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
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
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
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
the expulsive faculty is so great that it cannot drive it out Secondly When it is left in the very stomack without farther Exclusion Thirdly when some subtil poyson in and together with the nutritive portion or Chylus doth convey and insinuate it self into the most inward parts of the body which poyson was first taken in with meat and drink It happens often saith the most learned and expert Quercetanus that when the naturall Balsame is tainted by some impurity proceeding from food or nutriment it doth afterwards give way and occasion for many dangerous symptomes and diseases This Paracelsus the great Father and leader of the German Philosophers in his Treatise of the Being and naturn of poyson doth most learnedly expound The Stars also doe frequently powre down into the Aire and upon the Earth certaine Astral Emunctions and Arsenical vapours with other noxious Excretions and Exudations See his Treatise of the Being and the power of the Stars over inferiour Bodies Hence proceed Distraction Phrensies Plurisies the Plague and frequent suddaine Dysenteries Putrified things grow to be noysome and hurtfull by the meanes of those corrosive Salts and fuliginous Exhalations which partly by an externall partly by their own internall heat are excited out of them and dispersed Moreover the Excrements of man when they happen to be retained in the body are subject to a Re-putrifaction and frequently doe so and Wormes are generated out of them In this Case the fuliginous malignant spirits of that foul Masse ascend to the braine whence proceed suddaine madnesse the Vertigo the Falling-sickness and divers other lamentable diseases There are also certaine living Creatures which if they be applyed to man will by their natnrall heat suddainly indispose him by emission of that which is most remote from and inconsistent with his nature Cantharides are so full of this virulency that being onely externally applyed they prove oftentimes pernicious Bartholomew Montagnana reports that a certain Citizen of Padua applying them onely to one of his knees did bleed at the Urinary passage five quarts of blood He affirms also that the like inconvenience happened to another who applyed them to his great Toe to take off the Leprous scurfe of his Nayls The Basilisk hath such a subtil and violent poyson in his eyes that his very looks infect and kill How hurtfull Minerals are when elevated into Mercuriall vapours may be read at large in Paracelsus his books Von den Bergfrancfheâ—ten III. That Extrarious Causes and divers indispositions are introduced by common fire none is ignorant ALchymists Goldsmiths and Colliers can sufficiently prove this point who are oftentimes so offended with vehement searching Sulphureous Arsenical and Mercurial smoaks that they fall into desperate and most painfull Diseases The smoake of Galbanum and Hartshorne will induce the Lethargy CHAP. 8. Of Hereditary impurity which is the fourth Cause of the Extrarious Cause I. Hereditary infection is a transplantation of extrarious Causes performed by impressing a fixt tincture springing from another fixt salt into the prolâ—fic seed which Parents contribute to the Generation of Children SAlt alone and onely is of all the three Principles fixt and fâ—â—â—e Therefore those Diseases which proceed from the indisposition of the Salt are radically fixt and for the most part Hereditary as the Leprosie the Stone the Joynt-gout and the like But those Diseases which spring from any infirmity of the fluxible and volatile principles that is to say from Mercury and Sulphur as all manner of Cathars and Feavers do cannot so easily infect posterity for these Diseases neither fix their seeds firmly nor deeply because they have not their tinctures so tenaciously imprest The nature of this kind of fixed Salt or Sulphur may be perfectly discern'd in the seeds and the roots of Plants for if you take but some particles of them and transplant them those very peeces will take root and grow and bear fruit But neither the leaves nor the flowers in which the volatile Mercury Sulphur have their seat will do so Now the fixed Salt is alwaies conserved in the root and in some pithy stalks Siens or Graffes but the fixed Sulphur is in the seed And this is the reason that the transplantation of all Vegetals is performed by these onely but by the Mercuriall parts which easily fade and wither it cannot be done nor by those parts which have onely in them a volatile Sulphur as the flowers and the leaves of some Vegetables See Quercetan in his advice against the joynt-gout and the stone Therefore saith the same Quercetanus whatever lodgeth in the body of the parents that with a firm spiritual impure and malignant tincture can affect or infect the radical Balsame the vital seed and the very root or fundamentall of humane nature that same impurity whatever it be doth by an Hereditary transplantation pass into and infect the Children But if these impure seeds of Diseases have not taken such a deep root nor so far corrupted the radicall Balsame or if by the helpe of nature and her internall Balsame there is a separation made of them or if by the ministry of Art and externall specifical Balsames of Physick they are effectually allayed and weakned or are come to their proper terme and utmost duration so that their virulency and force is quite spent and broken in any of these Causes Gouty and Leprous persons doe not alwaies beget Gouty and Leprous Children For by these means the roots of Diseases even the most fixt and malignant are eradicated impure seeds are purified and the morbid tincture by long traduction becomes quite extinct This Eradication of hereditary Diseases and Purification of diseased seed comes to passe by the benefit and assistance of good Seed-plots that is by the excellent wholesome temperament of the Matrix in vegetous and healthy women whence it happens that the Fathers seed though tainted with some morbific indisposition is by the laudable vigour of the mothers radical Balsame amended so that Arthritical and Calculous Fathers beget Children which all their life-time continue healthy and unattempted by such Diseases Yea they beget such Children as are not obnoxious or liable to such indispositions In like manner also it happens that a vegetous healthy Father contributing good seed may have a sickly impure issue troubled with hereditary infirmities the Fathers seed attracting to it the malignant propriety of those Diseases which possessed the Mother Thus good Corne if it be cast into a bad soile will degenerate into Tares or yeeld a very bad and a thin Crop but sow it againe in good ground and it will recover its former goodnesse and perfection CHAP. 9. Of Imagination the fifth Cause of the Extrarious Cause I. Imagination is a Star excited in the firmament of man by some externall Object II. When the Imagination is inflamed or at the height then strange passions and defections follow III. It is inflamed first when it feigns some object to it selfe and longs for it but cannot enjoy
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
of every radical morbid impurity whether hereditary or from the sinister use of food or by the force of externall impression THis universall Cure is performed by a naturall medicinall Balsame consentaneous to the nature of man which resolves discusseth and consumes the Seminary tinctures of all impurities and diseases but corroborates confirms and conserves the innate humane Balsame for as Paracelsus teacheth so long as the radicall humour keepes in its due quantity and proportion no Disease or indisposition can be perceived And in this way of Cure the pluralities particularities and orderly Rules of Symptoms and Prognosticks have no place for all Diseases what ever they be are universally perfectly cured by this one universall medicine It is not without reason then that Raymund Lullâ—e affirms that this onely one supreme universall medicine to which and in which the virtues of all other particular and specificall medicines are reduced and included may be safely administred unto all sick persons without inquiring what Disâ—ase they are sick of For wise nature by an instinct from her selfe hath given unto this her favourite medicine the prerogative and power to cure and absolutely to exterminate all naturall infirmities whatsoever yea and to rectifie and restore her own selfe when disordered and weakned There be four chief kinds of Diseases which if once confirmed or inveterate can be expelled by no medicine but the universall namely the Falling-sicknesse the Gout the Dropsie and the Leprosie To these Paramount Diseases all other inferiour sicknesses as to their proper fountaines and originalls have relation and affinity This universall medicine is a Jewel much to be wished for and worthy the looking after but few are they whom God blesseth with his favourite-secret Lullius adviseth all Physicians that diligently and faithfully labour for to search and looke after it because it is the infallible remedy against all infirmities and the greatest and most proper restorative and comforter of the spirits in their functions For in this medicine as in their onely and proper subject there is â—â—â—all and universall collection and conjunction of all the operative effectuall virtues of generall Physick coacted and united together by a natural method consent and design which virtues are otherwise according to the ordinary course and dispensation of nature confusedly dispersed and distributed amongst and through her * three great Families and he that hath such an Antidote against all bodily Diseases hath the gift of God which is an incorrupt incomparable and invaluable treasure in this life What ever infirmity cannot be healed by this competent natural medicine we may boldly and safely conclude that the finger of the great God of nature is in the Cause But the paine when we find it to proceed from his righteous hand is by much the more tolerable and we ought to beare it patiently and thankfully until the Almighty Physician himselfe will be pleased to heal us by those wayes and means which his divine and unerring wisdome shall judge the best III. 2. Next to the universall is the particular cure by which the roots of diseases and the Seminal tinctures themselves are not alwayes taken away but the bitter fruits of them the Symptoms Paroâ—isâ—es and paines are oftentimes prevented mitigated and so supprest that they cannot come to their exaltatâ—on or the worst passe as the common phrase is By this Cure the Physicall evacuation of Excrements is instituted and some considerable succours are communicated to opprest nature by the friendly consentaneous spirits of those medicines that are administred which spirits can onely rightly know and penetrate into the secret lodges and topicall residencies of the radicall morâ—ifie impurity NOw though this particular Cure performs no more than we have told you in the definition of it yet is it not therefore to be slighted nor rejected for it doth oftentimes in the most desperate diseases doe the work of the universal because the most mercifull God hath discovered unto us certain secret-natural universals of which some containe in them the nature of the whole Heaven others of the whole Air and some againe of the whole earth by whose help most Diseases are easily known and cured Moreover specifical appropriate medicines when they are rightly refined and spiritualized will emulate the virtue of the universal by consuming radical impurities strengthning the virtue of the innate humane Balsame Seeing then that we want the universal it will be happy for us if we may attaine to the anie knowledge of at least the particular subordinate specifical and individual kinds and means of cures Section 2. How a Physician ought to be qualified I. Every Physician that desires to cure sick persons well and happily must be a sound Christian and truly religious and holy FOr true and perfect medicines and the knowledge of them can no where be had but from God whom we can serve by no other means in this life but onely by piety and piety hath included in it fervent and incessant supplications unto God hearty and frequent thanksgivings for his gracious and free benefits with sincere and actuall love towards our Neighbours God is so infinitely good and kind that he doth dayly give and offer both to the good and to the bad all those things which are necessary both for their sustenance and their health but that we use those gifts to the glory of God and the good of our Neighbours piety alone is the onely cause Therefore if thou desirest to select and extract convenient and effectuall Medicines out of those Myriads of Creatures which by the secret power of their Creator dayly flow upon thee appear about thee Fear God and love thy Neighbour as thy selfe This being done I affirm it to thee thou shalt find those things which will fill thee with joy Thou maist easily apprehend by what I say that he is unworthily permitted to be a Physician whose practise hath no other aim then Covetousness and Usury and abuseth the gifts of God I mean his medicinal favours and discoveries to hoord up for himselfe the riches of this world They are all impostors and faithlesse Mountebanks who professe Physick and its great ornament Chymistry out of such a sordid uncharitable and unjust design II. He must be the servant not the Master of nature and according to the sentiment of Hippocratesand Calen he must be a profound Philosopher and expert or well vers'd in the Art of healing HE must be throughly seen in Philosophy because there be two sorts of Philosophers The one who are in truth but Philosophers by name after the common Doctrine of the Schooles inquire onely into the Elementary qualities of sublunary bodies but the other sort who are the true Philosophers indeed search into the most secret operations proprieties and performances of nature her most private Closers and Sanctuaries are ever open unto these whence it comes to passe that they have a perfect experimentall knowledge by the light of Nature and are indeed