Meth. med 12. confirms this saying that such diseases are in those that are stuffed with gross clammy food that is cold when the wind in the tunicles of the guts cannot get forth For the tunicles are double and the humour being between them is turned into wind it is gross and cold and of slow motion When it is detained it stretcheth the tunicles and the juyce whence it comes cools the guts it toucheth and they are doubly afflicted By these instances it is plain that wind by its coldness can make a similary disease that consists in distemper and also the solution of unity For there is pain and stretching of the tunicles which cannot be without laceration For there are two universal causes of pain one is an unequal distemper which comes suddenly and another when continuity is dissolved For parts dissolved by a humour or wind are pained by the separation Because if Hippocrates say cold is biting to Ulcers for no other cause but it contracts and condenseth and constringeth all parts it toucheth and so twitcheth the soft parts of the continuity and dissolves it Also if in acute fevers nervous bodies are most dried and therefore have Convulsion and if too much repletion that pulls it up and down and makes it shorter and so separates continuity how much more difficulty of solution of continuity will wind cause which for that only cause produce such strange Symptoms that require the whole care of a Physitian Thirdly it will appear by what follows that the whole Abdomen or Panch swells by wind as in a Tympany and the Liver and Spleen are wonderfully stopt thereby and hard as a Schirrhus and swollen as also the stomach and all these are instrumental diseases therefore organical diseases are also from wind Also Galen de diff morb saith when any part is swollen and so its passage stopt if that part hath no proper operation that stoppage is only called a disease but the tumour is not but only is the cause of obstruction But if the part affected hath any proper office then the obstruction and the tumour of the part are both diseases Therefore the three sorts of diseases distemper of simple parts and disorder of instrumental and solution of united parts are from wind CHAP. VIII Of the Causes of Wind. THere are few or none in the world but are troubled sometimes with winds for the stomach which is the Kitchin for the first concoction attracts the meat by the Gullet as by a long hand and embraceth and keepeth it and changeth it separating the pure from the impure casting the one into the guts but the Meseraick veins sucking the other carry it to the Liver When the stomach through weakness embraceth not the food attracted nor contains it it rumbles and tosseth about and then it cannot well concoct For it must be strong as Galen saith which consists in an excellent temper of the four qualities by which it turns the food into the proper quality of that which is nourished by help of the bowels about it the Heart Liver Spleen Reins Midriff which lye about the stomach as a great fire under a Caldron But sometimes a bad diet for none can be always punctual in the rules or some external force dissolves its strength or weakens the fire and then the virtue of the stomach abates and it alters according to the greatness or smalness of the cause Also outward cold as in cold Countries and in Northern winds piercing to the inward parts in thin and weak bodies offends the native heat Also too hot Air casts out disperseth the natural heat and takes it from the bowels and then concoction is hindered and wind bred But strong natural heat overcoming for the most part things comprehended by it extenuateth the meat more then that it can produce vapours except it be of its nature windy For the stomach though strong and force of Nature flourisheth and the heat not decayed is offended often by food that is proper to breed wind Therefore all Physick and food that is properly by its nature windy or by its coldness or multitude dissolves the strength of the stomach and oppresseth its natural heat is the cause of wind as Pulse raw Corn and Fruits All these Galen de alim fac lib. 2. saith and such as we eat before they are ripe are windy but they are soon digested therefore he argues thus in the beginning of that Book All the food mentioned in the first Book were the seeds of Plants little differing from fruits But all horary fruits are windy and all seeds more or less And boil Beans as much as you will they are windy some add Onions to prevent it because hot and attenuating things correct wind But fry them or any other pulse and they are not windy but very hard of concoction and pass away slowly and make gross juyce But any way dressed they swell the body He that will observe the distempers that follow every sort of food shall perceive a stretching of the whole body as by a wind after eating of Beans chiefly if he have not used to eat them formerly or eat up not well boiled Pease though like Beans are not so windy These are with us plentiful and usual and therefore we perceive less the hurt they do For what we eat freely and with pleasure the stomach embraceth closer and retains better and digests easier Fetches are windy also but few desire them it is good with any of these to boil Calamints Onions Dill or Pennyroyal Lentils puffe up the stomach and guts Also all Summer-fruits are like these for they are crude and full of excrements and unprofitable juyce especially when not ripe they are also flegmatick and windy Also if immoderately taken by their cold and moisture they abate the natural heat so that the stomach cannot discuss the wind it raiseth Mulberries and Plums are the worst of these chiefly green and after meat All sorts of Cherries chiefly the Spanish Cherries and Melones Pompions Cucumbers Gourds Apples Pears are alike but boiled they are less windy chiefly if eaten with seeds or hot and dry extenuaters or expellers of wind Anise or Coriander Figs saith Galen lib. de aliment nourish more then other autumnal fruits but are windy but the wind soon vanisheth because they are laxative Chesnuts eaten plentifully cause Headach swell the belly bind it and are hard of concoction Also Roots Turneps Radishes and the like are windy and Corn Milium Wheat chiefly boiled Barley but Rapes and Radishes are most windy All Fish are the like flegmatick and windy chiefly the great and the less that are slimy as the Eel and Salmon Lamprey Tench chiefly if boiled broiled or fryed they are not so windy chiefly if the flesh be soft as the Brook-fish Though Celsus lib. 2. c. 26. saith they are not windy All Pulse and fat meats do swell with wind and sweet things and Broths new Wine Also Garlick Coleworts Onions and all Roots except a
to the finger and the spleen is pricked and extended but without heaviness and it comes sooner When vulgar Physitians understand not these two tumours of both Liver and Spleen how blindly do they go to work with thousands of Juleps and they protract the cure that they may be largely rewarded and when they have done more hurt then good they affirm it to be a Schirrus and from Galen incurable But they are very ignorant for this cloudy wind fixed on the bowel in time by the natural heat somentations fasting an extenuating and hot diet given by women and Empericks being discussed the humour vanisheth and the pain also and the foolish Doctors contemned I exhort therefore the ingenious that love their honour and the truth to search narrowly and learn to know Symptoms from those of other diseases It is hard but excellent For many Patients as ready to dye for pain cry out only from wind which if corrupted and come from a putrid and venomous matter and run through the members with intolerable pain needs an exact Artist to know the wind and the matter producing it and distinguish the disease from others To this belongs the Tympany Dropsie when wind gets into the membranes of the belly with pain and so into the spaces Hippocrates Aph. 2. Sect. 4. speaks of this thus They that have pain about the Navel and Loyns that will not be cured by medicines will have a dry Dropsie There are three sorts of Dropsies Anasarca Ascites and Tympanides which Hippocrates calls the dry Dropsie Anasarca is a preternatural increase of the bulk of the body here the feet swell first at night chiefly after exercise or when they have long hung down they pit with the finger the body is all soft loose and pale weak and tired with the least pains it is like the Green-sickness in women only the Dropsie swells the body but in the other there is paleness and trembling of the heart in motion and shortness of wind going up stairs and the body is heavy and sluggish The cause is the same in both too much cooling of the Liver and Veins The Liver cooled the sanguification is hurt then comes crude and watry blood which taken into the hollow vein goes over all the body and there is Anasarca and if the water from the Liver stretch the skin without there will be bladders If these break the water gets into that part of the Peritonaeum which is by the lower belly and then there is the second kind of Dropsie called Ascites With this by degrees the belly is filled and it swells unmeasurably the skin being loosned and the rest of the body pines away If the body or the belly be turned the water makes a noise But in a Tympany there is no fluctuation of water but the sound of a drum when you strike or fillip the belly with your finger For Galen aph 12. sect 4. saith in these the air is beaten which is contained by the skin as in this kind of disease the wind is struck by the skin which is below Cold of the bowels and veins is cause of all these Dropsies The Ascites or watry Dropsie is from more cold the Tympany from less for water cannot be turned to wind without heat Great thirst follows all chiefly Ascites and Tympany the first because the water is salt and putrefied that is detained and the other because there is seldom wind alone in the belly without water which putrefies also the wind takes away the moisture of the stomach and then it is dry and desires drink This is thirst the desire of moist and cold or both In externals we see that though the Earth be very wet with rain yet when wind comes it dryes it wonderfully in a short time and consumes the moisture The same is done in the body for one in a Tympany hath a thirst beyond Tantalus the more he drinks the more he may and to satisfie the enemy in his bowels he destroys himself with much drink Also they in the Colick thirst from the same cause Also wind swells the Cods and the Womb it gets by invisible passages into the cavity of them or after Child-birth by the Orifice of the womb or after bathing or fomenting or it breeds there from some other cause and there is straitned and so it stretcheth the womb If the stretching be in the upper part of the womb by force of the wind sent thither it ascends and goes to the Midriff and stomach and lyes like a ball there and oppresseth it Hence it is often driven down by the hands or fists or by other solid bodies into its proper place But if either side of the womb be distended or stretcht more then the rest it gets by a Convulsion into the right or left Croyn the Pecten and the lower belly are blown up and pained sometimes a noise is heard all over the body there is belching and swelling of the Loyns and pain in the Reins and Hips and when the belly is smitten with the fingers there is a sound like a drum and the wind breaks forth at the mouth of the womb Soranus said this was called a flatuous cold As wind gets into the womb of a woman so it gets into the Cods of a man with a disease or without and is a disease by it self I have seen in a Tympany the Cods of a man swollen as big as a Hogs bladder For the wind which at first was only in the membranes of the Abdomen and Peritonaeum being now increased and requiring great space breaks them and gets into the Cods and fills also the whole body Wind also extends the Cods without a disease in man and chiefly new born children and makes the Hernia called Pneumatocele or windy Rupture Sometimes it gets within the common membrane of the stones and puffs up all the Cods alike but when it gets between the tunicles of either stone called Erythroides and Dartos then one side of the Cod is only tumified This tumour is transparent and not heavy as that of You may try it in the dark with a Wax-candle held on the part opposite to your view Priapismus a Symptom of the Yard hath two causes one is the fulness of the Arteries of the Privities the other is wind bred in the fistulous Nerve This fills the Nerve so that it swells and makes the Yard stand without a venereous desire Galen meth med 12. saith there is another kind of Priapism when the Yard extends against desire For the Nerve that makes the proper substance of the Yard being hollow and filled with wind causeth it So Priapism is a permanent enlargement of the Yard in length and thickness without desire of Venery and wind is the cause as appears by its quick rise and sudden fall which no humour could make But Palpitation goes before this Priapism of wind but not before that which is from the dilatation of the Artery We have shewed how wind fills the internal
A New and Needful TREATISE OF SPIRITS and WIND Offending Mans Body Wherein are discovered their Nature Causes and Effects By the Learned Dr. Fienus And Englished By William Rowland A. M. For the Improvement of Physick and more speedy Cure of Diseases LONDON Printed by J. M. for Benjamin Billingsley and Obadiah Blagrave at the Sign of the Printing-Press at Gresham-Colledge-gate near the Church in Broad-street 1668. To the Royal Society the Virtuosi SInce the Evening preceded the Morning in the account of the first Day and the most precious of Lights sprung out of Darkness as it much countenances thâ—â—… Philosophers Privation and their Veritatem in puteo so it seemeth to tax their presumption who speak frequently of the Light seldom of the Darkness that is in them Whilst you the true Off-spring of the first and purest Virtue in your noble and masculine Humility though you had very large Accomplishments to boast of deemed it your highest Glory to obtain a Royal Commission from the most Heroick Spirit of England to dig unitedly for Truth and Knowledge as for hidden Treasure And this not like those envious Monasticks who what they found would ever have confined soly to their reclused Cells but most ingeniously for dispersing of it to the Universal Benefit of all Mankind without exception If then small things may hold Resemblance with greater and the least Addition of Knowledge to your own Country cannot but be matter of rejoycing to your goodness I shall not cease to hope but this Translation and Contribution of this kind of knowledge to the English and its humble Dedication will have a fair and kind Acceptation with your Wisdoms Not in the least supposing either the Subject being of Wind and Spirits or this Discourse can be strangers to your general reading but some what to stir up your joynt and inspective minds to the advancement of these Studies to farther degrees of Perfection and if possible to reduce them to the needful use of Physick Not only all Diseases Pains and Distempers being of late imputed to venomous Spirits generated in Mans Body but their Cure also to the efficacy of those undescernable forces in Nature benigne Spirits But may some reflect what must we now dig for Winds as for hidden Treasures Seriously you may without disparagement it being no Solecism to admit of Flatum as well as Veritatem in puteo And indeed in the sense of this worthy Author Where may not you find them Or is it not rather a question What can be performed without them Or rather if once throughly understood in their various differences and properties What may not be done by their assistance And that the Spirit of Spirits may constantly be your guide shall ever be the earnest desires of the Admirer of your generous Aims and Intentions William Rowland A New and Excellent TREATISE OF Wind Offending Mans Body In which is described the Nature Causes and Symptoms of Wind Together with Its speedy and easie Remedy By W. R. M. D. LONDON Printed by J. M. for Benjamin Billingsley and Obadiah Blagrave at the Sign of the Printing-Press at Gresham-Colledge-gate near the Church in Broad-street 1668. To all those whose Bodies are troubled with Wind or any Diseases caused thereby IT is confessed by all that no temporal Blessing is better then Health therefore it is to be admired that most men should so much slight and neglect it the worth whereof if we consider we must say with the Poet Amphion O blessed Health with thee 't is ever spring And without thee there is no pleasant thing She is the cherisher of all Wisdom Science and Arts and the only solace that we find in this troublEsom life By the presence of health all humane actions and strength of body beauty riches and whatsoever is esteemed among men do flourish she failing by malignity of evil causes all other things fail which were before in request and a disease follows which is the fore-runner of death Now who can expel a disease but by avoiding and excluding the causes that breed and feed it nor can the causes be avoided or excluded before they are known Therefore the chief way to cure a disease is to know the causes And if we carefully consider them it will appear that no thing in the whole world is more miserable then man and if you except his diviner part the Soul nothing is more frail and obnoxious to the injuries of all things For what is there in the whole Creation by which a man is not assailed and opposed and sometimes hurt For the Heavens and the Stars by their conversions and malignant aspects bring plagues heats and extreme colds and divers inconveniences to Mankind And the Elements are plainly perceived to be more injurious then they For the Air hath been infinite ways pernicious to Mankind as by Hail Rain Storms Thunder and Lightning And the Earth by terrible motions and quaking and opening of it self and by breathing forth pestilent vapours from its Dens and Caverns And the Water with stinking vapours from Inundations Fens and standing Pools And the Fire also by many Conflagrations Moreover all sorts of living Creatures by one unanimous consent seek the destruction of Mankind nor are the Herbs Shrubs and Trees with their fruit freed from that pernicious Spirit Besides all these as if they could not do mischief enough to Mankind man himself is enemy to himself by Thefts Brabling Murther and Wars and many innumerable wicked actions And which is worst of all man is so cruel to his own Nature and so mad that he torments his weak body by inordinate lusts daily and nightly riotings and surfeits so that he runs head-long into all manner of diseases and defiles his divine part the Soul and brings the wrath of God upon himself Therefore he said well that compared mans life to a warfare upon the Earth Hence it is that wise men to oppose so many mischiefs desired nothing more then to invent some Art to preserve them and theirs from the injuries of the things mentioned and free them from diseases Therefore Apollo gave noble Principles at first to the Art of Physick which were after celebrated by Aesculapius and then by Machaon and Podaleirius so that all did highly esteem them as Homer writes The learn'd Physitian that can cure well Doth all Professions in the world excel The Sons of Aesculapius delivered this Art to their Posterity not by writing but by traditional instruction to the time of Hippocrates Hippocrates that came from Hercules and Aesculapius grew so excellent in Physick that he got great Renown by his Works in Coos and among the Thessalians and Athenians that gave him divine honour next unto Hercules He was the first that committed this Art to writing and left us his Works which Galen purged from thorns and weeds and put it into such Order and Method that he made it almost compleat But nothing in the world of this sort can be so exact that
the native heat through the body concoct humours and make the members active for their duties loofens the belly and sends forth wind so powerfully that there is no remedy like it and nothing safer nor better then seasonable exercise with a spare diet Eat therefore little and that with mustard or other attenuating and heating sauce except the constitution be sanguine or cholerick Sage Hysop Savory Fennel Marjoram Pennyroyal Calamints are to be used and roasted meat with Spices Sage or Rosemary Let his bread be well leavened and with Fennel Anise Parsley or Gith seeds His Wine strong when wind breeds from weak heat If the body be cholerick or plethorick drink little wine and that with water Let the powders following be taken after meat presently they do very much good They strengthen and constringe the stomach and suffer not the vapours of the food to flye into the head stir up the natural heat quicken concoction digest the Chyle drive excrements downwards and discuss wind exceedingly As Take Aniseeds candied three ounces Fennel seed an ounce and half Coriander prepared an ounce Cummin Caraway Seseli steept in white Wine each a dram dryed Citron peel gross Cinnamon each four scruples white Sugar twice as much Take a spoonful after meat and drink not after Or thus Take Coriander prepared Caraway Aniseeds each an ounce red Roses Mastich each a dram and half dryed Mints a dram Nutmeg Cinnamon Cubebs each half a dram make a fine Powder and add Sugar of Roses eight ounces give a spoonful after meat At night when concoction is almost finished chew Elicampane candied or Ginger a dram and swallow it or Gentian roots or Masterwort candied Cubebs or two or three grains of white Pepper only broken they wonderfully help a slow weak concoction and expel wind and they do the like in the morning fasting after going to stool If the belly be bound give Lenitives as three drams of Turpentine washed in white Wine in Wafers before dinner or half a dram of Rhubarb chewed and swallowed or a scruple of washed Aloes an hour afore supper or Carthamus seeds husked with Figs I allow not Cassia it is windy Thus much for Diet if it be tedious and do not cure take these medicines CHAP. XIII Of the common Cure of windy Diseases SOme will wonder that I shall order the cure of Symptoms mentioned which of themselves admit no Cure But we do it for the profit of the Reader For he that discusseth wind takes away the cause he that corrects the distemper and mends the faults in conformation and restores the solution of unity cures the disease But he that cures the pains that come from the diseases looks at the Symptoms Therefore we have called windy Diseases Symptoms looking at the pains they produce for the better method and then we have ordered the mitigation of Symptoms and the Cure of Diseases The knowledge of the disease gives the indication of cure The disease is the distraction of the parts by wind that stretcheth them which pain doth follow as a shadow and the disease vanisheth with the cause and the parts come to their old natural habit Therefore diseases from wind are to be cured by three sorts of remedies 1. By diet that is attenuating hot and dry 2. By medicines that open obstructions and cut gross clammy matter and purge which you shall find in every Chapter 3. The discussing of wind speedily before the strength abate by pain which is done by medicines of thin parts which if there be pain will abate it and strengthen the weak heat and extenuate the thick spirit and open the thickness of parts Also according to the difference of parts the medicines must be altered because the faculty is stronger or weaker CHAP. XIV Of the Cure of the Pain of the Head from Wind. WInd tyranizeth in divers places as Galen de compos med secund loc lib. 2. saith wind breeds in the stomach and guts for want of heat sometimes from the nature of the food and the organs are so filled and puffed up by reason of the weakness of the comprehensive faculty that they stretch and thereby have pain the same may be in parts of the head for a vapour or clammy humour that feeds it may be so fixed in the strait passages of the Brain that it will require a long cure First therefore whether it be wind alone in the passages which is known from the motion of the pain from place to place and by stretching without heaviness and beating or if there be much flegm that feeds it and so there is heaviness with stretching and sense of cold or if it flye to the head from parts below it is much concerned as to the cure Yet we begin in all windy diseases the same way partly by revelling from the head to the body partly by applying remedies to the part affected we revel by Clysters and Purges You may make Clysters thus Take Mallows Mercury red Coleworts Calaminth each half a handful Chamomil flowers Bran each a pugil Boil them to a pint and half add Diacatholicon red Sugar each an ounce and half Species Hierae simple two drams Oyl of Dill three ounces Salt a little make a Clyster Give it before meat not luke-warm for such things puff up but hot and that by degrees lest by force it drive the wind more upwards and cause more pain This is an excellent medicine which without trouble opens obstructions and empties out the hard dung and wind and draws it from the head After this give one of the Carminatives or Wind-breakers Take Althaea roots two ounces Mallows Calamints Pennyroyal Rue Sage each a handful flowers of Chamomil Stoechas Rosemary each a pugil Anise and wild Rue seeds and Cubebs each three drams Coloquintida a dram Boil them to a pint strained add Electuary of Dates an ounce Hiera Logodii two drams red Sugar an ounce and half Oyl of Rue three ounces Sal Gem a dram give it before meat It revels strongly from the head expels wind with the excrements But if the Piles or distast will not allow a Clyster give this Laxative in Costiveness Take Diacatholicon an ounce species Hierae simple a dram with Sugar make a Bolus or a Potion Take Lenitive Electuary six drams Electuary of the juyce of Roses a dram Syrup of Rose solutive an ounce and half dissolve them in the decoction of Flowers and Cordial Fruits After Laxatives if the head be full of gross humours give potions that attenuate and cut of Hysop Pennyroyal Calamints Sage French Lavender and Rosemary-flowers with Syrup of Stoechas Honey of Rosemary Or Take Hysop Sage Calamints each a handful flowers of Stoechas Rosemary Chamomil each a pugil male Piony-seeds an ounce Anise Carrot Parsley-seeds each two drams Boil and to a pint strained add Syrup of Stoechas Honey of Rosemary each an ounce and half Cinnamon a dram make an Apozem for divers draughts The humours thus prepared and the wind attenuated at least
it admits no farther industry therefore the Ages following and ours according to the ingenuity of the best in the time did refine and digest into order those parts of Physick that seemed imperfect They cut off what was superfluous and supplied what was defective and did all with such industry that the Art seemed to have a new face For no part of Physick though obscure and hard can now be concealed For famous men have not ceased to study the Heavens and Stars with their motions and the Nature of the Elements and to search into the bowels of the Earth and to find out by great labour the force of Herbs and all Plants and to know all sorts of living Creatures nay to search into the bowels of Mankind by a kind of cruelty that they might be preserved against the storms of so many malignant Causes This is the reason why we bestow our labour and study for the Common Good in writing this Book and others and in perusing Authors out of which we have gathered this Treatise of Wind that troubles the Body of Man Men are of divers ingenuities and every one follows that which his Nature and heat of Spirit draws him unto Some follow Musick and the Mathematicks others Morality others Religion without any respect to other Sciences Some in obedience to their God Belly follow head-long after lust and spend more time and pains in pleasure and luxury then in honesty and lay up treasure by any means good or bad to maintain their lusts These vain Wretches having nothing but a body which shews their manhood pass away and their memory rots But such whose Souls dwell more nobly in them and think of the adorning of their Divine part lose no time for meditation that they may declare things more clearly to Posterity and be famous to Eternity Of this sort there are many in our Age chiefly Physitians who have so laboured to purge and adorn their Science that no Age hath done more For no Science is so absolute in all things but there is something new that the Ancients did not take notice of or leave unfinished For humane industry is fed by meditation and grows hot by an unwearied force And a generous Soul submits his private studies to the Judgment of the Learned and grows more studious afterwards For if his works are approved by them he is more inflamed to go forward if not he labours to recover his honour and to hit that the second time which he missed at the first Fall how it will an ingenious generous Spirit loseth nothing but gets much This is the cause why we have taken in hand to clear that part of Physick which treats of Wind and is of great consequence to mankind that we may not live in silence as if born for our selves And the rather because there is no disease more usual and vexatious chiefly in the North and less understood by Physitians though indifferently learned then those of Wind. And there is no part of Physick more neglected by Authors for none hath written exactly of Wind but Hippocrates and he hath written so that little benefit is to be gotten thereby We confess the reverend old Man had a wonderful Spirit in shewing the Cause of every Disease But he useth Arguments far fetcht and such as teach rather the Wit of their Author then the knowledge or Cure of the Diseases that come from them And he handles but slightly the breeding of Wind from meat drink of flegm He only speaks of the force of the Air breathed in Nor is it a wonder For his Age was very temperate and no ways given to Luxury Also the Country he lived in chiefly Cous was a temperate Island and did not breed these torments from Wind. But our Age from Gluttony and Drunkenness affords few that are not tormented with Wind. Therefore we shall provide that such as are troubled therewith may be cured and that by bad diet they do not relapse and be again troubled therewith And we shall leave Hippocrates who wrote on this subject more learnedly then profitably and discover for the Common Good those Principles that we know by Experience to be profitable Farewel W. R. A Short TREATISE Concerning Wind in Mans Body CHAP. I. That Wind is a Spirit and of the Division of Spirits I Suppose none doth question but that that substance whether it be air wind or blast which is strong to be heard or felt though not to be seen is called a Spirit For so Hippocrates calls them in his Book of Winds And Galen saith they are spirits Epid. 1. Com. 3. And in his Book of the difficulty of breathing and differences of breathing and in his Prognosticks and that a belch is a kind of spirit and doth after a sort communicate with the spirits of breathing Thus it appears by these sayings of Galen that wind is a spirit now there are differences of spirits therefore I shall shew the nature of all spirits and begin from the chief to the meanest Spirits are either within or without our bodies They without are of three sorts There is the spirit of the living God and of universal Nature and of the Soul The spirit of God shews his hidden Majesty and Power and goes through all things and is every where comprehending all things It hath the minds and souls of all in its power and can carry them where it pleaseth The spirit of Nature is that which all the Philosophers and Poets so commend Plato calls it the soul of the world Galen calls it a mind brought hither from above Aristotle Lib. de mund ad Alex. sets it forth more plainly by this definition saying this spirit is an animate substance that generateth in Plants and living Creatures belonging to all being largely extended it contains all rejoyceth all carrying the vital soul of the world with it and Nature it self and making all things live that it gets into Also there is a spirit under the form of every mortal and concrete thing which knits it to its thick body being of a mean condition between both it joyns things different being like unto both and this spirit is governed and preserved by the other which is the universal spirit of all Nature To these three differences of spirits Arist Lib. de mund adds a fourth saying that wind ariseth from a dry exhalation when it is cast off by cold so that it spreads abroad it self so that wind is only much air stirring about and forced and this is called a spirit also For air is strong though not visible but known by its effects and our apprehensions and Hippocrates in his Book of Wind saith that all that is between Heaven and Earth is full of spirits Also the spirits in the body are comprehended in their several members for they are natural vital or animal All these are called by the name of innate or imbred spirits wind or the flatulent spirit that the great and little world Man might
be alike is joyned to these The natural Spirit is made when the more pure or aerial part of nourishment turns by concoction into thin blood like a vapour This takes force from the imbred spirit in the Liver and goes to the Heart by the hollow vein with the rest of the blood then by heat being more refined it turns to a sort of air and becomes a vital spirit which spread through the whole body by the arteries gives life part of this carried by the arteries of the neck into the net-work of the brain and so into the ventricles increaseth by the air received at the nose and by force of the spirit imbred in the brain becomes animal and being sent to the whole body gives sense and motion The spirit we shall speak of differs much from these and is the fourth spirit in our bodies of the same nature with wind and it is so called It is gross and not so aery or thin as the other You may best know the nature of it if you consider the air in a South or North wind The windy spirit in us is like the South wind and the natural is like the North. Let us leave the innate or imbred spirits which are well described by others and speak of the flatuous or windy spirit CHAP. II. Of the Analogy or Proportion between the flatuous Spirit and Wind or the Wind in Man and in the Earth THere are two things that chiefly blow up our bodies and prepare them for diseases diet and the air Food though at first unlike is at length made like us and turned into the substance of the body Therefore by long use the body will be of the same nature For all Diet though well concocted keeps it in a natural and genuine condition therefore Lettice and other cold things though they be overcome by concoction yet cool the stomach and whole body and produce cold blood So Wine and Garlick produce hot blood Fish Cheese and salt Meats gross blood By which it is clear that not only the spirits and humours by which we are preserved are changed but the constitution of the whole body Therefore a cool diet prepares the body to breed wind by oppressing the native heat Also too much of the best meats and drinks such as burdens Nature cannot be well concocted or turned into good blood but many crudities will be which will cause obstructions and rottenness or corruption by which the natural heat is suffocated as the wiek of a candle by too much grease This crudity and abundance of humours is gathered in all chiefly the Northern Inhabitants these as if it were too low a thing to slay with a sword or hang with a halter or fight publickly kill themselves with kindness they contend in drinking healths and riot night and day and add new surfeits to the former and leave not off till they vomit what they take in or are ready to burst forgetting the saying That gluttony and drunkenness kill more then the sword When too much food is taken it causeth a disease It is no wonder if such have many excrements and wind which for their abundance are not easily voided Also the Country and air is of much force For a hot Country as the Summer inflames the spirits dries the humours and increaseth Choler which causeth most acute diseases But a cold and moist air as it is in the North is like the Winter stupifies the spirits stops the Pores and burdens the body with many superfluous humours and oppresseth the native heat Hence the concoction is weakned and there are crudities and fluctuations of food in the stomach distillations chronick diseases stones worms wind and the like These breed in Man the little world as in the great unto which Aristotle compares him For as in the great world there are four Elements Fire Air Water Earth so there are the same in the little and as in all those Elements are divers substances bred as in the earth stones and trees in the water divers Creatures in the air thunder lightning rain so in man there are bred bones as stones and worms and lice as living Creatures and distillations as rain and wind or a flatus like the wind in the earth To be short the image of the Universe is clear in man For God when in six days he had wonderfully made the world and set all things in order so that nothing seemed to be wanting made man as the abridgment of all the rest to extol his Divine power and wisdom and admire his works Moreover there is nothing in Heaven or Earth the like whereunto may not be found in man if you diligently search and consider the Soul is his God the understanding and will are his angelical Spirits heat cold moisture and driness answer to the outward Elements In the heat appear divers flashes and fiery representations Frenzies Inflammations Erysipelas Feavers In the moisture are distillations and Nodes that come from thence like hail also the humours ebbe and flow in the veins and arteries But the earthy Element of this little world is most like the great in which are stones which our bones do resemble and Ovid calls the stones the bones of our great mother Earth As the Plants Corn and Trees are in the Earth so are the hairs in man As Galen saith hairs grow as Plants For as some grow by the art of the Husbandman others by natural causes only so in animals the head is like a Wheat or Barley-field and the hair in other parts is like other plants in drier ground What shall I say of the Earthquake when many exhalations are bred in the bowels of the Earth by force of the Sun and Stars from a moisture that is sunk into the Earth and from the matter of the Earth when they cannot get forth by reason of the Earths closure or the grossness of the wind there must needs be an Earthquake in part So when flatuous spirits or wind is shut up in the cavity of the body and strives to get out there is great trembling as Langius saith if we may confer great things with small as wind shut up in the bowels of the Earth makes it tremble when it strives to get out so a flatulent air or wind being kept in by the covers of the Muscles and other parts that may be stretched shakes them till it breaks through the Membrane that covers them the vulgar ignorant of this suppose this to be the soul or life-blood While it goes forth without doing hurt at the Pores there is no trembling but if they be stopt it hunts about and gets into cavities and strives to break through so the wind striving to get out shakes the body There is another reason of this trembling The wind shut up in the cavities being beaten back by the heat of the bowels and natural motion grows hot by reason of the want of freedom and so thinner This insinuates it self into any part even the
principal parts and falls swiftly upon sensible places and doth not only disturb them with its quality but pricks them with its thinness and stretcheth tears or wounds them for all biting or sharp causes that are moved whether hot or cold bring horrour and shaking to a living Creature Thirdly this spirit running to and fro troubles the expulsive faculty and the parts which provoked contract themselves speedily to expel the offender and so shake and tremble Therefore this wind in man being like other wind produceth the like effects Now we shall shew what it is CHAP. III. What this Wind in Man is NOne wrote better of this wind then Galen Lib. 3. de Symp. causis who saith it is a vapour raised from a humour or flegmatick meats or drinks or from weak heat But this is an imperfect definition for divers vapours go to the brain from food in the stomach as in Drunkards and in sore Eyes from consent of the stomach which are not called winds nor are they such But that flatuous spirit that is bred in the Hypochondrion from a melancholy humour is truly wind Therefore I would have this wind to be thus described more exactly A Flatus or wind is an abundance of vapours from spirits or meat or drink or flegm or melancholy raised from a weak heat in the body I say an abundance because a small vapour which the best constitution is never free from is not a wind or can puffe up As Galen Lib. 5. in Aph. 72. saith they are windy according to Hippocrates that have much wind in their bellies that is voided upwards or downwards or stretcheth the parts that hold it And Aristotle saith wind is only much air fluctuating or moving and stopped You shall know from Aristotle and what I shall say after why I call it an halitous spirit and not a vapour for none can get any certainty out of Galen in this that calls a spirit vapour wind and blast all one without distinction Therapeut 14. he saith a vaporous spirit is from juyces heated by degrees and that a vapour is an humour extenuated de Sympt caus lib. 1. de Simpl. med fac lib. 1. and Halitus is a mean or medium between the thinnest spirit and blood that is finished Lib. 3. de nat fac All these signifie the same thing therefore I shall not dispute them Nor is that against my definition that Galen saith if a greater heat fall upon a gross glutinous flegm it turns them into a thick or gross wind For though heat be strong yet in comparison of the quantity and quality of the humour it may be weak such as can raise a spirit but not lay it or dissolve it It is so in those that by intemperate drinking oppress the strongest heat We shall now shew in what parts this wind is bred CHAP. IV. Of the place where Wind is bred IN the former Chapter we shewed from Galen and Hippocrates that those were windy bodies that gathered much wind in their bellies which is voided upwards or downwards or that stretcheth the parts that hold it Hence it appears that the stomach and guts are the place of its breeding otherwise it could not go forth upward or downward So wind is bred in the Earth which after rain being warmed as Aristotle saith from above and from it self smoaketh and in this is the force of wind For when the Earth takes greatest force from water there must be most forcible vapours even as green wood burnt affords most smoak The stomach most resembles the Earth in man Galen comparing them saith that Nature made the stomach in stead of an Earth to Animals to be a store-house as the Earth is to Plants For the veins that go to the stomach such Chyle out of it to nourish the whole body as the roots of Trees do from the Earth it is a natural action in both They are alike but the Earth of it self is dry and sapless except watered it produceth no fruit but being moistned as Virgil saith it produceth winds also So our stomach is membranous and dry and except it be moderately moistned with meats and drinks it defrauds the body of its nourishment and it consumes If too much drink be taken there is fluctuation and wind for too much food oppresseth the natural heat and makes it weak but yet it will fall to work or concoct but being not able to do it exactly it raiseth vapours which it cannot discuss Then by degrees the first concoction being hindered there are gross and flegmatick humours both in the stomach and guts chiefly the Colon. If the wind be thick it stretcheth only the stomach and belly but when by degrees it is made thin by heat of the bowels that which was shut up begins to move and enlarge it self and take up more room and stir about to get forth and then all is well But if a costive body by hard excrements or tough flegm in the guts hinder its passage it runs back and roars rumbles and pains the guts and labours by force to get out For when the heat of the guts extenuates the vapours they move readily and of themselves and so are thinner and can pierce farther they run about like Thunder swiftly and open small passages and make solution of unity and cause pain in any solid part by their passage being thin What Seneca Lib. 6. nat quaest c. 8. saith of other wind agrees with this that its force is not to be withstood because a spirit is not to be conquered They only can judge of this wind who have been troubled with it Therefore as the other wind is only bred in the Earth so this is bred only in the stomach and guts as the caverns of the Earth and from thence goes to any part for the body is thin and previous full of passages for the wind to go through which when it is much and gets not forth shakes the body causeth chilness and great Symptoms after to be mentioned CHAP. V. Of the manner how Wind is bred in the Body WInd is bred from heat which is sometimes great sometimes weak and is raised from the matter after the same manner it is discussed For the strong heat of the bowels discusseth it before it get force and hinders it from breeding at the first Absolute cold raiseth no spirits as appears in extream crudities Therefore Hippocrates Lib. 6. saith that in a long Dysentery or Flux if there be sowre belchings it is good because before belching there was no sign of concoction by reason of the decay of natural heat which beginning to revive being but yet weak by reason of the small concoction it raised wind which was belched forth Therefore not great heat nor great cold but a mean between both makes wind according to Galen de sympt caus lib. 6. cap. 2. who saith it breeds in the vacuities of the stomach when flegm there contained or food is turned to vapours by weak heat For as absolute
cold raiseth no vapours because it cannot extenuate nor dissolve nor concoct so vehement heat overcomes for the most part what is comprehended extenuates the food beyond the generation of vapours except it be such as easily turns to wind If the heat be weak it dissolves the food but doth not concoct perfectly and hence comes wind And as in external things as a cold season chiefly when the North wind blows makes the air clearer and a very hot season makes the air pure but the middle constitution of air produceth clouds so it is in Animals heat when very weak or very strong doth not cause wind but the mean between both But Galen 12. Meth. med saith that wind is not only from a mean but vehement heat as appears by their generation there mentioned and by his way of cure For he saith if by any accident a vaporous spirit be joyned with gross glutinous humours that cannot break forth of the body there is very great pain and that from two causes obstruction or heat For obstruction keeps the wind in and gross glutinous matter when it is hot causeth wind And a little after how then saith he shall we cure those pains which a cold humour shut up in the guts hath caused Not by Cataplasms and Fomentations which heat violently for all clammy humours that are gross and cold are discussed into wind by things that heat except they also strongly digest Therefore they must be cut and concocted at the same time by attenuaters which are not too hot From these words of Galen it appears that a vehement heat doth not hinder breeding of wind or discuss them being bred but will cause them from the subject matter to breed anew when they were gone Therefore Lib. 3. cap. 43. he saith we must beware of nothing more in the abundance of such humours then immoderate heat that will melt them and turn them into wind but not digest them The Italian Doctor knew this well who as Paul Aegineta saith cured almost all Colicks with cold remedies and Paul knew it when he wrote that pains from cold clammy and tough humours are to be cured with respect that the medicines be not vehement hot for so they will be melted and turned more to winds Also strong heat doth not only make wind of flegm which it cannot consume but also of any over-much moisture received as in such as have drunk too much Wine or Beer or Broth or stuffed themselves with any gross or clammy food which the heat cannot consume So vehement heat also raiseth wind This is clear in Feavers also in which though preternatural heat abound much drink swells the belly because Nature is thereby restrained Therefore three things are required in the breeding and understanding of Wind heat naturally too weak or so by oppression that the part be sensible and fit and the matter proper to produce wind CHAP. VI. Of the Differences of Wind bred in the Body THe wind is of divers natures one sort is quiet another moved The quiet is gross and of flow motion cloudy and cold that brings seldom any Symptoms but a swollen Belly and Hypochondria without much pain This troubles such commonly that drink thick sweet Ale or Milk or Water between meals chiefly for that corrupts concoction and weakneth the action of the stomach as if you should pour cold water into a boiling Kettle and thence there will be cloudy vapours and fluctuations that will swell the Belly like a Drum which will fall with sobriety and a stool or two But if it stay long between the tunicles of the guts it threatens a dangerous Colick A moved wind because it is thin and running about with great pain is like a changeable Proteus It is either cast out or retained goes forth with or without noise by the mouth or Fundament By the mouth the belch is sour or smoak-like and unsavory by the Fundament it is with or without noise These are of so much concernment in the body of man as the Stoicks according to Cicero Lib. 9. epist epist 22. said that a fart ought to be as free as a belch And Claudius Caesar made an Edict to give leave for any to fart at meat because he knew one endangered by refraining through modesty Suet in vita Claudii cap. 23. But when wind is sent out at neither part but detained it causeth a swelling a Symptom of the stomach not able through weakness to expel the abounding cloudy spirit Also Galen 3. Symp. caus lib. 6. cap. 6. saith there are divers parts of the guts in which the wind moves which though they have not distinct names yet may they so be declared that any ingenious person may understand what kind and how much the excrement is and in what part it chiefly moves For if it sound sharp and shrill it is carried through the strait gut and is more pure and aerial If it puff up it will make a small noise while it goes through the small guts but not so sharp and shrill All these noises are in the spaces of the empty gut usually make the less noise the lower they go Other noises are humming like that of Pipes which cannot give a pure sound by reason of the matter they consist of and the passage being large makes the sound greater Such winds are in the thick guts when they are empty and if any moisture be contained in them it will cause a kind of Bombus which is a rumbling which shews a moist stool to be at hand because it is from Nature moving and it is moist because it rumbled before Also the noise that follows the stool if it rumbles signifies more stools but if it be pure and clear it shews that either the gut is empty or that hard excrements are in its upper part That which is shrill is from the straitness of the passages and little moisture We might here add the different sounds of the wind in the ear but we shall reserve that for the eleventh Chapter where we shall speak of the pains of the ears CHAP. VII How many kinds of Diseases are produced by Wind. GAlen made three chief sorts of Diseases a Similary Instrumental and a Common which is the solution of unity A similary disease is that which overthrows the natural constitution An Organical or Instrumental is that which hinders the fashion in conformation number magnitude or composition The Common is when unity is dissolved in part Let us see which of these wind will produce Hippocrates Lib. de flatibus saith when a body is full of food and much wind prevails and the meat lies long in the stomach and cannot get out for abundance and the lower belly is stopt or bound wind goes over all the body and gets chiefly to the parts full of blood and cools them And if the parts be cooled where the blood comes there is chilness over all the body For when all the blood is cold the whole body must be chill Galen
that are so have swollen bellies and whatsoever they take is easily turned into wind and they are puffed up A cold and moist stomach whether by nature or acquired by oppression of the native heat by repletion breeds only wind Therefore defend the stomach outwardly from cold air and keep the feet from cold for nerves go from them to the stomach and presently cool it and the Colick and all inflations are caused thereby sooner then any can imagine We have shewed the causes of wind we shall now shew the signs CHAP. IX Of the Signs of Wind. THe signs of wind are taken from the constitutions and matter therein predominating from flegmatick diet and windy and stretching of the Hypochondria without heaviness from belching rumbling farting swelling and wandring pain coming suddenly and suddenly vanishing from a clear tumour that yields to the touch and that sounds like a Drum Often belching and farting are also signs and ease after breaking of wind doth usually follow Or if from any cause the passage of the wind be stopt it flies back and there is a stretching pain that runs about the body and pricks like needles under the breasts between the shoulders or membranes of the ribs or other parts But these last not long because they are thin and easily turn to air They dream of flying or leaping over Rivers sometimes of Thunder and Tempests There is often noise in the ears beating in the flesh yawning and cramp in the legs arms and fingers and inclination to the Colick and other windy diseases Pain about the Navel loathing and vomiting of corrupt humours chiefly of flegm The belly is bound and will not let out so much as wind Sometimes glassie flegm with great straining is voided alone or with some few hard excrements The dung is sometimes like that of an Ox full of wind and water is on the top Also the pain is not fixed to one part but comes by fits and to many parts more grievous in one then an other The same signs are not in all Some are tormented about the Navel and the belly loose having three stools a day and yet the pain abate not It is a sign then that the wind hath gotten into the tunicles of the Colon or that it is bred of the cold distemper of glassie flegm or it is from its sharpness that comes from putrefaction and twitcheth the guts or of mixture of Choler with flegm which doth provoke the expulsive faculty Moreover when the passages are stopt from much flegm the excrements cannot pass and then the obstruction increaseth and the wind runs about in the guts and causeth much pain which we must not meddle with for cure except we first purge the glassie flegm with Clysters or flegm-purgers at the mouth But if the Colick come from wind without matter there is greater stretching and rumbling quick pains wind running to and fro to seek passage forth and they used windy meats and drinks If gross and clammy humours do melt by heat and turn to wind which is usual the signs will be mixed of both and the pain will be greater according to the cause For the force of conjunct causes is more then that of simple causes and there will be besides that pain which is like a stake fixed and comes from the coldness of the glassieflegm another vehement pain from stretching of the part that runs through all the cavity of the belly and disturbs the stomach as well as the guts For when the wind cannot get forth by reason of the stoppages nor exhale or breathe forth by reason of its thickness or the thickness of the body or the coldness of the pores and the guts cannot contain its abundance it goes back to the stomach and hinders its concoction by putting it self between the meat and the stomach and leaving a vacuity which causeth the stomach not closely to embrace the meat Hence comes fluctuation and greater swelling then the former and heaviness and difficult breathing the stomach pressing upon the Midriff This trouble and restlesness increaseth if they take meat or drink chiefly milk or water before they are well for then the stomach is more distempered and the fluctuating humour stretcheth and puffs it up more They are at ease when the meat descends to the lower parts of the belly and the wind is sent forth upwards or downwards but it is seldom sent forth while the distemper lasts but kept in both ways and if there be a belch by chance then it gives no ease Sometimes the mouth of the stomach is swollen and the pain is sometimes in the back about the Spondiles sometimes about the breast sometimes in both We shall speak of the other signs chiefly the particular that shew the parts troubled with wind among the Symptoms of wind CHAP. X. Of the Symptoms coming from Wind. THere are also divers Symptoms produced from the divers places where the wind is being a large off-spring of a fruitful Parent the solution of continuity This causeth pain All pain chiefly of the head is in the Membranes which if not offended by distemper heat or cold stroke or bad scent or sharp humours must needs be hurt by wind bred in the part which is seldom seen or sent from other parts where it abounds which is usual This wind gets between the Skull and the Pericranium or between the Skull and the Dura Mater or hard film or between both the Meaninges or films and twitcheth and pulleth them from the bone Hence is intolerable head-ach Sometimes this wind stretcheth the ventricles of the Brain and the whole inward Membrane called Pia Mater like a bladder and causeth unspeakable pain They complain that the head is sometimes stretched sometimes slackned This gets into any part quickly by its thinness and if it hath any malignant quality from the humours putrefying below in the body it disturbs the mind and reason and causeth terrible dreams melancholy dotings shakings of the head and sometimes death The Vertigo or Megrim is when the head seems to turn round The Scotoma is when there is not only a turning round but a mist before the eyes Both are from divers causes We shall speak only of that Vertigo which is from wind in the fore-ventricle of the Brain that moves disorderly This wind causeth mists and perverts the imagination hence things seem to run round and think they run round themselves and fall For a Vertigo is a turbulent commotion of thick flatuous spirits in the fore-ventricles of the Brain This wind sometimes breeds in the Brain from an uneven distemper thereof sometimes it is sent from the stomach and Hypochondria which you may gather from the Chapter afore-going Sometimes wind gets from the Brain to the Nerves and fills them and twitcheth and causeth a windy Cramp in the Fingers and Toes or Arms and Legs extending or contracting them Also this wind causeth great pain in the Ears when it is straitned about the Membranes in the Organ of Hearing
boil them and to a pint add Electuary Ind. maj Hiera Logodii each four drams Honey of Roses two ounces Oyl of Bayes three ounces Electuary of Bayes two drams make a Clyster If they will not take Clysters give Pills of washed Aloes of Hiera aureae Cochic after preparation and abatement of pain But if pain be great and the matter small omit preparation and evacuation and fall upon that which most disturbeth therefore asswage pain speedily apply a small Cupping-glass without much flame twice or thrice to the shoulder then take Gith Cummin seed Pellitory and Parsley roots each half an ounce boil them in Wine to the consumption of half wash the teeth with it hot it will discuss and attenuate and amend the cold distemper and draw out much slimy matter which breeds wind Or boil Pellitory roots half an ounce white Pepper a dram in Vinegar and wash the mouth therewith or you may make a Bag and apply it to the Tooth thus Take Calamints Hysop Chamomil each a handful Milium parched Bran Salt each a pugil Cummin half an ounce make a Bag. Then put a red hot Iron into an earthen Jug and pour into it three or four spoonfuls of Vinegar and let the Bag take the Fume at the mouth of the Jug The Women hold it for a great Secret to apply a roasted Turnep behind the Ears for it revels strongly and abates pain to my knowledge I never allowed Narcoticks in this Disease for they thicken the wind too much and make it fix like a cloud upon the Nerves and roots of the Teeth and congealing makes a little ease but increaseth the Disease But if the pain be intolerable to refresh Nature you must use Narcoticks with hot things to abate their force and look both at the Symptom and cause Thus Take Pellitory Pepper each a scruple Opium half a scruple bind them in a Clout and infuse them two or three hours in Vinegar and apply it to the Tooth Or Take Henbane seed Stavesacre and Pellitory each a scruple and with Vinegar make a Pill hold it at the Tooth for an hour it abates pain wonderfully and doth no hurt yet I could wish that only Discussers might remove pain CHAP. XVII Of the Cure of a windy Pleurisie THe pain is great which is from wind in the side when it gets into the cavity of the Breast or between the Membranes that are under the Ribs for then as in a true Pleurisie there is a Cough restlesness and sometimes a Fever thirst and stretching pain which may be distinguished from a true Pleurisie by many signs yet Hippocrates for better security bids us soment with hot things and if the pain increase it is certainly from a defluxion and chiefly of hot matter if it abate it is from wind or a small defluxion which easily breaks forth when the skin is made thinner by the Fomentation It is not good to use Fomentations only but to give Clysters to make passage for the wind for in this disease the excrements are hard by idleness or driness when the moisture is gone to the veins or from much flegm that is gross which stops the passages therefore give a common Clyster first then a stronger to purget see the precedent Chapter If he will not take a Clyster give this Medicine Take Diacatholicon four drams Electuary of Dates two drams species Hierae s half a dram with Sugar make a Bole. Or give this Powder in Cock-broth or Wine Take Senna four scruples Rhubarb half a scruple Diagredium two grains Aromaticum rosatum eight grains Sugar a sufficient quantity After Evacuation open the Liver-vein on the side affected if there be much blood or great pain otherwise not then use Fomentations and the like to the part Take Calamints Pennyroyal Rosemary each one handful Rae Bayes each half a handful Juniper berries and Chamomil flowers each a pugil seeds of Foenugreek Line and Bran each three ounces Boil them to half then put the Liquour and Herbs in a Bladder and apply them or use a Cloth or a Sponge dipt in it do this often This concocts the thick and crude spirit extenuates and discusseth after this anoint with Oyl of Chamomil or bitter Almonds and apply a hot cloth Or make a Bag of Rue Thyme Wormwood Lavender Rosemary Chamomil Gith seed Cummin Carrot Bay-berries as in Chap. 16. When the wind is thus discussed it is good to apply a great Cupping-glass six fingers breadth below the part without Scarification but with a great flame twice or thrice this will discuss the wind easier it would not at first be discussed by a Cupping-glass If this will not do but the wind is bred still from clammy flegm prepare it thus by Inciders and Extenuaters Take roots of Orris Parsley Elicampane each an ounce bark of Dwarf-elder roots and of Tamarisk each four drams Sage Rosemary Hysop Roman Wormwood each half a handful Dodder a handful of the four great hot Seeds each two drams Raisons stoned a pugil Liquorish four drams boil them to half to a pint strained add Syrup of the five Roots two ounces of French Lavender Oxymel of Squills each an ounce and Sugar and a dram and half of Cinnamon make an Apozem for four draughts to be taken twice a day Then purge flegm thus Take Agarick four scruples Ginger half a dram infuse them in Fennel-water and white Wine twelve hours strain and add Benedicta laxativa three drams Electuary of the juyce of Roses half a dram Syrup of Calamints an ounce Or Take Turbith a dram Ginger half a dram Sugar two drams give it in powder with white Wine or Broth. Afterwards repeat the Fomentations Oyntments and Cupping-glasses and use Diacyminum or Electuary of Bay-berries or this Confection Take Conserve of Borage flowers candied Elicampane each half an ounce species of Diacyminum Dianisi Bay-berries each a scruple Cinnamon half a scruple with Syrup of Citron peels make an Electuary give a dram fasting in a decoction of Chamomil flowers and Aniseeds in white Wine It is good also to foment with Spirit of Wine and Oyl of bitter Almonds and apply a hot clout You must do the like in inflations of the Lungs CHAP. XVIII Of the Cure of a windy Palpitation A Palpitation is a Symptom of the Heart namely an elevation and depression of it preternaturally caused by wind and it is more dangerous then another palpitation because the part is most noble For if it be strong or last long it so weakens the vital faculty that it turns to fainting or sudden death Therefore presently strengthen the Heart with good Diet and Physick discuss wind and remove the cause Let the air be clear hot and dry not stinking or cloudy make it so by art if it be not naturally clear and sweet by sweet cordial things Let him abstain from strong passions of mind chiefly from sudden fear and shamefulness and from much Wine but moderate doth well and Venery and sleep in the day cold
and apply it Or this Take Cow-dung two pound Sulphur Cummin each three ounces with Honey make a Cataplasm I have cured many Children by often heating them against the fire and with dry Fomentations with hot clouts often applied CHAP. XXVII Of Priapismus taken out of Aetius I Shall add nothing of mine own because I never cured this disease and none writes shorter and better of it as Galen lib. 4. meth saith He saith that Priapismus is a standing of the Yard swelling in length and breadth without lust from heat and wind with pain It is called Priapismus from Priapus the Satyre who is painted with such a Yard as natural It is from the mouths of the Veins and Arteries stretched in the Privities or from wind Galen saith it is from both but oftnest from the Orifices dilated Some have it from want of Venery having much seed and that used Venery and abstain from it and do not by much exercise abate the blood It chiefly comes to such as dream of Venereal fancies and the pain is like the Cramp for the Yard is as in a Convulsion being pufft up and stretched and they dye suddenly except cured and then the belly is swollen and there is a cold sweat as in other Convulsions when they dye Therefore against the pain and inflammation presently open a Vein and use a small Diet three days and foment the parts about and the Yard with Wool dipt in Wine and Oyl give a gentle Clyster not sharp and feed him with a little Corn and Water If it last long cup and scarifie if there be much blood use Leeches to the part and Cataplasms of Barley flour loosen the belly with Beets Mallows and Mercury boiled And give the Decoction of Shell-fish use no strong Purges and beware of Diureticks or provokers of urine Use Corn-food that attenuates gently without manifest heating Lay Coolers to the Loyns as Nightshade Purslane Housleek Henbane Let the space between the Fundament and the Yard be cooled with Litharge of Silver Fullers Earth Ceruss Vinegar and Water A Cerot of Rose-Oyntment washed often in cold Water and applied to the Loyns and Privities doth much good He must lye upon one side and lay under him things against the emission of Sperm And he must see no Venereal pictures nor hear no wanton discourse CHAP. XXVIII Of an Inflation or windy Impostume INflations come from Wind under the skin or the Membranes of the Bones or Muscles or gathered in fleshy parts Now as Aegineta saith it is either from the thickness of the members or grossness of the wind A gross vapour distends the place that contains it by its plenty and makes a tumour not such as is loose or will yield to the finger when pressed or pit like an Oedema The common way of Cure of these tumors is to evacuate what is preternatural wheresoever contained Now it cannot be evacuated except that which is gross be relaxed and the thickness of the vapour be extenuated Both are done by Extenuaters and things potentially hot I have shewed that Oyl which is of an extenuating quality wherein Rue or hot Seeds are boiled doth cure the stomach and other bowels stretched by wind Now I shall shew how other parts as Joynts and Muscles or Membranes about the Bones are cured when stretched with wind This is sometimes with pain sometimes without and that from a single cause namely a weak heat or a contusion For an inflation without pain according to Galen lib. 4. meth a Lixivium with a new Sponge will cure it As Take Rain-water or Wine let Ashes of a Fig-tree or Juniper be infused therein twenty four hours Or thus Take Bay-berries Orris roots each an ounce Bay leaves Rosemary Nip each a handful Lavender flowers a pugil Cummin six drams Boil them in Water to half in four pints infuse ashes of Fig-tree Beans or Coleworts foment therewith with a new Sponge hot It cleanseth drys consumes and discusseth wind and the tumour If there be pain use no Lixivium for by sharpness it will increase it but use relaxing Oyls as that of Dill Rue or Chamomil If Diseases come from Contusions when the Muscle or the Membrane of the Bone is bruised then lay the Sponge aforesaid upon the Membrane of the Bone But when the Muscles are pained use a more mitigating or asswaging Remedy To these we use not Lixivium alone but add to it boiled Wine and Oyl It is best at the first to use no Lixivium but Wine and a little Vinegar and Oyl with Wooll to foment the part And if pain be great use more Abaters or Asswagers of it If there be no pain oppose the Inflation by stronger Medicines as Lixivium Vinegar and then Wine And when you are not to asswage pain put in more Lixivium and Vinegar For such Inflations as by neglect are worse first use things made of a Lixivium then some Plaister such as that which is made of Sweat from mens bodies But the use of that being forgotten in our Age we order instead of it the Plaister of Bay-berries or this Take Melilot Plaister and that of Bay-berries each three drams Nitre Cummin Sulphur unslak'd Lime Salt each a scruple Oyl of Bayes and Wax as much as will make a Plaister If the wind that makes this Inflation be smoak-like evil and corrupt and from a venomous matter with great pain and heat running through the members it is best when it is setled to tye the part above and beneath and to open the Inflation with a Lancet or hot Iron that the venomous vapor may get out Then fill the Orifice with Aloes and Bole Armenick dissolved in Oyl of Roses and Vinegar After three or four days fill the wound with flesh and heal it up And in this case of a venomous Inflation use a slender diet and purge and give a little Treacle sometimes HItherto Courteous Reader I have shewed according to my abilities the Nature and Effects of Winds and the Diseases from them and their Cures for the good of the Ignorant and help of the Diseased and that learned and ingenious persons may take occasion from hence to write better Therefore take it in good part for it was written for profit to all not for contention If you accept of these first fruits expect better hereafter The CONTENTS of the Chapters of this Book CHap. 1. That Flatus is a Spirit and of the Division of Spirits Fol. 1 Chap. 2. Of the Analogy or Proportion of Flatus with Wind. 4 Chap. 3. What the Wind in Man is 9 Chap. 4. Of the Place where Wind is bred 10 Chap. 5. Of the Manner how Wind is bred in the Body 13 Chap. 6. Of the Differences of Wind bred in the Body 16 Chap. 7. How many Kinds of Diseases are produced by Wind. 18 Chap. 8. Of the Causes of Wind. 21 Chap. 9. Of the Signs of Wind. 30 Chap. 10. Of the Symptoms coming from Wind 33 Chap. 11. Of the Prognosticks of Wind. 52 Chap.
parts and what evils it causeth we shall now shew what Symptoms it produceth in the habit of the body For it is thin and not only fills vacuity but dissolves continuity tears the membranes in themselves and from the bones and swiftly strikes like a dart upon any part causing great pain Sometimes like cold air it affects the sensible nervous parts without great pain but this is little and very thin and easily vanisheth by the natural heat and Fomentations But it is harder to be discussed when it gets under the skin or membranes of the bones being thicker and more and swells them to a windy Impostume Galen distinguisheth this from Oedema which is from water and yields to the finger and pits deep But an inflation is from wind either under the skin or membranes of the bones or under the Muscles This pits not with the finger but sounds like a drum with a fillip Sometimes it causeth no tumour but lying under the skin through which it cannot breathe being thick it only beateth this the Vulgar call the life And Langius in an Epistle wittily shews the arrogancy and ignorance of some Chirurgions that when they see the Muscles of the Temples Forehead Cheeks or Jaws tremble by wind in the skin and to swell they say there is the soul or life as in a prison also without purging which is less dangerous then bleeding they let blood and beholding the blood to tremble in the Porringer by reason of wind they fear that life is gone forth with the blood and therefore they make the patient drink it off hot Silly fellows that know not that air feeds the vital and animal spirits gets not only into the Arteries of the Brain Lungs and Heart but into all parts by inspiration and the pores and is mixed with the blood by the Anastomosis of the Arteries with the Veins and wind will breed from clammy humours not only in the Muscles and all parts that may be stretched as the Stomach Guts Liver Spleen Midriff and Womb in teeming women which move the womb so that they think the Child moveth And it causeth a trembling not only in the Muscles and other members but chiefly in the Heart And as wind shut up in the bowels of the Earth shakes as it is ready to get forth so wind in the body being comprehended in the muscles or other stretchable parts shakes them till it gets forth Thus Langius and Galen lib. 2. de Art curat ad Glauc confirms him saying that that sort of wind which is gross sometimes lyes under the membranes of the bones sometimes under the Peritonaeum sometimes in the guts and belly sometimes under the membranes about the muscles and the membranous tendons and the spaces of the muscles and other parts Therefore the force of wind is wonderful that like Thunder passeth through insensible passages into private places even into the bones and marrow and causeth pain but being between the bone and the Periostium it teareth them asunder with great pain Hence many complain of pain of the Shins by fits when there is no distemper external neither tumour nor pain when it is pressed except there be much gathered So much of the Symptoms now we shall speak of the Prognosticks of Wind. CHAP. XI Of the Prognosticks of Wind. ALL diseases of wind in any part are hard to be cured if it cannot get forth the thicker and more close it is the longer it remains and causeth worse Symptoms When it separates the parts it causeth pain and pain causeth flux of humours and the humour getting into the crannies of the part stretched causeth a tumour the tumour distends the skin and membranes and contracts them hence the blood being not cooled comes corruption and increase of preternatural heat If this tumour be hard and yield red and beating it is an inflammation if it be white yielding to touch and pit it is an Oedema if it be white yielding and transparent it is an inflation Sometimes wind makes a Dropsie as Hippocrates lib. de Flatibus saith wind gets through the flesh and makes thin the pores and then follows moisture to which the wind before had made a passage and the body is moistned the flesh melts and the humours fall down to the Legs and then comes a Dropsie They in whom wind hath long remained are subject to all these diseases as the Aphorism saith They who have pains about the Navel and Loyns that will not away with Physick or other ways will have a dry Dropsie This wind is not discussed by medicines or other things by reason of the habitual distemper of the part which persevering causeth a Tympany the worst of Dropsies I never knew it cured when confirmed If then it be so dangerous because the wind will yield to no remedies by reason of the cause that feeds it Hippocrates Prognost lib. 1. said well it is very healthful for wind to pass forth without noise but it is better to break with noise then stay and move about and cause pain If any from modesty when they are sound will rather dye then fart let them know that they dote or must endure pain If one fart willingly it signifies no ill but only it were better to be voided without noise For a noise shews much wind or straitness of the vessels but that noise which is heard in new diseases in the Hypochondria pains or swellings is not bad Hippocrates lib. 2. Prognost saith new pains and swellings in the Hypochondria without inflammation are dissolved by noise chiefly if there be stools and urine and if the wind goes not forth it is good that it goes downward These tumours being only of wind are dissolved by their rumbling it shews wind joyned with a humour and sign fies good that is that the wind will go forth with the humour it is mixed with or if not that it will go downward and the pain and tumour will cease And Hippocrates Aph. 73. lib 4. saith they who have stretched Hypochondria with rumbling and after that a pain in the Loyns will have a moist belly or loosness except they fart or piss much The Hypochondria rumbles and swells from wind alone or mixed with humours and if it alone breaks forth upward or downward with the humour it is without danger and the pain and tumour suddenly depart For the Liver and Spleen lying in the Hypochondria if they be much pained it is from strong inflammation or wind if from wind a Fever coming removes the pain As Hippocrates Aph. 52. lib. 7. saith they whose Liver is much pained are cured by a Fever for the heat of it doth discuss the wind Now a Fever doth not follow an inflammation but comes with it nor doth it take off pain but increase it It appears that the heat of a Fever discusseth wind because they in the Jaundice seldom have fits of wind because they are hot of constitution as Hippocrates Aph. 78. lib. 5. saith they in the Jaundice are not