Vita Sana Longa. THE Preservation of Health AND Prolongation of Life Proposed and proved In the due observance of Remarkable Praecautions And daily practicable Rules Relating to Body and Mind compendiously abstracted from the Institutions and Law of Nature By E. Maynwaringe Dr. in Physick Non accepimus brevem vitam sed fecimus Senec. LONDON Printed by J. D. Sold by the Booksellers 1669. EVERARDUS · MAYNWARINGE · MEDICINAE · DOCTOR · AETATIS · SUAE · 38 · 1668. The Preface HAving some Years since put forth a rough draught or indigested Notions upon this Subject with intentions then to revise and finish at more leasure when opportunity was afforded me yet other Subjects and business so put me by as I thought not at all to reassume this matter again nor make any farther prosecution But being informed by several that this Subject and the managing of it was acceptable to many and that no Copies was remaining with the Book-sellers but clear sold off and yet inquired for but not to be had I was sollicited and desired to reprint it for the publick good and satisfaction of those that desire to be regulated in the course of their lives and to be informed the right way for preserving of Health and prolonging of Life Considering then that Health and long-life are the two great desiderable enjoyments and perfection of Humane Nature coveted and aimed at by all and that I might not be taxed as refractory and obstinate refusing to gratifie such reasonable Desires for the acquiring those laudable ends I was hereby moved to set upon the Work again for improvement and finishing what I had left imperfect and defective in the former Tract But upon revising those sheets much came in my mind to add and to alter so that little of the old stock would remain I then thought it best to lay a new foundation or Platform of Title that I might not be ingaged to the Order Rule or Matter of the old Structure but have full liberty to manage the Work as my genius should lead me Accordingly and with this freedom I have here proceeded to draw forth and present to you this delectable Theam of Health and Long-life with the most profitable advantages the Subject imports and ease of acquiring your capacities will admit Whosoever therefore desires to live long to see their Childrens Children to preserve their youth strength and beauty to be free from molesting pains and loathsome Diseases to preserve their senses and enjoy the perfection of mind to the extremity of Age let them conform and be obedient to the Hygiastick Laws and Rules hereafter prescribed and they may expect what is here proposed for their reward Nor shall I exact and require of you an irkesome strictness or Lessian preciseness to eat and drink by weight and measure but a reasonable observance suteable and well agreeing with a sober rational person not restraining convenient liberty and the lawful pleasure of life Nor can a regular course of life be thought troublesome as a difficult and hard restraint but most pleasant and free Quod assuescenti primum difficile non erit assueto except to those accustomed to the contrary and the leaving of those ill customs is the difficulty but the Rules injoyned be facile and easie to observe And having once acquired a good habit and constant use to return to an irregular intemperate living would be a far greater burthen and irkesome if enjoyned and imposed then the declining and deserting a destructive course for a laudable wholesome regimen most consonant to a rational Creature Qui medicè vivit sine medicis diu vivet Qui non medicè vivit cum medicis saepe sed non diu erit He that lives by Rule and wholesome Precepts takes the best course of Preventing Physick he 's a Physician to himself and needs not the help of others but they that live carelesly and irregularly contemning Physical Rules as unnecessary Observations shall be constrained to Physical Remedies as necessary helps and must often resign into the hands of Physicians E. M. LONDON From my House in Clarkenwell-Close Licensed August the 4th 1669. ROGER L'ESTRANGE ERRATA PAge 5. line 19. read illae p. 21. l. 17. immethodically p. 27. positivè in the Margent p. 39. l. 13. parts p. 36. l. 17. aromatical p. 72. inimicum in the Margent p. 151. l. 29. quis In the second Part. Page 24. line 27. read eradicate p. 30. l. 14. radiant p. 32. l. 15. deobstruct Long Life AND Means to attain it Section I. IN the Primitive Age of the World mans life was accounted to be about 1000 Years but after the Flood the Life of Man was abreviated half Mans Age shortned and none then attained to the tearm of the first Age except Noah who lived 950 Years and after three Generations from the Flood their lives were reduced to a fourth of the Primitive Age and their lives ordinarily exceeded not two hundred Years About Moses his time the Age of Man was yet shorter commonly not exceeding 120 Years Mans Age 120 years which also was his Age when he died yet we find upon Record in Sacred Writ and from Ecclesiastical Writers that after Moses some lived 240 and 260 yet that was rare but more frequently 120 which was then the common Age. Now the Age of Man is reduced to half that Mans Age 60 years 60 or 70 years we count upon But although in general we find this gradual declension and abreviation of mans Life in the several Ages of the World yet must understand it was not equally so in all parts of the World together but places and climates and manner of living of a people cause much difference in the protraction of their lives Age of man differ in several places that at the same time some people of peculiar places were longer lived by a third or fourth part then others of another Climate or Region as the Northern People and in colder Countreys they are longer lived then in the hot Climates and this by reason of the heat that opens the Pores and causeth so great a transpiration that exsiccates and enervates the body but a cooler Air prohibits and restrains such immoderate transpiration and exhaustion keeps the spirits vigorous and united and preserves the alimentory Juyces of the body from too frequent and immoderate exsudation If we examine into the Ages of other Creatures we find little difference in their durations Other Creatares keep their Age. to what they were in the Primitive Times and infancy of the World who keeping to the Rule of Nature implanted in them do preserve their Beings and degenerate little from the integrity of their durations allotted to them from the beginning Now why mans days should be thus abreviated and shortned from what they were and the tearm of his life reduced to so short a continuance gradually declining in the several Ages of the World is fit matter to inquire into
The causes of the abreviation of mans life will appear Why mans life is shortned if we compare the manner of our living now with that of the first Age of the World and from thence how every generation have worsted themselves by a degenerate condition of life unsutable to the institutions of Nature And since we must of necessity allow and admit of hereditary infirmities and traductive debilities of Nature we cannot but expect unless by great reformation of the injurious customs and vices of these latter Ages but that we and our posterity shall degenerate yet still into a worse sooner fading state of life Mans life likely to be yet shorter For as the principles of our Nature are more infirm tainted and debauched from our Parents and Progenitors then those of former Ages of more vigour soundness and integrity are likewise more propense and liable worse to be depraved and degenerate and consequently of shorter duration and continuance Now if we inquire into the condition and manner of living of the Antients comparing with the customs and fashion of this Age Different living now to that of former times we shall find so much difference and irregularity from the appointment and injunction of Nature that may give full satisfaction to the quaery and matter in hand In the infancy of the World man provided and sought after the necessary requisites for his Being and was contented with a competent subsistence which Nature did purely require but in process of time Man was not satisfied with the bare reparations and necessary props of Nature most wholesome and conservative of his Being but hunted after variety and excess to please and gratifie his sensitive Appetite Thus one Age taught another to be irregular and disordered and still dictated novel inventions to the succeeding Generation to fill up and perfect what their Predecessors had prompted and begun whose lives were not long enough to lay a compleat platform of debauched Nature but must transmit their ruining practices to the following Ages to immitate and compleat Hinc illaec lachrymae Thus and after this manner by such means is mans life beset with many cruciating maladies which have shortned the dayes of his abode here and of latter Ages acts but a short part upon the stage of the World And this is procured by the variety and excess in meat and drink Brevity of mans life how procured by unseasonable and immoderate sleeping and watching turning day into night and night into day by sluggish unwholesome ease instead of due exercise and motion or toyling unseasonably and wearing out the body when it requires natural rest and refreshment by living in unwholesome places sucking in noysome destructive Air preferring profit and by interests before health and long life indulging Venus too much by immoderate and too frequent repeated acts thereby enervating all the faculties dispiriting and wasting the body by wearing and fretting the mind with various passions changing from one excess to another and wracking the body with several disturbing moods and passionate humours by exhausting the strength in a prodigal expence of the vital stream with frequent and unnecessary Phlebotomies by infecting the body and stamping exotick impressions too frequently with the common virulent purgatives that alienate the crases or ferments of the parts and such like injurious Drugs not rightly corrected and ill prepared Medicines that bring detriment and damage to the body by their use To these may be added the injurious mannagement of Infants by careless or ignorant Nurses and fond Mothers greatly injuring their Children by a destructive indulgence and erroneous affectionate usage in the ordering and educating them who for the most part live not so long as others Having set forth how mans Life hath declined and shortned in the several Ages of the World and pointed at the chief procuring Causes of such abreviation and change which hereafter we shall prosecute more fully it remains to tell you how this evil may in part be remedied and something regained that hath been lost and is still upon the losing side except recovered by a more diligent and prudent course And here I must premise a few things before I come to the point prescribing the Rule to walk by and means for attaining long life All the Creatures have their definite times of duration allotted them by Nature some longer others a shorter tearm Creatures differ in their term of being and this from the principles of their composition seminality from whence they spring In the Mineral Family we find the longest durations being solid dense bodies of more simple natures and homogenious do preserve their Beings longest from ruine and dissolution Vegetables are of a shorter duration yet not all alike some preserve their beings hundreds of years as the Cedar and Oak Others continue but a few years some a year Amongst the sensitive Creatures we find that serveral species have their peculiar durations which in the common course of nature are observed to continue some a longer Age others a shorter The Mineral is slowest in rising to maturity and perfection but continues longest in that state The Vegetable in the generality is quickest in the ascent to the top of perfection but keeps not its station long some whereof fade and wither every year but renew their verdure again at the Spring until a few years hath spent that seminal power and fertile blooming virtue The Sensitive Creatures and perfect Animals are slower in their rise to perfection which having attained stay but a while in that full strength do gradually descend again decline and perish So that all living Creatures by nature have their risings and settings and definite times fixed for their growth and duration from their beginning they have a gradual ascent until they have attained the vigor and exaltation of their Natures and having gained the top of their perfection they stay not long there but gradually descend again and are degraded of the honour and perfection of their Natures and tend to their ruine and dissolution nor are the Creatures limited alike to the same duration but do extend and are shortned variously according to their Principles and Foundation of Being as Nature hath furnished them with a provision permanent and sutable for such a duration and subsistence Now of all the Creatures we find Man most uncertain in his being and continuance although the Age of Man be limited to sixty years and is most lyable to alteration and a perishing state upon these four accounts First Because Man derives from his Parents by a seminal propagation and inherits the Diseases of their vitious depraved Natures radicated in him to which his own enormous acts being added does multiply and heighten the corruption of his Nature hence the succeeding Generations becomes more degenerated infirm diseased and consequently of shorter duration then the former Secondly For that the structure of his body is the most wonderfully contrived of all the Creatures containes
satisfie Nature but force it down many times contrary to natural inclination and when there is a reluctancy against it as Drunkards that pour in Liquor not for love of the drink or that Nature requires it by thirst but only to maintain the mad frollick and keep the Company from breaking up Some to excuse this intemperance hold it as good Physick to be drunk once a month and plead for that liberty as a wholsom custom and quote the authority of a famous Physitian for it Whether this Opinion be allowable and to be admitted in the due Regiment for preservation of health is fit to be examined Omne nimium naturae est inimicunt It is a Canon established upon good reason That every thing exceeding its just bounds and golden mediocrity is hurtful to Nature The best of things are not excepted in this general rule but are restrained and limited here to a due proportion The supports of life may prove the procurers of death if not qualified and made wholsom by this corrective Meat and drink is no longer sustinance but a load and over-charge if they exceed the quantum due to each particular person and then they are not what they are properly in themselves and by the appointment of Nature the preservatives of life and health but the causes of sickness and consequently of death Drink was not appointed man to discompose and disorder him in all his faculties but to supply nourish and strengthen them Drink exceeding its measure is no longer a refreshment to irrigate and water the thirsty body but makes an inundation to drown and suffocate the vital powers It puts a man out of the state of health and represents him in such a degenerate condition both in respect of body and mind that we may look upon the man as going out of the World because he is already gon out of himself and strangely metamorphosed from what he was I never knew sickness or a Disease to be good preventing Physick and to be drunk is no other then an unsound state and the whole body out of frame by this great change What difference is there between sickness and drunkenness Truly I cannot distinguish them otherwise then as genus and species Drunkenness being a raging Disease denominated and distinguished from other sicknesses by its procatartick or procuring cause Drink That Drunkenness is a Disease or sickness will appear in that it hath all the requisites to constitute a Disease and is far distant from a state of health for as health is the free and regular discharge of all the functions of the body and mind and sickness when the functions are not performed or weakly and depravedly then Ebriety may properly be said to be a Disease or sickness because it hath the symptoms and diagnostick signs of an acute and great Disease for during the time of drunkenness and some time after few of the faculties perform rightly but very depravedly and preternaturally if we examine the intellectual faculties we shall find the reason gone the memory lost or much abated and the will strangly perverted if we look into the sensitive faculties they are disordered and their functions impedited or performed very deficiently the eyes do not see well nor the ears hear well nor the pallate rellish c. The speech faulters and is imperfect the stomach perhaps vomits or nauseates his legs fail Indeed if we look through the whole man we shall see all the faculties depraved and their functions either not executed or very disorderly and with much deficiency Now according to these symptoms in other sicknesses we judge a man not likely to live long and that it is very hard he should recover the danger is so great from the many threatning symptoms that attend this sickness and prognosticate a bad event here is nothing appears salutary but from head to foot the Disease is prevalent in every part which being collated the syndrom is lethal and judgment to be given so Surely then Drunkenness is a very great disease for the time but because it is not usually mortal nor lasts long therefore it is slighted and look't upon as a trivial matter that will cure it self But now the question may be asked Why is not Drunkenness usually mortal since the same signs in other diseases are accounted mortal and the event proves it so To which I answer All the hopes we have that a man drunk should live is first From common experience that it is not deadly Secondly From the nature of the primitive or procuring Cause strong Drink or Wine which although it rage and strangely discompose the man for a time yet it lasts not long nor is mortal The inebriating spirits of the liquor flowing in so fast and joyning with the spirits of mans body make so high a tide that overflows all the banks and bounds of order For the spirits of mans body those agents in each faculty act smoothly regularly and constantly with a moderate supply but being overcharged and forced out of their natural course and exercise of their duty by the large addition of furious spirits spurs the functions into strange disorders as if nature were conflicting with death and dissolution but yet it proves not mortal And this first because these adventitious spirits are amicable and friendly to our bodies in their own nature and therefore not so deadly injurious as that which is not so familiar or noxious Secondly Because they are very volatile light and active Nature therefore does much sooner recover her self transpires and sends forth the overplus received then if the morbifick matter were more ponderous and fixed the gravamen from thence would be much worse and longer in removing as an over-charge of Meat Bread Fruit or such like substances not spirituous but dull and heavy comparativè is of more difficult digestion and layes a greater and more dangerous load upon the faculties having not such volatile brisk spirits to assist Nature nor of so liquid a fine substance of quicker and easier digestion So that the symptoms from thence are much more dangerous then those peracute distempers arising from Liquors So likewise those bad symptoms in other diseases are more to be feared and accounted mortal then the like arising from drunkenness because those perhaps depend upon malignant causes or such as by time are radicated in the body or from the defection of some principal part but the storm and discomposure arising from drunkenness as it is suddenly raised so commonly it soon falls depending upon benign causes and a spirituous matter that layes not so great an oppression but inebriates the spirits that they act very disorderly and unwontedly or by the soporiferous vertue stupefies them for a time until they recover their agility again But all this while I do not see that to be drunk once a month should prove good Physick all I think that can be said in this behalf is that by overcharging the stomach vomiting is procured and so carries
of former kindness The body that had the magnatism and secret attraction of souls may now be approached without loss or danger of being snared and fettered as a bondslave The Lilly and the Rose that Nature planted in the highest Mount to shew the World her pride and glory is now blasted and withered like long blown flowers The eye that flasht as lightning is now like the opacous body of a thick Cloud that roled from East to West swifter then a Celestial Orb is now tyred and weary but standing still that penetrated the Center of another microcosm hath lost its Planetary influence and is become obtuse and dull The hollow sounding breast that echoed to the chanting Bird and warbled forth delightful tunes now runs divisions with coughing strains and pauses with a deep fetch 't sigh for breath to repeat those notes again The Venal and Arterial Rivulets that ran with vital streams bedewing the adjacent parts with fruitful moisture is now drunk up with parching heat or muddied and defiled with an inundation of excremental humours The want of health converts your House into a Prison and confines you to the narrow compass of a Chamber 't is that which sowers the sweetest and most beloved enjoyments 't is that which disunites and breaks the league of copartnership between soul and body alienates and makes them at jars discomposeth their harmony and weary of their wonted sweet society A sick man is like a Clock out of order and due motion which is of little worth or use so long as it continues in that condition so is man useless both to himself and others in such a state one Wheel being faulty or defective puts the rest out of order and regularity that depend upon that motion and one part or faculty of Mans body being disordered and irregular several others consent with or share in the discomposure more or fewer as the part is more noble and principal commanding some chief Region of the Body or inferior and of a lower orb or private station The reason of this sympathy and consent of patts is first From the general agent and principle of life which is one and the same throughout the whole Secondly Because all the parts of mans body though they have their peculiar and different motions to themselves and special properties yet they are all concurrent and cooperating co-ordinately or subordinately serving to the general design of Nature and maintainance of the whole body and are so concatenated and linked together in the Oeconomy of office that their motions are dependant and of mutual concern for each others wellfare Humane bodies being in a fluxible state and apt for mutation and changing are not long in a through state of health but some part or other by some accident natural debility or disorderly living is discomposed and jarring whereby the Oeconomical harmony is disturbed The signs of such defections and a preternatural change of the body approaching is discovered by the senses our own or others making observation And these signal marks are very apparent to reasonable discerning persons that every one may have some apprehensions if they will be cautilous of sickness coming upon them and a discrasyed body As a state of Health is known by all parts acting in their Offices unblameably that viewing and examining from head to foot nothing appears unwonted or disordered So on the contrary when any part declines its duty or appears any way unwonted from its natural condition declares the beginning of a degenerate valetudinary state which in time will dammage and disorder the whole if not prevented in that particular part and a stop given to that defection Now what this part is whether principal or inferior of a general or more private use and how the prejudice does arise is necessary to be considered which will discover whether the infirmity be of greater or lesser concern of speedy or slower danger So that by noting such signs which are the fore-runners and warnings of great diseases coming on every one may in time look out for means to check the present evil and avoid the greater threatned If the Body which was fat or plump and fleshy afterwards grows lean and thin or if lean and spare bodies grow big and corpulent here is just cause of suspition that all is not right although no great prejudice at present or sensible injury by the alteration yet these cases require due examination from whence they do proceed If the Appetite abate or unwonted heaviness and fulness follow eating argues the digestion not good and the Stomach falling from the due discharge of its duty and office The Consequents of which are very considerable If sleepiness exceed the Custom and Age of the Person or watchfulness and indisposition to rest both presage no good So likewise in other particulars which for brevity sake I shall not instance In general therefore whatever alterations happens in any part or faculty of the body unusual and contrary to the custom of Nature in her integrity does not only declare for its self as a particular infirmity of that part where it buds forth but does presage upon the continuance something worse to come and that the root from whence it springs is of a spreading Nature able to bring forth more then what is manifest at present in as much as the parts are dependant upon each other in office and use and dammage to one brings detriment to the rest Precautions and Rules for the preservation of Health and Prolongation of Life In the choice of Air and places of abode AIR is so necessary to Life that without it we cannot subsist which surrounding us about and being continually suck't and drawn in must needs affect the body with its conditions and properties and by observation you may find the body by the various constitutions and changes in the Air to be variously affected well and ill disposed of which infirm parts are most sensible that they prognosticate before an alteration come the mind also by the mediation of the spirits is drawn into consent and hath its dispositions and variations when the Air is close thick and moist the spirits are more dull heavy and indisposed but at the appearance of the Sun and a serene Skie the Spirits are unfettered vigorous and active the mind more chearful airy and pleasant The Spirits are of an aetherial Nature and therefore do much sympathize with the present constitution and change of Air for of the Air drawn in by the motion of the vital parts are the vital spirits ventilated the blood volatised therefore the pureness of the Air makes much for the purity of the spirits and mass of blood A gross impure and noysom Air obtunds and deads the spirits makes a slow pulse obstructs the Pores and hinders ventilation generates superfluous humours and causeth putrefaction A serene sweet thin Air perfumes and purifies an unwholsome body cherisheth the heart makes a lively pulse and much enliveneth the vital spirits
rarifies and volatizeth a gross coagulate blood opens the pores for transpiration of putrid and offensive vapours acuates and sharpens the Appetite and helps digestion The best Air and most agreeable to temperate bodies is in temperate Climates for heat cold wet and dry not subject to sudden and violent changes as in some parts of America and other Countries very frequent not gross and turbulent infected with putrid vapours and noxious exhalations from stinking Ditches Lakes Boggs Carrions Dunghills Sinks and Vaults for which causes great Cities and the adjacent places are not so healthful nor the people so long liv'd Change of Air sometimes is very necessary for the conservation of health and the recovery of it declining and lost for temperate bodies by an intemperate Air shall gradually and in time become intemperate intemperate bodies by the contrary intemperate Air shall be reduced to temperature at least shall conduce much and be very Auxiliary for the reduction Therefore bodies declining from exact temperature are best preserved in that Air opposite to their declensions as cholerick hot and dry bodies in a moist and cool Air Phlegmatick cold and moist bodies in a dry and warm Air. It is not therefore of small moment in what place you live and more especially such who labour of or are more subject to any pectoral infirmity for the Lungs being of so tender a substance and porous continually drinking in the Air is most apt to receive impressions from it according to the properties it is pregnant with and infested and many diseases of the breast arise from this sole cause and many exasperated by it and continued hence it is Asthmatick Phthisical and Consumptive persons shall not be cured in some places but may have cure in another Be cloathed according to the clemency season and temperature of the Air your Age and habit of body lean thin bodies and pervious corpora rarae texturae and whose skin are loose and lax may wear thicker cloathing because such are more perspirable do magis emittere transpirare and are also more penetrable and subject to injury of the Air. Fat and fleshy people and whose bodies are solid firm and hard are more impenetrable and impervious and may wear thinner Garments Infants and Children lately cherished in the stove of the Womb being of tender soft bodies are easily exposed to the prejudice of the Air. Vigorous youth and middle Age being accustomed to all weathers whose spirits abounding do strongly resist and keep out the assaults and injuries of an offensive Air may best indure hardship Old Age whose natural heat is abated and spirits exhausted stands in need of good defensatives against external cold and to cherish internal heat Observe the seasons and changes of the Air and be then most careful for at such times you are in most danger to exchange health for sickness hence it is that Spring and Autum abounds most with Diseases the Air then assuming new properties opposite to its former constitution sets new impressions upon our bodies which occasions the various aestuations and turgid fermenting of humours producing divers symptoms according to the variety of their nature the organical difference office and constitution of the several parts The Sun being risen and the Air clear open your Chamber-windows that the fresh Air may perfume your Room and the close Air and inclosed Vapours may go forth Bad smells and putrid vapours being drawn in with the Air are very injurious to the Lungs and vital parts contaminating the spirits and impressing upon the Crasis of those parts their tetrid nature are oftentimes the original of a Consumption and if the Lungs be weak and infirm are more apt to receive the prejudice then others But fragrant smells refresh and chear the vital spirits and are very wholsom breathing forth the vertue of those things from whence they do proceed Be not late abroad nor very early before Sun rising and after setting the Air is not so good being infested with noxious vapours until the radient influence of the Sun dispells and purifies and those whose custom it is to be often abroad at such times are most frequently molested with Rheums and Rheumatick Diseases which their declining years will more evidently manifest the prejudice Likewise in moist foggy dark weather 't is better being within then abroad and if it be a cool season good fires and fragrant fumes are then both pleasant and very wholsom Be frequent abroad in the Fields when a clear Skie invites you forth and let the fresh Air fan you with its sweet breath but more especially in the morning the Air is softer and more pleasant then your Bed and sure I am far more wholsom Temperie Coeli corpusque Animusque juvatur Ovid. In the choice of places to live in and abide The choice of places to inhabit these things are to be considered principally First The Climate that it be temperate and suting with the nature of the person for some persons may agree well with one Climate which another cannot cold and moist bodies agree best with a warm and dry Air hot and dry bodies with a moist and cooler Air. Secondly The scituation of the place and soyl is to be noted for as much as low wet and marrish Lands is not so wholsom to inhabit as gravelly Plains and dry high-land Countreys Thirdly In relation to Countrey and City regard is to be had and here the Countrey does prevail over the City for Health and is to be accounted the best place of abode The continual smoke and anoyances that are inseparable from great Cities make those places to abound more with infirm people Fourthly The Waters that supply a place do make it better or worse to live in as they are good or bad Water being of so constant and general use is much to be regarded though little taken notice of and procures many diseases from the variety of its nature being impregnated variously fâ—om the Earth it passeth through or accidents that happen to change it from its natural properties by the admixture of any filth carrion or what else shall fall into it and therefore River Waters that lie open to such injuries are much to be suspected of unwholsomness And this is a great procurer of the Scurvy in many places as Pliny relates that Caesars Army by drinking of bad Water but a few dayes had the symptoms of that Disease The commendations of a place in reaâ—on to health and long life are these A â—â—mperate Air Best place of abode dry serene and clear Champion or high Lands a gravelly dry soyl watered with pure good Springs remote from the Sea Lakes or Marshes not frequented with unwholsom Winds and stormy blasts So considerable is the Climate and Air in relation to our Being that it not only changeth and altereth our bodies but also our minds are wrought upon by it in as much as the wit inclinations and manners of a people are different upon this score
off something that was lodged there which might breed Diseases This is a bad excuse for good fellows and a poor plea for drunkenness for the gaining of one supposed benefit which might be obtained otherwise you introduce twenty inconveniences by it I do not like the preventing of one disease that may be by procuring of one at the present certainly and many hereafter most probably and if the disease feared or may be could be prevented no otherwise but by this drunken means then that might tollerate and allow it but there are other wayes better and safer to cleanse the body either upwards or downwards then by overcharging with strong drink and making the man to unman himself the evil consequents of which are many the benefit hoped for but pretended or if any but very small and inconsiderable And although as I said before the drunken fit is not mortal and the danger perhaps not great for the present yet those drunken bouts being repeated the relicts do accumulate debilitate Nature and lay the foundation of many chronick diseases Nor can it be expected otherwise but you may justly conclude from the manifest irregular actions which appears to us externally that the functions within also and their motions are strangely disordered for the outward madness and unwonted actions proceeds from the internal impulses and disordered motions of the faculties which general disturbance and discomposure being frequent must needs subvert the oeconomy and government of humane Nature and consequently ruine the Fabrick of mans body The ill effects and more eminent products of ebriety are first A changing of the natural tone of the stomach and alienateing the digestive faculty That instead of a good transmutation of food a degenerate Chyle is produced Common experience tells that after a drunken debauch the stomach loseth its appetite and acuteness of digestion as belching thirst disrelish nauseating do certainly testifie yet to support nature and continue the custom of eating some food is received but we cannot expect from such a stomach that a good digestion should follow and it is some dayes before the stomach recover its eucrasy and perform its office well and if these miscarriages happen but seldom the injury is the less and sooner recompenced but by the frequent repetition of these ruinous practices the stomach is overthrown and alienated from its integrity Secondly An unwholsom corpulency and cachectick plenitude of body does follow or a degenerate macilency and a decayed consumptive constitution Great drinkers that continue it long few of them escape A Cacotrophy or Atrophy but fall into one of these conditions and habit of body for if the Stomach discharge not its office aright the subsequent digestions will also be defective So great a consent and dependance is there upon the stomach that other parts cannot perform their duty if this leading principal Part be perverted and debauched nor can it be expected otherwise for from this Laboratory and prime office of digestion all the parts must receive their supply which being not suteable but depraved are drawn into debauchery also and a degenerate state and the whole body fed with a vitious alimentary succus Now that different products or habits of body should arise from the same kind of debauchery happens upon this score As there are different properties and conditions of bodies so the result from the same procuring causes shall be much different and various Quicquid recipitur recipitur per modum recipientis Ax. one puffs up fills and grows hydropical another pines away and falls Consumptive from excess in drinking and this proceeds from the different disposition of parts for in some persons although the stomach be vitiated yet the strength of the subsequent digestions is so great from the integrity and vigor of those parts destinated to such offices that they act strenuously though their object matter be transmitted to them imperfect and degenerate and therefore do keep the body plump and full although the juyces be foul and of a depraved nature Others è contra whose parts are not so firm and vigorous that will not act upon any score but with their proper object does not endeavour a transmutation of such aliene matter but receiving it with a nice reluctance transmits it to be evacuated and sent forth by the next convenient ducture or emunctory and from hence the body is frustrated of nutrition and falls away So that the pouring in of much liquor although it be good in sua natura does not beget much aliment but washeth through the body and is not assimilated But here some may object and think That washing of the body through with good Liquor should cleanse the body and make it fit for nourishment and be like good Physick for a foul body But the effect proves the contrary and it is but reason it should be so for suppose the Liquor whether Wine or other be pure and good yet when the spirit is drawn off from it the remainder is but dead flat thick and a muddy flegm As we find in the destillation of Wine or other Liquors so it is in mans body the spirit is drawn off first and all the parts of mans body are ready Receivers and do imbibe that limpid congenerous enlivener freely and readily but the remainder of greatest proportion that heavy dull phlegmy part and of a narcotick quality lies long fluctuating upon the digestions and passeth but slowly turns sowr and vitiates the Crases of the parts So that this great inundation and supposed washing of the body does but drown the faculties stupefie or choak the spirits and defile all the parts not purifie and cleanse And although the more subtile and thinner portion passeth away in some persons pretty freely by Urine yet the grosser and worse part stayes behind and clogs in the percolation A third injury and common manifest prejudice from intemperate drinking is An imbecility of the Nerves which is procured from the disorderly motions of the Animal Spirits being impulsed and agitated preternaturally by the inebriating spirits of strong Liquors which vibration being frequent begets a habit and causeth a trepidation of Members SECT VII Exercise and Rest regulated and duly appointed THat Exercise and due Motion contributes to the preservation of Health and prolongation of Life will appear if we consider the benefits that are procured by it First In general exercise it raiseth the spirits and puts them upon vigorous action in all the Faculties Secondly It empties the stomach and promotes the appetite for the next meal the remainders after digestion that accumulate to clog the stomach is moved by Exercise and excited to pass away and being thus discharged of those relicts the appetite grows sharp and craves food very strongly Thirdly It provokes expulsion of Excrements and suffers not any superfluous matter to lodge in the body For by the turgid motion of the spirits the common ductures and conveyancies are dilated and expanded which together with the agitation of
business in hand since they are so familiar by use and easie to be apprehended by such for whom this is intended But although I can close with them in relation to this purpose I am now upon to order and appoint a Diaetetick Regiment for different bodies yet I think them not of that concernment for a Physician to tye himself strictly to their observance in the designment of Cures these notions being too superficial and remote from the quiddity essence and spring of the Disease are but Characteristical and Signal to note how and which way the vital Powers do deviate and swerve from their integrity are but the Producta Morbi the Products and Effects separable and the Disease may remain behind Wherefore I cannot allow them as they are severally injoyned in the Methodus Medendi for indications to sute Purgatives electivè and other Medicines to by peculiar appropriations nor concur with some Hypotheses that are founded upon this Doctrine by the Galenists to steer them in their Therapeuticks which indeed runs them upon great errors in the Cure of most Diseases being so nice in temperaments humours and qualities and eying them so much that they neglect the spring from whence they do arise Natura est morborum medicatrix Helm and where the greatest stress of Cures do lie Morbi in initiis vitalibus radicem habent And although I have distinguished food for several constitutions or conditions of body as most proper and fit for them and commonly most agreeable and appetible yet I do not thereby strictly enjoyn or restrain any one of a dissenting appetite from some things greatly coveted and suteable by experience although appointed for another person of a different constitution but that every person seeing the general Rule may something be guided thereby and examining his peculiar propriety of Body undiscernable to others whether it will comply freely or with reluctance In such case where there is a refusal of this or that as not suting but disgustful you are not to impose upon your Nature forcibly though injoyned by the general Rule But where you are at a stand in things indifferent what to chuse when either will comply and sute your appetite then follow the Rule as advantagious Moreover the strong robust bodies active and laborious are not so strictly enjoyned to observance as tender weak bodies soon discomposed and altered by ill dyet or incongruous for their condition of body If a person have a cold waterish Phlegmatick Stomach those Meats and Drinks and Sauces are not so agreeable and requisite for him as will well agree and sute with a Cholerick hot and dry parching Stomach A Phlegmatick man most commonly takes no delight in Milk and Whey cold Meats and cooling Drinks or cooling Sauces but he loves seasoned hot Meats strong Drinks Spices and hot Hearbs to make his Meat savory and acceptable to his Stomach But the Cholerick Man shall delight in the other and they shall sute best being temperately and discretely used So that a Diaetetick Regiment well appointed and observed is physical to dyscrasyed and distempered bodies to contemperate and allay the the luxuriance of some predominant Humour and something dispose the faculties to produce the alimentary Juices of another nature which by time will alter and change the constitution or condition of Body from what it was and reduce it nearer to what it ought to be SECT XI Praecautions and Rules Appointed for the Sanguine Constitution or purest State and Condition of Body THis Constitution does result from the integrity of the faculties and due Crases of the Parts performing their offices rightly When Food is well elaborated and transmuted in such manner as is proper for each digestion then a good constitution and good habit of body is established The Mass of blood then hath its pure tincture and all the liquors of the body their peculiar properties suteable to the intentions of Nature But if the Crases of the Parts be perverted by a spontaneous defection and imbecility of the faculties or otherwise procured to irregularity by bad food intemperance and the Diaetetick Rules not observed then the alimentary Juices do degenerate from their purity the mass of Blood and nervous liquor are depraved the constitution and whole habit of body altered and changed for the worse The sanguine person enjoyes the best state and condition of body does not abound or is molested with crude Phlegmatick or acrid Cholerick Juices or otherwise degenerate but hath the succulencies of body in their right and proper natures as is most fit for every vessel and part of the body hence it is that this person is more fresh temperate lively and florid of a more pleasant mind and good disposition having pure blood and other good Juyces to supply the Body from whence the spirits are generated both plentifully and of a good extraction This State and Constitution of Body is best preserved and continued so from degeneration by a good Diaetetick Regiment disposing all the requisite supports of Life Customs and Actions whatsoever that they be moderate seasonable and suteable to such Natures contributing their assistance wholly and not being any wayes detrimental by their ill management The Sanguine Person will continue long in that condition and good state of Body by a due observance of Dyet Exercise and Rest Sleep and Watching Excretions and Retentions passions of Mind For any of these irregular and unsuteable will alter and change the best tempered body into some other depraved condition answerable to their Causes as the intemperate Air of a hot Climate or sudden change of Weather not regarded violent and unseasonable Exercise night-watchings ill-dyet c. introduceth a depraved alteration and degeneration of the blood and therefore most commonly sickness soon follows such injurious Courses I might here forbid the smoaking of Tobacco the common Purgatives falsly denominated but rather and more properly Corruptives which stamp an ill impression upon the parts and vitiate the alimentary Juyces of the Body but the injuries procured from Tobacco and these Drugs are declared at large in my Tract of the Scurvy Therefore I need not repeat here For the Election and Choice of Food for quantities and due times in Eating and Drinking for the choice of Air and place of Abode for Exercise Sleep c. consonant and most agreeable to this constitution and best state of Body are to be sought in the general Hygiastick Rules before mentioned which are most proper and applicable to this state and condition of Body as being the Rule or Standard to measure others by And by how much others vary from this temperature good condition of Body by so much are they to be accounted intemperate and deviating from integrity and do therefore require some particular Rules or Exemptions from the general to regulate them apart because bodies in a right and good state are not to be governed by the same strictness of Law but must have some allowance and exceptions
and fretting which discomposeth the spirits heats and wasts them augments Choller dryes the body and hastens old Age. Refrain Tobacco as a very injurious custom it exasperates Choler by heating drying and evacuating dulcid Phlegm which contemperates bridles and checks the fury of acrid bilious humours SECT XIV The Melancholy Constitution Stated and Cautioned BY Melancholy Constitution I here understand such a condition of body as is procured and most commonly is the consequent of habituated Melancholy or a melancholy heavy Soul and a dyscrasied Spleen To pass by the controversies that might arise here from the distinction of melancholly by the Galenists as one of the four constituent humours I shall take for granted on both sides as well Chymists as them that the aforesaid causes do beget such a constitution or condition of body as may well require a peculiar Diaetetick Regiment as an allay or mitigation of those preternatural Symptoms that necessarily follow such Causes at least that they may not be aggravated by an injurious course of living A melancholly studious and sedentary life does much abate and suspend the emanative vigour and activity of the Soul equally distributed geometricè amongst the several faculties as the spring of their motion and actions from which abatement and depression of their power the functions are not discharged so exactly and unblamably but more or less according to the agravation or intention and remission of those Causes Now as the Spleen is more eminently the seat of that passion and commonly a part most apparently injured leading the rest into disorder We shall appoint such a government or prudent election and modification of such things comprised in the Diaetetick part of Physick as may best sute with such a condition of body The melancholly splenetick person whose digestive faculties are debilitated must feed more tenderly and nicely than another else that flatulency and oppression which commonly does attend this condition of body will be agravated and much more molesting For by a gross and plentiful feeding are those evils increased Let not your common dyet be of such Meats as are hard and difficult to digest that lie long upon the stomach and require a strong incising ferment for separation and transmutation as Meats long salted dryed fryed or broyled c. but keep to such as are light and of facil digestion that soon yeelds in fermentation and is transmuted without great labour and trouble Meats thus distinguished you will find set down in the 59 60 and 61 pages preceding where you may make election If you have a hot and dry costive body use Barley-broths with Prunes Rasins and Currans and you may eat sometimes Pippins Permains Cherries Respas Straberries and such like good fruits to cool and moisten Take not a full meal at Supper nor late but eat sparingly And if that be too much as may easily be discovered then forbear Suppers wholly Capers Broom-buds and Sampire are good Sauce they please the Pallate quicken the Appetite open Obstructions and help Digestion all which are profitable for this condition of body Also Borrage Bugloss Endiue Cichory Baum Fumiterry Mary-gold-flowers Violets Clove-gilliflowers and Saffron are of good use Drink Sider sometimes and small White-Wine also Whey if your stomach agrees with it Keep the body soluble your Head will be more free from pains fumes and heaviness Also the lower Region of the Body will not so freequently be disturbed with flatulent rumblings distention and windy eruptions Cherish Sleep it refresheth the spirits pacifies a troubled mind banisheth cares and strengthens all the faculties but tiresome waking in the night is a great enemy to a melancholly person Fly Idleness the Nurse of Melancholly but exercise often and follow business or recreations Walk in the green Fields Orchards Gardens Parks by Rivers and variety of places Change of Air is very good Avoid solitariness and keep merry Company Be frequent at Musick Sports and Games Recreate the spirits with sweet fragrant and delightful smells Banish all passions as much as in you lies fear grief dispare revenge desire jealousie emulation and such like Opus est te Animo valere ut Corpore possis Give not your self to much study nor night-watchings two great enemies to a melancholly person Refrain Tobacco though a seeming pleasant Companion the phansie is pleased but for a short time and the ill effects are durable SECT XV. The various Dyscrasies or Passions of the Soul in general MAN is made up of two grand Parts Soul and Body the one Active ruling and governing the other Passive obeying and instrumental The one hath its due Crasis tranquility and placidness The other due organization and fabrication But both are subject to disorder discomposure and inaptitude for the regular performance of their Actions and Offices Great discoveries have been made of that Part of Man which presents it self to the eye We have viewed his Fabrick and I may say exactly Witness the excellent Anatomical pieces that are extant wherein are discovered and laid open all the contrivances of this rare Machine But the Spring that sets all on work the intrinsick mover the Soul lies much in darkness and acts as it were behind the Curtain Whose deficiencies and aberrations are little taken notice of except in the irregularities of passion and then only in relation to divine and moral rectitude And therefore in our Physical Discourses I find the Body to be accused of infirmity and failing throughout the Catalogue of Diseases and that the indisposition of Organs to act is the sole or main cause of the irregularity and deficiency of the Functions And that the hability of the Soul to act ad extra does depend wholly upon the capacity and aptitude of the instrumental parts But I am otherwise perswaded to believe That as there is great difference of Souls in divine and moral goodness why not then in natural abilities and integrity relating to health and sickness And therefore it is very rational to assert that many defects or disorders in the Functions and ruinous decayes of the Body does arise and spring forth from the pravity and debility of the Soul by its lapsid nature And that the first motions ab intra or emanations of the Soul are and may be infirm and vitious when the Organs are in their rectitude and aptitude for regular motions But to clear this out and prosecute it to the full I must ravel into the whole Doctrine de Anima and assert contrary to the old Philosophy which will be found very erroneous but that will take up a whole Tract too big for this place and must be the work of another time Therefore I pass on Passions of mind may be considered either in relation to what is divine moral or natural Passions respecting the two first are either good or evil as their object do's distinguish them but in the latter they are ill and produce bad effects as they in degree are more or less turbulent violent and durable