stone Men should not therefore give credit to them that prescribe remedies for it Duretus upon Hollerius reports that hee saw the bladder exulcerated with such remedies and death ensue the stone not being worne at all A certaine man as Duretus reports fearing the extreame paine of cutting by the advice of some drank juyce of Limmons for 3 months together and died with exulcerations in his stomack caused by that juyce For sharp medicines must of necessity molest and exulcerate the parts through which they passe with their sharpnesse Sanctorius in his Commentaries upon Galens Ars parva tells a story of an Italian Physician who while hee used Electuarium de vitro to break the stone of the bladder in stead of lessening the stone brought in a mortall dysenterie flux He tells also of another who by the advice of a certaine quacksalver used very forcible diureticks which when by their abstersive quality they had evacuated very much fleagm insomuch as the sick seemed to be more at ease yet the stone being made sharper began to prick the bladder more vehemently and made a Gangraenous Ulcer as was seen when the body was dissected and so the sick died miserably Capivaccius also confesses that hee knowes not any remedies which can break the stone of the bladder Cap. 94. text 3. And Galen in Arte parvâ reckons onely cutting among the remedies for the stone in the bladder where Argenterius observes well that even from hence is their opinion refuted which think the stone may be cured with remedies taken by the mouth CHAP. XLII That the wormes of the belly are not presently to be killed in Fevers IT falls out sometimes that both children and young men are grievously troubled with wormes and that divers diseases in the body do arise from thence among which a Feaver is not the least which is of a double nature for either it is caused by the wormes themselves and then it is a very gentle Fever or it comes from other causes Dangerous Fevers from wormes and concurres with the wormes and this is usually a malignant and violent Fever which is thought to have been sometimes called by Hippocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fierce and wilde as a beast In the curing of these wormes the people many times doe erre much First in that they thinke when there are wormes together with a Fever that the fever is alwaies caused by the worms when rather the wormes doe oftentimes proceed from the matter of the Fever For as Aetius teaches Cap. 39. lib 1. tetrab 3. if they breed about the beginning of the disease they take their substance from the corrupt matter if about the height from the malignitie of the disease if about the declination from the change to a better which also are quickly voided Therefore in the beginning of acute diseases they betoken a malignitie of the disease for when wormes are the cause of a Fever that Fever is never violent and acute but most commonly they appear in a malignant fever which is to be noted for in the former case the cure of the wormes is the cure of the Fever but in this latter when the Fever is cured the wormes are wont to be cast forth by nature it selfe the disease tending to a crisis as Hippocrates teaches in divers places as in his Prognosticks and in his booke de crisibus Secondly they erre in that in this case they consider onely the worms and presently direct their cure to them neglecting the disease on which they depend or making it worse with their remedies undiscreetly administred for oftentimes those things which kill the wormes doe increase the feaver Seeing therefore worms Note because they are in every respect besides nature are to bee killed and expelled yet that ought not to be done with any kindes of remedies indifferently but the nature of the disease that doth accompany them is to be regarded to which especially remedies must be applied for when it is once cured nature it selfe casts them out in the declination of the disease Wherefore because they are so ordinary in malignant Fevers those remedies which do cure malignant Fevers do serve for them likewise such are many Cordials as Harts-horne Unicornes-horne Corall Triacle Mithridate the seed of Citron c. And there are scarce any Cordialls which are not good against wormes although not alwaies hence it is that we see many of those remedies which are said to bee good against wormes to doe no good at all namely because they are used after the manner of Empyricks without any difference of causes and regard of the other circumstances which ought to be respected Let us hear what Rondeletius saith excellently concerning this subject in his Chapter of Wormes When Wormes saith he are voyded in acute diseases as burning Feavers and other diseases of old men and children wee ought not to convert our whole intention against them as women doe and Physicians that study to humour them whereby it comes to passe that the sick do perish in that the disease is neglected or because they bend themselves more to the curing of the wormes then of the disease as if one bee holden with a continuall Fever or some other Cholerick disease or a flux of the belly or if in the beginning of acute diseases one chance to voyd wormes they commonly give Wormeseed which doth inflame the Feaver more or else they are wont to administer Corall and other things which are astringent to kill the wormes all which are very ill for the principall diseases as very bitter things for the Fever and flux of the belly and astringent and drying things for Fevers Wherefore the Physician ought diligently to distinguish whether the Fever depend upon the wormes or whether the wormes which are alwayes within the belly be cast out by some other cause And if one perceive that the Fever doth proceed from another cause because it is a Quartane or a Tertian or a true Quotidiane and that there is no other ill symptome they must be let alone or only those medicaments prescribed which are good against the principall disease and the worms Which words of his we have set downe at large because they doe so plainly explicate this whole businesse Forestus also in his observations and Mercatus in his Chapter of the worms and others do observe the same CHAP. XLIII That Cinnamon is not well prescribed to stay womens fluxes IT often falls out that women are troubled with an immoderate flux of their flowers or of their courses or other humours for the curing of which I have oftentimes known Cinnamon to be prescribed by other women as a very astringent remedy Indeed in a Diarrhaea and the fluxes of the belly I deny not but it may sometimes be good for it corroborates and strengthens the stomach and bowels whose weaknesse is many times the cause of a flux of the belly but it is to no purpose at all to use it for the staying of the
the art to be fallacious uncertaine and conjecturall All which things seeing they cannot be known but by a skilfull Physician women ought not so rashly and adventurously to intermeddle with them Againe they usually take their remedies out of English bookes or else make use of such as are communicated to them by others and then they think they have rare remedies for all diseases But Galen in his bookes of Method The necessity of the altering of remedies makes the art more difficult teaches that remedies are to bee altered according to the person place part affected and other circumstances for in some a deterging Medicine will draw unto suppuration as Frankincense in others the same remedy will generate flesh and Galen gives an example of a Surgeon who in an Ulcer where hee saw great putrefaction did daily apply a strong deterger viz. Verdigrease and the oftner he did so by so much the more did the putrefaction encrease because the remedy was stronger than the disease The same malady in different parts requires a different cure The same Ulcer in the Legge doth require a different remedy from that in the breast or another part because of the diverse nature of the parts If therefore they understand well all the differences and causes of ulcers as also a right method and a right use of suppurating deterging flesh-generating and cicatrizing medicines and the reason of varying them according to the nature of the parts ages temperaments and other circumstances I will easily believe that they may be able to exercise this Art But seeing that these things cannot bee attained unto without much labour and study I can scarce be brought to believe that they are able to understand or performe what they promise But because a Physician ought to be but little solicitous who and how many they be that practise Physick we will say no more of Women it sufficeth that wee have manifested their errours to the people Therefore we will speake a little concerning others CHAP. VI. Of Mountibanks THere is another sort of men sprung up for a mocking-stock of art which call themselves Empyricks the English and Italians call them Mountibanks the French Chartalans or Ceretans one of which called England his best Nurse And it is a wonderfull thing that many should be so wary in the choise of Physicians that if a Physician settle in some place they dare not of a long time commit themselves unto him and yet they presently trust themselves to a Mountibank that comes to stay but afew weeks as I have often observed men of the meanest rank that plead poverty to Physicians can finde money enough to give to these Mountibanks First of all it is to be noted that in other parts of the World they are men of no esteem Mountibanks not capable of honour in forraine Countries and although they grow rich yet they are not capable of any honour in the Common-wealth but if they travail the Country here they are accounted in great honour and are sometimes equallized with Physicians and are taken for a certain sort of Physicians Secondly it is to be noted that though they call themselvs Empyricks yet they are not Empyricks in former times were learned men For the Empyricks in times past were very learned and skilfull men whom Galen in one place acknowledgeth to have been his Masters and they understood very well not only the remedies but also the rules of Physick the diagnostick and prognostick signes of diseases and they followed a certain method or rather an order in curing but did not search out the causes of diseases nor the reason of the rules of Physick It sufficed them that these things were observed of old either of the Ancients or of themselves If we had such Empyricks they might be very well endured For even Physicians do not disdain Empyrie the dogmaticall part of Physick comprehending it But they have moreover added hereunto the reason and knowledge of causes not that they may absolutely cure but that they may more certainly cure Mountibanks are sar from the learning of the ancient Empiricks But our Mountibanks now a dayes doe shew forth their tricks upon the Stage and far are they from being Empyricks for they know nothing but 3 or 4 remedies If they had remedies for the Leprosie Gowt quartane Ague and other such grievous diseases seeing the successe we would commend their experiments But not any one of them in Italy France and England have more then three sorts of remedies that is the Antidote against poysons the Balsame for wounds and the Oyntment for burnings They sell the common remedies at a dear rate to which sometimes they adde a perfumed ball and the common purging remedies which they buy at home of the Apothecaries do they sell at a very high rate Something I intend to speak touching these remedies with this proviso that I exempt from their rank those manuall Operatists that cut for the Stone whom Hippocrates calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as also such as couch the Cataract and those that cut for the Bupture for they are lawfull Artificers although also some of the Mountibanks that wander about England dare likewise to attempt the same CHAP. VII Of the Mountibanks Antidote THeir principall and most highly extolled remedy is against poysons of which they promise wonders But first we will demonstrate the unprofitablenesse secondly the abuse and thirdly the facility of that remedy The unprofitablenesse consists in this The Mountibanks Antidote is of little or no use that of all the diseases which happen to mans body those that proceed from poyson either applyed outwardly or taken inwardly are most rare with us therefore there is no great need of that remedy but if they had medicines for the more ordinary diseases as the leprosie and the gowt they might be endured Besides there is no part of Physick which doth more abound with remedies then that which treats of poysons For if any man read the books of them that have gathered together the descriptions of remedies what a number and variety of them shall he finde in Wekerus Andernacus and others that have set forth whole treatises concerning poysons Moreover there is no remedy that can resist all poysons Yea I dare be bold to say that a draught of Cowes milk can doe more against Arfenick and Sublimate which are the most formidable poysons to us than all the Antidotes of the Mountibanks There are also many things much better then theirs to bee had in Apothecaries Shops as that ancient and in all ages well approved Triacle of Andromachus as also the Mithridate of Damocrates and Matthiolus his Antidote which containes in it almost all the Simples which serve for this purpose Againe it is an easie thing for any Physician that knowes the matter of Physick and the art of compounding medicaments presently to prescribe such things For first it is to be noted that these medicaments are not taken
account thick and and troubled urine a good signe because the obstructions seeme to be opened and the humour that breeds the disease to be evacuated This happens indeed sometimes in the stone in criticall evacuations and by vertue of medicament They betoken crudity But when such waters are made without a diminution of the disease they argue a crude and stubborne disease and heat and cruditie of humours for all concoction makes cleare urines But they are the worst of all which are pissed out troubled and continue so because of the very great agitation of the humours in the veines and the great conflict that nature hath with the disease and as Hippocrates observes they foretell the head-ach frenzy convulsion death 7. Epidem Polyphantus with such an urine was distracted in his mind and dyed in a convulsion CHAP. V. That the consumption cannot be knowne by the urine IT is a familiar thing also with many when they bring their waters to Physicians to aske them whether they thinke the sick party is in a consumption or no. In which particular they erre two manner of wayes First in that they doe not distinguish the true consumption from other diseases but call every wasting of the body by what cause soever it comes a consumption as we shall treat more at large in the following chapter Secondly because neither the ulcer of the lungs nor the hecticke 〈◊〉 which are properly consumptions can be known by by urine Nor have Galen and Hippocrates taken any signe of these diseases from urine the reason is because no proper nor unseparable signe of a consumption can be drawne either from the substance colour or contents because urine is the whey of the humours that are contained in the veines therefore upon the diversitie of humours the change of of urine doth depend But in them that have the consumption the lungs especially are affected and the whole body in hecticks and not the humours Wee have said already that the diseases of the lungs are discerned by spittle not by urine and though it be good to looke into urine yet it helps not to the knowledge of the disease but onely to the prognostication of the danger that is like to ensue for if it appeare to be naught it increases the danger But the Arabians said that these urines are fat and oyly whom also many of our late writers doe follow although they doe not agree among themselves yet for the most part they grant that in the beginning of a hectick nothing certaine can be knowne by urines but in processe of time when the fatty humidity is consumed such urines doe appeare as we have already said But Alexander Trallianus makes noe mention of fatty urines but thinne and fiery and crude for in regard that concoction is made by the solid parts if they be distempered the urine cannot be well concocted but be thinne fiery and crude as in a hot and dry distemper Neverthelesse from thence it cannot be concluded that a Physician not seeing the sick can by urines know a hecticke feaver for such urines appeare in other affects and may happen through divers causes and therefore except other causes doe concurre they note no certaintie The same may be said of oyly urines of which much might be spoken seeing that there is a diverse acception of this word with Galen and other Physicians But in this place those urines are meant which have fat swimming aloft which Hippocrates will have to be a bad signe 2. progn tex 35 If fat like to spiders webs float aloft it is to be disliked for it betokens melting Yet it doth not from thence follow that these urines doe shew the consumption for such urines are oftentimes seen in them that be in health 4. de sanitat tuendâ as Galen observe For seeing that grease and fatnesse are made of blood well concocted it is noe wonder if some portion thereof swimme above the urine as is usually found in coole broths Moreover it may come to passe by much lying upon the backe the fat of the kidneyes growing hot therewith and these two cases are very ordinary and there are few that cannot observe such urine in themselves But those that come from causes preternaturall doe appeare in malignant and burning feavers which we call * melting or wasting syntecticke feavers seldome in a consumption and hecticke in which no such melting doth appeare but the humours are wasted by an insensible transpiration 10. meth cap. ult Hence Galen puts this difference betwixt syntecticke hecticke feavers that in these what is wasted is resolved in forme of a vapour but in them it flowes downe into the belly for the heat of a hectick is but very little and gentle so as the sick do scarce perceive themselves to be in a feaver Therefore neither Galen nor Hippocrates nor the ancient Physicians who observed these urines did ever attribute them to hecticks but to burning and pestilentiall Feavers onely But if any fatnesse do flow out with the urine in hecticks it argues that another Feaver is joyned with the hectick to wit a malignant or burning Feaver which case is exceeding dangerous I have now while I write this a hectick in cure in whom such urine never appeared which I have often observed in others that are not sick at all And although we should grant that such urines appeare in those that be in a Consumption yet because they may also proceed from other causes how can the Physician that onely lookes upon the urine and perhaps knows not the party himselfe certainly finde out the disease But as we have said enough of the deceitfull judgement of Urines I will only adde thus much that it was wisely prohibited by the Colledge of Physicians at London that any Physician professe that counterfeit divination These are the words of that order It is a ridiculous and foolish thing by looking into Vrines alone Judging by urine a ridiculous custome to goe about after the mannor of Witches and Conjurers to divine any thing as certaine and solid either of the kinde and nature of diseases or of the state and condition of the sick Wee admonish therefore all Physicians that they behave themselves for the future in this particular much more warily than hath been wont heretofore to be practised by many And for this cause we forbid all that practise physick that they preseribe any thing in Physick for those idiots and silly women that carry about the urinals of the sick except they either first know well or see the sick party himself or at least be plainely fully and sufficiently informed by them that aske their counsell of the whole disease wherewith the sick doth labour and of the severall circumstances thereof For by this meanes we shall both better mainetain the dignitie of the Physician and also more fitly and skilfully bethink our selves of those remedies which shall be most profitable for one that is in
There is a certaine naturall death Naturall death and its causes proceeding from the principles of life exhausted in extream old age which God hath appointed for all men which therefore no art can keep back And those terms of life are divers in respect of the diversitie of temperaments and other causes therefore some live longer some shorter some wax old sooner some later but every one when his innate heate is spent dies in his own time appointed by nature as the flame of the Lampe dies out when the oyle is spent For there is an order of all things in nature and every time and life is measured out by circuit 2. De gen corrup cap. 10. as Aristotle sayes to whom all Philosophers and Physicians doe consent There is another death violent and untimely What kinde of death is to be prevented by physick which is caused by Feavers and innumerable diseases and other chances against this it is that a wise skilfull faithfull Physician goes forth and by the right administration of wholesome remedies hee calls back into the breast the life that was ready to depart For what else is it for a sick man to be delivered from a dangerous disease then for death to be deferred The Squinancie Apoplexie Plurisie Pestilent Feaver and other such acute diseases may by their own nature bring death unlesse they be driven away by remedies What else is it to prevent diseases then to keep back old age and death which is incident to it Naturall heat weakned many waies How many sundry causes do weaken our naturall-heat as a corrupt diet surfeiting want watchings troubles cares which doe call in untimely old age But a good manner of living according to the direction of Physicians doth prevent these that the substance of the body be not too soon dissolved but that it may come to extreame old age which old age hath its appointed limits in nature known to God alone which may indeed be hastened from divers causes but yet by taking away all the causes that alter heat it cannot be put off or prolonged any further and such a death happening in extreame old age is very rare For who ever led such an exact course of life that he never harmed himself by those six things which physicians call non naturales For they that doe not keepe a wholesome manner of life dye sooner then nature hath appointed as saith Galen 6. de sanit tuendâ CHAP. X. Whether intermitting fevers commonly called Agues becurable or no. MAny are of opinion that against intermitting feavers which they call Agues there is no remedie but that they doe transcend all force of Physick But seeing experience shewes that to be false Agues curable for men may see them often cured by Physicians we need not say much of this matter They proceed from divers humours cholericke plegmaticke melancholick If they be exquisitely cholericke they are easily cured Aph 59. lib 4. For an exquisite tertian in seven fits is judged the longest therefore it will be much shorter if it be helped by remedies seasonably administred And it stands with reason For if other diseases that arise from the same humours may be cured why not also intermitting feavers Onely this is it that deceives the people because some of them continue very long and become chronicall as doe some bastard tertians and quartanes Neverthelesse that takes not away the possibility of curing them seeing that these diseases have been often cured although not alwayes in all that have them otherwise it might be said also that al continuall feavers are mortall Diseases are of 3 sorts because some have dyed of them Diseases are by some Physicians divided very well into such as by their owne nature tend unto health such is the one day feaver secondly into perpetuall and incurable A sort of leprosy such is the * elephantiasis and lastly into those which are sometimes cured sometimes doe kill of which sort are very many diseases among which intermitting feavers are to be reckoned which in some haply are soone cured but others doe continue a long time for all diseases of the same sort have not alwayes the same times and the same end but some doe end sooner some later Some diseases are longer some shorter and why some are cured and some doe kill according to the diverse disposition of the peccant humour in quantitie thicknesse toughnesse acrimonie malignity according to the state of the patient and and his strength time of the yeare country temperature of the weather manner of diet constitution of the noble parts diligence of the Physicians others that be conversant about the cure and other circumstances the explication of which belongs not to this place 4. aph 4 3. Hippocrates saith that Feavers after what manner soever they intermitte are not dangerous at all They are therefore curable by a wise and learned Physician although perhaps unskilfull fellowes by a preposterous way of ministring Physick may make them incurable aph 25. lib. 2. Thus summer quartanes are said to be short but Autumne long especially those that reach unto winter That in some men many diseases remaine incurable for divers-divers-causes it is not therefore to be thought that they are such by their owne nature nor is it to be concluded to the dishonour of Physick that they cannot be overcome and conquered by art Neverthelesse men should not give credit to the boasting words of some moungrel-Physicians who feare not to try and spare not to promise any thing and yet performe but little If they chance with a doubtfull remedie to cure a hard disease not well knowne of them with what words can the glory of so great a miracle be expressed with what reward can it be requited But if the cure succeede not well they lay the blame not upon themselves but upon the negligence of the patient or the by-standers or on the wilfullnesse of the sick CHAP. XI That the heat of the liver cannot be known by the heat of the palme of the hand IT is an ordinary thing with many when the palme of the hand is very hot to thinke that they are affected with a preternaturall heat of the liver which notwithstanding is not very certain although some Physicians also have been of the same opinion For what greater sympathie is there of the liver with the hands then with any other part No extraordinary sympathy between them Galen in Arte parvâ writes that if the liver be hot the whole bulke of the body is not likewise unlesse the heart doe hinder it and in like manner the whole body is made hot by the heart if the liver hinder not and therefore it ought not to be attributed to the hands onely Againe that unusuall heat of the hands doth rather proceede from the heart which communicates to the whole body hotter spirits and warmer blood then the Liver Moreover Galen in his booke against Lycus proves
that there is no sympathy betwixt the stomach and the hands because there is a threefold reason of sympathie A threefold reason of sympathy First of vicinitie the second of familiaritie of function the third by communion of vessels which things we may apply to the Liver and the hands For betwixt them there is no vicinitie or nearnesse in regard of scituation no familiaritie of function if there be any sympathy it must be of the third kinde to wit by communion of vessels but the vessels that issue out of the Liver are not carried to the hands alone but to the whole body In the hands besides the veines there are arteries which convey to them a greater heat from the heart Therefore from the hands ought not to be inferred rather the heat of the Liver then of the heart Besides the heat of the Liver is perpetuall or at least of long continuance but that heat of the hands is fugitive 6. Epid. Sect. 2. text 32. Fen. 13. lib. 3. tract 1. cap. 3. 4. Colliget cap 4. often goes and comes again Againe other Authours attribute it to the Spleen to wit if the Spleen tend upwards but if it incline downwards the lower parts are said to be hot * Avicenne will have long fingers to shew the magnitude and heat of the Liver but * Averrhoes laughs at him And the man whom thou knowest saith that the shortnesse of the fingers betokens a little Liver and herein it appears that he knew not wherein the power of forming did consist and considered not but in the parts themselves but let him goe with the rest Which are the words of Averrhoes who believed not that the signes of the temperature or conformation of the Liver could be drawn from the hands seeing there is no more peculiar sympathy between these parts than others Therefore Galen in Arte parvâ when he explicates the signes of an hot Liver omitted that figne of the heat of the hands as did the rest of the Greeks Aetius Aegineta and others Argenterius in his commentary on the forenamed place of the Art of Physick blames Galen for omitting this sign But more rightly do others defend Galen because that signe is nothing else then the vaine imagination of the vulgar for not onely the hands but the whole body is necessarily made hot neither is that heat of the hands permanent but unstable and uncertain CHAP. XII Of them that complaine of a hot Liver but a cold Stomach IT is a common and ordinary thing for many to complaine of the heat of the Liver and coldnesse of the Stomach because they feele winde and crudities in their Stomach together with some running heats in the body as in the face hands and feet But these are to be admonished of some things First it is certaine that the Stomach because it is a spermaticall part membranous and bloodlesse and white is of a cold temperament The Stomach is naturally of a cold temperament but to thinke that the heat of the Liver can hurt it is an absurditie For Galen writes that it was fenced about by Nature on every side with hot Intrailes that it might more compleatly execute its functions it lies in the middle between the Liver the Spleen the Caule and the gut Colon and is encompassed with them on every side that like a cauldron among a great many fires it may be made hot by them wherefore Riolanus in his Anthropographie doth not thinke it a thing probable that the heat of the Liver should diminish the heate of the Stomach but rather augment it Secondly it ought to be observed that the forenamed symptomes doe often happen in them that be in health that have a hot temper of the bowels but use an ill diet For by too much drinking either of wine and of Ale and Beere abundance of crudities in the belly doe grow and swimmings belchings windinesse and spittings doe arise for it is an ordinary thing Strong drinks breed cold diseases for cold affects to proceed from too much gulleting even of hot drinks which do not happen by a distemper of the part but through the fault of him that takes them In the mean while the Liver drawes unto it the thinner spirits of those drinkes whereby it is enflamed and so distributes too hot blood to the whole body Thence it is that they seem to feele heat in the body and cruditie in the Stomach at the same time And so they falsly accuse the contrary distempers of the parts not blaming their owne intemperance But if they would live soberly and use moderate drinkes they should experience no such matter Thirdly some are troubled with it although they live soberly and such are hypocondriacke persons whose * They are the parts contained in the belly hypocondres are hot and dry and obstructed which evill is very common in this country and it arises most commonly from the aforesaid cause namely a disordered diet But in them the Stomach is not made colder by reason of the vicinitie of the hot hypocondres but because many melancholy and flatulent humours are cast into the stomach which vitiate concoction whereupon they thinke they have a colder stomach than indeed they have Thence it is that Physicians demand how it comes to passe that hypocondriake persons seeing they are oppressed with a hot disease doe neverthelesse abound with winde and cruditie◠The cause whereof although some Physicians referre to the cold Stomach yet it is better as we have said to referre it to the corrupt humours weakning the temper of the Stomach from whence proceed not onely tart crudities which come from cold but also nidorous belchings which doe arise from heate especially if the party cat nidorous meat as fried Egges and the like Hence one sayes well that the symptomes in an hypochondriake passion are many of them cold but the cause is hot CHAP. XIII That the Husband cannot breed his Wives childe AMong very many Errours this seems most worthy to bee laughed at that the husband is thought to bee sick and troubled with the same symptomes wherewith a woman with child is wont yea and many will have this thing to be confirmed by experience I had a patient sick of a Feaver with a very high coloured and troubled urine who would not be perswaded of any other cause of his sicknesse then his wives being with childe I doe not remember that I have read of it at any time nor heard it observed in any place but in England It is certaine that women with childe in the first moneths of their conception are wont to bee troubled with very many and sundry symptomes especially they that are of cacochymick and impure bodies Now they doe usually arise from the retention of their Flowers For seeing Nature is wont to use that Flux not only for the purging out of superfluous blood but of corrupt and vitious humours also such blood being retent and kept in they are likewise retained
custome and inclination of nature to a mans own Country aire and usuall manner of diet which wee acquire by little and little without changing of that proper and inbred temperament which we derive from our parents from whence it comes to passe that some live better in their owne Country aire although unwholsome than in another Avicenne saith that an Indian would be sick if he were in Sclavonia Although that is not always true for it may be that some Englishman may live more healthfully in Spain than in his own native Country CHAP. XV. Of them that referre almost all diseases to a Cold. IT is a thing very frequent and ordinary when any falls into a disease or is not well to blame some externall cold from which he hath not carefully preserved himself And indeed this may oftentimes be the cause of many diseases For the aire is attracted by us continually by inspiration and transpiration and it doth impart its qualities to us whatsoever they bee But it hurts most of all when the pores being opened through heat a cold comes of a sudden for it obstructs and stops them presently from whence by reason of the fuliginous vapors retained fevers doe ordinarily ensue in cacochymick bodies but in others pain wearinesse difficulty of breathing Cold aire being inspired makes the gristles of the lungs become stiffe so that the lungs can scarce bee dilated Hence oftentimes the vessels of the lungs are broken and of other parts also and the bloud runs into some capacity and putrifies corrupts and stirs up naughty symptomes But concerning this thing it will not be amisse to give some notice of a few monitions First that all that blame this cause are not therefore sick by reason of it for there are sundry other externall causes of diseases Therefore commonly they that live in a cold aire reap not any evill thereby but the same parties even in the height of Summer and being well clad with cloaths doe notwithstanding complaine that they get cold to their hurt the same may be said of other externall causes of diseases In one and the same City there are many that breath in the same aire use the same exercises and the same diet yet when they fall into diseases they are troubled with sundry and in every respect different diseases If any man shall say that he is sick through a surfeit of meats or drinks perhaps he had eaten or drunk as largely a hundred times before and without any harm to himself which in like manner may be said of cold aire and immoderate labour when many a time hee hath endured a colder aire and undergone the same labour without receiving the least hurt it is a wonder how now he should bee sick thereby So we often see the last meat or that exercise that one hath last used or the last cold which he hath taken before the disease to be blamed as also the last remedy is thought to have procured health Where it is to be noted that these are called externall causes and that they doe not alwayes and at every time affect the body but then onely when an inward disposition lurks in the body and a morbous preparation which such causes do stir up Secondly they must take notice that those externall causes doe vanish away and continue not but their effects to wit the diseases stirred up by the inward causes do remain in the body and therefore the contemplation of externall causes is not always necessary for the knowledge or curing of diseases but of the internall alone which stirre up and foster the disease For wee see a disease that hath had its beginning from a cold aire neverthelesse not to be cured although the temper of the aire be changed but often to continue hard to be cured From whence also Thirdly it is to be noted that remedies are not to be measured according to the nature of externall causes for they indicate nothing For so hot things should bee alwayes good for them in whom cold hoth been the cause of the beginning of a disease which is not true for many times cooling things doe profit more From a cool aire as we have said many times burning feavers doe arise as also from baths that are too cold whereby the pores of the body are stopped and the fuliginous vapours retained by which the bloud is inflamed If the people doe here as usually they are wont encounter the disease with remedies that are of a heating quality they will be so farre from vanquishing the disease as that they will rather increase it more In this case inward cooling medicines and as Galen often teaches letting of bloud is the principall remedy In the eighth book of Method hee lets bloud in a diary that is generated by the obstruction of the skinne lest there follow putrefaction For though the externall cause bee cold yet the internall to which alone the cure is to applyed is often hot and is made so by reason of the corrupt humours that are kept in POPVLAR ERROVRS The Third Book Of the Errours about the Diet as well of the Sound as of the Sick CHAP. I. Of the goodnesse of Waters HIppocrates Galen Avicenne and other of the principall Physicians doe so commend the drinking of water in diseases that next to the letting of bloud they attribute thereunto the chiefest place in curing burning feavers and it is also the ordinary drink of many Nations Yet now a dayes some doe so much abhorre from the use thereof that they think it almost present poyson Now they think that the waters in England in respect of the coldnesse of the Climate are more crude and not so pure and wholsome as those in France Spain and the hot Countries And indeed every one ought to be solicitous of the goodnesse of the waters The best is discerned by the smell colour taste levity of it in the hypochondres and by the quick and speedy receiving of heat and cold So as that is best which is bright and cleare to the sight tastes and smells of nothing at all as also which is the lightest thinnest and soon passes through the belly Since then such water may bee found every where Good waters even in cold climates even in the most frozen Countries and I have often found such in this Country we may conjecture of their grosse errour that doe generally condemne their owne Country waters Now this is their errour that by the coldnesse of the Country they reckon the goodness or unwholsomenesse of the water hence they think that it is excessively cold and therefore crude and hard of digestion which Hippocrates calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which thing is not to be admitted for the water borrowes not its crudity or goodnesse from the Sun because the heat of the Sun cannot warm the water in the bowels of the Earth for it cannot penetrate so far which scarce pierces through the roofs of our houses unto us This doe the cellars under
difference of diet Slender which impaires strength moderate which preserves strength and full which increases it Now a slender diet is never convenient for the healthfull but for the sick onely Lib. 7. aph 65. For as meat is strength to the healthfull so to the sick it is a diseases * Lib. 2. aph 10. and impure bodies the more you nourish them the more you hurt them But in them that be in health the strength of nature is alwaies to bee preserved or to bee augmented by food not to bee impaired Now a full diet doth encrease strength a amoderate preserves it and a spare diet doth diminish it therefore in health it is alwaies good to avoid this spare diet But it will not be amisse to use either of the other whether it be a full diet or it concern the upholding or maintaining of strength by a moderate diet as the present state shall seem to require as Galen teaches in his Comment upon the fourth Aphorisme of the first book But if there be any found among the holy Fathers that have lived to the hundreth yeare of their age in continuall fastings and extreame abstinence from meat and drinke that is rather to be attributed to a miracle than to any naturall cause Ad aph 4. lib. 1. saith * Mercurialis Notwithstanding Lessius himselfe saies well that this was no miraculous thing but possible to nature In the generall such a spare diet creates but few spirits and those not so quick and agile and makes the body unable to endure labour and externall injuries for where there is hunger Apha 6. lib. 2. labour ought to be abandoned It may perhaps be good for moyst bodies and such as are accustomed to it as also old men and such as live a contemplative life 7. Aph. 59. * for hunger dries the body Aph. 13. lib. 1. and * old men easily endure fasting Therefore although I doe very much approve of this book of the most learned Lessius and think it very fit for religious persons that lead a contemplative life yet it is not so convenient for others that follow another course of life In generall onely any one may learn out of it that sobriety is a vertue highly to be commended and very profitable to the body for the preservation of the health of the body and minde and for prevention of diseases CHAP. IIII. That not a full but a slender Diet is convenient for the Sick HIppocrates said wel in his first Aphorisme that not only the Physician but the by-standers and the sick himselfe also ought to doe their duty otherwise remedies cannot be fitly administred if what the Physician hath rightly prescribed the by-standers doe either omit or use unseasonably or attempt any thing about the sick which afterwards may prove hurtfull to him without the advice of the Physician And therefore in this Chapter wee will speake somewhat of the by-standers For those women that serve the sick as also the kinsfolks and friends that come to visit the sick doe usually obtrude upon his abundance of meat and that very often as they say to uphold his strength alwayes fearing lest he dye with hunger Their intention truly is very good for the integrity of the strength is the conservation of the whole man Now the diet hath especially regard unto the entire safeguard of the strength and by accident unto the cure in as much as it ought to resist the disease and its cause Athreefold errour in the point of diet But they commonly erre in quantity quality and time wherewith the circumcumstances not only of meats but of all remedies are wont to bee determined As concerning the quantity for we will begin with with it it is to be noted that the sick have the causes of diseases lurking within them which do impaire their strength now meat although it doth by its owne nature preserve strength yet it doth not subdue the causes of diseases from whence it comes to passe that the disease oftentimes forbids the meat which the strength requires therefore the more more you nourish impure bodies Ach. 10. lib 2. A good civeat the more you hurt them saith Hippocrates Which thing all they ought to consider who who while they busie themselves to help the sick doe thrust them into a sure destruction and whether the Physician command or forbid any thing yet they doe of their own accord what they please It is an ordinary thing for the sick especially such as bee sick of feavers for whom principally keepers are provided to refuse meat by reason of ill humours that oppresse the stomack by which as Galen sayes in his Commentaries the meat is corrupted and so the ill humours are increased and their quality not amended at all hence it is so farre from increasing the strength It is not the eating of meat but the concocting of what is eaten that nourisheth as that it is rather impaired thereby for as the same Galen said well in another place the body is not nourished by those things which are taken into it but by those which being taken are well concocted which is not usuall in sick persons For a weak stomack doth not well concoct meat but it is rather corrupted by the abundance and contagion of vitious humours 7 Aph. 65. and so it nourisheth the cause of the disease Therefore Hippocrates said well If any give meat to one in a feaver as it is strength to the healthfull so it is a disease to the sick In Hippocrates his dayes as well as in our age they erred in their manner of diet as hee complaines in his first book of the diet of Acute diseases And therefore after his counsell it is best to use a slender diet which if it may suffice them that be in health as we said in the former Chapter much more the sick therefore more ought not to bee given to them then their strength can digest Here also the nature of diseases is to be observed for some are Chronicall in which it is lawfull to nourish more others Acute in which a spare diet is very convenient 1 Aph. 7. When a disease is very acute the patient hath exceeding great labours and an exceeding spare diet is to be used but when it is not acute but it is convenient to use a full diet so much meat is to bee taken as the disease abateth of extreames And in the following Aphorisme When the disease is in the height then the patient must use a very spare diet because as Galen sayes in his Comment nature must not bee withdrawn from the concoction of the humours to the concoction of meat Therefore seeing that according to the strength of the party and nature of the disease the quantity of food is to bee judged and that a great part of the remedy doth consist in food seasonably administred the by-standers ought not importunately to obtrude it especially women who are alwayes
afraid lest the sick dye with hunger Yet I doe not altogether disallow of meat for by it alone is the strength preserved But I have in this Chapter insinuated that the quantity quality and time of using it ought to bee prescribed by the advice and counsell of Physicians CHAP. V. Of the quality of meats about the Sick IT is an usuall thing likewise for them to erre not only in quantity but in quality also For they are often wont to offer to the sick yea to such as bee sick of feavers divers strengthening meats as they call them as ale boyled with eggs mace nutmeg and cynamon and other meats which they call by sundry names yea and they urge them sometimes to take solid meats but all this very foolishly And first it is certaine that solid meats are unfit for the sick seeing they cannot be well concocted by the stomack Supping meats sooner nourish then solid meats But those meats that are to be supped are more easily overcome by the stomack and doe soonest nourish and therefore Hippocrates in divers places perswades to nourish the sick with supping meats rather than with solid meats For by such a diet nature is sooner strengthened and is not hindred from the conflict which it hath begun with the disease Aph. 11. lib. 2. It is more easie to bee filled with drinkes than with meat where by drinkes he meanes whatsoever is taken by supping as interpreters observe Secondly it is to observed that in the healthfull meats ought to be alike because the naturall state doth require to be preserved but every thing is preserved by things that are alike But in the sick the quality of meats ought to resist the disease that there may be medicine in meat for to every disease its contrary must be applyed To a hot nature 6 Epid. sect 6. cooling drinking of water rest From whence it comes to passe that they that goe about to strengthen the sick with such a diet doe oftentimes more hurt to them and more increase the cause of the disease and so the strength is more impaired Therefore the judgment of a Physician is alwayes to be used nor ought the by-standers rashly to exhibite any thing which otherwise is profitable to the healthfull for the same doth prove many times very hurtfull to the sick And let this suffice to be said in this place for the larger explication of this subject belongs to them that write of the matter of Physick For it is not my purpose to teach Physick but onely to shew to the people their errours as I have said in another place CHAP. VI. Of the time of using meates A Physician ought also to be consulted withall at what time meates may most fitly be administred otherwise a pernicious Errour may happen to the sick and at this day this Errour is too familiar For the By-standers especially the women doe usually offer meat to the sick at inconvenient seasons Where they must know Not good to easin fit that in the fits they should altogether abstaine from meat as Hippocrates teacheth In the fits it is good to abstaine Aph. 11. lib. 1. for to give meat then is hurtfull and they to whom the fits doe come by circuit must abstaine in the fit And in the nineteenth Aphorisme of the second book It is good to give nothing to them that have fits by circuit nor to compell them to eate but to withdraw from their ordinary diet till after the crisis Wherein they erred not a little in Hippocrates his time as also in this our age in which there are many that without difference doe feed the sick having no regard to the time Now he doth not here onely forbid to give meat in the fit but also to compell the sick to take it for it is the fashion of many to urge them to eat For while nature in the fit wrestles against the disease it is but little intent upon digesting the meat whereby it comes to passe that it being unconcocted doth encrease the disease and the symptomes thereof Now what what harme comes by the unseasonable eating of meat 4. De acut the same Hippocrates teacheth The First is the suffocation of heat for in the paroxysme the morbous humours returne into the inward parts and oppresse naturall heat but much more after the taking of meat The Second is the increasing and lengthning of the paroxysmes and the disease for the matter of the disease and the meat cannot be well concocted together and therefore excrements are necessarily increased which doe afterward increase inflammations heats and other symptomes of the disease it selfe But because there is a certaine case wherein it is not onely lawfull In what case it may do good to nourish the sick but also necessary to nourish the sick in the paroxysme to wit when the sick is of an hot and dry temper hath the mouth of of his stomach feeble and of a most exquisite sence so that it is easily offended by every humour and causes danger of swouning At that time to nourish with those things which corroborate the stomach Galen judges it to be most profitable 10. Method cap. 3. where he tels the story of a young man who in Summer lying sick of a Tertian unlesse he did eat meat in his fit he fell into a Syncope But this case is very rare and requires not a little skill and judgement in the Physician and exceeds the capacitie of the vulgar and therefore it is not safe to imitate this without the advice of a prudent Physician All which I have said that men may seriously consider that they ought not adventurously to use those remedies which otherwise seeme to be most familiar with nature for in the application of every remedy many things are to beloonsiderect which the skilfull Physician alone doth know But many that adveaturoufly practise Physick are ignorant of them who take care onely that they may get popular applause and please the people that they may seem to be solicitous for the strength of the sick the confervation of which neverthelesse doth not depend on words but on the seasonable administration of remedies Let all men know therefore that the sick ought not alwaies to be obeyed as if he desire that which is hurtfull to him 6. Epid. sect 4. text 7. But in these things saith Hippocrates the sick are to be obeyed Namely that their meate and drinke be cleanly dressed When good to obey the sick that those things be pleasant which they see and soft which they touch provided they hurt not too much and that they be easie to be amended as the administring of cold water when there is need and such like So Avicenne in the third Section of his first booke wils that those things which are desired of the sick be granted so as no harme come to the body aph 38. lib 2. And Hippocrates saith Meat and drink a little worse but pleasing
its unpleasantnesse and had rather lye long under a disease then be cured with a very few remedies Wee must confesse indeed that very many remedies have by the care and diligence of moderne Physitians beene made more neate and pleasant then heretofore they were but yet all unsavorinesse is not taken from them In which particular wee may admire Gods wonderfull providence for if he had put the like relish into medicine that he did into meare mankind had long since either utterly destroyed or much weakened it self therewithall For all remedies have in them a nature in some measure contrary to our body because they after it otherwise they were not remedies and so they may also do harm We use them that we may reduce the body from a preternaturall to its naturall state againe But if the sick use them either preposterously or longer or oftner than is meet of healthfull causes they may at length be made the causes or diseases and imprint on the body their qualities which are so different from the nature thereof and therefore it is well said in the Proverb Qui medicè miserè They live miserably that live Physically Wherefore it were not amisse if many both men and women did take Physick more sparingly for they prejudice their health and they that are ever and anon taking Physick doe seeme almost alwayes to have need of it In like manner others that are sometimes sick are to be admonished that they do not for a little unpleasantnesse of taste or smell perversly reject wholsome remedies that are discreetly administred by an able Physician CHAP. VII Whether home-growing Remedies can bee sufficient for any Country IT were to be wished that England were as well able to furnish it selfe with Remedies as it doth with food and rayment There were in times past and even at this day are very many that have endeavoured to reduce the whole body of Physick to common and home-growing remedies rejecting such as are brought from Forraine Countryes Plinie the great Antagonist of Physicians was of that mind blaming Physicians that call in the Indians Aethiopians and Arabians for help At length saith he the craft and subtilty of men invented those shops in which every mans life is proffered to be sold to him then presently compositions and unutterable mixtures are provided Arabia and India are brought in for aid and for a little ulcer Physick is fetched from the red Sea when every poore man eates dayly to his supper the right remedies But that could never yet be brought to perfection nor hath ever any Nation been so happy that it could be sufficiently furnished with its own remedies India sufficiently furnished with its own remedies except the Indians For seeing that the same things doe most commonly grow in diverse Countryes it is certaine that they cannot every where be of the same vertue and goodnesse It is therefore lawfull to fetch them out of those Countryes where the best doe grow for the vertue of plants doth vary according to the nature of the places The Arabians say that some plants are hot in the third degree which the Grecians will have to bee hot but in the second the Germanes in the first Wherfore Galen who lived in a most temperate Climate did not think his own Country remedies to be sufficient but received Lemnian earth out of the Isle Lemnos approved of Candy dittander Macedonian parsly and such like And in purging medicines it is most manifest for they doe not grow at home but it is necessary that they bee brought from forraine Countryes as Sene Rubarb and many others some whereof being transplanted although with good dressing they be made to grow in our Gardens yet not without a manifest wasting of their strength nor in that plenty which may be sufficient for the whole Country Thus we dayly use sugar pepper spices wine which are supplyed unto us from other Countries The Lybian Iris saith Galen doth differ as much from the Illyrian as a dead body from a living no smell at all proceeding from the Lybian but the Illyrian yielding a very pleasant savour God would not that every Country should abound with all things nor alwayes that humane society might bee maintained For as in every Country one City supplies necessaries to another so one Country to another If one City doe stand in need of the help of another why shall not one Country supply the defect of another But they think that those remedies which grow at home have a greater affinity with the temperature of the Inhabitants than the other But experience shewes that we doe use profitably and without any hurt wine and spices that are brought from abroad Again Physick is not agreeable to nature but after a sort contrary because it alters nature and therefore it is necessary for a Physician to use those remedies which can most fitly performe it and seeing that the same medicament even in the same Country doth changes it vertues according to the situation and nature of the places it ought to bee gathered there where the best grows and therefore sometimes to bee fetched from forraine countryes But if this can be done with equall commoditie let the home-growing remedies be alwayes preferred before the forrain CHAP. VIII Of them that feare to bee let bloud and purged lest they accustome themselves to it THere are many that doe willingly use purging and bloud letting every yeare to wit in the Spring and Autumne for the voyding of ill humours lest afterwards namely in Summer and winter 47. Aph. lib. 6. they fall into diseases which Hippocrates perswades unto They that finde bloud-letting and purging to doe them good ought to purge and let bloud every Spring which words he repeats againe in another place * 53. Aph. lib. 7. Yet some are so timorous and fearfull that though they stand in need of these remedies yet they refrain to use them lest they accustome themselves thereunto For they think that if they should use them once or twice and afterward leave off A grosse Errour they must either of necessity be sick or not be in sound health whose Errour it is my purpose in this place to declare although some Physicians have been also of the same opinion forbidding any man adventurously to accustome himself to such great remedies as letting of blood and purging lest by intermitting or leaving off that custome he fall into dangerous diseases But herein they are mistaken for it is an Axiome of Physicians One thing is indicated or betokened by one And custome it self doth not properly indicate any thing but together with other signes it indicates somewhat for it hath reference to nature being also called a second nature whatsoever indicates any thing doth indicate either the conservation or removeall of it selfe conservation if it be according to nature and removeall if it be besides nature as a disease and the cause of a disease Seeing then only the cause of the
disease doth indicate evacuation either by blood-letting or by purging it cannot be that custome should indicate and betoken these remedies because as we said it hath reference to nature but one and the same remedie cannot be betokened by diverse things If in any man abundance of blood or some other such cause require blood-letting lest he fall into some grievous disease Nature will not necessarily the next year require the same remedy unlesse he labour with the same disease unto which nature custome hath reference because only the cause of the disease and not nature doth indicate this remedy If therefore he must be let blood againe it is in respect of the cause of the disease not because of custome Nor doth it follow if this year Socrates his blood be so faulty that there is need of evacuation that there shall be the like faultines the next Spring for both the temper of the man and of the aire and his manner of diet may be changed Otherwise diseases should never be perfectly cured if he that hath been once abundantly vacuated must necessarily relapse into the same disease Therefore custome it self doth not urge unto a reapplication of a remedy but permit the same because accustomed evacuations are lesse hurtfull and they that are accustomed to it may more boldly admit of evacuation Thus custome alone makes nothing unto future evacuations unlesse there be the cause of a disease with it but if some diseases use to return every yeare as the Gout pain of the joints melancholy and the like because the causes of these diseases do lurk in the body it is very good to prevent them with convenient remedies as Galen saith he did in his Comment upon the forenamed Aphorisme which remedies are convenient to be applyed not for assuefaction and custome but in respect of the causes of the disease which so often as they appear ought to be corrected with such remedies But all diseases are not of that nature that there is eminent danger of them every year and therefore there is no fear of accustoming a mans self to Physick except the disease also be made accustomary and familiar The remedy that cures the disease is not the cause of the return of the disease afterward which it should be if use should inforce a necessity of the remedie because only the cause of the disease requires evacuation from whence it would necessarily follow that the use of evacuation doth afterward encrease the cause of the disease unto the administring of the like remedy CHAP. IX That no regard is to be had of the Stars for letting of Blood and Purging IT is an usuall thing with many in taking Physick to observe the Signes to wit whether the Moon be in this or that Signe which is thought to governe this or that part Others take notice of the Conjunctions and Oppositions of the Starres when they must Purge or let Blood as when the Moon is in Conjunction with the Sunne they think it to be a dangerous thing to use these remedies 4. Fen. lib. 1. Some do advertise saith Avicenne that Cupping-glasses be not applyed in the beginning of the moneth because the humours are not yet swelled up to the height nor in the end of the moneth because then the humours are lessened but in the middle of the moneth when the humours are in their height following the increase of the Moon at which time also the braine is increased in the Skull and water in the rivers that ebbe and flow Which his interpreters do referre to other of the great evacuations during the same cause And here two opinions are to be weighed the one of Hippocrates and Galen the other of Astrologers Hippocrates in his Book de aëre aquis locis advises to observe the great changes of times and seasons and the Solstices that we neither administer Physick in them nor Cauterize the parts about the belly nor make any incision till at least ten daies after Now by those great Changes he understands the variations of heat and cold which happen at the Solstices Equinoctials under the Dogge-starre and before the Dogge-starre and at the rising and setting of some Constellations For hee addes Both the Solstices are very dangerous but especially the Summer Solstice so both the Equinoctialls are perillous especially that in Autumne the rising of the Starres are also to be observed principally the rising of the Dogge-starre Arcturus and the setting of the Pleiades Because at those times diseases do either end or else are changed These things therefore according to the opinion of Hippocrates are to be known in respect of the sudden changes of the aire which are wont to happen at the rising of some Starres Some to the forenamed Constellations do adde the Moon which hath great dominion over these inferiour things and experience shewes that it hath much soveraigntie over the humours of the body and * Galen also acknowledges the same But Astrologers have gone further for they attribute the signes of the Zodiack to the severall parts of the body and when the Sun and Moon are in those signes they hold it a dangerous thing to use remedies which concern those parts over which those signes are thought to have dominion and the common people in reading of Almanacks which come forth every yeare are very cautelous in observing them whereof wee will treat more at large in the following Chapter But if all these observations of Galen and Hippocrates be true there will scarce any time remain for administring Physick for in both the Equinoctialls Solstices at the rising and setting of Arcturus and the Pleiades we must forbear ten daies and before and under the Dogge-star at least forty daies so likewise according to Astrologers we must abstaine from Physick in all the Oppositions Conjunctions and Quartile aspects of the Moon All which if they should be superstitiously observed there would be no time left for Physick although we neglect those Starres whose influence is not yet observed some of which may perhaps hurt as much as the rest The Starres are not to be considered in the curing of diseases as they are in the Firmament but for their influences and those alterations which they make in the Aire as Hippocrates forbids purging under the Dog-star only because of the heat of the Aire Neverthelesse whatsoever the alteration of the Aire be the same cannot be equally good nor alike bad to all for evacuation but to some it will do good to others harm according to the different constitutions of men nor was there ever such a temper of the Aire and Weather which was not more or lesse healthfull or hurtfull to some For some Natures in Summer 2. Aph. lib. 3. some in Winter are better or worse saith Hippocrates so likewise some diseases are made better or worse in regard of other accidents 3. Aph. lib. 3. and so are some ages according to times places and manner of diet because the influences of the
Stars which evermore are universall do act after the same manner only and do hurt to some and good to others according to the different nature of diseases and the patients as also according to their age country time of the year and other such circumstances which do limit the operation of universall causes Again the concourse of the Stars is only a procatartick and universall cause which moves and stirs up the internall causes Now these are known by their proper signes Nor is there any necessity to consider the stars but only the motions of inward causes which make the times of diseases But as concerning Astrologers they do with a vain conceit attribute all the parts of the body to the stars to wit to the Planets and the signes of the Zodiack And because the Planets and the signes of the Zodiack have not one and the same motion some of the Planets having a swift others of them a very slow motion but the Signes the same motion alwaies equall it will seldome happen that the Planets concurre with the Signe that is referred to the same part For the Moon runs through all the signes every moneth and therefore is often conjoyned with them all But Saturne which they set over the Spleen doth very seldome meet with the signe that is dedicated to the same part The Stars therefore which are said to have dominion over the severall parts of the body have influence either into the substance or into the conformation of the parts but not into the substance because there is no organicall part in the body which is not made up of sundry parts which are of a diverse nature as the hands and feet consist of bones nerves arteries muscles which cannot be equally subject to this or that Star And seeing the like parts for substance are in the other organes likewise as bones in the feet hands breast head why shall not one and the same Starre bear rule over them all It remaines then that they have influence into the conformation onely which is accidentall to all the parts for every part severally may be without the same conformation as bones may be as well crooked as streight and be well nourished too The conformation of every part depends on number magnitude scituation and figure The influence cannot bee made into the number of the parts because number in respect of it selfe is not ens reale that is hath no reall existence as also because one particle being added or taken away the influence into the part is not thereby changed as if one finger of the hand bee wanting the influence ceases not In like manner not into the magnitude for then the influence into an infant should differ from that into one that is grown up to ripe age not into the scituation because so the scituation being changed the influence should also be changed as into the hand stretched out and laid upon the head or on the feet Lastly not in the figure it selfe because in like manner the figure being changed the force and efficacie of the signes into the part is still the same Hence it appeares that the attribution of this power and dominion to them over one part rather than another is nothing else then an idle fiction But if any such thing be granted it is likely that that same influence will extend it selfe onely to those parts which have their proper substance distinct from the rest as the Heart the Brain the Liver c. and not to the Hands and the Feet and other such like parts whose similar parts are the same for substance and differ only in conformation In very deed many Physicians seem to have given but little regard to those Astrologicall observations I have seen many sick in the Solstices and Equinoctials to whom the forenamed remedies were applyed with good successe which if they had been omitted peradventure the sick had died And therefore in acute diseases as the Apoplexie Squinancie Pleurisie burning Feaver and the like it is very dangerous to omit or deferre necessary remedies for the disposition of the Heavens but wee ought rather to have regard to the times of diseases and natures working and according to that observation prescribe sometimes one sometimes another remedy as at sundry times the disease requires But when a Physician prescribes Purging or Blooding only for prevention of diseases he may observe the four quarters of the Moon and use the forenamed remedies rather in the first than in the last Quarters because the Moon having a manifest power over the humours when it increases they are augmented and it decreasing they are diminished In like manner he may avoyd the Equinoctials and Solstices But in the sick these cannot be observed without danger seeing that diseases do not permit such great delaies But the figments of Astrologers touching the dominion of the signes over all the parts of the body are altogether to be rejected as faigned subles for it is an absurd thing to suppose that one Star rules over this part and another over that seeing that all the Stars do rule over all the parts and act not immediately but by the alterations of the aire by which the whole body is changed and altered CHAP. X. Of the ridiculous Physicall observations of Almanack-makers WHo can hold from laughter at those Caveats whereof Astrologers do every year warn the people in their Almanacks about the taking of Physick among which that is not the least of which we have already spoken that they attribute the parts of the body to the signes of the Zodiack We will now prosecute the rest And First they say the best time for Purging is when the Moon is in the watery signes to wit in Cancer Scorpio and Pisces Secondly when the Moon is in such a signe purge with Electuaries in another signe with Potions and in another with Pils Thirdly in such a signe purge Choler with Electuaries in such an one with Pils in such an one with Potions and so of the other Humours In like manner they say it is good to let the Phlegmatick blood when the Moon is in Aries or Sagitarius the Melancholique when it is in Libra or Aquarius the Cholerick in Cancer or Pisces and so the Sanguine when it is in either of these But it is to bee noted That any kinde of diseases may happen at any time Aph. 19. lib. 3. and be exasperated as saith Hippocrates Because as Galen teaches in his Commentaries not only the Aire is the cause of diseases but also the proper temperament of the sick and the peculiar manner of every mans diet whereby it may come to passe that even in Summer any man may be taken with cold and flegmatick diseases Seeing therefore at one and the same time many men may be sick of sundry diseases all neither can nor ought to be purged after the same manner and in diseases that are acute there may be danger in delay while we stay till the Moon hath run
Drugges as also to restrain the violence of it if it hath purged too vehemently and there is the same reason for the possets spoken of Yet it is not alwaies necessary to forbid them cold drinks Cold drinks good in some cases during purgation for without harm yea with very much profit they may be sometimes drunk But some Physicians command cold water if the stomach be hot that the acrimony of the drugge may be taken away So saith Aetius Terrab prim serm 3. cap. 133. If they be easily purged after they have drunk the medicine wee will give them cold water to drink John de Vega Viceroy of Sicilie being sick took a purge which wrought but slowly His Physician offered to the Viceroy the broth of a chicken without salt but Philip Ingrassias that learned Physician comming to visit him gave him a pint of cold water with a little sugar presently his disposition to vomit and the gnawing of his stomach was stayed and the purge wrought very well then together with great thanks to Ingrassias he gave him the silver bowle worth fifty Crownes wherein he had drunk the cold water as he himself relates in his book concerning the drinking of cold water after Physick And Sanctorius hath the fame story in his comment upon the Art of Galen We need not therefore so much fear cold drinks as Beer or Ale in them that are purged especially at meales for seeing it is permitted to take a little meat 4. or 5. hours after the Physick why should coole drink be denyed especially if he that is purged be not actually sick but took Physick only to prevent diseases But let us hear what Mesue a most excellent Writer saith He in his third Theoreme treating of the causes that hinder the working of a purge saith that if it happen through the weaknesse and debility of nature the working of it may be furthered by the drinking of a little cold water If the expulsive facultie be feeble or the operation and working of the medicament bee remisse and weake give the sick a little water moderately cold and an hower after some astringent thing and thereby the Medicine will worke effectually And in the same Chapter If the Physick doe not worke but cause grievous symptomes in the body besides the forenamed helps saith he the drinking of very cold water as Rusus saith takes away the malignity and acrimonie of the Drugges And in another place he blames them that drinke fat broths too soon after they have taken Physick Theor. 4. cap. 5. canone 1. because they do loose soften and fill the stomach and so beget loathing of meat and nauseousnesse although he confesses that there is a time to use them and therefore he commands rather to use strengthning drinks among which he reckons thinne wine of a pleasant smell and quick allayed with water warmed a little with the sun or the fire Then he addes but let him beware of sweet wine thick and troubled as also of water both exceeding hot and extream cold for the hot water looses the stomach and dissipates the strength thereof and the cold extinguishes the feeble and gentle heat of it From whence it is evident and clear that after one hath taken Physick it may be sometimes lawfull to use cold drinks and not to limit themselves alwaies to the use of their hot possets CHAP. XVI Of them that will never be purged but in the beginning of the Spring MAny that are wont to be sick of an anniversary disease to whom therfore some remedies are made familiar by custome do neverthelesse only use them in the beginning of the Spring fearing greatly the end of the Spring as being too near the Summer but herein they erre exceedingly For these remedies are prescribed to preserve from diseases them that are yet in health but would be sick if it were not prevented with the use of Physick Now this ought to be done especially during the Spring because at that time of the year the body is in its vigour and strength and it is the most temperate season and the humours which are as it were asleep in Winter are stirred up by the heat of the Spring whereby they do more easily yeeld to Nature and Physick also But the same humour is not predominant in all but divers in divers men either in respect of their peculiar manner of living or in regard of the particular natures of men for some are Cholerick and others Flegmatick hence it is manifest that neither the same evacuation nor the same time of evacuation is convenient for all Secondly the Spring time in some places begin sooner in others later in respect of the diverse scituation of the countries For Physicians do not limit the times of the year by the space of three Moneths as Astrologers count them but esteem them according to the temperature of the aire Thus many times Winter is very cold and sharp in England when the Sun enters into Aries in the beginning of March at which time Astrologers make the beginning of the Spring Wherefore they that stand in need of the forenamed evacuations let them take care that they be prescribed not according to the computation of Moneths but according to the temperature of the aire yea though it were the end of May May the best month for taking physick which I account to be the safest and fittest Moneth for that businesse because then the weather is most seasonable and temperate most like unto naturall heat and the strength of the body is most vigorous like as in Countries that are much hotter than England Physicians do preferre this Moneth But Galen according to the diverse constitution of mens bodies would have some to bee purged in the beginning others in the end of the Spring Best to purge the flegmatick in the be ginning of the Spring They in whom Fleame is predominant must be purged in the beginning of the Spring for the humours that are gathered together in Winter are melted by the temperature of the Spring so that except they be purged out they are easily diffused throughout the whole body and cause grievous diseases But as for them that are cholerick And the cholerick in the end it is best to purge them in the end of the Spring lest the hot humours be inflamed by the heat of the ensuing Summer and so putrifie and beget Feavers Ad chap. 47. lib. 6. So saith Galen in his Commentaries One that was wont every Spring to be sick of a Tertian hath not been troubled with it these many years I having purged him from choler in the end of the spring for at that time it is best to purge such but as for Epilepticks Apoplecticks Arthriticks Melancholicks and as many as are sick through the grossenesse of the humours are most fitly purged in the beginning of the spring CHAP. XVII That purging ought not to bee rejected although the sick doe eat no meate IT
oftentimes happens to Physicians that when they prescribe a Clyster or a Purge for their Patients the by-standers especially women and such as keep the sick whom nothing can please but they desire alwaies to dissent from Physicians these I say doe intercede for the sick that he is weak and takes nothing at all when notwithstanding in secret they do preposterously urge him to eat meat and do even glut him therewith Yet it hath been often observed that such as have so much loathed meat have with a very gentle Clyster voided many excrements dried and hardened with the violent heat of the Feaver And it is to be noted that purging is not prescribed onely for the emptying of the belly but to purge out morbous humours for that want of appetite to meat wherewith the sick are usually troubled doth arise from vitious humours which requires purging out which being evacuated the appetite and stomach to meat doth come againe For the loathing of meat bitternesse of the mouth and other the like symptomes doe manifest that purgation is necessary saith Hippocrates Aph. 17. lib. 4. Loathing of meate paine of the heart dizzinesse of the head and bitternesse of the mouth in one that hath a Feaver doe note that there is need of a vomit For these symptomes are caused by the humours which lay about the mouth of the stomach Therefore though the sick take nothing yet they have lurking within their bodies many vitious humours which unlesse they be voyded out by a Cathartick the appetite will never returne of it selfe but the disease becomes every day worse than other and perhaps at length is made incurable CHAP. XVIII That a Purge is not much to bee disliked because sometimes it is cast back by vomit I Have sometimes heard the sick complaine that when they have a Cathartick whereby they should have been purged downward a contrary effect succeeded and they were purged upward to wit by vomit which manner of evacuation is indeed very troublesome for vomits do usually offer much violence unto nature Now they must know that it may often come to passe that the working of the Physick may be changed and a purge become a vomit and a vomit a purge The body indeed by an ordinance of nature is emptied rather by siege than by the mouth for the belly seemes to have been created for that purpose as also the humours by their proper inclination do flow to the belly and there are a great many Mesairaick veines that carry the humours unto the guts Now a purging medicine becomes a vomit either by reason of the medicine it self or by reason of the sick Of the Medicine First if it be strong and do greatly provoke and pull the mouth of the stomach Secondly if it be very unpleasant of a strong smell stinking and noysome to the stomach Thirdly if it be light thinne and do easily swimme above as if it be mixed with fat or oyly things Fourthly if it engender windinesse as Sene Epithymum Agarick which windy vapours being carried up to the orifice of the stomach do trouble it and so provoke vomit Fifthly if it be taken in a very great quantitie and by these means not onely medicine but meat also may cause vomit Also sometimes by reason of the sick a Purge becomes a vomit as if he be of a very weake stomach and exquisite sense if hee looke upon things that are unpleasant to him smell such as are noysome and stinking or use violent motion for motion causes vomiting as appeares in them that saile upon the water Furthermore it is to be noted that when one hath taken Physick if after an houre or two he vomit it up again there is no danger at all for in that space the Medicine is dissolved by the heat of the body and as Physicians speak is brought into act and so doth diffuse its vertue throughout the whole body whereby it purges no lesse than if it had been all kept in the body It is sometimes good to vomit after one hath taken a purge Yea many times it is very good to vomit it up for it carries out with it grosse flegmatick and other such humours that stick fast to the stomach which happily it had never purged out by the stoole Wherefore it is not to be imputed as a fault to the Physician or the Apothecary if the Physick do sometimes work the contrary way for thereby no harme at all but many times a great deale of good doth come to the sick CHAP. XIX That purging ought not to be feared though there be a flux of the belly THe common people many times wonder at it and think it a needlesse thing yea and dangerous when one hath a flux of the belly that Physicians do sometimes prescribe a purge which is rather a means to encrease the flux and to weaken and spend the strength of the sick But the thing is quite contrary for nothing doth stay the belly like to a purge In health it is good sometimes to bee loose in the belly so as it be not too great a laske nor impaire the strength if so be as Celsus saith it stay within seven daies But in them that be sick it is sometimes good sometimes evill to have a laske in respect of the diverse nature of the disease constitution of the sick and time as if it be a criticall flux if such things be voided as ought to bee and it be such as the sick is well able to bear Therefore sometimes it is to bee let alone sometimes to be stayed but if it be stayed by astringent remedies the noxious humour being retained in the body is oftentimes the cause of a greater evill to the body and corrupts and infects by its contagion the rest of the humours whereby afterwards the noble parts are hurt or else the flux returns worse and is more malignant than before It is a common proverbe among Physicians The causes of diseases must be taken away before the diseases themselves can be cured So likewise in such a flux the safest way to cure it is by taking away the cause which thing purging among other remedies doth most fitly and safely perform so that the working of it the flux either staies of its owne accord or if it doe not stay yet it may more commodiously and without danger bee stopped by astringent remedies I have often seen the sick which by reason of a lask went to the stoole many times every day whose loosenesse was stayed by a purge of Rubarb to which though sore against their wills I had perswaded them which nature of it self could scarce have cured Therefore it is a common axiome among Physicians one flux is cured by another and one vomit by another not that all diseases are cured by their like but by accident only insomuch as the causes of the flux being voided out the flux stayes of its owne accord CHAP. XX. That the use of Clysters is void of danger MAny
lie If not supported groveling on the sand It holds no dirt 't was culd by a cleane hand I praise thy smooth Translation that doth teach The Vulgar Errours in a Vulgar speech Their Errours else the Vulgar had not known In Latine Primrose was i' th bud now 's blowne It s blowne so faire too that all doe confesse No wit can put it in a fairer dresse On thy Translation one may looke an age Yet finde no Errours but i' th Title page John Burnsell in Art Mag. The Judgement of Doctor Zacutus the Jew a famous Physician in Amsterdam concerning this Tractate of the Popular Errours which I finde printed before the Hollands Impression directed to the Printer MY dearest Iohnson I have perused this Book of the most excellent man Iames Primrose wherein he discourses accurately concerning the Errours of the people in Physick It is an excellent and pithy piece full of variety pleasant and profitable and worthy to be prized by Physicians This learned Author reasons strongly answers objections acutely and refutes wittily Goe too Mr. Iohnson print it without delay no clear-witted man will slight this wholesome counsell but it will be very much approved of and delighted in by the Learned and in their esteeme it will like the Rose-buds every day flourish more and more For it detects the ignorance and Errours of Quacksalvers who goe about to enrich themselves by mischieving others cheating the silly people with false and feigned promises of more then they are able to doe such as insolently oppose the knowne principles of Physick and envy them that with admirable care and dexterity doe make more safe and speedy cures These this Tractate armed with the most rationall Method of Hippocrates as it were with Hercules his club levells with the ground and utterly overthrows their erroneous opinions it curbs the foolish vaunting and arrogancy of Quacks and stops the proud attempts of those fond Bablers For I abhorre to think on this one thing that a sort of silly Plebeans and deboyst idle Empyricks should dare to take to themselves the honourable Titles and employment of the Learned Even as the country Curres seeme to follow the sent as doth the generous Hound and as the Proverb hath it the Goat would seeme to be like the Rhinoceros But to let passe these You Mr. Iohnson whom I know to be an entire lover of Learning make haste to print this gallant booke for it will bee entertained with great applause in these Belgian Provinces in Europe yea throughout the whole world Farewell and love Amsterdam Iune 4th 1639. Your affectionate Friend Zacutus Lusitanus Med. Dr. The Authours Preface HIppocrates said well in his booke De Lege that Physick is of all Arts the most excellent for the antiquitie and necessity thereof and the noblenesse of its subject to wit mans body do sufficiently manifest the same But be addes further In respect of the ignorance of them that practise it and of those that judge rashly of them it seemes inferiour to the other Arts. In which words he seemes to point out two causes of all the Errours which happen in curing The first concernes Physicians themselves the second all others that judge of Physicians and Physick Touching Physitians be saith that many of them are like to dissembling Stage-Players who represent the person which notwithstanding they doe not sustaine so as indeed there are many Physicians in name but in performance very few which as in Hippocrates his dayes so also in our age experience shewes to bee most true The second cause concerns them that judge amisse of Physicians every one wishes alwaies the best for himselfe but who is he that is able to discerne well the good from the bad for many doe oftentimes make use of them whom either boldnesse or the favour of some friend or the proud bragging of a malapert tongue not the sound knowledge of Physick hath set forth which fault was also familiar in Plinies time Men presently saith he give credit to every one that calls himselfe a Physician when notwithstanding in no one thing can there be a greater Errour for oftentimes a greater danger is like to happen by the Physician than by the disease it selfe From these two causes all the Errours of the people we have said doe arise For many of them that practise Physick being ignorant of the rules of Physick have perswaded the people of many things which stick so deeply in their mindes that they can scarce be rooted out by any force of reason For there are very few Errours abroach among the people to which heretofore some Physitian or other hath not given a being by reason of some Theoremes and rules of Physick by them ill understood Nor ought any to marvaile at it seeing that among the learned and well created Physicians themselves exceeding great difference varietie of opinions not yet fully composed may be found But it is not my purpose in this place to treate of the controversies of Physicians but onely to shew forth certaine Errours of the people which disturbe the right reason of curing Of this subject but few have written Laurentius Joubertus indeede a frenchman hath meditated something like to it but he hath left the worke imperfect and hath unfolded but a few Errours and those not very grosse and in my judgment little concerning the people When therefore I had observed here some Errours apparent enough I thought good briefely to declare my opinion concerning them That old common custome of foretelling by urine which also at this day many Physicians doe foster and follow first gave occasion to this worke of which when a certaine friend long since had requested my opinion I gave it him in writing But afterwards observing other Errours I noted downe some thing touching them for my owne use especially At length when I had perfected a Centurie and this booke had growne up to this bulke I put an end to it perhaps hereafter as occasion shall serve I may note more especially if to good and learned Physicians this tractate shall seeme acceptable and profitable for unto their judgment doe I referre all In this booke I have compiled the Errours not of one Country onely but of many that what is here written in the generall every man may fit for himselfe if he finde the same in his owne country And this shall be the order of this tractate the first booke comprehends the Errours about Physicians to wit about all those that cast their sickle into this harvest The second is conuersant about the nature and signes of some diseases the third about the diet as well of the sound as the sick The fourth and last doth treat of certaine remedies of diseases misconceived of the people Now let us set upon the worke POPVLAR ERROVRS The First BOOKE Which concernes Physicians CHAP. I. Of Physicians in generall SEeing then as wee have said in the Preface the number of Physicians is so Great we must explaine in
the Epistles of Scholtius who being intreated by the Germanes to communicate his secrets answered very well read my practise and you shall finde my secrets in which book there is no secret no hidden thing at all I remember I have heard Varandaeus the Kings professour in the Universitie of Monspelier The best remedies are such as are no secrets say that those remedies are the best which are no secrets but best knowne as being confirmed with more certain experience and he said truly But let us now pry into the nature of secrets they are either simple or compounded I confesse indeed all the vertues of simples are not yet perfectly known as yet many lye hid If therefore any man hath found out by experience the vertue of some simple medicament What is properly to be called a secret not yet known that increase of art is to be commended and deserves to be called a secret as he that first found out the vomiting vertue of Antimony he that invented the compounding and found out the efficacie of gunpowder he that first brought Jalap into use had secrets greatly to be commended such as these if any man have he is worthy of commendation and I think no other secrets are to be admitted For those that are compounded of the ordinary matter of simples as usually they are albeit a physician doe keep them to himself and desire not that they be known yet they are not to be called secrets for any learned and skilfull physician can at his pleasure make the like of present materials And therefore I have observed that no man is more unhappy than those physicians that note their medicines out of books and many ignorant fellows we see doe cunningly conceale their remedies lest if they should become known to other physicians they should be laughed at Hence it appeares how much many both men and women here in England are beguiled where all do busie themselves in gathering receits as they call them when oftentimes those remedies are of no worth at all and did at the first come from some physician who himselfe had nothing that was secret And what though they be good yet they are not nor ought to be called secrets For as good yea and farre better remedies can a learned and skilfull physician provide out of the matter of physick diversly tempered as different words are made out of the letters diversly joyned I once met with a man that had a receit of a purge which as he said a very learned physician lately dead had given him which I perusing I could not hold from laughter at the foolishnesse of the composition he made it up for his Wife but all in vaine I perswaded him to give it to the Apothecary and that he should give her but the third part wherewith shee was sufficiently and abundantly purged And I knew a Gentleman that accounted Electuarium Lenitivum to be a great secret who told me hee paid twenty pound for the receit Others I know who have the pils of amber aqua mirabilis and many other such remedies which are to be had in every Apothecaries Shop and yet they account them as great secrets So I have knowne others keep for precious secrets the descriptions of Diet drinks which many times they believe to be more efficacious then those that are prescribed by physicians although the matter is far otherwise CHAP. XIII Of Physicians that are thought to be lucky and fortunate Many of them that practise physick although sometimes they are not thought to be so learned yet they are esteemed by the people to be fortunate and lucky Indeed some of them are very fortunate to heape together so great riches by an art which they doe not well understand But they are unfortunate that trust to them for by art and not by fortune are diseases cured forasmuch as to the cure of discases there ought to precede a certain understanding and fore-knowledge of them and their Symptomes how can it be that he that is but lightly tinctured with the knowledge of them can ever performe a good cure but that after the manner of the * They were a sort of people who were wont to fightblindfolded Andabatae he wrestles with diseases It may so fall out that he may meet with diseases very easie to be cured which nature it selfe is able to overcome without the help of physick of which if a Physician be but a spectator they will be cured and then he is a fortunate physician to whom such a thing doth happen It may fall uut also that he may be sent for in the declination of the disease or after the principall remedies have been administred by another more able Aristotle calls fortune an accidentall cause of those things that are done Now diseases are cured by a due administration of remedies which due administration doth not depend upon fortune but on the learning and judgment of the physician T is a right administration of remedies not fortune that cures diseases Otherwise he that useth a remedy and hath not a sufficient knowledge of the Art undoubtedly he aimes like a blinde man at a mark which if he hit it is meerly hap-hazard from whence it comes to passe many times that such men by their unskilfull application of remedies make diseases otherwise easie to be cured to become a great deal worse Hippocrates sayes well Lib. de locis in homine If the remedies of diseases be certaine what need is there of fortune otherwise as well remedies as those that are no remedies being exhibited with fortune will doe good But some man will say that which we call fortune is none other then the providence of God which directs the Physicians remedies though he be not very learned to the health of man But that is not enough for though all things depend upon Gods blessing and are to be expected from thence yet he doth not use to worke immediately but by the use of remedies For the most high from Heaven hath created physick and he saith that an honest learned and faithfull Physician is to be honoured So that it is not usuall with him to give a blessing to naughty remedies ignorantly and unseasonably administred But on the contrary if any physician whether a good man or bad know well the nature of remedies and diseases Gods covenant with nature and administer every thing discreetly that is in due place time order and according to the rules of art a happy event is to be hoped for and God is wont to blesse such meanes in regard of the covenant which he hath made with nature Otherwise although one should mis-apply remedies if yet a happy successe were to be expected what a miracle would it be if bad meanes which naturally cannot attain to the end propounded besides the order ordained by God in nature by his immediate benediction should notwithstanding be directed to the right aime Although God can doe this when
such observatours take notice onely of one difference of the pulse to wit the swiftnesse and slownesse but there are many differences of the pulse necessarily to be considered by a physician simple compound absolute relative in one only pulsation in many All which if they were considered according to Galens minde the Ancients they would be more than two thousand differences But by us who have rejected many superfluous things there remaine more than an hundred to be observed Nor is it sufficient to know the differences onely for besides the causes of every one of them are necessary to be known that the judgement touching diseases may be infallible Againe the manner of knowing them is difficult for every difference hath its peculiar manner of knowing it which if one be ignorant of he will never finde out the pulse If many should heare onely the names of the pulses they would of their own accord abstain from touching the Arteries for like Magicall termes they are able to affright the ignorant as Pulsus arythmos ecrythmos pararythmos mejouros in unâ vel pluribus pulsationibus caprisans imparcitatus aequalis inaequaliter equaliter inequalis and many other differences there are in this place needlesse to bee rehearsed out of which wee take the knowledge and prognosticks of diseases The same may be said of Urines of which there are many differences simple compounds in colour consistence contents and their causes are likewise to bee known but things that are so difficult can scarce be dealt withall by an ignorant man or by a woman Besides they are wont to administer Cathartick and purging Remedies Now they must know it is a very easie thing to loose the belly for many both simples and compounds doe it but he alone is able to doe it according to the rules of art that is a good Artist For purges are for the most part troublesome to Nature and for that cause ought never to be administred but with great heed and discretion Moreover they are much mistaken that without making any difference if their bellies be but abundantly loosed doe applaud it while they consider not the remedy by which it is done The same likewise is to be said of other remedies whereof great store may every where be found Not the plenty of remedies but the manner of using them makes a Physician which doth suppose a Physician to be exercised in knowing diseases and that he is skilfull in the nature of bodies and method of curing which thing very many of these cannot promise of themselves nor others of them Would God also some whom the Universities have approved fell not into the same Errour and did not at a venture collect their remedies out of foolish bookes I doe not here dislike the reading of many bookes which set out unto us the wits of modern writers and of those curious Artists especially that have committed their observations unto writing But I leave all to the judgement of the learned Physician I chase from the hives the sluggish drones and doe here treat onely of some mongrell Physicians which by mens deaths make their experiments and would indeed imitate good and skilfull physicians but cannot attain to them CHAP. XVI Of them that promise an easie cure of the French Pox. THe last Chapter of this booke we will dedicate to that disease which they who are most troubled and vexed therewith doe alwaies give to others we will call it by the common name of the French Pox. A most filthy disease accompanyed with sundry and horrible symptomes concerning which divers tractates of learned Physicians are extant wherein they seeke out the time casie and ready way of curing the disease But a certaine sort of men are crept up who gives out that to be most easie which hitherto hath seemed very difficult to all Physicians and in their Tables they professe themselves to have a kinde of method whereby within ten or twelve daies they say they are able to root out this disease although inveterate nor doe they strickly observe any manner of diet but leave the sick to himselfe alone this is indeed an easie and pleasant way of curing But how is it that Physicians now adaies are thought unable to cure this disease but it is beleeved to be the proper office of Surgeons and Mountibankes when notwithstanding the right way of curing this disease hath proceeded from physicians and requires a great deale of industry as well about sudorificks as ointments suffumigations and other preservatives against the poyson of the disease The curing of which although I denie not but it may be performed by skilfull and learned Surgeons yet many unskilfull men in that art perhaps against their wills and ignorantly bring many evils upon the sick Yea I am sure I know some who being supposed to be infected with this pest have been disquieted and tormented with many Medicines who notwithstanding never had contracted any such disease for though the knowledge of the disease be not so difficult yet I certainly know that many pains of the joints head and other parts have been taken for the French pox by some unskilfull fellowes but it was a grosse mistake And here all men are to be admonished that first they beware of Whores and then that they beware of such coseners This disease not easily cured For this disease is not so easily cured and being left sticking to the body some while it doth so debilitate and corrupt the bowels that it breeds other incurable diseases as the A sort of leprie Elephantiasis I deny not but the cure of this disease in the beginning is easie enough yet such as requires the care of the Physician the obedience and patience of the sick and heedfull diligence to be had in his dyet Surely it must needs be a very light disease which any one can cure in so short a time without regarding any course of living with liberall and jocund feasting walking abroad and using other such recreations of the minde It requires a strict regiment Neverthelesse the remedies that are convenient for this disease doe not promiscuously admit or what course of living men please for it may perhaps be such as doth resist the remedies and abate their vertue Againe as in other diseases the diversitie of temperaments is to be regarded so also in this and therefore a strict choice of remedies is to be made which things if any man do not consider and weigh it is no wonder if he undoe many sick persons Wherefore he that is troubled with this disease Cautions so such as are â—ll of the â—rench pox lethim not trust himself but to a Physician that is a skilfull Artist unlesse he desire to lose both his labour and his money too which many times men both promise and bestow more freely on those knaves then on a learned and faithfull Physician But enough of this for it is not my purpose in this book to handle the manner of
curing this or any other disease but only to shew to the people their Errours that they may have alwayes recourse to a Physician if they be sick Although oftentimes greater danger is like to happen by the physician then by the disease and men presently give credit to every one that professes himself to be a Physician I who write these things for my owne part reckon not neither who nor how many they be that practise physick whether learned or unlearned even as it is with them that be sick if they doe but consult with some Physician in name only they care not what he be if he can but stammer out a little Latine and they falsly stile him Doctour of Physick though he be ignorant of the very principles of physick and never read Galen or Hippocrates POPVLAR ERROVRS The Second BOOK Of the Errours about some diseases and the knowledge of them CHAP. I. Of the deceitfull judgment of Vrines NOw is the most common Errour to bee refuted which first gave occasion to this Treatise for hee is scarce thought worthy to be a Physician who cannot by Urines judge of diseases and their circumstances which Errour even Physicians doe too patiently foster It was of old very ordinary with the Arabian sect and it was a common custome also in France in the times of Valescus and Gordonius Plantius in the life of Fernel relates that that most excellent physician was wont to look into urines that were brought from abroad unto him which abuse not withstanding he approves not but reprehends them which like Southsayers doe prophesie many things of the absent sick party Pisse-prophets by only looking upon the urine That there was very great fraud therein the bookes which Gordonius and others have set forth concerning the cautions of urines doe plainly shew wherein a Physician is taught how he may deceive the people as also take heed to himself of their subtilties Yea to this day among the Germanes this custome is in force even whether the Physicians will or no of whom many doe speak sharply against it Heurnius Foresins Sennertus and others but most excellently Fuchsius in the beginning of his chapter of urines he calls Physicians that peep into urines asses cheaters pisse-drinkers unworthy with whom good men should contend seeing they more esteeme of the gain they get by urine then of truth it selfe But now a dayes in France and Italy the Physicians have quite abandoned this foolish custome of divining by urine First urine is the whey of those humours which are in the veines Now the humours are causes of very many diseases and therefore urine will shew what humours are there But diseases are not in the veines they are all in the substance of the parts Vrine shews not diseases but their causes They will not therefore indicate the diseases but the causes of them only But from the same cause there are many diseases The burning fever frenzie jaundice every sort of erysipelas and herpes proceeds from choler If a very cholerick urine be brought can the pisse-prophet tell which of these diseases doth trouble the patient perhaps he will conjecture that choler is predominant Secondly as in diverse diseases Vrine varies every day and sick parties as we have already said the same urine may appeare so in one and the same sick man it is various and changes every day that if to day a sick mans urine bee brought to a physician and againe to morrow unlesse by some other way he know the disease he shall scarce judg it to be the urine of the same disease Yea the water is of one sort in the beginning of the paroxisme of another in the increase and of another in the height Thirdly the same water may appear in contrary diseases The same urine â—n contrâ—ry diseases even though they depend on contrary and altogether different causes As for example let the pisse-prophet resolve me If a white and clear water be brought is he well or sick that made the water A man in health having drunk much wine or beer and ale may make such urine as is dayly seen A sick man may labour of a very violent burning fever with the frensie Diabetes is when whatsoever is drunke is pissed out again even as it was drunk choller being carried up to his head he may be troubled with the Diabetes or the obstruction of the bowels or liver or with the weakness of the stomack or the stone or some other diseases but which of these diseases will he suppose it to be Will he judge the frenzie to be of a cold distemper Moreover a bilious urine may be made in phlegmatick diseases through the obstruction of the passage by which choler is carried to the intestines Fourthly diseases whose cause is not contained in the veines cannot be knowne by the urine for many diseases do not so much as alter the urine Such are externall diseases luxations roughnesse or smoothnesse of the parts yea the quartane ague it self which is an inward disease although it be an effect of the melancholy humour yet it holds forth no signes of it in urine neither in the fit nor out of the fitt Gilbertus an English man in his praxis in the chapter of the quartane ague and Richardus a very learned man as Arculanus reports in his Commentaries upon the first section of the fourth cannon of Avicenne the second tractate chap. 65. did ingenuously professe that by urines they could never know the quartane feaver not the epilepsie nor a woman to be with child O that in our times Physicians were so ingenuous and free These are the words of Arculanus that learned Physician in whose time this custome of divining by waters was very rife I doe not believe saith he that a quartane fever can be knowne by the water alone because of the great agreement of the quartan with the quotidian in urine and especially in the beginning Of which opinion chiefly was Gilbertus an English man in the first booke of his praxis in the chapter of the quartane reproving some ignorant habbling fellowes that professe themselves to know all sicknesses by urine as many Physicians in Lombardie even at this day mockers of men who as they say by urine know all diseases even the putrid feaver who neverthelesse when they are present and consider all the signes yet know but very little For as master Richard the most learned and experienced of all the learned saith looking upon these pratlers and boasters of their judgment in urine that in their much speaking are eloquent but in reason slender and mute in his most excellent treatise of urines whose singular learning to be compared with none in many things he saith he followed he blames them in these words Some prating saith he and arrogant fellowes doe exceede beyond all due bounds and interlace learning with rules invented by their owne authoritie But I call God to witnesse that neither by care nor art
I could finde by urine alone a certaine knowledge of a womans conception nor of the epilepsie nor of a quartane feaver for it is but a deceitfull and equivocall messenger Which things indeed doe very much agree with our times I have often seene that opinion which by the urine the Physician had declared to have beene changed when he saw the sicke partie and which is more many simple fellowes that impudently meddle with Physick being called to the patient by whose urine they had before fully explained the disease not onely to have changed their opinion but to become lesse able to judge at al of the disease although they had both the Patient and his urine before their faces Fiftly the urine is altered by meates drinks exercises aire sleepe washing and divers other causes and so makes the judgment to be but conjecturall therefore Avicenne after six houres others after two houres would not have an urine looked into How grosly then doe they erre that rashly judge of urines that be brought to them many miles Hence it comes to passe that many that are noe Physicians but meerly made to cheat the people doe promise more then good Physicians are able to performe Nor can I except even ministers that practise Physick who of all men should be most holy Sixthly * Galen sayes well that in urine there are noe signes that doe certainly portend the frenzy 2. proch text 2. or the affects of the head for it onely signifyes saith he the distempers of the liver kidneys and bladder but there be other signes and symptomes of the diseases of the braine Yet Actuarius saith that the diseases of the liver braine necke breast yea and of his joynts also may be discerned by urine and Hippocrates writes that when a mans urine is like to the urine of a beast it shewes a paine in the head In like manner the excrements of the whole body have recourse as Physicians say to the belly and the urine by which it may be changed thus thinne fleame falling from the head makes a frothy urine 4 aphot 73. and Hippocrates thinkes that the grievous frettings and gripings of the gutts and hypochondres may be resolved by urine But this belongs onely to prognostickes for the very gripings themselves cannot be knowne by the urine much lesse their solution But the most witty Argenterius did deservedly laugh at Actuarius for endeavouring to point out in urine the signes of diseases in the braine the breast and the joynts For though the excrements of the whole body may be evacuated by the urine yet that happens not alwaies for many parts although grievously affected doe not alter the urine at all Moreover the excrements are but the causes of diseases and not diseases themselves As for that which may be said of the headach and the frenzy Galen answers it Text 4 Sect 1. proch * where he saith that the signes of the frenzy are either those that are alwayes in the phreneticke and in them onely or which are alwaies in them but not in them onely or which are neither alwaies in them nor in them onely but sometimes are apparent and sometimes not and happen from other causes From whence it is manifest saith hee that neither in urine nor in dejections of the belly nor in spittle nor in vomits are there any signes of the Frenzy Neither doe troubled Urines nor such as have any elevation aloft nor frothy Urines alwaies betoken the aforesaid affects but doe likewise proceed from other causes and if at any time they declare any of these they doe it with other signes for the aforesaid affects may bee without such Urines From whence it may bee concluded that those signes which doe not alwaies accompany a disease nor yet folely cannot indicate any disease but such are urines For Galen teaches that they by chance may betoken a frensie because they iddicate a windy blood but not by themselves and properly Therefore saith he in the afore cited place what hath been said of Urines makes nothing to a judgement of the Frensie yet they doe conduce to the discerning whether the sick bee in any great danger or no. And therefore in all diseases it is not amisse to consider the Urine that the danger may be discerned Galen teaches in many places that the excrements are signes of the parts affected and of the disease as that the dejections are signs of the belly the spirtle of the breast snot of the brain and the urine of the liver and veines to wit that they are signes of the concoction which is made in those parts but seldome of the diseases themselves Therefore Urine cannot shew forth all diseases as for example the Plurisie is known by a paine of the side a Feaver a hard Pulse difficultie of breathing and cough without the urine and spittle for if these come likewise they shew the cause and prognosticks of the disease already known by other signes For though the Plurisie and Frensie cannot be knowne by urine yet if the urine appear very much changed it is an ill signe for it hetokens a distemperature not onely of the vitall and animall but of the naturall parts also And when many parts are out of frame the sick lies in so much the more danger Moreover sometimes the Urine shewes whether the disease be joyned with a Feaver or no for Galen teaches that in the affects of the belly 2. De Cris cap. 7. if they be without a Feaver only the excrements of the belly are to be looked into but if with a Feaver then the urine likewise not that wee may know the disease it selfe but that we may the better judge what will be the issue of the disease already known CHAP. II. That the sexe and being with childe cannot be discerned by Vrine whereof a certaine story THey that bring Urines to Physicians doe often aske them whether it be a mans or womans water and whether the woman be with childe or no. It is admirable to see how cunningly some in this case deale with the people But that neither the sex nor graviditie can bee discerned I will demonstrate For although the Urine of a young man and an old man of a man and a woman be different each from other yet that is onely in colour and consistence which seeing they may bee changed by divers other causes it will not properly shew whether it be a mans or a womans for a cholerick woman after exercise and the use of hot meats will make higher coloured urine than a flegmatick man Moreover she which hath a Feaver or some other disease without doubt changes her urine according to the nature of the disease How shall he therefore that lookes into an urine discerne the Sex when he knowes not the temperature of them that made the urine Therefore if a healthfull man be compared with a healthfull woman a cholerick man with a cholerick woman and a sick man with a sick woman
danger CHAP. VI. Of the Consumption BEcause in this Country the Consumption is an evill so ordinary and tremblable we will speak something thereof seeing of many it is not well understood Every pining of the body not a consumption for the people under that name doth comprehend every pining away of the body It is therefore to bee noted that if wee retaine the generall signification of the word there is almost no disease which a Consumption may not succeed But indeed the people doe erre when they speak of the Consumption as of a disease different from others For it is not a disease but an accident following many other diseases especially if they be long For seeing that the substance of our bodies doth daily decay unlesse it be repaired with food if the strength of naturall heat and of the parts ordained for concoction be impaired by diseases the body cannot be well nourished and therefore necessarily the bulke thereof doth pine away So that such Consumption doth happen First from externall causes Severall causes of a consumption as a hot aire want cares troubles watchings too much evacuation and other emptying causes Secondly it happens through a decay by reason of age in the Marasmus of old age for naturall heat is weakened in old men and radicall moysture is spent the losse whereof is irrecoverable Thirdly leannesse of body is naturall to some as in hot and dry bodies which are easily made lean by causes that are of a dissolving faculty and such bodies live longer than grosse bodies They that are grosse by nature 2 Aph. 44. doe sooner die than they that be slender Which is to be understood of them that are very grosse whose veines are small and blood little Fourthly it followes burning Feavers which doe by their heat wast their alimentary humours and the substance of the body Hippocrates writes They that die of a burning Feaver Lib. 1. de morbis doe all die through drinesse the extremities of the body as the hands and the feet are first dryed up and then the dryer parts And some Authours report that all the blood hath been consumed Cap. 2. lib. ad Glaâ—â—â— as * Argenterius writes of Mutius Medices Captain of the Castle of Pisa in whose dead body not one droppe of blood was found And though the sick dye not yet it is usuall for the body to consume away in a violent feaver whereupon it is called a hot and dry passion and therefore Hippocrates prescribes a moystning diet in the sixteenth Aphorisme of his first book that it may hinder that drying which the feaver causes Hither also ought to be referred those feavers which are melting feavers Fifthly it may follow the affects of the spleen and tumours of the same Febres syntectica Hippocrates in his booke de locis in homine and * Galen and * Averrhoes doe affirme Gol. 2. de facul nat cap. ult Averrh 4. Colliget 56. that when the spleen growes the whole body decayes therefore the Emperour did compare the spleen to the Kings excheques for as the Kings exchequer sucks up the wealth of the people so doth the spleen the substance of the body The same might be said concerning the liver and other the inward parts whose evill affects doe consume the body The dropsie * The watry dropsy ascites or * The tympany or windy dropsy tympanites doth often succeed a hard spleen in which maladie it is usuall to see the belly swolne when not withstanding the upper parts doe very much pine away through penury of good blood and it doth much resemble a consumption thus I have seene dropsick persons whom the people have thought to be in a consumption and indeed one disease doth easily bring in another for as we have said the pining and wasting of the body is not a disease of its owne kind but an accident proceeding from very many both externall and internall causes Therefore every wasting of the body ought not to be called a consumption But coming closer to the businesse we affirme Sixthly that a consumption is properly taken for a hecticke feaver Hecticke feaver is a consumption properly in which the substance of the body is wasted by little and little and insensibly for in this feaver the heat at the first approach seemes to be milde and gentle afterward it is sharpe and biting the sick perceives neither a feaver nor any other malady and yet he feeles his strength decay by little and little Seventhly that word consumption doth agree with * A disease when the stomacke receives meat and yet the body is not nourished Atrophia which likewise is the consequent of many diseases and in generall also by Atrophie any wasting of the body may be understood But now properly it is when the body pines away neither for want of foode nor by immoderate evacuation nor by reason of any other evident causes nor by an acute disease nor by a hecticke feaver nor by the ulcer of the lungs but when softly and by degrees the body is not nourished though it take foode either because the nourishment is badly attracted or badly retained or badly concocted or lastly the superfluities of of it not well expelled The causes of an Atrophie although many that have written of Atrophie have produced all the causes of leannesse in the body Eighthly and lastly by the name of Consumption most properly ought to be understood Phthisis Phthisis is most properly called a consumption hard to be cur'd which is an ulcer of the lungs consuming the substance of the body with a gentle continuall feaver It is a disease much to be bewailed and hard to be cured yea perhaps impossible for three causes alledged by Galen First because an ulcer is cured by the voiding out of the matter now it is voided out by coughing and the ulcer is made larger through a cough Secondly because the vertue of remedies reaches scarce to the lungs but being much weakned for their vertue perishes in the stomach liver hollow veine and other passages Thirdly because to the cure of an Ulcer there is need of rest but it is necessary that the lungs do alwayes move Adde also that to the ulcer there is joyned a fever which requires cooling and moystning but the ulcer drying remedies for the cure of every ulcer is drying Besides it is to be noted that this disease is contagious as * Hipp. 3. Epid. Hippocrates * Gal 1 de diff feb cap. 2. Galen and other Authors have observed and that augments the danger Now that the people may not be too much deceived they must know that this disease is not so much to be feared in children and old men Old men and children not subject to the consumption of the lungs for according to the rule of Hippocrates in the ninth Aphorisme of his fifth book The consumption of the lungs is especially in those ages which are from
That blood retained because for the smalnesse of the young one in the beginning of her graviditie it is not at all spent for the nourishment thereof doth putrifie and hath recourse either to the noble parts or at least annoyes them with filthy vapours which it sends forth from whence arise the aforesaid symptomes in the stomach intrailes belly head and the whole body as vomiting loathing of meat unsatiable longing and lusting gripings dizzinesse of the head and such like Seeing therefore the husband hath not in him the causes of these affects but his wife onely it stands with reason that shee onely should be sick Nor if any husband be sick when his wife is with childe was hee infected by his wife for that distemper may happen through some peculiar fault of his owne body As while I write this it raines yet neither is my writing the cause of the raine nor the raine of my writing It is no new thing for husbands and their wives to bee both sick together But it is a wonder and heretofore a thing unknown that graviditie or a womans being with childe is a contagious disease and that not other women but men only whom nature hath freed from this travaile should be infected therewith Furthermore it is observed that the same symptomes do not happen to all women or at least not all to every one and yet it often falls out that when the woman is in good health the husband is sick yea sometimes being many miles off But if he endure that by his wives being with childe how comes it to passe that she continues well at the same time For naturall causes doe sooner worke upon the near than upon the remote subject And for that cause seeing the woman carries about her such noxious humours she should be sooner and more grievously sick I know something might be said of simpathy antipathy contagion fascination and other such trifles But if these things be so why do not maids and widows who are very often troubled with the like symptomes through suppression of their flowers infect their bedfellows and familiars seeing there is the same cause and without doubt they may have a sympathy with some of them To cause a contagion not only the efficacie of the agent but also a disposition and analogy in the patient is requisite But who believes not that another woman is more prone to receive and take the symptomes of gravidity than a man seeing they were all created for propagation of children and therefore one woman ought to take great heed to her self of another Moreover it may happen that a woman that is sore troubled with the green sicknesse as they call it is married to a man whom notwithstanding although her flowers be suppressed she shall never infect why then when the same woman is with childe and there is no other reason of sickness then suppression of the flowers shall her husband be sick Men would be in an ill case if as often as there were a suppression of their wives flowers so often they not their wives should bee sick But because by the very relating of it the absurdity of this errour doth appeare I will adde no more Iupiter bore Bacchus in his thigh and Pallas in his brain but let this be proper to him alone CHAP. XIIII Whether forraine Physicians and Aliens can know the temper of the sick of another Countrey TO know the temperature of the sick conduces much to the knowledge of diseases and their cure and this businesse requires a long and difficult handling I will onely say thus much that some are of opinion that Strangers cannot know the temperature of them of another Country as French men of the English But that is repugnant to the nature of the Art of Physick the precepts whereof are generall The precepts of Physick are generall and may easily be applyed to any Country For every art is of universals not of particulars therefore here in England all that are skilfull Artists doe practise Physick according to the precepts of Galen and Hippocrates which if any man doe well understand he is able to discerne the diversitie of men according to their ages countries and the different temper of the aire and what medicaments are convenient for them Concerning which Hippocrates hath written an excellent book of aire waters and places For the Art of Physick wheresoever it is taught doth lay downe marks and signes which are taken from Countries both for the knowledge and prognostication of diseases and indications which the diversitie of Countries doth afford for the appointment of a right diet letting of bloud prescribing of purges and administring of all other remedies Otherwise it were no Art if it should accommodate its precepts to some particular place only Galen who was borne and brought up in Greece practised Physick at Rome Hence 3 prognost Hippocrates saith that his documents may be applyed to any Country either hot or cold to Lybia Delos Scythia and the rest Also the Arabians have borrowed from the Greeks their precepts of curing which are the very same with the Galenists which we promiscuously follow Therefore it was wisely ordered by the Spaniards and Portugals that in India where they beare rule Physick should be practised after the self same manner that it is in Europe according to the doctrine of Galen and Hippocrates I know much might be said of that variety of temperature which Countries doe give to the inhabitants for even in one and the same Kingdome there is a great diversitie of inhabitants in respect of the divers situation of the Countryes nature of the soyle blowing of the wind and other causes for the diligent search of all which the Art of Physick layes down rules And yet whatsoever the Climate and Country be even in the most Northern Climates there are men of every temper hot cold cholerick flegmatick sanguine melancholick One that without license practised Physick a Surgeon by profession that he might doe me a displeasure was often wont to say that Frenchmen cannot understand the nature and constitution of the English I once asked him what was that constitution of an Englishman wherein he differs from a Frenchman by what signes he could know it seeing that in every place are men of every temperature which things seeing they cannot be knowne but of a learned Physician it is no wonder if every simple medicine-monger be ignorant of them For it is a thing exceeding hard to be known Therfore Galen said that if he could but perfectly know the temperature of his Patients he should be another Aesculapius I will now only adde thus much that what is talked by the vulgar concerning the temperature of divers people is well understood but of few for all men have their proper temperaments differing from others ingendred in them from the principles of generation they cannot therefore have any thing common in which all men can agree That same therefore is onely a certain
is to be preferred before better but lesse pleasing where he doth not grant corrupt meats but onely such as are a little worse so that the sick bee very much delighted therewith and prefers them before such meats as the sick doth utterly abhorre which are never to be given to the sick Thus Galen did yeeld to some that were sick of Feavers to taste simits 1. ad Glavcon As therefore I doe not approve of too austere Physicians Too much indulgence in a physician not good yet they that be too indulgent are worse such in times past was Asclepiades at Rome who granted to the sick bathes wine flesh and whatsoever was liked and wished for by the sick and so with a wonderfull craft he drew unto him the mindes of men doubtlesse not without the apparent danger of many From what hath been already said another errour is conspicuous for in Agues when the sick are cold all over their body they give them drink both actually hot and very heating that they may drive away the cold fit which is contrary to the judgement of Hippocrates 1. Acut. and of the ancient and moderne Physicians who forbid to administer any thing in the fits and perswade rather to lessen the quantity of their meat and drink Hence Hippocrates commands when the feet are cold to abstain both from supping meats drink for drink especially if it be hot is soon corrupted and exasperates the aguish heat therefore in the beginning it is best to give nothing at all but when the heat hath descended to the feet as the same Hippocrates saith something may be given but it must be such as is not hurtfull for the disease as those hot drinkes usually are CHAP. VII Of the drinke called a Posset IT is an ordinary thing to preseribe for the sick a Posset to drink now it is made of curded milk which I doe not disallow in that it hath the vertue of whey which is opening But I will here only note some abuses First that sometimes the milk is coagulated with strong Ale or Wine either French or Spanish and then as it may indeed fitly profitably and delightfully be given to the healthfull so it hurts them that be sick of Feavers and of any cholerick disease for it hearts the body increaseth the causes of Feavers inflames the Liver by reason of its sweetnesse and penetrating quality troubles the head and causes the same evils which the drinking of wine is said to bring upon them that are sick of Feavers Secondly this drinke is alwaies administred hot to the sick whereas cold drinkes are more pleasant and more profitable to them that are sick of Feavers for it is not so fitting to give to them that bee thirsty hot and heating drinkes and therefore Galen prescribes cold water to temper the heat As therefore in some diseases I doe not dislike this drink so in acute and cholerick Feavers especially I think it not fit But if at any time the by-standers would administer it to such as are in Feavers or the sick themselves desire it let the boyling milke be coagulated either with the juice of Lemons or a little vinegar adding thereto a little sugar taken take away the curd and so there remains the whey alone mixt with the acide juices an excellent remedie to coole Feavers and to open obstructions As for the healthfull they may use it prepared any way even as they please Also if the milk be curdled with thinne beere or small ale it will not hurt the sick for it is of a cooling and opening quality and may doe very much good to the body for small beere is of the same vertue with barley water which Avicenne and others doe highly commend I finde in Dioscorides a darke manner of making a Posset Dioscorides his way of making Possers under the name of Lac Scissile The milk saith he must be boyled in a new earthen pot and stirred with a green figge-tree branch and after it have boyled up twice or thrice so many cups of vinegar mixt with honey must be put to it as there are pints of milk and so the whey is separated from that which is congealed into curd Although now adayes so much art bee not used yet the manner of preparing it is the same for first the milk boyles up once or twice then by powring thereinto Wine or Ale there is made a separation of the whey from the thicker substance Lib. 1. cap. 88. Cap. 96. lib. 2. tetrab 1. and Dioscorides approves of this kind of drink to whom assents * Paulus Aegineta and * Aetius But more plainely Galen makes mention of a whey made with Oxymel which he commends for those that are in Feavers to purge choler and loosen the belly Com. 4 de tict cat in acut and he teaches the forme of making it It were therefore better if in imitation of Dioscorides Galen and the Ancients our possets which are at this day so common a drink in England were made with acide juices or oxymel for so they would bee more convenient for Feavers and cholerick diseases CHAP. VIII That the decoction and broth of an old Cock is not well prescribed for nourishing of the sick IT is confessed of all that meats that are easie to be concocted and of good juice and quickly nourishing should be prescribed for the sick and therefore very well are gellies and restorative broths made for them But many times the flesh of which they make these broths is not so fit and proper Among others its ordinary to make these sorts of broths of the flesh of an old and fat Cock This practise hath drawn its originall from the counsels of Physicians misunderstood among whom the decoction of an old Cock is in singular esteem Of this did Dioscorides a very ancient writer make mention and it is also in frequent use among our moderne writers in Physick but not to nutrifie forasmuch as all old flesh is of hard digestion and makes thick chyle and and yeelds but little good and alimentary luice and therefore it is in no wise convenient for the sick to whom nothing ought to be given but that which is * easie of digestion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and which * yeelds good juice Lib. 2. cap. 43. Diosâ—oâ—ides teacheth that for saith he Broth made of an old cock loosens the belly drawes down grosse and raw humours black choler and excrements is good for long feavers sighings the diseases of the joints and winde of the stomach and hee teaches the manner of preparing it and Galen in his 11. Simpl. saith that Hen-broth hath the vertue of binding the belly as that of old Cocks hath the force of loosing where likewise by the way take notice Hens broth not good in purges that the broth of a Henne is not to be administred to them that have taken a Purge before compleat evacuation for although it doth nourish yet it staies the belly
things which they can no where make to appeare CHAP. X. That milk mixt with water is good for those that are in consumptions BEcause among the remedies for those that are in a consumption of which we have spoken in the precedent Chapter milk doth not challenge the last but the chiefest place we will speake something of it it being for this purpose much better than gold for it nourisheth refrigerateth and confolidateth ulcers and it is profitable for many other things Yet in administring it divers eautions are to bee observed Cautions in using of milk which the Physician ought to consider lest he doe more harme than good for it is soone corrupted in the stomack For sometimes it turnes into a nidorous and burning savour sometimes it growes tart and sowre or curdles in the stomack When it becomes tart and sowre a little honey or sugar may be boyled in it for the coldnesse of the stomack is the cause of the tartnesse but if it turne into a burning savour it is corrupted through heat and then it is good to put thereto a good deale of water But the people like not this mixture Yet most excellent Physicians have allowed of it for it moderates the heat hurts not the milk it selfe and is good for hecticks and such as are in a consumption in respect of its cooling and moystning especially if it be Cows milk which at this day is most ordinary of all 7 Epid. Hippocrates ministers Cowes milk with a sixth part of water both because this milk is by its owne nature somewhat thick and also because it quickly turns into a burning savour 5 Epid. tex 56. And he tels a story of Pythocles who ministred to the sick milk mingled with much water 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And there is the same reason why Avicenne and others doe prescribe butter-Milke because it is more watery and so doth refrigerate more So Galen commends Asses Milke because it is very thinne full of whey and hath very little curd therefore it is most fit to amend drinesse and to temper heate But if such milk cannot be gotten it will not be amisse to bring Cowes milk to the temper and consistence of Asses milke which a mixture of water doth most fitly performe This not onely the Ancients but the moderne Writers doe observe Gordondus Ioubertus Hollerius and others Hollerius in his chapter of Phthisis and the Hectick saith If belching doe * savour of burning Nidorous a little water must beboyled with the milk Which counsell if many would follow they should perceive more benefit from the use of Milk than they usually do CHAP. XI That the common proverbe is false Milke must be washed from the Liver BEcause this so familiar and ordinary Proverbe is not of any great moment we will speake but little of it Many when they eat Milk do presently drink Beere or Wine and say that Milk must be washed off the Liver For which saying there is no reason for then the Milk is not yet come to the Liver but is contained still in the stomach and therefore there is no sence why it should be washed off the Liver But they must rather stay three or foure houres after the taking of the Milk for then is the first concoction of the stomach finished and the milk is in the Liver that it may be turned into blood Secondly no reason enforces why milk should be washed from the Liver rather than other meats for there is the same reason of all meats which necessity urges to be contained in the Liver that they may be changed into blood Thirdly it is sure that by this meanes the Milk is curdled in the Stomach The evill effects of curdled milk and so is afterward more easily corrupted more slowly concocted and burdens the stomach for Milk curdled in the Stomach is reckoned among poysons and I knew a man that by this meanes dyed suddenly Let them therefore observe it that use to eat milk that they doe not unadvisedly drinke Wine or other liquours that dissolve milk seeing that by the use of them milk is soon corrupted in the stomach waxes sowre and becomes hurtfull CHAP. XII That strong Beere or Ale should not be drunk in the morning fasting THis is the most usuall custome of all that in the morning after they are risen they must have their morning draughts of strong Beer or Ale and sometimes of Wine I know that by very many Physicians that custome of drinking in the morning any sort of drinke whatsoever it be is by no means approved because that moystning doth dissolve the strength of the stomach loosen and debilitate it so as that the body becomes afterward more replete with crudities But I am not of their minde at all for a mornings draught so that it be not of strong drink helps forward the distribution of the meat Small beer best for morning draughts purges the stomach and as they say well cleanses it tempers naturall heat moystens the body and which I think most true hinders the generation of the stone for it tempers and moystens the Kidneyes as many of our ancient and moderne Writers prescribe broths of Butter Mallowes and other such things for to temper the Kidneyes why not by the like reason small Beere which doth coole moysten and is diuretick But yet singular heed is to be taken that in the morning while the stomach is empty The evill effects of strong drink in the mornings strong Ale or other such drinkes be not powred in for they hurt the nervous parts from whence the Gout paine of the joints inflammations of the bowels and other grievous diseases may arise for by reason of their subtiltie and great force of spirits these drinkes do insinuate themselves into the nervous parts insomuch as they are usually troubled with paine of the joints that are eagerly delighted with such drinks and therefore advisedly is wine forbidden them that are Gouty Neverthelesse the diversitie of natures is to bee considered here for they that are of a temperament somewhat moyst because they need but little drinke ought not to drink in the morning fasting But they that are of a dry constitution both may and ought to drink fasting but not strong drinks for by them the nervous parts are sooner offended and dried Galen confirms this in his Comment upon the 21. Aph. lib. 2. where he saith that if before the use of meats any man use a liberall drinking of Wine hee is very much troubled with Convulsions and taken with Frensies and in his Comment upon the 20. Aphorisme lib. 6. Among the causes why so many are vexed with the Gout and paine of the joints he reckons this that they drink strong drinks before meat for they do very soon offend the substance of the nerves as doth carnall copulation Also Plutarch in his Symposiacks disputing whether new diseases may breed or no produces this as a cause of new diseases that they
familiar use in England but is used by other Nations as the onely and most convenient food for children After the fore-teeth are come forth let the childe by little and little be accustomed to chewing and use flesh minced very small and bread which with a little chewing it may swallow easily downe Note Here note also that when infants begin to be accustomed to meats it is very good for one houre to abstaine from sucking of the breast lest the milke being mixed in the stomach with the other meats and too long kept there be corrupted Many Authours doe observe that children are scarce ever troubled with wormes while they use Milke alone which yet I doe not beleeve to bee alwaies true CHAP. XVIII That a man may drinke liberally for health sakes I doe not desire here to bee thought a Patrone of Drunkennesse being a vice which I hate exceedingly I commend and approve of Sobrietie as a Vertue beseeming a man For I know how many evils drunkennesse doth bring upon the body and minde Nor doe I like the custome of some of the Ancients who thought it wholesome for the body to be drunke once a moneth I will onely intimate thus much that there are some cases in which it is very profitable according to the opinion of Physicians for a man to drinke wine liberally As for that ordinary drunkennesse which is too familiar with many although it bee commended by the Ancients to wit the Grecians who loved drinking and fuddling it is very dangerous and not undeservedly reckoned among the causes of diseases Concerning that we speak not in this place but of the extraordinary use of Wine profitable for the curing of diseases 1. Probl. c. 2. Aristotle demands the reason why diseases are cured through excessive drinking and in the cited place he gives the answer whereupon many thinke and write that a Quartane may be cured by drinking of wine which thing experience sometimes confirmes because the causes of diseases and their remedies are contrary to one another hence it comes to passe that by the excesse of one another may be reduced to a temper Moreover Amatus the Portugall gives the reason because nature is stirred up to cast out the matter already concocted by vomit sweat or siege Furthermore Hippocrates writes Aph. 21. lib. 2. that a Dog-like appetite is cured by the drinking of Wine He call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which word is signified sometimes the onely drinking of strong Wines as also a liberall drinking of them even to entoxication and Galen in his Commentaries writes that hee hath cured that disease by the liberall pouring in of Wine and they will have this word to bee derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pectus because the breast is made hot with wine liberally taken as the valour of great Cato is said to have been enflamed by wine They are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that have drunk largely and yet are not drunk but have their memory reason and ability of discerning still free Clemens Alexandrinus allows wine to Christian old men 2 Paedag. so as they doe not exceed the bounds of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore Hippocrates in the aforenamed Aphorisme prescribes a somewhat liberall drinking of strong and pure Wine because by its heating it cures hunger proceeding from a cold cause and refreshes the spirits and revives the strength And in another place hee writes the very same thing of the Strangury The liberall drinking of Wine Lib. 7. aph 48. and letting of blood cures the Strangury and difficultie of pissing to wit when it is generated of windinesse or a cold distemper or of some obstruction And in many places hee commends a liberall drinking of wine for divers diseases Lib. 1. cap. 95. Paulus Aegineta allows it because it provokes urine and sweat Object But the morall Philosopher will object this is contrary to good manners Solut. and against Christian Lawes I answer I doe not here goe about to plead for drunkennesse which if it ensue that will bee by accident in respect of the nature of the partie that drinks it For if to two patients both sick of the same disease a Physician prescribe a pinte of Wine perhaps one of them will be drunk the other not for the intoxication followes by accident in respect of the Physician seeing that some men are inebriated at the first or second draught others not but with many reiterated Therefore the Physician doth not command drunkennesse although sometimes he perswade to a liberall drinking of wine Moreover it is the part of the same Artist to prescribe the remedie and its quantitie but if the remedie may lawfully and without sinne bee used the quantitie also may be used without sinne otherwise the remedie would be in vaine and unprofitable Lastly hee that doth use such a remedie not with a lust to sin or for pleasure but for his healths sake only doth scarce seem to have committed â—asin CHAP. XIX That red cloths are not to bee preferred before others for the voyding of the measils THat in the measils and small pox the endeavour of nature purging out the humours into the habit of the body is to be assisted it is manifest by the verdict of Physicians and seeing that Nature it self teaches it therefore every one even the most ignorant among the people knows it And therefore the ambient cold is diligently to bee avoided lest the noxious humour return back again from the habit of the body to the inward parts Wherefore many doe use to cover the sick with red cloaths for they are thought by the affinitie of the colour to draw the blood out to them or at least some suppose that it is done by force of imagination And not onely the people but also very many Physicians use them But that colour of the cloath seemes to me to be superstitious for the colour operates not unlesse it be by accident as it moves the sight and phantasie which afterwards being set a worke by the likenesse of the colour drives the blood to the extreame parts But so it would suffice to lay the colour before his eyes for when they adhere to the body and in the night and under the bed-cloathes they are not seen Secondly the cloathes doe not draw out the humours except as they heat the body open the pores and keep out the externall aire which things not only red cloathes but all cloathes of what colour soever may doe but white best of all Thirdly Amatus the Portugall Valetius and others that according to the custome of the vulgar doe approve of red cloaths doe yet straitly charge that they touch not the body because they have in them a certaine astringent quality from the tincture and mixture of allome And therefore although I doe not altogether disallow them yet I thinke it a vaine thing to regard the difference of colours Yea rather I would commend the whitest White
colour preferred before red because that colour doth dissipate the sight and call forth the spirits to the externall parts and so by consequence further the springing forth of the humours into the skin CHAP. XX. That they erre who thinke to drive away a disease beginning by labour IT is the custome of many when they feele themselves begin to besick to labour to shake off the disease by walking exercises and labours following herein the old saying Tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito Unto diseases give no way Be bold and let them beare no sway And somtimes it succeeds well to them not alwayes except the cause of the disease be very light For exercise is troublesome and hurtfull to the sick in regard of the agitation of the morbous humours thereby Prodicus was wont to molest those that were in feavers with much walking abroad coursing about wrestling and dry fomentations but he is blamed by Hippocrates 6 epid sect 3. text 23. because saith he a feaver is exasperated by hunger wrestling walking abroad coursing and frictions for from thence did happen a rednesse of the veines palenesse of the face and some gentle paines of the sides This custome of walking to and fro in diseases Plato attributes to Herodicus in the beginning of Phaedrus So Asclepiades in the beginning of a burning feaver would have the Patient to use violent exercise but he is blamed by Celsus He thought saith he that the strength of the sick was to be disquieted with labour light lib. 2. cap. 4. 15. watching and vehement thirstinesse so as that for some few dayes in the beginning of the feaver he would not suffer their mouthes to be washed It is not therefore alwaies safe to strive against the disease with such violent exercises for many times the Patient becomes farre worse after them than the was before POPVLAR ERROVRS The Fourth BOOK Of the Errours of the People about the use of Remedies CHAP. I. Of them that despise those Remedies that are Chymically prepared THE principall part of Physick concernes the use of remedies for it is an Art ordained for the vanquishing of diseases Now diseases are vanquished by the proper and right administration of remedies Therefore in this Book we will take notice of certaine errours of the people about the administration and use of remedies And first the opinion of men concerning remedies is two fold A twofold errour Some do neglect and greatly feare to use any remedies that are chymioally prepared Others on the contrary doe extoll them beyond measure but those of Galens method as they call them to wit which are prepared after the vulgar and long since received manner they basely account of and contemne We will say something of them both but they are wise that keep a meane Medium tenuere beati And as almost all the errours which are rife among the people have heretofore at first proceeded from Physicians whose meanings the people have not well understood so this also among the rest Wherefore something is to bee said of the aforesaid errours Chymicall remedies not to be rejected Now in this Chapter I will plainly manifest that chymicall remedies ought not to be neglected being administred by a prudent Physician and an honest man As touching this manner of preparing medicaments it was not invented by Paracelsus as we have already said Chymistry not invented by Paracelsus but was practised many ages before Paracelsus was borne even by those Physicians which followed Galens method as Raimundus Lullius Villanovanus and many others who have left behinde them for us some excellent remedies chymically prepared And after Paracelsus his time many learned Physicians judiciously distinguishing the chymicall preparation of remedies from the doctrine of Paracelsus have followed that and disallowed this Fernel the chief of the modern Physicians did frequently practise that art Matthiolus used the spirit of vitriol and antimonie prepared chymically and in his Epistle to Andrew de Blaw being the last of his fourth book of Epistles he doth not only approve of this art and commend the admirable operations of it but he thinks that no man can be an absolute Physician The knowledg of it necessary for a Physician no not an indifferent one who is not of good experience in this most noble science Crato a Physician to 3 Emperours in his counsels set forth by Scholtzius doth highly commend chymicall remedies and professes that he himselfe used them Yea Erastus himselfe the great Antagonist of the Paracelsian Sect in the preface of his works against Paracelsus confesses that he doth not implead or dislike this chymicall preparation of remedies but commends and approves of it very much Ioannes Riolanus a most excellent Interpreter of Physick whiles that at the appointment of the Colledge at Paris he had abolished all the deceitfull figments of the Paracelsians writes that this Colledge wherein are the most excellent Physicians of Europe doth leave free the use of Chymicks so as the old manner of curing according to the precepts of Galen and Hippocrates remaine in force Indeed that art in Galens time was not practised nor knowne Chymistry not known in Galens time neverthelesse it is not therefore to bee rejected For it hath been and ever will be free for posterity to adde something for use and ornament to an art already well established Thus we use many remedies which our ancestors were ignorant of as Sene Rubarb Cassia Tamarinds and other things far better than peplium coloquintida and the like Moreover the Rudiments of the chymicall art do appeare even in the vulgar preparation of medicaments Now according to them all remedies are prepared either by addition detraction or immutation for either the matter of the medicaments is required or else the faculty and vertue separate from the matter the matter in thickning astringent and drying remedies but the vertue alone in attenuating dissolving and purging medicines because the grosseness of the matter hinders their efficacie For this intention Mesues makes 4 kinds of operation decoction dissolution infusion trituration or grinding to powder What is infusion but an extract begun What is decoction especially roasting with fire but the beginning of calcination But in this manner of separation which they so much wished for and the Ancients accounted so necessary the chymicall Art doth excell for by divers wayes it severs the pure from the impure and so extracts and stirs up the divers vertues of medicaments which otherwise had been hid under the grosse matter and could never have been drawn out by naturall heat as especially may be seen in minerals Besides it concocts and attenuates the earthly parts alters or else quite takes away the malignant venemous and corrupt qualities and increases the vertues for there is more vertue and efficacie in cinnamon water against the Syncope and other diseases than in whole cinnamon The same may be said of distilled and extracted oyles the oyle of
they alter our body for as we have said forcible remedies must bee applyed to extreame diseases hence sometimes it comes to passe that some Empyricks through their adventurous rashnesse do cure diseases that are given over by others to the disgrace of Physicians If therefore the Ancients without scruple or doubt did use them whole how fortunate are our times in which we are wont so curiously to prepare and dissolve them so as they may by our heat be more easily brought into action although to confesse the truth there are many of them which doe not require any great labour to reduce them into action as the flower of brasse whole as the Ancients did prescribe it though unaltered by our heat doth neverthelesse purge vehemently Avicenne when he makes Gold a meane betwixt Silver and the Hyacinth attributes to them the vertue of corroborating and cheering the heart and of resisting poyson which vertues saith he doe flow from the Hyacinth as the power of drawing Iron from the Loadstone and cannot be dissolved and overcome by our heat as vegetables are for that saith hee the substance thereof doth not endure but onely naturall heate helps forward the penetrating quality thereof Therefore according to the judgement ef Avicenne it doth not appeare that the Hyacinth or Gold or Silver are reduced into action or that they are changed and dissolved by our heat Also there are many such things which do help by contact alone as Galen commends Peione hung about the neck and Monardes the stone of Kidneyes bound to the arme which help onely by the diffusion of their quality like light and many such things have been observed by divers which would bee too tedious to rehearse Moreover not onely Minerals but also some vegetables are poysonous which neverthelesse are profitably administred at least in such a dose Mineral's may bee taken inwardly as nature is able to resist Seeing then it is manifest that Mineralls are prepared by Chymists and that the oyles quintessences and tinctures of them are extracted it is also as true and manifest that they may profitably and without danger bee conquered by our heate and taken inwardly CHAP. III. Of them that attribute too much to Chymicall Remedies ALthough I have already in the generall allowed and approved the Chymicall preparation of remedies yet we must know that not all remedies prepared chymically are good and wholsome for many questionlesse are badly prepared which perhaps required another kind of preparation it will not therefore bee amisse to endeavour to repell and root out that selfe-love through which they extoll their owne medicines with innumerable commendations and preferre them before all others For they are not sparing in promising great things going about to perswade us that they will work miracles and they forcibly obtrude remedies on us which if they may be credited are good for all sorts of feavers and doe cure divers kinds of diseases which even contrary causes have produced Which of them doth not highly commend the dissolving of gold Aurum potabile a deceit which they call Anrum potabile teach extoll and admire the divers wayes of making it Verily if all the wayes of preparing this one remedy were written downe together it would make a large and full volume and yet they are all fabulous and meere deceits neverthelesse for all this they doe audaciously and impudently brag of the efficacie of that not yet invented remedy The same may be said of other remedies much more easie for they set forth many things for tinctures oyles salt and the like which are nothing lesse then what they avouch them to be as might bee manifested of many things in particular but so this tractate would be too long and tedious Neverthelesse let us heare their reasons which we have touched in the first chapter we will here briefly repeat them The vulgar or common Medicines say they are usually poysonous as are almost all Catharticks or purging remedies and very many altering medicines as saffron hemlock coriander if they be taken in too great a quantity But the Chymicall are altogether free from any poysonous quality and from all impurity which may weaken the force of the remedies whereas in the vulgar this same impurity doth remaine which is no more amended by the mixture of other things then if birds should be boyled with their nests guts dung and all only a little cinnamon and sugar added thereunto So pils electuaries lozenges opiats have in them as well hurtfull as profitable qualities wherefore they cannot commodiously bee brought into action by our heat But in chymicall remedies the noxious qualities are severed from the wholsome and so they are more easily brought into action and are of greater efficacie and certainty Honey and sugar which are ingredients in divers remedies because they are of quick spirits and abound with sharp and filthy vapours are ill mixed therewith In like manner they like not decoction because thereby many of the vertues are lost the remedies become of an unpleasant rellish and the efficacie is dulled by the mixture of a strange liquor Thus they commend their own remedies for their purity safety efficacie pleasant rellish and small dose And indeed this is true in the preparation of many of them especially minerals yet not alwayes in all And First they falsly suppose that they have all some venomous quality in them for they doe ill to call that poyson which is only somewhat gross in substance For there is scarce any mixt body which is not heterogeneall and consists not of divers parts every one of which severally have in them divers wholsome and profitable vertues as the chymicall resolution it selfe doth demonstrate We must confesse that many things that are poysonous are by the chymicall art made harmlesse But forthwith to call that hurtfull and poysonous which is or seemes to bee lesse pure is too much rashnesse seeing that the mixture of divers parts is not made without the speciall providence of nature This doe meats and drinks shew in which God hath not without cause mingled the wholsome part with the unwholsome for the good of mans body Do not we more commodiously use wine than the spirit of wine the ordinary drinking of which doth rather harm than good whereas wine it self doth yield a profitable pleasant and comfortable drink to the body Therefore one said well they that doe so much dislike the earthy parts should be nourished with nothing but spirits as the spirit of wine oyle of corne and extracts of flesh Not that I deny preparation to be needfull though not alwayes a chymicall preparation So we prepare wheat for the making of bread by grinding fifting kneading baking and flesh by washing and boyling which if they should be chymically prepared would become hurtfull and utterly lost Wherefore is the separative faculty given to the body but for the separation of those things that are unprofitable And therefore Faber a late writer one that makes large
needfull to bee done he ought not to recoile from it That Physitian goes wisely to worke who having fully found out the diagnosticks and prognosticks of a disease doth apply remedies convenient in quantity time manner and place But if he bee mistaken in the knowledge of the disease as sometimes it happens it is lawfull to change not onely the remedie but also the Physitian himselfe or at least to call another to him that consulting together they may diligently seeke out the nature of the disease which when they have well and perfectly found out the patient committing himself to them ought to hold on in the use of remedies How to know when remedies are to bee charged Now that hee may know when the remedies are to be changed this is to bee noted First if the remedies that have beene administred doe helpe a little it is a signe that that the nature of the disease was thoroughly knowne and those must not be changed for Physitians doe gather the signes of diseases even from those things which doe good and harme Cures saith Hippocrates doe shew the natures of diseases Cornelius Celsus in the beginning of his third book saith that in acute diseases remedies that helpe not ought presently to be changed but in long diseases of which wee speake in this chapter not so for wee must persist so long in the use of remedies untill their operation being often frustrate we perceive that the nature of the disease was not well knowne Secondly if by the administration of the remedies the symptomes be exasperated it is a signe they were contrary to the disease and are therefore to be changed to wit in cronicall diseases for in acute diseases if the exasperation of the symptomes doe happen with signes of concoction it is a token of a disease tending to a crisis Thus Antonius Musa Physitian to Augustus Caesar when hee perceived the paine of Caesars stomack to become worse by the use of hot things he applyed cold remedies and so cured him But some will say Ob. remedies by daily use doe become at length familiar to nature and so are unprofitable I answer Sol. the remedies may be changed and their quantitie but not the manner of curing so long as the disease remaines the same and yeelds the same indications for if the disease it selfe be changed as if of a Tertian bee made a Quartane or the patient become weaker or there be a flitting of the humours from one part unto another or the like not onely the remedie but also the method of curing ought to bee changed Therefore I thought good to annex this chapter because it often falls out that the patient which hath used perhaps a good Physitian if the successe which he expects doth not presently follow abjuring the Physitian consults with empiricks and silly women Now those medicine-mongers do after the manner of the Andabatie that is to say blindfold at adventure fight with diseases try divers remedies and never hold on in the use of that in which they should have persisted Usually the last remedie is applauded those that went before are of no moment with the people as letting of blood purgation alteration and the like which notwithstanding subdued the greatest part of the disease It falls out also many times that the Physitian himselfe being overcome with the importunity complaints both of the sicke and the by-standers is forced to make too much hast with his remedies and contrary to reason to change them wherefore those that be sick ought patiently to wait for the time of the cure which cannot bee the same in all diseases CHAP. V. Of them that reject all remedies if they be not presently cured OThers as wee have said in the foregoing Chapter doe utterly reject the use of Physick if they be not cured by the first or second remedie who besides the wrong that they offer to nature it selfe which will have all things to be done in time doe injure themselves most of all for diseases neglected doe take deeper root in the body and become at length altogether incurable and past all helpe of Physick Or others that by their proper nature doe usually tend to health of which sort are intermitting feares which as Hippocrates saith are not dangerous at all for Fevers after what manner soever they intermit aph 43. lib 4. are void of danger those diseases I say continuing long and being neglected do stamp such a blot upon the bowels that they leave behind them perilous diseases although they perhaps went away of their owne accord Galen in divers places teaches that the cause of a tertian is seated in the liver of a quotidian in the stomack of a quartane in the spleen nor is it any wonder if the parts by whose oeconomie the whole body is served be at length enfeebled and therefore many times very grievous diseases doe follow in those parts after fevers that have been neglected as grosse obstructions putrifaction scyrrhous swellings scurvie dropsie and others which because the temperature of the bowells is quite overthrowne are altogether incurable as too frequent experience manifests Physick preserves the inward parts though it perfect not a cure But this is the excellency of the art of physick that though it doth not performe the cure yet it preserves the inward parts and doth so weaken the causes of diseases and dull their force that the noble parts are not harmed thereby and so those great perrilous diseases are prevented Yet what hath beene said ought not so to be understood as though there ought never to be an intermission of the use of remedies for Physitians doe in very long diseases wisely allow some respit to nature after they have for a few dayes together administred preparing evacuating and corroborating medicines and other such which they thought convenient and afterward they returne againe to the cure thus they provide for the preservation of strength which might have beene wasted with a constant use of Physick CHAP. VI. That remedies are not to be rejected for their unpleasantnesse WHen I reade the writings of the antient Physitians who have bequeathed unto us the vertues of remedies and their precepts of Physicke I cannot but wonder at the multitude and abundance of remedies wherewith they pestered their patients as also at the unpleasantnesse of them so bitter unsavoury and ungratefull to all the senses yea and many times rudely prepared were many of them it being a familiar thing with them to dissolve those things and give them to bee drunke which we take in pills to deceive the tast and prepare more finely for a Physitian should endeavour to cure quickly safely and pleasantly Citò tutè factlè curandum Thysick is neatlier administred now then heretofore What shall we say then of the frowardnesse of the sick in this age who though they have more toothsome pleasant remedies administred to them then our forefathers had doe neverthelesse detest Physick for
very difficult Neverthelesse these reasons are of small force in a cold Climate because in England the heat is not so intense and violent in the Dog-dayes especially in the * Kingston upon Hull Northern parts of England where I write this where neverthelss they feare the biting of this Dog as much as in Spaine and therefore there is no cause to feare that our bodyes should be too much inflamed or that they should be weakned or that the humours should be too forcibly drawn into the skin Again our remedies are much more gentle than those which Hippocrates used Our remedies are moregentle than the Ancients as are Cassia Tamarinds Sene Rubarb and the like which doe neither inflame the body nor trouble the humours And Lastly because though wee should use strong remedies And our preparations better yet we can so prepare them and administer them in such a quantity as shall offer no violence to the body But seeing that Hippocrates his Country was exceeding hot and that all his drugs that he used were very violent and hot it is no wonder that he was so wary of that time of the yeare But in this Country those dayes are not so hot Besides Hippocrates did not say absolutely that we must not purge at all in the Dog-dayes but only that purgation is difficult not impossible and therefore seeing that at this time of the yeare there are very many acute diseases which cannot be cured without bloud-letting and purging the Physicians of hot Countryes as Spaine Italy the South parts of France and the like doe very wisely use purging remedies but not so frequently nor violent But some are of opinion that wee should abstaine from purgation not only because of the violent heat of the weather but for the malignant effects of the Star and the Ancients did attribute so much to this Star * It is accounted the most principall star of the first magnitude that for eminencie sake they called it the Star as having some more than ordinary power above the rest not onely over the body but the minde also so that both men and beasts especially dogs are then more sick than at other times and dogs are thought to go mad through its influence Wherefore Galen also forbids blouding at this time But all the mischiefes which Plinie reckons up to proceed from hence are not of infallible credit for they are seldome or never observed to happen here in England Again it is an absurd thing to think that any of the Stars are mischievous for they are all benigne and propitious to man and those things which the Ancients have written concerning this Star doe not correspond to experience We see every yeare there are divers degrees of heat and not alwaies the same because the power and influence of the Star is altered by the diversity of Conjunctions and Aspects so that those malignant effects if there be any of the Dog-star may be hindred by the aspect of other Stars Nor doth it necessarily follow if there be a great hear this yeare that there shall be the same the next yeare Wherefore there is no cause alwayes to feare purgation under the Dog-star or all the Dog-dayes for if this day be exceeding hot peradventure to morrow the weather will be more temperate only at this time of the year we must use remedies more sparingly and those not so strong as at other times for even those remedies which Hippocrates did ordinarily administer to his Patients are scarce at any time prescribed by us no not in winter To this our opinion do assent Ioubertus in his Popular Errours Mercurialis Argenterius Hollerius in his Commentaries upon the forenamed Aphorisme Fernelius Fuchsius Valleriola Claudinus Vallesius and all that have written of this subject It shall suffice us to conclude this Chapter with the testimony of Iacobus Hollerius a most judicious and learned man Note This precept saith he takes place in Hippocrates his Country and such like places which are very hot but not in these Countries now he speaks of Paris in France where he lived for besides that we have gentle and easie medicines which we use as Cassia Catholicon Asses milk c. We doe here experience no time of the year to be more wholsome and temperate especially when the East-winde blowes then the Dogge-dayes so as experience shewes that diseases begunne in June and July are wont to terminate in August even under the Dogge-starre Wherefore if a disease happen in those daies wee doe not feare many times to open a veine and to administer strong Physick Neverthelesse if there happen a vehement and canicular heat of weather as we have in France oftentimes even in the moneths of May and June we follow the advice of Hippocrates both in letting blood and prescribing purges Where he shews that that very number of daies is not to be regarded but only the heat of the weather is to be observed which if it happen in the Moneth of May before the Canicular daies yea what time soever it happens Hippocrates his rule is to be observed I might adde here that there are divers opinions concerning the rising of the Dogge-star for with the Ancients it rose sooner than now it doth but with us it rises at those times when it is not wont to be so hot and therefore at that time purgation ought lesse to be feared concerning which thing we may see more at large in Dionysius Petavius a most learned man But that it may appear what great difference there is betwixt England and Greece which was Hippocrates his country we may observe what Hesiod saith Lib. 2. operum to wit that their Harvest did begin at the rising of the Pleiades at which time the Spring is scarce begun with us For the Pleiades do rise in the Moneth of April after the old account or not long after the beginning of May. CHAP. XII That Purgations are often to bee reiterated BEcause Physick as we have said is tedious and irksome many doe expect a perfect cure by one only purging medicine and they think the disease exceeds the capacitie and skill of the Physician and if after a Purge once taken it be not cured Nor are they willing to hear that the remedy is to be reiterated little knowing for what causes Physicians are forced to renew Purgations It were indeed to be wished that diseases could be cured with one cathartick alone which thing although it sometimes happens yet it is not alwaies so and truly a Drugge that makes a full and perfect purgation Note ought not to be administred without diligent heed taken because all vehement catharticks are exceeding adverse and hurtfull to nature Therefore a perfect evacuation ought to be prescribed only when the strength of the sick can bear it the matter but little and thinne and nature it self leads the way when the humours are fully concocted and all the passages in the belly are open But if the humours
reject clysters as being perillous and dangerous Physick but they are grossely mistaken for clysters are the most gentle and innocent Physick of all for they never touch any noble part in that they goe not beyond the great guts and therefore if the disease require it we sometimes adde to them very sharp remedies which another part of the body cannot endure and yet they are administred without any harine to the body at all Much lesse can mollifying and cooling clysters hurt the body which we prescribe in feavers and other diseases in which there is nothing except the quantity which might not be taken by the mouth Clysters good in many respects Now a clyster is profitable for divers parts of the body as the braine the eyes the stomack and all the inward parts for it doth not only loosen the belly but also by its liquid substance it doth deterge and cleanse the tunicles of the bowels from many grosse and viscous humours which cleave thereto and besides it lyes like a fomentation upon the kidneys and the bowels and therefore it oftentimes brings that out of the body which a reiterated purgation can never doe Galen experienced this in himselfe who being grievously tormented with the cholick with a clyster made of the oyle of Rue purged out grosse tough and viscous fleagm Seeing then the use of clysters may be so profitable they need not for the future be feared but ought rather to be more familiarly used 3 things necessary to be consideâ—ed Therefore I would admonish the people of three things First that they use a clyster before bloud letting and unto this doe all Physicians advise lest the impurity of that first region bee attracted by the empty veines and so the bloud bee tainted Secondly that if the belly be costive and there seems to be a necessity of taking a purge by the mouth it be first asswaged with a gentle clyster that the excrements may be more easily voided out For the belly being costive hinders the operation of the cathartick and seeing there is in every medicament a certaine generall vertue and propensity to purge out the excrements besides that proper power whereby it doth draw unto it selfe by a peculiar propriety the humours that are most familiar to it if the belly be very costive and the excrements hard they they cannot be extruded without great paine and gripings of the guts and many times the strength of the Physick is spent in thrusting them out and the humours that are attracted by the Physick not being purged out but kept within the bowels cause gripings the pain of the colick vomiting frenzie dizzinesse of the head and many such symptomes Hippocrates seems to have pointed at this when he saith Aph. 9. lib. 2. If one would purge let him first make the belly soluble Now seeing that by many wayes the belly may bee made soluble this by preparing clysters is not to be neglected and Galen commends this counsell Sect. 4. dâ— victu acut * Et aph 72. lib. 7. And in another place Hippocrates saith When one would purge the belly it is good to make it soluble and if thou wouldest make it fluxive upwards it is good to stay the belly if downwards to moisten it Now the belly cannot be more fitly moistned than with a clyster Thus Galen shewing for whom purging is convenient among the causes through which evacuation succeeds not well when one hath taken Physick reckons this for one Oftentimes saith he hard and dry ordure in some of the guts hinders evacuation Thirdly not only before purgation but also after it will not be amisse to inject a gentle deterging clyster as the best Physicians doe advise for to wash away the reliques of the humours which sometimes stick to the bowels For a clyster cleanses the guts and taketh away whatsoever noxious matter is left after a strong medicine especially if it bee of that sort of medicines which have Scammony for an ingredient for it by the sharpnesse and acrimonie thereof doth corrode the intestines and there is the same reason concerning all other strong medicines as among others Valleriola saies well in lib. 3. locor com cap. 16. CHAP. XXI That Clysters are not well injected by bladders SEeing then the administring of Clysters is such wholsome facile and harmlesse Physick we will in brief observe somewhat touching that manner of injecting clysters by an oxes bladder tyed to a pipe This I confesse is no very grosse errour for we see it many times well enough injected this way and it seemes to be the ancientest custome for I read in Galens fifth book of Method that the use of such bladders was very frequent in old time But now it is left off in many places beyond the Seas and that manner of injecting is altogether unknowne but they use a Syringe or a hollow pipe of tin or brasse and that with better conveniencie for it is both more easily injected and also more safely A near way for injecting Clysters and sooner and which availes very much in this businesse it goes higher and passes into all the great guts For seeing naturally a clyster doth not go beyond the great guts by reason of a certaine valvule placed in the beginning of the gut Colon and the end of Ilion it would be much to the commodity of the sick if a clyster could but goe so farre for so a great benefit would accrew to them by the washing of the guts But a clyster that is injected by a bladder doth not ascend so high but stayes in the strait gut and in the beginning of Colon. It were well therefore that these Syringes were brought into use of which almost all our Apothecaries except those of London are destitute But sometimes it happens that a clyster is vomited out of the mouth although but seldome I do not remember that ever I observed it save twice in two patients which happens when the forenamed valvule is loosed by reason of a vitiated and corrupted peristaltick motion of the bowels which opens an unwonted passage to the liquor yet how this can be done I doe not conceive I would rather think it comes to passe because the aforesaid Valvule is broken by some preternaturall cause and cannot any more execute its office Therefore if any man that is ignorant of the art of Physick chance to observe such a thing let him neither blame the Physician nor the Clyster seeing that no Physician can foreknow this but let him accuse the particular constitution of the sick and know that nothing happens then which hath not been heretofore nor let him be troubled at such an event CHAP. XXII Of vomits that possets ought not to be drunk immediately after one hath taken a vomit IT is not my purpose in this Chapter to treat of the commoditie and profitablenesse of vomits to the body of man I wil only give notice of thus much about the use therof that there are some
the fifth houre of the night not being silent as before but of purpose with a loud voice to awake him from his sleep But perhaps some will say Galen did not command sleep till two hours after bloud-letting I answer it had been well if the sick could have slept immediately after he had been let bloud and in no place doth Galen disallow that for we know we cannot alwayes sleep when we desire it But seeing the aforesaid sick man could not sleep comming againe two houres after he bade him lye still that he might sleep which Galen had not done if he had judged sleep to be hurtfull after blooding If any man object that sleep is prohibited lest the ligature should be loosed and the patient bleed againe that is nothing for that may be prevented by the diligent care of the by-standers and the sure binding of it As touching drink Good to drink after bleeding Amatus the Portugall proves that it is not hurtfull immediately after blood-letting but very wholsome commanding that the patient doe presently drinke a little cold water for in regard that the veines are emptied it is instantly distributed into the whole body and doth both easier sooner and safelier coole the body CHAP. XXVII That blooding and purging is not hurtfull for women with child ANd this Errour is none of the least that if a woman with childe be sick they will not suffer her to take Physick nor to be let bloud for fear of an aborsement which is contrary to reason the authority of the Ancients and daily experience To reason because a woman that labours with an acute disease as a Fever or a Pleurisie is in very great danger as saith Hippocrates Aph. 30. ib. 5. * it is mortall for a woman with childe to be taken with an acute disease Fevers in women with child are most dangerous Therefore no delay is to be made in applying remedies Again in respect that the child is nourished with the mothers blood if she be sick there is danger lest through that sicknesse and the corruption of the blood the childe perish which if it happen as sometimes it doth then is the mother in danger both by reason of the disease and of the dead childe namely lest she being weakened by the disease the childe dye through putrefaction of the blood and she bee not able to bear the childe at least never doth an aborsement happen without danger Now it is evident enough that these evills cannot be prevented without taking away the cause for indeed no disease can be cured otherwise and the cause cannot be taken away without blood-letting The disease is not cured till the causes be taken away or purging They that think it such a dangerous thing for women to use these remedies and thereupon do not admit of them let them seriously consider this Note If a Physician can cure a woman with childe sick of a putrid Fever without blood-letting or purging much more easily may he cure her of the same disease without these remedies when she is not with childe and so the use of them might be quite abandoned But if he cannot cure her not being with childe without those remedies he cannot then cure her being with childe and sick of the same disease For the same disease indicates the same remedie and the being with child doth not take away the indication of the disease but onely after a sort alters the quantity of remedies and the manner of using them Yea much rather are these remedies to be used in women with childe inasmuch as they stand in greater need of help than others But they think that all the nourishment is drawn from the childe by blood-letting and that there is danger of abortion by purging and other remedies The danger to the childe is from the disease not the remedy All this while not knowing that great danger hangs over the childe by reason of the blood being corrupted to wit lest it die and kill the mother who is already weakened with the disease so that there is more danger of abortion from the disease than from the remedy And first we must never take away such a great quantitie of blood as that thereby nourishment should be withdrawn from the infant but rather we observe that the infant becomes more lively after the corrupt blood is taken away The child becomes more lively after bleeding for there is blood enough left behinde to suffice both the child and its mother Again a purgation especially a gentle one although reiterated if need stand can do no hurt A woman with child may take a purge being given by a discreet Physician but rather good for the strength of the Physick doth scarce reach unto the childe or at least in such a long circuit the noxious part of its strength is lost But what if it should attaine to the childe yet it cannot kill it if it be exhibited in a moderate quantity Onely the blood comes unto the the childe which by vertue of the Physick is purged from noxious humours Also in women with childe the wombe resists it much for the safeguard of the infant for in them the retentive faculty is more busie then the expulsive This Errour Secondly oppugnes Authoritie for Hippocrates commends purging for women with childe from the fourth Moneth till the seventh Women with childe may take Physick if there be an ebullition of humours in them Sect 4. aph 1. from the fourth moneth till the seventh onely they must bee more gently dealtly withall than others but when the infant is younger than this or elder it is best wholly to abstaine Which if it were Hippocrates his opinion notwithstanding the vehemency of his remedies Our purges more safe then the Ancients were much more is it true of ours which are farre more gentle for the purgations of the Ancients were more dangerous than ours Againe Experience testifies that the childe cannot bee so easily expelled by the use of physick 7. Epid. as the history of Harpalaus his sister manifests who being foure moneths gone with childe and sick of a Dropsie and Asthma the infant being so weak that it had not stirred of a long time tooke Aethiopian Cumin with honey and wine which though it was exceeding bitter diuretick and therefore of great force to provoke the flowers yet being discreetly used did her good and neither hurt the child nor provoked her flowers intimating thus much that the child is not alwaies killed by taking Physick unlesse the Physick be very strong and constantly used There is a notable story out of Avenzoar whereof we have made mention in another place who not knowing that his wife was with childe did administer unto her exceeding strong physick and yet the childe was not hurt thereby I will saith he relate what befell me while I was in the prison of Haly my wife was with childe and I knew it not and she was troubled with
offended with the Pestilentiall aire Hence it is that old men are not so soon infected with the plague as young men are because of the coldnesse of their bodies as also Plinie observes But in that this plant is said to be good for poysoned wounds and the bitings of venemous beasts it followes not therefore it must have an antidotary faculty for the Spaniards did first use sublimate for such wounds and wee doe usually prescribe divers things which in their proper nature are not preservatives against poyson but are either such as draw out the venome or that extinguish it as an actuall cautery and such like And it may bee that Tobacco may likewise bee good for that too although it hath no proper or peculiar vertue for to resist poyson CHAP. XXXV Of the unseasonable use of Cordialls BEcause in all diseases speciall care ought to bee had of the strength of the patient it is no wonder if the sick be so desirous to have their strength preserved from whence arises such a frequent use of cordiall remedies Therefore it is that some are often blaming Physicians because they doe so seldome prescribe Cordialls and Antidotes for them especially at night and when they lye down to sleep Notwithstanding the unseasonable use of them doth most commonly more hurt than good as doth Triacle Mithridate and the like For not every thing that is said to be cordiall doth by and by strengthen nature nay it may destroy it and thus the drinking of cold water doth more help one that is in a Fever than Aqua caelestis Imperialis Triacle water or any other strong water whatsoever And it is to be observed that the imbecillitie of the heart and the decay of the strength which depends upon the spirits in the heart may proceed from divers causes now every sort of remedy is not convenient for causes so different But if the cause of the disease bee encreased by some kind of remedy although it may be sayd to be a Cordiall the Cordiall is no better than poyson to the sick as if an hot remedy bee applyed in an hot discase the diseaseis increased and the sick is not a whit strengthned but made weaker Therefore they are too blame who without judgement and skill doe prescribe these cordiall and strengthning medicines Moreover it is observable that it is possible that Triacle Mithridate and other such like which are in most frequent use may doe much hurt For as Galen saith 5. Simpl. they are a meane betwixt the body and poysons so that there is the same proportion betwixt the body and the Antidote that there is betwixt the Antidote and the poyson and therefore hee saith that all those things that are of the nature of Triacle Cordials do hurt if there bee not matter within to work upon and Mithridate being taken in too great a quantity do hurt the body as also unlesse there be some poyson within upon which they may worke I know this comparison of Galen doth not please Averrhoes that subtle Physician and Philosopher 5. colliget cap. 23. who notwithstanding confesses that they do the body no good at all unlesse they bee taken in a stomach that hath in it some poysonous matter for them to worke upon and therefore saith he they are not good for them that be in health but become as poyson to them as likewise do all those things which are commonly called Bezoarticks For by their forcible working unlesse they bee discreetly administred they hurt the body like poyson and therefore Galen forbids Triacle to them that are hot and dry as also to children Although therefore I do not absolutely dislike the using of these sorts of medicines nor judge them to be venemous or pernicious yet hence it follows that they are to be used very warily for they have qualities in them that are many times very hurtfull to the body except they meet with an object in the body for to worke upon And therefore corroborating and cordiall remedies are to differ according to the variety of diseases hence it is that some of them are cold some hot some temperate some corroborating the heart with an occult and unexplicable property some resisting poysons which cannot bee fit for all those different causes from whence a decay of strength may come And therefore those things may very fitly be numbred among Cordials which doe relieve nature by evacuating the causes of diseases and by altering which thing many of our ordinary Cordialls doe not performe and such remedies ought to be called Cordialls by accident onely neverthelesse they are the most certaine of all others Lib. de viribus cord Therefore Avicenne saith very well that in seven respects a medicine may bee said to bee cordiall First because it recreates the spirits as wine Seven kinds of cordiall remedies egges broth and those meats that are easie of digestion and of good nourishment And indeed the strength is much augmented by meat seasonably administred but if it bee unseasonably taken it is much impaired by it as wee have said already Secondly because it doth cleare and purifies the spirtis as Pearles and Silk Thirdly because it compacts the substance of the heart by hindring the resolving of the spirits as doth Garrabe terrae sigillata Bolearmoniack but these are not good for all because they are astringent remedies which in some cases may doe much harm Fourthly because it is delectable to the heart as are sweet things and odiferous as Aqua caelestis Imperialis and Maria. Fifthly because it doth corroborate the heart by manifest qualities as that which is temperate as Borage Buglosse Gold Sixthly because it doth purifie by evacuating the melancholick humour and by purging out whatsoever is hurtfull to the heart as do Myrabalanes Seventhly because it corroborates the heart by an occult qualitie as the Hyacinth But all these severall things cannot be proper for all causes but now adaies when the people desire comforting and cordiall medicines they doe not meane broths or bloodding or purging but Triacle Mithridate Strong waters good Ale burnt Wine and such like which oftentimes may not onely do harm to the sick but to such as are in perfect health too CHAP. XXXVI Of the Errours about the Bezaar Stone BEcause we have been treating in the precedent chapter concerning Cordialls something is to be said of the Bezaar stone which is now adayes had in such familiar use being thought by many to be endued with an admirable vertue of corroborating the heart and a very strong Cordiall to which neglecting all others they fly as to some sacred anchor But they erre in three particulars First in that they attribute too much to that stone Secondly in that they are ignorant of the quality of it Thirdly in that they do not mete out a due quantity of it Concerning the first some derive the name of the stone from the word Paser What the Bezaar stone is which among the East-Jndians
for drinke and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a cuppe Seeing therefore the hornes which are carried about for the Unicornes horne are diverse in colour magnitude and figure it is probable that they come from diverse creatures Therefore whether it be the horn of the Indian Asse which Aelian commends or of the Rhinoceros or of some water creature it is all one so there be experience of the vertue of it Wherefore I would not curiously enquire whether it be an Unicornes horn or some other creatures so it be good and efficacious yea and it is no matter whether the creature hath two hornes or but one Yet it is most certaine as we have said before that Elephants teeth and Whale-bones and Sea-horse teeth and common hornes burnt and those which are digged out of the earth which we have spoken of and other counterfeit and artificiall hornes Elephants and Sea horse teeth commonly sold for Vnicornes hornes are commonly sold for the true Unicornes horne Cardanus saith that Elephants teeth may bee made so pliable by art that they may be made streight like hornes and so set out for the Unicornes horn Neither give eare to them saith Amatus the Portugall who when they goe about to try an Vnicornes horn do infuse the scrapings and powder thereof in water which they say forthwith is troubled and bubbles up for you may perceive the same to happen from the scrapings of any bone infused in water as you may make triall in Ivory So likewise we must take heed that wee doe not give credit to other such experiments which some use to prove the goodnesse of the Unicornes horne for they say that if poyson or some venomous creature be neare unto it it sweats as if it did suffer and were affected with the poyson as also they bid make a circle of the powder of it into the middle of which or into an hollow horn they put a spider which if she passe over they will have it to bee a counterfeit horn but if she burst and die it is naturall all which are false but enough of this CHAP. XXXIX Of certain distilled waters ordained amisse for to drive away feavers BEcause it is such an usuall thing here in England both for men and women to hoard up remedies for divers diseases and to communicate them to one another for secrets we will speak somewhat of certain feaver curing waters which many use especially for agues the which although sometimes they may do good yet many times they are hurtful and pernicious In some Physick-Authors also such waters are found described Quercetanus in his Pharmacopoeâ restitutâ as he calls it names two which he saith are speciall waters for all sorts of feavers especially agues but principally for bastard and exquisite tertians so confidently doe these Chymists make promises of health 1 ad Glauc 3 de simp med Galen himselfe prescribes worm-wood a very hot plant for Tertians and in another place he commends cammomile for the same There are some that will provoke sweat with such hot things And in generall all those waters that I have seen were distilled out of hot simples which adventurously they will use in any intermitting feaver many times to the great hurt of the sick First therefore it is to be noted that intermitting feavers are caused by divers humours both hot and cold unto which one and the same remedy cannot fitly be applyed Secondly seeing that every disease is cured by its contrary it is certain that cholerick humours are inflamed more and increased by the use of these hot remedies and so of an intermitting feaver it may become a continuall Thirdly the cause of an intermitting feaver most commonly lies in the mesentery veines the panereas and other the first passages which dregge it is too dangerous to bring into the habit of the body by such remedies lest the bloud of the veines be polluted especially in cholerick feavers whose cause is for the most part thin and very moveable Fourthly Galen forbids to use vehement and hot remedies in the beginning of a quartane ague which is caused by a cold and dry melancholick humour and he tels a story of Eudemus a Philosopher who in that he did unseasonably use triacle for a quartane ague of a simple it became a double quartane whom neverthelesse Galen cured with the very same remedy seasonably and rightly administred Therfore these hot things are good in those feavers only which are procreated by cold humours or in a bastard Tertian in which there is a great quantity of flegmatick humours mixed with the cholerick Aguish waters not to be used till the humour be concocted or when there are very gross and stubborne obstructions and the bowels very feeble and weakened but not before the concoction of the humour thus Galen for a quartane prescribes a medicine of succus cyrenaicus but not untill the humor is concocted So hee commends wormewood in a Tertian but utterly dislikes it before concoction In like manner and by the same reason these hot waters are to be rejected but after the concoction of the morbous humour in a stubborne disease they may be profitable Therfore these hot things are not to be rashly administred in feavers for one that had adventurously used them in a quartane feaver of a simple made it a double quartane as we said before And there is the same cause of feare likewise lest the same happen by the use of these waters The advise of a learned physician ever requisite Therefore let the advice and counsell of a skilfull learned and faithfull Physician bee alwayes taken who may appoint convenient times for all remedies Nor let the people rashly trust to their Receits as they call them for they are even the hand of God when they are administred by a skilfull Physician but as it were a sword in the hand of a mad man when one meddles with them who doth not well understand the rules of Physick CHAP. XL. That Iuleps and other cooling Potions are to bee administred in a large dose I Have often observed when Physicians prescribe Apozemes Juleps and other cooling potions for them that bee sick of feavers that the by-standers doe usually administer them in a very little dose as but 2 or 3 spoonfuls But here is to be noted that those remedies that are prescribed to prepare the humours are not of the nature of them that contain much strength in a very little quantity but contrary wise seeing they work by the first and second qualities unlesse there be a proportion in quantity betwixt the humour that is to be altered and the Physick it is but in vaine prescribed for if they doe notovercome the humour they are overcome by it and corrupted In a very hot feaver if the aforesaid Juleps be either altogether denied The necessity of cooling and altering juleps in feavers or but sparingly administred the body is dried by the heat of the feaver and decaies so as
wax growes foft So Diphne for my love feeles changes oft Thus Hector Boetius and others doe report of some that have beene roasted with a gentlte heat by an imâ—ge of wax laid to the fire as Duffits King of Scots So they cause heat or cold and other affects when they list upon them that are absent the which all men grant cannot bee done by naturall causes Who have not heard that Witches which have anointed themselves with a magicall oyntment have been carried through the aire But that which Paracclsus writes in his Chapter of Invisible diseases makes much for our purpose if any man be hurt a foot or hand or some other member is to be drawn after the forme and shape of that which is hurt or if you will a pourtraicture of the whole body and it must be anointed and bound up and the man shall be free from paine yea and hee sayes that some who have been sick of other diseases have been cured after the like manner Who can beleeve that this is done by naturall causes and yet it is as easie in this to have recourse to magnetical vertues and sympathies and the spirit of the World as in the weapon-salve Here are examples of Magicall cures at distance which are in all respects like to the anointing of the weapon for as the image is anointed and bound up for the curing of the wound so is the weapon and as the Image laid to the fire or exposed to the frost doth burn or congeale him that is absent so doth the unguent laid upon the weapon and as the King of Scots in Boëtius was almost consumed in the waxen Image so the same may easily from the anointing of the weapon happen to him that is wounded if he that annoints it doe malitiously lay it to the fire or in some place that may communicate its harme to the person wounded and who sees not that this may be also a sort of Witchcraft If he that doth this by the help of the image douse the Devill who is the spirit of this world as an instrument to set on the charm it is likely that this magneticall cure as they call it hath the very same Author which they call by this name that they may cloak their knavery with a seeming shew of naturall actions And deservedly may the remedie be suspected even because of the Authors of it who were suspected for Magick For Paracelsus and Crollius do in divers places commend Magick and will have it to be a thing very needfull for a Physician But suppose wee that there is nothing magicall in it at all yet wee will further prove it to bee false and altogether a frivolous forme of curing Fifthly if then the spirit of the blood doth effect all these things and the ointment hath analogie and familiarity with the spirit which is in the blood why cannot other diseases likewise bee cured by the strengthning of the spirits and the balsame of blood For Crollius confesses that the cure is made by the balsame of blood and indeed the spirits and the vertues of the balsame in the body doe perfect all the cure Sixthly if according to Hartman the fixed salt of the bloud would not draw the spirit out of the ointment without the annointing it followes that there is no magneticall vertue in it at all because a corporeall contact is necessary and from hence it will follow likewise that without the corporeall contact it cannot worke at distance nor diffuse its strength so farre as to the person wounded The bloud hath the vertue either in it selfe or from the ointment If in it selfe then is the ointment in vaine Not from the ointment because what sympathy with the spirits of the partie is attributed unto it it hath it from the blood flesh fat and mosse which are ingredients in the composition by reason of the spirits which are thought to bee in them it followes then that the ointment hath no vertues in it which did not lie before in the spirits and so we conclude that the ointment is in vain also Seventhly the spirits which are in the blood fat and mosse are either of a diverse nature or of the same If they be of a diverse nature among themselves without doubt they are also of different operation and have not the same manner of sympathy with all the parts but the spirits of bloud have a greater affinitie with the blood the spirits of flesh with the flesh and the spirits of the Mosse with the Skull And therefore that the cure may succeed the better and sympathy be preserved besides the blood of the person wounded both his fat and his bones ought to bee mixed with the ointment on the wepon that a compleat cure may be performed and the magneticall vertue be without faile carried to the affected parts for verily there is not the same sympathy in the aforesaid spirits But if those spirits be all of the same nature that curiositie in adding thereto blood fat flesh and mosse is in vaine and superfluous when onely the blood which containes in it all those spirits may suffice Eighthly I have read a story of a horse whose feet had been hurt with a naile A horse shod in the quick cuted by this salve for the cure whereof the naile was aunointed with the aforesaid ointment and so the horse became sound againe And Crollius also relates the same From whence it follows that there is a certaine sympathy and familiaritie betwixt that ointment and the spirits of a horse and a certaine learned man confesses that there is the same vertue of healing in a man and in an horse Which if it be true in vaine is mans bloud preferred before an horses bloud for those things which are the same to one third are the same among themselves yea Crollius faith that not onely a horse but also all creatures that have flesh and bones may be cured with this ointment And in very deed if this manner of curing were certaine and infallible even any vulnerary ointment would bee as fit as this for the vertues thereof might bee conveighed to the sick by meanes of the spirit as well as the vertue of this ointment Ninthly seeing that the cure not onely of simple wounds but also of great and inward wounds is oftentimes perfected by Nature alone without the help of Art for to unite and to generate flesh are the works of Nature and not of Art and Crollius confesses that naturall Balsame doth work in this magneticall cure it is a wonder why that liniment is not rather applyed to the sick himselfe why it cures not ulcers seeing every wound doth at length become an ulcer and seeing bloud may flow also from ulcers and the principall indications of a wound are found likewise in an ulcer Why is it not also used for the curing of wounds made by Pistoll-shot and for such wherein there is a losse of substance Why hath Crollius excepted the wounds
of the Nerves Arteries and principall Members It is because it is good onely for fimple wounds and such as are onely in the flesh which nature by binding alone doth conglutinate with the help of naturall Balsame that is to say of the innate heate of the body hence it is easie for the wound being wrapped every day in clean clothes and washed with warm urine to grow together again of it self without the use of any ointment at all Therefore that ointment is altogether unprofitable nor availes that any thing which they talk of experience for without doubt those wounds might have been eured without the ointment For that ointment doth neither dissolve nor purge away the excrements of the wounds nor preserve the temperature of the parts for the parts of the body which may bee wounded are of divers sorts as Sanguine Spermatick Nervous Membranous fleshy and men themselves may be Cholerick or Sanguine Melancholick Phlegmatick Plethorick Cacochymick and bee troubled with some other diseases also for all which one and the same remedy cannot bee so convenient But enough of this CHAP. XLIX Of the curing of the Kings-Evill by the touch of the Seventh-Sonne BEcause of late I have heard of some who reporting that they are Seventh-Sonnes do promise great matters about the healing of the Kings-Evill which they professe to doe by touch alone and so beguile the too credulous people something must bee sayd concerning them This chapter I have added at the request of some Physicians of principall note That some diseases are sometimes cured only with the touch of some remedies it is plainly manifest by the authority of the most excellent Physicians Such are those which are called amuleta and periapia being remedies that are hung about the neck or laid to the body Thus Galen commends the root of Peionie hung about the neck for the Epilepsie others the stone called aëtites bound to a womans Thigh to facilitate the birth and divers such examples are found in Authors which many say they have observed although I have sometimes made triall of peionie * A stone which is found in an Eagles nest without which as it is thought she cannot lay her egges and the stone aëtites for the aforesaid affects without any successe Neverthelesse I deny not but there are occult sympathies and antipathies nor doe I goe about to thwart experience and the authority of able Physicians But it is farre more which these men professe they can doe namely cure the Kings evill by their touch alone and that because they are Seventh Sons That this is naturall I thinke scarce any will believe For whatsoever is naturall doth depend on inward principles and may be done by every individuall of that kinde so it be entire sound and according to nature in every respect as all Rubarb parges choler and every man is risible Nor doth it depend on number for number according to Philosophers is of no force to act for actions are of the things themselves and doe depend on the formes of things But this seventh Son is said to have some peculiar power which is denied to the six former brethren to wit because he is the Seventh It must needs follow therefore that that power must arise some other way since it proceeds neither from the forme nor the number It depends not on the Touch for Touching as Touching hath onely the power of Touching Indeed if there be either any noxious or salutiferous quality in the body it is communicated by the Touch. But the Touch it self hath no such force Furthermore seeing that all diseases are cured onely by the taking away of their cause those Wondermongers cannot take away the Kings evill unlesse they first take away the cause Now seeing that the cause of the Kings evill is fleagm as Physicians say setled in the kernels which in other parts breeds other diseases he might be able by the same touch and by the same vertue to cure other diseases that come from the same cause which thing seeing hee cannot doe it must necessarily follow that the cure is miraculous or else that it depends on the imagination of the sick But seeing the imagination of the sick is so different being in some stronger in others weaker an uncertain event must be looked for from an uncertain cause Therefore it must of necessity be either miraculous or false or diabolicall I scarce believe that it is miraculous The Apostles and Primitive Christians did heale by touch alone to the greater glory of God and the propagating of Christian Religion But God will not have miracles to be wrought at every mans private pleasure thus whatsoever the Apostles did they professed that they did it not by any power of their owne but in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ And therefore those seven Brethren the Sonnes of Sceva a Jew who went about in the same name to conjure the uncleane spirits were beaten by the Devill and suffered the punishment of their rash boldnesse Thus it is not lawfull adventurously to attempt the working of miracles In like manner the power of curing the Kings Evill is by the blessing of God granted to the Kings of great Brittaine and France which is denied to other Christian Kings And so Edward the Confessor for his singular piety cured not only the Kings Evill which prerogative redounded to his Successors after him but also other ulcers by touch alone which his Successors could not doe Seeing then this priviledge is onely vouchsafed to the aforesaid Kings and is wholly performed in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ if other Kings should attempt the same it were too much rashnesse and a grosse tempting of God who hath not given any such power to them Therefore in Spaine where this disease of the Kings Evill is epidemicall and popular Francis the first King of France being taken Prisoner by the Spaniards cured it by his touch alone as he was wont to doe France concerning which Lascaris hath this Epigramme Hispanos inter sanat Rex Choeradas estque Captivus superis gratus ut ante fuit Indicio tali Regum sanctissime qui te Arcent invisos suspicor esse Deo In English thus The King in Spaine though Captive heales their sore And is as dear to God now as before Thus they who by his goodnesse are reliev'd Are but unto a greater vengeance repriev'd Moreover it is to be noted that the aforesaid Kings on whom God hath bestowed that favour have it upon a certain condition nor is it derived unto their successors unlesse they be lawfull heires and abide in the Christian Faith For if an Usurper as there have been such in times past and God knowes what shall be the destinies of Kingdoms should depose a lawfull Prince from his Imperiall Throne hee should not with the Kingdome obtain this prerogative to himself Nor if any King though a lawfull Successour to the Crown should renounce the Christian Religion as mens dispositions are variable
its owne nature which is indeed much more true Minerals that are of a mischievous nature It is therefore to be noted that that Antimonie which we call crude to wit unprepared at all is of no force to move the body and therefore the Antients who were ignorant of Chymicall art knew no inward use thereof Now the first and easiest preparation of all is that which we call the Regulus in which the forme of the Mettall is not taken away but doth melt into to a certaine forme of Lead Hence Dioscorides saith that Antimonie melted turnes to Lead having some light knowledge of that Regulus for it is made of it being melted onely and so a little refined and it doth retaine all malignity of the Antimonie which laid as it were asleepe before under the earthly excrement This doe Mettall-men use and mixe in Guns Bels and other the like engines but seeing it doth yet possesse all the naughty and mischievous qualities of Antimonie it must necessarily follow that the Cup made of it is most dangerous Therefore the best Alchymists have quite abandoned it from any use in Physicke save that by a further preparation may be extracted out of this Regulus the glasse of Antimonie and many other such things farre better then the Regulus it selfe Wherefore some in the stead thereof have used the glasse of Antimonie as did frequently that most excellent Physitian Matthiolus the people call it Stibium and are sore afraid of it whereas indeede it ought to be preferred before the regulus Neverthelesse Quercitanus Hartman and some others of principall note among the Alchymists who doe highly extoll the vertue of Antimonie doe thinke this preparation of the mixture of impure Sulphur which is not yet taken away And therefore waving those two as not safe they doe familiarly use the Crocus or Hepar Antimonij Saffron or liver of Antimony Puluis emiticus the vomiting powder and Mercurius vitae Mercury of the life Which preparations the Colledge of Physitians at London hath inserted in their dispensatory and there is almost no shop in which both the substance and infusion of them is not to be sold From whence they that doe so much extoll this Cup may gather that they use a pernitious and dangerous remedy whereas the same much better prepared is every where obvious and to be sold yet at a very easie rate Of the force of the Cup. AS touching the force of the Cup it doth not gently but mightily provoke vomit and stooles now every vomit although it be caused by the most gentle Medicines of all is neverthelesse alwaies more harsh to Nature then any Purgation by the inferior parts because the stomacke was not made for expulsion but for reception for it is one of the noble parts and of exquisite sence and hath a very great sympathy with the Braine and the heart in so much as when it is affected the people thinke and complaine that their heart akes It is therefore not good to straine such a noble part with such a violent medicine But besides a vomit doth offer much violence to the strength of the whole Body straine head braine muscles of the belly the breast and all the intrailes which are contained in the lower belly and sometimes in grosse bodies breakes the veines and le ts out the bloud Wherefore if wee must not use other purging medicines but with a great deale of care and premeditation much lesse vomitaries for of all evacuations a vomit is the most grievous and dangerous And therfore many things are to bee regarded in the provoking of vomit First the nature of the Patient and his aptnesse or difficulty for vomiting for in them that vomit hardly there is a great deale of danger although they bee sick of disease which might bee cured by vomit Such are they that are fat those that are strait brested many slender persons who have weak stomacks such as are subject to a Cough or difficulty of breathing which have Tumours or Ulcers in their brests they that have weak heads and eyes and such as are troubled with the inflammation or pain in the Midriffe Secondly the time of the yeare is to be considered for it is not convenient at every time of the yeare Thirdly the nature of the diseases for in some diseases it doth more hurt than good and in those wherein it may doe good it must not yet be alwayes used and therfore the founder of the Cup is mistaken when he saith that that the Cup is good for all the diseases which stand in need of purging as we shall manifest afterwards Fourthly the constitution of diseases for it cannot bee administred at all times of diseases without danger to the Patient The Physician must consider in all Evacuations the beginning increasing state of the disease much more in a vomit Fifthly great care is to bee had of preparing the body and the humours and many things are to be regarded both before the vomit and in the very act of vomiting which are not to be handled in this place So as there is no evacuation which requires so much consideration as that which is done by vomit Now seeing these things can be knowne only by a Physician and that not every one but by a very learned and skilfull man I cannot but wonder at the adventurous rashnesse of some men yea and women who being unread in the rules of Physick grossely ignorant both of Diseases and their causes their times and not knowing the method of Curing dare neverthelesse vex and torment such a noble subject as Mans body with variety of medicines Secondly perswade unto vomit the most dangerous and difficult evacuation of all other Thirdly provoke it with a Minerall which is most contrary to nature Fourthly To doe it with Antimonie then which no Minerall is more churlish And Lastly to use that preparation of it which is the very worst of all Not that I doe altogether dislike the use of Antimonie for I have often used it with good successe but better prepared But especially the founder of the Cup is to be blamed for selling such a cheap medicine at so deare a rate the right use whereof hee doth neither teach the people nor I think he himselfe knowes And therefore I have known many who by taking the infusion of it have been grievously tormented and some that have dyed who despising the counsell of Phisicans have preposterously used it For Physick although it bee in its owne nature very good and is the hand of God yet it is but like a sword in the hand of a mad man as we have said in another place out of Herophilus Of the Founder of the Cup and the Authors cited by him AS for the Founder of the Cup he professes himselfe a Minister and Preacher of Gods Word that is a man that will scorn to deceive any body and will not meddle beyond his knowledge and therefore without question he hath brought us a very Soveraign
of Paracelsus Quercetanus and others and hath indifferently put in true or false whatsoever he found written so I will not give a straw for his opinion when he commends the Antimony against diseases which none of them did ever cure For Bornettus I know him well he wrote his Booke being very young and I do not think he believes that the French Pox and the Leprosie may be cured by those meanes Thus I have sifted all the authorities of this man in the behalfe of his Cup which prove only that Antimony is an excellent Medicine powerfull in operation and too powerfull in deed but that the Cup is the pure essence of it none of them say nor will any man that hath any skill in Chymistry ever affirme Besides he brings some Physicians living and some very well knowne to me but the greatest part I know not who as hee saith have approved his Cup I will make a good interpretation of their judgment for without question the infusion of his Cup will will worke and such bodies might bee met withall in which it hath so powerfully wrought that being able to beare it they have received much good by it but that they have said that his Cup was better and safer then other preparations of Antimony or then other purging medicines and that a woman having bought it hath also gained knowledge when and in what diseases to apply it I will not wrong their judgement so much as to believe it Of the vertues of the Cup. NOw to come to the vertues of the Cup he makes a great list of all the diseases for which it is good naming almost all diseases that have need of purging from head to foot without distinction of the severall causes of them the Cup is good for them because it purges and by the same reason all purging medicines may doe the like and are good for the same diseases for nature hath provided variety of remedies some strong some weaker of all sorts that the Physician may chuse what he thinks most fit for his Patient for one and the same remedy in the same disease is not fit for every one When we read the Books of Alchymists they commend other remedies as much as Antinomy for the same diseases But let us a little consider some particular diseases named in his Pamphlet which I doe except against It cures perfectly the French Pox the Kings evill the Falling sickness as he saith in the 9 10 and 13th Mark which is false nay I say more it is a very grosse mistake and rash boldness in him or any man to prescribe the infusion of this cup in the Plague small Pox spotted Fever and Purples for all violent medicines that draw the venemous humours of these diseases within the body which nature doth expell to the circumference doe work against the rules of art It is also false that any vomit is good for the Pleurisie and so I say the like of a Consumption If the Founder of this Cup had well knowne the nature of these diseases hee would never have said so Indeed where nature hath need of purging or vomiting this Cup may serve observing all that is to be considered in the use of those evacuations for we doe not deny that it will work but this we say that it being the worst and unsafest preparation of all others it is better to use some other then it and all those diseases that he brings experience for leaving out those that have been killed by it might have been performed by other vomits made out of the Antimony or other simples working the same effect Of the manner of using the Cup. NOw the manner of using the Cup shewes the weaknesse of the man he bids to put the Cup into a pot and cover it with liquor to be above the Cup an inch or two then to boyle it gently for two houres and so to keep it warm for twelve houres then to take a cup full of it or more and the quantity of his liquor is a pinte of wine for two yet it workes better sayes he if two or three cup-fuls be taken and he is bold to say that it works without any violence gives counsell if it should work three or four dayes together not to stop it and in the end to beware of counterfeit Cups Here are as many errours as words First it is needlesse to shape the Regulus into a Cup seeing the Wine is not to be infused in the Cup but the Cup in the Wine in an earthen pot Is not a little lump of the same Regulus without any particular shape as good as a Cup of it And if one doe steepe it will it not think you infuse its vertues into the liquor as well as the Cup and best of all if it were in powder But thus the Regulus had been bought too cheap but we must have it a Cup or a Ring forsooth to make the people beleeve it is not an ordinary thing Secondly being thus prepared by boyling makes the drink look so distastfully and makes it to lose its vertue so as if a child hath need of halfe a pint a strong man of two or three as he sayes Let the Reader goe to an Apothearies Shop in any part of the Kingdome there he may finde Stibium which is Antimony in glasse of this let him take six graines weight let them steep closely in two or three spoonefuls of white-wine and it will be every whit as pure as it was without any taste and it will worke as well and more safely but if you feare the Stibium not without cause take as much of the Regulus out of which he makes his Cup use it as I have said and it will worke in as little quantity Yea steep the cup in a quart of wine close without any fire for a fortnight give but two or three ounces of that Wine and it will work with a better effect Thirdly that it workes without any violence it is not so for I know many that have taken it who have been grievously tormented with it and this is common to all vomits yea even when they are provoked by the strength of nature 4ly it is a pernicious counsell to suffer a superpurgation and Physick to work so long if it happen well in some strong bodies it is not to be thought that it will do so in every one The Last to beware of counterfeit Cups is to keep the people continually bound to him for saith he if it bee broken bring it to him in weight and for ten shillings he will give you a new one This is the best trick of all his Booke a pound of Antimony unprepared is hardly worth above six pence in the Druggisters Shop for 12 pence or 18 pence more of that pound one may have halfe a pound and more of this Regulus what at the casting of it into a Cup is worth let any body judge in very deed three Cups of 4 or 5 ounces