may make it to stinke 4. The qualitie either of diet or drugs as hath bene said of the good smell of vrines may likewise procure vnto it an euill smell Looke at large what Sauonarola saith of this point if thou be disposed to see further But what certaintie doth the smell of the vrine affoord vs whosoeuer shall thinke to helpe his vncertaine coniectures by the same should leape out of the frying pan as the prouerbe saith into the fire In the first place it is to be obserued that as well in sicknesse as in health vrines may offer no pleasing smell to the nose and yet the party may be free from any danger at al. But because healthfull folkes seldome send their vrines to the Physitian we will let them passe and come to the sicke I will let Scribonius speake for me Concerning the sicks vrine saith he most do teach vs that stinking vrines signifie putrefaction of humours in so much that by the difference of the smels they take vpon them to iudge of the seuerall humours so putrified O wise woodcockes I willingly yeeld to them that stinke or strong smell doth argue putrefaction in such vrines but of which parts shall this putrefaction be whether of the bladder onely or of the Liuer also of the chest or other members Nay so farre off is the stinking smell from giuing vs any particular notice of the disease that it cannot so much as affoord vs any certaine generall knowledge of the same For many sweet smelling simples saith Montanus may cause a most stinking vrine Cholericke and hote complexioned men void often very strong smelling vrines howsoeuer free frō any disease as I haue often obserued in my selfe And by what meanes I pray thee shouldst thou from the stinking smell of the vrine know putrefaction or how can this putrefaction procure this stinking smell If this were so then would it necessarily follow that whosoeuer were seised with a feauer proceeding from putrefaction of humours should voyd stinking vrines the which is most false The truth of this assumption may from hence appeare that for the most part among an hundred sicke of such feauers scarce shalt thou find one of their vrines so to smell nor yet their bloud at the opening of a veine And for this cause well said Sauonarola in his treatise of Vrines that there are other signes also to be obserued in the annoying of putrified members if we purpose well and orderly to examine trie and finde out any skill concerning vrines And indeed a thousand causes there are which may alter and change their smell By the smell then onely there can neuer be any certaintie collected to informe our iudgements concerning any disease But I am afraid the Reader will take it ill that I so long detaine him among so vnpleasing smels and my selfe begin to waxe wearie of so vnworthie a thing and as I neuer tooke any pleasure in the same so here I leaue it to them that like it better But if I should yet enter vpon the tast I feare I should be worse taxed I can tell no man their tast by mine owne experience Salt they haue alwayes bene counted as the teares likewise If any be incredulous I will not hinder him If our vrinemongers had no better beere allowed them they would not so much adore the pissepot as some of them do But yet if any purpose to practise this point I wish him to go to the Arabians who haue written so curiously concerning this point and it may be in regard of their aromaticall drugs their vrines may be of better taste then those of our Europaeans who feed on grosser food As for the other two qualities the sound and touch we will send them all in one ship to Arabia with their fellowes and now we come to the colours CAAP. III. Of the colours of Vrines how deceitfull they proue and first of the colour commonly called palew or light saffron IF euer vrine proued a strumpet it is of all other parts of the vrine most apparently to be seene in the colour For as sometimes some of the most infamous stewes strumpets infected it may be with the poxe do most curiously decke and adorne by curious painting sumptuous apparell and such other enticing trickes their lothsome and filthie carkasses to the end they may more easily deceiue such as will be caught in their snares doth it not often fare euen so with the colour of the vrine For oftentimes when they make the fairest shew doth not euen death knocke at the doore My purpose is not here to make any phylosophicall discourse concerning the causes of colours in generall and then to apply the same to vrines in particular and so to insist vpon each seuerall colour for this might proue too tedious and perhaps not so pertinent to the purpose we haue in hand And yet notwithstanding I will say something of each of the chiefe and principall colours by the which it may more easily be conceiued that the like deceit may be seene in the others like vnto them Now my purpose is to begin with that colour which is the best of all others being as it were the rule and square whereby we do discerne and iudge of the failings and defects of all the rest This colour is called in Latin Subrufus subaureus or subcroceus and in English palew or light saffron This colour our Physitians do generally account the best of all others and that it best betokeneth exact concoction Neither yet must this first and best colour arguing good concoction be simply and in it selfe so considered but restrained to flourishing age For in old men women and children whose vrines especially childrens do commonly decline towards white and pale it doth betoken that their bodies are too hote either by reason of diet exercise or some other meanes But if one should bring vnto thee such an vrine how couldst thou tell whether it were an old or a yong mans a womans or a childs the messenger not acquainting thee with the particular circumstances It may be thou wilt say the contents will make the case cleare I answer that many causes may depriue them of contents in part or altogether as hereafter shall appeare in the contents and how the substance may alter hath bene said alreadie The common opinion is the higher the colour is the greater heat is argued which opinion to be most false erronious shall hereafter in other colours appeare Besides may not a little extraordinarie watching fasting rheubarb saffron madder roots or such like colour the vrine without any excesse of heat And will the seuerall seasons of the yeare produce no alteration in the vrine that I say nothing of an infinite number of other causes which may in like manner alter them But one signification of such a coloured vrine I cannot here passe by which I remember I once read in an English vrine booke to wit that a maide
the humours in the veines to the end that in feuers they might find out the times of the same and so might more easily foretell the time of the future crise whether the same were like to be hopefull and healthfull or dangerous and deadly and withall to find out the fittest time for purging The which Galen Hippocrates his true interpreter doth intimate vnto young Physitians in these words The vrine giueth notice of these parts to wit the liuer kidneyes bladder and the strength of the vessels which containe the bloud and the weakenesse of the same as also that facultie which engendreth the humors but as concerning the infirmities of the braine the chest and lungs there be other signes and symptomes of the same whereby their diseases are discerned All these things therefore the wise Physitian is to enquire search and find out from the sicke himselfe and not from the vrine For this cause well said Damascenus in his Aphorismes Concerning diseases pronounce not rashly thine opinion neither yet looke thou vpon the vrine vntill such time as thou hast first seene the sicke and of him demanded and found forth euery circumstance belonging to the disease With him doth Rhazes an Arabian Physitian agree in his Aphorismes in these words It becometh the Physitian to aske diuerse questions of his patient to the end he may attaine to the internall cause of the disease that by such meanes he may afterwards be able to pronounce sound iudgement according to reason neither yet let him be ashamed to aske of the patient whether the disease be within or without the veine But our Physitians being like vnto the lazie sedentarie Physitians of Alexandria lest they should be by the vulgar people who do commonly beleeue that the Physitian knoweth all by the vrine taxed of ignorance are ashamed to aske of the patient the causes and symptomes of his disease And to the end they may the better accommodate themselues to the foolish humor of the simple and more ignorant sort they are not a whit afrayed to prate of diseases by the inspection of the vrine onely But would to God the truth were with them in greater esteeme then any popular applause and that they would be warned by the Poet Persius If troubled Rome do too much dispraise any thing then not to rest and relie vpon her iudgement and that they would both ingenuously confesse and tell the people how fraudulent and deceitfull pernicious and lying is this manner of inspection of the vrine brought in by some Physitians and impostors of later dayes to the great mischiefe of mankind Then for certaine would they be more carefull and diligent in searching out the natures of diseases by their causes the hurt and hinderance of the action as also by the Paâ—hognomonicke signes and then without all doubt should they cure a great many moe as also by this meanes should their names become a great deale more famous both among their owne friends and acquaintance and among strangers And by this meanes also should these wandring and cozening rogues impostors apostaticall monks perfidious Iewes enemies to all Christians the ignorant Parish-Priests alchymists and all the rabble of such rake-hels but I had almost forgotten those old trots fortunetellers be thrust out from professing physicke all the which offenders not hauing learned so much as the first grounds and principles of naturall Philosophie or Physicke do without controll or punishment trie their desperate remedies by the death of many a man Wherefore there could nothing be deuised more profitable and beneficiall for the good of the commonwealth then that at length all Christian people were freed from the tyrannie and mischiefe of these cruell impostors who by meanes of the secret obseruation of the vrine vnknowne to the vulgar sort do conceale their owne ignorance and haue as drones do into the Bec-hiue crept into this profession By the premisses I hope thou hast heard what is the cause that Physicke and the Professors of the same are not of so high an esteeme in these our countries at this time Of the differences of signes by the which Physitians do discerne and know diseases and do presage the future issue of the same As I heare these barbarous and wicked persons falsly assuming vnto themselues the name of Physitians do mutter and grumble against me because of condemning their mad rash and foole-hardie finding out of diseases by meanes of the vrine onely for whose slanderous backbiting I care not a rush For such as cannot helpe I see not how they can hurt me No more can I conceiue what the Physitian can performe as concerning the cure of the disease being ignorant of the nature and estate of the same For this cause the ancient Physitians did with great labour trauell and industrie search out the cause the nature and substance of the disease from the which the indications of remedies are deriued and not from the vrine onely but from the signes called Pathognomonicke and from the whole concourse of the symptomes or accidents who did likewise deuide Physicke principally into two parts to wit that which we commonly call Therapeuticke whose most large and common scope is to cure diseases by contrary remedies and into that part which we call Diagnosticke whose most common scope is to discerne the whole and sound from the like and the sicke and infirme from the whole being vnlike the one to the other And this part of Physicke doth farre excell the other to wit the Therapeuticke the which without the Diagnosticke is of small vse or profit And because it did lay open the perfect and absolute knowledge of the disease by meanes of the signes Pathognomonicke proper and peculiar to euery disease together with the concurrence of accidents which the Empiricks called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which were nothing else but the collection by obseruation of certaine accidents and circumstances of diseases the later Physitians therefore gaue it the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or that part of Physicke which handleth the signes of diseases Wherefore we cannot but much wonder at Galen a man of so great learning who besides two hundreth and fiftie bookes written of diuerse sciences and of all the other parts of Physicke aboue foure hundreth all being likewise written in so good order and method that notwithstanding he hath not brought to full perfection this so noble a part of Physicke called Diagnosticke but onely dispersedly here and there especially in that booke called the Constitution or ordering of the Art of Physicke hath as it were sowne some seeds of the same But yet Auicenna Rhazes and other Arabian Physitians and such among the Greeks as haue written of late after Galen as Paulus Aegineta Aetius Actuarius and Alexander Trallianus following the footsteps of the ancient Empiricks did collect and gather together in euery seuerall Chapter which did discourse of the disease a great number of the signes and seuerall accidents of the same but so
confusedly and indistinctly that hardly couldest thou discerne one manner of signe from another insomuch as thou mayest not without cause call their Diagnosticke Physicke the confused chaos of Democritus And further they do not instruct vs sufficiently what signe of the disease doth argue or shew foorth the greater or smaller strength But there is in Germanie at this day a sort of idle prating fellowes more foolish then any others who as if all the signes of euery disease were to be seene in the vrine are not ashamed by the sole and bare inspection thereof to prate and pronounce sentence concerning the substance of the disease and the life and death of the diseased as hath bene said alreadie To the end therefore that their impudencie may be made manifest and layd open to euery one I purpose to insert something in this Epistle concerning the differences of signes to the end that I may minister occasion to some others more learned then my selfe to handle the same by an absolute exquisite method the which taske I will also willingly vndertake for the good of the sicke if I may obtaine so much time and leisure that at length this so hainous a fault and worthy of no small punishment may be banished from among the companie of all honest and ingenuous Physitians and a right and perfect method as well for discerning as for curing may be set downe Now it is granted as well among Phylosophers as Physitians that the effects and accidents do indicate and declare their causes It is likewise well knowne that the accidents are nothing else but the effects of the disposition of the disease No man therefore can deny that the accidents of which number are also the actions interessed and some things which essentially do adhere thereunto do indicate and declare as well the disease as the place affected as being the harbour and receptacle of the same and vnto which the remedies ought to be applyed Now as concerning the accidents some of them are called by the Greekes Epiphaenomena that is such as do appeare indeed but vanish away againe before the disease be at an end others againe called Pathognomonica which being of the essence of the disease do both begin and end with the same And these be inseparable and certaine signes of the disease the concourse of which doth more certainly and truly declare vnto vs the nature manner and kind of the disease then any vrine can do As a continuall feauer together with a pricking and stinging paine in the side a great cough and shortnesse of breath when as they concurre together and come as it were all at one instant are euident and certaine signes of a Pleuresie But other accidents which do after succeed are called Epiphaenomena or Synedreouonta as if thou shouldest say assessors or assistants to the disease vnto the which also they are not inseparably annexed nor yet haue their originall together with the same but for the most part either seldome or after a doubtfull manner do accompanie the disease not making vp the substance but certaine differences of diseases As in a Pleuresie a red bloudie or yet yellowish spittle a paine extending it selfe to the breast bone or neather part of the midriffe watching deliberation and terrible dreames these accidents are called assistant or accompanying and do declare either the difference of the disease or else the mildnesse or malignitie of the same Now it behooueth the Physitian to ponder and expend with himselfe in such a concourse of accidents equally the strength of euery accident apart and to compare together such as be dangerous with the other which do promise greater securitie For if those which are dangerous do vanquish and ouercome the strength and vigour of nature either by their force or number then mayest thou boldly pronounce that danger is not farre from the doore And againe on the contrary if such as do promise securitie be of greater power then the former then shall the sicke escape out of the deepe danger of Scylla and Charybdis and by the vertue and power of a happy Crisis saile forth into the hauen of health and that yet more assuredly if in the meane time perfect signes of concoction shall appeare Amongst such signes some are called Decretorie or Iudicatorie other signes of cruditie and concoction others againe do foretell the securitie or danger of the disease Now the signes of concoction after the beginning of the disease is past ouer and the humours by meanes of the naturall heate well concocted sequestred and separated from that which is putride and corrupt do appeare about the time of the increasing or vigour of the disease in the vrine spittle suppuration of Impostumes which is not vnlike vnto concoction performed in the veines as also in other excretions for the excretions of euery part of the body as also of the humours which are nothing else but the superfluities and relickes of concoction do shew foorth the indisposition of the same Wherefore in the infirmities of the chest and instruments of respiration a spittle white euen of an equall consistence is alwayes a good and laudable signe of concoction But if the sicke be not at all able to spit out any thing then doth it shew foorth absolute cruditie and if he should chance to spit a spittle without any mixture being thin waterish of a leaden colour or of the colour of verdigrease it doth not onely argue cruditie but doth also portend the vtter ouerthrow of the patient But the vrine being an excretion of the second concoction doth certainly shew foorth the crudity and concoction of the humours contained in the veines guts liuer and places adioyning the said parts being annoyed either with feauer inflammation Scirrhus or yet any other distemper whatsoeuer For if the same both in colour and substance be like vnto such vrines as are vsually seene in perfect health hauing a residence white euen and like vnto well concocted matter it doth truly witnesse vnto vs not onely the concoction of the disease especially in feauers but also that the naturall force and power is a great deale stronger then the disease and therefore that it is like to obtaine the victorie in the conflict with the crisis But by this meanes the vrine is no Pathognomonicke signe and yet a necessarie signe of concoction and cruditie and worth the obseruing in feauers diseases of the neather belly or intrails and places adioyning to them Wherefore Galen in the exposition of the predictions of Hippocrates doth grant that the vrine doth shew foorth and demonstrate the state and disposition of the parts of the liuer kidneyes and bladder as likewise of the strength or weaknesse of the vessels containing the bloud and of the naturall power and vertue which is the ingenderer of the humours howbeit the same Galen againe affirmeth that there are other Pathognomonicke signes belonging to the braines lungs mother sinewes c. And yet notwithstanding might
one not without cause auouch that the vrine giueth notice of some infirmities of the place through which it passeth not primarily and principally but by accident to wit by reason of the contents thereof which are nothing else but excretions proceeding from those parts which do conueigh and carrie the vrine Wherefore Hippocrates witnesseth that if any do void by vrine either grauell or little thinne scurfe or matter like vnto scales or coursest dressings of bran little gobbets of flesh congealed bloud matter or small haires or threeds like vnto the small veines knit together vnder the creuices taile these things declare that the bladder is annoyed with a scab and the kidneyes with the stone suppuration the rupture of some veine or some other infirmitie But lest any should rashly apply the signes of vrine to any other then the aforenamed diseases this famous father of Physitians doth adde immediatly Take heed therefore lest thou be deceiued the party making such an vrine when the bladder is amisse for then such vrines belong not to the whole body but ought to be referred to the bladder onely There is yet another fearefull and dangerous disease belonging to the kidneyes called Diabete or Poldropsy being an extraordinarie fluxe of the vrine called of the Greekes by reason of this vnsatiable desire of drinking Dipsacus This disease is answerable to the disease called Lienteria and for this cause they are continually forced to drinke all which being nothing at all changed in colour substance or in smell they do voide forth againe as they receiued it and that by reason of the imbecillity of the returning and altering powers and faculties of the kidneyes Now that such an vrine is the proper and pathognomonicke signe of this disease no man of vnderstanding I thinke will denie Followeth now the third sort of signes of concoction of superfluities to wit the excretions of the bellie belonging to the first concoction the which being soft fashioned according to the concauitie of the guts and somewhat fastened or stiffe being also voyded at the accustomed time and answering in proportion to the food receiued then as saith Hippocrates they do shew forth and declare the strength of the naturall faculties of the stomacke together with the good digestion thereof These three sorts of superfluities then giue particular notice of the proper state and disposition of such parts of the bodie as they passe thorow together with the strength of the naturall powers and first the superfluities of the meate do argue and declare the force and strength of the stomacke For this cause the Emperour Antoninus his groomes of his stable did daily both taste and smell to the ordure of his stately horse knowne by his greene furniture to know whether he had well digested his food or not Now the vrines are signes of the state of the bloud in the veines and disposition of the Liuer which is appointed to be the hote harth or kitchin for concoction of the humours The spittle in diseases of the chest is vnto vs a signe and token of concoction or cruditie and those of the first sort to wit of cruditie are for the most part euill and often proue very dangerous the others againe are often messengers of an healthfull and long looked for crisis whence is this saying of Hippocrates Concoction doth portend and signifie both the speedinesse of the crise and assured health but on the contrarie cruditie doth menace and threaten either the breaking forth of some tumour or great swelling or else some great paine or griefe or yet a relapse into the same disease againe There are yet many moe decretorie signes which concerne the future crise as also diuerse prognosticke signes foreshewing life or death the full explication of which would rather require a great volume then an Epistle the which haue bene exactly described by Hippocrates but especially the intricate signes of prediction by the pulse as also the signes both of the disease it selfe and of the place affected or interessed the which also I willingly passe ouer by reason that their power force efficacie and signification doth depend vppon the signes of concoction neither are there any amongst all the signes of concoction more necessarie for the Physitians vse then these pathognomonicke signes And tell me I pray thee how shall the Physitian euer be able to cure vncouth and vnknowne diseases vnlesse the pathognomonicke signes first lay them open to his view and consideration in the finding out of which the ancients tooke so great paines as hath bene said alreadie But since it is not the worke of the Physitian but of nature to concoct and cure diseases it shall be very needfull for the Physitian to know assuredly the vigor and strength of the naturall power and force whether it be like to ouercome the disease or to faint vnder the burden of it by which meanes we shall attaine vnto more certaine and assured signes of life and death then euer did those soothsayers and wizards whom the Romanes did maintaine for the benefit of their sicke people whose prophecies and predictions no man of sound iudgement will euer beleeue to containe any matter of truth But such prognosticke signes as are collected from concoction are so firme and sure that Galen doth boast and brag that he was neuer by them deceiued Now our pisse-prophet Physitians are either vtterly ignorant of them or else notwithstanding set light by them who notwithstanding sitting idle at home are nothing at all ashamed by the vrine alone to deliuer their Delphian oracles concerniug all diseases who neuerthelesse haue neuer so much as tasted of this so noble part of Physicke called diagnosticke without the which the other to wit therapeuticke can neuer subsist yet are they neither ashamed to assume vnto themselues the cure of vnknowne diseases nor yet to arrogate and vsurpe the name of Physitians Farewell and write backe vnto me againe after what method and order this diagnosticke part of Physicke ought to be both written and taught Thus farre Langius We will now proceed to some moe authorities prouing the imposture committed by some assuming to themselues the skill of discerning any disease by the inspection of the vrine onely and then will we produce some authorities to tell vs what diseases may by the vrine be seene and how in the verie same we may sometimes be deceiued From the premisses it may plainly appeare how easily such Physitians are deceiued who trust too much to the iudgement of the vrine onely for such may well be compared to the vulgar sort of people who are of opinion that not onely the disease it selfe but euen the primitiue or externall cause may also be seene in the same as did appeare by that clowne who reproched a very learned Physitian because he could not discerne his cart and oxen in his vrine Now that this our assertion is true it may easily appeare in that the vrine may alter and change vpon diuerse
the residence called hypostasis in the garland or vppermost part of the vrine The like may be said concerning the bubbles which do alwayes stay vpon the top of the vrine and according to the doctrine of Hippocrates do Prognosticate some long and lingring disease of the kidneyes To what end and purpose then keepe they such aprating that the bubbles which do in order compasse the whole crowne or garland about do declare some great paine in the whole head and if they compasse and enuiron but the halfe of the circle or garland then do they argue a paine but in one side of the head How often are such people pained with the wind Colicke or Hypochondriacke melancholy In which case howsoeuer some wind may ascend vp into the head yet is not this axiome alwayes of vndoubted truth The like iudgement may we pronounce concerning other things of the like nature which most commonly follow the condition of their owne naturall inclination and matter and not the altitude or situation of this or that part of a mans bodie Thus farre our Author And the troubled vrine so continuing of the which shall be spoken in the next Chapter may serue to ouerthrow the supposed proportion betwixt the regions of the vrine and the body of man this headach being discerned by the whole body of the vrine and neither by the circle or garland nor yet by any bubbles spume or froth in the top of the same But concerning the vncertainty of these particulars as also concerning the crowne and garland hereafter when we shall speake of the contents of vrines I purpose to discourse at greater length It is now time we come to the substance of vrines and then to all the parts of the same I will with the learned Mercuriall diuide the whole vrine into three parts the substance the accidents and the contents In the substance againe we are to consider whether the vrine be thicke or thinne and whether cleare or troubled and muddie And this we vnderstand of the whole bodie of the vrine Thin vrines according to Vasseus haue manifold significations First a failing of naturall heate Secondly a stoppage of the Liuer kidneyes and the vrinarie vessels Thirdly weaknesse of nature Fourthly that the attractiue power of the passage or pipes of the vrine is endamaged Fiftly extreame coldnesse ioyned with drought In acute diseases it argueth First the weaknesse of the concocting facultie Secondly the cruditie of the disease and of the humours contained in the veines Thirdly if it thus continue for a long time death if nature be not able to hold out if strength continue some abscesse or Impostume in the neather parts And in a Crisis threateneth a relapse as in Hermocrates 3. Epid. Now how shall any by the bare inspection of these vrines be able to know whether it hath long thus continued or no which neuerthelesse maketh much for a true prediction The partie seldome taketh notice of it vntill such time it be sent to the Physitian The messenger employed oftentimes hath not seene the partie since the beginning of his sicknesse much lesse his vrine Thinne vrines which afterwards turne thicke in an acute disease saith Sauonarola without any ease or alleutation ensuing signifieth a wasting away of the whole bodie c. But concerning thinne vrines which afterwards turne thicke something shall be further said when we shall speake of thicke vrines And concerning thinne vrines in generall because I shall haue some further occasion to speake hereafter when I shall handle the colours I will not dwell so long vpon this point But now come we to the thicke vrines The same Vasseus giues vs fiue seuerall significations of thicke vrines in generall First the combat or fight betwixt nature and the humour Secondly abundance of humors Thirdly the thickening slime and the other parts next vnto it by reason of cold if thinne vrine went before Fourthly the beginning of concoction such in the fit of an Ague so continuing Fiftly the weaknesse of the strength and no small store of humours The same Author againe diuideth these thicke vrines into two sorts into thicke transparent pellucide and troubled called by him turbida This first sort signifieth saith he a dissoluing or melting of glassie phlegme as we see in the vrines of Epilepticke persons proceeding of phlegme If it be of a citrine or yellowish colour it signifieth choller like the yolkes of egges But because the other sort of thicke vrines called turbida or troubled and muddie is more obuious to the eye and easilier discerned I will insist a little the longer vpon the same The same Author assigneth three significations to such vrines First a great agitation and stirring of crude and vnconcoct humours together with no small store of windinesse Secondly abundance of humours which neuerthelesse are by nature expelled Thirdly the great trouble and encombrance nature hath in the expelling and sequestring such humours But these troubled thicke vrines are yet diuided into three seuerall sorts First some being thinne at the first making do afterwards thicken others are made thicke and after a while settle and finally some are made thick and do so continue being like vnto horse-pisse Such vrines saith Ranzouius as are made thinne sometimes suddenly thicken and grow troubled this in health cometh often to passe after exercise and to others after sicknesse And after I haue drunke hard saith the same Author I make a cleare vrine which in a very short time groweth thicke and so setleth to a great residence Others hold that it signifieth that nature now beginneth to set vpon the humor and to concoct it I haue often obserued such an vrine both in perfect health and before and after sicknesse Cold winter weather also often altereth thinne vrines into thicke Such as are made thicke at first and after settle to a thicke residence and become cleare signifie and declare vnto vs that the disease wasteth away as declaring nature now to make a separation after which it expelleth at a place conuenient Vrines made thicke at the first and so persisting are generally accounted and that not without cause the worst of the three which according to Hippocrates argue great headach either present or imminent being especially ioyned with a feauer But this is not perpetuall saith Galen for a troubled vrine generally is an accident of the abundance of raw humours either concocted or turned into wind and not of a phrensie and yet such an vrine may both accompanie a phrensie and be without it as all other such accidents as neither are contrarie to phrensie nor yet proper thereunto Of these vrines which do not settle saith a learned Author but yet much more of such as being at first made thinne do afterwards thicken we can giue no certaine prediction for such vrines do sometimes onely signifie cruditie and sometimes againe they are very bad But the diligent
red yet saith Galen all are coloured with a greater or smaller portion of bloud therewith mingled Neuerthelesse that this same colour of vrine is procured by the mixture more or lesse not of bloud alone but also of an high coloured choller ioyntly or seuerally according to the greater or smaller quantitie thereof is not by a small number of learned Physitians maintained as also that this same colour of vrine is often and vsually seene in hote and acute diseases is not vnknowne to the very vulgar and vnlearned sort of people Now a many causes may bring foorth this effect this colour of vrine higher or lower appearing in a many hote and acute diseases which would puzzle a good Physitian by the bare sight of such an vrine to know what disease it were But yet is not this rule so infallibly true that it admitteth of no exception as is the opinion of many And therefore most erroneous and dangerous is the practise of such as vpon the bare sight of an high coloured vrine presently without any further deliberation or enquiry of circumstances both prescribe Phlebotomie and administer all maner of cooling medicines to the great ineuitable danger and preiudice of the patient from the which errour also the learned Arabian Auicenna is not free as our learned late writers haue well obserued And as I deny not but that this may often prooue true so on the other side it is most certaine that the vrine may be of such a colour and yet either proceed from a cold cause or else from some imbecillitie and weakenesse as cometh somtimes to passe in Dropsies c. But lest this should seeme stuffe of mine owne braine and hatched at home heare from the mouth of a worthie Author something concerning the same purpose It is not seldome obserued that the vrine by reason of a commixtion of bloud with it doth appeare of a red colour but by reason that it is either thicke or clotted it is no great difficultie to discerne the same But that so thinne a bloud should bemingled with it that not the substance of the vrine but the colour onely should be altered is but seldome seene Such a case befell a young man of 28. yeares of age or neare by This young man voided an vrine of an high red colour and thinne substance for many dayes together being very like to the vrines made in hote acute feauers The aforesaid patient had vsed the aduice of diuers ancient learned Physitians who had appointed him such meanes as are vsed for the cooling of hote Liuers At length he repaired to my selfe at that time but a young Physitian Looking on his vrine and withall seeing it of so high a red colour as also perceiuing him who was there present free from any feauer I asked him whether heretofore he had complained of any which he denyed adding moreouer that for some moneths by-past he had felt a chilnesse and coldnesse together with a great extenuation or leannesse and shortnesse of breath ioyned with a generall decay of strength as also that hitherto he had found no benefit by such meanes as he had vsed All which hauing attentiuely heard I thought good to keepe by me the said vrine vntill the next day and then to view the residence thereof the which was of a colour like vnto bloud as being indeed nothing else but bloud the vrine aboue it being but very little dyed with a pale yellow colour shewing no signe or token at all of any feauer For the which cause I did then collect that there was no exorbitant heate in his Liuer but a great weakenesse in the kidneyes by reason whereof the ends of the small veines being opened and loosened let some part of the bloud passe away And therefore I tooke a new course for curing of the same by vsing such meanes as were fit for the corroborating and strengthening of the kidneyes and veines not omitting fit and conuenient diet and among other things goats milke And so at length the vrine came to its owne naturall colour againe his bodie also enioying the benefit of nourishment as it was wont in former times and thus in a short time recouered his vigour strength and former perfect health againe Such an excretion of bloud which cometh thus to passe by reason of the loosenesse and widenesse of the mouthes of the small veines or yet of the thinnesse of bloud is commonly called Diapedesis that is as much as a streining through It cometh also to passe that some bloud is voyded by vrine many other wayes sometimes some great stone fretting the passages betwixt the kidneyes and the bladder called Vreteres bloud doth also accompanie the vrine but withall it is blacke and clotted The stone continuing for some certaine space in the bladder prooueth likewise sometimes the cause of this inconuenience and that especially after riding or some other violent motion of the bodie In women also some part of their menstruous fluxe is sometimes intermingled with it Sometimes againe the bloud issuing out of the gummes being suddenly stopt doth search for it selfe a passage through the bladder The kidneyes being wounded first doth bloud issue out by the vrines and afterwards matter mingled with it as it befell that woman which was stabbed in the loynes with a dagger first voyding blouddie vrines then afterwards mingled with matter vntill such time as both the wound and the kidneyes were cured And that this was a wound in the kidneyes did plainly appeare by some portion of the same taken out of the wound The exulceration of the kidneyes is also accompanied with bloudie vrine after the which vnlesse remedie be in due and conuenient time procured matter doth follow It is likewise sometimes seene that decrepit old men do voyd vrines mingled with bloud which are of a blackish colour accompanied with some red the which doth declare that the vigour and power of the kidneyes is almost quite abolished But I wish thee yet to lend thine eare a little to the same Author yet againe in a storie or two more which will adde not a little light to this matter The vrine doth appeare of a reddish colour not onely when the Liuer is surprised with a Gangrene or the bodie with any hote or acute disease such as are Tertian agues burning feauers inflammation of the internall parts but often also in the debilitie weakenesse and coldnesse of the Liuer or stomach proceeding from long and lingring diseases The like tincture it receiueth now and then in the extreame pinching Collicke passion when as some tough and clammie humours possessing the guts do hinder the passage of the faecall excrements A Gentleman of account saith he voyded vrine of a very high red colour howbeit free from any feauer being at the same time much tormented with the Collicke accompanied with a retention of the faecall excrements After the iniection of an anodine or mitigating glister the paine was much eased and withall
the vrine became of a remisse and light colour such as it was wont to be in his former health After a short space his vrine reassumed againe its former high colour vntill such time as by frequent reiteration of glisters the vrine at length persisted in that laudable state and condition once before begun the bodie also without any artificiall meanes performed its ordinarie functions A Citizen of good account about fiftie yeares of age being freed from a Quartane ague which had held him for the space of foure or fiue moneths fell into that kind of laske which we commonly call Lienteria His excretions by stoole were very liquid and crude and no remainder of the heate of the Ague to be discerned His vrines also were of as high a red colour as is at any time to be seene in the most violent burning feauers or inflammations of the inward parts But yet did I not build vpon any so rotten a foundation but hauing a more watchfull eye on other matters I thought it necessarie in the first place to haue a care of the stomach and in the next place of the Liuer both being by meanes of the former Quarterne ague not a little weakened For this end and purpose I prescribed his diet in qualitie hote and drie allowing him for his drinke the best and strongest wines such as are Sacke and Canarie Physicall meanes were Diagalanga Diatrion-pipereon and such like By continuance of which meanes this much at length was obtained that the saecall excrements did now shew forth good concoctiō the vrines also as in his former perfect health After all the premisses the aforementioned patient assuring himselfe of perfect health did secretly fall againe to the too liberall drinking of beere Immediatly after this disorder the colour of his vrine was againe altred into an high deepe red vndoubtedly declaring vnto vs that sometimes the vrines receiue an high and deepe colour by reason of the cruditie and coldnesse of the stomach After that time therefore he refrained againe from beere vpon the which his vrine returned to its former laudable condition neither did he after that vse any beere vntill such time as he had perfectly recouered his former health againe These things haue I related because of the ignorance and error of many who are perswaded that the vrine cannot be died with so high a colour any other way then by heate who whensoeuer they see such an vrine brought to them the patient being tormented with the Collicke they very vnaduisedly and rashly haue recourse to the cure of a feauer neglecting the cure of the Collicke which by these meanes they are so farre from curing that they do rather much increase the paine of the same But if these men had read Galen to Glauco they could not be ignorant y ◠vrines sometimes do appeare of a reddish colour in cold diseases or at least such as are not very much distempered with heate For writing of the Quotidian ague which hath for materiall cause crude and raw humours thus he writeth In Quotidian agues the vrines are either white or thicke and muddie or else of a red colour Martinus Akakia in his Commentarie addeth that the vrines then become of a reddish colour when as by weaknesse of the Liuer or the veines the red waterish substance issueth out with the vrine Fernelius also lib. 6. pathol cap. 13. writeth that they are not a little deceiued who do ascribe bloudie vrine or that which is of a red windie colour resembling the washings of raw bloudie flesh vnto the imbecillitie and weaknesse of the Liuer for he cannot conceiue how that bloud can come from any other part of the bodie without some indisposition of the kidneys But yet by the leaue of so learned a man many things there be which make against this assertion For oftentimes by experience we see many plethoricke young men feeding on abundance of daintie dishes liuing in ease and idlenesse to pisse bloud by meanes of a relaxation of some veine who by the onely meanes of Phlebotomie together with the application of some Emplasticke remedie to the region of the Liuer about the which place they say they find some weight ioyned with some distention reaching vp to the right shoulder are perfectly cured And who can here I pray thee accuse the kidneyes there being no paine nor trouble at all felt in the making of his vrine And thus may the deceit and vncertaine iudgement had by the varietie of these red vrines in hote or cold diseases easily be conceiued for the which cause I will here surceasse from insisting any more vpon them but now because mention hath bene made of some small quantity of bloud issuing foorth with the vrines we will say something of the abundant pissing of bloud illustrating it by some authorities as heretofore we haue done Now as these vrines of an high and intense red colour do strike a terrour often in the beholders much more doth this liquor of life the bloud it selfe I meane issuing out of the vrinarie pipes and passages cause no small amazement to the eyes of the ignorant and sometimes of the more iudicious beholder of it And yet doth not this alwayes portend so infallible and vndoubted danger as by many is deemed Sometimes indeed the danger is so great that not onely a meane and ordinarie vnderstanding but a more refined iudgement may iustly feare the future danger as in the rupture of some great veine neare the Liuer or the kidneyes after which doth an vlcer often ensue and after a long torturing and tormenting paine Death most commonly maketh an end of their so miserable and painfull life Sometimes againe this fluxe prooueth very safe and secure as in criticall and periodicall excretions But heare I pray thee an ancient Author deliuer his opinion concerning this point Some men there are who by certaine turnes and at certaine times do pisse bloud abundantly being a disease not vnlike to the haemorrhoides or piles The state and constitution of their bodie also is not vnlike for they are very pale dull sluggish and lumpish they loath their food and after this excretion of bloud there followeth a certaine resolution and faintnesse of their ioynts their head notwithstanding becometh much lighter and better But if at this accustomed and wonted period of time there shall happen a suppression or stoppage of the aforesaid fluxe they are presently surprised with a great head-ach their eye-sight waxing dim seconded with a giddinesse and swimming in the head Vpon which occasion it commeth to passe that many of them fall into the falling sicknesse some of them againe being puffed vp and swollen with their eye-sight somewhat darkened do resemble Hydropicke persons others are oppressed with melancholicke diseases and some againe with Paralyticke passions All these inconueniences do follow vpon the suppression of any former fluxe of bloud Sometimes pissing of bloud saith Hollerius is criticall
and commeth by certaine turnes and set times and with such a one was troubled a certaine Nun mentioned by Musa who euery moneth vpon the suppression of her monethly disease did pisse bloud in abundance Archembault the Counseller by turnes did sometimes cast vp by the mouth and sometimes did voyd it downewards by stoole and againe at other times by the yard Some at the passing away of the Spring do pisse bloud and this I find written by Archigenes that some do by certaine turnes voyd great store of bloud by the yard being first collected in and about the kidneyes and that they find themselues much eased thereby I am very familiarly acquainted with one Donatus Arrigonius a merchant of our towne who in his iourney to the faire of Bohan which is held three or foure times a yeare in his iourney obserued that he was surprised with the Iaundise Afterwards as he was vpon his iourney homewards to Mantua and fast asleepe in his Inne being accompanied with another friend who lay in the same bed with him vpon the sudden there issued out at his yard of its owne accord great store of blackish bloud in so much that his companion being all wet with the bloud wakened him being almost halfe dead and with much ado at length brought him home to Mantua againe but withall quite freed from his Iaundise A certaine yong man after the eating of great store of garlicke pissed afterwards great abundance of bloud and after a little while signes of an impostume in the kidneyes might be obserued to wit some matter issuing forth from the same from whence I did collect that the sharpnesse of the humour had caused an excoriation in these parts by meanes of the opening of some veine I did see at Mothon a man who with a fall off a ladder filled halfe a chamber pot with the bloud he pissed who immediatly after the taking of a little Lemnian earth did recouer the bloud came without any vrine and that perhaps because the contusion was not farre distant from his yard About some nine or ten yeares ago an Inne-keeper of Northampton a fat and corpulent man hauing now and then voyded some small quantitie of bloud with his vrine did notwithstanding but little regard the same vntill such time as he fell into a totall suppression of vrine the paine whereof made him cast forth such pitifull cries and complaints that his sorrowfull neighbours did much commiserate his distressed estate His wife no lesse perplexed then amazed at this so sudden and vnexpected accident at his desire sent to intreat my ayde and counsell in this his so great extremitie Some halfe an houre or lesse after the administration of a diureticke drinke inwardly and a Cataplasme outwardly applyed to his share he filled almost a chamber pot with bloud some small quantitie of vrine being mingled with the same whereupon followed immediatly case and alleuiation of all his former annoyance The same night about an houre after he sent me a little wooden dish almost halfe full of gobbets of congealed and clotted bloud resembling the substance of the Liuerie selfe The next morning againe he sent me an vrinall almost full of bloud voyded at the same place no vrine to the iudgement of the eye at the first to be discerned mingled with the same I caused him bleed oftner then once besides other fit and conuenient remedies as well in diet as otherwise and yet this fluxe continued lesse or more for some few dayes after In the space of one weeke he lost in all aboue a gallon of bloud For preuention I wished him besides gooddiet hard to be obserued by people of that profession with corroboratiue and other medicines fit for that purpose with speciall regard to the Liuer not to neglect Phlehotomie at least euery Spring and Faâ—l which he duely put in practise for the first yeare and for anything I could euer heare was litle or nothing troubled after that time with this infirmitie After this he liued at least three yeares and then dyed suddenly of the cause whereof here to discourse were besides my present purpose Diuerse others haue now and then by me bene obserued troubled with the like euacuation without any great hurt or hinderance to their health whom to auoide prolixitie and tediousnesse I here willingly passe by onely one I will touch but in two words A little child aboue fiue yeares of age vsed at diuerse times to pisse pure bloud not keeping any certaine times or turnes This the Gentlewoman her selfe the childs grandmother dwelling not farre from the towne of Northampton told me who did likewise affirme that she had not discerned any hurt he had sustained by the same yet notwithstanding for feare of some future inconuenience and after ensuing danger was desirous to vse some meanes for preuention which being by some occasions then deferred the child afterwards departed out of these quarters into another countrey where what since befell him I cannot tell But now let vs proceed to some other colours of vrines for here I thinke hath bene found as small certaintie as in the former CHAP. V. Of blacke vrines and that they are not alwayes so dangerous as they are deemed as also of blew ash-coloured or leaden and greene coloured vrines together with their seuerall significations and vncertainties THe highest and intensest of all other colours is the blacke the which when it presenteth it selfe to the view of the eye in any vrine it striketh no small feare and terror in the minds of most men yea and sometimes of those of no ordinarie vnderstanding That this feare was not altogether without some ground may be seene by some passages of our old father Hippocrates who doth peremptorily affirme that as well in men as in women blacke vrines are alwayes dangerous And of the like opinion and iudgement was once his trustie interpreter Galen confidently auouching that he neuer knew any one recouer whose vrine was altogether blacke howbeit the danger was the lesser if the residence onely were blacke lesse againe if the middle part or swimme and least of all if the cloud onely were of this colour Howbeit the same Galen in another place affirmeth That if there be a retention of a womans monethly fluxe of melancholicke bloud there is no cause of feare if in such a case the vrine appeare blacke to the eye And againe in the storie of that woman who being surprised with sicknesse the second day after she was brought to bed the third day she voyded thinne blackish vrines Galen speaketh of no further inconuenience to ensue vppon the same but maketh onely mention of a certaine commotion and agitation of the humours of the body ioyned with a a certaine conflict and yet of all sorts of blacke vrines this thin blacke is counted the best Blacke vrines may be voyded both in health and also in sicknesse especially by way
also sometimes obserued to be thinne then signifying the melting of melancholy which doth but a little colour the vrine And sometimes also it signifieth blowes and stripes howbeit not in any violent or excessiue manner and in such a case it is a laudable and good signe As concerning greene vrines of them our Physitians commonly make two sorts one properly so called and the other called greene oylie vrines As for the first it signifieth according to our writers abundance of choler adust and of a maligne qualitie and almost readie to be turned into blacke being daily more and more parched and burnt vp And commonly in the best signification it signifieth adustion of the humours long continuance and perseuerance of the same And sometimes cold in extreamest degree as was said before of blacke and then is mortall especially if leaden colour and blacke follow successiuely at diuers times pulse feeble with thirst or short breath Sometimes againe a Quotidian ague and yellow laundise especially with an ague And howbeit these vrines often proue dangerous yet is not the case alwayes alike for sometimes this colour may be also seene in found healthfull bodies Galen doth willingly confesse the same Cholericke people saith he which fast long do oftentimes make greene and fierie coloured vrines And that feeding vpon certaine kinds of foode may produce such an vrine this ensuing historie may easily declare There was a certaine Physitian who hauing fed on some nourishment of that colour did afterwards voyd an vrine of the same colour which he sent to another Physitian to fish out his opinion concerning the same This other Physitian gaue out his verdict concerning the great danger this vrine did threaten the owner But the other sending him backe word againe that vpon the feeding on such and such food it was no vncouth thing for him to voyd such an vrine and withall aduised him not to pronounce his opinion so peremptorily vpon the colour of the vrine onely The other sort of greene vrines is a light popiniay greene called also an oylie vrine that is such whose substance is clammie and thicke as oyle or fat molten It commonly signifieth colliquation and wasting of the fat within man or woman as proceeding from excessiue heate And yet such vrines if blacke vrines went before signifieth health at hand If it come suddenly and in a short time it argueth the colliquation or wasting of the kidneyes only The higher this colour is the worse they commonly hold it But I will dwell no longer vpon this colour since the vncertaintie thereof may be collected by that which hath bene said alreadie As for ash-coloured or leaden coloured vrines they haue not alwayes one and the same signification more then the former If an vrine of this colour be thicke and greene coloured vrine went before it signifieth extreame heate an â—â—urning if pale coloured vrine went before it doth portend extre a me cold and mortification This kind of vrine may also proceed from the affluxe of melancholicke humours or else by reason of great blowes or stripes and then it may prooue a good signe the expulsiue power expelling such residence towards the bottome In feauers an vrine of this colour without any setling or residence is a signe of death But in a burning feauer it doth portend a Strangurie The same causes which did produce blew vrines do also bring foorth this colour but that in this all things are more violent Sometimes such an vrine is a signe of the blacke Iaundise proceeding from melancholy But then it portends health especially if it be voyded in any great quantitie and thicke in substance by reason of the euacuation of such thicke humours It is then apparent that these colours signifie not alwayes one certaine thing but sometimes quite contrary For the which cause it is no maruell if a Physitian who should settle his iudgement solely thereupon might easily be deceiued CHAP. VI. The manifold significations of white vrines as also the great vncertaintie of iudgement by the same WHite vrines as also all other colours are either very thinne and cleare or else thicke in substance and accompanied often with a copious residence Thinne white cleare vrines like vnto faire spring water haue diuers significations as witnesseth the learned Rondeletius with whom are ioyned in iudgement the rest of our learned Physitians And first of all this vrine is sometimes seene in indifferent good health and doth now and then signifie some cruditie of the stomach Sometimes againe it signifieth obstructions of the Liuer Spleene and Kidneys which must be discerned by other signes also to wit such as be proper and peculiar to each part In old age as also in long lingring diseases it argueth weakenesse of the naturall faculties Some likewise who do voyde such vrines are from their very cradles of a weake and crasie constitution A thinne and cleare vrine made often and in great abundance doth accompanie the disease called Diabete In an obscure lurking or lingring feauer it signifieth either the Iaundise or a resolution or dissolution of the strength A thinne white vrine accompanied with other good signes doth declare the decaying and decreasing of a Quotidian ague and if it do long persist being depriued of any smell especially if strength be much decayed it portendeth either death or else the long continuance of the disease And finally with a burning feauer and phrensie it is a most deadly signe as may be seene elsewhere As concerning the ages as they are accounted dangerous in many so especially in little children as may be seene in seuerall places of the workes of the famous Hippocrates Wherefore we had need to consider many things before we proceed to deliuer our iudgement concerning such vrines If therefore such an vrine were brought to the Physitian whether would he thereby pronounce a weaenesse of the stomach or obstruction of the Liuer Spleene or Kindneys And why not a phrensie in a feauer And howsoeuer Hippocrates pronounceth this to be a most dangerous vrine yet haue I my selfe often obserued the same without any danger to the party as I doubt not but so haue many moe besides my selfe About some eight or nine yeares ago there came to me a yeoman of Northamptonshire bringing with him his vrine which well nigh filled the vrinall being as cleare as any crystall without any contents at all except some few motes such as they say are found in the vrines of women with child And because I did see so great ods betwixt his complexion and his vrine he bring indifferent well coloured in regard of the vrine howbeit neare siftie yeares of age not suspecting this vrine to be his owne began to enquire some circumstances concerning the same as namely the time of continuance At length he freely and of his owne accord confessed that the vrine was his owne and that aboue the space of sixe yeares by-past his vrine had
a red circle if it signifie any thing at all doth signifie abundance of bloud in the whole head c. Another learned author lately mentioned would also willingly haue them banished out of all the Hippocraticall common-wealth in these words following But perhaps in vaine do I labour to roote out this so inueterate and inbred opinion meaning concerning froth spume and bubbles out of the minds of our ordinarie Physitians The like may I say concerning the crownes or garlands in vrines the opinion whereof hath now almost so deeply possessed euery mans mind It is most certaine that Actuarius himselfe neuer did prognosticate any such thing by this circle or line compassing round about the ouermost part of the vrine hauing onely brought it in to the end he might prognosticate by the bubbles when as they do appeare in it And who is so blind that doth not see how ridiculous a thing it is to prognosticate by a certaine circle or roundring which may be as well obserued in any other round vessell filled with any liquor as in an vrinall As concerning that crowne or garland which is the superficies or ouermost part of the vrine which Actuarius seemeth to haue borrowed from Hippocrates we haue by the authorities of Galen alreadie reiected Wherefore in my opinion these crownes and garlands shall be banished farre from vrines So farre our author It is not also vnlikely that if they had bene of such vse and necessitie but Hirpocrates or Galen would haue mentioned them together with their seuerall vses in Physicke they both being so curious in searching out the seuerall significations of this signe If any will yet obiect that our moderne Physitians haue added many things to former inuentions I could reply it is true indeed and might well come to passe in such things as neuer did present themselues to their senses or else in such things whereof they had no experimentall knowledge but I suppose they were as eagle eyed in Asia and other parts and could see as farre into a milstone as any of our late Europaean Physitians And this shall now suffice concerning circles or garlands we now proceed to the rest Bubbles spume or froth are all accounted to proceed from one and the same cause differing in some circumstances onely Now if we shall narrowly obserue and marke what can be said of them we shall find no lesse vncertaintie in the predictions by them then in the former Actuarius saith our aboue named author maketh mention of many things concerning this matter which neither Galen nor Hippocrates haue obserued and that in my opinion saith he because they were not worth the obseruing And againe a little after Such things as Actuarius hath set downe concerning the spumes and bubbles are nothing to be regarded For who seeth not that as well the spume as the bubbles stay longer in the crowne or garland of the vrine and in the middle part of the superficies or ouermost part they are sooner dissolued For the case is not here alike as in the garland where the solid body of the vrinall is an occasion that they sticke longer and more firmely to the same And this not in vrine onely but in any other liquor in like manner may easily be obserued to wit that such froth and bubbles do longer persist in the circle ioyning to the vessell then in the rest of the ouermost part of the same c. This foundation then being rotten the rest of the building must needs fall to the ground They tell vs in the first place that bubbles which stand round about ouer the garland onely and continue without parting if they be of the same colour the vrine is of they declare that there is great paine in all the parts of the head But if they occupie onely the one halfe of the garland then is that paine in one halfe of the head But I assure thee such bubbles may be seene and thou not able to discerne whether the wind be in the head or taile And besides thou mayest sometimes finde a good fellow who could quickly fill a baggepipe with his bum and yet in his vrine see neither bubble nor any other such babble But concerning the vncertaintie of these things something hath bene said alreadie in another place whereas mention was made of the regions of the vrine answering to the parts of mans body which was proued most false It is granted that sometimes these bubbles do not appeare at the first in the beginning of the disease howbeit after a while they begin to shew themselues and then is it an argument that nature waxeth strong to concoct and ouercome the bad humours In feauers therefore such do signifie the declining or decaying of the same But if they haue bene from the beginning still so continuing then is the danger greater howbeit better with a thicke then with a thinne vrine Now put the case that in an vrine brought to thee from afarre thou mightest discerne some such bubble or froth yet how shalt thou be able to discerne whether any were in the vrine at the beginning of the disease or no The messenger for the most part can tell thee no more then the ground he goeth on and it may be that neither the patient nor any about him are able to obserue such nice curiosities as often not obseruing matters of greater moment But put yet the case thou couldst discerne some headach by the aforesaid contents how shalt thou euer be able to discerne whether 〈◊〉 come as we say per sympathiam by consent from the neather parts which is most common or per idiopathiam that is be primarily seated in the head And if thou knowest not this thy knowledge is to small purpose the cure differing according to the seuerall causes Of this the patient will giue thee better satisfaction then a thousand vrines If bubbles do appeare in the vrine saith Reusner together with the signes of defluxion or distillation of humours especially if a feauer be therewith conioyned they do portenda Pleuresie as also the Gout and great store of spume or froth appearing in the vrine without the shaking of it besides wind in generall it doth presage that the wind collicke threatneth such a partie The same Reusner affirmeth that Rhases writeth that round bubbles do prognosticate bleeding at the nose and that such as be of a colour yellow like saffron with a little whitenesse do portend some infirmitie of the Lungs But I beleeue he were a cunning Physitian that could tell or name the disease by the vrine onely Againe these frothie vrines according to Galen do signifie a certaine melting or wasting away of the bodie or an vnequall perturbation of the same by reason of some windinesse the first of these being dangerous but not so the other but rather prognosticating the long continuance of the disease Such frothie vrines with some bubbles are to be seene in feuers proceeding from the abundance of
diseases then this want of contents argueth great defect of naturall strength and vigour In the declining of the disease it is not a messenger of so bad newes yea although it were in the vigour and strength of it And moreouer that many diseases are brought to a happie and expected issue without any contents at all is no vncouth thing What certaintie then can be collected either by the presence or yet by the absence of the contents Now howbeit heretofore some contents on the top of the vrine haue bene mentioned yet are these last mentioned most commonly and constantly to be seene ordinarily in vrines and therefore are more properly called contents and so to be vnderstood by that name Now all these three cloud swimme and grounds haue one and the same materiall cause and their generation is also alike differing onely in place and situation according to the weight of the matter and the concoction of the disease When the disease is yet crude and not concocted yet in some forwardnesse thereunto then appeareth that which is commonly called a cloud for the proportion and analogie it seemeth to haue with the clouds of the aire When the disease is yet in a better forwardnesse then is to be seene in the vrine that which is commonly called the swim or sublimation hanging as it were betwixt the ouermost and neathermost region of the vrine But when nature hath now gotten the vpper hand of the disease then doth this which we call ground settle to the bottome of the vrinall My purpose is not here to enter into a large discourse concerning the engendring of this substance and farre lesse yet the controuersies about the same which I leaue to be discussed in the schooles my intent here being onely to discouer the vncertaintie of iudgement which these contents do affoord vs. Now when thou seest the cloud swim or residence what canst thou pronounce but some generall and indefinite verdict concerning the cruditie or concoction of the disease but what this thy disease is thy vrine will neuer reueale vnto thee nor any of the rest of the signes and circumstances to be obserued in diseases And howsoeuer the materiall cause of all these three be one and the same differing onely in circumstances yet may sometimes the one be without the other Whersoeuer there is a swim saith Scribonius there is also a ground or residence which may also be vnderstood of a cloud howbeit the ground may be without the former to wit if it do not containe such a flatuous matter as raiseth the same vp according to the testimonie of Galen Moreouer the best and most healthfull vrine is accounted such as hath no such cloud nor swim in it as witnesseth the same Galen And moreouer if they be present the iudgement by them is yet vncertaine For who can tell whether this cometh to passe by way of crisis or otherwise vnlesse he weigh in the ballance diuers other circumstances according to the which criticall dayes are accustomed to be tried And besides the premisses all vrines do not suddenly settle and they assigne vs seuerall times for the vrine to settle in some assigne vs halfe an houre some the sixt part of an houre c. But better it were when they are setled then to giue out our iudgement of them For I haue often let vrines stand by me and could see no setling till the next day Now what couldest thou haue iudged of such an vrine the first day especially if the messenger according to the common custome had hyed him home What couldest thou haue said concerning the same And yet is this a case which cometh not seldome to passe Moreouer these contents do sometimes suddenly vanish away and that after an houre or two after the voyding of the vrine Iâ— may then plainly by the premisses appeare saith the same Author what counterfetting iuggling and deceit they vse and how wicked their practise is who without any other coiudicant signes do by the vrines onely giue out sentence concerning the infirmities of the bodie of man their causes and beginning their subiects adiuncts c. Now something concerning the seuerall sorts of grounds or contents in the vrine must likewise be said that the errours and impostures in this point as well as in other parts of the vrine may be layd open to the capacitie of the most ignorant As in the colours therefore so in the contents we will begin with the best of all others That then is â—â—â—unted the best sediment setling or ground which is white duly knit and stable and that continually all the time of the sicknesse and that which declineth from the foresaid laudable conditions is accounted worse and that so much the more as it doth decline from them It is generally agreed vpon among Physitians that great store of yellow grounds argueth great store of yellow choler in the bodie and the lighter coloured it be it argueth the lesse the higher coloured the greater excesse Now besides that thou canst not tell what particular disease proceeding from choler there being diuers it may signifie as whether an Ague or some other disease and againe if an Ague of what sort or kind continuall or intermittent so much lesse art thou able to tell the time of it which notwithstanding maketh not a little to informe thy iudgement concerning the vrine For if at the first there be either small quantitie of choler or yet none at all and then it after increase abundantly which is knowne by changing from a white thin to a saffron coloured ground it is a signe and token that nature doth vnburden it selfe of this heauie ballast of choler and so consequently that health is like shortly to ensue But if after a saffron colour it change to a white it is a bad signe especially without signes of concoction for the which cause it will be requisite that thou obserue the seuerall alterations of the vrine and then be well acquainted with the state and nature of the disease of the patient The like may be said of red residence the which in the beginning of diseases doth not portend any good and that by reason it argueth great store of cruditie which hindereth the concoction of the bloud and such are commonly seene in bastard Tertian Quotidian Agues But yet such Feuers as are incident to Plethoricall and Carechymicall constitutions oppressed with abundance of bloud and bad humors if they attaine to their expected issue must needs be accompanied with such or the like residence The bare inspection of the vrine onely will neuer acquaint thee with the particular Sometimes both the afore-mentioned contents are to be seene in one and the same vrine which is sometimes deadly and sometimes againe proueth a fore-runner of safetie and â—â—â—uritie I will instance in two examples of mine owne experience to make the truth of this appeare About some three yeares ago or a little aboue a
say something of the blacke which may seeme to threaten greatest danger Such dust falling to the bottome either blacke or of a leaden colour proceeding of melancholie is thought to signifie fluxe of the Emeraudes present or shortly to follow and sometimes vomiting of bloud As also sometimes paine in the reines loynes c. and stopping of the Flowers and at other times paine and diseases of the Spleene c. In the beginning of the yeare 1623. my counsell and personall presence was craued for a Ladie in Northampton-shire of good account In the bottome of the vrinall wherein her vrine was put for certaine dayes together some such blacke dust might be seene which a graue Diuine there present thought to be so dangerous that he told me he had seldome seene them liue many dayes after the sight of such coÌ„tents in their vrines And howbeit some strange and troublesome accidents did terrifie the spectators who beheld her with vulgar eyes yet did her pulse put me in better hope which was shortly seconded by a happie and prosperous issue the Ladie recouering her former health againe Neither heard I any complaint of such things as these contents are said to signifie But hauing now finished both colours and contents with other things belonging to this subiect it is perhaps now exspected I should say something of the manner of pissing as concerning not a little the matter in hand CHAP. IX Of the manner of pissing the retention or stoppage of vrine totall or in part as also of inuoluntarie pissing both in sicknesse and in health THe manner of pissing is either hard and vneasie or else inuoluntarie As for the first the action is interessed three manner of wayes as witnesseth Hollerius and others First there is a great desire to pisse but cannot be effected without force and hard straining sometimes not without paine Secondly there is the like desire but the vrine passeth away but by drops Thirdly there is a stoppage or obstruction of the vrine that it is not voyded at all or else so little that it is to small purpose Painefull and vneasie pissing may come to passe either by the acrimonie and sharpnesse of the humour or by the imbecillitie or weakenesse of the retentiue facultie proceeding for the most part from cold the which painfulnesse may in like manner be procured by reason of some inflammation clotted or congealed bloud an vlcer a stone c. Suppression of vrine proceedeth from diuerse causes sometimes by meanes of the obstruction or stoppage of the guts and sometimes againe by meanes of the emulgent or sucking veines and that againe two manner of wayes to wit either by reason of the weakenesse of the drawing or sucking qualitie or else by obstruction This suppression is likewise procured by the obstruction or stoppage of the Kidneys and Vrine-pipes and by meanes of the weakenesse thereof By reason of the obstruction of the aforesaid passages it cometh also diuerse wayes to passe as either by meanes of an inflammation knob or bunch of either of these parts or others adioyning or else by reason of a stone clotted or congealed bloud or some tough phlegme impacted and cleauing fast to the place as also sometimes howbeit seldome by reason of some holes in the kidneyes and that after the voyding of some stones as Mercatus hath obserued Suppression of vrine is likewise sometimes caused by meanes of the bladder or parts thereto adioyning it being also thereby interessed And in the first place by reason of the want of the sense of feeling the sinew descending from the loynes and the hucklebone being loosened Secondly by reason of the failing of the expelling power of the bladder c. Thirdly the exceeding great quantitie of vrine distending and stretching out of the bladder detained longer then is conuenient may bring this sometimes to passe Fourthly the resolution or loosenesse of the muscles of the neather bellie which haue likewise some interest in the furtherance of this excretion Fiftly by the totall ouerthrow of the expelling facultie as we see sometimes come to passe in burning Feauers as witnesseth Hippocrates Sixtly by the defect and fault of the vrine-pipes and that diuerse manner of wayes for sometimes the muscle which shutteth vp the bladder is clinged together by a conuuâ—sion the passage is likewise stopt either by the meanes of some tough clammie humours some clotted bloud matter knob or bunch or any tumour the outgrowing of some peece of flesh some wart or scarre and finally by reason of a stone stopping vp the passage by the neck of the bladder Seuenthly by the consent of the places adioyning the bladder and the vrine-pipes are sometimes so shut vp that they cannot freely deliuer the vrine which cometh often to passe in women by reason of the nearenesse of the wombe Eightly by meanes of a Palsie or resolution of the bladder The vncertaintie therefore of the vrine in diseases of this nature and kind may as euidently appeare as in any of the premisses And there being so many causes producing paine and difficultie in making of vrine to which of them wilt thou ascribe it Againe if there be a retention of the vrine what wilt thou send to the Physitian And if such an accident come to the cure of some Empiricke or vnskilfull Physitian his conceit will straightway leade him to some stone and so according to their ignorance in this art exhibite strong diuretickes or medicines prouoking vrine as I haue sometimes obserued which are so farre from procuring the intended good that they produce rather a contrary effect Of a suppression of vrine by meanes of clotted bloud I haue instanced alreadie This last Spring a young Gentleman of Leicestershire of good worth trauailing towards London thorow this Towne of Northampton was suddenly surprised with a suppression of vrine Being afraid of a stone in his bladder howbeit he had neuer heretofore complained of this infirmity yet tried he what the art of Surgerie could doe by meanes of a Catheter thrust vp thorow his yard towards the necke of his bladder together with some other meanes which notwithstanding tooke no effect The next morning about eight of the clocke I was sent for to the patient whose belly began to swell and some fumes to ascend into his head By meanes of a gentle opening inlep together with a Cataplasme applied to his share it pleased God to accomplish his desires howbeit a messenger had bene already sent away to bring with him an expert Surgeon to make incision He voyded that day abundance of vrine of a laudable colour and answerable contents so that none could find any fault in the same and the next day he went forward in his intended iourney towards London The passage of the vrine in this patient was somewhat narrow as seemeth and that by reason of some former infirmity and perhaps some wind gathered in the great gut might make some compression of the
ago his iudgement by a Gentleman concerning his disease being demanded answered It was a disease in his spirits The Gentleman died within a few dayes after of a Feauer which tooke possession of the whole bodie and a Physitian that came afterwards to him thought it to be a Squinancie and that the Parson had wronged him in deferring Phlebotomie too long by the which he gaue the patient some ease for the present If this Parson had euer learned the grounds of Physicke he could haue told that that Feauer which we call Ephemera not exceeding foure and twentie houres is properly said to be in the spirits being commonly free from danger but if it exceed this terme then turneth it to some other Feauer and so loseth the former name But what remedies were by you appointed for this patients blind Ague as it pleaseth you to call it If a blind Ague it had as blind a remedie a vomit was exhibited Phlebotomie prescribed As for your vomit although I neuer did see it yet I am not ignorant of the matter and nature of it But be what it would that it was then vnseasonable I thinke any of common sense cannot deny For in the first place he had not long bene sicke neither yet came his sicknesse by any surfet to induce you at first dash to prescribe him such a vomit before any other remedie Againe you ought not to be ignorant that in most diseases acute especially the appetite faileth at first and yet vse we not alwayes to begin with strong stibiate vomits But what were the effects of your vomit we haue heard and the patient fared the worse for it He was subiect to an old paine in his head and with this vnseasonable vomit the torrent of those sharpe and maligne cholericke humours wherewith his bodie abounded were drawne vp towards the throate and other parts adioyning hence had he that exulceration in his throate and mouth the hicket c. I know your grauitie would disdaine the name of an Empiricke but pardon me good master Parson this course was too Empiricall I wish both your selfe and some of your brethren to be more circumspect in exhibiting your vomits It is too well knowne in the countrey that strong stibiate vomits are vsed by many of you almost in euery disease as some famous Panacaea or Aurum Potabile falsly supposed good against all diseases The other Parson lately mentioned within these few yeares gaue two vomits in one day the one to a woman dwelling seauen miles off this towne who died presently the other to a woman of this towne of good account and since my patient at that time being big with child and the vomit wrought with great violence from seauen a clocke in the morning till foure a clocke in the afternoone and hardly escaped she the like danger or abortion at least Some few yeares ago my presence was required for a Gentlewoman at a Knights house within seauen miles of Northampton Her disease was a Squinancie and had bene before my comming by the aduice of a neighbour Parson for such are in most corners of the countrey to be found at least twice Phlebotomised howbeit without any successe and then had this cunning Aesculapius left her a stibiat vomit as his last anchor of hope At my coming I found her not able to swallow any thing at all the drinke which she assayed to swallow coming out at her nostrils againe The Ladie asking me whether she might take the Parsons vomit or no I replyed it was absurd both in reason and common sense and that both in regard it could not descend into the stomach as also for feare of attraction of the humour towards the place affected In three dayes space by meanes of attractiue glisters which the Parson had omitted and some other meanes I vsed the patient by Gods helpe recouered againe her former health But to our purpose againe The next remedie by you prescribed was Phlebotomie I denie not the necessitie thereof howsoeuer your prescription was but by ayme as being ignorant of his strength wherein the messenger might easily be mistaken as it often cometh to passe Within these two yeares past I tooke aboue fiftie ounces of bloud from a man of middle age in this same towne being seised with a burning Feauer accompanied with a strong deliration whom his friends supposed to be so weake that after I had seene him acquainted them with the truth scarce could I perswade them to yeeld to this remedie And this was performed in a weekes space the patient taking nothing in the meane while but a little drinke or milke and water being both then and a long time after depriued of his naturall rest by his owne vnrulinesse and his friends carelesnesse and yet recouered he his health But why was not this remedie administred to our patient Because the Parson was informed of the appearing of the Iaundise But did the Iaundise crosse the former indication of bleeding The Iaundise proceedeth of diuerse causes and therefore the cure is accordingly to be accommodated It cometh sometimes solely and of it selfe without any other disease and sometimes prooueth nothing else saue a symptome or accident of some other disease as of a Scirrhus or inflammation of the Liuer c. It is also sometimes occasioned by poyson and sometimes by meanes of some stone or stones growne within this gaâ—-bagge And againe the learned are not ignorant that it is sometimes a criticall excretion safest after the seuenth day in acute diseases more dangerous or at least doubtfull before the same Our patients Iaundise appeared in an acute disease before the seauenth day That Phlebotomie in this case is required our Authors do witnesse and in many other sorts of the same yea euen when the Iaundise is but a beginning saith a learned Spaniard and that according to the opinion of Paulus Aeginâ—ta and â—ctuis two famous ancient Greeke Physitians especially in the abundance of bloud with a concourse of choler which was manifest to the eye-sight in this our patient And this same Author approoues of it in this disease euen after it hath continued a long time and that by meanes of inueterate obstructions as also in the suppression of any wonted euacuation This then was no contrarie indication to dehort or hinder you from so methodicall a course And as for some faintnesse it is not vnusuall in this disease where there is neither Feauer nor danger of death The vomit was a great deale worse then the opening of a veine Fiue dayes after when by reason of hote and sharpe humors towards his throate procured by your vnseasonable vomit this remedie brought alleuiation with some rest after ensuing What then might it in probabilitie haue procured if at the first and in due time administred And why was there no mention of a purge or glister for this Iaundise It had bene but according to the rules of reason and precepts of art
end that Paracelsus and his Disciples might be thought to surpasse all other Physitians deuised a new way to iudge of diseases by Vrines to wit by diuiding it into three seuerall principles Mercury Sulphur and Salt and so by distillation to finde out that which we demanded Libanius mentioneth a certaine water of separation which besides diuers other effects hath this also that one onely drop of it being mingled with the Patients vrine it maketh a present separation of the aforesaid Elements insomuch that the predominant Element shall apparently lay it selfe open to the sight of the eye and shall withall declare and lay open the cause of the disease Parturient montes nascetur ridiculus mus Great cry and little wooll Our Paraceleists would faine feed vs with many such smoaky promises Then come they to weigh the vrine which they will ordinarily in a healthfull and sound man not to exceed eight ounces and a halfe If it exceed this weight they thinke it argueth great abundance of a tartareous or terrestrious substance esspecially if this be to be seene after the separation from whence they do inferre a great number of such tartareous diseases as they call them and yet the wisest of them cannot tell which But let vs heare Reusner speake After the separation of the aforesaid Elements saith he the vapors ascending sticke to some part of the Still answering in situation to that part of the body of man in the which lyeth hid the very fountaine and spring of the disease and doth withall so plainly and clearely represent vnto vs both the kind and the nature of the disease that it may easily appeare to what element and principall part it is to be referred So farre Reusner But let vs now see whether there be any hold to be taken of these more then hyperbolicall promises If we shall narrowly pry into this point I doubt we shall find the old Prouerbe true Out of the frying pan into the fire But heare the cōfutation out of the mouth of a learned Physitian often quoted in this Discourse This doctrine of Thurnheusers saith he cannot by any sound argument be demonstrated For admit that the vrine be separated into seuerall elements according to the seuerall parts thereof yet can nothing but the elementarie qualities as they call them heat cold c. be discerned by the same And by this meanes shall we onely be able to iudge of the diseases of the solid parts as of obstructions exulcerations and the like And is not the vrine an excrement of the bloud contained in the veines that is of one body What vtilitie or profit therefore can come by this separation into seuerall parts Thou shalt thus onely obserue the number of the parts which are in the substance of the bloud and of what nature and kind it is Thou mayest perhaps perceiue it either to bee caused of Mercurie Sulphur or Salt But wilt thou straight-waies maintaine that all Mercuriall diseases are seated in the head onely c. If this bee true then will it follow contrary to that which thou and Paracelsus maintaine that these three grounds or elements are not common to all diseases For I am of opinion that if we will needs vse the names of these three as well such diseases as haue their originall from this Sulphureous and salt matter as any that proceed from a Mercuriall cause haue their root and originall from the head c. Thus farre our Author And may not this opinion seeme so absurd in it selfe that it needeth no further confutation For if when thou hadst vsed all thy art and cunning a countrey-man should aske thine opinion concerning his vrine and thou shouldst tell him hee were troubled with some sulphureous Mercuriall or saltish and tartareous disease would he not laugh thee to scorne and thinke it may be thou hadst beene that day too well acquainted with some pots and pipes of Tobacco And if hee should desire to know what were his particular disease and where or what particular part of the body it had taken vp for its abode would it seeme strange if he looked for some extraordinary skill after so great an outward oftentation And if he should go home and tell his wife of a Tartareous Sulphureous or Mercuriall disease who knowes but she might call him Good-man Wood-cocke for telling her such a tale of Robin-hood But put the case thou mightest yet see some Sulphureous disease as they terme it by meanes of this separation and distillation yet amongst many such Sulphureous diseases vpon which of them wouldst thou fasten thy coniecture As if a Feauer might be found out how may the kind be knowne whether a continuall or inmittent and whether symptomaticall or dependant vpon some other disease or else be it selfe a principall guest with many moe circumstances The like may be said of the other two principles So that it may euidently appeare there is greater vncertaintie in this then the other way But if they will be so skilfoole I wish they would distill the other excrement also for I am sure they may learne of both alike But yet wish I them to take this Prouiso with them that the ioynings of their stils and Alembicks be well luted with lutum moschatum or ambarinum that none of this fragrant smell be carried away with the wind and so some part of this precious liquor lost But it may be when the patient had cast vp his account he would find this manner of casting of waters as they terme it more costly then the ordinary But for my part I wish our vrine-mongers would vse it for by this meanes this great abuse might the better be suppressed But this opinion being so absurd in it selfe needeth no further confutation But fearing some infection or at least annoyance to my nose by such Mercuriall and Sulphureous smels I thinke it is more then time to withdraw my selfe out of so stinking a place The like libertie is allowed thee kind Reader to whom I am afraid I haue now bene too tedious but yet I must once againe intreat thy patience to heare the conclusion and then mayest thou quietly depart in peace CHAP. XI The Conclusion of this whole Discourse where something concerning issue and euent and casuall cures BY the premisses then I hope doth plainly appeare the absurditie of this erroneous and inueterate opinion of magnifying the vrine and the iudgement concerning diseases which may from hence be collected And therefore I hope the iudicious and vnpartiall Reader will with me subscribe to the generall conclusion to wit that there is no certaintie or assurance to be collected for the information of the iudgement either concerning the disease it selfe together with the particular symptomes and seuerall circumstances and yet farre lesse for the cure of the same by the bare inspection of the vrine onely And therefore I cannot see any iust cause why it should not bee pronounced guiltie of man-slaughter at
the least if not of murther and therefore is not a thing so slightly to be passed ouer as many may idlely imagine But me thinkes I heare some of the vulgar sort who thinke it a prettie thing to heare one prate ouer an vrine obiect That our censure seemeth too sharpe since that daily experience doth not deny that some haue from the inspection of the vrine often attained to the knowledge of that they desired Now as I denie not but that sometimes one may through hap as we say hit the naile on the head so on the other part that this manner of casuall coniecture hath euer bene allowed of by the learned and more iudicious I do vtterly denie If Christians would hold their peace yet will the heathen pleade on my side The Poet wished them a bad successe whosoeuer iudged of an action according to the issue or euent Besides that it is often a fallacie a non causa pro causa making the ignorant beleeue they see that in or by an vrine which neuer had allowance of any learned authoritie And may not any ignorant Empiricke a cozening Quacksaluer or any old woman now and then guesse aright at an vrine and by cunning interrogatories and some other shifts learne of the vnwarie messenger as well the substance as the circumstances of the disease at least as farre as they are able to relate And this to be true hath bene sufficiently prooued alreadie Besides that oftentimes the messenger himselfe cannot sufficiently informe the Physitian concerning the particular circumstances of the disease and againe his owne ocular inspection often bringeth that to the eyes of his vnderstanding which neither the messenger nor yet the patient himselfe were euer able to relate and farre lesse the vrine make knowne What hast thou then gained when one of these vnsufficient persons hath told thee some truth by the vrine To wit that then thy conceit carrieth thee howbeit most erroniously and falsly to apprehend some extraordinarie sufficiencie in that person as being best able to free thee from thine infirmitie Thus then we see Vno dato absurdo mulâ—a sequuntur One errour draweth on another The prosperous euent sometimes seconding their bold attempts inuolueth the vulgar daily in this dangerous errour But arguments taken from euent haue neuer had allowance where the rules of reason might take place And if this argument from euent may take place then will this absurditie thereon ensue that we shall be forced to allow of many vnlawfull things Many Witches and Wizards haue sometimes performed such cures as haue often astonished some of great vnderstanding that I say nothing of our Spelmongers curing by characters figure-casting with a world of other forbidden trash Are we therefore warranted by these actions to turne our backe vpon God and make a couenant with his enemie The diuell himselfe no doubt as well in the ancient Oracles as of later dayes hath sometimes told truth I should be too tedious to instance in examples But did not that counterfeit Samuel to wit the diuell himselfe tell Saul the whole truth both concerning the euent of the battell and his owne wofull and wretched end But who will notwithstanding maintaine the lawfulnesse of asking counsell at the diuels Oracles but he who meaneth to haue his habitation with him in hell Farre sounder was the opinion of a Noble man of this kingdome in these words Examples which fall out by chance were neuer currant where the cause is to be iustifyed by reason And therefore till a man can as readily produce a certaine ground to make his guesses good as score vp a register of blind euents we may rather commend his lucke then his learning Reasons and arguments saith a Heathen must be produced for the confirmation of mens courses and not examples of euents both casuall and vncertaine So farre were the ancient Aegyptians from maintaining this opinion and so carefull of mens liues reiecting this coniecturall casuall and Empiricall manner of curing diseases and iudging of the sufficiency of the Physitian by the euent or issue of the disease That at their owne cost and charges they maintained many sufficient and skilfull Physitians and moreouer set downe an inuiolable law and or dinance That if any Physitian following the precepts and rules of art recorded in the bookes of the learned in that profession yet could not attaine to the height of his hopes the Patient through the violence of the disease yeelding to fatall necessitie he was then freed from all danger of law On the other part if he recouered his Patient yet neglecting the aforesaid rules and meanes his punishment was no lesse then the losse of his life What if saith mine Author this wholesome law were brought in amongst vs as it were good reason it should where could we find so many executioners condignely to punish such Impostors Empiricks Women-Physitians busie-bodies c. Thus farre our Author Now as concerning such remedies thus casually and vnskilfully administred howsoeuer at sometimes they may either doe or at least seeme to doe some good which I will not deny yet I am sure they do often more hurt then good more hurt then on the sudden is perceiued many often praising them for the Authors of their health who haue bene the instruments of their vtter ouerthrow ruine for howbeit the Patient reape some present ease yet is his body by meanes of such medicines vnskilfully exhibited left more infirme and becommeth afterwards more crasie their cure being imperfect accidentall vncertaine and voyd of rule and reason And howbeit I could make this small Tractate swell vp into a big and voluminous booke if I should instance in a many of these casuall cures performed by Empiricks and such others which for feare of tediousnesse and prolixitie I am loth to go about yet before I make an end I will offer to the Readers view two or three Stories During my abode at Paris one Master Robin ouer-seer of the Garden of Simples related vnto me this which followeth A few yeares agoe saith he the plague of Pestilence preuailing daily more and more in this famous Cittie of Paris whereof no small numbers especially of the meaner sort died daily the learned Physitians did their best endeuours when their counsell was craued and the ignorant Empiricks also were not idle Amongst the rest was a certaine countrey Clowne carried on the wings of Fame for his extraordinarie supposed skill in curing this disease who was said to haue cured more then some of the most expert Physitians The Duchesse of Longueuille being acquainted with these occurrents sendeth for her Physitian desirous to know the cause of so happie successes by so meane a person performed which howbeit alwayes aymed at yet are not alwayes attained vnto by men of greater merit The Physitian well knowing the insufficiencie of this fellow yet not fully acquainted with the particulars and withall knowing how much is
commonly attributed to these casuall euents answered onely in generall at that instant that many things seeme often otherwise then they are indeed and false fame maketh some men famous whose names deserue rather to be buried in obliuion and after some further discourse concerning that subiect all which notwithstanding would not satisfie her more then nice curiositie he taketh his leaue for the present A few dayes after causing carefully to watch and obserue the actions of this Aesculapius he was obserued to go to a certaine place within two little leagues of Paris called Bois de Vincennes that is Vincence wood and there to dig vp certaine rootes The Physitian therewith acquainted resorteth thither with speed and finds that it was nothing else but a certaine kind of Spurge whereof there grew in that place and about no small store whereof this Clowne had at seuerall times digged vp great store easily discerned by the holes there round about that place some being but new digged After a narrow search he found that most of those whom this new Aesculapius was said to haue cured either died after a certaine time of a bloudie Fluxe this violent medicine hauing procured an excoriation in their guts being especially exhibited without any preparation of the ill qualitie or obseruation of the due dose or quantitie or else that they liued a languishing life worse then a speedie dispatch by a sudden death from whose mercilesse clawes notwithstanding this former Purgatorie was not able to free some of them The Physitian repairing againe to the Duchesse acquainteth her Grace with these seuerall circumstances as also that it seemed most of those people were able strong and cacochymicall bodies who would preferre the counsell of this Clowne before that of the learned and iudicious Physitian The issue notwithstanding did make it appeare that if any did recouer it came not to passe through his skill or sufficiencie which as seemeth was none at all but by the strength of nature able to expell both the Plague and the poyson of the medicine The learned and iudicious Physitians againe met for the most part with thin and tender bodies brought vp in ease and idlenesse and for this cause aptest to receiue the poysoned impressions of the pestilentiall aire and therefore the disease prouing greater then the meanes were able to ouercome the patients were often forced to faint vnder the burthen Neither were such dangerous or râ—ther desperate meanes as this Empiricke vsed in their opinions to be administred to any much lesse to persons of qualitie and weake constitution The Noble woman hauing heard the Physitians apologie was afterwards better pleased with her Physitian and after that time conceiued a better opinion both of the Art and the professors of the same I was likewise informed during my abode at Leua in Germanie of many rare cures seemed to be performed by that medicine which they call the Philosophers stone Aurum potabile and many other such hyperbolicall medicines exhibited by the Paracelsists of those parts And yet most of them to whom they were exhibited before the full period of a twelue moneth went to visite their friends in another world and little better successe for the most part had their maister Paracelsus himselfe Some few yeares before my coming to this towne of Northampton a certaine Empiricke and Irish by nation was accounted one of the most famous vrine-mongers in all the countrey about but especially in telling whether women were with child or no. And yet his skill in Physicke was confined to one forme of purge composed of a certaine portion of the Electuarie DiaphoenicoÌ„ mingled with so much powder of Diagridium as he could take vp betweene his finger his thomb which were his ordinary weights and scales as I 〈◊〉 since by our Apothecarie informed by which his butcher like boldnesse he cast many into most dangerous laskes accompanyed sometimes with diuerse other euill accidents as I haue heard since from some of themselues and this chiefly was then to be seene when this medicine was exhibited to thinne and weake bodies Now howbeit I could instance in a number of other examples all tending to the same purpose yet fearing too much to offend the Readers patience referring them to some opportunitie I thinke it is now high time to turne my sailes towards the shore and to cast anchor for the present And the assembling of so many sage Senators according to the ancient and laudable custome of this kingdome to apply fit salues to the festered sores of the same putteth me in good hope of some redresse as well of the abuses here complained of as of diuers other disorders I am not indeed ignorant that affaires of high consequence are to be handled in this honorable assemblie And yet I hope the life of man is not a matter of smallest moment Agitur de corto humano Skinne for skinne and all that a man hath will he giue for his life Let this Gangrene therefore in time be looked to lest it grow to a greater euill Since therefore errors of this kind are so full of danger as hath bene both in the precedent now in this present discourse plainly prooued both by a great and smaller enquest of such persons with whose worth the delinquents I am sure dare not compare I wish it may not be forgotten Sed verbum sat sapienti A word yea a nod is enough to a wise man And therefore I leaue it to your Honourable considerations CONSIDER THE MATTER CONSVLT AND GIVE SENTENCE FINIS Faults escaped Pag. 5. line 2. for would reade could p. 13. l. 29. r. stincking vrine p. 16. marg note l. 8. r. victu p. 21. l. 12. r. deliration p. 23. l. 17. r. pot-dropsie l. 29. r. retaining and marg note l. 2. r. Fo rs p. 33. l. 13. r. of a high p. 33. marg note l. 20. r. à vitiosa p. 39. r. an absurditie p. 55. l. 29. r. foure pounds p. 70. l. 36. r. winie colour p. 77. l. 5. diseases alone * The honorable Court of Parliament The right vse of vrines Foolish custom of the countrey people The pulse in many diseases to be preferred before the vrine Quandâ—que bâ—nus dormitat Hâ—merus Horat. Casuall cures sometimes succeeding do not proue a sufficiencie in the parâ—ies thus practiâ—ing a An vsual ordinaâ—ie custome to browbeat ouerthrow errors and imposture and to pleade for truth b This Panacaea was a certaine medicine made of saffron quick siluer vermilion antimonie and certaine sea shels made vp in fashion of triangular lozenges stamped and sealed with certaine strange characters and sold at a very deare rate the very name importing asmuch as a medicine against all diseases and was in as great or greater esteeme among the Germanes as euer Aurum potabile once here amongst our selues Liban contra Ambald defens syntagm aâ—can chym contra Henuingum Scheunem c D. Gwin D. Raâ—igh against aurum potabile D.
Cotta against this and diuers ignorant erronious practisers d Hieron epist â—32 partis tertia referente Langio * Iohn 18. 23. Martiaâ— Terent. Terent. Psal 141. 5. Ioseph antiquit Iudaic. l. 1. cap. 4. Zonaras annal lib. 1. High account of physicke amongst the Graecians Amongst the Persians Hippocr in epist Vide Sabell ennead 9. lib. 2. Zonar annal tomo 3. aliosque neoter Entertainment amongst the Arabians Amongst the Romans The law of Augustus Caesar against ignorant and vnskilfull practisers of physicke * Vide supra inter neoter Chronic. Carion aedit 1608. in 8. Mars enemie to Minerua Lotharius first Emperour of the house of Saxony restored learning and learned men in the west De his vide orationem doctoris Beniamin Lobschuts impressam cum obseruat medic Diomedis Cornarij medicina Doctoris First originall of Doctors and other degrees in the Vniuersities Vtilitie and necessitie of this profession * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aelian lib. 9. cap. 23. Polib lib. hist 2. 3. indeque Lang. epist medicin lib. 2. epist 48. Hippoc. lib. 2. de lege The armes or enseignes of Aesculapius A crooked staffe A dragons head in his right hand and a dog hard by him A pine apple in his left hand The winged picture of health with a pullet in her hand How carefull the Physitian ought to be in prescribing diet according to the nature of the disease and diseased Aesculapius bearded Liberty allowed ignorant Physitians cause of great mischiefe Prouerb 31. Terent. in Andr. Hippocr lib. de medico Women altogether vnfit to practise physick A tragicall storie Alexand. Bened. de curand morb lib. 15. cap. 25. 1. King 18. 26 27. 28. Soles occidere redire possunt nobis cum semel occidit breuis lux Nox est perpetua vna dormienda Catull. A good remedy ignorantly or out of season exhibited may yet proue dangerous to the diseased The laudable custome of the Germane natioÌ„ in prouiding fit and learned Physitians and allowing them good maintenance They often visit the Apothecaries shops and take a sâ—â—uey of his drugs The great commoditie of this so laudable a custome The idle inspection of vrine as it is at this day practised openeth a gap to euery cozener impostor Iohann le bon de therap puerp It is impossible to iudge of the disease what concerneth the same by the inspection of the vrine onely Langius tomâ— 1. epist 11. In symposio de republica The great care of the ancient Physitians in searching out the signes of diseases Lib. 4. salub The sweat a more generall signe then the vrine De Alexandrinorum medicorum desidia Gal. lib. 2. de natura humana lib. 6. epid passim alibi * Victu Quintiliane colorem Thus do most of our practising Parsons and Vicars become suddenly Physitians * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Damascenuâ— in Aphorism Rhaz. in aphor Si quid turbida Roma eleuaret c. Pers sat 1. Epist 83. And in England also Diuision of the signes Signes of concoction Vrine no Pathognomonick signe of concoction and yet to be obserued Praenot lib. ex edit Pres vel prognost 2. ex edit Heur lib. de natura hominis circa finem Diabete Iohann Michael Sauonar lib. de vrin cap. 1. Historie Dâ—omedes Cornariuâ— lib. consil medicinal de histor admirand raâ—â—â— Of such base stuffe we are not vnfurnished here at home Another Idem ibidem â—â—rnel Pathol. 〈◊〉 3. cap. 8. Sauonarolo loco supracitato Mercatus tom 2. lib. 3. pag. 25. edit Paliâ— 1608. Tom. 2. pag. 492. Duncan Liddel art med lib. cap. 8. Historie Deceitfulnesse of the vrine in an Impostume and paine of the head Another In an vlcer of the Lungs * Of the Hippocraticall face see our arraignment of vrines lib. 3. cap. 3. Leo Rogan lib. 3. de prouid ex vrin cap. vlt. Paulus Aegineta lib. 2. cap. 27. Dangerous errors Galen lib. 2. de cris cap. 3. 6. Timoth. Brichius Cantabrig lib. de mâ—d the. 1. aph pag. 94. Iâ—hannes Caius Britannus de Ephemera Britannica pag. 136. The vrines in maligne and pestilent feauers very deceitfull Historie Iohannes Anglicus vulgo Gatesden in opere practico communiter Rosa Anglica nuncupato What the vrines do here declare vnto vs. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est vitiligo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 siue pruritus aut prurigo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est impetigo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nomina sunt affectionuÌ„ in quibus omnibus male afficitur cutis à vinoso aliquo succo qui nescit assimulari c. Holler schol ad cap. 64. lib. 1. de morb intern b In quouis horum affectuum lepra scilicet morbo Gallico membra nutrimentalia praecipue iecur à quo omnes corporis partessuum recipiunt alimentum sere habitualiter laborant Mercat oper praedict tom 2. pag. 126. Felix Plater oper pract tract 3. cap. 4. Arguments euincing that by the sole inspection of the vrine it cannot be discerned whether a woman be with child or no. In aphor 51. 54. lib. 6 3. de natur facult cap. 3. 6. de locis affect cap. 5. 15. de vsu part Arist 4. de gener anim cap. 6. Guâ—l Adolph Scribon lib. de vrin inspect Rondel lib. de vrin cap. 40. de vrina praegnantium Mercur. lib de vrin cap. 7. Sauonarola libr. de vrin cap. 2. rubr 10. de vrin praegnantium Leo Roganuâ— lib. 2. de caus vrin cap. 15. de vrin vâ—ero gerentium Iean Marinello de Formie lib. 3. chap. 5. de maladie des femmes 2. Mercat tomo 3. lib. 3. pag. 669. Historie Diomedes Cornarius in lib. consil medicin inter historias admirandas historia tertia prima de peâ—uerso vrin in â—icio Historie of a woman with child in the first moneths Another of one in the latter moneths Absurditie of this opinion proued Some women of an hoter constitution then men Gaspar Bauhinus de Hermaphroditis Historie Of a peremptory Parson determining of the sexe in the wombe Historie Of a womans vrine higher in colour and contents then a mans Actuarius the first inuenter of these regions c. Iodochus Willichius de probat vrin part 4. c. 1. Hieron Reus schol ad cap. praedict prope finem Aphor. 34. lib. 4. Diuision of the vrine Of the substance of vrines Diuerse significations of thin vrines Iohannes Vasseus Meldens lib. de vrin iudicijs pag. 30. c. Hippocr 3. Epid. Sauonar lib. de vrin cap. 3. Of thicke vrines Idem Vasseus ibidem Significations of thicke vrines Diuision of thicke vrines Of thicke troubled vrines Their seuerall significations DiuisioÌ„ of thick troubled vrines Henricus Ranzonius lib. de conserannda valetud cap. 19. Aph. 10. lib. 4. In lib. 1. Prorrh comment 1. Leo Roganus de prouid ex vrin lib. 3. cap. 2. Hieron Reusn in cap. 6. part 1. Iodochi Willich de probat vrin Loco nuper citato Loco iam citato Consutation of an erroneous opinion of