The Flower of Phisicke VVherein is perfectlie comprehended a true introduction and method for mans assured health with three bookes of Philosophie for the due temperature of mans life In which easily may be perceiued the high wonderfull workes of God in the gouernance of all thinges Written by W. C. as a glasse of true knowledge for the better direction of al willing vertuous practitioners Non est viuere sed valere vita Printed at London by Roger Ward 1590. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL SIR Iohn Rooper knight of Lynstead parke in Kent pencioner to the Queenes most excellent Maiestie and one of the Prothonotaries to her Maiesties highnesse honourable court of the Bench at Westminster W. C. wisheth long life increase of worship and continual health I Haue vvell regarded manie outward testimonies right worshipfull from your invvarde desire freely addressed tovvardes learning and vertue And for the continuall exercise of those indovvements in you am mooued the rather to iudge that God blesseth you in Iacob and the vvorld loueth you vvith Solon For as you haue attained high preheminences in this life you do not possesse nor inioy theÌ„ vvith Crates the Philosopher otherwaies then gods vvill and pleasure hath allotted you preferring a conteÌ„platiue care beyond the transitorie reach thereof Therefore I might the more boldly vtter your Heroycall life to be matched and performed vvith the good indeuours of that noble knight Scipio Affricanus for vvhose behalfe Lelius in the best degree dischargeth his dutie and in three respectes aduanceth before the senat the chiualrie of his noble knighthoode As chiefly his loue to the senat with deare fauour and manie hard aduentures for his countrey and firme heart to the oppressed so likewise you are nothing inferiour to Scipio in faithfull heart towardes your prince and countrey haue purchased an endlesse solace to your inward soule thereby And therewithall doe extend your readie benignity and familiar friendship for incoraging of the better sorte so your good aduise neuer faileth to admonishe the worser sorte And as the tree of vertue hath sprong vp vvith you and your house so there is a most desired hope amongst all good men that it may floorish and bring forth fruits for the benefite of the Common wealth to the end of the worlde Then lastly touching the true simpathie of my heart which in double duetie I and mine doe owe vnto you and your house may not vvithout some due knovvledge and sincere seruice pretermit to expresse in the course of this my life by executing some thankfull action for the same Hauing therefore at this present presented and preferred vnto your worshipfull discretion all the whole counsels and high iudgementes of Phisicke written by those monarche Phisitions of the world Galen Hypocrates Auycen and Dyoscorides with three bookes of Philosophie comprehending the admirable workes of nature in the frame of all liuing things In reading hereof you shall find most rich treasures discouered from a fruitfull soile A pure vvater running from a cleare fountaine And most sweet flowers from the pleasant garden of humaine and liberall arts The condignitie thereof hath had a right vse and free permission for many hundred yeares before although I haue at this present broke the yee and smoothed the path from the greeke and Latine so that euerie reasonable practicioner may make safe enteraunce into the bodilie health of man thereby Beseeching your worshippe to make acceptation thereof and pardon my boldnesse committing your health long life and prosperitie to bee continued and blessed by him that gouerneth all thinges by the instinct order of diuine power Your Worships in all humble duetie William Cleuer TO THE READER FOr that in this our age sundry strange alterations in the elements distraming the bodily health of man vppon earth with manie vnusuall corruptions and also for that man hath a proper inclination to grosse libertie contagiously nourishing manie vncleane diseases in him selfe as a venemous serpent in his own bosome for remedy whereof as for the diligence and carefull furtherance of manie vnskilfull practicioners with whome the world is ouercharged I haue put forth this generall worke for the benefite of the common-wealth and what profite may ensue heereof time approueth the same Remembring the olde prouerbe Vino vendibili non est opus suspensa hedera Fare you well In Cleueri Medicinam Artis Appollineae multum studiosa inuentus Hippocrati debet plura Galene tibi Plurima Cleuero quia libro claudit in vno Hippocrates quicquid siue Galenus habet Iohannes Downe A generall Diet both for sicknes AND HEALTH IN all former ages to this present time in which we now liue the opinion of writers was neuer doubted of whether abstinence or fulnesse did ouercharge or moste offend bodily health And neuer yet found out to the contrarie but that euery degree of the world haue both felt and confessed eyther of them in their excesse were sharpe and expresse enemies both to the lawe of nature and bodilie temperance of this life Yet seeing both the learned as the vnlearned although with difference had rather offend both the sound as the sicke with the immoderate saturitie then with sparing abstinence for which cause in ministring of medicines it were needefull to shewe their inconuenience on eyther side A full and satisfied bodie is chiefly preserued fortified and continued with strength and flourishing liuelihood by wholesome Iulepes and such like clarified potions according to the property of the sicknesse And a pennurious bodie is weakened punished exhausted and oftentimes perisheth in most sharpe agonies except it be comforted preserued and renewed by some restible electuaries and such like And surely such bodies which are perfect vnder temperance and strength if at anie time they be distempered with griefe or sicknes may forthwith be tempered seasoned salued by medicinable help for medicine most of al reioyceth to shew forth power work high effects in a strong nature Certainly Auycen hath a very secret and metaphisicall iudgement heerem who commandeth that nature and medicine whether in strength or weakenesse be alwayes vnited and neyther in health nor sicknesse do dissociat but solutiue medicines especially ought to be of diuers natures conuenient and agreeable for their propertie in euery seuerall age and naturall complexion with their iust and comprehensible maner of dyet to be in like sorte obserued therin although most commonly neglected and that not without decaie both to body and health onely and because equall measure of medecine with equall dyet and equall disposition is not added neyther with consideration of what cause the sicknesse ruâ—â—eâ—h whether there be a likelihood therein to continue for any long time or shortly to be perfected or whether it be gentle or sharpe and whether it consisteth and slayeth in one course or in hereticall nature confirmeth All which as before sayd is vtterly vnrespected Some ancient writers holde at speciall veritie aswell in great reading as in principall experience that headdie
by some meete framed medicine to ripen the disease except the disease consist and stand at a stay And in ministring of purgatiue medicines there must be called to remembraunce whether nature haue ready strength and full power to performe a limited dutie in purgation or no. And heede must be further regarded whether nature be ouercharged with the forraine estate of the disease not then to be troubled or drawne to worser inconueniences by vnseasonable medicines Auycen sayth euery disease is both powerfull and wauering when it decreaseth but when it consisteth is more certaine and better stayed and then most easily ouercome by nature and medicine for which cause not onely crud and rawe matter but also dured and setled matter is then principallie expelled And yet many approued writers affirme that the greatnesse of accidents are to be appeased by the phisitians skill and not permitted to straggle out except equally measured to concurre one with another in the motion of nature And it is most inconuenient at the same time to prouoke the accidentes with any heauie or sturdie medicine which neyther the disease nor nature can then brooke Cornelius Celsus verie precâ—â—ely standeth vpon the words of Hipocrates Si quid mouendum videtur in principiâ— moue Who vnderstandeth that the increase of the sicknesse is a pâ—â—t of the beginning Ierimias Thriuerius a learned writer saith that if any act hath beene ouerpassed in the increased of those sicknesses which haue bene more prosir then casefull may be more strickly regarded in their full and perfect estate not because it was an error or neglected but because the increase of the disease required no such thing vntill there were a full 〈…〉 nesse in the disease accomplished Galen writing to Glaâ—â—â— in his booke de arte curatiua seemeth to interdict euery medicine before the estate especially where crud matter possesseth it selfe And cast aside saith Galen all solutiue and hote medicines and whosoeuer proffereth any medicines at all in such diseases which are stuffed with crud raw and sluny substance before some ease and releasement in the disease be finished shall bring double dangers vpon the disease For being before single and of one propertie thereby both the disease and nature are altered vnder double griefe aswell of great inflammation as opilation whereby the ercrementes loose the due disposition and the bloud corrupted and the arteâ—is wherein The 〈◊〉 a are 〈…〉 aâ—d like to the vaynes the spirite of life walketh are exposed to innumerable dangers Now as you doe vnderstand what is to perfected in such diseases contayned vnder crud and rawe matter comming to their estate So there must be a like caution taken in these sharpe diseases happening vnder some euill and dangerous chrysts not to interdeale therewith by sturing before the disease with all inconueniences thereto appertaining be fully setled There is a certaine grosse and vnperfect substance so setled in the propertie of these and such like feuers as if they doe aspire to a high strength and estate are vnable to be vanquished and driuen away both because nature is weake and feeble as also for that the medicine hath no direct operation Be it assuredly knowne that where nature is more weaker then the disease and therewithall the propertie of medicine lothsome to the disease is a plaine indication of death and although nature may herein for a time be succoured yet can neuer be recoured The ignorance of manie are greatly to be lamented who after nature is ouerthrowne seeke a life in the middest of death therefore Galen in his 29. Aphorism of his second booke denounceth safegard to all suche which in the time of long sicknesses are prospered with nature And although medicine is such a general thing as may be framed to serue in euery degree of sickenesse with vertue measure and time yet whosoeuer eyther by vnequall vertue vnequall measure and vnseasonable time reacheth into anie such disease when nature is before decayed and oppressed is to be adiudged in a damnable estate for the death of that person Then let the Phisitian thorowly consider both bodily constitution and the course of the disease before he attempteth any thing for by rash enterprise the course and motion of nature may be preuented and the disease offended Surely when nature neither mooueth nor innouateth there is no enterdealing with medicine for euacuation as whether it be by potatiue electuarie pilles or otherwise all is vaine and therein vtterly to be refused for rest and quietnesse in those diseases most preuaileth Then lastlie whosoeuer neglecteth these wholsome rules and without obseruation runneth at hazard not onely vainly magnifieth himselfe among the rude and ignorant sort but thorow their vnskilfulnes either doe they dull and blunt the disease or els cherish and continue the danger of the same for by such rude persons nature is both spoiled troubled the worthy knowledge of phisicke slaundered the deserts of the worthier sort derogated and the publike estate of the people offended Here next follovveth howe meate ought to be increased or taken avvay according as the times of sickenesses require NOwe remaineth to search out not onely the nature of sicknesses but in what seasons diseases are moste perillous and apt in offence of bodly health and also how meat ought to be increased withdrawne or quite taken away the which part is most hardest of all for neither olde writers haue clearely and purely expressed it neyther yet newe writers sufficiently reuealed the darknesse and obscuritie thereof Yet that auncient Hypocrates in his first of the Aphorisms vouchsafeth to giue aduertisement that when diseases both beginne increase and come to estate full meates are to be abstracted and thinne dyets most chiefly commended vntill both nature and the disease be well pleased with the thinnest of all For it is a manifest rule that there belongeth to euerie degree of sicknesse a due ordinance that is when meate is quite taken away some great practise is to be expected and accomplished by medicine which then and thereby must worke most effectually and soundly Yet Galen on the contrarie doth seeme to command the patient in time of sickenesse to proceede from a barraine and vnfruitfull dyet to a satiable vberious and complet dyet which of the writers in this latter age is vnderstoode that after great emptinesse nature is greedy to recouer her former perfection All which must be done with such discretion as that meate and measure concurre vpon the estate of the disease But in these inflammatiue diseases of the sides liuer loonges or such like all nourishment in the beginning of such diseases is denyed and quite taken away Especially if the spittle be clammie gluttonous or deuoyded out with thicke bloud then except the disease be loosed eyther by cutting off the basilicke vayne or by some other skilfull attraction the patient is throwne headlong vpon death For although some vse ptisans made of exoriated and vnhusked barly to be dronk in mitigation of such extreame
rebellious and thereby without stay easily subdueth the body Hypocrates generallie and deeply speaketh of all feauers eyther simple or compound that first the disease is vnsetled and vncertainly roueth in the bodye and next for that it dooth abound with paynfull trauels difficultlie wrastleth skyrmisheth and trauelleth either to settle and possesse some one part of the body or after the spyrituall partes possessed inuadeth all the partes of the body to destruction Herein is it manifestly prooued that in the beginning of diseases nature hath no need of such nourishments for if appetite were gredy and desirous thereof yet not able to beare that which is wished and lingred vpon For whosoeuer infarceth and inforceth nature in the first entrance of euerie such sicknes both cherisheth the disease weakeneth and defoyleth nature Galen in his first booke de arte curatiua writing to Glawco in his chapter de cura febrium continuarum saith that if continuall feauers consist in one estate the body very weake are best ruled vnder an exquisite and sharp diet if strength and age agree therewith but if the disease exceed beyond that lymittation is then to be vnderstaied with a plenarie stronger food so the same be apt to constitution Auycen saith when the estate is perfected in the disease let the diet be more plentifull or otherwise let the diet be augmented or diminished as the disease increaseth or vanisheth away So also this is a generall agreement among all the auntient Fathers for the regiment of mans health hauing put foorth an vniuersall edict that in all mestiue mortalites thin diets are most pertinent for medicine to work vpon because their accidentes are infectious and of indiuertible substance and especiallie so long as these infections in their accidents are conioyned to the beginning otherwise if the increase of the disease prosper and proceede to be perfected and setled to some verie likely estate they ought to be sollicited more at large either by curatiue medicine or diet vntill the vsurped properties be expelled after which the body is to be inlarged to a full diet vntil nature be reuiued restored and recouered in full strength These rules and reasons proceede from men of great countenance of sound and vpright iudgement repugning the wrongfull and erronious interpretations and opinions of certaine newe writers who hauing set open their shoppe of counterfect practises in defrauding the good constitutions of heath in mans body who in the beginning of simple feuers in place of a gracil and thin diet haue constituted and put in place a free and bountifull diet Secondly in simple feuers when the disease increaseth doo prefer a thin diet in steed of a compleat diet And thirdlye they doo in the estate of compound and inflamatiue feuers magnifie a full diet in steede and place of a thin and peaceable diet Surely Hypocrates somewhat bendeth to the second controuersie that in the increase of al simple feuers a competent diet is most meetest so that if the disease doo proceede in the increase or forsheweth any similie end either by ripenesse to cease or els take safe degrees to estate Then the Phisitian hath full power ouer the disease eyther to recouer health or els to stay the patient from large and strong sustenance Petrus Brissotus and Lionicius doo say if in the estate of simple feuers sustenance bee denied to the patient because of the strength of the disease then what ieopardie are those pacientes put into in their time of estate when inflamations and accidentes together yeeld no place to rest their bodies beeing strenghened with nutrimentall sustenance doo continue the disease most cruell fierce dangerous and outragious vnto the approchment of death Hereby all patientes may perceiue that all diseases within the knowledge and helpe of man are vnder lawes and ordinances Therefore whosoeuer shall either violate or mistake these lawes and ordinances offendeth both the sicke patient and his owne conscience And furthermore if the sicke Patient will not bee ordered but rebell against this wholsome gouernment preferring both his owne wilfull minde and reason before the sounde and perfect counsell of the Phisitian Let him be adiudged guiltie of his owne death and distruction The first Booke of the Temperamentes AN Element is the least part of euery proper thing compounded and vnited into one substance perfourmeth not the least but the immixt parcels of the same thinges to bee made a perfect element and equally to place those smallest things to be tempered with the highest as that not in any behalf any one of them be immixt from an other It is an high onderstanding wherefore we oguht to deuide the least portion of euerye tempered bodie as followeth That is there ought to be in number foure elementes neither ought there to be more or lesse and yet can there be but one element alone for that with an vnreprooueable qualitie all things returne to destruction neither can there bee two elements as fire and ayre because all interiour thinges woulde presentlie be consumed with their coniomed strength of heat Then may it be imagined that nature might haue framed fire and water to beare their seueral course alone both because they doo in variablenesse differ one from another or that they might seeme more durable in their course aboue the rest The third element is the ayr which nature hath so placed between the rest as that moistnesse is ioined to water and heat to fire neither do these three elementes suffice except there be a fourth element conioyned hereunto that is say the earth not only because it is the seat and habitation of men in this world but also and much rather being commixed with water dooth by her coldnes temper the other two elements therfore nature most decently hath bound not one nor two nor three but four elements and that with a straight and agreeable concord as when they were disâ—ramed and dissociated from their equall places As when the earth was downward the water and the ayre in the middle and the fire vpward although there are not onely some philosophers but verie Christians which haue practised to discouer Which is taken as an errour for the knowledge of man a certain dark thicke and shadowed fire about the point centre of the earth by a direct light gleaming and irradiating from the starres The which fire is vestall pure not elementarie Herein if we consider that both the earth and the water doo not onely entertaine the same fire but the ayre interiected forthwith followeth the same euen as there is a coniunction of the earth to the ayre so is the water placed betweene both of them otherwise the ayre should wholly remaine moyst being placed between two drie elements Galen and other graue Philosophers doe seem otherwise to thinke who on their behalfe call the water most moyst and is so adiudged in the absolute power of nature for by touching the same is perfectly bewraied whereas the ayre is not comprehended at
hearbe in growth is alwaies ascendent and discendent with the increase and decrease of the moone So also there is an other hearbe called Scopa Regia which draweth a most high dignitie from a starre which followeth the newe moone called Occulus Lunae and is of right vertue to heale a swelling congesled blood in the throat called the kinges euill Petrus Galiensis saith the hearbe Dragon is of cold operation and draweth a vertue from the Lode star The heate of the Sun without difference warmeth all thinges yet in deeper penetration of one thing more then another Herewithall it is a most excellent thing to consider the propertie of Honie the which honie is respected to be in the vse of man in one degree and in the vse of a Bee in an other degree For as the heate of the Sun is sincere and pure in nature and propertie so dooth it conioine with the course of starres discending by a certaine mellifluous dewe inseaseth it selfe vpon the hearbs of the earth by attraction Neither is it of right iudgment that this hony is naturall indifferent to all the hearbs of the earth although the Bee hath a generall portion thorowout Therfore Dyoscorides saith that the naturall Bee sucketh the most mellifluous fruites of the earth But the vnnaturall Beeroueth and rangeth aswell vpon the one as the other especially all wilde and sauage weedes And yet as the Magnet or Lode-stone is vnforceable to attract vppon euerye complexion so all sortes of hearbes are not drawen from the Elementes for theyr attractiue aptnesse many times fall out diuersly after the complection of men For as there be hearbes of thin and light operation so there are thin and light humours in men And as there be thick and grosse operations in hearbes so are there also thicke and grosse humours in men Therefore the power of hot thinges may not be adiudged by touching neither yet vnderstood by reason for that al things are diuers in operation For as hot things are not alwaies thin and light so thicke things are not alwaies cold yet doth it commonly fall out that solutiue medicines are alwaies hot sharpe and bitter But we may not iustlie affirme that all sweet medicines are hot for that bitter medicines are shadowed many times with outward sweetnes As Galen saith Sub melle venenum tegitur Surely al hot things are of subtill extenuation and yet oftentimes through a hotte substance in themselues doo growe into sleshie thicknesse Hypocrates reporteth his helpe towardes a yoong man which was ouergrowen with fleshie thicknesse both of bellie and other partes of his bodie did aboundantlie wash bath and soke himselfe in the middest of sommer in colde water And whereas chieflie his face and other partes of his body were styffened thickened and bound with cold humours and for the exceeding thicknesse of his skinne the deflation of heate was repressed foorthwith a righteous experience tooke a prooffe For that fresh vnion and naturall collection of heate did follow This excellent temperance followeth the elementes by a natural repercussion of all cold temperatures into the sweete and medicionable springes of the earth for that the hot sommer course in the Elementes hath repressed all colde temperaments of morning dewes into the vaines and hart of the earth the water springes become thereby potatiue wholesome and medicionable and both within as without the bodie of high operation For now as the increase of heate is hereby styrred vp so also the exteame coldnesse and ouer great thicknesse of the skinne conceiueth a free relaxation in the poores whereas also both the bloud and breath were inwardly repulsed so the one freely interfloweth the vaines and the other hath a temperate and equall propertie from the loonges And also the humours which were before halfe setled doe become nowe more plentifull and are perfected into a regular order and heate herewith regenerated doth first spring vp and forthwith returne and strike backe againe thereby at length heate ouercommeth colde in the extreame and vttermost partes and permanently there doth settle Galen doth seeme to call this repercussion onely the same repulsion which is made after the concoction of humours Neither is it to be maruelled if heate heereby returne more plentifull both because the bloud being increased and renewed the heate also must of necessitie be increased Theophrastus Paracelsus saith I doe esteeme heate to be borne out more euident and manifest to outward things by manie repercussions although no increase of bloud shall follow in outward thinges for certain momentanie repercussions may hinder bloud anie more to bend yet it may not be said that the cause thereof hapneth in the ripenesse of vnperfect humours For this cause doth it seeme to come to passe after this maner that bloud cannot easily be drawne when it is chased from the outward plentie and fulnesse vncertainly to possesse the inward partes after which beeing againe inforced to anie outward operation draweth a portion of humours to pursue those vaynes euer after as the old prouerbe is Fluxus fluxum prouocat Therefore it is a moste excellent ornament to beholde the signes of the elementes in all euacuations For seeing inferiour causes do expresse and exercise the nature of superiour causes it standeth with equitie they shoulde be obeyed Especiallie the tides of the sea drawing vpon the course of the moone the sunne giuing increase to the vniuersal creation The hearbs hauing an excellent pure and secret vse in the starres The plannets hauing their temperance or distemperance in the complexions of all thinges So then it is a moste high assurance that euerie sickenesse which distempereth in offending the life of man ought to be considered vpon after the high temperance or distemperance of the elementes aswell as the complexion of the patient I ende to the laud of God and profite of christian health Thus endeth the third Booke of the Temperamentes The Lord made heauen and earth and all thinges that therein is blessed are the workes of his handes At my next conuenient leysure three bookes more are to come forth vnder one volume as followeth A booke of the Distemperamentes An Apologie to the Plurisies A discourse vpon the diseases in the Arteries FINIS