cold raiseth no vapours because it cannot extenuate nor dissolve nor concoct so vehement heat overcomes for the most part what is comprehended extenuates the food beyond the generation of vapours except it be such as easily turns to wind If the heat be weak it dissolves the food but doth not concoct perfectly and hence comes wind And as in external things as a cold season chiefly when the North wind blows makes the air clearer and a very hot season makes the air pure but the middle constitution of air produceth clouds so it is in Animals heat when very weak or very strong doth not cause wind but the mean between both But Galen 12. Meth. med saith that wind is not only from a mean but vehement heat as appears by their generation there mentioned and by his way of cure For he saith if by any accident a vaporous spirit be joyned with gross glutinous humours that cannot break forth of the body there is very great pain and that from two causes obstruction or heat For obstruction keeps the wind in and gross glutinous matter when it is hot causeth wind And a little after how then saith he shall we cure those pains which a cold humour shut up in the guts hath caused Not by Cataplasms and Fomentations which heat violently for all clammy humours that are gross and cold are discussed into wind by things that heat except they also strongly digest Therefore they must be cut and concocted at the same time by attenuaters which are not too hot From these words of Galen it appears that a vehement heat doth not hinder breeding of wind or discuss them being bred but will cause them from the subject matter to breed anew when they were gone Therefore Lib. 3. cap. 43. he saith we must beware of nothing more in the abundance of such humours then immoderate heat that will melt them and turn them into wind but not digest them The Italian Doctor knew this well who as Paul Aegineta saith cured almost all Colicks with cold remedies and Paul knew it when he wrote that pains from cold clammy and tough humours are to be cured with respect that the medicines be not vehement hot for so they will be melted and turned more to winds Also strong heat doth not only make wind of flegm which it cannot consume but also of any over-much moisture received as in such as have drunk too much Wine or Beer or Broth or stuffed themselves with any gross or clammy food which the heat cannot consume So vehement heat also raiseth wind This is clear in Feavers also in which though preternatural heat abound much drink swells the belly because Nature is thereby restrained Therefore three things are required in the breeding and understanding of Wind heat naturally too weak or so by oppression that the part be sensible and fit and the matter proper to produce wind CHAP. VI. Of the Differences of Wind bred in the Body THe wind is of divers natures one sort is quiet another moved The quiet is gross and of flow motion cloudy and cold that brings seldom any Symptoms but a swollen Belly and Hypochondria without much pain This troubles such commonly that drink thick sweet Ale or Milk or Water between meals chiefly for that corrupts concoction and weakneth the action of the stomach as if you should pour cold water into a boiling Kettle and thence there will be cloudy vapours and fluctuations that will swell the Belly like a Drum which will fall with sobriety and a stool or two But if it stay long between the tunicles of the guts it threatens a dangerous Colick A moved wind because it is thin and running about with great pain is like a changeable Proteus It is either cast out or retained goes forth with or without noise by the mouth or Fundament By the mouth the belch is sour or smoak-like and unsavory by the Fundament it is with or without noise These are of so much concernment in the body of man as the Stoicks according to Cicero Lib. 9. epist epist 22. said that a fart ought to be as free as a belch And Claudius Caesar made an Edict to give leave for any to fart at meat because he knew one endangered by refraining through modesty Suet in vita Claudii cap. 23. But when wind is sent out at neither part but detained it causeth a swelling a Symptom of the stomach not able through weakness to expel the abounding cloudy spirit Also Galen 3. Symp. caus lib. 6. cap. 6. saith there are divers parts of the guts in which the wind moves which though they have not distinct names yet may they so be declared that any ingenious person may understand what kind and how much the excrement is and in what part it chiefly moves For if it sound sharp and shrill it is carried through the strait gut and is more pure and aerial If it puff up it will make a small noise while it goes through the small guts but not so sharp and shrill All these noises are in the spaces of the empty gut usually make the less noise the lower they go Other noises are humming like that of Pipes which cannot give a pure sound by reason of the matter they consist of and the passage being large makes the sound greater Such winds are in the thick guts when they are empty and if any moisture be contained in them it will cause a kind of Bombus which is a rumbling which shews a moist stool to be at hand because it is from Nature moving and it is moist because it rumbled before Also the noise that follows the stool if it rumbles signifies more stools but if it be pure and clear it shews that either the gut is empty or that hard excrements are in its upper part That which is shrill is from the straitness of the passages and little moisture We might here add the different sounds of the wind in the ear but we shall reserve that for the eleventh Chapter where we shall speak of the pains of the ears CHAP. VII How many kinds of Diseases are produced by Wind. GAlen made three chief sorts of Diseases a Similary Instrumental and a Common which is the solution of unity A similary disease is that which overthrows the natural constitution An Organical or Instrumental is that which hinders the fashion in conformation number magnitude or composition The Common is when unity is dissolved in part Let us see which of these wind will produce Hippocrates Lib. de flatibus saith when a body is full of food and much wind prevails and the meat lies long in the stomach and cannot get out for abundance and the lower belly is stopt or bound wind goes over all the body and gets chiefly to the parts full of blood and cools them And if the parts be cooled where the blood comes there is chilness over all the body For when all the blood is cold the whole body must be chill Galen
Meth. med 12. confirms this saying that such diseases are in those that are stuffed with gross clammy food that is cold when the wind in the tunicles of the guts cannot get forth For the tunicles are double and the humour being between them is turned into wind it is gross and cold and of slow motion When it is detained it stretcheth the tunicles and the juyce whence it comes cools the guts it toucheth and they are doubly afflicted By these instances it is plain that wind by its coldness can make a similary disease that consists in distemper and also the solution of unity For there is pain and stretching of the tunicles which cannot be without laceration For there are two universal causes of pain one is an unequal distemper which comes suddenly and another when continuity is dissolved For parts dissolved by a humour or wind are pained by the separation Because if Hippocrates say cold is biting to Ulcers for no other cause but it contracts and condenseth and constringeth all parts it toucheth and so twitcheth the soft parts of the continuity and dissolves it Also if in acute fevers nervous bodies are most dried and therefore have Convulsion and if too much repletion that pulls it up and down and makes it shorter and so separates continuity how much more difficulty of solution of continuity will wind cause which for that only cause produce such strange Symptoms that require the whole care of a Physitian Thirdly it will appear by what follows that the whole Abdomen or Panch swells by wind as in a Tympany and the Liver and Spleen are wonderfully stopt thereby and hard as a Schirrhus and swollen as also the stomach and all these are instrumental diseases therefore organical diseases are also from wind Also Galen de diff morb saith when any part is swollen and so its passage stopt if that part hath no proper operation that stoppage is only called a disease but the tumour is not but only is the cause of obstruction But if the part affected hath any proper office then the obstruction and the tumour of the part are both diseases Therefore the three sorts of diseases distemper of simple parts and disorder of instrumental and solution of united parts are from wind CHAP. VIII Of the Causes of Wind. THere are few or none in the world but are troubled sometimes with winds for the stomach which is the Kitchin for the first concoction attracts the meat by the Gullet as by a long hand and embraceth and keepeth it and changeth it separating the pure from the impure casting the one into the guts but the Meseraick veins sucking the other carry it to the Liver When the stomach through weakness embraceth not the food attracted nor contains it it rumbles and tosseth about and then it cannot well concoct For it must be strong as Galen saith which consists in an excellent temper of the four qualities by which it turns the food into the proper quality of that which is nourished by help of the bowels about it the Heart Liver Spleen Reins Midriff which lye about the stomach as a great fire under a Caldron But sometimes a bad diet for none can be always punctual in the rules or some external force dissolves its strength or weakens the fire and then the virtue of the stomach abates and it alters according to the greatness or smalness of the cause Also outward cold as in cold Countries and in Northern winds piercing to the inward parts in thin and weak bodies offends the native heat Also too hot Air casts out disperseth the natural heat and takes it from the bowels and then concoction is hindered and wind bred But strong natural heat overcoming for the most part things comprehended by it extenuateth the meat more then that it can produce vapours except it be of its nature windy For the stomach though strong and force of Nature flourisheth and the heat not decayed is offended often by food that is proper to breed wind Therefore all Physick and food that is properly by its nature windy or by its coldness or multitude dissolves the strength of the stomach and oppresseth its natural heat is the cause of wind as Pulse raw Corn and Fruits All these Galen de alim fac lib. 2. saith and such as we eat before they are ripe are windy but they are soon digested therefore he argues thus in the beginning of that Book All the food mentioned in the first Book were the seeds of Plants little differing from fruits But all horary fruits are windy and all seeds more or less And boil Beans as much as you will they are windy some add Onions to prevent it because hot and attenuating things correct wind But fry them or any other pulse and they are not windy but very hard of concoction and pass away slowly and make gross juyce But any way dressed they swell the body He that will observe the distempers that follow every sort of food shall perceive a stretching of the whole body as by a wind after eating of Beans chiefly if he have not used to eat them formerly or eat up not well boiled Pease though like Beans are not so windy These are with us plentiful and usual and therefore we perceive less the hurt they do For what we eat freely and with pleasure the stomach embraceth closer and retains better and digests easier Fetches are windy also but few desire them it is good with any of these to boil Calamints Onions Dill or Pennyroyal Lentils puffe up the stomach and guts Also all Summer-fruits are like these for they are crude and full of excrements and unprofitable juyce especially when not ripe they are also flegmatick and windy Also if immoderately taken by their cold and moisture they abate the natural heat so that the stomach cannot discuss the wind it raiseth Mulberries and Plums are the worst of these chiefly green and after meat All sorts of Cherries chiefly the Spanish Cherries and Melones Pompions Cucumbers Gourds Apples Pears are alike but boiled they are less windy chiefly if eaten with seeds or hot and dry extenuaters or expellers of wind Anise or Coriander Figs saith Galen lib. de aliment nourish more then other autumnal fruits but are windy but the wind soon vanisheth because they are laxative Chesnuts eaten plentifully cause Headach swell the belly bind it and are hard of concoction Also Roots Turneps Radishes and the like are windy and Corn Milium Wheat chiefly boiled Barley but Rapes and Radishes are most windy All Fish are the like flegmatick and windy chiefly the great and the less that are slimy as the Eel and Salmon Lamprey Tench chiefly if boiled broiled or fryed they are not so windy chiefly if the flesh be soft as the Brook-fish Though Celsus lib. 2. c. 26. saith they are not windy All Pulse and fat meats do swell with wind and sweet things and Broths new Wine Also Garlick Coleworts Onions and all Roots except a
as fulness stretch the body receiving it side-ways and downward and make the length of the part shorter so it is in the inflation of the stomach the Gullet is contracted and the sides and the bottom stretched Erasistratus saith that if the muscles be filled with wind they grow broader but shorter Moreover when from plenty the whole is stretched the effect of distension is perceived all over and because the Diaphragma is compressed for it is an instrument of respiration the breath is difficult from the stomach puffed up and so this inflation sometimes so increaseth that it makes a tumour on the mouth of the stomach These are allayed by stools and breaking wind upward or downward The Colick is next which is not always in one part of the belly in all but as the Colon is moved so it removeth now to the right then to the left side sometimes to the Kidneys Navel or over all the belly but chiefly the left side For the Colon is a thick Gut through the hollow of the Liver on the right side is carried to the left Hypochondrion upon the bottom of the stomach and lyes upon the Spleen then bending backward it adheres to the left Kidney Therefore in what part the wind chiefly gets there is greatest pain but when it fixeth in one part it is raised from a crude and cold flegm shut up in the turnings of the Gut nor is the wind then wholly included This flegm corrodes the Gut and tears it and is like an Auger that pierceth it which causeth great pain and loathing and vomiting of flegm and it departeth not after breaking of wind But a pain from wind without flegm is wandring in divers parts of the belly and rumbles often and being shut up close will not break forth above or below This useth to breed much in the Colon for Nature hath made no other receptacle for wind which the first concoction in the stomach hath bred therefore wind is lodged in this gut with great pain chiefly when by reason of obstruction from gross flegm or hard and dry excrements it cannot get forth The dung is hardned from divers causes chiefly from idleness and labouring to keep from the stool Rest makes retention as motion evacuation and binds as motion opens rest makes things unmoveable and motion moveable It causeth vomiting stools sweat urine and all natural expulsions and rest hinders them Some women complain that they have not a stool in five or six days some in eight days These are idle cold gluttonous and obstructed so that motion doth not help nor Choler by reason of cold provoke the Guts to expel Also the obstructions hinder the Choler from the Cuts and a perverse order in eating binds the belly Therefore it is no wonder women are more windy then men Also costiveness doth not only cause the Colick but other great accidents for the dung sent down by Nature and by its heaviness falling to the lowest parts if from other business or urgent occasion it be detained it will grow hard because being kept long it drys by heat and the Meseraicks do always suck some juyce from it for they are in the thick as well as the thin Guts So the excrements being by degrees very dry stop the passage against themselves and the wind and cause the Ileon or Convolvulus sometimes but the Colick often and other great Symptoms For when the wind cannot get out it flyes from the bottom of the belly again to the stomach and stretcheth it and twitcheth so the Weasant and contracts it that they can scarce swallow or speak Also because the mouth of the stomach is very sensible it is pained with Convulsion so that the heat of the outward parts goes in to expel what hurts Nature and then they wanting their heat are chill and the Nerves are contracted the Legs weak and the body in a great strait Who would think that such deadly and cruel Symptoms should come from a little wind but I know it to be so by long experience The excrements voided in this fit are windy for they swim upon water and are like Ox-dung and there was crudity loathing and vomiting before This disease is like the stone in the Kidneys fixed in the Ureters and hard to be distinguished from it Galen was deceived by it in his own body and knew it not but to be the stone till he injected Oyl of Rue and voided glassie flegm and was freed presently from all pain We shall speak next of windy Melancholy it is bred from three causes from heat of the Liver and the Meseraicks coldness of stomach and a crude and gross humour of flegm or melancholy A cold stomach desires too much and digests too little A hot Liver attracts crude and gross meats before perfect concoction And because the second concoction which is in the Liver cannot correct the defect of the first the Veins of the Mesentery are obstructed by gross Chyle and much crudity is gathered in them This boils by preternatural heat and sends forth filthy vapours that are not easily discussed and there are rumblings and breaking of wind Also Galen from Diocles saith there is another disease in the stomach like the other called melancholy or windy as when meat of hard digestion and hot is taken there is much spitting belching sowre wind heat in the sides not presently but after retention Sometimes great pains of the stomach that reach to the back in some cease after concoction and come again after meat When the fit comes the stomach and Hypochondria are mise rably tormented and not freed till the matter be voided by vomit or stool that extends the Hypochondria with wind That which is vomited because the stomach is cold and weak is flegmatick clammy and crude white and sometimes without taste or sowre or bitter That which is sent down is black and windy Melancholy from this sometimes a black vapour ariseth and hurts the brain causeth troublesom dreams and disturbs the mind with doting This wind shut up in the stomach and guts and striving to get out gets into the small veins and membranes of the Liver on both sides cavous and gibbous and is like a Schirrus or so stretcheth that there is a tumour like a Schirrus only it is bred in a shorter time It is so great sometimes that it fills the Hypochondrion and you cannot feel the ribs there nor put a finger under it and there is no shape of the Liver This is known to be from much gross vapours because there is not only heaviness but distention as Galen lib. 5. de loc affect saith The Spleen is in like manner stretched with wind as Trallianus saith as in other parts so in the spleen there is wind that grows to a tumour it is like a Schirrus but thus distinguished in a Schirrus there is hardness not yielding tumour and heaviness in the left Hypochondrion In a tumour from wind it doth not strongly resist the touch but yields
Parsnip and Schirroots Leeks and dry Figs are windy but the green most Green Grapes all Nuts except those of the Pine-tree Milk all Cheese and whatsoever is taken crude Hunting and hawking are good against wind Celsus saith all fat things are windy for Galen saith they overthrow the stomach and are hard of concoction fill and swell either by wind that comes from them by a weak concoction or by rarifying the fat and make it run thin Also sweet things chiefly if gross are windy and new Wine unless it pass soon through fills with wind is hard of concoction begets gross moisture and causeth Headach Therefore Aristotle in his Problems asks directly why it is dangerous for the stomach to drink new Wine Answ Because it is undigestible and therefore puffes up the stomach and causeth a kind of Dysentery Milk is an enemy to a weak head and to the Hypochondria that are blown up with wind from a small offence it puffes the bellies of most that eat it as Hippocraies saith And Galen saith that people in health have headach and wind from eating Milk therefore it must needs be bad for such as are so affected before Therefore let windy bodies avoid Milk above all things Also Mead and Perry and Sider are windy chiefly if not boiled Hippocrates lib. 5. aph 41. bids you give Mead to women at bed-time to know if they be with child for if her belly be griped thereby she hath conceived otherwise not the pain is from wind that cannot get out the Mead causeth it for raw Honey swells the belly Ale which is usual in the North is also windy it is near that which Dioscorides lib. 2. cap. 80. called Zythus it is worse new or when not well boiled The thinner or cruder it is the less it nourisheth but it swells and cools more being but a little hotter then water Such are the Drinks of Brabant Holland and England they are commonly thick and ill boiled so that they stop the Ureters and cool and cause Stranguries breed the stone and short breathing increase flegm breed wind in the belly and pains and Colicks But old Ale that is clear well boiled and well malted which is made in private houses not to be sold do more cast off those pernicious qualities the nearer they resemble Wine But when it is carelesly brewed being it is daily used and very much the Symptoms it causeth are wonderful but chiefly great swellings and puffings up with wind so that few or none that drink this Ale but are much oppressed with winds But if the belly be loosned by much of it taken or by its sharpness and that which is superfluous be sent downward by stool or by urine or vomited up then you need not so much fear inflation by wind For it is better then water being moderately taken to quench thirst only and wash down food but not so good as Wine Also Galen saith that all the faults of water are from its coldness by which it lies long in the stomach and causeth fluctuations and turns to wind and corrupts and weakens the stomach so that it concocts worse But Wine hath a nature adverse to these faults in water it neither puffeth up the belly but takes it rather down nor stays long there by reason of its moderate heat Therefore common Ale and Beer are a medium between wine and water but nearer to water for they puff up and stay long being thick but do not so much destroy the natural heat as water or weaken the stomach The clear old Beer that is well boiled is most near to Wine for it opens the ways of digestion and quickly goes down is of good juyce and fit to mix and concoct things in the stomach and veins it puffs up little it is better then new or crude Wine and the liker it is to Wine the farther it is from the faults in water For water whether of Snow or Pond is not good chiefly for cold stomachs not for Galens reason only because if taken presently after meat makes it swim by putting it self between the meat and the stomach and making a separation and fluctuation for Wine and the best drink may do that But because it is heavy and very cold and choaks the natural heat and hinders concoction and hurts the stomach breast and lungs stops the urine causeth side-pains Dropsies Colicks and Iliacks But wind is not bred only by this or that way but too much Wine or Beer or Milk or Broths or Water though otherwise wholesome may cause wind or any slimy matter that cannot be overcome by the native heat For too much weakens the stomach and Galen saith the sign of a weak stomach is noise and fluctuation For the stomach being right is close and keeps every little it takes in close wrapt so that there is no space between And when there is a rumbling there is vacuity and it doth not exactly embrace the food and this is a loose space which suffers the moist things received to pass to and fro and make a noise Then the belly swells and the Hypochondria and there is much crudity flegm and gross humors bred If this crudity be joyned with trouble of stomach and the Patient cannot sleep it is evil For watching and pain of stomach cause a tossing in bed and wind and belching Therefore crudity is from immoderate eating and drinking and from crudity come gross slimy humours upon which if hot medicines simple or compound are given as often by ignorance they are they cause wind from the matter Also Wine though of the best and such as by its nature expels wind and any liquid thing if not by its force yet by its abundance may oppress the natural heat or by the nature of the things it is mixed with in the stomach may cause wind Moreover of all things mentioned as causes of wind none are worse then nightdrinkings upon a full stomach and going to bed with a belly full of drink or drinking between meals or presently after meat Aristotle Meteor lib. 4 cap. 3. saith that such concoction is like boiling chiefly when it is done by heat of the body in a hot and moist subject and some crudities are like meat half boiled For as when we cast much cold water into a boiling Kettle the boiling is stopt and the heat interrupted and thereby crudity remains so if you drink presently after meat the concoction is interrupted and there will be crudities which will cause fluctuation and inflation and stretching of the belly like a Drum As Galen saith you must not presently drink after meat before it be concocted For then the food will swim and the stomach cannot embrace them by reason of the moisture between Therefore to be short inflations are from three causes obstruction heat and a cold and moist distemper of the stomach For obstructions stop the wind that it cannot pass forth and gross and clammy things when made hot breed wind Gal. meth 12. and all
much windy For they are cholerick and Choler will not suffer wind to raign but discusseth it But Phelgmaticks and they of a moist and cold stomach and the sanguine are troubled with wind and easily have the Colick And all know that great pains of the Colick are more dangerous then less and a total collection of excrements and wind into one part of the Colon is worse then when they run about many parts Therefore there is less danger when wind is broken by Clysters and the stools take away the pain then when not But if wind cause a a doting contraction of Nerves fainting cold limbs cold sweat constant vomiting stoppage of all excrements as it doth when it comes from venomous matter it is deadly and there is a Convolvulus It is best to be without wind or easily discuss it but this cannot be without diligent caution and good diet in the use of the six natural things CHAP. XII Of Diet to be observed by windy Bodies TO prevent breeding of wind by diet or discuss it when bred four things are to be observed chiefly in such as have bodies apt to breed it Order Manner Time and Substance The Order is that they begin not dinner nor supper with drink nor drink a great draught as the custom is after they have eaten a bit or two Drink is best when you have taken most part of the food Also let liquid things be eaten before hard and loosners before astringents and those of easie concoction before those of hard The Manner is that more food be not taken then can be concocted without difficulty by rising with an appetite and not drinking more then to quench thirst and wash down the meat which will make the body lazy and oppress the native heat Some are never satisfied except they carouse exceedingly when they eat some drink so that they can eat little or nothing this causeth fluctuation and inflation because the stomach cannot embrace the quantity Time also must be observed that they drink not fasting nor between meals or after supper or in bed nor eat before the former is digested nor sit long at meat They must abstain from gross meats they stop the narrow passages such as produce a clammy juyce hard of concoction salt Beef and Pork from cold and sowre and sharp things and all Summer-fruits crude or boiled Pulse Sallets Milk and all Milk-meats all Junkets as Fritters Pancakes Sweet-cakes c. chiefly that which our women call White-pots or that made of Eggs Butter and Honey in a Frying-pan or an Oven And from that of green Cheese Beets Paste Eggs and Oyl which the Italians call a Tart. Also the Italian Dishes are very hurtful Turtellae Lasaniae Macaroons Worms and the like made fit for the palate These fill the body with gross humours and so oppress the natural heat that the stomach concocts worse after being not able to overcome the tough and clammy humours But some will devour such trash and junkets and contemn better food and yet find no inconvenience or very little To which I answer That all food made of paste causeth gross and clammy humours and many excrements and obstructions and matter fit to breed wind But if they be taken by a good and firm stomach and well concocted which I think scarce can be and they find no hurt thereby worth notice it doth not therefore follow that they are of themselves without harm For all know that to drink great draughts is an enemy to Nature and that a medicine of Hemlock presently killed Socrates Therefore he concludes nothing that saith therefore these things are not hurtful and not to be dispraised because some Drunkards will drink off great bowls and the Athenian old Woman used to eat Hemlock and because one or two make food of paste that nourisheth For the stomach embraceth sweet things and such as are eaten with great delight more close and easier digests them Therefore three things make food which is of its own nature hurtful to be innocent and milder use or custom pleasure and a strong firm stomach For the best nourishing food hurts the stomach if it loath it and Brook-fish cause trouble to it if it be weak And let these men if they will not be admonished by me be moved with the threatning of Constantine with which he affrighteth Gluttons let them not rejoyce when they eat bad food for though they are not hurt by them at the present afterwards they will not escape To this belongs variety of meats which causeth many crudities and winds in the body For many things of divers natures are confounded and these being unequally concocted and distributed the natural heat must needs be put to it You must avoid all great and Fen-fish and such as live in mud on putrefaction their flesh is slimy and clammy cold and hath much excrement Also let windy people abstain from wine too much cooled from water and from great draughts of drink drawn from a cool Cellar chiefly when they are hot out wardly or weary after exercise or labour and from all excess of air chiefly cold which presently reacheth the stomach if not kept warm-clothed and from cold and moisture at the feet Sitting long upon cold stones hath often caused great Symptoms from wind Let him avoid idleness also and sleeping in the day these raise vapours but discuss them not set upon concoction but bring it not to perfection whence comes crude flegm the true material cause of flegm When the stomach or guts are distended or stretcht with wind let them abstain from meat and drink and feed very stenderly and be sober For when the usual diet is taken from the body or abated the native heat is not so put to it to alter and concoct food but is active and flourisheth and spreads it self and shews its strength first it concocts crudities and attenuates the gross humours cleanseth the tough takes away the cause that will breed wind sends them for that the right passages and disperseth such wind as is bred and keeps it from breeding And to be short fasting alone is sufficient to cure any disease from crudity or wind It is true that there is more trouble from the flying about of wind in the body that is empty in such as fast and use a spare diet but this will not be long for they will presently break forth and free the patient from all pain and the sooner by use of exercise For it is the Doctrine of Hippocrates Epid. 6. agreeable to this my opinion fit to be written in gold in every house That we ought not to eat to fulness and to be ready to take pains And Galen de sanit tuend lib. 2. reckons up many sorts of exercises Wrastling Fencing Running c. which we shall not speak of only let this suffice that moderate exercise at ball or fencing running or walking fasting and after the body hath discharged the excrements doth wonderfully recreate all the faculties and spread
A New and Needful TREATISE OF SPIRITS and WIND Offending Mans Body Wherein are discovered their Nature Causes and Effects By the Learned Dr. Fienus And Englished By William Rowland A. M. For the Improvement of Physick and more speedy Cure of Diseases LONDON Printed by J. M. for Benjamin Billingsley and Obadiah Blagrave at the Sign of the Printing-Press at Gresham-Colledge-gate near the Church in Broad-street 1668. To the Royal Society the Virtuosi SInce the Evening preceded the Morning in the account of the first Day and the most precious of Lights sprung out of Darkness as it much countenances thâ—â—… Philosophers Privation and their Veritatem in puteo so it seemeth to tax their presumption who speak frequently of the Light seldom of the Darkness that is in them Whilst you the true Off-spring of the first and purest Virtue in your noble and masculine Humility though you had very large Accomplishments to boast of deemed it your highest Glory to obtain a Royal Commission from the most Heroick Spirit of England to dig unitedly for Truth and Knowledge as for hidden Treasure And this not like those envious Monasticks who what they found would ever have confined soly to their reclused Cells but most ingeniously for dispersing of it to the Universal Benefit of all Mankind without exception If then small things may hold Resemblance with greater and the least Addition of Knowledge to your own Country cannot but be matter of rejoycing to your goodness I shall not cease to hope but this Translation and Contribution of this kind of knowledge to the English and its humble Dedication will have a fair and kind Acceptation with your Wisdoms Not in the least supposing either the Subject being of Wind and Spirits or this Discourse can be strangers to your general reading but some what to stir up your joynt and inspective minds to the advancement of these Studies to farther degrees of Perfection and if possible to reduce them to the needful use of Physick Not only all Diseases Pains and Distempers being of late imputed to venomous Spirits generated in Mans Body but their Cure also to the efficacy of those undescernable forces in Nature benigne Spirits But may some reflect what must we now dig for Winds as for hidden Treasures Seriously you may without disparagement it being no Solecism to admit of Flatum as well as Veritatem in puteo And indeed in the sense of this worthy Author Where may not you find them Or is it not rather a question What can be performed without them Or rather if once throughly understood in their various differences and properties What may not be done by their assistance And that the Spirit of Spirits may constantly be your guide shall ever be the earnest desires of the Admirer of your generous Aims and Intentions William Rowland A New and Excellent TREATISE OF Wind Offending Mans Body In which is described the Nature Causes and Symptoms of Wind Together with Its speedy and easie Remedy By W. R. M. D. LONDON Printed by J. M. for Benjamin Billingsley and Obadiah Blagrave at the Sign of the Printing-Press at Gresham-Colledge-gate near the Church in Broad-street 1668. To all those whose Bodies are troubled with Wind or any Diseases caused thereby IT is confessed by all that no temporal Blessing is better then Health therefore it is to be admired that most men should so much slight and neglect it the worth whereof if we consider we must say with the Poet Amphion O blessed Health with thee 't is ever spring And without thee there is no pleasant thing She is the cherisher of all Wisdom Science and Arts and the only solace that we find in this troublEsom life By the presence of health all humane actions and strength of body beauty riches and whatsoever is esteemed among men do flourish she failing by malignity of evil causes all other things fail which were before in request and a disease follows which is the fore-runner of death Now who can expel a disease but by avoiding and excluding the causes that breed and feed it nor can the causes be avoided or excluded before they are known Therefore the chief way to cure a disease is to know the causes And if we carefully consider them it will appear that no thing in the whole world is more miserable then man and if you except his diviner part the Soul nothing is more frail and obnoxious to the injuries of all things For what is there in the whole Creation by which a man is not assailed and opposed and sometimes hurt For the Heavens and the Stars by their conversions and malignant aspects bring plagues heats and extreme colds and divers inconveniences to Mankind And the Elements are plainly perceived to be more injurious then they For the Air hath been infinite ways pernicious to Mankind as by Hail Rain Storms Thunder and Lightning And the Earth by terrible motions and quaking and opening of it self and by breathing forth pestilent vapours from its Dens and Caverns And the Water with stinking vapours from Inundations Fens and standing Pools And the Fire also by many Conflagrations Moreover all sorts of living Creatures by one unanimous consent seek the destruction of Mankind nor are the Herbs Shrubs and Trees with their fruit freed from that pernicious Spirit Besides all these as if they could not do mischief enough to Mankind man himself is enemy to himself by Thefts Brabling Murther and Wars and many innumerable wicked actions And which is worst of all man is so cruel to his own Nature and so mad that he torments his weak body by inordinate lusts daily and nightly riotings and surfeits so that he runs head-long into all manner of diseases and defiles his divine part the Soul and brings the wrath of God upon himself Therefore he said well that compared mans life to a warfare upon the Earth Hence it is that wise men to oppose so many mischiefs desired nothing more then to invent some Art to preserve them and theirs from the injuries of the things mentioned and free them from diseases Therefore Apollo gave noble Principles at first to the Art of Physick which were after celebrated by Aesculapius and then by Machaon and Podaleirius so that all did highly esteem them as Homer writes The learn'd Physitian that can cure well Doth all Professions in the world excel The Sons of Aesculapius delivered this Art to their Posterity not by writing but by traditional instruction to the time of Hippocrates Hippocrates that came from Hercules and Aesculapius grew so excellent in Physick that he got great Renown by his Works in Coos and among the Thessalians and Athenians that gave him divine honour next unto Hercules He was the first that committed this Art to writing and left us his Works which Galen purged from thorns and weeds and put it into such Order and Method that he made it almost compleat But nothing in the world of this sort can be so exact that
principal parts and falls swiftly upon sensible places and doth not only disturb them with its quality but pricks them with its thinness and stretcheth tears or wounds them for all biting or sharp causes that are moved whether hot or cold bring horrour and shaking to a living Creature Thirdly this spirit running to and fro troubles the expulsive faculty and the parts which provoked contract themselves speedily to expel the offender and so shake and tremble Therefore this wind in man being like other wind produceth the like effects Now we shall shew what it is CHAP. III. What this Wind in Man is NOne wrote better of this wind then Galen Lib. 3. de Symp. causis who saith it is a vapour raised from a humour or flegmatick meats or drinks or from weak heat But this is an imperfect definition for divers vapours go to the brain from food in the stomach as in Drunkards and in sore Eyes from consent of the stomach which are not called winds nor are they such But that flatuous spirit that is bred in the Hypochondrion from a melancholy humour is truly wind Therefore I would have this wind to be thus described more exactly A Flatus or wind is an abundance of vapours from spirits or meat or drink or flegm or melancholy raised from a weak heat in the body I say an abundance because a small vapour which the best constitution is never free from is not a wind or can puffe up As Galen Lib. 5. in Aph. 72. saith they are windy according to Hippocrates that have much wind in their bellies that is voided upwards or downwards or stretcheth the parts that hold it And Aristotle saith wind is only much air fluctuating or moving and stopped You shall know from Aristotle and what I shall say after why I call it an halitous spirit and not a vapour for none can get any certainty out of Galen in this that calls a spirit vapour wind and blast all one without distinction Therapeut 14. he saith a vaporous spirit is from juyces heated by degrees and that a vapour is an humour extenuated de Sympt caus lib. 1. de Simpl. med fac lib. 1. and Halitus is a mean or medium between the thinnest spirit and blood that is finished Lib. 3. de nat fac All these signifie the same thing therefore I shall not dispute them Nor is that against my definition that Galen saith if a greater heat fall upon a gross glutinous flegm it turns them into a thick or gross wind For though heat be strong yet in comparison of the quantity and quality of the humour it may be weak such as can raise a spirit but not lay it or dissolve it It is so in those that by intemperate drinking oppress the strongest heat We shall now shew in what parts this wind is bred CHAP. IV. Of the place where Wind is bred IN the former Chapter we shewed from Galen and Hippocrates that those were windy bodies that gathered much wind in their bellies which is voided upwards or downwards or that stretcheth the parts that hold it Hence it appears that the stomach and guts are the place of its breeding otherwise it could not go forth upward or downward So wind is bred in the Earth which after rain being warmed as Aristotle saith from above and from it self smoaketh and in this is the force of wind For when the Earth takes greatest force from water there must be most forcible vapours even as green wood burnt affords most smoak The stomach most resembles the Earth in man Galen comparing them saith that Nature made the stomach in stead of an Earth to Animals to be a store-house as the Earth is to Plants For the veins that go to the stomach such Chyle out of it to nourish the whole body as the roots of Trees do from the Earth it is a natural action in both They are alike but the Earth of it self is dry and sapless except watered it produceth no fruit but being moistned as Virgil saith it produceth winds also So our stomach is membranous and dry and except it be moderately moistned with meats and drinks it defrauds the body of its nourishment and it consumes If too much drink be taken there is fluctuation and wind for too much food oppresseth the natural heat and makes it weak but yet it will fall to work or concoct but being not able to do it exactly it raiseth vapours which it cannot discuss Then by degrees the first concoction being hindered there are gross and flegmatick humours both in the stomach and guts chiefly the Colon. If the wind be thick it stretcheth only the stomach and belly but when by degrees it is made thin by heat of the bowels that which was shut up begins to move and enlarge it self and take up more room and stir about to get forth and then all is well But if a costive body by hard excrements or tough flegm in the guts hinder its passage it runs back and roars rumbles and pains the guts and labours by force to get out For when the heat of the guts extenuates the vapours they move readily and of themselves and so are thinner and can pierce farther they run about like Thunder swiftly and open small passages and make solution of unity and cause pain in any solid part by their passage being thin What Seneca Lib. 6. nat quaest c. 8. saith of other wind agrees with this that its force is not to be withstood because a spirit is not to be conquered They only can judge of this wind who have been troubled with it Therefore as the other wind is only bred in the Earth so this is bred only in the stomach and guts as the caverns of the Earth and from thence goes to any part for the body is thin and previous full of passages for the wind to go through which when it is much and gets not forth shakes the body causeth chilness and great Symptoms after to be mentioned CHAP. V. Of the manner how Wind is bred in the Body WInd is bred from heat which is sometimes great sometimes weak and is raised from the matter after the same manner it is discussed For the strong heat of the bowels discusseth it before it get force and hinders it from breeding at the first Absolute cold raiseth no spirits as appears in extream crudities Therefore Hippocrates Lib. 6. saith that in a long Dysentery or Flux if there be sowre belchings it is good because before belching there was no sign of concoction by reason of the decay of natural heat which beginning to revive being but yet weak by reason of the small concoction it raised wind which was belched forth Therefore not great heat nor great cold but a mean between both makes wind according to Galen de sympt caus lib. 6. cap. 2. who saith it breeds in the vacuities of the stomach when flegm there contained or food is turned to vapours by weak heat For as absolute
to the finger and the spleen is pricked and extended but without heaviness and it comes sooner When vulgar Physitians understand not these two tumours of both Liver and Spleen how blindly do they go to work with thousands of Juleps and they protract the cure that they may be largely rewarded and when they have done more hurt then good they affirm it to be a Schirrus and from Galen incurable But they are very ignorant for this cloudy wind fixed on the bowel in time by the natural heat somentations fasting an extenuating and hot diet given by women and Empericks being discussed the humour vanisheth and the pain also and the foolish Doctors contemned I exhort therefore the ingenious that love their honour and the truth to search narrowly and learn to know Symptoms from those of other diseases It is hard but excellent For many Patients as ready to dye for pain cry out only from wind which if corrupted and come from a putrid and venomous matter and run through the members with intolerable pain needs an exact Artist to know the wind and the matter producing it and distinguish the disease from others To this belongs the Tympany Dropsie when wind gets into the membranes of the belly with pain and so into the spaces Hippocrates Aph. 2. Sect. 4. speaks of this thus They that have pain about the Navel and Loyns that will not be cured by medicines will have a dry Dropsie There are three sorts of Dropsies Anasarca Ascites and Tympanides which Hippocrates calls the dry Dropsie Anasarca is a preternatural increase of the bulk of the body here the feet swell first at night chiefly after exercise or when they have long hung down they pit with the finger the body is all soft loose and pale weak and tired with the least pains it is like the Green-sickness in women only the Dropsie swells the body but in the other there is paleness and trembling of the heart in motion and shortness of wind going up stairs and the body is heavy and sluggish The cause is the same in both too much cooling of the Liver and Veins The Liver cooled the sanguification is hurt then comes crude and watry blood which taken into the hollow vein goes over all the body and there is Anasarca and if the water from the Liver stretch the skin without there will be bladders If these break the water gets into that part of the Peritonaeum which is by the lower belly and then there is the second kind of Dropsie called Ascites With this by degrees the belly is filled and it swells unmeasurably the skin being loosned and the rest of the body pines away If the body or the belly be turned the water makes a noise But in a Tympany there is no fluctuation of water but the sound of a drum when you strike or fillip the belly with your finger For Galen aph 12. sect 4. saith in these the air is beaten which is contained by the skin as in this kind of disease the wind is struck by the skin which is below Cold of the bowels and veins is cause of all these Dropsies The Ascites or watry Dropsie is from more cold the Tympany from less for water cannot be turned to wind without heat Great thirst follows all chiefly Ascites and Tympany the first because the water is salt and putrefied that is detained and the other because there is seldom wind alone in the belly without water which putrefies also the wind takes away the moisture of the stomach and then it is dry and desires drink This is thirst the desire of moist and cold or both In externals we see that though the Earth be very wet with rain yet when wind comes it dryes it wonderfully in a short time and consumes the moisture The same is done in the body for one in a Tympany hath a thirst beyond Tantalus the more he drinks the more he may and to satisfie the enemy in his bowels he destroys himself with much drink Also they in the Colick thirst from the same cause Also wind swells the Cods and the Womb it gets by invisible passages into the cavity of them or after Child-birth by the Orifice of the womb or after bathing or fomenting or it breeds there from some other cause and there is straitned and so it stretcheth the womb If the stretching be in the upper part of the womb by force of the wind sent thither it ascends and goes to the Midriff and stomach and lyes like a ball there and oppresseth it Hence it is often driven down by the hands or fists or by other solid bodies into its proper place But if either side of the womb be distended or stretcht more then the rest it gets by a Convulsion into the right or left Croyn the Pecten and the lower belly are blown up and pained sometimes a noise is heard all over the body there is belching and swelling of the Loyns and pain in the Reins and Hips and when the belly is smitten with the fingers there is a sound like a drum and the wind breaks forth at the mouth of the womb Soranus said this was called a flatuous cold As wind gets into the womb of a woman so it gets into the Cods of a man with a disease or without and is a disease by it self I have seen in a Tympany the Cods of a man swollen as big as a Hogs bladder For the wind which at first was only in the membranes of the Abdomen and Peritonaeum being now increased and requiring great space breaks them and gets into the Cods and fills also the whole body Wind also extends the Cods without a disease in man and chiefly new born children and makes the Hernia called Pneumatocele or windy Rupture Sometimes it gets within the common membrane of the stones and puffs up all the Cods alike but when it gets between the tunicles of either stone called Erythroides and Dartos then one side of the Cod is only tumified This tumour is transparent and not heavy as that of You may try it in the dark with a Wax-candle held on the part opposite to your view Priapismus a Symptom of the Yard hath two causes one is the fulness of the Arteries of the Privities the other is wind bred in the fistulous Nerve This fills the Nerve so that it swells and makes the Yard stand without a venereous desire Galen meth med 12. saith there is another kind of Priapism when the Yard extends against desire For the Nerve that makes the proper substance of the Yard being hollow and filled with wind causeth it So Priapism is a permanent enlargement of the Yard in length and thickness without desire of Venery and wind is the cause as appears by its quick rise and sudden fall which no humour could make But Palpitation goes before this Priapism of wind but not before that which is from the dilatation of the Artery We have shewed how wind fills the internal
the native heat through the body concoct humours and make the members active for their duties loofens the belly and sends forth wind so powerfully that there is no remedy like it and nothing safer nor better then seasonable exercise with a spare diet Eat therefore little and that with mustard or other attenuating and heating sauce except the constitution be sanguine or cholerick Sage Hysop Savory Fennel Marjoram Pennyroyal Calamints are to be used and roasted meat with Spices Sage or Rosemary Let his bread be well leavened and with Fennel Anise Parsley or Gith seeds His Wine strong when wind breeds from weak heat If the body be cholerick or plethorick drink little wine and that with water Let the powders following be taken after meat presently they do very much good They strengthen and constringe the stomach and suffer not the vapours of the food to flye into the head stir up the natural heat quicken concoction digest the Chyle drive excrements downwards and discuss wind exceedingly As Take Aniseeds candied three ounces Fennel seed an ounce and half Coriander prepared an ounce Cummin Caraway Seseli steept in white Wine each a dram dryed Citron peel gross Cinnamon each four scruples white Sugar twice as much Take a spoonful after meat and drink not after Or thus Take Coriander prepared Caraway Aniseeds each an ounce red Roses Mastich each a dram and half dryed Mints a dram Nutmeg Cinnamon Cubebs each half a dram make a fine Powder and add Sugar of Roses eight ounces give a spoonful after meat At night when concoction is almost finished chew Elicampane candied or Ginger a dram and swallow it or Gentian roots or Masterwort candied Cubebs or two or three grains of white Pepper only broken they wonderfully help a slow weak concoction and expel wind and they do the like in the morning fasting after going to stool If the belly be bound give Lenitives as three drams of Turpentine washed in white Wine in Wafers before dinner or half a dram of Rhubarb chewed and swallowed or a scruple of washed Aloes an hour afore supper or Carthamus seeds husked with Figs I allow not Cassia it is windy Thus much for Diet if it be tedious and do not cure take these medicines CHAP. XIII Of the common Cure of windy Diseases SOme will wonder that I shall order the cure of Symptoms mentioned which of themselves admit no Cure But we do it for the profit of the Reader For he that discusseth wind takes away the cause he that corrects the distemper and mends the faults in conformation and restores the solution of unity cures the disease But he that cures the pains that come from the diseases looks at the Symptoms Therefore we have called windy Diseases Symptoms looking at the pains they produce for the better method and then we have ordered the mitigation of Symptoms and the Cure of Diseases The knowledge of the disease gives the indication of cure The disease is the distraction of the parts by wind that stretcheth them which pain doth follow as a shadow and the disease vanisheth with the cause and the parts come to their old natural habit Therefore diseases from wind are to be cured by three sorts of remedies 1. By diet that is attenuating hot and dry 2. By medicines that open obstructions and cut gross clammy matter and purge which you shall find in every Chapter 3. The discussing of wind speedily before the strength abate by pain which is done by medicines of thin parts which if there be pain will abate it and strengthen the weak heat and extenuate the thick spirit and open the thickness of parts Also according to the difference of parts the medicines must be altered because the faculty is stronger or weaker CHAP. XIV Of the Cure of the Pain of the Head from Wind. WInd tyranizeth in divers places as Galen de compos med secund loc lib. 2. saith wind breeds in the stomach and guts for want of heat sometimes from the nature of the food and the organs are so filled and puffed up by reason of the weakness of the comprehensive faculty that they stretch and thereby have pain the same may be in parts of the head for a vapour or clammy humour that feeds it may be so fixed in the strait passages of the Brain that it will require a long cure First therefore whether it be wind alone in the passages which is known from the motion of the pain from place to place and by stretching without heaviness and beating or if there be much flegm that feeds it and so there is heaviness with stretching and sense of cold or if it flye to the head from parts below it is much concerned as to the cure Yet we begin in all windy diseases the same way partly by revelling from the head to the body partly by applying remedies to the part affected we revel by Clysters and Purges You may make Clysters thus Take Mallows Mercury red Coleworts Calaminth each half a handful Chamomil flowers Bran each a pugil Boil them to a pint and half add Diacatholicon red Sugar each an ounce and half Species Hierae simple two drams Oyl of Dill three ounces Salt a little make a Clyster Give it before meat not luke-warm for such things puff up but hot and that by degrees lest by force it drive the wind more upwards and cause more pain This is an excellent medicine which without trouble opens obstructions and empties out the hard dung and wind and draws it from the head After this give one of the Carminatives or Wind-breakers Take Althaea roots two ounces Mallows Calamints Pennyroyal Rue Sage each a handful flowers of Chamomil Stoechas Rosemary each a pugil Anise and wild Rue seeds and Cubebs each three drams Coloquintida a dram Boil them to a pint strained add Electuary of Dates an ounce Hiera Logodii two drams red Sugar an ounce and half Oyl of Rue three ounces Sal Gem a dram give it before meat It revels strongly from the head expels wind with the excrements But if the Piles or distast will not allow a Clyster give this Laxative in Costiveness Take Diacatholicon an ounce species Hierae simple a dram with Sugar make a Bolus or a Potion Take Lenitive Electuary six drams Electuary of the juyce of Roses a dram Syrup of Rose solutive an ounce and half dissolve them in the decoction of Flowers and Cordial Fruits After Laxatives if the head be full of gross humours give potions that attenuate and cut of Hysop Pennyroyal Calamints Sage French Lavender and Rosemary-flowers with Syrup of Stoechas Honey of Rosemary Or Take Hysop Sage Calamints each a handful flowers of Stoechas Rosemary Chamomil each a pugil male Piony-seeds an ounce Anise Carrot Parsley-seeds each two drams Boil and to a pint strained add Syrup of Stoechas Honey of Rosemary each an ounce and half Cinnamon a dram make an Apozem for divers draughts The humours thus prepared and the wind attenuated at least
purge with these pills Take Pilulae aureae a dram Troches of Alhandal three grains with Syrup of Stoechas make five Pills give them at midnight Or thus Take Agarick two drams Sal Gem Ginger Turbith each half a dram infuse them in Hysop and Sage-water each two ounces strain and add Elect Ind. Maj. two drams Electuary of juyce of Roses a dram Syrup of Stoechas an ounce This done often and the pain cease not let us use Topicks as Galen lib. de compos med sec loc saith sometimes wind or clammy matter is sometimes so fixed in strait passages that it requires long Cure Therefore it must be attenuated and the part dilated and the part strengthened that no more come or breed Therefore after preparatives and purges use cupping to the head without bleeding if blood abound not or scarifie the shoulders if blood abound This is very good Or roast a Turnep and take off the top and apply it hot behind the Ears and then another and so till the wind and pain pass away apply it to the side of the part pained or to both if the pain be all over This is good also for the Toothach from wind Or use Castor or Scents that pierce and extenuate or Gith-seed steept in Vinegar or anoint the Nostrils and Ears with Oyl of Castor or Spike or Oyl in which were boiled Castor Rue Calaminths Piony-seeds Then use Masticatories to take away the reliques and discuss the wind Take Mastich Pellitory-roots white Pepper bark of Capar-roots each half a dram with Vinegar of Squills make Troches to be chewed after a stool in the morning Or Take Roots of Pellitory Stavesacre each two scruples Nutmeg Ginger white Pepper each half a scruple Mastich two drams with Vinegar make Balls or discuss wind and evacuate with Neesings Take white Hellebore two scruples and half Stavesacre white Pepper each a scruple Ginger Cloves Gith seed each half a scruple with Turpentine and Wax make Errbines like great Cloves Or snuff up the juyce of red Coleworts or Danwort roots Orris with Marjoram or Bettony-water and Honey When we think the Brain is cleansed then dry and strengthen and discuss wind with a Lixivium As Galen lib. 7. de facult natural it is made of water and ashes one pound of ashes to three pints of water take most ashes of Willows and Vines and fewer of Colewort and Bean stalks This cleanseth dryes and consumes wind and tumours of flegm with Marjoram Bettony Asarabacca Bay and Juniper-berries and Rosemary boiled in it Or Take Wormwood Sage dryed Rosemary each a pugil Frankincense Milium parched red Roses dry Chamomil flowers each two drams Juniper-berries and Piony seeds each a dram Cloves long Pepper Cubebs Wood Aloes each a scruple make a Quilt of Silk Then give Diacyminum Diatrionpeperion Diacalaminth or Confection of Bay-berries fasting chiefly if the wind be cold or from a cold cause But if it be hot as Galen lib. 2. de compos med sec loc first repel with cold things then mitigate and concoct with Repellers then discuss with few Repellers by degrees ceasing from them till the medicine be most digestive and attenuating and less anodyne and then discuss Vinegar is a repeller attenuater and a discussive it is cold and thin like a clear North-wind but it must not be used along being too strong but with Oyl of Roses Purslane juyce or Nightshade or use Oyl of Roses with the White of an Egg and Vinegar with Stuphes to the Forehead CHAP. XV. Of the Cure of the Noise in the Ears from Wind. IF wind gets into the Organof Hearing and sticks there strongly as by the ringing hissing rustling cracking and murmur is gathered after general and particular evacuations as in the Chapter before use Cutters and Dryers to the Ears as Oyl of bitter Almonds of Castor Cummin Rue Spike with Vinegar and Honey if you will more discuss and attenuate Aetius saith Castor and Spike Oyls with Vinegar and Oyl of Roses do wonders dropt into the Ears and juyce of Leeks with Breast-milk or Oyl of Roses Or Take Nitre Mirrh each a dram white Hellebore half a dram Castor a scruple grinde them with Oyl of Roses and Vinegar and drop it in But first sume with a Funnel evening and morning with this Decoction Take Calamints Marjoram Centaury the less Rosemary each a handful Juniper-berries a pugil Bayes and Wormwood each half a handful Lupines ten or twelve Earth worms washed in Wine and tyed in a Clout half a pugil Water one part white Wine two parts boil and keep it for a Fume then drop in the former Or this of Solenander and stop with black Wool Take Oyl two ounces Oyl of Leeks bitter Almonds each an ounce juyce of Rue Radish each half an ounce Sack an ounce and half boil them in a glass till the Wine and the juyces be almost consumed Then add powder of Lavender Coloquintida Castor and Mastich each two grains Then stop the glass and set it three hours in Balneo then set it in another vessel in the Sun till it be clear then strain it add a grain and half of Musk. While the Fume is used chew Beans or Pease to open the passages of the Ears that the Fume may penetrate Or thus Take juyce of Garlick Calamints each an ounce Aqua vitae Oyl of Bayes and bitter Almonds each half an ounce Aloes Mirrh each a scruple Saffron four grains make a fine Powder fill two great hollow Onions therewith cover them and roast them under the Embers and strain out the juyce drop often some into the Ears chiefly morning and evening after fuming Also Wine with flowers of Chamomil and Lavender boiled therein discusseth wind very well if dropt hot into the Ears and often or a Bag made of the same and Rosemary and Lavender flowers Wormwood and Calamints and quilted and applyed after the Fume and Oyntment for all night lying upon it all the time of the use of these use Clysters that are gentle at seasons to keep the belly open lest the binding in of the excrements should heap up more new matter to cause the disease CHAP. XVI Of the Cure of the Toothach from Wind. WE shewed that wind would move very swiftly and in a moment go through the thickest bodies it is no wonder then if it get into the Nerves under the Teeth and cause intolerable pains by stretching and by its coldness Therefore the Cure is to being with common Evacuations by emollient Clysters As Take Diacatholicon an ounce and half red Sugar an ounce Oyl of Dill and of Chamomil each an ounce and half Salt a dram dissolve them in the common Decoction for Clysters a pint If after the excrements are discharged you desire to dissolve more the thickness of the wind and revel make this Take Rue French Lavender Beets Centaury the less each a handful flowers of Elder St. Johns-wort Chamomil each a pugil Bay-berries Cummin seed each half an ounce Agarick Senna each half an ounce
boil them and to a pint add Electuary Ind. maj Hiera Logodii each four drams Honey of Roses two ounces Oyl of Bayes three ounces Electuary of Bayes two drams make a Clyster If they will not take Clysters give Pills of washed Aloes of Hiera aureae Cochic after preparation and abatement of pain But if pain be great and the matter small omit preparation and evacuation and fall upon that which most disturbeth therefore asswage pain speedily apply a small Cupping-glass without much flame twice or thrice to the shoulder then take Gith Cummin seed Pellitory and Parsley roots each half an ounce boil them in Wine to the consumption of half wash the teeth with it hot it will discuss and attenuate and amend the cold distemper and draw out much slimy matter which breeds wind Or boil Pellitory roots half an ounce white Pepper a dram in Vinegar and wash the mouth therewith or you may make a Bag and apply it to the Tooth thus Take Calamints Hysop Chamomil each a handful Milium parched Bran Salt each a pugil Cummin half an ounce make a Bag. Then put a red hot Iron into an earthen Jug and pour into it three or four spoonfuls of Vinegar and let the Bag take the Fume at the mouth of the Jug The Women hold it for a great Secret to apply a roasted Turnep behind the Ears for it revels strongly and abates pain to my knowledge I never allowed Narcoticks in this Disease for they thicken the wind too much and make it fix like a cloud upon the Nerves and roots of the Teeth and congealing makes a little ease but increaseth the Disease But if the pain be intolerable to refresh Nature you must use Narcoticks with hot things to abate their force and look both at the Symptom and cause Thus Take Pellitory Pepper each a scruple Opium half a scruple bind them in a Clout and infuse them two or three hours in Vinegar and apply it to the Tooth Or Take Henbane seed Stavesacre and Pellitory each a scruple and with Vinegar make a Pill hold it at the Tooth for an hour it abates pain wonderfully and doth no hurt yet I could wish that only Discussers might remove pain CHAP. XVII Of the Cure of a windy Pleurisie THe pain is great which is from wind in the side when it gets into the cavity of the Breast or between the Membranes that are under the Ribs for then as in a true Pleurisie there is a Cough restlesness and sometimes a Fever thirst and stretching pain which may be distinguished from a true Pleurisie by many signs yet Hippocrates for better security bids us soment with hot things and if the pain increase it is certainly from a defluxion and chiefly of hot matter if it abate it is from wind or a small defluxion which easily breaks forth when the skin is made thinner by the Fomentation It is not good to use Fomentations only but to give Clysters to make passage for the wind for in this disease the excrements are hard by idleness or driness when the moisture is gone to the veins or from much flegm that is gross which stops the passages therefore give a common Clyster first then a stronger to purget see the precedent Chapter If he will not take a Clyster give this Medicine Take Diacatholicon four drams Electuary of Dates two drams species Hierae s half a dram with Sugar make a Bole. Or give this Powder in Cock-broth or Wine Take Senna four scruples Rhubarb half a scruple Diagredium two grains Aromaticum rosatum eight grains Sugar a sufficient quantity After Evacuation open the Liver-vein on the side affected if there be much blood or great pain otherwise not then use Fomentations and the like to the part Take Calamints Pennyroyal Rosemary each one handful Rae Bayes each half a handful Juniper berries and Chamomil flowers each a pugil seeds of Foenugreek Line and Bran each three ounces Boil them to half then put the Liquour and Herbs in a Bladder and apply them or use a Cloth or a Sponge dipt in it do this often This concocts the thick and crude spirit extenuates and discusseth after this anoint with Oyl of Chamomil or bitter Almonds and apply a hot cloth Or make a Bag of Rue Thyme Wormwood Lavender Rosemary Chamomil Gith seed Cummin Carrot Bay-berries as in Chap. 16. When the wind is thus discussed it is good to apply a great Cupping-glass six fingers breadth below the part without Scarification but with a great flame twice or thrice this will discuss the wind easier it would not at first be discussed by a Cupping-glass If this will not do but the wind is bred still from clammy flegm prepare it thus by Inciders and Extenuaters Take roots of Orris Parsley Elicampane each an ounce bark of Dwarf-elder roots and of Tamarisk each four drams Sage Rosemary Hysop Roman Wormwood each half a handful Dodder a handful of the four great hot Seeds each two drams Raisons stoned a pugil Liquorish four drams boil them to half to a pint strained add Syrup of the five Roots two ounces of French Lavender Oxymel of Squills each an ounce and Sugar and a dram and half of Cinnamon make an Apozem for four draughts to be taken twice a day Then purge flegm thus Take Agarick four scruples Ginger half a dram infuse them in Fennel-water and white Wine twelve hours strain and add Benedicta laxativa three drams Electuary of the juyce of Roses half a dram Syrup of Calamints an ounce Or Take Turbith a dram Ginger half a dram Sugar two drams give it in powder with white Wine or Broth. Afterwards repeat the Fomentations Oyntments and Cupping-glasses and use Diacyminum or Electuary of Bay-berries or this Confection Take Conserve of Borage flowers candied Elicampane each half an ounce species of Diacyminum Dianisi Bay-berries each a scruple Cinnamon half a scruple with Syrup of Citron peels make an Electuary give a dram fasting in a decoction of Chamomil flowers and Aniseeds in white Wine It is good also to foment with Spirit of Wine and Oyl of bitter Almonds and apply a hot clout You must do the like in inflations of the Lungs CHAP. XVIII Of the Cure of a windy Palpitation A Palpitation is a Symptom of the Heart namely an elevation and depression of it preternaturally caused by wind and it is more dangerous then another palpitation because the part is most noble For if it be strong or last long it so weakens the vital faculty that it turns to fainting or sudden death Therefore presently strengthen the Heart with good Diet and Physick discuss wind and remove the cause Let the air be clear hot and dry not stinking or cloudy make it so by art if it be not naturally clear and sweet by sweet cordial things Let him abstain from strong passions of mind chiefly from sudden fear and shamefulness and from much Wine but moderate doth well and Venery and sleep in the day cold
there is a gross clammy flegm with a cold distemper which oppresseth the heat and it laboureth to conquer it and so causeth wind that stretcheth and is disturbant This pain is allayed by belching or vomiting flegm It is worst after meat when it is only from a cold distemper without matter For the natural heat being weak or oppressed with cold or windy meats doth dissolve them but yielding to the burthen doth not concoct them and thence ariseth wind For the Cure of this the first intention is to evacuate what is preternatural The second is with thin and hot medicines that extenuate wind to abate it and after good diet the first thing is to keep the belly loose by a Lenitive or a Suppository then if there be gross flegm at the bottom of the stomach vomit with Oxymel of Squills or the decoction of Radish Dill Arrage sometimes before sometimes after supper as the Patient is easie or hard to vomit As Take Radish two ounces stamp them add Mead or decoction of Dill strain and drink it warm for luke-warm things provoke Vomit by relaxing Or Take Dill seed Radish seed each an ounce and half Agarick a dram in Powder Boil them in water to half to six ounces strained add Syrup of Vinegar or Oxymel of Squills if the matter be very thick an ounce then give and tickle the throat with a feather If by straitness of breast or the like he cannot vomit prepare the flegm with Honey of Roses Oxymel Syrup of Stoechas and the Decoction of Rue Pennyroyal Calamints Hysop Organ great hot Seeds and purge flegm with Pil. aureae of Hiera with Agarick or simple Hiera Electuary Indi major Benedicta laxativa or the like after flegm is purged use to chew Ginger or Elicampane candied but chiefly roots of Masterwort to which I give the Prerogative in this disease Then use Diatrionpipereon Diacalaminth Dianisum Diacinamomum Electuary of Bay-berries Mithridate Treacle or the Powder of Cummin with a little Salt and Chicken Broth or Wine or Chamomil boiled in Wine with Anise Cummin Nutmeg and Oyl of sweet Almonds I suppose there is no Remedy like it also Castor half a dram Cloves half a scruple drunk in Wine or Poli montane in Wine or Oxymel or Vinegar of Squills which cuts vehemently given an ounce twice in a day in Wine Aegineta saith that the bone of a Hogs foot burnt and drunk discusseth wind Also Cinnamon water of Mathiolus alone or with Aqua vitae or Sack with Cinnamon Galangal or Wine with Rosemary Carrot seed Cummin Caraway Bay and Juniper-berries or give this Hippocras to dainty palates Take Sugar four ounces Cubebs Grains of Paradise Galangal Ginger each a dram long Pepper half a dram Cinnamon four drams Sack two pints strain them But remember to use very hot things very seldom whether simple or compound before the gross flegm be purged or vomited For all sharp things or that are very hot if they fall upon clammy flegm do raise wind which they cannot discuss and instead of Cure will do hurt and that which is good after purging is bad before Beware then you use not too weak Remedies that cannot overcome or too strong out of order and so cast the Patient into a Tympany It is good outwardly to bind the stomach strait to hinder wind and further concoction and to foment the stomach with Oyl with Rue Calamints Rosemary Cummin Anise Smallage Carrot seed Bay-berries boiled in it or boil them in Wine and foment or use Oyl of Mace or Cloves These by their thinness open the skin and extenuate discuss the wind and strengthen and warm and restore the suffocated heat and refresh by a propriety of substance You may make of these an excellent Oyntment thus Take Oyl of Mace by expression six drams Oyl of Wormwood Mastich each four drams Wood Aloes Nutmeg Cubebs Cloves each half a dram Musk Benzoin Saffron each six grains Make a Powder and with Wax make an Oyntment anoint with it hot before meat after the former Fomentation and Oyntment apply a Bag of Feathers or this Take Organ Wormwood Mints each half a handful Milium Aniseeds parched each half an ounce Chamomil Lavender Rosemary flowers each a pugil Bay-berries a dram Nutmeg half a dram Powder them grosly and quilt them in thin red Silk sprinkle Wine on it and apply it hot to the stomach Also a large Cupping-glass applied three or four times without Scarification to the belly so that it may comprehend the Navel doth often make a perfect Cure Or a hot Tile in a double cloth wet in Wine changing it when cold Thus much of the inflation of the stomach CHAP. XX. Of the Cure of windy Melancholy THis is hard to be cured for divers causes For besides the vehement obstruction of the Meseraicks with gross crude Melancholy and flegm which constantly send up wind there is a great distemper of the bowels Hence come great accidents namely stoppage of excrements from a hot Liver that drys and sucks up the moisture difficult breathing from the stomach swollen and pressing the Midriff pain of stomach from wind that stretcheth and a cold distemper belchings vomitings and putrefaction from obstruction in time by the venomous vapours whereof the Soul fainteth and there is a doting This inequality of parts hath contrary indications for Cure For the heat of the Liver requires cooling and the cold of the stomach heating And it is plain that the medicines that cut gross humours and extenuate and prepare and evacuate and discuss wind must be very hot and hot things increase the heat of the Liver and the veins and heat abounding disperseth what is thin in the humours and thickens the rest and fixeth it more and makes more wind from that humour On the contrary cold things by congealing to thicken the matter stop the passages and abate the natural heat of the stomach hinder concoction cause crudities and wind Therefore the only way is to cure by moderate Preparatives and Purges and because moderation doth little good in so great a disease it is very hard to be cured But let not difficulty frighten but begin valiantly with this Clyster Take Polypody roots Senna each an ounce Mallows Pellitory Beets red Coleworts each a handful Chamomil flowers a pugil Aniseeds six drams boil them to half to a pint strained add Diacatholicon and red Sugar each an ounce Oyl of Dill two ounces with a little Salt make a Clyster Or give this Potion Take Senna four drams Agarick a dram Ginger and Asarum roots each half a dram Infuse them twelve hours in Succory water then boil them with Aniseeds bruised to four ounces strained add two ounces of Manna Syrup of Roses an ounce Or if he be poor Confectio Hamec Electuary of Dates each a dram Syrup of Roses an ounce give it in the morning The next day if there be no hindrance open the Basilica on the right side or on the left if the Spleen be stopt to five
and apply it Or this Take Cow-dung two pound Sulphur Cummin each three ounces with Honey make a Cataplasm I have cured many Children by often heating them against the fire and with dry Fomentations with hot clouts often applied CHAP. XXVII Of Priapismus taken out of Aetius I Shall add nothing of mine own because I never cured this disease and none writes shorter and better of it as Galen lib. 4. meth saith He saith that Priapismus is a standing of the Yard swelling in length and breadth without lust from heat and wind with pain It is called Priapismus from Priapus the Satyre who is painted with such a Yard as natural It is from the mouths of the Veins and Arteries stretched in the Privities or from wind Galen saith it is from both but oftnest from the Orifices dilated Some have it from want of Venery having much seed and that used Venery and abstain from it and do not by much exercise abate the blood It chiefly comes to such as dream of Venereal fancies and the pain is like the Cramp for the Yard is as in a Convulsion being pufft up and stretched and they dye suddenly except cured and then the belly is swollen and there is a cold sweat as in other Convulsions when they dye Therefore against the pain and inflammation presently open a Vein and use a small Diet three days and foment the parts about and the Yard with Wool dipt in Wine and Oyl give a gentle Clyster not sharp and feed him with a little Corn and Water If it last long cup and scarifie if there be much blood use Leeches to the part and Cataplasms of Barley flour loosen the belly with Beets Mallows and Mercury boiled And give the Decoction of Shell-fish use no strong Purges and beware of Diureticks or provokers of urine Use Corn-food that attenuates gently without manifest heating Lay Coolers to the Loyns as Nightshade Purslane Housleek Henbane Let the space between the Fundament and the Yard be cooled with Litharge of Silver Fullers Earth Ceruss Vinegar and Water A Cerot of Rose-Oyntment washed often in cold Water and applied to the Loyns and Privities doth much good He must lye upon one side and lay under him things against the emission of Sperm And he must see no Venereal pictures nor hear no wanton discourse CHAP. XXVIII Of an Inflation or windy Impostume INflations come from Wind under the skin or the Membranes of the Bones or Muscles or gathered in fleshy parts Now as Aegineta saith it is either from the thickness of the members or grossness of the wind A gross vapour distends the place that contains it by its plenty and makes a tumour not such as is loose or will yield to the finger when pressed or pit like an Oedema The common way of Cure of these tumors is to evacuate what is preternatural wheresoever contained Now it cannot be evacuated except that which is gross be relaxed and the thickness of the vapour be extenuated Both are done by Extenuaters and things potentially hot I have shewed that Oyl which is of an extenuating quality wherein Rue or hot Seeds are boiled doth cure the stomach and other bowels stretched by wind Now I shall shew how other parts as Joynts and Muscles or Membranes about the Bones are cured when stretched with wind This is sometimes with pain sometimes without and that from a single cause namely a weak heat or a contusion For an inflation without pain according to Galen lib. 4. meth a Lixivium with a new Sponge will cure it As Take Rain-water or Wine let Ashes of a Fig-tree or Juniper be infused therein twenty four hours Or thus Take Bay-berries Orris roots each an ounce Bay leaves Rosemary Nip each a handful Lavender flowers a pugil Cummin six drams Boil them in Water to half in four pints infuse ashes of Fig-tree Beans or Coleworts foment therewith with a new Sponge hot It cleanseth drys consumes and discusseth wind and the tumour If there be pain use no Lixivium for by sharpness it will increase it but use relaxing Oyls as that of Dill Rue or Chamomil If Diseases come from Contusions when the Muscle or the Membrane of the Bone is bruised then lay the Sponge aforesaid upon the Membrane of the Bone But when the Muscles are pained use a more mitigating or asswaging Remedy To these we use not Lixivium alone but add to it boiled Wine and Oyl It is best at the first to use no Lixivium but Wine and a little Vinegar and Oyl with Wooll to foment the part And if pain be great use more Abaters or Asswagers of it If there be no pain oppose the Inflation by stronger Medicines as Lixivium Vinegar and then Wine And when you are not to asswage pain put in more Lixivium and Vinegar For such Inflations as by neglect are worse first use things made of a Lixivium then some Plaister such as that which is made of Sweat from mens bodies But the use of that being forgotten in our Age we order instead of it the Plaister of Bay-berries or this Take Melilot Plaister and that of Bay-berries each three drams Nitre Cummin Sulphur unslak'd Lime Salt each a scruple Oyl of Bayes and Wax as much as will make a Plaister If the wind that makes this Inflation be smoak-like evil and corrupt and from a venomous matter with great pain and heat running through the members it is best when it is setled to tye the part above and beneath and to open the Inflation with a Lancet or hot Iron that the venomous vapor may get out Then fill the Orifice with Aloes and Bole Armenick dissolved in Oyl of Roses and Vinegar After three or four days fill the wound with flesh and heal it up And in this case of a venomous Inflation use a slender diet and purge and give a little Treacle sometimes HItherto Courteous Reader I have shewed according to my abilities the Nature and Effects of Winds and the Diseases from them and their Cures for the good of the Ignorant and help of the Diseased and that learned and ingenious persons may take occasion from hence to write better Therefore take it in good part for it was written for profit to all not for contention If you accept of these first fruits expect better hereafter The CONTENTS of the Chapters of this Book CHap. 1. That Flatus is a Spirit and of the Division of Spirits Fol. 1 Chap. 2. Of the Analogy or Proportion of Flatus with Wind. 4 Chap. 3. What the Wind in Man is 9 Chap. 4. Of the Place where Wind is bred 10 Chap. 5. Of the Manner how Wind is bred in the Body 13 Chap. 6. Of the Differences of Wind bred in the Body 16 Chap. 7. How many Kinds of Diseases are produced by Wind. 18 Chap. 8. Of the Causes of Wind. 21 Chap. 9. Of the Signs of Wind. 30 Chap. 10. Of the Symptoms coming from Wind 33 Chap. 11. Of the Prognosticks of Wind. 52 Chap.