cold raiseth no vapours because it cannot extenuate nor dissolve nor concoct so vehement heat overcomes for the most part what is comprehended extenuates the food beyond the generation of vapours except it be such as easily turns to wind If the heat be weak it dissolves the food but doth not concoct perfectly and hence comes wind And as in external things as a cold season chiefly when the North wind blows makes the air clearer and a very hot season makes the air pure but the middle constitution of air produceth clouds so it is in Animals heat when very weak or very strong doth not cause wind but the mean between both But Galen 12. Meth. med saith that wind is not only from a mean but vehement heat as appears by their generation there mentioned and by his way of cure For he saith if by any accident a vaporous spirit be joyned with gross glutinous humours that cannot break forth of the body there is very great pain and that from two causes obstruction or heat For obstruction keeps the wind in and gross glutinous matter when it is hot causeth wind And a little after how then saith he shall we cure those pains which a cold humour shut up in the guts hath caused Not by Cataplasms and Fomentations which heat violently for all clammy humours that are gross and cold are discussed into wind by things that heat except they also strongly digest Therefore they must be cut and concocted at the same time by attenuaters which are not too hot From these words of Galen it appears that a vehement heat doth not hinder breeding of wind or discuss them being bred but will cause them from the subject matter to breed anew when they were gone Therefore Lib. 3. cap. 43. he saith we must beware of nothing more in the abundance of such humours then immoderate heat that will melt them and turn them into wind but not digest them The Italian Doctor knew this well who as Paul Aegineta saith cured almost all Colicks with cold remedies and Paul knew it when he wrote that pains from cold clammy and tough humours are to be cured with respect that the medicines be not vehement hot for so they will be melted and turned more to winds Also strong heat doth not only make wind of flegm which it cannot consume but also of any over-much moisture received as in such as have drunk too much Wine or Beer or Broth or stuffed themselves with any gross or clammy food which the heat cannot consume So vehement heat also raiseth wind This is clear in Feavers also in which though preternatural heat abound much drink swells the belly because Nature is thereby restrained Therefore three things are required in the breeding and understanding of Wind heat naturally too weak or so by oppression that the part be sensible and fit and the matter proper to produce wind CHAP. VI. Of the Differences of Wind bred in the Body THe wind is of divers natures one sort is quiet another moved The quiet is gross and of flow motion cloudy and cold that brings seldom any Symptoms but a swollen Belly and Hypochondria without much pain This troubles such commonly that drink thick sweet Ale or Milk or Water between meals chiefly for that corrupts concoction and weakneth the action of the stomach as if you should pour cold water into a boiling Kettle and thence there will be cloudy vapours and fluctuations that will swell the Belly like a Drum which will fall with sobriety and a stool or two But if it stay long between the tunicles of the guts it threatens a dangerous Colick A moved wind because it is thin and running about with great pain is like a changeable Proteus It is either cast out or retained goes forth with or without noise by the mouth or Fundament By the mouth the belch is sour or smoak-like and unsavory by the Fundament it is with or without noise These are of so much concernment in the body of man as the Stoicks according to Cicero Lib. 9. epist epist 22. said that a fart ought to be as free as a belch And Claudius Caesar made an Edict to give leave for any to fart at meat because he knew one endangered by refraining through modesty Suet in vita Claudii cap. 23. But when wind is sent out at neither part but detained it causeth a swelling a Symptom of the stomach not able through weakness to expel the abounding cloudy spirit Also Galen 3. Symp. caus lib. 6. cap. 6. saith there are divers parts of the guts in which the wind moves which though they have not distinct names yet may they so be declared that any ingenious person may understand what kind and how much the excrement is and in what part it chiefly moves For if it sound sharp and shrill it is carried through the strait gut and is more pure and aerial If it puff up it will make a small noise while it goes through the small guts but not so sharp and shrill All these noises are in the spaces of the empty gut usually make the less noise the lower they go Other noises are humming like that of Pipes which cannot give a pure sound by reason of the matter they consist of and the passage being large makes the sound greater Such winds are in the thick guts when they are empty and if any moisture be contained in them it will cause a kind of Bombus which is a rumbling which shews a moist stool to be at hand because it is from Nature moving and it is moist because it rumbled before Also the noise that follows the stool if it rumbles signifies more stools but if it be pure and clear it shews that either the gut is empty or that hard excrements are in its upper part That which is shrill is from the straitness of the passages and little moisture We might here add the different sounds of the wind in the ear but we shall reserve that for the eleventh Chapter where we shall speak of the pains of the ears CHAP. VII How many kinds of Diseases are produced by Wind. GAlen made three chief sorts of Diseases a Similary Instrumental and a Common which is the solution of unity A similary disease is that which overthrows the natural constitution An Organical or Instrumental is that which hinders the fashion in conformation number magnitude or composition The Common is when unity is dissolved in part Let us see which of these wind will produce Hippocrates Lib. de flatibus saith when a body is full of food and much wind prevails and the meat lies long in the stomach and cannot get out for abundance and the lower belly is stopt or bound wind goes over all the body and gets chiefly to the parts full of blood and cools them And if the parts be cooled where the blood comes there is chilness over all the body For when all the blood is cold the whole body must be chill Galen
Meth. med 12. confirms this saying that such diseases are in those that are stuffed with gross clammy food that is cold when the wind in the tunicles of the guts cannot get forth For the tunicles are double and the humour being between them is turned into wind it is gross and cold and of slow motion When it is detained it stretcheth the tunicles and the juyce whence it comes cools the guts it toucheth and they are doubly afflicted By these instances it is plain that wind by its coldness can make a similary disease that consists in distemper and also the solution of unity For there is pain and stretching of the tunicles which cannot be without laceration For there are two universal causes of pain one is an unequal distemper which comes suddenly and another when continuity is dissolved For parts dissolved by a humour or wind are pained by the separation Because if Hippocrates say cold is biting to Ulcers for no other cause but it contracts and condenseth and constringeth all parts it toucheth and so twitcheth the soft parts of the continuity and dissolves it Also if in acute fevers nervous bodies are most dried and therefore have Convulsion and if too much repletion that pulls it up and down and makes it shorter and so separates continuity how much more difficulty of solution of continuity will wind cause which for that only cause produce such strange Symptoms that require the whole care of a Physitian Thirdly it will appear by what follows that the whole Abdomen or Panch swells by wind as in a Tympany and the Liver and Spleen are wonderfully stopt thereby and hard as a Schirrhus and swollen as also the stomach and all these are instrumental diseases therefore organical diseases are also from wind Also Galen de diff morb saith when any part is swollen and so its passage stopt if that part hath no proper operation that stoppage is only called a disease but the tumour is not but only is the cause of obstruction But if the part affected hath any proper office then the obstruction and the tumour of the part are both diseases Therefore the three sorts of diseases distemper of simple parts and disorder of instrumental and solution of united parts are from wind CHAP. VIII Of the Causes of Wind. THere are few or none in the world but are troubled sometimes with winds for the stomach which is the Kitchin for the first concoction attracts the meat by the Gullet as by a long hand and embraceth and keepeth it and changeth it separating the pure from the impure casting the one into the guts but the Meseraick veins sucking the other carry it to the Liver When the stomach through weakness embraceth not the food attracted nor contains it it rumbles and tosseth about and then it cannot well concoct For it must be strong as Galen saith which consists in an excellent temper of the four qualities by which it turns the food into the proper quality of that which is nourished by help of the bowels about it the Heart Liver Spleen Reins Midriff which lye about the stomach as a great fire under a Caldron But sometimes a bad diet for none can be always punctual in the rules or some external force dissolves its strength or weakens the fire and then the virtue of the stomach abates and it alters according to the greatness or smalness of the cause Also outward cold as in cold Countries and in Northern winds piercing to the inward parts in thin and weak bodies offends the native heat Also too hot Air casts out disperseth the natural heat and takes it from the bowels and then concoction is hindered and wind bred But strong natural heat overcoming for the most part things comprehended by it extenuateth the meat more then that it can produce vapours except it be of its nature windy For the stomach though strong and force of Nature flourisheth and the heat not decayed is offended often by food that is proper to breed wind Therefore all Physick and food that is properly by its nature windy or by its coldness or multitude dissolves the strength of the stomach and oppresseth its natural heat is the cause of wind as Pulse raw Corn and Fruits All these Galen de alim fac lib. 2. saith and such as we eat before they are ripe are windy but they are soon digested therefore he argues thus in the beginning of that Book All the food mentioned in the first Book were the seeds of Plants little differing from fruits But all horary fruits are windy and all seeds more or less And boil Beans as much as you will they are windy some add Onions to prevent it because hot and attenuating things correct wind But fry them or any other pulse and they are not windy but very hard of concoction and pass away slowly and make gross juyce But any way dressed they swell the body He that will observe the distempers that follow every sort of food shall perceive a stretching of the whole body as by a wind after eating of Beans chiefly if he have not used to eat them formerly or eat up not well boiled Pease though like Beans are not so windy These are with us plentiful and usual and therefore we perceive less the hurt they do For what we eat freely and with pleasure the stomach embraceth closer and retains better and digests easier Fetches are windy also but few desire them it is good with any of these to boil Calamints Onions Dill or Pennyroyal Lentils puffe up the stomach and guts Also all Summer-fruits are like these for they are crude and full of excrements and unprofitable juyce especially when not ripe they are also flegmatick and windy Also if immoderately taken by their cold and moisture they abate the natural heat so that the stomach cannot discuss the wind it raiseth Mulberries and Plums are the worst of these chiefly green and after meat All sorts of Cherries chiefly the Spanish Cherries and Melones Pompions Cucumbers Gourds Apples Pears are alike but boiled they are less windy chiefly if eaten with seeds or hot and dry extenuaters or expellers of wind Anise or Coriander Figs saith Galen lib. de aliment nourish more then other autumnal fruits but are windy but the wind soon vanisheth because they are laxative Chesnuts eaten plentifully cause Headach swell the belly bind it and are hard of concoction Also Roots Turneps Radishes and the like are windy and Corn Milium Wheat chiefly boiled Barley but Rapes and Radishes are most windy All Fish are the like flegmatick and windy chiefly the great and the less that are slimy as the Eel and Salmon Lamprey Tench chiefly if boiled broiled or fryed they are not so windy chiefly if the flesh be soft as the Brook-fish Though Celsus lib. 2. c. 26. saith they are not windy All Pulse and fat meats do swell with wind and sweet things and Broths new Wine Also Garlick Coleworts Onions and all Roots except a
that are so have swollen bellies and whatsoever they take is easily turned into wind and they are puffed up A cold and moist stomach whether by nature or acquired by oppression of the native heat by repletion breeds only wind Therefore defend the stomach outwardly from cold air and keep the feet from cold for nerves go from them to the stomach and presently cool it and the Colick and all inflations are caused thereby sooner then any can imagine We have shewed the causes of wind we shall now shew the signs CHAP. IX Of the Signs of Wind. THe signs of wind are taken from the constitutions and matter therein predominating from flegmatick diet and windy and stretching of the Hypochondria without heaviness from belching rumbling farting swelling and wandring pain coming suddenly and suddenly vanishing from a clear tumour that yields to the touch and that sounds like a Drum Often belching and farting are also signs and ease after breaking of wind doth usually follow Or if from any cause the passage of the wind be stopt it flies back and there is a stretching pain that runs about the body and pricks like needles under the breasts between the shoulders or membranes of the ribs or other parts But these last not long because they are thin and easily turn to air They dream of flying or leaping over Rivers sometimes of Thunder and Tempests There is often noise in the ears beating in the flesh yawning and cramp in the legs arms and fingers and inclination to the Colick and other windy diseases Pain about the Navel loathing and vomiting of corrupt humours chiefly of flegm The belly is bound and will not let out so much as wind Sometimes glassie flegm with great straining is voided alone or with some few hard excrements The dung is sometimes like that of an Ox full of wind and water is on the top Also the pain is not fixed to one part but comes by fits and to many parts more grievous in one then an other The same signs are not in all Some are tormented about the Navel and the belly loose having three stools a day and yet the pain abate not It is a sign then that the wind hath gotten into the tunicles of the Colon or that it is bred of the cold distemper of glassie flegm or it is from its sharpness that comes from putrefaction and twitcheth the guts or of mixture of Choler with flegm which doth provoke the expulsive faculty Moreover when the passages are stopt from much flegm the excrements cannot pass and then the obstruction increaseth and the wind runs about in the guts and causeth much pain which we must not meddle with for cure except we first purge the glassie flegm with Clysters or flegm-purgers at the mouth But if the Colick come from wind without matter there is greater stretching and rumbling quick pains wind running to and fro to seek passage forth and they used windy meats and drinks If gross and clammy humours do melt by heat and turn to wind which is usual the signs will be mixed of both and the pain will be greater according to the cause For the force of conjunct causes is more then that of simple causes and there will be besides that pain which is like a stake fixed and comes from the coldness of the glassieflegm another vehement pain from stretching of the part that runs through all the cavity of the belly and disturbs the stomach as well as the guts For when the wind cannot get forth by reason of the stoppages nor exhale or breathe forth by reason of its thickness or the thickness of the body or the coldness of the pores and the guts cannot contain its abundance it goes back to the stomach and hinders its concoction by putting it self between the meat and the stomach and leaving a vacuity which causeth the stomach not closely to embrace the meat Hence comes fluctuation and greater swelling then the former and heaviness and difficult breathing the stomach pressing upon the Midriff This trouble and restlesness increaseth if they take meat or drink chiefly milk or water before they are well for then the stomach is more distempered and the fluctuating humour stretcheth and puffs it up more They are at ease when the meat descends to the lower parts of the belly and the wind is sent forth upwards or downwards but it is seldom sent forth while the distemper lasts but kept in both ways and if there be a belch by chance then it gives no ease Sometimes the mouth of the stomach is swollen and the pain is sometimes in the back about the Spondiles sometimes about the breast sometimes in both We shall speak of the other signs chiefly the particular that shew the parts troubled with wind among the Symptoms of wind CHAP. X. Of the Symptoms coming from Wind. THere are also divers Symptoms produced from the divers places where the wind is being a large off-spring of a fruitful Parent the solution of continuity This causeth pain All pain chiefly of the head is in the Membranes which if not offended by distemper heat or cold stroke or bad scent or sharp humours must needs be hurt by wind bred in the part which is seldom seen or sent from other parts where it abounds which is usual This wind gets between the Skull and the Pericranium or between the Skull and the Dura Mater or hard film or between both the Meaninges or films and twitcheth and pulleth them from the bone Hence is intolerable head-ach Sometimes this wind stretcheth the ventricles of the Brain and the whole inward Membrane called Pia Mater like a bladder and causeth unspeakable pain They complain that the head is sometimes stretched sometimes slackned This gets into any part quickly by its thinness and if it hath any malignant quality from the humours putrefying below in the body it disturbs the mind and reason and causeth terrible dreams melancholy dotings shakings of the head and sometimes death The Vertigo or Megrim is when the head seems to turn round The Scotoma is when there is not only a turning round but a mist before the eyes Both are from divers causes We shall speak only of that Vertigo which is from wind in the fore-ventricle of the Brain that moves disorderly This wind causeth mists and perverts the imagination hence things seem to run round and think they run round themselves and fall For a Vertigo is a turbulent commotion of thick flatuous spirits in the fore-ventricles of the Brain This wind sometimes breeds in the Brain from an uneven distemper thereof sometimes it is sent from the stomach and Hypochondria which you may gather from the Chapter afore-going Sometimes wind gets from the Brain to the Nerves and fills them and twitcheth and causeth a windy Cramp in the Fingers and Toes or Arms and Legs extending or contracting them Also this wind causeth great pain in the Ears when it is straitned about the Membranes in the Organ of Hearing
to the finger and the spleen is pricked and extended but without heaviness and it comes sooner When vulgar Physitians understand not these two tumours of both Liver and Spleen how blindly do they go to work with thousands of Juleps and they protract the cure that they may be largely rewarded and when they have done more hurt then good they affirm it to be a Schirrus and from Galen incurable But they are very ignorant for this cloudy wind fixed on the bowel in time by the natural heat somentations fasting an extenuating and hot diet given by women and Empericks being discussed the humour vanisheth and the pain also and the foolish Doctors contemned I exhort therefore the ingenious that love their honour and the truth to search narrowly and learn to know Symptoms from those of other diseases It is hard but excellent For many Patients as ready to dye for pain cry out only from wind which if corrupted and come from a putrid and venomous matter and run through the members with intolerable pain needs an exact Artist to know the wind and the matter producing it and distinguish the disease from others To this belongs the Tympany Dropsie when wind gets into the membranes of the belly with pain and so into the spaces Hippocrates Aph. 2. Sect. 4. speaks of this thus They that have pain about the Navel and Loyns that will not be cured by medicines will have a dry Dropsie There are three sorts of Dropsies Anasarca Ascites and Tympanides which Hippocrates calls the dry Dropsie Anasarca is a preternatural increase of the bulk of the body here the feet swell first at night chiefly after exercise or when they have long hung down they pit with the finger the body is all soft loose and pale weak and tired with the least pains it is like the Green-sickness in women only the Dropsie swells the body but in the other there is paleness and trembling of the heart in motion and shortness of wind going up stairs and the body is heavy and sluggish The cause is the same in both too much cooling of the Liver and Veins The Liver cooled the sanguification is hurt then comes crude and watry blood which taken into the hollow vein goes over all the body and there is Anasarca and if the water from the Liver stretch the skin without there will be bladders If these break the water gets into that part of the Peritonaeum which is by the lower belly and then there is the second kind of Dropsie called Ascites With this by degrees the belly is filled and it swells unmeasurably the skin being loosned and the rest of the body pines away If the body or the belly be turned the water makes a noise But in a Tympany there is no fluctuation of water but the sound of a drum when you strike or fillip the belly with your finger For Galen aph 12. sect 4. saith in these the air is beaten which is contained by the skin as in this kind of disease the wind is struck by the skin which is below Cold of the bowels and veins is cause of all these Dropsies The Ascites or watry Dropsie is from more cold the Tympany from less for water cannot be turned to wind without heat Great thirst follows all chiefly Ascites and Tympany the first because the water is salt and putrefied that is detained and the other because there is seldom wind alone in the belly without water which putrefies also the wind takes away the moisture of the stomach and then it is dry and desires drink This is thirst the desire of moist and cold or both In externals we see that though the Earth be very wet with rain yet when wind comes it dryes it wonderfully in a short time and consumes the moisture The same is done in the body for one in a Tympany hath a thirst beyond Tantalus the more he drinks the more he may and to satisfie the enemy in his bowels he destroys himself with much drink Also they in the Colick thirst from the same cause Also wind swells the Cods and the Womb it gets by invisible passages into the cavity of them or after Child-birth by the Orifice of the womb or after bathing or fomenting or it breeds there from some other cause and there is straitned and so it stretcheth the womb If the stretching be in the upper part of the womb by force of the wind sent thither it ascends and goes to the Midriff and stomach and lyes like a ball there and oppresseth it Hence it is often driven down by the hands or fists or by other solid bodies into its proper place But if either side of the womb be distended or stretcht more then the rest it gets by a Convulsion into the right or left Croyn the Pecten and the lower belly are blown up and pained sometimes a noise is heard all over the body there is belching and swelling of the Loyns and pain in the Reins and Hips and when the belly is smitten with the fingers there is a sound like a drum and the wind breaks forth at the mouth of the womb Soranus said this was called a flatuous cold As wind gets into the womb of a woman so it gets into the Cods of a man with a disease or without and is a disease by it self I have seen in a Tympany the Cods of a man swollen as big as a Hogs bladder For the wind which at first was only in the membranes of the Abdomen and Peritonaeum being now increased and requiring great space breaks them and gets into the Cods and fills also the whole body Wind also extends the Cods without a disease in man and chiefly new born children and makes the Hernia called Pneumatocele or windy Rupture Sometimes it gets within the common membrane of the stones and puffs up all the Cods alike but when it gets between the tunicles of either stone called Erythroides and Dartos then one side of the Cod is only tumified This tumour is transparent and not heavy as that of You may try it in the dark with a Wax-candle held on the part opposite to your view Priapismus a Symptom of the Yard hath two causes one is the fulness of the Arteries of the Privities the other is wind bred in the fistulous Nerve This fills the Nerve so that it swells and makes the Yard stand without a venereous desire Galen meth med 12. saith there is another kind of Priapism when the Yard extends against desire For the Nerve that makes the proper substance of the Yard being hollow and filled with wind causeth it So Priapism is a permanent enlargement of the Yard in length and thickness without desire of Venery and wind is the cause as appears by its quick rise and sudden fall which no humour could make But Palpitation goes before this Priapism of wind but not before that which is from the dilatation of the Artery We have shewed how wind fills the internal
Parsnip and Schirroots Leeks and dry Figs are windy but the green most Green Grapes all Nuts except those of the Pine-tree Milk all Cheese and whatsoever is taken crude Hunting and hawking are good against wind Celsus saith all fat things are windy for Galen saith they overthrow the stomach and are hard of concoction fill and swell either by wind that comes from them by a weak concoction or by rarifying the fat and make it run thin Also sweet things chiefly if gross are windy and new Wine unless it pass soon through fills with wind is hard of concoction begets gross moisture and causeth Headach Therefore Aristotle in his Problems asks directly why it is dangerous for the stomach to drink new Wine Answ Because it is undigestible and therefore puffes up the stomach and causeth a kind of Dysentery Milk is an enemy to a weak head and to the Hypochondria that are blown up with wind from a small offence it puffes the bellies of most that eat it as Hippocraies saith And Galen saith that people in health have headach and wind from eating Milk therefore it must needs be bad for such as are so affected before Therefore let windy bodies avoid Milk above all things Also Mead and Perry and Sider are windy chiefly if not boiled Hippocrates lib. 5. aph 41. bids you give Mead to women at bed-time to know if they be with child for if her belly be griped thereby she hath conceived otherwise not the pain is from wind that cannot get out the Mead causeth it for raw Honey swells the belly Ale which is usual in the North is also windy it is near that which Dioscorides lib. 2. cap. 80. called Zythus it is worse new or when not well boiled The thinner or cruder it is the less it nourisheth but it swells and cools more being but a little hotter then water Such are the Drinks of Brabant Holland and England they are commonly thick and ill boiled so that they stop the Ureters and cool and cause Stranguries breed the stone and short breathing increase flegm breed wind in the belly and pains and Colicks But old Ale that is clear well boiled and well malted which is made in private houses not to be sold do more cast off those pernicious qualities the nearer they resemble Wine But when it is carelesly brewed being it is daily used and very much the Symptoms it causeth are wonderful but chiefly great swellings and puffings up with wind so that few or none that drink this Ale but are much oppressed with winds But if the belly be loosned by much of it taken or by its sharpness and that which is superfluous be sent downward by stool or by urine or vomited up then you need not so much fear inflation by wind For it is better then water being moderately taken to quench thirst only and wash down food but not so good as Wine Also Galen saith that all the faults of water are from its coldness by which it lies long in the stomach and causeth fluctuations and turns to wind and corrupts and weakens the stomach so that it concocts worse But Wine hath a nature adverse to these faults in water it neither puffeth up the belly but takes it rather down nor stays long there by reason of its moderate heat Therefore common Ale and Beer are a medium between wine and water but nearer to water for they puff up and stay long being thick but do not so much destroy the natural heat as water or weaken the stomach The clear old Beer that is well boiled is most near to Wine for it opens the ways of digestion and quickly goes down is of good juyce and fit to mix and concoct things in the stomach and veins it puffs up little it is better then new or crude Wine and the liker it is to Wine the farther it is from the faults in water For water whether of Snow or Pond is not good chiefly for cold stomachs not for Galens reason only because if taken presently after meat makes it swim by putting it self between the meat and the stomach and making a separation and fluctuation for Wine and the best drink may do that But because it is heavy and very cold and choaks the natural heat and hinders concoction and hurts the stomach breast and lungs stops the urine causeth side-pains Dropsies Colicks and Iliacks But wind is not bred only by this or that way but too much Wine or Beer or Milk or Broths or Water though otherwise wholesome may cause wind or any slimy matter that cannot be overcome by the native heat For too much weakens the stomach and Galen saith the sign of a weak stomach is noise and fluctuation For the stomach being right is close and keeps every little it takes in close wrapt so that there is no space between And when there is a rumbling there is vacuity and it doth not exactly embrace the food and this is a loose space which suffers the moist things received to pass to and fro and make a noise Then the belly swells and the Hypochondria and there is much crudity flegm and gross humors bred If this crudity be joyned with trouble of stomach and the Patient cannot sleep it is evil For watching and pain of stomach cause a tossing in bed and wind and belching Therefore crudity is from immoderate eating and drinking and from crudity come gross slimy humours upon which if hot medicines simple or compound are given as often by ignorance they are they cause wind from the matter Also Wine though of the best and such as by its nature expels wind and any liquid thing if not by its force yet by its abundance may oppress the natural heat or by the nature of the things it is mixed with in the stomach may cause wind Moreover of all things mentioned as causes of wind none are worse then nightdrinkings upon a full stomach and going to bed with a belly full of drink or drinking between meals or presently after meat Aristotle Meteor lib. 4 cap. 3. saith that such concoction is like boiling chiefly when it is done by heat of the body in a hot and moist subject and some crudities are like meat half boiled For as when we cast much cold water into a boiling Kettle the boiling is stopt and the heat interrupted and thereby crudity remains so if you drink presently after meat the concoction is interrupted and there will be crudities which will cause fluctuation and inflation and stretching of the belly like a Drum As Galen saith you must not presently drink after meat before it be concocted For then the food will swim and the stomach cannot embrace them by reason of the moisture between Therefore to be short inflations are from three causes obstruction heat and a cold and moist distemper of the stomach For obstructions stop the wind that it cannot pass forth and gross and clammy things when made hot breed wind Gal. meth 12. and all
as fulness stretch the body receiving it side-ways and downward and make the length of the part shorter so it is in the inflation of the stomach the Gullet is contracted and the sides and the bottom stretched Erasistratus saith that if the muscles be filled with wind they grow broader but shorter Moreover when from plenty the whole is stretched the effect of distension is perceived all over and because the Diaphragma is compressed for it is an instrument of respiration the breath is difficult from the stomach puffed up and so this inflation sometimes so increaseth that it makes a tumour on the mouth of the stomach These are allayed by stools and breaking wind upward or downward The Colick is next which is not always in one part of the belly in all but as the Colon is moved so it removeth now to the right then to the left side sometimes to the Kidneys Navel or over all the belly but chiefly the left side For the Colon is a thick Gut through the hollow of the Liver on the right side is carried to the left Hypochondrion upon the bottom of the stomach and lyes upon the Spleen then bending backward it adheres to the left Kidney Therefore in what part the wind chiefly gets there is greatest pain but when it fixeth in one part it is raised from a crude and cold flegm shut up in the turnings of the Gut nor is the wind then wholly included This flegm corrodes the Gut and tears it and is like an Auger that pierceth it which causeth great pain and loathing and vomiting of flegm and it departeth not after breaking of wind But a pain from wind without flegm is wandring in divers parts of the belly and rumbles often and being shut up close will not break forth above or below This useth to breed much in the Colon for Nature hath made no other receptacle for wind which the first concoction in the stomach hath bred therefore wind is lodged in this gut with great pain chiefly when by reason of obstruction from gross flegm or hard and dry excrements it cannot get forth The dung is hardned from divers causes chiefly from idleness and labouring to keep from the stool Rest makes retention as motion evacuation and binds as motion opens rest makes things unmoveable and motion moveable It causeth vomiting stools sweat urine and all natural expulsions and rest hinders them Some women complain that they have not a stool in five or six days some in eight days These are idle cold gluttonous and obstructed so that motion doth not help nor Choler by reason of cold provoke the Guts to expel Also the obstructions hinder the Choler from the Cuts and a perverse order in eating binds the belly Therefore it is no wonder women are more windy then men Also costiveness doth not only cause the Colick but other great accidents for the dung sent down by Nature and by its heaviness falling to the lowest parts if from other business or urgent occasion it be detained it will grow hard because being kept long it drys by heat and the Meseraicks do always suck some juyce from it for they are in the thick as well as the thin Guts So the excrements being by degrees very dry stop the passage against themselves and the wind and cause the Ileon or Convolvulus sometimes but the Colick often and other great Symptoms For when the wind cannot get out it flyes from the bottom of the belly again to the stomach and stretcheth it and twitcheth so the Weasant and contracts it that they can scarce swallow or speak Also because the mouth of the stomach is very sensible it is pained with Convulsion so that the heat of the outward parts goes in to expel what hurts Nature and then they wanting their heat are chill and the Nerves are contracted the Legs weak and the body in a great strait Who would think that such deadly and cruel Symptoms should come from a little wind but I know it to be so by long experience The excrements voided in this fit are windy for they swim upon water and are like Ox-dung and there was crudity loathing and vomiting before This disease is like the stone in the Kidneys fixed in the Ureters and hard to be distinguished from it Galen was deceived by it in his own body and knew it not but to be the stone till he injected Oyl of Rue and voided glassie flegm and was freed presently from all pain We shall speak next of windy Melancholy it is bred from three causes from heat of the Liver and the Meseraicks coldness of stomach and a crude and gross humour of flegm or melancholy A cold stomach desires too much and digests too little A hot Liver attracts crude and gross meats before perfect concoction And because the second concoction which is in the Liver cannot correct the defect of the first the Veins of the Mesentery are obstructed by gross Chyle and much crudity is gathered in them This boils by preternatural heat and sends forth filthy vapours that are not easily discussed and there are rumblings and breaking of wind Also Galen from Diocles saith there is another disease in the stomach like the other called melancholy or windy as when meat of hard digestion and hot is taken there is much spitting belching sowre wind heat in the sides not presently but after retention Sometimes great pains of the stomach that reach to the back in some cease after concoction and come again after meat When the fit comes the stomach and Hypochondria are mise rably tormented and not freed till the matter be voided by vomit or stool that extends the Hypochondria with wind That which is vomited because the stomach is cold and weak is flegmatick clammy and crude white and sometimes without taste or sowre or bitter That which is sent down is black and windy Melancholy from this sometimes a black vapour ariseth and hurts the brain causeth troublesom dreams and disturbs the mind with doting This wind shut up in the stomach and guts and striving to get out gets into the small veins and membranes of the Liver on both sides cavous and gibbous and is like a Schirrus or so stretcheth that there is a tumour like a Schirrus only it is bred in a shorter time It is so great sometimes that it fills the Hypochondrion and you cannot feel the ribs there nor put a finger under it and there is no shape of the Liver This is known to be from much gross vapours because there is not only heaviness but distention as Galen lib. 5. de loc affect saith The Spleen is in like manner stretched with wind as Trallianus saith as in other parts so in the spleen there is wind that grows to a tumour it is like a Schirrus but thus distinguished in a Schirrus there is hardness not yielding tumour and heaviness in the left Hypochondrion In a tumour from wind it doth not strongly resist the touch but yields
principal parts and falls swiftly upon sensible places and doth not only disturb them with its quality but pricks them with its thinness and stretcheth tears or wounds them for all biting or sharp causes that are moved whether hot or cold bring horrour and shaking to a living Creature Thirdly this spirit running to and fro troubles the expulsive faculty and the parts which provoked contract themselves speedily to expel the offender and so shake and tremble Therefore this wind in man being like other wind produceth the like effects Now we shall shew what it is CHAP. III. What this Wind in Man is NOne wrote better of this wind then Galen Lib. 3. de Symp. causis who saith it is a vapour raised from a humour or flegmatick meats or drinks or from weak heat But this is an imperfect definition for divers vapours go to the brain from food in the stomach as in Drunkards and in sore Eyes from consent of the stomach which are not called winds nor are they such But that flatuous spirit that is bred in the Hypochondrion from a melancholy humour is truly wind Therefore I would have this wind to be thus described more exactly A Flatus or wind is an abundance of vapours from spirits or meat or drink or flegm or melancholy raised from a weak heat in the body I say an abundance because a small vapour which the best constitution is never free from is not a wind or can puffe up As Galen Lib. 5. in Aph. 72. saith they are windy according to Hippocrates that have much wind in their bellies that is voided upwards or downwards or stretcheth the parts that hold it And Aristotle saith wind is only much air fluctuating or moving and stopped You shall know from Aristotle and what I shall say after why I call it an halitous spirit and not a vapour for none can get any certainty out of Galen in this that calls a spirit vapour wind and blast all one without distinction Therapeut 14. he saith a vaporous spirit is from juyces heated by degrees and that a vapour is an humour extenuated de Sympt caus lib. 1. de Simpl. med fac lib. 1. and Halitus is a mean or medium between the thinnest spirit and blood that is finished Lib. 3. de nat fac All these signifie the same thing therefore I shall not dispute them Nor is that against my definition that Galen saith if a greater heat fall upon a gross glutinous flegm it turns them into a thick or gross wind For though heat be strong yet in comparison of the quantity and quality of the humour it may be weak such as can raise a spirit but not lay it or dissolve it It is so in those that by intemperate drinking oppress the strongest heat We shall now shew in what parts this wind is bred CHAP. IV. Of the place where Wind is bred IN the former Chapter we shewed from Galen and Hippocrates that those were windy bodies that gathered much wind in their bellies which is voided upwards or downwards or that stretcheth the parts that hold it Hence it appears that the stomach and guts are the place of its breeding otherwise it could not go forth upward or downward So wind is bred in the Earth which after rain being warmed as Aristotle saith from above and from it self smoaketh and in this is the force of wind For when the Earth takes greatest force from water there must be most forcible vapours even as green wood burnt affords most smoak The stomach most resembles the Earth in man Galen comparing them saith that Nature made the stomach in stead of an Earth to Animals to be a store-house as the Earth is to Plants For the veins that go to the stomach such Chyle out of it to nourish the whole body as the roots of Trees do from the Earth it is a natural action in both They are alike but the Earth of it self is dry and sapless except watered it produceth no fruit but being moistned as Virgil saith it produceth winds also So our stomach is membranous and dry and except it be moderately moistned with meats and drinks it defrauds the body of its nourishment and it consumes If too much drink be taken there is fluctuation and wind for too much food oppresseth the natural heat and makes it weak but yet it will fall to work or concoct but being not able to do it exactly it raiseth vapours which it cannot discuss Then by degrees the first concoction being hindered there are gross and flegmatick humours both in the stomach and guts chiefly the Colon. If the wind be thick it stretcheth only the stomach and belly but when by degrees it is made thin by heat of the bowels that which was shut up begins to move and enlarge it self and take up more room and stir about to get forth and then all is well But if a costive body by hard excrements or tough flegm in the guts hinder its passage it runs back and roars rumbles and pains the guts and labours by force to get out For when the heat of the guts extenuates the vapours they move readily and of themselves and so are thinner and can pierce farther they run about like Thunder swiftly and open small passages and make solution of unity and cause pain in any solid part by their passage being thin What Seneca Lib. 6. nat quaest c. 8. saith of other wind agrees with this that its force is not to be withstood because a spirit is not to be conquered They only can judge of this wind who have been troubled with it Therefore as the other wind is only bred in the Earth so this is bred only in the stomach and guts as the caverns of the Earth and from thence goes to any part for the body is thin and previous full of passages for the wind to go through which when it is much and gets not forth shakes the body causeth chilness and great Symptoms after to be mentioned CHAP. V. Of the manner how Wind is bred in the Body WInd is bred from heat which is sometimes great sometimes weak and is raised from the matter after the same manner it is discussed For the strong heat of the bowels discusseth it before it get force and hinders it from breeding at the first Absolute cold raiseth no spirits as appears in extream crudities Therefore Hippocrates Lib. 6. saith that in a long Dysentery or Flux if there be sowre belchings it is good because before belching there was no sign of concoction by reason of the decay of natural heat which beginning to revive being but yet weak by reason of the small concoction it raised wind which was belched forth Therefore not great heat nor great cold but a mean between both makes wind according to Galen de sympt caus lib. 6. cap. 2. who saith it breeds in the vacuities of the stomach when flegm there contained or food is turned to vapours by weak heat For as absolute
much windy For they are cholerick and Choler will not suffer wind to raign but discusseth it But Phelgmaticks and they of a moist and cold stomach and the sanguine are troubled with wind and easily have the Colick And all know that great pains of the Colick are more dangerous then less and a total collection of excrements and wind into one part of the Colon is worse then when they run about many parts Therefore there is less danger when wind is broken by Clysters and the stools take away the pain then when not But if wind cause a a doting contraction of Nerves fainting cold limbs cold sweat constant vomiting stoppage of all excrements as it doth when it comes from venomous matter it is deadly and there is a Convolvulus It is best to be without wind or easily discuss it but this cannot be without diligent caution and good diet in the use of the six natural things CHAP. XII Of Diet to be observed by windy Bodies TO prevent breeding of wind by diet or discuss it when bred four things are to be observed chiefly in such as have bodies apt to breed it Order Manner Time and Substance The Order is that they begin not dinner nor supper with drink nor drink a great draught as the custom is after they have eaten a bit or two Drink is best when you have taken most part of the food Also let liquid things be eaten before hard and loosners before astringents and those of easie concoction before those of hard The Manner is that more food be not taken then can be concocted without difficulty by rising with an appetite and not drinking more then to quench thirst and wash down the meat which will make the body lazy and oppress the native heat Some are never satisfied except they carouse exceedingly when they eat some drink so that they can eat little or nothing this causeth fluctuation and inflation because the stomach cannot embrace the quantity Time also must be observed that they drink not fasting nor between meals or after supper or in bed nor eat before the former is digested nor sit long at meat They must abstain from gross meats they stop the narrow passages such as produce a clammy juyce hard of concoction salt Beef and Pork from cold and sowre and sharp things and all Summer-fruits crude or boiled Pulse Sallets Milk and all Milk-meats all Junkets as Fritters Pancakes Sweet-cakes c. chiefly that which our women call White-pots or that made of Eggs Butter and Honey in a Frying-pan or an Oven And from that of green Cheese Beets Paste Eggs and Oyl which the Italians call a Tart. Also the Italian Dishes are very hurtful Turtellae Lasaniae Macaroons Worms and the like made fit for the palate These fill the body with gross humours and so oppress the natural heat that the stomach concocts worse after being not able to overcome the tough and clammy humours But some will devour such trash and junkets and contemn better food and yet find no inconvenience or very little To which I answer That all food made of paste causeth gross and clammy humours and many excrements and obstructions and matter fit to breed wind But if they be taken by a good and firm stomach and well concocted which I think scarce can be and they find no hurt thereby worth notice it doth not therefore follow that they are of themselves without harm For all know that to drink great draughts is an enemy to Nature and that a medicine of Hemlock presently killed Socrates Therefore he concludes nothing that saith therefore these things are not hurtful and not to be dispraised because some Drunkards will drink off great bowls and the Athenian old Woman used to eat Hemlock and because one or two make food of paste that nourisheth For the stomach embraceth sweet things and such as are eaten with great delight more close and easier digests them Therefore three things make food which is of its own nature hurtful to be innocent and milder use or custom pleasure and a strong firm stomach For the best nourishing food hurts the stomach if it loath it and Brook-fish cause trouble to it if it be weak And let these men if they will not be admonished by me be moved with the threatning of Constantine with which he affrighteth Gluttons let them not rejoyce when they eat bad food for though they are not hurt by them at the present afterwards they will not escape To this belongs variety of meats which causeth many crudities and winds in the body For many things of divers natures are confounded and these being unequally concocted and distributed the natural heat must needs be put to it You must avoid all great and Fen-fish and such as live in mud on putrefaction their flesh is slimy and clammy cold and hath much excrement Also let windy people abstain from wine too much cooled from water and from great draughts of drink drawn from a cool Cellar chiefly when they are hot out wardly or weary after exercise or labour and from all excess of air chiefly cold which presently reacheth the stomach if not kept warm-clothed and from cold and moisture at the feet Sitting long upon cold stones hath often caused great Symptoms from wind Let him avoid idleness also and sleeping in the day these raise vapours but discuss them not set upon concoction but bring it not to perfection whence comes crude flegm the true material cause of flegm When the stomach or guts are distended or stretcht with wind let them abstain from meat and drink and feed very stenderly and be sober For when the usual diet is taken from the body or abated the native heat is not so put to it to alter and concoct food but is active and flourisheth and spreads it self and shews its strength first it concocts crudities and attenuates the gross humours cleanseth the tough takes away the cause that will breed wind sends them for that the right passages and disperseth such wind as is bred and keeps it from breeding And to be short fasting alone is sufficient to cure any disease from crudity or wind It is true that there is more trouble from the flying about of wind in the body that is empty in such as fast and use a spare diet but this will not be long for they will presently break forth and free the patient from all pain and the sooner by use of exercise For it is the Doctrine of Hippocrates Epid. 6. agreeable to this my opinion fit to be written in gold in every house That we ought not to eat to fulness and to be ready to take pains And Galen de sanit tuend lib. 2. reckons up many sorts of exercises Wrastling Fencing Running c. which we shall not speak of only let this suffice that moderate exercise at ball or fencing running or walking fasting and after the body hath discharged the excrements doth wonderfully recreate all the faculties and spread
and apply it Or this Take Cow-dung two pound Sulphur Cummin each three ounces with Honey make a Cataplasm I have cured many Children by often heating them against the fire and with dry Fomentations with hot clouts often applied CHAP. XXVII Of Priapismus taken out of Aetius I Shall add nothing of mine own because I never cured this disease and none writes shorter and better of it as Galen lib. 4. meth saith He saith that Priapismus is a standing of the Yard swelling in length and breadth without lust from heat and wind with pain It is called Priapismus from Priapus the Satyre who is painted with such a Yard as natural It is from the mouths of the Veins and Arteries stretched in the Privities or from wind Galen saith it is from both but oftnest from the Orifices dilated Some have it from want of Venery having much seed and that used Venery and abstain from it and do not by much exercise abate the blood It chiefly comes to such as dream of Venereal fancies and the pain is like the Cramp for the Yard is as in a Convulsion being pufft up and stretched and they dye suddenly except cured and then the belly is swollen and there is a cold sweat as in other Convulsions when they dye Therefore against the pain and inflammation presently open a Vein and use a small Diet three days and foment the parts about and the Yard with Wool dipt in Wine and Oyl give a gentle Clyster not sharp and feed him with a little Corn and Water If it last long cup and scarifie if there be much blood use Leeches to the part and Cataplasms of Barley flour loosen the belly with Beets Mallows and Mercury boiled And give the Decoction of Shell-fish use no strong Purges and beware of Diureticks or provokers of urine Use Corn-food that attenuates gently without manifest heating Lay Coolers to the Loyns as Nightshade Purslane Housleek Henbane Let the space between the Fundament and the Yard be cooled with Litharge of Silver Fullers Earth Ceruss Vinegar and Water A Cerot of Rose-Oyntment washed often in cold Water and applied to the Loyns and Privities doth much good He must lye upon one side and lay under him things against the emission of Sperm And he must see no Venereal pictures nor hear no wanton discourse CHAP. XXVIII Of an Inflation or windy Impostume INflations come from Wind under the skin or the Membranes of the Bones or Muscles or gathered in fleshy parts Now as Aegineta saith it is either from the thickness of the members or grossness of the wind A gross vapour distends the place that contains it by its plenty and makes a tumour not such as is loose or will yield to the finger when pressed or pit like an Oedema The common way of Cure of these tumors is to evacuate what is preternatural wheresoever contained Now it cannot be evacuated except that which is gross be relaxed and the thickness of the vapour be extenuated Both are done by Extenuaters and things potentially hot I have shewed that Oyl which is of an extenuating quality wherein Rue or hot Seeds are boiled doth cure the stomach and other bowels stretched by wind Now I shall shew how other parts as Joynts and Muscles or Membranes about the Bones are cured when stretched with wind This is sometimes with pain sometimes without and that from a single cause namely a weak heat or a contusion For an inflation without pain according to Galen lib. 4. meth a Lixivium with a new Sponge will cure it As Take Rain-water or Wine let Ashes of a Fig-tree or Juniper be infused therein twenty four hours Or thus Take Bay-berries Orris roots each an ounce Bay leaves Rosemary Nip each a handful Lavender flowers a pugil Cummin six drams Boil them in Water to half in four pints infuse ashes of Fig-tree Beans or Coleworts foment therewith with a new Sponge hot It cleanseth drys consumes and discusseth wind and the tumour If there be pain use no Lixivium for by sharpness it will increase it but use relaxing Oyls as that of Dill Rue or Chamomil If Diseases come from Contusions when the Muscle or the Membrane of the Bone is bruised then lay the Sponge aforesaid upon the Membrane of the Bone But when the Muscles are pained use a more mitigating or asswaging Remedy To these we use not Lixivium alone but add to it boiled Wine and Oyl It is best at the first to use no Lixivium but Wine and a little Vinegar and Oyl with Wooll to foment the part And if pain be great use more Abaters or Asswagers of it If there be no pain oppose the Inflation by stronger Medicines as Lixivium Vinegar and then Wine And when you are not to asswage pain put in more Lixivium and Vinegar For such Inflations as by neglect are worse first use things made of a Lixivium then some Plaister such as that which is made of Sweat from mens bodies But the use of that being forgotten in our Age we order instead of it the Plaister of Bay-berries or this Take Melilot Plaister and that of Bay-berries each three drams Nitre Cummin Sulphur unslak'd Lime Salt each a scruple Oyl of Bayes and Wax as much as will make a Plaister If the wind that makes this Inflation be smoak-like evil and corrupt and from a venomous matter with great pain and heat running through the members it is best when it is setled to tye the part above and beneath and to open the Inflation with a Lancet or hot Iron that the venomous vapor may get out Then fill the Orifice with Aloes and Bole Armenick dissolved in Oyl of Roses and Vinegar After three or four days fill the wound with flesh and heal it up And in this case of a venomous Inflation use a slender diet and purge and give a little Treacle sometimes HItherto Courteous Reader I have shewed according to my abilities the Nature and Effects of Winds and the Diseases from them and their Cures for the good of the Ignorant and help of the Diseased and that learned and ingenious persons may take occasion from hence to write better Therefore take it in good part for it was written for profit to all not for contention If you accept of these first fruits expect better hereafter The CONTENTS of the Chapters of this Book CHap. 1. That Flatus is a Spirit and of the Division of Spirits Fol. 1 Chap. 2. Of the Analogy or Proportion of Flatus with Wind. 4 Chap. 3. What the Wind in Man is 9 Chap. 4. Of the Place where Wind is bred 10 Chap. 5. Of the Manner how Wind is bred in the Body 13 Chap. 6. Of the Differences of Wind bred in the Body 16 Chap. 7. How many Kinds of Diseases are produced by Wind. 18 Chap. 8. Of the Causes of Wind. 21 Chap. 9. Of the Signs of Wind. 30 Chap. 10. Of the Symptoms coming from Wind 33 Chap. 11. Of the Prognosticks of Wind. 52 Chap.