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Dolæus Johannes
Dolæus upon the cure of the gout by milk-diet

In examining vegetable Substances as Food, we must consider them as eaten Raw, as prepared by the Arts of Cookery, and as subjected to Fermentation. In the first Case they are sometimes the Food of Men, always of Animals that we feed upon; in the others the Food of Men alone.

Raw Vegetables that become Parts of Animals, are bruised, ground, and comminuted by the proper animal Organs, and mixed with animal Juices in their Passage. By this Means their Juices are expressed; such of them as are capable of mixing with Water naturally, or by the intermediate Assistance of the Bile, are formed into one common fluid Mass or Chyle, which constitutes the first Nourishment of Animals; whence the Blood, Serum, Lymph, and other animal Juices are formed. From what was said before, this appears to be the Water, impregnated with the essential Salt, the Spirit, some Portion of its essential Oyls, mixed with the Water by Means of the Salt and the Bile; these by the vital Powers are formed into a white Liquor, which is the Chyle, not unfitly represented in the common making of Emulsions from oily Seeds. The Chyle still retains its vegetable Nature, and somewhat specifick to the Vegetable it came from; but when it hath been circulated several Times thro’ the Body, and thoroughly mixed with the Juices thereof, it acquires animal Properties; vegetable and animal Juices are pretty near of the same specifick Gravity, and consequently fit to repair each other; the different Impulses of Heat and Motion, with due Mixture, create the Difference; though this will always hold true, that an animal Body constantly repaired from vegetable Juices, cannot have so strong a tendency to a putrescent alkaline State, as a Body constantly repaired from animal Juices, already disposed to that State.

The common Effects of the Art of Cookery upon Vegetables, will be understood by what happens in the Decoction of Plants. In boiling any Plant, its most sublime fluid Part flies off, and indeed it is incapable of bearing a greater Heat than that of the Summer Sun, the Salts of the Plant are dissolved in the Water, and its thicker and grosser Oyl rises to the Top, like a fat Scum; so long as the Plant retains any Taste or Odour, change the Water as often as you please, there will constantly arise a fat, odorous, viscous, inflammable and frothy Matter, which can be no other than the Oyl of the Plant loosened from the Salts. In Proportion then, as the Salts are dissolved in the boiling Water, the Oyl attenuated, as it must be before it can be so far specifically lighter as to arise to the Top, we are to judge how far the Art of Cookery is serviceable in the Preparation of vegetable Diet.

From what was said before in relation to Fermentation, it is plain that the vegetable Oyls are much volatilized, rendred more active, and separated from the Salts; upon this Account it is, that they are endowed with an inebriating Quality, which is confined entirely to Wines, for no other Substance hath that Quality. No one was ever drunk with eating Grapes, or drinking Must or Wort before Fermentation. The stupifying Quality of Poppy, Henbane, Mandrakes, Nightshade, and other Plants of that Class, is very different from the Effects of Wine or its Spirit. The chief Effect of Fermentation, in Regard to Diet, is supposed to consist in rendring vegetable Substance less difficult to be overcome by the Action of animal Organs and Mixtures, and easier to the digestive Powers; but there are other good Effects not so commonly thought of; fermented vegetable Substance is very little subject to Putrefaction, and is a great Preservative against it. By the styptick Power that the Spirit is endowed with, the Tone of the Fibres is increased in Digestion, their Force enlarged, and consequently their Action greater upon the vegetable Parts, and a larger Quantity of animal Juices mixed with them; and it is no difficult Matter to imagine, that the inward Heat of an human Body should draw forth the Spirit of fermented Liquors.

The Parts of Vegetables most used in Food, are the Seeds of Plants, our common Bread and Drink being made from them: These, by what was said before, contain the most elaborated Juices, the greatest Quantity of fine Oyl and Spirit, and are consequently most fit for Nourishment; several Fruits are eaten Raw, because their Juices are concocted to the utmost Degree of Perfection, and contain, in greatest Quantity, the finest and most elaborated vegetable Oyl, mixed with the essential Salts peculiar to each, which would be lost in Decoction: But the coarser Parts of Vegetables, as Roots, Leaves, Stalks, unripe Fruits, and Flowers, require the Arts of Cookery to be exercised upon them, to render them more easily subject to the animal Powers, and assimilable to their Juices.

I design not to enter into the several specifick Differences of Vegetables, I hope I have said enough to explain their general Nature, and how they become reducible into animal Substances; I shall next consider these Substances in the same Manner.

By all the Tryals yet made upon animal Substances, they are resoluble into the same Parts with Vegetables, only differently modified; that is, as we saw before, Water, Earth, Salt and Oyl, the specifick Spirit being no other than Water impregnated with the specifick and highest rectified Oyl and Salt, the Water and Earth in both are individually the same; and though there be good Reason to imagine, that there is originally but one Oyl in Nature, and that the fixt Salt of Vegetables, and the volatile Salt of Animals, may be originally the same, since transmutable into one another; yet it is necessary to examine these two Principles in animal Substances, that by comparing them with what we before discovered in Vegetables, we may have some Notion of their Differences with Regard to their Use in Diet.

The great Excess of animal Heat and Motion, beyond what is necessary to Vegetables, the stronger and quicker Circulation of their Juices, necessarily require and occasion that the Oyls and Salts in animal Bodies should be differently modified from what they are in Vegetables. No Motion is performed in Animals without some Portion of Oyl, and perhaps Water too, to lubricate the Parts, and keep them supple; the Attrition would cause great Mischief, make the Motion uneasy, wear away and burn up the Parts, if they were not softned and moistned by an oily Fluid; and accordingly we find all the Muscles, Tendons, Joints and other Parts employ’d in Motion, to have Repositories of this Oyl placed about them, and that so artificially, that the Very Motion occasions the Diffusion of this Oyl upon them. There is an innate Principle of Heat or Fire, that attends the vital Powers, that may very well occasion the Change and Volatilization of Salts in animal Substances, in the same Manner as was before observed in the Putrefaction of Vegetables.

Animal Oyls differ according to the Principles inherent in them, for when freed from Earth and Salts (which is very difficult by Reason of their mutual Attractions under certain Circumstances) they appear to be simple and unactive, and the same in all animal Bodies.

By this Account then we are principally to regard the different Quantities and Degree of Volatility in these Salts, and the Degree of Consistence or Impregnation of animal Oyls with them. It must be observed, that the Salts in the Bodies of living Animals are not perfectly the same they appear to be, when extracted thence by chymical Resolutions; a great Alteration is made by the Fire, and a good deal by the Tendency all animal Substances have to Putrefaction, upon a Stagnation of their fluid Parts: Even in the Evaporation of human Blood (fresh drawn) by a gentle Fire, this Salt, though not perfectly fixed, will not rise, but only the Spirit: These Salts are of a mild attenuating Nature in healthy Bodies, whose vital Powers are sufficient to subdue the Substances they feed upon: But in such as have not that vital Power in that Degree, or commit Errors in Diet, where these Salts are not sufficiently attenuated, or the first Digestion stronger than the concoctive Powers or the Discharges, these Salts acquire Properties productive of many acute and chronical Diseases; (not within the Compass of this Enquiry) these may be prevented, and sometimes cured, by a strict Application to Diet, proper to correct the different Modifications of these Oyls and Salts.

I own it is pretty Difficult to determine the exact Degree of Volatility these Salts acquire in any particular Animal, or in different Parts of the same Animal; yet there are very evident Marks of a Defect, or Exceeding in the Volatility of these Salts, by examining the Discharges from Animals, by a greater or less Tendency to Putrefaction, by several Distempers more especially incident to human Bodies, and other Methods of Art to be met with in the History of Physick.

From what was said before, it is evident that an Animal, whose Juices are supplied from animal Juices, hath a more alkalescent Tendency than an Animal supplied with vegetable Juices; that is, the Salts are more highly volatilized, and impregnate the Oyls, Water, and other Fluids in a stronger Manner, and in greater Quantities; and in Fact, we find the Substance of such animal Bodies, as are fed upon Animals, or Use stronger Exercise, are more liable to Putrefaction, than the Substance of Animals that feed upon Vegetables, and are more slothful. Fish, Foxes, Hawks, Venison, Horses, have their Substance more liable to Putrefaction, and discover to our Senses more exalted Salts and Oyls, than tame Fowl, Sheep, and Oxen; the Juices of poisonous Animals have them still more exalted, as in the Viper.

Animal Substances being already assimilated, are more easily transmutable into other Animals, and therefore more nourishing than Vegetables; accordingly we find such Animals as are nourished by animal Food, to be more couragious, robust, active, bold, strong, than those which are nourished by Vegetables only. And even in Men, who have proper Organs for digesting both animal and vegetable Food, and consequently by Nature designed to use both, we find a remarkable Difference according to their Diet. The Inhabitants of fishing Towns, who may well be supposed to feed thereon, are strong, nervous and prolifick; and their Discharges, especially their Sweat, are often attended with a very strong rancid Smell. The Difference between these People, and some poor Peasants in the Country, who have no other than vegetable Food, is too obvious to mention.

As to the Preparation of animal Diet, by the Arts of Cookery, for Use, it is needless to repeat what was before said under this Head in relation to Vegetables, the Manner being pretty much the same. I shall only just observe, that in boiling, the Salts and a good Portion of Oyl is dissolved, and attenuated in the Decoction, which makes the Decoction it self very nourishing; the animal Substance it self is much relaxed and softned, so that it may almost all be reduced to a Jelly or thick Oyl; by roasting, the Salts are more brought into Action, and the fluid Parts lessened; so that what remains is more highly impregnated therewith; in baking no Part evaporates, but both Salts and Oyls are loosened and exalted by the Heat in the Oven; these Differences are observable by the Taste, affect the digestive Powers in different Degrees, and are usefully attended to, in many different Habits of the human Body, too tedious now to be enumerated.

It is to be observed here (as before concerning Vegetables) that the nearer the nutritious Juices are to their Roots, the more they partake of the Nature of their Origine; but the more they are mixed with animal Juices, and the greater Number of animal Circulations they pass through, the more they acquire an animal Nature. The Chyle in Animals feeding upon Vegetables is Acid, and generally speaking it is so in Men, because their Diet is more so than otherwise. The Milk is less Acid than the Chyle, but turns perfectly so by standing. In the Blood this Tendency is lost, and the Salts from fixed become volatile. But there are Juices in animal Bodies, that have Salts of a much higher Degree of Volatility than the Blood, but when they arrive at too high a state of Alkalescence, they are discharged generally by Urine, or some other Excretion.

I do not here pretend to account for these Facts; that they are such is beyond Controversy, and I think it very agreeable to the Order of Nature, that they should depend upon some general Cause: If the Principle of Attraction be one, and from what Sir Isaac Newton hath delivered in his Opticks it bids very fair for it, though that great Philosopher was either too modest, or too knowing, to propose it as such, otherwise than by way of Quære; if the Principle of Attraction be an universal Cause in such Effects as we have been speaking of, may it not very justly be supposed, that when animal Decoctions turn sowre by standing, and so far put on a vegetable Nature, as to differ from the Course animal Substances take, when left to themselves, that the Salts are disunited, and put from the Sphere of one anothers mutual Attraction, so as perhaps to exert a repelling Power; and may not the same thing happen, when putrified animal Substance becomes Nourishment for vegetable Bodies, their Salts being disunited, and their mutual Attractions dissolved or overcome by the Attraction of Water, Earth or other Parts, in the Substance which I before called vegetable Chyle? When Vegetables by Putrefaction acquire an animal Nature, are not the Salts brought into their Spheres of Attraction, so as to form different intestine Motions thereby, and to produce Heat, Fire, fetid Vapours, and Putrefaction?

Sir Isaac Newton, Opt. p. 362. compares a Particle of Salt to a Chaos, dense, hard, dry, and earthy in the Center; and rare, soft, moist and watry in the Circumference, and hence, says he, it seems to be that Salts are of a lasting Nature, being scarce destroyed unless by drawing away their watry Parts by Violence, or by letting them soak into the Pores of the central Earth, by a gentle Heat in Putrefaction, until the Earth be dissolved by the Water, and separated into smaller Particles, which by Reason of their smallness make the rotten Compound appear of a black Colour. Hence also it may be that the Parts of Animals and Vegetables preserve their several Forms, and assimilate their Nourishment; the soft and moist Nourishment easily changing its Texture by a gentle Heat and Motion, till it becomes like the dense, hard, dry, and durable Earth in the Center of each Particle. But when the Nourishment grows unfit to be assimilated, or the central Earth grows too feeble to assimilate it, the Motion ends in Confusion, Putrefaction and Death.

There is one animal Juice which deserves to be more particularly considered, not only because it is more used in our Food, than any other, but because it seems to partake of that just Medium between animal and vegetable Substances so desirable in our Diet, and that is Milk. It is neither Acid nor Alkaline; it seems to have enough of the animal Nature, to give strong and perfect Nourishment to animal Bodies, and to be easily assimilable to their Substance; enough of the Vegetable to prevent too strong a Tendency to a volatile Alkali; being a kind of Emulsion, or white, oily animal Liquor, prepared originally from Vegetables, and from which all the Parts of animal Bodies may receive their Nourishment and Growth. Many Persons have lived entirely upon Milk; and the Body of a Child may, at the End of some Months after its Birth, be considered as compounded of the Milk of its Nurse; the Parts it brought into the World being changed for others, supplied by the Nourishment.

Tho’ Milk be of it self neither Acid nor Alkaline, it may not be amiss to take Notice of the Changes it undergoes upon being mixed with either, because hence we may determine its Agreement or Disagreement with different Constitutions. If Milk be mixed with Acids it coagulates into a Curd; if mixed with Alkalies, upon Heat it turns Yellow, then Red, and at length to a very deep dark Red, and by long continuance Black.

Milk taken from Animals that feed upon Vegetables, if suffered to stand in a clean glass Vessel, will of it self separate into two Parts; the lighter, and more oily, rising to the Top in the Form of Cream; both which in a few Days turn sowre, and at the End of ten or twelve Days, acquire a very considerable Degree of Acidity; but if the Animal it be taken from feed upon animal Diet, or have fasted too long, or be feverish, or use strong Exercise; it will in these Cases have a brackish or saline Taste, which is a strong Evidence of its Tendency to Putrefaction, and accordingly instead of turning sowre, it will turn rancid, and run into an Ichor.

It may fairly be concluded from hence, that Milk is not proper Food in acid Constitutions; for if Milk, upon the Mixture of Acids, turn into Curds and Whey, it is reasonable to expect, that if it be taken by Persons whose Bodies abound with Acids, it shall be separated into a thin serous Fluid, and a strong Coagulum; which turning grumous, may cause Obstructions in the Viscera, while it ceases to be mixed and diluted with the Serum, which instead of performing that Office, may go off in the Discharges of the Skin, or of Urine, leaving the Body pale, faint and weak; and hence may arise many chronical Distempers, foreign to our Purpose to enumerate.

The Change of Colour in Milk, by Alkalies, from White to Red, gives a very evident Reason for the easy Transmutation of the Chyle into Blood, when it leaves its vegetable Nature, and puts on an Animal one; and is a further Confirmation of the Doctrine hitherto laid down. The Appearances that are observable in the Changes Milk undergoes, when left to itself, instruct us in the Choice of such kind as is most proper for Nourishment; which is principally to be regarded, where the Animal is entirely fed with Milk, which is the Case of Children at the Breast; and what happens to Children, may with proper Allowances be applied to older Bodies. If a Nurse feed entirely upon Flesh Meats, Fish, and Broths, or be hot and feverish, or use much or violent Exercise, some of which often happen to be the Case in wealthy Families, the Milk grows Yellowish, and by standing will turn rancid, the Child manifests an Aversion to it, and becomes hot, red, and feverish; on the contrary, if the Nurses Food be too much enclined to Acidity, which is often the Case of poor People, the Child shall be subject to Flatulencies, preternatural Distention of the Body, and paleness of the Flesh: The Milk for Food ought to be perfectly white and clear, the Animal that gives it, not suffered to fast long before, and used for Food as soon as possible after it is milked; for thus it is had in its most perfect and natural State.

Before I leave the History of Diet, I cannot but take Notice, that as much Irregularity is committed in the Quantity, and Time of taking our Food, as in the Qualities or Properties thereof. From what hath been said it appears, that true Nutrition consists in the proper Assimilation of the Food to the Vegetable, or animal Body that takes it in; if the Powers of the Body be sufficient to assimilate what it takes in in a proper Manner, and to throw forth what it doth not need, or what is unfit for Assimilation, let the Food be what it will, the Body will be well nourished; on the contrary, if what be taken in be too strong to be changed by the digestive Powers, or the Powers of the Body too weak to expell it, that Body must be changed to a bad Habit; which, in its utmost Degree, is the Case of Plants and Animals that are poisoned. If the Body be oppressed with Loads of the most proper Food, more than the digestive Powers are able to deal with, or than there are animal juices sufficient to mix with for the proper Assimilation; those Powers must be weakened, the Fibres, being stretched beyond their Tone, lose of their Force, and what Foods are taken in, not being sufficiently acted upon by the Solids or Fluids of the Body, take the Course they would naturally have done out of the Body, and turn to Corruption, and Humour. When this happens to be the Case in human Bodies, upon a Stoppage of any of the great Discharges, as of Perspiration, by taking Cold, they become Subject to Fevers, and other acute Diseases, and Obstructions of the tender Bowels, chiefly the Liver and Lungs, which bring on several chronical Diseases, more especially the Dropsy and Asthma; for it is observable, that all overfed Animals have large Livers subject to Putrefaction, and are short winded.

I know no exact Way of determining the Quantities of our Food, and of the Changes inducible upon the Body, by the Quantities only, (before Pain and Sickness teach the Exceeding, when perhaps it may be past Remedy) but the Balance, and yet a Man would run the Hazard of being turned into Ridicule, that should gravely talk to People of weighing their Food or their Bodies, at certain Times. The cravings of Nature, and the returns of Appetite are thought to be better Indications for a supply, than the Weight of the Body, and so indeed they would be, if left to themselves; but we eat without Hunger, drink without Thirst, and lie a bed at times unnatural to sleep. I need not add that these are the People that want most the Helps of Medicine. The Quantities of Food, and the unnatural Encrease of the Body may be attended to, without running into ridiculous Extreams of nicety; and after the Rules are once settled, these things may be known without living in a Pair of Scales with Sanctorius. I can affirm it from certain Experience, that the keeping the Body to a certain standard of Weight, is a great preservative of Health; and many acute, and chronical Diseases may be foreseen, and prevented by it, and this is known by weighing once or twice a Month with less trouble than paring ones Nails, and regulating the Quantity of Food accordingly; so true is the Aphorism of Sanctorius, that if such Kinds, and such Quantities, be daily added to the Body as go off, and the Exceedings discharged, lost Health will be recovered, and present Health preserved.

Among the chronical Distempers, which owe their Origine to irregularities in Diet, the Gout is neither the least considerable nor frequent; though perhaps the best and least dangerous Way of clearing the Blood of the morbid Matter; for it naturally tends to the Extreams, and is generally so great a Tyrant, that it will suffer no other Distemper to rage but itself; upon this Account it is that People wish for, and are complimented upon the Gout, as an Indication of the vital Powers being in such Strength and Vigour, as to drive forth the gouty Matter; and it is no wonder that Persons should wish such active, fiery Particles, as the gouty Matter seems to consist of, fixed to a certain Joint, and expelled the Body, when they are floating through the Mass of Juices, and disorder the whole Machine, which is often the Case of gouty Persons before it fixes: The gouty Salts (if they be Salts, as most probably they are) appear to be active, sharp, pungent, fiery Principles, and when, by the Force and Heat of the Body, they are brought into Action, are not improperly termed concentrated Fire it self; and indeed the Effects of their Action manifest something not very different therefrom, by calcining the animal Substance into Chalk or Lime, or somewhat approaching thereto, in the Knots of gouty Joints: Their Volatility may Occasion their being more easily brought into a State of Action, but at the same Time makes their Expulsion out of the Body quicker and easier. A fit of the Gout is no other than an attempt of Nature to collect and expell these Salts out of the Body, which, if successfully performed, leaves the Person free from the Gout, till such Time as from the natural Course of the Food, or other Causes, the Blood and Juices become again overcharged with gouty Matter, to such Degree, that Nature attempts the same Way of Relief it before experienced, and occasions another Fit.

From this Account it appears, that if any thing be to be done during the Time of a Fit, which is the Season many Persons very preposterously attend a Cure, it can only be by supporting the Powers of the Body, to enable Nature, to go on with its Work: (For it must be considered, that the Symptoms of Pain arise from the Action of the Body in that Work, as well as from the Action of the gouty Salts;) and by promoting the natural Discharges from the Part affected, by gentle heat and Warmth; all external Applications, foreign to these Ends, are useless, and generally speaking dangerous. Indeed if any thing may safely be applied in this Case, for these Ends, some Preparation of the Poppy seems to me to be the most promising, and least hazardous. This Plant is endowed with Powers that soften and attenuate in a great Degree, gently promote and encrease the Motion of the Juices, and occasion in Bodies properly disposed, as great, if not greater Discharges by the Skin, than any other Medicine yet discovered. If we add to this its particular Property of easing Pain, may we not justly form great Expectations from it? Its Virtues given inwardly, in the Case we are speaking of, have been long known and experienced; its outward Application hath not, that I know of, been mentioned before; and I would be understood now rather to mention it, than recommend it. I have tried it in about half a Dozen Persons, the better half of which found immediate and wonderful Relief from it, and those who did not, found no inconvenience, to my thinking, chargeable upon the Medicine; though perhaps I am fond enough, like other Patrons of new Tryals, to impute the want of Success to other Causes, than to a Deficiency in the Medicine; I only mention the thing, not being thoroughly satisfied about it, for want of sufficient Tryal. But thus far I may venture to assert, that this, or any other external Applications, are neither to be unwarily or unskilfully ventured upon.

Some Authors of good Note have recommended purging the Bowels upon the Recess of the Gout, and during the Intervals of the Fit, as a proper preventive Cure in the Gout. That keeping the alimentary Passages clean, and in good Order, is of Use not only in the Gout, but in several other Distempers, is undoubtedly true; but how far this may be attended with a weakening of the Fibres of the Stomach, and how far the gouty Salts, already lodged in the Blood and Juices, may be drawn into these Parts, so as to act thereon, deserves very well to be considered. The Tendency of Nature is to drive the gouty Humour to the Extreams, and expell it forth of the Body; the Tendency of purging by the Bowels, further than cleansing the first Passages, is to draw the gouty Humour thither, and expell it by Siege. The Consonancy of these Tendencies may be seen without any Witchcraft; but a very accurate Judgment is necessary to distinguish at what Time, or in what Degree, the Juices of the Body are impregnated with the gouty Matter, so as to determine upon purging with Safety, or what Progress they have made in their Collection, and Tendency to the Joints, to venture to disturb Nature, in her own way of discharging them. Purging during the Time of a Fit is always avoided even by the Patrons of habitual gentle Purging out of it, and a Looseness is esteemed a very dangerous Symptom at that Time; sure I am from Experience, that many gouty Persons, who have run into the Practice of habitual Purging, even with those Medicines that are most strengthning, have found very bad Effects from that Custom, have been afterwards less able to withstand the Attacks of the Gout, have had more frequent and longer Returns, have at length sooner sunk under it, and fallen into worse Habits of Body, than others who have avoided that Practice: There may no doubt be a Necessity for the Use of evacuating Medicines, but they are always to be exhibited upon the maturest Consideration, and the best Advice. People that take up such Practices upon their own Opinions, will in the End find cause to repent it.