concerning wounds of the Ventricle worke the same effects to keepe in darkenesse such truths by their onely power holding backe such happy attempts in the like misfortunes which perchance the strength of nature in such neglect by Fistulous closings hath labour'd to make manifest Have not many griefes contrary to expectation even of the most learned arrived unto happy successe in healthfull conclusions which then passing the test of a serious examination the errours have beene found to arise from the meere censure and allowance of some learned Physitions without any mention History or memory of their experience to affirme such deliveries for â—â—â—truth on whose precepts and by whose example posterity hath also rear'd to future times their workes but further and more chiefly to let passe this kind of search when I consider the infinite mercies of God in such and the like miraculous Recoveries and how apt and willing nature is to preserve the prerogatives of health inviolate from the hurt and invasion of Diseases and being wounded with any griefe how provident she is to keep her selfe from greater evills and laborious to free her fabricke from the present affliction I cannot then so much wonder at as not to beleeve such great workes of nature made able by divine Providence and assisted by Art as this fore-going Treatise maketh mention of and experience witnesseth Cap. 2. Wherein some things of notable regard are discourst of very pertinent to this matter with a necessary digression AMongst many considerations in these Cases the diligent and expert hand of the skilfull Physition in whose knowledge lives that depth is required in dangerous causes is to bee provided to direct the will and power of nature to benevolent uses and to let her hurtfull and unnecessary promptnesse otherwise in her owne bounty she would destroy the good intended as in many desperate solutions through want of knowledge in the Physitian shee doth since the heaping of so many fluxions together is but a suddaine and aboundant freedome in nature to send all aides thither to redeeme the distrest member or part to a naturall quiet and proportion which concourse of humours are converted to greater burthenings and oppressions for it would bee vaine to thinke malignity of humours lurking in the body are altogether the immediate and sole causes of those bad symptomes are frequent with profound and perillous solutions since they are of different natures some begotten from actuall emptyings and some proceeding from naturall repletions and accidentall rottennes neither doe I condemne that opinion since the sharpenesse of some inflamations farre exceed others which must proceed from a violent malignity of humours in the bloud Note which being thrust out of the bowells of conserving heat alter into Pus and beget the souler putrifaction for it is a notable signe that if after a digestive alteration of those heapings paine and induration continue A necessary digression that there is a bad constitution to be handled and therefore the greater evacuations to bee presumed necessary I will a little digresse Since thereby a laudable pulling backe from the member afflicted is brought to passe by bleeding and purifying of the bloud by purgings is effected for in all the duties and intentions of healing the aboundance and bad qualities of bloud is very carefully to be respected and hindred for without such effectuall corrections there will bee but vile healing of wounds of small danger and none produced in divisions of perill and profundity because bloud is the Author of healing being directed and assisted by and with the skill method and medicine of 〈◊〉 expert Physitians I meane in parts to bee united and derived from bloud and yet with great care must this be done since some bodies cannot to the precepts of Physicke forsake their ordinary diet or bee strictly kept and handled as the Rules of Art would enforce without perill as in its proper Chapter shall bee showne Thus much briefly touching the excellency of nature in will and power the Art and skill of the Physitian to bring such wounds within the lists of possibility and Cure in guiding that Will and Power and the necessities of generall and particular evacuations urged from the cause appearing or threatned Chap. 3. Wherein is toucht some other considerations concerning this matter OVr next consideration must reflect upon the part which we must examine to know if it be so necessary to life as not totally in some functions or a portion of their functions to be spared without dissolving of the whole frame and here indeed are some questions concerning the present occasion to bee answered Some may obiect that in such wounds there must be a ruine of nutrimentall matter and substance partly produced through the visible griefe of what was and should bee united and partly by deprivation of the vertue faculties of the stomacke since parts of grosser composition and much lesse use to life suffer under such and the like causes of the same effects Stronger reasons being added to the former since in this Treatise we must consider that the Incision was made by the hand of the expert Physition with large premediations where when and how to bring his attempts to good event the Patient having much time before drunke a balsamicke Oyle thereby to infuse a quality of healing into the part and to enable the member against this suffering which in other wounds accidentally given we cannot alledge These causes and helpes to encourage us to proceed and strengthen our hopes and that such balsamickâ— Oyles and medicines would in time of the wound being administred enlarge fever through disturbance and their owne power in heate by provoking vomits not easily by an able and unhurt stomacke to be digested but by adding its owne flame to that is kindled in the veines by the griefe â—ive a second and more dangerous fire unto the evill To this may be replyed Cap. 4. Wherein is gathered part of a full Answer to the Objects in the former with some pertinent additions THough the duties of the Ventricle bee altogether necessary to maintaine life Nota. and strength by the elimentall fuell yet such a quantity may keepe the fire of life yet glowing and for much time although the strength decay in some measure or bee largely exhausted by such wants of supply To assure this the heate of the stomacke by which the digestion is wrought both actually and potentially in the first alteration is derived from the Heart Liver Arteries Veines c. and Muscles of the abdomen as from the Fountaines Channel 's and seates of all heat and spiriâ—â— by whose fire that excellent change of what we receive is potentially perfected and actually by the Omentum and Muscles of the belly keeping the Ventricle warme and defending it from the outward oppressions of cold Now the stomack being hurt by solution of ioynd parts is not so aboundantly deprived of this heate being not in it selfe or but a small portion of
is if in the noble parts or parts serving yet equally dangerous or other waies or whether the griefe hath implanted it selfe in one more or in all parts serving by its owne proper quality and venime as in pestilent Fevers c. or accidentally The second needfull enquiry is of the Cause whether that hath power from the defects and want of nature in it selfe or by accident and disorder The naturall failings are either spermaticall or age parentally conferr'd or by the common Devourer Time out of which Causes are thrust forth many branches to the Iudicious most evident The accidentall are innumerable and from different meanes the disquiets by disorder are likewise many but commonly our owne The third quaere is the strength and estate of the afflicted body totally as in Fever c. from one Cause or totally from accident as in Symptomes or member simply without accidents or els compositively with or partly as in Apostumes c. or totally as in Sphacelus or corruption of the whole flesh and bone in all which we must carefully consider whether the body or member be of ability to assist a medicine of force able to root out the evill by concocting it without trouble or languishing underits violence or no or else to endure the assaults and rage of the distemper till it selfe by paroxysmes and those commen evacuations in their endings ensue shall wast it selfe and not eate up the treasury of strength or no These circumstances are so needfull that without their knowledge we cannot promise to the sicke any hope of their recovery being never so apparent but the Physitian shall be puzled with many varieties which will shift his reason into a labyrinth of idle doubts neither can he if hee bee ignorant of these advise himselfe by the Index of nature whether it be safe to attempt Ex irpare aut morbum palliare haec enim opera in verâ causae et virum consideratione constant et indicata sunt The Histories he hath numbred related of many that have lived without some principall part in some measure supporting the throne of life I cannot altogether so fit to my beleefe as to conclude them worth repetition yet of this anon What he mentions to happen by Disease carrieth some shew of possibility History In my knowledge a man suffering under lues venerea had Os frontis by the cruelty of the Disease perforated like a spunge out of which issued abundance of malignant quitture by fits ejected as the Arteries upon his breathing were fill'd with aire History After his Decease his Cranium being dissected it was manifest that the braine was notably consumed and totally infected also a Greeke woman dwelling in Scio of the age of twenty sixe yeares having for thirty moneths expectorated a rotten stinking purulent matter after her decease her Thorax being open'd her Lungs were almost wasted her Liver dryed up for assuredly from the Liver that quantity even to admiration of matter is violently pull'd into the corrupted capacities of the Lungs and se ejected by which it commeth to passe the body doth so suddenly extenuate for it may be presumed the Arteries in the want of those moyst dewes which engirt their tunicle may let loose the vitall bloud which may sweat through their Coates and he diffused into the fouldings of the Lungs which being empty of naturall humidity to quench their flame and thereby made hot by them without remedy this exhausting of Radicke moysture must follow which by the pestilence of the sicke member suddenly alter'd intomalignity the function of the breast as readily exonerates There is often made a cista out of the pannicular enclosings of the Lungs or brest fill'd with this matter or corruption which having there a place of receipt and in some measure by conversion into so vile a quality continually vexeth with a sharpe and violent cough together with ejection of that filth which cough and expectoration miserably extenuating and disturbing the body ceaseth not untill that Bagge be separated partly by rottennesse in its owne root or uniting and partly by violence of the breast in its unvoluntary motion thereby dis-uniting it and till then is ever without remedy this to many happens Yet that the heart should so be spent I cannot relish a consent to beleeve it since all other parts as it were from a necessity depend upon it but the heart hath no necessary derivation but from it selfe the Liver Lungs and Ventricle c. ordained to serve as all Creatures doewait in their duties the occasions of man But whereas he reports of some that have lived without a Liver or Spleene from their birth is most fabulous can a substance bee begotten of nothing or can a thing be without its matter no more can these bodies of ours be without Livers they being the well springs of bloud and the food of all members the Liver is the Aliment of the heart and the food of that vitall fire the dewes of the braine and the milke of the fleshy members articulations and bones but if without a Liver without a Spleene Object since that is occasion'd in nature by the Liver What may be objected that other Creatures have being without Livers Reply as some Fishes Wormes c. I answer they are gotten from their like next the aire in which man breaths requires heate and moysture as the Liver is possest of which the earth and waters hold not in an agreeable mixture Next Creatures of base birth as Flyes Maggots Spiders c. as they are rais'd from a corrupt matter so they end and have necessity of no part and indeed that Women have lived without a wombe caryeth some shape of trâ—th and cannot want a reason since it onely serves for conception being the seat and is the utmost Gate of the naturall purgings some never have them by a hot and dry intemperature of the Liver by which they are consumed for out of the superfluities of the Liver they are begotten and by their naturall moysture c. many are barren and seeme to have no use of it for an eye eare or other the like member may challenge as great need to be as it but not with such danger wounded because the Matrix hath affinity with sensible parts and is made of them in the following Section he speaketh of medicinable Herbes boyld in his broth which I will adde to this Chapter Excellently was those medicamentall Herbes boyled with his alimentall broth being both sustenance and medicine by which nature not onely receives a medicinall quality to finish the evill but also a nourishment to the enfeebled body so necessary to both that without it the wound had beene more perillous in two notable respects â— Respect First what is in the shape of medicine our will doth naturally loath and although in our knowledge we conclude a necessity of the receipt yet our affect ous hurt with a kind of aâ—horring makes what is administred most ungratefull and lesse
of Histories yet relates none that men may dye of Anger the truth is to be suspected The passion of Anger and the rest are simp'e passions not mixt with any other as guilt is which is mingled both with feare and anger and therefore cannot properly be call'd a passion but as the suddaine ebullition of the spirits causeth a drawing unto the heart by abundant heate which naturally attracts the spirits disperst into the Arteries and Veines in the service of the body so doth it as readily drive them out againe to execute what the mind in such rage shall either conceive to be a revenge a satistaction or remedy insomuch that the parts of the body not left destitute of heate for many minutes cannot perish by an Apopler unlesse the matter was prepar'd and lurking in the braine that labour'd under such a griefs which this short deprivation of heate may occasion as our Author affirmes Next feare is of a more killing nature since it is a distresse that liveth in the body for much time as the occasion shall enforce besides as it is properly seated in the heart which man sensibly seeleth although the animall spirits in the braine by their faculty through knowledge of the cause and event presents it and makes it available so it defuseth an evill seâ—nper into the bloud and naturall spirits quenching their vigour also procuring a vile alteration by extinction of the conserving flame of the body which at last forsaking the bloud leaves behind it an inveterate griefe which seiseth on nature by a kind of infiring in every member even to perishing but this is after some time Further sudden terrour of al the rest is most apt to bring forth such lamentable events for this passion not onely seiseth on the heart with a strong power of feare whereby as it were crushath it to pieces but by a necessary and furious calling backe the vitall spirits sent abroad into the channells of nature to its aide it threatneth a stifling in the proper Vessells of the heart Besides in arger there is a boyling of the arteriall bloud by which their quality of heate is maintayn'd which bursting forth meets the flowing of the spirits and thrusteth them backe to their seate duties and reviveth them by piercing through them but in this assaulf there is no such elaboration but a dulling even to insensibility without any quickning whereby followes a greater freezing of them in their fountaine and place of arrivall so that they returne not if in part they doe yet it is with an irrecoverable feeblenes Further scare hath its expectation and can Iudge of the conclusion which may a little refresh but in this there is neither not through reason but the passion afflicted and ruling in its extremity the differences thus farre open'd I leave it to the courteous and Iudicious Reader Moreover whereas our Author attributes but a successive power unto the care to beget such hurts or to make stight wounds difficult or mortall I thinke hee is in an errour concerning this poynt the passions of the mind effect without any materiall but I hope he will conclude the ears to be a subtill one since it is receiv'd into our veines and arteries and according to its impurities and corruption leaveth there its tincture and condition these pestiferous seasons are witnesses with the allo wance of all grave Writers besides many chronick evills with have beene cured by the onely benefit of the aire but of this enough Position 10. ALthough this Position admits of tents to the depth of profound wounds yet I conclude that it is not so strong an Argument as to be followed or approved but rather that the tents should not passe too farre or too much beyond the membrana carnosa The workes of nature are the safest and most acceptable in which amongst her examples of memory her defence from the hurts and oppressions of contraries are not a little to be admired I will not Muster up a Legion of Histories to repeate unto the wise her common labours but as our present occasion invites will onely search the truth of this position It is assuredly confest that to lodge in the confines of nature any thing that is contrary to her being must be an offence and a disease we must also consider that what is not of her must be offensive as we see by things violently carried into her bowells which hath and doth frequently so employ the skill and care of the Chyrurgions to draw forth or free nature of we may further know that what hath beene so left especially being either in bulke and forme terrible hath beene the cause of lamentable events even to destruction Then I would know by what Rule these times use the stuffings in of great Tents or dossells of toe into the broken members of the body to extend and wound the muscles and sensible parts by unnecessary dilations Doth the Artist seeke to extract offensive things by which onely nature is freed and will hee presume to thrust them or the like into her entrailes doth nature labour the dissolving of griefes and will the Surgeons hand produce dolor did the afflicted Patient suffer the paines of the wound in the receipt by Gun shot or the like violence the torment of incisions to enlarge the Orifices of the wounds the better to convey in Instruments for the pulling forth of what is against her will or sufferance there lodg'd and after all these endurings will the Physâ—tian cram in all bad evills as he drew forth in passing flannulas and Tents through and into the tender compositions of the members of our body whereby there is a writhing and punction of those parts of exquisite sence produc'd and no profit Object if they that affirme such Tents necessary should say that they cause healing from the bottom as they commonly dispute I reply Refutation a pretty Argument to make good an errour it is the providence of nature to effect the benefit of such healing since t is her labour from thence to expell in which Vertue with a sweet and unwonted heate without such Tents she doth perfectly the worke of Incarnation which imperfect heate must needs impediat Reason 1 and where there is paine such imperfect heate must consequently be what else is her common ejections of Apostumes even from the profoundest parts of her composition what else is her thrusting forth of bullets Arrow heads splinters lost in her fabricke to the hand of the Chirurgion and convaid through many secret waies in her frame and sent out to our amazement Is it not her duty in such hidden passages to enwrap those offensive materialls afflicting her in such measure with slimy compulsions in which as in a Coate Armour Reason 2 yet as if it were made of soft pillowes she cloathes them that their shape or substance being either sharpe or hard should not in her progresse with them to some convenient sinke of her emptyings or open and fit place to
we saw was some-what altered but not consumed for the seventh day after she had vâ—yded it againe 't was seene to be of a colour quite black not made so but by the internall heate nothing diminished And not unlike to this have wee noted something about our Rusticâ— for when for eleven daies the Iron knife had lurked in the Ventricle we saw it a little changed at the point as if it had sustained a kind of violence of the fire But who could beleeve that successively and in time this Metallick body might have beene consumed since rather the constitution of the stomack would have beene more weakned his heate faintned and the aforesaid reasons advised otherwise Therefore the excision of the â—niâ—â— was necessarily thought upon for such things as against nature are detained in the body reason adviseth and Galen faith that they must be removed Position 4. As the knife which was swallowed downe could not have bin consumed by nature so by her neither could it any way have bin evacuated And since its longer stay in the Ventricle might have inferred no little molestation and dammage it was by Section to be pulled out SOme one perhaps would deeme the excision to bee foolish if either its owne presence nothing troubled and endamaged or that even Nature her selfe at the last might have expelled it For it hath beene observed that many things for a long time and without danger have lurked in the nobler parts Lib. 5. Locor aff c. 1. Com. Thomas Rodericus Aveiga reports of an Hind that was found bearing of an Arrow she anciently had gotten from the Hunter infixed in her heart L. 4 Anat. c. 24. Out of Alexander Bened. the sequents are taken forth A certaine Graecian saith he Sâ—â—urus by name a man very well knowne to me was in the expugnation of Chalcis with an Arrow wounded about the Temples carried away Captive by the Turkes with his wound after a sort healed he lived a slave twenty yeares at last hee came free to Cydon and in five yeares after in summer time as he was washing his mouth with cold water unmeasurable sneezing being provoked great itching amongst extreame strivings there issued out of his Nostrills a piece of the Arrow of halfe a fingers length with an iron head and left not any skar How a little Pistoll-shot could for sixe Moneths without any harme lye lodged betwixt the Cranion and the Dura mater Observ Chiruâ—g 2. l 2 Lib 〈◊〉 c pâ—ax med admirab obs 5. Hildan hath left it written for posterity Zacutuâ— Lusitanus hath observed also an admirable example yea a kind of Prodigie in nature speaking of a Whore that had bin too long at the Ale-house and being drunke and in a scolding humour railed at every one shee met but behold she had from another man in the same pickle given her a deep wound on the top of the head with a knife that was very long and sharpe so that for many dayes without sence and motion she remained halfe dead at length with a great deale of paines she was cured and went abroad eight yeares after this being dead of a malignant feaver and in the Hospitall by the Anatomist dissected in the head where betwixt the Cranium and the Dura mater was found halfe the knife where-with before she was wounded all rusty she so long as she lived after her wound did doe her businesse about the house and felt not at any time any hurt in the Ruling or Animall faculties And to conclude even nature who is an admirable curer of her selfe doth at last frequently expell those things that against nature she participates by this meanes the knife whereof mention is made out of Hildan Pos 1. that was swallowed downe and for two yeares compleat lurking in the body in the end through an Abscesse made by nature excresced 5 Epidem Sect. 7. Hist 7. Cent. 2. Obs 74. c. c. 1. Obs 62. Lib. 5. pract part 4. c. 5. Hippocrates writes of an Arrowes head that was inflicted neare unto the Groins was the sixt yeare after drawne out The like may bee seene in Hildan as also in the most famous Sennertus Schenk and others Howbeit neither of these could have possibly gained any effect in this our Rusticke for first of all those examples that are more rare can inter no Rule where are many contraries or where but a piece of splinter infixed in the body might have inferred an irrecoverable dammage But if that the Iron had contracted rust within the Ventricle would not direfull Symptoms have thence followed for in the stomack very often there doe lurke sundry humours either salt or soure or sharpe which might have infected or corrupted a Minerall body and disposed the Iron to rust But whether in successe of Time through Abscesse or some other way it might by nature have beene expelled is not without cause called into question especially if wee regard the length and weight of the very knife and then examine the very place being membranous I say nothing of that small interspace of time which Nature exacted for the perfecting so great a worke which little time yet might have exceedingly troubled our Patient and easily disposed him unto melancholy Position the 5. The members of our body doe usually so imbibe the Balsamicke vertue of internall Remedies that they are very strong against growing diseases BIckerus will have the vertue of the food wee daily use to bee such as may be able to alter the Temperament of the body In Heâ—met rediviv p. 215. and after a manner induce its owne Card anus remembers as the same man reports that he saw Infants nourished by the milke of other Creatures especially of Goates in whom there was nothing in respect of the habit of the body wanting but that they had lost the strength of wit and as they grew in yeares became as it were stupid and blockish And indeed it is apparantly manifest that the very medicaments taken againe and againe and very often doe communicate their faculty to the body and the parts thereof and as it were impregnate the same For Nature out of the corporeall masse of the Medicament extracts a convenient iuyce and spirit where-with being furnished she endeavoureth to meet and resist a Disease that 's comming But although at first in a manner it doth not like our nature because it tasteth not the vertue of the Aliment wherewith shee 's more delighted but the medicament yet by little and little successively by continuall usage shee doth make the same so familiar to her selfe that we may see nature now as it were quite altered The Maid that was from her tender yeares nourished with Poyson by Napelli a King of the Indians shall be able to testifie asmuch by her example Historians doe declare of Mithridates King of Pontus that with the daily use of Mithridate he so strengthned his body against Poyson and so altered his Temper that poison could not doe
according as their imagination deceives them with gestures suitable and with some shew of order Or to avoyd the vicinity of hard and robusticke things since they are composed of such brittle metall as they are perswaded with a setled care to keepe themselves intire and from breaking it out of these vanities they are recovered the remembrance of these follyes is not wip't out unlesse that were also dulled by an inherent humour apt to be thickned by heate or coldnes which is not able to smother or freeze its spirit if their reason is onely distracted Cause they act things utterly dissonant to that faculty and what their imagination shall present their rage throwes into many wild expressions and yet they retaine a mischievous memory as also bad intents both to themselves and others which often times they will shadow with dissimulation which hath no affinity with their reason as it may appeare because it is mischievous without cause which reason must condemne these sort of people in their affliction suffered for many years and are sent as into the Hospitall of St. Are retired kept for their security They are difficult of cure because the functions of their understanding are ruin'd cannot labour with the physitions endeavours as it doth in such whose imagination onely suffers History worthy Master Burton in his Melancholy a worke worthy of honour from all posterity to this purpose makes mention of a certaine man that imagin'd himself dead and as his reason in manner yet safe instructed him that the departed had no need of nourishment he denyed all sustenance but was recover'd by presenting before him being for some time kept in darkenesse to make the sicke more apt men in Winding-sheets who meeâ—ing with delicates on purpose there plac'd fed he with some amazement demanding whether they deceast could feede his appetite without doubt assisting in this worke they replyed as he saw with hunger here his reasons tooke place for since they might eate he had as good reason to satisfie himselfe without violating the solitude of the grave and thereupon tasting food was restored to his health Who can deny his reason here to be notably efficient â— Goularâ— in his wonders of these latter times reports many such Histories if the reason and memory are destroyd they languish under a multitude of distractions because their want of memory enforceth them to wander through many and different apparitions Nota. for their memory causeth them longer to stay on some one peece of vanity expecting an event as is before spoken which other-waies they would suddenly loose Reason and give place to what ills the flame of their distempers shall fashion unto them but this doth not commonly happen Nota. These Hypocondriacall oppressions seldome assault the memory alone Reason since the impressions there lodged must be by the solid naturall coldnesse of the part received which constitution is able reprehensively to deny the encroachments of so had a Guest if it should at any time sinke under such burthens it loseth its vertues by an essentiall coldnesse in its a was seate for this is rarely done from any other cause since the imagination and reason living in more active compositions their making is more apt to receive such smoky fumes to make this plaine what receiveth a stampe or figure of any thing cannot be said to be liquid never easte though of a soft substance for Oyle and Water can bold no impressions Waxe c. is of a more compact body and able to beare its own substance without dilatation will so the Clouds embrace vapours when sollid things deny them for it is to bee understood that although the phantasie and understanding have a kind of mixture with their seates A necessary Observation and that portion of the Braine where they are lodged yet also we must conclude they have a peculiar division from that part in respect of their excellent spirits and although spermaticully infixed there yet naturally in themselves and as it were by neceâ—sity in their Offices that are quicke and subtill divided this is made manifest in regard these faculties can be hurt Why. and yet the part be safe but it is other waies with the memory since that hath a more reall and essentiall incorporation and hath a dependancy begotten of it in a manner Reason and from these dispositions their aptnesse to receive such evills is derived Symptome From the naturall Causes to which the fore-going Maladies have some relation these branches likewise issue a desire of solitude alway seeking suspitious retirements which a contempt of society unnaturall alterations of the visage gesture language which at last break out into a misbeleese of their soules estate and happy condition this humour is the Divells Throne in which he triumphs over the wounded conscience of a sinner in which hee delights to dwell when he presents them their transgressions as they are in Iudgement many dreadfull and remembred and not as they are in mercy wip't out and forgotten This incredulity and security are companions and both equally dangerous and they which are troubled with the first must hee gently and carefully intreated to settle such stormes in them but those that are poyson'd with the secure lethargy must be roughly yet wisely handled to a wake them out of their Diabolicall besottings First appearance Before this evill carrieth any outward shew either in their countenance or tongue there commonly precedes disquiet in their sleepes every slumber is accompanied or broken up with some dreames begotten from the melancholy vapours assault the braine passing through the meatus with the pretious dewes of rest the causes of these Visions which have commonly a satanicall confusion and if they beare any stampe in the memory they are horrible and full of featefull constructions working in their strength on the weake imagination of the sufferer are from the infirmities of the Spleene afflicted with a cold and flatuous disease And why which receiding the tincture of the naturall â—iposition of it suddenly ascend with the moystures of the latter digestion and beget these disorders this is in the beginning and infancy of this griefe Reason 2 For the pores of the body shut up in the times of sleepe and these steames denyed any other place and being stirred by the naturall heate made more hot by collection of the spirits into the brest and confines of their place of Creation as it were by enforcing ascend when rest iâ— dissolved and exercise ensuing thess are other wales disperit and spent and then the braine remaines undisturb'd untill the increase of this griefe in stubbornenesse and aboundance when it offends as hath beene formerly related The trosses in Estate or affection as they are accidentall from the cause so they are naturall by inclination and in their event For although such misfortunes may hee concluded the cause yet the disposition being melancholy urgeth the accident which is easily done in such inclinable constitutions
and continu'd yeelds them distastfull much more balsamick Oyles that carry neither to the eye pallat or our imagination a shape or tast to render them acceptable What our Author hath set downe viz. Ol. Com. Lib. S. Hiper Com. â„¥ 2. being put together and imbibed hath a very faint power to infuse a balsamicke vertue Whereas in this Position also he relates a History of a Girle fed with poyson by Napelly a King of the Indians what wee begin with in our Infancy being the spring and first buddings of nature may carry with it some successe in naturalizing contraries with our bodies since in the growth of things such endeavours may be made most effectuall by the necessity of increase through which the body accepts such intentions in the receipt as aliment and therefore is converted as wee may perceive in Plants whose colour and tast may be alter'd into the likenesse of others if as soone as the seed is sowne and that the earth hath swolne it with its moysture we observe convenient waterings with some mixtures needfull well knowne to the skilfull Gardiner which in the maturity of them cannot bee so in our full yeares when we are confirmed or neare confirmation when grouth of spermatick parts cease and the Collumes of the body the bones have arrived unto their proportion such conclusions must have a more able resisting even to denyall besides our reason and imagination which in such Cases pleades with our pallats To assure this where hee quotes Avicen who saith things accustomed cannot beget passion it is for his purpose in part consented to I meane Avicens intent not the words to confirme our Authors meaning that extends to all bodies without excepting constitution or other abilities which oftentimes doth compell a change But I thinke Avicen is to be understood in robusticke laborious natures in which accustomed things though never so grosse cannot beget distemper yet this hath a double cause from the use and pâ—wer made more able by labour yet I hope he will allow delicate bodies a change of dyet since they cannot submit in that to such custome besides change is the custome which they observe and then he will conclude such order cannot be broken without perill so that our Authors owne Argument denies his assertion for if change in such bodies is their custome assuredly their stomackes cannot continue one sort of food to nourish the body with quiet much lesse imbibe Oyles and such compositions a sufficient time to infuse qualities unlesse wee imagine that our Author would have nothing to doe in his Art but with such rustickes When hee cites Paule Averrhoes and Hippocrates in the alteration of Medicaments they witnesse against his Opinion especially if he meanes internall administrations as to imbibe a quality must be by such since such variety they onely ordayn'd to shun loathing Further in this Poâ—â—tion he hath worthily distinguisht betwixt preservative and curative remedies that since to keepe the body whole and without disease requireth a strict and in all an equall defence from the sixe things not naturall in their extreames viz Sleepâ— Watchfulnesse Sloth Exercise Fulnesse with its quality or Emptinesse Haec enim saâ—â—taâ—â—â— tuâ—â—dae praecepta sunt which Rules admit no alteration without perill also if any inclination be discern'd in the body â—ot yet of growth or being to offend the remedies that shall be administred either to corroborate remove or alter by humecting or desiccation by cooling or adding heate by relaxing or restriction or in all these a temperance intended as the cause shall instruct must not soddenly be alter'd or without an assur'd reason and great care for since one thing is to bee effected nature delighteth in one sort of remedy though altogether it be not so in dyet and untriment in whose society it rejoyceth and is mutually assisting partly in the long use since thereby it hath insinuated without disturbance into nature this affection being also assisted by a sensible reliefe and thereby made more acceptable likewise by reason the relish or pallate is by Disease depraved and so made apt to take what hath a different tast which must be maintained least by change it refuse all and grow weary of the choycest now though these orders seeme to maintaine our Authors argument in the drinking of balsamicke Oyles they no way assist in that case since the body being without a naturall Disease requireth not any such observations the evill the rusticke was afflicted with was accidentall and yet procuring no mutation in the body and in any such disasters by the infliction of a wound if the Physitian should then by balsamick Oyles seeke to endow the body with any such qualities since the Curative worke must suddenly ensue and breake up the order of preservative institutions Hee would condemne himselfe in the successe of a notable erroâ—â— the wound drinkes now in practise by the excellent Chirurgions of these dayes excepted which being nutrimentally employ'd are of wonderfull effect for which purpose all Chirurgions that use the Sea should carefully in a cleare dry aire and the shade prepare them for keeping and their use Mr. Doctor Râ—ade in his Lectures on wounds hath set downe the most efficient To end this in all preservative administrations if a dangerous necessity urge not the contrary the Physition must carefully observe both the constitution and pallat and so fit his prescriptions that they may be agreeable to the one and acceptable to the other For the Curative remedies the Disease must either deny or approve their continuance and use especially in inward griefes yet in such change we must not be rash but observing if nature be not disturb's with what is given or weakened without profit to waite and hope a successe for when nature shall accept a remedy if it bee administred by sound Iudgement it will also extract a vertue and efficient power out of it and positively employ it we must also note whether the remedy be proficient or no for it is not enough that it doth no hurt but it is of necessity if we intend a Cure that it be profitable for by such delayes the strength of nature may wast and suddenly vanish Besides as many miraculously contrary to expectation or Iudgement have bin healed by the continuance of a medicine so many thereby have suddenly perished for the Physition by no humane reason is able to know the secret workes of nature since without any visible or Iudiciall appearance it often bursteth out into violent execrations and either breaketh the unitings of stubborne and malignant Diseases or expireth Now when such good effects are the Physitian must not then omit the change of Medicaments to helpe any commondable Act of Natures â—o made able and endow'd in some other work if necessity command For topicall applications the eye is the most ready discerner and yet not alwaies to bee trusted but with Iudgement Cap. 3. Censure of the sixth Position IN this search I will not busie
furnished with innumerable Ideas of things to be gotten spreading into a many formed matter usually produceth in our body things to bee admired the reason of the causes whereof seemes not to bee much discovered every kind of Vessels every cavity likewise whatsoever the secretest part bringeth forth not onely stones of a various kind but also Mettalls Wormes and other little creatures horrible to see to which chiefly is observed in Steatomâ—taes Atheromataâ—s and the like Apostumes as witnesseth Galen when hee saith Lib. 2. ad Glaucum c. 7. If aâ— sometimes there shall continue humidities in any Accident of the body they have many fashioned alterations for oftentimes there are found to be contained in the Abscesses bodies like to stones Sand Shells pieces of Wood-coales Mud and the filth of a Bath Dreggs and Lees and many such like Howbeit usually either cast out or after death wee see many things found which exceed all naturall beginning and are supposed not produced in the body or into the same insinuated but by the Art and malice of the Divell for who will deny that the Divell hath great power yet is it limited and depends upon the pleasure of the most High and Omnipotent God since otherwise by his owne power he is not able to beget even a lowse the vilest creature But why God allowes him so great power and ability to hurt men because of sinnes committed in Divinity it is more than enough apparant With such a like History Gemma supplies us Lib. 2. Cosmog c. 4. for a certaine wench of Lovaine did by stoole first throw out a live Eele then by vomit aboundance of haires not to bee numbred and of a fingers length with a purulent matter like shat of putrefaction in which filth too there appeared pieces of wood and thin shavings of skinnes moreover the pieces of wood were so lively they seemed to bee chipps unequally chipt from old stumpes of Trees broken off after that there followed also a ramentosous vomit wherewith were secue issuing every day Coales indeed grownd very small and in a heape to the quantity of two or three pound and very often with such abundance of haires that a Wall-nut could not hold them by stoole likewise very many stones of a notable bignesse as also a chippe of Wood bigger and thicker than ones thumbe Moreover a Triangular bone solid without but within hollow spungious c. the generation of all these none will dare to refer them to the ranke of naturall causes for howbeit no man will be able to deny a generation of haires in divers parts of the body for so the Naturalists have observed a hairy heart a hairy tongue and that by Vrine haires have beene elected yet so great aboundance of haires fragments of wood and other things as abhorrent doe sufficiently declare that the Divills Art there was very strong Benevent Lib. De admirand moâ—bor caus reports that a certaine woman being possessed with a wicked spirit whiles shee was distracted with intollerable torments of the Ventricle and that the Physitians could bring no helpe of a sudden shee spewed up long and crooked nailes and brasse Needles bundled up toge ther with haire and waxe and last of all did cast up a piece of flesh at breakefast so great that even a Giants throat could not have swallowed it And so Langius reports of a certaine Husband-man Lib. 1. Epist me dic c. 38. who being strucke with cruell dolorous torments upon the left Hypochondrium suddenly catcht hold of an Iron naile that was under the skin unhurt which being extracted by the Balneator but the griefe still raging hee out of the weaknesse of his mind laid violent honds upon himselfe in whose Ventricle being opened were found a long round piece of wood foure steele knives partly pointed and partly with teeth like a Sawe and two Iron tooles each of them more than a span long Who would not affirme that these things were throwne in by the craft and subtlety of the Divell Who could say that Sorcery was not here The last summer likewise there came unto me a certaine Poland Souldier declaring how hee had beene for many yeares detained a Captive by the Muscovites and when to him and to other Captives too there was granted a regresse and dimission by the meanes of a most glorious peace obtained by the victorious Armes of our most August Uladislaus my exceeding Clement Lord there was for him and the others prepared by the Muscovites a potion which when it was exhausted they underwent most grievous paines and canciations in the bottome of the belly with his most unmeasurable vomitings and that there withall not without trouble hee had elected divers kinds of Newtes Now and then too that enemy of man-kind useth a kind of violence and hath thrust into the mouth many things to be devoured as the sequent History recorded by Rulandus doth informe Cenâ— 4. Cuâ—aâ— Empyric â—5 a certaine Girle of eighteene yeares of age one night returning home alone a certaine man all in blacke to wit the Divell overtooke and sate upon her tooke her by the lockes drew backe her head and stopt her nostrills where the wench being so handled with exclamation opened her mouth whereinto some what he enforced which as she endeavoured to relect by the lawes he repressed it to the Gullet that in spight of her teeth she might swallow it which done he leaveth her who presently waxeeth dumbe and being returned home remained so for eight dayes afterwards of her owne accord began to speake and for many daies did vomit up with very great and direfull torment things never to bee forgotten as needles pinnes divers kinds of nailes lockes of haire small pieces of mony buttons whole egge-shells thréeds knives and many other things which were reserved by the beholders and standers by and showne to me c. the like examples and of these and their manners how see more in the most famous Sennertus But the History of our Rustick Lib. 6. Pract. de morb occul 〈◊〉 1. part 9. we shall not bee able to reduce into the ranke of these for this immission of the knife into the mouth was voluntary a free and naturall tickling however the swallowing was unawares why because beside the knife there was found not any nor the least thing in the Ventricle But whether a melancholy imagination might have troubled him that wee must looke into Indeed it commonly happens that by reason of adust and melancholy bloud either begotten in the braine or of fume and exhalations from some other place trans-missed the mind is darkened the brain over-cast no otherwise than if they were evening night darknes which trouble terrifie the minds of them that are often in them whence it is that the reason waxeth blind and being enclosed with thicke clouds is deprived of her light and altogether up and downe erreth in her discourses and is deceived But as there is diversity of
him any hurt even then when 't was most desired for after that he had determined to dye rather by drinking off againe and againe a deadly and violent poyson wherewith his Daughters were slaine then to fall alive into the power of the Romans he sound not any poyson so powerfull as could kill him If Hellebore saith Smerius bee devoured by the she-Goate In Miscellan p. 177. and that it bee concocted and transformed in the stomacke then in the Liver and cast off all in the Teates and from thence transplanted into an other species neverthelesse there will remaine in the milke begotten of this Plant a purgative quality or operation That likewise is not to bee forgotten 〈◊〉 which Crato hath observed of one In Epist Medic. Schol. 16. that by the continuall use of Rhubarbe was not onely freed from the Dropsie but the rest of his members also were made more robust and by a kind of naturall Balsome extracted from the Rhubarbe corroborated and the complexion and all the functions of the whole body became againe to hée very good and he lived safe and sound without any infirmity untill he was old And when after that hee had inflicted upon his braine a deadly wound beyond the hope of Physitians and Chyrurgions he found a most happy cure Manderer promiseth of the Aloës In Aloedar Marocost c. 13. that if it bee often used yet in a due way 't is even of it selfe alone sufficient to maintaine our health and that it onely hath heretofore preserved many a mans faculties strength and health and prolong'd their age for many dayes and produced them a more free and liberall Progenie of yeares for that it driveth away saith he all kind of rottennesse as well in the living as in the dead that it vindicateth the humours from all corruptions and that it suffers not any thing to live or continue in man but that which may concerne his life and health Moreover if it with-drawes Catarches and defluxions that may fall into the ioynts so as witnesseth Mormannus a most famous Physitian those that will make a continuall and familiar use of Aloës may be secure from every Gout and Catarrhe Est enim in Aloë balsamicum quid dam balsamo nostro natuâ—â—â— admodum confine cunctos humores succosque siquidem naturales adhuc fuerint conservans prater naturales evacuans medios emendans universos putrifieri accorrumpi prohibens That is for there is in Aloës something of the Balsome somewhat neare unto our naturall Balsome preserving all humours and moistures if indeed they bee naturall evacuating those that are unnaturall beitering such as are indifferent not letting any of them to bee putrified or corrupted And for this cause Ioannes Hermannus a Physstian of Wittemberg frequently using the Pills of Aloës did successefully prolong his life unto the eightieth years as writeth Doring Lib. De Mith. pag. 149. 4. F. 1. c. 1. Nor need any feare that Nature loathes the accustomed operation of the things she takes because as Avicen saith a Passion cannot be made of things accustomed whence it is that Averchoës L 7. c. 2. L. 22. F. 3. Lâ—b 3. c. 78. Avicen Paul are of opinion with Hippocrates that in Diseases the remedies are so bee shifted and disswade the continuall and often using of one medicine But not unfitly may one distinguish betwixt Preservative and Curative remedies and that Preservatives are not to be altered since Nature out of the Remedy that 's familiar to her is so formed and so firmed that she can more easily drive away the slighter diseasing grudges but growing on and infesting the body more happily thrust them forth a doores as the alleadged examples â—â—e me to prove In Curation the matter 's otherwise for there especially if successe answereth not desire medicaments may bee varied but if the Physition perceive that any one does help who of a sound Iudgement would attempt to alter it Hence is that of Hippocrates to be observed Siquis omnia convenienter exactoque judicio faciat nec quit quam ea ratione efficiat tâ—men ad aliud non est progrediendum modo id maneat quod ineuntiâ—us remedijs visum est That is if a man doe all things conveniently and in an exact Iudgement and cannot that way effect any thing yet must he not passe on to some other so long as they seeme to be growing remedies For as we must not rashly persever in the use of remedies so neither must wee over hastily and presently goe from their use and in long diseases as teacheth Celius time Lib. 1. c. 2. as it maketh them so it taketh them away too we must not instantly condemne if any thing bee not quickly profitable the lesse indeed must we alter any thing if at last it helpe a little because 't is time that compleates the profit Yet it any thing doe not soone enough succeed it is lawfull for to try some other thing that 's like unto it according to that of Huldas 8. Pract. c. ult when a man hath beene too long a curing with one medicine and that it bootes not to passe over unto a contrary because perhaps the matter hereof agreeth not to such a Nature c. But as in all things else even so here must we yield something to custome and unto nature that by Nausea being provoked the malady bee not exasperated So then Iprescribe for that purpose this Baisamick potion â„ž olei olivar com Lib. ss Hyperici com Vnc. ij misce To bee administred before the Section so that Nature might imbibe a kind of vertue and efficacy to resist Symptoms that are growing on and to bee feared and to conglutinate the wound it selfe Nor did successe in this deceive our hope for the Patient not onely all the time of his Curation remained free from every kind of Symptome but also made a a little time serve to finish the Cure and indeed successefully Nature hasting to consolidate Position 6. As the Attractive quality of the Herculean stone is scarce perscrutable whereby even through a hinderance lying in the way it is able to exercise its faculty So whether the same being pulverized and mixed with other Medicaments it retaine the same power of attracting Iron is a thing that very worthily deserves iudgement and enquiry THere is in the Load-stone a kind of abstruse and hidden power which hath not onely drawne the wits of many into admiration but provoked them also to search into it But whether they all may have their wishing and desire satisfied to know is not without cause questioned For as Nature hath in her bosome many secret things which she will have no oftner to admire than to understand so there is something in the Load-stone that nature will have lye hid which humane understanding should hardly attaine unto as saith Boetius de Boot But leaving the Divine faculty wherewith it respects the Pole Tract De Gem. cap deingenete I thinke it good to
consider the Attractive onely wherewith it covets Iron All almost agree in this That the Load-stone draweth Iron but not in this which way it should come to passe and whether pulverized it might yet retaine any thing of the Attractive quality Some have dreamt of bodies that have beene made crooked by the Load stone like Hookes or things crooked at the end and that thes draw Iron to them Others have feigned of Atomes starting out from the Load-stone and insinuating into the pores of Iron and driving out the very Iron Many conceit that the drier the nature of the Load-stone is the more humid Iron it hath attracted Lib. 3. De natural fâ—cult Galens conceit was that the Load-stone by a kind of vivifying vertue and an inbred property drawes Iron as a convenient food for it selfe There are those that assigne the cause of Attraction to the similitudes of substance and Ioentity of principles Others say that Iron is so drawne by the Load-stone as matter is by the forme because since the more imperfect things desire their owne perfection It pleaseth some to say it is a secret Sympathy which in Naturalls deserveth not the meanest place Some latter Writers make account that Iron is not drawne to the Load-stone but moved as to its Matrix by whose hidden principiations it might bee perfected as the earth unto its Center The Paraceâ—sians then ke that there is a kind of Iron spirit that 's resident in the Load stone which they ghesse too drawes more strongly in an other body than in its owne none of these opinions can satiate the mind nor satisfie the desire to learne but for this time to discusse the same any further 't will not be worth the labour The most learned Cabeus in a famous Tractate of the Load-stone saith that the cause of the attractive vertue in the Load-stone is a quality of two kinds wherewith Iron is so disposed by the Load-stone that it can provoke the very same unto it selfe But is not a secret thing made manifest by a thing as secret for what is that quality what kind of ground doth it acknowledge is it manifest or hid is it a meere kind of disposition Exert 131 In good troth that of Scaliger is most true Nos in luce rerum tenui caligare in mediocricaecutire in majore caecos esse in maximâ insanire That is in the sparing light of things we are dim-sighted in the indifferent we ware blind in the greater are stark blind in the greatest stark mad What if we should affirme that there is a kind of sulphurous spirit endued with this hidden property which notwithstanding may have a very neare affinity with the spirit of Iron none shall deny that will now narrowly looke into the inward nature of Mineralls and Mefalls yea that will consider the excellent quality of the Actractive vertue whereof we shall speake hereafter but that there is a kind of Minerall vertue in the Load stone Indeed I call the same Sulphurous according to those principles of the Chymicks which we see are even very much in Mineralls for they appoint the power of drawing that it containe in it selfe as it were a glewish humor and something that is oyley yet of an exceeding subtlery But it sufficiently appeares by this that the Load-stone is full of sulphur because with the violence of fire this very sulphur may be drawne out and like a flame it can put it selfe forth which also being so drawne out Cabous teacheth that all the Attractive faculty doth perish Yea by its sulphurousnesse or a sulphurous and as it were vivid effluxion easily so qualifieth Iron as so gaine the like quality of attracting other Iron which would not follow if there were naturally onely a watry subtlety and Mercuriall liquor However it hath the vertue of Penetration not sufficiently to be extolled and expressed so that although shut up within never so thicke a Chest yet must it looke unto the North. And the Attractive faculty of the Load-stone as witnesseth Baptista Porta Lib. 7. Mag. natur c. 16. can no way bee included no way bee bolted out or restrained but that it must invincibly penetrate and so shew its power as if there were nothing in the way that could forbid it for the vertue of the Stone it is Planetary very subtle going through the hardest bodies and with no hinderance even whatsoever fore-stopped for it can as easily diffuse its faculty through the â—ollidest stone as through the thinnest aire Lib. 2. c. 6. p. 124. Be it saith Cabeus that some Iron toole touch not the Load-stone but must come neerer by foure fingers breadth so that betwixt the Iron and the Load-stone whatsoever body it be that lyes betwixt whether solid or subtle the Iron presently conceives from the Load-stone the Magneticke qualities and by such a nearenesse although it touch not the Load-stone it acquireth the Magnetick vertue whereby speedily it directs towards the Poles it drawes Iron to it selfe it hangs by it selfe in one word the Iron must be magneticall Lib. De arte Magnefia Th. 6. Another experiment is observed out of Sueickard Iron saith he underlayed with Corke let it floate in some Vessell which with the Load-stone outwardly applyed notwithstanding any impediment is instantly moved and as it were sensible of the price of a friend will without delay having left its place as desirous to insinuate it selfe into his embracement come to the brim of the Vessell You the whilst which way soever you shall please having applyed the Load-stone about the midst without the Vessell shall carry to and fro the needle that floates within whence may be made many most pleasant spectacles to bee seene The same Author prepounds a way how Iron may goe upon a Table P. 55. Lay saith hee a needle halfe upon the Table yet having first toucht the Basis of the needle upon one part or other of the Load-stone which being done under the Table apply the Load-stone to the place that is right against the Basis of the needle and presently with exceeding delight you shall see the needle erecting it selfe and as you shall guide it moving beneath the Table which if you but controvert you shall see it not goe upon the Basis but the point from which verefied experiments the Sympathy and Affinity of the Load-stone and the Iron at once may bee concluded There hee these that introduce here the Identity of substance and so indeed Iron should attract Iron but there is in Iron and there is in the Load-stone a peculiar Spirit both of them friendly using a familiarity betwixt themselves and conspiring The spirit of the Load-stone drawes Iron and the spirit of the Iron receives and suscepts this effluxion and so is endowed with that faculty and made likewise Magnetical This excellent vertue of Attraction as it is by all almost granted to bee in the Load-stone when 't is onfire so whether also being pulverized it can doe
a small bullet shot into his bowells out of a brasse Trunke could have escaped safe which yet we read in Valleriola did thus happen unto one Lib. 4. obs Med. 9. So doubtlesse where Nature plaies her part well and the faculties are firme there 's no wound to be reckoned of any danger according to Galen but where they are infirme 10. Meth. Med. or some other cause also shall molest nature quickly failes even about a slender wound Now long since Hippocrates hath witnessed as much in his boy Philias to whom from but the denundation of the bone in the fore-head a feaver happened which the lividnesse of the bone received and by and by after death it selfe Some-what not unlike this fell out here at Regiomont for but some few yeares agoe a young Student of an excellent to wardnesse was by an idle knave wounded to the very bone on the fore-head nigh the Coronall suture the fourth day he felt the accession of a feaver and with a Prognostick given the seventh day dyed The Captaine of a great Ship as witnesseth Hippocrates with the Anchor having bruised his sore-finger and the bone of his right hand an inflamation and Convulsion followed after and the thirteenth day he dyed Lib. 7. nat Hist c. 73. Lib. 3. enarrat Med. p. 444. Out of Pliny we have it that Q. Aemilius Lepidus of his great Toe being quashed at the entrance of his bed chamber gave up the Ghost It is evident out of Valleriol of Ludovicus Vives that famous man that of a small wound and altogether despicable received in the palme of his left hand scarce piercing the flesh next the skin with a Convulsion that suddainely arose dyed The like you may see in Hildan Cent. 1. Obs 21 5. Obs 2. c. Porest lib. 6. Obs Medic 49.50 Gemm lib. 1. Cosmocritic c. 6. Matth. quest meâ— 27. Sennelt tr 6 Pract. p. 371. About some foure yeares agoe and more a Noble-man L. Marshall of of the field not far from Mount-Royall in Borussee in a Duell had given him from another Nobleman likewise a very small wound in the Abdomem without hurting the Ventricle and intestines but he before a little halfe houre quite spent presently gave up the ghost A certaine other Electorall Courtier in some brabbles received a small wound in the Legs but forth-with expired Such mischances alack doe almost every day fall out but in the explication of their causes many seem to be at a stay There are those that ascribe the successe of the unlookt for events to the peculiar disposition of the Stars and that also an unlucky issue followes after the evill Aspect of the Planets but after the benigne Aspect like wise the like effect But since this cause is both Vniversall and very remote it may easily be hindred with those that are more neare whereas in dying particular causes may prevaile Others with Matth. say â—hat the cause is in the condition nature of the open Air when from the coldnesse thereof a wound may easily receive alteration Hippocrates Lib. 5. Aph. 20. and else-where saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the cold is a biting enemy unto Vlcers whereunto Galen 5. M. Med. 12. subscribes which in the wounds of the head is not to be thought unreasonable for for that cause as Paraeus at Paris the wounds of the head are observed to bee more mortall than at Avignon Lib. 9. Chirur. and on the contrary with us the wounds of the shins are slighter than with them For at Paris the aire is cold moist but at Avignon the heat thereof more intense whereby the humours made liquid flow more downe-wards For the like cause the wounds of the head at Bologna are esteemed mortall which at Rome though are very easily cured and on the contrary the small wounds of the Legs are scarce curable at Rome which at Bologna admit an easie consolidation as witnesse Bald. Rons d. Scorb c. 1. vide et Cl. Senn. Tr. 6. Pract. 373. Amat Lusitan Cent. 6. Cur. 100. Thirdly many there are who suppose we are to cast one upon nature her self for say they if her constitution be laudable the naturall Balsame vigorous all things yet goe well and even incurable wounds usually gaine an happy issue But if Nature bee not of that good cheere the bloud exceedingly corrupt and nature her selfe seeme as it were for to dissolve there verily even the slight and superficiall wound is made mortall In these subitaneous chances I may say wee must have respect chiefly to the passions of the mind The aire can doe much but successively for neither will it cause a momentany alteration nor will the corruption of Nature her selfe so so much as be able to induce with the concourse of Symptomes a successive destruction but after a slight stroke or small wound scarce have they beene able to infer a suddaine death I altogether conceive that there are three affections of the mind that cause this mortality to wit violent anger exceeding feare as also suddaine terrour or affrightment Which way those three may alter a man otherwise in good health it is sufficiently manifest out of Physitians Bookes and daily experience doth teach as much Hildans conceite is not amisse Cent. 1. Obs 18. that of all the perturbations of the mind anger is the fiercest and a very fruitfull Nother of infinite mischiefes because as Galen hath it by too much exagitating the humours weakning the naturall heate convulsion of the Nerves stirring up of grievous fits in the body she doth not onely change the nature of man into a most cruell bestiality as it were but also expose the same to most eminent danger Indeed Galens opinion is that no man can dye of anger but not onely the examples alleadged in Hildan L c But there are more also that evince the contrary especially if on a man that 's too much enraged a wound be inflicted although it be but small not because as 't is commonly supposed Er hat im dat Oort des lebâ—ns getroffen You have taken life in that place as if in the body life did walke up and downe and that if that part where life then resides he wounded a man presently at that time must loose the same but rather because the hâ—mours and spirits being agitated by anger and the heat too much faintned yea by the affluxe of humours usually extinct the life must bee endangered for so the Physitians have observed that on such as were too impetuously stirred up with an impotent anger the Apoplex hath fallen and they suddainely have expired of whom there are many examples that I could reckon up which within these few yeares have fallen out at Regiomontium but it pleaseth to reserve these for some other Discourse Truely they chiefly are throughly sensible of a discommodity hence who have gotten too hot a temperature of the whole body either by nature or a disease for then the naturall heatâ— may more easily
fourth visit of the wound I found it in a good disposition nothing altered of what it was before onely a larger quantity of that thin chyle but a little thickned to bedew the Lynt follow'd by 〈◊〉 humour thicker and more glutinous which appeared as if a digestion of them had beene begun neverthelesse his Vrine was of a deepe colour his pulse somewhat feeble and quick the heate enlarged yet I varied not one whit from the former dressing Cap. 12. The fifth and sixth dayes order Dies 5 THe fifth day and my fifth vew of the wound I found the clouts moystened by the former milky distillings which I conceived to come to passe by these causes Nota. First because the puncture of the Ventricle being swolne and drawne together did not admit so plentifully that substance to issue but now opened by digestion it slipt out more aboundantly and thicker indeed like Creame as that excellent Physitian Mr. Doctor Reade in his Manuell of Anatomy likens it to Secondly since digestion is a parting of the impure heapings from the perfect and unhurt portions of the flesh which compactions must needs hurt the Muscles in matter of their sence and they gathering together by their owne motion cease noâ— till the dischargings of such stuffings after this there appeared a perfect quitture so that I altered nothing in the Remedies but follow'd my former course in this dressing This night the Fever enlarged the Vrine more enflamed mouth dry paines increasing and eight or ten times he went to the stoole which did much disquiet him and amaze me I suspected a dissolving of the noble parts Nota. by a secret convayance of an evill and malignant substance into the Liver which there infecting the spirits caused this sharpe Fever and thrust into the bowells produc't the Flux Considering to seeke to abate or heale the Fever as the precepts of ancient and moderne Physitians allow Nota. by evacuating the matter and refrigerating the effect I iudg'd to be most dangerous the body too much enfeebled to admit phlebotomy and the stomacke being hurt not able to beare Remedies either emptying humours or potentiall cooling and to restraine the Flux of the wombe the egestions and evill fumes driven backe might be hurtfull to the wounded member and the whole body Nota. since to helpe either flux or fever were to enlarge them by medicines proper to either yet oppugnant in their quality to either Neither was the cause lodg'd in the bowells neverthelesse thus discussing the matter I concluded there must bee potentiall refrigeration in regard imperfect heate could not digest but hinder that worke in the veines and some restraint of the bowells not to drive backe but to thicken the compost that it might not so easily descend to give respite unto nature from that vexation to respect the first cause of all those afflictions Dies 6 The sixth day and sixth regard of the wound I found it excellently well disposed and but little of that chylous humidity descending but intermixt with the quitture which now was perfect and commendable I therefore a little alter'd the Medicaments the sirup of Mints giving place to Hony of Roses with a proportionable quantity of the powder of Mirch and Aloes with sufficient of the pre-written Balsame in the forme of a Lohoe added to cleave unto the depths and somewhat more to quicken the abstersiue intent Also there appear'd from the os fercula of the same fide even to the Orefice of the wound Nota. which also extended to the Sternum a concretion of Wind betwixt the membranes of the Muscles of the Thorax lying immoveable like so many scrofulas by dilating their membranous Coates and seemingly indurated by the contraction through the offence of feeling of the muscles this much vexed him but by a warme foment and the faeces applyed in forme of a Cataplasme without Oyles easily vanished These duties perform'd I retir'd to consider the present estate of his body languishing under Fever and so many griefes depending my former resolution by this second consideration was confirmed but the next question was by what meanes to refrigerate by sharpe coolers would offend the wound by reason they must actually arrive unto it Vrge punction and inflamation by externall niceties the place and accommodation made that ridiculous and but a delay therefore I order'd this Iulep â„ž Aq. Endiviae Centinod plantag Cardui benedict Ana. â„¥ 4. Melissae â„¥ 3. Theriacal â„¥ 1. S. Sir viâ—lar â„¥ 3. De pomis â„¥ 2. è rosis siceis â„¥ 1. S. Commisc Which he received every two houres sixe spoonfulls a little warm'd this did not onely abate his thirst and heat but also by an excellent breathing moysture continu'd upon him vented the malignity and flame of the distemper and had some respect to his Flux for assuredly if the unnaturall heate be curb'd and abated the naturall vigor with more livelinesse and facility expells other venimous vapors and poyson begotten in and disperâ—t through the Vessells of Nature for feverish heate with a kind of dulnesse and consuming setters wasteth and bindes the naturall spirits that in no manner they can move or assist the afflicted members for being swelter'd and enflamed by the impurities of the disease they languish unprofitably under such afflictions Therefore refrigeration by which vapours are letted in their generation and those diffused collected setled the furious assaults of the unnaturall fire slak't the vitall naturall and Animall Spirits refresht and enabled the dispersing of venimaus humors hindred is most requisite I avvise not to coole so notably as to condense or thicken as in burning Fevers is allow'd or Tertian quotidians by which stupifying may ensue and that were utterly to ruine After this good successe shus sarre I reflected upon the oppressions of the belly when the malady raged with unsupportable violence and considering how needfull it was to maintaine strength now miserably wasted by these oppressions although I perceived by the egestions were sent forth the matter of the Fever was spent Nota. and that by returning these humours in the denying them the bowells whither they were sent to bee voyded to bee altogether dangerous or that being detayn'd they might move paines in excoriations c. yet to give some pause to afflicted and feeble nature not by shutting up but as it were losing the bowells that they should not so often empty by which they had a power in them from vacuity heate and motion more violently then profitably to sucke down I thought it might be with happy event and so proceeded to the meanes by Clister In which I utterly mislikt the restrictive Oyles although they dull the common gripings of the entrailes because their stipperinesse would be a meanes to tardate my wishes and in their places mixt the yolkes of eggs for I did desire a suddaine abating though not a totall stopping but as it were by an accessible heate and moderate drinesse to effect my intent that the
examinations would bee both barren and ridiculous The Second Part of this Treatise of the examination of the former Translations and Censure of like Positions Cap. I. Censure of the 1 2 and 3. Posiotions HEre hee hath but faintly maintain'd she pâ—â—â—bility of swallowing the Knife in repeating many Histories of lesse moment and greater â—anger of suffocation then hee hath spoken of to arrive unto the Prusian Swallow-knife I will adde something briefly to set downe how it may bee received Object Branch 1 First the length of the knife being ten Inches and the Isophagus two and but shâ—rt the capacity of the mouth to our Gullet being also â—ronked may stâ—â— the out beleefe in this Relation Branch 2 Secondly although the action of receipt be in a power of putting in and thrusting downe what is offer'd yet if it remaine in the Organ of passage to offence and hurt nature with all her strength seekes to returne it Branch 3 Lastly which might easily have been drawne backe not having escapt the former difficulties by what was not enwrapped to which I reply Ans Branch 1 First although the Knife did answer the report the mouth with the collum in extension doth much straighten it selfe what it wants of such aptnesse to receive an insterible thing the sofinesse of the Trunke and parts adjacent yeelding to force may allow a possibility of the receipt Branch 2 Secondly when a thing shall be convayd so low into the Gullet that the muscles shall enfold it and to their proper motion sucking it downe it is more easie to the will of the member in matter of sence to assist it further then returne it Branch 3 Lastly the blade of the Knife being too thin to employ a gripe in which onely the strength is visible to exercise force or for feare of choaking not admitting time to lap it about with things convenient to till the graspe the other Obiections refuted makes this last of no validity Position 2 The verity of this Position cannot be denyed since our Climate and moderne times affords many Histories of the like nature to affirme it Something of the causes of the Hipocondriack illusions shall be added which are either accidentall or naturall Accidentall from the fury of some rotten Fever that humour chiefly abounding and putrifying thereby enflaming the panicles of the braine begetting a disease subiect unto Cure by phlebotomy or the Medulla or in ward substance insensibly without heate and thereby in a kind of totall alteration there setled if the disease be long making she malady inveterate which often convert into passions of the mind by naturalizing or else by vice of the spleene being infirme in the change or receipt or disposing rightly the faecall bloud sometimes also through debility of the mouth of the stomacke that shall still discharge the belchings of evill digestion accompanied with a wind up into the braine and also crosses in estate or affection are of this ranke yet with some difference The causes naturall are from constitution parentally and spermatically communicated or from some nutriment in the wombe by defect either of the mother or part which hath power in the time of shaping especially to doe t is effects and mischiefe because then the staines of such evills have a domination without remedy which when the quickning of life arrives Reason why they cannot so easily empresse their qualities into our bodies since the spirits then in their office are somewhat enfeebled to defend and correct the impurities of such Aliment In Fevers commonly these melancholy adust fumes are mixt with other aboundant humours effâ—er putrified and kindled or enflamed onely which vitiating the fancy or reason or both according to their mixtures begets those varieties of distractions are common amongst persons with this evill affected which with innumerable delusions of things impossible either in their owne bodies to he altered or without them to have being miserably overthrowes their reason and as the portions of their braine either shall be weakned and receive or yet retaining ability to expell these corrupt vapours so as the differences made as they shall be affected either particular or generall if they be parentally infected they have not this hurt in their birth but after some yeares as the seed of the parents shall administer at such growth ripenesse or declination which is the cause that many are safe for much time and yet suddenly change in full yeares for there is a secret worke in nature founded from the quality of the sperme that untill such maturity The Gout Pâ—lsie Stone with many other griefes as from the like câ—usâ— many things or declining age such griefes shall be kept secret untill by a suddaine change in the miraculous mysteries of Nature ordayn'd these passions of the mind breake fresh and appeare as it were by a private power in the seed of the Parents to keepe the Creature inviolate untill such time and then not able any more to beare the burthen of its owne had derivation it renders matter sufficient to make the mind sinke under the weight of its proper and naturall defects this happens to men in their vigour or their grouth unto it but if it chance to them in their age Observation Nota. which is seldome the matter is different for although it carry in it the qualities of the seed and may challenge them as Authors yet the spirits which were kept in the spermaticke substance of the noble parts were more light and unsteddy and able to be quencht or disturb'd with the common defects of mankind in declining dayes being of that temperament of making and if they be matricially given from the mother or member as it containes and is in temper they come with us into the world and it violent shorten our dayes or if continued for the most part infutuate us howsoever the Will and Divine pleasure excepted as they shall arrive us as Plagues and Visitations when these causes can take no place but to proceed from this pertinent digression In such Fevers many times there is a deprivation of all the faculties the Imaginative Rationall and power of memory and if all bee abused there is a lamentable confusion of all wrought as in Calentâ—â—â— a disease frequent amongst Mariners that in little time visit different and hot Climats which though assisted by their intemperate Lives and had dyet makes up this cruell Disease if the imagination the reason and memory yet whole Nota. but so much onely hurt as the â—antaâ—â—s wounded must needs distemper them or impart of its disquiet hee wrong'd then is occasioned many times uncouth perswasions of themselves that they are Wolves Serpents Ghosts c. being alter'd into their natures shapes and qualities or else that they are fashion'd out of Clay or made of Glasse with such like fopperies Now their reason in some part safe but as much as the force of this griefe may change it Nota. instructs them to behave themselves
Position Most certaine is the scope of this position unlesse we will conclude in our noble and delicate bodies a furious and barbarous heate to lurke his Histories some are of credit and some doubtfull which the Indicious Reader may without a Comment consort with his understanding something of the vertue of Mineralls and specially of Gold being the noblest may be added to strengthen the Authors Answer to Quercetanus and the Augustan Physitions although it may be thought that without the losse of substance Mineralls can yeeld up no part of their vegetive spirits to our bodies yet the contrary is visible that Minerall vegetives unto other Vegitables will give up their qualities without losse of substance what else should wee think of those frequent infusions of Antimony filings of Steels in Wine whose spirit extracteth Vertue out of them witnesse that latter invention of the Empyricks the Antimoniall Cup further beere and water shall pull out of it this power which being put into the body shall shew its beleterick quality in strong vomitings violent operations hurtfull and other emptyings Gold and all Mineralls are bred in the bowells of our mother Earth Reason 1 and are the off-spring of her wombe then it this visible event hee in such metalls why may not Gold diffuse into the heart a secret vegetation and invisible refreshing since as most Physitions allow it doth Reason 2 All or most Philosophers consent that in its Creation it hath a neare affinity with that principall member and by simpathy may effect it not in our desire of it as it is in dalew and therefore generally affected and wisht for but in the matter of its making which because it is Sine vita cjus officio et creationis loco It is likewise without heat humidity and softnesse which the heart possesseth by its life office and place of Creation And may not there be lodged in our bodies a matter fitted for the produce of that metall which the native heate deficient in some power may be the cause that it doth not appeare in its making There is in the bones a substance that carrieth some shape of its matter and in the collection and first separation of that spermaticke and similar portion of the seed if there were that quantity of spirits mixt which in the Earths wombe the indigested matter of Gold must bee accompanied with who knowes what births or wonders in the bowells of nature may bee delivered us to meditate on It were a strange issue if any such should bee brought forth and yet that such may be is not destitute of a reason if we without a prejudicate perverse opinion examine it neither to this assertion is History barren but yeelds us many Miracles Registréd for posterity One of notable accompt I will mention 1. Horst in his Historicall and Philosophicall Discourse reporteth that Iohn Muller a Carpenter dwelling at Weigdell dorfe a Village of Silesia had a Son borne the two and twentieth day of Decemb. Anno. 1585. in the yeare 1593 being sent to the Schoole of the Village a Girle discover'd that this Child had the last great tooth of the left side and lower Iaw appearing of bright shining Gold this report and some other occasions invited Doctor Horst neare unto Weigdell-dorfe and sending for the Child found that report to be true The Child having the use of its as of his other the Gums red and naturally planted about it his curiosity drew him further for touching it he found it to answer the Carat of Hungary This Doctor Horst was a man of good repute and a most famous Physitians I will not further urge this but leave it to the Iudicious Reader to receive or deny it But to proceed Object Some may think that by a malevolency in other Mineralls lodg'd being utterly contrary to our natures such events follow Then why not by an answerable benevolency in gold Answ bestowing upon us the benefit of a Cordiall may not Gold raise out of its use a successe as certaine and good unto our bodies Object Yet some may say that because other Mineralls in their impurities produce their operations since in them is left a venime which nature cannot divide or their substance will not admit to be separated since such had qualities in our bodies manifested their compositions cannot be perfect without but must be of necessity and that Gold hath no such vitious and excrementall matter in its making and therefore it must have no vertue Such vertue I grant yet this is a weaker Objection to prove none but we cannot but allow it a Creation and therefore a vertue and internally else wee must accuse this excellent pure birth of grosse absurdities that other imperfect Bodies should be vertuall and assistant to our noble natures and not Gold all the plants of the earth are arguments in this doubt and out of their different vertues although many yet inferior approve the excellency of Gold What was of metall and may be consumed in the stomacke commeth to passe by salt and moyst humours contained in the ventricle which without the addition of heate to give life to what they can beget would erode a decay in all grosse metalls by rust and not by conversion into Chyle Cap. 2. Censure of the fourth and fifth Positions Position 4. IN this Position there is little matter of Ambiguity onely I will not set my beleefe so on the Tenters as to make it receive his Histories of the kind Greeke and Strumpet amongst others mention'd for truth for the heart of all Creatures living in the aire and nourisht by bloud hath such a powerfull and active elaboration of spirits that the story of the Hind hath a very bad relish to be swallow'd and digested for truth Next the Lunary swellings of the substance of the braine filling the capacities of the Cranium and ever in pulsative motion makes the Greeke and Whore both of bad reputation to subsist so many yeares with life and without griefe or any sence of the hurt as the History reports Further that Iron corrupted into rust should so disquiet the ventricle as he threatens unlesse it be by the quality of the humour by which it was so altered and with which it must be mixt thereby mutually augmenting each others vice since I have administred a large quantity of it alone which hath not ended in such afflictions not in the least motion that promised any violence to ensue Position 5 THis is sufficiently refuted in the Treatise of the possibility of the Cure of wounds in the stomacke happening there in the discourse most needfull and in order But when as the Author speakes of the aptnesse of nature to make delectable by use what at first was irksome this experience confutes since use of things loathsome increaseth rather that vice in our dispositions not bestowing a gratefulnesse for we see even in meates of soft and sweet Iuce since our natures affect change and variety the too frequent use of them
of the Magnetes this attraction may not be letted is questionable Since fire may be quencht with Oyle Simile if there be a fit quantity that can embrace it by reason of its aboundance actuall coldnesse and moystening although it bee a ready materiall to bee converted into flame yet not in that forme Gums although they have the vertue of attraction yet since they labour not with that spirit and power the Magnetes doth they cannot bee said to quicken its spirt but rather to dull and extinguish it by their adverse faculties especially being rent by Tituration Cap. 6. A further search into the sixth position being the fourth and last part of our examination of our Auâ—hors reasons drawne from other simples c. Whereas the Author in this Position hath cited Gummes and other Drugges to strengthen the Opinion he holds now in question hee is much mistaken as I thinke in their natures Gummes and other Druggs being extracted have their portion and exact not a future or successive nourishment for they dry Reason 1 wither and in small time loose their properties which approves the fore-going Reason Reason 2 Gummes and oyles next they doe not visibly draw forth but rather or for the most part by heating and humecting with a comfortable warmth and dew gratefull and vegetating the part whereby nature is rather assisted to expell then altogether freed by the proper power of attraction in the medicament Reason 3 next they being mixt one with another by melting or otherwaies are as it were one and the selfe same in consistence or nature bee they Rosins Waxe powders of Seeds Roots Fruits c. these not possessing so admirable a spirit as the Magnetes to vivifie their vertues which hath fellowship in its operative power onely with Iron but Gummes and Drugges have a changeable affinity to bee suspected and with all members of the body and otherwaies either similar or dissimilar and uncertainely working which shewes they are not of that excellent Creation perfect and certaine as the Load stone Reason 4 but of a grosser birth and imperfect and certainely congruity of things makes them more efficient when contrarieties impediat and kill the faculties of one another as we may gather out of the composition of Medicines where many simples naturally vitious and hurtfull in themselves are by the addition of others gratefull unto our bodies and oppugnant to their qualities of hurt and poyson made helpefull and corrected if any pact of their substance either the grosse or subtle holds in it a temper to be changed or assisted being of a dissimilar growth all which may be allow'd in the Magnetes and Gummes c though not venemous yet of opposing natures the one pure the other imperfect to enlighten this reade Weekerus Lib. 4. Pract. Generalis Cap. 20.35 36. Reason 5 Next Oyle Pepper Cloves Gummâ—s Seeds Fruits Roote Leaves Flowers c. have all apt bodies to be pulverized in whose tituration and mixture one with another there can be no perishing of Vertues but addition and that for two regards Cause 1 First they have that excellent respective flame to loose which the Magnetes hath to give life and action to their grosse birth and substance of which it is begotten and in which the spirits dwells reciprocally sustaining one another which by division broken up and lost must needs pâ—oduce the ruine and ceasing of both in their functions and power as before spoken repetition in matters so difficult being needfull to recover memory and guide the intellect Cause 2 Secondly they are but severall portions of one roote by so many differences of nature in their issue and spring and by her labours divided into as many figures and changeable parcells of Gummes Seedes Rootes Fruites c. which being reduced againe into one body by pulverizing and kneading or melting together make up the same masse which nature in her will intended to bee but as one lumpe yet by such alterations succeeding one another according to the season both of heate coldnesse moysture or drynesse and their mixtures in their buddings and through the change of time they are endew'd with it commeth to passe they appeare out of their Coates in such variable shapes colours and distinct Vertues now the Loadstone being entire and having no other issue then it selfe by nature intended such and by her will made the same and unchangeable by seasons being bruised must loose the vigour of it selfe Nota. for we must make a difference betwixt things which nature hath brought forth divided and those which she hath delivered whole the divided off-spring of her wombe garnisht with many formes more Vertâ—es though begotten from one Root brought into one heape or body is but the pulling backe of things to the first intent of nature which although it bee done with an abundant change of what they would have bin in her first intention yet in consent and concordance of their qualities their Vertues may be quickned and in effect are but the same she did intend But those pieces of her Wombe she brings forth entire of one onely substance colour and Vertue not to bee alter'd by times or seasons warmth coldnesse drinesse moysture not visibly collecting or loosing power thus to bee crusht and broken must needs slake their Vertues if not utterly quench them What may be obiected out of this last part of this discourse in affirming that Gold and other Mineralls loose not their Vertues by pulverizing is vaine for the Loadstone will not so farre as it is possest with their matter and substance but they are not enricht with its spirit both attractive and respective concerning which the Reader may be better satisfied if he please to looke back to what 's pre-written Now I am not so confident but that I submit to the Iudicious onely it doth not appeare unto mee that the Magnetes reduced into powder and so incorporated can retaine its Vertue attractive but I will descend to experience Master Bond my very worthy friend an honest and painefull Student in the secrets of the Load stone is of this opinion I am assures he is able to give satisfaction in this matter to the ablest since these times can harely afford his equallin the Mathematicall Studies and mysteries depending upon that Art Cap. 7. Censure of the seventh and eighth Positions Position 7. IN this Position he hath worthily set downe the Rules of Indication whereby the Physitian is able to know what is menaced and thereby invited through a necessity to study the letting of what may be dangerous if arriving as threatned Indeed the Disease the Cause and strength of the Patient are those three principles which we should alwaies respect and labour to be well instructed in First the Disease must employ our understanding to know if it either in quantitie quality or both offend venemous abounding or together Next if one humour more or all it hath infected to which may bee added where the seate of the evill
then their braines in desiring the advice of the more able Next Temerity answering the first definition is a prompt Excutioner of evill Selfe counsell and of the two is the most dangerous it is a sodaine disposer of of thingâ— worthy a carefull examination and in its best worke and ablest resolutions is alwaies to be suspected but most commonly ends in destroying it neither regards constitution customs congruity age or season to all which the expert and carefull Physitian that takes in charge his owne conscience as well as mens lives least that he willingly wounded more perillously then the afflicted Patients body must have a wise regard first respecting in view of the Patient constitution either of body or member to which the medicine must haue a congruable force quality and substance a force not to overthrow but helpe a quality agreeable without violence a substance apt to be receiued Secondly custome we must question for when that Idea of nature hath ruled that the Physitian must labour to imitate for what hath bin of long continuance cannot be alter'd even i disease enforcing such alteration without had euents and perill in this discourse I will onely remember some Histories In the time of my seruice to the Emperour of Morocco and chancing after the ouerthrow he received from Humeâ—-ben Booker the Saint at the river of Weâ—labid neare the foot of the mountaine Atlas many Moores there dangerously hurt and with my selfe by flight escaping visited me at my house in the City of the Iewes where all Christians have residence imploring Cure I receiving some that I judged curable though not profitable into my care and in my proceedings for their recovery with such Medicines the Country afforded and instituting them a spare dyet and change of fare their food being rude viz. made of stower and some other course mixtures moulded into small cornes like Coriander seeds and throughly heated by the steame of their Flesh pots which they terme Cuscosuâ— and much they being greater eaters even to gluttony to which â—â—â—nder life they were not easily perswaded but by enforcing since if they would not follow my order I denyed in nothing to assist them with regiment when they had consented to but some few daies vigilantly observed I found that a suddaine languishing without reason which if it had continu'd would have bin without remedy also afflicted them at last examining what might bee the cause of this extenuation attended on by â—â—â—x and fever without the least successe in their wounds by which afflictions faintings ensued even at every dressing and sensible touch of their griefes which hindred the due applications I consider'd the cause might be in the want of their accustom'd sustenance since the quality alter'd to such whose bodies even from their births were sustain'd by one sort of Aliment must needs beget a distemper as also the quantity since being used to labour and thereby still to bee furnisht with good appetites and they to be satisfied with fulnesse as also commonly rising from meat to lye downe to sleepe in the want of which custome they rather enduied a famine then an Order I returned upon this consultation with my selfe to them their liberty of feeding both in quantity and quality whereby their strength was suddenly restored and their wounds recover'd the disgestive power more commendably even to consolidation and siccatrice all things happening to my expectation delicate bodies using change of dyet sometimes quickned and likewise dulled in the desire of food as the disposition of the stomacke or nature of the vyands presented shall invite or refuse are best able to stoop profitably to the strict institutions of Physicke by reason such change as is said in the second Chapter and survay of the fifth Position is their custome Thirdly Congruity both of medicine and part must be enquired after in the defect of either there may follow inflamation or stupefaction and from both different and fatall endings or extenuation or some Hydropick dispositions either in body or limbe or from both to both a certaine ruine Fourthly Age must be diligently question'd and in that ability which neglected the power of a Medicine may suddenly extinguish the naturall beate either by suffering or benumming for aged bodies full of rheume by much suffering and dolour are easily enflamed and by narcoticke remedies are as readily stupified even to extinction if they exceed in the least ability which errours youth would wrastle with and overcome Lastly season must employ our Iudgement since it both monethly by the Moone and conjunction of Planets as likewise parts of the yeare quarterly presents us with many varieties worthy our note and observance and if fitly applyed in the scope of our intents are both pertinent and profitable Next Rashnes in the application of Medicaments is an Argument of weakenesse knit to a kind of impudent boldnesse the effects sometimes are to extirpation of life frequently to amputation of a limbe and that operation is by such often attempted and done with a barbarous rudenesse where topicall remedies with Iudgement administred would have promised a restauration and have brought to passe so excellent a duty a lamentable worke and to be deplored Of this ranke of Practitioners are Tooth-drawers Mathematicall Fortune-tellers and that rabble of women which strut up and down with their skill in their pockets which they purchased from the Chyrurgions boy for some Garment trifle when the events of their lusts their diseases and poverty thrust them into the Hospitall to bee patcht up for this employment by those worthy houses of charity neither will they omit to boulster out their wickednesse with some shew of ability to those whose misfortunes and sottish ignorance hath throwne them into their hands and their owne beds in depraving the worth of so many worthy gentlemen the Physitians and Chirurgions of those two free Mansion-places for the poore and maimed whose knowlenge and care meete in one Center and are equall both great and each one the cause of the other and inseparably united Furthermore whereas he saith the passions of this Position of Anger or Feare in superficiall wounds should altogether be the cause of such deplorable conclusions I cannot approve his testimony certainely the vitiousnesse of humours flowing to wounded members often times the abundance â—onely is of strength to produce or bring with them lamentable accidents and begetting strange alterations in tender natures whereby Fever is incited by erosion and inflamation and such humours kindling and putrifying in the Veines by such heate may be the chiefest cause of such mischiefes although the Discourse in this Position allow it but a second and succeeding meanes being derived yet made more able by the violent motions of the mind Indeed they are of a powerfull quality dail experience witnesseth in the suddaine alteration of the Visage the spirits and bloud being pulled backe with a kind of violence in all these passions viz. Anger Fâ—aâ—e and suddaine Terrour but whereas he speakes
hunger as it were violently attracted it so masticated as it was it descended to the stomacke and there staying a totall obstruction so beleaguered its way that he was not able to swallow any thing nor to speake nor to breath The same almost happened to a certaine friend who at a marriage dinner too greedily swallowing a piece of rosted Kid presently incurred the danger of suffocation so as hee could neither speake nor breath untill having beene violently beaten upon the backe and put his finger into his throate the morsell was thrust downe to the ventricle whereby hee himselfe was freed from totall suffocation and we the sitters by from feare Marcellus Donatus in his third Booke of wonderfull Physicall Histories Chap. 8. records of a certaine Citizen who too glutionously had devoured a piece of sinowie flesh ill masticated it sticking at the Orifice of the Gullet so tooke up the way of swallowing that the passage for water and every the thinnest drinke was altogether intercepted and respiration very greatly hurt nor would it yeeld to Instruments and divers meanes assayed untill that on the seventh day the morsell being rotten slid downe into the Ventricle it freed the man indeed from anguish but not from death for because of frequent dolor and violent handling of the place the part that was inflamed and by reason of long lacke of meate and drinke all the faculties they too were weakened and the man on the foureteenth day changed life for death That death it selfe too often followes the subsequents doe declare One that would swallow a Hen-egge whole the same stopping at the Gullet because of the vitall aire that was wholly intercepted was presently choaked and killed as relates Wicrus Lib. 4. de praestig daemon cap. 2. A certain Merchant break-fasting with a piece of roast porke sprinckled with Salt and Pepper and a crum of bread it stuck in his throat whence forth-with arose vehement dolor convulsions great cold and at last suffocation as it is in Hildan Cent. 1. obs 35. And likewise a certaine boy having a peice of Pan-cake sticking in his throat was presently choaked and perished So a certaine young man of Rastenburg when at Dinner by reason of some laughter raised would forth-with have swallowed downe a peice of flesh whole and not chawed by the same sticking in his throat in the sight of all the Guests that very houre dyed with suffocation Suetonius is witnesse that Claudius Caesar Drusus lost his sonne Pompey of foureteene yeares of age who by a Peare tossed aloft in sport and by gaping taken into his mouth was there with strangled for as Arist hath it S. 3. Probl. 9. because those two passages whereof one is assigned for swallowing the other for respiration are placed very neere one by another and the mouth of the stomacke lyeth underneath the Aspera arteria which is the Wind-pipe too bigge a morsell being swallowed the place of spiration is the next that is brought and bound together that breath is denied all passage especially if the compression and interception of aire bee in that part made where the membranous Artery is and not the Cartilaginous or gristly Moreover we see too that the substance of the Gullet is so fitted that at pleasure it is able to performe the action that is designed it for the substance it is partly membranous partly fleshy or meane betweene flesh and nerve 3 De part anim 3. whereby as teacheth Arist by reason of the nerve or nervous substance it may the better bee distended into length and breadth 1 Hist anmi 16. and because of the tendernesse of flesh it may the better yeeld and not bee hurt with the sharpenesse of any food descending whence it is that wee see the same too with a certaine continuall humour moyst and so the more commodiously yeelding passage for dry things nor are there wanting musculous Instruments succouring and helping to the action of the Gullet for there are observed to bee three coniugated muscles and the fourth sine pari without a mate is called Oesophagaeus Orbicularis whence swallowing is not held onely for a naturall action Bauhin l. 2. Anatom Theatr c. 28. Larinx because of the fibres or strings of three sorts but chiefly to an Animall action since it is in our will to swallow when we please and by the benefit of the muscles to move the Pharynx and not to move it As often therefore as we put into the mouth an obiect gratefull and ordered for the Pallat we can swallow the same without trouble but that which is unpleasant our nature abhorres and the pore allowes no passage to that which is unfit Who then is not amazed in beholding a Knife swallowed by our Prussian Swallow-knife and that without hurt and mischiefe to the Weazand the blade that was in the haft was very sharpe and broad and sharpe pointed and obiect altogether ingrate and that which begets the greatest admiration so long How could the Iourney it went from the mouth to the Gullet and so to the Ventricle being very crooked bee well gone Moreover for that about the fist Vertebra of the Thorax the Gullet inclines it selfe to the right side whereby to give way to the descendent Trimke of the great Artery that she might not be endamaged in the passage of hard meates or otherwise not well broken how could the Knife without longer tarryance and greater trouble so quickly descend and avoyd their turnings and windings since that although the Organs bee free enough and sufficiently fitted yet the swallowing of an obiect so ingrate and inconvenient must needes bee difficult But indeed the violence which our Rusticke likewise used takes away all difficulty for when vomit would not follow the Gorge being at first so much provoked with a certaine force he did thrust in the Knife deeper which being violently pulled in by the iawes was not so well to bee pulled backe the extremity of the haft moreover acceding to a kind of crookednesse somewhat resisting the unacceptable Guest therefore so tooke up his lodging in the Ventricle Something not unlike this Schenek observes lib. 3. observ medic 7. of a certaine Grasâ—er who by theeves that met him was enforced to swallow a Poynadoe halfe a foote long with a Horne-haft an inch thick Laurentius Joubertus also as you may see in Hildan Cent. 1. Obs 54. cent 5. observ 75. showes you a little blunt Knife which being covered over with cloth was by a Shepheard violently cast into another mans mouth and put downe his throat which for a whole two yeares space lurking in the body was by an Abscisse made in the Inguen or groine â—â—â—cised and the Patient so cured Position the 2. As Knives and other abhorrent things by a certaine kind of Sorcery may bee throwne downe or insinuaâ—ed into the Ventricle so usually mans Mclancholicke Genius conceites it so to bee THe naturall heate of the Microcosme exceeding full and mightily