never saw any of those fat and therefore I suspect their goodness certain it is old Pikes are hard and tough to digest young ones called Jacks are too waterish and moist one of the middle growth is the most likely to nourish Of Roaches ROches according to the old Proverb a sound as a Roach are accounted incapable of any disease hence we account them wholesome they are full of bones which make them the less regarded Of Salmon SAlmon is a fat tender short and sweet flesh it soon glutteth and fills the stomach they are most commended which go furthest up iâ— fresh Rivers those worst which are taken nearest the Sea salt Salmon loseth a double goodness one of a good taste the other of a good nourishment Of Smelts SMelts so called because they smell so sweet their flesh is of the finest lightest softest and best juyce of any fish their excellency is in the Winter when they are full of spawns The Western are most esteemed Of Trouts TRouts in Northumberland are very large others smaller they are very pleasant and good meat for sound persons Of wilde tame Fowl and small Birds That a Partridge of all Fowls is soonest digested it is a restorative meat comforts the brain and the stomach augments carnal lust The woodcock is a meat of good temperature quails Plovers and Lapwings nourish but little for they ingender melancholy humors yong turtle Doves and Pheasants ingender good blood A Crane is hard of digestion and doth ingender evil blood A young Hernsew is lighter of digestion then a Crane A Buzzard well killed and ordered is very nutritive The Bittour is not so hard of digestion as is the Hernsew A Shoveler is lighter of digestion then a Bittour All these are noisome except they be well ordered and dressed A Pheasant-hen a Moor-cock and a Moor-hen except they do sit are very nutritive All manner of wilde Fowl which live by the water are hard of digestion Of tame domestical Fowl OF all tame Fowl a Capon is best is most nourishing and is soonest digested A Hen in Winter is good and nutritive and so are Chickens in Summer especially Cockrels and Pullets the which are untrod the flesh of a Cock is hard of digestion the broth or gelly of 〈◊〉 Cock is restorative Pigeons are good for cholâ—erick and melanchollick persons Geese and Ducks except the green Geese are not of easie digestion Young Pea-chickens half a year old breed good nourishment Of small Birds All manner of small Birds are good and light of digestion except Sparrows Titmouses Colmouses and Wrens the which eat Spiders and Poison are not commendable Of all small Birds the Lark is best the Black-bird the Thrush Rasis and Isaack praise yong Stares but I do conclude because they are bitter in eating that they ingender Choller Of Beef BEef is an excellent meat if the Beast be yong and is not Cow-flesh for old Beef and Cow-flesh do ingender melancholly and gross humors If it be moderately powdred that the gross blood by salt is exhausted it doth make an English man strong Martinmas-beef which is called hanged Beef in the smoak is not wholesome it may fill the belly and cause one to drink but it is naught for the Stone and evâ—â— of digestion and makes no good juyce Of Mutton and Lamb. MUtton with Rasis and Averroyes is good meat but Gallen doth not commend it and surely they hint at some reason considering that this Beast is so soon infected nor dotâ— there happen so great a Murren and Sickness to any four-footed Beast as doth to the Sheep Notwithstanding if the Sheep be fed in a good Pasture and fat and do not flavour of the Wool it is good for sick persons for it doth ingender excellent blood Lamb is moist and phlegmatick it is not good for old persons except of a melancholly complexion nor for phlegmatick men to feed except very moderately Of Veal VEal is a nourishing meat for it is soon digested Whereupon many Authors hold the opinion that it is the best flesh and the most nutritive meat that can be for mans sustenance Of Pork and Bacon WHereas Gallen with other ancient and approved Doctors praise Pork in holy Scripture it is not allowed for a Swine is an unclean Beast and doth lie upon stinking and filthy soils and with stercorous matter Pork if it be of an old Hog not clean kept it ingenders gross blood humects too much the stomach if the Pork be young it is nutritive Bacon is good for Carters and Plough-men which labour but if they have the Stone and use to eat it they will endure great misery Of Brawn BRawn is an usual meat in Winter amongst Englishmen it is hard of digestion The Brawn of a wilde Boar is much better then the Brawn of a tame one Of Pigs PIgs especially Sow-pigs are nutritive and made in a gelly is a restorative if the Pig be fleaed the skin taken off and then stewed with restoratives as a Cock is stewed to make a gelly A young fat Pig is wholesome if it be well ordered in the roasting the skin not eaten Of Kid. YOung Kids flesh is praised above all other flesh as Avicen Rasis and Averroys affirm it is temperate and nutritive although it be somewhat dry Of wilde Beasts THe opinion of all ancient Physicians was and is that Venison is not good to eat principally for two causes The first is that this Beast doth live in fear and his timerosity causes melancholly humors The second cause is as it doth ingender chollerick humors it is a Lords dish good for an Englishman for it doth animate him to be as he is which is strong and hardy Of the Hare A Hare maketh a Gentleman good pastime and better for the Hounds or Dogs to eat the Hare after they have killed it then man for it is not praised The Scripture saith The Hare is an unclean Beast In Physick Hares flesh is dry and doth ingender melancholly humors Of Rabbits COneys flesh is good but Rabbits flesh is best of all wilde Beasts for it is temperate and doth nourish and singularly praised in Physick for all things the which doth suck is nutritive Of the Head Brains Fat Skins Fins Marrow Blood Tongues Stones and Inwards of Flesh or Fish THe Heads of Fish and the Fat especially of Salmon and Conger is not good for them which are disposed to Rheum the heads of Lampries and Lamprons and the string which is within them is not good to eat refrain from eating of the skins of flesh and fish and burned and brown meat it ingenders viscus humors and Choller and Melancholly and makes opilations The Brains of any beast are not wholesome except the brains of a Kid for they are evil of digestion and hurt the appetite and stomach they are cold moist and viscus A hot stomach may eat them but they ingender gross humors The brains of a Woodcock and of a Snipe and such like are commestible the
of the Patient sometimes it sticks so fast over the ball of the eye or betwixt the Christal Humors and the Tunickle Rhagois so as to tender the sight in the beginning of this disease certain fumes and Spirits do present themselves to the sight this disease is caused from cold and moist humors that fall on the Optick Nerve If this disease be of long continuance it cannot be cured but if that which is congealed by rubbing be rent asunder and doth not remain so long but grows together again and is of a sad white colour there is still left some hopes of the cure Of the French-Pox THe French-Pox it is a fowl and contagious disease which often proceeds from the immoderate use of Venery the beginnings of this disease are small but in time it vitiates the humors spirits membranes tendons flesh and bones and perverts the temperature and substance of the whole body the Liver is chiefly affected as appears from the bad Concoction of the Stomach the not propension to Venery laziness falling off of the hair it begins in the groins and privy members with little pushes in the Urine which in time do send forth clammy and corrupt blood heat of Urine effusion of seed several coloured spots appearing in the upper part of the body a pain in the sinews heaviness in the head hard swellings appear in the forehead and other parts which at last become great Ulcers so as to corrupt the bones The cause of this disease is a filthy quality communicated by touching but for the most part by the act of Venery as the privy members have a thin and rare substance taken in time this disease admits of cure but otherwise is incureable For the cure of this disease the air must be moderately hot for cold hinders the operation of the medicines the Patients diet must be sparing his bread twice bak't he must feed on the best fowl when he purges sod meats are best for him such as are windy breed gross humors those which inflame the blood are bad for him he must exercise himself till he sweats to expel the moist matter he must purge twice a week his sleep moderate he must abstain from Venery and shun all perturbations of mind Of the weakness of the Stomach THe weakness of the Stomach in Latine called Debilitas Ventriculi is a disposition of the alterative faculty wherein either the nourishment is not altered or not well concocted the faculty of the Stomach failing the crudity of the Stomach doth follow by some external cause The sign of a difficult concoction is when the Stomach doth not boil after the accustomed manner or is surcharged with fumes and vapors sometimes weakness after a disease is the cause The indigestion of the Stomach thus weakned raw humors must needs be gathered together either hot or cold disturbing the Stomach by some outward quality which is followed with a loathing of meat and a loading of the Stomach belchings vomitings caused by Phlegmy and putrified humors the relish then communicated to the pallate being sweet and watrish and much spettle voided without coughing or heming that crudity is worst which is caused by ill nourishment and very bad in those which do abound with Choller The air the Patient breaths should incline to heat as he ought to be kept warm his diet must be easie of digestion and moderate neither must he receive any other meat till the former be digested he may drink good Wine his head laid high and his sleep not to be disturbed he ought to be moderately merry and to avoid all perturbations of mind Of the Squinancy THis Disease is an inflamation of the Throat or of the highest part of the Gullet hindering the breath and swallowing when the fault is neither in the breathing nor swallowing This Disease by reason the upper part of the Gullet is choakt up doth threaten present danger by strangling If the inner parts of the Throat are affected then the Patient is in great danger this pain is sharp and the Patient breaths with difficulty he swallows with difficulty and that which he drinks doth often run out at his Nose This Disease is caused by blood which is carried thither by the Ingular Veins for in these Veins there is plenty of blood If the inflamation be in the inward Muscles that Squinancy is very dangerous within three or four dayes it is very likely to kill the party and although that the Patient may think himself well yet he is taken away with a sudden suffocation The air where the Patient resides must be temperate free from wind his diet liquid and soft he must shun those things that may heat his blood he must abstain from Wine and Exercise speak little his sleep shorter then ordinary it used to be if it be too long those that watch with him must awake him out of it his belly must be loosened and his minde kept merry Of involuntary Pissing INvoluntary pissing called Diarberes is a default of the Kidneys a swift passage the drink being nothing altered through the body an inmeasurable thirst following In this Disease the Kidneys are affected it is known by the heat felt in the Reins and the insatiable thirst If the Patient strives to hold his urine his Stones Hips and Loins swell such heat felt in those inward parts as if the Bowels were burnt This distemper is sometimes caused by sharp humors in the Kidneys by brinish Phlegm or a pernicious quality fixt to the blood or humors fastned to the Reins This distemper causeth a great driness and consumption of the body If the person have a burning Feaver he cannot be cured because his radical moisture is wasted The air in which this Patient lives must incline to cold and moist his diet such as will breed good but thick juyce such as will qualifie the sharpness of the humors salt and sharp meats as also such as provoke urine are not good the belly must be kept loose by art or nature Rest is best for this Patient because it stayes the motion of the humors Of the Inflamation of the Eyes THe Inflamation of the Eyes called Opthalmia is an inflamation of the Tunicle or Membrane growing close to the eye spread over all the Membrane from the corners of the eyes This evil takes its beginning from the Pericranium from whence Veins are conveighed to the eyes through the forehead and temples The part affected is chiefly the eye where redness appears and it is oftentimes swelled so that the Tunicles and parts near adjoyning are sore stretched this is either caused by the fulness of blood by which the Membrane growing next to the eye is filled or stretcht or else by phlegmatick blood and then it is not so stretcht or else by thin sharp Choller running from the temple and corner veins secretly into the eye-veins then such tears gush out of the eyes that the next parts seem burnt the Pupilla is in danger of being exulcerated if
the tears that flow from the eyes are salt and hot The Patients air must be dry cold and obscure his meat somewhat cooling and little nourishing he must eat little in the first dayes of his cure his sleep must be long his belly evacuated and his minde kept pleasant Of the Night-Mare THe Night-Mare called Incubus is a Disease in which one doth think that a great weight lies on him in his sleep it differs from the Falling-sickness as the cause of it is venomous so is not the Hag or Night-Mare there being no Convulsion as in the Falling-sickness The part affected is the Heart-walls or part of the Midriff the sense of the Patient in his sleep is stupified he supposes himself to be stifled insomuch that he cannot speak a word he groans and his fancy is so disturbed that he thinks a Spirit is there whence the anguish of his minde is caused so that he desires to cry out but cannot from hence is caused the heating or rather boiling of his blood so that his spirits being attenuated and his pores opened the Patient suddenly starteth up This Disease is caused from gross cold Phlegm as also from melanchollick blood settled about the Heart and Veins of the Breast from whence cold vapors are belched out He that useth a slender diet is seldom troubled with the Night-Mare but doth frequent those that have many crudities They that lie on their sides are very seldom troubled with it If this Disease be of any long continuance it doth threaten the Falling-sickness or the Apoplexy Madness or Hypocondraick Melancholly and other Diseases The air where the Patient lives should be temperate hot and bright his meat easie of digestion of good juyce not windy he must eat sparingly especially at supper he must not sleep in the day time his belly must be kept loose and his minde quiet Of a Convulsion A Convulsion called Spasmus is a Convulsion or shrinking of the Sinnews an effect of which doth force them and the Muscles unwillingly to that disposition of body which they did enjoy by the benefit of the animal faculty when they were in perfect health this being an involuntary motion in the part which did usually move of its own accord The Brain is first affected and chiefly and then the face with the whole body is taken with a Convulsion which doth happen to those that have the Falling-sickness in which accident the roots of the Sinnews are hurt the brain being shrunk doth joyn all its force together for the expelling of that which is hurtful The brain is sometimes first affected and then the face with the whole body is shrunk up together but for the most part a Convulsion doth happen to the Muscles in determinate parts whereby the part affected doth plainly shew that the Muscles are grieved The signs of this Disease are the stretching of the Sinnews which if long with the Patient do exceedingly waste the strength while all parts under the head are annulled The efficient cause is either fulness or emptiness fulness is caused by blood and then a Convulsion happeneth suddenly it is also caused by a phlegmy humor which doth winde it self as the blood doth into the Sinnews and Muscles this causes a Palsie The emptiness of a Sinnew takes more deliberation in growing upon a Patient this is occasioned by the Ague Hunger Melancholly violent Sweating Vomiting excessive Venery or Inflamations in the sinnewy parts A Convulsion which is caused by a Wound and of Heleborus is mortal This Disâ—ase is also incureable if it be caused by emptiness Let the air of the Patient be hot and dry his diet rather roast then sod instead of Wine when the Disease first seizes he may be permitted to drink honied water wherein Sage and Cinamon are boiled exercise must be avoided the neck and back-bones of the sick person must be rubbed his sleep moderate his excrements answerable to his belly his minde quiet Of Choller CHoller is an immoderate perturbation of the Stomach and Bowels whence malign humors break forth upwards and downwards This Disease is often so violent that it deprives one of Life within the space of a day or two without a Feaver the substance of the body being consumed by vomits and stools for excrements come often out with such force that the spirits are expelled with the humors the upper and lower part of the stomach is primarily affected the bowels being distempered by the stomachs disburthening of it self through them The signs that make known that these parts are affected are vomits and evacuation a chollerick sowre and stinking matter is vomited upwards and downwards for many hours as if the Patient had drunk great store of such stuff This Disease is gathered together in all the body or in the Gall Bladder Misentery or Bowels This Disease is sharp but the strength of it is dissolved in a short time The air the Patient lives in must be cold and bright if he be strong a little quantity of meat will suffice him he should forbear eating for two dayes he may drink then strong Wine in this Wine thin plates of Gold should be quencht he must sleep very gently and shun the passions of the minde Of the Head Ache. THis disease is sometimes caused from the location of the Head sharp Vapors and Swelling humors ascending from the lower parts assaulting the Head because as the brain is of a cold and moist temperature superfluity of excrements are therein generated which if they encrease and are not avoided by the expulsive faculty in time disturb the Head with Aches the Head-Ache occasioned by an ague quaffing or some other external cause is by the Latines called Cephallalgia the Films of the brain is much troubled with this disease which by reason of their tenderness the least pains are sharp and tender to them but the substance of the brain is more grosser so that the pain that seizes thereon is duller and more loading this disease is sometimes caused from cold and Phlegmy matter this matter by the grossness and sliminess doth stop the narrow passages of the Head the pain that comes by a hot is more vehement then that which comes by a cold distemper an old pain caused by cold matter is hardly to be cured especially in old men a Head-Ache continually vexing is the forerunner of madness especially if the Vomit appear somewhat rusty it also presages other diseases The Air where the Patient lives should be hot and dry roast meat is better then boiled exercise and sleep must be moderate let him lie with his head raised up and somewhat covered he must avoid Vomiting and discontents of mind Of the Cough CAlled Tussis is a violent breathing causing much breath or spirit speedily to break forth as it endeavours by its force to discharge sharp excrements which do molest the Lungs and hinder the passages or which do any other way offend the body this motion is caused by nature which doth force the
a weakness of such Veins doth follow as did convey food to the Liver and then Excrements are heaped together in the lower parts untill they are corrupted and so surcharge the body and afflict the Patient with a Lax. The Patient in this disease is for the most part troubled with a Feaver and doth thirst very much especially if he be troubled with Ascites and because of Salt and putrefied humors he loaths meat The colour of the face is whitish hardness of breathing and heaviness of the body concurs also Swellings of the Feet because of the far distance of the heart In Anasarca the whole body is weakened and doth Faint and Swell equally yet for the most part the Swelling is in the Shins and the Feet so that if the Fingers are thrust into the flesh the prints of them will remain a long time The great coolings of the Veins and Liver is the cause of this long sore disease this happens to the Liver by it self or else by the coldness of the Spleen Guts Misentery Midriff which sometimes because of their obstruction somtimes because of their weakness draw not unto them too much blood also it is caused by the Bleeding at the Nose by immoderate running or by staying of the monethly Courses or Hemrhoids for so the natural heat is choaked by the loss of Spirits in the blood sometimes it is caused by the Flux of the belly or stomach if they do last long for the natural spirits and native heat are scattered There are many other causes if ulcers arise in the body by water that is between the flesh because of the great plenty of humor it is hardly cured He who is supurated or have a Dropsie when he is cut or burnt if that water or matter doth run out he dies presently also if a Cough doth seize on him he is in great danger Of all these Dropsies the Timpanites is the worst He that is in a consumption many times fall into a Dropsie because the evil is communicated to the Liver for matter and venomous filth having found a way into the Liver gets in and sticks fast therein and so doth corrupt the substance of it The air where the Patient lives should be clear and somewhat inclining to heat and driness moist and windy air do increase this Disease In this distemper a supper of roast meat is better then sod his meat must be easie of concoction flesh broth must not be given except the Patient takes Purges he may drink thin Wine but not sweet because this will not quench his thirst as it is good in this Disease to indure hunger so to thirst long is dangerous moderate exercise frictions and the Baths are good he may sleep in the night time but not much the Excrements must be answerable to nature he must abstain from Venery and even as fear and sadness do hurt very much because they hinder digestion so anger and some of the other passions will be very good for him Of spitting of Blood SPitting of Blood is any avoiding of Blood at the mouth Blood is also voided from many other places of the body here care ought to be had in observing whether the Patient was wont to Bleed at the Nose or no for from thence it doth fall into the Stomach and Throat and from thence into the Lungs but for the most part it doth turn and harden into a cold if then one spit blood and yet did not Bleed at the Nose formerly then it comes from some peculiar part blood is often voided from the Gums and Mouth it self and then the Spittle is of a bloody colour and very little is voided out and that without a Cough if it do come from the Throat or Weezel-pipe then it is voided by Hemmings not by Cough and the continuated parts of these places do appear loosened if the Tongue be thrust out but if it did come from the Head a pain of the Head and heaviness went before a noise in the Ears the Forehead Veins rise they have a kinde of a heat and blood in the Mouth and a tickling is felt in the Palate if it doth run into the Throat from whence by often Hemming it is cast out oftentimes the Patient hath a desire to Cough but cannot but if the blood doth come from the Lungs then is the blood foamy and then it is voided by frequent Coughing and without pain and at sundry times and as oft as blood is voided because some great Vein is burst then plenty of blood is cast up no cause except that known it being as it were cast up by Vomit but if blood be cast up because some Vein in the Lungs is gnawn which is oft caused by a sharp humor falling down then it is voided by degrees a little now and a little then unless some great Vein be fretted asunder for then it runs out in great abundance for this is very dangerous for then follows a Cough or a Feaver sometimes some part of the Lungs being rotted is voided by a Cough and this is the surest sign of the Lungs exulceration much more might be written of the peculiar parts affected and of the signs This distemper is often caused by fulness and by a great quantity of blood which doth offend the body and some peculiar parts of the body more particularly so that hereby the vessels mouths are opened Of this is a good habit of body immoderate use of hot nutriments and Wine suppression of tearms and then there is no pain but rather a lightsomness of the body which before was dull and then also there is not too great a quantity thereof and it is not very foamy or red Women without any danger of Consumption have been eased by this shedding of blood in the suppression of their tearms To omit other causes that might be rendred of this distemper it will be very necessary to take notice that if the Lungs are ulcerated there is danger for then there is danger of a Supuration and Consumption when a Vein in the Lungs is opened and burst yet there is some hope if the substance of the Lungs be sound yet a Consumption signifies danger if the blood which comes out of the rupture of a vein falling upon the Lungs be there detained by which means the Lungs are inflamed and putrefied for at length the substance of the Lungs will be corrupted and putrefied there is also danger when a great Vâ—â—â— is opened or broke for that the heart may be suffocated from the plenty of blood voided from thence Spitting of blood if it be caused by a corrosion of the Lungs is incuâ—able if from the Breast there is less danger Spitting of matter it is a sign the Lungs are exulcerated this disease if it continue long will turn into a Consumption The air the Patient lives in should be somewhat inclining to cold and dry the Patient must avoid sun-shine and a bright fire his meat must be such as doth cool
these Lieutenant Medicines serve at all turns in the place of the right Medicines for so should Ginger serve the turn of Folefoot to purge by Vomit which it cannot no more then curds of Cow milk can soften and supple like butter or the dung of the Stock-dove purge like Euphorbium or the Dock-root draw phlegme from the Head like Pellitory which Galen notwithstanding maketh substitutes of these Medicines which have such operation I conclude therefore seeing Navigation cannot afford us either the Simples which we seem to need and those which it doth both corrupt and counterfeit in the greatest part we have neither to crave thereof in this point aid much less to trust thereunto Now the Simples being but for the most part bastard Ware how can the Compounds that amount of the same be other then counterfeit Whereupon as Cardanus saith in his Method of Curing The wise Magistrates of Venice have oftentimes forbidden the making of Triacle and Mithridatum because the Simples could not be had whereby they should be compounded Which if Venice the greatest Mart in this part of the World of such Wares cannot a vouch what can we hope for from other places That a man would marvel to see the great store of them in all shops of Apothecaries under the names of Triacle and Mithridatum of Andromachus and it being required in Triacle before it be used it should have a time as it were of mellowing which of Galen in his Book of Triacle to Piso is extended to twelve years and of Paulus Aegineta in his seventh Book by seven years for those that are bitten or stung of venemous beasts or have drunk poison or are infected with the pestilence and in other diseases from â—en years till it be twenty of age I marvel what assurance we have of the age of this Triacle which is ordinary in use or if we have none how we dare use it at adventure knowing by age the vertue thereof hath no small alteration I would these inconveniences were the smallest which I have but briefly and as it were for a taste run over yet were even they sufficient to stay our overhasty use of such strange Merchandize and to move us to betake us to those we know both in the Blade and in the Seed in the Root and in the Fruit and know the Air the Hill the Valley the Meadow where they grow But this trust upon Out-landish Medicines have much more nearly touched us then so If a man would say by his overhasty embracing whatsoever strange Nations do as it were purge over unto us we drink divers times rank Poison instead of wholesom Medicine I think it would justly move us to be advised and not to pass over the enquiry of a reason why such a one should think so being one whose vocation tendeth to the charge of the health of mens bodies The right Hermodactiles are commended for excellent Medicines against all Pains in the Joynts as the Gout the Schyatica and such like from which they purge gross Phlegme Doronicum Romanum hath great commendation for comforting the Heart expelling Poison against the Cough for avoiding of Humours which overcharge the Chest which are great vertues doubtless in them both Now if they 〈◊〉 the shops as they bear the name of these Medicines so carried not with them instead of thesâ— vertues dangerous poison then should I havâ— less cause to exhort our Nation to be take theâ— to their Gardens and Fields and to leave thâ— Banks of Nilus and the Fens of India Thâ— common Hermodactils being a kinde of poyson called Ephemerum so named because with such swiftness it chargeth and overchargeth our vitaâ— spirits that it killeth him that hath taken it iâ— one day The other commonly called Doroticum Romanum and used for an especial Cordial so that it hath place in the electuary of precious Stones in the electuary of Amber in the cordial Powder this Doronicum I say calleâ— of Mathiolus Demoniacum that is to say Divelish noting thereby the vertues thereof is no baser poison then a very kinde of Aconitum by Mathiolus experience which he confesseth himself before having been abused by the common error first to have learned of Jacobus Antonius Cortusus a man very skilful in the nature of Simples which Jacobus taught him the experience by giving it to dogs which it killeth Now if by reason no such danger happeneth to us by the use of them they seeming not so dangerous we are to understand they be given in small quantity and mixed with divers remedies against poison the good Providence of God providing so that otherwise they should not be ministred as in the purging Electuary of Diacnicis Hermodactils are bridled with Cinamon and the powder of Diatragatanthum frigidum where indeed â—t hath somewhat too large scope being better â—empered in Benedicta with Cloves Parsleyâ—eed Galanga and Mace and in the Pills of Herâ—odactils with Aloe Mirobalans Bdellium the â—eed of Herbgrace which have force against poiâ—on the which small quantity of them being â—ndled and dulled with other Medicines especiâ—lly such a resist the force of poisons is not deadly â—nto us although great hurt thereof must needs â—nsue I have stood the longer upon this point â—f strange Medicines in answering the suppy by Navigation the rather because it seemeth most â—o make against us in the maintenance of our â—ome Medicines and breedeth as it were a loathâ—omness of those blessings of God which we daily â—ay at commandment enjoy But hitherto hath â—nely been shewed the corruptions and counterâ—eting of forreign Medicines which belongeth to â—ertain onely and not to all although those â—ertain be the chief and of greatest price and â—hat being foreseen the provision out of strange â—nd far distant Nations may seem well to stand â—ith that Providence we speak of and except â—hey be in respect of their strangeness hurtfull â—r unprofitable unto us the skill of Sailing beâ—â—g a means to present them at our need Naâ—ures care should seem no whit to be blemished â—he reasons which I have before alledged I â—ave to the indifferent Reader to consider of â—nd because I am so far urged I easily stick â—ot to hold that we receive no small hurt â—om all all the kindes of strange Medicines whereof I yield these few reasons which follow Our English Bodies through the nature of the Region our kinde of dyet and nourishment our custome of life are greatly divers from those of strange Nations whereby ariseth great variety of humors and excrements in our bodies from theirs and so the causes of Diseases rising upon breach of diet the diet being of another sort must needs be unlike whereupon although their humors be in kinde and in a generality agreeable to ours as Blood Choler Phlegme Melancholy and such like yet rising upon other matter then the same in us and otherwise framed by a far other state of body by reason of a diverse kinde of life the Medicines which help them
fore-part of all manner of beasts and fowls are more hotter and lighter of digestion then the hinder parts are The marrow of all beasts are hot and moist are nutritive if well digested they mollifie the stomach and take away the appetite wherefore one should eat Pepper with it The blood of all beasts and fowls are not wholesome but hard of digestion All the inwards of beasts and of fowls as the heart the liver the lungs tripes trilibubs with all the entrails is hard of digestion and doth encrease gross humors The fat of flesh is not so much nutritive as the lean it is best when lean and fat is mixt one with another The tongues of beasts are hard of digestion and of little nourishment The stones of a Cockrel and stones of other beasts are very nourishing Of roasted boiled bak't fried meats BEyond Sea at the Universities boiled meat is used at dinner and roast to supper as boiled meat is lighter of digestion Broiled meats are hard of digestion and naught for the Stone fried meat is harder of digestion then broiled it ingenders Choller and Melancholly Bak't meat buried in paste is not praised in Physick All manner of flesh which is inclined to humidity should be roasted and all flesh which is dry should be boiled Fish may be sod roasted broiled and baken every one after their kinde and use and fashion of the Countrey as the Cook and the Physician may agree and devise For a good Cook is half a Physician Of the Roots of Borage and Bugloss THe Roots of Borage and Bugloss sod tender and made in a succade do ingender good blood and a wholesom temperance Of Elisaunder and Elina Campane THe Root of Alisaunder sod tender and made in a succade is good for to destroy the Stone in the Reins of the Back and Bladder the Roots of Elina Campane sod tender in a succade is good for the breast for the lungs and for all the interial members of man Of Parsley and Fennel THe Roots of Parsley sod tender and made in succade are good for the Stone and to make a man piss Fennel sod is good for the lungs and the sight Of Turnips and Parsnips TUrnips boiled and eaten with flesh augments the seed if they be eaten raw and moderately they provoke a good appetite Parsnips sod doth encrease nature and are nutritive and expels urine Of Raddish and Carrets RAddish roots doth break winde and do provoke urine but they be not good for those which have the Gout Carrets sod augment and encrease nature and cause urine Of the Roots of Rapes RApe roots if they be well boiled nourish if they be moderately eaten immoderately they ingender ventosity and offend the stomach Of Onions ONions provoke to Venery and Sleep and if a man drink sundry drinks they rectifie and reform the variety of the operation of them they cause a good appetite Of Leeks LEeks open the breast and provoke urine cause and encrease bad blood Of Garlick GArlick of all roots is much used in France and some other Countreys it opens the breast and it doth kill wormes in the belly which the Lumbrici Ascarides and Cutuibicini which are small little long worms that tickle in the fundament it also heats the body and desolves gross winds Of Cabbage CAto in his book De re rustica writes too highly in praise of Cabbages as he judges them to be a sufficient medicine against all diseases some are of opinion if they are eat raw before meat with Vinegar that they preserve the stomach from Surfeits and the brain from drunkenness this I am certain of that if they are constantly eat they injure the sight except the eyes are very moist they cause and break winde the opinion of most writers is that they are not so wholesom as Lettice being hot in the first and dry in the second degree Of Asparagrass NO kinde of Herbs nourish more being freed from their bitterness and eaten hot they are temperately moist and exceed not in heat the first degree they increase Venery strengthen the Liver and help conception Of Musk Melons MUsk Melons are not so moist or cold as the ordinary sort of Melons are they ingender better blood and descend more speedily into the belly fruits of this kinde are dangerous not to be eaten presently out of the ground but rather let them lie a week though that they are ripe that there watrish moisture may be abated Garden Pompeons and Melons may lie in a warm Kitching till Christmas Of Potata Roots POtata roots nourish mightily either Sod Bak't or rosted the newest and heaviest are the best they ingender much flesh blood and seed Of Raddishes RAddishes cause rank belchings are hardly digested they burn the blood ingender Lice cause Leanness spoil the eye-sight and corrupt the whole mass of nourishment Of Skirret Roots SKirret Roots have a long string within them which taken away before they are sod makes them eat exceeding sweet they are of a milde and temperate nature agreeing with complexions did we know all the vertues of them they would be more nourished then they are in our Gardens Of Borage and Bugloss BOrage doth comfort the heart ingender good blood and causeth mirth so doth Bugloss which is taken of more vigour strength and efficacy Of Artechokes and Rokat THere is nothing usually to be eaten of Artechokes but the heads of them when they are almost ripe sodden tender in the broth of Beef or with Beef eat them at dinner they increase nature and provoke Venery Rokat doth increase the seed stumulate the flesh and doth help digestion Of Succory and Endive SUccory doth help the Stomach and keep the head in temper and qualifie Choller Endive is good for them which have hot and dry hot Stomachs Of white Beets and Purslane WHite Beets are good for the Liver and for the Spleen are abstercine Purslane doth abate the ardor of lasciviousness and mittigates heat in the inward parts of the head and eyes if preserved in brine it heats and purges the stomach it is cold in the third degree and moist in the second Of Time and Parsley TIme breaketh the Stone desolves winde and causeth Urine Parsley breaks the Stone causeth Urine is good for the Stomach and causeth a sweet breath Of Lettice and Sorrel LEttice extincts Venery causeth milk in womens Breasts it is good for a hot Stomach provokes sleep increases blood temperates it Sorrel is good for a hot Liver and also for the Stomach being sod it looseth the belly in the time of the Plague taken fasting sucking or chewing some of the Leaves it preserues against infection the seeds thereof brewed and drunk with Wine and water are good against the Chollick and the stopping of Fluxes excellent against overcharged Stomachs Sorrel possets are soveraign in sundry distempers This Herb is cold in the third and dry in the second degree Of Marigolds MArigolds the Herb and Flowers are of great use with us amongst other
accompanied with a loathing of meat frequent belchings and extream pains in the Reins The cause of this Stone is a gravelly and sandy constitution and immoderate heat of the Kidneys for the most part of a gross and slimy humor Those that are troubled with this Disease are loose bodied and do often vomit this Disease in old men is hardly cured The air where the Patient lives must be clear and bright his diet moderate he may drink small Wine he must avoid exercise his belly must be kept loose he may sleep more then ordinary his minde being free from perturbations Of thickness of Hearing SUch men as cannot understand a loud voice such men we say are deaf sometimes the cause of this effect is in it self sometimes by accident when as the Brain or Nerve through which this faculty is conveighed is hurt This Disease is known by the Patients complaints and answers this Disease is sometimes caused by the distemper of the Brain by gross or cold humors thrust into the ears and there fastned this Disease if it slowly increase in process of time brings with it an incureable deafness The air for the Patient to live in must be hot and dry he is to abstain as much as may be from meat especially from those that breed gross vapors his drink must be small Wine his exercise moderate his belly kept loose by art or nature Of Madness MAdness or Fury is an inflamation of melancholly to the great fierceness and alienation of the mind Such as have this Disease rage like beasts Madness differs from a Phrenzie as a Feaver is the companion of a Phrenzie from which madness is free the part affected is the Brain which doth appear by the hurt of the principal functions of the minde The signs of this disease are various sometimes laughing singing then sad fearful rash doating crying out threatning skipping leaping then serious c. This Disease doth chiefly arise from the distemper of the Brain from hot or melancholly humors so much sometimes dried up as to turn to black Choller sometimes by yellow Choller over-burnt or the boiling of the blood Young persons are most subject to it it is an ill sign if the Patient have no stomach a good if Ulcers arise in the face The air the person lives in must be temperate his diet liquid broths and moistners of the body his drink Barley-water by no means Wine except his disease came by fear moderate exercise more then usual sleep strangers must not see him Of Shortness of Breathing CAlled the Asthma it is a thick and a fast breathing without a Feaver such as is usual to them which run this disease often pestreth the Patient so that he cannot breath except he hold his neck streight up and if he lies down it almost choaks him in this distemper the Wind-pipes branches scattered into the Lungs distance are affected The Patient in this distemper findes a heaviness at his breast and feels a straitness and shrinkings coughs often and voids nothing in old men this disease is never cured hardly in young men The air the Patient breaths must be hot and dry he must forbear such meat as breed gross and slimy matter his exercises must be little his sleeps in the day time those in the night very moderate his mind not perturbed Of the Worms THis disease is for the most part caused by the stopping of the passages of the vessels through which the Gall is conveyed from the Liver and Spleen into the Bowels by reason of gross humors which do heat the Liver and generate plenty of Gall therein these Worms which do breed in the Bowels are called Lumbrici or Belly Worms there are others which are called Ascarides like to Mites which breed in rotten Cheese It is evident that Worms are of several kindes as they breed in many parts of the body in rotten Ulcers in Teeth in Ears and Kidneys but the Guts are for the most affected Those that are troubled with the Ascarides have an extream itch in their fundament and narrow Guts have a desire to go often to the stool after they have voided somewhat they are not so much troubled The cause of worms commonly is rottenness or gross Phlegmy and slimy matter apt to corrupt with a putrefying heat which accompanies all these which doth prepare this matter and then it is wrought by the perfusion of natural heat which gives life to the Worms many persons of age and stature have slighted the Worms till their Guts have been fretted and brought into danger of death For the remedy the air must be temperate the meat such as breed good Juyce Let the Patient eat largely or else the Worms will gnaw their Gutts for wants of sustenance the excrements of the Belly must be kept loose Of the Plague THe Plague is caused by unusual and pernicious putrefaction sometimes the constitution of the body is so different from the natural temperature that it is altogether changed into a pernicious and poysonous quality This disease is sometimes caused by corrupt and poysonous exhalations by Carrion by the evil influence of the Stars which is then the immediate hand of God and properly called the pestilence when it proceeds from outward causes 't is called a pestilent Feaver or the Plague the air infected first gets into the heart the air being subtle thin and apt to get into the pores it first infects the Genital Spirits then the Radical Moisture at last the whole substance of the body This disease first begins to discover it self by the Patients unquietness loss of his appetite the members dull and heavy the head aking the stomach pained the spirits decayed strength failing especially the Vital with many other Symptomes except the disease be supernatural and then the signs are so gentle that they can scarcely be perceived the infected air which is a great cause doth not onely weaken the humors and spirits of the body but also the sollid substance of the heart The Plague of all other diseases is most dangerous for although the signs are good yet suddenly the Patient dies the danger is the greater if no Pushes or Carbuncles break forth it is also as dangerous if they break and run in again this disease is consummated and brought to its full ripeness in four and twenty hours if a cold sweat arise on the body the face and eyes look black the spirits are cast down extraordinarily and the Patients excrements that are voided diversly coloured it is a sign of death The air must be rectified by sweet perfumes every day they must not be spared At the beginning of the disease the diet must be cooling the sleep short for by long sleeping the corrupt matter turns again to the heart Venery must be eschewed the belly kept loose and the minde freed from all careful perturbations Catarracta or Suffusion IS when the sight is by little and little dulled by a slimy humor frozen from Ice and droping over the eyes
dull and is benummed Physicians call this an imperfect Palsie the Harbenger of a Palsie why the sense doth sometimes perish and motion abides this happens because some parts do participate of a two-fold kinde of Sinnews this Disease hath great affinity with the Apoplexy and sometimes is caused by a weak Apoplexy and then it is called Paraplexia herein they differ the Apoplexy seizeth upon all the parts of the body depriving them both of sense and motion The Palsie seldom or never leaves the head without motion or sense but the other parts of the body lose both motion and sense and that in a different manner for if the beginning of the marrow of the Back-bone be affected all parts under the face do sympathize with it if but one half of the back be affected all parts that have relation also suffer but if the before-mentioned parts are not hurt but some particular Sinnew of some part of the body is loosed that part whereof this nerve is joyned shall also lose sense and motion In this disease as hath already been said the marrow of the Back-bone is affected which is the original of all other Sinnews wherefore the Practitioner ought to take pains in Anatomy to know where this mischief keeps its first residence One evident sign in this Disease is that if the palsied part be lifted up it falleth back again it is soon cool and in time withers the Patients urine is for the most part white and sometimes inclining to redness when this mischief is at the full height the Pulse is faint slow little and soft it is caused by a cold and moist distemper sometimes by an Imposthume or some other tumor crushing the sinnews by a wound a fall a fracture too strait a ligature laxation of bones in the back by a stroak but for the most part it is caused by thin and waterish humors derived from the brain which do insinuate into the pores and substance of the Sinnews and so the Sinnews being made too soft are loosened and slackned and do suck in so much moisture that they stop the head of the Sinnews whereby the passage of the animal faculty is hindred which hath its original from the brain A Palsie which is caused by the cutting of a Sinnew overthwart is incurable A Palsie caused in the Winter and in old men is seldom or never cured because natural heat is deficient in them The air wherein the Patient lives should be hot and dry procured by a fire if the season of the year require it or by a perfume of Cloves and Rosemary his meat must be such as heat and dries his diet must be slender till the fourteenth day for it is very good for the Patient to be abstenuous his drink must be small he must avoid sleep in the day time and trouble of minde Of the weakness of the Liver THe weakness of the Liver comes by distemper without any manifest evil in that Bowel the proper and principal faculty of the Liver is the blood which doth come to it by the property of its own substance and cannot be weakned of a suddain by any distemper for the distemper must needs take deep root before it hurt the substance of the Liver or dissolve the strength thereof but by what distemper soever this is caused the Liver doth not perform its proper duty except it be by halfs In this disease as hath been said the Liver is chiefly affected as will appear by its own functions hindred the blood is not well digested and then the blood which is voided by stool is watrish which shews that the nutrement was well concocted in the Stomach and began to be concocted in the Liver but not perfected because of the Livers weakness This disease scatters the Spirits native heat dissolves the strength and actions of the Liver 't is most probable that a cold distemper is the cause of the Livers weakness if the distemper be but light the colour of the face is white the Excrements stink a little few are voided the Patients Urine is thin there are many other conjectured causes if the weakness of the Liver hath been of a long continuance it is scarce to be cured and in time is changed to be an evil habit of the body from whence a general weakness is caused or else it turns to the Dropsie A temperate air is good for the Patient meats that are easie of digestion and do moderately heat his drink may be thin and Odoriferous Wine his sleep must be moderate his minde cleared from discontents Of the Chollick THe Chollick is a continual passion of the Bowel which is called Colon there follows it a difficulty of voiding of the Excrements and winde at the lower parts a grievous pain and sore pricking comes by fits because this bowel is thick and sinewy whereupon if any hurtful thing creep into its Tunicles it is not presently driven out this disease hath affinity with the Iliaca passio but in the Iliaca passio the pain is more vehement the looser Gut called Colon is chiefly affected the pain of this disease is vehement as if the person were bored through with an auger it is stirred up in the inside of the Bowel this pain is inconstant for sometimes it doth pinch one side and then another though it doth chiefly molest the right side and from thence is carried to the left The Chollick is eased by Lenitive glisters and fomentations there are many causes of this disease a several matter running to the Guts because of their wideness or else it is caused from an inflamation of the same part or by a sharp biting humor or by slimy and gross humors or by a thin Phlegm that is in the Film of the Colon and because that Bowel is the receptacle of winde the Chollick is often caused by them when great plenty of them is gathered together in those places or else it is caused by slimy and gross Phlegm sticking in the common passages or from a tumor remaining in the Bowels whereby the Guts are strongly pressed that the winde can hardly get forth the Chollick doth often turn into a resolution or looseness of the Sinews into a Joynt-Gout into Iliaca passio or a Dropsie of all Chollicks that is the worst which is caused by an inflammation The air the Patient lives in must be temperately hot inclining to driness yet the native heat of the outward and former parts of the belly must be kept hot with warme cloaths his meat must be easie of digestion such as doth generate few superfluities it must be moist not windy nor slimy his drink may be strong Wine exercise is good before meat and rest afterwards they may sleep in the day time Of the Pleurisie THe Pleurisie is an inflamation of the thin and small skin which cloathes the Ribs on the inner side called in Latine Pleura from whence this disease takes its name there are many pains of the side but in this place I
shall onely treat of that pain that doth follow asharp disease by the inflamation of the inner skin for if the inflamation be in the outward Muscles or if the pain be great because of windiness this is but a basterd Pleurisie and the Patient is without a Feaver The signs of this disease besides the difficulty of breathing and a vehement Cough is a pricking pain which plainly doth demonstrate that the membranes and some other tender parts are affected this pricking pain sometimes spreads it self over the sides and breast sometimes to the short Ribs to the Channel-bone of the Throat so that the Patient is forced to breath short and thick also there is a continual Feaver because the inflamation doth border on the heart the Pulse is thick not too great hard and unequal and by that means tough and like to a saw a cough also cometh withal the first day and then nothing cometh at length spettle is voided and comes up coloured according to the nature of the excrements and it is also moister there are many other signs the cause for the most part is blood running from the hollow Veins into the Ribs thin Veins sometimes it is caused by Phlegmy blood and then the disease is longer of continuance and the spettle frothy and white sometimes the blood is Chollerick and then a sharper disease is caused The suppression of the Hemrhoides or monethly tearms will cause a Pleurisie this disease is dangerous to old men to Women with childe and such as have been sick twice or thrice of it it vexes the Patient more in the night then day time whosoever is sick of a Pleurisie and is not cleansed in fourteen dayes they turn to supuratiâ—â— This disease kills by choaking or too mâ—ch pain or by the translation of the matter into the Lungs whereby the Consumption of them is caused and also Ulcers The air the Patient lives in must be temperate somewhat inclining to heat his meat easie of digestion he is not to drink Wine till the disease be abated he may be permitted longer then ordinary sleep his belly must be kept loose Of the Bleeding at the Nose THe Bleeding at the nose called Hemorrhagia doth signifie a Bleeding at the Nose whether it doth come immediately from the Nostrills carried thither by the Veins of the palate through which for the most part nature doth expel the superfluous blood of many or else whether it comes from the Veins of the Head further off but in general it doth signifie any bleeding whether it be of Nose Womb or any other part of the body when blood comes forth moderately in the beginning of a Pleurisie Impostume Squinancy Burning Feaver Small Poxs it is alwayes for the best yet this Bleeding in some other diseases is Critical foreshewing death the Nostrills are chiefly affected but not alwayes the essence of the Nostrils but they are affected by the consent of some other part the Veins by which this blood is cast out at the Nose run from the palate and Mouth into the Nostrills and sometimes from the head when too much blood is voided the colour of the face waxeth pale the body is of a leaden colour the outward parts are cold and a swooning follows and many times after death Oftentimes bleeding at the Nose is caused by nature which doth by this means expel the excrements and which is troublesome to the body Sometimes it is caused by the evil affection of the Veins wherein the blood is contained and the blood runs out of the Veins the Veins being opened by the plenty of blood which they could not contain There are sundry other causes If bleeding have continued long swooning weakness and too much cooling of the Liver Lachexia or the Dropsie is to be feared Bleeding at the Nose without coldness of the outwards parts is mortal The air the Patient should live in must be somewhat cold his meat must be such as doth nourish well and easie of digestion he must avoid exercise and speak little he must avoid all passions of the minde especially anger Of the Falling-sickness THe Falling-sickness is a Convulsion of all the parts of the body not continual but that which cometh by distances of time the minde and senses being thereby hurt This disease doth either happen when the brain hath the cause of the disease in it self which is usual or by the evil effect of the mouth of the stomach or from some other part underneath by which the venemous effect creepeth into the brain through secret passages the Patient feels the cause of this Disease like a vapour of cold winde to be carried to the brain by the continuity of the other parts from the part of the body wherein the Disease is chiefly seated the cause of this Disease being for the most part a venomous vapour carried up from some lower part of the body into the brain and then the Patient doth suddenly fall with a Convulsion The brain is the part affected either by it self or by the consent of the stomach or by some other parts The fit comes oftentimes suddenly with much foam which because it is slimy may be drawn out at length yet in a gentler Falling-sickness this doth not appear when the Patient is deprived of his senses he falls to the ground with a violent shaking of his body his face is wrested his eyes turned upwards his chin somewhat driven to his shoulder and oftentimes he voids seed and ordure against his will his Muscles are loosened all these are signs of a strong fâ—t Sometimes their teeth are so fast closed together that they are in danger of stifling paleness of the face inordinate motion of the tongue pain and heaviness of the head forgetfulness sadness troublesome dreams are ushers to this Disease the Patient being taken with a giddiness sometimes darkness and divers dim glisterings appear before his eyes This Disease is for the most part caused by abundance of melancholâ—ck and phlegmatick humors from whence corâ—upt venomous and stinking vapors break out whereby obstructions are caused in the passages â—f the brain and the passages of the spirits are â—â—ereby hindred by this means the brain and the roots of the Sinnews shrink and as it were tremble in the expelling of that which is obnoxious whether it be vapor or humor This disease frequents children because they are of a moister brain then yong men next to these men oâ— a full growth and old men least of all This Disease is more incident to men then women and usually it doth stick close to the Patient unless it be taken away by medicines in the minority If the Disease be vehement and come often on the Patient it is incurable but if a quartane Ague or any longer Feaver surprize him iâ— portends health The air wherein the Patienâ— lives must be hot and dry his meat mixed with such things as do dissolve and extenuate the humors exercise of the body and frication of thâ— head are prevalent
the moderate use of Venery is healthful his excrements must be voided iâ— due time and if Nature be deficient herein Arâ— must be used his sleep must be moderate and his minde pleased Of Rheum RHeum in Latine called Catarrhus is a distillation commonly taking a deflux of humors and excrements from the head or brain into the other parts of the body and because thâ— brain is of a cold and a moist nature and dotâ— want plenty of nourishment by reason of thâ— largeness thereof so likewise it doth breed many excrements and the slight distemper being cold and moist will further it for vapors senâ— from the lower parts get up thither and these being thickned by reason of the brains thinness are entertained and even as these superfluous humors are sent back again to some one or other part of the body oftentimes in the first Ventricle if they do not offend much in quantity and then they are soonest purged by the Pallat sometimes they spread through divers places when they flow too much and then they are voided at the Nose Pallat Ears or Eyes and they do often fall into the Stomach and Lungs from whence several diseases are occasioned The Brain is most affected as may appear by those things which are voided at the Mouth Nose and Pallat and then it is a more continual disease neither is any hurt of any other part perceived whereby it may be cherisht but while it is caused by other parts of the body it will the better be known by its proper signs This is an affection which is caused by moderate excretion if the excrements of the head fall on the Lungs it doth cause for the most part hardness of breathing and a great Cough and Hoarseness bringing pain and soreness to the aforenamed places the hot distemper of the brain is sometimes the cause the great weakness thereof being oftentimes the cause sometimes it is occasioned from the brains cold and moist distemper for then the nutriments conveighed to the brain are not well digested whereby many superfluities are gathered and store of excrements lodged in the brain Surfeits and too much fulness encreases this Disease or by too much sleep also by the weakness of the digestive and expulsive faculty of the brain If the humor fall from the head to the nose it is but a small grief if to the throat worse if to the lungs worst of all for the lungs are in danger of being exulcerated from whence comes a Consumption the Winter season is very obnoxious to this disease because of the uncertainty of the weather The air the Patient lives in should be moderately hot and rainy weather as also Northern and Southern blasts must be avoided his meat must be very easie of digestion and such as breeds good blood his sleep must be moderate and sometimes in the day time his head must be so covered that neither too much cold nor too much heat offend it his body must daily either by art or nature be emptied of excrements he must use moderate exercise and shun the passions of minde Of the Pain of the Stomach THe pain of the Stomach called Cardialgia is a painful sense of the mouth of the stomach caused by a biting matter This distemper hath an affinity with the Disease called Cardaica passio which is in like manner a Disease oâ— the mouth of the stomach caused by corrupt humors and such as are biting and violent which either came from some other place or else werâ— there generated and gathered together Thâ— Cardaica passio differs from this Disease becausâ— this is caused by biting humors but that is caused by virulent humors venomous and so malign that a very hot and sharp Feaver accompanies it The mouth of the Stomach is primarily affected the heart being hereby hurt because of the nearness a pinching pain with biting and fretting being felt under the Breasts grissels In this Disease there is a gnawing biting and pricking of the stomach there is an oppressing pain there whereby the Patient breaths with difficulty sometimes the belly doth cast out the chollerick stuff and sometimes he doth vomit choller a Feaver seldom comes with this In this Disease the appetite is abated the Patient is in more pain before then after meat this Disease is often caused by sadness for by those causes Choller comes into the stomach whereby bitings and gnawings are caused sometimes by inflamation or by sharp or phlegmy humors if this Disease comes without a Feaver it is less dangerous Let the air the Patient lives in be cold either by art or nature his meat easie of digestion and such as is least subject to corruption rest asswages the pain his sleep must be moderate â—is belly must be rendred answerable to nature â—erturbations of his minde are to be shunned especially choller Of the Gout THe Joynt-Gout is a feebleness of the Joynts and pain coming upon them at several diâ—â—ances of time for the most part it is caused by 〈◊〉 Flux which windeth it self betwixt the Ligaments Films and Tendons of the Joynts for in this disease the Joynts do first receive the Humor which at length doth insinuate into the Films adjoyning sometimes there is a Gout in the fingers sometimes in the knee sometimes in the hips from whence it spreads it self to the Thighs Calves of the Legs and to the end of the Feet yet this Gout sticks not in the Hip but is fastned above the Hip at the toâ— of the Buttock if the Gout stick in the feet ' tiâ— called Podagra or the Feet-Gout whether it bâ— in the ankles soles of the feet or great toeâ— joynt sometimes it seizes on the shoulder-joynts and turning-joynts of the Back-bone oâ— Chine sometimes not any knitting of thâ— bones is free from this pain The parts affecteâ— are the joynts tendons ligaments films of thâ— parts of the body which either knit or inviron the bones are here affected and sometimes thâ— Membranes are filled and stretcht the Patient iâ— tormented for a long space when this Diseasâ— doth first surprize him yet the pain is but little by the use of evil diet almost all the joynts oâ— his body suffering alike sometimes not one parâ— of the body being free from this Disease In thâ— Feet or Hip-Gout for the most part no swellinâ— doth appear but in the Hand and Knee-Gout swelling redness and heat by extream pains aâ— easily to be perceived sometimes an inflamatâ—on is caused and then the appetite is lost anâ— the Patient is troubled with watchings and Feaver The cause of every Joynt-Gout is foâ— the most part great store of phlegmatick humors or some other humors overflowing in the greater Veins the Liver and Head so that the parts are therewith surcharged and that these parts may likewise be free of this burthen they do cast these excrements upon the joynts ligaments and tendons and films whereby they are filled stretcht and weakned There are four causes of these superfluities of humors the
even as health and sickness are not of the nature of mans body but even accidents thereto Which being certain let us then consider what an infinite variety of medicines would arise of things the same being used not onely entire but diversly prepared and even corrupted wherein the industry of Alchmistes is verily greatly to be commended and far more excellent then the common Pharmacopolia rather so to be called then Pharmacopoiya by the skill whereof diverse Natures in one thing are so exactly severed every one having a diverse operation Now oft-times because the Humour to be purged is gross and tough and so hardly yieldeth to the Medicine or hath some other evil quality wherewith it might greatly hurt the parts whereby it passeth Nature not forgetting this point hath as abundantly supplied such helps in this behalf as need requireth as for the preparing of Choler Plantine Roses the Verjuice of the Grape Endive Succory Sorrel Sperage c. For Melancholly Violets Borage Bugloss Baulm Fumitory Doddar Ceterach or Fingerfearn c. For Phlegme Fenel Parsley Betony Nep Penerial Thime Savory Germander c. Of these I less stand upon because the preparers of humors are least in controversie although from hence may an argument be drawn not lightly to be passed over to prove the store of purgers seeing nature hath ministred sufficiency of preparers and as it were Harbingers to the purgers of Countrey yield But I will draw to an end and thus much shall suffice for this present purpose to have bin said of Medicines belonging to the cure of all Diseases in the Complexion The other kinde of Diseases are in the frame of the Body and of those if quantity be superfluously increased and that in the whole body medicines which do vehemently waste as those of the third degree hot diminish the same If in the part onely medicines which we call eaters and fretters dispatch the same as Copperas the ashes of Spurge burnt Allom Mercury sublimed and precipitate Verdigreece burnt Salt c. If measure be diminished and that without loss of substance the glewing medicines bring cure whereof our native soil is so stored that for Wounds the Surgeons need neither send into Barbary nor India as Plantine Hounds-tongue the flowers and leafs of Willows Yarrow Carduus Benedictus Betony Scabious Verven Elm-leaves Adders-tongue Moon-wort Herb-turpence Selfheal and these if the wounds be in the fleshy parts If it be breaking of Bones such are joyned with fine flower the brain of a Dog with Wool and the white of an Egg the Holilock-root the moss of the Oke Glew Roses Wormwood c. If there be loss of substance in the fleshy parts either by wound or ulcer Incarnatives fail us not as Barley meal Fenigreek-flower Figbene-meal and to be short all such as be of the first degree hot and dry without eagerness or fellness Now the diseases in the straitness of Passages or Obstructions if they arise of the humors aforesaid and in those places whereto the medicine may conveniently come then are they to be set free by purging If upon other causes or in such places whereto the force of the medicines which purgeth cannot come or hardly entereth or of such causes as be no humours but through some other strange matter or by straitness of the vessels wherethrough the passage is then are other remedies to be used whereof we have great plenty as softners loosers and such as enlarge the pores of the body of which sort are such as be not above the first degree hot as Camomile Lilies new Butter Swines-grease Lin-seed Fenigreek Briony-root all Marrows Also Medicines which make the matter thin or cut it and divide it into sundry parts of which sort are they of the second degree hot to the third degree as Dill Pennerial Savery Organ Thime Marjoran Saint-Johns wort Worm-wood c. Now if the humour prepared be to be voided by place medicine then Salt Salt-water Lye Ashes Allom and Lime take place and if more vehemency be needful Calamint wilde Cresses Treacle Mustard Garden Cresses Mustard-seed Nettles Dragons all the Spurges are to be numbred among the best and if these serve not the root of Crowfoot will make the supply If the humour cannot be voided conveniently except it be altered into another matter of which sort is pent blood out of the veins then are ripening medicines first to be applied as Butter Wheat-flower Sorel Horse-hoof Lilies Marsh-mallows Onions roasted which are all singular ripeners If the matter be tough and clammy the scourers avoid that inconvenience Endive Succory red Roses Plantine Housleek Agrimony Betony Honey Horehound Wormwood Baulm Pimpernel Watergermander c. Now if the matter which stoppeth be the stone as in the Kidneys or Bladder then are these Medicines most convenient for that use Grummel-seed Goats-blood the juice of Mugwort Seahulver-root the stones found in the great Snails heads Radish-roots Saxifrage c. If any hard matter be in other parts the softners and wasters and dissolvers are to be applied Thus much touching the cure of Obstructions and strait Passages which according to the variety of place where they light cause sundry Diseases or rather take to them sundry names As in the Brain the Apoplexy in the bladder of Gall the yellow Jaundies in the Spleen the black in the Sinnews of motion the Palsie or trembling in the Lungs Asthma c. Now if these Passages be too large they are to be stopped and straitned with cooling and drying medicines of which sort in a manner are all of sharp and sowre taste as Vine leaves the Bryer and Bramble Barberries Medlers and Services Quinces and such as are of themselves or by mixture with liquor clammy as Wheat-flower Bean-flower the white of an Egge Plaister washed Lime Litharge and Ceruse Now moreover because in all good cure not onely the cause of the Diseases is to be oppugned but the part also to be strengthned which must needs partly by the cause of the disease and partly even by the conflict of the same cause with the medicine be feebled that nothing be wanting unto us for the restoring of health nature hath provided even speciall munition for every part of the body that the whole furniture against all diseases might be compleat As for the Head Anniseeds Folefoot Betony Calamint Eyebright Lavander Bayes Marjoran Piony Sage Rue or Herbgrace Lettice the Leaves and Flowers of Water-lilies Roses Garden Nightshade For the Lungs Calamint Dragons Licorice Enula campana Hyssope Linseed Horehound the Lungs of a Fox Scabious Water Germander Barley garden Poppy Violets Horsehoof For the Heart Bugloss Borage Saffron Baulm Basil Rosemary Violets the bone of a Stags heart Roses For the Stomach Wormwood Mints Betony Baulm Mint Quinces Medlers Sorrel Purslane For the Liver Dartspine or Chamepitys Germander Agrimony Fenel Endive Succory Liverwort Barbaries For the Spleen Maidenhair Sperage Fingerfearn Doâ—der Dâ—â—der of Thime Hops the bark of the Ash-tree For the Kidneys Seahulver Grumel
English it is as thâ— Latine word soundeth we may call it Herb Aâ—gel or The Angelical or Angel-like Herb. 〈◊〉 what occasion this excellent name was first giâ—â— unto it I know not unless it were for the â—â—cellent Vertues thereof or for that God made 〈◊〉 known to man by the ministry of an Angel I suppose the former cause rather to be true howsoever as I am not able to prove the other so I think no man can give any good reason to the contrary For this we know that God hath made his Angels ministring Spirits to serve us for the safeguard of our souls and also of our bodies But upon what occasion soever the name was given it is excellent and so are the properties Angelica is hot and dry at least in the third degree All the later Writers agree upon this and experience proveth the same that it is gooâ— against Poison pestilent Airs and the Pestilence it self The Practicioners of Germany writâ— thus of it If any man be suddenly taken either with the Pestilence or with any Pestilent Ague with too much sweating let him drink of the powder of the root half a dram mingled with a dram of Tâ—eacle in three or four spoonfuls of the water of Angelica distilled from the roots and after his going to bed covering himself well â—t him fast at the least three hours after which if he do he will begin to sweat and by â—he help of God he shall be cured of his disâ—ase For lack of Treacle one may take a whole â—ram of the Root of Angelica in powder with 〈◊〉 much of the distilled Water as aforesaid 〈◊〉 â—ill have the same effect The Root of Angelica well steeped in Vineâ—â—r and smelt to in time of the Pestilence 〈◊〉 the same Vinegar being sometime drunk â—â—ing preserveth from infection But in my â—â—dgement it is better to take an Orenge or â—emon cut off the top pick out the meat prick full of small holes put into it a piece of spunge 〈◊〉 fine linen cloth dipped in the foresaid Vineâ—â—r and smell unto it The water distilled out of the roots of Anâ—â—lica or the powder of the same is good against â—â—awing and pains of the belly occasioned with â—â—ld if the body be not bound withall It is â—od against all inward diseases as the Pleurisie 〈◊〉 the beginning before the heat of the inflamaâ—â—â—n be come into the body for that it dissolveth 〈◊〉 scattereth abroad such humors as use to cause â—â—e Pleurisie Moreover it is good for the disâ—ases 〈◊〉 the Lungs if they come of a cold cause and 〈◊〉 the Strangurian if from a cold cause or of a â—â—pping It is good for a woman that is in traâ—â— It expelleth winde that is in the body and â—eth the pain that cometh from the fame The 〈◊〉 â—t may be sod in wine or water as the nature â—he sick requireth The juice of the root put into an hollow tooth taketh away the ache the same effect hath the distilled water being put in at the ear The juice and water of Angelica quickens the eye sight and breaks the little films that cover the eyes causing darkness of the sight Of the roots of Angelica and Pitch may be made a good Emplaister against the bitings of mad beasts The water the juyce or the powder of this root sprinkled upon the diseased place 〈◊〉 a very good remedy against old and deep foreâ—â— For they do scour and clense them and cover the bones with flesh The water of the same in a cold cause is good to be laid on places diseased with the Gout and Sciatica For it stancheth the pain and melteth away the tough humors that are gathered together The seed is of like vertue with the root The wilde Angelica that groweth here in the low woods and by the water-side is not of such vertue as the other is howbeit the Chyrurgeons use to seethe the root of it in Wine to heal green wounds Thesâ— properties I have gathered out of Germanâ— Writers I have not as yet proved them all mâ— self but divers of them I have proved and havâ— found them to be true I have set down thâ— pill of an Orange or Lemmon the meâ—â— whereof is also commended by Physicians to bâ— both a preservative good against poison anâ— the infection of the Pestilence Late Writers affirm that the roots of Angelica are opposite to all poison and infectioâ— If any be infected with the plague or poisoneâ— they give him immediately to drink a dram of the powder of this root with Wine in the winter and in summer with distilled water of Carduus benedictus then get him to bed and cover him until he have sweat foundly The same root being taken fasting in the morning or but held in the mouth doth keep and preserve the body from the evil of the air The leaves of Angelica pounded with the leaves of Rue and Honey are very good to be laid to the bitings of mad dogs presently taken after the hurt the Wine being drunk wherein the root or leaves of Angelica hath been boiled To conclude I have thought good to write of these Herbs Carduus Benedictus and Angelica either because they are not known to many or else that Artists would have their secret vertues concealed But I do not think it fit that any thing should be secret which may be profitable for my Countrey For God hath not made any thing for the use of a few but for the commodity of all men And we that are the children of God ought to frame our selves so that we may be like affectioned unto our Father who is beneficial to all men who hath made his sun to shine and his rain to rain upon the wicked as well as upon the good that is to say who feedeth all both good and bad by heat and moisture which proceed from the Sun and the rain all things grow upon the earth whereby our lives are maintained I conclude that forasmuch as Almighty God is good unto all men we ought to be like minded and not to keep secret nor to hide any thing that may profit one another I wish all men rightly to use the good creatures of God and to give him hearty thanks for all his benefits Fragmenta Aurea The first Golden CENTURY OF Chymicall and Physicall Judiciall APHORISMES AND Admirable Secrets BY Nich. Culpeper Gent. late Student in Physick and Astrology LONDON Printed for Nath. Brook at the Sign of the Angel in Cornhill 1659. Fragmenta aurea The first Golden Century of Chymical and Physical Judicial Aphorismes and admirable Secrets 1. THe Hoofs of the forefeet of a Cow dryed and taken any way Mizaldus increase milk in Nurses the smoke of them being burnt drives away Mice 2. If you fry Earth-worms in Goose-grease and drop a drop or two of the Grease warm being strained in your ear helps the pains thereof I suppose you had best first slit them and wash them in white wine 3. The
honey 100. Syrup of Borage and Buggloss resist Melancholly and cause light Hearts taking away grief and passions thereof Fragmenta aurea The second Golden Century of Chymical and Physical Judicial Aphorismes and admirable Secrets 1. Mizaldus THe Roots of Sorrel hung about their necks that have the Swine Pocks doth wonderfully help them 2. Briony Roots boiled in water and the water drunk helps the Dropsie 3. Eyebright is an herb of the Sun and is a wonderful strengthner of the eyes used any way either outwardly or inwardly both the leaves stalks and flowers for it is an herb appropriated to them 4. You may easily know whether a Dropsie be hot or cold thus If it begin below and swell upwards it is hot because the nature of heat is to ascend but if it swell downwards it is cold because the nature of cold is to descend 5. Dry a bullocks sheeps or goats Bladder Galen and beat it into powder and give a dram of it in water vinegar or any convenient liquor to such as cannot hold their water or use to piss in bed and it will help them give it at night or morning according as you see cause 6. Rub a green Marigold leaf between your fingers and put it up into your nose and it will draw away abundance of humours and help Rheum anoying the head 7. The Roots of Elder-trees sod in water and the decoction drunk for common drink cures the Dropsie 8. Garlike and Housleek of each a like quantity stamped and applied plaister-wise to the place will help the Gout be it hot or cold 9. White wine Benenius wherein the ends of a pair of tongs have been quenched being before red hot six or seven times being drunk divers times doth help such as have grieved swelled or diseased Spleens 10. Mizaldus It is a signe of health in a sickness when the Gods begin to itch but take heed then of Venerious acts lest you pay for your pleasure 11. The decoction of Walwort either in wine or water doth admirably by being drunk cure the Dropsie 12. Arnoldus de villa nova Coriander-seed being beaten into powder and mixed with Honey and applied Plaister-wise either to Carbuncles or Sores helps them 13. Mizaldus The Berries of winter Cherries stamped and the Juyce pressed out and dryed helps both the Stone and Dropsie 14. Elder-leaves made hot between two Tile-stones and applied to the Forehead and Temples ease the pains of the Head 15. Take the buds leaves or inner-rind of an Elder-tree beat it and drop a drop or two of the juice thereof into the Ear it cures not onely Imposthumes there but also Deafness 16. Mizaldus The Brain of a Weazel dried and drunk in Vinegar cures the Falling-sickness 17. Many men are troubled with watry Stomachs much thin fresh water comming out of their mouthes towards morning it usually comes with a proneness to vomit the vulgar call it water-springs for such or any other Rheum whatsoever that molesteth your body take this most excellent though cheap Medicine Take a little stick and tye some old Oken-leaves about the end of it and cut them pretty round then put them into your mouth as far as you can well suffer them and hold the stick fast between your teeth and abundance of Rheum will come out of your mouth hold your mouth over a porringer and you may see how much Then wash the leaves in water and put them in your mouth again do so as often as you think fit If you do so before meat it will help your digestion 18. Earth-worms slit and washed well in white wine and dried and beaten into powder and a spoonful taken of them in any liquor in the morning fasting in a little time cureth the black Jaundies 19. Olibanum mixed with as much Barows-grease beat the Olibanum first into powder and boiled together make an Ointment which will kill the Lice in Childrens heads and such as are subject to breed them will never breed them after A medicine cheap safe and sure which breeds no anoyance to the brain 20. Tormentil boiled in wine Petrus Hisp and the wine drunk for ordinary drink and the Herb it self that was boiled being applied Plaister-wise to the eyes at night helpeth such as are so blinde they cannot see at all 21. Andr. Mathiolus Briony roots boiled in white Wine and a draught of the Wine drunk every night going to bed helps such as have the fits of the Mother 22. The juyce of Coleworts snuffed up the nose purgeth the head marvellously and taketh away the pains thereof though of never so long continuance 23. Mizaldus The Gums of young children being often rubbed with the brains of a Hare or Cunney their teeth will cut easily 24. Pet. Hisp Fine Aloes boiled well with the juyce of Coleworts and made into pills a scruple being taken at a time at night going to bed doth gallantly purge the head and ease the pains thereof 25. Take a good handful of Arsemart wrap it up in a Bur-leaf and take it up being so wrapped first in cold ashes then cover those cold ashes with hot embers those hot embers with hot coles and let it roast and apply it being well roasted to the place grieved with the Gout change it morning and evening and in three dayes you shall see the most wonderfull effects of it 26. If you beat a plate of Gold very thin when â—ol is in Leo Hermes Arnoldus de villa nova Jupiter and Luna in good Aspect â—nd Fortunate it will do wonders for being â—id to the seam of the Head it strengthens the â—rain and helps the infirmities thereof being â—anged against the region of the Heart it helps â—he diseases thereof faintings sownings c. â—nd causeth gladness being hanged to the Back it cools and strengthens them and helps pains in the back 27. Take all the Urine the party makes at one time that hath the Quartain Ague Mizaldus and knead flour and make a cake with it and when it is baked give it to a Dog of the house do so twice or thrice and in so doing the party will be well and the Dog sick Chuse a Dog for a Man but a Bitch for a Woman 28. To swallow down three grains of Mastich every night when one goes to bed Emp. Ben. Vict. delivereth from the pains of the stomach 29. Mark where a Swine rubs himself then cut off a piece of the wood and rub any swoln place with it and it will help it with this proviso that where the Hog rubs his head it helps the swellings of the head and where the neck those of the neck c. If you cannot apply a part of the thing the Hog rubbed against to the grieved place you must apply the grieved place to that 30. The rinde of an Ash-tree boiled in wine anâ— a draught of the wine drunk six or seven mornings together easeth the Spleen 31.
Culpeper WHat this Treatise concerns the Title shews the Margine shall also shew you what Planet and Sign of the Zodiack every Herb is under all the several parts of the Body handled in this manner open to you my own Moddel of Physick and draw the Curtain which hath so long blinded the Eyes of the Vnderstanding both of ancient and moddern Physicians here is revealed those hidden qualities A Common-wealth is well hope up with such Physicians which they harping at and onely groaping for could never give a reason of like mad men rather then Naturalists But I desire here to be helpful not critical therefore I shall about the Business promised in the Title by him who loves and delights in the Works of the Lord. Nich. Culpeper Spittle Fields Sol 6. Libra 1649. BAum is of a cherishing nature Sol. Leo. and wonderfully resists passions of the Heart faintings â—nd swoonings it makes the man lightsome and â—lithe merry and chearful it comforts and chears â—he spirits and takes away fears cares and destracted thoughts arising from Melancholly or â—ddust Choller It is hot and dry in the second degree strengthens the inward parts exceedingâ—y helps digestion and opens obstructions of the Brain it naturally preserves the vital Spirits Heart and Arteries from melancholly vapours and is profitable in the bloody Flux and a notable meat for such as have the Gout a sovereign Antidote for such as are poisoned by eating Mushromes I suppose it took its name Balm from its sovereignty in curing Wounds Scordium Jupiter Leo. or Water-Germander is of a heating drying and binding quality and provokes both Urine and the Tearms in Women it is a great Antidote against poison and helps the gnawing pains of the Stomach or Sides comming either through cold or obstructions it stops the bloody Flux easeth the Lungs of old Coughs and rotten Phlegm it keeps bodies from putrefaction resisteth Pestilence Small Pox Meazles faint spots Purples and some are of opinion it withstands any Epidemical Disease whatsoever It comforts and strengthens the Heart exceedingly and nothing better to kill Worms whether in the Stomach or Belly boiled in Vinegar and the place bathed with it helpeth the Gout Vipers Bugloss is a deadly enemy to poison Venus Leâ— and poisonous Creatures there grows enough of it about the Castle Walls at Lewis in Sussex whosoever eats of it shall not be hurt by venemous Beasts that day Crollius in his Basilica Chymica will furnish you with enough such notions it chears and comforts the Heart expels sadness and causeless Melancholly it allayes the heat of the Blood and the fury of Agues by cooling the spirits it procures abundance of Milk in Nurses especially the seed of it it mightily easeth pains in the Back and Reins Jupiter Sol. Burnet is hot and dry in the second degree and is a great friend not onely to the Heart and Liver but also to the whole body of man a little of it put in Wine is not onely delightful to the taste but also wholesom for the body It refresheth the heart quickens the Spirits exceedingly driving away melancholly and indeed the opposition of the house of Saturn to Leo shews that the heart and vital Spirits are impeached by nothing so much as by Melancholly it defends the body from all noysom vapors from ill Air and Pestilence and indeed whatever defends from ill Air must needs defend from all Epidemical diseases for it is the Planets corrupting the air nor the A piece of Colledge nonsence in this time of Fluxes Brewers corrupting their drink that causeth Epidemical diseases It is admirable good in fluxes whether they be of blood or humors whether they be internal or external it stops the whites in women belching and vomiting and is a very good wound Herb for all moist sores Venus Taurus Sorrel is cooling and binding drying in the second degree it opposeth the sting and venom of Scorpions so exceedingly that a man can feel no hurt by them It succors the heart and blood as also the Vital Spirits over-pressed with heat whether you take the Root Herb or Seed if any planet from Scorpious cause the malady this is the cure It resisteth putrefaction exceedingly in the blood and restores weak decayed stomachs it stops fluxes and helps the immoderate flowing of the terms it strengthens the Reins and Kidneyes and hinders the breeding of the Stone neither is there a better remedy in the world for Scrophula or the disease called the Kings evil or any other disease in the neck or throat Violets Venus I can give but little reason if I were asked why I set Violets amongst the Cordials unless I should plead tradition All Physicians have reckoned Violets among the Cordial flowers for my part I believe nothing less they cool inflamations be they internal or external they are especially appropriated to inflamations in the neck and throat fundaments and matrix falled down and inflamed they cool the heat of the Reins thereby resisting the Stone and stopping miscarriages Difficult labours in women thence arising they are excellent in Feavers and Plurisies and hot Rhumes and horseness of the throat Strawberries Venus I know no reason why I may not put in Strawberries here as well as either Violets or Sorrel for neither of them are proper in this place for the heart being the original of heat in the Microcosme no cold thing is properly or per se appropriated to it Strawberries are cold in the first degree the fruit cold and moist temperate the root dry and binding in general they refresh the Spirits ready to faint for heat they cool the liver and blood abate the fury of Chollerick diseases help Palpitation of the heart the yellow Jaundies Inflamations whether internal or external they are excellent in sore mouths sore throats Ulcers in the privitives fasten loose teeth Scabs Itch Tetters and other Martial infirmities of the skin Jupiter Leo. Borage and Bugloss their natures being the same I put them both together they are hot and moist and naturally appropriated to keep the vapors of melancholly from the heart and bridle the unruly passions of the vital Spirit which my Theory of Chyrurgery will manifest to you they make the heart joyful and glad cheerful and merry it clarifies the blood exceedingly opens obstructions of the Liver and helps the yellow Jaundies and by clarifying the blood and removing the addust and sharp humors there must needs be a gallant internal remedy for Scabs Itch Pimples and other infirmities thence arising They help swoonings and passions of the heart and restores such as are pined away either by Consumptions or any other lingring sickness Ros-Solis Sundew It is alwayes moist in hot weather Sol. Cancer yea the hotter the sun shines upon it the moister are the leaves thence it took its name It is excellent good for hot salt Rhumes that distill down upon the Lungs Ulcers in the Lungs coughs shortness of
have many times forborn the applying of the Traepan to the profit of my Patients and my good Name and Estimation Moreover there be many ignorant Chyrurgeons which without consideration apply the Traepan upon all parts of the Head as well upon the comistures or seams as other places which is the cause of the death of many Patients Wherefore they ought to have a great consideration and to be very diligent in this respect and for to use their Art according to this true Method prescribed them The fifth Error touching the Punctures of Nerves WHen it chanceth that any is hurt by the Punctures of Nerves if he be not speedily helped by some cunning and expert Chyrurgeon he is in great danger to fall into Convulsions which is the occasion of many a mans death which commonly hapneth to them that are drest by the ignorant and common Chyrurgeons For when they begin the cure they make Fomentation with hot water wherein hath been boiled Mallows Violets and such like then after the Fomentation they apply an Appeaser of pain made with the crumbs of white Bread being mingled with the yolk of an Egg Oyl of Cammomile and Oyl of Roses the which things are altogether contrary to the Punctures of Nerves Forasmuch as their application doth moisten too much the nervous places and retaineth or keepeth in the matter which is already come to the place and if there be any Aposthume it doth augment and encrease it and causeth the matter to ascend up to the Brain whereby ensusueth Convulsions or Death Wherefore to avoid this danger and to follow the cure methodically you shall have first a regard to the evacuation of the body and if the strength of the Patient be good to use Flebetonice Revolsive or according to the cause of the grief Then to take away that which is ready conjunct you shall enlarge the Orofice â—o the end that the Medicine may the better penetrate to the bottom and take away the sharpness of the humor In this case I have found very profitable the Oyl of Hippiricon prepared in this form that is to say with Venice Turpentine and for one ounce of the said Oyl you shall take half a scruple of Euphorbium which shall be applied very hot with Pledgets and upon that a Plaister made with Propolis Gum Ammoniack and Wax as much as shall suffice By this means the matter which is drunk into the Nerves or Tendons shall be drawn out to the outward parts Also for this intent I have found profitable Lin-seed Oyl and Euphorbium of each alike with the twentieth part of Sulpher being very finely poudred with Perosin and Wax as much as shall suffice to make an Unguent This Unguent doth heat moderately attract and dissicate and is of a subtle faculty with the which by the help of God the Chyrurgeons shall get both honour and profit The sixth Error is touching the abuse of the Runners about called Cutters for the Stone and Ruptures AMong the common Runners about which use to cut the Stone and Ruptures there is a great error of theirs to be lamented of any Christian heart for under this cure of cutting the Hernies they do miserably take away the Stone as well in the Hernia aquosa or ventosa as in all the rest the which is inhumanely and against the will of God and they do not onely use it in men but most of all in little Children therefore it should be very good for the Parents which have their Children troubled with any kinde of Hernies that before they commit their Children to lose their stones and sometimes their lives by any of these Runnagates for so may I well term them that they shew them to some learned Chyrurgeon to the end that he may see what kinde of Hernies they have and so to discern the Aquosa or Ventosa from Intestinale or Omentales For certainly I have seen Hernies in Children which came by the relaxation or division of the Peretoneum have been perfectly healed by the apt applying of glutinative Medicines and such other like without cutting or taking away of the Testicle But such is the covetous desire of these Persons which make the Parents believe that it cannot be helped without their butcherly cutting and for to get money which they are as greedy after it as Vultures after their prey not having the fear of God before their eyes but like covetous Gripers catch what they may for the time and care not what become of them afterwards whether they live or die we know by woeful experience what harm they have done both by the murthering cruelly and also lameness and continual pain These Fellows rush into England and have such a great name at the first coming but after when their works are tried and then the proof of them seen the peoble for the most part are quickly weary of them and many a fatherless Child and Widdow which they have made may curse the time that ever they knew them I dare affirm they never did any cure in England but that there are English Men which have done the like and greater Such is the foolish fantasies of our English Nation that if he be a stranger he shall have more favourers then an English man though the English mans knowledge doth far pass the others as experience therein hath shewed and this I will stand to the proof of that there are English men that shall in all things do as much both by learning and experience as any of them all That they may not deceive the common people with their fair promises I resolve by Gods permission to write of all the kinds of Ruptures or Burstings and how to know every one of them to the end that if any Chyrurgeon which hath not the right knowledge may streight at the first sight know what to do I will begin to treat of the kinds of Ruptures and first of the division of them in general and then particularly Of the eight kinds of Hernies THere are eight kinds of Hernies or Ruptures whereof some have their proper names and the others by similitude the proper Hernies do most commonly come by the Relaxation or Rupture of the Proteneum insomuch that the Intestines and Epiplocon or Zerbus doth lose their natural place and of these are seven kinds that is Enterocele otherwise called Herni intestinale Epiplocele or Herni Zirbale Bubonocele or Herni Inguinale The Hernies by similitude are when there is some tumour against nature in the Cods or in some part of the Groin without the coming forth of the Intestines or Zirbus and of these there are five kinds the first is called Herni Aqueuse and of the Greeks Hidrocele the second Herni Carneuse or Sarcocele the third Variquese the fourth Venteuse which is called of the Greeks Pneumatocele the fifth Humorale which shall be spoken of particularly in order and first we will begin with the proper kinds Of the Hernie Intestinale FOr because that the Hernie Intestinale
is the most convenientest I will speak first of it This kind is no other then a certain descending down of the Intestines in Scrotum the cause of the which is when the Peretoneum is broken or relaxed in the place where the Spermatick vessels do pass which comes commonly by some vehement strain as by vehement running leaping lifting or vehement crying and such other like the signes to know when the Intestines is descended into Scrotum is when he lies they will easily be put up again without any manner of trouble or may be reduced the Patient standing with ones hands and in the reducing you shall hear a gurguling or noise and by this you may know it from Zirbus because that when the Zirbus is put up it makes no noise and also it is not so painful the other signes shall be declared when we come to speak of the Herni Zirbale When this kind is not very farre gone and that it be not compleat the best way is to cure it by Medicines as well to be taken inwards as to be applyed without that is to say with emplaisters and so by convenient trussing and boulstering steept in the Juyce of Herbs convenient 〈◊〉 Ruptures which are of astringent and glutinative â—aculty I have seen many by these aforesaid Medicines have been perfectly cured yet nevertheless if for the oldness of it that it be not to be cured by these means then you must come to the last remedy which is by cutting for the executing of the which I wish all men to chuse an expert Chyrurgeon and not to trust too much to these Runners about and as for this kinde it may be cut without taking away of the Testicle Of Herni Zirbale HErni Zirbale which the Greeks do call Epiplocele is another thing then the falling of Zirbus which is a grease that covereth the Guts into Scrotum the which most commonly falls within Didimes but yet sometimes by the breaking of the Didimes it falls out the causes as well inward as outward are the same which cause Herni Intestinale for look how the Peretoneum is broken or relaxed in the other even so doth it in this the signes are much like also saving that it is much more softer for in the touching it handleth like Wool and is also less painful and it is more difficult to put up then the Herni Intestinale and in the reducing makes no noise this kind is less dangerous then the others by reason that the pain is less and also because that the excrement is not in it as it is in the Herni Intestinale Now here is a special thing to be noted in this kind which the common cutters do use that is they do use to cut away the Zirbus which is discended within Didime without either tying or cautrising and so there followeth a flux of Blood which having no issue but is retained in the belly there doth corrupt which causeth most perilous accidents and most commonly death Of the relaxation of the Peretonium called Herni Inguinale HErni Inguinale is a descending of the Intestines or Zirbus into the Groins which the Latines call Inguina the which sort doth never go further then the Groin for when the Intestines or Zirbus doth pass thorow the Peretoneum then it is either Intestinale or Zirbale for this kind is nothing but a relaxation of the Peretoneum The causes are as of the others aforesaid and it is easily to be known by the roundness and it will be more easily reduced then any of the others you may know when the Intestines is descended by noise that it will make though not commonly yet most oftennest as hath been said of Enterocele but if it be the Zirbus it makes no noise and is much more softer and not so painful Of the kinds of Hernies which be by similitudes or improperly called WE have spoken of those three kinds of Herni which are properly called now it remains â—o speak of the five kinds which are by similitudes and first we will begin with the Aquose which is no other thing then a certain watrish tumor of Croton increased by little and little and for the most part lies between Heritroides and the Spermatick vessels howbeit sometimes it may be contained between Dartos and Heritroides and between Dartos and the Scrotum as many learned men have written the signes are that the Scrotum doth wax big by little and little and for the most part without pain and the tumor is heavy and glistering and hard principally when the Scrotum is filled it waxes in length and doth not return as doth the Intestinale and Zirbale but remains at one stay This kind if that the water have long lien there and so corrupted the Testicle it must be taken away Of Herni Charneuse HErni Charneuse which the Greeks do call Sarcocele is a tumor against nature in the Scrotum which there doth grow to a certain scireuse flesh and doth much resemble the Verequeses or Swelled Veins the causes of the which are by the gathering together of abundance of gross humors which nature cannot rule because of the weakness the signes are unequable hardness and inflamation which doth alwayes remain in the part that is to say the Didime and doth alwayes increase with pain being unequal and not even wherefore Guido saith that this kinde and Vanqueuse are very dangerous Hernie Verequese HErnie Verequese is an appearance of Veins not accustomed about the Testicles and other parts contained within Scrotum The causes are gross humors gathered together as melanchollick blood and such like which nature cannot disperse because of weakness The signs are repletion of the Veins about like to the twigs of Vines with softness of the Testicle or Dideme This kinde if it be not very great and far gone it may be healed by solutive Medicines The Hernie Ventose HErnie Ventose is a tumor of the Cods increased by winde and from the imbecillity or weakness of the part affected it is known by the swelling of the Cods and Yard which glistereth like unto a slikt paper it comes suddenly and is round and light if that there be not another humor joyned with it It is to be cured with Carnificatives as Oleum Nucum Oleum Anethinum Costinum c. And there may be added too of Seeds and Herbs as Semen Anisi Carvi Faeniculi Agni casti Ruta Calaminta Origani c. Hernie Humorale HErnie Humorale is an Aposthume contained likewise in the Cods which is ingendred of humors hot and cold not much declining from the natural habit which may lie between Scrotum and Dartos or between Heretroydes and Dartos or onely within Heritroydes as for the causes the signs and curation are like to other Aposthumes Now that I have declared the definition causes and signs of Hernies it shall not be amiss to expound in few words those parts which must be opened when any of these kindes are cured by handy operation and this is
to be noted first that the Testicles are covered with three Tunicles the first of them takes his original of the skin and is called Scrotum or Purss the second which takes his original of the Peretoneum and is called Dartos the third which is proper to the said Testicle and is called Heritroides these two last do not onely cover the Testicles but also the Spermatick vessels as well they which bring the substance wherewith the Sperm is made which are named Preparans as them which bring the Sperm to the neck of the Bladder which is called Ejaculatores or expelling the which goes up to Ossa pubis Phlebotomy displayed OR Perfect Rules for the letting of Blood GAllen Ipocras and Avicenna and other Masters of Physick accord and say That lettting blood of the Vein and that is called Phleobatomatum or it is ventosing carving or cutting and letting blood of any of these wise is good for mans health of body for Blood immingled with other humors that is too much or else corrupted by the cause of much sickness it is therefore good to know which Veins in a man should be let blood and for what Sickness The Vein in the Forehead is good for the Frenzie and aking of the Head and for the Megrum and for the Morphew and Scab in the Face for the Posthumes in the Eyes both hot and cold The Vein in the Heart is good for a mans minde and for the Rhume that is within the Forehead and for the watering Eyes The Veins in the Temple is good for the Megrum and for the Head-ache of the Eyes and that hath long lasted for the sickness of the Eyes for ache in the Eyes and for the great heat in the Temples The Veins behinde the Ears is good for the Blains and Pimples of the Head for the Megrum and Ache of the Head it helpeth mans minde it is good for Tooth-ache and for the Gums and for all vices in the Mouth and it purgeth the Rhume of the Head The Veins in the corner of the Eyes next the Nose is good for the Megrum for all the sickness of the Eyes and for the Sight Cephica tum prius apta The Vein in the top of the Nose it purgeth the Brain it is good for Ache and Flux of the Eyes and for the Ache of the Nose The Vein in the Cheeks is good for the Megrum and for Spots or Scabs in the Head The vein in the Mold is best for to bleed and for to wash thy Head with the same bloud The Veins of the over Lip and the nether be good for hot Blains in the Mouth and for Aposthumes and for hot evils in the Mouth or Gums The Vein under the Tongue is good for Posthumes and Rhumes of the Head and Gums and all manner of vice of the Eyes Mouth Tongue Tooth-aching and Blains of the Nose Mouth Gums and for the Aposthumes and swellings under the Throat The Veins under the Chin is good for the Kings-evil and for Sauce-flean for Spots and Blains in the Face and other Aches of the Eyes the Gums and for Ache in the Nose The Veins of the Neck before is good for the Squinancy and for all manner of Aposthumes and Swellings that come from the Head to the Ears or to the Gums that causeth the Tooth-ache when the breath beginneth to be short The Vein of Liver that is called Bosilica it is good for the Jaundies and for chafing of the Liver and for all manner of Dropsies and it is good for all evils in the Breast and aking of the Back Shoulders Sides and Stomach and for the Posthume that is called Pleusis The Head Vein that is called Cephanica it is good for the Megrum and for Head-ache and for madness of the minde for ache and all other vices in the Eyes Teeth Tongue the Squinancy and other evils that come to the Throat The Heart Vein that is called Cardiaca ut medium it is gentle Purgacions for it draweth bloud and humors of all the body but namely it is good for the Sickness and Purgations of the Heart Breast Stomach Liver and Lungs The Vein above the Thumb is good against all Feavers and most Feaver quartane and for evils of the Gall and for streightness of the Breast The Vein between the Thumb and the Fore-finger let bloud for the hot Head-ache for Frensie and madness of Wit and for Sickness of the Head Cephanica let the blood of the Vein in the Forehead if it be needful The same vein of the left hand is good for Lithargy and afterward bleed in the Forehead The Vein which is between the little finger and the next thereto is called Salva cella you must let blood in the right hand for Aposthumes and Sicknesse in the Stomach and for all evil humors about the Liver The same Vein on the left hand is for to let bloud for Imposthumes and gathering of evil humors about the Milt and Spleen it is good for the black Jaundies The over Vein in the Yard is good for the Cramp and for Sctatica passio for swelling of the Womb for the Dropsie and for the Stone The nether Vein of the Yard is good for the sides for the Reins Bladder for swelling of the Stones and for the Emerodes The Vein beneath the knee helpeth the knees and it is good for aking of the thighs and the joynts that is called Sciatica passio The Veins beneath the knees both within and without is good for the Liver Sides and Thighs and for the matter that is above and to draw downward The Vein in the Hams is best for holding of Womens Purgations for it is the next matter as saith Aviceri and also it cleanseth mans body The Vein that is under the Knuckle which is called Sophena It is good for Aposthumes Swellings and akings and other evils that comes to mans body from the Head to the Foot it asswageth them it is good for the Stone and letting of urine it helps the Matrice and womens purgations it is good for the Seab that is called Malum mortum de Bassilica The Vein that is under the Knuckle without that is called Sianca it is good for aking that is in the Thighs and goeth down to the Legs and to the Feet and for the Podagar and for the Seab it helpeth most the aking of the Thighs and Joynts that is called Sciatica passio The Vein that cometh to the great Toe on either Foot it is good for the Gout in the Eyes for Blans and Spots in the Face and for Postumes and Evils of the Stones for the Blood for Cankers Festers and Sores in the Thighs and Legs and for withholding of Womens Purgations As for the time of letting Blood to wit that neither in hot weather nor yet in great cold nor in rainy weather nor in misty weather nor in the weather of great tempests nor in the old Moon nor in the new that is to say four dayes before the change
drink in warme White Wine they wonderfully cleanse the Kidneys and bladder of Gravel and provoke Urine exceedingly 8 Take all the blood and the whole skin of a Hare put them into a new pot that hath a cover lute it up close and burn it in the fire to ashes the Hares skin and blood I mean and not the pot Give the Patient a small spoonful of these ashes in White Wine it mightily breaks and drives out the Stone 9 The Stone that hath been taken out of a man or the Gravel which men void being taken back again inwardly a drachm at a time doth wonderfully break and bring away the Stone and is indeed the most exquisite remedy that I know 10 A Tode-stone being beaten into powder and a little of the powder given to the Patient causeth the Stone incontinently to break and come away 11 Take Snails dry them to powder slime and shells and all you shall finde it a most exquisite remedy being taken inwardly to break the stone 12 Egg-shells dryed and beaten into powder is a good remedy and so is the Juyce of Mugwort if you drink the quantity of a quarter of a pint in the morning fasting 13 The Gum of Cherry-trees and also of all Plum-trees being dissolved in White Wine and drunk breaketh the Stone and cleanseth the Kidneys and Bladder of Gravel 14 Take of Goats Blood the Liver Lungs Reins Yard and Stones of the Goat make puddings thereof in the great Gut of the said Goat order them well and boyl them as you do Hogs puddings and let him that is troubled with the Stone eat them as meat not as Medicine their wonderful effects in breaking the Stone will be admirable in your eyes 15 Sometimes it is a difficult matter to know whether the Stone be in the Reins or in the Bladder in such a case thus do take a handful of Chickweed and boyl it well in water then strain it out and apply it to the neck of the Bladder if the grief increase the Stone is in the Bladder else not 16 Goats piss drunk breaketh and expelleth the Stone 17 Take two or three young Liverets drown them in Vinegar that they may dye there then put them into a new pot lute them up close and burn them in the fire to ashes these ashes taken inwardly is an excellent remedy for the Stone 18 If a man that is subject to the Stone would use himself to eat no other food but the flesh of Foxes and anoint the Region of his Bladder with the grease of the same beast it would in a short time cure him 19 A Hedge Sparrow the feathers pulled off and the guts pulled out and the body converted into Mummy or else salted and eaten raw is an excellent remedy for the Stone 20 It is an excellent good way to break the Stone often to anoint the Region of the Bladder with a strong Spirit of Camomile drawn in Allembick 21 Lignum Aphrituum cut in small pieces and infused in strong spirit of Wine the longer you infuse it the better make an excellent good drink for such as have the stone provided you drink it but moderately 22 But Lapis Nephriticus is far better being either born about one and beaten into powder and given inwardly whereby it appears that there is far more vertue in the Mineral kingdom then there is in the Vegitable the Stone is very scarce to be had in London if it be to be had at all because it is never used by the neglect of our Colledge of Physicians CHAP. 7. Of the Strangury IN the Strangury the Urine comes away by drops with much pain with a great desire to piss 2 Ox dung mixed with honey and applied warm to the neck of the Bladder is very good 3 The Decoction of English Galanga provoketh Urine much 4 The neck of the Bladder anointed with the grease of a Hedge-hog is exceeding good to open the stoppage of Urine 5 And here by the way give me leave to quote one experience of my own though it be something out of course not a year before the writing of this I had a Patient who had layen a long time sick of the Stone I gave him the water of a Hedge-hog distilled in an Alembick so much of it as I had which was about a pint of which he took a quarter of a pint every morning during the time he took it the violence of his pain ceased and he avoided such an incredible deal of Gravel which was wonderful to behold but that being gone no more to be had nor to be procured by reason of the season of the year his pains returned and not long after followed his dissolution being open'd there was two great stones found in his body in each Kidney one 6 Apply Galbanum being spread upon a Plaister upon the Belly under the Navel My Author saith it causeth the Patient to make Urine presently any that please may try it I can give no reason for it 7 Raddish-roots scraped clean and sliced thin and infused all night in White Wine and stopped close and a quarter of a pinte taken the next morning is a mighty great provoker of Urine but it hath no very pleasing taste 8 Herbs that are held Medicinal for this disease are Fennel Parsley Gromwel and Saxifrage both Seeds Leaves and Roots the Leaves and Bark of Hazel and the Leaves of Plantane 9 Warm Eggs applied to the neck of the Bladder wonderfully provoke Urine 10 The Roots of Filupendula being dryed and beaten to powder and taken inwardly are excellent good for the Strangury It is called Drop-wort whether it be because it cures them that piss by drops or because the roots hang like drops by small strings it matters not the one is their vertue the other shews that it is so 11. The best remedy in the world against the Strangury is this to save all the water the diseased party maketh and let the diseased party drink it down back again and that in very few dayes will cure him CHAP. 8. Of Vlcers in the Yard THe causes are clearly sharp and gnawing humors 2. Make a decoction of Sage in white Wine and inject it often into the Yard 3. If the Yard be swelled anoint it with warm Oyl of Roses 4. The juyce of Plantane injected into the Yard helpeth the Ulcers thereof 5. If you boil the Milk of a Goat or of an Ass with its equal quantity of juyce of Plantane till you have clarified it well and now and then drink a spoonful of it it helps not onely Ulcers in the Yard but also in the Kidneys and Bladder 6. If much sharp humors resort to the place â—s usually there doth in such cases take of those Cakes called Trochisi albi Rhazis with Opium â—ne dram Plantane-water four ounces beat the â—roches into powder and mix them with the â—lantane-water and inject it into the Yard with â— syringe a little at a time not all at once CHAP.
Pot-Herbs the flowers either green or dried are often used in Possets Broths and Drinks as a comforter for the Spirits and to expel any malignant or pestilential quality gathered near thereunto the Syrup and Conserve made of the fresh flowers are used for some purposes to the same effect Of Pennyroyal and Hyssop PEnnyroyal purges melancholly and comforts the Stomach and Spirits Hyssop cleanseth viscus Phlegm is good for the Breast and Lungs Of Rosemary and Roses ROsemary is good for Palsies for the Falling-sickness and for a Cough good against cold Roses are a Cordial they comfort the heart and brain Of Fennel and Annis THese Herbs are seldome used but their seeds Fennel-seed is used to break Urine good against Poyson Annis-seed cleanses the Bladder and the Reins of the back provokes Urine and causeth a sweet Breath Of Sage SAge is good to help a woman to conceive it provokes Urine and sleep it is good in an Ague or Feaver and against the Falling-sickness this Herb is of excellent Vertue Of Violets VIolets comforts the brain preserve against drunkenness the syrup of them cools the Reins and is very good against the Falling-sickness Of Watercresses WAtercresses are very wholesome in the Spring-time they comfort the Sinnews and are hot and dry Of Tansie TAnsie purges the Ague dries the Sinnews and is good against the Worms Of Rue THere are two kindes of Rue the one of the Garden another of the Field it is good against Infection abates Lust is excellent for the Sight that of the Field is hot and dry in the fourth degree that of the Garden is hot and dry in the second degree Of Wormwood THere are several sorts of Wormwoods those of the Sea are not of that goodness in quality as the common and aromatical bitter sorts are nâ—vertheless because they are not so bitter as the common sorts which renders them more acceptable to many persons that desire to please their pallates rather then to be cured of their diseases by bitter medicines our Physicians and Apothecaries feeding their humor for their own profit and to please their Patients There are many other Herbs used in Pottage Broths Possets Sallets Sauces Tansies c. from most of which small nourishment is received Of the vertues of those which are of the highest concernment having already discoursed of in the first part of this Volume I shall here omit them Of Figs. A Vicen writes that Figs nourish more then any other fruit when they are eaten with blanched Almonds they are good roasted and stewed they cleanse the Breast and the Lungs open the opilations of the Liver and the Spleen they provoke to Venerious acts as they augment and encrease the seed of generation they cause sweating wherefore they ingender Lice Of great Raisins GReat Raisins are nutritive especially if the stones are out they make the stomach firm and cause a good appetite if a few of them be eaten before meat Of small Raisins of Currâ—â—â— SMall Raisins of Currans are good for the Reins of the back they do provoke urine howbeit they are not good for the Spleen they cause opilation Of Grapes GRapes sweet and new are nutritive and stumulate the flesh they comfort the Stomach and the Liver avoid opilations but they do repleat the stomach with winde Of Peaches of Medlers and Cervices PEaches mollifie the belly and are cold Medlers taken superfluously ingender melancholly Cervices are of the same operation Of Strawberries and Cherries STrawberries are praised above all Berries they qualifie the heat of the Liver ingender good blood eaten with Sugar Cherries mollifie the belly and are cold Of Nuts great and small THe Walnut and Banock are of one operation they are slow of digestion yet they comfort the brain if the pith or skin be pulled off they are nutritive Filberts are better then Hazzle-nuts if they are new taken from the â—ree and the skin or the pith pulled off they are â—utritive and encrease fatness if they are old they should be eaten with great Raisins New Nuts are better then old for old Nuts are cholâ—erick and naught for the head and evil for old persons as they ingender the Palsie in the Tongue immoderately taken or eaten ingender corruptions as biles blains and such putrefaction Of Pease and Beans PEase which are young are nutritive Beans are not so good as Pease they are more windy although the skins or husks be ablated yet they are a strong meat and doth provoke Venery Of Pears and Apples PEars which are mellow and not stony doth encrease fat and ingender waterish blood they are full of ventosity Wardons roasted â—tewed or bak't are nutritive comfort the stomach especially if they are eaten with Comfits Apples are good after a frost hath taken them â—or when they are old especially red Apples and those of good odour and mellow they should â—e eaten with Sugar or Comfits or with Fennel-seed or Anniseed because of their ventosity they comfort the stomach and cause good digestion especially if they are roasted and bak't Of Pomegranates and Quinces POmegranates are nutritive and good for the stomach Quinces bak't the coar pulled out mollifie the belly help digestion and preserve a man from drunkenness Of Dates and Milons DAtes moderately eaten are nutritive but they cause opilations of the Liver and of the Spleen Milons ingender bad humors Of Gourds of Cowcumbers and Pepones GOurds are of bad nourishment Cowcumbers restrain Venery as they are cold and moist corrupt the stomach and if they are not well ordered and moderately eaten ingender thick and gross humors and are within few degrees of poison to persons of a weak digestion Of Apricocks APricocks quickly corrupt and ingenderâ— chollerick and whayish excrements cause pestilent Agues stop the Liver and Spleen and breed ill juyce Of Barberries BArberries preserved refresh hot stomachs kept in pickle they serve for Sallets and the garnishing of Meat Of Citrons and Lemons CItrons the juyce of them are good against poison and qualifie humors putrefied in the body cause a sweet breath and cure burning Agues Lemons approach their nature is cold and dry in the third degree their seed temperate the juyce eat alone causes gripings of the guts but the peel with the pulp as nature hath united them together the heat of the one corrects the rawness of the other and both of them comfort the heart Of Mulberries MUlberries are hot in the first degree cold in the second best before meat they please the stomach cause a looseness of the body and provoke urine Of Raspis RAspis are like the Black-berry or Dew-berry but not so astringent cold stomachs cannot convert them into good juyce Of Goose-berries GOose-berries ripe are as nourishing as they are sweet they should be eaten first not last because they are so light a fruit The red Goose-berries are more cold dry and astringent by one degree because those in our countrey are not sweet Of Prunes and Damsins PRunes are used in medicine for
must receive the dregs of blood and his more earthy and impure parts This Disease so stops the Midriff that it cannot be raised up or thrust down when it should serve for breathing whereby great sighings are caused in the sleep as also great difficulty of breathing The part affected is the Spleen which may be perceived by the loading pain in the Spleens region This Disease is plainly discerned by the loading pain in the Spleens region and by reason of the plenty of matter This Disease is for the most part caused by melancholly humors which are the dregs of the blood and are caught into the Spleen by the dregs of the body and there remain for a long time or else are caused because the Veins of the body do flow with such melanchollick blood at the first whilest the tumor is increasing the cure may be performed but if it be once ripened it is incurable The air the patient lives in must be clear and bright his meat must be such as hath an opening force that is soon concocted and breeds good blood his diet must be sparing his exercise before meat his sleep moderate and his minde pleased Of the Lethargy THe Lethargy called Lethargia is such a necessity of sleeping as cannot by any means be avoided or it is an oblivious Disease caused by a cold imposthume of the brain the substance thereof being affected chiefly the hinder part but not the ventricles as may appear by the offended functions of the brain It is such a Disease whereby Reason Memory and the Imaginations of the other Senses are annoyed in this Disease as hath been said an urgent necessity of oblivion with sleeping doth possess the Patient together with a lingring and continual Feaver The causes of this Disease proceed from a cold and a moist distemper of the brain and abundance of phlegmy humors so putrefied that they bring a Feaver with them This Disease speedily kills the Patient if it be not met withal in time for the space of seven dayes he is in danger of death if he escape them there are hopes of recovery The air he lives in must be hot and dry if otherwise it may be rectified with Juniper-wood Rosemary and Bay-leaves his diet must be such as may extenuate his sleep must be hindered as much as may be with pricking and pulling of his â—air or with smoak of Brimstone Beaver-stone Galbanum Sagapenum placed under his Nose that he may be forced to draw it up his Nostrils to which pupose his Nose must be rubbed and chafed with Vinegar the excrements of his body must be brought down with a Glister or Suppository instead of exercise frictions and ligatures of the exterior parts viz. the hands and feet must be used Of the Yellow Jaundies THe Yellow Jaundies called Icteritia is an effusion sometimes of yellow Choller sometimes black sometimes both over the whole body and this is incident to Maids also this chollerick blood is spread over the whole body with the blood because the excrements are not daily or not at all voided In this disease the same place or part is not alwayes affected for sometimes the Liver is in fault when it is too hot or else imposthumed and then both the Urine and the Stool are stained with a yellow colour Sometimes the Feaver doth concur with a certain pain in some obscure place of the Liver whereby the colour of the face is changed sometimes the bladder of the gall is affected and then heaviness is felt in the right side of the Heart-walls This Disease is manifested to the eyes by the colour the Patients appetite is diminished a bitterness increases in his mouth because of heat and yet for the most part it is without a Feaver but looseness and Head-ache of the body ensue the Urine is like to Saffron also muddy and thick and sometimes it is stopt the excrements are white if the bladder of the galls passage is stopt little is voided and that little by little and little This Disease comes sometimes by encrease of Choller through the Livers too hot distemper for hereby such store of Choller is generated that the Gall cannot contain it sometimes this Disease is caused by the Inflamation of the whole Liver in which case the whole body is stained with gally excrements by reason of the great heat of the blood If this Disease continue long it threatens the danger of a Dropsie The air the Patient lives in must be temperate his diet such as may cool moisten and extenuate the humors and easie of digestion such as binde and multiply Choller are to be avoided Baths and Frictions in the Winter time are good his exercise is to be small his sleep moderate his excrements voided in due season his minde is to be furnisht with pleasing objects Of Giddiness or the Vertigo GIddines is a Disease whereby the head and all other parts of the body seem to be turned circularly about so disturbing the brains and senses that the Patient oft tumbles down unless he be held up by some stay near at hand This Disease is of near kin to the Falling-sickness onely herein they differ that the giddy party is not deprived of his senses neither is he burried this way and that way as Convulsions afflict their Patients The chief part affected is the Brain which doth appear by the functions which are hurt for the animal faculty is grieved but the brain is affected the Head-ache the forerunner a heaviness and dulness thereof with an annoyance of smell and taste and a ringing in the ears A sign of this Disease is that the Patient cannot endure those that turn about in their sight being so depraved that all things seem to turn round This Disease is caused by the abundance of spirits and boiling blood if it be not voided at the Nose when it is ready to run out this Disease is also caused by crude raw venemous humors often generated in the head or in some of the inferiour parts especially in the stomach If this Giddiness lasts long it is next to an Apoplexy and Falling-sickness The air the Patient remains in should be temperate bright and clear his diet such as breeds good juyce pleasing to the stomach and not windy his exercise and sleep moderate for the head the voiding of his excrements if they come not from him naturally must be furthered by art his minde in no case to be disturbed Of the Palsie THe Palsie called Paralysis is depriving of senses and motion not in the whole body as in an Apoplexy but when one side or all parts of the body under the head or any other limb is deprived of sense or motion as the Jaw Hand Lip Feet Arm. It also falls out that some part is deprived of the sensitive faculty the motive faculty not being hurt Contrarywise the motive dies when as the sensitive is found sound sometimes it happens that sense or motion is not quite taken away but onely was
must needs hurt us not finding the like cause to drive with and this no doubt is the cause why we are not able to bear such dose oâ— quantity of their Medicines as those Nations are to whom they be native Besides they workâ— in our Bodies after a far more unkinde manneâ— then they report them to do in theirs nay they destroy us and help them which is an argument to me that every Medicine hath a relation to the Diseases of the inhabitant which if it bâ— profitable to strangers yet doth it by a constraint and not half so kindly The Greeks aâ— it may appear by Dioscorides in his fourth Book and Chapter one hundred fifty and two treating of Scammony are able to bear a greater quantity yea double then we of Scammony whicâ— is an ordinary purger with us Who saith thirtâ— grains thereof may be given with twenty of black Heleborus and sixty of Aloe to make a just purgation and of Scammony alone sixty grains Now common experience teacheth us the great odds betwixt Scammony raw as they call it and the same corrected which we name Dacrydium both in vehemency of purging and tormenting the body yet hardly dare we pass above twenty grains of the same and this mixed with Cordials and stomach Medicines Moreover their slender correcting of it doth argue it to be far less noisom to them then to us who correct it onely or at the least are contented with the correction thereof by a little Salt and and Pepper or a little Ginger who for the plenty of excellent Simples which we both want and know not and for their skill in the nature of those we correct with might as well have qualified it as we who first wash it in Rose-water wherein Cytrea Myrobalanus Spike and Cinamon have been boiled in which also we let it steep four and twenty hours then dry it then mix it again with oyl of sweet Almonds and some Goom for Tragacantha and last of all bake it in a Quince covered round with paste Who hath not horror of the torments which both the Hellebores brings to the body yet saith Paulus Aegineta in his seventh Book and fourth Chapter The black Helleborus purgeth yellow Choler from the whole body without pain which canndt be verified of our bodies howsoever it be in theirs and therefore we fear to minister the Powder thereof in any sort but the steeping onely of the barks of the roots from twenty grains to sixty they being bold to take a whole dram thereof in substance which is more then treble the quantity for one dose These strange workings of these forreign Drugs in our Bodies and a more gentle and kinde working in theirs doth it not manifestly declare unto us that they were not created for us do they not force us oftentimes with peril of our lives to give them over that the Patient knoweth not divers times whether he should stand rather to the courtesie of his Disease then of his Potion There is a Simple which hath not many years been in use brought out of India and highly commended called Mechoaca it purgeth gently say they without vexing or grieving the body without anoying the stomach greatly and ceaseth purging at your pleasure with a little supping These be great vertues doubtless and I wish we could finde them in Mechoaca for Experience the touchstone hath bewrayed it in our bodies to be of a far other operation it tormenteth the body it annoyeth the stomach much neither doth a supping stay the vehemency of purging and this have I partly by mine own experience found in Mechoaca and partly by the experience of my friends who upon the use thereof have much complained of these accidents That juyce or rather milk of Poppy which is brought out of Asia named Opium it is not unknown to all the World what a marvellous force it hath in benumming the sense of Feeling and utterly extinguishing the natural Heat of the body so that we fear to give thereof into the body above the weight of two grains and those corrected with Saffron Castorium and such like lest it cast the Patient into such a deep sleep as he needeth the trump of the Archangel to awake him Now the same Opium being taken of the Turks Moors and Persians bringeth to their wearied and over-travelled bodies a marvellous recreation in such sort as they ordinarily use it therefore as a present remedy not in the quantity of two grains or twenty but even an whole ounce or twain at once And Hollerius in his Scholia upon his Chapter of Phrensey saith That Rondelet a learned Physician and the French Kings Professor at Montpellier reported unto him that he had seen a Spaniard take thereof into his body half an ounce at one time without hurt Wherefore if the difference of our bodies from those of strange Nations be so great that the thing which helpeth them destroyeth us that â—ureth them without annoyance doth vehementâ—y torment us I would wish us to be better advised then to be so ready to embrace them as â—o contemn in comparison of them the Mediâ—ines which receive as it were a taming and â—re broken unto us by our own soil neither art â—hou here to look the Wisdom of the Physician should consider the variety and divers dispositions of the Bodies by Age Complexion Region Sex c. and thereafter to temper these Medicines and so to avoid the dangers for â—he question is not of the manner of using these things for then should such consideration have place but even of the very nature which no manner of use can alter Yet are these Simples most excellent creatures of God made for the use of men but not for all men and although we may receive help from them by a certain generall community that our bodies have with those of Arabia Barbary and the rest yet no doubt as I have shewed in a few so we receive by the use of them so much the less good by them as we most differ from them and that which wanteth of the performance of good to us must needs turn us to much harm the unhelping part as I may call it always working and so ever harming Neither do I see why the Medicines of India or Egypt should be laid upon us more then the Indian or Egyptian diet which is to eat Lyzards Dragons and Crocodiles for if the proper Medicine doth alwayes regard his proper adversary which causeth the disease as no doubt it should do then there being a great difference betwixt our humors and theirs as much in a maner as is betwixt the flesh of a Crocodile and of a tender Capon our medicines which are to fit us must needs be of another kinde then theirs which in our bodies not finding such humors and excrements as that strange diet doth ingender must needs seize upon the very substance of our bodies to have somewhat to work on which painful working especially of the purgers causeth