doubt hapned upon these causes That Cyprus aboundeth in Cypres and Firr-trees Sardinia in Alom and Copper Mines Anticyra is replenished with true Hellebors and Thasus is full of deadly Ughes which either kill a man or make him mad when the savor infects him fully as it doth in such hot and dry Countries The aire may be also infected with the smoak of Charcole newly kindled whereof Quintus Catulus died or with the smel of new morter which killed Jovinianus the Emperor in his bed or with the snuf of a candle wherewith many have been strangled or with the aire of a pan of coles throughly kindled by which as Aemylius Victor studied in the City of Parma he suddenly fell down dead By the smell of a snuf of a candle many become leprous and women miscarry of children What light is best to study by of oyle wax dears suet and tallows the very smel of roses cureth headach and of some flowres drunkenness The smel of a wantlowse may kil a child in the mothers womb the very smel of Physick cureth many First therefore in the election or choice of aire observe this that it be pure and void of infection for pure aire is to the heart as balm to the sinews yea it is both meat drink exercise and Physick to the whole body Meat whilst it is easily converted into spirits Drink whilst it allayeth the thirst of the lungs and heart which no drink can so well quench exercise whilst it moveth humors immoveable otherwise of their own nature medicine or Physick whilst it helpeth to thrust forth excrements which would else harden or putrifie within our bodies the vapors whereof would so shake the bulwark of life and defile the rivers of blood issuing from the liver that we should not live long in health if happily we lived at all Next to purity of aire we must chuse that also which is temperate For natural heat is not preserved saith Galen but of aire moderately cold And Aristotle saith That Countries and Cities and houses which by interposition of hils on the North side be seldom cooled are subject to mortality and many diseases Yet must it not be so hot as to dissolve spirits procure thirst and abundant sweat to the hindring of urine and decaying of strength and appetite But as I said before of a middle temper because as nature is the mother so mediocrity is the preserver of every thing Who sees not a dry Summer peeleth and a dry winter riveleth the skin and that contrariwise an over-moist aire puffeth it up with humors and engendreth rheumes in the whole body Thirdly That aire is best which is most seasonable Namely warm and moist in the Spring hot and dry in Summer cooling and dry in Autumn cold and moist in Winter which seasons falling out contrarily as sometimes they doe especially in Islands infinite and unavoidable diseases ensue thereupon For if the spring-aire be cold and dry through abundance of Northeast winds dry inflammations of the eys hot urines fluxes of bloud by nose and bowels and most dangerous catarrhs to old persons follow upon it If Summer be cold and dry through the like winds look for all kinds of agues headaches coughs and consumptions Contrariwise if it be too hot and dry suppression of urine and womens courses together with exceeding bleeding at the nose is to be feared If Autumn be full of Southern and warm blasts the next Winter attend all rheumatick and moist diseases If Winter on the contrary be cold and dry which naturally should be cold and moist long agues humoral aches coughs and plurisies are to be expected unless the next Spring be of a moist disposition Again consider also how any house or City is situated for the aire is qualified accordingly Namely if they be placed Southeast South and Southwest and be hindred from all Northern blasts by opposition of hils they have neither sweet water nor wholsome aire but there women are subject to fluxes and miscarriages children to convulsions and shortness of breath men to bloudy fluxes scourings and Hemorrhoids and such like But Cities Countries or houses situated clean contrary towards the North-west North and North-East and defended from all Southern gusts and blasts albeit the people there are commonly more strong and dry yet are they subject through suppression of excrements unto headaches sharp plurisies coughs exulceration of the lungs phlegmatick collections rupture of inward veins and red eyes Likewise in those Countries young boyes are subject to swelling of the codds young girls to the navel-rupture men to the diseases above named Women to want and scarcity of their natural terms to hard labours ruptures and convulsions and to consumptions after childbearth Easterly Towns especially inclining to the south and houses are more wholesome then the westerly for many causes first because the aire is there more temperately hot and cold Secondly because all waters and springs running that way are most clear fragrant pleasant and wholesome resembling as it were a dainty spring and verily women there conceive quickly and bring forth easily children prove large well coloured and lively men healthful strong and able to any exercise But Western cities and houses barren clean of Eastern gusts have ever both troubled waters and unwholesome winds which mingled with the waters obscure their clearness and maketh the inhabitants weak heavy and ill coloured hoarce-voiced dull witted and wanting as if they were entring the house of death quickness and vigour But Avicen of all others declares this most at large who shewing the boldness and goodness of aire by the situation describes them in these words Houses having their chief or full seat Eastward are very wholsome for three causes First because the Sun rising upon them purgeth the aire very timely Secondly because it stayes not there long to dissolve spirits but turneth westward after noon Thirdly because cold winds are commonly as ushers to the Sun rising by which all corruption is killed that either was in the aire or lay on the ground Westerne places are worst situated First because the Sun bestowes not his maiden head and kingly heat upon them but a hot and scorching flame neither attenuating nor drying their aire but filling it full of fogs and mists Whereupon it falls out that the inhabitants are much troubled with hoarseness rheumes measils pocks and pestilence Southern seats are commonly subject to catarhs fluxes of the belly heaviness want of appetite haemoroids inflamation of eyes and their women conceive hardly and miscarry easily abounding in menstrual and mighty pollutions their old men are subject to palsies trembling apoplexies and all humoral diseases their children to cramps and the falling evil their young men to continual putrified agues and all kind of rebellious fevours In Nothren countryes through the driness coldness and sharpness of the wind women do hardly conceive and dangerously bring forth or if they be well delivered yet commonly
taken with a dissolving heat should rather burn sweet Cipres Lignum Rhodium Sanders sprigs of Tamarisk Gum tragacanth Elemi Cherri-tree gum and a little Camphire Likewise their vaporing perfumes should be of red-rose-leaves Lignum Rhodium and Sanders with rose-water and Vinegar boil'd together So that according to the kind of taking and the season of the year is the air to be corrected in the time of pestilence and not alike at all times with one perfume which Marsilius Ficinus so diligently observeth that he blameth many Physicians for their general preferring of this or that masticatory some extolling the chewing of sage as one goes abroad others the chewing of Setwall roots others of Elecampana Cloves Angelica or Citron pils which indeed are best in a cold season but in the hot time of the year and a hot Plague the chewing of Coriander seeds prepared grains Sanders and the pulpe of Oringes Lemons Citrons or Pearmains is far to be preferred before them The like may be said of sweet Pomanders strong of musk civet ambre and storax which are no doubt good correctors of the pestilent aire but yet in hot seasons and pestilences nothing so good as the smel of a Lemon stickt with lignum Rhodium instead of cloves and inwardly stuffed with a sponge throughly soaked in vinegar of red-roses and violets But here a great question ariseth whether sweet smels correct the pestilent aire or rather be as a guide to bring it the sooner into our hearts To determin which question I call all the dwellers in Bucklers berry in London to give their sentence which only street by reason that it is wholly replenished with Physick Drugs and Spicery and was daily perfumed in the time of the plague with pounding of Spices melting of gums and making perfumes for others escaped that great plague brought from Newhaven whereof there died so many that scarce any house was left unvisited Of variety and change of Aire Hitherto of the correcting and tempering of distempered and infected aire which being clean and purified may yet through ignorance of wilfulness be abused For as Satyrus would needs kiss the glowing cole and children delight to put their fingers in the candle so some know not how to use this general nourishment which is not given as all other nourisments be unto one particular man or Country but equally and universally unto all Now there be two sorts of aire as every man knoweth the one open and wide unto all men the other private shut within the compass of a house or chamber that permitted to any man which is in health this proper to very many and sickly persons who receiving but the least blast of the outward aire upon a suddain fall into great extremities and make the recidival sickness to be worse then the former Many and amongst them my Lord Rich his brother can justifie this who almost recovered of the small pox looked but out of a casement and presently was striken with death So likewise one Harwood of Suffolk a rich Clothier coming suddenly in an extream frost from a very hot fire into the cold aire his blood was presently so corrupted that he became a leaper which is an ordinary cause of the same disease in high Germany as Paracelsus and many other writers have truely noted Again some men tie themselves so to one aire that if they go but a mile from home like to fresh-water soldiers they are presently sick others are so delighted with variety that no one aire or Country can contain them of which humor was Agesilaus Phocion Diogenes Cato yea and Socrates himself who sometimes lay abroad in the fields sometimes at home sometimes travailed one Country and sometimes another that being accustomed to all airs they might if necessity served the better abide all Furthermore in long diseases it is not the worst but the best physick to change airs which few can endure that are tied in conceit or by custom only to one and therefore that of both fantastical humors is the most dangerous Besides this the time of going abroad in the open aire is to be considered for some go out early before the dew be off and the sun up which is very unwholsom others also walk at night after the dew falling which is as perilous for the dew to mans body is as rust unto iron in so much that it blasteth the face and maketh it scabby especially in some months if a man do wash himself with it Furthermore some men delight to travel in tempests and winds which the very hedghog reproveth and the beasts of the field eschue by seeking coverture for strong and violent winds be as Cardan cals them the whales of the aire rowling clouds and meteors where and whether they list beating down trees houses and castles yea shaking otherwhiles the earths foundation Now as some goe abroad too much so others with over-fearfulness take the open aire too little sitting at home like cramb'd Capons in a close room and not daring in a manner to behold the light better it were by degrees to go abroad then with such certainty of danger to stay at home yet so that a calm mild and temperate day be chosen lest we make more haste outward then good speed and bewail the alteration of aire through decrease of health For as contrariety of meats make tumults and rebellions in our stomacks so contrary changes of aire upon the sudden maketh dangerous combats in our bodies Yea though a fenny aire be thick and loathsome yet suddenly to go dwel upon the high mountains in a clear aire is a posting to death rather then a course to life and albeit a Southern Country be pregnant of corruption for all trees lose their leaves first on the Southside and on the Southside houses decay soonest and the Southside of corn is soonest blasted and malt lying in the Southside of a Garner is first tainted with weevels yet suddenly to depart to a Northern soil where the North wind chiefly bloweth is to leave the Sea to be forzen in ice and bringeth imminent peril if not hasty death to the patient yea to them that are otherwise sound of body wherefore use the open aire in his due time season quantity and order else shalt thou be offended with that nourishment which simply of all other is most necessary for as this invisible milk for so Severinus cals the aire in time season and quantity nourisheth these lower and perhaps the upper bodies so being taken out of time and longer and lesser then we should it is both the child the mother and the nurse of infinite mischiefs CHAP. V. 1. Of Meat and the differences thereof in Kind Substance Temperature and Taste PUrposing now to treat of Meats I will keep this method First I will shew their differences then the particular natures of every one of them Last of all in what variety quantity and order they are to be eaten Their differences
through want of milk they are not able to nurse their children Their young men die of consumptions their old men and children of cruel cramps They which dwell upon the tops of hills where every wind blows from under the Sun are for the most part sound strong nimble long-lived and fit for labour Contrariwise the valley people so seated that no wind blows upon them are ever heavy spirited dull and sickly for as a fire of green wood dieth unles the flame be scattered with continual blowing and as a standing water corrupteth in a little space so an idle aire rouled about with no winds soon putrifieth because his dissimilar parts be not separated by winowing as the chaffe is from the wheat But the best situation of a house or city is upon the slaunt of a southwest hill like to this of Ludlow wherein we sojourne for a time neither fully barred of the East North and Southern winds clear and free from the mists of bogs and fens purified from the stinck of common Sinks Vaults and Lestals as also from the unwholesome breathings of Caves Colepits Copper or Brimstone-mines not so cold as to stupifie members not so hot as to burn the skin not so moist as to swell us with rheumes nor so dry as to parch up our natural moisture not to much nor to variable as upon the top of hills not so little nor too standing as in low Vallies neither smelling of nothing as in barren Countries nor smelling of bad things as in the Fens but fragrant without a discerning of smell and sweetest of all in an unknown sweetness For howsoever some men dream that the smell of the spice-trees in Arabia felix make the neighbour inhabitants both healthfull of body and sound of mind which I will not deny if you compare them with the borderers of the Palestine lake Nevertheless as Tully saith of women They smell best which smell of nothing so verily the aire that smells of nothing is best to nourish us in health though otherwise in some sickness a perfumed aire is best and also to expel a loathsome stinck or like to the neighing of Apolloes horses to rouse up dull and sleepy senses In which respect I am of Aristotles opinion that sweet smels were appointed to be in flowers fruits barks roots fields and meddowes not onely for delight but also for medicin Nevertheless as the tastles water makes the best broath so the smelling aire gives the purest I will not say the strongest nourishment to our spirits In Plutarchs time men were grown to this wantoness that every morning and night they perfumed not only their apparrel and gloves but also their bodies with sweet ointments made of most costly spices buying with great charges what shall I say an idle a needless a womanly pleasure nay verily an unnatural and more then bruitish For every beast loveth his own mate only for her own smel whatsoever it be but some men love not their meat nor drink nor the aire nor their wifes nor themselves unless they smel or rather stinck of sweet costly and forreine fumes which being taken without cause do the head more hurt then being taken upon cause they do it good Wherefore if thy brain be temperate and not too moist cold or dull eschew a strong smelling aire such as comes from walflowers stock-gillyflowers pincks roses Hiacynths mead sweet hony suckles jasimin Narcissus musk amber civet and such like contenting thy self with the simplest aire which for sound complexions is simply best Or if for recreation and pleasuresake thou desirest it some time let it not be of a full or strong sent but mingled with sweet and soure as violets with Time and breathing rather a sharpe then a fulsome sweetness And thus much of the choice of aires now come we to the preparation and use of them CHAP. IIII. OF AIRE 1. How it is to be prepared 2. How it is to be used SAtyrus that Goat-bearded God the first time that ever he saw fire would needs kiss it and embrace it in his armes notwithstanding that Prometheus forewarn'd him of coming too nigh for he knew well enough the nature of fire to be such that as in certain distances times and quantities it may be well endured so in others it is harmful and exceeding dangerous The like may I say of heat cold moisture and driness of the aire which in the first or second step towards them may and do preserve life but the nearer you come to their extremities the nearer are you to death So that either you will be burnt with Satyrus or frozen to death with Philostratus or dryed up for lack of moisture with Darius Souldiers when they could get no water or dye as the inhabitants of the lakes in Egypt do with too much moisture Wherefore let every one consider his owne strength and constitution of body for some like to new wax are dissolved with the least heat and frozen with the least cold others with Salamanders think nothing hot enough others like to silk worms can abide no cold others with Smiths and Woodcocks can abide those frosts which even the fishes themselves can hardly tolerate So likewise dry constitutions laugh and sing with the Thrush when rain approacheth when others of the contrary complexion do mourn and lament with the Plouver because it is so wet Which being so I shall no doubt deserve well of every man in teaching him so to prepare the aire that sometimes abroad but alwayes at home it may be tempered according as he most needeth and purified from all infection Concerning the tempering of aire in our houses is it too hot and dry then coul it by sprinkling of Vinegar and Rose water by strewing the floure with green flags rushes newly gathered reed leaves water-lilly leaves violet leaves and such like stick also fresh boughes of willow sallow poplar and ashe for they are the best of all in every corner Is it too cold and moist amend it by fires of clear and dry wood and strew the room and windows with herbs of a strong smell as mints penniroial cammomil balm nep rue rosemary and sage Is it too thick and misty then attenuate and clear it in your chamber first by burning of pine-rosin as the Egyptians were wont to do then presently by burning in a hot fire-shovel some strong white-wine vinegar But their chiefest perfume of all other called Kuphi The great temper was made of sixteen simples namely wine hony raisins of the sun cipres pine-rosin mirrhe the sweet rush calamus aromaticus spike-nard cinamon berries of the great and little juniper lignumaloes saffron figtree buds and cardamoms to which composition in Galens time Democrates added Bdellium and the seed of agnus castus and the Physicians in Plutarchs time the roots of Calamint It were needless to write how wonderfully Apollo I mean our new Apollo Francis Alexander of Vercelles for so like a proud Italian he calleth his
owne work commend the same in his third beam or how Plutarch and Avicen extol it above all others in that it not onely bringeth any aire to a good temper but also cleanseth the same of unclean spirits openeth it when it is clowdy attenuateth it when it is too thick refineth it when it is full of dreggy mixtures and consequently dispelleth melancholy from the head fear and ill vapours from the heart procuring natural and quiet sleep and therefore not unworthily consecrated to the Gods Now as the Egyptians burnt rosin in the morning and their Kuphi towards noon so albeit the sun set when many heavy vapours lye in the aire the Ancients were not to burn mirrhe and juniper which disperse those heavy vapours leaving in the house a rectified aire quickning the senses and correcting those melancholick fumes that pervert judgement Wherefore the Egyptians call mirrhe Bal and Juniper Dolech the purifiers of the aire and curers of madness Whereat let no man wonder sith the very noise of bells guns and Trumpets breaketh the clouds and cleanseth the aire yea Musick it self cureth the brain of madness and the heart of melancholy as many learned and credible Authors have affirmed Much more then may it be tempered and altered to the good or hurt of our inward parts by smells and perfumes whereby not onely a meer aire as in Sounds is carried to the inward parts but also invisible seeds and substances qualified with variety of divers things For who knoweth not that the smell of Opium bringeth on sleep drowsiness and sinking of the spirits contrariwise the the smell of Wine and strong vinegar out of a narrow mouth'd glass awaketh the heaviest headied man if possibly he can be awaked Furthermore because stincking smells unless one by little and little be accustomed to them as our dungfarmers and kennel rakers are in London and as a wench did eat Napellus a most cruel poyson ordinarily as a meat are both noysom to the head and hurtful to the lungs heart and stomack in such sort that they which live in a stinking house are seldom healthy It shall be good where the cause cannot wholly be removed to correct the accident in this sort with sweet waters sweet perfumes sweet pomanders and smelling unto sweet fragrant things Isabella Cortesa that dainty Lady of Italy comb'd her hair and sprinkled her gown every morning with this sweet water following whereby the aire circumfluent was so perfumed that wheresoever she stood no stinch could be discerned Take of Orenge flower water water of Violets water of the musk-geranium and the musk rose water of red and damask roses of each a pint powder of excellent sweet orris two ownces powder of Storax Calamite Benjoine and Indian wood of roses of each half an ounce Civet a dram and a half Mingle all together and let them stand in Balneo three daies Then after the water is throughly cold filtre it out with a fine filtre and keep it to your use in a glass very close stopt Marinellus maketh another not much inferior unto this whereof this is the description Take a pottle of damask-rose-water Benjoin Storax calamite cloves and wood of Aloes of each aâ— ounce ambre-grice and civet of each a scruple boil them together in Balneo in a glass very well stopt for 24 hours space filtre it out when it is cold and having hang'd fifteen grains of musk in it tied in a close cloth set it five daies in the sun and keep it to your use These waters are costly but verily exceeding good nevertheless sith men of mean fortune are likewise to be preserved I appoint for them these perfumed cakes and for the poorer sort a less costly perfume Take of Benjoin six drams wood of aloes four drams storax calamite four drams sweet orris two drams musk a scruple white sugar candy three ounces beat them into fine powder and with red-rose water work them into a stiff paste whereon make a sort of little cakes no bigger nor thicker then a threepence dry them in a cold shadowy place and then put them up very close into a glass and take out one or two or as many as you please and burn them upon quick coles The poorer sort may make them fire-cloves far better then you shall find any at the Apothecaries after this Receit Take of good Olbanum halfe a pound Storax Calamite an ounce and a halfe Ladanum halfe an ounce coles of Iuniper wood 2 drams make all into fine powder and then with 2 drams of gum Tragacanth mingled with rose water and macerated three daies together and an ounce of Storax liquida form the paste like great cloves or sugar-loves or birds or in what form you list and dry them in an oven when the bread hath been drawn kindle one of these at the top and set it in any room and it will make it exceeding sweet But forasmuch as no aire is so dangerous as that which is infected with pestilent influences let us consider how and in what sort that of all other is to be corrected Hippocrates for ought we read of when his own Countrey and the City of Athens were grievously surprised of the Plague used no other remedies to cure or preserve the rest then by making of great fires in each street and in every house especially in the night time to purifie the aire whereby the Citizens or Athens being delivered from so dangerous an enemy erected to Hippocrates an Image of beaten Gold and honoured him alive as if he had been a God And verily as running water like a broome cleanseth the earth so fire like a Lion eateth up the pollutions of the aire no less then it consumeth the drossie mettals So that cleanliness and good fires cannot but either extinguish or lessen any infection whereunto if we also add the use of other outward correctors and perfumers of the aire no doubt it will be much if not wholly amended The Pestilence as I have noted to my grief in mine own house taketh some first with a great chilness and shaking others with a hot sweat and often fainting In some place it raineth most in Winter others it never annoyeth but in Summer The first sort are to correct the air about them with good fires and burning of Lignum Aloes Ebony Cinamon bark Sassaphras and Juniper which as Matthiolus recordeth in his Herbal retaineth his sent and substance a hundred years Burn also the pils of Oringes Citrons and Lemons and Myrrh and Rosen and the poorer sort may perfume their chambers with Baies Rosemary and Broom it self Make also a vaporous perfume in this sort Take of Mastick and Frankincense of each an ounce Citron pils Calamint roots Herb-grass dried and Cloves of each three drams make all into a gross powder and boil it gently in a perfuming pot with spike-water and white wine The second sort I mean such as are sick of the Plague in Summer or are the first
last What Souldier knoweth not that a roasted Pigg will affright Captain Swan more then the sight of twenty Spaniards What Lawyer hath not heard of Mr. Tanfiels conceit who is feared as much with a dead Duck as Philip of Spain was with a living Drake I will not tell what Physician abhorreth the sight of Lampres and the taste of hot Venison though he love cold nor remember a Gentleman who cannot abide the taste of a rab bet since he was once by a train beguiled with a young cat Nay which was more all meat was of an abominable taste to Heliogabulus if it were not far fetcht and very dearly bought even as some liquorish mouthes cannot drink without sugar nor Sinardus hot stomack could break wine without snow which dainty and foolish conceit though it picks a quarrel with God and reason after the nice fineness of Courtly dames that abhor the best meat which is brought in an earthen dish and maketh ulcers as it were in sound stomacks yet that there is a natural liking and disliking of meats and consequently of the tastes of meats both the examples of men and women forenamed do justly prove and even Spaniels and Hounds themselves I mean of the truer kind by refusing of Venison and wild-fowl in the cold bloud can sufficiently demonstrate Meats of ordinary tastes Now let us come to the ordinary tastes of meats which are especially seven in number Sweet Bitter Sharp Sowre Fatty Salt and Flash Sweet Meats Sweet Meats agree well with nature for they are of a temperate heat and therefore fittest for nourishment they delight the stomack and liver fatten the body encrease natural heat fill the veins digest easily soften that which is too hard and thicken that which is too liquid but if they be over-sweet and gluttish they soon turn into choler stop the liver puff up lungs and spleen swell the stomack and cause oftentimes most sharp and cruel fevers Bitter Meats If any thing be very bitter as asparagus hop-sprouts and broom-buds they cannot much nourish either man or beast unless they have first been boiled or infused in many waters for otherwise they may engender as they do some cholerick humors burning bloud killing worms opening obstructions and mundifying unclean passages of the body but their nourishment they give is either little or nothing and that only derived to some special part Sharp Meats Sharp Meats as onions skallions leeks garlick radish mustardseed cresses and hot spices dry the body exceedingly being also hurtful to the eyes and liver drawing down humors sending up vapors inflaming the bloud fretting the guts and extenuating the whole body Wherefore we must either taste them as they are or not feed upon them till their sharpness be delaid with washings infusions oilings and intermixtions of sweet things Soure Meats Soure meats as sorrel lemons oringes citrons soure fruit and all things strong of vinegar and verjuice albeit naturally they offend sinewy parts weaken concoction cool natural heat make the body lean and hasten old age yet they pleasure and profit us many waies in cutting phlegm opening obstructions cleansing impurities bridling choler resisting putrifaction extinguishing superfluous heat staying loathsomness of stomack and procuring appetite But if they be soure without sharpness as a rosted quince a warden cervises medlars and such like then they furthermore strengthen the stomack bind and corroborate the liver stay fluxes heal ulcers and give an indifferent nourishment to them that eat them Salt Meats Saltishness is thought to be an unnatural taste because it is found in no living thing For the very fishes are fresh so likewise is all flesh and every fruit and all herbs which grow not where the sea may wash upon them Wherefore howsoever salt hath the term of divinity in Homer and Plato calleth it Jupiters minion and the Athenians have built one Temple to Neptune and Ceres because even the finest cakes be unwholsom and unpleasant if they be not seasoned with salt yet I hold it to be true that salt meats in that they are salt nourish little or nothing but rather accidentally in procuring appetite strengthening the stomack and giving it a touch of extraordinary heat as I will more perfectly prove when I treat of sawces For salt meats especially if they be hot of salt engender cholor dry up natural moistures enflame blood stop the veins gather together viscous and crude humors harden the stone make sharpness of urine and cause leanness which I speak of the accidental salt wherewith we eat all meats and not of that inborn salt which is in all things Fat Meats Fattiness is sensibly found not only in flesh and fish of every sort but also in olives coco's almonds nuts pisticks and infinite fruits and herbs that give nourishment Yea in serpents snails frogs and timber-worms it is to be found as though nature had implanted it in every thing which is or may be eaten of mankind And verily as too much fattiness of meats glutteth the stomack decayeth appetite causeth belchings loathings vomitings and scourings choaketh the pores digesteth hardly and nourisheth sparingly so if it be too lean and dry on the contrary side for a mean is best of all it is far worse and nourisheth the body no more then a piece of unbuttered stockfish Unsavory or unrelished Meats Flashiness or insippidity which some call a maukish or senseless taste tasting just of nothing as in water the white of an egg mellons pumpions and pears apples berries and plums of no relish is of no taste but a deprivation or want of all other tastes besides which be it found in any thing that is dry as in spices or in things naturally moist as in fish flesh or fruit it alwaies argueth an ordinary weakness in nourishment howsoever extraordinarily I will not say unnaturally it may strongly nourish some Avicen saith truly in his Canons Quod sapit nutrit That which relisheth nourisheth yet not so but that unsavory things nourish likewise though not abundantly nor speedily for what is more unsavory then fresh water wherewith many fishes are only nourished what so void of relish as the white of an egg yet is it to aguish persons more nourishing then the yeolk yea and stockfish will engender as good humors in a rheumatick person as the best pigg or veal that can be brought him CHAP. VI. Of MEATS How they differ in preparation age and sex THe preparation of meats is threefold One before the killing or dressing of them another in the killing or dressing and the third after both Of which art Timochides Rhodius wrote eleven books in verse and Numenius Heracletus Scholler to Dieuches that learned Physician and Pitaneus Parodus and Hegemon Thasius compiled also divers Treatises of that argument which either the teeth of time or stomack of envy having consumed I must write of this argument according to mine own knowledg and collections Whether
to stomachs of other Conntries unacquainted with such muddy and unwholsome meats Differences of Fish in respect of their feeding Concerning the meats which fishes feed on some feed upon salt and saltish mud as neer Leptis in Africa and in Eubaea and about Dyrrhachium which maketh their flesh as salt as brine and altogether unwholesome for most stomacks Others upon bitter weeds and roots which maketh them as bitter as gall of which though we have none in our Seas or Rivers yet in the Island of of Pene and Clazomene they are very common Also if Pliny may be credited about Cephalenia Anipelos Paros and the Delian rocks fish are not only of a sweet taste but also of an aromatical smell whether it is by eating of sweet roots or devouring of amber and ambre-grice Some also feed and fat themselves neer to the common-sewers sincks chanels and draughts of great Cities whose chiefest meat is either carrion or dung whereas indeed the proper meat for fish is either flies frogs grashoppers young fry and spawne and chiefly certain wholsom roots herbs and weeds growing in the bottom or sides of Seas and Rivers Caesar Crasus and Curius fed them with livers and flesh so also did the Hieropolitans in Venus lake In Champagny they fed them with bread yea Vidius Pollio fed them with his condemned Slaves to make them the more fat and pleasant in taste But neither they that are fed with men nor with garbage or carrion nor with citty-filth nor with any thing we can devise are so truely sweet wholsome and pleasant as they which in good Seas and Rivers feed themselves enjoying both the benefit of fresh aire agreeable water and meat cor respondent to their own nature Difference of Fish in respect of preparation Concerning their difference of goodness in preparation I must needs agree with Diocles who being asked whether were the better fish a Pike or a Conger That said he sodden and this broild shewing us thereby that all flaggy slimy and moist fish as Eeles Congers Lampreys Oisters Cockles Mustles and Scallopes are best broild rosted or bakt but all other fish of a firm substance and drier constitution is rather to be sodden as the most part of fish before named Last of all we are to consider what fish we should chiefly choose namely the best grown the fattest and the newest How to chuse the best Fish The best grown sheweth that it is healthy and hath not been sick which made Philoxenus the Poet at Dionisius table to request him to send for Aesculapius Priest to cure the little barbles that were served in at the lower Mess where he sat If a fish be fat it is ever young if it be new it is ever sweet if it be fed in muddy or filthy water keep it not till the next day for it soon corrupteth but if it be taken out of clean feeding it will keep the longer Rules to be observed in the eating of fish Sodden fish or broild fish is presently to be eaten hot for being kept cold after it but one day unless it be covered with wine pickle or vinegar it is corrupted by the aire in such sort that sometimes like to poison-full mushroms it strangleth the eaters also fish coming out of a pan is not to be covered with a platter lest the vapour congeled in the platter drop down again upon the fish whereby that fish which might else have nourished will either cause vomiting or scouring or else corrupt within the veins Finally whosoever intendeth to eat a fish dinner let him not heat his body first with exercise least the juice of his meat being too soon drawn by the liver corrupt the whole mass of blood and let no fish be sodden or eaten without salt pepper wine onions or hot spices for all fish compared with flesh is cold and moist of little nourishment engendring watrish and thinn blood And if any shall think that because Crabs Skate Cockles and Oisters procure lust therefore they are likewise of great nourishment The argument is denied for though they blow up the body with wine and make good store of sharp nature which tickleth and inciteth us to venery yet that seed is unfruitful and that lust wanteth sufficiency because it cometh not from plenty of natural seed but from an itching quality of that which is unnatural Thus much generally of fish in the way of a Preface now let us speak particularly of every fish eaten or taken by us in this Island CHAP. XVIII Of SEA-FISH SEa-fish may be called that sort of fish which chiefly liveth feedeth breedeth and is taken in salt water of which I will write according to the letters of the Alphabet that every man may readily find out the fishes name whose nature or goodness he desires to know of Encrasicholi Anchovaes are but the Sea minoes of Provence and Sardinia which being poudred with salt wine-vinegar and origanum and so put up into little barrels are carried into all Greece and there esteemed for a most dainty meat It seemeth that the people of those hot Countries are very often distempered and distasted of their meat wherefore to recover their appetite they feed upon Anchovaes or rather taste one or two of them whereby not onely to them but also to us appetite is restored I could wish that the old manner of barrelling them up with origanum salt and and wine-vinegar were observed but now they taste onely of salt and are nothing so pleasant as they were wont to be They are fittest for stomachs oppressed with fleam for they will cut ripen and digest it and warm the stomack exceeding well they are of little nourishment but light enough if they were not so over-salted they are best drest with oil vinegar pepper and dryed origanum and they must be freed from their outward skin the ridge-bone be washt in wine before they be laid in the dish Variatae Alburni marini Bleaks of the Sea or Sea-bleaks called of Dr Cajus Variatae or Sea-cameleons because they are never of one colour but change with every light and object like to changeable silk are as sound firm and wholesome as any Carp there be great plenty of them in our Southern Seas betwixt Rye and Exceter and they are best sodden because they are so fine and so firm a meat Abramides marinae Breams of the Sea be of a white and solid substance good juice most easie digestion and good nourishment Piscis Capellanus Asellus medius Cod-fish is a great Sea-whiting called also a Keeling or Melwel of a tender flesh but not fully so dry and firm as the Whiting is Cods have a bladder in them full of eggs or spawne which the Northern men call the kelk and esteem it a very dainty meat they have also a thick and gluish substance at the end of their stomach called a sowne more pleasant in eating then good of nourishment for the toughest fish-glue is made
be said of plants growing in a dry crumbling sapless and unmingled earth wherein we should see them quickly so far from sprouting that for want of their restorrative moisture they would come to withering Wherefore I conclude Neither Oriental stones for their clearness nor pearls for their goodliness nor coral for his temperating of bloud nor gold for his firmness nor liquor of gold for his purity nor the quintessences of them all for their immortality are to be counted nourishments or the matters of Diet. Object not the Ostrich his consuming of stone and mettals to prove that therefore they may nourish man no more then the duck nightingale or stork to prove that toads adders and spiders are nourishing meats For our nourishment properly taken is that nature or substance which encreaseth or fostereth our body by being converted into our substance Now for as much as our bodies like the bodies of all sensible and living creatures else consist of a treble substance namely aerial Spirits liquid humors and confirmed parts it is therefore necessary it should have a treble nourishment answerable to the same which Hippocrates truly affirmeth to be Air Meat and Liquors Meat is a more gross and corporeal substance taken either from vegetables in the earth or creatures living upon the earth or living ever or sometimes in the water whereby the grosser part of our body is preserved-liquors are thin and liquid nourishment serving as a sled to convey meat to every member and converted most easily into humors Now whereas Pliny nameth some which never eat meat and Apollonius and Athenaeus other which never drank they are but few and particular persons yea perhaps the sons of Devils which cannot overthrow the general rule and course of nature It is possible to God as the Devil truly objected to make stones as nourishing as bread to feed men with locusts a most fretting burning and scalding vermin as he did John Baptist to give us stones instead of bread and to give us scorpions when we ask eggs yet usually he doth not transgress the course of nature by which as by his bayliff he rules the world so that when any man lived without meat or drink as Moses and Elias did forty daies it is rather to be counted a miraculous working then to be imputed to the strength of nature CHAP. III. Of AIRE 1. How it is to be chosen 1. AS Hippocrates said of Meats Like Food like flesh so may I justly say of the aire like aire like spirits for hence cometh it that in pure clear and temperate aire our spirits are as jocund pleasant active and ready as butterflies in Summer but in thick dark cloudy and unseasonable weather they are dul drowsie idle and as heavy as lead working neither perfectly what they ought nor chearfully what they would Witty Cardan supposeth a like resemblance to be betwixt our bodies and the aire as there is betwixt the soul and heaven So that as they encline the soul so the aire altereth the body every way let the aire be cloudy how can the body be warm Let it be hot how can that be cold let it be chilled with frost or snow our skin yea our inwards themselves begin to shiver How staggers the head and how presently finks the heart at the smel of a damp or the insensible sense of deadly and subtile spirits carried from the ugh-trees of Thasus or the hole of a Cokatrice or the breathing of Aspes or the dens of Dragons or the carcases of dead Serpents wherewith the aire is not so soon infected as the hearts and brains of men whereunto it is carried Galen saith That the inhabitants of the Palestine lake are ever sickly their cattle unsound and their Countrey barren through the brimstone and pitchy vapor ascending from thence over all the Countrey in such sort that birds flying over it or beasts drinking of it do suddenly die And verily no bird hateth that Lake nor the Lakes of Avernum Lucrine or Padua like unto it no frogs and serpents can less live in Ireland foxes in Crete staggs in Africa hares in Ithaca and fishes in warm water then the heart of man can abide impure smels or live long in health with infected airs which if they do not alwaies corrupt men yet they shew their force and exercise their power over cattle hearbs grass corn fruits and waters a great while after poysoning us as it were at a second draught whilst we feed of infected things and as Eclipses are wont to do spitting out their venom when they are almost forgotten Sicil is recorded to be seldom void of the Plague and the dwellers of Sardinia quitted their Country oftentimes for the same cause But how could it be otherwise when the wind blows there most commonly out of Africa the mother of all venomous and filthy beasts Is not Middleborough Roterdam Delf and divers other Cities in Zealand and Holland stinched every dry Autumn with infinite swarms of dead frogs putrifying the aire worse then carrion Rome also was greatly annoyed with agues and pestilence till by Asclepiades his councel their common sewers were monthly cleansed their privy-vaults yearly emptied and their soil and offal daily carried forth into the fields whereby receiving the benefit of sweet aire and health both at once no marvel as Mr. Ajax his Father hath well noted though the Skavenger and Gun-farmer that is Stercutius and Cloacina were honoured as Gods And verily had that worthy Author lived amongst those Romans as he liveth in this unthankful and wicked age wherein to speak with Hippocrates admirantur fatui calumniantur plerique intelligunt pauci no doubt ere this he had been very highly exalted and stood in some solemn Capitol betwixt Stercutius and Cloacina as King Ludd doth upon Ludd-Gate betwixt his two sons For I assure you and let us not but give the Devil his right he hath truely plainly and perfectly set down such an art of Privy-making that if we would put it in practice many a house should be thought in London to have never a Privy which now smels all over of nothing else Neither is the aire only infected with venemous winds and vapours sinks sewers kennels charnel houses moors or common lestals as in great Camps and Cities nor only with privy vaults but also Biesius maketh mention that a house in Spain seated among many elder trees wherewithall the grounds were headged cast every man out of it like Sejus horse either dead or diseased till such time as he caused them to be rooted up and so made it both wholsome and habitable to the dwellers Furthermore it is recorded That as the aire in Cyprus cureth any ulcers of the lungs so the air of Sardinia makes and enlargeth them And as the aire of Anticyra helpeth madness so contrariwise the aire of Thasus especially in a hot and dry summer brought almost all the inhabitants into a lunacy which no