mediocre to these of a middle age because that old men indures easily hunger next to them that are at the entry of the declining age worse then these young men worst of all boyes for they that are growing hath much of the natural heat and therefore hath much need of nourishment otherwise their body should consume but there is but little heat in old bodies wherefore they need not much nourishment because that too much should choake it Canon XXIX The great cavities in the body in Winter and in the Spring are naturallie hoter then at any other time and the sleep longer wherefore in these the dyat may bee larger heere by the cavities wee must vnderstand the stomacke the whole bellie containing the puddings and the rest of the naturall parts that are appointed for digestion But if yee desire to know why the natural heat is augmented in Winter Arist. attributs the cause to the circumsisting air that is colder chasing by this meanes the naturall heat inward while as in the Summer it extends the selfe ordinarly through the whole body towards the heat that is without as familiar to it Hence is it that in the Summer its substance is dissipat and exhals but in Winter it is holden in and keeped there and therefore all the coctions are the better made Canon XXX As to the forme and maner of dyat one should eat lesse in the Summer the Harvest ofter but in the Winter and Spring more seldome but more aboundantly because in the Summer and the Harvest hardly doth one digest meat in Winter verie easily but in the Spring some way well Canon XXXI Yee must nourish gentlie and repare by little and little the bodies that hath beene extenuat of long time and restore quickly these that hath quickly beene taken down Canon XXXII You must give meat to the sick when as the sicknesse gives intermission or release during the accesse abstaine from giving for meat then is hurtfull because that it withdraws nature from the digestion of the humor to the concoction of the nouritour as also because by it the cause of the disease is augmented Canon XXXIII Among the operations of chirurgerie phlebotomie or drawing of blood keepes the first rank because it is the common remead of diseases which proceeds of plenitud or fulnesse for by it an evacuation is made of the humors equally being for this the most exquisit of all other meanes Canon XXXIV Phlebotomie is not only a remead evacuative but also revulsive and derivative for it is profitable when wee turne the course of the flux to the opposit part or desires to turne it asid to the neighbour part Canon XXXV Wee must draw blood in hot fevers 'till the spirits faile and heart saint if so bee the forces bee strong also in great inflammations and extreame paines for if one draw blood in hot fevers till the heart faint all the body is incontinent cooled and the vehement heat extinguished to diverse after it there followeth a flux of the bellie and a sweat By this meanes some are wholly freed of the fever others receives great ease the vehemencie of their sicknesse having passed This sort of bleeding is likewise good in great inflammations both for the former reasons and for that it stops the flux causing the inflammation and so hinders the growth of the phlegmon by this same it appeaseth the great dolours caused of the heat of the fever and of the inflamtions wherefore there is not found a remead more soveraine for insupportable dolours than it Canon XLV You must draw much blood if the sicknesse doeth vrge and the forces doe permit if not by litle and litle and at diverse tymes for all extreame evacuations are dangerous and cheifly bleeding being al at once Canon XXXVII They to whom purging and blood drawing is profitable ought to be purged and bled in the spring For that season is very proper to make evacuation by phlebotomie or pharmacie because that at that time there is no extraordinar heat for to weaken the body by exhalation nor great cold to make it stiffe by congealing the humors in it nor yet inaequall to disturbe the forces but rather a mediocre temper Canon XXXVIII You must not without great cause or deliberation open a veine to a woman with child because that a woman with child bled is broght to bed before the time if the chyld be great because having drawne blood of a woman with chyld the chyld thereby frustrat of his food famishing in the matrix of the mother breaketh his bonds and seeketh foorth for nourishment and that before the time except the mother abound in blood for then yee may be so farre from fearing it that in the contrar if it be not administrat both the mother the child are in danger as hath beene remarked in the persons of the most illustrious dames in the court of France least the child should be choaked by the too great aboundance of blood Canon XXXIX Purgative medicines should be ordained to cacochymike diseases these that purges the bile to bilious they that phlegme to phlegmaticks and so of the rest for the cure of one cacochymie is made by a purgation which is particularly appropriat to the humor thaâ— exceedes and among the alterative potions the cold are appointed for the hot the hot for the cold the dry for the humids and the humid to the dry for the hot mistemper would be made cold and the cold made hot and such like of the rest Canon XL. Strong potions would be given to strong diseases and gentle medicins to more meik and gentle for extreame remedies are fitest for strong diseases hence the Romane oratour desyrous to show how a curagious man should interprise hazards sayes in the presenting of himselfe to dangers he must imitat the custome of the medicins that handles gently those that are but lightly troubled but in greater diseases are constrained to make vse of remedies more dangerous and doubtsome Canon XLI Wee must expell those things that requyres to be expelled by the wayes most proper whither nature chiefly tends and divert them if they make not there course by the way they ought the physition then ought curiously to mark the motion of nature and the inclination of the humor redounding to that end that if it tend to any place fitting to help it in the contrar if it seek for one vnfitting to hinder it and to draw it off that course So if phlegmatick or melancholick humors take the course downeward and nature haue essayed already to banish by the retract the fever the physition ought to prescribe a clister or some other proper remead for to stir vp nature and if a bilious humor bend vpward and nature strive to expell it at the mouth a vomit is expedient to be taken for that is to draw thither the humor whither nature aimes cheifly and if yee doe otherwise you shall change the order and course of nature
which they have some affinitie An Epidemik sicknesse is knowne incontinent by the running of it among the people seazing on many at one tyme al hereditar disease as the epilepsie the gravell the gowt is suspect to be incident to those who are procreat of parents sicke of such infirmities Moreover often men finds the kind of the disease by the usage of the things which hurts or helps for the hote intemperature doth increase by the vse of hote things but is mitigate by the vse of cooling things the cold intemperature of the contraire Canon X. After the acquyred knowledg of the disease make search thereafter for the cause of it the which is either extern or intern the intern is two fold antecedent or conjoyned First then seeke out the cause conjoyned because it produceth immediatly the disease It is therefore needefull to search whither it be winde or any other superabundant humor as blood bile melancholie or phlegme or any other thing contrare natur as stone lump of blood worms or any other sort of excrement The colour natur of the place the kind of the dolour and the sort of the excrement with the praedominant humor in the bodie will serve for markes Canon XI For when the part in flāmed is red it is full of blood when yellow full of byle but that which is cold and whyt is replenished with phlegme when blackish with melancholy for the colour of the skin doth commonly point forth the humor is within Divers parts are appointed for the ingendring of diverse humors excrementitious as the lever for breeding of yellow byle the melt of black byle the stomack the tryps and the braine of phlegme the neers and the bladder of the gravell and stone the tryps of wormes The paine pricks sore when it is caused of choler it is moderat when it proceeds of blood blunt when of melancholy phlegme or wind except it bee when they mak great distention through their aboundance If that which issueth forth by the excrements of the part affected bee a portion of that which is continued within it it shews either by the colour or substance what it is wee shall speak heereafter of the predominant humour Canon XII After the knowledg of the cause conjoynt it follows know whether it bee alone or if it bee fostered or furnished by any other cause antecedent That which gathered is by way of congestion through the fault of the part offended is reput to bee alone but when all the bodie or any part of it doth exoner the selfe on the member affected of any superabundant humor the which overburthened there is then a cause antecedent which doth accompany the conjoynt so there be two sort of causes interne to the which remead must be vsed Canon XIII The cause antecedent of the sicknesse is double the one is named Plethor or plenitud the other is called Cacochymi Plethor is a repletion of all the humours aequallie augmented or of blood only Cacochymie is a repletion of Choler melancholy or phlegme the signes both of the one and the other are taken both from the causes antecedent which doth gather the humor as from the temperature of the whole body and of the principall parts from the age season constitution of the aire region maner of living and of the evacuation ordinar suppressed as also from the accidents that befall all the qualities of the body such as bee the colour the habitud the fashions the functions animall vitall and naturall as from the sleep dreams pulse concoction excrements of the diseases ensuing and of the things that hurts and profites Canon XIV There bee two sorts of plenitud the one called plenitudo ad vires in the which the blood although it be not excessive neither in quantity nor qualitie overcharges never the lesse the weake forces of nature the other is plenitudo ad vasa the which in quantity surpasses the naturall limits or bounds and this either light or gentle when it fills only the cavity of the veines not farre exceeding mediocritie or it is excessive when it extends so that it almost rives the veines through the fulnesse of it by too great aboundance and althogh it bee verie excessive it may bee so that nature bee not chooked by it for commonlie the force growes with the blood but if it fall out that the forces bee abaited then it is plenitudo supra vires When then in a plethor the bodie is on no wayes by a too great weight lasie or heavie and the force remaines stil in a state it is onely a plentitud ad vasa But when the bodie becomes heavie lasie doyled the fleepe troubled and profond seeming to carie as it were some thing while hee sleepes it is then plenitudo supra vires Canan XV. The causes that ingenders blood in aboundance are signes antecedents of a plenitud as the complection temperat of all the whole bodie but chiefly of the lever and the heart or else moderatly hot and humid The age growing for the bairnes and young men hath much blood because they are not farre from there principes of naturall generation The spring also for in it the blood abounds for then the cold ceaseth and there falls out waters Also good fare a plesant past lyfe without care moderat excersise and sleepe The naturall evacuation of blood suppressed or the artificiall of long intermitted The accidents which showes the domination of blood in the bodie are the signes consequent of blood such bee The colour of the face and all the bodie red by the ordinare custome or mixed of red and whyt The swelling of the veines aequalie appearing through all A manifest bending of the vessels being full of blood by measure A lazines or wearying comming of it self without any labour vnder the which the joynters by reason of their weight with great difficultie doe move the selfe for it is when the great veines over full of blood doe exoner themselves in the litle and they againe in the muscels so that they are filled and bended The habitude of the bodie fleshie because it doeth proceed of an aboundance of blood yea the mediocer fleshy acompanied of a heat benigne and vaporous for that is a signe of nature temperat which ingenders aboundance of blood The fashions and cariag merrie joviall peaceable gentle because they are marks of a body well disposed The heavinesse of the head proceeding from the aboundance of vapours ascending vpwards The sleepe profound and pleasant with dreames of things pleasant The pulse strong great and full for in it the veines are so full that they doe infuse a part in the neighbors arters by an anastomosie the which being filled causes such a pulse and that not onelie in the shakle bones but also in the temples the fingers and over all the body The respiration more difficill and frequēt chiefly after exercise because the muscells of the breast are made lazie throgh the aboundance of blood hence it is that the
respiration is made more frequent by reason of the vse but shortned because the capacity interior of the breast is made more strait The promptitud of rendring blood by the seages aemerodes monethly courses water nose and spitle Moreover a continuall sweating during the time of the disease is a token of plenitud Canon XVI Cacothymie is three fold cholerick melancholick and phlegmatick the causes that gathers aboundance of choler are signes preceeding the same such are The complexion hot and dry for commonly there ingenders much choler in men of a hot and dry complexion by reason of the conformity of this humour with that temperament The manlie age which is betwixt 25 and 35. for in that choler doth abound because the naturall heat is much more dry and active then than before a great part of the inbred moist or sap being consumed by it The Summer for the byle is more abundant than by reason of the circumsisting air which makes the blood more hote and dry The climat hot and dry the precedent dyet of these same qualities Such like great exercise travell anger care watching fasting and abstinence doth all gather byle Moreover the ordinar evacuation of bile by vomit by the stoole the water the sweat suppressed The consequent markes of abounding Choler are The whole colour of the body pale yellow or blackish drawing neere to that of Iandise or browne for when the temperament is excessive in heat the colour is black The state of the body dry leane small for such proportions are commonly bylous as also hairie with the haire red for it is the excrement of byle But more the black for black haire is when the exhalation burnt by the force of the heat is changed in black but the red is when it is not so burnt The greatnesse of the veines extended by the heat for they who hath great veines are of complexion hote but who hath strait and narrow veines are of cold for it is heat that doth inlarge The heat sharp and byting to the toucth Promptitud of courage and a disposition to anger and revenge The sense lively light and suddaine The spirit subtile and of good invention for the subtilitie and industrie of the judgment comes of the humor bylous The sleepe little and light accompanied with inquyetud great watching testifying the great drynes of the braine frō the which they flow or else from aboundance of a humor bilious with them The dreames of fire warre and things furious The pulse vehement hastie and hardie Bitternesse of the mouth losse of appetit great thirst venting of choler vpward and downward with the bellie often constipat The water yellow byting inflammed with little grounds The diseases bilious frequent as fevers fierce and ardent raverie jandies herpes or ring-worme erysiple pustuls cholericks dispersed through the whole body Canon XVII The melancholick distemper is knowne first by the causes productives of melancholie as are The temperature cold and dry with a debility of the melt or hote from the beginning but become cold by change for if any hote and dry before by an adustion of the blood ingenders much black bile hee becomes cold and dry and in end melancholick The declining age which is betwixt 35 and 45. for melancholie doth abound in that age for succeeding to the youth which is the most bilious of all it receives the bile burnt The harvest in it also melancholie abounds for succeeding to the Summer it receaves the brunt bile from it Grosse food and viscuous as browne bread porcks flesh beif haires flesh Harts flesh chiefly salted thick black wine beir and old cheife The life sad occupied in great affaires in contemplation studying without recreation or exercise of the body for by it the natural heat diminisheth and the humors becomes grosse and thick The suppression of melancholy that vsed to bee by the aemrodes monethly courses seages with scabs or by medecine As also by the signes of melancholy predominant in the body as are the colour browne or blackish of the face and all the body the skinne full of scabs hardnesse swelling and paine of the melt The habitud of the body dry and lean the visage sad and heavie feare silence solitarinesse vrine imagination conceits for the constancie of the spirit comes of an humour melancholick The mind slow to wrath but being incensed hard to bee appeased The sleep troubled with horrible dreams as with sightes of evill spirits tortoures of death sepulchres and other things feareful The pulse litle slow hard The appetit depravat sometime disordinat by reason of a sowre mater adhearing to the orifice of the stomacke The water clear and whyt where there is no melancholy mixed but thick and black where there is some mixed The diseases melancholicks frequently arriving Canon XVIII The knowledg of a pituitous distemper is taken from the causes antecedēt procreating it and the signes assequent following it the antecedent are the complexion of the body cold and humid the old age which is from 49. to the tearme of life for in that age by reason of the weaknes of the natural heat much flegme is ingendred The Winter because that season as reporteth Hip replenishes the body with flegme both because of the length of the nights and also by reason of the abundance of raine The rainie reason for the watrie aire which doth inviron the body gathers quantity of pituitous humors and of watrie superfluities The great vses of humid and moist meat the frequent drinking of water and any kynd of excesse either in meat or drinke idlenesse and want of exercise with a sedentarie or sitting life long sleep but especially after meat The following markes of flegme are the colour of the face and all the body somewhat whitish grayish or livid beeing withall swelled the whole body growne and fat for fat folke are commonly cold and phlegmatick grease being ingendred by the coldnesse of the habitude of the body the veines and arteries little and strait as comming of little blood and few spirits the skin whit and soft without hair because the complexion cold and humid is no wayes hairie The haire is whit because procreat of flegme all the senses of the body heavie and lazie the spirit stupid the sleep profound the pulse little small soft Slow digestion oft belshing with a sowr taste a desire to vomit the water whitish crud and troubled sometimes with a thick ground Pituitous and flegmatick diseases frequently occurring or cold catarrhes and the like Canon XIX The antecedent causes pointing a windy Cacochymie are the stomack cold and humid with the debility of naturall heat proceeding of a simple intemperature or with humors indigested The melt swelled and bouden vp with melancholy hindering by a sympathie the digestion of the stomack Meats windy as raw fruits beanes pease chesnuts and the like Overmuch drinke too much vse of boyled meat drunkennesse and gluttonie Lacke of exercise great sleepe the age the countrie the season of
the yeare cold doth cause aboundance of ventosites And when winde is gathered in the body by reason of the former causes there is found a distention of the ventricle of the colick gowt chiefly on the left side with a noyse The wandring distenting paines running heere and there through the whole body There is heard wind issuing at all occasions both vp and down from whence commeth some ease there is remarked often a singing in the eares The colik with other diseases arysing of wind troubleth often Canon XX. The externall causes of sicknesse called of the Greekes procatartik commonly named primitives should be diligently searched for they lead vs as well to the knowledg of the cause intern as of the disease for aire meat and drink to warme watching great and violent motion anger and the suppression of the excrements ingenders hote humours and hote diseases In the contrare cold food with a cooling aire sleepe Idleset feare and all evacuation immoderat causes cold humors and cold diseases Dry diseases ordinarly accompanies the hote causes and the humide the cold For hote doth ordinarly bring with it drouth and cold humiditie because it is the mother of crudities For to find out then exactlie the cause and effect of the maladie which is hid it is needefull by a diligent inquisition and interrogation of all things which commonlie are called not naturall causes to learne of the sick if he hath exposed himselfe to an intemperat or impure aire if he hath committed any excesse in meat and drinke or in watching and labouring or if he hath bene too fierce in Venus service or if the spirit hath not beene troubled by passions or if any ordinare evacuation bee not suppressed as the monethly courses to women and the flux of the aemrodes to men and so much the rather wee ought to inquyre carefully of the things past because the ignorance of the causes is not without great danger for if a fever should fall into long watching fasting or over great dallying with Venus then without consideration of the cause of the disease presently they would draw blood and purge should they not thinke you hazard his life seeing the disease to haue come from evacuation For in the contrare wee ought rather to repare the forces by analeptiks or restoring things and not augment it by Phlebotomie and cathartiks For to foresee the issue of the Disease Canon I. THe fundamentall laws of the Prognosticks are taken from things naturall not naturall and conter nature as of the springs for we foresee and foretell the sicknesse to be salutare or mortall short or long by the force the constitution of the body and age of the Patient the season the forme of life by the cause the espece and seige of the evill with the symptomes which wee remarke in the change or diminution of the actions the excrements and the qualities of the body Canon II. If the forces bee strong to obtaine the victorie over the disease without doubt the sick shall escape if not shall die For none dies so long as their force remaines but so soone as the forces beginnes to yeeld to the burden of the sicknesse then followeth death Now to foretell the day of death yee must remarke how farre the sicknesse surpasseth the forces and remarke the most violent accesse for if one doth perceive the sicknesse so to outrepasse the forces that they cannot bee able any longer to resist death shall follow presently but if it appear otherwise it shall be longer so that the origine of Prognosticks consists in the conferring of the forces with the sicknesse For if nature bee strong enough to overcome the sicknesse then the person shall escape but if it bee so weake that it cannot obtaine the victorie death of necessity will follow and yee must wait on the one or the other sooner or later according as the forces are stronger or weaker hence it appeares that all the other signes salubres or mortals are no otherwise foresignes of death or life but because they point foorth the forces or weaknesse of nature in the combat with the sicknesse Canon III. It is a great helpe to health to bee of a mediocre constitution of body that is neither too fat nor too leane for such a bodie hath great forces to resist vnto any disease that doth present the selfe but where this mediocrisie is not a grosse bodie is in a worse case then a small for who are of that taillie dies sooner then they that are of the other because the veines and arteres of growne fat people are narrow and strait therefore hath both litle blood and spirits so that the age concurring vpon a light occasion the naturall heat is choaked or extinguished But they that are of a leane and thin constitution because they haue the veines arters larger and also more blood spirits which in them doth not so shortly incurre the danger of death yet so it is that they are sooner troubled by externall causes and that for lacke of flesh and greise so the grosse are more obnoxius to interne injuries the leane to extern Canon IV. Youth hath great force to withstand the disease because it hath store of naturall heat requisit to the concoction and excretion of the evill humors Contrare old age is not able to resist because of the defect of force not having much naturall heat Hence it is that sicknesse are longer in old people then young because they abound in cold humors the digestion whereof cannot be but in a long space by reason of the weaknesse of their naturall heat yea the greatest part of sicknesse that arrives to old people doth convoy them to their grave Canon V. The Spring is verie wholesome and no wayes mortall when it keeps the temperature but in Harvest the diseases are very strong and deadly for the most part First because being cold and dry is diametrically opposed to our life which consists in heat and moisture and so hinders the generation of blood whereof our bodie is made and nourished Secondly because it receives from the Summer preceeding the body languishing and wearie Thirdly because it beat back within the body the superfluous humors melted by the heat of Summer and come foorth to the skin to the end they may goe foorth The fourth because about the twelfth hour it opens the pores of the body by the heat and incontinent thereafter becomes cold it ryses within the bodie as an enemy to extinguish by its qualitie maligne the naturall heat already feeble and languishing Moreover it gathers store of crudities within the body the which doth choak the naturall heat and that by the vse of fruits which it furninisheth The Summer hastenes sicknes but the Winter doth retarde them because in the Summer the pores being open the evill humors of the body being melted by the heat of the aire are suddainly dissipat but in Winter they being closed by the cold they are retained within