eggs and oil of lin-seed take oâ— each of them two ounces beat them together a long time in a leaden morter and therewith annoint the grieved part but if there be an inflammation put thereto a little Camphir CHAP. LXIV Of the itching of the womb What the itch of the womb IN women especially such as are old there often-times commeth an itching in the neck of the womb which doth so trouble them with pain and a desire to scratch that it taketh away their sleep Not long since a woman asked my counsel that was so troubled with this kinde of maladie that she was constrained to extinguish or stay the itching burning of her secret parts by sprinkling cinders of fire and rubbing them hard on the place I counselled her to take Aegypt dissolved in sea-water or lee A historie and inject it in her secret parts with a syringe and to wet stupes of flax in the same medicine and put them up into the womb and so she was cured Many times this itch commeth in the fundament or testicles of aged men The cause of the itch by reason of the gathering together or conflux of salt phlegm which when it falleth into the eyes it causeth the patient to have much ado to refrain scratching when this matter hath dispersed into the whole habit of the bodie it causeth a burning or itching scab which must be cured by a cooling and moistning diet by phlebotomie and purging of the salt humor by baths and horns applied with scaâ—ification and annointing of the whole bodie with the unction following The virtue of unguent enulat â„ž axung porcin recent lbi ss sap nig vel gallici salis nitri assat tartar staphysag an â„¥ ss sulph viv â„¥ i. argent viv â„¥ ii acet ros quart i. incorporate them all together and make thereof a liniment according to art and use it as is said before unguentum enulatum cum Mercurio is thought to have great force not without desert to asswage the itch and the drie scab Some use this that followeth â„ž alum spum nitr sulph viv an Ê’ vi staphys â„¥ i. let them all be dissolved in vinegar of Roses adding thereto butyr recent q. s make thereof a liniment for the fore-named use CHAP. LXV Of the relaxation of the great Gut or Intestine which happeneth to women The cause MAny women that have had great travel and strains in childe-birth have the great intestine called of the Latines crassum intestinum or Gut relaxed and slipped down which kinde of affect happeneth much to children by reason of a phlegmatick humor moistening the sphincter-muscle of the fundament and the two others called Levatores For the cure thereof The cure first of all the Gut called rectum intestinum or the strait Gut is to be fomented with a decoction of heating and resolving herbs as of Sage Rosemary Lavender Tyme and such like and then of astringent things as of Roses Myrtils the rindes of Pomegranats Cypress-nuts Galls with a little Alum then it must be sprinkled with the powder of things that are astringent without biting and last of all it is to be restored and gently put into its place That is supposed to be an effectual and singular remedy for this purpose An effectual remedy which is made of twelve red Snails put into a pot with â„¥ ss of Alum and as much of Salt and shaken up and down a long time for so at length when they are dead there will remain an humor which must be put upon Cotton and applyed to the Gut that is fallen down By the same cause that is to say of painful childe-birth in some women there ariseth a great swelling in the navel The diffâ—rences and signs for when the Peritonaeum is relaxed or broken sometimes the Kall and sometimes the Guts flip out many times flatulencies come thither the cause as I now shewed is over great straining or stretching of the belly by a great burthen carried in the womb and great travel in childe-birth if the falln-down Guts make that tumor pain joined together with that tumor doth vex the patient and if it be pressed you may hear the noise of the Guts going back again if it be the Kall then the tumor is soft and almost without pain neither can you hear any noise by compression if it be winde the tumor is loose and soft yet it is such as will yield to the pressing of the finger with some sound and will soon return again if the tumor be great it cannot be cured unless the peritonaeum be cut as it is said in the cure of ruptures In the Church-porches of Paris I have seen Beggar-women An historie who by the falling down of the Guts have had such tumors as big as a bowl who notwithstanding could go and do all other things as if they had been sound and in perfect health I think it was because the faeces or excrements by reason of the greatness of the tumor and the bigness or wideness of the intestines had a free passage in and out CHAP. LXVI Of the relaxation of the navel in children OFten-times in children newly born the navel swelleth as big an egg because it hath not been well cut or bound or because the whayish humors are flowed thither or because that part hath exâ—ended it self too much by crying by reason of the pains of the fretting of the childes guts An abscess not to be opened many times the childe bringeth that tumor joined with an abscess with him from his mothers womb but let not the Chirurgian assay to open that abscess for if it be opened the guts come out through the incision as I have seen in many and especially in a childe of my Lord Martigues for when Peter of the Rock the Chirurgian opened an abscess that was in it the bowels ran out at the incision and the infant died and it wanted but little that the Gentleman of my Lords retinue that were there had strangled the Chirurgian An historie Therefore when Iohn Gromontius the Carver desired me and requested me oâ— late that I would do the like in his son I refused to do it because it was in danger of its life by it alreadie and in three daies after the abscess broke and the bowels gushed out and the childe died CHAP. LXVII Of the pain that chiildren have in breeding of teeth CHildren are greatly vexed with their teeth The time of breeding of the teeth which cause great pain when they begin to â—reak as it were out of their shell or sheath and begin to come forth the gums being broken which for the most part happeneth about the seventh month of the childes age This pain commeth with itching and scratching of the gums an inflammation flux of the belly whereof many times commeth a fever falling of the hair a convulsion at length death The cause of the pain is the solution of the continuity of the
being fastned so stiffly to the roots thereof that it cannot be turned up nor drawn down or over the Glans The first manner of constriction is termed Phimosis the later Paraphimosis The causes The Phimosis happens either by the fault of the first conformation or else by a scar through which occasion the Prepuce hath grown lesser as by the growing of warts Now Paraphimosis is often occasioned by the inflammation of the yard by impure copulation for hence ulcers breed between the Prepuce and Glans with swelling and so great inflammation that the prepuce cannot be turned back The cure Whence it is that they cannot be handled and cured as you would and a gangrene of the part may follow which may by the contagion bring death to all the body unless it be hindred and prevented by amputation but if a scar be the cause of the constriction of the prepuce the patient being placed in a convenient site let the prepuce be drawn forth and extended and as much as may be stretched and enlarged then let the scar be gently cut in three or four places on the inner side with a crooked knife but so that the gashes come not to the outside and let them be an equal distance each from other But if a fleshly excrescence or a wart shall be the occasion of this straitness and constriction it shall be consumed by the same remedies by which the warts of the womb and yard are consumed or taken off But when as the prepuce doth closely adhere to the Glans on every side the cure is not to be hoped for much less to be attempted CHAP. XXXIII Of those whose Glans is not rightly perforated and of the too short or strait ligament bridle or cord of the Yard SOme at their birth by evil conformation The cause have not their Glans perforated in the middle but have only a small hole underneath toward the bridle and ligament of the yard called the cord Which is the cause that they do not make water in a strait line unless they turn up their yard toward their belly neither by the same reason can they beget children because through this fault of conformation the seed is hindred from being cast directly into the womb The cure is wholly chirurgical and is thus performed The prepuce is taken hold of and extended with the left hand but with the right hand The cure the extremity thereof with the end of the Glans is cut even to that hole which is underneath But such as have the bridle or ligament of the yard too short so that the yard cannot stand straight but crooked and as it were turned downwards in these also the generation of children is hindred because the seed cannot be cast directly and plentifully into the womb Therefore this ligament must be cut with much dexterity and the wound cured after the manner of other wounds having regard to the part Children also are sometimes born into the world with their fundaments unperforated Such as are born without a hole in their fundament are not long-lived for a skin preternaturally covering the part hinders the passage forth of the excrement those must have a passage made by art with an instrument for so at length the excrements will come forth yet I have found by experience that such children are not naturally long-lived neither to live many dayes after such section CHAP. XXXIV Of the causes of the Stone THe Stones which are in the bladder have for the most part had their first original in the reins or kidnies to wit Why children are subject to the stone in the bladder falling down from thence by the ureters into the bladder The cause of these is twofold that is material and efficient Gross tough and viscid humors which crudities produce by the distempers of the bowels and immoderate exercises chiefly and immediately after meat yield matter for the stone whence it is that children are more subject to this disease than those of other ages The cause But the efficient cause is either the immoderate heat of the kidnies by means whereof the subtiler part of the humors is resolved but the grosser and more earthly subsides and is hardned as we see bricks hardned by the sun and fire or the more remiss heat of the bladder sufficient to bake into a stone the faeces or dregs of the urine gathered in great plenty in the capacity of the bladder The straightness of the ureters and urinary passage may be accounted as an assistant cause For by this means the thinner portion of the urine floweth forth but that which is more feculent and muddy being stayed behinde groweth as by scale upon scale by addition and collection of new matter into a stony mass And as a wick oftentimes dipped by the Chandler into melted tallow by the copious adhesion of the tallowy substance presently becomes a large Candle so the more gross and viscid faeces of the urine â—â—ay as it were at the bars of the gathered gravel and by their continual appulse are at length wrought and fashioned into a true stone CHAP. XXXV Of the signs of the Stone in the Kidnies and Bladder Why the thigh is numm in the stone of the reins THe signs of the Stone in the Reins are the subsiding of red or yellow sand in the urine a certain obscure itching at the kidnies and the sense of a weight or heaviness at the loins a sharp and pricking pain in moving or bending the body a numness of the thigh of the same side Signs of the stone in the bladder by reason of the compression caused by the stone of the nerves descending out of the vertebrae of the loins of the thigh But when the stone is in the bladder the fundament and whole perinaeum is pressed as it were with a heavy weight especially if the stone be of any bigness a troublesom and pricking pain runs to the very end of the yard and there is a continual itching of that part with a desire to scratch it hence also by the pain and heat there is a tension of the yard and a frequent and needless desire to make water and sometimes their urine cometh from them drop by drop A most grievous pain torments the patient in making water which he is forced to shew by stamping with his feet Why such as have a stone in the bladder are troubled with the falling of the fundament bending of his whole body and the grating of his teeth He is oft-times so tormented with excess of pain that the Sphincter being relaxed the right gut falleth down accompanied with the swelling heat and pain of the Hemorhoid veins of that place The cause of such torment is the frequent striving of the bladder to expell the stone wholly contrary to the nature thereof whereto by sympathy the expulsive faculty of the guts and all the parts of the belly come as it were for
so could that bee don without the infection and corruption of the whole mass of blood whil'st it flow's through the veins therefore to bee more probable that this quantitie of filth mixed with excrements urine flowed out by the default of the liver or of som other bowel rather than from the wounded arm I was of a contrarie opinion for these following reasons How the pus may flow from the wounded arm by the urine and excrements First for that which was apparently seen in the patient for as long as the excrement and urine were free from this purulent matter so long his arm plentifully flowed therewith this on the contrary being dry much purulent matter was voided both by stool urine Another was that as our whole bodie is perspirable so it is also if I may so term it confluxible The third was an example taken from the glasses with the French term Monte-vins that is Mount-wines for if a glass that is full of wine be set under another that is fill'd with water you may see the wine raise it self out of the lower vessel to the upper through the mid'st of the water and so the water descends through the mid'st of the wine yet so that they do not mix themselvs but the one take and possess the place of the other If this may bee don by art by things onely naturall and to bee discerned by our eies what may bee don in our bodies in which by reason of the presence of a more noble soul all the works of nature are far more perfect What is it which wee may dispair to bee don in the like case For doth not the laudable blood flow to the guts kidnies spleen bladder of the gall by the impuls of nature together with the excrements which presently the parts themselvs separate from their nutriment Doth not milk from the brests flow somtimes forth of the wombs of women lately dilivered Yet that cannot bee carried down thither unless by the passages of the mammillary veins and arteries which meet with the mouths of the vessels of the womb in the middle of the straight muscles of the Epigastrium Therefore no marvel if according to Galen Lib. de loc affec 6. cap. 4. the pus unmix't with the blood flowing from the whole body by the veins arteries into the kidnies and bladder bee cast forth together with the urine These and the like things are don by nature not taught by anie counsel or reason but onely assisted by the strength of the segregateing and expulsive facultie and certainly wee presently dissecting the dead bodie observed that it all as also all the bowels thereof were free from inflammation and ulceration neither was there anie sign of impression of anie purulent matter in anie part thereof CHAP. L. By what external causes the urine is supprest and prognosticks concerning the suppression thereof THere are also manie external causes through whose occasion the urine may bee supprest Such are batheing and swimmeing in cold water the too long continued application of Narcotick medicines upon the reins perinaeum and share the use of cold meats and drinks and such other like Moreover Why the dislocation of a vertebra of the loins may caus a suppression of urine the dislocation of som Vertebra of the loins to the inside for that it presseth the nerves disseminated thence into the bladder therefore it causeth a stupiditie or numness of the bladder Whence it is that it cannot perceiv it self to bee vellicated by the acrimonie of the urine and consequently it is not stirred up to the expulsion thereof But from whatsoever caus the oppression of the urine proceed's if it persevere for som daies death is to bee feared Why the suppression of the urine becom's deadly unless either a fever which may consume the matter of the urine or a scouring or flux which may divert it shall happen thereupon For thus by stay it acquireth an acrid and venenate qualitie which flowing by the veins readily infecteth the mass of blood and caried to the brain much molest's it by reason of that similitude and sympathie of condition which the bladder hath with the Meninges A fever following thereon help 's the suppression of urine But nature if prevalent easily free'th it self from this danger by a manifest evacuation by stool otherwise it must necessarily call as it were to its aid a feverish heat which may send the abounding matter of this serous humiditie out through the skin either by a sensible evacuation as by sweat becaus sweat and urine have one common matter or els dispers and breath it out by transpiration which is an insensible excretion CHAP. LI. Of bloodie Vrine SOm piss pure blood others mixt and that either with urine and then that which is expelled resembl's the washing of flesh newly killed The differences or els with pus or matter and that either alone or mixed with the urine There may bee divers causes of this symptom Causes as the too great quantitie of blood gathered in the body which by the suppression of the accustomed and period cal evacuation by the courses or hemorrhoids now turn's its cours to the reins and bladder the fretting asunder of som vessel by an acrid humor or the breaking thereof by carrying or lifting of som heavie burden by leaping falling from high a great blow the falling of som weight upon the loins rideing post too violently the too immoderate use of venerie and lastly from anie kinde of painfull and more violent exercise by a rough and sharp stone in the kidnies by the weaknes of the retentive facultie of the kidnies by a wound of som of the parts belonging to the urine by the too frequent use of diuretick and hot meats and medicines or els of things in their whole nature contrarie to the urinarie parts for by these and the like causes the reins are oft-times so inflamed that they necessarily impostumate and at length the impostume beeing broken it turn's into an ulcer casting forth quitture by the urine In so great varietie of the causes of blodie urine wee may gather whence the causes of this symptom may arise Signs of what causes they proceed by the depraved action of this or that part by the condition of the flowing blood to wit pure or mixt and that either with the urine alone or with pus For example if this bloodie matter flow from the lungs liver kidnies dislocated Vertebrae the straight gut or other the like part you may discern it by the seat of the pain and symptoms as a fever and the propriety of the pain and other things which have preceded or are yet present And wee may gather the same by the plentie and qualitie for if for example the pus flow from an ulcer of the arm the purulent matter will flow by turns one while by the urine so that little is cast forth by the ulcer then presently on the
her senses did speak discourse and had no convulsion How an Epileptick fit differs from the Gout Neither did she spare any cost or diligence whereby she might be cured of her disease by the help of Physicians or famous Surgeons she consulted also with Witches Wizzards and Charmers so that she had left nothing unattempted but all art was exceeded by the greatness of the diâ— ease When I had shewed all these things at our consultation we all with one consent were of this opinion to apply a potential Cautery to the grieved part or the tumor I my self applied it after the fall of the Eschar very black and virulent sanies flowed out which free'd the woman of her pain and disease for ever after Whence you may gather that the cause of so great evil was a certain venerate malignity hurting rather by an inexplicable qualitie then quality which being overcome and evacuated by the Cauterie all pain absolutely ceased Upon the like occasion but on the right arm the wife of the Queen's Coach-man at Amboise consulted Chappellain Castellan and mee earnestly craving ease of her pain for shee was so grievously tormented by fits that through impatiency being careless of her self she endeavoured to cast her self headlong out of her chamber window for fear whereof she had a guard put upon her We judged that the like monster was to be assaulted with the like weapon neither were we deceived for useing a potential Cautery this had like success as the former Wherefore the bitterness of the pain of the gout is not occasioned by the onely weakness of the joints for thus the pain should be continual and alwaies like it self neither is it from the distemper of a simple humor for no such thing happen's in other tumors of what kinde soever they be but it proceed's from a venenate malign occult and inexplicable qualitie of the matter wherefore this disease stand's in need of a diligent Physician and a painful Surgeon CHAP. III. Of the manifest causes of the Gout The first primitive cause of the Gout ALthough these things may be true which we have delivered of the occult cause of the Gout yet there be and are vulgarly assigned others of which a probable reason may be rendred wherein this malignity whereof we have spoke lies hid and is seated Therefore as of many other diseases so also of the Gout there are assigned three causes that is the primitive antecedent and conjunct the primitive is twofold one drawn from their first original and their mother's womb which happen's to such as are generated of Goutie parents chiefly if whilst they were conceived this gouty matter did actually abound and fall upon the joynts For the seed fall's from all the parts of the Body as saith Hippocrates and Aristotle affirm's lib. de gen animal Lib. 〈◊〉 loc aqua 〈◊〉 1. cap. 17. Yet this causes not an inevitable necessity of haveing the Gout for as many begot of sound and healthful parents are taken by the Gout by their proper and primary default so many live free from this disease whose fathers notwithstanding were troubled therewith It is probable that they have this benefit and priviledge by the goodnesse of their Mothers seed and the laudable temper of the womb whereof the one by the mixture and the other by the gentle heat may amend and correct the faults of the paternal seed for otherwise the disease would become hereditary and gouty persons would necessarily generate gouty for the seed followeth the temper and complexion of the party generating as it is shewed by Avicen Another primitive cause is from inordinate diet especially in the use of meat drink exercise and Venery Lib. 3. seu 22. tâ—act 2. cap. 5. Anothâ—r primitive cause of the Gout Lastly by unprofitable humors which are generated and heaped up in the body which in process of time acquire a virulent malignity for these fill the head with vapors raised up from them when the membranes nerves and tendons and consequently the joynts become more lax and weak They offend in feeding who eat much meat and of sundry kinds at the same meal who drink strong wâ—ne without any mixture who sleep presently after meat and which use not moderate exercises for hence a plentitude an obstruction of the vessels cruditites the increase of excrements especially serous Which if they flow down unto the joynts without doubt they cause this disease for the joynts are weak either by nature or accident in comparison of the other parts of the body by nature as if they be loose and soft from their first original by accident as by a blow fall hard travelling running in the sun by day in the cold by night racking too frequent Venery especially suddenly after meat for thus the heat is dissolved by reason of the dissipation of the spirits caused in the effusion of seed whence many crude humors which by an unseasonable motion are sent into the sinews and joynts Through this occasion old men because their native heat is the more weak are commonly troubled with the Gout Besides also the suppression of excrements accustomed to be avoided at certain times as the courses hemorhoids vomit scouring Aâ—â—h 19 Sect. 9. causeth this disease Hence it is that in the opinion of Hippocrates A woman is not troubled with the Gout unless her courses fail her They are in the same case who have old and running ulcers suddenly healed or varices cut and healed unless by a strict course of diet they hinder the generation and increase of accustomed excrements Also those which recover of great and long diseases unless they be fully and perfectly purged either by nature or art these humors falling into the joynts which are the reliques of the disease make them to become gouty and thus much for the primitive cause The internal or antecedent cause is the abundance of humors The â—ntecedent cause of the Gout the largeness of the vessels and passages which run to the joynts the strength of the amandating bowels the loosness softness and imbecilitie of the reviving joynts The conjunct cause is the humor it self repact and shut up in the capacities and cavities of the joynts The conjunct Now the unprofitable humor on every side sent down by the strength of the expulsive faculty sooner lingers about the joynts for that they are of a cold nature and dense so that once impact in that place Five causes of the pain of the Gout it cannot be easily digested and resolved This humor then causeth pain by reason of distention or solution of continuity distemper and besides the virulency and malignity which it requires But it savors of the nature sometimes of one somtimes of more humors whence the Gout is either phlegmous erysipilatous oedematous or mix't The concourse of flatulencies together with the flowing down humors and as it were tumult by the hinderance of transpiration encreaseth the dolorifick distention in the membranes
obstructed by the thickness of this humor but they are depressed and flatted by reason of the rest of the face and all the neighboring parts swoln more then their wont add hereto that the partition is consumed by the acrimony of the corroding and ulcerating humor The seventh is the lifting up thickness and swelling of the lips the filthiness stench and corrosion of the gums by acrid vapors riseing to the mouth but the lips of leprous persons are more swoln by the internal heat burning and incrassating the humors as the outward heat of the Sun doth in the Moors The eighth sign is the swelling and blackness of the tongue and as it were varicous veins lying under it because the tongue being by nature spongeous and rare is easily stored with excrementitious humors sent from the inner parts unto the habit of the body which same is the cause why the glandules placed about the tongue above and below are swoln hard and round no otherwise then scrophulous or meazled swine Lastly all their face riseth in red bunches or pushes and is over-spread with a dusky and obscure redness the eies are fiery fierce and fixed by a melancholick chachectick disposition of the whole body manifest signs whereof appear in the face by reason of the fore-mentioned causes yet some leprous persons have their faces tinctured with a yellowish others with a whitish color according to the condition of the humor which serves for a basis to the leprous malignity For hence Physicians affirm that there are three sorts of Leprosies one of a reddish black colour consisting in a melancholick humor another of a yellowish green in a cholerick humor another in a whitish yellow grounded upon adust phlegm The ninth sign is a stinking of the breath as also of all the excrement s proceeding from leprous bodies by reason of the malignity conceived in the humors The tenth is a horsness a shaking harsh and obscure voice as it were comming out of the nose by reason of the lungs recurrent nerves and muscles of the throttle tainted with the grosness of a virulent and adust humor the forementioned constriction and obstruction of the inner passage of the nose and lastly the asperity and inequality of the Weazon by immoderate driness as it happens to such as have drunk plentifully of strong wines without any mixture This immoderate driness of the muscles serving for respiration makes them to be troubled with a difficulty of breathing The eleventh sign is very observable which is a morphew or defedation of all the skin with a dry roughness and grainy inequality such as appears in the skins of plucked geese with many tetters on every side a filthy scab and ulcers not casting off only a bran-like scurf but also scales and crusts The cause of this dry scab is the heat of the burning bowels and humors unequally contracting and wrinkling the skin no otherwise then as leather is wrinkled by the heat of the sun or fire The cause of the filthy scab and serpiginous ulcers is the eating and corroding condition of the melancholick humor and the venenate corruption it also being the author of corruption so that it may be no marvel if the digestive faculty of the liver being spoiled the assimilative of a malign and unfit matter sent into the habit of the body cannot well nor fitly perform that which may be for the bodies good The twelfth is the sense of a certain pricking as it were of Goads or needles over all the skin caused by an acrid vapor hindred from passing forth and intercepted by the thickness of the skin The thirteenth is a consumption and emaciation of the muscles which are between the thumb and fore-finger not only by reason that the nourishing and assimilating faculties want fit matter wherewith they may repair the loss of these parts for that is common to these with the rest of the body but because these muscles naturally rise up unto a certain mountainous tumor therefore their depression is the more manifest And this is the cause that the shoulders of leprous persons stand out like wings to wit the emaciation of the inward part of the muscle Trapozites The fourteenth sign is the diminution of sense or a numness over all the body by reason that the nerves are obstructed by the thickness of the melancholick humor hindring the free passage of the animal spirit that it cannot come to the parts that should receive sense these in the interim remaining free which are sent into the muscles for motions sake and by this note I chiefly make trial of leprous persons thrusting a somewhat long and thick needle some-what deep into the great tendon endued with most exquisite sense which runs to the heel which if they do not well feel I conclude that they are certainly leprous Now for that they thus lose their sense their motion remaining entire the cause hereof is that the nerves which are disseminated to the skin are more affected and those that run into the muscles are not so much and therefore when as you prick them somewhat deep they feel the prick which they do nor in the surface of the skin The fifteenth is the corruption of the extreme parts possessed by putrefaction and a gangrene by reason of the corruption of the humors sent thither by the strength of the bowels infecting with the like tainture the parts wherein they remain add hereto that the animal sensitive faculty is there decaied and as often as any faculty hath forsaken any part the rest presently after a manner neglect it The sixteenth is they are troubled with terrible dreams for they seem in their sleep to see divels serpents dungeons graves dead bodies and the like by reas n of the black vapors of the melancholick humor troubling the phantasie with black and dismal visions by which reason also such as are bitten of a mad dog fear the water The seventeenth is that at the beginning and increase of the disease they are subtill crafty and furious by reason of the heat of the humors and blood but at length in the state and declension by reason of the heat of the humors and blood and entrails decaying by little and little therefore then fearing all things whereof there is no cause and distrusting of their own strength they endeavor by craft maliciously to circumvent those with whom they deal for that they perceive their powers to fail them The eighteenth is a desire of venery above their nature both for that they are inwardly burned with a strange heat as also by the mixture of slatulencies therewith for whose generation the melancholick humor is most fit which are agitated and violently carried through the veins and genital parts by the preternatural heat but at length when this heat is cooled and that they are fallen into an hot and dry distemper they mightily abhor venery which then would be very hurtful to them as it also is at the beginning of the disease because
the place must be fomented with water and oil mixed together wherein a little Treacle hath been dissolved leaving thereon stupes wet therein you may also use the decoction of Mallows the roots of Lillies Line-seeds Figs with oil of Hypericon to make the skin thin and to draw forth the matter and the day following you must apply the Cataplasm following Take the leaves of Sorrel and Hen-bane rost them under the hot ashes A Cataplasm for a pestilent Carbuncle afterwards beat them with four yelks of eggs two drams of Treacle oil of Lillies three ounces Barly-meal as much as shall suffice make thereof a Cataplasm in the form of a liquid pultis this asswageth heat and furthereth suppuration Or take the roots of Marsh-mallows and Lillies of each four ounces An other line-seeds half an ounce boil them beat them and then strain them through a Serse adding thereto of fresh butter one ounce and an half of Mithridate one dram of Barly-meal as much as shall suffice make thereof a Cataplasm according to art those Cataplasms that follow are most effectual to draw the venomous matter forth and to make a perfect suppuration Other Cataplasms especially when the 〈◊〉 of the matter is not so great but that the part may bear it Take the roots of white Lillies Onions Leaven of each half an ounce Mustard-seeds Pigeons dung Sope of each one dram six Saâ—ilâ— in their shels of fine Sugar Treacle and Mithridate of each half a dram beat them altogether and incorporate them with the yelks of eggs make thereof a Cataplasm and apply it warm Or take the yelks of six eggs of salt powdered one ounce of oil of Lillies and Treacle of each half a dram Barly-meal as much as will suffice make thereof a Cataplasm Take of ordinary Dyachiâ—â— four ounces of Vnguentum Basilicon two ounces oil of Violets half an ounce The effect of Scabious against a pestilent Carbuncle make thereof medicine Many antient Professors greatly commend Scabious ground or brayed between two â—ones mixed with old Hogs grease the yelks of eggs and a little salt for it will cause suppuration iâ— Carbuncles also an egge mixed with Barly-meal and oil of Violets doth mitigate pain and suppurate A Raddâ—sh root draws out the venom powerfully A Raddish-root cut in slices and so the slices laid one after one unto a Carbuncle or pestilent tumor doth mightily draw out the poison The juice of Colts-foot doth extinguish the heat of Carbuncles The herb called Divels-bit being bruised worketh the like effect I have often used the medicine following unto the heat of Carbuncles with very good success it doth also asswage pain and cause suppuration Take of the soot scraped from a chimny four ounces of common salt two ounces beat them into small powder adding thereto the yelks of two eggs and stir them well together untill it come to have the consistence of a pultis and let it be applyed warm unto the Carbuncle In the beginning the point or head of the Carbuncle must be burned if it be black The top of a Carbuncle when why and with what to be burned by dropping thereinto scalding hot oil or aqua fortis for by such a burning the venom is suffocated as touched by lightning and the pain is much lessened as I have proved oftentimes neither is it to be feared lest that this burning should be too painful for it toucheth nothing but the point of the Carbuncle which by reason of the eschar that is there is voâ—â— of sense After this burning you must go forward with the former described medicines untill the Eschar seemeth to separate it self from the flesh round about it which is a token or the patients recovery for it signifieth that nature is strong and able to resist the poyson After the fall of the Eschar you must use gentle mundificatives The falling of Eschar prâ—miseth health as those which we have prescribed â—n a pestilent Bubo not omitting someâ—imes the use of suppurative and mollifying medicines that while the gross matter is cleansed A twofold indication that which is as yet crude may be brought to suppuration for then the indication is twofold the one to suppurate that which remains as yet crude and raw in the part and the other to cleanse that which remains concocted and perfectly digested in the ulcer CHAP. XXXV Of the itching and inflammation happening in pestilent ulcers and how to cicatrize them Why the adjacent parts are troubled with itching THe parts adjoyning to a pestilent Ulcer oft-times are superficiarily excoriated by reason of ulcerous pustles which here and there with burning and great itching prick and vellicate the part The cause may happen either externally or internally internally by a thin and biting sanies which sweating from the Ulcer moistens the neighboring parts But externally by the constipation of the pores of the skin induced by the continual application oâ— medicines To remedy this A fomentation for this itch the place must be fomented with discussing and relaxing things as aqua fortis which the Gold-smiths have used for seperating of metals Alum-water the water of Lime Brine and the like But Ulcers left by Carbuncles and pestilent Buboes are difficultly cicatrized by reason of the corroding sanies Why these Uâ—cers are hard to be cicatrized proceeding from the cholerick or phlegmatick and salt blood which being in fault by the corruption of the whole substance causeth the abscess Besides such Ulcers are commonly round and therefore hard to be cicatrized for that the Quit ture hath no free passage forth so the â—anies of its own nature acrid and corroding doth by delay acquire greater acrimony and introsity so by its burning touch dissolving the adjacent flesh it hinders the conjunction and unition of the lips of the Ulcer but in the interim the lips of the Ulcer become callous which unless they be helped by cutting or eating medicines the Vlcer cannot be heâ—led for that by their denfity they hinder the sweating out of a sufficient quantity of the dewie glue to heal up the Vlcer Now the Vlcer being plained and brought equal to the other flesh Two sorts of Epuloticks we must use Epuloticks that is such things as have a faculty to cicatrize Vlcers by condensing and hardning the surface of the flesh of these there are two kinds for some without much biting bind and dry such are Pomegranat-pills Oak-bark Tutia Litharge burnt bones scales of brass Galls Cypress-nuts Minium Antimony Bole-Armenick the burnt and washed shels of Oâ—sâ—ers Lime nine times washed and many metalline things Others are next to these by which proud flesh is consumed but such must be sparingly used Of this kind is washed Vitriol burnt Alum which excelleth other Epuloticks by reason of the excellent drying and astringent faculty consolidating the flesh which by being moistened by an excrementitious humor grows lank For that the scar which is made is commonly unsightly in
health stored with pleasing delight Baths are of two sorts some natural others artificial natural are those which of their own accord without the operation or help of Art prevail or excell in any medicinal quality For the water which of it self is devoid of all quality that is perceiveable by the taste if it chance to be straitned through the veins of metals it furnishes and impregnates it self with their qualities and effects hence it is that all such water excels in a drying faculty sometimes with cooling and astriction and other whiles with heat and a discussing quality The baths whose waters being hot or warm do boil up take their heat from the cavities of the earth and mines filled with fire which thing is of much admiration whence this fire should arise in subterrene places what may kindle it what seed or nourish it for so many years and keep is from being extinct Some Philosophers would have it kindled by the beams of the sun other by the force of lightning penetrating the bowels of the earth others by the violence of the air vehemently or violently agitated no otherwise then fire is struck by the collision of a flint and steel Yet it is better to refer the cause of so great an affect unto God the maker of the Universe whose providence piercing every way into all parts of the World enters governs the secret parts passages thereof Notwithstanding they have seemed to have come nearest the truth who refer the cause of heat in waters unto the store of brimstone contained in certain places of the earth because among all minerals it hath most fire and matter fittest for the nourishing thereof Therefore to it they attribute the flames of fire which the Sicilian mountain Aetna continually sends forth Hence also it is that the most part of such waters smell of Sulphur yet others smell of Alum others of Nitre others of Tar and some of Coperas How to know whence the Baths have their efficacy Now you may know from the admixture of what metalline bodies the waters acquire their faculties by their taste sent color mud which adheres to the channels through which the water runs as also by an artificial separation of the more terrestrial parts from the more subtil For the earthy dross which subsides or remains by the boiling of such waters will retain the faculties and substance of brimstone alum and the like minerals besides also by the effects and the cure of these or these diseases you may also gather of what nature they are Wherefore we will describe each of these kindes of waters by their effects beginning first with the Sulphureous Sulphureous waters powerfully heat dry resolve open and draw from the center unto the surface of the body they cleanse the skin troubled with scabs and tetters they cause the itching of ulcers and digest and exhaust the causes of the gout The condition of natural sulphureous waters they help pains of the cholick and hardned spleens But they are not to be drunk not only by reason of their ungrateful smell and taste but also by reason of the maliciousness of their substance offensive to the inner parts of the body but chiefly to the liver Aluminous waters taste very astrictively therefore they drye powerfully Of aluminouâ— waters they have no such manifest heat yet drunk they loose the belly I beleive by reason of their heat and nitrous quality they cleanse and stay defluxions and the courses flowing too immoderately they also are good against the tooth-ach eating ulcers and the hidden abstesses of the other parts of the mouth Salt and nitrous waters shew themselves sufficiently by their heat they heat drye binde Of salt and nitrous cleanse discusse attenuate resist putrefaction take away the blackness comming of bruises heal scabby and malign ulcers and help all oedematous tumors Bituminous waters heat digest andy by long continuance soften the hardned sinews Of bituminous they are different according to the various conditions of the bitumen that they wash and partake of the qualities thereof Brasen waters that is such as retain the qualities of brass heat drye cleanse digest cut binde Of brizen are good against eating ulcers fistulas the hardness of the eye-lids and they waste and eat away the fleshly excrescences of the nose and fundament Iron waters cool drye and binde powerfully therefore they help abscesses hardened milts Of iron the weaknesses of the stomach and ventricle the unvoluntary shedding of the urine and the too much flowing terms as also the hot distemper of the liver and kidnies Some such are in Lucan territory in Italy Leaden waters refrigerate drye and perform such other operations as lead doth Of Leaden the like may be said of those waters that flow by chalk plaster and other such minerals as which all of them take and performe the qualities of the bodies by which they pass How waters or baths help cold and moist diseases as the palsie convulsion Of hot baths the stiffness and attraction of the nerves trembling palpitations cold distilllations upon the joints the inflations of the members by a dropsie the jaundise by obstruction of a gross tough and cold humor the pains of the sides colick and kidnies barrenness in women the suppression of their courses the suffocation of the womb causless weariness those diseases that spoil the skin as tetters the leprosie of both sorts the scab and other diseases arising from a gross cold and obstruct humor for they provoke sweats Yet such must shun them as are of a colerick nature and have a hot liver To whom hurtful T e faculties of cold-baths for they would cause a Cachexia and dropsie by over-heating the liver Cold waters or baths heal the hot distemper of the body and each of the parts thereof and they are more frequently taken inwardly then applied outwardly they help the laxness of the bowels as the resolution of the retentive faculty of the stomach entrails kidnies bladder and they also add strength to them Wherefore they both temper the heat of the liver and also strengthen it they stay the Diarrhaea Dysentery Courses unvoluntary shedcing of urine the Gonorrhaea Sweats and bleedings In this kinde are chiefly commendable the waters of the Spaw in the country of Leige The Spaw which inwardly and outwardly have almost the same faculty and bring much benefit without any inconvenience as those that are commonly used in the drinks and broths of the inhabitants In imitation of natural baths there may in want of them be made artificial ones Of artificial baths by the infusing and mixing the powders of the formerly described minerals as Brimstone Alum Nitre Bitumen also you may many times quench in common or rain-water iron brass silver and goold heated red hot and so give them to be drunk by the patient for such waters do oft-times retain the qualities and faculties of the metals quenched in them as you