yet such a quantity as is not ad vasa as if Satiation were the Usher of diseases corruption and mortality which I suppose differeth very much from the sence of Galen that is to prescribe a pondus or streight weight and measure of nutriment to all tempers and such a weight not to be exceeded upon any occasion But if hee be understood to speake only to men in religious Orders and such as impoverish their bodies to elevate their mindes to pious thoughts and exercises then his Twelve ounces will bee better understood and little blamed but in a physicall sence cannot stand with the principles of art For Hippocrates and Galen both will tell him diseases are cured by contrarieties Inanition by fasting must bee cured by repletion in feeding and this inanition may bee extreame or not extreame and then no constant Pondus ought to be observed But if I understand those Worthies then thus I explicate their doctrine in this point and so will leave the Iefuite to his owne order As for the quality of aliment that it be Homogeneall pleasant and familiar to humane constitutions and tempers not only in generall but also to every individuall is a point that the Ancients were strict observers of and not without much discretion For the judgement of a Phisitian is most seene in his election of aliment in quality answering the temper of the body For though a disease must be cured by his contrary yet the temper of the body must be preserved by its own Simile as heate by heate and moisture by moisture but the degree whether more or lesse intense is judicated by nature and to be ordered by the Phisitian But this is a paradox to vulgar practicers who argue falsely upon a true ground for when Hippocrates saith Contraria contrarijs curantur they like an ignorant Iury will runne altogether upon contraries both in curing and also in nourishing according to my Simile making no difference betweene honesty and dishonesty or contrary and contrary 'T is true contrary remedies must be and are most rationally administred in affects of the body because a crooked sticke must bee bent as farre the other way to make it streight according to Aristotle But if contraries shall bee adhibited to a harmonious temper 't is the cause of discord and conflict in Nature As for example In a hot and moist temper to use a cold and dry dyet Therefore it appeareth plainly that the quality of aliment ought to bee most observed But for Quantity that is left to the free choice of Nature because naturall choice is never ultra capacitatem recipientis But to speake more fully to Lessius who in a religious way disputeth principally for temperance yet so severely that I must tell him as a Phisitian the Fathers of our Art preferre excesse so it be not in the highest degree of excesse before such temperance and of two evils the least For they lay it downe Canonically that all affects of plenitude or fulnesse are safer for the body then diseases of emptinesse And I apprehend much reason and variety of reasons in this axiome First because universall evacuation is sooner effected then repletion Secondly because accidents of various formes cannot be avoided for they are infinite and the least affliction falling upon an extenuate or lessiate body for want of a sufficiencie of excrementitious humours to move in giveth not only a dangerous assault to the radicall spirits but without sudden resistance of art must tyrannise nature before enfeebled and kept under cannot of it selfe resist to expell it Which meere resistance of nature or labour to expell noxious humours doth beget a Feaver and that only ex conatu natura according to Christophorus à vega naturall heate is fired and not otherwise by the ascent of putrid fuliginous vapours to the heart or if medicine be adhibited yet such a body must suffer from both and life be shortned Contrarily where there is a sufficient quantity of excrementitious humours for diseases to involve themselves in there are they reteyned with lesse danger or oppression to the radicall spirits and removed by medicine with as little offence as I shall demonstrate more Philosophically in this manner Alberius amongst other Philosophers doth constitute a twofold moisture in mixt bodies One which he calleth Humidum continuans and from this continuating humidity proceedeth an unction of parts for otherwise they would bee altogether dry and consequently disunited But there is no naturall body void of this humidity though never so hard or dry but hath a sufficient moisture to conjoyne their parts together inter se and every Alchymist proveth this truth by practice and daily extracting oyle out of the hardest and dryest bodies Therefore this humidity is rightly nominated by some Phisitians Oleaginosum Humidum oylie humidity consisting of ayrie and aqueous moisture The other humidity is Humidum quasi nutriens as it were the nourishing moisture and this is a watrish humidity in the mixt body nothing advantagious to the continuation of parts and is easily resolved because of its tenuity so is not the oleaginous because of its crassitude So that where a proportion of excrementitious humours by reason of a severe dyet is wanting in the body of man both disease and medicine must needs bee more powerfull over the fixed moisture and heate which is the ligament of life Contrarily where there is a second moisture to entertaine either effect or medicine doth lesse harme But I intend no controversie with Lessius therefore I will returne to my proper subject and shew how every temper may be preserved void of all distempers or such as arise out of the materiall principles of nature by the true use of wine and also pove it to be an excellent remedy applyed according to proper judication and may prove specificall in diseases of every nature arising out of the aforesaid principles passing as dilucidly and briefly as may bee through all the parts of this discourse Curiositie hath newly conceived and will now suffer abortion if a taste of this promised juyce be not suddenly presented whose nature and excellency is encomiastick sufficient so transcending all other nutriment as that just Noah makes it the first act of his husbandry and planted a Vineyard before either corne or any other graine as is affirmed by sacred testimony The reason if I should presume to offer Ne Sutor ultra crepidam I must expect from divines and justly if I should adventure to explicate any text of holy writ without qualification yet will I not so inthrall my fancy or suffocate such motions as may bee advantagious to a rationall man without prying into the Arke as not only to take notice of this plantation to be the first act of husbandry but especially of his age which was Nine hundred and fifty His age extended Twenty yeares beyond Adam in whom the principles of Nature were most firme and pure And no reason can argue otherwise but that in course of
is the innate or sixt spirit in power and accordingly all the functions in a corporall Republique administred which by sence and reason are plainly comprehended so that the excellency of this fluent heate is not only admirable but also of absolute necessitie And if such a cause may be admitted as we call causa sine qua non then this may be so accepted for without this mutuall commerce of fluent and innate heate all bodily actions are stayed and quiet These being then the prime existence and subsistence of humane nature and powerfull agents both in conformation and nutrition their Spheare of motion may be more or lesse adaptated by externall meanes either homogeneall or heterogeneall For tempers then in generall there is no such aliment no such medicament as Wine For the smallest wine is a truer pabulum to the fluent spirit then egges or milke sucked from any creature they all laying some burthen upon Nature to concoct and in concoction there must be some expence both of fluent and radicall heate and by so much is mans life shortened But Wine is so pure in its owne nature that it receiveth a sudden mutation and in this very alteration addeth light and heate to the fore-named principles and it is as oyle to those naturall lampes therefore to bee preferred in my opinion Fernelius seemeth to favour my reason where hee saith that diseases that are cold admit of a safer remedy or cure then hot distempers because contraria contrarijs curantur and thus regularly applying to the cold affect wee foment and maintaine naturall heate Contrarily in taking away praeternaturall heate in the other naturall heate doth either suffer or is extinguished but both in cold and hot affects Wine rightly applyed and upon true judication is the excellent and inoffensive remedie That it is a remedy and such a remedy I shall thus indeavour to prove If it were by the ancient Phisitians given as a wholsome and safe remedy in Feavers then is it a remedie in hot diseases but so it hath beene applyed by the Ancients as is before shewed Againe if it hath beene also by the same authority affirmed and adhibited in cold affects Then 't is a proved remedy in both And if wee take along with us the specificall difference of Wine then we shall soone observe this remedy to bee regular according to the Rule of contrariety For Wine as it is naturally apperient it openeth obstruction and oppilation is the next cause of putrefaction and putrefaction of Feavers so that opening being contrary to oppilation Wine being opening is a true contrary remedy per se in obstruction and per accidens in the putrid Feavers Now let me descend to particular affects of each kind hot and cold and in either of these prove Wine to bee a specificall remedy agreed upon by counsels aswell as the foresaid Fathers beginning with a Iew that laboured with melancholy his temper hot and dry from a vitious praedominion over the bloud his body leane colour black ill disposed to sleepe prompt to all actions prone to anger of an excellent wit and discourse but at this time mute and hath beene so for Six dayes his temper thus agreed upon with his distemper in a counsell of Doctors they come now to six upon two wayes of cure the one being of humectation the other opening obstruction and in respect of both Wine is concluded a proper remedy Another great consultation was had about one of the Chanons of Rome labouring with a Feaver whether or no Wine might be prescribed About this point was much controversie and at last concluded and adhibited the remedie For in all this consult I read of no other medicament In the next place I present a young Gentle-woman epilepticall or labouring with the falling sicknesse her temper hot and moist and so concluded in counsell for they found her body fat and fleshie In this case they determined Wine to be most convenient for the attenuation of humours and to be administred as a specificall remedy This also was agreed upon in a burning Feaver for a young Spaniard in a great distillation pro Episcopo Lucensi in various affects and distempers pro Aloysio Fos Careno in vertigine proceeding from a cold and moist distemper of the braine pro Cive Lucensi against all affects of the kidnies and bladder pro Magnifico Contareno with many others which were easie to produce were it not prolix Enough being spoken to prove Wine in all tempers to bee proper aliment and in all distempers as proper medicament concluded by Fathers and Councels in medicine thus farre have I urged Wine in its owne simple nature not but that I take notice of medicate Wines and their excellencies in distempers above simple wine So I passe to every age and sexe and shew how it is to bee used as aliment and at what times Humane bodies are not only obnoxious daily to affects of ayre dyet exercise passions of the mind c. but also from our implanted and internall heate which by little and little doth dry up and demolish our originall humidity which ariseth out of it selfe and doth so depopulate and waste it as that it doth bring upon it many mutations which are conscribed with certaine periods and conversions of ages For every Animall newly sprung ex semine sanguine as it were compounded of its prime humidity is most humid in whom all parts aswell bones and cartilages as flesh are soft tender and fluxible which by progression in age doth stiffen dry wither and consume In like manner are the mutations and vicissitudes of temperaments faculties humours distempers and manners Therefore age is but a course and space in which the constitution of the body by it selfe is perspicuously altered and changed Six notable differences of ages with their temperaments are to bee observed The first is Child-age which from the birth is extended to the foureteenth or fifteenth yeare and this hot and moist and is more hot then ripe and juvenall age by reason of fixt not fluent heate for by how much neerer it is to its originall by so much the more doth it participate of innate heate Contrarily by how much it doth recede from its first Principles by so much is this innate heate exhausted And this first age one of the Ancients divideth into foure orders viz. Infancy Dentity and another betweene this and ripe age and then puberity it selfe which also comes in fitly and opportunely to bee discoursed because 't is the second age in the order of Nature This age of puberity beginneth at the Fifteenth yeare and is extended to the Eighteenth and is lesse moist and more hot The third age is adolescency beginneth at the Eighteenth yeare and is extended to Twenty five and of a middle temper The fourth age is juvenile or flourishing yong age which beginneth at the Five and twentieth yeare and extends to Thirty five and in comparison with the next foregoing age is of a temper hot and
either White Claret or Rhenish in their order observing the seasons with the inclination of celestiall orbes and the measure Iuventus being more hot and dry must also apply himselfe to these forenamed Wines somewhat more dilute which is easily effected by water Virile age holds out a cup of more rich Claret from 35 to 49. and goeth out with a draught of the smallest Sacke Which Senectus makes stronger by addition of Aligants and the richest Sacks and Muscadine and continueth them unto the last period of life Thus have I now applied it generally to every age and briefly cleered my proposition As for the Sex male or female betweene these I shall make no difference of temper Nor doe I give eare to some that make foule stirre de Lana Caprina or to prove divers temperaments of Sexes and that the procreation of women is more in the left then in the right side Ergo they must bee more cold and more weake But whatsoever they fancy this is only to bee observed without any further dispute That temperaments are not conflate out of heate more obtuse or vehement but depend on the perfusion and consent of the foure Elements Therefore having distinctly discoursed of temperaments I have also included Sexes As for the manner of using this subject Thus it is as followeth Hitherto I have taught the nature and use of Wine both Philosophically and medically and how familiar a nutriment it is to man and still say it must bee so both in respect of its substance and forme else I understand not Aristotle his alimentum simile and dissimile For although all aliment of what substance soever must receive forme of heate before it bee converted into bloud by which it doth nourish both fluent and fixt heate in us Yet such nor so apt is any substance for forme to sanguifie or nourish as Wine and if it be possible it will augment innate heate and moisture For 't is oyle not water that augments the flame a proportion observed else it puts it out so that it is the true Nectar by the use whereof Principles of life are augmented naturall humours multiplied spirits refreshed strength restored care expelled and bodies in youthfulnesse conserved To conclude 't is all in all to a naturall body For although in generall aliment is said to bee liquid airie and solid yet 't is humidity that nourisheth For medicament also I have proved it proper The Arabian Phisicians are of opinion that to take this liquor once every moneth in such a quantitie as shall be approved by the learned Phisicians is wholsome Phisicke it doth much recreate the Animal faculties reconcile sleep provoke urine and sweat dissolve superfluities and they affirme it to cure the Quartane with other diseases circumstances conducing to the profitable use of it after this manner which circumstances I obscure because I am desirous to entertaine time with substance only Custome is to be mentioned as somewhat substantiall for it over-ruleth the rest and the time generally most fit to receive Wine is with meate and then such Wine as best fitteth the temper of the Individuall But those that meane to use this subject rightly must not be without their Phisitian or out of their view for let their temper or distemper bee what it will so it be not some fatall stroke or wound by the wisdome of the Phisitian and his skill they may sinsibly perceive the prolongation of their life and by this meanes which is so pleasant to universall Nature The Chymist his best Rhetorick is exercised about the pleasantnesse of his extract smalnesse of quantitie But here I present a taste for pleasure beyond all mineralls forsafetie 't is incomparable either with them or Vegetals Excesse in this may be more easily repaired nor is the offence in nature of so great moment Now because there will be some difficultie in getting true naturall Wine without sophistication therefore I should thinke it fit were it so pleasing to Authority whereunto I humbly submit that as it hath beene heretofore with us and is still in other Countryes Apothecaries might have libertie to sell it and so by the direction of the Phisitian to make many medicate Wines fitted and in readinesse upon all occasions But that I may draw to a conclusion I will briefly lay downe or rather take up two maine objections one moved by Galen the other from the sacred Scripture apprehended erroniously both indeed at the first view or blast will seeme to shake both my foundation and edifice also Galen after all his ratiocination is raised out of his Urne and presents to me in his Commentary upon the Aphorismes these words Wine debilitateth as Venus and Frambesarius makes bold with his doctrine and delivereth it for a truth and in these words Vinum Venusque nocent eodem modo The objection I confesse is instar omnium and very materiall whether hee be taken to speake of the use or excesse of Wine In the first sence it doth oppose all that I have formerly taught and proved in the last a fit opposition to Avicenna Rhasis and Averrohes they advising wine once a moneth usque ad obrietatem Now if Galen bee not understood to speake of excesse then as I have said before neither Wine nor Venery can hurt debilitate and weaken the body for both rightly used are profitable the one to preserve the individual the other to propagate the species and venus as well as vinum both exhilarate the minde cheare the spirits refrigerate the body and cause sleepe So that at the first view Galen doth seeme to speake of excesse only or principally But that I may reconcile him with the Arabian Phisitians my part is now to explicate and render him in his owne proper sence and meaning This exception is not so much or principally against the quantity as the qualitie and misapplication both in respect of time and temper As when the quality of wine exceedeth in strength the temper of the body to which it is given and at a time unseasonable as upon a fasting stomacke and then to exercise the act of Venery intemperatly upon it and in this sence is Galen to bee conceived chiefly But I apprehend Plato and Ambrosius in another sence meerely distasting the nimium ebriety and intoxication in a voluptuous way and to speake truth after such manner abused 't is poyson both to mind and body inflameth the bloud debilitateth the nerves vexeth the head and to bee short is worse then any poyson For this cause Moses not only calleth it Venenum but the poyson of Dragons which admitteth of no cure Therefore Wine in this manner taken and according to this sence is more detestable for the strongest poyson of Animalls or minerals can but vulnerate the flesh but wine is powerfull to wound the soule Yet such is my candid censure of those Arabian Princes in Medicine that they never used it after this manner themselves or advised it in a voluptuous way to others