THE URINAL OF PHYSICK By ROBERT RECORD Doctor of Physick Whereunto is added an ingenious Treatise concerning Physicians Apothecaries and Chyrurgians Set forth by a Dr. in Queen Elizabeths dayes With a Translation of Papius Ahalsossa concerning Apothecaries Confecting their Medicines Worthy perusing and following LONDON Printed by Gartrude Dawson 1651. To the Reader IF either the corruption or abuse of things might deprive us of this lawfull and necessary use of them even the sacred Scriptures our laws out provisions of life and clothing might fall under declension if not abolition It is true from the inspection of Urine some have presumed to pretend a larger judgement and indication then may justly be drawn or conjectured out of it yet it is generally concluded by Physitians both ancient and moderne that both Urine and Pulse are so necessary that without them all knowledge of Physick besides is doubtfull obscure and uncertaine whereof the first sheweth the estate of the liver and veines the second of the heart and arteries The Urine because with the blood it is convened into all parts of the body and from thence returneth back again in the veines to the liver and urinall vessels bringeth with it some indicature of the state and disposition of all those parts from whence it commeth and who shall please to peruse that exact peice of Daniel Becherus shall finde observable peices both concerning the urine and divers experimented medicines made with it Concerning the judgement of the Pulte who shall please to peruse Doctor May upon Pennant shall finde the Pulses motion not so certain an indicature because in some diseases there is cessation or none or small appearance to conjecture by Concerning cerning the Author he was one of the first who labour'd to reduce the tractate thereof unto order and method and hath been seconded by laborious borious Fletcher to whom our English Nation oweth much for their labours The antiquity and paines of the Author hath caused it to be presented again to the Presse hoping with judicious men it shall receive the acceptance is desired studied By the well-wisher of your health R. R. THE PREFACE THough the unsatiable greedines of covetous men doe many and sundrie waies hurt The good use of a covetous example yet some wayes it may do no lesse good if men will not disdain as they ought not to use it in such sort as I shall shew you But because that unsaciableness is never satisfied but beside thousand of means invented already to quench the unquenchable greedines it seeketh and findeth daily new and new means innumerable so that it were an infinite labour to declare them all I will wittingly and purposedly passe them over only taking one general sentence which shall be in stead of all the rest Vespasian one of the great schoolmasters of avarice which could pick out profit of every thing yea even of mens urine taught his Scholers I meane the whole court of covetous persons this lesson ensuing Lucri bonus odor caece qualibet Lucre is sweet and hath a good savour Though it come of Vrine dirt or Ordure This sentence if it be withdrawn from the filthy lucre of unsatiable covetousnesse wherein it is detestable and imployed rather to the due lucre of mans sustenance then it becomes tolerable But if it bee referred to the necessarie lucre of mans health then is it greatly commendable If there can be then any commodity for mans health gathered out of urine as there may be much men should not be negligent in seeking of that thing which should do good both to themselves and others seeing the covetous are so diligent in seeking for that thing which shall profit neither themselves nor others And the negligence is so much the greater if men be more remisse in seeking after so necessary a thing in a matter so commendable then the covetous in a bad thing But in as much as this thing by reason it is not plainly ser forth is with no lesse difficulty to be studied on then it is necessary to be used the ignorant may have some excuse I therefore in the name of many other have taken this pains on me to set forth this thing so plainly Ignorance set aside that ignorance can have no excuse But that no man should doubt of the truth of this Treatise or of mine intent Why this Book is written in putting forth the same rather in this our English tongue then any other I shall briefly shew reasons of both First for the truth of it The first reason I will boldly speak knowing for certain that no man that can judge it will say or thinke otherwise but that it is as true as mans knowledge can devise it And it is the opinion of the most excellent writers of Physick both Greeks and Latine namely Hippocrates Galen Aetius Aeginota Philothous Theophilus Actuarius also Cornelius Celsus Plinius Constantinus Africanus and Clementius Clementinus with others more conferring also with these Avicenna Egidius Polidamus and such like But with what temperance and moderation they that are learned may perceive These have I followed chiefly in this judgement of Urines And in the use of medicine and diseases touching urine I have joyned with them Dioscorides Quintus Serenus Columela Sextus Platonicus and divers others Now if there be any man that doubteth of the truth of those writers in this thing I am not here to force beleef upon them The intent of the Author But now as touching mine intent in writing this Treatise in English though this cause might seem sufficient to satisfie many men that I am an English man and therefore may most easily and plainly write in my native tongue rather then in any other yet unto them that know the hardness of the matter this answer should seem unlikely considering that it is harder to translate into such a tongue wherein the Art hath not been written before then to write in those tongues in which the terms of the Art are better expressed Now to shew briefly the causes moving me thereunto I am sure there are but few that ever sought counsell for their health but they know that the common trade to attain to the knowledge of the disease is by the judgement of the urine though not alone yet as the principall Likewise as the is not any thing so good but the abuse of it may cause harm to ensue therupon So this judgment of urines though it be a thing highly to be regarded yet if it be used rashly without foregoing signs it may cause as it doth often some error in the judgment of the Physician though he were right excellently learned not so much by the ignorance of the Physitian as by want of knowledge in the patient which should instruct the Physician in such questions as hee needed to demand of him and not to look that the Physitian should tell him all things at the first sight more like a God then man So that
of nature I will use therefore an example of a natural work which shall expresse in many points this thing though not in all for such can there none be but the thing it self And in as much as this example is not easie to be understood of all men though the most part do now a daies partly know it by experience of finding springs of waters I will first propose an artificiall example to make both the other to be the better perceived An example of Stilling It is daily seen in distilling of Waters that the temperate heat of the fire doth separate the purest part of the juice from the herbs and also from the grosser juice This by naturall lightness is drawn into the head of the Stillatorie where by the coldness of the helmet it is made somewhat grosser and so through naturall heat descendeth and passeth forth by the Pipe of the Stillatorie The Originall And as the Art of man useth to make this water so doth nature use to make the water of springs whereof come all rivers streams and floods except the sea For seeing the earth is not perfectly sound and thick of substance Cause of springs as stones and some woods appeareth to be but it is hollow and full of holes as you see that cork is so that the air which by his subtleness pierceth into never so little a hole entreth and filleth this hollowness nature so leading to it because no place should be emptie In which place by the coldness of the earth the air is turned into water as you may see in walls and pillars or stone namely of marble how the coldness of the stone turneth the air into water and hangeth full of drops which sometimes trickle down apace as if they did swear So when the earth hath turned the air thus into water then doth it drop down and gathereth together and so runneth out as it can finde or prepare way As long therefore as there is hollownes in that place with such sort or coldnesse and none other let the Spring of water shall never cease But if the way by any means be stopped then the water turmoileth and laboureth either to expell that let or to make a new way The causes of diversity in tast of Water Now this water being thus ingendred of the air which hath no taste is also naturally without all taste but the tast that it hath is the taste of the vaines of earth or mettall by which it doth run And that is the cause that some waters are sweet and some soure some fresh and some salt and otherwise diversly tasted some also are hot and some cold and with other like qualities endued according to the ground whereby it passeth But of this I will not now speak because I have appointed for it a peculiar Treatise if God grant me time Only this I say now that a man that is expert can by the colour tast and other qualities of the water which he seeth tell what vains of earth or mettals is in that place whence that water cometh though he see it not And this water is expelled out of his first place as unprofitable there to remain and yet when it is come forth thence it is good for divers and sundry uses The generation of urine Thus may we thinke of the generation and use of urine or mans water Is shall not need that I here reckon exactly the places causes Three Concoctions and the order of the three concoctions which go before the generation of urine but it shall suffice to tell briefly that of the meat and drink together concocted in the stomack is made rude blood if I may so call it which rude blood is wrought again and made more perfecter in the liver and thirdly yet more purified in the hollow vein where the urine is separate from it as whey from milk but yet may not exactly be called urine till it come into the reins or kidnies which draw it out of the hollow vein by a certain naturall power resting in them And then doth the reins or kidnies alter it perfectly into urine as the coldnes of the ground turneth air into water But you must take this comparison or similitude to be spoken of the alteration it self and not of the cause Now when Urine is thus made like to that fashion of water as I said then as the water passeth forth from his first place by issues outward so doth the urine descend from the reins by certain veins as it were called Water pipes and runneth into the bladder from whence at due times it is expelled forth if the way be not let So that you may compare the reins to the head of a conduit the water pipes to the conduit pipes the bladder to the conduit and the shaft to the rock of the conduit And further as the water doth declare by taste and colour the qualities of the earth or veins of mettall whereby it runneth and from whence it commeth so the urine by colour and other wayes declareth of what sort the places that it cometh thorow and humors that it commeth from are affected And yet not only serveth for this but also as the water though it depart from the earth as superfluous in that place yet in other places and to other purposes it is greatly profitable So the urine though it be expelled as a superfluous excrement yet beside the commodity of judgement which it giveth of the parts that it cometh from it doth also serve for divers uses in medicine and other good commodities Of both which I will anon orderly write after I have declared certain things appertaining to the due judgement of it Of the Instrument and parts by which Vrine is engendred and passeth mark this Figure following A. Is the liver B. The hollow vein C. Veins by which the reins do draw the urine and therefore be called sucking veins D. The reins E. The water Pipes F. Is the Bladder G. The spout of the yard All the other parts beside appertain to Generation and seed CHAP. III. What Vrine is and what tokens it giveth in generall YOu have heard now how urine is ingendred from whence it cometh and by what places it passeth which things all to the intent that you may the better keep in minde you shall note this short definition The definition of urine Urine is the superfluity or wheyie substance of the bloud into a hollow vein conveyed by the reins and water pipes into the bladder So that hereby you may plainly perceive that if the bloud be pure and clean and none other grief in the reins Water-pipes Bladder nor Shaft then shall the urine so declare it being also perfect and pure in substance and colour and all other tokens according to the same But if there bee any grief in any of those parts or the blood corrupt by any means then shall the urine declare certain tokens of the same as I
the grief of the stone it declareth that the grief shall be turned into the strangurie Thick and green Thick urine and green namely in Agues is a token of the yellow Jawnders either present or ready to come Thick and ash coloured Thick urine and ash coloured if it appear in Agues and do not settle it is a sign of madnesse But in the burning Ague it betokeneth that the strangurie will come shortly Thick and black But if a black colour appear in thick urine it betokeneth sometime well as in the end of the Fever Quarten and of melancholike madness for it betokeneth that the melancholike matter which caused the diseases doth avoid out But sometimes it is an evill token for it signifieth that either the blood is burned through exceeding heat or else that naturall heat is clean quenched through deadly cold and therefore is commonly called a deadly sign namely in sharp Agues if it have an evill savour And so meaneth Galen when he saith that he marked The thicker that a black water is the worse it is and moreover That he never saw any escape which made such Vrine And thus have you heard of the significations of thin and thick urine with such colours as may be coupled therewith Now will I write a littler of the colours alone and of such tokens as come chiefly of them rather then of the substance or any other part of the urine Colours of urine The colours of urine declare commonly how heat and cold do reign in the body so that the white the urine is the greater is the cold and natural heat lesse and the higher coloured that the urine is the greater is the heat But to speak particularly White that you may perceive it the better If the urine be white it is a sign that concoction faileth quite and the lighter coloured the worse Pale colour in better somewhat Pale though it also declare lack of natural heat and strength And flaxen colour Flaxen though it betokeneth beginning of concoction yet it is not perfect howbeit it may be well taken if all other signs be good Pale light saffron Pale and light saffron as you have heard before are the best colours and most temperate which betoken exact concoction Golden saffron But golden and saffron colour declare excess of heat Claret red Crimson Purple Green oily Claret is next and then red after it crimson and then purple then green and last of them is oily urine which as they goe in order so they declare greater and greater heat with increase not only of the qualitie but also of the matter containing the same Blew ash-colour But now of the other side blew urine and ash colour are tokens of excessive cold sometime with matter and sometime without and so like wise of black urine howbeit it cometh sometime of excess of heat But how you may know the differences both of it and all the other now will I shew in order with the rest of their significations White urine White if it come in great quantity in a whole man it betokeneth much drinking of thin wine But if it be mean in quantity with a due ground it declareth cold distemperance of the liver The urine doth appear white with a dis-form and unconcocted ground in them that have the dropsie But in old men white urine is no great evill sign as you may perceive by that I said before of Ages how they alter urine But in yong men and such as are of freshest age it is a worse sign and specially if it have either no contents or else evill contents And if urine continue long time white without changing it betokeneth painfull beating of the head daselling of the eies and giddiness and also the falling evill lothsomness of good meats and lusting sometime after evill meats greedie hunger pain in limbs and painfull moving of the sinewes and divers griefes of the head and reines and also pain in the fundament and great weakness by sickness for all these doe follow continually lack of concoction either cold or stopping of the urines and conduct or transposing of the humours But the differences of these cannot easily bee known of every man yet such as are learned may gather certain distinctions of them by the accidents which follow diseases Milk white horn white gray Dark white colours as milk white white white like horn and grey If they appear in the beginning of Agues and in the increase of them they doe betoken much pain But in the decrease of Agues they declare especially if it come plentifully Pale flaxen Pale urine and flaxen do not lightly appear in Agues except they be easie Agues and short as those which continue but one day but if that it do follow after burning Agues it declareth that they be fully dissolved Pale saffron As for pale and light saffron they are as I said before the best and most perfect colours namely in young men and fresh youth But in old men women and children whose urine as I have said declineth toward white and pale it doth betoken that their bodie is too hot either by reason of their diet or else of their exercise But in as much as it is but mean excesse it declareth but small grief Golden and saffron coloured urine if it be either somewhat thin Golden saffron colour or very thick either it hath no ground or else very few and dark contents But in this they differ that golden urine declareth excess of heat and matter also by reason of meats sharp medicines chafing of the bloud through anger heat of the bowels or else heat of the time of the yeer But saffron colour appeareth rather with default of matter through some affection of the mind watching heat of the sun labour and such like things which increase thin and yellow choller and diminish naturall heat so that the cause of this colour is choler it self increased either in quantity or else in qualitie But in old men and women and such other there is some greater cause that occasioneth it for it signifieth an Ague cometh of saffronly choler dispersed through the whole body after which there followeth commonly giddiness headach bitterness of the mouth lothsomeness of meat thirstiness Also in yong men such urine is caused through much exercise and use of hot meats Of Claret and red Vrine Claret urine CLaret and red urine is coloured either of the mixture of red choler or else of the corruption of bloud such urine oftentimes great before Agues For when the blood doth so abound that it cannot be duly laboured nor can take no ayre there is engendred a certain corruption which as it is red of colour it self so it causeth the urine to be red in colour if it be much else it maketh only claret colour But if it be exact red lik grain it betokeneth that bloud issueth into it out of some veins
Thin ground A thin ground being also pure and so cleaving to the bottom of the Urinal that it will not lightly rise though the urinall be shaked it is a token of great weakness of nature in the third concoction and such a ground appeareth most in white and watrie urine Howbeit sometime a thin ground cometh by the reason that the raw humors are extenuate through naturall heat which getting new strength doth extenuate and disperse all grossness of raw humors within the veins For the propertie of heat is to knit and bind together thin things and to extenuate and disperse grosse and raw things Colour of the ground Now as touching the colours of the ground the perfect ground is neither exceeding white neither yet pale but mean between both for if there appear any such excessive white neither yet pale but mean between both for if there appear any such excessive white then is it some rag of phlegmatick matter or else matter extreamly concocted which commeth from some inward member being sore and that you may discern as I said before by the toughnes and by the savour And if any man be desirous to know the cause why the ground is white of colour let him remember that the ground is the superfluous excrement of the bloud being perfectly concocted in the veins Now that the bloud it self when it is exactly concocted is turned into a white or at least a party white colour you may conjecture by the generation of milke and also the seed of man yea and of matter which all three are nothing else but bloud exactly concocted save that matter cometh of evill bloud And therefore whensoever the ground hath in it any other colour then white it is no good token As first if it be pale and flaxen coloured Pale Flaxen then it is swarved from his right and commendable colour Howbeit yet it may be born as but meanly evill because that that colour commeth of small excess of choler But if it be more higher coloured by choler so that it be saffron coloured Saffron Actuarius then is it an evill token as Actuarius saith for it declareth that choler is excessively increased either by the order of diet or else by the corruption of bloud or some other wayes Howbeit Hippocrates in his Aphorisms 7. Aph. 32. seemeth to say the contrary for he saith That when the ground is so coloured of choler especially if at the beginning of the sicknesse it were waterie to sight then doth it betoken a quicke sickness that is to say as Philotheus expoundeth it Philotheus a sicknesse that will shortly be ended and so it may justly be called a good sign Notwithstanding as in this point it is a good token in that it signifieth that the disease is nigh the end so it may be called as Actuarius calleth it an evill sign because it doth betoken a cholerick sickness and that choler doth unnaturally abound And if this answer do not content you though it content Antonius Musa than may you say more better as I thinke thus Antonius Musa That if the ground be at the beginning of the sickness coloured with choller and so increase as Actuarius seemeth to mean then is it an evil token indeed for it declareth both the abundance and also the encrease of choler But if the ground at the beginning of a cholerick disease were watry that is white and thin and afterward turn to saffron colour which is the exact colour of choler or elso to a yellow colour which is somewhat lesse cholerick then is it a token that the cholerick matter which before lay lurking in the body doth now begin to avoid and so the cause of sicknesse thus by nature expelled health must needs follow As contrariwise if after yellow or saffron colour it change unto whiter and there be no certain token of concoction then it is an evill sign and a token of phrensie Howbeit if there be any token of certain concoction then is the same a good sign so that if you take heed you may perceive here what a necessary thing it is to observe order in the alteration of urine of which I have partly spoken before Claret colour Red. Bloudie Now therefore to goe oâ—n If the ground bee of claret colour either red or blew the token is not good For these bloody colours come either of too much abundance of bloud or else by reason that the retentive power is so feeble that it cannot keep in the good humors but suffreth them to run out Claret red Claret colour and red doe betoken a certain default of concoction in the veins and that through the excess of red choler But yet this default is but mean and without danger seeing that the hurt is only by quantity whereas some other do hurt both by quantitie and qualitie also Bloodie grounds are altogether worse then red though they be better then ash-coloured Bloudie and black for they betoken that the bloud is nothing duely wrought especially if their quantitie be much withall for then the quantity of matter doth let the powers to work which thing yet as it may be born so it declareth need of long time to recover health But if this doe come through weakness of the powers in themselves then is it an extream evill sign for it betokeneth that the powers are overcome with weariness in working and be not able to keep in the good and profitable humors Which thing to discern more exactly you shall take artificiall conjectures by other circumstances which give also tokens of judgement namely as by the age of the person by his order of dyet and such like Blew Ash-colour Black Now to make an end with the other colours which are of a dark hew as blew-ash-colour and black These of all other are the worst and most envious to nature and the nearer they cleave to the bottome of the urinall the worse they are These colours come of a black melancholy humour being ingendred within the veins or else coming from some other part into them or else it betokeneth deadly mortifying But sometimes it cometh of sore bruising and stripes and generally it cometh namely the black either of excessive cold or excessive heat And now for a conclusion whatsoever I have said of the ground you shall understand the same to bee spoken of the swim and the cloud for they are in kinde but one thing save that they differ in lightness and heft and therefore also in places But the judgement of their substance and colour is much after one rate though some difference there be as you shall hear hereafter And likewise of their quantity Quantitie which as it is then only commendable when it is mean so if it be greater then a mean it doth declare some alteration in man though not alwayes extreamly evill for sometime it is a token of fatting or growing to a corporateness Great and that
ash-colour A Leadie or Ash coloured circle doth signifie the falling Evill through the great grief of the brain And further declareth that such grief shall proceed by the sinnews into the other parts of the body But if after such a leadie colour there follow a reddsh colour that is a good token for then doth nature gather strength again and the powers of the brain reviveth If the colour of the garland be green Green and the Patient have a burning Ague it is to be feared least that the abundance of choler shall cause a Phrensie Black colour in the circle doth sometime betoken mortification Black and sometime only extream heat But these shall you distinct as I said before of the urine it self by the order of the colours For if green colour went before then doth the black betoken adustion through heat but if his colour last before was ash-colour then is it a token of death comming through the dominion of cold And thus much as touching the colours may suffice for this time Quivering in the garland Sometimes also you shall perceive a quivering and trembling in the garland and that declareth grief in the back-bone And thus many tokens be taken of the circle or garland Sometimes there will appear fleeting on the urine certaine scum or fattiness Fattiness sometimes like drops of oyle and sometime like a thin spiders web and these both doe betoken the melting of the fat within the body as Hippocrates witnesseth in his Prognosticks 7 Aph. 30. howbeit in his Aphorisms he doth assign it as a token of the grief of the reins peculiarly saying In whole urine there fleeteth fattiness and that much at once they have pain in the reins but shall not long endure This Aphorism doth Galen understand so to be true if that fattiness appear quickly and much at once else if it come by little and little with longer continuance so doth it not betoken wast only of the fat about the reins but rather throughout the whole body which sign yet is not alway evil except it continue long for if it continue but a little while it declareth no great evill Now to goe forth with other signs If the urine have a stinking savour Stinking savour in urine it is ever an evill sign for it doth betoken some putrefaction more or lesse as of the bladder onely by some blister or sore in it and that most certainly when the stinch is very great and there appeareth also scales in the urine and matter But if there be matter in the urine and the stinking savour but mean then doth it declare the sore to be in some other part of the body But this ever is true that matter in urine is a token of a sore And if in continuance of time the matter and stinch doe abate it is a good token but if the other continue or increase it is an evill sign If the urine doe stinke and there appear no matter in it then is it a token of some mortifying For if there be in the urine mean tokens of concoction then is the mortification in some one part of the body but if the other signs in the urine be evill then is that mortification rather of the whole body then of any one part of it And thus have I over-run briefly the chief things to be considered in urine which I say are appertaining or annexed to the urine it self Howbeit two other things there are which though they be more plainer then these other yet may they be overpassed no more then the other that is to say blood coming forth with the urine and gravell expelled there with also Blood coming forth with urine Blood doth declare some sore to be in the reins or bladder as Hippocrates writeth in his Aphorisms or else some vein to be broken about the reins namely if it come suddenly and without manifest cause Howbeit as Galen Oribasius and divers others do declare and reason also with experience doth consent there may appear blood in the urine also if that there be such a sore in the liver or in the shaft But in any of these cases the pain felt in the place and part will utter from whence the blood commeth Now to speak of gravell Hypocrates saith Gravell In whose urine there appeareth gravel in the bottome they have the stone in the bladder or else in the reins as Galen addeth but commonly if the stone be in the reins the gravell will be red as Hypocrates declareth in his sixt Book of his Epidemies And thus now will I make an end of the judicial of urine CHAP. XI Of the Commodities and Medicines of Vrine THe greatest commodity of urine is already declared that is That it doth declare unto man the manifold diseases which happen unto him and thereby doth not only give him knowledge of the cause and so consequently of the cure of the same but also warneth him before of the grief to come whereby he may take an occasion to eschew it if he will be diligent Now as this is the greatest commoditie of urin so it hath many other as well in use of medicine as other waies of which I will write some though not all And first out of Plinie Plinie which reciteth strange operations of the urine of a Hedge-hog and of a Beast that the Greeks call Leontophon and moreover of the Beast Lynx which I omit now with many other but this will I not omit Urine of man that Hosthanes saith That if a man let his own urine drop upon his feet in the morning it is good against all evill And that it is good for the gout we may perceive by Fullers which never have the gout by reason that their feet are so often washed with it Ostrich urine The same Plinie writeth That the Vrine of an Ostrich will do away blots and moles of Inke Also that if Urine be tempered with water of like quantitie and so powred at the roots of the trees it will both nourish them as many men say and also drive all noyance from them The urine also of men or oxen tempered with hony and given to Bees Bees will cure them that are poysoned with the flower of the Cormier or Cornoiller tree And likewise if Beans be steeped in urine Beans and water three daies before they bee sowed some judge that they will increase exceedingly Dioscorides Stinging Adders c. Dioscorides saith That a mans own urine is good to be drunk for stinging of Adders and against poison and also against the dropsie when it doth begin And for the stinging of the sea-Adders of scorpions and dragons it is good to soke the stinged part withall Dogs urine The urine of Dogs is good to soke the place that is bitten with a Dog and to cleanse manginess and itchinesse if salt peter be added thereto And that that is old will more strongly cleanse scales scurff
smell of turpentine is washed away with water as also when the Cyancan and Armenian stone are washed oiles and fat that the vitious malignant qualities and foul smell may be taken away Lye is a waterie or spiritous humour sifted through ashes Therefore it is to bee valued as well from the nature of the ashes as the moisture poured out on it for from the ashes it hath his strength of drying cleansing and cutting by his sharpnesse which the actuall and potentiall hear of the liquor poured forth increaseth and by consequent it hath no strength of softning or conglutinating together If the moisture poured on be potentially hot or cold of the same nature will the lye bee also But seeing the ashes doth retain nothing of the vertue of the medicine neither from the lye will any vertue be in it at all The lightnesse of the lye ariseth from that moisture of the ashes which we have said is melted with a vehement fire and advance the passage through the vessels taken by the mouth and after the cleansing of the foulnesse away induceth especially a smoothness to the skin of man In the said faculties and in the manner of generation it is like to the wheyie part of blood by which name it hath a sympathie with the reins and bladder and from thence a dieuretick power of cutting the flegm and de-obstructing the veins But it hath no sweating power unlesse it bee got from good wine or the Spirits of wine nor of a counterpoison by it self unlesse it be got from distilled waters decoctions and infusions of this kinde or that plants resisting poyson be put in place of strata in the straining through But by accident whilest it resisteth putrefaction and tough clammy poisons by drying and cutting by urine and sweatings it carryeth along with it the poison nature together thrusting forth the poison by which advice many drink their own urine in times when the aire is infected That mixture also is like to infusion when the oile and watery humour is mixed with the earthy matter for when the oily humour repelleth from it the water contrarily the waterie may be easily dryed up with the earthy so that thence it may easier admit the oile it accordeth rather that the earthy matter be mingled before with the waterie moist then with the oylic so in the threefold medicine lythargie or white-lead is first mingled with vinegar and after with oyle 5. Decoction The humour is either digested by the fire alone or with the humour and earthy matter untill that either for the most part the waterie parts exhale away as it is in boyling of salt water 1. Of a Nitrous humour of juyces expressed c. That no occasion of Putrefaction on may be given 2. The vitious or evill qualities exhale away 3. Hard things may be softned 4. The Medicinable qualitie of the things infused may bee communicated to the humour 5. And that the moist pants may be exactly mixed and united with the earthy And these also are two ends of insolation when we expose into the sun oile spirits or vinegar with things infused for this also is a certain decoction or digestion that the earthy matter may be gathered together and settle so that afterward it may be separated That humour is either an oylie or a waterie juyce drawn forth water wine beer sweet wine honyed wine and vinegar Foolishly called by some a menstruum since no Physicall infusion or decoction requireth the spaces of a month but may at the utmost be finished in three daies space 1. Decoction is made in a vessell shut or closed when we fear the losse or flying away of the subtile and thinner vapours 2. Or in an open vessell when we would exhale offensive qualities There is need of being carefull about it and looking often to the matter that it may not bee burned and of double clarifying it either in the bath to keep in the faculties of the things infused and to prevent Empyreuma 1. By reason of the delay hard things require a long time which for this cause ought first to be put in and require more moistnesse in which their great abundance of moisture is to be resolved for avoiding putrefaction 2. Lesse hard require a lester time when there is not such great abundance of water to be resolved so we boil leaves to the consumption only of the fourth part of the water 3. Flowers and Spice require a short time to the boyling of which two or theee walmes will suffice Sometimes the decoction is reiterated or the infusion by a straining or expression renewed that the thicker parts being separated those which are thinner may in the other decoction bee mote exactly united together There is also a certain naturall coction as when new Wine boyleth up or as new Beer brewed Honey and water mixed new Wine c. and some infusions when as the potentiall heat actuated or put a working separateth the grosser parts from the thinner some advancing upward and some setling downward and resolveth the thinner parts into vapours or spirits which being scattered if there be not space or issue enough to goe forth the same break the vessels a peices though very strong Though according to the opinion of Actaurius Sirrup or a Julep be water boyled with Hony or Sugar or Wine boyled to the third part yet at this day all Decoctions are called Sirrups in which water with plants is boyled either with or without Sugar or Hony and Juleps when stilled waters Rob when the juyces are pressed forth in an equall weight with Sugar or boyled with a halfe part of Sugar Sugar and Hony are added for cleansing taste or lusting sake For by their clamminess as by a coagulation it conserveth the parts united In preparation of simple Sirrup for continuance as for example sake of flowers of Violets or Roses it is best to have the juyce of Violets pressed out to be infused raw in Sugar clarified warme not boyling lest it exhale away some of the smell and to set it into the Sunne to resolve away the superfluous watry moistness and if insolation suffice not by inclining the vessell to seperate that which is watry and then being boyled again to poure it on for so the smell and strength of the Medicine will be preserved and kept more powerfully concerning which our Reformer Quercetan hath nothing he can more boast of But seeing in Roses there is an aicry spirituous and oyly matter which either doth not enter the juyce or is more drawn out by a fervent decoction it is best that Roses be first infused in a boyling or fervent decoction and some houres after pressed forth and to this juyce other Roses be put and being about nine times iterated by infusion in Balneo to prevent Empyreuma and Evaporations then that juyce at length prest or strained out should be boyled with about a third part of Sugar to a fit consistence in Balneo Mariae For since the purgative