are the Fruits which are easily corrupted there are others which stay a long time in the Stomach and they are those which are corrupted with difficulty All the Fruits whereof we design to speak in particular cool and moisten much because they are but Water gathered together and passed through the Trunk of the Tree which produces them but nevertheless with this difference that there are some colder and moister than others Fruit that have a quality which is sweet and pleasant to the taste are less cold than others thus tho' Figgs Raisins the Bon-Chrêtien the Spanish Renet and other Fruit of the like nature moisten much they have nevertheless but a coldness which does not pass the bounds of the first degree it s for this reason that they dulcifie much and that they nourish a little more than the others their matter having more affinity with our parts But if with their natural sweetness they have an odour of Amber or of Musk then they have I know not what subtle and penetrating parts which exhilerate our Heart and Brain and which make us digest them better than others Sharp Fruit cool more than sweet but they do not moisten so much they powerfully penetrate and attenuate the thick and earthy matters so that afterward they are no longer capable of doing us hurt They qualifie our heated Bowels they destroy the Flame there which often all the remedies of Physick have not been able to quench during many Months they cool our Liver remove all the Obstructions of our Bowels and give our Blood a more free motion finally they appease fluxions if we apply them outwardly and they stay a Flux of Blood from whatever part it comes Fruits which are austere and acerb and which differ but in more or less restringe the Tongue and the Palate when we eat them it seems that they stop the Orifices of the threads that terminate there by the blunted and obtuse particles of their matter I do not pretend to speak here of Fruit which are not Ripe that have all these qualities I banish them entirely from this Book as very pernicious to the Life of Man but I speak only of those which being in a perfect maturity retain somewhat of austere acerb or astringent as the Rake Pear the great Dégue the Quince and other Fruits of the like Nature All these Fruits are also more cold than the sweet and the Amb'red but they do not moisten so much and because their savour is in a more Earthy matter ev'n in this respect they do not penetrate so much as the Sharp They restring however the Stomach and the Bowels and withstand a Loosness and a Dissentery and being apply'd outwardly they hinder Vomiting retard growing Inflammations and easily cicatrize the Skin which has been open'd by a considerable Wound After all a Fruit which has been brought to perfection by the heat of the Sun and which has not been shadowed by the Leaves of its Tree will be always of better taste than another A red Apple or Pear and a yellow Raisin will always be better than others because their Juice will be better digested and their useless moisture will be easily evaporated by the heat of the Sun You must observe in the second place that I give not here precepts concerning the use of Fruits for sound and robust Persons on whom Fruits make no Impression Let such eat of them at all times and as much as they please without distinguishing their Nature and Temperament they will not find any inconvenience but because these sorts of Persons are very rare and that in the Age we Live there are more Valetudinarians than others I may be allow'd to Write only for those who have their Entrals tender and who are often incommoded by eating Fruits The greatest part of men at present are of a hot and dry Complexion we have all of us the inward parts very hot through the excess of a burnt Choler and through the redundancy of a troubled Melancholy With difficulty are we able during the Summer to support the heat of the Season without being exhausted of our strength We have the Stomach so weak and so tender through our natural distemperature that we have need of much precaution for the good use of Fruits In the third place we must remember that in walking in a Garden full of excellent Fruit which are perfectly Ripe we must not eat one which has not first been washt with fresh Water and especially if the heat of the Sun or of the day be excessive It is not of to day that experience has taught me that Fruit newly gather'd and eaten without precaution cause the Fevers which we call putrid which always begin with shiverings and tremblings because all the Juices of Fruits being then through the heat of the day and of the Season in a considerable motion they cause in our Stomach so great a disorder at the time that the fermentation is there made that the Chyle becoming crude and undigested often gives Birth to great Diseases whereas the motion of the Juice of Fruits being calm'd by the cold of the Water of the Night or of the season the Fruits make no disorder in our Stomach which then digests them better and which performs its Office much better when it is not interrupted by unusual causes After all we ought to know that our sood being in some sort like our substance changes it self easily within our parts imperceptibly to us It s thus that Bread Flesh an Egg have no Predominant quality when we put them into our Mouth and we do not sensibly feel the Vertues when we have them in the Stomach We must not say so of Aliments which we call medicamental they nourish little and on the other side they have sensible qualities which affect our Tongue and our Palate We may perceive that a Vertelongue or a Pear Portail will cool and moisten our heated Stomach that it will qualifie the Gall of our Liver and the heat of our Reins and that by cooling this last part it will hinder Stones from being form'd there Finally it s a grand secret for our good Health to keep what we eat from corrupting in the Stomach The things of a different Nature which we put into it daily cause disorders whereof our selves are too often Witnesses if experience did not convince us of this truth there would doubtless be a great deal of pleasure in eating many things one after the other but it shews us that eating before or after Meals Fruits of a different Nature that is to say such as are easily corrupted as Peaches c. and such as have a more firm substance as Pears c. The Coction which is made in the Stomach is not laudable and that it is thence that often proceeds the little Health of those who over loosly indulge themselves to the pleasure of the taste If therefore we eat at the end of Meals Peaches and Pears as it often happens the
and that a little or mean Sap makes Fruit and moreover that the Moon has less influence on sublunary things when she begins to be in the Wain than when she Increases experience has taught us that the decrease of the Moon is the most kindly time for Lopping Trees which have then less of motion The decrease is from the time of the Full to the New nevertheless some will have it that we may Lop Trees during the time that the Moon is not horned that is to say from her eighth day to her one and Twentieth They say that it is not only the Moon which causes Fruit on Trees but the disposition of the Branches and that it suffices that the Moon has strength provided that on the other side she finds in a Branch Fibres transverse and dispos'd to cause Fruit-buds to be there form'd True it is experience has taught me that the Seeds of Flowers cast into the Earth during all this time turn double sooner than those that are Sown in another time We ought first to Lop Apricock Nectarin and Peach-trees c. because they shoot forth the first the Winter Pear-trees follow next after these those of Autumn and of Summer and the Portugal Quince-trees We ought shortly after to Lop and Prune Plum-trees and Apple-trees and lastly Spanish Pomegranet-trees because all these Trees shoot forth the one after the other but above all we ought not to Lop this last till it has shot forth a little that we may the better distinguish the weak or dead Branches After the Observations which we even now made we ought to begin to Lop and Trim up a Tree by one of its sides from the lower part to the top and we ought afterward to carry on our Work without confusion and to take one Branch after the other This side being thus Lopt and paled we descend on the other side from the top to the bottom in the same Order We must here remember always to cut the Branches in the form of a Hinds foot so that the Sun may not dry the wound which ought to be as far as we may on the North side but after such a manner that the sloping side of the wound be not too straight downward to the end that the knot be not endammag'd otherwise the eye which ought to push forth wood being cut too much by the slope of a too streight descent chiefly in tender Trees will not push forth at all or weakly and will communicate ev'n to five or six eyes the evil of a wound ill made We must further remember to cut always a Branch near a Wood-bud and never near a Flower-bud because in this last Lopping the Fruit which would come there would not be secured by the Leaves against the injury of the Air. Moreover the Branch would be expos'd to the Air and finally the wound would not close it self nor ever come to an Eschar the Pears carrying away all the Sap that ought to make it We ought not moreover to leave a Stub to a Branch which we cut at a Wood-bud that we may give way to the Branch to close it self in a short time by the sprout that ought to grow there I say not the same of a Branch which we cut an Eye or two from the Trunk this may put forth near the Stub which we leave there some Fruit. buds or some Branches which will have dispositions to produce them at least if the Branch be little or of a mean size for if it be great it ought to be cut near the Tree If in Lopping where we leave a Stub nothing shoots forth there the year following the Stub must be cut smooth to the Tree I speak not here only of Fruit with Kernels we ought ev'n to leave a Stub to Fruits with Stones not to make them push forth Wood there for this is not their Genius but to keep them from being corrupted by the Weather and not to cause them to push forth Gum there which is their Sap and in this occasion their Capital Enemy When the little Branches are too confus'd care must be taken to cut them off an Eye or two from the main Branch or near the Trunk as I have said both to disburthen the Tree and to make it push forth some Branches anew but after such a manner that there be always room for placing the Sprig which will come We ought also to Observe that to fill out a Tree well its Branches ought not to be distant from each other above a Fingers breadth You must never cut Fruit-buds whatever reasons are alledged thereon Trees at that time do what they are ordain'd for by displaying their Riches and Nature gives us what we demand of her for recompence of our cares and Labours We know a Fruit-bud by its Figure by the small bearer where it comes by the motion it makes in the shoot of the Tree or finally by the abundance of Leaves that accompany it If a little and long Branch be well stor'd with Flower-buds do not cut any of them I say it once again and do not so much as touch the Branch wait rather till the Flowers are come forth of the Bud to destroy them or till the Fruit are kern'd to cut with Scissars the Stems of the least and worst form'd by this means you will not cut away the Bud which will produce other Fruit the following years when the Branch has fortified it self Nevertheless if for some great reason we are Obliged to cut Flower-buds in a Branch bared of shoots for drawing thither the Sap and to cause some void space to be fill'd and that there are no other Branches found for supplying this Default we must cut the Branch at a Wood-knot to fill out the Tree and we must take good heed not to cut it near the Flower or Fruit-buds for the reasons which we have mentioned and after this we must take away the Fruit-buds to give it more strength to push forth The old Buds which have yielded Fruit for many years together and which give us no longer hope of producing more must be cut away to embellish the Tree and to disburthen it of somewhat which is useless and superfluous The bearers which are two three or four Inches long are the best especially when they Issue from the great Branches near the top of the Tree they bring forth many years one after the other and bear very great Fruit. Those which are bared of Branches last indeed a long time but they do not bear so Beautiful Fruit and often they are drain'd unless you cut the Stems of the Pears with Scissars and those which are not above a nail in length and which come from the Trunk bring forth very great Fruit but ordinarily they last but a year A Shoot of August never yields Fruit the Wood is not then well fill'd with Sap it ought always to be cut away unless it be extreamly necessary for filling a void space If a useless
to give of them to mine after having gather'd them very ripe in a clear day the Choler which is often the cause of all Fevers looses its edg by the cumbrance which it receives from the substance of Plums and because these Fruits oppose the heat and drought of these Diseases they are esteem'd excellent for encountring Bilous Fevers provided that the use be regular and that we take a seasonable time to give them ART IV. Of Mulberries OF all the Fruits that are eaten there are none but Mulberries which are fit for Men when unripe these ought only to be Red drawing toward the Black to be eaten If they are throughly ripe they corrupt so hastily in the Stomach that shortly after they cause in those who eat freely of them Distempers of the Stomach Loosnesses Carbuncles Malignant Swellings and often pernicious and Epidemick Diseases especially if Rains have been rise during the Summer There is nothing which changes it self sooner into Choler and which becomes sooner poyson within our Body than a Black Mulberry Those who have the Stomach foul ought to take good heed of eating them unless they have a mind to be sick in a short time The Red-blacks withstand Corruption more and tho' they are very moist they have nevertheless I know not what of drought through their sharpness and astriction which hinders them from corrupting so soon To use them well we ought nevertheless to mind the praecautions belonging to them and never to eat of them but when the Stomach is empty clean and hot for if a heat be not felt in the Bowels how young and Cholerick soever a Person be I do not advise him to eat of them unless he has a mind to fall into some one of the Diseases which we have spoken of before Mulberries carry their Liquor with them and nothing ought to be Drank after they are eaten they excite the appetite cool the Stomach appease drought allay the heat of the Liver Purge the Blood of its superfluous serosities carrying them off by Urine They blunt the edg of the Choler moisten those that are troubled with Melancholy and Choler finally they make the Belly soluble in those who are naturally Costive I will say much more if Mulberries gather'd from the Tree and eaten in a good plenty can cause the Bloody-flux as we see it every year nature which most commonly has plac't the remedy in the cause of our evils has not forgotten to teach us by experience that these Fruits serve for an assured remedy against the inveterate Bloody-flux if they are given dry to the weight of a Crown in Gold in Red-Wine Since the chief Vertue of Mulberryes is to cool and to keep the Mass of Blood from fermenting by qualifying the parts which serve for sanguification there may be cause to believe that they may be a Remedy appropriated to the Gout as well as all other Fruits For the pain which Gouty Persons feel in the ligaments of their Joints is caus'd but by a Blood and a serosity too sharp which sharpness is blunted by the great humidity of Mulberries they insensibly evacuating it by Urine We need not seek for other proofs than daily experience and that which Hegesander has left us in Writing He relates that the Mulberry-trees did not bear Fruit for Twenty years together and that during all that time Men Women and Children were so troubled with the Gout that other causes could not be then discover'd than the scarcity of these Fruit. ART V. Of sharp Cherries SHarp Fruits in general are enemies to Old and Melancholick Persons when they do not find within themselves an excessive heat they are not edulcorated in their Stomach if I may so call it and are distributed into their Veins without being Concocted and blunted Which is not done without causing in the Mouth little sharp belchings and in the Stomach troublesome prickings and in the whole Body an insupportable heavyness It does not happen so to young People that are Sanguine and Cholerick who have the Entrals heated but if casually the sharpness of Cherries with short Stems eaten fasting causes sometimes in these prickings in the Stomach they need then but to mix Powder Sugar with them to blunt the point of it The most refined Sugar and the whitest which we call Royal is the least proper for the use of Man it heats and drys us too much and through the abundance of its Sulphur and Salt it is entirely opposite to the principles of our Life The finer Sugar is the less sweet it is and the less also it quenches thirst Lime which is a capital Enemy of Man if it be taken inwardly or outwardly apply'd is the chief matter which Refiners make use of for rendring Sugar whiter and more solid and tho' Powder Sugar be made by many repeated Lixivium's nevertheless it ought always to be preferr'd before Loaf Sugar and if we will choose the best of all we must always take that which is the whitest among the browns It is that which is extremely sweet which quenches thirst which moistens and which lenifies the Breast I thought it proper to make this digression for Persons who lovesweet things because Sugar is often set at our Tables for rendring our Fruits more agreeable to the taste Sharp Cherryes exhilerate the Stomach they excite there the Appetite and appease the drought They dissipate the thick humours and by their sharp quality they cut them as I may say and divide them either that they may serve afterward for Food or be evacuated with more ease By all these Vertues they are very proper as well as Mulberries to oppose the cause and the progress of the Gout and experience shews us that Gouty Persons receive a sensible relief by the use of Fruits which qualify the Liver and which correct the Acrimony of the Blood Moreover they powerfully loosen the Belly if they are freely eaten fasting while the Dew is yet on the Fruit and experience teaches us every year that they carry off by a Loosness long Diseases which all the other Remedies of Physick have not been able to Cure The most proper time to eat them is in the Morning fasting either with or without Bread They have moisture enough to oblige us not to drink any Liquor after them As for the lateward Cherries which we call at Rochelle des Guignes with long Stems tho' they may be eaten before Meals nevertheless I allow them to be eaten after Meals they have an agreeable Astriction which contributes to Concoction and which closes the superiour Orifice of the Stomach that it performs its Office afterward much better The sweet Cherries especially those which we call in this Town Guindoux and Guigneaux are much better than the sharp for old Persons and for those who have a nice Stomach they do not prick so much the inward parts and they nourish more Haply there is not any Remedy more agreeable and more excellent for qualifying the Reins and for