during the dog daies AS there is a fit and convenient time for every action under heaven saith the wise man so is not time to be neglected in this so waighty a businesse of evacuation by Phlebotomy where especially the life of man lieth at the stake The time is either generall or particular By the generall time we understand the foure seasons of the yeere by the particular the day and houre befitting such a businesse Among all our Physitians it is agreed upon that the Spring is the best and most seasonable time and next to that the Autumne but the Sommer by reason of excessive heat and the Winter by reason of cold are not esteemed so seasonable Againe in the particular times the morning is answerable to the Spring the noone tide to Sommer the afternoone to Autumne and the night to Winter Now in the use of Phlebotomy we consider the time after a double manner one of election another of necessity In election when it is in our power we are to make choice of the fitest time as wel generall as particular in necessity and cases of extremitie and coaction wee must take hold of that which offereth himselfe when we stand in most need Now Phlebotomy is used for a double end either to prevent sickenesse in the whole or to cure diseases in the sicke In prevention where we may have a free election we are to make choice of the Spring as the most temperate time and a day temperate neither too hot nor too cold and in particular the morning is the best and fittest an houre or two after rising the partie to be bled being fasting and having unburdened his body of the fecall excrements and concoction being fully finished Next to the Spring is Autumne in the which if any be to bleed the same cautions are to be observed In sicknes is the case not a like where we are not alwaies allowed this freedome of election Now all diseases are either acute or chronicall as we have said already In chronicall diseases wee are as neare as we can without the patients prejudice to pitch upon the best and most convenient time but in acute diseases the case standeth farre otherwise where we are often cast upon a coacted necessity Wherefore in burnning Fevers in Plurisies in Squinancies and other like diseases if strength permit we are not to deferre this remedy delay here breeding danger but with all speed either day or night at what soever houre not regarding any preparation of the body to goe about it By protracting of time strength is often overthrowne and therefore it will be best at the beginning and if in the first or second day wee find this be wanting we are not to adventure nor yet after divers daies over-past if it be not wanting to incite it But according to the Hippocraticall oracle it is best in the beginning of the disease to undertake such a worke and when the humors are now setled it is best to rest And this is chiefely to bee understood of such diseases as are without intermission In acute diseases with exacerbation whether they admit of remission or intermission we are to make choice of this time of greatest tranquillity And therefore in Fevers with remission we are to take that time as in those that intermit we are then to use this remedy whatsoever houre it be whether day or night for then nature is most at quiet and in regard of strength they then are best able to beare it But when in any inflammatiō or any extraordinary great paine without any Fever we are to use this remedy we are not to wait for any remission but having respect to the greatnes of the cause presently to set upon it and in time of greatest extremity to use this remedy to the end there may be procured a retraction of the humor the other parts transmitting thither both blood and spirits from the part affected Phlebotomy used onely for a generall evacuation from the whole body ought to bee administred in the beginning of the disease and therefore in putrid Fevers it is best to be used at the first according to Galens testimonie Revulsion is used in diseases proceeding from distillation and is best in the beginning in the impetuous fluxe of humors but derivation after revulsion or generall evacuation the affluxe of humors now ceasing By that which hath been said already the fittest and most convenient time for phlebotomy appeareth to be that which is most seasonable and by consequent both the heat of Sommer and the cold Winter-season is here excluded But here ariseth a great scruple in the mindes of the vulgar and ignorant people who are so fearefull of phlebotomy in some seasons especially during the Dog-daies howbeit if they well weigh the premisies it will evidently appeare that in all seasons we are to yeeld to necessitie But the vulgar seeme to have some reason on their side at least the authority of Hippocrates who hath left this upon record and the antients did carefully observe this rule and that as seemeth not without reason I answere it is true indeed we have it recorded by antiquity that during that time it is not so safe to adventure upon phlebotomy or purging and that by reason of the excessive heat of the Sunne in that season And indeed in hot countries this season is often very tedious to the body of man by reason of the dissolution of the spirits and by consequence debilitating the whole body yea during that season the sea it selfe suffering some alteration is more troubled and wines in the cellars during that season doe often shew themselves therewith affected by a new ebullition as it were boiling a fresh And therefore good reason had these antient fathers of Physicke to wish men during these excessive heats to refraine from the use of any great evacuation But let us see whether there be any specificall maligne influence descending upon the body phlebotomised during that season The vulgar yea and some of a more refined understanding are carried away with I know not what superstitious feare of this season be it hot or cold that be they or their friends in greatest extremity of danger by reason of sickenesse in the same yet shall one hardly many times perswade them to the use of any remedy And in this women as they are commonly most pragmaticall and readiest to controll the Physitians prescriptions shew themselves most crosse and opposite In the first place then true it is that this season proveth often the hottest time of the yeere the Sun then entring into the signe of Leo as they call it and the dog-starre then arising upon our horizon the heat is most commonly then increased But that any specificall malignity more than is procured by heat which is a generall cause and an active qualitie is conveied from this or any other starre
all cordiall juleps where cooling especially is required They are to bee eaten before other food the which is in all these short-lasting Summer-fruits to be observed There is yet another small fruit not much unlike the former either in forme or operation and in no small request both for food and physicke And although some preferre the Strawberry before the Raspe yet is not this the judgement of all this being accounted more cordiall than the Strawberry And indeed the smell and taste me thinks doe insinuate no lesse unto our senses which occasioned most of the Apothecary shops of Germanie to be alwaies well furnished with the sirup of this simple in imitation of that great Gesner who had it in so high an admiration And although it bee accounted as cooling as Strawberries yet I incline rather to thinke it temperate if not inclining to some moderate heat Howsoever neither of these fruits nourish much and moisten apparently their siccity being very small This fruit is also esteemed good against the inflammations of the mouth and tensills and fluxes of the belly If either of these fruits be eaten in excesse they ingender Fevers The Mulberry as well as the former fruits is of two colors red and white the white is of an unsavory taste and therefore we will leave this tree to the silke-wormes The Poet reports that Mulberries were at the first all white but that afterwards they were died red with the blood of the two true lovers Pyramus and Thisbe They are also to be eaten before meales or with an empty stomacke although antiquity used them after meales as witnesseth an antient Poet. If eaten with a full stomacke they ingender many dangerous diseases And because of their cooling and moistning quality they are best in hot and cholericke bodies young persons and the Summer season and they loosen the belly also much moisten the inward parts are good against thirst and roughnesse of the throat and by some are thought to provoke urine especially our Arabian Physitians and besides are thought to cleare the blood from all corruption for the which cause some have been of opinion they were good against the gout And a learned late Physitian relateth a story out of an old Author that in his country for the ful space of twenty yeers together the Mulberrie trees bare no fruit at all and that for this cause during all that time the gout did so rage that not only men and women children and eunuchs contrary to Hippocrates his rule but even whole flockes of sheepe and goats also were so therewith assaulted that scarce the third part of them escaped free But what should be the cause that Mulberries should either cure or yet prevent the gout I confesse I could never yet finde out and all the colour I can finde for it is that by meanes of loosening the belly they may scowre away superfluous humors the cause of this disease and so may many other simples farre more effectually so that in this it will come short of many others so farre is it from obteining any prerogative above them And why may not this learned mans opinon granting that this story were yet true be a fallacie a non causa pro causa assigning that for a true cause which is none at all Another learned Physitian troubleth himselfe much to find out a cause of it but is faine to leave it as he found it even so must we where none is to be found as I am of opinion there is none Of this fruit is made a sirup for sore throats called Diamoron It is best that is made of Mulberries before they be full ripe which are both more cooling and astringent in this case much requisite There is a bramble growing every where wilde in the fields the berries whereof before they be full ripe may be used in defect of the former The Goose-berrie was not knowne it seemeth in antient times howbeit now with us in frequent use Green Goose-berries are of a cooling and astringent facultie and in stead of verjuice are used as a soveraine sauce to divers sorts of meat and although they yeeld small nourishment to the body yet are they good to sharpen the appetite and against thirst and choler much resisting putrifaction Goose-berries full ripe are not so cold as the former yea rather inclining to a meane temper The full ripe are not usefull for sauces and being eaten in abundance they ingender corrupt humours and in hot cholericke constitutions are quickly converted into choler The unripe eaten raw of hot stomacks keeping within compasse will coole the same but are safelier used being boiled and as they use to speake scalded and a little sugar and rose-water with them they prove a dainty dish for this effect Of Goose-berries not yet full ripe our Ladies and Gentlewomen know how to make a daintie marmalade and many other things fit to refresh the appetite of a weake and languishing stomacke which for brevities sake I here passe by That little berry which the vulgar call Currants although it have no affinitie with them and by the Arabian Physitians called Ribes is of two sorts both red and blacke although the red is most with us in request best knowne and most effectuall both in Physicke and food It is indeed most ordinarily used for physicke although it may well be used also for sauces The ripe Ribes agreeth much in vertue with the unripe sowre Goose-berry howbeit I thinke it rather exceedeth the same It is cold moderatly not exceeding the first degree but exceeding the same in moisture participating of some siccitie and a notable astringent qualitie whereby it strengtheneth a weake stomacke and exciteth a weake and languishing appetite It is exceeding good as the other against all fevers inward inflammations maligne diseases proceeding of putrefaction of humours as also in hot cholericke constitutions and young age But in old age cold constitutions and diseases in the breast and lungs it is not so good the which is also to be observed in other acide and sharpe liquours and fruits Of it with sugar is made that composition commonly called Rob of Ribes Of the like nature and vertue is that berrie which is commonly called Barberries and in vse for the same purposes as fevers hot stomackes fluxes c. They are used both in conserves and also preserved Gerard in his Herball maketh mention of severall sorts of whorts or whortle-berries blacke red and white all of an astringent faculty and are called by a generall name Vaccinia They stop fluxes and casting of choler coole the body for the which purpose the black be the best There is another berry which at London they commonly call Bilberries and in the Northermost part of this Iland Bleaberries well knowne by the blewish violet colour wherewith they die the lips and teeth of the eaters They use commonly to eat them with creame and
downewards And againe that in Sommer it is best to purge upwards and in Winter downewards as concerning acute diseases they are most ordinarily purged by vomit by sweat by the guts and by bleeding at the nose except in contagious maligne and pestilent diseases where antidots and cordialls expelling by sweat are of most use and where humours abound or ill accidents occurre some of the aforenamed evacuations may be of good use And this shall suffice for evacuations in generall now come we to particular evacuation and first of phlebotomy so famous a remedy both in antient times and in this our age also CHAP. II. Of Phlebotomy what it is the severall sorts and sundry things therein to be considered IN the body of man of the aliment he receiveth is ingendered blood in the liver and conteined in the veines and arteries and by nutrition communicated to the whole body This blood as it conferreth no small benefit to the whole body so from thence are many mischiefes thereunto procured and that not onely by the excesse thereof in quantitie in quality or both but also by the multitude of superfluous excrements from thence proceeding which often proove the fountaine and well-spring of a multitude of diseases in the body of this miserable microcosme Now according to the repletion of this or that humor so is the evacuation of the same answerable All evacuations then are either naturall or artificiall If naturall and withall beneficiall we are so farre from suppressing any such evacuation that we are rather to further it Artificiall evacuations of which at this time I intend to speake are either generall or particular Generall or universall evacuations I call such as doe in generall evacuat all the humors indifferently both good and bad or such as doe evacuat the bad humors of all sorts and that jointly or severally and thirdly which doth evacuat indifferently from all the parts of the body The first is effected by phlebotomie the second by purgation and the third by sweating The first of these then is phlebotomy the which as it is an instrument used by the Physitian we thus define Phlebotomy is an aritficiall evacuation of humors abounding in quantitie and that by the opening of a veine or artery to this end that the vessells distended and oppressed with the multitude of humors may be relieved or else that noxious humors may be averted from the part affected Phlebotomie and purgation doe both in this agree that both are universall evacutions are great and generous remedies and appropriated to great diseases They differ againe not onely in the instrument but also in the manner and forme and againe that purgation draweth forth by election humors distinguished by their qualities but phlebotomie neglecting the quality respecteth the quantity onely The nature therefore of phlebotomy is to draw indifferently any humor whatsoever is conteined in the veines not making any election of this or that particular and although it draweth from the whole body yet doth it draw immediatly from the next veines and the part next adjoyning to it and secundarily it doth evacuat the whole body Now for our orderly proceeding in this particular it being a matter of that moment we are to consider these five heads 1. In what infirmities of the body this generous remedy is to be used and the severall kinds thereof 2. What veines or arteries are to be opened 3. What bodies may best beare this remedy or are not able 4. How much wee may evacuate how long or how often this remedy may bee reiterated 5. The time when it is to bee used As for the first we have already mentioned a double repletion in the body of man one called Plethora wherein we make use of phlebotomy an other cacochymia wherein we use purging medicines This Plethora againe is double or of two sorts quo ad vasa quo ad vires That which we call quo ad vasa or according to the capacity of the veines is that fulnesse wherein by reason of the abundance of blood the veines are so distended and stretched out that the party himselfe may feele as it were this distention with no small danger of disruption of some veine or sudden suffocation Plethora or repletion quo ad vires according to the strength when as there is such abundance of blood conteined within the veines that nature is not well able to governe the same but oppresseth the strength by that meanes inducing as it were a heavinesse and certaine weight Both these repletions are incident as well to the whole as to the sicke but in health cannot long continue for in a short space the humors are either putrified some veine burst or some defluxion procured the cause of infinite infirmities in the body of man Againe all repletion or fulnesse in regard of the humors conteined is twofold either exquisite and single proceeding of the abundance of good humors onely or else declining from this purity when as with the good some bad are also intermingled called therefore plethora cacochymica as againe when as with abundance of bad humors some good are intermingled we call it then cacochymia plethorica This single Plethory or repletion againe is twofold one properly so called when all the foure humors doe equally abound another called sanguinea or of blood when as pure blood is increased in too great a quantity Againe plethora or repletion in regard of the body affected is either universall or diffused through the whole body or particular when as this fulnesse is setled and impacted upon some part of the body Againe there is one fulnesse in the vessells or veines another in the whole bulke of the body There is also a repletion or fulnesse present actu actually in the whole body or some part thereof another potestate onely in power which is likely shortly to ceize upon the same as when by the suppression of any wonted evacuation of blood we feare a fulnesse in the whole body or when as by the affluxe of some humor to som determinate part we feare some inflammation putrefaction or paine c. Now phlebotomie doth evacuat this fulnesse in the whole body or any part thereof either in any great disease already present or yet imminent A great disease I here understand not onely that which by reason of the greatnesse as some great inflammation or would is esteemed to be such but even in regard of the excellency of the part and some malignitie of the disease for a small inflammation in some ignoble part of the body although arising from the abundance of blood doth not require phlebotomie or any other great remedy In great plethoricall diseases we are to use this remedy especially if the strength bee answerable which is the chiefe indication to be regarded And here we are to observe that the indication of this evacuation is sometimes desumed from the disease it selfe as
so that notwithstanding there may easily be seene such causes as increase blood together with some conspicuous tumor or arising in the veines there following in the body as it were some acrimony and sharpenesse to the sense To draw therefore this Chapter to a conclusion phlebotomy is a most soveraine and excellent remedy not onely in the aforenamed infirmities but also in many other as in all Fevers proceeding of blood as well without as with putrefaction and of any other humor putrified and that both in continuall and intermitting even of Quartanes and head-aches proceeding of blood in the Dropsie proceeding of suppression of blood in Strangury retention or difficulty of urine proceeding of a hot cause and in the Palpitation of heart in health comming without any manifest cause and in divers sorts of obstructions as the Jaundize c. Where these are wanting the strength weake and in the presence of any great evacuation as fluxe of the belly vomits much sweating in young children women with child unlesse in great extremity we are not to use this noble and generous remedy And withall let this rule alwayes be observed that it is alwaies better to use this remedy by way of prevention in the approaching rather than in the presence of the disease Let every one therefore beware how they trust ignorant Empirickes and desperate bold Barber-surgeons to rely I meane upon their judgements in so weighty a matter when there is question of losing this noble elixir of life CHAP. IIJ. Whether in contagious maligne and pestilentiall Fevers and in the small Pox and Measels as likewise in the Iaundize phlebotomy may safely be administred BY that which hath been said already concerning Phlebotomy it is apparent that Phlebotomie in Fevers is a soveraigne and approved good remedy which is confirmed by the common consent of all our judicious and learned Physitians And Galen himselfe is of the same opinion where hee alloweth of this remedy as well in continuall as in intermitting Fevers provided alwaies the strength hold out and the age be answerable But then here ariseth no small doubt whether in contagious maligne and pestilentiall diseases so noble and generous a remedy may be used And it would seeme that the negative is to be holden in that in such diseases commonly the heart the fountà ine of life is assaulted the spirits also infirme and for this cause it would seeme wee should rather use alexipharmaks and cordiall remedies in this case most proper to strengthen and corroborate the vitall spirits and to expell if it be possible this poison from the heart whereas any great evacuation especially of this so usefull for mainteining of life may by the evacuation of spirits rather hinder then helpe forward the cure of such diseases The answere to this question must be by distinction for we must consider that the Pestilence it selfe for I will beginne with the most dangerous setteth upon the body of man after divers manners as sometimes striking suddenly without any shew or at least it is scarce discernible in which case it were a desperate course to attempt any such evacuation but then the onely cure is with antidots to oppugne the disease and by all meanes possible to underprop and uphold the decaying spirits of the patient Againe often and many times and more frequently especially in these our Northerne and cold countries this infection is accompanied with a Fever and often meeteth with plethoricall bodies as living in ease and idlenesse and then I see no reason why phlebotomie should or ought be denied unto such bodies if especially administred in the beginning strength age and other circumstances then concurring And that this hath alwaies been the b practice of the learned both antient and latter Physitians I could make it easily appeare if I were not afraid to spend too much time which by reason of divers matters yet to handle I must husband Now if this hath place in the pestilentiall Fever of all others most dangerous then much more hath it place in other Fevers participating indeed of a certaine malignity howbeit not pestilentiall Of this nature is that Fever which hath now divers times especially of late yeeres swept away many lusty people out of this Iland This Fever is of the nature of putrid continuall Fevers and yet not tied to any one particular kind It is called by reason of the evill quality Febris maligna approaching neare the confines of the pestilentiall Fever howbeit commeth farre short of it in malignity this disease being indeed contagious per contactum onely when as such as are yet free are infected by touching the body that is sicke especially in their sweat and sometimes also by being too neare their breath and therefore wee see it often come to passe that a whole family is one after another infected with the same when as others who come to the sicke by way of visitation goe free provided they be not too busie about them But the pestilentiall fveer infecteth often by inspiration of the ambient aire although they have no commerce with the sicke of the same disease This fever is also called febris petechialis from the little blacke or blew spots like unto flea bits which notwithstanding differ from those of the pestilentiall fever It is also called morbus hungaricus or the hungarian disease by reason it hath been and is very frequent among the people of that nation It is now become a free denison in these our countries the smart whereof hath been of late yeeres experimentally felt here among us Now it may here be demanded whether Phlebotomy may be of any use in this maligne fever The reason why I take upon me to discusse this question is because of the ignorance and error of many people who have conceived so hard an opinion of this so noble and generous remedy in this disease that if the patient die after the use thereof they impute this successe to the use of this remedy and the vulgar often are affrighted at the very mentioning of it and as they are commonly jealous of the best actions of the Physitians and apt to interpret every thing in the worst sense so commeth it to passe in this particular It is true indeed that many after the use of the best meanes doe many times miscary the Almighty who first made man having set downe a period of time for every one which no man can passe and because the skillfull Physitian not being able to dive into the secret counsell of his Maker as being a man and no God useth the likeliest meanes which by reason and his owne and other mens experiences he thinketh fittest to grapple with this strong champion in the which combat the violence of the disease being so great that it will not yeeld to any meanes is it reason that the Physitian for all his care and diligence should be so sharply censured I doe not deny but that
times is commeth so to passe that this noble and generous remedy by opening of a veine cannot so wel be effected or at least is not so fit in regard blood is oftentimes impacted into some particular part so that it cannot by ordinary phlebotomy bee evacuated and then doe we betake our selves to a particular kind of phlebotomie by leaches scarification and cupping glasses The leaches must be chosen such as live not in stinking puddle-water not very greene nor having great blacke heads and being caught they are to bee kept in faire water which is often to be shifted Some counsell to put a little sugar in the water and some a little blood They are best that live in waters where mosse and frogges abound not rough on the backe of the colour of antimony or having blew lines but round little tailes like unto mice and small heads In defect of phlebotomy when for some good consideration it cannot conveniently be administred we may apply them to the great veines but most properly they are to be applied to the small veines They are much used in the hemorrhoidall veines and doe best of all draw unto them melancholicke blood for this cause they are of singular good use in Itches Scabs and the like They are to be put through a quill and so applied to the place wee please howbeit some use a spunge fomenting the place first with warme water and then anointing it with a little blood to make them sucke the sooner Some when they are a sucking cut off their tailes that they may draw more freely If they fall not off in due time sprinckle some salt on them and if they fall off too soone bath the place with warme water and if it may be with conveniency bleed over warme water and after they are falne off this will still further the bleeding If the veine bleed too long use the same meanes we use in stopping the bleeding of a veine in ordinary phlebotomy adding if thou wilt a little powder of bole armenicke some powder of galls c. Besides these there is yet another particular evacuation of blood performed by meanes of scarification or racing of the skinne and differreth according to the manner it is used If deeper it draweth more copiously and from the remote parts and withall evacuateth the thicker blood It may often supply the place of Phlebotomy And thus in the armes deepe scarifications evacuat from the whole as likewise sometimes in the legges especially cupping glasses being therewith applied And thus Oribasius in that great and memorable Asiaticke plague scarified both himselfe and many others and drew out very neare two pounds of blood and by this meanes escaped the present danger Scarification in this same place is also good in a plethory proceeding from the suppression of the piles or menstruous fluxe It may sometimes be used by way of revulsion to the remote parts observing still the rectitude or communion of the parts as in the inflammation of the right legge scarification of the right hand or left legge As likewise scarification of the legge attracteth from the inward to the outward parts and draweth downe-wards c. And in the menstruous fluxe scarification of the thighes or hands serveth in stead of derivation in furthering this fluxe But scarification hath alwaies a most forcible effect in attracting from the remote parts when it is deepe and a cupping glasse presently applied But the most proper use of scarification is to evacuat from the part affected other remedies not prevailing And for this cause is effectuall in all Scabs and other breakings forth upon the skinne as also for an inveterate Scirrhus Inflammations Gangrenes Pestilentiall tumors bittings of venemous beasts c. But with scarification for the most part we use also cupping with or without fire and these cups are made of divers matters of horne glasse and copper and of severall formes long round some of a wider and some of a narrower orifice They are for the most part used of glasse called therefore cupping glasses And of these the round with a narrow mouth or orifice are the best and draw most effectually and of these some are bigger some lesser according as the evacuation is to be more or lesse In regard of the bodies they are to be applied to they have a farre more successefull operation in thinne bodies than in thicker constitutions Againe we are to consider the nobility consent and the vicinity of the parts in the application and use of this remedy and therefore not to bee applied to any principall part lest there follow an attraction of bad humors thereunto But in the mutuall consent of two parts they may to good purpose be applied to the one as in the immoderate menstruous fluxe to the breast They are not to be used of sound and healthfull bodies to young and growing people nor to old decrepit persons nor yet of custome but with good advice of the learned Physitian as need shall require especially in the Spring and in Winter not in a hot house but neere a good fire onely some frictions going before We use them either with or without fire also with or without scarification The time elective is after perfect concoction the stomacke now being empty and the guts cleane from cōmon excrements The time of coaction or necessity is that which requireth this remedy although the time bee not so seasonable and that to prevent a further danger They are not ordinarily to be used before generall or universall evacuations have been used but in some cases as in the wind-colicke or when as by reason of the thinne structure of the body it is not so safe to open a veine or when we would attract any tumor from the internall to the externall and superficiall parts of the body Wee are then to apply this remedy either to the part affected or the next to it when there is now no more affluxe of matter Dry cups without scarification draw and evacuat the body insensibly especially of wind They are sometimes for staying of vomits and yexing applied to the stomacke They are in divers cases applied to severall parts of the body as the hinder part of the head and the crowne for divers infirmities of the eyes and head to the forepart for the Phrensie Lethargy c as also to the shoulders chinne thighes legges for divers infirmities whereon I must not now insist but proceed Besides the premisses there are yet some other particular evacuations performed by the hand of the Surgeon the which for affinitie with the former although no bloody evacuations we will handle in this place Of these the chiefe is burning or searing of some particular place of the skin both for preservation and recovering of health whereunto we referre also the two other setum and vesicatory This searing in Latine called cauterium is nothing else but a little
all sorts of people to loosen the belly to expell the common excrements of the guts and withall to prepare the humour causing the disease And we may safely purge any body although living now in health and that by way of preventing the accumulation of humours which in time might produce some disease Hence appeareth the frivolous feare of many people who being altogether ignorant of the true knowledge of this sublime profession yet with open mouth cry out there is poison in all our purgations but the judicious are not ignorant with what caution and circumspection the honest and able Artist even in cases of greatest necessitie and with what correction and preparation and in how small a quantity they make use of these strong medicines which notwithstanding were in onely use among the antients and yet many of these plantives themselves will often in their need sooner have recourse to some ignorant Empericke some unskilfull Barber-Surgeon yea to a beard-shaver or a woman who will adventure upon any the most desperate medicine without any preparation or knowledge of the constitution of the body than to the learnedst and ablest Physitian who is able if it were a poison so to prepare and accommodate it that it may safely be taken without any danger and indeed who deale with such chapmen may often cry out with these Prophets mors est in olla death or poisoniis in the body howsoever the effects are not alwaies upon the sudden so sensibly perceived Besides some of these severe censurers are often as busie with a pipe of Tabacco as with their appointed food and yet no bill of inditement preferred against it Now I will be judged by the learned if this simple be not indued with as poisonable and maligne a qualitie as any of these strong and violent purgations the antients used I will except neither Hellebore of them nor Antimonie of us used nor any other besides the narcotick quality as we prove by daily experience of the which more hereafter It is then apparent that we may purge and that no bodies are excluded from the use of gentle and milde purgations And yet do we not so indifferently admit of purgation that we thinke they may be of all and at all times indifferently used but with divers cautions diorismes and limitations especially when wee are to purge cacochymicall bodies with strong purgations when as they will not yeeld to gentler remedies Before we proceed wee are to take notice of a threefold constitution of the body One injoining perfect health which we commonly call a sound and healthfull constituion another we call a neuter or neutrall constitution declining from the former perfection of health and yet not falne into any sicknesse which may be taken notice of and such wee commonly call crazie or valetudinarie bodies and pertake of both the extremes and so is apt ready and inclined to fall and yet not falne into sicknesse The third is such a body as is now already falne sicke Now as the first may safely be purged for prevention so this second sort hath yet greater need as living still in feare of some infirmity The sicke especially are not to be abbridged of this benefit but with these limitations first of the strength constitution and other circumstances doe not inhibite we may safely use it Againe if nature of it selfe suffice and by other gentle meanes it may be effected and where nature leadeth us not the way as likewise if the humor be unfit for purgation wee are not to attempt it In every purgation then the first indication is desumed from the morbisicke cause or humor peccant which doth indicate purgation to the which wee are to joine also the disease it selfe and the most urging accidents of the same The second indication is desumed from the stomacke of the patient The third is desumed from the condition and nature of the part affected as likewise the ambient aire and region which we will referre to the time As for the first then in the sicke wee are to consider the quality of the Disease whether acute or chronicall whether sole and of it selfe alone or joyned with some other as with a sever c. Againe weare to consider of what manner of matter whether calme or quiet or furious and raging and whether crude or concocted The Physitian is againe to consider how long the patient hath been sicke and finally his individuall propriety called Idiosyncrasia and whether formerly accustomed to strong evacuations or otherwise It commeth also sometimes so to passe that the sicke is unfit for any Physicke at all wherefore it is good physicke sometimes to administer no physicke at all and yet this must be alwaies at the Physitians pleasure and not according to the humor and pleasure of the ignorant assistants no competent judges in a matter of this weight and worth In the next place urging accidents doe often inhibit strong evacuation Strong Purgations saith Hippocrates are not fitting for ill-coloured persons very dry or drouthy that have a dry cough and distension under the short ribs as also such as use evill diet Such symptomes againe and urging accidents as debilitate and overthrow strength as violent paine watching gnawing about the mouth of the stomacke doe inhibit evacuations The strength is indicated by the age sex temperature of the body naturall individuall propriety disposition of the body custome and urging accidents First then for age the middle age is aptest to endure purgations old age and infancy of all others by reason of weakenesse most unfit and therefore unlesse in time of great need to them they are not to be administred And yet old age is farre abler to endure them than infants Besides children have a certaine naturall evacuation thorow the pores of the skinne by which meanes without any other evacuation they often breath out abundance of bad humors And yet if there be need and nature be wanting wee are not to deny even a sucking child such an evacuation yet with the counsell of Hippocrates we are then to exhibit some gentle purgation to the nurse which communicateth a purging facultie to her milke to children of fuller yeeres we may safely administer some gentle medicine In the second place the sex is to be considered in this indication of strength men then for the most part endure strong purging medicines better than women Virgins and widowes and such as are much subject to hystericall infirmities or fits of the mother are not to be purged with strong purgations Besides women with child doe not easily endure purgations And from hence then ariseth a question whether we may at all purge a woman with child I answere that even Hippocrates himselfe who forbad phlebotomy to women in that case which notwithstanding both by reason experience I have proved to be lawfull giveth yet allowance to this remedy And yet as hath heretofore been proved
right use and abuse thereof HAving already at length discoursed of generall evacuations being three in number we come now to some particular the consideration whereof is of no small use as well in sicknesse as in health Now for the affinity it hath with sweat being much of one nature although both at divers passages and in a different manner voided it shall succeed in the next place Of the nature of this excrementitious humour the manner of generation deceit and coozenage of ignorant and erronious practitioners in the judgement by the same and many things which concerne this subject hath beene else-where handled at great length where hath beene sufficiently proved the uncertainty of judging the issue of diseases by this bare signe onely being a signe whereby some diseases only and somtimes may be discerned and yet but a generall one which can neither acquaint us with the strength of the patient a thing of all others in diseases of great moment nor many other particular circumstances wherewith the Physitian ought in so waighty a businesse to be acquainted And there we likewise proved that from thence wee could neither gather any certainty of conception nor yet of the sexe I say neverthelesse that urine is not to be neglected either in sicknesse or in health but withall let other signes not be neglected but have their due desert That urine therefore both in sicknesse and in health which is of a laudable colour and contents answerable doth commonly argue that body to be in best case especially if all other signes concurre as if it be otherwise wee are to conceive the contrary That urine we commonly call best that is of a light golden colour with a meane white coloured even contents and the farther it decline from this golden rule the worse we deeme it as sometimes when it is of an intense red colour it often argueth Fevers or inflammations c. unlesse sometimes by reseration of some small veines the urine be died with this colour And yet the urine of a cholericke man will looke of a higher colour than any other and so if hee shall fall sicke it must needs be of an intenser colour than of a phlegmaticke person and this same phlegmaticke person in health shall have a paler coloured urine and falling into some fever the urine may be also paler than the former and yet the party as dangerously sicke and so I could instance in many other like cases Againe it appeareth sometimes of a blacke colour and portendeth often no good to the party and yet this same colour may often prove criticall and accompanied with like contents It may sometimes againe appeare unto us like pure transparent water without any contents at all signifying sometimes crudity in the first concoction sometimes obstructions with a totall ouerthrow of naturall heat howbeit sometimes it may be accompanied with extreme heat in a burning Fevet with a Phrensie of all others most dangerous c. In generall in sicknesse these colours and contents are very various and changeable according to the nature of the disease and constitution of the diseased on which I will not now dwell nor make any repetition of that which hath beene formerly handled Vrin again faileth somtimes in the excesse being in too great a quanty and sometimes in the defect where little or no urine is excerned In excesse as in that disease called diabete Hâ—drops ad matulam or pot-dropsie whersas by weaknesse of the retentive faculty and want of concoction drinke passeth thorow the body with little and small alteration answerable to that disease in the stomacke commonly called Lienteria being a defect of concoction in the stomacke and guts but with us is but rare As for criticall excretion of urine it is very profitable and helpeth often to terminate the disease Now on the other side there is a frequent defect in the expelling of urine and proceedeth from suppression totall or in part or else by difficulty whereas without great difficulty and paine it is expelled Painfull pissing commeth divers manner of waies to passe as either by the acrimony and sharpnesse of the humour or by the imbecillity or weaknesse of the retentive faculty proceeding often from cold and is sometime occasioned by inflammation ulcer clotted or congealed blood and by the stone c. Suppression of urine proceedeth likewise from divers causes sometimes by meanes of the obstruction or stoppage of the guts and sometimes of the emulgent or sucking veines when as by meanes of imbecillity they are frustrate of their attractive faculty or yet by obstruction It is procured likewise by obstruction or passage of the kidnies or urinary passages and by meanes of the imbecillity of the same By reason of the obstruction of the foresaid passages it is divers waies procured as either by inflammation knob or bunch of either of the these parts or some tough phlegme impacted in and cleaving fast to the place as also sometimes howbeit seldome by reason of some holes and cavities left in the kidnies after the voiding of some stones It is sometimes also caused by meanes of the bladder or parts thereto adjoining comming divers waies to passe as first by reason of the want of sense of feeling by reason of the resolution of the nerve descending from the loines and hucklebone Secondly by reason of the failing of the expelling power of the bladder c. Thirdly by the too great quantity of urine longer than is fit deteined Fourthly by a resolution of the muscles of the nether belly Fifthly by the totall overthrow of the expulsive faculty as in burning Foevers and then proveth for the most part mortall as witnesseth Hippocrates and yet divers other waies commeth this also to passe as by the resolution of the muscle sphincter a stone bunch clotted blood c. And this commeth sometimes to passe by consent of the places adjoining the bladder and urinary passages being also sometimes so shut up that they cannot freely deliver the urine and many times also cannot keepe it long as commeth to passe in women with child All these severall cases are to be cured accordingly and that with a due regard had to their severall causes The totall obstruction of urine proceeding from any cause if long continuing may prove mortall Such remedies as provoke urine we commonly call diureticks or provokers of urine But neither are these in all cases of suppression to be administred nor yet indifferently when there is need are they alwaies without a previous preparation to be used Now in all such obstructions of the urine before we goe about the right cure we are first to procure the expulsion of the urine out of the bladder lest oâ— by the use Diureticke medicines a greater attraction of humors increase the obstruction And therefore in such cases we often use the helpe of a catheter insessions fomentations inunctions glisters
times observed mingled therewith Wee will then beginne with those excrements which in every respect are accounted best and from thence wee may the better observe and know the deviation of others from that rule The best then are neither too hard nor too soft or liquid and thinne but consisting of a meane betwixt both compact and firmely united without the admixture of any uncouth matter of a pale yellow colour and in quantity answerable to the food received in smell neither too stinking not yet altogether free from all manner of smell nor of too sharpe a quality and which are at the time accustomed without any great paine labor straining or great noise easily expelled Such as decline further from these laudable markes are alwayes accounted worse either in sicknesse or in health And therefore thinne and very liquid excrements unlesse procured by the like diet by physicke or by way of crise are esteemed bad and unconcocted as likewise such as are white in colour and reteining still the quality of the food from whence they proceed and such also as are of a high golden or intense yellow colour by reason of the affluxe of choler into the guts and in like manner we approve not of too pale and frothy and yet worst of all purulent and materie excrements Greene black linid or leaden coloured unlesse by reason of such diet or by way of crises are dangerous and to be condemned and so are viscous and fat ordure by reason they signifie colliguation and wasting Besides whensoever a very bad stinking smell is joyned with a bad colour it is very bad for then it argueth a very great putrefaction Variety of bad colours in these excrements is also very bad as arguing in the body many ill infirmities Wormes on a criticall day with the ordure expelled signifie good but if in the beginning of the disease they appeare it is bad and if they come forth by themselves without any excrements dead or alive in acute diseases it is dangerous There be divers causes of these severall substances of excrements Thicke compact and well united excrements proceed from a good concoction of the stomacke and a temperate heat of the guts Thinne and liquid excrements proceed either from obstruction of the mesaraicke veines or by reason the food is not digested and concocted as in crudities or else is not altered or changed as in the disease lienteria or is corrupted as in belches from such matter may bee discerned Such excrements againe from the imbecillity of attractive faculty Fourthly from defluxion of humidity upon the guts Fiftly from the quality and nature of the food and such other things as loosen the belly as prunes caffe and the like Sixtly drinke descending towards the guts when as it is not carried thorow the mesaraicke veines to the liver and attracted by the reines and ureters Soft excrements proceed also from divers causes 1. From the moderate moisture of the guts 2. From the mollifying Diet as mallowes lettice and the like 3. They proceed sometimes from the admixture of divers humors proceeding from the liver or other parts as likewise from the admixture of some fat with the ordure as in Pthisickes Hecticke fevers turned to Marasmes c. And it is the opinion of Galen that in pestilentiall Fevers the egestions are almost alwayes liquid by reason of this fat substance Hard egestions againe proceed likewise of divers causes 1. By reason of immoderate heat proceeding of great labour from bathing or some other externall cause 2. By use of diureticke medicines by which meanes these excrements may bee dried up 3. By reason of astringent diet as medlars quinces sloes and the like 4. The long continuance of the excrements in the guts may likewise occasion the same the small veines implanted in the guts attracting all the moisture from the excrements and the guts by this long continuance acquiring a greater heat 5. By means of the dry constitution of the guts and the like distemper of the whole body I could here likewise insist on many other particulars concerning the mixture of severall sorts of excrements and causes which to avoyd prolixity I willingly passe by But the question may here be asked how often and when is the best time for this evacuation in health I answer that as wee can hardly certainly determine mens particular occasions constitutions and individuall proprieties and natures no more can wee absolutely set downe any verdict concerning this businesse yet is it best in time of health to inioy this benefit at least once if not twice aday howbeit I am not ignorant that some both in sicknesse and in health have continued divers daies yea sometimes weekes without the use of this evacuation I confesse indeed such as were able to absteine from all manner of sustenance for divers yeeres together needed not either this or any other evacuation examples whereof I have produced some already But in ordinary healthfull bodies this is alwaies the best and so answerable also in sicknesse and who so decline from this rule it commonly fareth not so well with them I deny not but there are some individuall constitutions who better indure the want of this benefit than others Neither yet is there any set quantity to be determined for good and laudable nourishment as egges and the like ingender fewer excrements than herbes browne bread and the like The best time is the morning and if it may be conveniently in the evening also before going to bed will prove beneficiall But it commeth many times to passe than in Fevers especially and hot acute diseases the body being bound and as it were locked up there arise and ascend up into the braine divers hot vapours the cause of no small annoyance not to that noble part only but to the whole body there must be therefore a speciall regard and care had to expell these excrements especially by opening and loosening diet and if that will not prevaile by lenitive and milde gentle evacuations suppositories and glisters Againe it commeth so sometimes to passe that nature is too forward in this kinde of evacuation as commonly in fluxes of all kindes proving often very pernicious to the patient Now these fluxes are of divers sorts as first that wee call diarrhaea the mildest and safest of all the rest and next dysenteria proceeding of divers humours but ordinarily with the admixtion of blood and therefore called commonly the bloody flâ—xe or fluxe rather which if not carefully in time look'd unto proveth often dangerous if not deadly Besides there are yet other dangerous fluxes call'd Lienteria and Caeliaca where the parts appropriated for concoction being interessed by these fluxes the body is frustrated its of proper nourishment All these fluxes in due and convenient time are by the advice and counsell of the wise and judicious Physitian by proper and convenient remedies to be cured but now
may be out of ignorance As for our roaring bores tosse-pots pot-companions and our ordinary swil-bolls who I thinke will be readier to jeere and flout than be reformed and ruled by my counsell therfore such I leave to be corrected with their owne rod and it may be a sharper if they persist I advise especially all thin cleare and cholericke constitutions as likewise all melancholicke persons especially by meanes of choler adust hot brained and yong people women with child and all such as are sicke of any acute diseases to absteine from the use thereof It is best to be used in Winter in raw and moist weather and in cold and moist braines in dropsies defluctions upon the joints and lungs proceeding from cold humors tooth-ach gout pector all infirmities c. As also for the megrim proceeding from the same cause the mother and divers infirmities of the braine proceeding from wind cold moisture As for the age it best befitteth old age where the brain is cold and moist And as for the kind of life Mariners and Sailers and such as live neer waters and there use their trade as Tanners Pelt-mongers and the like and such as live in moist fenny waterish and moorish places as in Holland in Lincolneshire and other like places And such as make use of it thus physically for to such here I direct my speech I thinke it very fit they use with it some correctives it having as great need as any most violent purge whatsoever as hath bin already proved In diseases of the braine therefore a drop or two of the oile of amber cloves mace or in defect of them some of their powder or halfe sage some dry rosemary or the like if in Epilepticall fits some powder of paeoniae seeds or roots will much correct the ill qualities of this intoxicating simple and corroborate the animall powers In diseases of the lungs joints cholicke from wind or phlegme and the like a drop or two of the oile of annise seeds of mints cumin or caroway seeds or in defect of them some of the powder of the seeds will serve for a good corrective But howsoever let no man deceive himselfe so farre as to thinke this to be some famous Panacea Nepenthe or some golden Elixir whereof there hath beene much bragging but small benefit as yet reaped If thou wilt not be warned by that which I and others have advertised thee thou maiest perhaps repent when it will be too late and howsoever thou findest not alwaies suddenly such ill successe as we fore-tell thee yet remember that oftentimes in yonger yeers there is such seed of diseases by disorder sown in the body that in old age bringeth forth much bitter fruit And of this I am verily perswaded that the excessive and disorderly use of this simple is no small cause as of the more frequent raigning of divers dangerous diseases among us so of many strange and uncoth accidents according to the severall and individuall bodies therewith assaulted But yet before I finish this point concerning salivation I must give notice of an ignorant and dangerous custome of some Barber-surgeons in the use thereof Some of these many times undertake the cure of some inâ—â—â—â—â—tâ—â—◠〈…〉 with an ordinary 〈…〉 with a 〈…〉 by 〈…〉 into this câ—â—rt o◠〈…〉 by 〈…〉 mercurially 〈◊〉 which in this cas◠〈◊〉 commonly uses wh◠〈…〉 noâ—th all there 〈…〉 and 〈…〉 into 〈…〉 with a 〈…〉 His reason as sâ—â—be of her 〈…〉 â—ted 〈…〉 all 〈…〉 or this cause was to draw the humour upwards and frâ—â— the 〈…〉 But here the whole frame of her body was out of order the live 〈…〉 body especially the nether parts by reason 〈…〉 Now whether such a coursâ— was then sit 〈…〉 the â—â—rned â—â—dge and besides a reasonable in 〈…〉 by that which hath been said already 〈…〉 and their waiâ—s how unfit and indirect a course this was 〈…〉 makâ— it in thâ—â— appeare but that now iâ— cannâ—t 〈…〉 thiâ— particular Onely by thâ— way take a 〈…〉 sottish stupidity and or 〈…〉 of the 〈…〉 This soâ—◠〈…〉 counsell a 〈…〉 onely 〈…〉 time being 〈◊〉 Winteâ— to 〈…〉 such a 〈◊〉 as 〈…〉 the 〈…〉 of the 〈…〉 from anâ— kinde of physicke to 〈…〉 by 〈…〉 and aâ—eâ—snesse and partly for 〈…〉 â—presse upon her shâ—â— seeming 〈…〉 to 〈…〉 the Spirits of the yeere and yet 〈…〉 it perswasion shee that before was unwilling to 〈…〉 â—tion submitted her selfe to this trouble some mercuriall 〈…〉 â—vation and such other directions hee was pleased to ordeine 〈…〉 member very neere a matter of a yeere I speake nâ—t this 〈…〉 will I beare this mans person but pleading now fâ—r the publiâ—◠〈…〉 â—he which I haue my warrant from my mâ—ther the Vniversity I thought not my duty to betray the truth but hee â—omâ— to my 〈…〉 to vindicate the same from error and impoâ—ture And therof for 〈…〉 â—â—suredly knowne that the same party hath with others prâ—ceeded aftâ—â— this same manner in other cases also and where I dare sweare therâ— was not the haâ—t â—â—â—â—ition of the poâ—e I thought good to give the countrie notice that they be no more deluded And that so much 〈◊〉 â—ther in that â— suppâ—se it be not his errour â—â—â—ly but 〈…〉 be culpable in th same binde CHAP. XXIII Of Snot or Snevell Rheume falling downe upon the lungs and other pectorall parts of Expuition or Expectoration and the great abuse in the use of expectorating medicines and the right use thereof AS in the whole body of man there are divers emunctories or passages whereby superfluous and excrementitious matter is expelled so hath the braine for the same purpose obteined the nose which besides other uses hath this in particular thereby to expell such superfluous excrements as abound in the braine This excrement most usually thus expelled is by the Greeke Physitian Hippocrates especially call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine mucus narium in English snot of snewell This is then an excrement of the braine the which abounding in phlegmaticke moisture whatsoever is superfluous or unprofitable it partly expelleth by the nose and partly by other places Of this excrementitious matter some is sometimes very thinne and some tough and clammy sometimes in a greater sometimes in a smaller quantity some againe hot some cold some also sweet unsavoury and bitter againe some without and smell and some of an evill smell as commeth to passe in ulcers called ozenae and principally in the French pox where the nose to the view of the eye may often be discerned to be eaten away with this venomous matter This excrement is againe often died with divers colors as reddish yellowish white Sometimes this snot commeth away of its own accord and sometimes otherwise expelled Such excrements as are purg'd by the palat of the mouth and the nose according to Galen declare unto us how the braine and the members thereof are affected When this
best indevours howsoever the disease were not of it selfe incurable And sometimes againe some disease howsoever in it selfe curable yet may sometimes be accompanied with such terrible and dangerous accidents and signes as doe usually accompany such as are shortly to be arrested by sergeant death and yet after the Physitians prognosticke the patient may vnexpectedly recouer as sometimes hath beene seene Now if our Empericke or ignorant Physitian bee called to the former of the two the patients strength persisting and no rub nor let comming in his way the coast being cleare his remedies perhaps not so pertinent and appropriat for the patient yet may this sicke party recover under his hand yea and if he should be yet called to the latter of the two by the skilfull Physitian now given over to a desperate Prognosticke and shall boldly undertake the cure of such a person promising faire and boldly as is the common custome of such people although he administer nothing to the purpose yea rather perhaps that which is quite contrary to the right cure as commeth most commonly to passe howsoever seldome by watchfull eyes observed and this Patient now unexpectedly strength and vigor of body perhaps blowing away all the former feares of evill accidents contrary to the learned Physitians prognostick recover will not the vulgar here admire magnifie and extoll the casuall event of this new Doctor duns setting him no lower than on the top of the pinnacle of fames Temple The other againe how skilfull soever in his profession and able artist yet shall be traduced by virulent and malignant tongues and often esteemed a Physitian of no account And yet for all this neither was the former the honester man but still an ignorant asse and a duns Sifueris pridem remanebis asinus idem Neither yet is the other the more ignorant or unsufficient nor will bee otherwise accounted of among the learned and better understanding sort Sometimes againe it may so come to passe that such an ignorant Empiricke may at the first be called to such a patient as we last mentioned and out of an impudent temeritie howsoever the danger to a judicious eye may not seeme small without any ground of Art or rule in reason at randome boldly promise the patient speedy recovery and for this purpose still after his Empiricall manner administer such medicines as his shallow and ignorant capacitie is able to reach unto and perhaps at length attaine to the height of his hopes yet shal I still avouch that this is but a casuall cure not proceeding from any skillfull sufficiency or right judgement and therefore not to be trusted to And if but an ordinary artist should with a watchfull eye diligently and narrowly observe the ordinary proceeding of such an Aesculapius he should observe him often where dangers are not so easily espied and to none but a judicious understanding obvious to sooth up his deluded patient with the saying of old Agag Surely the bitternesse of death is past when notwithstanding this grim sergeant ceizes on the prisoner without baile or main price And I deny not but often in an ordinary and common disease accompanied with strength of body without the acquaintance of any troublesome accidents such a counterfeit masked Physitian may proceed without detection of error howbeit if any storme of evill accidents arise his ignorance is to the more understanding eye easily discovered howsoever to more vulgar capacities perhaps scarcely discernible As in a calme an ignorant Pilot will make as faire a flourish on the water as a more skilfull and understanding but in a storme is the true sufficiency of the skilful Pilot best discerned Even so it fareth often with the unskilfull practitioner who in a secure and calme disease as I may call it carrieth all faire before him and howbeit never without failings easie by the judicious and understanding to be detected yet are they then to the eye most conspicuous when dangerous and intricate accidents doe appeare whereas the wise and learned Physitian proceedeth still in a rationall method and manner making use both of right reason and ordinary experience and accommodating them to severall occasions and circumstances and with the wise man forseeing the danger remedieth also all sudden accidents which the other not endued with that foreseeing providence nor skill and ability in his profession by reason of his want of education in the liberall arts and sciences especially this of Physicke is neverable in that manner as he ought to effect and bring to passe Besides it is yet a thing very considerable into what great danger people doe precipitate themselues who fall into such ignorant Physitians hands who worke thus by hap hazard and play as it were at fast and loose with mens lives Againe sometimes yea and that very often the learned and judicious Physitian is sent for to the patient now irrecoverably sicke of some desperate disease whereof hee shortly after dieth The honest artist here doth his best indevor both by prescription of orderly diet and such physicall meanes as in his understanding he thinketh fit to oppugne the contumacie of the rebellious disease But the enemie proveth too strong and of greater power than all his provision is able to overcome and the patient at length by reason of that uncontrollable law of mortality succumbeth under the burden of fatall necessity It may be also he was called too late and withall the nicity and morosity of the patient the neglect and carelessenesse of the assistants might prove a great hinderance to the hopefull successe of the cure The ignorant againe called vnto such a patient farre differing in his manner of proceeding as not furnished with so good provision or if furnished yet falling far short of the former Physitian in the dexterity of the right application of the remedies according to the severall circumstances in such cases requisite the patient likewise dieth Now the event is here the same with the former the patient at length paying that debt which all the sonnes of Adam owe. Now who seeth not that will not shut his eyes that he cannot see in the noone-tide of the day the divers proceeding of them both howsoever the event and issue be all one And the honest learned and diligent Physitian deserveth no lesse commendation when the patient dieth than when he liveth his care and paines being then the greater and for this same cause the Germans in danger of death having relation to the Physitians extraordinary paines double his fees And yet our ordinary sort of people for the most part if the patient dye conceive the meanlier of the Physitian and which is yet more grosse and absurd they are so farre from having that due and high esteeme of him as they ought that on the contrary they often howbeit unjustly impute to him the cause of the patients miscarrying And this befalleth oftner the skillfull and learned Physitian than the ignorant Empiricke and that
grossely ordinarily nor easily but frameth all his actions according to the square and rule of right reason whereas the ignorant unskilfull Empericke Physitian erreth ordinarily and usually not being able to square his actions according to the former rule And therefore no wiseman that hath his eyes in his head but may easily perceive the great ods betwixt these two Besides the vulgar often yea for the most part judge amisse of the Physitians best actions accounting them often erroneous where to a rectified and wel refined understanding there is not the least seeming shew of error Againe where the ignorant erreth most grossely then is he often thought of them to be most free therefrom so that by the vulgars verdict the judicious and learned Physitian is often condemned and the ignorant acquit But long to insist upon these and divers other sorts of such ignorant and unwarranted Physitians as Apothecaries Practisers by spels Ephemerides masters Wizards figure-flingers and the like forbidden trash is not my purpose in this place but because the female sexe also hath proved too pragmaticall and practicall we will consider whether their action bee warrantable and say something also concerning this point Women then not onely assume unto themselves a lawlesse liberty to prescribe diet for the diseased and whispering about the sicke traduce the laudable actions of the most honest able and learned Artist suggesting often idle and needlesse feares into the weake and feeble fancies of the sicke apt enough often of themselves by reason of weaknesse both of body and minde to entertaine such needlesse feares and controlling at their pleasures satis pro imperio the prescriptions of the most learned Physitians howsoever back'd both by sound reasons and by the manifold experience of many hundreds of yeeres but also against modesty and decency befitting that sexe as also against good order and against the lawes of God and man being altogether unfitted for so waighty an imploiment and with the neglect of that place and calling whereunto by their Maker they were ordained like busie bodies intrude upon so sublime a profession in administring physicke to the sicke and to others by way of prevention the which how dangerous and pernitious it is there being no lesse danger than of the losse of so noble a creature who carrieth ingraven the stamp of the image of his great and glorious Creator I leave to the judgement of the judicious understanding Reader But how should they ever attaine to this skill and sufficiency as hatn beene already proved to be true in other Emperickes I know the common thredbare objection that they have many times attained to the knowledge of some Probatum est or medicine experimentally tried upon some one or other individuall body and that most cōmonly casually or hab nab as we say as the blind man throwe his staffe and even in this where they thinke have experience they are commonly deceived and neither they nor our ordinary Empiricks can tell what is the true nature thereof Now the true nature of any experiment to make it such a one is not sufficiently proved by this that after once or twice triall thereof there hath insued some seeming good effect for this is but a meere Paralogisme ascribing often that effect to such a cause which was not the true cause thereof they often erring because they are oftentimes deceived in things even subject to their outward senses the cause of their erring proceeding from this that in severall sicke persons there are divers and various conditions natures affections c and each of these may alter and vary the manner of curing and therefore since neither women nor yet any other sort of Empiricks doe ordinarily observe neither are they therefore ever able to derive their remedies from true experience Now the causes of these varieties are the particular constitutions of the partie Diseased the age time of the yeare the countrey wherein one liveth the present temper of the time strength of the sicke custome former exercise the disease it selfe the cause the part affected the symptomes like diseases the manner motion repletion the structure of the parts the motion of the pulse the manners or condition of the sicke things helping or hindering without the distinct knowledge of which conditions we can never attaine to any true experiment concerning which we shall hereafter have occasion to discourse more copiuosly And a medicine may at one particular time fit some one and not another although ceized with the same disease and so in all these particular circumstances might be easily proved all occasioned by reason of the variety of such considerable circumstances And therefore the very same medicine which once might have produced a good and laudable effect may againe at an other time even in one and the same individuall body at some other time faile of this effect the state of the body upon divers occasions altering and divers circumstances often inducing the skilfull Physitian to betake himselfe to some other more appropriate remedy or else to adde or detract from his former prescription according as in his discretion he seeth indicated by these aforementioned circumstances in such a case required And from hence is also detected and evinced the error of some who having at sometimes used the counsell of some understanding Physitian for some preventing Physicke this same Physitian afterwards either absent or perhaps dead and it may be neither yet often either by ignorance a sordid tenacity or both procure the same medicines againe by the Apothecary to be prepared according to the former prescription without either addition or detraction of the former ingredients little considering the alteration of the body which might according to new occurrents demand new counsell But to returne to our Women againe some of this sex thinking to mend the matter well answere thus for themselves that if they do no good yet at least they doe no harme I answere that even in not doing good or administring that which in probability with Gods blessing was like to have done good they doe evill for in that they are unfurnished of that sufficiency of administring such fit and generous remedies as are likely to eradicate and root out the disease they commonly trifle away the time and lose that golden time and opportunity in doing good in dangerous and acute diseases which once being lost can never againe be recalled and recovered Ante capillata post est occasio calva What inevitable danger the neglect or protracting of fit and opportune time of Phlebotomy in a burning Fever a Squinancy or Pleurisie or some such dangerous acute disease doth often produce I wish it did not by wofull and daily experience too evidently appeare There lived of late yeeres here in Northamptonshire one of these Women-physitians and much sought unto not onely by those of ordinary education but even also by some of better breeding I can but pitty their simplicity and ignorance who would
for future preferment whereof there is no hope left the Physitian But because I have begun to touch upon this string of ingratitude of some persons yet wishing none to take this in ill part my meaning being onely to taxe the faulty to shew that this is not mine owne private opinion alone neither doth concerne this Kingdome onely I will set downe the words of a famous French Physitian translated out of the originall where there is an intire chapter concerning this same subject Ingratitude or unthankfulnesse is a very great vice and odious both to God and man yea so great a fault is this that whoso calleth a man unthankefull he need give him no worse title as comprehending all Now this fault is growne so common among people towards their Physitians that I am much amazed that any man of generous spirit will take upon him this profession it being withall so much subject to calumnie and slander cousin germane to ingratitude But we meet sometimes with people of reason and understanding both honest and able to judge of the Physitians sufficiency which maketh us more able to beare our burthen and proceed in our profession notwithstanding wee meet with a many unthankefull people For sometimes wee meet with some so courtous and ingenious patients that will both publikely and privatly professe that next under God they hold their life of their Physitian and having according to their ability and meanes thankefully acknowledged his industrious care and paines confesse notwithstanding freely that to requite him with a due deserved recompence for his paines their whole substance would not suffice as it is true in very deed For they owe their very life unto the Physitian and their life is of farre greater value But the chiefe recompence they owe the Physitian is the good will they still beare him being ready to pleasure him to power and still acknowledging their obligation to him for preserving their life And this is all one as if any man had taken a sword out of any mans hand that was ready to kill thee or a halter out of his hand that was ready to hang thee wouldst thou not acknowledge such a man for the saver of thy life Wouldst thou think all thy substance sufficient to requite such a person Is this then reason to say I have paid my Physitian well yea it may be over-paid him a fault seldome committed having allowed him so much for his daily attendance and now I am out of his debt If he hath taken paines with me I have as well recompenced him for his paines Alas I pity thy simplicity and sottish ignorance that which is given the Physitian is nothing else but a small token of a thankefull acknowledgement of that helpe and succour thou hast found and received of him for to requite his labour and paines especially if he hath saved thy life as by the helpe of the Almighty God hee may doe and often doth it is not at all in thy power unlesse thou shouldst expose the hazard of thy life for him although he hath not hazarded his life for thine which neverthelesse sometimes hee doth and thus thou still remainest indebted to him and must of necessity so confesse And againe a little after God delivereth from death and restoreth us to life by the meanes which the Physitian useth for our helpe and succour And is not this a worke rather divine than humane and which no man can sufficiently requite and recompence And therefore well was it said by the Wise man Honour a Physitian with the honor due unto him for the use which thou may have of him for the Lord hath created him For of the most high cōmeth healing and he shall receive honour of the King The skill of the Physitian shall lift up his head and in the sight of great men he shall be in admiration Behold then this is the chiefe acknowledgement of thankefulnesse due unto him honour and good will as a perpetuall bond whereby thou art obliged unto him and not to be thus perswaded with thy selfe that thou hast sufficiently requited his paines with a small summe of monie But there are some yet of a farre more perverse and wicked disposition than these who after they have beene by the honest and industrious care of their Physitian succoured in the time of their greatest need yet can they not indure to have it said they are beholden to him and are not farre from hating him who hath beene a meanes of saving their lives O extreme ingratitude But this is not the day nor yesterday for Hippocrates bringeth in Democritus in his Epistles speaking after this manner I thinke saith hee O Hippocrates that in our profession many things are subject to calumny slander and ingratitude For the sicke if they escape ascribe their recovery to the Gods their fortune or good complexion robbing the Physitian of all the honour and credit due unto him whom in stead of loving they often afterwards hate as being sorry they should be esteemed to have beene beholden to him c. And this agreeth as well as may be with the times where in we now live For sicke people for the most part ascribe their recovery to some he or she Saint to whom they had made some vow and many times are backward enough to pay their vowes according to the Italian Proverb * and thus they deale many times with their Physitians during their sicknesse promising them golden mountaines pearles and precious stones or some yeerely pension at least but being once recovered they are of a farre other mind pretending many things which furthered their recovery and in conclusion ascribing the smallest share of the honour and credit of the recovery to the Physitians care and industrious diligence And as for all his former faire promises being now recovered he begins to thinke with himselfe what his disease hath cost him and what losse he hath thereby susteined And thus forgetting his bond and obligation due to his Physitian upon whom hee even sometimes laieth the fault of being a cause of some part of his expences esteeming it but superfluous and needlesse and beareth him a grudge for keeping him so long a bed thinking that he might in a farre shorter time and with lesse charges have recovered him So that by such a churles account the Physitian should be ingaged to him and it is very like if he might find judges of his minde and armed with authority he would bring his action against him and make him pay for his cost and charges hee had beene at during his sicknesse And now behold is not this a very thankefull acknowledgement of so great a benefit Is there so great ingratitude any where to be found I thinke not unlesse in such a case where some in despaire had hanged himselfe and some friend of his having cut the cord and saved his life this party afterwards would arrest him for his rope or of some other who having fallen
into a deepe water in danger to be drowned he that drew him out had in drawing him forth torne some piece of his garment and this party should afterwards sue this saver of his life for reparation of his damage And thus our debters become our creditors to crave of us that which they owe us and will not so much as have a good conceit of us for all our care in curing them and will rather after ascribe the credit of the cure to any ignorant person than to the care and skill of the diligent and industrious Physitian And this commeth to passe for one of these two reasons either because they are besotted for want of naturall parts that they are not able to understand the nature and depth of such a businesse or else they be such as have wit and understanding enough but would seeme to take no notice thereof because they are loth to confesse it and thankefully as they ought to acknowledge the same and this is the worse of the twaine Howsoever it cannot be denied but this is great ingratitude and odious both to God and man Thus farre this Author I shall not need to make any comment upon this text although both my selfe and most if not all others of this same profession could instance in too many examples of this kind Nay is it not a strange thing that many times when as a Physitian hath next under God recovered a patient out of some dangerous disease yet afterwards shall we often see the same patient not only neglect his physitian ever after in regard of a continued thankfull acknowledgement of so great a kindnesse but afterwards in their need either for prevention or curation have recourse to others and these often of very small worth or sufficiency and as many others so have my selfe often rasted of this potion Among others within these few yeeres a young man a trades-man living in this towne falling sicke of that dangerous disease called cholera morbus wherein was abundance of sharpe choler cast up this disease being also accompanied with an acute fever which how dangerous it is the learned Physitian is not ignorant and the which although neither himselfe nor his friends thought likely to be cured yet by Gods blessing upon the meanes I used hee recovered his former health Being somewhat corpulent and as in former times so after now and then obnoxious to the head-ach fearing also some other infirmities yet did he never vouchsafe once to aske my counsell having rather recourse to a Parson practiser dwelling some dozen miles off And this last yeere 1631. his wife falling sicke of this maligne fever now for many yeeres so frequent in this Kingdome yet made he rather use of a Barber-surgeon and his wife after long languishing being at length recovered himselfe falls immediatly sicke of the same disease who used still the same counseller of whom hee had formerly made use for his wife who after the sight of an amber-coloured urine as I was told promised his patient security who notwithstanding after the indurance of a many daies great extremity at length paid that debt which admitteth of no sureties But of a farre different disposition from the former is a very good friend and patient of mine a man of good esteeme and worth within this same corporation who for these 16 or 17 yeeres hath made use of no other Physitian but my selfe either for himselfe or family besides his extraordinary grateful acknowledgement of my labor paines still laying hold of the smallest opportunity whereby he may testifie his love Howsoever this holdeth firme and sure that the Physitians paines is the greatest and his recompence smallest I meane still caeteris paribus making equall comparisons of all circumstances and I am sure he doth as much for charity as any other profession And although the ordinary fees of Physitians in this kingdome doe somewhat exceed some other places beyond the Sea which some have although impertinently objected yet are they but answerable to ordinary expences of the place wherein they live and the ordinary pay of Lawyers and others Besides that in many places beyond the seas as in all high and low Germany the Physitians have certaine set stipends allowed them in townes and cities where they live and a house to dwell in rent-free during their lives by reason whereof their fees may the better be qualified Now if any publike persons and not altogether wedded to their owne private would set this worke a foot they should I thinke finde few Physitians against it This were farre more worthy of imitation than their swinish and hellish drunkennesse and carrousing and quaffing of healths till health and wealth be both vanished quite away that I say no worse And by this meanes also there might bee good Apothecary shops set up in many places of the countrey to furnish good and sufficient drugges for his Majesties subjects in many places whereof by meanes of ill and fusty or sophisticate stuffe many people are utterly undone there being none to control these ignorant countrey Apothecaries nor yet our ordinary Empiricks and ignorant Practitioners doing every man what seemeth best in his owne eyes Many other benefits would from hence arise if any such worke were undertaken and the countrey would finde at length that it would quit for cost But because I have already touched this in another Tractat and besides menare so wedded to their own private that I doubt I speake to the deafe therefore I will now leave this point and come to the businesse in hand The cause moving and impelling me to set upon this Tractat following was an earnest desire I had to free my selfe from that neglect I find fault within others in not applying themselves to the publike good And duly considering with my selfe by what part of my profession I might doe the common-wealth most service as I have beene ready by my practicall paines above these twenty yeeres to helpe the infirmties of the Diseased so had I resolved with my selfe some yeeres agoe the publication of the dieteticall part of Physicke or that part which handleth the diet of healthfull people But in this being prevented by others and not willing to give over my former purpose and resolution to publish something that might be profitable for the publike I bethought me of a path which had not as yet been beaten by any which might bee as usefull and profitable if not more than the other and this was to set downe an orderly course of Diet for Diseased persons which having hitherto been neglected hath proved the cause of much mischiefe and disorder in diseases And having now for a long time with Elihu waited for mine elders howbeit farre inferior both in yeeres and understanding to a multitude of learned and able Artists of this Iland I have been bold to breake this yce hoping that some abler understandings will after supply my defects and in the meane time although I be
better than old as being somewhat moister and pleasanter in taste The best honie ought to be very sweet pleasant in smell of a cleare yellowish colour indifferent stiffe and firme yeelding but little scumme on the top when it is boiled Garden honie is the best and gathered of sweet flowers it is clarified by adding a little water unto it about the fourth part so scumme it while any froth ariseth or while the water be euaporated which is known by the bubles rising from the bottome and if thou wilt have it more pure put into every pound of honie the white of one egge and afterwards scumme it againe in the boiling Honie is good in divers pectorall infirmities the cough shortnesse of breath pleurisie c as also in the stone and of it with divers liquours are made divers drinkes for this same use and purpose whereof more hereafter in the drinkes for the diseased And although honie moderately used openeth obstructions being of an abstersive and cleansing facultie yet immoderatly used it ingendieth obstructions and so procureth many diseases arising from thence A late Writer allegeth that there was a certaine people in Africa which out of flowers made abundance of good honie nothing inferiour to that made by the Bees There is made of honie both a water a quintessence and divers other drinkes Amongst divers others there is one that hath ever beene in no small request amongst our antient Britons and now known by the name of Welsh which is that famous and wholesome Metheglin the which I will here set downe as I found it in a late published booke of Bees This then is nothing else but a generous kinde of hydromel bearing an egge the breadth of a groat or six pence and is usually made of finer honie with a lesser proportion of water namely foure measures of water for one receiving also into the composition as wel certain sweet wholesome herbs as also a larger quantity of spices namely to every halfe barrell or sixteen gallons of the skimmed must Eglantine Marjoram Rosemary Time Wintersavory of each halfe an ounce pepper granes of each two dragmes the one halfe of each being bagg'd the other boiled loose so that whereas the ordinary mede will scarce last halfe a yeere good Metheglin the longer it is kept the more delicate and wholesome it will be and withall the clearer and brighter There are yet divers other sorts of descriptions of this famous drinke and may be altered and accommodated to severall seasons and constitutions and ages There is to be seene in the same Author a long description of a Metheglin which Noble Queene Elizabeth of famous memory had in frequent use Sugar hath now succeeded honie and is become of farre higher esteem and is far more pleasing to the palat and therefore every where in frequent use as well in sicknesse as in health Whether the antients were acquainted with Sugar or no may justly be demanded Certaine it is they knew Sugar-canes and some Sugar they had which naturally was congealed on them like salt as likewise a certaine kinde of liquid Sugar they expressed out of Canes which they used in stead of honie but that they had the art of preparing it as now it is in use and the severall sorts of it with us in our age used doth no where appeare Sugar is neither so hot nor dry as honie The coursest being brownest is most cleansing and approacheth neerest unto the nature of hony Sugar is good for abstersion in diseases of the brest and lungs Thâ— which wee commonly call Sugarcandie being well refined by boiling is for this purpose in most frequent request And although Sugar in it selfe be opening and cleansing yet being much used produceth dangerous effects in the body as namely the immoderate use thereof as also of sweet confections and Sugar-plummes heateth the blood ingendreth the landisc obstructions cachexies consumptions rotteth the teeth maketh them looke blacke and withall causeth many times a loathsome stinking-breath And therefore let young people especially beware how they meddle too much with it And if ever this proverbe Sweet meats hath often sower sauce was verified it holdeth in this particular I remember living in Paris 1607. A young Clerke living with a Lawyer in the City procured a false-key for the closet where his Mistresses sweet-meat lay and for many daies together continued thus to feast with her sweet-meats and loafe-Sugar whereof there was there no small store untill at length hee became so pale in colour leane in bodie and withall so feeble that hee was scarce able to stand on his legs insomuch that the skilfullest Physitians of the Citie with the best meanes they could use had much adoe to restore him to his former health again And to what I pray you may we impute a great part of the cause of so many dying of consumptions in the weekly bills of the Citie of London Surely often admiring at so great a number dying of this one disease to the number for the most part of thirty at least and often upward I have ever esteemed this one of the principall causes Before I leave this discourse of Sugar I must give the world notice of one thing to wit that there is great store of our finest Sugar and which is most sought after refined and whitened by meanes of the lee of lime the which how prejudiciall it must needs prove to the health may appeare so that here it may well be said Sub melle dulce venenum The toothsomest is not alwaies the wholesomest Our forefathers in former times found honie very wholesome but now nothing but the hardest Sugar will downe with us in this our effeminate and gluttonous age I say no further but let those that will not be warned stand to the perill that will fall thereon I have discharged my duty in giving warning to the wise sober and temperate I know there are some intemperate apitian palates who preferre their bellies before health yea before heaven it selfe Verbum sat sapienti A word is enough for a wise man Vineger is a sauce in no small request for seasoning of meat It is as the word importeth nothing else but a sowre wine used both to season and to keepe meats howbeit farr inferiour to salt For although it preserve meat from putrefaction yet will it not keepe it so a long time unlesse it be often renewed That it is very dry even as farre as the second degree is true but as for the other qualities Galen saith it is composed of hot and cold It is of a piercing nature and apt to dissolve hard stones wherof Hannibal had a sufficient proofe while he made himselfe a passage into Italy thorow the Alps in dissolving the hard rocks by meanes of hot vineger with the losse of one of his eyes It is good to attenuate grosse tough and phlegmaticke humors it is not so good for leane
further and advance this businesse and prove beneficiall not to this corporation alone but to other market townes also to wit Owndel Thrapstone and Waldenborrow together with the whole adjacent country and other neighboring shires and this is by making the river of Nine navigable from Peterborrow to Northampton Now let every one seriously consider the need and they shall find more than enough if it were but even in regard of the scarcity and decay of fewell in this Westerne part of the shire besides many other benefits would from thence arise as preserving the high-waies now chargeable to the countrie in regard of much carriage by cart keeping the meddowes from so frequent overflowing and that by meanes of scowring the chanell and raising the banks besides the importation of corne and other commodities in time of dearth and againe exportation of the same commoditie of corne in time of greater plentie and cheapnesse besides many other benefits whereon I may not now dwell As for any objections to the contrary they may easily be answered and the worke knowne to be faiseable having been long since surveied and the charges cast up and an act ready drawne to be put up in parchment divers yeeres agoe and this same Alderman lately mentioned as hee hath ever manifested himselfe a good Patriot in furthering any publike good at that time followed the same businesse I hope when time and opportunity shall serve good Patriots will not be unmindfull of promoting and furthering the publike good and those whom it more neerely concerneth even this same in particular And although I shall perhaps by some be censured for this digression yet because I thought it not impertinent I must needs crave the curteous reader pardon and so I now proceed to the prosecution of the businesse I have begunne CHAP. III. Of the clothing and covering of the sicke as also concerning shifting of the diseased and of the error of the vulgar practising the contrary Something concerning the bed wherein the sicke lieth and whether the sicke ought to have his haire cut NOw because among other uses of clothes one is to keepe and defend us from the injuries of the ambient aire therefore after our discourse of aire I thinke it materiall to say something of the clothing and covering of the sicke Now our meaning is of such clothes as cover the sickes bed and lie upon him and the sicke are either covered with many thicke heavy clothes to defend them from the injury of the cold aire or else with thinne covers for feare lest they be by multitude of clothes oppressed and internall heat increased Hippocrates in cholericke diseases covereth the sicke with thinne and soft clothes And Asclepiades the Physitian saith Pliny did abrogate this troublesome custome of covering the sicke with so many clothes In that great and fearefull sweating sicknesse it was observed that most died by reason they were covered with so many clothes for their opinion was saith a learned Writer that the disease was to be helped by sweating which by all meanes they laboured to further In the beginnings of the paroxysmes or fits of fevers we ought to cover the sicke with many clothes that the sicke may quickly grow warme and the cold be driven away and for this purpose the parts which are cold are to be rubbed with warme clothes After they beginne to be warme the clothes are to be taken off and toward the declining of the heat to be laid on againe the better to provoke sweat Moreover it is to be observed that more clothes be used in the night-time than in the day and that by reason the night aire is colder than that of the day But if it should so fall out that the sicke could not sleepe with a multitude of clothes then were it good to wait while they be asleepe and then to cover them Now the bed wherein the sicke lieth is not to be neglected as for the forme of the bed a high headed bed such as is now in greatest request and we commonly call French beds especially in Sommer-time and in hot acute diseases are the best for the use of the sicke and afford him most aire and withall I would have the ascent or going up to it low and easie In Sommer and hot weather in hot acute diseases the curtaines would be thinne in Winter and colder weather thicker As for the bed he lieth on downe beds are the hotest of all others and next to them ordinary feather beds yet both doe much heat the sicke especially in Sommer and hot acute diseases And therefore I can in no wise approve of the preposterous German custome to cover them with one feather bed and lay another under them Wooll beds and mattrices are cooler and fitter than the former if the sicke would be perswaded to indure a little hardship for a future benefit But straw and chaffe especially of oats are coolest of all other and fittest for sicke folke if people would prise more their health than their ease In Babylon saith a late Writer great men used in Sommer to lie upon beds of leather filled with cold water which I would not advise our new fashion-mongers to imitate And they say in Italy they use even at this day to lie upon leather-beds filled with wind as we doe here our foot-balls and the French their ballownes Our low field beds and canopy beds are not so good in the former cases as high beds The best of all others are accounted such as hang by cords whereby this benefit may be reaped that the sicke may be rocked asleepe as is the custome of the Brasilians to have their beds hung betwixt two trees for feare of venomous vermine Now from the covering of the bed to the covering of the sickes body in bed and immediatly touching the same and first wee will beginne with the head-peece his cap I meane It is an inveterate and radicated custome in all diseases to cover the head with thicke caps or other clothes esteeming all manner of defluxions and diseases to proceed from the head and as it would seeme by their practice to proceed of a cold cause whereas by this meanes they rather increase for the most part this paine if any there be already the head like a ventose or cupping glasse attracting vapours from the neather parts Avicen warneth us that too much covering of the head weakneth it And yet it is thoght by many that the head can never be sufficiently coverd I confesse in this case it is hard to set down and determine all the particular circumstances as of the time of the yeer the sex the nature of the disease the age and constitution of the diseased according to which circumstances the Physitian is forced to accommodate his particular prescription of clothes And heere I must needs give warning to younger people that they would not so much in their health oppress
and the Sommer time when all tendeth to heat I see no necessity yea rather hurt than any good unlesse some cold constitutions or decrepit old age doe plead for a continuance of this custome and then I shall not bee against it But whether this be so convenient for such as live in health may with better reason be demanded I answer that for young people I wish they were not so daintily brought up and accustomed to this warming of their beds which maketh them afterwards the more unfit to undergoe any hardship But for the antienter sort tender women and such as have heretofore accustomed themselves thereunto I am not against the airing of their bed in cold Winter weather that so going to bed they may still finde the bed-clothes somewhat warme about them at their first downe-lying To this place also belongeth to say something concerning the haire of the head and whether in sickenesse it ought to bee cut or no My purpose is not here to insist upon the generation utility and proper use and the material cause differences of haire with many other things this onely know that haire is but an excrement and properly no part of the body in the esteeme of all our Physitians and yet appointed for a speciall use to cover and adorne that part wherunto it is appropriated In women it hath beene alwaies a comely ornament and cover of the head And to men saith the Apostle doth not even nature teach you that it is a shame for a man to weare long haire But I come to the question whether in the Diseased it bee safe to cut the haire of the head or no Long and thicke haire keepeth in fuliginous excrements of the head and suffereth them not so well to breath out of the pores from whence rheumes are ingendred the originall almost of all diseases Hence was it that the Aegyptians painted Aesculapius bald thereby signifying thus much that the haire was to be cut short yea if it were even shaven it were better for a mans health than to weare long haire It is therefore best in all diseases of the head especially in long continuing defluxions of sharpe rheumes to shave the head according to the opinion of antient and late Physitians In a word it is better both in sickenesse and in health to have the haire rather short than long howbeit the too often cutting of the haire is not so good and the often shaving of the beard and face is evill and not to be used I enter not here upon particulars in what diseases the haire is chiefely to be cut yea even shaven whereof something may perhaps more largely be spoken in any another place But this which hath already been said may easilie convince the more than mad effoeminate custome of our effoeminate age wherein men are not now contented with that portion of haire which their Maker in his wisedome thought fit for them but besides must have their head covered with a great bushie perwig both to the great dishonour of Almighty God and with no small prejudice to their health as by the premisses may easily appeare I deny not but some of them have scalded their haire in the fire of the Barber-surgeons purgatory and therefore have the more need to cover that deformitie but let others take warning by their harmes But as for women they being commonly of a colder constitution than men and their heads weaker their haire is not commoly so hurtfull for them besides that their haire was given them for a cover and ornament But as for their curles false sophisticate haire either not content with that colour which God gave them or else because they would not seeme to yeeld to old age as I do not much mervaile at such tricks in a stewes strumpet or a cōmon curtisan so I think they no waies beseeme a sober modest and grave Gentle-woman especially in the state of wedlocke and now attained to some competent number of yeeres I wish both sexes to call to mind that saying of a French writer speaking against the pride of women painted faces and many other particulars almost 80. yeeres agoe That when as they shall stand before the Tribunall of the great GOD of Heaven at that last and dreadfull day it is to be feared that the Judge of all the world will say unto them get you out my presence into everlasting damnation for I doe not acknowledge this colour haire to be of my making But as concerning the abuse of this excrement of haire both in men and women directly crossing the Apostles rule men wearing side and long haire and some wearing it longer on one side than the other by them now called a love-locke women againe quite contrary to womanly decency and modesty that I say nothing of Gods command cutting and clipping their haire and the great injury they heerein offer to Almighty God it being daily by our learned Divines preached against and a learned religious Gentleman having lately of purpose written a tractate concerning this same subject in both sexes where at great length he proves both the unseemelinesse and unlawfulnesse of this custome I will not insist upon it I will onely tell you of a monstrous and strange disease in the haire heard of but of late yeeres and not recorded by any antient author that ever we read of And this is nothing else but an agglutination or inviscation of the haire of the head and beard by which meanes it acquiteth sometimes the forme of some great adder or snake and sometimes of lesse serpents and these horrid and hideous serpent-like locks doe often occupy the whole superficies of the head and beard insomuch that who so beholds this strange serpent like sight may the easilier be induced to beleeve that monstrous Gergonean head the Poets attribute to Medusa And as the author affirmeth may it not seeme a strange thing that plaine and smooth haire in so cold a climat meaning Poland and a part of Germany should so curle and balter and contract such hideous and strange shapes besides that they should bee of so loathsome and putrid a smell And which hath never yet been heard of that these baltered locks being prickt with a pin should presently yeeld blood And it hath been observed that such as have cut off these locks have either suddenly become blind or else a great defluxion of humors hath falne downe upon some other parts of the body This disease hath of late yeeres runne thorow a great part of Poland and entered also into some parts of Germany If God should send it here over among us to punish this prodigious pride in the use of this same excrement were it not just with God to punish us in the same part wee offend in This Author affirmeth it is most frequent in women but another affirmeth it as often frequenteth men and that they let both these prodigious locks of haire and beard
permitted And this was the opinion of Hippocrates and so hath beene held by all our Physitians that in Winter wee are to feed most liberally in Sommer very sparingly and in the Spring and Autumne to keepe a meane betwixt both the former whatsoever any say to the contrary The region wherein any one liveth is likewise not to be neglected for in cold countries where people feed more plentifully there the sicke is to be allotted a more liberall allowance than in hot countries as Spaine Egypt and the like And mee thinks that besides all the premisses the calling or course of life one leadeth is worth the consideration for the which cause schollers and others accustomed to a sedentarie life in their health as then their diet ought to be more sparing and easier of concoction than for other people so falling sicke the like caution must be observed And here women come also to be considered who for the most part use lesse exercise than men and have the pores of their bodie lesse perspirable and often a colder complexion and this is chiefely of the better sort who live in ease and idlenesse Influence and abundance of all things to be understood In the next place wee come to rules of diet desumed from the disease it selfe which was the second head wee here proposed to handle And these rules must be understood by dividing them into their proper ranks and must be illustrated by accommodating them to fevers few diseases without a fever ceizing on the body of man and therefore in this discourse wee have of them a speciall regard though other diseases also shall not be neglected All diseases then are either acute and of a shorter continuance and for this cause called acute or else chronicall or of longer continuance Acute and short diseases require a slender and sparing diet and the shorter and sharper the disease be the more sparing should be the diet Againe in chronicall and long continuing diseases the diet must be allowed more liberall lest in a long journie nature being toiled and tired out before shee be at her journies end faint and succumb under the burthen of the disease Now of chronicall diseases some are of a longer continuance than others and therfore as to them that continue long wee allow liberall allowance so to the longer wee still allow the more liberall allowance and on the contray since among short and sharpe diseases some are shorter and sharper than others as the acute and sharpe requireth a sparing so the sharper a more sparing and the sharpest of all the most sparing diet of all which approacheth neerest to that strict diet of Hippocrates having all this while a principall regard to the strength of the patient and other cicumstances already nominated Now besides the difference of the nature of the disease no lesse carefull and circumspect ought wee to be in the observing the times of the disease both generall and particular The generall time I call the whole course and continuance of the disease the particular the paroxysmes or exacerbations of the same and in fevers commonly called fits Now in both these times as well generall as particular wee are diligently to observe the beginning the increase the heighth and the declining many in the beginning of the disease if they foresee the disease like to be of long continuance doe use to feed the sicke liberally But according to Celsus in the beginning of the disease the sicke should suffer hunger and thirst for if corrupt humours abound the best food is but by them corrupted Foule bodies saith Hippocrates the more thou feedest the more thou hurtest Wherefore in the beginning if strength permit wee are by degrees to withdraw their food untill the heighth of the disease in the which if it be an acute disease they are more sparingly to be fed In diseases therefore that very speedily come to their heighth a very thinne and slender diet is to be used But where it maketh not so great hast to the heighth then are wee in the very time of the heighth as also a little before to withdraw some part of their diet and before permit to them more liberall allowance that the sicke may the better hold-out But there being so many severall circumstances herein to be observed and the severall and individuall constitutions being so various it is very hard to set downe any certaine rule concerning this particular In diseases which give no intermission as continuall fevers beware of feeding the sicke in the exacerbation or worst time but wait for some remission when the sicke findeth some alteration In intermitting fevers as tertians quartanes c. except their fit should prove very long and their strength feeble feed them not in their fit but wait for the remission or declining of it or else prevent the fit certaine houres lest it surprize the sicke with a full stomacke and so prolong it But if it should come to passe that the sicke were not able to attend this appointed time then were it better to take something in the beginning or increasing of the fit and no waies towards the heighth of it and yet if strength should faile it were better to yeeld to an inconvenience than to a mischiefe And there Galen diligently observing the strength of his patients fed some of them in the beginning some in the vigor and very heighth of the fit which occasioned some to mocke and deride him But with us women many times must have their will although it cost the patient his life and what they apprehend to be right the Physitian may often spend his breath but doe little good I wish people therefore to be wise when they see especially it lieth them upon their lives and if they will learne wit of no body else let them learne some of Satan Skinne for skinne and all that a man hath will he give for his life CHAP. VII What things in prescribing Diet for the diseased are to be observed OF the three severall sorts of Diet fit for the diseased to wit a sparing slender or thinne a liberall or full and a meane diet betwixt both wee have already discoursed Each of these diets is so called in relation to the aliments which nourish sparingly liberally or in a meane maner Now in each of these aliments we are to consider the substance quantity quality the fit time for feeding the sicke the order and the preparation or manner of preparing the same The substance of food is either solid or liquid of easie or hard degestion yeelding to the body good or bad nourishment That aliment which is appropriated for the sick ought to be easie of digestion of a good and laudable juice and nourish much in a small quantity and liquid or solid according to the nature and variety of the disease Hippocrates used to feed the sicke of fevers with suppings And Aristotle wisheth
moment as hath been proved already Besides that the presence of the skilfull and expert Physitian watcheth and espieth the fit time and opportunity of doing that which in his discretion he shall thinke fitting The vulgar indeed thinke the Physitians skill consisteth all in purging and bleeding and where either that is not to be done or they conceive it ought not so to be they thinke there is no use of the Physitians counsell But now I proceed to the small poxe wherein wee are to discusse this question whether phlebotomy in this case may be admitted or no the which may be also understood of the measells Of this remedy in the diseases not onely the vulgar sort but some of better breeding are also very shy whether there be any just cause let us inquire To discusse this question we are to distinguish the times of this disease whether before the eruption of the Pox or after It hath beene held hitherto by most people a great absurdity to let blood or administer any manner of physicke in the least feare or suspition of any such disease and many especially of the more ignorant sort are still of this old erronious opinion but others have of late yeeres by the judicious proceeding of learned Physitians atteined to some better understanding and are better satisfied in this point It is then the opinion of all our best Physitians that before the eruption of the poxe consideratis consideraâ—dis all circumstances duely considered it may be safely administred if wee see neede and this I could both out of mine owne and other Physitians experience plainly make appeare The late practice of the Physitians of the City of London 1628 where this remedy was used both in this disease before eruption and in many young people for prevention I thinke hath rectified the erring judgement of many people This last yeere 1630. a Lady then living in this I owne had a chamber-maide who falling sicke within three or foure daies after I was sent for to her but perceiving some beginning of either pox or measells and for this cause abstâ—ined from phlebotomy at first by reason of the fever by mee intended but inconclusion the disease getting the upper hand the fever increasing the Maide died The same day a little after having hired another chamber-maide within a little space shee also fell sicke of a fever for whom also my presence and counsell being craved at my first comming finding a plethoricall body with an intense Fever yet without any eruption of poxe or measells although a feared some such matter I caused open a veine in the arme and the next morning after the poxe came for thin great abundance and so through Gods blessing upon the meanes she in a short time recovered her former health And yet after the use of this remedie shee confessed that before her bleeding shee was not sensible of any thing that was either said or done to her and yet immediatly after shee confessed shee found great ease and allevation of former accidents If this party had died then many of the vulgar would undoubtedly have said phlebotomy had beene her bane and yet the former died without it Some Physitians proceed yet further to the use of phlebotomy even after the eruption in some cases as in a great plethory or abundance of blood accompanied with a Fever difficulty of respiration c. especially if there be no other impediment or contra-indication And in case this could not conveniently be effected then doe they advise leaches or else scarification with application of cupping-glasses But herein it will concerne that Physitian that shall follow this course to be verie warie and circumspect for feare of hindring the laudable course of nature as also for preventing the clamour and calumnie of such as are alwaies readie to censure the Physitians best actions and to interpret all in the worst sense especially if so it come to passe that the patient die of the disease But because my purpose is not in this place to dwell upon particular diseases I will speake but a word or two of phlebotomie in the Iaundise and so conclude this chapter As in many other points so in this particular concerning phlebotomie in the Iaundise the vulgar are much mis-taken They are alwaies of opinion that some ordinary womans medicine will doe the turne how unfit soever and without any consideration of the cause Now whether the use of phlebotomie be here sometimes necessary let us inquire a little Wee are then first to consider of the cause and then shall wee be better able to proceed to the right cure This disease then commeth either of it selfe alone without any other disease and that of divers causes or else as a symptome an accident or reteiner to some other disease a Fever especially If then it be conjoyned with a Fever the Fever of it selfe if no impediment doth indicate phlebotomie and the Iaundise doth not at all hinder our course And if it come primarily and of it selfe blood abounding or being the chiefe cause of the disease it is in no wise to be neglected as the authorities of our learned Physitians doe evidently witnesse as I could prove by a cloud of witnesses if I had undertaken of set purpose to handle this subject and withall had not said some thing of this subject in another place this being here spoken onely occasionally and by the way this being often an accident accompanying Fevers as wee have said alreadie Hence is evinced the mad temeritie of many indifferently exhibiting their ordinarie Iaundise medicines in every sort of Iaundise without any respect either to age sexe cause or any other circumstance whatsoever of the which to judge they are altogether unable thus often trifling away irrecoverable occasion untill the party be ready to be imbarqued into Charons boat And thus it befell a young Gentleman of Northampton-shire some few yeeres agoe and little above thirty yeeres of age in whom about the later end of the Spring the Jaundise was apparently to be seene of the which a woman as it commonly the custome tooke upon her to cure and thus was the time trifled away untill at length in the Harvest the Gentleman came over to Northampton to finde some better counsell than this womans skill could afford him and did continue here for a certaine space At my first comming to this Gentleman I perceived besides his Jaundise a double Dropsie of the worst kinde together with a very hot obstructed liver whom a learned Physitian then living in this place also and my selfe doing our best indeavours to cure yet had this enemy taken so strong possession that all our writs of remove could not serve the turne nor would any meanes serve to bribe this grim sergeant death Let people therefore be warned by other mens harmes and learne to be wise in that which concerneth them so neere CHAP. IIIJ. Of the veines to be opened in the body
and feeble or yet a woman that is not with childe wee ought to refraine from this remedie But a childe that is strong as likewise a woman with childe may safely use this remedy Put the case therefore that a childe having overpast his sucking time of a thick strong constitution of body and full of blood fall into some acute dangerous disease and without the use of this remedy in all appearance irrecoverable it will be the best course without any further delay to let him blood yet not without a due consideration of the time age c. And thus Avenzoar let his sonne blood at the age of three yeeres The like may be said of lusty able men or women sicke of some dangerous disease proceeding of repletion as long experience hath taught us Besides it cannot be denied that some men are abler and lustier at 60 or 70 than divers others at 40 yeeres Why then may not such persons upon urgent occasion injoy the benefit of phlebotomy Some dozen yeeres agoe mâ— presâ—nce was sollicited for an antient Gentlewoman in Bedford-shire about 65 yeeres of aâ—e at that time much distempered with heat not without a Fever and feare of further danger After the use of some small meanes fit for the purpose fearing shee would hardly admit of phelebotomie although in my opinion then useful for her yet I asked her whether shee had ever used this remedy and whether shee durst adventure upon this remedy if need should so require she replyed that for many â—eeres together she had used this remedy at least three or foure times a yeere for divers yeeres together and therefore very willingly gave way to the same which was not without good successe and was very lately alive Moreouer doe wee not by experience often see many both children women with childe and old men and women lose a great quantity of their purest and most refined blood at the nose and often in a farre greater quantity than any Physitian would ordinarily let out of the arme and therefore to conclude this point let not people so much stand upon niceties of age which as appeareth is of no such validity as to withstand and oppose in time of need so noble and so necessary a remedy CHAP. VI. Of the quantity how long the patient is to bleed and concerning reiteration of this remedy in time of need with a confutation of some erronious opinions concerning this point IN bodily infirmities we are not onely to consider what is fitting for them but likewise what nature is able to beare and therefore we are here to use no small discretion lest wee give nature more than it either demandeth or the cure requireth When nature therefore is strong then dare we boldly goe about that which the disease doth indicate for nature it selfe being once set aworke by some auxiliary meanes doth afterwards of it selfe perfect the rest The quantity then of evacuation of blood must answer in quantity to that which aboundeth in the body provided the strength can beare it But because there is no certaine rule and measure of the strength neither doe wee assuredly know or fore-see divers circumstances and accidents to insue after as of the constitution of the ambient aire c. this quantity therefore must needs remaine uncertaine It being notwithstanding in our power when wee open a veine to take lesse or more according to our liking therefore comparing the strength with the greatnesse of the disease and the repletion of the body by the proper signes of them both it will not be very hard by an artificiall conjecture to come very neere to the just quantity But if yet wee cannot so well bring our purpose to passe it shall be the safer course to keepe within compasse and reiterate the remedy another time than standing too much upon our precise quantity indanger the sicke by diminution of strength Now wee must alwaies measure the quantity of evacuation by the quantity or greatnesse of the causes requiring and strength tolerating the same And from the mutuall comparison of the diseases requiring and the strength tolerating this phlebotomy admitteth a three-fold difference for there is one sort of phlebotomy called great or perfect evacuating all or the greatest part of the matter of the disease another profitable but imperfect which detracting some part of it leaveth a lesser quantity behinde which therefore nature may easily overcome there is yet a third so small and little in quantity that not only may it be called imperfect but being so small is also unprofitable and no whit beneficiall The like we may say concerning the strength which is either absolute and in the heigth in a meane declining from the former or weake and overthrowne the first requireth perfect evacuation the next though imperfect yet may prove profitable the last admitteth either of a very small or no evacuation at all The like division may we likewise make of the diseases And if wee would safely proceed in our cure this rule must alwaies be observed that wee lay in even scales the greatnesse of the disease with the measure of strength If the disease be very great and dangerous accompanied with strength answerable we are not to deferre a full and copious evacuation if the disease be lesse yet with full strength a lesser evacuation may prove profitable that the cure may be safe although not so sudden for to use a plentiful evacuation at the first is not alwaies so safe Againe if the strength be but small yet not altogether prostrate meeting with a great violent disease it will be best to divide this evacuation and in the time interceding these two evacuations before wee come to reiteration to refresh and cherish languishing nature In acute diseases by reason of greater danger wee may use a more plentifull evacuation if strength be not quite prostrated but if onely oppressed and languishing we are not to omit but divide it as hath beene said which wee commonly call phlebotomy per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In diseases called chronicall or of longer continuance the longer we thinke they are like to last the lesser evacuation may serve for feare lest nature sincke in the way for in chronicall diseases we are not only to have an eye to the present but also carefully to fore-see the future forces Againe in phlebotomy by way of prevention in approaching of any disease from repletion wee need not evacuate so much as this plenitude requireth as wee see in diseases which require a present and speedy cure The antients I find were very lavish in this kind of evacuation and let them blood often till they swounded and yet is this no certaine rule how long they should bleed neither yet is it safe although both by Hippocrates and Galen in some cases prescribed for neither are such as fall into those fainting fits alwaies sufficiently evacuated neither yet will some swound although they
the like Of simples provoking sweat called therefore sudorisickes there be divers sorts as well vegetables as mineralls as also some compositions there are which further this worke effectually The simples are of an opening quality somewhat hot and drie yet with moderation rarefying and opening the passages and pores by which sweat is to passe as among vegetables wee have divers woods both forren and domesticke to wit lignum sanctum assafras Zarzaparilla China root Vine root Box Ling Heath or Hadder of the which divers sudorificke drinkes are made in severall cases and manners according as the nature of the disease the strength of the patient with other circumstances concurring shall permit with the which decoctions are often mingled some other vegetables herbs flowers or roots and besides we have yet many other simples of a forcible operation which may safely be given in a small quantity as Bezoar stone Harts horne calcinated or burnt Vnicornes-horne in the esteeme of some which I value not a rush a gumme found in the eye of an old Hart. Diuers plants there be also of good use and efficacy for this same purpose as holy Thistle the decoction water and salt of it and of many other simples Some there are also made of mineralls and metalls which ought carefully to be prepared and with great circumspection administred any Empericke or Barber-surgeon can tell how to make any sweat apace in the poxe with some mercuriall medicines suffumigation of cinabaris c. better than to fit and prepare proper medicines for the strength and constitution of each individuall patient There are yet a multitude of medicines made of Antimonie Sulphur and other mineralls and metalls yea of gold it selfe as flores sulphuris antimoâ—â—i aurum diaphoreticum c. concerning which our late Writers especially our Paracelsists haue written at great length and undertaken thereby to worke wonders Compounded sudorificke medicines are Venice treacle Mithridat Dioscordium c. But in the use of these sudorificke medicines some cautions and rules are to be observed first that the body be first evacuated by purgation phlebotomy or both if need be Againe the body is to be prepared especially where there is need and that by some of the gentlest of some of these same sudorificke medicines such as are mulsa or hony water the decoction of tormentill roots squinant of our ordinary canes with calamus aromaticus the decoction of chamomill sage betonie and the like wherunto may be added cordiall flowers of borrage buglosse and marigolds the which together with the water of the decoction will correct both their hot and drie qualities After the exhibiting of these preparatives they are in no case to be forced to sweat Now the preparations may be divers according to severall and divers diseases as French poxe Fevers and divers chronicall diseases But when then the poison in the plague and some pestilent fevers hath already taken possession I wish thee then neither to stay for purgation nor preparation but according to strength presently by all meanes possible to expell the enemy out of the house Some prescribe frictions as a fit preparation which I thinke to be very good if they be used as they ought Some againe prescribe fomentations howbeit this better becommeth a particular sudorificke I meane of some one particular part Besides acute diseases they are very usefull in many chronicall diseases as in all manner of defluxions Sciatica and all other gouts proceeding of a cold cause as also in long continuing Fevers French poxe all long continuing fluxes of the belly as also in Epilepsies Palsies and paines of the head proceeding of cold humours Wee are also to observe that wee urge not the sicke to sweat at least halfe an houre after the reception of his sudorificke medicine and then if it come not freely wee are to force it with covering with more clothes or hot brickes quenched in vineger and lapped up in linnen clothes dipt in vineger applied to the arme-holes soles of the feet and thighes rubbing still off the sweat with warme clothes to make it come the freclier Some bodies thou shalt hardly by any meanes make to sweat and there the physitian is to beware lest he offer too much violece nature The sicke is to sweat as strength and other circumstances shall require This remedy must not be used in extreme weaknesse in extenuat persons wasted with long lingering diseases in Consumptions Fever hecticke in very young children and old decrepit persons c. Now because our authors doe much commend sweating procured by bathing either naturall or artificiall we will therefore say something of the use of both these before we proceed any further having first said something of teares for the affinitie with sweat To this place of sweat wee may also referre teares a moist excrement of the braine participating of the nature of sweat I passe by a punctuall description of many particulars concerning this point which may at great length be seene in a learned late Physitian and come to that which most maketh for our purpose in hand As for the differences of teares they are these Some are called cold by reason they seeme in trickling downe to be cold some againe seeme to bee hotter and others are called dry and these be such as falling downe are quickly dry againe Some againe are called thicke and sticke closer to the cheekes and some againe thinner which are quicklier dissolved and are of a very thinne and watery substance Teares againe sometimes come in great abundance and sometimes in a smaller quantity Some againe salt some sweet some bittter Some againe are without any sicknesse and some with sicknesse Some come easily and of themselves and some againe are forced Upon the severall causes of all these particulars I will not insist The use of this moisture is to irrigate and moisten the hard horny tunicle of the eye which otherwise with its hardnesse might easily have hurt the other tender tunicles and adjacent parts of the eye But let us see what teares signifie and prognosticat Now that a physitian ought to contemplate and consider the nature and signification of teares there is a warrant in Galen himselfe Abundance of teares argue abundance of moisture in the braine as wee see commonly in women and children few teares againe argue the contrary disposition howbeit sometimes that peice of flesh lying within the corner of the eyes called caruncula lachrymalis may be growne to such a bignesse that it stoppeth all the passages of this tearie moisture as I may call it and this may be well assigned for a reason why some cannot by any meanes whatsoever be forced to shed one teare others againe upon any small occasion shed abundance of teares Teares of several tasts argue the dominion of such a humor in the braine as bitter choler c. Tears againe are observed either
waters there be divers sorts as said is every country being furnished with some one kind or other France and Italy abound most in hot baths desuming their force and efficacy most from Sulphur or Brimston wherewith is sometimes conjoined some salt or salt peter Our English baths in Sommerset shire take their vertue and efficacie from this sulphureous substance In Germanie baths of all sorts are in great abundance and as the country abounds in divers mineralls and metalls so doe these waters participate of severall and divers qualities and vertues as those of Baden in Switzerland participate of Brimstone principally and some little quantity of Alum those of Baden the Marquisat besides the premisses participate also somewhat of salt and salt-peter Againe in the confines of Lorreine there are hot baths called Plumbarenses participating of the nature of Lead Brimstone and Salt-peter In the Dutchie of Wirtenberg there is the wild bath called Silvestres or Ferinae participating of the nature of brimstone salt and alum and as some say of copper and salt-peter also And besides these a great number of many others also not differing from the former in operation some of them as they say participating also of the nature of gold which I hardly beleeve it being of so solid and well compacted a substance that hardly doth it communicate any vertue to waters that runne thorow such mines no more than silver also being likest unto it for solidity of substance As concerning our owne baths with us here in great use for a multitude of infirmities and which doe most concerne us because a learned Physitian hath lately explained their vertues and use as being best with them acquainted I shall not need to say any thing the vertues of others of the same nature and kinde in other countries being much also of the same vertue and efficacy But because peregrination and travell partly for profit and partly for pleasure and other ends is now much in this our age improved and by reason it concerneth not a little the health of such as are to live or travell in remote and forren countries to know the nature and vertues of such minerall waters as are found in these countries I will therefore say a little concerning some of them Among all those such as are of an acid or sowre taste and much abounding in many places of high Germany beare away the bell And these waters doe commonly participate of the nature of vitriol or copperas of alum and yron with the admixture often of other mineralls or metalls as sulphur salt c. There sowre waters sometimes somewhat differ in taste one from another and sometimes little or no difference at all in their taste can be observed Their chiefe vertues in the body of man are these following In the first place they are very soveraine good against all manner of obstructions of the liver splene kidnies and meseraicall veines and for this cause conduce not a little for the infirmities of those parts being very good against exorbitant casting which by their astringent facultie they cure and they helpe also the Iaundise the Dropsie in the beginning cleanse the kidnies bladder and other urinary passages purging away gravell or any other matter lying in these passages They are also good against the itch scab and any other defedations of the skinne all foule ulcers and gangrenes But Nihil est ex omni parte beatum So are not these acid and sowre waters able to helpe all infirmities and in particular they are great enemies to infirmities of the lungs especially where there is any ulcer wasting or inflammation They are hurtfull also for the bloodie fluxe with exulceration of the guts and any other internall ulcer or excoriation and that in regard of their acidity or sharpnesse And for the dimnesse of the eyes they have beene tried to be soveraine good and that they have a singular and forcible faculty in provoking urine I had the triall in mine owne body this sowre water being ordinarily brought from a place distant from Ments in stone bottles to Franckfort mart These waters are cold and therefore are commonly drunke in hot moneths May Iune Iuly August September in a morning fasting an houre or two after Sunne rising as is the use in others and then againe at night after dinner is digested The continuance or time of duration of drinking this water is according as necessity shall require and cannot certainly be determined as in some 10 or 12 daies a fortnight or three weekes No more can the measure or certaine quantity be gaged some contenting themselves with halfe a pint and some againe will drinke double some 4 or 5. And the more freely they passe thorow the body by urin or otherwise the bolder in the use of them may we be How the body before the use of these waters is to be prepared the Physitian shall in time of need give notice and according to all severall circumstancess give particular directions It is to be observed that these minerall waters by carrying from one place to another lose alwaies something of their former force and efficacie how close soever they be stopt up and so become lesse powerfull It is further diligently to be observed in the use of all minerall waters that are to be drunke that when as they are drunke twice a day the partie using them must be carefull that dinner be well digested before they be drunke in the afternoone and for this purpose dinner must either be very sparing or else a long distance betwixt dinner and the drinking of them or else it were better to drinke it but once in a morning and so double the time of continuing this drinke as for a fortnight a whole moneth Moreover if the case should so require that the party should need both to drinke of this water and bathe in it it would be most expedient to doe them severall as first for certaine daies to drinke them and afterwards for as long to bathe in them But because wee in this Iland are so farre remote from these acid and other fountains that ordinarily we cannot have recourse unto them therefore I shall not need to particularise many of them of one only being so much freequented by many of the gentrie as being neerer unto us than the rest I will say a little the so much renowned Well of Spa I meane This Spa then is in the Bishoprick of Liege a part of the 17 Provinces and is much resorted unto yeere by many Knights and Gentlemen and sometimes by Ladies and Gentlewomen also and that for recovering of their health in divers chronicall infirmities howbeit it is well knowne that under this colour some have other projects in their pates This water particapateth principally of the nature of yron which in the taste it doth somewhat represent and it participateth also somewhat of a sulphureous faculty and a little
violent motions as riding on a trotting horse c. Such medicines as are properly called diureticke or expellers of urine are of a hot and dry facultie rarefying attenuating and making thinne the humors Now such as are properly of this nature doe not onely extenuat and rarefie the blood but dissolve also rarefie and as it were melt it and make a sequestration of the thinnest serositie coagulating and thickning the residue as we see in curdled milke come to passe and that serosity so separated the kidnies by their attractive faculty draw unto the themselves and from thence transmit it into the bladder and such not onely provoke urine but even ingender it also And such bee especially hot and dry simples seeds especially as of carrots cumin and the like There is another sort of Diureticks milder than the former which doth indeed attenuat howbeit not so forcibly as the former which send it onely towards the passages of the urine and of these there are yet two sorts some being of greater force to extenuate and cleanse as the foure hot seeds namely parsly seed c. Some againe performe this action more mildly and moderatly and with a temperate heat as the foure cooling seeds of melons c so called in comparison with the other foure hot seeds Among these diureticke medicines are also reckoned some which supple and make smooth the passages as marsh-mallow and licorice root and prove often more beneficiall than the former more violent medicines so ordinarily used by Empiricks and ignorant persons Now it is a common received opinion among most people that those violent hot and dry medicines are of all others most forcible and effectuall to breake and expell the stone out of the kidnies or bladder wherein notwithstanding they so farre are deceived that for the most part such medicines not onely by reason of their great heat they communicate to the body but also in regard they send downe too fast uncleanne and corrupt humors doe rather much increase the matter of the stone Such simples therefore as are indued with a temperate heat attenuating tough and clammie humors such as are Asparagus root and the like are for this purpose the fittest Some medicines are thought to have a diureticke property accidentally by scraping and tearing by their roughnesse the superficies or outmost part of the stone as powder of burnt glasse And some are thought by meanes of excessive heat to dissolve the viscosity of the stone and breake it to powder But I thinke thou maiest sooner by such medicines bake it harder as we see brickes baked in a bricke kilne Some medicines by reason of some occult qualitie are esteemed good against the stone And of this kind is the Jewes stone goats blood and many other medicines Acid juices as juice of Lemon spirit of vitriole if they could in their full force come at the stone and not offend the passages betwixt in my opinion were of all others the fittest But to draw this point to an end there is no disease for the which there are more remedies boasted of with the attestation of a probatum est at least as much worth as the oath of one of the knights of the post and yet no disease wherein we see fewer good effects follow As for these hot violent diureticke medicines besides the former inconveniences they prove often causes of excoriations in those tender nervous parts and at length incurable and tormenting ulcers And sometimes when as thou thinkest to have made a great purchase to have procured of some Empiricke or other ignorant person a rare remedy for the stone thou art now falne as we say out of the frying-pan into the fire and thou who before diddest so magnifie thy Empiricke and too much trust to his smoakie promises art often then forced to implore the helpe of the learned Physitian when many times his best skill can scarce allay the extremity of thy painefull disease whereas by wise counsell at first thou mightest both have prevented thy paine and saved thy purse And thus the Proverb proveth often true Covetousnesse bringeth nothing home To conclude then this point of urines I wish that in time of need people make not such an idole of their urines that in time of sicknesse they thinke it sufficient to send their urine to the Physitian it may bee in an inke or oile bottle and without any further to demand of the physitian as of some Oracle not onely the disease but even often all the circumstances thereof but if you would speed well if you will need your old mumpsimus in sending your urine to the Physitian acquaint your physitian with all the severall circumstances of the disease But an honest learned Physitian will bee better able to advise by one view of the patient than twentie sights of the urine It may be others whose worth and sufficiency is confined to such an excrement may like an empty barrell prate apace and make thee beleeve wonders by thy water And be carefull in any case in trustinâ— such cheaters with their rare recits against the stone and if thou be wise be warned by other mens harmes CHAP. XXI Of ordure or fecall excrements and divers things in them considerable this excretion being sometimes too lavish and sometimes deficient NExt unto the urine for affinity we wil say somthing of the fecall ordure an excrement of the first concoction performed in the stomacke And howsoever some may perhaps think the consideration thereof to be of small use yet hath it alwaies beene of great utility both in sicknesse and in health and hath been by our antient Physitians diligently observed and some have written whole Tractats of this excrement aswell as of urine The utility thereof is by Hippocrates aswell mentioned as of the urine and sweat and by him as much commended Moreover if wee shall compare the urine with the fecall excrements wee shall finde that of the urine farre inferior which may seeme a strange paradox to our urine-mongers who will have no signe but the urine of any signification Now the urine giveth onely notice of the state of the liver and the veines and sometimes of the bladder but this excrement besides the liver and the veines giveth also notice of the nature of the mesaraicke veines the stomacke and the guts and finally of the state of the whole belly for the which we take so much paines and for whose sake most men live saith Pliny This excrement is then thus defined the most terrestrious part and purgation of the unprofitable part of aliment in the consummation of concoction separated and many times mingled with many waters It is said to have other matters mingled therewith by reason of choler which doth colour and dye these excrements which if not thus dyed then were they not so good and laudable in quality as is required and some other substances have been some
patient lying at his house a Canon and because the â—â—the◠〈◊〉 widdower often sent for his daughter to helpe him out in some domesticall all 〈◊〉 therefore this scholler conceived a great iealousie against this Canon as though 〈◊〉 were more familiar with his wife than was fitting howbeit 〈…〉 kept her fathers house it was not to be marvelled that hee often sent for hâ—â— insomuch that he confessed to the Author that he sometimes purposed to have killed this supposed corrivall Canon when he went at night to fetch home his wife but after a while giving way to reason and fully perswaded of his wives honesty and so acknowledging his owne fault became more wife afterwards But before I close up this discourse of jealousie I cannot passe by a story of an old woman This woman although very antient yet married a lusty youngman and afterwards when she bethought her selfe of her owne old age and his youth perswading her selfe he would out-live her and marry againe another younger than her selfe it did so trouble her that with much anger and in diâ—â—nation sheâ— would mâ—â—e her griefe knowne to her neighbours and gossips and thus to her dying day persisted It is good wisedome therefore to be wary and take warning that neither man nor woman give any just cause of suspition How much more then ought both parties to be circumspect in absteining from the act of uncleanesse it selfe And by that which hath beene said already we see that which was spoken by the wise Salomon the pen-man of the holy Ghost confirmed Iealousie is the rage of a man therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance He will not regard any ransome neither will he rest content though thou givest many gifts And a worthy Divine of this kingdome expounding the later part of this chapter by the Text it selfe maketh it plainly appeare how farre adultery doth exceed theft and how erroneous is the judgement of many men who will exclaime with open mouth against a theefe and will scorne to come in his company and yet many times bragge of this erroneous and detestable crime which the same spirit of truth in the same place affirmeth to destroy the soule And besides that this reproach shall never be wiped away But this sinne is so frequently in the pulpits spoken against and better befitteth the pen of a Divine than of a Physitian and therefore Manum de tabula CHAP. XXIX Of amorous or loue-potions called Philtra Whether loue may be procured by fascination IT hath beene an inveterate opinion and is yet fast rooted in the mindes of many that there are certaine medicines of that naturall force and operation that being taken within the bodie they will inflame that party that taketh them with this passion of loue Now whether this be so or no and if it be whether it can force the affection to any one individual person more than another is worth the inquiring As for the first it would seeme there were some such medicines there being so frequent mention made among our Authors of these love medicines The poets both Greeke and Latine often mention them and some also set downe the matter wherof they are made which is without all controversie but whether they be indued with any such efficacie let us now inquire We have already declared that all simples worke either by their ordinary qualities of three severall sorts as we have said already or else by an occult and hidden qualitie as we see the loadstone draweth the yron and divers purging medicines make choice of certaine select and peculiar humors as rhubarb purgeth choler c. Now that there proceedeth no such vertue from any of these ordinary qualities it is so manifest that none did ever yet affirme it It resteth then that it must needes proceed from an occult qualitie It must needs then follow that there are some simples that will procure love and since love is an affection of the soule why may there not be other simples to worke upon other affections of the soule as harted anger c and if so then these medicines which are corporeall may worke upon the affections of the soule which is spirituall which is absurd But will some reply it cannot be denied that some medicines there are which procure love I answere that some doe provoke lust I doe not deny but to procure love is not yet proved and such produce this effect by an ordinary and to us knowne qualitie as some by increasing the blood and consequently the seed of generation some by meanes of their flatuous quality and some againe by their acrimony sharpe and venomous quality doe often provoke an irritation and are of such a corroding and fretting nature that they often make pisse blood and cause irrecoverable ulcers in the kidnies and obscene parts And sometimes these intoxicating medicines fly up into the head and cause madnesse of the which fearefull effects frequent mention is made in divers Authors And it is memorable which is written of Lucretius the Poet who howbeit he set downe divers directions against love yet could he not escape death by this owne violent hands incited thereunto by meanes of a love potion exâ—â—oâ—ted to him by his owne wife Lucilla of the which another Poet hath these words His qui philtra hibit nimioque insanus amore Mox ferro occubuit sic menteâ—â— aâ—â—â—serat omnem In love who drunke his charmed drinke raging on sword did fall And being mad did lose his wit his sense his life and all And it is just with God often to punish men by that meanes wherein they promised themselves some extraordinary great contentment But those same simples which are supposed of this efficacie and power howsoever some of the antients have by tradition received them from others yet neither our antient nor moderne Physitians doe attribute any such efficacie unto them And besides if there were any such force or efficacie in them to be found then were this towards all equally and not towards one individuall particular person If any shal yet reply that this hath beene often observed that after the use of such medicines such an effect hath followed I answer this is but an evill consequence and that Philosophers call lenchus a non causa pro causa when that is assigned for a true cause which is none at all And this wee see often verified in magicall spells and characters which in themselves have no such efficacy and power to produce such strange stupendious effects where it may plainly appeare that Satan is the chiefe actor in the action During my abode in France som 25 yeeres agoe I was familiarly acquainted with a gentleman of Poitou who had a Tennant dwelling in the same towne ever which hee was sole Lord whose wife told mee that some few yeeres before that time being married the very same day as they went out at the Church doore the one ranne
Angell of light or darknesse this being also a thing most certaine that hee neither can nor dare in the least point exceed his commission And therefore it is altogether without sense or reason to aske if then the tutelary Angells leave their charge as though God had now forsaken them I answer that his is meant of either his owne electiones and then he somtimes leaves them to Satan to try for a time as he did to Iob or else they are reprobate Ahab who was by lying Prophets seduced and that by Satans inspiration although by Gods owne direction Hath not the Potter power over the clay to make of it a vessell of honour or dishonour And to no more purpose is it that because it is said The uncorruptible Spirit of the Lord is in all things and that from the Spirit of Gods mouth proceede the vertues of all things with such other places which for brevity I here passe by therefore God doth not make use of inferiour Angells And therefore there was no neede of the enumeration of so many places to so small purpose no man calling in question the power of Gods Spirit But whereas the defendant would from hence inferre such a new spirit of Paracelsus and his owne forging to operate in this weapon-salve we have at least as good reason to deny it I cannot here for brevity insist upon the severall acceptations of this word spirit in holy Writ but must leave it with the true meaning of the severall places alleaged to those who have more leisure and meanes to effect the same Yet sure I am that in all holy Scripture there is no such signification of spirit as is here intended But now I proceed to the salve it selfe the ingredients and manner of use or application As for the ingredients the various waies of composition doe evidently evince the vanity and nullitie of the operation of this ointment Some indeed set downe a number of various ingredients collected after a superstitious manner Some againe are not so scrupulous and superstitious either in the number of simples or curious composition some contenting themselves with dogges grease and a learned late Writer relateth an insianee in a woman of high Germany who professed shee onely stucke a sticke or weapon in a piece of lard and had as good successe as others with their most curious composed ointment And it is there usuall with others to sticke a knife or any other thing that hath hurt them or a sticke in stead of it in a loafe of bread or in the earth it selfe and yet say they followeth still the same effect And this I thinke were sufficient to confute this weapon-salve if there were no more But it is to be observed that whereas blood by our defendant is accounted one of the principall ingredients of this ointment how commeth it then to passe that Crollius as it were Paracelsus his owne genius doth omit the same But howsoever since such an account is made of the blood I will not quite passe over it in silence It is then demanded why God gave so strict a charge to his owne people of Israel that they should eat no blood if not for this reason that the life is in the blood I answer that indeed the blood is the vehicle and receptacle of life which is communicated to the whole body But this was not the reason why God forbad them the eating of the blood of beasts but as that worthy light of the Church Calvin allegeth In this prohibition God would accustome men to a gentle and milde kinde of diet and lest then being too much accustomed to the eating of blood they should afterwards be imboldned to shed mans blood which is the principall scope is here aimed at Besides as the same Authour allegeth that the flesh and the blood are not here as divers and distinct set downe as differing so much one from another but the same in substance and yet was the flesh of beasts even then permitted to be eaten and so was the milke being nothing else but blood refined and dealbuted or whitened in these gloobus mamillarie glands Moreover if this had beene simply and in it selfe a sinne and had obliged us adsemper for ever then had it beene still a finne the contrary whereof is true this ceremoniall precept being but a part of that legall pedagogie as the difference of meats cleane and uncleane and the like And the blood of the murthered cries as loud in these our times as ever it did after the death of Abel this being still a crying sinne and this being a figurative speech as the plantiffe hath sufficiently proved And howsoever blood by some be esteemed for one of the principall ingredients in this salve yet saith the same learned Libavius Surgeans hold mans blood to be poyson to wounds and that the cure is thereby rather hindred than helped and put the case it were indeed helpefull yet were this onely applyed and not at so farre a distance And as for the spirits in the blood wee justly deny so active operating spirits in the blood now separated from the body And besides admit there were any such matter yet were all spirits alike efficacious Hath a heavy melancholicke or phlegmaticke blood as active spirits as a quick cholerick and firy blood And what if the blood be putrefied by the poxe plague poison or any other contagious disease the blood being starke naught shall these corrupt spirits be so powerfull and efficacious Surely the more we stirre in this businesse the more it stinketh And whereas it is said that of mans blood with the spirit of wine is extracted a spirit whereof is made that burning lamp which will burne as long as the party whose blood it is liveth and at his death goe quite out with divers other like allegations I answer that even in this they then confesse that this blood is actuated by meanes of this operating menstruum the spirit of wine and therefore no such efficious power proceeding from so farre a distance can be the cause of this cure Besides that the right spirit of wine is to be knowne for such if it be suddenly quite consumed with the flame and put the case the blood might a little retardate and hinder this operation yet could it neither wholly inhibit the operation of this devouring element nor could there such strange effects follow as are related of this lumpe But for brevity I passe by all other things concerning this point The fat is likewise forbidden to be eaten howbeit no vehicle of life the flesh permitted notwithstanding to bee eaten being farre neerer the substance of blood as hath beene already proved Againe as for the bones of the skull mummy and skull-mosse or usnea by them called the essence I say rather the excrement of the skull being now but parts of the cadaver or dead corps them cannot bee that
the like effect But this aire so agitate by such an agent will not offend the partie many miles distant from thence A friend of mine told mee that in a hot skirmish betwixt the English and the Portugalls in the East Indies a bullet shot from the enemies ship past over him within a yard or little more of his head and yet never hurt him As for the sweet smells of Rosemarie in Spaine and Sassafras wood in the West Indies be many miles carried into the aire and by sailers smelt a farre off what strange thing is here these countries abounding with such odoriferous trees and shrubs by meanes of the vehicle of the aire agitated with the wind carries such smells to the olfactorie organe as I may say where wee see that sense it selfe is here judge of this action and yet if the wind be contrary these odoriferous and fragrant smells are not carried halfe so farre The like is likewise here in our owne countries by meanes of the blossomes of pease and beanes observed And yet this ointment being so little in quantitie notwithstanding all winds or other interceding rubs or hinderances can by a direct line send out for many miles a sanative vertue from this salve and besmeared weapon to the wound Now yet somewhat more concerning this operating medicine besides the blood besmeared on the weapon there is also great store spilt upon the ground and on the patients clothes and in the same no doubt great store of spirits and therefore the greater store of blood be effused the sooner should the cure be performed and if those few spirits in so small a quantitie of blood so far remote from the patient produce such stupendious effects shall all those spirits of the hot blood so neere the patient be idle and of none effect But I will yet demand further whether the blood besmeared on the weapon or that mingled with the ointment gives this efficacie and operation If that in the ointment how then when there is no blood in the same as wee have already proved As for blood on the weapon wee have newly answered it and if any then this blood is taken from any man and yet sometimes they tell us of the sympathy betwixt the blood of the wound and wounded howbeit this blood may be taken from one that bare the patient small good will But if they will yet hold so neere a sympathy then this cannot hold betwixt those that differ so much it may be in complexion and many other circumstances but especially betwixt man and beast But if we should yet admit of this sympathy yet when the blood is now separated from the body this sympathie also ceaseth and although there remaine some vertue in the parts so separated yet are they farre different from those of a living man a dead man being a man onely equivocally for the which cause it commeth also to passe that of the dead carkase of a man are ingendred some other creatures but never a man being of the same species And hence also is evinced the impertinency of the defendants comparison betwixt the blood and a graine of corne for as I said the blood now separated from the body hath lost those lively spirits and operations it injoyed being within the body therefore when as being yet within the body it was not able to produce any such effect at so far a distance farre lesse now reteining onely the nature of a part of a dead carkase But the case is not alike with the graine of corne which hath not yet left its proper forme and potentiall energie to produce another corne like it selfe being sowne in a fit and convenent soile as the meanest husbandman in the country can tell and when I shall have as good triall of the former as of the later and as good reason I shall be ready to beleeve it And therefore the seede of generation of man being sowen in a fruitfull soile had been more pertinent to be compared with a graine of corne howbeit it is true this would not have proved the tenent the defendant tooke in hand The blood had farre more pertinently beene compared with the chaffe or straw and as the straw will never produce corne sow it and dung it as much as you will no more will the blood produce any such effect as is pretended order it as you please There is then no sympatheticall nor magneticall cure performed by this ointment as is erroneously pretended This opinion symbolles too much with Paracelsus his imagination whereof something hath beene lately said As concerning the cruentation or bleeding of the corps killed at the presence of the murtherer it would take up a larger time to discourse of than I can here well spare Some would have it by antipathy and some otherwise howsoever it is not alwaies observed to hold true although some strange things concerning the same are received besides that sometimes some innocents have beene by this meanes accused And if this come by antipathy then when sometimes at the approaching of some whom the deceased dearely loved it must come to passe by sympathy and thus shall wee have one and the same effect produced by two so contrary causes and therefore the defendant findes as little helpe here as in the other arguments It is likewise to be observed the time of the yeere the site or situation of the dead the nature or quality of the blood magicall spells with many other things may hinder or further such an effect as also when sometimes the Magistrate or other maketh the party suspected put his finger into the wound c. And therefore I advise Magistrates not to be too rash in giving credit to every such shew of detecting a suspected person And as concerning the operation this ointment taketh as is supposed from the starres I have already proved that many times this cure is as well performed by other things where there are no ingredients collected with the observations of the heavens And as I doe not deny a power from the superiour powers of the heavens upon our inferiour sublunary things here below so in like manner doe I acknowledge the same to be but generall and so effect things here below as they find them disposed And even in some of those most cōmonly received and subject to our senses all is not so cleare but may admit of some doubts As who makes any question of the Moones predominant power over humid and moist things and hence is the cause of the fluxe and refluxe of the sea ascribed to this planet together with the spring-tides and yet might it be asked why have wee so high a spring-tide in the change of the Moone when shee is quite hid from our sight and shines not in our horizon as well as when she shines in her full and greatest glory and splendour and likewise since the sea in most places keepes a like time of ebbing and flowing yet
Intemperance See Gluttony Iringo-roots 45. Ioy and gladnesse good if they be moderate Exceeding measure may prejudice the health and may sometimes cause death 398. 400. Ioy and gladnesse usefull for the sick and carefully to be procured ibid. Ischiadiça or vena poplitis when to be opened 240. Issue and event in Gods hands it falleth out alike to the learned and unlearned Physitian Intr. 5. c. Issues where to be made 265. K. Kid 73. Kidney 76. S. Kâ—aherines well a bituminous spring neer Edenbourgh in Scotland 307. Knaresborâ—w well in Yorkeshire ibid. L. Labour of the minde cannot be recompenced See Physitians Laconicum what and for what bodies most beneficiall together with the time both generall and particular Preparation before the use of it 297. Lamb 73. Lampas vitae mortis 347. Composition of this Lamp 365. Lamprey 93. Lapwing 81. Larke 80. Lavative broth 288. Lawyers and their great paines They have many advantages of the Physitians See Physitians Leaches their election right use 263. Leape-yeere See Bissextile Leeke 46. Legges of fowle 82. Lemon See Citron Lettice 48. Levret See Hares flesh Ligatures their utility and profit 221. Ligatures unlawfull and their too too frequent use among some 351. 352. Linen of the sicke It ought to be often shifted Errour of the vulgar in this point detected and confuted 163. Linet 80. Liver of beasts Lungs of beasts 75 Liver of fowle 82. Lobster 92. Locusts See uncouth flesh Love and what it is Lustfull Love and harmes thereby procured Remedies against this unlawful lust 144 c. Lovepotions mentioned in prophane authors simples provoking lust of divers kindes they prove often poison to the body They have no such vertue as our ancient and moderne Physitians write of they caÌ„not force affections or produce such effects of themselves 361. Whether love can be procured by any medicine 352. M. Mace 101. Mackerell 90. Magistrates should not suffer any niceties to be published in Almanacks 261. Mallowes 50. Mandrakes and the consideration thereof Description of Mandrakes Imposture of cheaters with their counterfeit Mandrakes Opinion of the ancients concerning this point Opinion of S. Augustin others 382. 383. It is rather hot than cold in operation It hath no power to make the barren beare children 386. Apples of Mandrake Narcoticke qualities of this plant 384. 385. Mans flesh See uncouth flesh Shambles of mans flesh ibid. Manichees error concerning fasting See Fasting Manucodiata see Bird of Paradice March-panes and their use see bread for the sicke 328. 329. Marigold 53. Marioram Pot Marioram 55. Marrow 75. Maw or Gussard 82. Mawborne hills springs 307. Meale See Repast Mediana or Median veine 239. Medlar 67. Melicratum See Hydromel Melon Muske-melon 58. Menstruous fluxe stopt cause of many diseases 331. Menstruous fluxe abounding ibid. Mercury 52. Metheglin used much by the ancient Brittaines 96. Milke and what it is 76. Best Milke and the parts thereof ibid. Milke Milke of divers sorts Mares milke in great request among the Tartares Womans milke Ewes milke Cowes milke Goats milke Sowes milke Vertues of these severall sorts of milke In what time of the yeere best It differeth according to the nature of the beast from which it is milked the colour and food it feeds on qualities and properties of the best milke and of whom it may safeliest be used too frequent used offensive how and with what preparation to be used and what to be done after the use thereof How the ancients used it Cautions before it be used Ancients boiled water with their milke The quantity pag. 203. 204 205. Sower-milke Butter-milke 280. Milt 75. Minerall waters brought in by the later Physitians 300. The lose not their vertue in leap-yeere See Leap-yeere They lose much of their efficacy and power by carrying and warming 306. Vsefull for the health of mankind 299. They are used in a double manner 303. Preparation of the body before their use The time and manner of using them 304. Ministers too busie with the practice of Physicke even where able Physitians are to be found 404. They have no reason to plead for want or need Divers reasons against this practice and the unlawfulnesse thereof proved ibid. c. Moone in some cases observable Shee is of swift motion and abideth not long in a signe 257. 258. Moore-Cocke 80. Moore-Hen 82. Mulberries 60. Mules flesh See uncouth flesh Mullet 90. Mulsa Mulsum 196. Mushroms 47. Mussells 91. Mussell-broth See Broth. Mustard 99. Mutton and which kinde is the best of Ewes Wedder c. N. New-name Wells 308. Night-walkers 304. Nine runneth hard by the ancient towne of Northampton 149. This River made navigable would inrich all the country round about it 150. Noctambulones See Night-walkers Northampton situate in a good fruitfull soile 199. It is situate towards the South Sunne the aire very temperate and healthfull for the body of man ibid. Nourishment in generall 34. Things to be considered in nourishment ibid. Nourishment of herbs 48. 49 c. Nourishment of fruits 59. 60 c. Nutmegs 102. Nuts 68. Indian Nuts 112. O. Oile and the use of it very antient 98. Oile of two sorts ibid. Oile of Walnuts wholesome 99. Oisters 91. Olives pickled 99. Onion 46. Orach 49. Orange 67. 68. Orgemond and what it is See Barley-water Orifice of the veine Large Orifice a small Orifice 240. 241. Oxymel and the commendation thereof simple and compound how prepared of old and how with us 195. P. Paracelsians swelling promises 6. Paracelsians commonly short lived for all their smoakie promises to others They faile grossely in their antidotes against the Plague and other contagious diseases They hold that metalls nourish the body but falsely ibid. Paracelsus himselfe short lived His strange opinion concerning long life the lives of our forefathers and prolonging of life by imagination To save his credit said to be poisoned ib. Parslie 54. Parsnep 44. Partridge 79. Peach 63 64. Peacocke 78. Peares dried Peares 67. Penniroyall 54. Pepper the kindes right use and abuse thereof 100. Perch 92. Perry 128. Phansie See Imagination Phesant 79. Philtra See Love-potions Phlebotomy what 228. 229. How it differeth from purgation What things therein to be considered 229. Preparation before during and after bleeding what to be done 262. Phlebotomy threefold 230. Indication of Phlebotomy Vse and end of Phlebotomy and in what cases to be used ibid. Vse thereof in pestilentiall contagious and maligne Fevers in the small Pox Measells and laundise 233. The vulgar shy of Phlebotomy why and causes of the often evill successe of this remedy 234. Not so frequent in Hippocrates time 243. To what persons it may safely be administred It may safely be administred to women with child in time of need and safely to both young and old 141. 142. Quantity in Phlebotomy hath no certain rule and how to be found out 246. Large evacuations when to be used 247. Swounding yeeldeth us no certainty concerning the quantity nor yet the changing of the
Excrements declining from the former laudable conditions Divers some of bad excrements Wormes in the excrements and what they presage Divers causes of thin and liquid excremeÌ„ts Divers causes of soft excrements d Mercu. ibid ex Gal. 3 epid comment 3. 8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hard egestions and their causes Questâ—on concerning the 〈…〉 egestion and how â—â—ten Answ In time of health And in sicknesse The quantity cannot be determined In sicknesse care must be had of loosening the belly Divers sorts of fluxes Be not too busy with astringents e Fernel History Vse of spittle a Mercur. de excrem ex variis Gal locis 14. meth 1. de sem c. Best spittle in condition Exceeding in quality In quantity The colours The taste Exceeding in quantity how to be purged Severall medicines usefull for this purpose Salivaâ—â—on Tabacco Consideration of Tabacco and the use thereof Narcoticke quality Violent purgation Abuse of Tobacco as it is ordinarily taken Indifferently used of all sorts of persons without respect of any circumstaÌ„ce whatsoever Opiat medicines often condemned without iust cause Obiect Answere It purgeth away the good with the bad The remedy often worse than the disease Sage soveraine good to corroborate the braine and animall parts Colts foot an efficacious simple in pectorall infirmities Tabacco-shope diâ— ale houses Another Obiection Answ Not good to further digestion by Tabacco Moderate exercise and good Diet better than Tabacco Most Tabacco sophisticate Divers circumstances in the use of Taâ—acco to be considered For whom most hurtfull Time of the yeere The age What profession or â—inde of life it best bâ—fitteth What places Correctives to be used with it 〈◊〉 the braine In diseâ—â—es of the lungs Quod differtur non aufertur Tabacco the cause of divers diseases and many dismall accidents The dangerous use of salivation by mercuriall medicines in some diseaâ—e◠〈…〉 a Mercur. libr. de excrem cap. 4. de mucit ex Gal. Idem Mercur. ex variis Hippocrat Gal. locis Divers significations of this excrement Medicines to expell this excrement Of rheume descending downe upon the pectorall parts b Comment in aph 12. lib. 1. citant Meâ—cur Jdem ibid. Rheume twofold Without a Fever With a Fever Rheume of divert sorts And divers colours Most observable in pleuresies Rheume commonly accompanied with a cough Great errour in the ordinary use of expectorant medicines Preparation before expectoration Divers preparations The forme Error of the Vulgar Caveat concerning sweet things Acid and tart things In pectorall diseases that which is spit up is especially to bee considered c 1 de crisib c. Divers significations and presages of expultion or spitting up We are not then to judge of all diseases by the bare inspection of the urine only Seed of generation what it is The use The moderately and orderly use many waies profitable Inconvenience of the immoderate use a Proverbs 6.26 â— History The fittest age Inconveniences by marrying young children yong people Duty of parents in this case Diligent care ought to be had in the education of children What persons are thereby most offended What constitutions Sick persons must absteine In what diseases most hurtfull The certaine number of yeeres when to marry cannot be determined The fittest time of the yeere The particular time b Levit. 1â— Abstinence froÌ„ marriage what inconveniences it breedeth in some bodies In women Let young gallants 〈◊〉 beed * Cartwright in his Câ—â—â—ch 〈◊〉 in the expreâ—â—ion of the commandements c Lib 7. cap â—3 Divine puâ—â—tion of uncleane persons d 1 Tim. 4.3 God never prohibited any sort or degree the use of marriage e 〈…〉 f 〈…〉 Apod◠〈…〉 〈…〉 A chrepâ—â—e 〈◊〉 â—eneâ—â—â—â—nus 〈…〉 in Sodomâ—◠〈…〉 Diâ—ne 〈…〉 vit 〈…〉 diviâ—â—m 〈…〉 â—â—â—mavit 〈…〉 Iulius 3. Innocent 〈◊〉 quâ—ndâ—m 〈…〉 prâ—tes ◠〈◊〉 hâ—buâ—rat 〈…〉 â—ononiâ— legetur iâ— Cardinaâ—ium 〈◊〉 â—rum quam 〈◊〉 riliquâ—â—l factum 〈…〉 esâ— in comeâ—â—â—am conâ—uctudâ—nem rurâ—us â—am fit Româ—â—an â—an a erat libellis que â— peâ—â—erâ—pturâ— suit Iove Garitâ—â—edem foâ—ers licet desormem 〈◊〉 vero aliâ—râ—â— scriptores 〈…〉 blaâ—phemâ—as e◠〈◊〉 renda sceâ—era stilo in 〈◊〉 â—â—rnavit 〈◊〉 Sâ—dim tan â—â—oâ—onâ—mum vniel â—et qui haec editis libr. tum etur atque defenderet ad quod ipâ—e dâ—plâ—matibus suis approbâ—t eâ— Sixtus 4. Roma nobile aâ—modum lupanar extruâ—â—t atque Vent â—i assignavit meretrâ—â— eum cohertes aluit amicisque servis exhibuit non nihil etiam emâ—lumenti ex meritricâ—o quaestu aerario suo atcumulavit Romana enim scorta in singulâ—s hebdomadas nummum adhuc pendent pontifici qui census annuits nonnunquam quadra irta ducatorum millâ—a exâ—edit idceque eccleâ—â—â— procerum id munus est ut vna cum ecclesiarum proventibus etiam lenociniorum num erent mercedem Refert Weâ—lâ—lius Kâ—oningensâ—â— in tractatu de indulgentiis papalibus Quod ad Petri Rueriâ— quem pro Cinaedo habebat Sixtus Hieronymi fratris sui postulationes domestice familiae toti Cardinalis de Lucia in tribus anni mensibus calidioribus Junio Iulio Augusto horrendum dictu masculino coitu uti permiserit addens hanc clausulam fiat quod petitur Iohannes 24 accusatur in Constantrensiâ—uca â—uca fit â—o domita Adulter Scertator c. De Clement 8. in quodam comment superâ—articulis magistrorum Parisiensium ligitur quod suerâ—t â—â—â—thus Venesicus Homicida Leno Simoniacus Sodomita Periurus Geomanticus Stuptator Raptoâ— Sacrilegus 〈◊〉 â—â—elerum artifex Tales fuere Benedictus 1 14. Paulus 3. Paulus 3. sororem suam luliam Farnesiam stuprandam tracâ—â—d tâ—ut Cardinaliâ— Epiâ—copus Hostiensis fieret Alteram deinde sororem suam cum quarem habuerat viâ—iens quod alios arâ—â—utius quam ipsum aâ—â—aret toxico interemit Hunc Nicolaus Quercaeus congredientem cum Laura Farnesia uxore sua sed neâ—teâ—e u◠〈◊〉 acâ—t le eâ— vninupugione incussit ut ejus eicatrix ad mortem usque cum eo maneret sed aliam neptem leâ—tissimam no◠〈◊〉 usvâ—ginalipaâ—ore quam â—erma praestantem hircosus senex ad incestum nefandum stuprum sollicitavit Vt vero filia sua Constantiaâ—um â—um qua sa pissime rem habuerat potiri liberius posset maritum ejus Bosinum Sâ—ortiam veneno necavit In tabellis habebat numerata 45. meretriâ—um millâ—â— ex quarum fernicatione singulis mensibus censum exegit Hae a Papa in summo hâ—nore lâ—â—i â—ntur â—ae â—aâ—a pedes osculantur hae Papam samitrarissime alloquuntur hae cum Papa die nocteque consuetudinem habent Landonis 1. Sergii 3. Iohannis 11. 〈◊〉 12. Iohâ—â—nâ— 13. Alexandri 6. Christophoci primi fâ—edas libidines lubens praeterco Et de papissa Iohanne prius Gilbertad 〈◊〉 〈…〉 elogâ—uâ— lippis tonsoribus ut aiunt notum apud me altum erit silentium Haec plura Stephanus Sâ—â—gedinus Poâ—â—â—nius 〈◊〉 speculo â—oâ—tificio in titulo Septimum membrum ubi qualis quisque fuerit describiâ—â— situlus
our purpose we let passe As for their number it is not likewise agreed upon among all Some make tenne ambition avarice pleasure envy curiosity anger feare ioy griefe and hope Some againe but seven excluding the last three and some will have but foure ioy griefe hope and feare excluding the three former Some againe reduce all to two heads concupiscible and irascible under which they comprehend all the rest Vnder the concupiscible therefore we comprehend love hatred desire a flight or fleeing from evill delectation and sadnesse sixe in number Vnder the irascible these five following hope desperation boldnesse feare and anger The actions of both these powers are commonly therefore called passions or perturbations by reason that thereby there is with them some affection or materiall passion or perturbation caused in the body such as is the heat or ebullition of the blood in anger c. All these againe and whatsoever doth participate of the nature of such passions or perturbations doe consist in the prosecution or avoyding of some thing by reason of the opinion wee conceive of the shew of some good or evill and that either present imminent or instant and to come And first of the imagination of some present good newly represented to us ariseth pleasure or delight the which againe consisteth either in our owne prosperity or other mens adversity As concerning our owne prosperity if it be constant and moderate we call it qaudium or ioy if profuse and exorbitant wee call it laetitia or ioy in a high measure and if it extoll it selfe too much it is called bragging or boasting If againe this pleasure and delectation arise from other mens adversity it is called malevolentia malitia or ill will and malice Againe from the opinion of evill present ariseth an aversation and griefe of minde which is various and divers In the first place oppressing griefe is called angor or anguish tormenting griefe with labour and paine is called aerumna or miserie with vexation of the body it is called afflictio affliction that which commeth with trouble and profound cogitations wee call sollicitudo or anxious care that which commeth without any expectation of better hopes desperatio or desperation that which is accompanied with weeping lamentation howling and yelling maeror being a higher degree of sorrow if for the death of any friend luctus sorrowing or lamenting that which proceedeth of anothers miserie which we desire to helpe is called misericodia pittie or compassion that which proceedeth from others prosperity if of good things it is called livor envie or spite if of evill things it is comprised under the name of revenge called vindicta being a mixt affection of anger and griefe Againe thirdly from the opinion of a future good ariseth hope an expectation and a confidence and from hence an earnest desire called cupiditas which is yet various one consisteth in the lusting after dainty faire called cupidiae another in lust and lechery called libido or lust some in the earnest desire of honour and glory called ambitio ambition some againe in excessive desire of riches called avaritia or covetousnesse some in revenge the which if it suddenly vanish away wee call excandescentia if it grow inveterate wee call it odium or hatred if there be an expectation of revenge it is called inimicitia enmity or hostility c. On the contrary from the opinion of any future evill ariseth feare contrary to hope and confidence an expectation of some future evill the which when it is instant or neere at hand we call it timor if of longer continuance formido if it move the body very much terrour if it strike a terrour in the minde pavor if it proceed yet further consternatio exanimatio or strange amazement and astonishment if it arise from feare of labour pigritia or lazinesse c. But verecundia bashfulnesse or shamefastnesse is a mixt affection of hope and feare And these be the chiefe affections passions and perturbations of the minde all which for the multiplicity by reason of the copiousnesse of the Latine and penury of the English tongue cannot all be accommodated with proper English names But because all these doe not equally affect the body and minde of man neither yet produce alike dangerous and sudden alterations in sickenesse and in health therefore omitting the greatest number we will but single out some of the principall and on the which most of the rest doe depend The chiefe then of these and on which I purpose principally to insist are these foure following Love Anger Ioy and Sorrow or Griefe and these are commonly called and accounted the exercises of the soule the which doe not a little affect the body both in sicknesse and in health And so forcible and powerfull are these passions of the mind that by meanes thereof some have sometimes lost their lives some their wits and understandings and some have by some of them suddenly recovered out of some sicknesse Since then they doe so much affect both body and minde they are not slightly to be past over And therefore my purpose is to insist upon them somewhat the longer and first I will begin with that noble affection of Love CHAP. XXVIIJ Of lustfull Love and what hurt is thereby procured to mankinde Whether any may die of love something also concerning iealousie AMongst all these passions of the minde this Love is not the least nor of smallest efficacie and force as being often not only the occasion and cause of many dangerous diseases unto the body but also depriving the soule of its chiefest happinesse and so metamorphosing the whole man into an informe monster void of all reason whereby he runneth headlong upon his owne ruine My purpose is not in this place to speake of the love of ambition honour riches dainty fare and the like but of that foule lustfull love the author of so much hurt of so much mischiefe to the body of man Vpon this therefore as witnesseth Suidas Cadmus Milesius published 14 books concerning the same subject Now this mad affection of love is a passion of the concupiscible part of the soule residing in the liver and the heart conceived of the desire and representation of the thing beloved and conveighed by the eyes unto the mind whose concupiscence which hardly can be satisfied both by imagination and the common spirits of the liver and the heart is set on sire And therefore some deduce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the sight And this is the opinion of Plato himselfe as may in his workes be seene as also that it hath its seat in the liver And Lactantius also assigneth the same seat to lustfull concupiscence And to this likewise may be referred that which Homer writeth concerning Titius who fell in love with Latona and for this cause had
assigned to him two ravenous vultures to eat vp his ever new renewing liver But that which yet surpasseth all other authorities the Wise man in the Proverbs alluding to this maketh mention of a dart striking thorow the liver of a libidinous young man punishing that part where was the root of his sinne The like butchery doth this cruell tyrant love exercise upon many who can scarce ever be satiat although many times injoying that they have long desired neither can yet the rule of reason so over-rule this brutish and sensuall apetite but that it still burneth the very inward marrow of the bones as the Poet well expresseth it Fecit amor maciem longa internodia crurum Love makes the body pale and leane it marres the members quite and cleane Now the infirmities which follow this disorderly passion are not a few as namely decay of strength fainting and swounding hollow eyes a body pale and destitute of blood languishing crudities continuall watchings palpitation of the heart trembling of the joints sometimes madnesse deepe melancholy consumptions and the like These and many more like effects are the attendants of this lustfull and disorderly passion How dangerous a thing then it is to give way to this so disorderly affection if there were nothing else but what hath beene said already may easily appeare How many by this meanes have anticipated the ordinary period appointed for man to live And whereas it is naturall for all creatures to seeke their owne preservation yet have many so farre infringed this sacred law of nature that they have put violent hands into themselves so becomming their owne executioners and that sometimes by way of desperation being affraid to be deprived of that booty they so eagerly pursued after And of this that famous Physitian Plater maketh mention of a scholler and student in physicke who being farre in love with a Doctor of the same professions daughter and for some disparity despairing of ever obteining that hee aimed at with sublimat poysoned himselfe having first set downe in a paper the cause thereof But with such examples and many tragicall stories many bookes are stuffed full and many of our young Gentlemen and Gentlewomen I doubt are better versed in such legends than in the sacred historie of the Bible And many have bin by this disorderly passion so farre transported that at the command of a base strumpet a prodigious thing ever to enter into the thought of a reasonable man they have cast away that life which the Lord of life had allotted them to doe him service To omit antient histories a late Writer maketh mention of one Galeacius Duke of Mantua living then at Padua A Mistresse of his wished him if hee loved her to throw himselfe into the river Brenta the which being then on horse-backe setting spurres to his horse hee presently accomplished I wish by the talion law shee had her selfe beene served after the same manner But it may perhaps then be demanded what is the remedy to prevent so dangerous a passion The heathens themselves set downe divers good directions in this case which would to God Christians would imitate whereof one principall is to avoid idlenesse the mother of all mischiefe That amorous Poet setteth downe this idlenesse as a principall incentive to this unlawfull lust Quaeritur Aegistus quare sit factus adulter In promptu causa est desidiosus erat Men aske the cause why Aeâ—isthus adultery did commit The reason 's plaine he sloth â—ill was sloth lov'd and liv'd in it The same Poet willeth us to shunne the fight of the object beloved and whatsoever may nourish or cherish the secret flame of the which we are also warned by another although himselfe and Epicure Sed fugitare decet siumulachra pabula amoris absterrere sibi alio convertere mentem All wanton pictures feeding love avoid shunne and decline And turne thou still another way thine eye thine heart and minde I have a little before in another chapter touched upon a principall remedy concerning the care parents ought to have in the education of their children and therefore as likewise being a theme proper for the Divine I will not here meddle any more with it nor repeat any thing that hath beene said already But it will perhaps be demanded what is then the remedy for such as are already intangled with this love passion I answer that here I have not undertaken to set downe a particular cure of this or any other particular infirmity but only to set downe some generall directions to remedy this passion There must therefore a due consideration be had of the individuall partie considering the sexe age temperature and constitution of body and the object whereunto this furious passion is fixed If there may be a yeelding to the parties desire without the breach of the lawes of God and man although perhaps some disparity betwixt the parties in regard of wealth birth or both yet if there be danger in the deniall my opinion is rather to yeeld to an inconvenience than to a mischiefe especially where the disparity is not so great But when as this cannot be atteined unto without breach of Gods commandement wee must never doe evill that good may come of it nor commit one sinne to prevent another but use all other lawfull meanes and commit the successe to him that can bring light out of darknesse and is able to bring his owne purpose to passe without any mans sinne Let them use such meanes as wee have already set downe in that place already mentioned It is true wee read of Erasistratus the Physitian that hee found Antiochus sonne to King Seleucus to be now almost consumed and pined away with the love or rather lust of Stratonice his mother in law insomuch that to his seeming there was now no other way but the inioying of his lust to save his life this too indulgent parent gave way to his unlawfull lust But wee are to remember this was but a heathen and such actions not to be drawne into imitation But among us in this age there is many times a great oversight in parents who stand often so punctually upon some points as of wealth especially and some others that vertue and true worth the true feare of God especially is set in the last place and scarce indeed regarded in any place Hence commeth if often to passe that many of our young prodigalls so gallop out of their goodly estates and are throwne off their horse before ever they were well setled in the saddle and their wealth many times quite vanished away before they atteine to a dragme of wit I speake not here against some sutable proportion betwixt parties to be matched in marriage and some competent meanes according to their places and callings but my meaning is that many times true worth and vertue is so by worthlesse people undervalued that this proverbiall speech is