And both Helmont and the Doctor were so far right, that
blistering was then, as well as now, much abused; and in truth they are
much oftener applied than is either necessary or useful.
Thus these two eminent chemists, and too many of their followers,
frequently imposed their writings upon the unguarded reader, and
themselves upon the vulgar, for men of profound knowledge in the medical
art, and as great adepts in chemistry: and being puffed up with the high
opinion entertained of their new art, or new medicines, and their own
great wisdom, they rejected the philosophical theory of medicine by
Galen and Avicenna, then so much in vogue. They were right in doing
this, and might have done great service to mankind, if they had not set
up their own imaginary chemical theory in its place, which was neither
founded upon observations, nature, nor reason, and had no existence but
in their own vain imaginations. Thus they supposed a malignity which
caused all diseases, as well inflammatory as other fevers, and which was
to be forced out of the body by sweating, with their hot therapeutics;
they, therefore, attacked all fevers with this chemical ammunition, and
attempted to carry them with fire and storm, prescribing the
praecipitatus diaphoreticus and sweating regimen, which must have been
fatal to many, and no doubt would have been so to many more, if van
Helmont had not allowed his patients to dilute the medicine with a thin
diet, which rendered the calorific method less fatal.
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