with it, than some things that are dignifi’d with the great Titles of Gilead and Peru. If after all there are any People who will think, I have taken too much upon me, in venturing to attack the Balsamick Method, if they cannot think slightly of Medicines, which will give such present mitigation of a Cough, and which are so Fragrant and Costly, let ’em enjoy their Opinion, and persist in the use of them; and if they find ’em at any time not so effectual as they could desire, let ’em but superadd the Power of Exercise, and they will doubtless find ’em much improv’d; and if they come by that Means to succeed, I shall not envy their good Effects. Besides these two main Indications, there is something more to be consider’d in the Cure of the Consumption; and that is, how we may obviate the Moisture of the Air; which is a very troublesome Enemy to Consumptive People, of what Constitution soever, who dare not make use of Generous Liquors to fence against it; for that Practice would be prejudicial upon another Account: Now what can be more Natural in this Case, than the raising the Spirits to resist this Moisture, by a gentle Motion of the whole Body, which at the same time, causes a greater Degree of Heat, and that equally diffus’d all over the Body, which must needs rarify in some measure, the moist Air, and besides, make the hot and acrimonious Particles in the Blood, supply the place of warm Internal Medicines, which in another Person would have been proper to have been given, to oppose the Moisture of the Air? Now this is much the same, that the Change of Air can effect in the Body of a Sick Person, for ’tis the equal Influence, the universal moderate Rarefaction of a warm Air, that makes it so beneficial, and if we will cast in the benefit of the Tension, which is caus’d by moderate Riding, together with the Equality of the Heat, it will appear to be very little short of what is usually expected from a Journey into a Foreign Air, and I could here give an Instance of a Gentleman, who, when he was in the South of France, found but little Relief, any longer than when he was on Horse-back; and who after his return to England, found that Riding supported him as much, as the Change of Air; So that upon the
- 34. Consideration of the equal promoting of the insensible Perspiration, and the Benefit, which at the same time accrues to the Solid Parts, this Exercise which I have so much insisted on, may be allow’d to be almost, if not altogether, an Equivalent to a Warmer Climate. Lastly, I shall urge but this one more Reason for this Exercise, which is not taken from a Natural, but a Prudential Consideration, from the particular Humour of most People in this Distemper, who are strangely inclin’d to think themselves in no great Danger, even tho’ the Distemper is far advanc’d; they don’t love to be told the Truth, tho’ it is ever so necessary; but an honest Physician is to them, as Micaiah was to Ahab, he never has any thing good to say of ’em; they think they are strong enough in the Main; they’ll tell ye, they should be as well as ever, if their Scurvey Cough, or the weight on their Breast was but remov’d: Now the Genius of the Sick must be consider’d, and these People who have so good an Opinion of themselves, may in some Sense be indulg’d and wrought upon, to exert their Imaginary Strength in Gentle Riding, and then they may perhaps come to enjoy that which is real. I might now proceed farther, to consider in what degree of this Distemper Riding will be beneficial, whether any thing is to be expected from it in the second and last State of it; but this would be to run out beyond my Design of Brevity; only I shall take Notice, that it is no rare thing to meet with Consumptions, without any Putrid Fever, or any Reason to believe an Ulcer in the Lungs, or perhaps so much as Tubercles, but a continual Hectick, and a precipitate Wast of Nature by the Direful Acrimony and ill Quality of the Serum, as Doctor Benet, in his Theatrum Tabidorum observes, Pag. 109. Tabidorum languor sine pulmonum aut visceris cujuslibet corruptelâ tacitâ vi obrepens Anglis infestissimus est, & nisi primis obediverit remediis (quod rarissimè evenit) funestus. In this Case I can’t but be of Opinion, that Riding well manag’d would be serviceable, tho’ undertook very late, if there is any tolerable Measure of Strength left to put it in Practice.
- 35. I must here again repeat, that when I here speak of Riding, I understand the Habit of Riding, the want of which Distinction, has made it ineffectual to many a Man; He that in this Distemper above all others rides for his Health, must be like a Tartar, in a manner always on Horse-back, and then from a weak Condition, he may come to the Strength of a Tartar. He that would have his Life for a Prey, must hunt after it, and when once he finds his Enemy give way, must not leave off, but follow his Blow, till he subdue him beyond the Possibility of a Return. He that carries this Resolution with him, will I doubt not experience the Happy Effects of the good old Direction, Recipe Caballum; he will find that the English Pad is the most noble Medium, to be made use of for a Recovery from a Distemper, which we in this Nation, have but too much reason by way of Eminence to stile English.
- 36. OF THE DROPSIE. The Second Distemper which I shall consider as subject to these Measures, is one Species of the Dropsie; that is, the Anasarcous Kind, from which likewise I except those, which are attended with a hard Liver, or a remarkable Obstruction of some of the Viscera. This kind of Dropsie, thus circumstantiated, does at first View, seem not to need the Assistance of any extraordinary means to help towards a Cure, it being the most Curable of all Dropsies; and we have daily Instances of its giving way to Common Medicines, nevertheless there are such exceptions in this most Favourable Case, as give trouble enough to a Physician sometimes, and requires more than usual Application; as for Instance; sometimes a Person happens to be brought so low by an Unseasonable Purge, that afterwards Diureticks and Corroboratives will have no effect upon him, but the Case becomes deplorable, without the Rupture of any Lympheducts or other the like Difficulty. Secondly, when People decline in Years, there are some extraordinary means requisite to make the Remedies exert themselves with like Success, as they do in Younger Persons. Thirdly, in Hysterick Women it is difficult to carry off the load of Water by common means, without some such Method as I shall hereafter mention; because their Spirits are so low, that they can bear no considerable Evacuation. Fourthly, when a Dropsie comes upon an Asthmatick Person, there are particular Difficulties arise, and the singular Advantages of constant and gentle Exercise in this Case are universally known.
- 37. These four different Circumstances of this Distemper, may suffice to shew that I have Colour enough for my calling in the Gymnastick Method into this Case, and ’tis the first of the Exceptions, I mean the ill Effects, which sometimes follow upon the Use of Purgatives, which have chiefly occasion’d me to inquire, whether we ought in this plain Case, thus circumstantiated to halt between two Opinions, between Purgatives and Diureticks, without endeavouring to establish a certain Praxis upon Just Foundations. There are none will deny, but Diureticks are the most proper and natural Remedies in this Case, if they would always succeed, because directed to the proper Emunctory, the Kidneys, and because they can go hand in hand, with the Corroborative Medicines to be given at the same time; I take it for granted therefore, that whenever Purgatives are us’d in this Case, it is because the Diureticks don’t take quick enough, or in order to carry off the load of Serum, that the Diureticks may the sooner display their good effects, because it will be alledg’d that the Serum becomes so Ropy and Glutinous in the Passages and Capillary Parts, that the Diuretick cannot always act upon it. But tho’ this is granted, it will not suffice to warrant the Use of the stronger Purgatives, because their manner of Acting cannot agree with this Distemper, and because those difficulties objected, may be overcome by other means. First, the very Nature of strong Purgers, makes against this Case, it seems very preposterous, to have recourse to such Deleterious Drugs, to those Mortis Catapultæ (as Ludovicus calls the Esula’s and such like Purgatives) in Order to the Restoring an impoverish’d Blood; if they acted only by Stimulating the Intestines, something might be said; but since it is indisputable that they pass into the Blood, and act powerfully upon it, there is no doubt to be made, but they fuze and divide it, and break its Globules, and consequently make as much Water as they carry off, which is the very Reason why Sweating is laid aside, and Salivation, tho’ they both seem so proper to carry off Watery Humours; I know it may be alledg’d in Defence of these Medicaments, that the 36th and 37th Aphorisms, of the Second Section seem to imply, that a Sick Person would receive less
- 38. Harm from ’em, than one that is in Health; but yet this will not excuse their Use in our Case, because tho’ the Viscousness of the Serum, may blunt the Particles of those Drugs for a time, and hinder ’em from working so quickly, yet when once they are throughly imbib’d, and begin to exert their Force, they ravage the very Principles of Life, and can by no means be fit for a Person in so low a condition. But admit that the Water is carry’d off by these means, the Blood will be left as poor at least as it was before the Dropsie first appear’d; and then how can we be sure the Waters will not rise again? Suppose an Anasarca follows upon an Hæmorrhage, which is very common, and you draw off the Water by Purging; will not the Person be just in Statu quo, upon supposition that the Medicines in their working did not impair Nature? but that is not to be granted, because it is impossible to suppose, that such Drastick Medicines, should not prey upon Nature, even while they are assisting her; and can we be assur’d that the Blood will not run into the same Colliquation it did before? Besides, may there not be some reason to suspect that the very quantity of the Serum, supposing it is not too Turgid indeed, may sometimes be serviceable, to the promoting the activity of the Diuretick, even as we find in the true Ascites, it is of some use in the Cavity of those Persons, because they often can’t spare it, without certain Ruine? We don’t know how much the confidence of the Fluid may conduce to the keeping its homogeneous Particles combin’d, and we ought to be very tender of doing any thing, that might tend to dissolve the Crassamentum, the Globules, which are as it were the very Semen Sanguinis (if I may so speak); for how far Nature would endure such measures, before the Sanguification would be totally subverted, would require a Dissertation, longer than my Scope will permit; but that this is sometimes done is not improbable, and I take this to be the Case of a Young Fellow I knew, who falling into a slight Dropsie, goes to an Empirick somewhere about White-Chappel, from whom he had a Dose of Pills, which gave him about 30 Stools, which sunk him so much that his Nails turn’d black, and he died in two or three days time; Here ’tis very likely the Signification was entirely extinct, and the Blood chang’d into a Preternatural Fluid, and all by the great
- 39. Power of these Deleterious Drugs; and tho’ ’tis likely the Quack did not know the proper Dose of his Medicines, yet one would think, this was no more than what might be expected from Ten Grains of Elaterium, which yet has been allow’d by an Eminent Writer. Besides the weak State of the Blood, the Ventricle is always more or less impair’d in this Distemper, and consequently unable to be put to bear the violent Stimuli of the stronger Purgers, without Danger of having its Tone irrecoverably ruin’d. It may likewise be Prudent to forbear Purging in this Case, left happily there should be some greater Obstruction in the Liver, than we are aware on, for then it might be follow’d with ill Consequences; ’tis true, if that Bowel is really Schirrous, it may be discern’d, or a great Tendency toward it, will shew it self sometimes in the Greeness and Virulency of the Bile mixt in the Excrements, together with other Indications; but a slight disorder there, is not always regarded, and Brick-colour’d turbid Urines are so common in all kind of Dropsies, that we may not discern that the Blood does abound too much with Bile, and so a Purge given at such a time may do a great deal of Mischief, for the Bile is of a light Nature in Comparison of the Phlegm, and moves easily, and no Man knows what he does when he rouzes it; I knew an ill accident happen once upon a Purge, given by a very Eminent Physician, to a Gentleman in a Jaundice, which put him into the most extravagant and fatal Hypercatharsis: thus bold Administrations to such weak Subjects, may be attended with Tragical Accidents, but the milder and gradual measures may succeed, without such dangerous Risks, if we consider what have been the Difficulties which have lay in the way, and hindred the Operation of our Diureticks. The ill Success of our Diuretick Method in this Distemper, is very much owing to our giving those Medicines in so small a Quantity, and to our not changing ’em for some of a quite different Nature, when one sort us’d pertinaciously does not take; that the quantity must be encreas’d, there needs no better Argument, than what is brought for the use of Purgers; for if the Blood can dispense with
- 40. the Particles of a Purgative, it will certainly bear a great quantity of those which are Diuretick only. What Wonders has that Golden Remedy of Pythagoras done, the Acetum Scylliticum, when given to a proper quantity? And what may not be expected from the Sal Succini, which may be given to a Dose large enough to irritate the Fibres of the Stomach, and in some measure supply the place of a gentle Purger; but when it is come into the Blood it may prove Cordial as well as inciding? And now I am speaking of augmenting the Quantity of our Diureticks, I can here affirm a very strange Effect that follow’d upon an excessive Dose of Millepedes in an odd kind of a Rheumatick Case, for the Cure of which, several things had been try’d in Vain, by very good Advice; the Millepedes were given to a quantity scarce credible, to several Ounces, and gave a Relief in a little time that exceeded all expectation. This with other instances something of the like nature, every where to be met with, may convince, us that we ought to advance the quantity of these Medicines, to which if we apply the Use of Exercise, the highest Advantages may be expected: For to grant as much as the favourers of the Purging Method can demand, that by reason of the foremention’d Ropiness of the Serum, the Diureticks and Chalybeates will but distend the parts, and make the Juices grow Turgid. Is there no way to remove the Dam, but by shaking all Nature at the same time? Must we blow up the House to get the Enemy out? To what purpose do we talk so much of the Animal Oeconomy, if we reduce its Rules to Practice no more than we do? We are taught the Benefit arising from the Constriction of the Muscles upon the Vessels; and can there be any Case which does more apparently call for it than this? When it is hazardous to attempt by inward Violence to dislodge the Viscous Concretions, certainly it is high time to do it by Muscular Force. This Hippocrates seems to be experimentally convinc’d of, by his frequent inculcating the Use of Exercises in this Distemper, Δεῖ ταλαιπωρέειν you must labour, is his constant Expression, whenever he speaks of the Dropsie; which, whoever considers the Conciseness that is in all the Writings of that Great Man, will be apt to imagine that it carries its Weight with it, and implies the absolute necessity of acting upon the Lentor of the
- 41. Phlegm, by the playing of the Muscles. Besides Exercise will help to restore the Tone of the Parts, which is sometimes spoil’d by too great a Distension, even so much as to be in a manner benum’d, which Helmont seems to lay much stress on, when he, according to his odd fantastick way, calls it the Anger of the Archæus, that won’t let the Waters pass; and if there is this kind of Spasmodick Affect in the Parts leading to the Kidneys, then certainly there is as much Reason for one in a Dropsie to get into a Coach upon his taking his Medicines, that the frequent jolting may assist their Operation, as there is for one in a Fit of the Gravel so to do. The Heat that is acquir’d by the Motion of the Body, must needs comfort the Parts, and rarifie a great deal of the Moisture, so that it may the more easily pass the Membranes, as they are dilated by Exercise; and if we can by squeezing, make Water pass through Leather, the whole Skin dry’d and prepar’d, may it not much more easily pass the Membranes of a living Animal, when work’d and stretch’d by Motion, and assisted by the Warmth which that Motion produces? These may be thought little things by some, but they will be found to be of great Consequence; by such minute Measures, Nature can produce great Effects; and by a Neglect of these things, many a great Life has been lost, in Dependence upon something of a greater Name, that has had no Relation to the Genuine proceedings of Nature. These are some of the Reasons which have convinc’d me of the Preference of the Diuretick Course, and which I think can’t be overthrown, by all the Examples of the Success of Purgers, because if we compute the Ill Effects of ’em likewise, and set ’em to balance the good, the very Cures done by ’em, will seem but as so many Splendida Peccata. We ought not hastily to quit safe Means for those which are dangerous, only because they are a little more expeditious; when a Case is within our Reach, we ought to Establish our Prognosticks upon sure ground, tho’ they may not be so quick as could be wish’d; we have other Dropsies that are dubious enough, but in this Case we ought to study to bring things to a certainty as much as possible; which how can we do unless our Methods are Uniform? It behoves the Patrons of Purgatives to assign some
- 42. certain Rule, to render the Use of ’em alwayes safe, which seems impossible to be done; and it behoves those who are for insisting on Diureticks, to find out some such Measures, as may make these milder Medicines always Efficacious; which is what I have been attempting to do; and which, if I don’t flatter my self, I think I have made to appear plain and obvious; for if we can’t arrive at some comfortable certainty in this Case, I don’t know in what we can do so; for we are so happy as to have those things as will certainly act upon such a Crasis of the Blood, as will revive and enrich it, when decay’d, tho’ not always in the like space of time; and when they act too slowly, we can enforce their Virtue, by these ways I have been speaking of. These things are no Figment of mine, they have been the Practice of Ancient Times, and are so natural a Result from a due Consideration of the Animal Oeconomy, that I cannot enough wonder that in so many Discourses upon those Fundamental Rules, there has been so little Notice taken of the Effects of the Motion of the whole individual, as superinduc’d to the internal Motions, that make up the Oeconomy; for if this had been duly regarded, it could not but have been reduc’d to Practice, and apply’d particularly to the Cure of this Distemper. Lastly, I know these are hard Sayings to some People, who send for a Physician, as for one that deals in Charms, and can remove all their Afflictions, while they are wholly Passive; and they would take it very ill that they should be compell’d to a sort of Labour, while they carry about ’em a Load in their Limbs; but yet for all this, Nature will be Nature still; and if this be her Voice it must be obey’d. He that is in a Dropsie ought to be Alarm’d, and look upon himself as in something the like Case with those Criminals whom the Dutch, upon their refusing to Work, confine to a Cellar, and let the Water in upon ’em, that they may be in a Necessity either of Pumping or Drowning. And I believe there are but few, but who, upon their being convinc’d of the real and surprising Benefit of these Means, would readily undergo the Fatigue of ’em; and things may be so manag’d, that Exercise may not be so troublesome as the Sick
- 43. imagine; an easie Pad will quickly grow familiar; and where the Legs happen to be so very much distended, that there may be some danger, lest the Skin should be rub’d off, a Chaise may serve the turn.
- 44. OF THE Hypochondriacal DISTEMPER. The third and last Case, which I shall expresly consider, is the Hysterick or Hypochondriacal Case; in the Cure of which the several Exercises, which I shall hereafter Recommend, may all be us’d. This Distemper falls the most under a Gymnastick Method, because the least proper to be treated with much Internal Physick; this is a Distemper which will not drive, as we say, but if kindly treated will lead, that is, will not be expell’d by Purging, Bleeding, Sweating or the like, but must be treated by more gentle and leisurely Methods; ’tis a Distemper of the Spirits, and the Vessels which immediately convey ’em; and therefore those means by which they are more immediately affected, are the most likely to prove beneficial. Here it is, if ever, strictly true, that a little Matter gives the turn, but then that little matter must be equally apply’d; we must give an equal lift to all the Parts of the Oeconomy at the same time, we must not apply to the Fluids, and neglect the Solids. ’Tis the want of this Distinction, which I take to be the Ground of all our mistakes in the Cure of this Distemper; we cure but half the Man, When I meet with a Languid Hysterick Pulse, I can easily raise it, and give a full Beat to the Artery, by Anti-Hysterick Medicines; but then what becomes of the Nerves, they are not much help’d by this, But sometimes impair’d by it? but then let the same Person have Recourse to some moderate Exercise, his Pulse shall rife as high as upon the use of Internals, but with this Difference, that the Nerves as well as the Blood partake of the Benefit. For we may distinguish between this natural advance of the Bodily heat, which is procur’d by Exercises, and that which is acquir’d by Medicines, just as we may between the Effects of the Kindly Heat of the Sun, and those of an Artificial Fire:
- 45. Now in the matter of the Vegetation of Plants, and the Management of some sorts of nicer Workmanship, tho’ the greatest Care and Industry be us’d to raise a gentle heat, which to our Senses and even to the Measure of the Thermometer, may seem equal to that of the Sun, yet it shall never be able to produce the same exquisite effects, as the heat of the Sun does. And so we see in this Case the mildest and seemingly most agreeable Gumms prove Purgers to some of these People, others again can’t bear Castor, without some troublesome inconveniences; and how much soever some People may be Rapt up with their Sal Volatile, and such like Preparations, I can perhaps give an instance of more wonderful Relief given in this Case, by a more Common Cordial, than ever those splendid Medicines could produce; it may not be amiss to relate it in this place, because it serves to illustrate my Design in shewing that nothing that has the least seeming Violence in it, or rather that nothing, which is not very mild and agreeable to Nature, can be of very great moment in the Cure of this Distemper. The Instance then I mean, was communicated to me by an Eminent Physician, and very Learned Writer, and is this; He was call’d to see a Maid which had been severely Tormented with Hysterick Fits for several days, and had taken plenty of the Remedies usual in that Case, without any effect; upon which he was resolv’d to try, what a good large Dose of a true generous Wine would do, considering she was a Servant, and consequently could not be suppos’d to be accustom’d to that Liquor, which would have render’d his attempt fruitless; he therefore prescrib’d some Pouders of no Efficacy, to obviate the Phancy of the By-standers, and order’d the Apothecary to ply her with some Wine of his own procuring, that he could depend upon, till she had taken a quantity, which to her might be reckon’d very large; this succeeded like a Charm, after a good Sleep, she was freed of all her terrible Symptoms the next Morning, tho’ before she could scarce stir her head from the Pillow, but she fell into a Fit. And I have twice had the Occasion, to see something of the like nature my self; the first was, where a large Dose of Wine took off some very ill Symptoms, occasion’d by strong Purgers, erroneously repeated in a certain Nervous Case. But the Person had not been us’d to drink Wine,
- 46. otherwise it could not have produc’d such a happy effect. I instance in these things only to shew, that the Remedies which are most proper and adequate to this Case, must be such as have something of an inimitable Mediocrity in ’em; and that Exercises do produce Alterations in the Body, which resemble the effects of such a singular and Noble Mean, is not improbable, in regard they act so equally (as I observ’d before) both upon the Solids and Fluids. And one would think the Ill Success of any thing, but like Violence, should lead us to some such Measures as these. One would be apt to think that when a Distemper, which carries as little, or may be, the least danger of Life in it, of any whatsoever, tho’ so very troublesome, when this nevertheless becomes one of the most difficult to be perfectly rooted out, one would think, I say, that this odd Circumstance, so like to Contradiction, should prompt us to look out for the real Reason of it. Upon these Considerations I can’t but admire, that the same Administrations, or with very little difference, (excepting the Chalybeates which may be allow’d in both Cases) are thought proper for Temperate Women, and Men of Intemperance, when they happen to fall into the Hypochondriacal Affect, as is frequently enough known; one would think that when the Disorder in these latter is owing to the excess of a Liquor, both wholsom enough and Cordial enough in it self, which by its too frequent use has relax’d the Nerves, and consequently impair’d the Spirits, there should be little likelyhood it should be remov’d, and taken off by hot Medicines in a Solid form, which perhaps don’t differ so much as most People imagine, in their real intrinsick Energy from that Noble Liquid, to which these Gentlemen owe their Malady; I say, one would think that some such surmises as these, should naturally lead us to an immediate attempt, upon the parts affected, viz. the Nerves, which must be done by means suitable to ’em, that is by Exercise. Wherever there is a Dejection of the Mind, and a Propensity to Phantastick and Imaginary Fears, there is reason to suspect the Solids, that is, the Nerves are more in fault than we think for; we may consider that when a Man is Drunk, he seldom loses his intellectual Faculties to any great degree, till the Nerves are quite
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