Meth. med 12. confirms this saying that such diseases are in those that are stuffed with gross clammy food that is cold when the wind in the tunicles of the guts cannot get forth For the tunicles are double and the humour being between them is turned into wind it is gross and cold and of slow motion When it is detained it stretcheth the tunicles and the juyce whence it comes cools the guts it toucheth and they are doubly afflicted By these instances it is plain that wind by its coldness can make a similary disease that consists in distemper and also the solution of unity For there is pain and stretching of the tunicles which cannot be without laceration For there are two universal causes of pain one is an unequal distemper which comes suddenly and another when continuity is dissolved For parts dissolved by a humour or wind are pained by the separation Because if Hippocrates say cold is biting to Ulcers for no other cause but it contracts and condenseth and constringeth all parts it toucheth and so twitcheth the soft parts of the continuity and dissolves it Also if in acute fevers nervous bodies are most dried and therefore have Convulsion and if too much repletion that pulls it up and down and makes it shorter and so separates continuity how much more difficulty of solution of continuity will wind cause which for that only cause produce such strange Symptoms that require the whole care of a Physitian Thirdly it will appear by what follows that the whole Abdomen or Panch swells by wind as in a Tympany and the Liver and Spleen are wonderfully stopt thereby and hard as a Schirrhus and swollen as also the stomach and all these are instrumental diseases therefore organical diseases are also from wind Also Galen de diff morb saith when any part is swollen and so its passage stopt if that part hath no proper operation that stoppage is only called a disease but the tumour is not but only is the cause of obstruction But if the part affected hath any proper office then the obstruction and the tumour of the part are both diseases Therefore the three sorts of diseases distemper of simple parts and disorder of instrumental and solution of united parts are from wind CHAP. VIII Of the Causes of Wind. THere are few or none in the world but are troubled sometimes with winds for the stomach which is the Kitchin for the first concoction attracts the meat by the Gullet as by a long hand and embraceth and keepeth it and changeth it separating the pure from the impure casting the one into the guts but the Meseraick veins sucking the other carry it to the Liver When the stomach through weakness embraceth not the food attracted nor contains it it rumbles and tosseth about and then it cannot well concoct For it must be strong as Galen saith which consists in an excellent temper of the four qualities by which it turns the food into the proper quality of that which is nourished by help of the bowels about it the Heart Liver Spleen Reins Midriff which lye about the stomach as a great fire under a Caldron But sometimes a bad diet for none can be always punctual in the rules or some external force dissolves its strength or weakens the fire and then the virtue of the stomach abates and it alters according to the greatness or smalness of the cause Also outward cold as in cold Countries and in Northern winds piercing to the inward parts in thin and weak bodies offends the native heat Also too hot Air casts out disperseth the natural heat and takes it from the bowels and then concoction is hindered and wind bred But strong natural heat overcoming for the most part things comprehended by it extenuateth the meat more then that it can produce vapours except it be of its nature windy For the stomach though strong and force of Nature flourisheth and the heat not decayed is offended often by food that is proper to breed wind Therefore all Physick and food that is properly by its nature windy or by its coldness or multitude dissolves the strength of the stomach and oppresseth its natural heat is the cause of wind as Pulse raw Corn and Fruits All these Galen de alim fac lib. 2. saith and such as we eat before they are ripe are windy but they are soon digested therefore he argues thus in the beginning of that Book All the food mentioned in the first Book were the seeds of Plants little differing from fruits But all horary fruits are windy and all seeds more or less And boil Beans as much as you will they are windy some add Onions to prevent it because hot and attenuating things correct wind But fry them or any other pulse and they are not windy but very hard of concoction and pass away slowly and make gross juyce But any way dressed they swell the body He that will observe the distempers that follow every sort of food shall perceive a stretching of the whole body as by a wind after eating of Beans chiefly if he have not used to eat them formerly or eat up not well boiled Pease though like Beans are not so windy These are with us plentiful and usual and therefore we perceive less the hurt they do For what we eat freely and with pleasure the stomach embraceth closer and retains better and digests easier Fetches are windy also but few desire them it is good with any of these to boil Calamints Onions Dill or Pennyroyal Lentils puffe up the stomach and guts Also all Summer-fruits are like these for they are crude and full of excrements and unprofitable juyce especially when not ripe they are also flegmatick and windy Also if immoderately taken by their cold and moisture they abate the natural heat so that the stomach cannot discuss the wind it raiseth Mulberries and Plums are the worst of these chiefly green and after meat All sorts of Cherries chiefly the Spanish Cherries and Melones Pompions Cucumbers Gourds Apples Pears are alike but boiled they are less windy chiefly if eaten with seeds or hot and dry extenuaters or expellers of wind Anise or Coriander Figs saith Galen lib. de aliment nourish more then other autumnal fruits but are windy but the wind soon vanisheth because they are laxative Chesnuts eaten plentifully cause Headach swell the belly bind it and are hard of concoction Also Roots Turneps Radishes and the like are windy and Corn Milium Wheat chiefly boiled Barley but Rapes and Radishes are most windy All Fish are the like flegmatick and windy chiefly the great and the less that are slimy as the Eel and Salmon Lamprey Tench chiefly if boiled broiled or fryed they are not so windy chiefly if the flesh be soft as the Brook-fish Though Celsus lib. 2. c. 26. saith they are not windy All Pulse and fat meats do swell with wind and sweet things and Broths new Wine Also Garlick Coleworts Onions and all Roots except a
the native heat through the body concoct humours and make the members active for their duties loofens the belly and sends forth wind so powerfully that there is no remedy like it and nothing safer nor better then seasonable exercise with a spare diet Eat therefore little and that with mustard or other attenuating and heating sauce except the constitution be sanguine or cholerick Sage Hysop Savory Fennel Marjoram Pennyroyal Calamints are to be used and roasted meat with Spices Sage or Rosemary Let his bread be well leavened and with Fennel Anise Parsley or Gith seeds His Wine strong when wind breeds from weak heat If the body be cholerick or plethorick drink little wine and that with water Let the powders following be taken after meat presently they do very much good They strengthen and constringe the stomach and suffer not the vapours of the food to flye into the head stir up the natural heat quicken concoction digest the Chyle drive excrements downwards and discuss wind exceedingly As Take Aniseeds candied three ounces Fennel seed an ounce and half Coriander prepared an ounce Cummin Caraway Seseli steept in white Wine each a dram dryed Citron peel gross Cinnamon each four scruples white Sugar twice as much Take a spoonful after meat and drink not after Or thus Take Coriander prepared Caraway Aniseeds each an ounce red Roses Mastich each a dram and half dryed Mints a dram Nutmeg Cinnamon Cubebs each half a dram make a fine Powder and add Sugar of Roses eight ounces give a spoonful after meat At night when concoction is almost finished chew Elicampane candied or Ginger a dram and swallow it or Gentian roots or Masterwort candied Cubebs or two or three grains of white Pepper only broken they wonderfully help a slow weak concoction and expel wind and they do the like in the morning fasting after going to stool If the belly be bound give Lenitives as three drams of Turpentine washed in white Wine in Wafers before dinner or half a dram of Rhubarb chewed and swallowed or a scruple of washed Aloes an hour afore supper or Carthamus seeds husked with Figs I allow not Cassia it is windy Thus much for Diet if it be tedious and do not cure take these medicines CHAP. XIII Of the common Cure of windy Diseases SOme will wonder that I shall order the cure of Symptoms mentioned which of themselves admit no Cure But we do it for the profit of the Reader For he that discusseth wind takes away the cause he that corrects the distemper and mends the faults in conformation and restores the solution of unity cures the disease But he that cures the pains that come from the diseases looks at the Symptoms Therefore we have called windy Diseases Symptoms looking at the pains they produce for the better method and then we have ordered the mitigation of Symptoms and the Cure of Diseases The knowledge of the disease gives the indication of cure The disease is the distraction of the parts by wind that stretcheth them which pain doth follow as a shadow and the disease vanisheth with the cause and the parts come to their old natural habit Therefore diseases from wind are to be cured by three sorts of remedies 1. By diet that is attenuating hot and dry 2. By medicines that open obstructions and cut gross clammy matter and purge which you shall find in every Chapter 3. The discussing of wind speedily before the strength abate by pain which is done by medicines of thin parts which if there be pain will abate it and strengthen the weak heat and extenuate the thick spirit and open the thickness of parts Also according to the difference of parts the medicines must be altered because the faculty is stronger or weaker CHAP. XIV Of the Cure of the Pain of the Head from Wind. WInd tyranizeth in divers places as Galen de compos med secund loc lib. 2. saith wind breeds in the stomach and guts for want of heat sometimes from the nature of the food and the organs are so filled and puffed up by reason of the weakness of the comprehensive faculty that they stretch and thereby have pain the same may be in parts of the head for a vapour or clammy humour that feeds it may be so fixed in the strait passages of the Brain that it will require a long cure First therefore whether it be wind alone in the passages which is known from the motion of the pain from place to place and by stretching without heaviness and beating or if there be much flegm that feeds it and so there is heaviness with stretching and sense of cold or if it flye to the head from parts below it is much concerned as to the cure Yet we begin in all windy diseases the same way partly by revelling from the head to the body partly by applying remedies to the part affected we revel by Clysters and Purges You may make Clysters thus Take Mallows Mercury red Coleworts Calaminth each half a handful Chamomil flowers Bran each a pugil Boil them to a pint and half add Diacatholicon red Sugar each an ounce and half Species Hierae simple two drams Oyl of Dill three ounces Salt a little make a Clyster Give it before meat not luke-warm for such things puff up but hot and that by degrees lest by force it drive the wind more upwards and cause more pain This is an excellent medicine which without trouble opens obstructions and empties out the hard dung and wind and draws it from the head After this give one of the Carminatives or Wind-breakers Take Althaea roots two ounces Mallows Calamints Pennyroyal Rue Sage each a handful flowers of Chamomil Stoechas Rosemary each a pugil Anise and wild Rue seeds and Cubebs each three drams Coloquintida a dram Boil them to a pint strained add Electuary of Dates an ounce Hiera Logodii two drams red Sugar an ounce and half Oyl of Rue three ounces Sal Gem a dram give it before meat It revels strongly from the head expels wind with the excrements But if the Piles or distast will not allow a Clyster give this Laxative in Costiveness Take Diacatholicon an ounce species Hierae simple a dram with Sugar make a Bolus or a Potion Take Lenitive Electuary six drams Electuary of the juyce of Roses a dram Syrup of Rose solutive an ounce and half dissolve them in the decoction of Flowers and Cordial Fruits After Laxatives if the head be full of gross humours give potions that attenuate and cut of Hysop Pennyroyal Calamints Sage French Lavender and Rosemary-flowers with Syrup of Stoechas Honey of Rosemary Or Take Hysop Sage Calamints each a handful flowers of Stoechas Rosemary Chamomil each a pugil male Piony-seeds an ounce Anise Carrot Parsley-seeds each two drams Boil and to a pint strained add Syrup of Stoechas Honey of Rosemary each an ounce and half Cinnamon a dram make an Apozem for divers draughts The humours thus prepared and the wind attenuated at least
A New and Needful TREATISE OF SPIRITS and WIND Offending Mans Body Wherein are discovered their Nature Causes and Effects By the Learned Dr. Fienus And Englished By William Rowland A. M. For the Improvement of Physick and more speedy Cure of Diseases LONDON Printed by J. M. for Benjamin Billingsley and Obadiah Blagrave at the Sign of the Printing-Press at Gresham-Colledge-gate near the Church in Broad-street 1668. To the Royal Society the Virtuosi SInce the Evening preceded the Morning in the account of the first Day and the most precious of Lights sprung out of Darkness as it much countenances thâ—â—… Philosophers Privation and their Veritatem in puteo so it seemeth to tax their presumption who speak frequently of the Light seldom of the Darkness that is in them Whilst you the true Off-spring of the first and purest Virtue in your noble and masculine Humility though you had very large Accomplishments to boast of deemed it your highest Glory to obtain a Royal Commission from the most Heroick Spirit of England to dig unitedly for Truth and Knowledge as for hidden Treasure And this not like those envious Monasticks who what they found would ever have confined soly to their reclused Cells but most ingeniously for dispersing of it to the Universal Benefit of all Mankind without exception If then small things may hold Resemblance with greater and the least Addition of Knowledge to your own Country cannot but be matter of rejoycing to your goodness I shall not cease to hope but this Translation and Contribution of this kind of knowledge to the English and its humble Dedication will have a fair and kind Acceptation with your Wisdoms Not in the least supposing either the Subject being of Wind and Spirits or this Discourse can be strangers to your general reading but some what to stir up your joynt and inspective minds to the advancement of these Studies to farther degrees of Perfection and if possible to reduce them to the needful use of Physick Not only all Diseases Pains and Distempers being of late imputed to venomous Spirits generated in Mans Body but their Cure also to the efficacy of those undescernable forces in Nature benigne Spirits But may some reflect what must we now dig for Winds as for hidden Treasures Seriously you may without disparagement it being no Solecism to admit of Flatum as well as Veritatem in puteo And indeed in the sense of this worthy Author Where may not you find them Or is it not rather a question What can be performed without them Or rather if once throughly understood in their various differences and properties What may not be done by their assistance And that the Spirit of Spirits may constantly be your guide shall ever be the earnest desires of the Admirer of your generous Aims and Intentions William Rowland A New and Excellent TREATISE OF Wind Offending Mans Body In which is described the Nature Causes and Symptoms of Wind Together with Its speedy and easie Remedy By W. R. M. D. LONDON Printed by J. M. for Benjamin Billingsley and Obadiah Blagrave at the Sign of the Printing-Press at Gresham-Colledge-gate near the Church in Broad-street 1668. To all those whose Bodies are troubled with Wind or any Diseases caused thereby IT is confessed by all that no temporal Blessing is better then Health therefore it is to be admired that most men should so much slight and neglect it the worth whereof if we consider we must say with the Poet Amphion O blessed Health with thee 't is ever spring And without thee there is no pleasant thing She is the cherisher of all Wisdom Science and Arts and the only solace that we find in this troublEsom life By the presence of health all humane actions and strength of body beauty riches and whatsoever is esteemed among men do flourish she failing by malignity of evil causes all other things fail which were before in request and a disease follows which is the fore-runner of death Now who can expel a disease but by avoiding and excluding the causes that breed and feed it nor can the causes be avoided or excluded before they are known Therefore the chief way to cure a disease is to know the causes And if we carefully consider them it will appear that no thing in the whole world is more miserable then man and if you except his diviner part the Soul nothing is more frail and obnoxious to the injuries of all things For what is there in the whole Creation by which a man is not assailed and opposed and sometimes hurt For the Heavens and the Stars by their conversions and malignant aspects bring plagues heats and extreme colds and divers inconveniences to Mankind And the Elements are plainly perceived to be more injurious then they For the Air hath been infinite ways pernicious to Mankind as by Hail Rain Storms Thunder and Lightning And the Earth by terrible motions and quaking and opening of it self and by breathing forth pestilent vapours from its Dens and Caverns And the Water with stinking vapours from Inundations Fens and standing Pools And the Fire also by many Conflagrations Moreover all sorts of living Creatures by one unanimous consent seek the destruction of Mankind nor are the Herbs Shrubs and Trees with their fruit freed from that pernicious Spirit Besides all these as if they could not do mischief enough to Mankind man himself is enemy to himself by Thefts Brabling Murther and Wars and many innumerable wicked actions And which is worst of all man is so cruel to his own Nature and so mad that he torments his weak body by inordinate lusts daily and nightly riotings and surfeits so that he runs head-long into all manner of diseases and defiles his divine part the Soul and brings the wrath of God upon himself Therefore he said well that compared mans life to a warfare upon the Earth Hence it is that wise men to oppose so many mischiefs desired nothing more then to invent some Art to preserve them and theirs from the injuries of the things mentioned and free them from diseases Therefore Apollo gave noble Principles at first to the Art of Physick which were after celebrated by Aesculapius and then by Machaon and Podaleirius so that all did highly esteem them as Homer writes The learn'd Physitian that can cure well Doth all Professions in the world excel The Sons of Aesculapius delivered this Art to their Posterity not by writing but by traditional instruction to the time of Hippocrates Hippocrates that came from Hercules and Aesculapius grew so excellent in Physick that he got great Renown by his Works in Coos and among the Thessalians and Athenians that gave him divine honour next unto Hercules He was the first that committed this Art to writing and left us his Works which Galen purged from thorns and weeds and put it into such Order and Method that he made it almost compleat But nothing in the world of this sort can be so exact that
and apply it Or this Take Cow-dung two pound Sulphur Cummin each three ounces with Honey make a Cataplasm I have cured many Children by often heating them against the fire and with dry Fomentations with hot clouts often applied CHAP. XXVII Of Priapismus taken out of Aetius I Shall add nothing of mine own because I never cured this disease and none writes shorter and better of it as Galen lib. 4. meth saith He saith that Priapismus is a standing of the Yard swelling in length and breadth without lust from heat and wind with pain It is called Priapismus from Priapus the Satyre who is painted with such a Yard as natural It is from the mouths of the Veins and Arteries stretched in the Privities or from wind Galen saith it is from both but oftnest from the Orifices dilated Some have it from want of Venery having much seed and that used Venery and abstain from it and do not by much exercise abate the blood It chiefly comes to such as dream of Venereal fancies and the pain is like the Cramp for the Yard is as in a Convulsion being pufft up and stretched and they dye suddenly except cured and then the belly is swollen and there is a cold sweat as in other Convulsions when they dye Therefore against the pain and inflammation presently open a Vein and use a small Diet three days and foment the parts about and the Yard with Wool dipt in Wine and Oyl give a gentle Clyster not sharp and feed him with a little Corn and Water If it last long cup and scarifie if there be much blood use Leeches to the part and Cataplasms of Barley flour loosen the belly with Beets Mallows and Mercury boiled And give the Decoction of Shell-fish use no strong Purges and beware of Diureticks or provokers of urine Use Corn-food that attenuates gently without manifest heating Lay Coolers to the Loyns as Nightshade Purslane Housleek Henbane Let the space between the Fundament and the Yard be cooled with Litharge of Silver Fullers Earth Ceruss Vinegar and Water A Cerot of Rose-Oyntment washed often in cold Water and applied to the Loyns and Privities doth much good He must lye upon one side and lay under him things against the emission of Sperm And he must see no Venereal pictures nor hear no wanton discourse CHAP. XXVIII Of an Inflation or windy Impostume INflations come from Wind under the skin or the Membranes of the Bones or Muscles or gathered in fleshy parts Now as Aegineta saith it is either from the thickness of the members or grossness of the wind A gross vapour distends the place that contains it by its plenty and makes a tumour not such as is loose or will yield to the finger when pressed or pit like an Oedema The common way of Cure of these tumors is to evacuate what is preternatural wheresoever contained Now it cannot be evacuated except that which is gross be relaxed and the thickness of the vapour be extenuated Both are done by Extenuaters and things potentially hot I have shewed that Oyl which is of an extenuating quality wherein Rue or hot Seeds are boiled doth cure the stomach and other bowels stretched by wind Now I shall shew how other parts as Joynts and Muscles or Membranes about the Bones are cured when stretched with wind This is sometimes with pain sometimes without and that from a single cause namely a weak heat or a contusion For an inflation without pain according to Galen lib. 4. meth a Lixivium with a new Sponge will cure it As Take Rain-water or Wine let Ashes of a Fig-tree or Juniper be infused therein twenty four hours Or thus Take Bay-berries Orris roots each an ounce Bay leaves Rosemary Nip each a handful Lavender flowers a pugil Cummin six drams Boil them in Water to half in four pints infuse ashes of Fig-tree Beans or Coleworts foment therewith with a new Sponge hot It cleanseth drys consumes and discusseth wind and the tumour If there be pain use no Lixivium for by sharpness it will increase it but use relaxing Oyls as that of Dill Rue or Chamomil If Diseases come from Contusions when the Muscle or the Membrane of the Bone is bruised then lay the Sponge aforesaid upon the Membrane of the Bone But when the Muscles are pained use a more mitigating or asswaging Remedy To these we use not Lixivium alone but add to it boiled Wine and Oyl It is best at the first to use no Lixivium but Wine and a little Vinegar and Oyl with Wooll to foment the part And if pain be great use more Abaters or Asswagers of it If there be no pain oppose the Inflation by stronger Medicines as Lixivium Vinegar and then Wine And when you are not to asswage pain put in more Lixivium and Vinegar For such Inflations as by neglect are worse first use things made of a Lixivium then some Plaister such as that which is made of Sweat from mens bodies But the use of that being forgotten in our Age we order instead of it the Plaister of Bay-berries or this Take Melilot Plaister and that of Bay-berries each three drams Nitre Cummin Sulphur unslak'd Lime Salt each a scruple Oyl of Bayes and Wax as much as will make a Plaister If the wind that makes this Inflation be smoak-like evil and corrupt and from a venomous matter with great pain and heat running through the members it is best when it is setled to tye the part above and beneath and to open the Inflation with a Lancet or hot Iron that the venomous vapor may get out Then fill the Orifice with Aloes and Bole Armenick dissolved in Oyl of Roses and Vinegar After three or four days fill the wound with flesh and heal it up And in this case of a venomous Inflation use a slender diet and purge and give a little Treacle sometimes HItherto Courteous Reader I have shewed according to my abilities the Nature and Effects of Winds and the Diseases from them and their Cures for the good of the Ignorant and help of the Diseased and that learned and ingenious persons may take occasion from hence to write better Therefore take it in good part for it was written for profit to all not for contention If you accept of these first fruits expect better hereafter The CONTENTS of the Chapters of this Book CHap. 1. That Flatus is a Spirit and of the Division of Spirits Fol. 1 Chap. 2. Of the Analogy or Proportion of Flatus with Wind. 4 Chap. 3. What the Wind in Man is 9 Chap. 4. Of the Place where Wind is bred 10 Chap. 5. Of the Manner how Wind is bred in the Body 13 Chap. 6. Of the Differences of Wind bred in the Body 16 Chap. 7. How many Kinds of Diseases are produced by Wind. 18 Chap. 8. Of the Causes of Wind. 21 Chap. 9. Of the Signs of Wind. 30 Chap. 10. Of the Symptoms coming from Wind 33 Chap. 11. Of the Prognosticks of Wind. 52 Chap.
to the finger and the spleen is pricked and extended but without heaviness and it comes sooner When vulgar Physitians understand not these two tumours of both Liver and Spleen how blindly do they go to work with thousands of Juleps and they protract the cure that they may be largely rewarded and when they have done more hurt then good they affirm it to be a Schirrus and from Galen incurable But they are very ignorant for this cloudy wind fixed on the bowel in time by the natural heat somentations fasting an extenuating and hot diet given by women and Empericks being discussed the humour vanisheth and the pain also and the foolish Doctors contemned I exhort therefore the ingenious that love their honour and the truth to search narrowly and learn to know Symptoms from those of other diseases It is hard but excellent For many Patients as ready to dye for pain cry out only from wind which if corrupted and come from a putrid and venomous matter and run through the members with intolerable pain needs an exact Artist to know the wind and the matter producing it and distinguish the disease from others To this belongs the Tympany Dropsie when wind gets into the membranes of the belly with pain and so into the spaces Hippocrates Aph. 2. Sect. 4. speaks of this thus They that have pain about the Navel and Loyns that will not be cured by medicines will have a dry Dropsie There are three sorts of Dropsies Anasarca Ascites and Tympanides which Hippocrates calls the dry Dropsie Anasarca is a preternatural increase of the bulk of the body here the feet swell first at night chiefly after exercise or when they have long hung down they pit with the finger the body is all soft loose and pale weak and tired with the least pains it is like the Green-sickness in women only the Dropsie swells the body but in the other there is paleness and trembling of the heart in motion and shortness of wind going up stairs and the body is heavy and sluggish The cause is the same in both too much cooling of the Liver and Veins The Liver cooled the sanguification is hurt then comes crude and watry blood which taken into the hollow vein goes over all the body and there is Anasarca and if the water from the Liver stretch the skin without there will be bladders If these break the water gets into that part of the Peritonaeum which is by the lower belly and then there is the second kind of Dropsie called Ascites With this by degrees the belly is filled and it swells unmeasurably the skin being loosned and the rest of the body pines away If the body or the belly be turned the water makes a noise But in a Tympany there is no fluctuation of water but the sound of a drum when you strike or fillip the belly with your finger For Galen aph 12. sect 4. saith in these the air is beaten which is contained by the skin as in this kind of disease the wind is struck by the skin which is below Cold of the bowels and veins is cause of all these Dropsies The Ascites or watry Dropsie is from more cold the Tympany from less for water cannot be turned to wind without heat Great thirst follows all chiefly Ascites and Tympany the first because the water is salt and putrefied that is detained and the other because there is seldom wind alone in the belly without water which putrefies also the wind takes away the moisture of the stomach and then it is dry and desires drink This is thirst the desire of moist and cold or both In externals we see that though the Earth be very wet with rain yet when wind comes it dryes it wonderfully in a short time and consumes the moisture The same is done in the body for one in a Tympany hath a thirst beyond Tantalus the more he drinks the more he may and to satisfie the enemy in his bowels he destroys himself with much drink Also they in the Colick thirst from the same cause Also wind swells the Cods and the Womb it gets by invisible passages into the cavity of them or after Child-birth by the Orifice of the womb or after bathing or fomenting or it breeds there from some other cause and there is straitned and so it stretcheth the womb If the stretching be in the upper part of the womb by force of the wind sent thither it ascends and goes to the Midriff and stomach and lyes like a ball there and oppresseth it Hence it is often driven down by the hands or fists or by other solid bodies into its proper place But if either side of the womb be distended or stretcht more then the rest it gets by a Convulsion into the right or left Croyn the Pecten and the lower belly are blown up and pained sometimes a noise is heard all over the body there is belching and swelling of the Loyns and pain in the Reins and Hips and when the belly is smitten with the fingers there is a sound like a drum and the wind breaks forth at the mouth of the womb Soranus said this was called a flatuous cold As wind gets into the womb of a woman so it gets into the Cods of a man with a disease or without and is a disease by it self I have seen in a Tympany the Cods of a man swollen as big as a Hogs bladder For the wind which at first was only in the membranes of the Abdomen and Peritonaeum being now increased and requiring great space breaks them and gets into the Cods and fills also the whole body Wind also extends the Cods without a disease in man and chiefly new born children and makes the Hernia called Pneumatocele or windy Rupture Sometimes it gets within the common membrane of the stones and puffs up all the Cods alike but when it gets between the tunicles of either stone called Erythroides and Dartos then one side of the Cod is only tumified This tumour is transparent and not heavy as that of You may try it in the dark with a Wax-candle held on the part opposite to your view Priapismus a Symptom of the Yard hath two causes one is the fulness of the Arteries of the Privities the other is wind bred in the fistulous Nerve This fills the Nerve so that it swells and makes the Yard stand without a venereous desire Galen meth med 12. saith there is another kind of Priapism when the Yard extends against desire For the Nerve that makes the proper substance of the Yard being hollow and filled with wind causeth it So Priapism is a permanent enlargement of the Yard in length and thickness without desire of Venery and wind is the cause as appears by its quick rise and sudden fall which no humour could make But Palpitation goes before this Priapism of wind but not before that which is from the dilatation of the Artery We have shewed how wind fills the internal
boil them and to a pint add Electuary Ind. maj Hiera Logodii each four drams Honey of Roses two ounces Oyl of Bayes three ounces Electuary of Bayes two drams make a Clyster If they will not take Clysters give Pills of washed Aloes of Hiera aureae Cochic after preparation and abatement of pain But if pain be great and the matter small omit preparation and evacuation and fall upon that which most disturbeth therefore asswage pain speedily apply a small Cupping-glass without much flame twice or thrice to the shoulder then take Gith Cummin seed Pellitory and Parsley roots each half an ounce boil them in Wine to the consumption of half wash the teeth with it hot it will discuss and attenuate and amend the cold distemper and draw out much slimy matter which breeds wind Or boil Pellitory roots half an ounce white Pepper a dram in Vinegar and wash the mouth therewith or you may make a Bag and apply it to the Tooth thus Take Calamints Hysop Chamomil each a handful Milium parched Bran Salt each a pugil Cummin half an ounce make a Bag. Then put a red hot Iron into an earthen Jug and pour into it three or four spoonfuls of Vinegar and let the Bag take the Fume at the mouth of the Jug The Women hold it for a great Secret to apply a roasted Turnep behind the Ears for it revels strongly and abates pain to my knowledge I never allowed Narcoticks in this Disease for they thicken the wind too much and make it fix like a cloud upon the Nerves and roots of the Teeth and congealing makes a little ease but increaseth the Disease But if the pain be intolerable to refresh Nature you must use Narcoticks with hot things to abate their force and look both at the Symptom and cause Thus Take Pellitory Pepper each a scruple Opium half a scruple bind them in a Clout and infuse them two or three hours in Vinegar and apply it to the Tooth Or Take Henbane seed Stavesacre and Pellitory each a scruple and with Vinegar make a Pill hold it at the Tooth for an hour it abates pain wonderfully and doth no hurt yet I could wish that only Discussers might remove pain CHAP. XVII Of the Cure of a windy Pleurisie THe pain is great which is from wind in the side when it gets into the cavity of the Breast or between the Membranes that are under the Ribs for then as in a true Pleurisie there is a Cough restlesness and sometimes a Fever thirst and stretching pain which may be distinguished from a true Pleurisie by many signs yet Hippocrates for better security bids us soment with hot things and if the pain increase it is certainly from a defluxion and chiefly of hot matter if it abate it is from wind or a small defluxion which easily breaks forth when the skin is made thinner by the Fomentation It is not good to use Fomentations only but to give Clysters to make passage for the wind for in this disease the excrements are hard by idleness or driness when the moisture is gone to the veins or from much flegm that is gross which stops the passages therefore give a common Clyster first then a stronger to purget see the precedent Chapter If he will not take a Clyster give this Medicine Take Diacatholicon four drams Electuary of Dates two drams species Hierae s half a dram with Sugar make a Bole. Or give this Powder in Cock-broth or Wine Take Senna four scruples Rhubarb half a scruple Diagredium two grains Aromaticum rosatum eight grains Sugar a sufficient quantity After Evacuation open the Liver-vein on the side affected if there be much blood or great pain otherwise not then use Fomentations and the like to the part Take Calamints Pennyroyal Rosemary each one handful Rae Bayes each half a handful Juniper berries and Chamomil flowers each a pugil seeds of Foenugreek Line and Bran each three ounces Boil them to half then put the Liquour and Herbs in a Bladder and apply them or use a Cloth or a Sponge dipt in it do this often This concocts the thick and crude spirit extenuates and discusseth after this anoint with Oyl of Chamomil or bitter Almonds and apply a hot cloth Or make a Bag of Rue Thyme Wormwood Lavender Rosemary Chamomil Gith seed Cummin Carrot Bay-berries as in Chap. 16. When the wind is thus discussed it is good to apply a great Cupping-glass six fingers breadth below the part without Scarification but with a great flame twice or thrice this will discuss the wind easier it would not at first be discussed by a Cupping-glass If this will not do but the wind is bred still from clammy flegm prepare it thus by Inciders and Extenuaters Take roots of Orris Parsley Elicampane each an ounce bark of Dwarf-elder roots and of Tamarisk each four drams Sage Rosemary Hysop Roman Wormwood each half a handful Dodder a handful of the four great hot Seeds each two drams Raisons stoned a pugil Liquorish four drams boil them to half to a pint strained add Syrup of the five Roots two ounces of French Lavender Oxymel of Squills each an ounce and Sugar and a dram and half of Cinnamon make an Apozem for four draughts to be taken twice a day Then purge flegm thus Take Agarick four scruples Ginger half a dram infuse them in Fennel-water and white Wine twelve hours strain and add Benedicta laxativa three drams Electuary of the juyce of Roses half a dram Syrup of Calamints an ounce Or Take Turbith a dram Ginger half a dram Sugar two drams give it in powder with white Wine or Broth. Afterwards repeat the Fomentations Oyntments and Cupping-glasses and use Diacyminum or Electuary of Bay-berries or this Confection Take Conserve of Borage flowers candied Elicampane each half an ounce species of Diacyminum Dianisi Bay-berries each a scruple Cinnamon half a scruple with Syrup of Citron peels make an Electuary give a dram fasting in a decoction of Chamomil flowers and Aniseeds in white Wine It is good also to foment with Spirit of Wine and Oyl of bitter Almonds and apply a hot clout You must do the like in inflations of the Lungs CHAP. XVIII Of the Cure of a windy Palpitation A Palpitation is a Symptom of the Heart namely an elevation and depression of it preternaturally caused by wind and it is more dangerous then another palpitation because the part is most noble For if it be strong or last long it so weakens the vital faculty that it turns to fainting or sudden death Therefore presently strengthen the Heart with good Diet and Physick discuss wind and remove the cause Let the air be clear hot and dry not stinking or cloudy make it so by art if it be not naturally clear and sweet by sweet cordial things Let him abstain from strong passions of mind chiefly from sudden fear and shamefulness and from much Wine but moderate doth well and Venery and sleep in the day cold