DIGESTIVE REMEDIES.

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Among the familiar digestive remedies commonly used in dogmatic medicine Traditional medicine based on the established teachings of Galen and Hippocrates., and sometimes even requested by the patients themselves, those most in use are, first and foremost, Vitriolated Tartar original: "Tartarus vitriolatus"; potassium sulfate, often used as a laxative or diuretic as described by Crollius, from which the digestive remedy in that same work is derived. This is prepared in wine—specifically dissolved and cooked with raisins and cinnamon as Crollius teaches—and has been shown to be a singular remedy which, when administered in the proper manner, is highly effective in stubborn and chronic diseases that require digestion and mitigation.

Crystals of Tartar.

II. There is the Crystal of Tartar original: "Crystallus Tartari"; purified potassium bitartrate frequently praised by Quercetanus Joseph Duchesne (c. 1544–1609), a prominent French physician and advocate of Paracelsian chemical medicine. and confirmed by long use, commonly called Cream of Tartar. Its use is also very suitable for many diseases requiring digestion: but it is especially adapted for stones in the kidneys or bladder, about which more will be said below. The dose of this is from half a drachm to one drachm. In cases of melancholy, it is a supreme "deopilative" A medicine intended to open obstructions or clear blockages in the bodily channels. for both the bowels and for the tartar-like matter stagnant in the mesenteric veins. It is given in meat broth or wine, frequently repeating the dose.

(DIGESTIVE REMEDIES.

Digestion In this medical context, "digestion" refers not just to the stomach, but to the "concoction" or ripening of diseased humors so the body can expel them. is the disposition of matter, by nature's own powers, toward a movement by which the pure is separated from the impure; I call this natural digestion. If, however, this matter becomes troublesome to itself and the region it inhabits—either through the weakness of nature, by complication, or by some other hindered movement—it is the task of art to make that matter ready to undergo movement or fermentation, by which its parts are separated from one another, using suitable remedies. These are called Digestives, from the words dis (meaning apart) and gero (to carry), or from the Greek dia original: "$δι\grave{α}$", which signifies division; hence to "digest" is to dissolve, while to be digested and to congeal are opposites.

From this, if you take the term strictly, these remedies primarily regard viscous phlegm original: "pituita"; one of the four humors, associated with coldness and moisture, which requires dissolution to become more fluid before purging; that is, it must be "incised" and thinned, according to Hippocrates, who in Section 1, Aphorism 22, warns that matters must be cooked, not raw, when purged, and likewise in Section 2, Aphorism 19, and Section 7, Aphorism 66: If anyone wishes to purge bodies, he should make the humors fluid. Other humors, being more mobile, do not require the same treatment; if they suffer any thickening, it is not from themselves (though they may cause it), but depends proximately on the phlegm in which they are immersed and which they inhabit as a home, or on a defect in its disposition. I say "though they may cause it" because these humors demand alteration rather than digestion; yet great account must be taken of them, as they make the phlegm "gluey" through their various admixtures. Phlegm becomes more gluey and contracts viscosity if volatile spirits are lacking, or if oil or lixivial salt An alkaline salt obtained by leaching ashes. exceeds within it; and the more "earthy" this salt is, the more it will be coagulated by the arrival of an acid. It is well established that the more abundant the volatile spirit is, or the greater the lack of oil and lixivial salt, the more fluid the phlegm becomes. Coagulated phlegm is dissolved by medicines called "incising" and "thinning" agents: fixed and volatile salts, aromatic oils, acids, spirits, and mixed remedies.

Fixed salts are mostly made from plants by incineration and leaching, such as those of wormwood, blessed thistle, lesser centaury, scordium, juniper, and Tartar, and those commonly called febrifuges Fever-reducers. and diuretics.

Fixed salts are mostly made from plants by incineration and leaching, such as those of wormwood, blessed thistle, lesser centaury, scordium, juniper, and Tartar, and those commonly called febrifuges and diuretics.

Volatile salts are provided more abundantly by animals, for example: from Urine, Hartshorn, human skull, sal ammoniac, etc. Plant-based ones are fewer, from which you may elicit volatile salt without difficulty; scurvy-grass original: "cochlearia" holds the primary place. But if you know how to separate the coagulator, any salts—

even fixed ones, and indeed even those of Tartar, upon which so many geniuses have toiled, can easily be brought to volatility with the help of another volatile substance. Nor should I remain silent here regarding the volatile salt of amber, whose excellent powers, proven many times by experience, I cannot praise enough. Oily volatile salts include all distilled oils, especially those prepared from aromatics, seeds, berries, woods, roots, and the like.

Acids, such as spirit of common Salt, Nitre, Sulfur, and Vitriol, as well as crude and distilled Vinegar, etc., powerfully "incise" phlegm just as aromatics and volatiles do. We perceive this when, by the mere imagination of an acid taste, saliva flows in our mouths. However, they should not be used indiscriminately in all patients, but only with caution. For if a Melancholic patient One with an excess of "black bile," associated with a cold, dry, and acidic temperament. suffers from an excess of phlegm alongside their condition, or if there is an acidic juice, one must abstain from those things by which they would be further irritated. On the contrary, aromatics, volatile salts, and oils should be used; these are superior in this case as they preserve the bile in its natural state, whereas acids break it down. Yet these oily remedies would be harmful if the bile exceeded in quantity or acrimony. Therefore, milder acids—and among these, common salt and others "dulcified" A chemical process intended to make a harsh acid milder and more palatable, often by reacting it with alcohol. with spirit of wine through a third or fourth distillation—recommend themselves as safer. Among the spirituous remedies, you will number the primary one: spirit of wine. Its substitutes are those prepared from grain or other vegetables through fermentation, whether simple or aromatized—hence the various "Compound Waters of Life" original: "Aquæ vitæ compositæ"; distilled herbal spirits or brandies. with which dispensatories are everywhere filled.

To the mixed remedies belong all the Treacle waters original: "aquæ Thericales"; complex herbal distillates based on Theriac, a famous ancient polypharmacy cure-all., oxymel of squill A mixture of honey, vinegar, and sea onions (squill), used for coughs and phlegm., Sal ammoniac and its spirit, as well as Crystals of Tartar and Vitriolated Tartar, concerning which authors may see the renowned Sylvius Franciscus Sylvius (1614–1672), a famous physician known for his chemical theories of medicine. cited throughout.

SENNERTUS Daniel Sennert (1572–1637), an influential German physician who attempted to bridge Galenic and Paracelsian medicine. extends "Digestives" more broadly, not only to the resolution of thick humors but also to the thickening of thin ones. In his Institutes, Book 5, Part 1, Section 1, Chapter 5, he poorly defines them as: such things that remove all that hinders nature in cooking, and change qualities that resist the action of innate heat—namely, that cool things too hot, warm things too cold, moisten the dry, dry the moist, thin the thick, and thicken the thin. Such things would more clearly fall under the general name of Alteratives. For besides the fact that heat immediately implies movement and coldness implies the rest of a humor, how can "digestion" be said of thickening agents? These should not be administered before purging because the matter to be purged must be mobile when it swells. It would be inconvenient and self-contradictory to thicken it and then dissolve or ferment it again. Indeed, it is diametrically opposed, since "digestives" here presuppose a subsequent purging.

This is a common error among those physicians who believe that "precipitated" humors In chemistry, to precipitate is to make a solid settle out of a liquid; here, it refers to making diseased humors settle or stabilize. are more successfully ejected by purging. Out of their simplicity, they boast of their medicines, claiming the matter to be purged is precipitated by them. I confess I cannot quite follow this, unless I were to believe that disturbed matter, when more firmly impacted into the body, is rendered more difficult to move. Experience speaks: who ever "disturbs" the dregs of wine or beer with salt or other things so that they might later ferment it again to eject the thicker and foul particles? For by that very fermentation, the finer particles disentangle themselves from the shackles of the thick ones; demanding more space through their excited motion, they either thrust the thick parts out through the orifices of the vessels or, if they cannot reach there, they let them sink to the bottom. Thus, by that very purging, without previous precipitating agents, the vicious humor is expelled—provided the purging agent is suitable and appropriate. If you wish to call this "precipitation" improperly, I will allow it; but tell me, by what name would you distinguish it from fermentation and purging itself?