diversity of Salts for the Earth yeelds first Salt-gemme which answers in proportion to Sea-salt that is onely saltish in tast then Salt-nitre which is bitter in tast and Salt-alum which is austere and Astringent afterwards Salt of Vitriol and Salt Armoniac which are acid and hot and lastly those corrosive sharp Salts which are termed Alkalâ— with others that are sweet and pleasant as Sugar so in the lesser world that is in the body of man there is generated a Tartar or Salt which being dissolved causeth onely a saltish humour which the Dogmatical Physicians term saltish phegme in plaine termes a salt water or humour There is also generated a nitrous or bitter Salt which mixeth with the Urine and causeth bitter Choler and a vitriolated acid salt which predominates in acid phlegme and melancholy In like manner there be also aluminous and austere kinds of Tartar and other sorts which resemble the acrimonie of Salt as it is manifestly seen by the various affections of contractures and astrictions of the sinews and the many perilous troubles of acrimonious humours in Dysenteries and divers Ulcers as well inward as outward all which are caused by the many and different kindes of Salts which are generated in the body For why should not this be done by those things which are most like to doe it and most significant and which do most properly and fully expresse the natures and diversities of Causes having their derivation and appositenes from the very fountains of nature who is the best Interpretress of her own concernments These Salts believe me doe better expresse and discover unto us the essences and distinctions of Tartareous or saltish diseases then those four humours which are commonly termed the Sanguine the Phlegmatic the Bilious and the Melancholy both because that these latter termes signifie nothing unto us of the essence or matter of the Disease and also because that those Dogmatists themselves Hallucinate and stagger very much both in the formation or aptnesse and in the application of their said termes II. Tartar is two-fold Adventitious and Innate III. Adventitious Tartar proceeds from meat and drinke and the Impressions of the Firmament EVery thing that we eat and drinke hath in it a Mucilaginous reddish and sandy Tartar very noxious to the health of man Nature receives nothing for her own use but what is pure The stomack which is an instrument of the Archaeus of man or an internall innate Chymist and implanted there by God presently upon the reception of that which is chew'd and swallowed down separates the impure Tartareous part from the pure nutriment If the stomack be vigorous especially in its faculty of separation the pure portion passeth presently into all the members to nourish and preserve the body and the impure goes forth into the Draught if the stomack be weake the impure portion is through the Mâ—saraic veines conveyd to the Liver where a second digestion or separation is made Here the Liver separates againe the pure from the impure the Rubie from the Chrystall that is to say the Red from the White The Red is the nutriment of all the members the heart the brain c. The white â—or that which is no nutriment is driven by the Liver to the Reyns and it is Urine which is nothing else but Salt which being exprest from the Mercuriall portions by the violence of the separation is forced to a dissolution It is dissolved into water by the Liven so cast forth If the Liver by reason of its debility makes no perfect separation it casts that Mucilaginous and Calculous impurity upon the Reyns where for want of a â—ight and through separation it is according to the concurrency and Method of nature by the mediation of the spirit of Salt coagulated into Sand or Tartar either Massie and Solid or Mucilaginous This Tartar therefore is the Excretion of meat and drinke which is coagulated in all mens bodies by the spirit of Salt unless the expulsive faculty by its owne peculiar vigour or virtue can command it into the Excrements and so cast it out by dejection IV. There are four kinds of this AdventitiousTartar which proceed originally from the four distinct fruits or Cibations which we receive from the four Elements THe first kind proceeds from the use of those things that grow out of the Earth as from all sorts of Pulse Grains Fruits Herbs and Roots upon which we feed The second proceeds from those nutriments which we take out of the Element of Water as from fish shel-fish c. The third is from the flesh of Birds and beasts c. The fourth comes from the Firmament which the spirit of Wine in respect of its subtilty doth most resemble This kind of Tartar is of a most forcible impression while the Air being primarily infected with the vapours of the Earth the water and the firmament doth afterwards annoy us as wee frequently see in those acute and pernitious Astral Diseases the Pleurisie the Plague the Prunella c. V. Tartar innate is that which is cogenerated with man in his mothers wombe VI Besides these impure Tinctures and Meteors there is another substantial Extrarious cause which cannot be reduced to a certaâ—ne kind TO this must be referred those Insecta's or quick Creatures which sometimes though rarely are generated in the body as Snakes divers worms c. Secondly those things must be referred hither which by inchantment and the mediation of evill spirits are invisibly and insensibly conveyed into the bodies of men and Women Thirdly We are to reduce to this Aphorisme or Canon all Splinters Bullets or other weapons which being violently thrust or shot into the body lie deeply in the flesh or under the skin VII We have now done with the Substantial Extrarious Cause To the Accidental I shall referre all disproportions of Limbs Gibbosities Luxations Wounds and fractures of bones CHAP. 6. Of God the first and supreme Cause of the Extrarious Cause HAving now done with the Extrarious or conjoyned and apparent cause of the disease I shall consider the cause of that Extrarious Cause I. This Cause I shall divide into six heads or branches The first of which is God 2. Excesse and defect of Necessaries 3. Fire 4. Hereditary impurity 5. Imagination 6. Violent Illation Of these I shall treat in their order and first of GOD MAn because he is made in the Image of God is bound also to live according to his Will I mean his will revealed and laid down in the Ten Commandements and the holy Scriptures namely in those Bookes onely which were left unto us and which without scruple we have received from the holy Prophets and the Apostles of the Lord and Saviour but when we transgresse and violate this Law and will of our maker then doth God send upon us condigne punishments amongst which Diseases are numbred in the very Booke of the Law For thus saith the Lord If ye shall despise my statutes or if your soules
so carried up into the Region of the Air and there condensed by cold is presently because of its thin Mercurial and aqueous nature forced to resume its former state and is turned againe into the nature of water For as we see in the greater world that thoâ—e Vapors and Exhalations which by the heat of the Sun the influence of the Stars and by their owne proper internall calidity are excited and stirred up doe afterwards afford matter for various miraculous Meteors and bodies imperfectly mixt both in the Region of the Air and in the bowels of the Earth and that those which are of a Mercurial cold moist and watry nature doe alwayes produce Clouds Raine Hail-stones Snow Frost and winds but those which are sulphureous hot and dry generate Coruscations Lightnings Fire-drakes Thunder-bolts and other burning Meteors so in the lesser world that is in the body of man the like and the very same vapours and Exhalations afford matter for the generation of many and different kinds of Meteors Hence it is that so many and such various sorts of Diseases afflict man-kind Some of them being Mercurial cold and moist others sulphureous hot and dry Nor are they so in meer forme and accident but in substance that is to say they are such in their essentiall virtue and are generated as wel in the inferiour Region the breast the stomack and the belly as in the superiour the head and the braine which parts do exactly quadrate and correspond with the airy Region and the subterraneous Concavities of the earth See Quercetanus Tetr page 45. 46. VII The Coagulated Meteor is termed Tartar of which we shall treat in the following Chapter CHAP. 5. Of Tartar I. Tartar is an acrimonious pricking and corroding or an aluminous acid and styptic mucilage which is bred in the body and being separated from its proper juyce is by the supervenient spirit of Salt according to the various inclination of nature at a set time and in those places which are most apt to receive it collected together and coagulated or if that juyce be not separated from it it putrifies from whence come worms and other innumerable symptoms QUercetanus in his advice against the Joynt-gout and the Stone describes it thus Salsugirous substances because they have alwayes mixt in them some portion of earth though the predominant part in them be Liquefactive are in the body of man termed Tartar a most apt in truth and most significant terme which was first given them from the Analogy or similitude that was found betwixt the humours in mans body yea betwixt his very blood and the substance of wine which of all the fruits of vegetables doth most abound with Tartar I doe not meane by Tartar in this place that substance which is dissolved and flowes in new Wines while they are thick and turbid which being afterwards separated or as the common phrase is settled doth as the grosser earthy and more impure part subside into a feculent substance found alwaies in the bottome and called Dregs Neither doe I mean that Tartar onely whose separation is performed by a long Tract of time and sticks to the Dregs or Lees of old Wine-pipes But I meane that Tartar also which is in perpetual liquefaction and commixture with the most refined wines and which gives them their tincture either red or any other This true Tartar either by Evaporation or simple distillation or a Balneum Maris is easily discerned to be moderately hot for the more liquid part of the humour which was the Vehiculum in which the Tartar in its dissolution was contained being separated from it the Tartar alone remaine in the bottom This liquid humour though of red wine distills all bright and limpid but the heavler red substance which I call Tartar stayes all behind a solid substance and the more you fetch out of the substantifical humour it becomes by so much the more hard and the dryer Nor is this Tartar onely in red or white Wines but in any other though decocted and also in the humours of mans body Nor is it there onely in the Chylus or nutriment which answers in proportion to wine newly made for from the Chylus as from new winâ— divers impure and tartareous dregs are separated but also in the very blood yea in the most pure and after the very same manner as we described it to be in wine And as the Art of distilling even that which is performed by the most gentle fire discovers and manifests unto us this kind of Tartar so nature also by her naturall fury both ranne and daily doth performe such separations of Tartar by a consumption of the humoural parts of our bodies out of which the Dogmatical Writers of Physick suppose the stone to be generated And it is wonderfull to consider how many sorts of Diseases by the intervening of obstructions or â—ppilations arise out of this meere separation particularly the joynt-gout and the stone which diseases according to the sentiment of these Dogmatists themselves happen most frequently to those who have the hottest Livers and consequently the coldest stomacks Who ingenerate much crudities and mucous matters which for want of a through-digestion may be compared to raw fruits that failing of their due and perfect maturity which is performed by a contemperate heat that is all concocting and digesting remaine acid bitter sowre and green These being mixt with and in the whole Masse of blood are there by the natural heate againe concocted and a separation is made of the more crude and tartareous portion which sticks afterwards to the inward parts and causing divers obstructions is at length forcibly carried into the joynts where it stayes and lodgeth For every part of the body of man doth naturally delight in and attract to it that which is most like to it selfe the fleshie parts are nourished by that portion of the blood which is most thinly moist and mercuriall the fat and marrowish parts by that which is most oily or sulphureous but the joynts which are parts that be naturally glutinous and mucilaginous love that portion which hath most likenesse and affinity with their nature whence it comes to passe that this Salsuginous and Tartareous matter is taken in by them Now when it happens that these parts in some bodyes either for their weakness or an innate hereditary disposition or some such cause cannot by a proper and particular digestion inoffensively digest nor expell this crude and indigested Tartareous matter then is this matter being of a saltish viscous nature coagulated in them and the ligaments of the joynts come to be stuffed up and stiffened with it whence proceed those acute intolerable paines which attend this Disease And this is the true and genuine conjoyn'd cause of the paines and knottines of the Joynt-gout The same cause is sometimes lesse acute sometimes more according to the nature and condition of the Tartar For as we see that there is in the greater world a great
abhor my judgements so that ye will not do my Commandements but that ye break my Covenants I also will do this unto you I will even appoint over your terrour consumption and the burning ague that shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart I will also smite thee in the knees and the legges with a sore botch that cannot be healed from the sole of thy foot unto the top of the Head I will make the Pestilence cleave unto thee untill it hath consumed thee from off the Land which thou possessest And in another place The Lord shall smite thee with a Consumption with a Feavour and with an inflammation and extream burning and with the Sword and with Blasting and with Mildew and they shall pursue thee untill thou perish And the Heaven that is over thy head shall be brass and the Earth that is under thee shal be Iron The Lord shall make the Raine of thy Land powder and dust from heaven shall it come down upon thee untill thou be destroyed Levitiâ— Cap. 29. 16. Deuteron 28. And in the new Testament that everlasting and blessed Physitian the Holy JESUS who came not to destroy but to save the world after he had healed the impotent man who had beene sick of his infirmity eight and thirty years he dismissed him not without this loving and gracious caution Behold thou art made whole sinne no more lest a worse thing come unto thee S. John Chap. 5. 14. and S. Paul also in his first Epistle to the Corinthians rebuking that new and sinfull custome which had crept then into that Church of prophaning the Lords holy Supper with their own intemperate feasts objects to them that sharp visitation by Diseases which for that very abuse God had punished them with For this cause saith he many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep for some of them had beene punished with death Thus is the just and all-seeing God the first and supreme cause of the Extrarious cause CHAP. 7. Of the excesse and the defect of necessaries which is the second cause of the Extrarious cause FXcess of Necessaries is to be considered first in Victuals where the offence is threefold 1. In superfluousness 2. In vairety 3. In our manner of receiving them We offend in superfluousness when that which is to nourish us is taken in too great a quantity whence follow frequent and unwholsome evaporations and belchings which so fill and oppresse the vessels and Organs of the spirits that they are hindered in their functions or the meat with its weight and quantity so indisposeth us that the inordinate operation and digestion is retarded Innumerable are the Diseases and molestations which proceed from this particular intemperance We offend in variety when at one dinner or supper we eate many and divers kinds of Meats and Drinkes for these having a great dissimilitude and enmity amongst themselves cause divers inconveniences by their various dissents and unequall digestion We offend in the manner of receiving when we eate hastily or swallow our meat before it be well chew'd and devour our Drinke like Whales as those are accustomed who drink healths as they term them at Meales taking off whole Bowles and Tankards {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} without so much as breathing time and thinke the excess very fashionable praise-worthy Another Excess in Necessaries happens about taking of rest and watching When the Animal spirits by too much sleep are by degrees habitnated into a certaine dulness so that they perform their functions sluggishly remitting still something of their due vigour until at length they lose all their activity and are naturalized as it were into an incurable stupidity Contrarywise by too much watching they are easily inflamed so that oftentimes they cause Maniacal fits and phrensies with divers others most desperate consequences A third excess of Necessaries happens from cold and heat Excess of heat happens either when the body is over exercised or when any other Extraneous heat hath too free an access to it and the innate fire of nature is beyond measure excited thereby so that inordinate exhalations are caused in the body which produce an excessive and dangerous resolution and weakness of parts Excess of cold happens either by a suddaine Refrigeration or cooling after Exercise or when we expose our selves too much to cold weather which hinders the evaporation of Excrementitious Exhalations by stopping the Pores and beating them back into the body where they lodge and remaine Whence it comes to pass that being of an Extrarious malignant disposition they afford matter and foment for many and severall kinds of diseases A like excess to this proceeds frequently from the hardness and thick Callousness of some peoples skins by which fault because little or no perspiration is performed the secret and the Ambient Aire of their bodies is intercepted so that there is no liberty for inspiration or exspiration Defect of Necessaries is first the want of meat and drink in their due time and proportion This is either famine or thirst Secondly The want of naturall rest according to the Verse Quod caret alterna requâ—e durabile non est The strongest body and the best Cannot subsist without due rest Thirdly The want of Refrigeration or coolness of aire which by its needfull community and permeation allayes and tempers the inward heat of the heart Fourthly and lastly the want of due and requisite heat by which the Excrementitious Exhalations of the body are vented forth and the animall spirits incited to their peculiar functions CHAP. 7. Of Fire the third Cause of the Extrarious Cause BY Fire in this place I understand not onely Kitchin-fire or any other fire that burns but also the celestiall fire of the Sun and the Sun and the native implanted fire of all the parts of â—â—ns body I. Externall fire is the producent of Extrarious Causes by its separative power or faculty by which it separates extracts them from other bodies communicates them afterwards to our nature II. The Internal innate fire produceth Extrarious causes when by digestion it separates the impure part from that food or matter in which it first resided whence our natural substance comes to be infected SO the naturall heat digests our meat and by the assistance of the innnate Salt dissolves it that man may retain or keep in his body that which is agreeable to his nature and joyne it to his essence but that which is contrariant he segregates from the other and casts forth at his proper Emunctories This Segregated matter or Excrement doth oftentimes mightily afflict the body and that it doth two manner of waies The first by being retained in the body or for want of evacuation The second by a noysome fâ—tid Exhalation and sent ascending from it to the nobler parts when it is so retained It offends by retention first when it is carried indeed to the naturall Emunctories or deijcient parts but the weakness of
the greatest effect Seeing therefore that Trees and all Roots which in the Winter time seem dead doe about the entrance of the Spring break forth and bud putting on greenness and a renew'd youthfulnesse and fresh vivacity as it were therefore the wise Ancients did at the very same time by observing them take their purging and restorative Physick and by that meanes God cooperating with them did mightily strengthen nature and multiply their dayes upon earth Such Physick as this is the starre of man imprognated with the Physicall tincture Others use onely the Philosophicall stone These glorious medicines whomsoever God shall reveale them to may in their just Dose be taken once in every week to the singular comfort and incredible improvement of nature So the Philosophers tell me The dose of the universall medicine is the weight of one graine IX Vse not too freqnently the permissions of Marriage MAn for procreations sake should not abhorre the Concessions and Priviledges of lawfull love but let him eschew all wantonnesse and confine his desires to naturall and legitimate and that too within the bounds of Wedlock But in this also there must be moderation Solons Law was thrice in the moneth Emission of seed weakens all bodies This experience tells us for men that are addicted to this intemperance have the most nice and tender constitutions easily offended and seldome fruitfull like Trees which bearing too much in one year yeeld nothing but leaves in the next You are to understand from this Paragraph that seed is two-fold Radical and Prolific The Radical seed is the innate balsame of the body which if it be advantaged with perfect digestion will yeeld effusion and a balsame of the same nature as it selfe In this balsame the body lives as in his proper seed Hence Anonymus Leschus Tract. 7. instructs us that so long as there is seed in the body it lives but the seed being consumed the body dies It is no wonder then that so many have perished by the intemperance who * going to bed in a vegetous perfect health were found dead next morning If you excite a Tree to bear fruit by violent and unnatural means or by artificiall as by kindling fire under his branches in an unseasonable time you will but kill the Tree and manifest your own indiscretion CHAP. 3. Of Diseases in Generall HItherto we have spoken onely of that part of Physick which teacheth us to preserve health It remaines now that we consider the other part which treats of the restitution of health I. That part of Physick which teacheth us the restoration of health is an Art laying down in certaine precepts or rules a sure safe way to redeem or free sick persons from diseases It is termed by thâ—Grecians {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} II. In this we are to consider first the disease and all its circumstances secondly the cure of it For the true method consists in knowing first the disease and afterwards the cure The Doctrine of diseases is termed by the Grecians {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} III. Disease or sicknesse is a privation or the loss of health IV. Therefore because health depends upon the strength and vigour of the radical balsame sicknesse must needs proceed from the weaknesse and indisposition of it V. But when the strength of the Balsame followes the conspiration of the Hypostatical principles as his proper {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} â—r inclinatior then or in that cause the insirmity of the balsame proceeds from the indâ—sposition of the principles Whence followes this consequence THat those bodies whose principles agree not amongst themselves may be truly judged to be sickly and ill disposed VI Touching the disease there are two things to be considered First The conjoyn'd and apparent cause of the disease which we shall terme Extrarious Secondly the cause of that Extrarious or conjoyn'd cause CHAP. 4. Of the Extrarious or conjoyned and apparent Cause of the Disease I. The conjoyned ' apparent cause of the disease I terme * by reason it is a Cause most remote from and altogether a stranger to our nature II. This Extrarious Cause is twofold Substantial and Accidental THe substantial is so termed because it is the substantiall Essence or matter of the disease The other is termed accidental by reason that the conjoyned cause signified by it is an accident not a substance III. The substantial extrarious Cause is either an impure tincture or a Meteor IV. An impure tincture is an impure spiritual nature so exactly mixt with the most inward parts of our substance that at the time of its commixtion it doth not presently and manifestly hinder nor prejudice the functions of the Balsame but remaining quiet and inoffensive at first and for a time doth afterwards by degrees discover its enmity and force and so infects the body TO this place must be referred first those impure seminal tinctures by which the prolific seed is tainted and the child that is borne of it comes to be Hereditarily infected with the Diseases of his parents Secondly the impurity of the body that proceeds from the bloud with which the child is fed and nourished in the wombe from which last impurity if the substance of the Childe were not vindicated and free'd by frequent breakings out by the Measels and divers other extrusions and petty and indispositions besides the dayly discharge of it through the proper Emunctories of the body it were not absurd to conclude that his whole nature must needs be depraved and overcome by it Purgations of this kind happen sometimes sooner sometimes later according to the strength of the Radicall balsame which in some is slower in others quicker and more vigorous as we see it exemplified in our very fields of which some are more barren some more fruitfull according to their scituation and the aspect of the Sun-beames shining directly and favourably upon some upon others glancingly and for a short time which makes some places more forward some more back-ward and their productions whether flowers or Hey or Corne to differ accordingly some being very good some very bad V. A Meteor is either volatile or coagulated both kindes are Extrarious I Call it a Meteor because I would have the Reader to inquire how the * Meteors of the greater world are generated and by their Generation to learn and find out the true Doctrine of the Microcosmical Meteors VI The volatile Meteor is commonly called an Exhalation and that is either dry or moist THe dry Exhalation is termed a Fume and the humid a Vapour the fumid Exhalation because it is a fume arising from a dry body or Principle is hot dry light and subtile alwayes tending upwards and is near to a sulphureous fiery nature which will easily inflame and kindle and so is set on fire and burns Contrarily a vapour is an humid flux which if it be deprived by any exterior heat of its owne cold quality and
it HEnce it comes to passe that pregnant or breeding women whose imagination is most vehement because of the Starre of the Child which upon some singular longing doth most powerfully move them doe by the force of an inflamed or exalted imagination when they faile to come by that Object they long for impresse into the very child the perfect forme or figure of it yea it oftentimes causeth miscarriage and the death of the Child as may be seen in this following History A certaine woman great with child seeing a Baker carrying Bread into the Oven with his Doublet off longed for a peece of the Bakers shoulder and when any other meat was offered unto her or brought in to her sight she would presently fall to vomit Her Husband distrest betwixt love and pitty offered such a large summe of money to the Baker that he consented suffered her to bite off two morsels of his flesh but being not able to endure the pain the third time the woman presently fell in Labour and was delivered of three boyes whereof two were alive and the third dead Mizaldus in his first Century relates it out of Langius To this first Division must be referred those unfortunate Aspirers who affecting some great knowledge or science and missing to attain to it by reason of a blockish stupidity or imbecillity of apprehension come to be distracted and stark mad IV Secondly The Imagination comes tomes to be inflamed when by some unexpected Object or Accident a man or woman is suddainly frighted SUch Accidents prove oftentimes very pernicious A causeless imaginary fear in times of infection hath cast many into the Plague and the Plague hath beene their death There lives at Gueilburg a certaine Bakers wife who being young with Child went into the adjoyning Woods or Forrest to gather sticks and being very intent in gathering with her face towards the ground a Citizen of that place comming suddainly at her did so fright her that not knowing well what to doe she struck one hand into the other and continued rubbing them together with a very strong compression for a good while This woman was shortly after delivered of a Son with one hand onely which Childe I my selfe saw and taught there in the publick free-Schoole In the like manner some men that have been frighted by Phantasms and spiritual Apparition in the night time have instantly fallen into grievous diseases and some have dyed Others by the excesse and violence of the horrour had the hairs of their heads changed from the native colour into a quite contrary especially that part which they chanced to touch at the time they were so frighted I my self have known two who affirmed that such a change did happen to them upon the like occasion the one had halfe his Beard turned gray the other had part of the haires of his head turned perfect white the rest retaining still their first colour V. Thirdly The imagination is inflamed when the stomack is offended by some object of sence SUch perturbations happen often and men are frequently inclined to vomit when they looke earnestly upon those Ejectments which another hath cast up VI Fourthly The imaginationis in flamed when any person imagines or fancies that paine or trouble he is in to be intolerable for him and incurable HEnce it comes to passe that men despairing of their health or redemption contrive their owne death and make themselves away CHAP. 10. Of violent Illation which is the sixth and last cause of the extrarious Cause VIolent Illation is performed two wayes Corporally and Spiritually I. Corporally when a man or woman is wounded thrust or shot or fallen or their bones broken II. Spiritually when by the meanes and ministry of evill spirits a man or woman is either blinded or maimed or any extraneous visible matter is invisibly and without manifest violence conveyed into and lodged in their bodies or when they are by any other preternatural wayes and meanes set upon and afâ—licted THat such things may and have been done we shall prove by the truth of this following relation In the year of our Lord 1539. there lived in the village of Fugesta within the Bishoprick of Eâ—steter a certaine Husbandman named Ulrich Neusesser who was grievously pained in the Hypochondriacal Region with most violent and sharp stitches whose fury and persistance made him send for a Chirurgion and incision being made there was found and taken out of his side an Iron Naile which lay under the skin without the least external symptome or discoloration of the part This notwithstanding the pain ceased not but was dayly exasperated and did more and more increase whereupon this miserable man resolving with himselfe that there could be no cure for him but death snatched a knife out of the hand of his attendant and did therewith cut his own own throat Upon the third day after when his body was to be drest for buriall there were present Eucherius Rosenbader of Weisenburg and John of Ettenstet a Town in the Dukedome of Bavaria both Chirurgions who in the presence of as many persons as came to the Funeral did cut up the Body and in the fore part of his belly betwixt the Cartilages and the Navill towards the side-region there were found and taken out and seen by them all a prodigious and wonderfull â—ight â— a round and long peece of wood foure knives of steel made partly with edges and partly with teeth like a saw and two peeces of sharp and rough Iron each of them being more then a span in length and underneath all these a great lock of haire wrapt close together and made up in the forme of a Ball Mizaldus in his sixth Century relates this sad History out of Langius CHAP. II. Of the cure of Diseases HItherto we have known the Diseases by his Causes It remains now that we teach the Cure of it and this we shall doe onely by certain genernall Rules or Precepts But lest we should proceed without method we shall divide this Chapter concerning the Cure into seven Sections We shall teach 1. What and how manifold the Cure is 2. How a Physician ought to be qualified 3. Of what sort kind or quality the medicines or meanes of the Cure ought to be 4. Out of what things those Remedies must be sought and taken 5. Why Medicines sometimes cannot restore and introduce health 6. How the Remedies or Medicaments ought to be administred 7. How the sick man must carry or dispose of himselfe while he is in a course of Physick Section 1. What and how manifold the Cure is I. The cure of Diseases is an operation by which a sick person is restored to his former health and his sicknesse what ever it be quite expelled and radically extirpated II. The cure or healing of all Diseases that I may in this place make use of the most apposite significant termes of Severinus out of Crollius is two fold 1. Universal which is an absolute Extirpation
true Physicians For the innate naturall faculty of all productions of the earth is by the Chymical dexterity of these latter sort of Philosophers vindicated from the drossie adherencies of the matter and united with the firmamentall virtue or occult quality which is caused and communicated to them by the influence of the Stars This Art of refining and uniting inferiours to their superiours makes a compleat and a successful Physician III. He must be an Alchymist skilfull in all spagirical operations to separate the pure from the impure the drossie and venemous parts of his medicinall Ingredients from the usefull and sanative and one that knowes exactly how to prepare and when to administer Chymical medicines for the restoration of his Patients FOr as Gold is seven times purified so a Physician ought to try and refine all his Physicall Materials by the ministry of fire which separates the good from the bad Also he ought to have in some things a certain and confirmed knowledge acquired by long experience and a diligent daily inspection into the works of nature for true Philosophy is nothing else but a Physicall practise or triall communicating daily to industrious and learned operators most usefull and various conclusions and medicines And after all the coyl of Academical licenciated Doctors he onely is the true Physician created so by the light of Nature to whom Nature her selfe hath taught and manifested her proper and genuine operations by Experience Section 3. Of Medicines what their qualities should be and how prepared I. Physicall Remedies or Medicines should both expell the disease and strengthen natu 〈…〉 HEnce came that infallible Rule of Physicians Contraries are cured by their Contraries For Contraries by the consent of all Philosophers expell and drive out one another therefore it is necessary that those Medicines which take away the Disease be repugnant and contrary to the Disease and for the same reason they must be auxiliaries and consentaneous to our nature Upon which very consideration that famous principle of the Hermetists is grounded Every like is cured by its like Therefore Medicines as they respect or look to the Hypostatical principles ought also to have some correspondence with the nature of the disease but in their Energie and effect they must be adversant and quite opposite Thus the stone which proceeds from Tartar or coagulated Salt is cured by Salt but it must be Analyticalor resolvent salt The Joynt-gout also which proceeds from Tartareous sharp and corrosive Salts is cured by lenitive and consolidating Salts In like manner sulphureous Diseases must be cured by their proper and specificall sulphurs but to inflammatory sulphur that causeth Feavers we must oppose acid Vitriolated sulphur which is a most effectuall cooler and will coagulate and allay those incensed sulphureous spirits Whence followes this Consequence That some Medicines may be corrosive without any danger or prejudice But with this Caution that they be so qualified as not to work upon the innate radical Balsame but only upon that Extrarious malignant matter which is the conjoyn'd and apparent cause of the Disease II. It is requisite that of Medicines some be Spagyrically prepared and some otherwise FOr Chymical remedies must not be used at all times nor in all Causes but onely then when our internal natural Alchymist is insufficient of himselfe to separate the pure from the impure and perfectly to extract out of compound Medicines that noble Essence in which the force and virtue or spirit of the medicament is chiefly resident or when there is a necessity in fixed and rooted Diseases to use minerall remedies that confirmed and obstinate Maladies may be set upon and brought under by such powerfull and active Medicines that will not be baffled It is otherwise a foolish and needlesse imployment to separate that by Chymistry which nature her selfe will performe with more ease and dexterity And Nature knowes better what is most convenient for her then any Physician for she makes use of her own proper fire and Magnet which attracts both from Physick and food that which is congeneous and most like to her selfe whereas an Artist on the contrary doth not at all times use the like fire nor exactly in the same degree to perform his operations For which cause the true Hermetical Physicians do not at all times administer Minerals but most commonly when they exhibite Minerals they make use also of Medicines extracted out of Vegetables or to quicken the operation of these latter they give a competent and safe quantity of the former III. All Medicines must be specificall and aâ—propriated to the Disease THat is to say they must have in them by the gift of God such a virtue that is peculiarly proper and designed as it were to remove those diseases against which they are administred Whether they be universally so gifted or particularly for some one sort of disease That body or subject in nature which will be easily corrupted cannot be medicinall for all diseases and this is the reason that out of such bodies the true Philosophers extract onely specifical Antidotes whose power or virtue is effectual onely against some particular kind of disease That thou maist have some knowledge of those materials or ingredients which are requisite and proper to make such spâ—cifical Medicaments thou must diligently read the Bookes of the Hermetists De signaturis rerum That is to say Of those impressions and Characters which God hath communicated to and marked as I may say all his Creatures with These Bookes thouâ— must carefully peruse and all others which teach us the true and solid practise of Physick But if it would please God to blesse thee with the universal Medicine these studies and all other cures whatsoever might be safely pretermitted This glorious universal Medicine without all doubt is to be extracted out of such a subject whose innate Balsame preserves both it Selfe and the Body in which it exists from all corruption This body is so adequate and temperated with such a just and even proportion of all the foure Elements that the qualities of no one of them can ever possibly corrupt it If thou conceivest it may be bad in another kind of subject thou dost but play the fool and deceive thy selfe What ever Nature hath that she can give us what she hath not she neither will nor can afford To the wise man one word is enough I speake out of the true light of nature My Studies also hitherto cannot find any other Fuâ—damental of an universal Medicine Section 4. Out of what things Medicines must be sought I. They must be sought 1. Out of the Word of God 2. Out of Nature and in nature out of Vegetals Animals and Minerals I In this search we must first pray for Gods assistance and in the next place we must attend to the instructions of the wise Ancients If thou couldst finde out such a thing as would purge and rectifie nature in the great world so effectually that ever
administer no Medâ—cineâ— whose forces or operative virtues in taking away the disease he is not throughly acquainted with unlesse he be well assured that they cannot indanger nor prejudice a person that is in health by such trials he may safely and profitably discern what his Medicines can and what they cannot effect IV. He must administer nothing that hath in it a manifest poyson unlesse the venome be first wholly and actually separated or taken out V. He must before the administration of his Medicines remove all impediments that are likely to oppose or weaken their virtues and this must be done either by himself or by another viz. by a Surgeon HE must let blood take away all luxations set broken bones c. And afterwards apply his Medicines inwardly or outwardly or both wayes as need requires VI He must prescribe such a Dyet both of Meat and Drinke as will be agreeable to his Patients present exigencie and for the furtherance or assistance of nature and the restoration of health VII He must carefully observe a just Dose in all his Medicines with respect had to their operations and to the strength of the Patient VIII He must never administer any of his Medicines without sanctifying them in and with the blessed name of JESUS CHRIST Whatsoever ye doe saith the Apostle of the Gentiles in word or deed doe all in the name of the Lord JESUS giving thankes to God and the Father by him Colos. 3. 17. Section 7. How the sick man should behave himself while he is in a course of Physick I. Let the sick person acknowledge that he hath deserved and drawn upon himselfe the just anger of God by his frequent sinnes and that it is by his righteous permission that he is visited with sicknesse II. Let him by an unfeigned penitence and a godly sorrow reconcile himhimselfe unto God through the merits of his Saviour putting on an holy resolution to become a new man and afterwards let him draw near to the throne of Grace and intreat God for mercy and his healing assistance III. After reconciliation and invocation of the divine Aide let him send for the Physician and Physick being taken let him not doubt of Gods mercy and his own recovery THat is to say let him certainly believe that there is communicated and infused by the gift of God into the medicine which he hath taken such an innate vertue as is effectual and proper to expell his Disease If he doth this the event will be answerable to his faith and the Medicine will in all circumstances work successfully A firm credulity chearfull hope and true love and confidence towards the Physician and the Medicine saith that great Philosopher Oswaldus Crollius conduce as much to the health of the Patient yea sometimes more then either the remedy or the Physician Naturall faith I meane not the faith of Grace which is from Christ but the imaginative â—aith which in the day that the first man was created was then infused and planted in him by God the Father and is still communicated to his posterity is so powerfull that it can both expell and introduce Diseases as it manifestly appeares in times of infection when man by his owne private imagination out of meere feare and horrour generates a Basiliscum Coeli which infects the Microcosmical Firmament by means of the Imaginants superstition according as the Patients faith assists or resists To the faithfull all things are possible for faith ascertaines all those things which are uncertaine God can by no meanes be reach'd and injoy'd of us but onely by faith whosoever therefore believes in God he operates by the power of God and to God all things are possible But how this is performed no humane wit can find out This onely we can say that â—aith is an operation or work not of the Belâ—ever but of him in whom he believes Cogitations or thoughts surpasse the operations of all Elements and Stars for while we imagine and believe such a thing shall come to passe that faith brings the worke about and without it is nothing done Our faith that it will be so makes us imagine so imagination excites a Star that Star by conjunction with Imagination gives the effect or perfect operation To believe that there is a medicine which can cure us gives the spirit of Medicine that spirit gives the knowledge of it and the Medicine being known gives health Hence it appeares that a true Physician whose operations are natural is born of this faith and the spirit I meane this spirit of nature or star of medicine furthers and assists him according to his faith It happens oftentimes that an illiterate man performes those cures by this imaginative faith which the best Physicians cannot doe with the most soveraigne medicines Sometimes also this bare perswasion or imaginative faith heales more and more effectually then any virtue in the exhibited Medicine as it was manifestly found of late years in that famous Panacea or All-heal of Amwaldus and since his time in that new medicinall spring which broke out this present yeare in the Confines of Misnia and Bohemia to which an incredible number of sick persons doe daily resort No other cause can be rendred of these Magnalia or rare Physical operations then the firme and excessive affection of the Patient for the power which worketh thus is in the Spirit of the receiver when taking the medicine without any fear or hesitation he is wholly possessed and inspired as it were with an actual desire and beliefe of health for the rationall soule when stirred up and enkindled by a vehement imagination overcomes nature and by her own effectuall affections renewes many things in her own body or mansion causing either health or sicknesse and that not onely in her own body but Extraneously or in other bodies The efficacy of this naturall faith manifested it selfe in that woman with the bloody Issue and in the Centurion Hitherto are the words of Crollius IV. When the Patient is delâ—vered from his disease and restored to his former health let him heartily and solemnly give all the glory to the Supreme All-mighty Physician let him offer the sacrifice of Thankes-giving and acknowledge the goodness and the tender mercies of the Lord And let not the Physitian forget to performe his duty by a thankeful and solemn acknowledgement of Gods gracious concessions by choosing and enabling him to be his unworthy instrument to restore the sick And this he must do not onely because it is his duty and a most deserved and obliged gratitude but also out of a wise Christian caution to avoid those judgements which are poured upon the negligent and ungratefull by the most just jealousie of the irresistible and everlasting GOD unto whom alone be rendred by Angels and Men and by all his creatures All Praise and Glory and perpetual thanks in this the Temporall and in the eternall Being Amen FINIS * It was not long before the publishing of this peece that I was told by a very noble Gentleman that in his late travailes in France he was acquainted with a young French Physician who for a long time had beene suiter to a very handsome Lady and having at length gained her consent was married to her but his Nuptial bed proved his Grave for on the next morning he was found dead It was the Gentlemans opinion that this sad accident might be caused by an excessive joy and for my part I subscribe to it for a violent joy hath oftentimes done the worke of death this comes to passe by an extreame attenuation and diffusion of the animal spirits which passing all into the exterior parts leave the heart destitute whence followes suffocation and death Scaliger Exercit. 310. gives the reason of this violent effusion and dissipation of the Spirits Quia similia maxime cuprint inter se uniri ideo spiritus veluti exire conantur ad objectum illud exâ—ernumâ— atum ac jucundum ut videlicet cum eo vniantur Illudque sibi maxime simile reddant If any will suspect that together with this excessive joy there was a concurrency of the other excess mentioned by my Author I permit him his libâ—rty but certainly I thinke he will be deceived * Extrarious signifies such a substance that is quite another thing and of another disposition than ours is * I promise my English Reader that if God will blesse me with health and his performing assistance I will shortly communicate to him according to the Hermetic principles a most accurate Treatise of Meteors their Generation Causes qualities peculiar Regions and Forms what spirits governe them and what they signifie or fore-shew * Animalls Vegetals and Minerals ☞ * The terme of life is moveable not fixed conditionall not positive as appears by that commandement which S. Paul observed to be the first with a promise and by many other reasons which cannot be inserted in this place