Sometimes dilate them as in Joy Love and Desire Sometimes drives them furiously as in Anger wherein also the humours are fluctuating sometimes this way and sometimes that way according to the nature of the Passion which hath its peculiar motion and current And as other Diseases have their Diagnostick Signs to distinguish them and whereby they may be known So likewise the Passions have their peculiar Characters of distinction that it is not difficult to know under what passion a man labours We judge of other sicknesses very much by the Face what alteration there So by the Countenance we may know what Passion is predominant each putting on a different aspect and presenting it self in another shape and visage Passion in excess although it be the perturbation and sickness of the mind yet it is not confined there but is communicated to the Body which partakes and shares in the morbous effect If the Mind be distempered and discomposed the Body cannot continue in health The Soul and Body are so interwoven with each other and conjunct in their Operations that they act together enjoy and suffer together They are so linked and conjoined as Partners of each others ill and welfare that the one is not affected but the other is drawn into consent mutually acting enjoying and suffering until death Hence it is a diseased Body makes a heavy drooping mind and a wounded disturbed or restless mind makes a youthful healthy body to decay and languish Who therefore desires the health and welfare of the body must procure Ease Rest and Tranquillity of mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That you may the better know and rightly understand how passions of the mind redound and reflect upon the body to the decay and ruine of it and abbreviating mans life First Consider that the Body without the Souls energy is dead and moves not at all by vertue of the Souls conjunction with it and informing power the Body acts with various motions and operations and according to the activity of the Soul with organical aptitude and fitness of the Body is the exquisiteness and perfection of their operations The Soul then is Agent the Body passive receiving the influx virtue and power from the Soul who is Rectrix and Gubernatrix to whom the Rule and Government belong It is evident therefore since the Body cannot act any thing of it self for its conservation without the energy and assistance from the Soul whose care is for the regulating and moderating the Body in all actions external and internal than the distractions inactivity wandrings and neglects of the Soul do tend to the subversion of this due order and government and consequently the ruine and dissolution of the body which requires a constant supply of daily reparation and a regular tuition for its support and maintenance Now the Soul transported by passion from its genuine order and mode of placidness and tranquillity and reduced into a turbulent unquiet and distempered state is a condition of incapacity and unfitness for government for that time being and many damages arise thereby as in each passion particularly hereafter will appear In a threefold manner the Soul is put besides her self in the regularity of rectory and is incurious of the welfare of the Body First The Soul is either carried away by some delightful object as for something vehemently desired and deserting as it were the body to follow after that thing desired and coveted extending her power and strength out of the body to lay hold if possibly to obtain and bring within the Sphere and Circle of her enjoyment as in the Passion of Love Or secondly The Soul is in fury and disquieted within by the apprehension of something assaulting and disturbing to which the Soul hath a contrariety and antipathy against as in the passions of Fear Hatred Revenge Anger And this disquietude and disturbance is continued by representations of their causes in the phantasie which still present themselves to the Soul by way of a fresh assault which feeds the Passion and continues the Distemper Or thirdly The Soul is languishing heavy and inactive altogether indisposed to the government and tuition of the body and perhaps desirous to be discharged and shake it off being weary of the burthen taking no delight in their partnership and society as in melancholy despair and grief In all which cases you shall find the Body to suffer great prejudice and detriment In the first Case When the Soul alienates her self wanders away with a vehement desire to procure and obtain any thing most agreeable and delightful the Soul as it were contracts her self and unites all her force stands at full bent after this beloved dischargeth all her thoughts upon it and spends her strength in desire and longing until at last she pines away with a tedious and starving expectation if the beloved thing be not obtained In the interim the oeconomy and government of her own mansion the Body is neglected the spirits which are accounted the Souls immediate Instruments in every Faculty at least a considerable part are inticed away and called off from their proper and peculiar works and duty perhaps to enlarge and increase the vigour of some other faculty more immediately subvervient and attending the Souls new design and business preferred far before a good digestion due excretion nutrition seasonable rest or what else and those spirits remaining which have the burthen of these duties incumbent on them have so small and inconsiderable support and supply of influence from the Soul to direct and back them in their performance that the functions are executed weakly and depravedly to the great prejudice and damage of the Body Digestion now is not so good nor the Appetite so quick the stomach calls not for a new supply as yet not being well discharged and quit of yesterdays provision the stomach now is weary of dressing and preparing long Dinners for the Body Lenten and fasting days are its vacation from trouble Separation now is not so good the excrementitious and nutritious part walk hand in hand together and pass without contradiction or due examination the watch now is not so strict at the Ports and privy passages to discern what is fit to pass this way and what the other or what to reject and keep out but promiscuously receive what presents it self Distribution now is not so good Aliment tires by the way wanting spirits to convey and bring it to its journeys end and exercise to jog it on through the angust Meanders and more difficult passages Sanguification is now degenerated and vitiated the preceding requisites and fit praevious dispositions in order thereto being wanting Membrification or Assimilation is now changed for a Cachectick and depraved habit Excretion and Evacuation of what is superfluous and unfit longer to be retained in the body is not sent away in due time but stays for a Pass the Governess is now taken up with other matters neglects due orders
within made by a passionate troubled mind the prospect would be strange and much different from that placidness and tranquillity of an indisturbed quiet Soul 2. Strong and vehement passions or affections of the mind too intent upon this or that object whether desirable and to be enjoyed or formidable and to be avoided alienate suspend and draw off the wonted vigour influence and preservative power of the Soul due to the body whereby the functions and necessary operations are not duly and sufficiently performed but intempestively remisly and weakly Nor is the dammage only privative but also introduceth and impresseth upon the spirits a morbifick Idea which is ens reale seminale producing this or that effect according to the nature and property of the Idea received and aptitude of the recipient subject Phancies and Idea's are let in naked but they streight are invested and cloathed in the body have a real existence and are entia realia though at first conception but entia rationis as the longing of a pregnant Woman being but the Idea of a thing in her mind it begets various and real distempers in her body if not soon satisfied and sometimes characterized upon the Embryo in the Womb. Likewise a good stomach is taken off its meat suddenly by the coming of some unwelcom bad news the appetite is gone now the oul is disquieted and the Body really affected and altered Let these sad tydings be contradicted and the Soul satisfied of the truth to the contrary it sets a new impression upon the spirits they strait are cheared lively and active the stomach calls for meat and drink and the faculties restored to their wonted operations Whereby it appears the two passions of joy and grief as they are opposite in their objects so are their effects wrought in the Body as far distant and different 3. A cogitative or contemplative person too intent always or unseasonably employing the mind seriously and eagerly either in real or fictitious matters fabricating Idea's upon the spirits disturbs and hinders other necessary offices in the body and operations conservative of its being enervates and weakens their performance in duty impares Health and hastens old Age but those that live most incurious and void of studious thoughts too serious cogitations and disquieting passions preserve the strength of Nature and integrity of all the Faculties protract the verdure and beauty of youth much longer from declensions and decay for by how much the rational faculty is over-busie disturbed and intempestively exercised drawing the full vigour of the Soul into the discharge of that faculty and robbing other inferiour functions of their necessary influential supply and emanative power from the Soul by so much the other faculties are impoverished and abated their executions more languid and depraved and therefore it is a close Students life a careful or passionate mind disposeth to and introduceth many infirmities enervates and debilitates nature abbreviates and shortens her course SECT XXIII Distempers and Perturbations of the Soul particularly Of Anger THis Passion is a great Disease if we consider the preternatural effects and alterations it maketh for the functions of the body are disordered and discomposed by it and the whole man changed from what he was In giving judgment upon Diseases so much worse is that person to be accounted whose alteration is greater from what he was in a state of health and as the functions perverted are more in number and superiour in dignity This Disease does not take up one particular part for its quarters but it seiseth the whole Man All the Faculties are disordered and every part is discomposed and disturbed Take a view of an angry Man or rather a Man in the fury and perturbation of Anger his Reason is supprest or suspended he acts not rationally but as a mad man his face is changed his eyes stare and sparkle his Tongue stammers his Heart pants his Pulse beats high and quick his Breath is almost gone the Blood and all the Humours boyl and the Spirits are agitated to and fro by gusts like an impetuous Wind he trembles all over and this storm shaketh the whole Fabrick of his body Surely this is a great Disease that thus discomposeth and puts the whole man out of frame and order such storms as these do much weaken and enervate the ability of the Faculties disorder their regular performance and discharge of their Offices but more especially infirm Parts are made sensible of the prejudice and cholerick lean bodies An inflammation of any particular part is a great Disease but Anger is an inflammation of the whole and were this distemper to continue long a man were in as much danger of life as in the highest Feaver Therefore take the Poets counsel Principiis obsta Ne fraena animo permitte Calenti Stat. Fear Fear whether sudden and violently seizing or gradually approaching and threatning an evil to come both enervates and debilitates Nature Fear suddenly surprizing chaseth the spirits to and fro from their residency and faculties sometimes compressing and driving them to the heart causing violent palpitations and suffocation or scattering them from the Fountain of Life into the external parts making a dissolution almost to exanimation Such frightful surprizes as these are very dangerous and seldom happen but they leave some sad Characters and Impressions behind Etiam fortes viri subitis terrentur Tacit. Against this fear there is no remedy having surprized and seized the Person before deliberation can interpose to prevent it or preparation made couragiously to meet or valiantly to stand against this shock of terrour Fear that gives warning before the evil comes and threatens as yet afar off that Soul which then yields up her courage and strength of resistance is disarm'd by her own phancy and vanquished by her self is conquered with nothing in Being but with the fear of something that may be The evil although to come which possibly may be prevented and never come yet it is made a present calamity the suggestions being received and the Soul sinking under them make a pressure upon the Soul as really afflicting as the evil it self Multos in summo peric'la misit timor ipse mali Luc. Such fears as these ought to be chased away and manfully resisted that which may be is as far from us sometimes as that which never shall be The fear of things that never come are ten to those that come to pass Quid juvat dolori suo occurrere Satis citò dolebit cùm venerit Sen. As Anger swells the Soul and thrusts forward the spirits into the exteriour parts to oppose and to revenge the ill On the contrary Fear makes the Soul to shrink and the spirits to give back By this contraction of the Soul her wonted vigorous emanations in all the faculties are suspended whereby the functions of the Body are remisly and depravedly performed the spirits retire inwards the face grows pale wan and thin and the Soul pines and
the extremity and strength of passion debilitate and suppress Reason the chief contriver and manager of your design puts you upon inconsiderate immature and rash attempts and makes you more unfit incapable and unable to effect your purpose for Passion is always spurring but Reason hath its stops and pauses keeps due times for onsets and progress Thirdly That prudent and vigorous action not inane hungry volition or thirsty desire though ever so great can acquire the satisfaction of your hopes Fourthly That the ardency and heighth of desire will not imbetter sweeten or add to the heighth of your enjoyment but rather abate and lessen it in your account and esteem for what thing soever you purchase and are mistaken and deceived in you will not value at that rate you first prized it but at the worth you now find it Vehement and lofty desires screws you up to such a heighth of expectation mountain high but you must descend into fruition that 's low as the valley and when you find your self in a bottom and your Sails not so filled and puft out as formerly by the fresh gails and blasts of a strong desire your top sails then begin to flap and flag when you come in to the still calm of fruition and your lofty spirits and high thoughts will lowre amain when you Anchor in the Harbour of Enjoyment for in appearance it was great when at a distance and seemingly but now you are come nearer it is much less and inconsiderable really and what swelled you full in the prosecution of attaining will not fill you now with satisfaction but prove aery when you grasp it and soon emptied in enjoyment Non ea jam mens res habenti quae desideranti erat Fifthly That statutum est it is appointed you must or you must not obtain the thing desired which to a rational creature is sufficient without other Arguments to qualifie moderate and blunt the keen edge of desire and curb the violence of an impetuous affection but not to cowardise daunt or stop a laudable active prosecution to attain a noble vertuous and lawful end with a moderate submssiive desire Quisquis in primo obstitit Repulitque amorem tutus ac victor fuit Sen. Melancholly Grief and Despair These Passions being near allied we may rank them together as the Companions and Attendants upon adversity and misfortunes whose properties are to rob and steal away from the Soul that vivacious enlivening power which roborates and quickens all the faculties in the Body When these Passions are predominant the energy of the Soul is abated and all the functions insufficiently weakly and depravedly performed A dark Cloud of Melancholy over-spreading the Soul suffocates and choaks the Spirits retards their motion and agility darkens their purity and light these instruments in each faculty being thus disabled their offices in every part of the body are faintly executed whereby the whole body decays and languisheth witness the common symptoms of a dejected sad condition a pale thin face heavy dead eyes a slow weak pulse loss of appetite weakness faintness restlesness a weight or compression about the region of the heart with continual sighing or palpitation these are the effects wrought in the Body by Melancholy and Grief which are to be avoided as great decayers of Nature Enemies to Beauty Health and Strength Hope and Joy But these are the recreations of the Soul and are as sanative and wholesom as exercise is for the Body for the Soul plays and danceth in hope and joy Embrace therefore and cherish these as the supports of your life which raise the Soul to the highest pitch and extend her energy to the utmost These enlivening affections of the mind are the greatest friends to and preservatives of Health and strength for in this serene state of gladness all the faculties and endowments of soul are advanced and invigorated both rational sensitive and natural which implies a vigorous performance in all the members of the Body and therefore contribute mainly to the keeping or acquiring of Health and consequently the prolongation of life Content and joy prolong youth and preserve beauty make the countenance fresh the Body plump and fat for pleasantness and delight of the soul put all the spirits upon activity quicken their operations and duty in all the functions conveigh nutriment to repair and replenish the utmost borders and confines of the microcosm therefore dum fata sinunt vivite laeti FINIS Advertisement PAins afflicting humane Bodies their various difference Causes Parts affected Signals of danger or safety Shewing their tendency to Inflammations Tumors Apostems Vlcers Cancers Gangrenes and Mortifications for a seasonable prevention of such fatal Events With a Tract of Fontinels or Issues and Setons By E. Maynwaringe Doctor in Physick Printed for Henry Bonwick in St. Pauls Church Yard Bookseller Morbus Polyrhizos Polymorphaeus A Treatise of the Scurvey Examining the different Opinions and Practice of the most solid and grave Writers concerning the nature and Cure of this Disease With instructions for prevention and Cure thereof By the same Author The fourth Edition Tabidorum Narratio A Treatise of Consumptions Scorbutick Atrophies Tabes Anglica Hectick Feavers Phthises Spermatick and Venereous wastings radically demonstrating their nature and Cures from vital and morbifick Causes By the same Author The Mystery of the Venereal Lues Gonorrhaea's c. disclosed comparing the dissenting judgments of most eminent Physicians hereupon and the various methods of Cure practised in Foreign Countries Resolving the doubts and fears of such as are surprized with this secret perplexing Malady By the same Author desperati ne desperent assiduè tentando deploratos saepè curando certiùs tutiusque sanamus Medicus Absolutus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Compleat Physician qualified and dignified the rise and progress of Physick Historically Chronologically and Philosophically illustrated Physicians of different Sects and Judgments distinguished the abuse of Medicines imposture of Empericks detected c. By the same Author Praxis Medicorum antiqua nova The Ancient and Modern Practice of Physick examined stated and compared the Preparation and Custody of Medicines as it was the primitive custom with the Princes and great Patrons of Physick asserted and proved to be the proper charge and grand duty of every Physician successively c. By the same Author
EVERARDUS MAYNWARINGE MEDICINA DOCTOR AETATIS SUAE 38 1668. R. White scâ—… THE Method and Means Of Enjoying HEALTH Vigour and long Life Adapting peculiar Courses for different Constitutions Ages Abilities Valetudinary States Individual Proprieties habituated Customs and Passions of Mind Suting Preservatives and Correctives to every Person for attainment thereof By Everard Maynwaringe M. D. Non accepimus brevem vitam sed fecimus LONDON Printed by J. M. for Dorman Newman at the Kings-Arms in the Poultrey 1683. TO THE Right Honourable The Lords and Judges The Right Worshipful the Treasurer and Masters of the Bench And the rest of the Worthy Members of the Honourable and most Ancient Society of the Inner-Temple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My Lords and Gentlemen HAving lately obtained the freedom of retirement within these Walls at vacant hours from medical employ for fresh Air and quiet recess the benefits received thereby obliges me to this publick acknowledgment and in testimony of my respects to the Honourable and worthy Members of this Society And in conformity quoad posse to the designment of this foundation I spent such opportunities afforded me here in contemplation of Law I mean the Laws of Nature imposed upon all Nations which Statutes not being well known to the most and not so well regarded by any as they ought hence thousands have untimely perished and that most unnaturally as felo's dese and few there are but by uneven and irregular courses do abbreviate the term of their duration here in not yielding due obedience to the Institutes and Injunctions of Nature most conservative of human Being Which considerations put me upon this necessary work to caution all but especially to warn such as have no prospect of the danger that daily attends them in most if not all their Actions and Customs And that this Fountain of Law may run with a double stream I have broke up another Spring of wholesom Laws issuing out of this goodly Fabrick to serve this Learned Society and from thence to be derived as communicative to the whole Kingdom And you My Lords that have put your Shoulders to the Government that you may the better support the incumbent weight in your Stations and longer be enabled to serve your King and Country this Method of Nature's Institutions duly observ'd and conformed to will contribute no small assistance to your bearing up against and longer to keep off the declensions of human frailty And whereas your Lordships command and distribute Justice between Man and Man restraining and punishing exorbitances committed upon one another this transcript of Laws from the Book of Nature directs and commands every man to be just to himself laying before him also the penalties and sufferings to be sustained for not being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so good as his own friend and self preserver from intestine ruine the conduct of the little World being delegated to Nature she hath in her power both rewards and punishments And that the two great Luminaries in this Orb whose radiant influence of Equity and Law streams through the Kingdom that these our lights may not be extinct by too hasty fate and darken our Horizon their diurnal motions being adequate and parallel with the course of Nature here exhibited their visible durations may be long protracted for the good of many And now descending with regard to all the worthy Members of this Body here is for you a Manual of choice and wholesom Flowers pickt out of Natures Garden whose virtues by their daily use will so perfume your lives the fragrant scent whereof will make you savoury and acceptable in conversation and exemplars to all mankind Here is temperance and sobriety equanimity and moderation measure and method times and seasons for all your Actions and Cessations And that you may be perite in all States and Politicks here is the exact Government of the Microcosm and the primitive Laws of Nature composed not for an hour or two's diversion in reading but for constant use and daily practice during the whole Term of your lives that all your actions and customs vicissitudes and intermissions may be regulated by this platform And yet a little further beholding with affectionate care the young and hopeful Plants in this Nursery of Learning and Education that they may not warp and grow crooked nor untimely fade and wither these being daily watered and refreshed with the wholesom streams of this useful Conduit they may so thrive in growth and soundness that in process of time they may become tall and goodly Cedars in our Lebanon strong and fit for Pillars in the Government That this Designment and Labours may be thus successful and answer the ends proposed is the hearty well wishes and shall be the future endeavours of Your Lordships And Gentlemen Your Devoted Servant E. Maynwaringe From my Study in the Inner-Temple Novemb. 1. 1682. The Scope use and Advantages of this Work AS Government and Order defend and keep the Body Politick from disturbance decay and ruin So likewise is the Body Natural preserved from distempers in sanity vigour and long Being and this by a steddy and regular course of living agreeable to the institutions and law of Nature which necessarily are to be observed as the only true method of preservation Nor is it left arbitrary at the will and pleasure of every man to do as he list after the dictates of a depraved humour and extravagant phancy to live at what rate he pleaseth but every one is bound to observe the Injunctions and Law of Nature upon the penalty of forfeiting their Health Strength and Liberty the true and long enjoyment of themselves What these Laws are that Nature hath imposed upon you and thereby bounded all your Actions what real Advantages will accrue to you by their observance what loss and sufferings you must sustain by the neglect and breach of them this following Discourse succinctly doth comprize 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to enjoy Health every one desires and the most if not all do covet and hope for long Life yet few inquire after the way or seek the right means to attain these beloved ends and wished for enjoyments Who is he or she that would not continue youthful strong and healthful that would not be free from molesting pains and irksome diseases surely none yet how few there are that live after such manner suteable to these hopes and desires you may as likely keep or acquire Riches by Prodigality as preserve Health and obtain long Life by Intemperance inordinate Passions immoderate or unseasonable motions and Rest a noxious Air and such like injurious customs ways and manner of living The end most commonly is answerable to the mediums of attainment and to hope without them is groundless but to act contrary and yet expect them is presumptuous folly Therefore vive vivas so live that you may live Healthful brisk and long that you may preserve your senses from untimely decay and enjoy your natural endowments
of duration allotted them by Nature some longer others a shorter term and this from the principles of their composition and seminality from whence they spring In the Mineral Family we find the longest durations being solid dense bodies of more simple natures and homogeneous do therefore preserve their Beings longest from ruine and dissolution Vegetables are of a shorter duration yet not all alike some preserve their Beings hundreds of years as the Cedar and Oak Others continue but a few years some a year Amongst the sensitive Creatures we find that several species have their peculiar durations which in the common course of nature are observed to continue some a longer Age others a shorter The Mineral is slowest in rising to maturity and perfection but continues longest in that state The Vegetable in the generality is quickest in the ascent to the top of perfection but keeps not its station long some whereof fade and wither every year but renew their verdure again at the Spring until a few years hath spent that seminal power and fertil blooming virtue The Sensitive Creatures and perfect Animals are slower in their rise to perfection which having attained stay but a while in that full strength do gradually descend again decline and perish So that all living Creatures by nature have their risings and settings and definite times fixed for their growth and duration From their beginning they have a gradual ascent until they have attained the vigour and exaltation of their Natures and having gained the top of their perfection they stay not long there but gradually descend again and are degraded of the honour and perfection of their Natures and tend to their ruine and dissolution Nor are Creatures limited alike to the same duration but do extend and are shortned variously according to their Principles and Foundation of Being as Nature hath furnished them with a provision permanent and sutable for such a duration and subsistence Now of all Creatures we find Man most uncertain in his being and continuance although the Age of Man be limited to sixty years and is most liable to alteration and a perishing state upon these four accounts First Because Man derives from his Parents by a seminal propagation and inherits the Diseases of their vitious depraved Natures radicated in him to which his own enormous acts being added do multiply and heighten the corruption of his Nature hence the succeeding Generations become more degenerated infirm diseased and consequently of shorter duration than the former Secondly For that the structure of his Body is the most wonderfully contrived of all the Creatures contains the greatest curiosity and variety of machination such admirable Conduits and Contrivances such Offices and places of elaboration subservient to each other and communicable that therefore this Machine is most difficult to keep in order and soonest put out of frame Thirdly In that he does require and use more variety of supports and necessary requisits to preserve and supply him and therefore more subject to errors failings and discomposure Fourthly Because Man wilfully carelesly or ignorantly does not regulate and govern himself according to the Law of Nature dictated to him but deviating from those Rules of preservation does discompose the regular Oeconomy of his Body and introtroduce various Diseases and disorders which precipitate Nature in the current and course of life that otherwise more equally and evenly would glide on and sometimes by violence offered to Nature in some strange unnatural actions and exorbitancies the life is forced out and death oft procured Now other Creatures are so tyed up to the Rule of Nature which they cannot but observe for their preservation both individual and specifick and have not a power of electing good and evil to themselves but naturally and spontaneously do prosecute that which is proper and conservative and avoid what is noxious But Man having a greater liberty by the prerogative of his rational Soul does make his choice and wanders amongst varieties both good and evil and often deceives himself chusing what is destructive to his Being So that breaking the Law of Nature which he ought to observe as Bounds and Rules to his actions making them sanative and preservative does on the contrary alter and change those necessary appointments and supports renders them destructive by his irregular incongruous use vitious customs and imprudent choice The most considerable things to be observed by Man as conducing and tending to the lengthening or shortning of his life according to their management and procurement well or ill do fall under these Heads Meat and drink place of abode sleep and watching exercise and rest excretions and retentions passions of mind all usages and customs In the moderation use and choice of these which particularly hereafter shall be handled consists the length and brevity of life per modum assistentiae and as causa sine qua non being auxiliary requisites and necessary supports of life appointed by Nature for the continuation assistance and preservation thereof But the length and brevity of life fontaliter radicaliter consists in the fundamental Principles and vital powers variously radicated and planted ab ortu in man's generation and fabrication But this being not in the choice and power of man to alter or change we shall prosecute upon the former Heads Man consisting of Soul and Body and this body compounded of heterogeneous and dissimilar parts destinated to various actions and offices dependent in Being and conservation will necessarily require variety of assistance and supply proportionable and suiting to their several purposes faculties properties and temperatures in matter manner times and order as well for their maintenance and sustentation in the integrity of their actions offices and duties as constitutional dispositions and Crases peculiarly conservative of themselves respectively and consequently of the whole And by the Law of Nature being subject to corruption and dissolution through the fragility of constitutive parts connexion and fabrication is bound to observe Rules Orders and Customs most consonant for preservation and continuance in Being Now if there be a disproportion or unfitness in the matter or quantum or irregularity in the manner times or order of the auxiliary requisites and conservatives contrary to what the Law or necessity of his Nature requires and commands there arise Distempers Ataxies and discord the praeludiums to ruine and dissolution And this body being in a continual flux and reflux conversant in vicissitudes and variations of opposites dissimilars contraries and privations as heat and cold siccity and humidity filling and emptying rest and motion sleeping and waking inspiration and exspiration and the like this body could not subsist amidst these various subalternations and changes if they were not bounded and regulated by due order of succession to fit and convenient times that they might not clash interfere and encroach upon each others priviledges due times and proprieties If heat exceeds the natural moisture dries up the spirits evaporate and the body withers
If cold the faculties are torpid and benum'd the spirits being frozen up to a cessation from their duties If moisture prevails the spirits are clogged suffocated and drowned in the chanels of the body If siccity and dryness the organical parts are stubborn unpliable and uncapable of their regular motions and due actions the vital streams being drunk up that should irrigate refresh and supple them Were the body always taking in and sending nothing forth it would either increase to a monstrous and vast magnitude or fill up suffocate and stifle the soul were it always in excretion and emission the body would waste away and be reduced to nothing Nor is the receiving in of any thing sufficient and satisfactory to the body for its preservation but that which is appointed by Nature proper and sutable nor emission or ejection of any thing but that which is superfluous and unnecessary to be retained If Sleep prevails contrary to the Law of Nature the body in a lethargick soporiferous inactivity stupefied and senseless lies at the gates of death If Watching exceeds the limits transgresseth and steals away the due time for sleep the faculties are debilitated and enervated the spirits tired worn out and impoverished If Inspiration were constant without intermission the body would puff up and be blown like a Bladder If Expiration were continual the soul and spirits would soon quit their habitation and come forth If always Exercised in motion the body would pine and wear away if always at Rest it would corrupt and stink There is a rule therefore proportion measure and season to be observed in all the requisite supports and auxiliary helps belonging to our preservation and by how much or often any of these necessary alternative successions are extravagant and irregular exceeding the bounds and limits prescribed by Nature and justling out the successive appointed action duty or custom from its seasonable exercise and due execution by so much is the harmony of Nature disturbed vigor abated and duration shortned by these jars discords and encroachments The thwarting and crossing of Nature in any thing she hath enjoyned either in the substance or circumstance is violence offered to Nature and is destructive more or less according to the dignity or quality of the thing appointed For Nature was not so indifferent in the institution of these duties and customs that they might be done or not done or so careless and irregular to leave them at your pleasure when and how or to be used promiscuously and preposterously without order at the liberty of your will fancy and occasions And as you may see in all other creatures exactness of rule method and constant order impressed upon and radicated in their natures by which they act always sutable regular and constant you may not imagine so choice and exquisite a piece as Man is to be left without a Law and Rule to guide and steer him in the necessary actions concerning Life and that he should rove in uncertain unconstant unlimited quantities times orders manners and the like but is bounded and restrained upon penalties and forfeitures of Being well-being and long-being to the nice and strict observance of these laws and customs necessary for the tuition of Life and defence of humane frailty As moral good actions are placed in a mediocrity between two vitious extreams so natural actions and auxiliary requisites conservative of life have their golden Mean digression from which on either side leads to ruine and destruction Too much Sleep or too little too much Meat and Drink or too little too much Rest or too much Motion too much Air or always close pent up too great Excretions or too long Retentions too much Heat or too much Cold either of the extreams lead to ruine And as Nature hath not appointed any thing or every thing to be food but this and that so likewise not at any time to be received not in any quantity after any manner prepared or in what order you please but proportionable suteable and convenient As there is variety of dispositions and inclinations of mind agreeing with and likeing one thing but disagreeing resisting and disliking another so is it in the variety of bodies and food one body is of this constitutional propriety temper and appetite will sute and agree well with this meat and disagree with another for if all meats were convenient for all bodies to be used promiscuously without choice how comes it to pass the antipathy resistance and abhorrency of some bodies against some particular meats And this not from a fancy and conceit but so radicated in the constitution that if it be eaten though unknown shall produce Fluxes Vomitings Swoonings and such like effects From hence is manifested the opposition disagreement and distance between this constitution and this kind of meat which being so great that the dislike and discordancy appears presently other disagreements which are in a lower degree of opposition do not manifest themselves immediately yet they produce ill effects in the body plùs minùs pro viribus some Disease or Distemper which discover themselves gradually at times seasons and occasions given If you acknowledge the former you must admit of the latter the reason is à majori ad minus As Sleep is appointed by Nature to refresh the spirits and repair loss strength so the time for sleep is appointed and limited not when you please the Sun that glorious Light was not made for you to sleep by nor the night for sports and revels or lawful business but for rest Nature does not only command what to be done but when how much how long after what manner in what order the modification circumstances and requisite qualifications as well as the thing it self are to be regarded And therefore by a diligent inquisition and curious speculation into the works of Nature you may as much admire the manner of preservation government order weight and measure regular vicissitudes alternations and successions as the excellency and contrivance of the things themselves in their creation and generation Whatever is appointed by Nature as necessary for conservation and support of Being though never so good yet if it be unseasonable out of course immoderate in quantity quality or duration it alters the property and intention of Nature converts good purposes to bad effects We say Every thing is best in its own kind and of continuance in its own Element and Nature is most chearful vigorous and durable in the course and method of her own injunctions but being put by thrust out of her own way is not of long duration the Birds cannot live in the Sea nor the Fish upon the Land nor your Nature continue long in an unnatural way against her self Are you composed of natural principles and will you not live conformable to what you are Do you not live by Natures assistance and natural means and do you think to continue long in a Counter-motion against the nature of your Composition
They that invert Natures course preposterously promiscuously and incongruously using the necessary conservatives of life not only are deprived of their benefit but also receive a positive hurt disordering the constant regular motions in the body and discomposing the harmonious and sociable assistance of the parts in their Offices to each other There is a rule therefore method measure and season in all the requisite supports and auxiliary helps belonging and necessary unto life or natural actions and customs whatsoever which duly observed are of much advantage for the preservation of the body in its true natural state vigor and prolongation of Being but otherwise immethodically and inordinately used disturbs Natures course uniformity and regularity of operations raiseth unnatural motions commotions and cessations introduceth disorders and disjoins the frame of Nature accelerates and hastens the dissolution of the body SECT II. Of Health and the Excellency thereof DIV bene valere To live long and in health said Plato is the best thing in the World and Thales Milesius one of the seven Greek Sages being asked Who was the happy Man Answered He that hath a healthy body preferring health before riches and honours or any earthly enjoyment The truth of this Opinion will best be discovered and proved by consulting with the sick man who is best able to judge of health and knows rightly the value of it Experimentally he hath found that a Crown and Scepter give no content nor ease to a pained languishing body and beauty brings no pleasure to a sick Bed and dainty Dishes affect not the distemper'd Palate with delight Nor the sweetest Musick can recreate a restless faint-sick-man but the enjoyment of health alone is more sweet and pleasant and far more desirable than all these without it Yet who is he that values health at the rate it is worth Not he that hath it he reckons it amongst the common ordinary enjoyments and takes as little notice of it or less regards it than his long worn Cloaths perhaps more careful of his Garments remembring their price but thinks his health costs him nothing and coming to him at so easie a rate values it accordingly and hath little regard to keep it is never truly sensible of what he enjoyed until he finds the want of it by sickness then hoe unum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 health above all things is earnestly desired and wished for This great concernment Health falls under a threefold consideration First In its causes from whence it does immediately arise in the body Secondly In its effects the consequents and benefits that accrue to us by it and what is the state of a healthy man Thirdly The right course to obtain and means to preserve this invaluable treasure so long as the capacity of human nature will admit And first Here we must distinguish of Health which may be taken either strictly or largely Health in the strictest acceptation admits of no organical indisposition morbous effect or morbifick Seminary to abide in the body that although no sensible injury or inconvenient alteration may appear yet notwithstanding a person may be said not to be in perfect health for although the latent seminaries of Diseases are not budded do not sprout forth so as to be dolorous impedite any faculty or make some disturbance or alteration yet they are planted in the body and have a real Being as hereditary Diseases whose seminaries are obscured do not come to maturity of production until such an Age of the Person or some irritating occasion given to produce it sooner or later as the person is ordered well or ill in the diaetetick regiment So likewise the first ground-work and foundation of the Stone is not perceptible until some time and progress give it perfection during which time that person is not in a state of health in a strict sense And likewise some Diseases do lie dormant for a time and discover nothing during that season and have their periodick motions wherein they awake and are stirred up to shew themselves upon some irritating provocations and occasions given as the Epilepsie the Gout Hysterical passions and such like that have their times of cessation and returns yet these during their intermissions and cessations from hostility are in being although they do not act so as to injure and deprave any function sensibly Secondly Health may be taken largely and in the common acceptation as when no function is impedited or sensible alteration from a good state does appear we say then Such a man is in health In the first and strictest sense few can be said to be in health but in the latter many are to be accounted healthful And this is the state of health understood by Galen Avicen and Averroes in their definitions of it Which imports thus much Health is a due power and aptitude for the exercise and discharge of all the faculties in the body So that when every part and faculty perform their duty regularly and vigorously that man is said to be in health but when any faculty is impedited and part ill affected or depraved in its function the man then is not in perfect health So that the actions of the body and mind are the chief discoverers of health and sickness And here we see that health is seated in the faculties and does assurge or result from the regular discharge of their functions As when the appetite is sharp the digestion not sluggish and heavy the belly soluble the senses perfect free from pain in all parts the mind pleasant sleeps quiet the spirits brisk and lively the whole body strong nimble and vigorous in motion these are signs of Health so that examining all parts and faculties when we find nothing preternatural or irregular but in every part and faculty a good discharge of their Office then that person is to be accounted in a right state of health so far as is discoverable by any manifest or conjectural sign The benefits and excellencies of this health are best known to those that have lost it Carendo magic quà m fruendo quid valeat eognoscimus You that have it and know not how to prize it I 'le tell you what it is that you may love it better put a higher value upon it and endeavour to preserve it with a more serious stricter observance and tuition Health is that which makes your meat and drink both savoury and pleasant else Natures injunction of eating and drinking were a hard task and slavish custom Health is that which makes your bed easie and your sleep refreshing that renews your strength with the rising Sun and makes you chearful at the light of another day 't is that which fills up the hollow and uneven places of your Carcase and makes your body plump and comely 't is that which dresseth you up in Natures richest Attire and adorns your face with her choicest colours 'T is that which makes exercise a sport and walking abroad the enjoyment of your Liberty 'T
is that which makes fertile and encreaseth the natural endowments of your mind and preserves them long from decay makes your wit acute and your memory retentive 'T is that which supports the fragility of a corruptible body and preserves the verdure vigour and beauty of Youth 'T is that which makes the Soul take delight in her mansion sporting her self at the Casements of your Eyes 'T is that which makes pleasure to be pleasure and delights delightful without which you can solace your self in nothing of terrene felicities and enjoyments Having cursorily glanced at the excellencies of Health in this short Narrative and Epitome of its worth it remains we should next draw forth and present to your view the doleful condition of sickness and a valetudinary drooping Life shewing you the great difference between that decaying condition and a chearful state of Health which Antithesis will prepare and stir you up to the reasonable strictness of duty make you more cautious and sollicitous for the preservation of your Health and to prize it as the summum bonum your chiefest enjoyment in this Life SECT III. Of Sickness and a Valetudinary State IN the preceding Section having taken a brief survey of natural life in the best estate graced and adorned with the society of health and its great Attendant 〈◊〉 the concomitant benefits priviledges and enjoyments Now take a view of your self when health hath turn'd its back upon you and deserts your company see then how the Scene is changed how you me robb'd and spoiled of all your comforts and enjoyments The want of health makes food to lose its wonted relish and is become disgustful and unsavoury the stomach now refuseth to receive its daily charge no longer able to peform the task but desires a quietus est from the office Sleep that was stretch out from evening to the fair bright day is now broken into pieces and subdivided not worth the accounting the night that before seemed short is now too long and the downy bed presseth hard against the bones Exercise now is toyling and Walking abroad the carrying of a burthen The body that moved so light and readily obeyed the steerage of the Pilot is now over ballac'd with its own weight and slowly tugs as against the stream Conjugal imbraces are now but the faint Offers of love the shadows and representations of former kindness The body that had the magnetism and secret attraction of souls may now be approached without loss or danger of being snared and fettered as a bond-slave The Lily and the Rose that Nature planted in the highest Mount to shew the world her pride and glory is now blasted and withered like long-blown flowers The Eye that flasht as lightning is now like the opacous body of a thick Cloud that rolled from East to West swifter than a Celestial Orb is now tired and weary with standing still that penetrated the Center of another Microcosm hath lost its Planetary influence and is become obtuse and dull The hollow sounding breast that echoed to the chanting Bird and warbled forth delightful tunes now runs divisions with coughing strains and pauses with a deep-fetch't sigh for breath to repeat those notes again The Venal and Arterial Rivulets that ran with vital streams bedewing the adjacent parts with fruitful moisture is now drunk up with parching heat or muddied and defiled with an inundation of excremental humors The want of health converts your House into a Prison and confines you to the narrow compass of a Chamber 't is that which sours the sweetest and most beloved enjoyments 't is that which disunites and breaks the league of copartnership between soul and body alienates and makes them at jarrs discomposes their harmony and makes them weary of their wonted sweet society A sick man is like a Clock out of order and due motion which is of little worth or use so long as it continues in that condition so is Man useless both to himself and others in such a state one Wheel being faulty or defective puts the rest out of order and regularity that depend upon that motion and one part or faculty of Mans body being disordered and irregular several others consent with or share in the discomposure more or fewer as the part is more noble and principal commanding some chief Region of the Body or inferior and of a lower orb or private station The reason of this sympathy and consent of parts is First From the general agent and principle of life which is one and the same throughout the whole Secondly Because all the parts of mans body though they have their peculiar and different motions to themselves and special properties yet they are all concurrent and co-operating co-ordinately or subordinately serving to the general design of Nature and maintenance of the whole body and are so concatenated and linked together in the Oeconomy of office that their motions are dependent and of mutual Concern for each others welfare If the Foot complains the Head is busied for its relief and the Heart suffers until the grief be past and the whole man uneasy until the pain be gone or allayed Thus you see that a diseased valetudinary state is a weary and irksom condition and that Health is the pleasure and contentment of life or rather the life it self Nam vivere non est vita sed valere and since Health is of great value and sickness so deplorable and comfortless I shall shew you how to obtain and preserve the one and how to defend you from the other all which is to be done by the ways and means hereafter following SECT IV. The Method and Means for Preservation of Health HEalth as it is the result of Nature in her integrity and perfection is maintained and kept in that order and due Oeconomy by the regular and right use of those natural supports that our bodies daily require and do depend on in Being as Air Food Sleep Exercise c. Now those things that do necessarily belong and daily attend us ought so to be chosen and managed as does best conduce and sute with the institution of Nature to which they are appointed but if otherwise unseasonably disorderly or immoderately used they then prove pernicious and destructive more or less according to the degree and continuance of their irregularity and incongruousness Nature hath appointed both times and order and set a regular course how and when every thing should be used in its proper mode and season There is a moderation also enjoyned and limits prescribed by Nature in the use of these things which if we exceed and run into excess we then put Nature out of her mediocrity and equality in which course she cannot long continue and that continuance also with much trouble to us by bodily diseases and infirmities the usual and frequent consequents of such irregularities The Body of Man is as a curious Engine or Clock-work moving with divers Wheels and various internal motions subordinate to
each other and conducing to the general design of the whole in a compleat order and exquisite method of contrivance promoting and moving one another in their distinct Offices Now if one Wheel goes too fast too slow or stops the rest that depend upon that motion also are disordered and move irregularly So is it in the Body of Man If the Stomach be clogged and the digestion sluggish the supply from thence will not come in due time to the other faculties to operate upon and if the Chyliferous matter sent from the Stomach be not well transmuted and qualified the rest of the digestive faculties cannot so well perform their task because the alimentary matter is not transmitted to them proper and sutable but imperfect aliene and degenerate Most men experimentally and sensibly know that meat and drink transgressing either in quantity or quality or unseasonably taken does abate and injure a good Stomach and depraves the digestion which defect redounds to the detriment of the whole and all the body suffers by it and every faculty in time will share in the prejudice So that of necessity there must be rules observed and bounds set in the use of these things without which mans body is soon put out of frame and the regular Oeconomy thereof discomposed and disordered To prove and illustrate this farther by instance fresh Air is necessary to ventilate the body and chear the spirits of man and he that is pent up within doors is deprived of that great enlivener and refresher of Nature but on the contrary he that is exposed abroad to the night Air is as much damaged as the other and both prove injurious and destructive So that although the open Air be good and necessary for the healthful being of Man yet not at all times not in any condition and upon any terms but sutable and convenient with the state of our bodies as Nature hath appointed for you and not otherwise So likewise for Exercise and Rest Method and Rule is to be observed for if there be not seasons allotted and a moderation used in these they both are destructive though in a contrary way and by different mediums To sleep when you should wake or wake when you should sleep are both injurious and impairing of health to invert the order of Nature by sleeping in the day and watching in the night is incongruous and unsutable with your bodies because it crosseth the designment of Nature When the Sun riseth the spirits of Men are then most apt and fit for Action are then most lively brisk and chearful in their functions but when the Sun sets and the Air is cloathed with darkness the spirits then begin to droop grow more dull and heavy incline to rest retirement and a cessation Now to spur up and rouze the spirits when they naturally would be taking their ease and respite or laying a clog upon them by your sluggishness and somnolent postures when Nature calls upon them for action by darting the glittering light through the Air with which they are affected and raised up these are great injuries and affronts to Nature in acting counter to her commands and institutions for which you must suffer the penalty and that is the forfeiting your health for this unnatural disobedience and these irrational courses These Precautions and Rules I will assure you are not our inventions to curb your darling inclinations and restrain you of your just liberty but they are the Institutions and Law of Nature enjoyned to be observed for your own preservation and well being and as bounds set to check your extravagant pernicious actions and all for the tuition and safety of your life and health and to preserve the regular harmony through the whole course of Nature And although it be an old saying as foolish as common Qui Medicè vivit miserè vivit He that lives strictly by rule lives miserably yet I must affirm the contrary grounded upon pure reason and the preceding discourse that he which does not observe the injunctions the due method and regular course of Nature does both shorten his life and takes away much of the pleasure of it by procuring an uncomfortable and unhealthy body I know Every of you would live long but especially in health you would fain continue and prolong your youth your beauty and ability of parts you are frighted at the thoughts of a wrinkled face or a restless bed an unwholsom diseased body and a decripid loathsom old Age But yet you will not avoid these evils that you so much fear you will not take the pains to prevent them and secure your self you rather take more pains and undergo more trouble to procure them than there can be in avoiding them nay you lose the true pleasure of your life to purchase these Inconveniencies But what those things are which so warily and chiefly you are to observe wherein consists your health and well-being have now been hinted but generally the due method course and cautions you are to take in the use of them particularly shall be handled in their due place and order following SECT V. The choice of Air and Places of Abode Shewing the benefits and injuries that arise from different Air. AIR is so necessary to Life that without it we cannot subsist which surrounding us about and being continually suckt and drawn in must needs affect the body with its conditions and properties and by observation you may find your Body by the various constitutions and changes in the Air to be variously affected well and ill disposed of which infirm parts are most sensible that they prognosticate before an alteration come The mind also by the mediation of the spirits is drawn into consent and hath its dispositions and variations from thence When the Air is close thick and moist the spirits are more dull heavy and indisposed but at the appearance of the Sun and a serene Skie the Spirits are unfettered vigorous and active the mind more chearful airy and pleasant The Spirits are of an aetherial Nature and therefore do much sympathize with the present constitution and change of Air for from the Air drawn in by the motion of the vital parts are the vital spirits ventilated and the blood volatized therefore the pureness of the Air makes much for the purity of the spirits and mass of blood A gross impure and noysom Air obtunds and deads the spirits makes a slow Pulse obstructs the Pores and hinders ventilation generates superfluous humors and causeth putrefaction A serene sweet thin Air perfumes and purifies an unwholsome body cherisheth the heart makes a lively pulse and much enliveneth the vital spirits rarifies and volatizeth a gross coagulate blood opens the pores for transpiration of putrid and offensive vapours acuates and sharpens the Appetite and helps digestion The best Air and most agreeable to temperate bodies is in temperate Climates for heat cold wet and dry not subject to sudden and violent changes as in some parts of America
and other Countries very frequent not gross and turbulent infected with putrid vapours and noxious exhalations from stinking Ditches Lakes Bogs Carrions Dunghills Sinks and Vaults for which causes great Cities and the adjacent places are not so healthful nor the people so long liv'd Change of Air sometimes is very necessary for the conservation of health and the recovery of it declining and lost for temperate bodies by an intemperate Air shall gradually and in time become intemperate intemperate bodies by the contrary intemperate Air shall be reduced to temperature at least shall conduce much and be very Auxiliary for the reduction Therefore bodies declining from exact temperature are best preserved in that Air opposite to their declensions as cholerick hot and dry bodies in a moist and cool Air Phlegmatick cold and moist bodies in a dry and warm Air. It is not therefore of small moment in what place you live and more especially such who labour of or are more subject to any pectoral infirmity for the Lungs being of so tender a substance and porous continually drinking in the Air are most apt to receive impressions from it according to the properties it is pregnant with and infested and many diseases of the breast arise from this sole cause and many exasperated by it and continued Hence it is that Asthmatick Phthisical and Consumptive persons shall not be cured in some places but may have cure in another Be cloathed according to the clemency season and temperature of the Air your Age and habit of body Lean thin bodies and pervious corpora rarae texturae and whose skin are loose and lax may wear thicker cloathing because such are more perspirable do magis emittere transpirare and are also more penetrable and subject to injury of the Air. Fat and fleshy people and whose bodies are solid firm and hard are more impenetrable and impervious and may wear thinner Garments Infants and Children lately cherished in the stove of the Womb being of tender soft bodies are easily exposed to the prejudice of the Air. Vigorous youth and middle Age being accustomed to all weathers whose spirits abounding do strongly resist and keep out the assaults and injuries of an offensive Air may best indure hardship Old Age whose natural heat is abated and spirits exhausted stands in need of good defensatives against external cold and to cherish internal heat Observe the seasons and changes of the Air and be then most careful for at such times you are in most danger to exchange health for sickness hence it is that Spring and Autumn abounds most with Diseases the Air then assuming new properties opposite to its former constitution sets new impressions upon our bodies which occasions the various aestuations and turgid formenting of humours producing divers symptoms according to the variety of their nature the organical difference office and constitution of the several parts The Sun being risen and the Air clear open your Chamber-Windows that the fresh Air may perfume your Room and the close Air and inclosed Vapours may go forth Bad smells and putrid vapours being drawn in with the Air are very injurious to the Lungs and vital parts contaminating the spirits and impressing upon the Crasis of those parts their tetrid nature are oftentimes the original of a Consumption and if the Lungs be weak and infirm are more apt to receive prejudice than others But fragrant smells refresh and chear the vital spirits and are very wholsome breathing forth the vertue of those things from whence they do proceed Be not late abroad nor very early for before Sun rising and after setting the Air is not so good being then infested with noxious vapours until the radiant influence of the Sun dispels and purifies and those whose custom it is to be often abroad at such times are most frequently molested with Rheums and Rheumatick Diseases of which their declining years will more evidently manifest the prejudice Likewise in moist foggy dark weather 't is better being within than abroad and if it be a cool season good fires and fragrant fumes are then both pleasant and very wholsom Be frequent abroad in the Fields when a clear Skie invites you forth and let the fresh Air fan you with its sweet breath but more especially in the morning the Air is softer and more pleasant than your Bed and sure I am far more wholsom Temperie Coeli corpusque Animusque juvatur Ovid. In the choice of places to inhabite and dwell in these things are to be considered principally First The Climate that it be temperate and suting with the nature of the person for some persons may agree well with one Climate with which others cannot cold and moist bodies agree best with a warm and dry Air hot and dry bodies with a moist and cooler Air. Secondly The situation of the place and soyl is to be noted for as much as low wet and marish Lands are not so wholsom to inhabit as gravelly Plains and dry Highland Countreys Thirdly In relation to Country and City regard is to be had and here the Country does prevail over the City for Health and is to be accounted the best place of abode The continual smoke and annoyances that are inseparable from great Cities make those places to abound more with infirm and sickly people Fourthly The Waters that supply a place do make it better or worse to live in as they are good or bad Water being of so constant and general use is much to be regarded though little taken notice of and procures many diseases from the variety of its nature being impregnated variously from the Earth it passeth through or from accidents that happen to change it from its natural properties by the admixture of any filth carrion or what else shall fall into it and therefore River Waters that lie open to such injuries are much to be suspected of unwholsomness And ill water is a great procurer of the Scurvy in many places as Pliny relates that Caesars Army by drinking of bad Water but a few days had the symptoms of that Disease The commendations of a place in relation to health and long life are these A temperate Air dry serene and clear Champain or high Lands a gravelly dry soyl watered with pure good Springs remote from the Sea Lakes or Marshes not frequented with unwholsom Winds and stormy blasts So considerable is the Climate and Air in relation to our Being that it not only changeth and altereth our Bodies but also our Minds are wrought upon by it in as much as the wit inclinations and manners of a people are different upon this score And for long Life we find that in some Countries the people are longer lived by much than in other and this from the wholsomness of the place and purity of the Air therefore the choice of places to live in is of great concernment and much to be regarded by those whose Fortunes permit them to pitch in any place for the advantages of
health and long life But many places might be made more wholesome and fit to live in than they are by industry and care of the inhabitants for the Air of a place is sometimes bad in its own nature according to Climate Region Island and soil of the Land or waters subjacent which is not to be altered and sometimes the Air of a place is made so by occasions from the people and their neglects in their own preservation If therefore the Magistrates and publick Officers were careful of themselves with a regard to others under their charge and will be sensible how greatly it concerns them the adjacent ditches would yearly be cleansed all filth constantly removed and carrion buried which should be very advantagious in point of Health to all that inhabit thereabout for from these annoyances many times acute infectious sicknesses do arise especially in Cities that are populous Besides it procures chronic diseases also or aggravates them that are otherwise procured if the Air where they live be noisome and unwholsome from neglect of cleanliness and due care in this matter Hence it is that diseased and Aged infirm people are forced to remove out of great Cities for recovery of their Health and to prolong their Life which they would not be necessitated to if places were kept sweet and clean and the Air made wholsomer thereby but people are so much taken up about trade and gain that Health is little regarded or thought on until infirmities and sickness put them in mind of it and the Air in which and by which you live is not considered in due time for a seasonable prevention Remember then that Air is of such importance for the maintenance of Health and Vigour and consequently for procuring long Life that none of the necessary supports of our being is greater nor sooner gives an alteration and change to the Body either for good or hurt SECT VI. Wholsome and Regular Eating for Substance Quantity Times and Order c. to be observed THat which properly may be called Food or Aliment is of such nature as may fitly be trasmuted and changed into the substance of the body which receives it so that what ever will not be reduced and subdued by the digestions for such a transmutation and assimilation is not proper nor convenient food for that body because the intention of eating is to repair the loss that Nature sustains daily unde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist. and if food will not be converted into the substance of the body it answers not that intention and is frustraneous From hence it is that every meat which enters mans body is not aliment does not nourish but that only which yields obedience to the digestions and is assimilated And that which may be accounted proper food for the species mankind may be unfit for some individuums this or that man as common experience shews the reason of this is from the Idiosyncrasia peculiar properties of mens bodies that differ else the choice of Meats need not so much to be insisted on In regular eating you are to consider these four things First The substance and quality of the food Secondly The fit quantity and proportion Thirdly Convenient and due times for eating Fourthly The manner and helps to digestion Concerning the first That every one may be something instructed in the election of meats this or that most proper and sutable take these observations for a general guide First Try by your Palate eat no meats that do displease the Gust for a common food Paulo pejor sed suavior cibus potus meliori at ingrato praeferendus Let no Rule therefore or judgment given impose upon you any meat though good whereunto you have an aversion or what is not well relishing and acceptable for although meats considered in themselves and compared one with another this hath the preference and is accounted better than that yet in relation to this or that person the better sometimes may prove the worse as not so well agreeing with the peculiar propriety and nature of that Body which appetition and rejection sometimes does discover Secondly Examine your Stomach what meats do oppress or rise in the Stomach and cause a trouble or is long in passing off and flatulent If any such symptoms as these do follow upon some and not upon other meats then such food is not convenient because it puts a difficulty upon the Stomach to digest the consequents of which are bad If therefore your appetite craves that which experimentally you have found disagreement in as by the effects in digestion or otherwise by gripes fluxes c. is manifested then let not the deceitful promptings of your stomach over-rule you again in the choice of such meats that afterwards will prove discordant and produce ill effects Thirdly Inquire into the constitution or condition of your body and have some respect to that in the election of meats for Phlegmatick cold bodies and cholerick hot and dry bodies will not well be dieted both alike but as commonly they have different inclinations to meats so Nature hath appointed and is furnished with variety to suit such several bodies and appetitions Therefore make choice of such for the most part as is commended to you suting commonly and convenient for that constitution you are of as you will find prescribed in the several Constitutions or Conditions of body following Fourthly You are also to consider in the choice of meats whether such meat as you then desire and chuse be in its proper season for that meat which at one time of the year is very good at another time is not so good or perhaps hurtful As Pork at Michaelmas and all the Winter Months is good but in Summer not fit to be eaten And so likewise of other sorts of food when they are in season they are to be used but at other times you must abstain from them And you may perceive a great difference in the tast between that in season and that out of season and so much difference there is in the goodness and consequently in the wholesomness You are likewise to be wary in the choice of meats that they be sound and no way abused for Beasts may be surfeited over driven before they be killed and will not take salt well for keeping or may be diseased and then their flesh is not wholesom but injurious to your body begets bad nourishment from whence diseases will follow So likewise you must be careful in all other sorts of food that they be in good condition not over kept but fresh and good pure in their kind And here also it is necessary to advertise that your meat be duly prepared cleansed and well dressed if a Slut have the management of your meat it cannot be so pleasant and wholesome as that which is cleanly and nearly prepared And if it be not duly ordered in the roasting boiling or baking either too much or too little your good meat as it was
in the market may prove bad meat at the table at least not so good and your stomach must fare the worse for the Cook And farther you are to understand that the true ordering and preparing of meat is much to be regarded as matter whereon your health and welfare does in part depend for as your food is better or worse so will your body be in better or worse state and thrive thereby And it is not sufficient that your meat does not stink but also that the spirituous part thereof be preserved which gives a lively and pure nourishment and therefore meat long kept is not so wholesom and good as that which is fresh killed From hence in part it does rationally appear how and why the Scurvy does so much abound in England we being great flesh-eaters but concerning the procuring causes of this Disease I have sufficiently treated elsewhere Tract of the Scurvy Fifthly In the choice of meats consider Custom what you have been long used to and made familiar to nature by long time and use is more agreeing than novelties and unwonted food which is apt to cause some alteration therefore be sparing at first when a new Diet offers it self as upon change of places and Countries and afterwards upon further use and experience of agreement you may be bolder with this or that sort of meat And as for such whose feeding hath not been so good and proper for them as it ought change for a better and come off from the other by degrees Nulla subita mutatio est bona Sixthly Change your diet according to the seasons of the year the variation of your body and inclination to this or that distemper In Winter more meat and less drink in Summer less meat and more liquids in Summer meats oftner boiled in Winter roasted A hot and dry body must have a cooling and moist diet a cold and moist body a hot and dry diet temperate bodies are preserved by temperate things and their like distempered bodies are rectified and reduced by dissimilars The more simple and single your diet is the better and more wholesom but if your stomach must have variety let it be at several meals and so you may please your Palate without prejudice Accustom not your self to delicacies and compound-dishes the heterogeneity of their nature begets a discordant fermentation in the stomach troubling concoction from whence eructations nauseous belchings and offensive risings in the throat Quò simplicior victûs ratio eò melior Seventhly Use not meat that hath any quality in extream that is over-seasoned or sauced as very salt very hot sowre binding or the like but keep to those that are moderate in tast and natural Eighthly Consider the condition of your stomach of what sort it is whether strong or weak in digestion and sute your diet in general accordingly Therefore accustom strong stomachs to strong meats the weaker to lighter of digestion for very light meats in strong stomachs are soon digested but they do not maintain and keep the digestive faculty in its vigour and strength Solid hard meats in weak stomachs lie long and heavy and pass away crude and undigested Meats in respect of their facility and difficulty in digestion are termed heavy and light which you may distinguish and know them thus Heavy meats be such as are more dry hard solid and dense gross course and tough or over moist slimy and cold requiring a longer time in fermentation for retexture volatization and digestion before they be fit to pass off the stomach And they are either so in their Nature as all old flesh Bull-Beef and Oxe Brawn Pork Venison Hare Goose Duck Swan Crane Bittern Heron and most Water-Fowl Eels Mackrel Sturgeon Muscles Shad Tench Stock-fish c. Beans Pease when they be something old brown Bread Barley and Rie Bread Also some parts are of harder digestion than other as Brains Hearts Livers except of tame Fowl Birds and some very young flesh Milts Kidneys Skin Meats made heavy or made worse than in their own nature by preparation keeping and dressing as dryed fryed and broyled meats meats long salted and kept as Bacon hang'd Beef and long powdered old Ling salt Cod Haberdine pickled Herrings red Herrings pickled Scallops Sturgeon salt Salmon hard Eggs tosted Cheese tosted Bread especially if it be scorched Crusts Pye-crust Bread not well baked unleavened meats over baked hard and dry long kept meats roasted dry or scorched Light meats and of quicker digestion be such as are most soft and tender rare as it is opposed to density therefore sooner penetrated by the stomachical ferment succulent volatile soon fermenting and yielding to digestion As young tender flesh of Veal Mutton Lamb Kid Pullet Capon Chicken Conies Turkie Pheasant Partridge Plover Woodcock Snite Heath-Cocks and small Birds Whiting Smelt Oister Flounder Soles Plaise Thornback Turbut Trout Carp Pike Bream Pearch and such like Rere Eggs Milk Wheat Bread white light and well baked also Oaten Bread well made And these light meats may be divided into two sorts that is meats very light as Smelt Plaise Oister Rere Eggs sucking Rabbits Chickens Whitings and such like and meats indifferent light as young Mutton Lamb Veal Very light meats are soon digested apt to be corrupted in strong stomachs breed tender and effeminate bodies soft and loose flesh easily lost solid strong meats are slower in digestion not easily corrupted slow in distribution make strong bodies firm hard flesh and durable Now by these eight Rules every one may make a good choice of meats in a state of health and reasonably instruct himself for the preservation thereof which Rules also will guide the valetudinary and sickly persons The Quantity next is to be considered that you may not exceed such a proportion as is agreeable to your Nature for a due supply and not over-charge the body And here I must commend to you temperance and moderation in eating as a great preservative of Health not a Lessian diet to pine and enfeeble the body not so precise but a moderate allowance proportionable to the strength and ability of the Stomach to digest considering also other conditions of body and manner of life whether active laborious sedentary or idle The contrary irregular practice hath destroyed the lives of many Plures gula quam gladius The labouring active and stronger persons may eat more freely and do require a greater supply to maintain their strength than the sedentary and studious or such as take their ease and weak or tender Bodies Some may think the more plentifully they eat the better they shall thrive in body be more nourished and the stronger for it but it will not prove so a little well digested and assimilated shall maintain the body in a stronger and more vigorous condition than being glutted with superfluity most of which is turned to excrementitious not alimentary juice and must be cast out else sickness soon after will follow For quantity your own stomach must measure
to you what is convenient which is a certain rule of proportion if you observe not to eat to a satiety and fulness but desist with an appetite being refreshed light and chearful not dulled heavy and indisposed to operation and action either of mind or body A set quantity or measure of meat or drink cannot be prescribed as a general rule and observation for all to follow in regard of the variety and great difference of persons in Constitution Age strength of Nature condition of Life and infirmities that what is convenient for one is too much for another and too little for a third The strong and healthy cannot conform to the sickly weak and infirm in quantity nor the labouring man to the sedentary and studious or the idle therefore every stomach is to be its own judge and every one ought to moderate themselves by the Cautions before-mentioned If your diet sometimes be not so good and proper for you in the quality and substance make amends in the quantity and eat the less Indulge not to the cravings of an irrational sensitive appetite but allow such a supply of daily food as will support and maintain bodily strength and not over-load it thereby the spirits will be vigorous and active humours attenuated and abated crudities and obstructions prevented many infirmities checkt and kept under the senses long preserved in their integrity the stomach clean the appetite sharp and digestion good Quicquid plus ingeritur gravat naturam non juvat But by the surplusage and over-charge the stomachical ferment is over-laid and its incisive penetrative faculty obtunded the appetite and digestion abated the stomach nauseating fluctuating and belching with crudities from whence Gripes Fluxes and Feavers do follow the spirits also clogged dull and somnolent and by their indisposition and inactivity humours subside degenerate incrassate and obstruct from whence also various ill symptoms and depraved effects throughout the body debilitating and decaying the senses enervating and stealing away the strength of the body by defrauding it of good nutriment hastning old age and shortning life Although you do not perceive the injury of your intemperance presently yet it will appear and be manifest if Physick remove it not seasonably Noxa etsi ad tempus fortasse delitescit temporis tamen successu sese exerit In Winter you may eat more freely but in Summer the spirits are dilated exhausted and drawn forth by the external heat opening the pores wherefore the appetite is not so sharp nor digestion so quick And the Rule is true though heat be not the principal cause of concoction yet it is a necessary Agent Exciter and Cooperator The third considerable in regular eating is fit and convenient times wherein take these Cautions Let not the common custom of meals invite you to eat except your appetite concur with those times and keep a sufficient distance between your times of eating that you charge not the stomach with a new supply before the former be distributed and passed away and in keeping such a distance your stomach will be very fit and ready to receive the next meal the former being wrought off perfectly no semi-digested crude matter remaining to commix with the next food and that is one chief cause of crudities and a foul stomach when a new load is cast in before the former be gone off which begets much excrements not much aliment clogs the Body and procures Diseases And therefore Avicen rightly admonisheth Nemo sanitatis suae studiosus aliquid comedat nisi ad hoc certo prius invitante desiderio ventriculo unà cum reliquis superioribus intestinis à praesumpto cibo vacuatis The Stomach that is empty receives closeth and embraceth food with delight will be eager and sharp in digestion and the Body will attract and suck the aliment strongly each part as it passeth along will perform its Office readily and sufficiently which they will not do if often cloyed with depraved and indigested aliment but slowly and with reluctancy for although they do not act by reason yet they have a natural instinct or endowment to discern their proper and fit object If you ask how oft in the day and when it is convenient to eat I answer as the quantity is not alike measured to all so the times are not equally to be appointed Children that have coming and craving stomachs do and may eat often in a day Young men and women healthful and good stomachs that labour or use much exercise may eat thrice in the day Morning Noon and Night The elder sort and such as are infirm or weak in stomach that do no work use no exercise or have a sedentary life to such eating twice in the day is sufficient And herein also respect is to be had to the nature and temperature of the Body and to custom for cool fat and moist Bodies bear hunger better than lean hot people of greater perspiration and cholerick stomachs who are gnawn by abstinence and do not well bear it especially if they omit a meal contrary to custom as Hippoc notes Apher 24. de rat vict qui bis de die cibum capere consueverunt ii nisi pransi fuerint imbecilles finnt infirmi ac 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 patiuntur Omit a meal sometimes it acuates and sharpens the stomach concocts indigested matter and makes the next meal rellish better Eat no late Suppers nor variety at once a good stomach may endure it for a while but the weaker is more sensible of the injury the best is prejudiced in time Eat not presently after exercise nor when you are hot but forbear till the spirits he retired and setled in their stations The fourth considerable for manner of eating and helps to digestion take this advice When you come to Meat leave your care and business but bring in your friend and be as merry as you can mirth and good company is a great help to a dull stomach both for appetite and digestion Eat not hastily but chew your meat well 't is a good preparation for concoction and your stomach will more easily and sooner digest for if it be but half chewed the stomach must have the labour to chew it over again with its incisive ferment Drink a little and oft at meat to macerate and digest especially if your meat be dry and solid and to help distribution of aliment but great draughts cause fluctuations and disturb the fermentation Forbear reading writing study or serious cogitations for two hours after meat else you draw off from the stomach abate the strength of digestion and injure the brain Hasty motion opens the Orifice of the stomach precipitates the food before due time and vitiates digestion SECT VII The variety of Mans Food The several sorts of Flesh and Fish their difference in digestion and goodness MAN above all Creatures exceeds in variety and choice of meats having not only for necessity and convenience but for pleasure also Nature abounds in variety
to please all palates to sute all constitutions to serve all conditions the Young and Aged the Strong and Healthy the Weak and Sickly that none may complain for want of provision fit for their several Stomachs and State of Body If you look into the stores of Nature you will find there two eminent ranks of Creatures the Animal and the Vegetable both affording wonderful diversity of meats to feed on that you will sooner want a desire to eat than choice to eat of For Animals you have three Elements plentifully and continually to furnish you with the Earth the Air and the Water all pregnant with divers species of those Creatures The first presents you with four-footed Beasts the second with variety of Fowls the third with innumerable sorts of Fishes So that over you under and round about you is plenty of provision And these three Elements supply and garnish your Table with first and second course There are various sorts of Animals appointed for food four footed Beasts Fowls and Fish Of the first sort are Beef Veal Mutton Lamb Goat Kid Pork Venison Hare and Rabbit Of all meats Flesh affords the most nourishment and the strongest Beef is very good and a strong feeding for healthy and robust Bodies but for tender weak people not so convenient as what follows Veal is very nourishing and of light digestion and may safely be given to weak or diseased people if desired and their stomachs be not much decayed Mutton is a wholsome good food and breeds excellent nourishment is not hard of digestion if it be young and weather Mutton the best Goats flesh comes near to Mutton but not so good yet the Kid is like to the Lamb and are both light meats and breed good nourishment Pork is a great nourisher and coming nearest in likeness to mans flesh yet is not proper food for weak and crazy people but for healthy and strong stomachs Brawn is a gross and heavy meat not to make a meal on but moderately tasted to please such Palates as love it may do no hurt Pig exceeds the rest in nourishment is juicy tender light and pleasant Venison is good food for healthy people having good stomachs otherwise it may be unfit The Hare is heavy meat but a good stomach need not be afraid of it to eat sometimes Rabbit is very good and light meat fit for weak stomachs aged and sickly people Fowls appointed for food are tame and wild Of tame and House-Fowls the Turkey Capon Pullet Chickens are best and fit for weak stomachs Goose Duck Pigeon Peacock not so light nor produce such good nourishment Of Wild Fowl the best for pleasantness wholsomness and easy digestion are the Phesant Partridge Snite Heathcocks Next to these are the Woodcock Rails and Blackbird But Sea-Fowl and such as frequent Marshes Lakes Pools and standing Waters are strong in tast hard of digestion and breed not so good nutrimental juice and are to be eaten only by robust Bodies and strong stomachs As the Heron Crane Bittern Swan Stork Bustard Sea-pye Wigeon Puet Curlew Coots Fen Duck Puffin But the Teal and Plover are good meat excelling other Fowl that frequent the Water Among the small Birds the Lark may be accounted the best Fish that serve for mans food are such as live in the salt water or fresh water Of Sea fish that excel for wholesomeness pleasantness and easiness of digestion are the Sole Smelt Plaice Whiting Oister Maids Pranes and Shrimps being good food for sickly weak Bodies and tender stomachs Next to these in goodness you may account Salmon Turbut Sturgeon Cod Haddock Lobster Thornback Mullet Herring Pilchard Anchove Scallop Of fresh water Fish these challenge the preheminence for goodness Trout Perch Pike Carp But as for Fish they are of such nature that more especially they require a good Cook else the best may prove but indifferent meat and wholesome Fish may be made unwholesome and unfit for the Body at least not so good by ill managing and dressing for if they be over-salted the goodness of the Fish is gone and fryed Fish is not so wholesome as boyled and many ways a good Dish of Fish may be spoiled as good House-Wives can tell SECT VIII Of Sauces Spices and Seasonings of Meat SEasonings of Meat are used either as preservatives to keep them from putrefaction and decay Or as correctives to alter and change some ill quality and to promote digestion Or for a gust and relish to gratify and delight the Palate as most Sauces For sauce and seasoning of meat many eatable and aromatick ingredients are used differently mixed and prepared most sutable to the nature of the meat and pleasing to the gust of several Palates but the more simple and single the better such are Salt Sugar Honey Oil Butter Vinegar Mustard Oranges Verjuice Lemons Pepper Ginger Mace Cloves Cinamon Nutmeg Olives Capers Broombuds Sampire Salt for the necessity of its use and gratefulness to the palate may challenge the first place Salt cleanseth and purifies both fish and flesh from their impurities and corrects their superfluous moisture and as a balsam preserves them from corruption Salt is hot and dry cleansing and yet having some astriction and is most profitable for phlegmatick cold and moist stomachs Therefore meat moderately salted having time to digest and alter the crude qualities thereof is better and wholsomer than fresh but to eat salt at the Table is not so good if the nature of the meat be such as to allow a previous digestion and seasoning as Beef Pork or Mutton And such meat as you intend for salting and keeping or only for a seasoning and relishing let it be powdered or sprinkled so soon as the flesh is cold and then the salt will unite with the spirituous part of the flesh and preserve it well for keeping but if the flesh be stale and the spirits evaporated and gone before the salt be applyed then your meat will not keep so well will not be so pleasant in eating nor give so vigorous a nourishment to the Body Salt is grateful to the palate and stomach it excites the appetite by giving a relish assists the stomach in digesting crude phlegmatick matter is abstersive and prevents putrefaction but salt immoderately used it heats and dries the blood and natural moisture corrodes and frets causeth itching pustuls and breakings out and is most injurious to hot lean and thin Bodies Therefore meats too long kept and over-salted are not wholsome the natural goodness and distinguishing tast of the meat being thereby changed and destroyed Sugar though opposite to salt in tast yet is used sometimes as salt to preserve from putrefaction and well it may for Sugar is a sweet salt and Sugar clean and well refined in a temperate clean body and moderately used nourisheth and is good but in a foul body it degenerates and makes the body more impure and the too frequent or immoderate use obtunds and abates the appetite and vitiates the digestive
ferment of the stomach Honey is nourishing and wholesome more especially good for those that are asthmatick that are molested with Coughs have weak Lungs and short breath It is balsaick clensing and makes the Belly soluble and to sweeten with honey is better than sugar wherein Art is used to refine and whiten it Oil Olive being of an unctuous nature is moderately hot and lubrifies the bowels is wholsome and good especially for cold and phlegmatick Bodies and such as are costive but for hot feavourish Bodies it is not convenient Butter is temperate in it self moistening mollifying and solutive wholesome for sound and clean Bodies but not so good for cholerick and foul Bodies especially being used in sauce Vinegar and sowre juices as of Lemmons Verjuice Oranges and the like are cooling penetrating and incisive they acuate and whet the appetite help the stomach in digestion of grosser meats and give a good relish in eating but the immoderate and frequent use cools dries constringeth and binds the body is hurtful to the Nerves and nervous parts very bad for Women and those that are subject to the Gout Asthma's and stoppings in the breast or in other parts and for lean and dry Bodies Mustard quickens the appetite warms the stomach dries up superfluous moisture helps the stomach in digesting hard meats opens stoppings in the breast and head and good for such as are heavy and cloudy in their Brains Mace Ginger Nutmeg Pepper and Cloves help a cold stomach comfort the heart and brain refresh the spirits by their aromatical odour are grateful upon the Palate and very acceptable to Phlegmatick cold Bodies Cinamon as it excelleth all Spices in odour and sapor so is it most cordial and acceptable to the stomach It is hot and dry acrid and penetrating opens obstructions yet leaving an astriction and roboration upon the parts it comforts and refresheth weak natures Olives pickled are used as sauce and for the pleasant tast of the pickle which is grateful to the stomach they may be eaten moderately without hurt but the Olive of it self is heavy in digestion and not so good Capers are abstersive and opening quicken the stomach and good for those that are splenetick and may freely be used by any that loves them for sauce Broom-buds pickled are wholesome and good and are much like to Capers in their nature to excite the stomach and to open obstructions of the Liver and Spleen Sampire pickled is both wholesome and pleasant to eat with meat it hath an abstersive and diuretick faculty Cucumers are cold and moist being pickled when they are young and little they please the palate excite the appetite and are good Winter-sauce especially for hot stomachs but the great ripe Cucumers usually eaten unpickled are too waterish and unwholsome especially for cold phlegmatick Bodies but Pepper Oil and Vinegar does something correct and mitigate their faults Gillyflowers are moderately hot and dry cordial and good to strengthen the brain being pickled in Vinegar are then a pleasant and wholesome sauce and is so used by some Onions are hot and dry acrid in tast and of ill juice being eaten raw although they provoke the appetite yet they trouble the stomach afterwards and are long in passing off causing unsavoury belchings and a strong breath but being boiled their heat and acrimony is abated and naughtiness corrected giving a good relish to rest or stewed meat especially to broth which Onion makes very savory In the use of the forementioned I shall give this caution that young stomachs and strong healthy bodies which need not a spur to their appetite nor a help to digestion that they frequent not the use of these spices and enticing sauces but reserve them for Age deficiency of stomach and other infirmities for if you accustom your self to them in youth and strength to please your palate and intice your stomach there being no need when the condition of your body does require them you shall not find that benefit and assistance from them which otherwise you might have expected and received had you forborn the use of them when it was not necessary SECT IX Of Milk Milk meats Eggs and Spoon Meats OF Animals come Milk and Eggs for food Milk is the first food of Man and of most if not all four-footed Beasts Milk is bloud digested and altered a second time by the transmuting power of the ubera dugs therefore as the blood is better or worse so is the milk The difference of milk in kind and goodness is various there are five sorts chiefly used by man the womans milk Cows milk Goat Sheep and Asses milk Womans milk as it is most natural to mankind so is it most nourishing and restaurative to weak Consumptive Bodies Cows milk is the next in goodness being fat thick nourishing and most agreeable Sheep and Goats milk are something alike and may be accounted the next in goodness Asses milk is used more physically than for food esteemed helpful to Consumptive people but I have not that opinion of it nor at any time do appoint it The Asse is a heavy melancholy Creature and the milk cannot do such feats as some do imagine Milk is better or worse from the difference of Creatures in specie and in soundness from their feeding or pasture and from the times of the year and of taking it The Beast must be sound the pasture good in the spring it is best and when it is new milkt and upon an empty stomach received Milk in it self is a clean wholsome good food affording much nourishment and light in digestion generally agrees and is desired by all Children and most young folk but this innocent food as it is easily concocted so it is soon corrupted and therefore not convenient for all persons for milk coming into foul Bodies is quickly depraved and makes that Body worse Milk is cooling and moistning both pleasant and good for lean hot and dry Bodies but for cold phlegmatick fat and gross Bodies not so fit To sweeten your milk with honey or sugar is a good custom for it is not then so apt to curdle in the stomach nor to cause obstructions Cream which is the fat of milk is very pleasant in tast but to eat it often is not good After milk eat nor drink of an hour and half nor use exercise to heat the Body Of milk we have Butter and Cheese Whey and Butter-milk New Butter from the hands of a good Housewife with Bread is a very good Breakfast but used as sauce and mixed with different sorts of food is then not so wholsome for the Body being then apt to rise and fluctuate uppermost in the Ventricle relaxing the orifice and disturbing the digestion New Butter-milk out of the Churn is the best Julep for a hot thirsty stomach and for feavourish lean dry and costive Bodies but if it be stale and sour it is not then so friendly and grateful to the stomach Cheese is the worst product of
be eaten by the weaker and tender stomachs without hurt being of a good kind and in their prime The old white Pease are hard in digestion and windy but if they be of a good sort that will boil soft and mealy are then very acceptable to many and not hurtful moderately eaten they are a strong food and very good for strong stomachs SECT XI Of Roots Herbs and Flowers for food Their Qualities and right use CArrots yield a moist cooling and temperate nourishment light of digestion and are very wholesom Turneps are hot and moist affording much nourishment and easily concocted being of a good kind sweet and not strong in tast are then agreeable with most stomachs soluble to the belly and wholesom food Parsneps are temperate in heat and not so moist as the Turnep or Carrot but give a good strong nourishment to the Body and are convenient for all that love them Potato is something like to the Parsnep in qualities but excels it in nourishing and strengthning the body are wholesom and agreeable to all Constitutions Raddish is hot and moist excites the appetite but affords little nutriment and is difficult in digestion not to be commended except to such as are troubled with gravel in the Kidneys it is something diuretick and cleansing those parts Sparagus being pleasant in the mouth and light of digestion is accounted a dainty Dish and reputed a cleanser of the Reins and wholesom but since it makes the urine of those that eat it to have a strong savour I much suspect its goodness and have reason to believe this ill scent to arise from a corrupt transmutation of the Sparagus and not a pre-existing matter sent forth to advantage Artechocks are temperately hot and dry very nourishing and not unwholesom for the weaker sort being soon digested and become restaurative Cabbage and Colewort are temperate loosening something windy and not easy of digestion but those who are lovers of them and have good stomachs finding no trouble in digestion nor belching afterwards may eat thereof and please themselves but tender stomachs had better forbear Coleflower although it hath some affinity with the Cabbage yet it is more wholesom pleasanter in tast lighter of digestion more nutritive and no way hurting the body Spinage is cold and moist and may be eaten in sallad boiled or with broth good for hot costive bodies but not convenient for cold phlegmatick and waterish Constitutions Sage is hot and dry affording no nourishment but gives a relish and very wholsome good for the Head and Nerves and may well be used in the Kitchen when it is proper Lettuce is cold and moist yet not offensive to the stomach nor hurtful to the body it allays the heat and acrimony of cholerick humours and disposeth to sleep such as are too vigilant and have hot dry brains it may profitably be used at convenient times by such bodies as require it in hot seasons of the year and by hot Constitutions Parsley is hot and dry diuretick and opening gives no nourishment but seasons and recommends meat to those that love its tast and is not unwholesom Rosemary is hot and dry and yields no nourishment but is good for the Head and Nerves and all cold Diseases of the Brain and may well be used in the Kitchen when there is occasion Purslane is cold and moist to be eaten in sallad by cholerick stomachs and hot dry Bodies to allay the intemperature of the bloud and better it is if it be pickled than not Burrage and Bugloss are temperately hot and moist cordial and cheering the spirits good for hypochondriack and melancholy persons hurtful to none the custom therefore of putting these into a glass of Wine is very good Sorrell is cold and dry very wholesom for the body and agreeable to the stomach by its pleasant tartness it cools the bloud contemporates choler and allays feavourish heat Sorrel and Lettuce together make a good Sallad Burnet is hot and dry and by its restrictive quality does strengthen the stomach it cheers the heart and drives away melancholy being put into a glass of Wine makes it relish well and increaseth the vertue of the liquor Succory is cooling drying opening and cleansing an excellent Hepatic Herb very good for those that are troubled with obstructions and heat of the Liver to be used in Broths or otherwise in Medicine Spear-Mint is hot and dry in the second degree it is a great strengthner of a weak nauseating stomach or subject to vomiting it is pleasant in smell and tast refreshing the Brain and comforting the Heart invites the appetite and helps digestion correcting the crudities that flat and depress the stomach Clary is hot and dry accounted a strengthner of the back and good to stop spermatick issuing used by some for that purpose to be fryed with Eggs but i never found any considerable effects nor do I recommend it in such Cases Tansy is hot and dry bitter in tast but very acceptable to the stomach and abstersive it is very wholesom in food or physick and therefore that Dish called a Tansie is to be esteemed as a choice dainty but the juice of this Herb is not to be wanting in it Marygold-Flowers are moderately hot and dry they chear the spirits and comfort the Heart are very wholesom and agreeable to all bodies but chiefly beneficial for melancholick and drooping spirits to be used in broth or stewed meats to which they make an addition for goodness Pennyroyall is hot and dry in the third degree it cleanseth and strengthens the stomach expels Wind provokes Urine and a great opener of obstructions it is a strong savory Herb but pleasant and very wholesom especially for cold phlegmatick and crude waterish bodies Violet-leaves are cold and moist good for hot and costive Bodies to cool and loosen the Belly and may be used in Sallad Broth or otherwise Thyme is hot and dry pleasant in smell and tast it helps a weak stomach and gives a good relish to meat or broth which a good Cook knows very well Savory is hot and dry in the third degree of a strong penetrating but fragrant scent and of a biting tast it attenuates opens and discusseth corrects a crude watery stomach gives a good season to meat or pottage as its name imports Marjerome is delightful in smell and tast no less pleasing to the stomach and profitable for a weak head very wholesom for the body and hurtful to none I have now given a short but useful account of the virtues and qualities of the most and chiefest Herbs used in Cookery whereby every one may appoint or make choice of such to be used in dressing their meat as their nature and condition of body does most require and refuse those that although good and wholesom in themselves yet not proper and fit for some persons in such a state of body And although much more might have been said in the medicinal use of some of them yet this is
sufficient to inform their proper use in relation to a good and wholesom Diet. SECT XII Of Fruits Alimental and Medicinal distinguished and advised FRuit in the first Age of the World was the common food of man appointed and used as his daily sustenance to nourish and support the Body and this sacred Writ does inform us that the fruit of the Garden and Herbs were the appointed food of our first parents And the daily custom of eating thereof did continue for a long time as may be collected from ancient Writers Afterwards and by degrees flesh came into use more and more and now flesh is the common standing food most and chiefly used and fruit is accounted rather for divertisement between meals and for delight than otherwise for necessity or support especially here in England where flesh is so plentiful Fruit and Herbs are innocent good food in themselves and by their simple natures well agreeing with mans body but unseasonably immoderately and unduly used being also now out of custom save only by fits and starts and casually eaten they become come oftentimes hurtful and injurious causing Diseases and Sickness Indeed the discreet use thereof is advantagious and profitable for the Body as partly alimental partly medicinal and also for delight being duly elected and chosen as best agreeing and supplying the different wants and variation of constitutions individual proprieties and rational well governed appetitions at certain times and seasons But if otherwise as most commonly people will fall upon them too greedily as the Swine to satiate and gorge their stomachs without any consideration of times or limitation of quantities or distinction of qualities then this wholesom and delightful provision lays the foundation of some chronick and growing Disease or precipitates you into some desperate acute sickness and that this is too true the annual and fatal distempers of Autumn do sufciently and plainly confirm The unwholesomness therefore of Fruit except some sort lies in the imprudent use thereof in time quantity or other circumstances that ought to be regarded mixing it with other meats and tempting the stomach with fruit when it is already satiated with flesh or laying a new load upon the stomach with fruit before the former ingested food be workt off and digested I must confess fruit is very enticing both to the eye and to the palate and of this we have woful experience from the beginning of the World the alluring Apple it was which laid the foundation of mans misery and made him liable to all manner of Diseases and Calamities and since Fruit ab origine hath been so mortally ensnaring and continues yet to be so dangerous we ought to be so careful to use it and refuse it how and when and how much c. as cautioned and appointed following Fruits some spring out of the tender Herb others from the frutex or shrub and some from the Tree We may divide fruit for method and better understanding into these five kinds distinguishing and sorting them into these several Classes Apples Pears Plums Berries and Nuts reducing all or almost the whole genus of Fruit into one or other of these species In the first Classis of Apples there are divers sorts and variously denominated as Pippin Pearmain Queening Russeting Quodling Rosiars Every Country almost hath some peculiar Apples or Apples which we need not be so inquisitive and curious to find out and call them by their common name but it will be sufficient and a more certain guide for choice to distinguish and difference them by their vertues and properties whereby every one may elect such as are most convenient for the nature and condition of their Body Apples although they differ in colour figure smell and magnitude yet by the tast you will perceive and know the nature of the Apple better than by all the rest of these signal differences By tast you may distinguish Apples to differ thus some are sweet some acid or sour and some insipid of little or not tast others of a rough or harsh tartness some again are of a mixt tast as an acid sweetness and a sweet acerbness or roughness All Apples are cooling and moistning but some more than others The acid and tart Apple is to be chosen by such whose stomachs are flat hot and cholerick and whose bodies abound with bilious acrid humours The austere or rough sour Apple that hath an astriction upon the palate they are to be elected as proper for such who are weak in the stomach and too loose or laxative in body The insipid waterish and tastless Apples are to be avoided as most dangerous for they are most apt to oppress and corrupt in the stomach Such as are wholly sweet do sooner satiate the stomach and to be used by such whose stomachs and bodies do abound with a fretting acidity and acrimonious sharp humors All Apples are hurtful before the Sun hath brought them to full digestion and maturation for being too green and unripe are then hard windy heavy difficult to be digested and their juice not wholesom for the body and also they are not soo good when they are over-ripe too mellow and past their prime being then fulsome and cloying to the stomach Such as are tender in stomach and may be offended with the raw juice 't is then safest to gratify their appetite with Apples baked or rosted Eat not to a satiety and fulness but please your palate and leave of with some desire of more Eat fruit upon an empty stomach and give time for their digestion before you eat flesh but those who desire to put the tast of meat out of their mouths and to close the stomach may commit no error by eating a little and but a little And here amongst the tribe of Apples comes in the Pomegranate Pomecitron Lemon and Orange Pomegranate is a wholesom fruit and pleasant they cool moisten and refresh the stomach and are good for hot and feavourish Bodies to cool and quench thirst Some are sweet and some acid the acid juice is astringent but the cortex or shell is more binding and is used physically for that purpose Pomecitron yields an excellent juice cordial cooling and enlivening very profitable in feavours and comfortable to hot faint stomachs The rinds also being candied are a pleasant cordial sweet-meat Lemons are of like nature to the citron and used in like manner and for such purposes but are something inferiour in worth The juice whets the stomach mitigates thirst corrects and allays the acrimony and biting of choler Orange is a beautiful and fragrant fruit wholesom pleasant and useful in the cases now mentioned Oranges some are sweet some sharp the sour is binding and used as sauce to meat the sweet not restrictive and eaten at any time between meals for delight only Pears stand next in order after Apples having much affinity with them and are to be elected and moderated by the same Rules being proper for such Bodies as require cooling and
pilled off but being long gathered the kernell old dry hard and the skin not to be separated they are then heavy upon the stomach stopping and unwholesom They are accounted by some Physicians Alexipharmacal resisting poisons and pestilential malignity and have been used by the Ancients in compositions for that purpose but I am not apt to credit their virtues of that kind The green nuts preserved are both pleasant and wholesom Haselnuts are hard of digestion and injurious to the stomach and Lungs especially such as are weak and infirm in those parts will soon find the prejudice and are fit only for robustick strong Bodies When they are new gathered they are not half so bad as when they be old and dry and the skin will not peel off for then they are very stopping and cause shortness of breath and obstructions in other parts Filberds are better than the Haselnuts yet are not very easy to be digested and must be eaten new gathered for being old they become hurtful But if your nuts be not so new as they ought to be you may correct them and prevent much of the prejudice that follows upon these or the former nuts if you eat them with good raisins of the Sun Chestnuts are a strong food and may agree well enough with strong Bodies and may prove wholesom for they afford much solid nourishment but to the weaker sort and infirm persons they are not to be allowed being heavy of digestion to such obstructing and windy and make the body costive They are not to be eaten raw Almonds are pleasant they yield a wholesom juice which is restaurative and may well be eaten by lean and consumptive persons The newer they are the better but if they be old and hard they must be blanched for the husky skin is obstructing and unwholesom and then you are to eat raisins with them Pistaches are both alimental and medicinal temperate in heat and moisture good in pectoral infirmities Coughs and shortness of breath they lenify digest and open obstructions of the Breast they afford much and good nourishment being restaurative proper for aged consumptive and lean people Pinenuts are much like to the Pistach in virtues and goodness and may be used for all the purposes there mentioned SECT XIII Of Drink The several sorts and properties declared with Rules and Cautions in drinking HAving in the preceding Sections gone through the several kinds of Food therein distinguished and appointed the wholesom use thereof it remains we come in order to set forth the nature and qualities of Drink and to establish such laws in drinking as may most conduce to Health and a vigorous long life for which Drink in the kind and circumstances in drinking are of great importance The intention and use of Drink is first to extinguish and satisfy thirst Secondly To help digestion by macerating of solid food in the stomach Thirdly To promote the distribution of meat and to supply the body with convenient moisture Now to answer these designs the choice of Drink is to be made most suteable and wholesom the Quantity proportioned convenient the manner and order regulated as may best conduce to the purposes aforesaid Concerning the first for choice of Drink I shall propose to you the chiefest and most usual with my opinion of them which are these Water Wine Beer Ale Cyder Perry Meath or Meatheglin Mum Brandy Aquavitae Coffee Tea Water was the Drink created for Man and was so used by Adam and his Posterity and until after the deluge there was no other but then Noah brought in the use of Wine and after that by latter Ages other liquors have been invented That Water is a wholesom Drink and rather the most wholesom I plead first the institution Water being appointed for Man in his best state does strongly argue that to be the most suteable for humane nature Secondly From the nature and quality of it Water answering all the intentions of a common Drink it cools moistens and quencheth thirst 't is clear thin fit to convey aliment and be conveyed through the angust passages and small Vessels of the Body Thirdly From its ready compliance with and obedience to transmutation and assimilation for nutrition being simple pure and void of aliene heterogeneous parts not apt to resist nor to tincture and pervert the digestive ferment but freely yielding and easily transmutable Fourthly From its concomitant approximate effects those which drink Water are more airy brisk and pleasant Water not being apt to sume cloud nor disturb the Brain like stronger liquors which procure drowziness and indisposition to action both of Body and mind Fifthly From the experiment and proof of it in the primitive Age of the World the Water Drinkers were the longest Livers by some hundreds of years and doubtless they were not infested with so many Diseases nor so often sick and complaining as we are These arguments considered we need not to doubt but Water is a wholesom and the natural Drink for Man and a Drink of that sort which is a Rule to it self and requires little caution in the use of it to them that are bred to it since none is tempted to intemperance by drinking thereof But Custom hath naturalized other liquors and it is difficult to desert them but such as would make an experiment of the primitive Drink much might be said and cautions given necessary to guide them in such a new course of life which cannot well be done but by examination and inquiry into the state and condition of the Person else you may receive a prejudice and defame innocent pure water therefore I pass it by Water is not all alike in goodness but much difference there is in this and that sort which we may distinguish thus Spring Water River Rain Water Well and Pump Water besides standing Water of Lakes Ponds Pits and such like Spring Water if it rise from a high place out of good ground pure in tast clear and thin is the best Water for Aliment but if it be in low ground or tinctured by any mineral earth through which it passeth not having the former properties then it is not so good for Drink or other alimentary uses River Water running clear upon gravelly or stony ground not near Cities or great Towns or otherwise that might occasion filth or carrion to be thrown in such I say is good else not Rain Water in the Spring and Summer may be accounted very good and wholesom but at other seasons and when the Air is more thick and dark from impure vapours stormy blasts hail or thunder then not so good Well Water having no motion nor Sun upon it is not so good as the former Waters but if it be in an open place and having a good gravelly or stony bottom it is much the better for that Pump Water being close shut up from the Air and brought up through decaying wooden pipe contracting foulness is rather worse than Well water Waters conveyed through
leaden pipes or wooden are not wholesom and therefore Cistern Water is not good being alienated from its native goodness and tinctured by the lead Considering then the conditions of Water used both for drink and dressing of meat in many or most Cities and great Towns of England especially here in London we need not wonder that the Scurvey is so predominant lying under the inconvenience and injuries of bad Water which is none of the least procurers of that Disease Lakes Ponds or Pits and such like standing Waters are not wholesom for the Body Snow water and Ice put into drink to cool it is practised in some hot Countries and here in England it is used by some in Summer time being kept under ground for this purpose but it is a pernicious custom And now I pass on to another sort of Drink of frequent use and great reputation in the World for many hundred years and that is Wine Wine is an excellent liquor allowed and given by the Creator for the use of Man but not as a common and daily drink but for special uses and occasions requiring that is to cheer the drooping mind and refresh the decaying infirm Body for which it being seasonably and discreetly used is very helpful and beneficial to mankind Wine is both aliment and medicament a great refresher of decayed nature it nourisheth the Body and exhilarates the mind 't is a good cordial it strengthens the stomach and disposeth to sleep it restores the spirits dejected or weak and is helpful to old Age. But on the contrary if it be immoderately unseasonably and constantly used it turns much to the prejudice of Body and mind by subverting the natural vital heat alienating the crases of the parts and offending the Nerves and farther the intemperate use of Wine disturbs the brain and lessens the understanding dulls the wit and raseth the memory Vino forma perit vino corrumpitur aetas Propert. There are several sorts of Wine differing much from one another in goodness and worth so likewise in tast colour consistence and smell being of the growth of several Countries and places differing in Climate or soil which to examine and compare by a particular and exact account of each would be too tedious and not so necessary and useful for the Reader therefore briefly and more generally you may make choice of Wine thus as may best sute with the nature and condition of your Body The Wines most usual and frequently drank here in England are Sack White Wine Claret and Rhenish The white thin and acid Wines are attenuating abstersive and diuretick as the French White Wine and the Rhenish The sweet Wines are most nourishing cordial and comfortable and of these the thick dark Wines as the Muskadell nourish more than the thin clear Wines as the Canary The austere and rough Wines as Claret and red Wine are restrictive The strong spirituous Wines are apt to offend the head by raising fumes and vapours but temperate and smaller Wines will not cloud the Brain and are better for a frequent use But if Wine be too strong or to supply the place of common drink and used as Beer for quenching thirst then it is best to dilute and mix it with Water two three or four parts to one of Wine and allay it to what temperature you please as your body does best require Wine more often offends the Body by quantity than quality if it be natural and pure from the grape and more suffer by the adulteration and abusive mixture than by the natural ill properties decays and degeneration of the Wine in it self Malaga Sack is accounted by some to be restaurative and appointed for that purpose to weakly and consumptive people but since it is heavy and clogging upon the stomach I cannot recommend it for that intention but prefer others before it Canary Sack is much before the Malaga for richness and goodness and more agreeable to the stomach also nourishing and very refreshing to nature Sherry Sack is a wholesom and good stomach Wine and better at meat than any other Sack being abstersive and hard not a satiating Wine but does whet and provoke the stomach to eating and also helps forward digestion Rhenish Wine is a very wholesom liquor penetrating opening and provoking urine fittest for fat and full bodied people but lean spare and thin persons will agree better with feeding and fatning Wines as Canary Muskadell Tent and such like White Wine is searching cleansing and opening and comes nearest to Rhenish in qualities but is inferiour in goodness but neither of them are good and rather injurious to such as are molested with arthritick pains and rheumatism or otherwise troubled with any defluxion of a sharp serous or waterish humour Claret is fit for meals being a good stomach Wine for the roughness and gentle astriction that is in it which is pleasing to the stomach The Greek Wine Muskadell Tent and such like nourishing Wines being luscious generous and rich in spirit are to be used as cordials and restauratives and not for common drinking Having declared the nature and right use of Wine we proceed now to other liquors used as Drink but of a lower and inferiour rank made also of Fruit which is Cyder and Perry Cyder is the juice of Apples which by Fermentation and due ordering is made fit for keeping and then for Drink This sort of liquor is better or worse as the fruit is of which it is made and from the skill and care of the maker which contributes not a little to its goodness but if it be made of pickt fruit of the best sort not mingled Apples it produceth a choice drink when ripe and fit for drinking coming near to Wine in goodness being strong brisk and clear Cyder for a diversion and change not a common and constant drink may well be used and is very wholesom and good especially for hot dry and costive Bodies and for such it is proper Physick to cool moisten and relax the Belly that is bound up but for cold constitutions phlegmatick windy and waterish stomachs that are too laxative and weak in body for such it is not convenient but rather injurious Perry is produced of Pears after the same manner as Cyder of Apples and is very like in qualities if it be of the best fruit and well made and will serve for the same purposes and require the same cautions that I need not repeat But the common and most usual drinks with us are Beer and Ale Beer made of water malt and hops is very various and in several Countries and Places here in England the Beer hath a different tast one from the other as if they were not made of the same ingredients And this does proceed sometimes from the difference of water or the malt or goodness of the hops or different quantity or Age of the Drink or the Cask or from the Art and management of the Brewer Which being subject to all these
casualties and variations from thence we must in reason imagine and conclude that our Bodies do likewise receive impressions and alterations from thence also Drink being of a diffusive nature soon spreads and is communicated to all parts of the Body and does tincture them with such properties and qualities it is pregnant with whether better or worse It is not then of mean concernment what drink we accustom our selves to and how choice we ought to be in our Drink for bad Drink is not only the disgust upon our Palate and a displeasure at present in drinking but it hath influence upon our Bodies for the future to alienate and pervert the fermenting and transmuting powers of the digestions and to introduce an unsound state of Body if the Drink be not pure and wholesome free from any smatch of ill But how oft you are injured upon this account you little know at least take little notice and regard but wonder at every appearance of a disease or discomposedness as if you had never been under the procuring causes of any distemper or morbifick change in the Body Hence it is that the water-drinkers have the advantage of all good fellows the strong Beer and the Ale drinkers but this by the way But supposing Beer to be well brewed all the ingredients good and of a fit age to drink when all these happen together which is but sometimes then Beer discreetly used may be good and wholesom for the Body To make up therefore the goodness of Beer these conditions are requisite It ought to be well boil'd and well hop'd clear and well setled not stale for that is injurious but tasting of the hop not strong for common drinking but at other times to refresh the Stomach and chear the Heart strong Beer may supply the place of Wine Ale though made of the same ingredients as Beer yet differs having a less quantity of Hops being more sweet smooth and pleasing to the Palate Ale in general is not so wholesom as Beer for that it is not so well boiled nor hop'd and will not keep so long but soon changeth and grows four yet in some parts of England as in the North the Ale is much better more pleasant and wholesomer brewed than in the Southern parts Ale is subject to the same casualties and abuse as Beer that what hath been said before may also be applied here Metheglin is a drink made of water honey some herbs and spice boiled and then set to ferment which being varied according to the will of the maker and no certain rule I cannot so well determine upon it but being well ordered a good drink may be made for variety to please a little sometimes Meath is something like to Metheglin being made of water but a less quantity of honey and is not so strong nor so much compounded but a simple innocent good Summer drink being abstersive and cooling provokes urine and keeps the body soluble Mum if it be right Brunswick is a hearty strengthning liquor and may safely be used sometimes by such as require strong drink whose bodies do like and agree well with it But our English Mum is not comparable to it and disparageth the other being too often sold for Brunswick Coffee is a Drink now much in use and therefore 't is seasonable to say something for whom it is good at least not prejudicial and for whom it is injurious Coffee excites and raiseth the animal spirits that are dull or inactive and puts them upon motion and is helpful to such as must be watchful for it prevents drowziness and heaviness and makes them more brisk in business the very scent of Coffee Powder affects the spirits so as to agitate and move them But then on the other hand most Coffee drinkers are smoakers that what advantage they gain by Coffee is lost by Tobacco for this by a narcotick property disposeth to sleep and rest and most people are dull and heavy after it but for the nature and effects of tobacco my Tract of the Scurvey will inform you The frequent and constant use of Coffee does make lean therefore proper for fat and corpulent people that would abate of their flesh and that are inactive and slothful but injurious to spare slender people and to them that are too watchful and make but short sleeps in the night also to such as are affected with a tremor a shaking and trembling of the head or hands or that are vertiginous An enemy to hot and cholerick Constitutions and whose bloud is depraved by adust melancholy Coffee then promotes it nor is Coffee a friend to Venus but rather disables Brandy is another drink in fashion of late years and some love Vsquehath and to keep doing Aqua vitae sometimes supplies their wants to sip on others tipple to excess of these spirits But these are pernicious Drinks to use commonly and in the way of good fellowship for they destroy the natural heat and change the crases of the parts and leave the Body chill and cold always requiring their constant help to warm the stomach which must needs be destructive to Health and opposite to long Life But in cases of necessity upon fainting or sudden weakness or oppression of spirits a fullness nauseousness or crude watering of the stomach upon such emergencies you may have recourse to these helps and blameless if you have no better to serve your need Accustom youth and strong stomachs to small drink but stronger drink and Wine may be allowed to the infirm weakly and aged for that it chears the spirits quickens the appetite and helps digestion moderately taken and this sometimes as occasion requires Drink whether it be wholesomer warmed than cold is much controverted some stiffly contending for the one and some for the other I shall rather chuse the middle way with limitation and distinction than impose it upon all as a rule to be observed under the penalty of forfeiting their health the observation of the one or the other There are three sorts of persons one cannot drink cold Beer the other cannot drink warm the third either You that cannot drink cold Beer to you it is hurtful cools the stomach and checks it much therefore keep to warm drink as a wholesom custom you that cannot drink warm Beer that is find no refreshment nor thirst satisfied by it you may drink it cold nor is it injurious to you you that are indifferent and can drink either drink yours cold until your stomach alters and requires it to be warm Therefore as there is variety in Palates and Stomachs liking and agreeing best with such kind of meats and drinks which to others are utterly disgustful disagreeing and injurious though good in themselves so is it in Drink warmed or cold what one finds a benefit in the other receives a prejudice from at least does not find that satisfaction and refreshment under such a qualification because of the various natures particular appetitions and idiosyncratical
properties of several bodies one thing will not agree with all Therefore he that cannot drink warm let him take it cold and it is well to him but he that drinks it warm does better And this is to be understood in frosty Winter when the extremity of cold hath congelated and fixed the spirits of the Liquor in a torpid inactivity which by a gentle warmth are unfettered volatile and brisk whereby the drink is more agreeable and grateful to the stomachs fermenting heat being so prepated than to be made so by it Having set forth the several sorts of Drink used and therein shewed their nature and qualities and qualifications I come now to regulate the Quantity as most conducing to Health and Longevity There are three sorts of Drinkers one drinks to satisfie Nature and to support his body without which he cannot well subsist and requires it as necessary to his Being Another drinks a degree beyond this man and takes a larger dose with this intention to exhilarate and chear his mind to banish cares and trouble and help him to sleep the better and these two are lawful drinkers A third drinks neither for the good of the body or the mind but to stupifie and drown both by exceeding the former bounds and running into excess frustrating those ends for which drink was appointed by Nature converting this support of life and health making it a procurer of sickness and untimely death Some to excuse this intemperance hold it as good Physick to be drunk once a month and plead for that liberty as a wholesom custom and quote the authority of a famous Physician for it But whether this Opinion be allowable and to be admitted in the due Regiment for preservation of health is fit to be examined It is a Canon established upon good reason That every thing exceeding its just bounds and golden mediocrity is hurtful to Nature The best of things are not excepted in this general rule but are restrained and limited here to a due proportion The necessary supports of life may prove the procurers of death if not qualified and made wholesom by this corrective Drink exceeding its measure to excess is no longer a refreshment to irrigate and water the thirsty body nor a preservative but makes an inundation to drown and suffocate the vital powers and is the cause of sickness It puts a man out of the state of health and represents him in such a degenerate condition both in respect of body and mind that we may look upon the man as going out of the World because he is already gone out of himself and strangely metamorphosed from what he was I never knew sickness or a Disease to be good preventing Physick and to be drunk is no other than an unsound state and the whole body out of frame by this great change What difference is there between sickness and drunkenness Truly I cannot distinguish them otherwise than as genus and species Drunkenness being a raging Distemper denominated and distinguished from other sicknesses by its procatartick or procuring cause Drink That Drunkenness is a Disease or sickness will appear in that it hath all the requisites to constitute a Disease and is far distant from a state of health for if Health be the free and regular discharge of all the functions of the body and mind and sickness when the functions are not performed or weakly and depravedly then Ebriety may properly be said to be a Disease or Sickness because it hath the symptoms and diagnostick signs of an acute and great Disease for during the time of drunkenness and some time after few of the faculties perform their offices rightly but very depravedly and preternaturally If we examine the intellectual faculties we shall find the reason gone the memory lost or much abated and the will strangely perverted If we look into the sensitive faculties they are disordered and their functions impedited or performed very deficiently the eyes do not see well nor the ears hear well nor the palate rellish c. The speech faulters and is imperfect the stomach perhaps vomits or nauseates the legs fail Indeed if we look through the whole man we shall see all the faculties depraved and their functions either not executed or very disorderly and with much deficiency Now according to these symptoms in other sicknesses we judge a man not likely to live long and that it is very hard he should recover the danger is so great from the many threatning symptoms that attend this sickness and prognosticate a bad event here is nothing appears salutary but from head to foot the Disease is prevalent in every part which being collated the syndrom is lethal and judgment to be given so Surely then Drunkenness is a very great Disease for the time but because it is not usually mortal nor lasts long therefore it is slighted and lookt upon as a trivial matter that will cure it self But now the question may be asked Why is not Drunkenness usually mortal since the same signs in other Diseases are accounted mortal and the event proves it so To which I answer All the hopes we have that a man drunk should live is First From common experience that it is not deadly Secondly From the nature of the primitive or procuring Cause strong Drink or Wine which although it rage and strangely discompose the man for a time yet it lasts not long nor is commonly mortal The inebriating spirits of the liquor flowing in so fast and joining with the spirits of mans body make so high a tide that overflows all the banks and bounds of order For the spirits of mans body those agents in each faculty act smoothly regularly and constantly with a moderate supply but being over-charged and forced out of their natural course and exercise of their duty by the large addition of furious spirits spurs the functions into strange disorders as if Nature were conflicting with death and dissolution but yet it proves not mortal And this first because these adventitious spirits are amicable and friendly to our bodies in their own nature and therefore not so deadly injurious as that which is not so familiar or noxious Secondly Because they are very volatile light and active Nature therefore does much sooner recover her self transpires and sends forth the overplus received than if the morbifick matter were more solid ponderous and fixed the gravamen from thence would be much worse and longer in removing as an over-charge of Meat Bread Fruit or such like substances not spirituous but dull and heavy comparativè is therefore of more difficult digestion and layes a greater and more dangerous load upon the faculties having not such volatile brisk spirits to assist Nature nor of so liquid a fine substance of quick and easy digestion as strong drink So that the symptoms from such food are much more dangerous than those peracute distempers arising from Liquors And farther those bad symptoms in other Diseases are more to be feared and
accounted mortal than the like arising from drunkenness because those perhaps depend upon malignant causes or such as by time are radicated in the body or from the defection of some principal part but the storm and discomposure arising from drunkenness as it is suddenly raised so commonly it soon falls depending upon benign causes if the drink be sound and a spirituous matter that lays not so great an oppression but inebriates the spirits so that they act very disorderly and unwontedly or by their soporiferous vertue stupefies them for a time until they recover their agility and regularity again But all this while I do not see that to be drunk once a month should prove good Physick all I think that can be said in this behalf is that by over-charging the stomach vomiting is procured and so carries off something that was lodged there which might breed Diseases This is a bad excuse for good fellows and a poor plea for drunkenness that for the gaining of one supposed benefit which might be obtained otherwise introduceth twenty inconveniences by it I do not like the preventing of one Disease that may be by procuring of one at the present certainly and many hereafter most probably Indeed if the Disease feared or that may be could be prevented no otherwise but by this drunken means then that might tolerate and allow it but there are other ways better and safer to cleanse the body either upwards or downwards than by over-charging it with strong drink and making the man to unman himself the evil consequents of which are many and the benefit hoped for but pretended or if any but very small and inconsiderable And although as I said before the drunken fit is not mortal and the danger perhaps not great for the present yet those drunken bouts being repeated the relicts do accumulate do debilitate Nature and lay the foundation of many chronick diseases Nor can it be expected otherwise but you may justly conclude from the manifest irregular actions which appear to us externally that the functions within also and their motions are strangely disordered for the outward madness and unwonted actions proceed from the internal impulses and disordered motions of the faculties which general disturbance and discomposure being frequent must needs subvert the oeconomy and government of humane Nature and consequently ruine the Fabrick of mans body The ill effects and more eminent products of ebriety are first A changing of the natural tone of the stomach and alienating the digestive faculty That instead of a good transmutation of food a degenerate Chyle is produced Common experience tells that after a drunken debauch the stomach loseth its appetite and acuteness of digestion and this belching thirst disrelish nauseating do certainly testifie yet to support nature as supposed and continue the custom of eating some food is received but we cannot expect from such a stomach that a good digestion should follow and it will be some days before the stomach recover its eucrasy again and perform its office well And if these miscarriages happen but seldom the injury is the less and sooner recompenced but by the frequent repetition of these ruinous practices the stomach is overthrown and alienated from its integrity Secondly An unwholsom corpulency and cachectick plenitude of body does follow or a degenerate macilency and a decayed consumptive constitution Great Drinkers that continue it long few of them escape but fall into one of these conditions and habit of body A Cacotrophy or Atrophy for if the Stomach discharge not its office aright the subsequent digestions will also be defective So great a consent and dependence is there upon the stomach that other parts cannot perform their duty if this leading principal part be perverted and debauched nor can it be expected otherwise for from this Laboratory and prime office of digestion all the parts must receive their supply which being not suteable but depraved are drawn into debauchery also and a degenerate state and the whole body fed with a vitious alimentary succus Now that different products or habits of body should arise from the same kind of debauchery happens upon this score As there are different properties and conditions of bodies so the result from the same procuring causes shall be much different and various Quicquid recipitur recipitur per modum recipientis One puffs up fills and grows hydropical another pines away and falls Consumptive from excess in drinking and this proceeds from the different disposition of parts for in some persons although the stomach be vitiated yet the strength of the subsequent digestions is so great from the integrity and vigour of those parts destinated to such offices that they act strenuously though their object matter be transmitted to them imperfect and degenerate and therefore do keep the body plump and full although the juices be foul and of a depraved nature Others ê contra whose parts are not so firm and vigorous that will not act upon any score but with their proper object does not endeavour a transmutation of such aliene matter but receiving it with a nice reluctance does transmit it to be evacuated and sent forth by the next convenient ducture or emunctory and from hence the body is frustrated of nutrition and falls away So that the pouring in of much liquor although it be good in sua natura does not beget much aliment but washeth through the body and is not assimilated But here some may object and think That washing of the body through with good Liquor should cleanse the body and make it fit for nourishment and be like good Physick for a foul body But the effect proves the contrary and it is but reason it should be so for suppose the Liquor whether Wine or other be pure and good yet when the spirit is drawn off from it the remainder is but dead flat thick and a muddy flegm As we find in the destillation of Wine or other Liquors so it is in mans body the spirit is drawn off first and all the parts of mans body are ready Receivers and do imbibe that limpid congenerous enlivener freely and readily but the remainder of greatest proportion that heavy dull phlegmy part and of a narcotick quality lies long fluctuating upon the digestions and passeth but slowly turns sowr and vitiates the Crases of the parts So that this great inundation and supposed washing of the body does but drown the faculties stupefie or choak the spirits and defile all the parts not purifie and cleanse And although the more subtile and thinner portion passeth away in some persons pretty freely by Vrine yet the grosser and worse part stays behind and clogs in the percolation A third injury and common manifest prejudice from intemperate drinking is An imbecillity of the Nerves which is procured from the disorderly motions of the Animal Spirits being impulsed and agitated preternaturally by the inebriating spirits of strong Liquors which vibration being frequent begets a habit and causeth a
trepidation of Members Thus you see the inconveniences and mischief that follows intemperate drinking but to promote this irregularity and great folly the rare Invention of Healths contributes not a little to the pouring down of strong liquor and makes them so earnest in remembring the health of others that they quite forget their own and are then very active to destroy it quite forgetting that drinking of Healths and healthful drinking are two things and inconsistent But drinking together is the signal of Friendship and to be made Drunk is the Character and Memento of a generous and hearty entertainment for most commonly drinking concludes the Feast when nature hath been tempted with varieties and perhaps over-charged therewith to add yet more weight the next folly is to fall upon drinking to inebriate and disturb the spirits to vitiate the fermentation and precipitate the meat out of the stomach before digestion be finished by a Floud of liquor that if you have escaped a surfeit of eating you shall not go away without a mischief by Drinking and thus your good Dinner is spoil'd and instead of being bettered by it you are the worse and your Friends kindness proves your prejudice Thus to the necessary uses of Drink appointed by nature we have invented other designments and made Drink to serve for pleasure profit wantonness and debauchery so that Drink which should help to support nourish and maintain the strength and vigour of nature is made an unhappy instrument to abuse and injure the Body by perverting and disordering the regular oeconomy thereof But instead of satisfying thirst and refreshing of nature some pour in a flood of liquor to drown the faculties and extinguish vitality and many their are that account it a pleasure to sop their souls in drink and some have drowned themselves by such intemperance The Cattle drink to satisfie thirst and then leave of drinking some men indeed do not drink like beasts but make themselves Beasts by drinking for being thereby deprived of their reason they act like to Brutes But of Drinking and Drunkenness we have reckoned up the evils we will not be so partial to smother the benefits but take all with you Drinking advanceth the revenue of excise and custom It makes Barly to bear a good price and helps the Farmer to pay his rent It keeps the Physician and Apothecary in employment and doubtless it adds considerably to their business Lastly It maintains a tap trade and too many live well by it Now whether Drinking ought to be promoted to forward these advantages and answer such ends with the destruction of Health abbreviation of Life and debauching the People I leave you to judge Drink for necessity not for bad fellowship especially soon after meat which hinders the due fermentation of the stomach and washeth down before digestion be finished but after the first concoction if you have a hot stomach a dry or costive body you may drink more freely than others or if thirst importunes you at any time to satisfie with a moderate draught is not amiss SECT XIV Exercise and Rest regulated and appointed promoting sanity and vivacity THat Exercise and due Motion seasonably used contributes to the preservation of Health and prolongation of Life will appear if we consider the great benefits that are procured by it First In general exercise raiseth the spirits and puts them upon vigorous action in all the Faculties Secondly It empties the stomach and promotes the appetite for the next meal the remainders after digestion that accumulate to clog the stomach are moved by Exercise and excited to pass away and being thus discharged of those relicts the appetite grows sharp and craves food very strongly Thirdly Exercise provokes expulsion of Excrements and suffers not any superfluous matter to lodge in the body For by the turgid motion of the spirits the common ductures and conveyances are dilated and expanded which together with the agitation of the body gives a ready and free passage to any feculent or excremental matter that ought not long to be retained Fourthly Exercise opens the Pores and gives a free transpiration which otherwise by too much rest are occluded and shut up contrary to the intention of Nature having appointed these vents and secret ways of evacuation to ventilate and cleanse the habit of the body which in a short time would be very foul and impure by congestion of superfluous humours if not purified and transpired by these exhaling Ports Fifthly Exercise promotes and adds much towards the nutrition of the body For this we find generally that active stirring people are more fresh in countenance more vegete and lively in spirit more firm and solid in flesh and stronger in their limbs than other persons that live a sedentary idle and sluggish life And that it should be so there is good reason in as much as exercise gives a free passage for nutriment to arrive at every member and part of the body and also excites the Archeus or ruling principle in each for a more vigorous assimilation and likewise does expedite and send away the superfluities of every digestion all which promotes and sets forward a good nutrition Exercises are various and commonly chosen as each person phansies or the Company invites as Dancing Running Ringing Tennis Hand-Ball Foot-Ball Riding Fencing Bowling with many others some whereof are purely pastime as those named others are necessary labours as Digging Sawing and such like Exercise is to be chosen such as sutes best with the Nature of each persons body Some require exercising of upper parts most others of the lower parts and some equally both those Exercises which generally are advantagious in using and stretching all the parts and which I prefer before others are Tennis Hand-Ball Fencing and Ringing Yet I would not impose upon any contrary to their inclination for in these cases that which is most delightful will probably prove most beneficial Observations and Cautions to be remembred in exercising are such as these 1. Exercise daily in the Morning chiefly with an empty stomach always and after excremental evacuation if you can procure it 2. Vary exercise according to the condition of your body and season of the year the stronger phlegmatick bodies and in cold Weather admit of stronger and swifter motions Cholerick hot bodies weak and the Summer season more mild and gentle 3. Be not violent in exercise nor continue it longer beyond a pleasure but desist with refreshment not a lassitude and weariness 4. Put on some loose garment until your body be cool and setled in its natural heat and temper the Pores being opened by exercise the cold is more apt to enter from whence a greater prejudice than you could expect benefit from your labour or pastime 5. Walk gently after Exercise and settle by degrees no sudden changes are suteable or profitable to Nature 6. Eat not until you be fully reduced to that temper and moderate heat as when you began and when the spirits
are retired to their proper stations By this rational course the advantages that will accrue to you are these Exercise rouseth dull inactive spirits gives ventilation opens obstructions by the motion attenuation and penetration of the subtile spirits agitates and volatiseth feculent subsiding humours abates superfluous moisture increaseth natural heat promotes concoction distribution and conveyance of aliment through the narrow Channels and Passages unto the several parts of the body procures excremental evacuations strengthens all the Members and preserves Nature long in her vigour and verdure Having set out the times for Exercise and Motion the remainder is allotted for Rest and Ease with such refections and repast as Nature requires Quod caret alterna requie durabile non est Ovid. Rest is as necessary to preserve Health and continue mans body in strength and vigour as Exercise These two although much opposite in themselves yet both in their order and seasons are very suteable and agreeable to humane Nature and both contribute to the being and long being of Man Nothing constant is liking and congruous with our Nature but vicissitude is most acceptable and delightful When the body is wearied with Labour then rest is refreshing and renews its strength but when satiated with rest does then thirst after motion and pleasant exercise Rest is a burthen if forced upon Nature longer than Nature does require and that is but for a short space Interdum quies inquieta est quoties nos male habet inertia sui impatiens Sen. So that the due timeing of Rest and Motion and limiting them to their hours and seasons most agreeable and delightful to humane Nature is that which preserves him in Health and prolongs his Being Avoid idleness and a sluggish sedentary life for want of due action and wholesom motion the body like standing Waters degenerates and corrupts If Rest exceeds the vigour of Nature is abated digestion not so good distribution of aliment to the several parts retarded and impedited by reason of an obstructed foul body excrementitious superfluities not freely transmitted and emitted the spirits dulled and all the faculties of the body and mind heavy and slow to action Ignavia corpus hebetat labor firmat SECT XV. Sleep and Watching Limited and Cautioned THE Life of Man being conversant in vicissitudes spends its whole course in these two different states Sleep and Watching the one appointed for Rest and Ease the other for Action and Labour If he were constant in the first his life were but the shadow of Death not worth the naming Nemo dum dormit alicujus est pretii non magis quam si non viveret Quidam If in the latter he could not hold out long but be tired and worn out Therefore Nature hath wisely contrived that man should not continue long in either but should be transient from one to the other and weave out his life by these short intervals and changes Watching Action and Motion Sleep Rest and Cessation these are equally requisite for our well-being So that these two variations relieving one another both become a defence and support of humane life Sleep is a placid state of body and mind bringing refreshment and ease to both Sleep takes off the Body from action and the Mind from care thought and business and gives a cessation and quiet interval from their Labour That sleep may prove most advantagious answering the intentions and designment of Nature it must be regulated in these four particulars the Time when and the Limits how long the Place where and the Manner how The Time most proper and fit for Sleep and according to the appointment of Nature is the Night when most of the Creatures also do take their rest At the shutting up of the day and the Sun departed from the Horizon the spirits are not so active and lively but incline to a cessation and then it is fit to give them their repose and rest and not constrain them longer upon duty In the morning again at the rising of the Sun they are fresh brisk and agile fit for motion and action and then they are no longer to be chained up in somnolent darkness but to be set at liberty and enjoy the bright light which chears the spirits and is a great enlivener to them Turpis qui alto sole semisomnis jacet Cujus vigilia medio die incipit Sen. Avoid day-sleeps as a bad custom chiefly fat and corpulent bodies but if your spirits be tired with much business and care or by reason of old age debility of Nature extream hot weather labour or the like that dissipates the spirits and enervates then a moderate sleep restores the spirits to their vigour again and is a good refreshment but rather take it sitting than lying down Night watching and late sitting up tires and wasts the animal spirits by keeping them too long upon duty debilitates Nature changeth Youth and a fresh florid countenance heats and dries the body for the present in time it abateth natural heat breeds Rheumes and Crudities and most injurious to thin lean bodies But go early to sleep and early from sleep that you may rise refreshed lively and active not dulled and stupid For length and continuance Moderate sleep is best it refresheth the spirits fortifies and increaseth vital heat helps concoction gives strength to the body pacifies anger calms the spirits and gives a relaxation to a troubled mind But immoderate sleep dulls the spirits injurious to a good wit and memory fills the head with superfluous moisture and clouds the brain retains excrements beyond their due time to be voided and infects the body with their noxious fumes and vapours an enemy to beauty and changeth the fresh flower of Youth Concerning the place for sleeping take these cautions First That you do not expose your self to the open Air for in the time of sleep Nature is not so well able to defend the body from external injuries of the Air but lies more open to such assaults being off her guard and retired to Rest Know also that it is a bad custom to sleep upon the ground as many in the Summer season do use to their prejudice and those whose conditions of life necessitate them to it as Souldiers although for the present they escape the mischief yet afterwards most are made sensible of the injury by Aches stifness or weakness of Limbs and many other infirmities that it procures Sleep not in any damp place Vault or Cellar a ground Chamber especially unboarded a new washt Room or new plaistered but chuse a high Room dry sweet and well aired free from smoke and remote from any noise Let your Bed be soft but not to sink in which sucks from the body exhausts and impairs strength a Quilt upon a Feather-Bed is both easie and wholesom Be careful that your Bed be clean sweet and well aired for Bedding receives the vapours and sweaty moisture that comes forth from bodies lying in them which if they be
not purified by Air or Fire they will contract an ill scent and are then unwholesom to lie in But if every one ought to be thus careful of their own Beds they constantly lie in themselves you may easily then imagine how Travellers are exposed to the injuries of noysom Beds Your Chamber also ought to be kept clean and sweet which is conducing to your Health I do not mean often washing it for that brings an unwholesom damp and ill scent into a room especially a Bed Chamber and the Bed-Cloths do imbibe and receive in the moist vapour which must do some prejudice except it be in the heat of Summer hot dry and clear weather and the Windows opened to dry it soon and very well again but to do this in Winter in cold wet or foggy weather is an unwholesom ill custom but some Women are so tyed up to their old usage and fashions that no reason will prevail nothing but a sic volo and sic jubeo will keep off the washing Sweeping brushing and rubbing and searching often all the holes and Corners will keep a House but chiefly Bedchambers in such order for decency and cleanness as will answer all the intentions of washing and is not so offensive nor troublesome But air your Chamber daily by opening the Windows if the weather be dry and not thick or foggy As for the manner of posture or decumbiture the body must lie easie or sleep will be disturbed the head elevated a foot and half or two foot higher than at the Beds feet and from Head to feet the Bed to lie smooth and even and not a fall below the Pillow and hollow under the back as commonly Compose the other parts as best likes every person but lie not upon the back or constantly upon one side but by turns and first on the left side and be covered according to the Climate and Season of the Year The mind also must be in a good posture for sleep well composed and setled when you are in Bed or that will break off your sleep before due time and defraud you of your nights rest if you lie down with roving troubled thoughts they commonly will call you up before it is fit to rise and your sleep will not be so placid and refreshing Therefore when you lay by your cloaths lay aside also your business care and thoughts and let not a wandring phancy prevent your rest or awake you before due time SECT XVI Evacuations and Retentions bounded for preservation of Health ALL that the body receives is not fit to be retained our food though choicely pickt and temperately used yet all does not turn into the substance of the body but some part is to be separated and sent forth the rest to supply nourish and be assimilated This regular course being continued the body thrives and is in good order but if that which should be evacuated and sent forth be retained or that which ought to be retained be prodigally wasted and injuriously emitted then the body suffers and decays when the regular oeconomy thereof is thus subverted Hinc ingens morborum turba And here we are to consider of the various excretions that Nature does require and is beneficial and of such retentions as are injurious Under this Head is comprised excretions by Stool by Vrine menstrual Purgations Spermatick issuing transpiration by the Pores evacuation by the Nose and Ears of which the former are of the greatest concernment and special care to be had of them Excremental evacuations are various proceeding from the several digestions conveyed out by several Channels and Vents of Natures fabrication which duly evacuated are no small helps to the conservation of health and are the effects of a temperate and regular body The retention of them beyond due time argues discrasy of parts or irregular living and brings much detriment to the body by their noxious impressions and putrid vapours that infect and disturb the body If the Belly be costive and bound up if the Urine be supprest the monthly Courses stopt the Pores occluded and shut up the Soul will be stifled in the Body and the Body polluted and corrupted with its own Excrements and as these are so more or less in degree swerving from rectitude so it fares with the body better or worse And on the contrary if the Belly let pass too soon and forceably before the alimentary part be separated sweeping down both together if the Vrine flows too freely and drains the body If the Female Courses be immoderately current and exhaust the vital stream If the Sperme be involuntarily issuing and daily wasting If the Texture be too lax and pervious the Pores patent and evaporating the damage is as great as the former and as much to be feared as these evacuations are more or less enormous So that nothing but moderation and an even course between these two extreams are conservative of Health and longaevity And that this may be so all your actions and necessary customs must be bounded by mediocrity this is the Golden Chain that ties all together one Link whereof being broken the whole is broken and disunited having a dependence and mutual tye upon each other As the discharging of Nature moderately and seasonably in all her requisite evacuations preserves the body in health and strength so contrarily Immoderate evacuations cause weakness debility of Nature by exhaustion and procure several Diseases Cachexies Consumptions Dropsies c. To keep the body soluble is very good that at least once a day you may not miss to have a stool else the Faeces are hardned the body heated the stomach molested the appetite not so good the head heavy dull and sometimes pained some grosser matter which should go away by siege is brought by the Urinary passage occasioning obstructions all which are very injurious and destructive to Health Seasonable and moderate Venus alleviates Nature and helps digestion but immoderate exhausts the strength by effusion of spirits exsiccates and dries the Body hurts the Brain and Nerves causeth tremblings dulls the sight debilitates all the faculties hastens old Age and shortens Life But of this more at large in my Treatise of Spermatick Consumptions Cibo vel potu repletis superfluè evacuatis sive exercitatis coitus interdicitur Tempus optimum est manè post dormias Hyeme Vere frequentius permittitur Aestate parciús Juvenes sanguinei pituitosi liberalius parcius Melancholici parcissimè biliosi Senes emaciati Menstrual evacuations are proper to the Female Sex and come to them at certain years to some at fourteen or fifteen to others at sixteen or seventeen and then Nature challengeth them monthly as her due except she hath conceived nurseth or being grown old Nature does not require this evacuation And this is of such concernment with them that if this menstrual Flux be not right in the several requisites according to times quantity and quality the whole body oftentimes is disturbed but always some
infirmity or complaint does follow And therefore it much behoveth Women to have a special regard that this course of Nature be regular according to each persons propriety of body for all have them not alike nor is it to be expected and when it happens otherwise a due course is to be taken to reduce them into order and procure them aright This Flux ariseth from a redundance and is granted to Women for conception-sake that they might both nourish the foetus in the Womb and have sufficient to supply their own bodies Therefore when there is no conception Nature hath appointed a menstrual evacuation to spend the over-plus this way during her capacity of having Children and when that time is past Nature takes up and makes no such provision and then this evacuation ceaseth SECT XVII The four Constitutions or different variation of Bodies distinguished THat the Condition Properties and Habit of Bodies do much differ one from the other and also the same Body by time doth vary and alter much from what it was is that which I need not insist on the proof every one almost will confess the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is convinced of this truth But how this comes to pass and the reasons of this difference and variation are not unanimously agreed upon but great dissenting about the matter The Galenists do comprise the diversity of bodies under four Constitutions Sanguine Phlegmatick Cholerick and Melancholick And this they will have to arise from the difference of bodies in mixtion according to the different proportions they receive of the four Elements participating more of some than the other The Chymical Philosophers some of them will have the difference of bodies to assurge out of three Principles Sal Sulphur and Mercury Others increase that number and will have them five Spirit Salt Sulphur Water and Earth But I must not now ingage in the controversie between the Chymists and Galenists or make another party to oppose both but reserve that as more proper for a Polemical Tract This Work being not intended controversal but Canonical I therefore pass on to state the Matter These four terms of Sanguine Cholerick c. although I do not adhere to them in the common acceptation and in every point as the Galenists use them yet they being so familiar and well known to such for whom chiefly this work is intended I shall retain these names with distinction and limitation to serve our present purpose rather than impose new words upon you not so well understood I do not therefore understand by Phlegm Choler c. that every body is composed of these four humours as their constitutive parts resulting from proportionate and disproportionate mixture and combination of the four Elements But that persons may participate of or abound with a degenerate humour and that the succulencies of the body may incline to such a condition affine and analogous or having such properties as that which is assigned to and called Phlegm Choler c. may well be asserted and we may call them by such names But you must also take notice that the degenerate matter in mans body is so various that you must not think to reduce all such depraved Juices exactly to these three heads of Choler Phlegm and Melancholy and if you add twice three more the number would not be sufficient But since there are not peculiar appellations to distinguish all precisely by better have some general terms than none The variation of bodies in relation to Temperament Habit and Constitution does arise immediatè from the variation of digestions and the different products from thence so that one and the same person shall by time be of different constitutions according as the functions of the body are performed well or ill The changing or establishing of Constitutions procatarcticè does depend upon subjection and obedience to the Diaetetick Rules As every one is ordered prudently and regularly or negligently and incongruously shall be disposed to this or that Constitution If a man live idle plentifully feeding indulging himself in raw Fruits and sleeps much this disposeth him to be Phlegmatick that is his digestions shall not be so good and there will be crude relicts abounding such as are called Phlegm If a man be of an active cogitative spirit eager in business giving himself little rest accustomed to Wine and high seasoned Meats This manner of life fires and heats the body the Juices then will not be so mild temperate and balsamick but acrid hot and sharp and this person then may be said to be of a cholerick constitution or condition of body If a fresh sanguine person of a pure wholesom body be oppressed with care and grief live a sedentary life or too much given to study and serious contemplation and feed grosly This course of life shall change and alter the best constitution the sanguine brisk airy person shall by these means be of a dull heavy disposition and sad mind the body also shall degenerate from its purity and the humours become more fixed and feculent The Soul being the great Spring or Wheel that keeps all the functions in motion upon which they do depend primò principaliter as the Fountain of all Vital Actions If this be dejected and taken off its speed the functions are then performed very heavily as if weights and clogs were hung upon them and then the elaboration of food is not well performed nor a pure alimentary Juice produced but a degenerate succus of a heavy oppressing nature not duly fermented by the Spleen dyscrasyed by the preceding Causes from whence a melancholy constitution is begotten and may so be denominated for distinction The diversity of Constitutions being thus understood we may make use of and retain these distinguishing terms at this time to serve the business in hand since they are so familiar by use and easie to be apprehended by such for whom this is intended But although I can close with them in relation to this purpose I am now upon to order and appoint a Diaetetick Regiment for different bodies yet I think them not of that concernment for a Physician to tye himself strictly to their observance in the designment of Cures these notions being too superficial and remote from the quiddity essence and spring of the Disease are but Characteristical and Signal to note how and which way the vital Powers do deviate and swerve from their integrity are but the Producta Morbi the Products and Effects separable and the Disease may remain behind Wherefore I cannot allow them as they are severally injoined in the Methodus Medendi for indications to sute Purgatives electivè and other Medicines to by peculiar appropriations nor concur with some Hypotheses that are founded upon this Doctrine by the Galenists to steer them in their Therapeuticks which indeed runs them upon great errors in the Cure of most Diseases being so nice in temperaments humours and qualities and eying them so much that they
neglect the spring from whence they do arise and where the greatest stress of Cures do lie Morbi in initiis vitalibus radicem habent And although I have distinguished food for several constitutions or conditions of body as most proper and fit for them and commonly most agreeable and appetible yet I do not thereby strictly enjoin or restrain any one of a dissenting appetite from some things greatly coveted and suteable by experience although appointed for another person of a different constitution but that every person seeing the general Rule may something be guided thereby and examining his peculiar propriety of Body undiscernable to others whether it will comply freely or with reluctance In such case where there is a refusal of this or that as not suting but disgustful you are not to impose upon your Nature forcibly though injoined by the general Rule But where you are at a stand in things indifferent what to chuse when either will comply and sute your appetite then follow the Rule as advantagious Moreover the strong robust bodies active and laborious are not so strictly enjoined to observance as tender weak bodies which soon are discomposed and altered by ill diet or that is incongruous for their condition of body If a person have a cold waterish Phlegmatick Stomach those Meats and Drinks and Sauces are not so agreeable and requisite for him as will well agree and sute with a Cholerick hot and dry parching Stomach A Phlegmatick man most commonly takes no delight in Milk and Whey cold Meats and cooling Drinks or cooling Sauces but he loves seasoned hot Meats strong Drinks Spices and hot Herbs to make his Meat savoury and acceptable to his Stomach But the Cholerick Man shall delight in the other and they shall sute best with him being temperately and discreetly used So that a Diaetetick Regiment well appointed and observed is physical to discrasyed and distempered bodies to contemperate and allay the luxuriance of some predominant Humour and something dispose the faculties to produce the alimentary Juices of another nature which by time will alter and change the constitution or condition of Body from what it was and reduce it nearer to what it ought to be SECT XVIII The sanguine Constitution or purest state of Body how generated and preserved THis Constitution does result from the integrity of the faculties and due Crases of the Parts performing their offices rightly When Food is well elaborated and transmuted in such manner as is proper for each digestion then a good constitution and good habit of body is established The Mass of blood then hath its pure tincture and all the liquors of the body their peculiar properties suteable to the intentions of Nature But if the Crases of the Parts be perverted by a spontaneous defection and imbecillity of the faculties or otherwise procured to irregularity by bad food intemperance and the Diaetetick Rules not observed then the alimentary Juices do degenerate from their purity the mass of Blood and nervous liquor are depraved the constitution and whole habit of body altered and changed for the worse The sanguine person enjoys the best state and condition of body does not abound or is molested with crude Phlegmatick or acrid Cholerick Juices or otherwise degenerate but hath the succulencies of body in their right and proper natures as is most fit for every Vessel and part of the body hence it is that this person is more fresh temperate lively and florid of a more pleasant mind and good disposition having pure blood and other good Juices to supply the Body from whence the spirits are generated both plentifully and of a good extraction This State and Constitution of Body is best preserved and continued so from degeneration by a good Diaetetick Regiment disposing all the requisite supports of Life Customs and Actions whatsoever that they be moderate seasonable and suteable to such Natures contributing their assistance wholly and not being any ways detrimental by their ill management The Sanguine Person will continue long in that condition and good state of Body by a due observance of Dyet Exercise and Rest Sleep and Watching Excretions and Retentions passions of Mind For any of these irregular and unsuteable will alter and change the best tempered body into some other depraved condition answerable to their Causes as the intemperate Air of a hot Climate or sudden change of Weather not regarded violent and unseasonable Exercise night-watchings ill-dyet c. introduce a depraved alteration and degeneration of the blood and therefore most commonly sickness soon follows such injurious Courses I might here forbid the smoaking of Tabaco the common Purgatives falsly denominated but rather and more properly Corruptives which stamp an ill impression upon the parts and vitiate alimentary Juyces of the Body but the injuries procured from Tabaco and these Drugs are declared at large in my Tract of the Scurvy Therefore I need not repeat here For the Election and Choice of Food for quantities and due times in Eating and Drinking for the choice of Air and place of Abode for Exercise Sleep c. consonant and most agreeable to this constitution and best state of Body are to be sought in the general Hygiastick Rules before-mentioned which are most proper and applicable to this state and condition of Body as being the Rule or Standard to measure others by And by how much others vary from this temperature and good condition of Body by so much are they to be accounted intemperate and deviating from integrity and do therefore require some particular Rules or Exemptions from the general to regulate them apart because bodies in a right and good state are not to be governed by the same strictness of Law but must have some allowance and exceptions which shall be observed in the particular constitutions following SECT XIX The Phlegmatick Constitution managed for a reduction THE Phlegmatick Person is such whose nature is not so vigorous and acute in the digestive faculties and makes a transmutation of food not so perfect as the Sanguine but something crude and raw This Constitution abounding with superfluous moisture and being cooler in temperature except upon occasions distempered and the Archeus disturbed commonly hath a slower Pulse not so lively active and brisk as the Sanguine person prone to sleep and ease of colour paler by hot things benefited by cold things prejudiced And thus it is by reason the vital powers are remiss and sluggish or perverted and the several functions of the body not performed vigorously and compleatly which ariseth from an innate disability or irregularity and disregard to the Diaetetick rules Now this Constitution of body being fallen a degree from the integrity of Nature and swerving from the best condition and state of body which is the Sanguine and finding by these Characters how Nature is defective and which way declining You ought so to order all your actions and customs as may tend to the rectifying of this deficiency and be
auxiliary for a reduction to the best state at least prevent what may succeed worse and stop the increase And herein it will be no small advantage to know what is assisting and helpful to Nature is this case and what is injurious Meats agreeable and convenient for this condition of body are such as be light and digest well because the Stomachs ferment is not so acute yet if the Stomach covets what is not of facil digestion let it be made savoury and seasoned And then a Phlegmatick raw stomach may better venture upon such But Brawn Pig Goose Duck Water-fowl and such like are not agreeable to a Phlegmatick Stomach Also Eeles fresh Herrings Makerel Lobster fresh Salmon Sturgeon are injurious and difficult to be digested But if you must please your palate drink Wine with these meats for a corrective Let your dyet be warm Meats oftner roast than boyled Butter Oyl and Honey is good for you Mustard Salt and Spices are necessary for your use especially with meats of slow digestion and that abound with much moisture and are apt to clog the Stomach Refuse Milk and Milk Meats Curds new Cheese Butter-milk and Whey Olives Capers Broom buds Sampire are good Sauce also Garlick Onions Leeks in Broths seasonings or Sauces for a relish but not raw Refrain cold Herbs and Sallads as Lettuce Purslan Violet-leaves c. except Sorrel which although cold yet a sharpner of the appetite but freely use Mint Sage Rosemary Time Marjerome Parsley Penny-royal and such hot Herbs Abstain from raw Fruits Apples Pears Plums Cucumbers Mellons Pumptions c. But you may eat new Wall-nuts Filberds Almonds blanched Ches-nuts Fistick-nuts Dates Figs Rasins Drink strong Beer more frequently than small and sometimes Sack Not French Wine if you be Rheumatick Indulge not your self in lying long in Bed or Afternoon-sleeps and too much Rest and Ease they dull the spirits increase flegm and superfluous moisture But frequent Exercise and moderate abstinence in Meat and Drink are great preservatives of your Health Chuse a warm Air and dry Soil remote from Waters the best place for your Abode Hot Baths are profitable seasonable and moderate Venus a friend the former cherisheth the spirits opens the pores for a transpiration and emission of superfluous moisture the latter suscitates and raiseth the spirits alleviates nature and helps Concoction SECT XX. The Cholerick Constitution altered and allayed THE Cholerick Person is more hot and dry than the Phlegmatick eager and precipitate in action froward hasty and angry lean of body and slender the Veins big a hard Pulse and quick of colour pale or swarthy propense to waking and short sleeps subject to Feavers or febrile aestuation upon small occasions That some bodies are in this state and condition is apparent and certain but whether by innate Principles so disposed or otherwise procured and adventitious we will not controvert here but shall proceed as granted that a Diaetetick Regiment well or ill managed shall make this person or condition of body better or worse Wherefore I advise such to these observations Use a cool and moistning dyet most frequently boyled meats rather than rost or baked but fryed or broiled meats never Eat Broths often made with cooling Herbs Rice-milk Cock-broth or Barly-broths with Rasins Currans and Prunes For flesh chuse young tender and juicy as young Beef Veal Mutton Lamb Kid Pork Green-geese Turkie Capon Chickens and such like Observe fish dayes as good dyet and then you may eat fresh Salmon Lobster fresh Herrings Crabs Prauns fresh Cod Thornback Soles Plaise Whiting Smelt Oisters Pike Trout Tench and other fresh fish Eeles not excepted which are unwholesom to others But refrain salt Meats and dryed as Bacon old Ling Haberdine salt Cod pickled or red Herrings pickled Scalops Oisters Anchoves Sturgeon hang'd Beef dryed Tongues and such like Milk and Milk meats are pleasant and good as Custard White-pots new Cheese fresh Cheese and Cream For your Sauces use Verjuce Sorrel Orange Lemmon Apples Gooseberries Currans Prunes pickled Cucumbers as boyled Veal and Greene-sauce rost Veal and Orange boyled Mutton with Verjuce and its own juice rost Mutton and Cucumbers green-Geese and Gooseberries Stubble Goose and Apples Pig and Currants Pork and green-sauce boiled Chickens with Gooseberries or Sorrel-sops Calves feet stewed with Currans and Prunes And your meat thus Cook'd is both food and Physick Take a lawful freedom and please your self with these Fruits Citrons Pomegranats Oranges Lemmons quince Pearmains Pippins Cherries Mulberries Grapes Damsins Bullaces Prunellaes Respass Currans Barberries Strawberries they cool and quench thirst contemperate and asswage hot cholerick humours and give a great refreshment to the parched spirits Eat Sallads of Lettuce Sorrel Purslane Spinage and Violet-leaves they are medicamental aliment but be sparing in Mustard Salt and Spices Butter-milk Whey and Cider allay preternatural heat check the effrenation of Choler and are refreshing to you Refuse the fat and brown out-side of meat also the crust of Bread and be sparing in Butter and Oyl Drink Wine Spirits and strong Liquors but as Physick to refresh and assist a weak stomach and not otherwise Fast not but satisfie the Stomach when it vellicates and calls for meat biting choler must have something to feed on or it will disturb the body Cherish and indulge sleep it cools and moistens but let it not exceed in length which puts Nature by her due times for necessary evacuations Be not too eager and constant in study nor use late sitting up both exasperate this condition of body and make it worse Use very gentle Exercise and be not laborious or toyling but take your ease avoid violent motion for it fires the spirits and heats the body which is very injurious to this Constitution Frequent Venus is most pernicious Cold Baths are profitable and refresh much by cooling the blood allaying the spirits and concentring them Banish anger immoderate care peevishness and fretting which discompose the spirits heat and waste them augment Choler dry the body and hasten old Age. Refrain Tabaco as a very injurious custom it exasperates Choler by heating drying and evacuating dulcid Phlegm which contemperates bridles and checks the fury of acrid bilious humours SECT XXI The Melancholy Constitution directed and governed BY Melancholy Constitution I here understand such a condition of body as is procured and most commonly is the consequent of habituated Melancholy or a melancholy heavy Soul and a discrasied Spleen To pass by the controversies that might arise here from the distinction of melancholy by the Galenists as one of the four constituent humours I shall take for granted on both sides as well Chymists as them that the aforesaid causes do beget such a constitution or condition of body as may well require a peculiar Diaetetick Regiment as an allay or mitigation of those preternatural Symptoms that necessarily follow such Causes at least that they may not be aggravated by an injurious course of living A melancholy studious and sedentary life does much