chief and only qualities whereof all things that are both in the Sea and Earth are made as man and beast fish and fowl trees herbs stones and mettals These four qualities are heat cold moistness and driness and these four continuing duly tempered as nature ordered them first in every perfect body be the cause of continuall health But if they bee altered wrongly then doe they cause diseases diversly according to the diversitie of the alterations And as they doe cause diseases so they change the colour substance and other parts of the urine whereby wee may conjecture the cause of the disease and so consequently the disease it self though sometime it declareth the disease it self and not the cause thereof But now to come to the matter meetest for this time Passive and active qualities you shall mark that two of these four qualities are named Passive and they cause but small alteration in comparison The other two are called Active and they cause great alteration The Active qualities are heat and cold and the Passive qualities are driness and moistness When Moistness therefore exceedeth alone Moistness it dulleth the naturall colour of urine thicketh and ingrosseth the substance and increaseth the quantitie And as the over-part of it above waxeth rough and troubled so the ground increaseth and continueth raw and unconcoct But dryness doth diminish the quantity of urine Dryness and also the contents It maketh it thin in substance cleer and bright and causeth mean colour and the ground appeareth grosser Likewise heat Heat if it exceed measure but little it maketh pale and light saffron colour in the urine But if heat exceed greatly it causeth golden and saffron colour with mean substance and a little brightness the ground is mean in respect to the quantity of urine but it declineth from the due whiteness toward saffron colour But cold on the other side maketh urine turn to white colour Cold. and changeth the substance from a mean And if the cold increase the urine will alter from mean substance and therefore consequently will bee either thin or grosse If it be thin or unpure the ground shall le either obscure and little or much and that divers and unconcoct And this is the working of these four qualities when they exceed alone But and it two of them exceed together there may result of that sort four other distemperances as hot and dry hot and moist cold and dry and cold and moist Compound distemperatures of qualities Now what alterations these and every one of them doth cause the urine you may easily conjecture if you keep in mind that which I said of the four simple qualities and so adde together the alterations And this must you remember therewith that where they both agree in any alteration they cause that alteration to bee the greater and where they be contrary they cause the alteration to be nearer to a mean howbeit somewhat to help you take this brief declaration As a temperate man doth make that perfect urine written of before A temperate man in Chap. 6. so the urine of a sanguine man which is hot and moist shall be yellow or light saffron coloured by the reason of the heat and somewhat gross by reason of the moisture A cholerick man In a cholerick man being hot and dry the urine shall be in colour as in sanguine man but in substance thin by reason of the dryness A melancolike man The urine of a melancholy man whose nature is cold and dry shall be white through the cold and cleer for the dryness A flegmatick man The flegmatick man which is cold and moist maketh urine white through cold and thick by the moisture for as heat and cold altereth the colours so dryness and moisture changeth the substance Now if you have remembred all that I have written before then shall you be the meeter and better able a great deal to preceive the reasons of the tokens which vrine doth give And so shall your knowledge be the more certain if you know not only the thing but also the cause of it Now therefore will I write of the signification of the parts of urine particularly that you may perceive that first and chief commoditie of urine which it worketh for mans health CHAP. VIII The significations of the parts of Vrine particularly I Told you in the sixt Chapter of this Book what urine was most perfect sound and healthfull of all other And I said that it was the rule and tryall to examine all other urines by so that the neerer that any urine was to it the better it was and the further that it declineth from it the worse it is This I said should be as a generall rule which thing to be true in healthful men you may perceive by that I have written already And that it is also true in sick men Hypocrates witnesseth saying That Vrine is best whose ground is white duly knit and stable all the time that the sickness prevaileth But Galen to supply that that is understood in this saying and so to make it perfect addeth thereto That it must be of colour partie golden or pale and of a mean substance between thick and thin And also in these things is required stableness to make it a perfect Urine for that which is untable in any part in that it is not perfect Here were a place to speake of the difference of this changeableness or unstableness for there is one sort called ordinary and another called unordinarie and of both these are there divers differences But because they depend of an exacter judgement then unlearned men can well attain unto I overpass them for this time and will declare the other differences of urine whereby it altereth from this mean urine in all parts particularly Substance of urine And first will begin with the substance of urine the which as I said before is of three kindes thick thin and mean A mean urine is that that is in the middle between extream thick Mean and extream thin And as it is mean between them in substance so is it mean in signification for it doth betoken of it self only good temperance and health But the other two betoken distemperance and default of concoction and that diversly according to the diversity of the causes of them as you shall now consequently hear Fist to speak of thin urine either it doth still so continue thin Thin urine as it was first made or else it doth shortly waxe thick and troubled That that doth continue still thin doth betoken lack of concoction and so doth the other also but yet this that continueth thin betokeneth more lack of conoction for it betokeneth that nature hath not yet begun to concoct And therefore is that water a sign of extream crudity or rawness in nature But that that waxeth thick after it beginneth to cool though it betoken lack of concoction yet doth it
a good ground is coupled with certain evill and unconcted fragments of ' all sorts of humours for sometime there appeareth with the contents certain ragged scraps enclining in colour toward a yellow or a white or else some such like if those appear in great quantitie they declare the matter to be half unconcoct and that the humour whose scraps they are doth abound in the depth of the body and is as dust or burned but if they bee few then declare they the malice of the humour to be milder and that the use of evill meats doth cause them the greater that such ragged scraps are the lesser adustion of humours they declare to be in the veins and the lesser they be the greater heat they do betoken For the cause of such ragged scraps is excessive heat which doth turn those humors into a thickness and as it were a bony nature by reason that they have remained long in certain veins and were neither dissolved nor extenuated nor yet quickly expelled by urine Besides these there are hairs of sundry lengths Hairs some an inch and some an handfull long some longer and some shorter and these are in colour whitely and do betoken grief of the reins These are ingendred in the water-pipes which go from the reins to the bladder so that as long as those water-pipes are in length so long may those hairs also be which are a gross and baked humor wrought in form of a hair Of those speaketh Hippocrates saying 4. Aph. 76. In whose Vrine soever there doth appear little peeces of flesh either as it were hairs those same come from the reins namely if the urine be thick Howbeit these are sometimes seen in such mens urines as feel no grief in the reines but only have fed some continuing space on flegmatick meats which will prepare matter to such diseases as they do also to many other griefs of which to speak in this place it is meet But to go on with this thing that wee have in hand beside such ragged scraps and hairs as I have spoken of there appear sometimes in the ground of the urine and also dis-parkled abroad in the urine it felf sundry and divers kinds of motes as it were which do declare that there is grief dispersed in sundry parts of the body Motes And this now may suffice as touching contents of every kind Therefore now will I a little repeat out of Actuarius of the diversitie of judgement The places of the contents The lowest region That ground which fleeteth nigh to the bottom of the urinall being in other points also good and mild doth betoken no strange thing But if it be unconcoct and deformed it betokeneth default in nature And if his parts be disparkled asunder it betokeneth a dimness in nature which doth not resist the rebellion of noysome humors so that in such case there appeareth need both of long time and also more strength to overcome that evill But as it is commendable that the ground fleet nigh the bottome of the urinall so is it discommendable if it lye flat on the bottome of the same The middle region Now as touching the swim or sublimation if it be good in colour and other waies then doth it differ only in place from a right ground and that cometh of an unnaturall windiness which maketh it to be so light and to fleet above his due place but if his colour and other like points bee evill yet then doth it betoken lesse evill then if it were in the right place of the ground the highest region But now as touching the third and highest region which is the place of the clouds If there appear a light and thin cloud it betokeneth no small grief of the head But this difference is there in the clouds the better that they be in colour and substance the farther they differ from a right good and naturall Content And therefore need they long time to return thereunto And contrary wayes the worse that they are in colour and substance the less they are to be blamed by reason of their place which is so much distant from the naturall place of Contents For this is a generall rule The lower that good contents fleet in the urine excepting alwaies such as cleave to the had bottom the better they are And contrary wayes of evill contents and such like the higher they fleet the lesse evill they betoken The proportion of the regions to the parts of man Now to make an end of this You shall observe a certain proportion that is between the parts of the urine and the parts of mans body The highest part of the urine doth betoken the highest part of the body namely the head and such other neer unto it The middle region of the urine doth represent the middle parts of man as the breast the bowels and the parts about them The nether region of the urine doth purport the lowest parts of man from the bowels downward And if you mark well this proportion you may the easier judge the griefs of the parts of man For when the contents which in colour and substance are naturall and yet by the abundance of windiness be lift up to the higher part of the urine it declareth some great pain to be in the head And in like manner when the swim or sublimation doth declare grief that grief must be lodged to be in the middlemost parts of man as I said before and so of the other A gain as this proportion between the regions of urine and the parts of mans body doth declare that place in certain height so doth it in breadth also by like proportion if you doe duly mark the side unto which the contents do decline And if you mark wel what I have said you may perceive the only cause of most such griefs when the contents is only disordered in place cometh of an unnaturall windines but yet commonly annexed with phlegmatick and unconcocted matter And as the windiness doth cause disorder in the contents so it causeth also another kind of things not to be neglected in urine and that is bubbles Bubbles which sometimes flote in the ring or garland onely and sometimes in the middest of the urine onely and other times doe cover the whole face of the urine The Bubbles which stand round about over the garland only and continue without parting if they be of the same colour that the urine is they declare great pain co be in the head and that in all parts of the head if the Bubbles joyn together without parting But and if they occupie only the one half of the garland then is that pain in the one half of the head And so forth may you judge by like proportion But if they doe part in sundry places and joyn not all together it is a token that the pain is the lesser and cometh of a weaker cause The more yellower that their colour is
declare that nature hath begun to concoct alreadie notwithstanding it is an evill urine for it signifieth that nature hath need not only of great strength to perform that concoction which she hath begun but also that there is required long time to the performance of the same For the which cause Galeu calleth this Of all Vrines the worst Thus have you heard touching crudity and concoction what thin urine doth signifie so that all thin urine betokeneth crudity And beside that doth further betoken as witnesseth Hypocrates gatherings or apostumations stumations in the nether parts of the bodie namely if it continue so very long and the patient escape death Thin and white Furthermore if such thin urine have with it a light whiteness it is a very evill sign For if it be in a burning ague it is a token of frensines But if the patient be fransick alreadie and the urine doth so continue it doth most commonly betoken death And if the escape death the which is seldome scen then shall he be long sick and escape hardly Thin urine also betokeneth divers other things as the stopping of the reins and of the water veins And likewise if a man have had much bleeding or laxe or pissing his urine will be white and thin and almost without ground Like manner in old age and long weakness of sickness Also in young children if it continue long it is a deadly sign Yet thin urine doth sometime betoken the end of sickness and recovery of health as in Agues namely quotidians if at the beginning of them and so after the urine did appear thick and troubled and especially if the colour amend therewith Thin and flaxen And if it be thin substance and of flaxen colour then is it better then thin and white for because the colour is better though the substance bee all one so that though it betoken some weakness and lack of concoction yet not so much as doth the other for the colour is meanly concoct that is to say naturall heat is meanly increased Thin and golden But if it be thin and golden it is yet more better then thin and flaxen for the colour is more exact and this betokeneth concoction half compleat for that which it lacketh in substance it hath in colour Thin and saffron After this is there thin and saffron coloured which betokeneth first lack of concoction and beside that default of nourishment as in a young man that fasteth long And sometime it betokeneth that excess of heat in the inner parts of the body doth cause cholerick humours to abound as in the fever tertian Beside all this it betokeneth thought carefulness and watching and also overmuch labour and taking of heat in the Sun And thus have you heard the significations of thin urine both alone and also with such colours as it can be coupled Now shall you hear what thick urine doth betoken both alone and also with such divers colours as it may be coupled Thick urine which is so I mean when it is first made either it doth continue still thick Thick or else it doth settle and waxe clear If it continue still thick it betokeneth that that disturbance which was in the blond that is to say the rage of sicknesse doth still continue strongly and that naturall strength is but weak This urine is not so good as that which doth settle and waxe cleer For that doth betoken that the disease shal shortly be overcome howbeit there remaineth yet somewhat of that distemperate trouble in the blood yet nature hath the over-hand and expelleth the matter of the grief and therefore is such a urine called good but yet it betokeneth some lack of concoction though not so much as that which continueth troubled and thick still Also thick urine if it be exceeding thick doth betoken death as Hypocrates saith And the urine that is thick and troubled like beasts urine doth betoken head ach either present already or shortly after to come If thick urine appeare in an ague where thin urine went before it betokeneth that the sickness will abate straight waies for it declareth that nature hath overcome the matter of the sickness but if it appear thick at the beginning of the ague and do not waxe thin in process of time it betokeneth plenty of matter and weakness of nature so that there is fear lest nature should be overcome except the colour do amend Thick urine also betokeneth opennesse of the water pipes and reins Thick and white And if it bee thick and white it betokeneth great plenty of raw humours and sundry kinds of flegm to be gathered in the bodies and betokeneth also namely if it be much that those gatherings which might be looked for in sore agues shall not ensue for the matter which should cause them deparreth out by urine but the whiteness of this urine is bright as snow For if it be somewhat darker like the whiteness of milk it is a token of the stone either in the bladder or reins namely if such urine chance in the end and amending of sickness But if the colour of it be grey it betokeneth not only plenty of matter in the body but also that the whole body is possessed with a dangerous sickness whereof oftentimes it chanceth the patient to break out with blisters and heat in his skin Thick and claret Next after this followeth thick claret colour for flaxen yellow nor saffron colour doth not agree with thick urine and it doth signifie that the disease shall continue long specially if the ground of it be also of claret colour But yet this disease without perill of death Thick and red Thick urine if it be red coloured doth betoken abundance of blood as is seen in continuall Agues and in all perillous Agues as witnesseth Theophylus If this water come by little and little it is an evill token for it doth alwaies declare danger And if that sort of urine in such Agues do waxe trouble so that there come with it deafness of hearing and ach of the head with pain in the neck and in the sides of the belly it betokeneth that the Patient shall have the falling evill within a seven night Thick and crimson And if a thick urine have a crimson colour If it bee burning Agues and the Patient then have the headach it betokeneth that a chief criticall sign either is then present or else night at hand Thick and blew But if the urine be thick and blew coloured it signifieth diversly as the persons are that made it For in them that are in way of recovery it betokeneth that the shall escape their grief It signifieth also pain in the water-pipes or else that the party hath runn much And if it appear such in old men and that continue long it declareth not only that the bladder is infected with evill humours but commonly also that he shall be rid of them But if it come after
nigh to the reins which either are broken or other waies opened But how it may be known from whence it commeth and how there are many means to search but because they are not light to perceive I will reserve them for Physicians that are learned This colour of it self is no great evill sign namely in young men for it betokeneth excess of bloud which may well bee born of them But in old men it is a very evill sign for it betokeneth either long sickness or else death sith nature is so weak that it cannot keep in her natural humour And if that red colour come of red choler as it doth in young men for the most part and not of blood which thing a learned Physician may conjecture partly by the former diet and other signs more the accidents shal be the more troublous howbeit yet not so evill as when it commeth of saffron or golden choler for this causeth greater thirst and more troublous sleep then the other Of Crimson colour Crimson colour CRimson colour is a token that the good humours of the bodie are burned and turned into red or black choler which cause worse griefs then the other howbeit if it have a good ground the grief is the more moderate But if it have either no contents for a space or else evill contents and the urine appear like a thick myste but somewhat glistering light it is a sign that nature needeth such strength to recover her selfe to her own state Notwithstanding such urine is caused sometime in whole folk by reason of much labour and long journying and then it hath some good signs therewith But in them that have a sharp Ague such crimson colour of urine doth betoken that corrupt blood doth abound and that it doth putrifie and turn into choler And commonly they that make such urine doe thirst much and are dry in their mouth and are troubled in their sleep and feel sharp Agues and are half distract and feel pain of the liver with coughing Howbeit yet these signs may be sometimes as well good as bad according as the colours do change to better or worse Of Purple Colour Purple colour PUrple colour declareth need of much strength before it can be altered to a good urine This urine is a sign of burning choler And if it do continue very long it is a token of the yellow Jaunders with abundance of gross and corrupt choller gathered in the liver And at the beginning there goeth with it some spices and grudgings of the Ague with a little thirstiness but unless there bee discretion used in the diet of such a Patient it may turn to a much worse disease Of Green Vrines Green colour GReen colour is an evill and a dangerous token for it needeth not only long time but also cotinual strength to bring it again to a good trade The higher that this colour is the more it declareth that choller exceedeth the other humours which if it be any more burned will cause black urine of which I will anon speak But if green colour come of wasting of the fat then is it somewhat like to oylie colour or popinjay green but if it come of abundance of purpelish colour and through increase of his qualitie then doth the colour incline more toward black and glistereth with shadowie green drawing very nigh unto black After green choler followeth madness parbreaking and avoiding of choler sometimes with matter or else burned and also continuall thirstiness and burning heat of the tongue straightness about the stomack And like other things But if the patient continue strong and the colour of the urine do waxe lighter there is good hope else there is great fear least of the dryness and burning there do follow contraction of the sinews which will kill the patient Of Oilie Vrine or Popinjay Green Oilie urine popinjay green OYlie Urine is of three sorts as I said in the first Chapter that is light oylie stark oylie and ddark oylie Oylie urines are a token of unnatural heat and the higher that the colour is the greater is the heat And also they betoken melting of the fat within a man for of it are they so coloured But at the beginning when there is a little fat melted the urine is light oylie For if it look stark oylie then it signifieth that the disease increaseth But if it come once to dark oylie then is the disease sore increased Hippocrates in the seventh Book of his Aphorisms speaking of fatness in urine saith thus Who so maketh urine with fatty flotes comming much and fast they have sharp pains in the reins Which sentence though it seem more to appertain to the contents then to the colour yet doth not onely Galen but also Aetius Actuarius and also another Grecian whose name I know not expound it amongst colours and by it declare the difference to know whether that wast or melting of fat be in the reins it self or in other parts of the body For if it come fast together as Hippocrates saith then commeth it from the reins it self and betokneth the wasting to be in them But if it come softly and increase by little and little then doth it declare that the whole body is overcome with unnaturall heat and that the fat of it doth wast it doth betoken as Act. witnesseth a wasting Ague consuming the body Of blew Vrine Ash colour and Black BLew colour Ash-colour and Black do differ only in lightness and darkness For ash-colour is darker then blew and black is darker then any of them both Blew colour Blew colour sometime cometh of moderate melancholy and then is the urine somewhat thin in substance And sometime it commeth of great cold and then it is thick in substance And sometime it is a token of mortifying of some part Yea and sometime even of whole nature namely if the colour change to worse and worse and there went before no token of concoction Ash-colour Ash coloured urine commeth of like causes and betokeneth like things Howbeit it is so coloured many times when the party that made it hath been fore beaten an bruised But in this you need not the help of urine for you may see the walts and tokens of the stripes in his body Black urine Urine which is extream black sometime betokeneth extream heat and sometime extream cold the which both you may distinctly discerne if you doe observe order of alteration in the colours of the urine that the patient made last before For if his urine before were green or like thereto then doth the black urine which follows it betoken extream heat But if it were last before blew or ash coloured then doth it signifie extream cold This black colour though it be commonly an evill and deadly sign as I said before speaking of thick urine and black yet sometime it is a good token For in all diseases lightly that come of melancholy matter it betokeneth that the
it doth signifie if none other evill sign be coupled with it For though the person seed much on nourishing meats and that with rest and an idle life yet naturall heat appeareth so strong that she can easily concoct such meats According to this saith Galen in his Judicials that the plenty of the ground in urine betokeneth certain and exact with concoction And that as the body is repleat with crude humours so it declareth that those same be in expelling out at that present time And for this cause saith he in all children commonly and in men also which feed much or bee of some other cause replete with humors their urine hath a great ground Also oftentimes it chanceth the pores of the skin to be stopped so that inch excrements as were wont to pass out by them are inforced to seek a new passage which they find most readiest by the urine and thereof are the contents and namely the ground oftentimes encreased And all these waies chance in health But in sickness it chanceth many and grosse superfluities do appear in the urine as often as the naturall powers namely the alterative or concoctive power being weakned such crude humours pass out undefied So doth it chance as witnesseth Alexander Trallianus That the urine of them which have the Collick Tral 2. cap. 33. is flegmatick and hath a great ground But if the contents be either great or gross in the beginning or in the augmenting of sickness namely if the Patient have any notable Ague it argueth abundance of humours to the concoction of the which there needeth both strength of naturall powers with time and good speed Little Contents And now contrary wayes must you judge of the smalness of the contents for they be caused either of great labour long fasting stopping or obstruction of the veins and such like parts or else of slacknesse of concoction And as Galen saith when the body is replete with crude and raw humours Gal. 2. pres Hip. 26. then is the ground great but if the body be replenished with cholerick humors then is there in the urine either little ground or none at all but in such case it is well if there be any sublimation or swim Urine without ground Now seemeth the place most meet to speak of such urines as have no ground at all nor other orderly content and that will I doe by the order of the colours of the urine according as Actuarius proceedeth The urine that is very white and exceeding thin and so lacketh the ground doth betoken either some notable obstruction either immoderate cold or else cruditie and lack of concoction And as these tokens may be greater or lesser so shall the things which they betoken bee judged in like rate either more or lesser But if the urine bee pale coloured or flaxen and then lacketh contents as it doth declare lesser obstruction so it doth signifie as great cruditie as the other before And so shall you judge of urine that is yellow or flaxen coloured For in them it appeared that naturall heat doth prevail Notwithstanding such things I mean the default of the ground with those colours may chance as often they doe through vehement pain immoderate labour long watching and also default of matter But such urines as be higher coloured then these that I have named by their colours they declare the qualities of the humours which doc prevail and also betoken a certain putrefaction and cruditie in the veins It chanceth also sometimes that some gathering sore being in some of the principall members by his unnaturall heat withdraw thither the matter even as it were by cupping and so doth cause the urine to have no ground And though indeed it is never a good token to lack the ground in a urine yet it is lesse to be complained of if the colour and substance draw nigh to a mean for in such a case it betokeneth that though nature be somewhat slack yet will shee shortly gather strength so that there shall appear a ground in the urine Now to shew you the reason why it chanceth no ground to appear in the urine First in case of cruditie when there wanteth perfect concoction there must needs want also the contents in the urine for they are the excrements as you might say and the superfluities of the third concoction Likewise though concoction be perfect enough yet may there want the contents if there be any notable obstruction or stopping of the veins namely seeing the contents are somewhat gross of substance and therefore unable to pass if the way be any thing stopt After the same sort shall you judge of long fasting and default of meat and moreover of such meats as are unapt to concoct For in all such cases there can be ingendred few or no contents And contrariwise though nature doe work many superfluities yet if the wombe be so loose that it yeeldeth many seges then as the urine shall be the lesser so shall the contents be few or none for nature then doth expel by sege those superfluities which should cause the contents And likewise when there is in any part of the bodie an inflammation or excessive heat which doth draw matter to it either that any of those parts are weak unto which nature is wont to expell such superfluities for in all such cases there may want the ground and the other contents in the urine And as for some of them I mean cruditie and opilation they may be well enough born withal unles their continuance be long But now again there is great difference touching the time of the sickness in which it chanceth for in the beginning and increase of sharp Agues if the ground be lacking it betokeneth great weaknesse of naturall strength which if not prevented may continue unto the chief strength of the sicknesse And after such an urine there doth follow much waking and disquietness halfe madness and trouble of mind and all those shall bee according to the greatness of the Ague either extream or mild And sometime it is a token that there shall bee a gathering sore in some part of the body namely if other agreeable causes come therewith as a winterly disposition of the aire with an uncertain state of sickness and unconstant alteration and mean weakness of the Patients power But in the declination of the sickness such urine ought not greatly to be blamed for then hath nature escaped the brunt of sickness though she be yet weak Yea and in the chief strength of sicknes as well as in the declination it may seem no orange thing if nature as though already she had the over-hand do gather her power together and draw a little nourishment to her self and thereby causeth little or no ground to appear But afterward when shee is somewhat refreshed and doth more liberally nourish the body then doth shee shew forth contents in the urine And lightly the order of the contents is such
for you must understand all these ages with perfect health The diversity of Vrines according to the times of the yeer Even as the diversity of ages alters urine so doth the times of the yeer For the more that the spring time draws toward heat the more the urine gathereth high colour Spring departing from pale and flaxen toward pale and light saffron and the inequality of substance changeth into a due equality according to nature and the ground doth waxe thinner and the quantity is more in respect to that is drunk so that about the midst of the spring they return to a mean In the beginning of Summer the colour appeareth pale and light saffron Summer and the substance mean the ground white duly knit and stable but yet thinner then a mean ground And the more that the Summer proceedeth and draweth to the highest the lesser is the quantity of urine in comparison to the drink and the ground changeth from his naturall whiteness to a palish colour and is much lesser and thinner And this thinnesse glystereth withall and inclineth toward golden and saffron colour When Harvest commeth Harvest then the colours do return to a mean again but the thinness and brightness remaineth still the ground also is still obscure and little but yet it is white duely knit and stable And as Harvest goeth forward so the urine returneth to a mean in all things In the middle of winter and thereabout the urine keepeth due quantitie but the colour inclineth toward white and the ground is over great but in all other points it is mean And as Winter goeth on Winter the substance of urine appeareth divers and the colour white the quantity greater in respect to the drink and the contents greater and unconcoct but toward the spring time they return towards a mean as I have before said Yet beside these also diversity of countries causeth diversity of urine even by the same reasons as doth the times of the yeer Countries alter urine For countries that be temperate exactly make urine like unto the spring time And those countries that be hot and dry make urine like unto summer And contrariwise cold and moist alter water as doth winter But countries that are drie and distempered between heat and cold make urine like harvest Meats drinks and medicines Also meats and drinks and order of dier causeth urine to alter and medicines also as not only experience teacheth but also Hippocrates witnesseth in the sixt Book of his Epidemies or raining sicknesses in the fift part and the fifteenth sentence as for example Meats of light concoction Those meats that are light of concoction and good in substance cause good and temperate urine with pure contents but contrary meats cause discoloured urine and thin with strange contents Meats of hard concoction Meats that will not concoct make lesser contents and divers in substance Evill cause greater contents and in nothing duely formed And as the quality of meats doth alter urine so doth the quantity also For if a man have eaten much and not concocted it his urine shall be thin and white and sometime without ground But if this crudity or rawness in stomack continue long the urine will become divers in substance Drinking of wine and in contents Also wine drunk abundantly causeth alteration in urine But now contrariwise if a man doe fast long Fasting long his urine will appear fiery and saffron coloured and thin with lesser ground But if a man suffer famine and do not nourish Suffering of famine his water shall be thin and white with a certain glistering and without ground Moreover exercise and rest changeth urine Labour for through excessive labour the urine changeth from light saffron and at length becommeth saffron coloured with little ground thin and higher coloured then it should be And some time there fleereth on the top a certain fattness specially after overmuch wearinesse But idleness and rest doth contrariwise cause white urine Rest with greater and grosser ground Furthermore sleep Sleep Watching and watching if they exceed measure they alter urine but there is a difference between both sleepe and watching comming of sickness and them both when they be taken willingly in health For if that sickness cause overmuch sleep then is the urine whitish with substance either fully thick or but partly thin and the contents many and undigest Naturall sleep But if that such sleep come naturally the urine is not so white but rather flaxen and the substance mean with greater and well concoct contents Voluntary sleep And likewise they that have watched purposedly and not by reason of sickness their urine is bur little changed But if they watch for any sickly cause Watch in sickness their urine will change but little at the beginning but with continuance the contents will be dispersed and at the last clean wasted and the substance of the urine waxeth thinner and thinner by little and little and the colour inclineth either to white and watery or unto golden saffron oylie or black according as the cause is that maketh it so to change Of alteration by complexion I will write in the next Chapter Now have you heard as touching alteration of urine in health according to diversity of ages both in men and women times of the yeer countries meats and drinks labour rest sleep and watch so that you must have regard to these in all judgements both in health and in sicknesse For if these be not diligently marked they may cause great error as you may well consider What is to be considered in urine First therefore in every urine you must consider whether it be a mans or a womans and what age he or shee is of then what time of the yeer it is and what country what meats and drinks the person used and likewise of labour and rest sleep and watch And then must you consider how every one of these doth alter urine so that if the altering of them from that healthfull urine whereof I spake in the beginning of this Chapter be but such as one of those foresaid things would cause then may it not be judged to come of any disease as for example High coloured water in summer so that it pass not saffron colour or white coloured water in winter should rather be reckoned to come of the time of the yeer then of any sickness and likewise of other things CH AP. VII What be the generall qualities that alter the parts of Vrine BEfore I treat of the signification of the parts of Urine I think it good to instruct you of the generall qualities which cause all alterations in urine whereby you shall perceive not only what every urine doth betoken as I shall anon set forth but also if you mark well this Chapter you shall see the cause why every urine doth so signifie You shall understand therefore that there be four
matter doth avoid and so the sicknes to end And such urine doth appear many times after purgations or other meats and drinks which purge the splene namely if a man do labour upon them that was before diseased of the splcen Howbeit sometime meats and drinks of like colour cause black urine as Galen witnesseth namely after dark red wine and Allegant But in moderate Agues if such black urine doe appear it is a token of death except it be on some Criticall dayes And likewise in sharp agues especially if the savour be strong and stinking unless it come of some grief of the bladder Quantitie of urine Let this suffice for this time as touching colours Now for the quantitie of urine as when it is mean it is a good token so when it is either too much or too little it is an evill sign except it come of such cause as I shewed before that altereth urine in a healthfull man Much in a whole body As first excessive quantitie of urine commeth of much drinking of thin wine as Rennish wine and such like But that shall you thus know for the colour will be whitely and the substance thinner then a mean the contents also will be divers and not duly knit Likewise if there be aboundance of raw humours in a man unconcocted and yet nature persevering strong then is there great quantity of urine and somewhat thin of substance but not so white as the other and the contents of this are better Also as Hippocrates saith much Vtine made in 4. Aph. 3. the night is a token of small sege so that if any impediment let naturall sege then will the quantity of urine be the greater But in this as the colour is mean so is the ground both greater and grosser yet in healthfull folk may the urine by another means also be greater then a mean and that may be by medicines which provoke urine but then is the colour more natural then the last that I spake of and the ground is thinner of substance so that it is dark and scarcely scene and then is there a certain glistering in the urine it self Little urine in a whole body Now contrarie waies and of contrary causes cometh small quantitie of urine For it cometh sometime of lack of drinke or dry meats and then is the colour light saffron with a smal ground but yet somewhat gross Also both meats and medicines that are clammie and apt to stop the water pipes do cause little urine but then is the ground also little and thin Besides these much sege causeth urine to be lesser for if the one excrement be greater then nature would the other must needs be lesse if the body be healthful In this urine as you may partly know the cause of it by the knowledge of the excessive sege so will the urine it self be thinner and the ground very dark thin and not duely knit And thus many waies may this alteration appear in a healthfull body Much urine in a sick body Now in a sick person much urine either betokeneth the dropsie and then is it like water with a raw and diverse ground or else if it be white thin and without ground then doth it betoken the pissing evill And this urine as witnesseth Galen in in his first Book of Judicials is the worst of any other of like sort Diabete I mean which declare lack of concoction for it declareth the decay yea I may say the utter extinction of two naturall powers that is the retentive power and the alterative power also Much urine in colour fierie and light saffron or of any like colour is to be feared namely if it be coupled with evill contents But if it be of crimson or purple colour and so proceed especially if no concoction went before it then doth it encline to evill and betokeneth a certain mortifying and wasting of the whole composition of the body But if much urine come in an Ague namely toward the end and that there went before it little urine thick and rud die then is that a good token 4. Aph. 69. as witnesseth Hypocnates for it betokeneth the Ague to be at an end And this Urine will bee white and thin moderately and will have a mean ground Little uril in a sick body Now little quantity of urine with a grosse ground unduly knit and unconcoct is an evill token for it betokeneth the weakness of the alterative power which is not able to extenuate concoct neither alter the matter and therefore doth it with much difficulty pass forth in such grossnes Howbeit if there follow after it a more thinne urine with the ground well and duly knit and stable then is it without fear For this latter urine as you heard before is a token that the cause of the other is overcome and vanquished This little quantitie of urine cometh sometime in vehement Agues and then is the violent heat cause thereof Sometime also it cometh of the stopping of the water-pipes not only through clammy meats and drinks but also of some disease or grief in them And this now shall suffice for an Introduction as touching the substance colours and quantitie of urine It followeth next Contents to speak of the contents which so greatly help to the right judgement of urine that Hippocrates in his second book of Prognostications doth by them only yen and that by one of them I mean the ground pronounce the judgement of a perfect urine saying That that is the best Vrine Sediment which hath his sediment or ground white duly knit and stable and that continually all the time of the sickness Now seeing this great Clerk and Father of Physick doth thus esteem the ground it shall not seem unmeet that I orderly doe write briefly of those principall things that are to be considered as touching the contents and first of all of the ground which hath alteration as you have heard both in substance colour and quantitie But now as touching the substance then is it only mean when the third concoction in the veins is perfect For the ground is the excrement as you might say of that third concoction and is like in forme to matter save that it is more duly knit together then is matter and doth not smell so evill as it or else you may liken it to thin fleam Grosses ground This Ground is then gross when the veins are replenished with raw humors Howbeit this grosseness or thickness is not alwayes an evill token for sometime it is a sign that nature hath prevailed against the crude humours which caused diseases and doth expell such superfluous excrements And that shall you discerne by the goodness of the colour and also if it come in the declining of the sickness for if it come at the beginning either in the increase of the sickness then are they to be suspected as evill especially if they bring with them evill colours
Thin ground A thin ground being also pure and so cleaving to the bottom of the Urinal that it will not lightly rise though the urinall be shaked it is a token of great weakness of nature in the third concoction and such a ground appeareth most in white and watrie urine Howbeit sometime a thin ground cometh by the reason that the raw humors are extenuate through naturall heat which getting new strength doth extenuate and disperse all grossness of raw humors within the veins For the propertie of heat is to knit and bind together thin things and to extenuate and disperse grosse and raw things Colour of the ground Now as touching the colours of the ground the perfect ground is neither exceeding white neither yet pale but mean between both for if there appear any such excessive white neither yet pale but mean between both for if there appear any such excessive white then is it some rag of phlegmatick matter or else matter extreamly concocted which commeth from some inward member being sore and that you may discern as I said before by the toughnes and by the savour And if any man be desirous to know the cause why the ground is white of colour let him remember that the ground is the superfluous excrement of the bloud being perfectly concocted in the veins Now that the bloud it self when it is exactly concocted is turned into a white or at least a party white colour you may conjecture by the generation of milke and also the seed of man yea and of matter which all three are nothing else but bloud exactly concocted save that matter cometh of evill bloud And therefore whensoever the ground hath in it any other colour then white it is no good token As first if it be pale and flaxen coloured Pale Flaxen then it is swarved from his right and commendable colour Howbeit yet it may be born as but meanly evill because that that colour commeth of small excess of choler But if it be more higher coloured by choler so that it be saffron coloured Saffron Actuarius then is it an evill token as Actuarius saith for it declareth that choler is excessively increased either by the order of diet or else by the corruption of bloud or some other wayes Howbeit Hippocrates in his Aphorisms 7. Aph. 32. seemeth to say the contrary for he saith That when the ground is so coloured of choler especially if at the beginning of the sicknesse it were waterie to sight then doth it betoken a quicke sickness that is to say as Philotheus expoundeth it Philotheus a sicknesse that will shortly be ended and so it may justly be called a good sign Notwithstanding as in this point it is a good token in that it signifieth that the disease is nigh the end so it may be called as Actuarius calleth it an evill sign because it doth betoken a cholerick sickness and that choler doth unnaturally abound And if this answer do not content you though it content Antonius Musa than may you say more better as I thinke thus Antonius Musa That if the ground be at the beginning of the sickness coloured with choller and so increase as Actuarius seemeth to mean then is it an evil token indeed for it declareth both the abundance and also the encrease of choler But if the ground at the beginning of a cholerick disease were watry that is white and thin and afterward turn to saffron colour which is the exact colour of choler or elso to a yellow colour which is somewhat lesse cholerick then is it a token that the cholerick matter which before lay lurking in the body doth now begin to avoid and so the cause of sicknesse thus by nature expelled health must needs follow As contrariwise if after yellow or saffron colour it change unto whiter and there be no certain token of concoction then it is an evill sign and a token of phrensie Howbeit if there be any token of certain concoction then is the same a good sign so that if you take heed you may perceive here what a necessary thing it is to observe order in the alteration of urine of which I have partly spoken before Claret colour Red. Bloudie Now therefore to goe oâ—n If the ground bee of claret colour either red or blew the token is not good For these bloody colours come either of too much abundance of bloud or else by reason that the retentive power is so feeble that it cannot keep in the good humors but suffreth them to run out Claret red Claret colour and red doe betoken a certain default of concoction in the veins and that through the excess of red choler But yet this default is but mean and without danger seeing that the hurt is only by quantity whereas some other do hurt both by quantitie and qualitie also Bloodie grounds are altogether worse then red though they be better then ash-coloured Bloudie and black for they betoken that the bloud is nothing duely wrought especially if their quantitie be much withall for then the quantity of matter doth let the powers to work which thing yet as it may be born so it declareth need of long time to recover health But if this doe come through weakness of the powers in themselves then is it an extream evill sign for it betokeneth that the powers are overcome with weariness in working and be not able to keep in the good and profitable humors Which thing to discern more exactly you shall take artificiall conjectures by other circumstances which give also tokens of judgement namely as by the age of the person by his order of dyet and such like Blew Ash-colour Black Now to make an end with the other colours which are of a dark hew as blew-ash-colour and black These of all other are the worst and most envious to nature and the nearer they cleave to the bottome of the urinall the worse they are These colours come of a black melancholy humour being ingendred within the veins or else coming from some other part into them or else it betokeneth deadly mortifying But sometimes it cometh of sore bruising and stripes and generally it cometh namely the black either of excessive cold or excessive heat And now for a conclusion whatsoever I have said of the ground you shall understand the same to bee spoken of the swim and the cloud for they are in kinde but one thing save that they differ in lightness and heft and therefore also in places But the judgement of their substance and colour is much after one rate though some difference there be as you shall hear hereafter And likewise of their quantity Quantitie which as it is then only commendable when it is mean so if it be greater then a mean it doth declare some alteration in man though not alwayes extreamly evill for sometime it is a token of fatting or growing to a corporateness Great and that
that first there appeareth a cloud which afterward doth gather wore strong and weightie substance and doth become a swim or sublimation And last of all when it hath gathered a right naturall whitness and due substance then will it grow to a ground CHAP. IX Of difform Contents OTher things should I here speak of as touching the Judiciall of the contents both of their stableness that is their continuance in good form and of their due knitting being neither tittered nor dispersed nor yet overmuch clodded together But because the exact judgement thereof exceedeth the capacitie of mean wits for whose sake I have written this Book and cannot lightly be perceived of them but by the Instruction of a lively voice I wil for this time overpass the exact and perfect declaration of them reserving it to a place more due And now will I briefly over-run the other things which remain to bee considered in urine but yet not without some mention of those other as occasion commeth and first those difform Contents which occupie the place of the ground Difform contents and therefore take his name also Of this sort there are four principall the first is in bigness of a small fatch and red coloured which you may call therefore red fatches because of their likeness These as witnesseth Galen are ingendred of the consumption and wasting of the flesh when the fatness is already melted away Red fatches 6. Epid. But in this there is great difference for sometime it is only the wasting of the reins and sometime of the whole body as if there appear in the urine tokens of due concoction then is that wast in the reins onely But if there appear in the urine default of concoction namely being great or if the patient have an Ague then is it the wast of the whole body and that standeth well with reason that when it betokeneth the wast of the whole body there must needs appear default of concoction for in such case those parts which are the Instruments of concoction are so weakned that they cannot do their office These contents by reason that they are gross and heavie therefore they appear alwaies in the bottom of the urinall Other difform contents there be also of which some are like bran Brannie contents and some like scales And of those that are like bran there is one sort smaller and another grosser the smaller sort is like the bran of Wheat that is finely ground and those may I call fine bran The grosser is like bran of Barley or of evill ground wheat and may therefore be called gross bran Fine bran Gross bran for it is thrice as big as the other The third sort which is like Scales Scales hath no notable thicknesse but onely breadth and length These three doe betoken waste of the strongest parts of the bodie but yet not all alike as Hippocrates doth declare in the second Book of his Prognosticks Howbeit because that place of Hippocrates is so difficult that scarcely the great learned men can agree thereon I will not now meddle therewith but will write Actuarius mind of those three When the Ague saith he is grounded in the bottome of the veins then there appeareth such fine bran Fine bran Howbeit sometimes it is a token of the onely grief of the bladder being scabbed as witnesseth Hypocrates 4. Aphor. 77. But then hath the Patient no Ague and again there doth appear tokens of concoction in the urine But when it cometh of the whole body this is the cause thereof The Ague getting power and prevailing unto the hard parts of the body as in those Agues which are called Fevers hectike then in the striving between those parts and the Ague the Ague having the masterie doth by his violence raise of such brannie scurffe For the nature of fire whose operation the Ague hath is to work according as the matter is that it findeth either to melt it if it be a liquid and unctuous thing either else to scale it and fret it if it be hard and unpliant and the harder that the matter is the greater scales it fretteth off which thing you may see by daily experience how fire melteth wax and tallow and such like turning them into liquids whereas of iron and of ocher metals Scales it maketh scales and not liquor But when the Ague hath attained and overset not onely the substance of the veins but also the strong parts of the body and doth melt and waste them then doth there appear in the urine scales broad and thin which you shall know to come of the whole body as I said of the other before if the Pacient have an Ague or there appear default of concoction in the urine else if these two be absent it may come of the blistering of the bladder as Hippocrates writeth 4. Aphor. 81. and namely if there be in the urine an evill savour withall Now to speak of the great and grosse bran Gross bran which as it is much greater then the other so doth it declare a greater strength or the Ague and that in the whole body and all the parts of it enflaming and burning the whole substance thereof and therefore is it not only the worst of them all but is nigh unto a deadly sign Note and that either by the waste and consuming of the great and strongest parts of the body or else by the burning or drying up of the bloud Which two things you may discern asunder by the colour of them For if they be red then come they of the burning of the bloud but if they be white then come they of the wast of the strongest parts of the body Of this kind of contents speaketh Hippocrates saying Hippoc. 7. Aphor. 31. In whatsoever Agues there doth appear grounds like unto grosse bran it is a token that the sickness shall continue long Which saying Galen doth understand so to be true If the Patient have sufficient strength to continue with such sickness else it may be a sign rather of short life then of long sickness For as that token is commonly deadly so those few that doe escape do recover hardly and not without the long sufferance of the violence of that cruell Ague Now as touching the foreknowledge of it whether the patient may endure with it or no that shall you gather of the multitude order and stableness or unstableness of it For if they be many in number and proceed to worse and worse then it is an evill and mortall sign and doth declare that nature is wearied and doth quite faint thorow the waste and decay of the whole constitution of the body But contrariwise if they appear few and do alter continually unto lesse evill tokens then is there good hope of health And this shall suffice as touching these Ragged scraps Now to speak of the rest of the ragged scraps hairs and other like First you shall understand that sometime
scabs and hot pushes Also it stayeth fretting sores namely on the privie members Furthermore it stincheth mattering eares if it be dropped thereinto and if it be sod in the rind of a Pomegranate it expelleth worms out of the ears Childes urine The urine of a child under 14. yeers of age doth cure the toughness of breath if it bee drunken If it be sod in a brazen vessell with honey it healeth creythes and also the web and the tey in the eie There is made of it and copper good soulder for gold Dregs of urine The dregs of urine is good for Saint Anthonies evill if it be nointed thereon so that as Galen doth wisely add the sore be cooled first with some other thing and bee not burning If it be heated with oyle of privet and laid to the womb of a woman it will asswage the grief of the mother and cureth also the rising of the same It cleanseth the eie-lids and the creythes in the eyes Oxe stale Oxe stale being tempered with myrrh and dropped into sore eares healeth the pain of them The urine of a wild Bore Wild bore is of the same vertue if it be kept as Sextus Platonicus writeth in a glasse and dropped warm into them but it hath a more peculiar property in breaking of the stone and to expell the same if it be drunke Goats urine Goats urine drunke every day with Spikenard and three ounces of water is good for the dropsie for it expelleth urine by the sege and it cureth pain of the ears if it be dropped into them Asse pisse Asse pisse as it is written is good for the grief of the reins if it be drunke Mules stale Mules stale as Paulus Aegineta saith is good to heal pain in the joynts Camels and goats stale The stale of Camels and Goats also doth provoke sege and therefore is good for them that have the dropsie Sextus Platonicus Sextus Platonicus saith That Goats urine if it be drunke doth provoke womans terms and cureth pain in the eares being droped into them and being mixed with mulset wine Paulus Aegineta and so dropped into the eares it draweth out matter if there be any Wild Bore The urine of the wild Bore with mulset vineger is good for the falling evill if it be drunke Dogs pisse A Dogs piss tempered with dust and laid in wool will heal corns marveilously and destroy warts Childes urine A childs urine will heal the stinging of a Bee Waspe and Hornet if the place bee washed therewith Mans urine A mans urine will cleanse the freckles and spots in the face And if a woman cannot be delivered of the after burden let her drinke mans urine and she shall be delivered straight Collumella saith that the best dunging for yong shots of trees Collumella is mans urine namely which hath stood half a yeer For if you water vines or apple-trees with it there is no dung that will cause so much fruit as it will doe and not only that but it causeth also the savour and the taste both of the apples Sheeps urin and of the wine to be much the better Constantinus Affricanus saith That the urine of a Sheep Constantinus Affricanus or an Oxe with some hot oil is good for the grief in the cars that cometh of cold Urine as Vitalis de Furno saith fretteth Vitalis dryeth and burneth and is good for the grief of the spleen if it be drunk as Gontilis writeth Asse stale The Urine of a male Asse as the same Vitalis saith tempered with Nardus doth increase and preserve hair And as some say by the writing of Marcellus Virgilius Vrine is of no smal nourishment M. Virgilius for divers folk in the time of dearth have been preserved by the onely use and drinking of it Also Marcellus the Practitioner Marcellus in the 27. Chapter doth witnesse That the Vrine of a man is good for divers diseases of the wombe and bowels and namely for the Collick because that partly with provoking of vomit and partly by occasion of seges it expelleth strongly all noysome humours and for the same cause doth common Practitioners keep it still in daily use Vldericus Huttenus Vlderick Hutten also witnesseth That he did drive away the Ague above 8. times with the only drinking of his own Vrine at the beginning of his sickness And many still doe use the same practise and it proveth well Marsilius Ficinus Likewise Marsilius Ficinus writeth that Many men doe use to drink urine for the Pestilence which thing did Galen write long before him and also Paulus Aegineta and doe testifie also that it preserved them that dranke it a the least way as they thought All urine as Galen writeth is hot in vertue Galen and sharp as saith Aegineta howbeit it differeth according to them that make it For the hotter they are that make it the hotter is it also and likewise the colder urine comet h of a colder body Mens urine is the weakest of all other except tame barrow hoggs for they in very many points agree with man but the urine of wild Bores is stronger Mans urine Mens urine is of as strong cleansing vertue as any thing else and therefore doe Fullers use it to scoure and cleanse their cloth And in cure of grief s also for the same reason it is used to soke and wash maunginess and scabbedness and running sores that are full of corruption and filth and specially if they have in them putrified matter and for such sores on the privie members it is good and for mattering eares and for scales and scurf if the head be washed in it I have healed with it many times sores on the toes namely which came of bruises and were without inflammation and that in servants and husbandmen which had a journey to goe and no Physitian with them bidding them to wet a small clout with it and to put into the sores and then to bind a cloth about it and as often as they listed to make water to let it fall on their sore toes and not to take the cloth away till it were quite whole That medicine which is made of childes urine called of some men in Greek Chrisocola Chrysocola that is to say gold soulder because men use to soulder gold This I say is exceeding good for sores that are hard to heal For this medicine doe I use for the chiefest mixing it with such other things as are good for such like sores In the time of Pestilence in Syria many did drinke Childrens urine and mens also and thought that they were preserved by it Of urine also do Alchumysts make divers things Alchumists as salt and other things moe And many other commodities there bee of urine as for washing and scouring and other like which for briefness I over-passe and the rather because they are commonly
known of all folk Of the Diseases touching Vrines and the Remedies for the same NOw to come to that I promised as touching the griess which hinder urine or expell it disorderly either in time oftner then is meet or in qualitie with other fashions then is agreeable to it or like other sorts I will briefly write not intending to reach the art of curing them which would require a longer Treatise and a meeter place but onely to name certain of the most common diseases and to set after them such simple and uncompound medicines only which cure those griefs Stopping of urine The stone First therefore touching the hinderance or stopping of urine it is not unknown that one common cause is the stone which sometimes is in the reins and sometime in the bladder I shewed you before that commonly you may discern those two asunder by the colour of the gravel but the more sure token is the grief in the sick part Now for the cure of the same doth these medicines serve which follow But as I have alwaies said you shal use them with the counsell of some learned Physitian for there is great difference both of the grief and of the medicines Medicines for the stone both in the Reins and Bladder Astra Bacca Ameos Angle toches sod Betony Bryony root Bylgrum Chamamel Capers Bark namely of the root Claret seed Clot seed Dock root Fenel seed and root Goats blood Gladian Gromell Gum of Plumtree and Cherry tree A hedge Sparrow Harebell Kneholm root and Berries Madder root High Mallows seed and Root Mogwort Parseley Pelliter of Spain Pyony Berries which are black Radish Sampere S. Johns Wort. Sperage Seholm Swines Fenell Sothern Wood-seed Sour Almonds Tent-Wort Tutsan Berries Water Plantine Winter Gilli-flower And beside these there are divers others Also the Stone it selfe that came from a man being braid and drunken will breake and expell that other within him Beside the stone also it causeth the urine to be clean stopped by reason of weakness of the expulsive vertue and some times through clodds of blood which rest in the shaft Sometimes also through tough and clammie humours and sometime through some swelling within the yard and divers other wayes also of which the declaration is too long for this place and time but another time I entend to write of them at large and of all other griefs of mans bodie But to return to this matter that is in hand One other stop of urine there is which doth not clean let it but causeth it to avoid lesser then it should and this commeth of like causes as that other last did save that the cause is less according as the stay of urine is and therefore the cure in both is much like For if it come of weakness of the expulsive vertue then with the use of other hot meats and drinks those medicines are good which doe provoke urine as these be that follow Medicines which doe provoke urine Annise-seed Ally-saunders Alkakengi Basyle Bylgrum Cammock Charlock Chervell Carawayes Calamus Aromaticus Cubebes Dictany of Candie Dragance Fumitorie Fatchys Flower delyce Garlike Ground pine Ginger Helecompane Honey Juniper and the Berries Lase saverie Leeks Mints Margerom Maiden hair Navew Nepte Negella Romana Nettle Pepper Pye Ryall Quinces Rue Rosemary Rocquet Savine Sage Saverie Time Valerion Wild Marjoram Wild Parseley Wild Time Water Cresses Woodbinde with many other and namely those for the most part which I named besore to be good for the stone But there must be discretion in the use of them Besides those is there a disease named the Strangurie which some corruptly call the Strangurion in which Disease the urine doth continually drop forth Excess of urine as fast as it cometh into the bladder And therefore may it well be noted the first kinde of such griefs as provoke forth and further urine excessively For that strangurie these Medicines following are noted good Medicines for the Strangurie Alisander Astra Bacca Brokelime Ceder berries Ceterake Calamus Aromaticus Gladiane Knot grasse Kneholm Sperage Seholm Spatula Fetida Turpentine washed Wilde Fennell Water mints But you must consider as I have often said that as the disease may come of sundry causes so it must have sundry cures For most commonly these are good that I have written yet such may bee the cause of the sickness that they may do harme therefore take alwayes counsell of some learned Physitian Another kinde of excessive making of urine cometh of the weakness of the retentive vertue in the reins whereby the Patient pisseth as fast as he drinketh Flux of urine Pissing evill The piss gout and that in like quantitie This I may call the flux of urine or pissing evill or aster the imitation of the Greeks the pisse gout For which disease it is not greatly commendable to set forth medicines with the onely bare names Howbeit if I doe it I trust no man will the rather misuse them namely being warned so often to take no medicines without counsell and specially in this thing For some of the Medicines must be received inwardly and some of them emplaistred outwardly Medicines for the pissing evill Apples Dates Elecompane Perys Myrtle Berries Night shade Cycory Comferie Endive Paritarie Penny wort Lettis Lintels Pomegranat Purselane Vine leaves Other defaults there be of excess of urine as of them which cannot keep their urine and namely of children which pisse their beds This disease cometh oftentimes of the dissolution of the muscle which should keep the urine and therefore requireth cure meet for it and unmeet for this place and such shortnesse Wherefore for this time here I will make an end trusting that all men will with as gentle heart receive this my writing as I of gentleness have taken the pains to set it forth Additions Of the diversities of Colours and of the making of them BEcause that it is not very easie for every man to distinguish colours duly asunder I thought it good at the end of this Book a little to touch the distinction and making of them namely of such as are mentioned before in this Book Milk white Milk white by the name of it self doth sufficiently declare what it is for it is the very colour of milk though the substance need not to be so thick in the urine as in the milk for the colour must be understood several from the substance both in this and all other colours which thing would be remembred for it might else as it hath often done deceive the simple folk Horn white Horn white in like manner hath his name of the thing that it assimuleth most for it is like the white and cleer part of a horn of a lanthorn or such like Grey is like the white part of a mans nail next unto the joynt Grey or like hoar hair that is not very white for gray is so much darker then horn white as horn white is darker then milk white Pale
I conclude that howsoever you make your argument your profession and practise in Physick is hothing worth but rather is false deceitfull unjust unlawfull and not any longer to be suffered I could now if I were not too tedious to the Readers bring and alledge out of the Authors of Physick certaine notable examples of many rash and dangerous cures that hath been done by many ignorant and lewd persons in times past if it were not that the dayly examples appeared alas too much before our eyes in these our dayes I will say nothing now of the City of Salisbury where I dwell what abuses hath been or be there now concerning the Art of Physick A reformation hath been made there not very long agone as touching such matters but yet all things are not so well brought to passe as I would wish and as I thinke good they were I delivered once certaine Articles concerning the honest and lawfull use of Physick unto the right reverend father in God my Lord Bishop of Salisbury which Articles being at the least in my judgement good and lawfull if it would please his Lordship yea and all other most honourable Bishops each of them in his Dioces to admit and put in execution I would suppose imo I would beleeve that Physick should be better and more honestly truly and justly used and ministred then it is now in these dayes And because that I would that every man should see and know what Articles they be that I delivered I have thought it good to take a copy of them which notwithstanding I have somewhat altered and rehearse them here in order Seven Articles concerning the ministration and use of Physick The First It were very meet expedient and necessary that no Physitian should practise Physick in any Dioces unlesse he were first allowed by some University or at the least having sufficient learning in the said Science he were allowed and licensed by the Byshop or his Chancellor in that Dioces wherein he dwelleth The Second It were good and necessary that no Chirurgion should practise his Chirurgery unlesse he could read and write and had knowledge and experience in the simples belonging to his Art And that he presume not to let bloud or undertake any hard cure without the Physitians counsell if he may conveniently have it The Third That no Apothecary should minister of his own head or ordaine any purgation or other composition of Physick for any man or that he should prepare and make any purgation or notable confection without the Physitians advise and counsell unlesse that the Physitian had first seen and viewed the Ingredients whereof the compositions are made and specially the purgations The Fourth It is not decent not profitable for the Common-wealth that any ignorant lewd or ill suspected person be he man or woman should be suffered to make sell or minister Medicines to any body but that such kinde of persons being duly examined and convicted by the learned Physitians of the Dioces should have condigne punishment appointed them The Fifth That no Physitian doe take upon him the name of any degree of Schoole as Batchelour Master of Art or Doctor or cause and permit any writer or Printer so to terme him unlesse he can approve it to be so indeed by any University The Sixth That no Midwife should disdaine to come to aske counsell of the Phisitian as often as any woman being in labour of childe is in danger It were good also that the Midwives were first sworne before they take upon them their office The Seventh It were also good and expedient that as the use of London is granted by an Act of Parliament that the Physitians in every other Dioces one or two or more should have licence to search and view the Apothecaries shop once a yeer at the least and see whether their stuffe and Medicines be good and lawfull or not These Articles above rehearsed I thought good here to alledge although under correction of my superiors because that some occasion may be given to reforme the enormities and abuses in the Science of Physick And here let no man thinke that I meane to speake any thing in any point against the priviledges and liberties granted by an Act of Parliament to the Company or Corporation of the Physitions of London for I mind not nor may not meddle with their priviledges Many there are that beare themselves very stout upon an Act that was made by King Henry the 8. in his daies affirming that Act to make full and wholly in all points for their purpose but they are fouly deceived and farre beyond the marke that they shoot at For whereas the Act presupposeth in them a knowledge of the simples as of herbes rootes and waters and of the vertue and operation of them Alas they can scant tell what a simple meaneth There be a great number of them that knoweth not these common Herbs Buglossum Apium agrimonia for in stead of Buglossum which is Bourage they will take Buglose being deceived by the sound of the word for agrimonia the true Eupatorium They will take Eupatorium Mesue which is described of Dioscorides under the name of ageratum for apium Parsly they take commonly Smallage for Scolopendria called otherwise Ceterach they abuse Harts-tongue And to be short I my selfe have seen some Apothecaries take for the root of Rubia the leaves of Rubus for the root of Mandragora the root of Gentian for Hematites Amethystus for Sempervivum minus the Herb called Thrift or great Stonecrope they have taken little Stonecrope in making their Populeum To the purpose whereas the Act presupposeth a speculation or practise they practise at a venture a thing which they know not whether it be cold or hot dry or moist Item whereas the Act giveth them licence to minister Drinkes for the Stone Strangury and Agues They know not the Stone in the back from the Stone in the bladder neither whether the stone may be wasted and broken by Drinkes and Powders or had out by incision Moreover they know no difference between a Colike and a Stone for they name them both one whereas they be two sundry diseases They know not what Stranguria is nor how many manner of wayes it may be engendred in the body They can scant discerne a Tertian Ague from a Quotidian As for the mixt and complicate Agues they know not what to make of them They call them new diseases because they can give them no other name Now verily if these jolly fellowes had but that knowledge onely which the said act presupposeth them to have it were not so great a danger if they sometimes were permitted to give some medicines for the foresaid diseases But I pray you how many of them have that little knowledge which knowledge is but little indeed in comparison of many other sciences which be not only profitable but also necessary to attain the noble Science of Physick If the other Acts which have been
they doe think you to the Masters and Doctors of Physick What maketh many Apothecaries now a dayes to set so little by the Physitians This is one chief cause they play the Physitians themselves they give and Minister Medicines of their own devise God wot a mad device indifferently unto all men yea and the more ignorant they are the more bolder they be for who is so bold as blind Bayard Many of them will not stick to looke in waters and not be ashamed even in the Physitians presence to ordain this or that Medicine for any kind of disease If any Physitian do gently admonish them of their fault and specially of giving of Medicines after their own brain They will say that they may as well prescribe medicines as Physitians sometimes do use to make them They may play say they as well the Physitians as the Physitians play the Apothecaries as though a Physitian and an Apothecarie were all one Indeed a Physitian maybe an Apothecarie and have an Apothecaries shop within himself in his own house or may be a Chirurgion and heal wounds or sores or let blond himself Sed non è diverso An Apothecary or Chirurgion being onely of that Art may not be a Physitian unlesse hee abuse and falsely exercise against all reason and conscience as many do now a daies the Science of Physick To prove that a Physitian may make or cause to be made in his own house any kind of Medicines it may partly appear by the authoritie of Galen before alledged and also by divers other famous Authors of our time and specially by Manardus and Silvius Manardus in the Prologue prefixed to the Annotations upon Mesue hath these words In times past saith he the Physitians themselves prepared the Medicines at their own houses and so kept them ready made the which as often as need required according to their discretion and the necessity of the sick they used But since these five hundred yeers or thereabout this kind of business hath been committed or rather derived from the Physitians not without as I beleeve the danger of the Patients unto certain which are called Spicers or Apothecaries c. Jacobus Silvius in his Book De Medicamentorum simplicium delectu in the beginning whereas he speaketh of the duty of an Apothecarie declareth that as well Galen as other Physitians did oftentimes prepare the Medicines themselves It is lawfull then for the Physitian if he list to prepare the Medicines for his Pacient himself but not lawfull for the Apothecarie to use or practise physick for any man of his own head I would wish that the Apothecary as he is desirous of gain so he would provide all things necessary for his shop and chiefly and first of all for the chief guide and Instrument that should rule all the rost I mean the Book of Bernardus Dessennius Cronemburgius De compositione medicamentorum The perfectest in my opinion and most excellent Book I beleeve that ever was made for Apothecaries Howbeit because that some Physitians use the compositions of other Authors I would wish also that the Apothecatie might not bee without the Dispensatories of Valerius Cordus of Fuchsius or Nicolaus Mirepsus or the two Books of Silvius containing the choosing keeping and making of Medicines commonly used Or Examen tam simplicium quae compositorum Antonii Musae and not to follow still their blind Nicolaus Praepositus which is full of errors It were meet and convenient also that the Apothecaries had divers searces to searce their Powders in for some Powders would be searced very finely as they that be Dieuretick powders and most part of Electuaries some more grossie as the most part of Laxatives except Agarick and Colocinthis The Apothecaries have many excellent Dispensatories to direct them in making up their Compositions as the new Phamacopaea Londinensis that of Renodeus of Bauderon Bertaldus the Pharmacopaea Augustava and others As also in Chymick preparations Grulingius and those two excellent Peeces set forth by Schraderus his Pharmacopaea and Quercitanus Rodivivus and I presume there may be something of worth in the Manuscript I have added at the end of this Work though hee have failed in his judgement in holding that there is ho Salt in Vegetables c. But Guinther Bilich hath given a sufficient refutation to that folly nor can he blemish well deserving Quercetan with the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of Morters likewise they ought to have divers sorts for all precious Stones that enter into Electuaries and Corall ought not to be beaten in a brasen morter but Pearls and Corall ought to be beaten in a morter of white marble precious stones must be made or grinded into pouder upon a stone called in Latine Lapis Porphirius which is a kind of red marble Also Purgations or Electuaries Pills or powders mingled with any Syrrups ought not to be dissolved in brazen morters but in morters of glasse of stone or of some fine wood yea and if they were of silver for great men of high degree it were best Also some Ointments ought to be made in morters of lead It were good also that no kind of poison should be pounded or dissolved in any morters occupied daily for the shop for thereof hath chanced much evill I had almost forgotten one great abuse that a great many Apothecaries commonly do use that is when the Physitian prescribeth any Losengis to be made The Apothecary will put to the powder as much sugar as pleaseth him insomuch that many times the Losengis shall have little other taste then of the sugar only Fuchsius willeth that there should be but thrice as much sugar as is of the powder so that to three drams or powder there should be put but an ounce und a little more of sugar howbeit that some other as he saith do use to put four times as much sugar as of the pouder But Dessennius Cronemburgius saith that the Physitians put commonly a pound of sugar to an ounce of powder And to say my fancie and opinion it were good that the Physitian should determine and appoint in his Bill how much sugar hee would have to be put with the powder For sometimes it happeneth that he ordaineth a Purgation in Losengis sometimes he useth some bitter pouder or very hot pouder that requireth of sugar more or lesse but commonly bitter or very hot pouders require more sugar and pleasant and temperate ponders require lesse but many Apothecaries are very liberall which spare for no sugar when they make Losengis because they have more respect to their profit then to the Patients health Again they love to make all things pleasant and sweet so that sweet money may come in And it is most commonly seen that the most part of sick folk abhorre sweet things Wherefore they should know of the Physitian unless he determine it himselfe in his Bill how much sugar he will have to the making of the Medicines Now at the last to
is many times that the Patient hath need of some inward Medicine which the Chirurgian can nor may well give without the Physitians counsell And indeed it were very meet and necessary that the Chirurgian should undertake no hard or dangerous cure without the Physitians advice Howbeit as I see now a dayes the most part of them doe all things following onely their own fantasies They stick not to give Electuaries Sirrups and other Medicines themselves yea and Purgations also which thing me thinks is very uncomely It is not reason that he that should be but as a Minister unto the Physitian as I alledged before out of Galen when I treated of Apothecaries should use the part of a Master and Phylosopher and ordaine such things as he knoweth not the nature of It is not unknown that many poor Patients perisheth under such rash and lewd Chirurgians But to say the truth the fault is not so much in them as in those that gird credit unto them For as the world goeth now a dayes if a Physitian or Chirurgian hath a fair tongue and hath also somewhat a comly body and can speak I will not say flatter indifferently on every mans side gratifying each man according to his quality desire and mind every man unlesse he be very wise and circumspect will lightly give eare and credit unto him and account him for a discreet and cunning man Such a one shall lack nothing he shall be welcome he shall have much curtesie and pleasure shewed him finally he shall have his whole hearts desire that is money enough For such Fellowes by their subtilty and faire tongue will allure more people unto them and get themselves more treasure in one quarter of a yeare then shall an honest and good Physitian in the space of three yeares and all by their fleering face and flattering words I would to God that all men would beware of such fellows and remember the Proverb that saith Dulci sub melle saepe venena latent Under sweet meats is many times a poison hid And as Virgil saith Hinc procul O pueri fugite latet anguis in herba Take heed and flee far hence O children for the snake lieth privily hid under the grasse It is written in the ancient Authors of Physick that in the old time the Physitians were wont to exercise Chirurgerie themselves Howbeit it hath been now of a long time that the Chirurgions do onely exercise this part of Physick for many considerations and chiefly for this occasion as Hippocrates saith Vita brevis ars vero longa The life of man is short in comparison of the Science of Physick which is long Therefore because the Physitians cannot well give themselves to study divers other Sciences which be necessary to Physick and make Medicines and use also Chirurgerie and go and visit their Patients It hath been thought good that other men called Chirurgions and yet having sufficient knowledge should have the office and ministerie to use and apply outward Medicines and not to enterprise and use all Medicines for all diseases both outward and inward as some doe for in so doing they go beyond their bounds There are excellent peeces of late put forth of Chirurgerie as Glaudorfius Hildanus Paracelsus and others in Latine Foelix Wartius in the German tongue Reads Works Banisters Wood-hall Pareus by Johnson and others in English Cooke Chirurgetie although it be a manuall Art yet it hath his speculation which cannot be had without reading of divers Authors and especially Hippocrates Galen Aetius Paulus Aegineta and of the latter Writers Tagaultius Hollerius Bologuinus and others As for Joannes de Vigo whom the Chirurgions of our daies do now most follow I would not that they should so greatly trust him because that he is not to be followed and read without great discretion and judgement for the obscuritie and doubts yea and errors that be in him He bringeth in many things in his Book which belongeth rather to the Physitian to know and practise then to the Chirurgion as Electuaries Potions Purgations and many other inward medicines If the Chirurgion have knowledge in Physick I mean that he know the complexions the nature of Simples and the effect and operation of Compositions hee may use them else not For if he do he shall do as a blind man that shooteth at a hare he shall work at all adventures and many times with the danger of his Patient I much marvell why the Chirurgion should disdain to come ask counsell of the Physitian when he hath any hard or doubtfull cure it can be no hinderance to him and to say the truth it is no great profit to the Physitian unlesse it bee for some rich man The good Physitian will use the poor as the poor and the rich partly for his money as well as for his love and friendship For the Physitian must have his living by some kinde of persons And not only the Physitian but also the Apothecarie and Chirurgion should deal charitably with the poor and use every man according to his capacity But this I have spoken Velut obiter as by the way Now to the purpose Many perchance will say unto me what needeth the Chirurgion come to aske any counsell of the Physitian for any cure that he taketh in hand whereas it is well known that the Physitians except one among an hundred doe not use to practise Chirurgerie themselves and by this means cannot instruct the Chirurgion in that thing that they know not I answer that the most part of the Authors of Physick do treat of Chirurgerie in their Works and although we meddle little or nothing with outward diseases yet doe we know what belongeth to them and how they ought to be cured And I say also that Chirurgerie can never be well practised without learning or a reasonable way of proceeding which is called in Latine Rationalis methodus the which the most part of Chirurgions have not As for example A man hath an hot inflammation or as commonly they call it a swelling or imposthume in some outward part of his body and feeleth great pain What remedie shall the Chirurgion use for the expelling of it he must first consider what is the nature and qualitie of an Inflammation called in Greek Phlegmone whether it bee ingendred of pure blood only or else mixed with any other humour what is the cause of it and what be the signes Now let us suppose that the said Phlegmon be ingendred only of a superfluous blood and the cause Antecedent be Phlethora that is abundance of good blood in all the body Now what shall the Chirurgion do in such a case shall he apply any thing to the swelling without considering whether the body must be let blood or not Whether the swelling or Phlegmon be yet in fluxu that is a breeding or in statu that is in the worst case that it can be or in the declination whether or when he ought to use repercussives
Iron and Cyprian Brasse seeing they agree in substance and onely differ in certaine accidents is chiefly made from Sulphur because it is greedily drawn and imbibed by these being hot for the Sulphur by his hidden accrimony and thinness peircing all the coagulation or matter which holdeth and keepeth them together is dissolved and exhaled away And whether the coagulum of other mettalls may be so dissolved by loosning waters that the potentiall moistnesse may bee resolved into vapours I much doubt of 2. Liquefaction or melting is generally an actuation or working forth of moistness lying hid in a dry body by heat a waterie body excepted but that ought so here to be that the liquid matter remaining by piercing may work that in the body which by his vertue or facultie it is able to doe The materiall principles of which sublunary bodies consist are two 1. Earth and 2. Moistness which are the subject of heat upon which he worketh for earth is the bound or limit of moistness Of humours or moistnesse some subsist by themselves all earthy matter being removed such as is an airie waterishnesse which is Spiritous or Oily Both of which are inflammable or apt to bee kindled To these as to the earthy matter so many materiall principalls are answerable in an animate bodie by which name that is nourished in these Again the Olie hath three differences for it is either from the far of living creatures in plants from which that which is drawn forth yeeldeth his chief nourishment or floweth by his own accord from stones as Petroleum but is not fit for the nourishment of a living body by reason of the excessive heat as also the rest And for the same cause that which lyeth hid in amber brimstone and waxe for that which lyeth hid in honey is of one and the same kinde with oyle of waxe But Manna and Salt-peter because they easily take fire prove and shew a hidden oile in them but then by reason of the scarcitie of the oile as also for the plenty of the earthy mattter that is first resolved and vapoureth away into smoke before it is separated from the same Besides these there are others which are not actuated or brought forth but by heat nor are kindled by themselves that is do not nourish a flame but the heat being removed return to their former drynesse And again of these things there is a threefold sort or kinde 1 One sort of plants seeing that the ashes of these melt 2. Of Mettals and these are fluxible or run forth in the fire 3. Of Minerals and these are fluxible or run forth in the fire And truly these cannot be separated at all from their earthy matter without their losse By the said humours or moistnesse wee understand the oilie which is melted out that it may preserve and keep his actuall moisture the which is done by mixing the oiles especially those of the same kinde or also hot water for so we melt or dissolve Manna or vinegar as we melt Rosins for by this means the earthy matter overcome by the aiery by the multitude or by help of a little heat continueth moist Those things easiest melt which the heat can easiest penetrate Notwithstanding either 1. The Soliditie or hardness which is in iron or brasse Or 2. coldness actual and potential which is in other mettals Or 3. actual dryness or scarcity of the oile contained which is in Amber But earth and the said watery and aierie humour is not found in all sublunarie bodies nor can all sublunarie bodies be resolved as Pseudo-Chimices vainly imagine into these principles But of that Solution and Separation wee shall presently handle 3. Expression By hand or presse when greater strength must be used the jucinesse is drawn from the plants and their parts Or simply the waterie or oilie juyce by certain helps As 1. Almonds unhusked are drawn forth least the husk or rinde should suck or imbibe a great part of the juyce and being bruised that the oile without any hinderance may passe forth through the thinner earthy parts a little quantitie of rose water is poured upon it as well for smels sake as that it may come forth the readier and after this manner an oile is drawn forth of the meal of the Sesame seed 2. Nutmeg is hung up in a covered still that it may touch the hot water that the hot peircing vapours afterwards may carry away with them in the expression the flowing oile 3. Yolks of eggs boyled or fried in a frying pan unto hardness more easily send forth their oile being afterward pressed 4. From corn or grain put between two hot plates of iron an oile is drawn forth which is gathered together by heat 4. Infusion Dry things are infused into liquor fit for our purposes that by helps of actuall or potentiall heat they may impart their vertue to the liquor and so may bee more use fully received in at the mouth or else that the hard may be softned or loosed or that the liquor many correct some qualitie of the thing infused or contrary So we infuse Rubarb or the leaves of Sena into hot water lest the thin parts should exhale by boyling being well and close covered and leave them in a warm place and so likewise the leaves of Roses Rue c. in vinegar that the moisture actually warm passing through all the earthy parts may receive into it self the vertue of those things which is in the thin parts So Purgatives or changing Medicines being infused in wine or spirit of wine we place in a cold place that the wine may not sowr and that the moisture potentially hot which I have said it will make in the hot bath that the moisture by the actuall and potentiall heat may work so much the stronger but this latter is compounded of Infusion and Concoction The thing infused are left the longer in the liquor if the matter infused bee the grosser or harder and the moisture potentially hot but lesse while if the liquor be more thin and penetrateth more and hath lesse potential heat For you must take heed that they stand not so long infused that they may putrifie or contract foulness or hoariness To infusion belongeth 1. We pour out a cold emulsion as for example sake with the seeds of Melons or Pompeons husked and bruised and strain them through a linnen cloth so long as they will cast forth a milkie juyce 2. Aâ—lie 3. When a hot iron flint or stone heated communicateth their astriction to oile or water quenched That oile which they call Philosophers oyle taketh from the flame a very heating power as well in this Infusion as in the following dry distillation 4. When pouders or things calcined as either salt and ashes poured forth receiveth the taste and smell and strength of the juyces which they imbibe But Spirits suddenly resolved exhale and vapour away Being infused in salt or ashes flowing 5. Lotion as when the yellow colour and troublesome
smell of turpentine is washed away with water as also when the Cyancan and Armenian stone are washed oiles and fat that the vitious malignant qualities and foul smell may be taken away Lye is a waterie or spiritous humour sifted through ashes Therefore it is to bee valued as well from the nature of the ashes as the moisture poured out on it for from the ashes it hath his strength of drying cleansing and cutting by his sharpnesse which the actuall and potentiall hear of the liquor poured forth increaseth and by consequent it hath no strength of softning or conglutinating together If the moisture poured on be potentially hot or cold of the same nature will the lye bee also But seeing the ashes doth retain nothing of the vertue of the medicine neither from the lye will any vertue be in it at all The lightnesse of the lye ariseth from that moisture of the ashes which we have said is melted with a vehement fire and advance the passage through the vessels taken by the mouth and after the cleansing of the foulnesse away induceth especially a smoothness to the skin of man In the said faculties and in the manner of generation it is like to the wheyie part of blood by which name it hath a sympathie with the reins and bladder and from thence a dieuretick power of cutting the flegm and de-obstructing the veins But it hath no sweating power unlesse it bee got from good wine or the Spirits of wine nor of a counterpoison by it self unlesse it be got from distilled waters decoctions and infusions of this kinde or that plants resisting poyson be put in place of strata in the straining through But by accident whilest it resisteth putrefaction and tough clammy poisons by drying and cutting by urine and sweatings it carryeth along with it the poison nature together thrusting forth the poison by which advice many drink their own urine in times when the aire is infected That mixture also is like to infusion when the oile and watery humour is mixed with the earthy matter for when the oily humour repelleth from it the water contrarily the waterie may be easily dryed up with the earthy so that thence it may easier admit the oile it accordeth rather that the earthy matter be mingled before with the waterie moist then with the oylic so in the threefold medicine lythargie or white-lead is first mingled with vinegar and after with oyle 5. Decoction The humour is either digested by the fire alone or with the humour and earthy matter untill that either for the most part the waterie parts exhale away as it is in boyling of salt water 1. Of a Nitrous humour of juyces expressed c. That no occasion of Putrefaction on may be given 2. The vitious or evill qualities exhale away 3. Hard things may be softned 4. The Medicinable qualitie of the things infused may bee communicated to the humour 5. And that the moist pants may be exactly mixed and united with the earthy And these also are two ends of insolation when we expose into the sun oile spirits or vinegar with things infused for this also is a certain decoction or digestion that the earthy matter may be gathered together and settle so that afterward it may be separated That humour is either an oylie or a waterie juyce drawn forth water wine beer sweet wine honyed wine and vinegar Foolishly called by some a menstruum since no Physicall infusion or decoction requireth the spaces of a month but may at the utmost be finished in three daies space 1. Decoction is made in a vessell shut or closed when we fear the losse or flying away of the subtile and thinner vapours 2. Or in an open vessell when we would exhale offensive qualities There is need of being carefull about it and looking often to the matter that it may not bee burned and of double clarifying it either in the bath to keep in the faculties of the things infused and to prevent Empyreuma 1. By reason of the delay hard things require a long time which for this cause ought first to be put in and require more moistnesse in which their great abundance of moisture is to be resolved for avoiding putrefaction 2. Lesse hard require a lester time when there is not such great abundance of water to be resolved so we boil leaves to the consumption only of the fourth part of the water 3. Flowers and Spice require a short time to the boyling of which two or theee walmes will suffice Sometimes the decoction is reiterated or the infusion by a straining or expression renewed that the thicker parts being separated those which are thinner may in the other decoction bee mote exactly united together There is also a certain naturall coction as when new Wine boyleth up or as new Beer brewed Honey and water mixed new Wine c. and some infusions when as the potentiall heat actuated or put a working separateth the grosser parts from the thinner some advancing upward and some setling downward and resolveth the thinner parts into vapours or spirits which being scattered if there be not space or issue enough to goe forth the same break the vessels a peices though very strong Though according to the opinion of Actaurius Sirrup or a Julep be water boyled with Hony or Sugar or Wine boyled to the third part yet at this day all Decoctions are called Sirrups in which water with plants is boyled either with or without Sugar or Hony and Juleps when stilled waters Rob when the juyces are pressed forth in an equall weight with Sugar or boyled with a halfe part of Sugar Sugar and Hony are added for cleansing taste or lusting sake For by their clamminess as by a coagulation it conserveth the parts united In preparation of simple Sirrup for continuance as for example sake of flowers of Violets or Roses it is best to have the juyce of Violets pressed out to be infused raw in Sugar clarified warme not boyling lest it exhale away some of the smell and to set it into the Sunne to resolve away the superfluous watry moistness and if insolation suffice not by inclining the vessell to seperate that which is watry and then being boyled again to poure it on for so the smell and strength of the Medicine will be preserved and kept more powerfully concerning which our Reformer Quercetan hath nothing he can more boast of But seeing in Roses there is an aicry spirituous and oyly matter which either doth not enter the juyce or is more drawn out by a fervent decoction it is best that Roses be first infused in a boyling or fervent decoction and some houres after pressed forth and to this juyce other Roses be put and being about nine times iterated by infusion in Balneo to prevent Empyreuma and Evaporations then that juyce at length prest or strained out should be boyled with about a third part of Sugar to a fit consistence in Balneo Mariae For since the purgative
so many different species or sorts which is directed for diseases which are most different in causes and in kindes Seeing this Medicine consisteth for the greatest part of hot things and heat may be increased in distillation with so frequent and so much fire it ought to be most hot how then can it be profitable to some hot causes of these diseases How can the strength which is placed in the earthy matter and in the temperaments of the said Medicines these being destroyed remain all the rest being removed and taken away Besides his manner preparation is full of vanities and deceits why are the first spirits distinctly taken when afterward they are to be mixed what need is there to pour forth the spirits upon the lees or dregs prest out or calcined the spirits being lifted up if the oyle bee not carried together with them How only doth that and that which is pure ascend afterward what have honey and sugar here to doe To a dry destillation sublimation also belongeth for it is done after the same manner by sand when the most thin earthie matter of Sulphur Salt Antimonie green rust of Brasse and Stibium is elevated by a strong fire till it stick to the sides of the Still like a most thin pouder I distill I say of Brimstone least all the earthy matter may not be lifted up and of Vitriol calcined and salt poured forth that all the waterie humour may be taken away of each equall parts and I increase the fire more and more whilst almost all the Sulphur ascendeth when it cooleth again I add again to the Sulphur sublimed taken away of the said Vitriol and Salt of each equall parts and in the like manner or reason distill it Almost after the same manner are flowers of Stibium made but that to the correcting of his virulency and least he should inflame in calcination Salt-peter and Tartar is added these being together set on fire are calcined in an earthen vessell that the poyson may exhale away what is calcined we wash with water to diminish and lessen the virulency let what is washed be melted and the melted powdered and elevated in a smal sublimatory for it ascends slow and heavily By the like reason from Quick-silver to which re-purged by Oxalmen aqua fortis made of vitriall and Salt-peter is added afterward aqua fortis again by distilling is drawn away that is thrice poured on with aqua fortis then to the Mercury beaten Spirit of vitrial is poured that so for the space of 24 hours the Spirits may exhale at a strong fire Lastly I digest that Powder either in Spirit of Wine upon Sand in a bilnd Limbech and to these poured out put on others and do so thrice that I may have the precipitate or else I increase the fire in a small sublimatory underneath till the glasse is fired or heated with a purple brightnes and a citrine or red flowers ascend and so I have the sublimate upon which I poure the Spirit of Wine and after take them away by distillation the distillation being thrice repeated Here I pray observe Reader 1. That an actuall humidity is taken from Mercury by exhalation whose cause is fire which actuatech the exhalation and aqua fortis which by the simpathy it hath with Mercury by reason of the original humidity receiving the fire into it selfe otherwise avoyding this enemy of Mercurie cury detaineth the Mercury in the fire and by this meanes taketh away his actuall coldness and moistness by exhalation of his actuall humour so that the moist remaining parts which are in him are more exactly mixed with his earthy matter by which mixture and insinuation of fire into Mercury it taketh his strong sharpness and caustick power 2. That Mercury by interveniency of aqua fortis receives the fire into it selfe is manifest from his colour first white and then yellow with redness 3. But whether from Mercury and Antimony his venenosity from Sulphur his sharpness by this or the like manner may be diminished or taken away experience will teach thee the contrary therefore take none of them into your bodie whatsoever preparation be made of them and beleeve not Quercetan whose primary Chymick Medicines are Mercuric Antimonie and Minerall Spirits 4. That the drying cause ceasing Mercurie returneth to his former humiditie is the chiefest argument that that should be numbred amongst the mettals but in all his nature it is contrary to mettals although it doth very much counterfeit a simpathie Since from heat and Aqua fortis it may be reduced into powder but reduced into liquor from these Mettals offer violence unto mettall when it is mixed with those melted For it maketh those soft which naturally ought to be hard 7. Extraction properly so called is a separation of a most subtile earthie and oylie matter if there be any in it with his faculty or strength by Infusion Expression and Distillation as well as from his thicker earthy matter as well as from his moist waterie the spirits for the most part exhaling together For by Infusion and Expression the most pure earthy and oylie matter is communicated to the liquor and the thicker separated By distillation the waterie humour is separated to the consistence of honie or new-wine sodden to the consumption of the third part and the remaining matter is exactly mingled in boyling although those extracts which want oyle nor were infused in spirit of wine are afterward dryed altogether in the heat for preventing putrefaction from whence the strength of the Medicine is greater in a small portion then in a great whilest as yet the thicker matter and the liquor are joyned together Quercetan biddeth that the matter yet warme if it be oylie as it is in Guiacum wood and Sassafras and Juniper Barke bee poured forth into a glasse dish or platter full of Water for coagulation sake but that is all on whether it be done or intermitted for it is nothing available for Physick intentions To Extraction chiefly are requisite and fit simple and compound Medicines bruised in peeces that the liquor may more easily penetrate which have their strength especially placed in the earthy matter such as are those chiefly which are of a strong smell and raste and most part purging From liquors 1. water water distilled of the same kinde or which are serviceable for the Physicall intention 2. Wine and Spirit of Wine These truly more penetrating the matter and by mingling themselves with the most subtile parts sooner draw forth the strength and longer bear the stay or continuance of the Infusion without Putrefaction but worke it so that the Extract may better agree with hot temperament or diseases because the Spirits are rather carried upward then downward It is fit and convenient that Infusion and Meceration should be made in Balneo in a Vessel most carefully stopt that nothing may breath out that by help of the actuall heat the humour may penetrate the more and imbibe the facultie The