A Collection of Chirurgical Tracts

After the Chyle hath been thus elaborated, it becomes fit as well to recruit the Mass of Blood, as to nourish the whole Body, seeing it consists of divers Principles and Parts of a different Nature; therefore, according to the various Use and Necessity of every part, and also that it may conform and fashion it self to the different Pores and Passages, it is severally appropriated; the most volatile and subtil part is separated in the Brain, and adapted to refresh the Animal Spirits, the glutinous to nourish the Body, and the sulphureous to revive the native Heat: And in it’s Passage with the Blood thro’ all the parts of the Body, all the Mass of Chyle that is capable of being turned into Blood is sanguified; the serous and saline part precipitated by the Kidneys, and evacuated by Sweats or insensible Transpirations, the bilious is deposited in the Liver, and the rest of its Excrements retire to the several Emunctories of the Body.

Thus it comes to pass by the wonderful Sagacity of Nature, such extraordinary Provision is made, that the purer part of the Chyle by these ways and means is more purified; and when it is thus purified and sublimed, it is more capable of reinforcing the Blood and Spirits, as also of corroborating the Tone of every particular Part: Whereas when the Chyle is sour and dispirited, the Blood necessarily becomes vappid, the animal Spirits which reside in the System of the Nerves are infected with a Morbid Disposition, and all parts of the Body begin to flag and waste. For indeed there is no other way to recruit the daily Expence of Blood and Spirits, but by a continual Influx of laudable Chyle into the Blood-Vessels, which Chyle is made by the Fermentative Juice of the Stomach, and this Fermentative Juice supplied from the Mass of Blood, so that there plainly appears to be a fixed Correspondence betwixt the Blood and the Chyle, and a necessary Dependance all the Humours in the Habit of the Body have on the Stomach; from whence it is reasonable to infer, That if the Chilifying Faculty of the Stomach be depraved, the Blood and Humours must necessarily sympathize therewith, and in a manner proportionable to the Distemper of this part.

II. The immediate Cause of a Consumption of the Lungs is store of sharp, malignant, waterish Humours, continually distilling upon the soft spungy Substance of the Lungs, stuffing, inflaming, impostumating, and exulcerating them, whereby their Action, which is Respiration, or a receiving-in and driving-out Air is depraved, as will more clearly appear by the following Description of these Parts. It will not be impertinent to our Discourse if we should usher in the Description of the Lungs, with a short Account of the Trachea, Aspera Arteria, or Wind-pipe.

III. The Trachea or Aspera Arteria is a long Pipe, consisting of Cartilages and Membranes, which beginning at the Throat or lower part of the Jaws, and lying upon the Gullet, descends into the Lungs, thro’ which it spreads into many Branchings, and is commonly divided into two parts, the Larynx and Bronchus; the Larynx is the upper part of the Wind-pipe, the Bronchus is all the Trachea besides the Larynx, as well before as after it arrives at the Lungs.

The Substance of the Lungs is soft, spongy and rare, curiously compacted of most thin and fine Membranes, continued with the Ramifications of the Trachea or Wind-pipe, which Membranes compose an infinite number of little, round and hollow Vesicles, or Bladders, so placed as that there is an open Passage from the Branches of the Aspera Arteria, out of one into another, and all terminate at the outer Membrane that investeth the whole Lungs: These little Bladders by help of their muscular Fibres contract themselves in Expiration, and are dilated in Inspiration, partly by the Pressure of the Atmosphere, and partly by the elastic Power of the Air, insinuating it self into these Vesicles thro’ the Windpipe and it’s several Branches: Their Lobes are two, the right and left, parted by the Mediastinum, each of which is divided into many lesser Lobules, according to the Ramifications of the Aspera Arteria; they have all sorts of Vessels that are common to them with other parts, as Arteries, Veins, Nerves, Lympheducts, but peculiar to themselves they have their Bronchia, or the Branches of the Wind-pipe, for bringing-in and carrying-out Air so necessary to Life, that we cannot Live without it: And when we consider their admirable Structure, (as well as the Structure of every individual part of our Body) how ought we to adore the infinite Wisdom of our Creator! Now when these small Vesicles or Bladders are replete with extravasated Serum, or purulent Matter, the natural Tone of the Lungs is so weakned, that we cannot enjoy the Benefit of free and full Respiration, hard, scirrhous Tumours and Tubercles are bred, attended with a dry and troublesome Cough, Oppression of the Breast, difficult and short Breathing, preternatural Heats, Exulcerations, and other deplorable Symptoms, according to the Degrees of Obstruction, and different Nature of the included Humours.

IV. The external Procatartic Cause of a Consumption of the Lungs is cold Particles of Air, constipating the Pores of the Body, whereby the Serum which ought to expedite the Motion, and temperate the Heat of the Blood is separated from it, and thrown upon the Glands of the Larynx, and the spungy Substance of the Lungs themselves: For as the Lympha helps the Motion of the Chyle, so the Serum accelerates the Circulation of the Blood, being carried about with it thro’ the smallest Capillary Vessels and remotest parts of the Body, lest it should be inflamed with a burning Heat, or stagnate by excessive Thickness; during which circular Motion they are both called by the same common Name, but when some Portion of Serum is separated from the Mass of Blood, and retreats to some one or more of the Emunctories; according to their various Dispositions, it derives a Name from those particular Parts on which it seizeth, as when it distils upon the Eyes, we call it Opthalmia, when upon the Nose Coryza, and when upon the Thorax it goes by the proper Name of a Catarrh.

Now forasmuch as there is nothing makes a Separation of the Blood more commonly than the want of usual Transpiration, so nothing more conduceth to the Preservation of Health, than that the Pores of the Body should continually let out the hot Streams and Vapours that arise from the Ebullition of the Blood; but when after taking Cold the Skin and Habit of the Body are on a sudden stopped up, that the sulphureous and waterish Excrements of the Blood cannot pass through the Pores, they are again resorbed into the Mass of Blood, from whence proceeds a feverish Disposition; unless they are carried off by Stool, or precipitated by the Kidneys, are sometimes translated to the Glandulous Parts of the Lungs, where by Degrees contracting more and more Heat and Sharpness they inflame and exulcerate these tender Parts.

Nevertheless tho’ a Consumption of the Lungs is sometimes thus caused by taking Cold, yet this comes to pass but seldom, unless in such Bodies whose Mass of Blood being rendered Cachectic, thro’ frequent Influxes of dispirited Chyle, is pre-disposed to receive, and unable to free it self from this New Influx of Catarrhous Rheum: For suppose Two Persons in like manner deprived of the Benefit of usual Transpiration, by some great Cold, which tho’ troublesome in the beginning, because of a violent and continual Distillation of Extravasated Serum upon the Glandulous Coat of the Wind-pipe, and other adjacent Glands, yet in the One of these it survives not the accidental feverish Disposition of the Blood, occasioned by the Stoppage of the Pores: For as soon as the Ferment ceaseth, the separated Humours, partly for want of a new Influx of Serum, and partly by the natural Heat of these Parts, are concocted into a thick sort of Phlegm, and coughed up; after the Expectoration of which separated Serum the glandulous Parts presently recover their natural Tone, without any Remains of a Tumour, Cough, Shortness of Breath, or other Inconvenience; but in the other this feverish Ferment, occasioned by taking Cold, is not transitory, but so habitually fixed by means of some previous Indisposition, as to encrease the Effervescence and Colliquation of the Blood and Spirits; from whence all the Glands which are seated in the upper part of the Larynx, as also the glandulous Coat of the Wind-pipe it self are overflown with a Deluge of hot distempered Humours, the Substance of the Lungs distended with hard Tumours, the Branches of the Wind-pipe comprest, and the Wind-pipe it self from these Swellings irritated to Cough, by a continual tickling, which promotes a frequent spewing out of hot sharp Humours all along the Aspera Arteria, till at length these Tubercles growing very large, begin to inflame and suppurate; immediately upon the breaking or opening of those Apostemes, sometimes such a Flood of corrupted Matter is poured out of their Baggs or Cavities, into the Branches of the Trachea, as compleatly suffocates and choaks the Patient; but at other times this Purulent Matter, mixt with streaks of Blood, and some thin Phlegm that is continually discharged from the glandulous Coat of the Wind-pipe, is coughed up by degrees, and then this deplorable Case requires Specific Medicines, to cleanse and heal these Ulcers.

V. Such kind of Consumptions whose Original is store of malignant acrimonious Humours, which are most apt to inflame and putrify, may be termed acute, when compared to others that proceed from Humours more mild and benign. There may be likewise some difference made by omitting Bleeding, and committing some egregious Errors in Diet, Exercise, Passions of the Mind, or any other of the Non-Naturals: However, all Consumptions of the Lungs ought to be reckoned in the Number of Chronical Distempers, because they are contracted and augmented by degrees, and no other way to be remedied; yet this doth not prove them incurable in their own Nature, for Reason and Experience both teach the contrary: And indeed I must confess, it was from the marvelous Success of these Remedies that I first imbibed this Notion, viz.Ulcers of the Lungs are in themselves curable. Sometimes a Fever or other acute Distemper may be jugulated, when either Nature or Art carries off the Morbific Matter by a sudden Crisis or plentiful Evacuation, but all hopes of dispatching a confirmed Consumption of the Lungs instantly are groundless, seeing many inveterate Obstructions must be removed, abundance of tough glutinous Humours attenuated and evacuated, the whole Mass of Blood and Spirits rectified, the Habit of the Body meliorated, and the Tone of several parts recovered, before we can eradicate this fixed Distemper.

What will be the Issue and Result of this Consumptive-Disease, may rationally be prognosticated from it’s several Stages or Degrees: For when the Mass of Blood by a continual Influx of sour dispirited Chyle is reduced to a sharp and hectical State, and the Serum which is separated from this corrupted Blood only stuffs the Bladders and Glandules which are dispersed thro’ the Body of the Lungs, this Distemper may be said to be in it’s Infancy or beginning, (and if sovereign Remedies were then presented, they might obtain an easy Conquest) but the Increase is attended with a greater Distention of the Glands and Bladders, as also an Inflammation of these Tubercles tending to suppuration: For when the Animal Spirits which are necessary to the natural Fermentation of the Blood are vitiated with unwholesome Particles of a foggy and thick Air, and the Humour which for a long time hath been contained in the Baggs or Cavities of the Lungs is over-heated by some extraordinary Ebullition or Fermentation of the Blood, with a total Suppression of Expectoration, the Cough becomes more violent, the Fever inflammatory, and all parts more tabid. In it’s further Progress or State all Symptoms advance apace towards their Extremity, Suppuration now succeeds the Inflammation of these Tubercles, for that the Purulent Matter is either breeding or already made, the Inflammatory Hectic is changed into a putrid Intermitting Fever, attended with an Universal Colliquation of the Nutritious Juices and plentiful Separation of them from the Mass of Blood by all ways of Evacuation that Nature affords; whence the Patients strength suddainly decays, and in a short time he is reduced to the highest State of a Marasmus, with an Hippocratic Face.

VI. Thus having demonstrated to the meanest Capacity the Power of this prevailing Evil, with it’s efficient and material Causes, Reason it self presently suggests nothing less than great and noble Medicines can tame a Distemper so formidable. It is no less obvious to the Understanding of every one that professeth any thing of Physic, that the sooner the Cure is begun the better, the more moderate the Patient is in the use of the Six Non-Naturals, the more likely to succeed; the Spring-time is the best Season, Universals are to be premised, extraordinary Symptoms and Circumstances peculiarly attended, and such like things must run through the whole Course of Practice.

No doubt but the Chalibeate Mineral Waters when impregnated with the Volatile Salts and Spirits of a serene Air, pleasant Society, delightful Recreations, Morning and Evening Walks, regular Diet, Freedom from Business, vexatious Thoughts, Exercise[4 - Particularly that of Riding; relating to which, consult Mr Fuller’s Medicina Gymnastica.], and the rest may be serviceable: But if the Jesuit were sentenced to perpetual Exile, I think the Consumptive have no reason excessively to lament, for I can tell them who hath a Febrifuge Antihectical, without a Grain of the Jesuit, more excellent far than the Peruvian Bark, because it makes a safe, not a treacherous Peace, and can give a Reason of it’s working so stupendiously, tho’ they who know not how a thing can be done, think it impossible to be done.

For my part, I do not believe any Medicine can work a Cure in the way of a Charm, yet they who either know or use no other (at least for the most part) than ordinary Medicines, cannot conceive how such wonderful Effects can be wrought, unless by Inchantment[5 - See Boyle on Specific Medicines.].

The common Method of Cure is by Bleeding to abate the Effervescence or Colliquation of the Blood, and prevent the Tumour and Inflammation of the Lungs, by Vomits to relieve the Stomach opprest with store of ill Humours, and remove divers Obstructions of several Bowels and small Vessels, by Stomach-Purges gently to carry down the peccant Humours; and lastly by Diuretics and Diaphoretics with some mixture of an Opiate, plentifully to carry off the Colliquated Serum by Urine, or the Pores of the Skin, without raising a fresh Catarrh by a new Commotion of the Blood. After a due Administration of these universal Evacuations, (which in their respective Seasons are highly necessary) the frequent Use of Pectoral Apozems and Pulmonary Linctuses is next enjoined, to retund the Acrimony of the Humours which ouze out of the Wind-pipe, by their mucilaginous and incrassating Quality, and so mitigate the troublesome Cough. How far serviceable to this end and purpose the neatest Forms of such Dispensations that I ever yet saw may be, I will not dispute, only this I must take leave to say, because to me (as also to the unprejudiced I humbly conceive) it seems evident that such fulsom Ingredients of which they are compounded, are more apt to spoil a weak than recover a lost Stomach, and consequently not the fittest Medicines Consumptive Persons may have recourse to: For how many by woful Experience have found the constant and frequent use of such Anti-Stomachics led them from one Degree of this Malady to another, ’till their decaying Appetite hath been quite overthrown, (and consequently their hectic Heat inflamed) their Bodies so emaciated, as to render them uncapable of necessary Evacuations, and they themselves at last given over to a Milk Diet, Asses Milk, some Chalibeate Mineral Waters, or such like Liquids, to which the poor distressed Stomach ecchoes aloud, Miserable Comforters all! If therefore I can, as I have Reason to believe, with Medicines less offensive in Quantity, and more useful in Quality, restore the lost Appetite, and do the same, if not greater Service towards the Concocting and Expectorating that load of separated Serum with which the Pipes of the Lungs are stuffed, (which will easily be perceived by the Patient in a few Weeks with due Care and Management) I think I have gained a great Point, forasmuch as the Recovery of the Stomach may reasonably be looked upon as an Earnest of the Cure.

The Medicines I do here recommend to my Countrymen as Specific in the Cure of Consumption of the Lungs, arising from the fore-mentioned Causes, have a peculiar Faculty of warming, comforting and strengthening weak Stomachs, attenuating and gently carrying off that load of Tartareous Matter which is lodged in their rugous Coat, depraving both Appetite and Digestion. In their Passage thro’ the whole Circumference of the Guts, they likewise dissolve that crusted Slime and Filth which hinders the Pressure of the Chyle into the Milky Vessels by the Peristaltic Motion of their Spiral Fibres: Thus having removed these Fundamental Obstructions, they hasten together with the Chylous Mixture, which by this time is somewhat Invigorated towards the Relief of the Sanguineous Mass, presently upon their Conjunction the Blood revives, and by degrees becomes brisk and vigorous, able to cope with, and give some check to the preternatural hectic Heat, stop the Influx of the Rheum into the Glandulous Substance of the Lungs, concoct that which is already collected, and release the Animal Spirits, intangled with a vitious disposition of the Nervous Juice. Having gained these Advantages, things begin to look with another manner of Aspect, the Habit of the Body grows firmer, the Mind chearfuller, the Countenance fresh and brisk, the emaciated Parts gather Flesh and Strength, the Lungs and Glands of the Larynx recover their natural Tone, and the whole Constitution improves towards a State of Health. Moreover, These Anti-Phthisics are really impregnated with such Volatile Spirits and Salts, that as Lightning they penetrate the remotest Corners of the Body, exterminating the very Seeds and Roots of this grievous Disease, powerfully and effectually, yet pleasantly and securely, if plentifully taken in the manner of a Diet: For thus in time they chear up the drooping Animal Spirits, fortify the System of the Nerves, and so influence the whole Sanguineous Mass, as that the Blood it self becomes the most precious of all natural Balsoms, marvellously cleansing the putrid Ulcers of the Lungs, and finally reducing them to a perfect Cicatrix.

Wherefore let none be deceived by the flattering Nature of this Distemper in the beginning, nor give themselves over for lost in the highest State, because these reviving Cordials are calculated for the weakest Constitutions, seeing at the same time they offend the Diseased Matter on the one Hand, they support Nature from sinking under any Evacuations on the other. It is therefore my Advice to the Consumptive, or Consumptively-inclined, and their Interest (by way of Prevention) to acquaint themselves in time with these Sovereign Antidotes. Better Counsel I cannot give to the best of my Friends, if they are desirous to save themselves a great deal of Pain and Misery, as well as Charges, and render their Lives comfortable to themselves and serviceable to others.

The Warmness of these Medicines, which is the only Objection that ever I met with in the use of them, is so far from being a real Discouragement, as that upon serious and judicious Considerations, it becomes a Notable Argument to enforce the taking of them; for otherwise they would be too weak to engage the Original Cause of hectic, burning and putrid Fevers; whereas by this active Principle of Heat, they work so effectually upon the whole Mass of Chyle, as to separate the sharp and dispirited from the nutritious Particles thereof, thoroughly insinuate themselves into all the Avenues of the Adversary, cut and divide the tough viscous Humours which distemper the Veins, Arteries and Nerves, destroy the Acidity of the Nervous Juice, recover the Natural Temper of the Animal Spirits, sweeten the Mass of Blood, by separating the Impurities thereof by the Cutaneous Glands, gently forcing a Transpiration of the Feverish Particles of the whole, and so banish that Preternatural Heat which is Proof to all common Remedies. And that Diseases which carry in their outward Appearance a shew of preternatural Heat are thus to be treated with warm Medicines, is indeed observable to every discerning Eye: For the most malignant Fevers are attacked and conquered by the briskest and warmest Alexipharmics and the most violent Erysipelas, or St Anthony’s Fire, is discussed and breathed out by strong and spirituous Fomentations, but are both of them exasperated by refrigerating or cooling Medicines, and their preternatural Heat more and more increased, till the one at length terminates in the cold sweats of Death, and the other in a compleat Mortification.

To multiply Encomiums of this kind is remote from my intended Brevity, therefore take this remarkable one for all: The Efficacy of Specific Medicines may be experienced from Mr Boyle’s unparalelled Treatise, herein referred to, and from the full Descriptions I have given any Chymist of Eminence, upon consulting each respective Patient’s Case, can effectually prepare them. But I would more particularly recommend for this Purpose the Skilful Mr Boyle Godfrey, in Covent-Garden.

    Tho. Nevett.

THE NATURAL SECRET HISTORY OF BOTH SEXES: OR, A Modest Defense OF PUBLIC STEWS

With an Account of the Present State of Whoring in these Kingdoms

By LUKE OGLE, Esq; THE FOURTH EDITION

LONDON: Printed in the Year M.DCC.XL

TO THE SOCIETIES FOR Reformation of Manners

Gentlemen,

THE great Pains and Diligence You have employ’d in the Defence of Modesty and Virtue, give You an undisputed Title to the Address of this Treatise; tho’ it is with the utmost Concern that I find myself under a Necessity of writing it, and that after so much Reforming, there should be any Thing left to say upon the Subject, besides congratulating You upon Your happy Success. It is no small Addition to my Grief to observe, that Your Endeavours to suppress Lewdness have only serv’d to promote it; and that this Branch of Immorality has grown under Your Hands, as if it was prun’d instead of being lopp’d. But however Your ill Success may grieve, it cannot astonish me: What else could we hope for, from Your persecuting of poor strolling Damsels? From your stopping up those Drains and Sluices we had to let out Lewdness? From your demolishing those Horn-works and Breast-works of Modesty? Those Ramparts and Ditches within which the Virtue of our Wives and Daughters lay so conveniently intrench’d? An Intrenchment so much the safer, by how much the Ditches were harder to be fill’d up. Or what better could we expect from Your Carting of Bawds, than that the Great Leviathan of Leachery, for Want of these Tubs to play with, should, with one Whisk of his Tail, overset the Vessel of Modesty? Which, in her best Trim, we know to be somewhat leaky, and to have a very unsteady Helm.

An ancient Philosopher compares Lewdness to a wild, fiery, and headstrong young Colt, which can never be broke till he is rid into a Bog: And Plato, on the same Subject, has these Words; The Gods, says he, have given us one disobedient and unruly Member, which, like a greedy and ravenous Animal that wants Food, grows wild and furious, till having imbib’d the Fruit of the common Thirst, he has plentifully besprinkled and bedewed the Bottom of the Womb.

And now I have mentioned the Philosophers, I must beg Your Patience for a Moment, to hear a short Account of their Amours: For nothing will convince us of the irresistible Force of Love, and the Folly of hoping to suppress it, sooner than reflecting, that those venerable Sages, those Standards of Morality, those great Reformers of the World, were so sensibly touch’d with this tender Passion.

Socrates confess’d, that, in his old Age, he felt a strange tickling all over him for five Days, only by a Girl’s touching his Shoulder.

Xenophon made open Profession of his passionate Love to Clineas.

Aristippus of Cyrene, writ a lewd Book of ancient Delights; he compar’d a Woman to a House or a Ship, that was the better for being used: He asserted, that there was no Crime in Pleasure, but only in being a Slave to it: And often used to say, I enjoy Lais, but Lais does not enjoy me.

Theodorus openly maintain’d, that a wise Man might without Shame or Scandal, keep Company with common Harlots.

Plato, our great Pattern for chaste-Love, proposes, as the greatest Reward for public Service, that he who has perform’d a signal Exploit, should not be deny’d any amorous Favour. He writ a Description of the Loves of his Time, and several amorous Sonnets upon his own Minions: His chief Favorites were Asterus, Dio, Phædrus, and Agatho; but he had, for Variety, his Female Darling Archeanassa; and was so noted for Wantonness, that Antisthenes, gave him the Nick-name of Satho, i. e. Well-furnish’d.

Polemo was prosecuted by his Wife for Male-Venery.

Crantor made no Secret of his Love to his Pupil Arcesilaus.

Arcesilaus made Love to Demetrius and Leocharus; the last, he said, he would fain have open’d: Besides, he publickly visited the two Elean Courtezans, Theodota and Philæta, and was himself enjoy’d by Demochares and Pythocles: He suffer’d the last, he said, for Patience-sake.

Bion was noted for debauching his own Scholars.

Aristotle, the first Peripatetic, had a Son call’d Nichomacus, by his Concubine Herpilis: He lov’d her so well, that he left her in his Will a Talent of Silver, and the Choice of his Country-Houses; that, as he says, the Damsel might have no Reason to complain: He enjoy’d, besides the Eunuch Hermias, others say only his Concubine Pythais, upon whom he writ a Hymn, call’d, The Inside.

Demetrius Phalereus, who had 360 Statues in Athens, kept Lamia for his Concubine, and at the same time was himself enjoy’d by Cleo: He writ a Treatise, call’d, The Lover, and was nick-nam’d by the Courtezans, Charito, Blespharus, i. e. A Charmer of Ladies; and Lampetes, i. e. A great Boaster of his Abilities.

Diogenes, the Cynic, us’d to say, that Women ought to be in common, and that Marriage was nothing but a Man’s getting a Woman in the Mind to be lain with: He often us’d Manual Venery in the public Market-place, with this Saying. Oh! that I could assuage my Hunger thus with rubbing of my Stomach!

But what Wonder if the old Academics, the Cyrenaics, and Peripatetics, were so lewdly wanton, when the very Stoics, who prided themselves in the Conquest of all their other Passions, were forc’d to submit to this?

Zeno, indeed, the Founder of that Sect, was remarkable for his Modesty, because he rarely made Use of Boys, and took but once an ordinary Maid-Servant to Bed, that he might not be thought to hate the Sex; yet, in his Commonwealth, he was for a Community of Women; and writ a Treatise, wherein he regulated the Motions of getting a Maidenhead, and philosophically prov’d Action and Reaction to be equal.

Chrysippus and Apollodorus agree with Zeno in a Community of Women, and say, that a wise Man may be in Love with handsome Boys.

Erillus, a Scholar of Zeno’s, was a notorious Debauchee.

I need not mention the Epicureans who were remarkable for their Obscenity.

Epicurus used to make a Pander of his own Brother; and his Scholar, the Great Metrodorus, visited all the noted Courtezans in Athens, and publicly kept the famous Leontium, his Master’s Quondam Mistress. Yet, if you will believe Laertius, he was every Way a good Man.

But what shall we say of our Favourite Seneca, who, with all his Morals, could never acquire the Reputation of Chastity? He was indeed somewhat Nice in his Amours, like the Famous Flora, who was never enjoy’d by any Thing less than a Dictator or a Consul; for he scorn’d to intrigue with any Thing less than the Empress.

Now, if those Reverend School-Masters of Antiquity, were so loose in their Seminals, shall we, of this Age, set up for Chastity? Have our Oxford Students more Command of their Passions than the Stoics? Are our Young Templars less Amorous than Plato? Or, is an Officer of the Army less Ticklish in the Shoulder than Socrates?

But I need not waste any Rhetoric upon so evident a Truth; for plain and clear Propositions, like Windows painted, are only the more Obscure the more they are adorn’d.

I will now suppose, that you have given up the Men as Incorrigible; since You are convinc’d, by Experience, that even Matrimony is not able to reclaim them. Marriage, indeed, is just such a Cure for Lewdness, as a Surfeit is for Gluttony; it gives a Man’s Fancy a Distaste to the particular Dish, but leaves his Palate as Luxurious as ever: for this Reason we find so many marry’d Men, that, like Sampson’s Foxes, only do more Mischief for having their Tails ty’d. But the Women, You say, are weaker Vessels, and You are resolv’d to make them submit; rightly judging, if You cou’d make all the Females Modest, it would put a considerable Stop to Fornication. It is great Pity, no doubt, so Fine a Project should Miscarry: And I would willingly entertain Hopes of seeing one of these Bridewell Converts. In the mean Time it would not be amiss, if You chang’d somewhat your present Method of Conversion, especially in the Article of Whipping. It is very possible, indeed, that leaving a Poor Girl Penny-less, may put her in a Way of living Honestly, tho’ the want of Money was the only Reason of her living otherwise; and the stripping of her Naked, may, for aught I know, contribute to Her Modesty, and put Her in a State of Innocence; but surely, Gentlemen, You must all know, that Flogging has a quite contrary Effect. This Project of pulling down Bawdy-houses to prevent Uncleanness, puts me in Mind of a certain Over-nice Gentleman, who cou’d never fancy his Garden look’d sweet, till he had demolish’d a Bog-house that offended his Eye in one Corner of it; but it was not long before every Nose in the Family was convinc’d of His Mistake. If Reason fails to Convince, let us profit by Example: Observe the Policy of a Modern Butcher, persecuted with a Swarm of Carnivorous Flies; when all his Engines and Fly-flaps have prov’d ineffectual to defend his Stall against the Greedy Assiduity of those Carnal Insects, he very Judiciously cuts off a Fragment, already blown, which serves to hang up for a Cure; and thus, by sacrifising a Small Part, already Tainted, and not worth Keeping, he wisely secures the Safety of the Rest. Or, let us go higher for Instruction, and take Example by the Grazier, who far from denying his Herd the Accustom’d Privilege of Rubbing, when their Sides are Stimulated with sharp Humours, very Industriously fixes a Stake in the Center of the Field, not so much, you may imagine, to Regale the Salacious Hides of his Cattle, as to preserve his Young Trees from Suffering by the Violence of their Friction.