Blood is when Nutrition is hindered there is a corruption of both when their qualities are changed So when the Air is infected in time of Pestilence it begets Leipothymia and Syncope as also stinking vapors and sweet also do the same with some Women and the blood is corrupted from evil meats Too great Evacuations whether sensible or insensible do disperse the Spirits The sensible are chiefly of Blood from the Mouth Nose Womb Belly Hemorrhoids Phlebotomy and great Wounds and next of other Humors which though they are Excrementitious yet because of their great Evacuation the Spirits are much dispersed and cause a Syncope These Humors are discharged by Vomit Stool Urine Sweat the opening of a great Imposthume especially if it be inward as an Empyema or outward as in a Dropsie when the Navil is tapped The insensible Evacuations are by the Rarifaction of the Skin and by the acrimony and thinness of the Humors immoderate heat hot Baths or Houses great Labors Also long watchings and fasting Lechery great anger and joy long and violent sickness do dissipate the Spirits as also great pain of the Heart Stomach Guts Reins Ears Teeth and of all Nervous parts An evil disposition of the Bowels doth alter and corrupt the Spirits and whatsoever doth procure a malignant quality which is adverse to the Heart as Air Stinks venemous and pestilential taken in by the Breath or bred in the Body from putrifaction of Humors as also poyson taken in or applied outward or sent to the Heart by biting of venemous Creatures Lastly The vehement returning of blood and Spirits to the Heart and an abundance of evil vapors gathered about the Heart and the parts adjacent and too much cold and thick blood gathered about the Heart and its Veins Arteries and parts adjacent do suffocate and destroy the Spirits We lately saw a Noble Lady a Virgin which from her Infancy was subject to this Disease that with every light passion of the mind she was taken therwith taken with a violent Syncope which ushered death in by a sudden return of blood and Spirits to her heart for when she should have been married to a fine yong man which loved her deerly and her Parents Friends and Kindred were solemnly met about it they gave her a Pen to write her hand to the Contract but she having not fully written her name fel down dead upon the ground Hence we easily conjecture that there was a great and sudden retraction of the Blood and Spirits to the Heart by a vehement passion of the mind which choaked the Natural heat and the Spirits therein of which she died suddenly Petrus Salius Diversus saw as he reporteth Lib. de aff part cap. 4. a Girle of fourteen years old fal into a Syncope from abundance of cold and thick blood garhered about her heart and the great vessels for having for a whol day a heaviness of head with giddiness and disturbance she died the next day after suddenly After being opened the blood appeared so congealed in the great Artay and Vena Cava or hollow Vein that taking it by the end you might draw it out like a Sword from a Scabbard Wherefore we judged That the sudden death came from the interception and stopping of the Veins by congealed blood This happeneth seldom for you shal seldom see blood in dead bodies so congealed for the veins have such a property to retain blood that even after death they keep it thin though without them it growth alwayes thick But Salius gives the Reason of this Congealation by comparing it with blood without the Vessels which as soon as it is cold is congealed and the sooner from the coldness thickness and slyminess of the Melanchollick or Phlegmatick humor therein contained Somthing like to this may be-sal blood constrained in the veins which abounding with vicious juyce thick and cold doth â—o sill the greater Veins that it stops the spirits and so extinguisheth them and then the blood grows cold and thick from those humors which otherwise would have been thin The Spagiricks refer this to a congealing Spirit made of a peculiar and extraordinary mixture of Humors which since it seldom happeneth the Disease is very rare And truly a simple Refrigeration cannot cause that concretion for then in dead bodies especially in winter the blood would alwayes be thick in the Veins but we find it alwaies thin but we may suppose that this Congealing Spirit is like that which causeth a Catalepsis or Congealation which makes the parts inflexible The Chymists do acknowledge such kind of Congealing Spirits to be in many Creatures Vegetables and Minerals such as are reported to be raised out of the Earth in some Histories of Men and Beasts who have been Congealed by filthy vapors coming from Earth-quakes or Dens so that their bodies became presently stiffe And Cardanus saith That such spirits are in Thunder-bolts in his History of the Eight Mowers who Supping under an Oak were struck stiffe and remained as at first the one seeming to Eat the other to reach the Pot and the other to Drink The Signs to this Disease by either are from the Subject which is more capable to receive it or from the Fit either coming or present or from the Causes that produce it The Subjects which are most fit to receive a Syncope are men who by some Natural Debility or Weakness from some Disease become faint-hearted Women rather than Men especially in their Terms or with Child As also they who have fine Constitutions subject to the Jaundice Spleen or Melancholly These things signifie that a Syncope is coming to them who are subject to it Anxiety and sudden disturbance of mind heaviness in the head giddiness an apprehension of divers colours green and yellow a sudden and often change of the colour in the face and of the beating of the Pulse When Leipothymy is present the same signs are but greater and there is often a cold sweat as also the sick complain of their faintness But these signs shew a Syncope A sudden failing of al strength a slow pulse low and at length stopping a pale and blewish face coldness of al the body especially externally a cold sweat especially in the temples neck and breast from whence the Disease is named The signs of the Causes are commonly manifest for Feavers malignant acute syncopal or fainting cause a proper Syncope or Swoonding are easily known As also those external Causes which make a sudden Syncope may be plainly seen As Anger extraordinary and Joy a sudden Fright stinking smels great bleeding and other large evacuations long watchings and fasting much lechery and grievous pain These things do signifie that the Humors and the Body are thin a sharp nose hollow eyes temples fallen and the gnawing of the mouth of the stomach trouble of mind pricking heat and great pain do shew abundance of Choller When there is abundance of crude Humors you may know by the enlarging of the body swelling about
heated with the Sun Fire or Stove by which means hot air being drawn in with the Breath and received by the Pores of the Body it doth inflame the Spirits Also by Surfetting Drunkenness and especially by over large taking in of Meats and Drinks that are of an hot Nature as Peppered Meats and stroog Wines by which more Vapors are raised than can exhale Also by Retention of hot Excrements and that not only of the Dung and Urine but especially of those Sooty Vapors which are wont to pass through the Pores of the Skin if those Pores be shut up with cold an Alluminous Bath and such like Causes Also this Ephemera Feaver is bred of internal Causes as from a Bubo and other Swellings of the Thighs or Arms especially whiles they break from an hot fiery Swelling of the Extremities of the Body when hot Matter shut up together in one certain place doth offend the Heart not by its putrefaction but heat alone Also by some smal Obstruction of the Vessels by which means the sooty exhalations being retained do cause a Feaver as is wont to happen in Distillations when they arise in hot Natures and a thick habit of Body This Feaver is known both when some of the Causes specified hath gone before and also by a swift frequent and great Pulse breathing frequent and great Headach and Heat there is neither cold nor shaking no sence of weariness nor want of Appetite Yet may there be somtimes a shivering or shaking fit namely when the Feaver is occasioned by the heat of the Sun or by cold Feeling the Patients Hand we find a mild and gentle heat the Urine is concoct like that of one in health unless by some Obstruction or Crudity it be changed It is commonly terminated in the space of twenty four hours with an easie gentle Sweat yet it reacheth somtimes unto the third day which if it pass it degenerates into a simple Synochus a Putrid or an Hectick Feaver For the Cure of this Feaver the Ancients did chiefly use a bath of luke-warm Water which they did also frequently use in their Health But seeing it is in these times out of use neither is it in practice in the Cure of these Feavers Neither is it counted safe in regard of a Plethorick or Cacochymical Constitution of Body Putrefaction or flux of Rheum which may be in such bodies or may be feared wil happen But this Feaver is better cured by a Cooling and Moistening Diet as Barley Cream Cooling Broths Smal Drink and Sugar common Ptisan Drink or Fountain Water with Syrup of Lemmons Maiden-hair mixed there with But the Cure admits some variation according to the Nature of the Cause So if it spring from the Heat of the Sun or Air a cooling Diet is good and the Patient must be conveighed into a cool lodging and Vinegar of Roses must be applied to his Forehead to the Temples and former part of the Head it self if there be pain as commonly there is when the Feaver comes from the heat of the Sun If it come from being in the Cold especially if the Patient being hot with Exercise went presently into the Cold Sweat must be provoked especially towards the end of the Fit If it come from the Skins thickness and closing up of the pores the same Cure must be used and to both these Causes smal Wine very well allaied with Water may be convenient because it opens the pores and helps to sweat If the Disease was caused by Labor the Patient must rest and be nourished more liberally with Meat of easie Digestion If from weariness the Patient must be artificially rubbed Tranquillity of mind and cheerfulness must be opposed to Anger and Choller must be tempered with Meat and Drink of a cooling Nature To Sadness Recreation of the Mind is a Remedy and the use of thin smal Wine If the Feaver was caused by watching let the Patient sleep by application of things convenient If by fasting let the Patient eat cooling Meats of good Juyce If by over eating or drinking let the Patient abstain from Meat and Drink not omitting such things as strengthen the Stomach both inwardly given and outwardly applied also with an Emollient and Laxative Clyster part of the Crudities is to be taken away If Putrefaction be feared Vomit may be procured or a Purge given If the Feaver arise of Obstructions we must consider whether the Patient be Plethorick or Cacochymical viz. Whether the whol Mass of blood be over great or only some bad Humors abound in the blood If the Patient be too ful of blood blood-letting must be advised if evil Humors only abound a Purge must be prescribed And if the Obstruction wil not easily be removed this Feaver changeth into some of the other sorts of Feavers whose Cures shal be described in their proper places Chap. 2. Of the Feaver Synochus Simplex THe Causes of the Feaver Ephemera aforesaid if they light upon a Plethorick Body and thick skinned they cause the Feaver Synochus Simplex Yet may this Feaver arise only from abundance of Blood stuffing the Veins and yielding many Vapors more than can breath through the pores of the Skin This Feaver is known by a thick and swelling habit of Body the color of the Body and Face is ruddy the Head is pained with a stretching or distending kind of pain the Patient is sleepy hath a beating in the Temples is unquiet hath a straitness in the Chest with difficulty of breathing the Pulse is great even frequent full the Veins strut with blood whence a stretching kind of weariness doth proceed the Urine is thick little differing in color from a Natural Urine only somwhat redder the heat is to ones hand mild tempered with a steamy Vapor the Feaver holds an even progress for either it holds one and the same tenor or it lessens by degrees or it encreaseth equally never remitting or ceasing Whence there are reckoned three Differences of this Feaver For that which continually encreaseth is called Epacmastica That which continually decreaseth is called Paracmastica That which keeps one and the same tenor is called Homotonos or Acmastica It lasts til the fourth day and somtimes til the seventh and then it is terminated by bleeding or sweating and if it be further prolonged it degenerates into Synochus Putrida The Cure of this Feaver is performed by blood-letting by cooling and by opening the pores of the Skin Galen in the ninth Book of his Method Chap. 4. cures this Feaver by two Remedies only viz. Letting of Blood til the Patient faint away and by giving a great quantity of Water to the Patient to drink Blood-letting is absolutely necessary in this Disease because it is bred by fulness of blood and a Vein must presently be opened at what hour soever the Physitian is called unless the Patients Stomach be ful of Meat the digestion whereof must be expected for certain hours And although Blood must be plentifully drawn and Galen reports in
one ounce the Conserve of Sage and Rosemary flowers of each six drams Nutmeg candied half an ounce one candied Myrobalan old Treacle and confection of Alkermes of each three drams of the Pouder Diambra and Diamoschi dulcis of each one dram with the Syrup of Citron Barks make it up And let him take every morning two hours before meat the quantity of a Chessnut drink after it a little wine and water This following Balsom doth more strongly corroborate the brain of which he may take now and then three or four drops in wine or broth Take of the Chymical Oyl of Nutmegs three drams Oyl of Marjoram Rosemary and Amber of each half a dram Musk and Amber-greese of each one scruple with a little Oyl of a Mans Skull mix them together You may make the Oyl of a mans Skull thus Take the shavings or raspings of a Skull that was never buried put them in a Retort or Still so called in as much white Wine as will suffice Let them stand in Balneo Mariae that is a kettle of warm water for some time then distill it in Sand till it is dry and you shall find the Oyl swimming upon the Water which is drawn off Anoint your Nostrils within with this Balsom every night and it wil strengthen the Brain wonderfully There is another cheaper for to anoint the Nostrils with which is Take the Oyl of Orange Flowers two drams white Wax one dram melt them gently and put thereto Oyl of Amber half a dram of the Chymical Oyls of Sage and Rosemary of each fifteen drops Oyl of Spike five drops mix them together It is also very good for the drawing away of the matter which breeds continually in the Brain by an issue in the hinder part of the neck Lastly The Baths which come out of Brimstone Niter Bitumen as those called Bellilucanae are very good for the drying and strengthening of the Brain if it be washed therewith for some daies after general evacuations are made Daily experience teacheth us that most grievous Head-Diseases coming of cold Distempers are thereby cured It is profitable also to drink those Waters for the strengthening of the stomach which alwaies doth sympathize with the head Therefore I set down this digestive Pouder Take of Coriander seed prepared one ounce Annis seeds and sweet Fennel Seeds of each three drams Cinnamon and Nutmeg of each two drams Coral Ivory and Pearl prepared of each one scruple Sugar of Roses as much as all the rest or for rich folk twice as much of which let him take a spoonful after every meal not drinking or eating for three hours after CHAP. II. Of Drouzie Diseases called Coma Lethargy Carus and Apoplexy THere are four kinds of Preternatural sleep namely Coma Apoplexy Carus and Lethargie We wil speak of them together in this Chapter because they proceed from the same Causes and are cured all the same way These four Diseases differ one from another after this manner In the Disease called Coma Cataphora or Subeth according to Avicen is a deep sleep but such an one as from which the Patient is raised openeth his eyes and answereth but presently he is again in a deep sleep In a Lethargie the sleep is like that of Coma but it is joyned with a Feaver and Frenzy or Dotage In Carus there is no Feaver as in Lethargy but in Carus the sleep is more deep and profound so that when the sick party is rowsed up he scarce opens his Eyes and answers not as in the former but yet being pinched he is sensible and his breath comes freely In Apoplexy the sleep is most deep and a total privation of sence and motion except breathing and so therefore the sick doth neither open his eyes answer nor feel when he is hurt as also he breatheth very difficultly There are many Causes of these Diseases The first and chief cause is Flegm and waterish humor contained in the brain of which when there is but a smal quantity that moisteneth and cooleth the substance of the brain stopping up its â—ores and passages cometh Coma. But if the same quantity of Humor so gathered together become putrified and corrupt or grow into a tumor or swelling or be dispersed throughout the brain it procureth a Lethargie When it is gathered in a greater quantity without corruption and that the humor is sucked up into the substance of the brain it causeth a Carus And lastly When the humor is in so great a quantity that it doth not only fill the brain but also the ventricles thereof stopping and straitening them and also when it doth offend the Original of the Nerves which comes from the brain and is placed in the basis or bottom of the Skull and when it hindereth the passage of the Animal Spirit it begets an Apoplexy Secondly Sleepy Diseases spring also from abundance of blood in the brain for if the store of blood contained be more raw waterish and cold it thickens the Animal Spirits and makes them unfit to move as also the abundance of humor charging the brain hindereth the free passage of the Spirits and according as the humor is more or less in quantity more or less in coldness it produceth a greater or a lesser Disease So that both Coma Carus and Apoplexy may be caused thereby But drowsie Diseases especially the Apoplexy are usually caused by blood out of its Vessels stopping and compressing the Ventricles of the brain and that falleth out either from a vein broken in the brain or from an over fulness of the Vessels or from some great bruise or contusion of the head or from some cut or punctured wound by which the veins of the brain are divided and so send forth much blood And the Fracture only of the Skul compressing of the brain may produce a dulness drowsiness or sleeping Disease Thirdly It is without doubt that a Tumor in the brain burdening it with its weight may produce a sleepy disease This is reported by Platerus to be found in a certain Barron who for a long time was sortish and sleepy did nothing rationally nor desired meat neither did eat any thing but what was forced into him went not to bed but by compulsion but would sit al day at the Table leaning on his arm with his eyes shut neither did he answer at any time without much asking and importunity and then very little to the purpose After his death his Skul was opened and there was found in his brain a great Kernel hard and of a callous body the cause whereof might be some stroak upon the head which he had received long before the beginning of his Disease Fourthly Many Vapors flying into the Brain may be the cause of a sleepy disease for if the vapors be many and gross that they burden the animal Spirits and darken them as with a mist even as the clouds in the greater world darken and obscure the beams of the Sun But if they be overmoist they do so
of Palpitation of trembling and shaking chap. 8. and his third Book of Parts affected chap. 6. and his second Book of the Causes of Symptomes chap. 2. and his Comment upon Aphor. 39. Sect. 6. For saith he while the strings are moist and filled with humor as it falls out when the wind is Southernly they are stretched and so broken and when they are over dry as it happens in Northern weather they are contracted and also broken So the Reins of a Bridle drying too neer the fire are contracted when they were before extended with too much moisture the same befals the Nerves which being either too full of moisture or too dry are stretched and contracted and the Muscles into which they are united are so drawn back to their principal or original from whence all the Body hath a Convulsion The Mediate Causes of a Convulsion which make Repletion and Emptiness are divers And first the Causes of Repletion are recited by Galen in his Book of Trembling chap. last to the increase of flegm and inflamation a waterish Humor flowing to the Nerves is supposed to stretch them in their breadth which must needs make them shorter But here is a very great difficulty which is propounded by divers Authors but is resolved perfectly and plainly by none namely what difference there is between the cause of a Palsey and of a Convulsion when both come from a water flowing upon the Nerves why that matter which makes a Palsey which so fills the Nerves that it stops all their passages or pores whereby the Animal Spirits are hindred in their motion doth not also stretch the Nerves in breadth and cause also a Convulsion and why the matter causing a Convulsion filling the Nerves doth not also stop the passages and cause a Palsey when contrarily in a Convulsion the feeling remaineth and the part affected for the most part is very much pained For the resolving of this doubt Authors are much divided and the most ingenious of them all confess that is beyond their capacity Most witty Averroes considering of this Point breaks forth in this expression I would I knew the reason saith he why the Nerves are extended in their breadth and not in their length And presently after he saith Know ye that the words of all Physitians that write of this Symptome are more proper to Fidlers and Singers than to Demonstrators or such as should make things plain And Ingenuous Argenterius in his Comment upon the 26. Aphor. Sect. 2. speaks thus It is not easie to render a reason of all things and especially why Water which is said to be the cause of the Palsey or resolution of Nerves and of the Convulsion should somtimes bring one and somtimes another when it is the same matter and the same parts are affected namely the Nerves why should not the same Disease be alwaies produced Thus Argenterius The great difficulty of this matter hath distracted all Writers into divers Opinions so that some have left the Doctrine of Hippocrates and Galen among whom are Averroes Erastus Platerus Cesalpinus Sennertus and others whose divers Opinions and long Disputations we cannot attend to repeat for we desire to be very short and lay aside all Controversies only adhaering to those things which are most necessary for Cure The Opinion of the soundest Writers which are unwilling to dissent from Galen comes to this That a Convulsion is caused of a thick matter which extendeth the Nerves in their breadth and contracteth them in their length and that a Palsey comes of a thin humor which runs through the substance of the nerve and softeneth it but doth not open the pores and passages But this doth not satisfie a soul that is greedy of Truth For if a thick humor by filling the Nerve doth stretch it broader why doth it not also fill its pores and stop the insensible passages and hinder the coming in of the Animal Spirit and so bring a Palsey and why doth not a Convulsion follow a Palsey in process of time when a thin humor long sticking upon a part must needs grow thick even as the serous matter which makes the Arthritis or Joynt-gout by long continuance upon the part causeth the matter which makes the stone Others say that in a Convulsion only the external part of the Nerve which is Membranous and tender is possessed with the humor but in a Palsey the Internal but this giveth less satisfaction For when the Nerves are for the most part slender it is not easie to conceive how the humor should only possess the external part and not the internal or the internal and not the external Or leastwise if this could be so a Convulsion would follow a Palsey and a Palsey a Convulsion by the increase of the matter and that which at first did only possess the outward or the inward part in process of time would seize upon the whol Nerve Therefore we although we cannot satisfie ourselves in this great Difficulty while better Arguments are propounded suppose that those Objections may be taken off thus A Convulsion and a Palsey differ in this A Palsey is made of a pure watery humor without mixture which doth not extend the parts but softeneth them as we may see in the tumor called oedema but a Convulsion is caused of the same humor but not pure and simple but mixed with much wind by which wind the Nerves are stretched and the Muscles also which are contracted to their Original For no cause can be thought upon more fit to make so great a contraction than wind which Galen acknowledgeth in his second Book de sympt caus chap. 2. and Experience teacheth us that the greatest distentions are made especially by wind as we may see in the dropsie called Tympanites and the Chollick And in Convulâ—ions those are the greatest which are caused of wind which stretcheth and distendeth the parts By this Argument all the aforesaid Objections are answered For if it be demanded Why that flegm or water which maketh a Convulsion doth not bring a Palsey by hindering the passage of the Spirits we may answer That it is in so smal a quantity that it cannot stop the insensible passages of the Nerves and that it is so extenuated and made thin by much wind that it cannot produce a stoppage or obstruction Or we may say that wind is the chief cause of Convulsions which Galen acknowledgeth in the place mentioned And in his 6. Book de loc affect cap. ult he makes the only cause of a Priapism which is the Convulsion of the Yard to be wind The other Cause of a Convulsion coming from Repletion which Galen mentions in the place ciâ—ed is the Inflamation of the Nervous parts especially in the Original of the Nerves or neer to its original by which they are stretched and that Inflamation is either from a cause only internal namely from a flux of blood upon the part or of an outward cause as of a wound contusion or
the Juyce of Pomegranate or Knotgrass but to them who bled not much he gave it with warm water But he saith you must sift it well give it often that it may better be distributed and in Wine Antony Valerius exercit ad cap. 27. lib. 1. Hollerij de morb internis reports that he cured when all means failed by this Pouder which he had from Julius Scaliger Take of Spodium red Roses Bole-Armenick Terra Sigillata and Blood-stone of each half an ounce red Coral Amber and Pearls not perforated of each two drams and an half Gum Arabick and Tragacanth of each two drams the seeds of Purslain Mallows Ribwort red Roses burnt Harts-horn and white Starch burnt of each three drams Make thereof a fine pouder and give three drams thereof with rain water This Pouder Scaliger borrowed of Serapio who mentioned it in his Book of Spitting of blood and which Valesus also commends And you may make Tablets thereof with Sugar dissolved in â—ose or Plantane Water The Electuary of Haelideus is like it and easier made which was wont to be famous in Germany â—â—d so commended of Gesner Erastus and Crato thus Take of the seeds of white Poppy and Henbane of each ten drams Terra Sigillata and red Coral of each five drams old Sugar of Roses as much as will make an Electuary Give hereof â—e dram morning and evening after universal Medicines have been given But because that spitting is stopped by the use of Astringents and thence comes difficulty of â—eathing you must at times use things that mollify the Breast and also stop bleeding such as they â—hich are compounded of Gum Arabick Tragacanth Starch and Syrup of dried Roses Quinces Mirâ—â—s and Jujubes the Juyce of Plantane and Purslain while you use Astringents if the Belly be â—â—und give a Clyster or Purge that leaves some Astringency In the whol time of the Cure if you suspect that there is any congealed blood in the breast you must dissolve it with Oxycrate thus made according to Galen 5. Meth. that it may be pleasant and not provoke Coughing with the Vâ—negar for so it dissolveth the blood and gently bindeth Let him take six ounces warm twice or thrice in one day and if it provoke Coughing sweeten it with Sugar but you must use this when the bleeding begins to cease for this also Amber and Mummy mixed with glutinatours and astringents is good Also for the allaying the Heat of the Liver use often a Cooling Epithem to the right side Take of Rose Plantane and Succory Water of each four ounces Vinegar of Roses two ounces the Pouder of the Electuary of the three Saunders one drani and an half Camphire one scruple make an Epitheme to be applied warm to the Liver After the use of the Epitheme anoint the same part with Oyntment of Roses or the Cerat of Saunders with a little Rose-Vinegar Anoynt also the Reins of the Back with Oyl of Roses and Water-Lillies washed with Vinegar adding a little Camphire to allay the heat of the blood in the hollow Vein But you must beware of things that are too Astringent lest they drive the blood from the hollow Vein into the Lungs It is also very good to wash the stones with Oxycrate to stop the Flux and allay the heat for there is a great consent between these parts A Bath would also be good to allay the heat of the Bowels but because they relax and so open the Veins you must avoid it Let him drink Syrup of Myâ—tles Purslain and dried Roses or Sugar of Roses with Barley-water or with the Water wherein Blood-stone or sealed Earth hath been infused Or mix Conserve of Roses with the Water or with Water wherein Coriander hath been infused made sharp with the Spirit of Vitriol or with the Tincture of Roses A weak Decoction of Yarrow drunk ordinarily is good against al bleeding If a sharp Defluxion from the Head upon the Lungs be the Cause of this Disease besides what hath been said you may use those Remedies which are prescribed in the Cure of a Hot Catarrh After the Blood is stopped to keep it from returning you must first abstain from al things that stir the Humors as violent exercise great heat anger roaring rich Wines the meates mentioned which are either salt or spiced Conserve of dried Roses must be held in the mouth especially at bed time Take of Conserve of Roses and of Comfry Roots of each one ounce the Troches of Amber and sealed Earth of each half a dram red Coral and prepared Pearls of each one scruple Sugar of Roses as much as all the rest make a mixture of which let him take a spoonful somtimes one hour before meat Let him be purged four times in a yeer or oftener if occasion be with the Potion of Rhubarb and Myrobalans above mentioned to which instead of Syrup ad one ounce of Manna You may with good success give a scruple of torrefied Rhubarb every morning one hour before meat especially if the blood be very serous as it is commonly in Haemorrhages Also Rhubarb not torrefied given in the same quantity for so the blood after the serous watery Humor is carried away wil grow thicker Or You may give a dram of Rhubarb once every Week There is also a Magistral Syrup to clense the blood from thin serous Humors As Take of the Leaves of Bugloss Fumitory Hops Succory Endive Agrimony Plantanâ— Maiden-hair of each one handful the Tops of Asparagus Vervain and Eyebright of each half an handful the Seeds of Gourds and Mellons of each half an ounce Endive and Doddeâ— seed of each two drams Liquoris scraped and Raisons of each one ounce sweet Prunes twelve Senna four ounces Polypody of the Oak two ounces Agarick tyed in a thin Clout six drams Mace one dram the Three Cordial Flowers red Pease or Pulse of each one pugil boyl these to a pint an half dissolve in the straining of the juyce of sweet Apples three ounces sine Sugar oâ—â— pound and a quarter make a Syrup boyled well sented with yellow Saunders Then infuse in it one ounce of Rhubarb beaten and tyed in a Clout let him take an ounce and an half or two ounceâ— with Broth twice in a month Make an Issue in the right or lest Leg as the Liver or Spleen are affected Lastly Let him use for a whol Month Asses-Milk steeled for prevention of this Disease For his Drink take Water boyled a little with Coriander seeds or the Decoction of Barley and Liquoris Chap. 7. Of Phthisis or Consumption ALthough the word Phthisis signifie every Consumption yet it is most properly taken for that extenuation of body which cometh after an Ulcer in the Lungs For this Extenuation of body comes from a putrid lingring Feaver which turneth to an Hectick and this Feaver comes from the Ulcer in the Lungs from which by reason of their neerness to the Heart putrid Vapors are continually sent thither and cause the
the Liver which also destroyeth the Natural heat This evil disposition and occult distemper may come by burning and swooning Feavers by a hot distemper of the Bowels which melteth the Oyly substance by occult corruption and corruption of Humors by a great coldness from flegm and Melancholly abounding which doth oppress and corrupt the Natural heat and it may come by outward Causes as great draughts of cold Water Snow or Ice extraordinary eating of raw Sallets Poyson and Medicines that purge too vehemently By drinking of too much new Wine salt sharp and peppered Meats and strong things which parch the substance of the Liver To these you may add al other Causes which by too much cooling or heating do dissolve the strength and tone or order of the Liver Hitherto is declared a true and proper flux of the Liver which hath this sign there are Liquid and ferous stools like washings of flesh from the weakness of the Liver which cannot sanguifie or make blood well or from a malignant distemper which spoileth the Natural heat and moisture There is also a bastard flux of the Liver which comes of a simple distemper without any fault of the radical moisture by which distemper the faculty is not hurt but the work hindered so that instead of pure blood there comes impure and corrupt or the good turns into evil when in a true of the Liver there is never any good blood in the Liver The Blood is corrupted either by the mixture of Choller or Melancholly or some other impure Matter or from its too long staying in the Liver and the parts adjacent by which it is made thicker or burnt or rotteth or from the fault of the Spleen which doth not suck away the drossie blood and in this bastard flux somtimes thick somtimes black and somtimes blood is voided mixed with Humors of divers colors The signs of this Disease may be gathered from what hath been said For in a true flux there appear moist stools like washings of flesh which is not in other bloody fluxes if in a Dysentery at any time it is seldom and then there is choller flegm and excrements of divers colors voided and in a Dysentery there is pain and torment of the belly but in this none The Signs of the Causes are known by their proper Characters For if the weakness of the Liver come from a hot distemper there went a burning and consuming Feaver before or there is green vomits or stools thirst and a Feaver foulness of Body and want of appetite and stinking Evacuations but if it come from a cold cause the stools are less stinking neither is there thirst or consumption the whol Body is colder and blewish Somtimes there comes a Feaver from the putrefaction of Humors which changeth the said symptomes but you must examine the Causes afore going which will declare both distempers Also in this cold distemper the Patients desire much strong Wine A moist and dry distemper are known by the contrary effects A moist causeth more and oftener stools very thin but a dry little and thicker stools but there is also great thirst Lastly The external Causes are known by the relation of the Patient and those that are with him A bastard flux of the Liver hath almost all signs of a Dysentery only there is no pain of the belly nor pieces of flesh in the stools as in a Dysentery The Prognostick of this Disease useth to be evil and deadly for when a principal part is very ill by consumption of the radical moisture whose reparation is scarce to be hoped for we can expect for the most part nothing but destruction especially when the Disease comes of heat When this disease comes in Feavers there presently follows a melting of the Body and great putrefaction which presently kils the party For in malignant and pestilent Feavers the danger is encreased according to the evil condition of the Cause But when this Disease comes of a cold distemper it useth to last longer and turn into an incurable Dropsie Lastly A bastard flux of the Liver although it be dangerous yet is it less than a true because it comes only from a simple distemper and evil disposition of the Humors the tone and strength of the Liver remaining sound and may be cured by taking away the Causes that defile the Blood The Cure of this Disease is wrought by Medicines that strengthen the Liver correct its distemper and stay the flux And because it comes oftenest of a hot distemper therefore we wil first speak of the Cure of that distemper because it comes seldom of a cold Cause and is to be cured as a Dropsie First therefore although Evacuations seem to be needless by reason of the greatnâ—ss of the flux you may give Rhubarb either alone or with Myrobalans as in the Cure of Dysentery because it doth strengthen the Liver and the rather if you sind any filth in the stools for many Patients have been cured by only one scruple of Rhubarb given many daies together in Conserve of Roses Clysters are here of little worth because the Liver is affected yet somtimes you may give one of chaly beat or steeled Milk or of a gentle astringent Decoction lest the Guts should be too much relaxed But you may make Juleps to strengthen the Liver and correct its distemper thus Take of Succory Graminis or Dogs Teeth and Sorrel Roots of each one ounce Endive Succory Plantane and Dodder of each one handful Sea-wormwood half a handful red Sanders one dram and an half the shavings of Ivory and Spodium of each two scruples Corâ—ander seeds prepared one dram red Roses one pugil boyl them to â—â—e pint and an half dissolve in the straining Syrup of Quinces and simple Syrup of Vinegar of each two ounces Make a Julep for four Doses to be taken morning and evening Or Take of Plantane Water four ounces Syrup of dried Roses one ounce Spirit of Vitriol aâ— much as will make it moderately sharp make a Julep to be repeated often He may also take of these Syrups following often in a spoon Take of Syrup of Myrtles Quinces and dried Roses of each one ounce the Syrup of Succâ—â—â— simple or compound with Rhubarb one ounce and an half mix them There is an excellent Syrup made of the Tincture of Roses made in Rose Water and with Sugar of Roses brought into a Syrup Also this following Pouder given to the quantity of half a dram or a dram once or twice in a day in a rear Egg Broth or other fit Liquor may be used with profit Take of Plantane and Soâ—rel seeds of each one dram Endive Purslane Dodder and Coriander seeds of each one scruple red Roses and Troches of Spodium Gum Tragacanth torrefied of each half a dram the inward skins of Hens Gizzards dried half a scruple make a very fine Pouder Or the Lozenges made of the three Sanders with a double quantity of Rhubarb given to two drams at a time are good
is fitly placed among the Diseases of the Spleen This Disease comes of Preternatural Melancholly and other adust Humors especially Blood or Choller or Natural Melancholly This Melanchollick Humor is not pure by its self but commonly mixed with others as Choller Flegm and Water from whence come the diversity of Symptomes which hereafter shal be mentioned These Humors breed in the Spleen especially when it is distempered with heat and also in the Liver hence it is that they draw meat and drink to themselves which is not concocted that which is thin of the Chyle sooner than that which is thick and then the thicker part for want of somthing to carry it staies in the Meseraick Veins and the longer it staies the thicker it grows and somtimes is burnt and afterwards coming to those parts it is not well concocted Moreover thine parts in their Natural state should concoct by boyling now do it by roasting hence comes this great adâ—stion of Humors It may also be that this Disease may be bred without the distemper of theâ—e parts from evil Nourishment that breed Melancholly blood and also from good blood retained too long in the veâ—sels and being too much as in the stoppage of the Terms and Hemorrhoids which continuing long in the Vessels is burnt and turned into Melancholly It may also come from the Stomach not well concocting but turning it into a parched Crudity from which those evil Juyces are bred in the Liver and the Spleen And Galen 3. de loc affect cap. 7. following Diocles thought the proper seat of it was in the Stomach because in this Disease there are commonly signs of an ill Stomach But it is more probable that the Stomach should be afflicted secondarily from the Liver or the Spleen as we will cleerly shew hereafter These evil Humors are gathered into the Veins and Arteries which are in the bottom of the Stomach especially in the great branches of the Gate Vein the Spleen Veins and those of the Mesentery Caul and Belly in which they have often great and grievous ferventations or workings from whence stinking Vapors are sent to the Brain Heart and Midriff which cause those divers Symptomes in those parts which we shall after mention Also the Humors are contained in the Bowels especially in the Spleen and Sweet-bread and the Glandles of the Mesentery the substance of which parts is foft and like a Spunge and therefore is more ready to receive them and harder to cast them forth Besides the Glandles which are dâ—â—persed through the Mesentery to be a prop to Veins and Arteries and to hinder least they should be pressed by the Guts being full or by any other thing If these swell much they do press upon the Vessels and hinder the passage of the Humors whence come Obstructions in those passages Boyes and yong men are little subject to this Disease by reason of their moist temper unfit to breed Melancholly but men often because the Humors are burnt by heat in youth and when that heat decaies and the thin parts are exhaled there is a great encrease of Melancholly The Antecedent and principal Causes of this Disease are first Meats of evil Juyce and hard of Concoction which are fit to breed Melancholly as brown Bread or unleavened or crusty Pulse Cheese hard Eggs and fried Meats Water Fowl Beef Venison Hairs and all Salt and smoaked Meats and many other things of hard substance Secondly Great Passions of long continuance especially Sadness are very powerful to breed this Disease because they disperse the Spirits by which means the Concoction is weakened and so there is great Crudity which being burnt by the hot Bowels turn into Melancholly Thirdly Idleness by which the Excrements are retained especially if there be much study and watching hence it is that learned men and such as â—it much are very subject to this Disease Lastly The stoppage of the Terms and Hemorrhoids both in respect of their quality and quantity produce it For when Melanchollick Salt and burnt Humors used to be discharged by those waies if they are stopped they return to the Hypochondria and cause this Disease The Knowledg of this is taken from the Symptomes which follow and they are many because almost all parts of the Body suffer thereby when it is high We shall reckon them up admonishing first That all do not happen to all Patients but some to one some to another according to the diversity of the Humor and the part affected First therefore the Stomach commonly suffers not principally as Galen from Diocles supposed but secondarily When Blood coming from the Branches of the Gate Vein to nourish the Stomach is not good from whence the Stomach being ill nourished doth ill concoct and turns its Meat into corruption Hence comes a circular Evil when the Liver and Spleen send evil Blood to the Stomach and the Stomach breeds evil Chyle to return to them of which they make bad blood Therefore in this Diseaâ—e the Stomach commonly concocteth ill and turns the chief part somtimes into Water somtimes into sharp sowr and clammy substance which being not drawn by the Guts and Meseraick Veins because unfit for nourishment staies in the Stomach and coming upwards somtimes fills the Tongue with Spittle so that the Patients 〈◊〉 much and somtimes vomit Somtimes the Matter in the Stomach boyleth and fermenteth from whence comes wind which doth not only stretch the Stomach but the parts adjacent and make the Heart so sick that somtimes the Patient swooneth Somtimes the Wind is sent out upwards and downwards and by insensible transpiratiâ—â— or the Matter causing them is vomited forth Yet you must observe that al that is vomited out is not bred in the Stomach but is sent from the Spleen and other parts to it for somtimes the humors vomited are so sharp that they set the teeth on edg and these are sent by the short vessel from the Spleen to the Stomach In some there is blood so sent with Melancholly and other evil Humors which is cast forth partly upward and partly downward as we shewed at large in the Vomiting of Blood In this Disease there is often belching and noise beneath the ribs by reason of the abundance of Wind made of those Crude Humors hence it was wont to be called the windy Disease Now how Wind is bred of Melancholly we shewed in the Tympany Somtimes pains arise in the Stomach and Hypochondria of the same Wind which reach to the Back and Loyns so that you would think it the Stone of the Kidneyes especially if the Urine be thick and red as usually it is The Belly is often bound because the Meat is turned into clammy Matter which sticks to the Guts which the expulsive Faculty cannot cast out without help of Medicines and therefore the Patients are constrained to take Purges and Clysters often Somtimes there is a Flux of the Belly if the Humors grow sharp and have in them much Choller or burnt Melancholly
water-like and little in the beginning of the fit after which somtimes followeth a total stoppage if both Ureters are stopped but when the fit is past and the stone that was fixed in the Ureters is fallen into the bladder there comes forth much thick troubled Urine with a sandy Sediment The Fourth Sign is often voiding of sand and stones Concerning voiding of a stone it is evident That if the Patient voided any formerly though never so smal when he had a fit it is most certain that the Disease is the Stone But concerning Sand we cannot speak so infallible for we may see many all their lives time void Gravel and never be troubled with the stone for sand comes often from adustion of Humors in the Liver and Veins and it sticks to the sides of the Urinal and goes not to the bottom as that which comes from the Reins Besides if you rub it between your fingers it dissolveth and is like Salt when the other will not yeeld to the fingers and will not dissolve And finally because this Sand is salt it is dissolved in hot Urine nor will it appear while the Urine is so but when it is cold it grows together to the sides of the Urinal not unlike the Crystal of Tartar which being dissolved in warm water when it grows cold congealeth and sticks to the sides of the Glass so the Nature of them both is very like The Fifth Sign is a stone voided and this is most certain For if any former Sign though equivocal do appear and a stone be voided you may be certain of the Disease The Sixth Sign is a numbness of the Thigh on the same side that the Back is pained of for the stone being great doth oppress the Nerve which is in erted into the Muscles of the Loyns under the Reins called by the Anatomists Psenas and those Muscles go to the Hip for its motion such a numbness is percâ—ived by sitting upon the Thigh through the compression or in the Arm by long leaning thereon The Seventh Sign is the drawing in of one stone on that side where the pain is For the Kidneys and Ureters being provoked with the greatness of the pain do vehemently contract themselves and then the Spermatical Vessels and all the parts adjacent are also contracted and these Vessels do raise up the stone which is joyned to them so that it seems somtimes to be fixed to the Groyn And this retraction or drawing in of parts reacheth to the bladder and Guts For in great pain the belly is bound and Urine stopped so that then Purges will not work by reason they are hindered by that Contraction The Eighth Sign is loathing and vomiting by the connexion of the Kidneys with the Stomach by the Membrane that comes from the Peritonaeum and by the Nerve of the sixth Conjugation two branches whereof reach from the Stomach to the inward Tunicle of the Kidneys Therefore when those sensible parts in the Kidneys are pulled the Stomach consenting is stirred up to exclude that which hurteth and first it sends out Flegm then yellow Choller after green if the evil continue because through long pain and watching the blood is altered in the Veins and that part which is most disposed for it is turned into green Choller Finally The Nephritical pain is so like the Chollick that Galen himself was deceived in the distinguishing of them as we shewed in the Diagnosis or Knowldg of the Chollick where also we laid down signs by which we may distinguish them which we shall not need to repeat The Signs afore mentioned are equivocal and one of them can scarce give a certain knowledg Some Authors mention others which are more equivocal and uncertain but joyned with others they help the knowledg of the Disease therefore it will not be amiss to mention them Hipp. Aph. 34. Sect. 7. saith They who have bubbles in their Vrine have an old Disease in the Reins For these bubbles come from thick Humors full of gross vapors which are either bred in the Reins or sent from other parts to them that matter is proper to breed the stone and cannot be presently cured therefore the Disease is long Galen in his Comment upon this Aporism saith that the mouthes of the Arteries which come to the Reins are opened by the sharpness of the Urine and thence comes a Spirit which being mixed with the Urine maketh bubbles But it is not probable that such a gross Spirit that will remain so long should come from the Arteries and Urine being cold may long time so continue as we see many bubbles many hours swimming thereupon And also when the Arteries are opened by the sharpness of the Urine blood will also come forth And the mouthes of the Veins having thin Skins would be more easily opened and so there would be also blood mixed with the bubbles Hippocrates also Aph. 76. Sect. 4. saith They who void little bits of flesh and things like hairs with a thick Vrine do it from the Reins The bits of flesh come from the Ulcer of the Reins of which we shall speak hereafter but these thrids or hairs are said by Galen in his Commentaries to come from thick and crude flegm made long and round by the extraordinary heat of the Reins Yet Galen confesseth 6. loc aff cap. 3. that after a long search he was ignorant of the cause of their length Avicen saith that these thrids grow long in the vessels of the Reins or others for in regard these are taken away by Diureticks and the Patients acknowledg pain in the Reins it is credible that they receive their form from thence Actuarius doth directly say they come from the Ureters For when the Reins abound with flegm it goes with the Urine into the Ureters and sticking to them and growing thick by heat it gets a long shape like a thrid or hair But Fernelius writes that those hairs come from the Parastatis or kernels from his Observation in which they grow long like hairs from the matter of the seed which by force of the Disease flowing down by degrees grows thick by heat and that they appear much in those who have lately had a filthy Gonorrhoea and in those women who have the Whites or a foul Womb and in that Urine which they make next after they have known a man Others suppose that those thick Humors of which those filaments or hairs are made are first bred in the Veins but take their form in the narrow passages of the Reins through which as through a sieve they turn smal and after they descend into the Ureters in which they grow dryer till they are sent into the bladder neither can they be broken by reason of their toughness Whatsoever the cause is since the best Authors do agree that these hairs breed of thick flegm in the Kidneys or come to them from other parts it is certain that they may turn into a stone if there be an efficient cause fit to produce it And therefore this may be a probable sign of the stone As for the Prognostick The stone of the Kidneys is very dangerous for it useth to bring great evils
frequently be given which do accustom Nature to expel the hurtful Humors into the Guts and do by little and little bring away some of the morbifick matter contained in the Meseraick Veins The Disease continuing as for the most part it is long and lasting we must somtimes rest and abstain from Physick a month or thereabouts that Nature in the mean time may gather strength be wearied with continual use of Medicaments and may set her self to concoct the morbifick matter And afterward we must return to our Preparatives and Purgatives Howbeit in a long Ague we must not alwaies use the same Medicaments lest Nature be over much used thereunto and the Patient become weary of them Also because from more gentle Aperitives and Purgatives we must pass on to such as are stronger Various sorts of Purgatives have been already propounded And these following Aperitives besides the Apozems aforesaid and the Juleps may be used in the progress of the Disease when the Signs of Digestion begin to appear Take White Wine three pints Enula Campane Roots three ounces Bark of Capar Roots half an ounce Tops of common Wormwood dried one ounce Infuse them three daies in Balneo Mariae Reep all together without straining and give of this Wine to the Patient two or three ounces in the morning two hours before meat And these following Pils may be used either alone or with the said Wine Take Roots of Gentian two drams round Birthwort Roots one dram and an half Mugwort one dram Briony dried three drams Mirrh and Saffron of each one dram Asarum Roots two drams Aloes one ounce With Oxymel of Squils make all into a Mass of Pill-stuf Let a dram be given every day by themselves or a little before the taking of the Wine aforesaid To these Pils Steel prepared may profitably be added if the Patient be able to walk after the taking of them For the use of Steel in all Chronick Feavers is very profitable because it potently opens Contumacious Obstructions which are wont to foster those Diseases Or to open and strengthen at once the following Electuary may profitably be prescribed Take Conserve of Elecampane Roots Conserve of Wormwood and Maiden-hair of each one ounce Preserved Citron Peels half an ounce Confectio Alkermes three drams Preserved Myrobalans two Pouder of Diarrhodon Abbatis two drams Salt of Wormwood and Tamarisk of each one dram Saffron two scruples With Syrup of preserved Citrons make all into an Opiate of which let the Patient take the quantity of a Chestnut every morning two hours before meat Or if in the morning the Patient take some other Medicine then may the Electuary be taken two hours before Supper To the same intent is commended as a most excellent Remedy the Extract of Germander mixt with Salt of Tamarisk made into Pils Add hereunto Discussers and Diaphoreticks which are very useful to discuss the reliques of the declining Disease when signs of Concoction appear For they do not only discuss the said reliques but they do likewise correct that distemper which is bred by so long a Disease and amend the ill habit of the Body and strengthen the Stomach Liver and other Bowels weakened by the length of the Disease Among these Medicaments Venice Treacle challengeth the first place being by older and later Physitians commended to this Use It is given one hour before the fit one dram in weight with Wine or in a Decoction of Germander Or if its heat be feared it may be given with a Decoction of Agrimony or with the Juyce or Water of Plantane This Medicine must be repeated before divers Fits one after another It may also be given in the mornings for some daies together on the well-daies But a little before the fit it operates happily because it hinders the encrease of cold and doth more commodiously discuss the Humor which is cause of the fit now beginning to work in the Veins and by this means it diminisheth the fit and if the morbifick matter be little takes it quite away Here notwithstanding great Caution is to be used lest Treacle or other such hot Medicines should be given when the Humors are yet crude for they dissolve the putrid Humors from whence ariseth a confusion in the Body and an encrease of the Ague Fits so that a single Quartan comes to degenerate into a Double and Triple yea into a Continual Feaver As it happened to Eudemus the Peripatetick as Galen relates in Lib. de Praecog ad Posth Cap. 2. 3. in whom was a single Quartan the Physitians of Rome having given him Treacle unseasonably was changed into a Triple Howbeit afterwards when the Signs of Concoction appeared Galen gave him of the same Treacle and cured him Among other Diaphoreticks some commend the Roots of China and Salsa parilla whos 's first and second Decoction being given twenty daies together doth somtimes cure contumacious Quartans But they work more effectually if with the Primary Decoction Purgatives be mingled Other Remedies are also given before the Fit which are accounted specifical and appropriate to this Ague and being given towards the declination they do very often keep back the fits and cure the Quartan The chief of this sort are these which follow Take Green Leaves of Plantane one handful Green Sorrel half a handful Vinegar and Treacle of each three ounces Distil them and let the Patient take of the distilled Liquor three ounces half an hour before the fit Or Take Sugar-candy three drams Ginger two drams Camphire one dram Make all into a Pouder Give one dram in warm Water Ten Grains of Saffron in pouder given with white Wine before the fit doth much weaken the same Seed of wild Rue given before the Fit in white Wine cures Heurnius assures us that with the following Troches many have been cured even in the Winter with once taking Take Seeds of Rue Parsley Mirrh and new Andromachus Treacle of each one dram Opium half a scruple Make all up into little Cakes or Troches And let the Patient take one of those Cakes in Water before the fit Narcoticks do indeed much abate the fits but unless the greatest part of the morbifick Humor have been before abated and the Obstructions much lessened they may do hurt because they may retain the vitious Humors in the Body and breed Obstructions and other worse Diseases But given in a smal quantity and mingled with things which open and cut as in these Troches they can do less hurt Also to restrain the Fit gentle Purgers are profitably given an hour before it comes which do revel the Humors more by soliciting and provoking Nature than by their purging To which intent such as these which follow are prescribed Take Senna Polipody of the Oak Time Epithimum of each one dram Borrage flowers a pugil Make a Decoction to three ounces Give it an hour before the Fit Or Take Senna three drams Turbith one dram Cinnamon half a dram Saffron and Ginger of each ten grains Sugar
men Riolanus Anatomy Bartholinus Anatomy All the Works of Daniel Sennertus except some few not proper for Translation The Idea of Practical Physick being a compleat Body of Physick And Fernelius his Works These Books of Divinity will speedily be printed Mr. Burroughs on 1 Cor. 5. 7. and 18 19. 29. And fifty nine Sermons on Matthew 11. 28 29 30. Seventeen Books of Mr. Thomas Hooker being the substance of many Sermons preached in New-England Several pieces of Mr. Bridge of Yarmouth Viz. 1 Scripture Light the most sure Light compaâ—ed with 1. Revelations and Visions 2. Natural and supernatural Dreams 3. Impressions with and without Word 4. Light and Law within 5. Divine Providence 6. Christian Experience 7. Humane Reason 8. Judicial Astrology Delivered in three Sermons on 2 Pet. 1. 19. 2 Christ in Travel Wherein The 1. Travel of his soul 2. The first and after effects of his Death 3. His Assurance of Issue 4. And His satisfaction therein Are opened and cleered in three Sermons on Esay 53. 11. 3 A Lifting up for the Cast-down in case of 1. Great sin 2. Weakness of Grace 3. Miscarriage of Duties 4. Want of Assurance 5. Affliction 6. Temptation 7. Dissertion 8. Unserviceableness 9. Discouragements from the Condition it self Delivered in thirteen Sermons on Psalm 42. 11. His Four Sermons concerning 1 Sin against the Holy-Ghost 2 Sins of Infirmities 3 The fifth Monarchy 4 The Good and means of Establishment Francisci Tayleri Capitula Patrum Hebricè Latinè edita Una cum Annotationibus sensum locorum difficilium Experimentibus Francisci Tayleri Lamentationes Jeremiae vatis Denuo è fontibus Hebraicis translatae cum Paraphrasi Chaldaica Masora magna parva Commentariis Rabbi Shelomoh Jarchi Aben Ezrae è Buxtorfii Bibliis magnis excerptis The Author to the Reader FIfteen Yeers ago Friendly Reader to Satisfie the Desires of my Auditors I undertook to explain unto them the Methodicall Cure of all inward Diseases of the Body which that I might accomplish the sooner I medled not at all in a manner with the Theory knowing ful well that any Student might with ease enough fetch the same from divers Authors which notwithstanding they could not so easily do in point of Practice because of the almost infinite Company variety of Medicaments wherewith the Books of those that have delivered the Practical part of Physick do swarm with which Young Beginners are so confounded that they remain amazed not knowing which to choose I conceived it would be most profitable for them if out of such a multitude of Medicaments I should select the most choice and which were most frequently used and dispose them into the same order which we are wont to observe in our Practice when we attend the Cure of our sick Patients This Method of teaching gave such content to our Students of Physick that as many as came flocking to this University to study after that I had finished the same did all earnestly desire to have written Coppies thereof and many of them did frequently exhort me and earnestly Beg that I would suffer it to be printed and so for the future free all Men from the tedious Labor of writing it out But I who never had the thought being very free from Self-Love that my writings were of so much worth as to be published in Print especially this Method of Practice which was slipt from me as a thing only begun with rude Notes hastily huddled up to perform my daily task of Reading and half maimed for want of the Theoretick part I thought it better to beleeve my own Conscience than their too favourable Opinion I pondered likewise in my Mind that it was a very hazardous thing to subject my Reputation to the Judgment of the whol world and as it commonly falls out to the biting Teeth of envious detractors especially in this polished Age abounding with neat and pasing fine Witts who are hardly pleased with such workes as have been wrought with the greatest Industry possible and who are wont to peep curiously to spy spots in the shining Sun Nevertheless this unperfect Birth of mine which I desired to keep close and hidden was sent into the wide world by one of my Schollers who without my knowledg and against my will gave that imperfect homely and unpolished work to a Printer of Paris to print And this Child of mine which I did count Abortive was more pleasing and found greater Favour in the Eyes of Strangers than in its Fathers for all the Books of this first Edition were suddainly sold off A second Edition and a little after a Third was procured by the same Printer by which all Europe was filled with Copies Nevertheless some yeers after there came out three other Editions within two yeers time one at Lions and two other in Holland viz. at Tergow and the Hague In the mean while I received very many Letters out of the Chief Cities of FRANCE GERMANY HOLLAND and ITALY from Doctors of Physick whom I was acquainted with when they studied Physick in this University seriously expostulating that this Work was Lame because it wanted the Theory of the Disease and withall advising me that it would be worth my pains to spend some part of my studies that way Conceiving at length that it was fitting to consent unto their just requests I laboured with all my might as far as my Employments and Health would give me leave to finish and publish this Theoretick part insomuch that at last Blessed and Praised be God I brought the same to a conclusion Accept it freindly Reader with a cheerfull mind being Joyned to the foresaid Practick part so that in one continued Discourse thou maiest Behold the Nature Differences Causes Diagnostick and Prognostick Signs together with the Cure ofall Diseases I Suppose this Child of mine will merit highly thy Favour being now adorned in all its parts and advanced to a far greater Degree of Perfection and seeing that thou wert pleased with it in its Cradle and Swadling-Clouts now that it is greater and hath attained its perfect Stature of Body it will not I hope Displease thee Enjoy it with Gods Blessing and whatever thou shalt learn therefrom let Christian Charity cause the to employ it for thee Good of thy Neighbour Also I desire thee to take notice that many faults were crept into the former Editions through the negligence of Printers all which I have carefully corrected in this Edition And furthermore I have added many and those very Choice Medicaments to the Cures formerly printed which will not a little conduce to the happy cure of difficult Diseases Forewel From my Study at Monpelier the first of July Lazarus Riverius An EPIGRAM shewing who are Doctors of Physick and who not Doctors or Teachers they of Physick are Whether by Pen they do it or in Chair With lively Voyce that teach the way to know Mans Nature Health and Sickness and do show Diseases Cause and Cure But
this Remedy Outwardly you may use some Chymical Balsoms against Apoplexies of which there are divers We wil only discover one of the best unto you Take of the Oyl of Nutmegs by Expression half an ounce Ambergreece Musk and Civit of each one scruple the distilled Oyls of Spike Amber Cinnamon Rosemary Cloves of each half a scruple With this Balsom touch the pallat every morning and drop some into the ears and snuff some into the nostrils For this purpose the distilled Oyl of Nutmegs used in the same manner is much commended Lastly We must observe That in the Cure of these Diseases we must use less hot things and lose more blood when the Disease is caused of blood and also we must mix Medicines that purge Choller with those that purge Flegm They which have been troubled with any of these Diseases and are cured do use many times to relapse and fal into the same again which that you may prevent you must correct the cold Distemper of the Brain as before is taught by which Method you may prevent either Apoplexy Carus Lethargy or Coma. And if the Brain be very cold after general Evacuations you may often use Aqua Apoplectica or these Tablets or Lozenges following Take of Amber-greece half a scruple the distilled Oyl of Annis seeds Cinnamon and Nutmegs of each three drops Oyl of Cloves one drop Sugar dissolved in Orange-flower-water four ounces Make these into Lozenges and let him take a dram or two of it every morning Pills to strengthen the Head are thus made Take of Cubebs Mastich Nutmeg Cloves of each one dram Amber-greese half a dram of Musk six grains With Juyce of Marjoram make Pills and let him take one scruple at a time twice in a week at his going to bed This Pouder is much in use and is much commended Take of White Amber half an ounce of the Pouder of the Electuary called Diarrhodon Abbatis two drams of Peony Roots one dram and an half Make a Pouder of them and take a dram at a time in any Water for that purpose before every New Moon It is good to hold Nutmeg in the Mouth and to chew it very often Sweet Perfumes are to be used to the Nose especially the Apoplectick Balsom Use Spices with Meat after Meat a digestive Pouder mentioned in the Cure of the cold Distemper of the Head If you fear a sleepy Disease wil come from too much blood you must first take some away by the Arm and use al means to make the Piles or Hemorrhoid Veins to bleed which is very good for which you must purge with Senna and Rhubarb and with cooling things If you fear an Apoplexy from Melancholly you must purge Melancholly and provoke the Hemorrhoids and give the Medicines prescribed for the strengthening of the Brain especially that pouder which is made of white Amber Diarrhodon and Peony Roots CHAP. III. Of Waking Coma. THE Disease called Waking Coma or Coma vigil is put among sleeping Diseases yet because it is of another Condition different from the rest we will treat of it in this Chapter by it self This Coma vigil is a Disease in which the Patient lieth with his eyes shut as if he were asleep when he is awake and distracted and if you touch him he presently openeth his eyes and looks strangely and falls asleep again which is hindered by divers strange imaginations and fancies This Disease Galen placeth as a mean between a Frenzy and a Lethargy and calleth it Typhomania The usual Cause of this Disease is Choller mixed with Flegm by which humors the Brain is made too moist or it is swelled or inflamed from whence either the Tumor called Erisypelas oedematosum or oedema Erisypelatosum But because those humors are diversly mixed somtimes a greater proportion of the one than of another it comes to pass that the Diseases from them are divers for if Choller be chief then it is a Delirium or Dotage and the sick man sleepeth but little though his eyes be shut but if Flegm prevail the Patient doth sleep more and is less doting and being raised makes less noise and is not so foolish This Coma vigil comes by sympathy from Chollerick vapors mixed with Flegmatick that fly into the Head which happens in Feavers that come from mixed Humors especially in half Tertians which are made of a Tertian and a Quotidian We may safely affirm that this Disease cometh from Vapors simply hot and moist in strong Feavers because sleep comes from moisture and waking comes from heat The Diagnosis or knowledg of this Disease is plain enough by what hath been said That they which have it lie with their eyes shut and seem to sleep yet they cannot sleep but toss and tumble lift themselves up suddenly strive to get out of the bed and then fall again asleep The divers Causes are easily known from what hath been said This Disease is accounted dangerous if the Brain have a Swelling or Inflamation or if it be overcome with the humors above mentioned namely Choller and Flegm or if it come of vapors which arise from the malignant Humors of a Pestilent Feaver If the Dotage or Delirium be strong it produceth a Convulsion for it comes of a Humor or vapor which is very sharp which falling upon Nervous parts causeth a Convulsion A true Coma vigil is cured as a Frenzy and Lethargy and if it incline most to a Frenzy then the Medicines proper for that are most to be used if to a Lethargy then the Medicines proper for that But a Coma that cometh by Sympathy is cured by curing the Malignant Feaver from whence it cometh but the more peculiar Remedies must also be used which draw and keep humors from the Brain in the beginning of the Disease as bleeding in the Arm and Foot Vinegar of Roses applied to the Forehead Clysters Cupping glasses to the Shoulders Back Buttocks Thighs opening the Head Vein applying Leeches to the Temples and behind the Ears and laying living Creatures to the Head to dissolve the Humor CHAP. IV. Of the Sleeping Diseases called Catoche and Catalepsis or Congelation THere is some Confusion among Authors about this Catoche for some take it for Coma vigil Waking Coma others for Catalepsis Paulus gave them the cause of their difference in his Third Book and the Eighth Chapter he treats of a two-fold Catoche and first under that name he speaks of a Coma vigil in the end under the same name he speaks of Catalepsis Custom hath brought it to pass that Catoche and Catalepsis are taken for one and the same Disease in all Authors the Latins call it commonly Congelation or stiffness of the Body It is a Disease seldom seen and to be admired and those Authors which have seen the Disease do think it so much worth the observation as to describe the whol passage and History of it First of all Galen in his first Comment Prorrhet Sect. 2. Part 56. mentioneth a story of a School-fellow
of his who when he had wearied himself with long Study fel into a Catalepsis or Congelation He lay saith he like alog all along not to be bent stiff and stretched out and seemed to behold us with his eyes but spake not a word and he said that he heard us what we said at that time although not evidently and plainly and told us some things that he remembred and said all that stood by him were seen of him and could remember and declare some of their gestures at that time but could not then speak or move one part of his body But Fernelius in his third Book of the Parts of Diseases Chap. 2. relates two Stories which are these One while he being very studious and writing was so suddenly struck with this disease that sitting and holding his pen with his eyes open and looking upon his Book you would have thought he had been hard at study til he was by calling and jogging found to want alsence and motion Another I saw like a dead man lying along with neither seeing hearing nor feeling when he was pinched but he breathed freely and whatsoever was put into his mouth he presently swallowed if he were taken out of his bed he did stand alone but being thrust he would fall down and which way soever his Arm Hand or Leg was set there it stood fixed and firm you would have taken him for a Ghost or some rare Statue You may read the like Stories iâ— Schenkius Marcellus Donatus Rondeletius Jacotius and others From whom you may gather That in this disease there is found a destruction or hinderance of the internal and external Sences with a stiffness of all the Members and somtimes the Sences are not so much hindered but the sick party heareth those that speak unto him somtimes the Members are not so stiff but they may be bent and bowed by them that stand by and put into divers Postures The Causes of this Disease are divers Galen in his Comments Aphor. 3. Sect. 2. saies that a Catalepsis comes from a cold distemper of the Brain which distemper chiefly seizeth upon the hinder part of the Head makes it stiff and thick from whence the Nerves proceeding are also made stiff and such a distemper may seize upon al the Nerves whether it come of an external or an internal cause but some question this cause supposing that no living body can be so cold as to have such a Congelation But Galen answereth this in his 5. Chap. of his Book of the Difference of Diseases by a Reason taken from Experience in these words For those who in a journey are taken with cold which is unto death are thus stiff whom the Greeks call Emprostotonos or Bowers forward Opistotonos or Bowers backward Tetanos extended streight and others that are killed with cold are taken with this Catoche or Congelation Therefore Galen teacheth us that a Catalepsis may be got by external cold and Reason may easily perswade us to it for they which are killed upon the way with great cold do first grow stiff they have a stiffness or Congelation before they die therefore cold may bring a less stifness than that which bringeth Death So we see that Congelation of the Nerves or Catalepsis may come of a cold Distemper and the sooner if it be mixt with a dry distemper But this Disease is most often gotten by a cold and dry distemper joyned with matter that is an Humor or Melancholly Vapor from which cometh a Constipation or Congealing of the hinder part of the Brain and extention of the Nerves and also a stiffness of the same from this humor it cometh I say not only in respect of its quality which is cold and dry but also in respect of its quantity which by repletion makes a distention or stretching forth of the Nerves Aetius in his sixt Book and fourth Chap. saith that a Congelation may be caused of blood Unto which thing Rondeletius consents saying that it comes to pass when the Veins and Arteries of the Brain are so full that the Body groweth stiff and distended or stretched out like those bodies that are congealed with cold weather he confirms his Opinion by a History of a Noble woman taken with a continual Feaver called Synochus who had in the ninteenth day a Congelation which was cured by a large flux of Blood from her Nose Sennertus hath found out a new cause which he saith is a congealing Spirit by which the Animal Spirits are fixed and made immovable he denies that the force of congealing and fixing depends upon a cold and dry distemper but riseth from some hidden quality Such Congealing Spirits are found in the greater World as in Thunder when men are thereby made stiff and as it were congealed As Cardanus reports of eight Mowers which supping under an Oak were struck with Thunder so as they kept the same shape of Body the one seeming to eat the other to lay hold of the pot another to drink when they were all dead It is usually reported that Wine wil be congealed in the Vessel by the spirit of Thunder In Earth-quakes many times such Spirits break forth suddenly out of the Earth as make men and other living Creatures to be stiff and stark Moreover Sennertus addeth that there is great congealing force in Nitre and other Minerals he brings no Examples We shal only bring one Instance taken from Lead whose Vapor doth so fix and congeal Mercury or Quick-silver that it becomes thereby malleable or to be beaten with the hammer This Opinion of Sennertus were not wholly to be rejected if he had not made this the only cause of the disease and cast off al the rest which when they are allowed and confirmed by Galen and the best of Authors are not easily to be cast off and denyed Nor is it needful that we fal to hidden Causes when there are enough visible and manifest able to produce such effects as is before declared And when Sennertus saies that this his congealing spirit is caused of a melancholly humor he seemeth to differ from the common Opinion which is That a Congelation cometh of a cold and dry or Melancholly vapor The Knowledg of this Disease or Diagnosis is manifest from the Stories of Galen and Fernelius already mentioned for the evil befals a man quickly and leaves him in that posture in which it found him and keeps him unmoved as if he were congealed The diversity of Symptoms which we propounded before is seen plainly We foretel this Disease by the same signs as we do other sleeping Diseases as the Symptoms are greater or less so is the Disease more or less dangerous The way of Cure is Two-fold either in the time of the fit or out of the fit In the fit you may use those Medicines which are set down for sleeping Diseases Out of the fit you must labor to cure Melancholly the disease so called if the Congelation come from a Melancholly humor or
bruise or a puncture of a Nerve The Causes of a Convulsion by Emptiness or Inanition are all extraordinary or immoderate Evacuations by bleeding at the Nose or any outward part by vomit flux of the belly or sweat as also all great consumptions of the Radical moisture which happen in strong Feavers immoderate exercise watchings cares immoderate Lechery hunger and thirst and the dayly use of Food and Medicines which heat and dry This kind of Convulsion from Emptiness is rejected by many who suppose that so great a drought cannot be brought into a living Body as may contract the Nerves but that is usual in a Hectick Feaver or a Marasmus these men are thus answered Every emptiness or driness cannot make a Convulsion but that which is made suddenly and unequally by which means there is a sudden Evacuation or emptying of the Radical moisture which makes the parts cling and close together for the avoiding of a Vacuum or emptiness which Nature abhorreth but if the moisture be equally drawn from al parts and by degrees there is no contraction because the parts made empty are filled with Air. A Convulsive Motion is of a sharp pricking matter which provokes the Nerves and it is for the most part a humor or vapor ful of acrimony or malignancy this comes often in malignant Feavers These Convulsive Motions are caused for the most part from the Brain and Nerves suffering by sympathy or consent and then it is called Convulsio Sympathica And this Sympathy is either by their plain suffering together in respect of their likeness in substance and office and their vicinity or neerness or from an evil quality or poysonous air sent to the original of the Nerves And it is often caused by consent from the mouth of the stomach through an aeruginous or rust like Choller through worms poyson or other sharp matter which gripeth and also from consent with the womb as it happeneth in Hysterical passions or the Mother The Diagnosis or knowledg of a Convulsion is easily learned from those things which we propounded in the beginning of this Chapter For in a true Convulsion the part is contracted stiff and immovable that it cannot be bent at the pleasure of the Patient but in a Convulsive Motion the part is shaken and tossed hither and thither As to the Prognostick A Convulsion which is in many parts especially those neer the Brain is dangerous as also that which is in the Muscles of the Breast which giveth us to fear a suffocation by reason of the shortness of the Patients breathing A Convulsion coming of too much bleeding or purging is deadly as Hippocrates saith in his Aphorisms for as Galen sheweth in his Comment that a Convulsion comes of emptiness but it may so fall out as it may come of irritation or provoking by the motion of sharp and chollerick humors to the Nervous parts or of the malign quality of a venemous Medicine as it happens after the taking of Hellebore A Convulsion from a Frenzy is deadly Aetius affirmeth that he never heard of or saw any so taken that recovered It is better that a Feaver follow a Convulsion than a Convulsion a Feaver Aphor. 37. Sect. 2. for a Feaver coming upon a Convulsion takes away its cause but a Convulsion coming upon a Feaver shews a malignant matter which threatneth death Whosoever are taken with the Tetanus or Cramp so called die within four daies but if they continue longer they are cured Aph. 6. Sect. 5. for the great stretching of all the Muscles hinders breathing so that they are suffocated And we must observe that a Convulsion is not the cause of death in respect of what is done to the Nerves for a Palsey coming of the like cause continues many yeers but in respect of the suffocation it brings by the Convulsion of the Muscles ordained for breathing The Cure of this Disease is divers as the Cause is divers That which comes of Emptiness is seldom and incurable therefore we shall not insist upon the Cure of it Authors do prescribe al kind of moistening Medicines and opening Oyntments That which comes of provoking or irritation is from other Diseases and is comprehended under the Cure of them It remains therefore that we treat of the Cure of a Convulsion by Repletion which when it comes of flegm and wind must be cured by removing of them This is done first by blood-letting if it abound and the party be strong but it is better to take too little than too much for blood is an Enemy to that principal Cause which is flegm After Blood-letting or it being omitted if need do not require you must purge with pills which are strong but have an eye to the Patients strength according to those forms in the first Chapter you must ad to them three grains of Castor If the Patient will not take pills he may take Potions Pouders and other Medicines prescribed in the first Chapter After Purging if you have not let blood before apply Cupping glasses with Scarrification otherwise without first to the remote parts then to the parts neer the part affected But if the Thighs or Legs have a Convulsion apply them to the Buttocks and Loyns if the Arms to the Neck and Shoulders laboring alwaies to bring the humor back to its original You may also with profit apply a Vencatory to the parts opposite to that which is affected After the first purging the matter is to be prepared with an Apozeme prescribed in the Cure of the cold distemper Make it purging if strength and other things wil permit otherwise leave out the Purgatives The Apozeme done give him Pills again putting Castorium to them and to all his Purges If you uâ—e only an alâ—ering Apozeme which changeth the Humors you must in that time give several sharp Clysters such as are prescribed in the Chapter of sleeping Diseases Also anoint the part with this Liniment Take of Oyntment of â—arsh-mallows six ounces Oyl of Turpentine and Chamomel of each one ounce Oyl of Spike three drams and of Foxes half an ounce Liquid Storax two ounces Anoint the part and back-bone often therewith Take of Oyl of Dill and Chamomel of each one ounce Unguentum Maâ—â—iatum half an ounce Oleum Petroleum and Spike of each one dram Spirit of Wine three drams Ducks or Goose Grease prepared as followeth is much commended Take a Goose or Duck that is fat pluck it and draw it then fill it with these things following Take of Sage Marjoram and French Lavender of each one handful Gum Ammoniacum and Bdellium of each one ounce Calamus Aromaticus Nutmeg Mace and Cloves of each half an ounce Beat them in a Mortar and moisten them with the Oyl of Earthworms after put them into the belly of the Goose sowed well together and roast it upon a Spit Receive the Dripping into a Vessel half full of Vinegar and anoint with it But it is stronger thus Take of the dripping aforesaid six ounces the Chymical Oyls
goeth by fits when in a Coma it comes all at once A true Epilepsy is distinguished from an Epilepsy by consent thus In the true there appears many signs of the Brain affected as heaviness of mind and slowness decay of memory troublesom sleep with dreams dulness of sences slowness and idleness of Body pain of the head and other things Moreover the sick man doth not perceive the fit coming but is suddenly taken therewith unawares at the new Moon for the most part The due proportion of the inferior parts being without blemish do confirm this sign But we may know whether it come from the right or left side of the head most By this either the sight of one eye is more obscured or the hearing more thick with the noise of the head on that side or if the right or left side be more dull But we may know from what humor especially an Epilepsy cometh by those signs which declare when flegm choller or melancholly abound An Epilepsy by consent is thus known There appear no signs of a distempered Brain the Patient perceives his Disease Coming and a wind rising from the parts below or some lower part is weakened or else affected strongly in the time of the fit These things following do shew that the Cause of an Epilepsy is in the stomach Disdain of meat an inability to fast loathing vomiting pain of the stomach gnawing pricking and distention somtimes beating of the heart which ariseth from the Stomach That the disease comes from the Liver or Spleen appears by often belching and breaking of wind a swelling of the belly with rumbling and noise sowr belchings straitness of the Midrif and pain somtimes reaching to the back besides some distemper in inferior parts An Hysterick fit or the Mother mixt with Convulsions if a retaining of the Courses or Seed went before shews that it comes from the Womb. If the Epilepsy comes from an external part some wind is perceived to rise from that part and the matter causing the Disease somtimes tickleth and beateth in the part which is a sign there is a fit at hand and if that part be tied hard the fit is hindred Lastly The Signs of worms shew that the disease come from them as stinking sowr Breath itching of the Nose pain of the Belly earthy Excrements grating of the teeth sleepiness and the like especially if somtimes worms are voided But the extraordinary Causes as Imposthumation foulness of a Bone stopping of urine and the like may be taken from their proper signs As to the Prognostick An Epilepsy is a Disease of long continuance and very stubborn and deadly in Infants An Epilepsy coming haereditary is incurable but that which comes from external causes and evil diet is curable An Epilepsy coming before fourteen yeers of age in Boyes and twelve in Girls is curable after twenty five yeers of age it is incurable out of Hippocrates Aph. 7. Sect. 5. For in the time of ripeness of Age there is great store of Natural heat which is powerful to discuss-Diseases Moreover at that time women begin to have their terms by which the uncleanness of the Body is purged Yet although Hippocrates supposed an Epilepsy to be incurable after twenty five yeers of age yet this is not alwaies true for we find by experience that many have been cured after although but seldom seen therefore we may say that the Aphorism is true for the most part A strong Epilepsy often killeth the Patient in the fit or it turns into an Apoplexy or by reason of the strength of the symptomes and the violent shaking of the Brain the Fabrick of the Body it is overthrown and some parts thereof are broken and it happens somtimes that pieces of the bones called Processus Mammillares come out of the Nose An Epilepsy coming of Melancholly turns somtimes into madness when the humor is sent from the Ventricles of the Brain into the substance thereof The same humor when it is only in the Ventricles of the Brain stopping them and paining them causeth an Epilepsy But when it offends the substance of the Brain which is the seat of the chief â—unctions by defiling its Natural temper and corrupting the Animal Spirits and darkening them it makes a Mâ—lancholly doting Hence Hippocrates 6. epid sect 8. text 40 saith that Melancholly men turn for the most part Epileptick and Epileptick to Melancholly But these Diseases thus change in a two-fold respect either by the change of the matter causing the Disease from its proper seat and so when one comes another goes or by the propagation of the matter and then both remain An Epilepsy coming of flegm turns either into an Apoplexy or a Palsey A Quartan Ague coming upon an Epilepsy and continuing long cureth it by reason the matter of the Diseaâ—e is by degrees coâ—â—â—â—ned by the heat of the Feaver if it be of flegm but if it come of Melancholly it is sent from the part affected to the place where the ground of the disease lieth that it may supply matter to the new sits The â—ure of the Epilepsy is two-fold the one in the fit the other out of it Physitians are seldom called to the Cure of the fit except it continue over long in which cafe those Remedies which we laid down in the Cure of sleepy Diseases especially the Apoplectick Water the Cinnamon Water Aqua vitae and other Spirits which are very proper to discuss the fit Out of your fit you must vary your Cure as the Cause requires And first we shal lay down the Cure of a proper Epilepsy which consists in Evacuation of humors throughout the body in the discussing of the matter of the Disease and rectifying its evil qualities as also in strengthning of the Brain And since the matter offending in a true Epilepsy is for the most part Flegm we will direct our general Cure in oppoâ—â—tion to that admonishing yong beginners that if Choller or Melancholly abound they would prepare and purge them But the specifical Remedies are alwaies the same of what cause soever the Disease doth come For a perfect Cure we must thus proceed First Give him a Potion to purge flegm or some other Medicine to that purpose which the Patient can best take mentioned in the first Chapter First giving a Clyster if his body be bound After if there be signs of Repletion or if the party be Sangume he must be let blood otherwise not Afterwards the Universal Cure of the cold distemper of the Brain is to be followed with this Caution That to the Decoctions Apozemes Diets Sweats Syrups Chewings and head Pouders you ad the Root and Seed of Peony and Misleto of the Oak which all ancient Authors hold to be most proper for the Cure of this disease For his Dâ—et Guajacum is the best Sweater By the use of which Jachinus reports that he cured many but let it be continued thirty or fourty daies To every Dose of the Sudorifick Decoction put some drops
able to exercise a voluntary Motion perfectly The Spirits are made weak either by a fault in themselves or by a defect in the Nerves which are the Conduit Pipes by which they are carried and do act The fault is in the Spirits either when they are but few at the first or when they are afterwards dissipated They are few at the first either by reason of the cold distemper of the Brain as in old men or through the want of vital Spirits which are the matter of which the animal are made The Spirits are dissipated from many external Causes as immoderate Evacuations much use of Venery and unseasonable great pain and constant fasting sorrow and long violent Diseases The Spirits are hurt by defect in the Nerves and are weakned either when the Nerves are too cold or are infected with a malignant quality or obstructed or compressed They grow too cold either from a cold Air from use of cold meats or much drinking of Water swimming often in cold water and the like They are infected by the use of Opium Henbane Poppy and the vapor of Quick-silver as it is seen in Gold-smiths and them which have the French Pox and have been cured with the fume of Cinnaber So in malignant Feavers tremblings come also which are rather to be accounted Convulsive Motions and also they come from the provocation or irritation of the Nervous parts They are stopped not wholly as in a Palsey but much less but by the same cause namely a watery humor gently sprinkled upon the Nerves which is produced of gluttony drunkenness and other Causes Lastly Trembling may come from compression of the Nerves when excrementitious humors abounding in the whol Body do compress the Nerves and hinder the free passage of the Animal Spirits Hercules Saxonia besides the causes mentioned borrowed from Galen acknowledgeth another Tremor coming of wind and Cardanus another from pain in nervous parts But they are deceived because the Motion produced from those Causes are to be referred to Palpitation or Convulsive Motion There is no need of signs in this disease because trembling appears of it self But the Causes that produce it are to be known by their proper signs as also we must search for those external Causes which went before As for the Prognostick Trembling of it self is not dangerous but if it be in old people it continueth with them til they die But it may be deadly by accident in as much as it usually goes before a Palsey or an Apoplexy You must Cure Trembling as you cure the Palsey and therefore we shall not make vain repetitions of Medicines CHAP. XI Of Phrenitis or Phrenzie A Phrenzy is an Inflamation of the Brain and its Membranes with a continual dotage and a a sharp constant Feaver By the word Inflamation we understand a true Tumor which is commonly called a contracted Inflamation coming of Blood out of the Vessels falling upon the substance of the part for the Blood being hot and Chollerick and in the Membranes or substance of the Brain causeth a true Erysipelas or an Erysipelas Phlegmonodes or Phlegmon Erysipelatodes By Delirium or Doting we understand the erring of Reason for we suppose that fault cannot be in the Imagination alone without a fault be in the Reason in a Phrenzy whatsoever others think we are led by the Authority of Galen who in his Book of the Difference of Symptomes chap. 3. gives an Example of one Theophilus a Physitian who thought Fidlers sate continually in a corner of his house playing and beleeved that he saw them somtimes standing somtimes sitting and cried continually that they should be cast out of doors And Galen saith that in him the Imagination was hurt without the Reason First therefore we may say that Theophilus had not a Phenzy for Galen doth not say that he had but speaking of a Delirium which Theophilus had therefore it was rather Melancholly because they somtimes err in one object and discourse wel concerning other so saith Galen of Theophilus that he had wisdom in other things both to discourse and to know his friends But we say further of Theophilus that not only his Imagination but also his Reason was hurt because he really thought the Fidlers were there and desired they should be put forth For when the Imagination alone is hurt the Reason being not hurt acknowledgeth the error of Imagination as in a Vertigo in which the Patient thinks al things run round but Reason knoweth that it is not so indeed but that Imagination doth err Nor is the Opinion of Eustachius Rudius to be received in this case who saith That it never comes to pass that the Imagination should be hurt the Reason being sound because Reason worketh upon Phantasms received from the Imagination and therefore if foolish Phantasms are offered to the Reason he thinks it necessary that the Understanding beholding those foolish fansies should also be foolish And hence Eustachius gathers that the Imagination is not depraved but there is a meer and simple deceit of the sight We say that the understanding doth run from one thing to another and is busied about those Species which are retained in the Memory and though the Fansie presents absurdities to the Mind yet the Species before received are still retained in the Memory and are presented to the Reason it can know and correct that mistake of the Fansie namely if it judg that those absurd fansies which are brought to it by a depraved Imagination do neither agree with time place or other circumstances which still remain in the Memory and are known to be true So in a Vertigo Reason being in order judgeth that it is impossible that Roofs Walls and Pavements should turn round and therefore they are falsly represented to the Imagination So the Phylosopher that was bit with a mad dog and his Imagination began to decay going into a Bath perceived the false Image of a Dog therein but Reason being sound reproved the error of his Imagination and made him speak thus What hath a Dog to do in a Bath and presently he cast himself into the Bath by which means he was delivered from the danger of a Disease called Hydrophobia or fear of Water There are two kinds of Phrenzie namely a true Phrenzy which is laid down in the Definition above mentioned Another which is called Paraphrenitis or Bastard Phrenzy A true Phrenzy is somtimes in the Disposition which is most usual somtimes in the Habit which is called Hectical Phrenzy in which the Chollerick Humors are strongly fixed in the Brain and possess many parts thereof sticking thereto like a tincture or dye A Paraphrenitis or bastard Phrenzy is when a hot distemper is communicated to the Brain either from the whol Body as in burning Feavers or from some part inflamed as the Stomach Liver Lungs and especially the Diaphragma or Midriff which by inflamation doth produce a Disease very like a Phrenzy namely a contâ—nual Dotage called Delirium which cometh to
pass by the great consent which is between the Brain and the Diaphragma through the Nerves that come thither and by the perpetual motion of the Diaphragma or Midriff by reason whâ—reof continual vapors are sent to the Brain The Cause of a true Phrenzy is Chollerick blood to which there is joyned also Excrementitious Choller and this produceth a greater or less Phrenzy according to its divers degrees namely in heat and adustion So a Pale Choller produceth the mildest Phrenzy and an Adust or burnt Choller stirs up a bestial Phrenzy But when the Brain is inflamed and the Membranes thereof the Chollerick blood is out of its Vessels and shed abroad into the substance of those parts which is done Two wayes either when the Brain is principally affected or when it is affected by Sympathy The Brain is primarily affected when it doth immediately grow hot from an external Cause as from the Sun-beams drinking of Wine Wrath and the like so that the blood which is contained in the veins of the Brain is moved and carried out of its Vessels and this may come from a wound or stroak or contusion of the head And a Phrenzy so coming may be called a primary or principal Phrenzy But a secondary Phrenzy is that which follows burning and malignant Feavers when a part of that humor which causeth the Disease is carried to the head It followeth many times in these Feavers That Nature being disturbed by the malignity of the Cause which maketh the Disease sends some portion thereof to some flesh between the skin and the bone whence we see Pluresies shortness of Breathings Squinseys Hipatitides or Inflamations from the Vena porta and other parts to follow these Feavers So if these humors are sent to the Brain they make a true Phrenzy and then the Feaver goes before the Delirium or doting But in primary Phrenzies a Delirium appears with the Feaver from the beginning The Signs which declare a Phrenzy to come are these watchings troublesome slâ—ep much talk an urin that is first thick and after thin and perspicuous heat of the head for these declare that hot matter is carried to the head the eyes are altered because the brain being hurt they want the animal spirit There is a pain about the hinder part of the head because the jugular veins are carried to that part and send forth the Chollerick blood These are the signs of a Phrenzy present a continual doting because the Brain is alwayes affected troublesome watchings coming from the hot distemper of the Brain seldom and great violent breathing because men in Phrenzies forget to breath for when by forgetfulness or great trouble of the mind by many fancies which are presented to a doting imagination and with-draw the animal spirits Respiration or breathing is very seldom it is made up with the greatness of the blast Moreover in a Phrenzy there is no thirst or very little albert there are strong causes of thirst present because the mind is sick and the animal spirits by reason the Brain is hurt do not send their beams to the mouth of the stomack wherâ—unto thirst belongeth The Pulse is weak because the heart suffers with the brain hard because the Membrana is inflamed quick and often by reason of the great urging and somthing moist because the brain is affected Moreover there is a continual Feaver because the inflamation of the brain must of necessity cause a Feaver The tongue is rough black and yellow by reason of the Chollerick vapors which dry up its moisture An Hectical or Habitual Phrenzy is known from Hippocrat 1. Prorrhet text 33. by smal doting and little perceived when the sick do not speak but lie still and seem to sleep But a Phrenzy or Phrenitis is diâ—tinguished from a Paraphrenitis in this The Disease which produceth that is sooner known than a Delirium or Doting and by the encrease or diminution of that the Delirium is encreased or diminished and somtimes it intermits and is not constant But a Paraphrenitis springing from the Inflamation of the Midriff in which there is a constant doting is distinguished by other signs Namely â—ecause in a true Phrenzy there is great and seldom breathing but in the other little and often Little because the Diaphragma or Midriff being inflamed cannot easily be extended and dilated Often for necessity that the smalness might be made good by the frequency Moreover in a true Phrenzy the voyce is high and the Patient cryes out loud in the other the voice is low because the instrument of Breathing is hindered And lastly In the inflamation of the Midriff the Hypocondria are drawn up according to Hippocrates in Coacis and the reason is because the Midriff is covered beneath with a Membrana coming from the Peritoneum and therefore when it is inflamed it contracts the Peritoneum and with it the Hypochondria Lastly The Signs of the Causes may be known from the predominancy of the Humor in the whol Body and from the manner of the Delirium For a pale Choller makes a more gentle Phrenzy a yellow Choller make a more violent an adust Choller makes the most violent But Chollerick blood causeth the most mild of al. The Prognostick of this Disease is for the most part deadly for few escape in regard a noble part of the body is affected with a great Disease The greatest hope of recovery is when there is Dotage with laughter and a decrease of Symptoms continuance of strength as also when after the height of the Disease there happeneth some beneficial evacuation as sweat blood or looseness But these shew the Disease to be deadly The Tongue quavering and Hand trembling gnashing of Teeth Convulsion a great Chilness or Cold in the beginning of the Disease as also when the Patient picketh the Wooll or Straws about his bed You may farther Collect Death to be at hand by a drop of black blood flowing from the Nostrils by white stools white and thin urine For al these signifie a great oppression of the Brain or a flowing of Choller from the whole body to the part affected For the Cure of this Disease the blood that flows to the Head must be let forth and revelled derived repelled and intercepted and that which was there before must be evacuated and discussed The distemper of that part must be corrected the strength of it and of the whole body is to be preserved All these things may be done with the following Medicines In the beginning of the Disease at any time of the day you must let blood out of the Head vein because the Disease is very violent giving a Clyster before or if blood do much abound out of the Liver vein or first out of the middle vein and a little after out of the Head vein If the Disease come from stoppage of the Terms or Hemorrhoids upon the vein called Saphena in the foot In the next place you must open the Chephalick or Head vein that you may draw forth
of Chamomel and of Dill mixed with Oyl of Roses But among Resolving Medicines the chiefest are Creatures newly killed and applied to the head or pieces of them as yong Pidgeons Chickens Puppies cut along the Back and Sheeps Lights for they fortifie the part with their Natural heat discuss the humor and qualifie the sharpness thereof Which things if you have tried one or two daies and have found no benefit Mercatus teacheth to apply a Cupping glass to the crown of the head that the humors may breath through the Sutures into the Skin and if it appearâ—red and be swelled under the Cupping glass to scarifie This Counsel he saith if followed wil do good when al things besides fail especially if you bath presently after with sweet Water in which you have boyled some discussing Medicines But he adviseth that this be not used in Phrenzies that come from other Feavers but only in that which beginneth of its self This Remedy is confirmed by Zacutus Lucitanus who saies that he cured a most desperate Phrenzy by applying a Cupping Glass to the fore part of the Head with Scarrification Some are so bold as to apply Vesicatories or Medicines to raise Blisters to the fore part of the Head which they say hath somtimes had success But this requires extraordinary premeditation before it be used For his Drink let the Patient use Barley Water or Water made of Sorrel Roots with Syrup of Pomegranates Barberries or Lemmons or let him drink this following Infusion Take of Spring Water two pints the Leaves of Sorrel and wild Poppies of each half a handful the Flowers of Borrage Water-lillies and Violets of each half a pugil the spirit of Vitriol one dram red Sanders rasped two scruples Let them be infused for some hours cold then strain them with a Cap paper and ad as much Sugar as is sufficient to make it pleasant There is in this Disease for the most part a stoppage of Urine because the Patient neglecteth to make it from whence those parts that contain it are distended and bring so great an Inflamation that it alone is able to bring death to the Patient Therefore you must often call upon the Patient to make water and you must foment the place where the Bladder lieth with warm Water and drive the Urine forth by the compression of the hand But if the Symptomes do not yeild to these light Medicines you must proceed to stronger Take of the Leaves of Pellitory of the wall two handfuls Parsley with its roots one handful Boyl them and after they are strained ad three ounces of the Oyl of Scorpions and foment the hairy place of the Privities therewith Let the remainder of this Decoction after the straining be fryed in a pan with the Oyl of Scorpions and applied to the same part after the Fomentation If you desire a stronger Decoction ad the Seeds of Smallage Parsley Gromwel Seselis or large and broad Cummin of each two drams You may also profitably apply this following Oyntment after the Fomentation Take of the Fat of a Rabbit and of Oyl of Scorpions of each two ounces Smallage Seeds Parsley seeds Asarabacca and Cummin seeds finely poudered of each half a dram Make an Oyntment Chap. XII Of the Imposthume and Spacelus or Mortification of the Brain THe Imposthume and Mortification of the Brain is described by few Authors although it was observed by Hippocrates in his 3. Book of Diseases and happeneth somtimes in Practice and deluding those Physitians who are not well grounded making them conceive it to be another Disease Now a Spacelus or Mortification of the Brain is a suppuration or corruption or matter of the substance of the Brain which is called a Gangrene Syderation or blasting of the Brain The Immediate cause whereof is an Inflamation of the substance of the Brain which is distinguished from a Phrenzy in this In a Phrenzy the Membranes are chiefly inflamed and they do communicate an inflamation to the external part adjoyning but in this Disease the inward parts of the Brain are inflamed and the whol substance thereof is putrified for so great an inflamation in a most tender part and moist will quickly produce a Spacelus or Mortification The Cause of this Inflamation is Blood over-heated or over chollerick running into the Body and internal parts of the Brain The Primary Causes are all such things as produce hot and much Blood in the whol Body which is sent to the Brain as violent Exercise the heat of the Sun heat of the head by Fire Wrath and the like But great Wounds do more usually produce this Disease as also Contusions But a Spacelus or Imposthume coming from a Wound or Contusion is different from the former in this An Imposthume made by a Fall or Contusion doth nâ— possess so many parts of the Brain but for the most part adhaereth to one Hence the Symptomes are higher especially in the beginning and the Diâ—eâ—â—e continueth longer The Sâ—gns of an Imposthume or Spacelus which cometh without a Wound or Contusion are these In the beginning there is a great Head-ach which is communicated by the hinder part of the head to the neck and all the back after which comes a general decay of all the Sences both internal and external as in an Apoplexy from which it is distinguished by the Signs hereafter mentioned The Patient is tossed to and fro and cannot remain in the same place he layeth hold with his hands upon his head and desires to tear and scratch his face plucking his hair but as the Disease enâ—reaseth his Body groweth faint and cannot use such violence A most sharp and strong Feaver alwaies accompanyeth this Disease which comes from the great Inflamation of the brain Lastly In this Disease the Patient never takes meat or drink neither can you take any course to give them any thing and therefore their strength soon faileth An Imposthume by a Wound or Contusion is known by these signs following After the Wound or Contusion is received there is a kind of numbness and sadness in the Body the Animal Spirits beginning to be weakened by the matter which is got out of its Vessel When the Disease encreaseth there ariseth a kind of Feaver when the matter begins to putrifie thence comes head-ach and drouziness after when putrefaction is encreased al the symptomes grow stronger the Feaver sharper the Patient rising from sleep suddenly roareth out and then presently lyeth down again he often brings his hand to his head Hence it is that many before they die do send forth filthy green matter out of their mouth and nose As to the Prognostick part thus This Disease is most dangerous and commonly deadly even in three daies space as Hippocrates sheweth in his 51. Aphorism Sect. 7. saying That they who have a mortified and putrified brain die in three daies but if they live longer they recover Galen in his Comments teacheth that we are not to understand here by a
Spacelus a compleat corruption of the Brain because that is uncurable but such as is at hand by reason of the great Inflamation In those which recover who are very few there is no remembrance of things past they can neither remember their Disease nor any thing concerning it We must make great hast for the Cure of this Disease for if we do not apply Remedies in the beginning there is no time for Cure Therefore in the first beginning of this Disease we must let blood in great plenty and very often twice or thrice or four times in the same day as strength will permit for al the hope of the Cure lyeth in this only Remedy for when a great quantity of blood possesseth the substance of the Brain which is large soft and moist we cannot make so great a revulsion from thence except we draw almost all the blood in the veins and here that common saying of Celsus is to be observed Many things are done well in time of sudden danger which at other times may be omitted You must also give sharp Clysters every day that the humors which tend upwards may be brought down At the same time apply those Medicines of Rose Vinegar preâ—cribed in the Chapter of Phrenzy For the greater revulsion and derivation apply Cupping-glasses to the Shoulders and Back with deep scarification use Frictions and Ligatures to the extream parts first open the Ankle Veins then the Forehead and the Arteries in the Temples apply Hors-leeches behind the Ears and to the Hemorrhoids Vesicatories to the Neck and Arms and other Medicines which we prescribed in the cure of the Phrenzy At last if the Disease decline you must apply to the head things that gently resolve among which the best is the hot Lungs of a Sheep newly slain CHAP. XIII Of Mania or Madness MAnia is Delirium without a Feaver with raging and fury It is distinguished from a Phrenzy in that there is in a Phrenzy an acute Feaver coming from the inflamation of the Brain and its Membranes But a Mania hath no Feaver in respect of its Being but a Feaver may be joyned with a Mania coming from some other cause but not from that which produceth a Mania And therefore in a Phrenzy a Feaver is syâ—ptomatical but in a Mania it is essential and original coming from some other cause And â—â— is Galen to be understood Book 3. de loc affect chap. 7. where he saâ—th The 〈…〉 which is made of Choller burnt begets beastial madness somtimes without somtimes 〈◊〉 a Fâ—aver It is distinguished from Melancholly by the symptomes which declare the disease for Mania is with fury and boldness but Melancholly is with fear and sorrow The immediate causes of a Mania according to Galen is a cold and dry distemper coming oâ— black Choller which is urged with many difficulties For if there were such a distemper in the Brain that it would disturb the Mind it should produâ—â— a Feaver when a less heat than will produce a Delirium can produce a Feaver as appears in thâ—â— that are inflamed by the Sun To this Doubt divers Authors answer diversly the Answer of the most solid is That the 〈◊〉 which produceth a Feaver must be â—moaky that the vapors sent to the heart may cause it and this vaporing heat ought to be in a moist matter such as is in putrid Feavers but in a madness the Humors are adust and burnt so that no Vapors can arâ—â—e from them In one word they â—ay That the heat in a Madness or Mania is as â—eat in a live coal but heat in a Feaver is as heat in the flame 〈◊〉 â—nd this answer is urged with a strong instance namely in a Hectick Feaver there is more consumption of moisture than in a Mania yet the Feaver continueth to the absolute consumption of all moisture even Radical also and the death of the Patient Plaâ—erus being perswaded by this and other Reasons supposeth that besides the hot and dry distemper there is a malignant and venemous quality which is the chief cause of a Delirium A great probability for this Opinion is That a raging from the Mother comes from Seed corrupted and poysoned in that part Because Hydrophobia or fear of water which is a kind or Mania coming from the biting of a mad dog is caused in any constitution without the mixture of Melancholly And the disease which comes from the bite of a Tarantula is called a kind of Madness And lastly certain poysons do cause madness as is reported of the Brain of a Weesil and Nightshade Therefore it is probable that some certain poyson bred in the Body may be the chief cause of madness since malignant Feavers which are very mild and so somtimes that the pulse and Urine is like to those that are in health use to produce Deliriums more than burning Feavers without malignity And Experience teacheth us that Madness happens often not only in Melancholly men but also in all Natures and Ages especially if it be haereditary or come from Parents and it is often cured by hot Medicines which have special vertue against it But we must conâ—ess that this disease is oftenest in Melancholly people because that humor is more fit to receive such poyson And Galen seems to acknowledg that malignity to come upon Melancholly in his Comment upon Aphor. 56. Sect. 6. where he saith That the cause of a Mania is a Melancholly humor not alwaies but when it is burnt above measure or when it is putrified and hath received a malignant sharpness There remains yet one dimculty That mad men can endure the coldest weather naked without hurt and to be hot externally which shews an extraordinary heat But we answer That this is not proper to all mad folks for some cannot endure cold but go as warm as they can And the other are not disturbed with the external air by reason of Custom because from custom there is no passion so we see tender women in Winter go with naked Breasts which are hot to the touch albeit according to Hippocrates cold is a great enemy to the Breast The matter producing this Disease is contained in the veins and arteries either of the whol body or those neerest to the Brain or in the vessels of the Brain and in respect of the difference of the place containing greater or lighter symptomes do arise Somtimes the matter causing this disease is in the Vessels of the Matrix as Blood and Seed corrupted hence cometh the raging called Furor Vterinus If the matter offending be in all the Veins or those neer the Brain there is a continual madness but if it be shut up only in one part the disease hath intermission and comes by fits The signs by which it is known sometimes shews the disease to be present sometimes that it is growing For the knowledg of Madness to come first consider the Natural disposition of the Patient which is chollerick or melancholly So in Hippocrates 2. epid 5.
affect chap. 7. That he hath often cured a melancholly in the beginning with only Baths of sweet Waters The Hemorrhoids or Piles coming upon melancholly men somtimes bring cure if the humors be cast down thither critically by Nature For somtimes they come symptomatically and multiply the matter of the Disease in many parts Somtimes it is cured by flux of the Hemorrhoids by Scabs Itch or other diseases breaking forth of the Skin As to the Cure of it from whencesoever the Disease took its original we must observe alwaies two things First That the whol Body be freed from a melanchollick humor and the filth of other humors for it seldom happens that one part alone is troubled with it Secondly That the main Cure be directed to the Hypochondria because that in the spleen and liver there is the first generation of Melancholly and the gathering of it is in the parts thereabout therefore the Cure of Hypochondriack Melancholly set down by us will serve for the Cure of other diseases of Melancholly for you can scarce cure the Hypochondria from the abundance of any humor and the generation of any new but by consequence the whol body must be cured of the same Therefore for all diseases of Melancholly those Remedies will suffice which are propounded in the Cure of Hypochondriack Melancholly CHAP. XV. Of a Catarrh or Defluxion A Catarrh is a preternatural Defluxion of an Excrementitious humor from the head into the inferior parts It is therefore a Symptome of the third kind namely a fault in the Excrements The substance of the Brain being large needs much nourishment of whence comes necessarily abundance of Excrements especially by reason of the cold and moist distemper of the part which excrements if they have only their moderate and natural quantity are received into the fore Ventricles of the Brain and are sent by the Choana as by a funnel to the moist Glandels and so are spit forth every day from the pallat but if they grow more plentiful and yet consist in their Natural condition they are dispersed about the Brain and the Meninges and so are sent forth not only by the pallat but also by the nostrils But when the Brain is affected with distemper and weakness or is constrained to receive too much and disproportionable nourishment which it cannot sufficiently concoct there is a great encrease of excrements Ad further as Hippocrates saith that the Brain like Cupping-glasses applied to the Body never cease to attract humors and vapors from the inferior parts hence the excrements are encreased which by their quantity and quality provoking the expulsive and overcoming the retentive faculty run immoderately by unusual and improper waies which they find out to the great disturbance of the Body Since then a fluxion is the motion of matter from one part to another we must consider in that as in all motions five things The Terminus or place from whence the place to which it moves the Mover the Moved and the waies by which it is moved The place from whence is the Brain the place to which is some part beneath the 〈◊〉 the â—â—lover is the expulsive faculty stirred up or the retentive weakned the thing 〈◊〉 is an excrementitious humor the way by which is the Pallat Nostrils Eyes Ears and in eâ—â—ble â—assages as also the Veins Arteries and Nerves In the place from which or the part which sendeth forth we may observe two kinds of Causes One is that which begetteth much moiâ—â—ure in the Body the other is that which make the humors flow That is called the generating this the expelling Cause The generating Causes 〈◊〉 the hindering of Concoction which comes either from the fault in the nourishment or in the faculty The Concoction of the Brain is hindered chiefly from distemper either cold or hot A cold distemper causeth that the Nourishment brought to the brain is ill concocted and turned into flegm as also that the vapors brought from the inferior parts are not sufficiently discussed but are turned and condensed into Water But a hot distemper doth attract more plentiful nourishment and vapors so that Nature cannot sufficiently discuss them The Concoction of the brain is hindred through the Nourishment either when there is too much or when it hath evil qualities so cold gross and slimy meats and drinks immoderately taken cannot be perfectly concocted and make the Brain crude and moist So sharp and windy nourishment send many vapors to the head To these you may ad external Causes which use to fill the head with superfluous humidity as Southernly Air long sleep especially at noon an idle life and the like Although the Brain be called the chief sending part yet it is not alwaies the chief cause of defluxion but for the most part the matter is sent from other parts to the Brain for after evil humors are collected either in the Veins or any peculiar part as the Liver Spleen Mesentery Womb not only many Vapors are sent from them to the head but also the humors themselves are carried to the head and descend again to the inferior parts and the fault lieth most in the inferior parts in the breeding of a defluxion whose distemper is divers and the Obstruction also divers For a hot distemper of the Bowels makes abundance of vapors from which comes defluxions as in a Stil or Alembick But a cold distemper by weak concoction begets crude humors which upon the least occasion â—ly to the brain But the Obstructions of the parts of the lower belly hinder the voiding of Excrements whence it comes that they being encreased by degrees when they cannot find their free and ordinary course fly up to the brain And to this doth also concur the weakness of thâ— brain fit to receive these Excrements for as we said the stronger parts to disburden themselves upon the weaker and it often happens that the brain by reason of its soft and loose substance is weakest and can less resist than solid and compact substances The impulsive causes are too much heat of the brain or coolness or some concoction of humors Too much heat doth extenuate and diffuse the humors contained in the brain and opens the pores by which they use to flow such is the heat of the head with the Sun or fire or too much covering smelling of hot Spices and other passions Coldness doth compress the brain and strains forth the humors therein contained as a Spunge is squeezed in the hand Such change is often in Winter and especially in sudden alteration of Air as when a Southern wind hot and moist is turned into a North wind cold and dry or when one going out of a hot place comes speedily into a cold To these Causes you may ad coldness of the feet which by sympathy is communicated to the Brain Many there are who deny the aforesaid compression of the brain by cold because cold doth incrassat and condense the humors and makes them less apt to flow
neither doth the example of a Spunge prove any thing which will not empty its self in the Air. But this Opinion delivered by Hippocrates in lib. de loc in homine seems to be true Fluxions saith he come of cold when the flesh and veins of the head are extended for those when the head is cold and contracted bound together and excluding do strain forth moisture And also the flesh doth assist them and the hairs are on end as being every where strongly pressed and therefore whatsoever is strained from thence falls where it is occasioned From whence is manifest That a Coarctation and compression of the Parts may be made by cold and from thence a humor may be expressed Neither doth it hinder that densation or thickening of humors which is made by cold as was said for it may be so when the whol body is equally cold But when the external parts are offended by sudden cold they are presently straitened and strain the humor contained Of less force is that Argument against the Spunge that it is not expressed by the cold Air for there is another Reason to be given of living parts whose heat and spirits fly from the sence of cold and cause the parts wherin they are to be contracted which cannot be in a Spunge ful of Water Yet we must confess that this is not the only way by which a Defluxion comes through cold for cold of the feet will produce a Catarrh by communicating a cold distemper to the brain by the chiefest Nerves that come through the marrow of the back bone and this coolness goes into the innermost parts of the brain not the external as cold air which affects the head immediately therefore we may rather think in this case that the retentive faculty of the brain is weakened by cold of the head so that it cannot contain the superfluous humors which are many but lets them flow forth There is also another way very usual by which a Catarrh of a cold cause cometh namely The stoppage of the external pores especially in the time wherein the body requireth most sweat Hence it comes that men very much inflamed running suddenly into the cold air are troubled with Catarrhs So Catarrhs comes to be most frequent in Autumn because the Body being made thin and the ports opened in the Summer casting forth many excrements by insensible transpiration if they be presentsently stopped by contraction of the body with cold do cause humors and vapors to fly into the head and center of the brain So about the beginning of Autumn there are not only Catarrhs but also abundance of watery humors are sent forth by most men in their urine and by stool which cause fluxes of the Belly at that time But if any ask why defluxions do not last al Winter when by reason of cold the pores are alwaies stopped We answer That Nature doth in Winter discharge her self by other waies rather than by sweat namely by stool urine and spittle How great that Evacuation is which is usually by insensible transpiration or sweat is pleasantly taught by Sanctorius in his Book de Statica Medicina where he saith That it is larger than all the sensible Evacuations put together so that if the meat and drink of one day be eight pound in weight the insensible transpiration will be five pound he is very curious in this matter What light he hath left to the finding out of Causes and Curing Diseases I leave to be judged by the Learned In the part receiving you must consider the imbecillity or other disposition to receive and attract defluxion In regard of weakness it is an usual saying among Physitians That the stronger parts do alwaies lay their superfluous burden upon the weaker as in Common-wealths the Great Ones lay the chiefest burden upon the poor Commons Now the weakness of the parts is either Natural or Adventitious A Natural weakness comes from the softness and loosness of the parts from the Glandles and Lungs do easily entertain defluxions But an Adventitious weakness is from a distemper or from solution of continuity A cold distemper by weakening the Native heat causeth the part to have less power to resist the humor flowing unto it And also a Solution of continuity or wound makes the part more fit to receive defluxions by its weakness hence arose the use of Cauteries or Issues because the part being thereby weakened the humors do flow from other parts unto it And so the Lungs being ulcerated receive the humors from the head and from al other parts Among other dispositions for the attracting of a defluxion heat is chiefly to be reckoned for we may observe that parts inflamed do plentifully attract humors So in a Consumption many humors are drawn from the head to the lungs not only by reason of the ulcer but also by reason of the inflamation Whence Hippocrates speaking of a Phthiâ—is or Consumption in his first Book of Diseases saith thus The Lungs beâ—ng inflamed draw humors from the whole Body and especially from the Head and the Head being made hot from the Body spits forth that thick matter There are two waies by which the humors are carried from the head into the inferior parts either internal or external The internal way is when the humor flows from the parts under the Skull chiefly from the Ventricles of the Brain and makes divers diseases and symptomes according to the diversity of the parts receiving of which some have peculiar names according to those vulgar Verses in Schola Salerni That Rhewm is call'd Catarrhus which doth fall Vpon the Breast upon the Jaws we call It Branchus Coryza through the Nose doth fall When the Humor flows upon the Breast the Disease keeps the general name of a Catarrh or Defluxion when it falls upon the Jaws and Aspera Arteria or rough Arteries it is called Branchus Raucedo or Hoarsness when it flows into the Nostrils it causeth not only a Coryza or Murrh but Ozaena and Polypus But in other parts it produceth various effects if it fall upon the Nerves it produceth a Torpor or Numbness a Palsey Convulsion Trembling if in the Ears Deafness Swelling if in the Eyes Ophalmy or Inflamation Tears Blindness if upon the Uvula or Pallat Swelling Loosness or Laxity or Ulcer if in the Throat the Squinzy if on the Lungs the Pleuresie Inflamation or Imposthumation Cough shortness of Breath spitting of Blood Consumption if into the Stomach Vomiting want of Appetite if into the Bowels it causeth Diarrhaea and Dysentery therefore it is rightly conceived that the greatest part of Diseases that trouble mans Body have their original from the Head Moreover Somtimes the humor flows from the Brain with the blood into the veins whence comes the Disease called Febris Catarrhalis when Nature is strongly moved to expel the superfluous humor and the Spirits being thereby much disturbed are inflamed and cause a Quotidian Feaver hence it is that a defluxion is reckoned
it is most certain that this Disease is also begot by adstriction and compression of the Optick Nerves which compression may come both or a moist humor gathered about the optick Nerves and pressing upon them as also of blood filth or matter Whence somtimes certain tumors rising in those parts produce the like Disease For Experience teacheth That somtimes blindness in one Eye somtimes in both comes upon inflamation of the Brain and from Phrenzy in malignant Feavers And Platerus reports lib. 1. Observation That he saw a blindness which came from a round tumor growing in the Brain and compressing the optick Nerves which appeared by opening of the Head after the Patient was deceased Finally Wounds in the Head in which the Optick Nerves are divided without controversie do cause that the Animal Spirits can no more come to the Eyes This Disease is known in that the Eyes seem to be in their natural condition and there is no fault apparent in them only the Pupilla seems blacker and larger But in distinguishing the differences of Causes there is great difficulty for although the Disease coming of blood or matter is known by inflamation aposthume or wound going before yet no certain sign can be given by which we can distinguish a compression made with flegm from an obstruction but we may in some part conjecture for in the obstruction only of the optick Nerve the Eye is only affected but if a compression be made of the same Nerve by flegm gathered about the roots of the Eyes and Mamillar Passages that matter possesseth other parts of the Brain and then all or some of the other Sences are hurt but if it seize only upon the Optick Nerves there is more plenty of humor sent forth at the Nostrils and the Patient perceives a heaviness in the fore part of the Head especially about the Eye-brows As to the Prognostick part If this Disease be absolute that is if there be a total loss of sight especially if it come from obstruction of the optick Nerves it is for the most part incurable as we see in Palseys also that they are scarce or never cured which come from the obstruction of the Nerves especially if the Patient be old But if the obstruction be imperfect which only causeth a diminution of sight but not blindness there is more hope of recovery although it cannot be brought about without much pains and long use of Medicines But if this Disease come of humors gathered in the fore part of the head which compress the Nerves it may be more easily cured So saith Fabricius Hildanus observ 19. cent 5. That a certain man after a strong vomit lost his sight and that he cured him with giving him the same Medicine again for as the humors being too much stirred by a violent vomit and cast upon the Optick Nerves compressing them did hinder the passage of the Spirits to the Eyes so the same humors being carried away by the same Medicine the disease became cured Almost the like story is mentioned by Sennertus of a certain Student who taking too strong a Purge became suddenly blind He also affirmeth That certain women after they had conceived with child became blind through the straightness of the optick Nerves and that this Disease went away after four or five months or in the time of their Delivery We also have seen some which fell suddenly into extream diminution of sight who within fifteen daies were cured by universal Evacuations and some revulsions and by the easiness of the Cure we supposed that the humor was not fastened within the substance of the nerve but only gathered together in the Brain about the original of those Nerves For the Cure of this Disease The matter fastened upon the Nerves or cleaving thereto and maketh the obstruction or adstriction is to be evacuated which cannot be done except first the whol body be clensed as Galen saith 4. meth The Eye is not to be cured before the whol Head nor the Head before the whol Body And that Remedies may be set down in a convenient Method we will first set down a Course of Diet which must be attenuating and moderately drying And first The Air must incline to hot and dry and a thick cold cloudy and moist Air must be altogether avoided Let him cat meats of good and laudable Juyce avoiding them which beget gross Juyce as Pork and all Swines flesh Geese Fish Pulse Cheese and the like as those which are windy and fill the head as Milk-meats and hot Spices viz. Pepper and Ginger c. Let his Bread be made with Fennel Water or with the Seeds thereof being careful that the Wheat of which it is made be not mixt with Darnel which all the Ancients beleeved to be very naught for the Sight hence in the Comedy he that derideth another for defect in his sight I think saith he thou hast sed upon Darnel In the sawce to his Meat and in his Broths let him use things extenuating as Hysop Fennel Marjoram Bettony Sage Eye-bright and especially Nutmeg which strengtheneth the Brain and clears the Sight He must eat Turneps often which are thought to quicken the Sight So do Sparrows Pidgeons often eaten Cold Herbs must be forborn and especially Lettice which hurts the Eyes Let him take but a smal quantity of Meat at a time and let the sick man never fill himself immoderately Let his Supper be less than his Dinner and to abstain from a Supper twice or thrice in a week is very good At his Meat instead of Salt let him use this Pouder following Take of common Salt two ounces Eyebright dried two drams Nutmeg one dram Cinnamon two scruples Mix them into a Pouder After every Meal let him take one spoonful of the Pouder following Take of Coriander seed prepared half an ounce Annis seeds and Fennel seeds of each two drams Cinnamon and Nutmeg of each one dram Eyebright dried three drams Sugar of Roses a double weight to all the rest Make a Pouder Wine in this Disease is not good because it is too full of vapors and fills the Head and is apt to cause defluxions therefore a Deoction of Sarsaparilla sweetened with Liquoris and aromatized with Coriander will be very profitable But because the Disease is of a long continuance and all cannot abstain so long from Wine if we must permit Wine let that be chosen that is weakest and less vaporing and it would be more beneficial if Eye-bright dried were first steeped therein and that he may make Eyebright Wine for a long time in the Vintage let him put Eyebright into a vessel filled with new Wine and let the Patient use that for his ordinary Drink Let his sleep be less and shorter than usual and let him he upon his back with his face upwards as much as may be Let him avoid sleeping at noon because it is very hurtful Let his Exercise be moderate and instead of exercise let him use frictions or rubbing
a suâ—â—usion you may use the remedies prescribed for it Moreover the Crystalline may be out of place namely when the broader part of it which is flat like a Fetch or Lentil is not directly against the hole of the Pupilla but either is too high or too low and then objects appear double when one Eye only suffereth because the pâ—â—… 〈◊〉 â—â—eight line is lost which ought to be one and the same in both Eyes that whatsoever 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 both Eyes may appear but one and the same And if they be not in that order things 〈…〉 which you may prove by depressing or lifting up one of your Eyes with your â—â—â—nger for then the paralel is lost and things appear double But this Depravation of sight by whiâ—h objects appear double comes not only of the Cause now mentioned but also from vapors or water which hurt the Crystalline by which the visive Spirits are divided whence it comes to pass that the species of the same thing is received into two places which Drunkards usually perâ—â—ive when they see double Secondly The scituation of the Crystalline is altered when it declineth backward or cometh forward if it comes forward to the Pupilla then things neer at hand are not so rightly perceived as those which are more remote as in old men often But if it decline backward towards the Optick Nerve things neer are truly seen but not afar off and then is the Disease called 〈…〉 which was mentioned in the Preface where we shewed That these Diseases are only Cured by Spectacles Thirdly The Crystalline is out of its place when it tendeth either to the right or left side which is called Strabismus or Squinting when the Pupilla is not directly but oblique upon the Object and appeareth not in the middle of the Eye but in one side so that there appeareth more white in one part of the Eye than in the other This Disease comes not only from the displacing of the Crystalline but also from the Evil Disposition of the Muscles which move the Eyes which is either natural or else proceeds from a Palsey or Convulsion of the said Muscles Of what Cause soever it câ—meth if it be connatural it is incurable but if it come from Palsey or Convulsion of the aforesaid Muscles you may find out a way of Cure in my Treatise of head Diseases Finally Other Depravations of sight may come from the inversion of the Crystalline be it greater or less as when streight things appear crooked or when the Objects seem to be â—oulded which happened to a certain Physitian as Sennertus reports who going up a Ladder to take a Book from a shelf and turning his Eyes violently upwards saw al things afterwards turned upwards as though men walked upon their Heads which caâ—e by the attraction and displacing of the Crystalline For a quarter of a yeer after when again he turned up his Eyes violently his natural sight returned and al things appeared in right order Hence it appears that by a violent motion of the Eye that the Crystalline may be displaced and again by the same motion be set right I suppose that the displacing of the Crystalline was thus It was so inverted that the fore-part of it which is more depressed than the other was not right against the Pupilla but rather its side which being more round and convex might represent the species of the Objects inverted as we may observe in round Glasses which discover the Object inverted and this is true from the principles of the Optick art for in a Medium that is Convex and thick the species are so broken and as it were cross-cut That they which come from the upper part of the Object do represent the lower part and so contrarily but if the inversion of the Crystalline be less so as both the depressed part of the Crystalline and also the Convex part thereof be right againâ— the Pupilla the Objects may seem crooked Although that Depravation of sight whereby Objects seem crooked may come by other means namely when any part of the Crystalline is mixed with the watery humor then by reason of inequality of the Crystalline in regard of thickness the refractions are divers which are the Cause of Depravation of sight whereby things appear crooked This may be demonstrated by a clear Example A staffe put half into the water appears crooked for this Cause namely The species of that part in the water when it is carried out of the water into the air from a thicker to a thinner Medium is broken by the perpendicular but that part which is in the air is not broken because it doth not pass through divers Mediums as that which is in the water Hence it comes that the stick seems crooked After the same manner the species of the object which is carried into the thicker part of the Crystalline is more broken than that which is carried to the thinner which is in its natural state and not mixed underneath with the watery humor and so by reason of the divers refractions the objects appear crooked But since Medicines are to no purpose we shal prescribe none for these Diseases CHAP. IV. Of the Diseases of the Watery Humor and especially of a Suffusion THe Watery Humor is out of its Natural Condition when it is distempered in quantity or quality When the Distemper is in quantity it is enlarged or diminished and makes the Pupilla be dilated or contracted which Diseases shall be mentioned in their places When the distemper is in quality it becomes thicker and that comes from another Humor mixed with it and that is called Suffusion which we here speak of For although Galen 1. de Symp. caus cap. 2. sheweth that a Suffusion may come from the condensation of the watery humor without the access of an excrementitious Humor yet because it happens seldom and is known rather by imagination than art and is altogether incurable omitting that we shall speak of that Suffusion only which cometh from the afflux of another excrement or humor This is called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latin Suffusio by the Arabians Water vulgarly a Cataract Some Authors would distinguish these names and make them signifie divers sorts of this Disease They call it in the beginning when the sight is only a little darkened a Suffusion but when it is grown older and somthing gathered into the Pupil appears like water then they call it only Aqua Water but when the matter is grown thick in the Pupilla and the sight almost gone then they call it a Cataract A Suffusion comes from a serous Watery Humor spread in the space between the Cornea and the Crystalline and since a Watery Humor is contained in that space it may well be reckoned among the Diseases of the Watery Humor This is the Cause of a true Suffusion There is another Bastard Suffusion which comes from vapors sent from the Stomach and other parts into the Eyes
of the Eyes such as are prescribed in Gutta serena to which you may ad a washing of the Eyes which must be done every day thus In the morning first chew sweet Fennel seeds some space of time then fill the mouth with Wine and after it is warm in the mouth wash the Eyes therewith till they begin to smart which wil cease when you leave washing Moreover Spectacles are very good to preserve sight which do make the Objects neither bigger nor less than they naturally are And it is profitable to refresh the sight with green or sky coloured Spectales And Lastly You must avoid al things which hurt the sight and use those things which help it as is declared in the Diet for the Cure of Gutta serena CHAP. V. Of the Enlarging or Dilatation of the Pupilla THe Tunicle called Vvea out of Galen 1. de sympt caus cap. 2. is obnoxious to divers diseases and especially to Ruption Distortion Dilatation and Constriction A Ruption may come both of an external Cause as stroak or contusion and of an inward when much humor distendeth and breaketh the Tunicle But this being incurable concerneth not us A Distortion of the Vvea cannot be but in the first constitution of it because it adhaereth to the Cornea Therefore Galen in the place quoted doth only reckon it among the different symptomes of the Vvea and doth not stand to explain it because it is of no concernment in the practice of Physick We therefore omitting the first two differences wil only insist upon the explaining of the Dilatation and constriction of the Pupilla The Dilatation of the Pupilla which is a hole in the Uvea Tunicle by which the Species of Objects pass into the Eye is called in Greek Mydryasis this hurts the sight because too much light goeth into the Eye hence it is that they which have this disease see better in a darkish place than in a light Which appears by Natural and ordinary change in the Pupilla in bright and obscure places for when the Sight is exercised in a cleer light place the Pupilla is contracted that the light may go less into the Eye and not hurt it with too much by dissipating and dispersing the Spirits and hence it is that they which go out of a very light place into a dark see almost nothing at their first entry because the Pupilla being formerly contracted doth not in an obscure place receive light enough to make a perfect Sight After when they have continued a while in an obscure place the Pupilla is by degrees dilated to receive more light for the cleering of Sight and then those things which at first entrance were not seen are cleerly perceived On the contrary they which go out of a dark into a very light place cannot at first endure the light and their Eyes are much dazled because the Pupilla being much dilated before in the dark place for to get light enough into the Eye when it comes suddenly thus enlarged into a great light too much light gets into the Eye and so makes it dazle and disturbs the Sight Whence it appears that light necessary to sight ought to pass into the Eye in a moderate quantity and for the receiving thereof it is necessary that the Pupilla be moderately large Now the Preternatural Dilation of the Pupilla is either in the first original which is not to be tampered with or comes of Preternatural causes which are internal or external The nearest and immediate of the internal causes is the stretching of the Vvea which comes either of driness or repletion Driness doth stretch the Vvea and makes the form of the Pupilla larger as when leather pierced through when it is dried hath the hole larger And this dry distemper comes from long watching Feavers and other drying causes The repletion of the Vvea when it distendeth it on every side makes the Pupilla larger and this is produced either of vapors and wind sent into the Eye or of humors flowing thither or from the extraordinary encrease of the watery humor of the Eye or lastly from the swelling of the Tunicle Uvea it self To these Causes we may ad the Convulsion of the Uvea which appeareth chiefly in Epileptical fits for then all the Nervous and Membranous parts are distended and so is also the Uvea and this appears chiefly most manifest in Epileptick Children in whom the dilation of the Pupilla is so great that it is over all the Circle called Iris and therefore the sight is abolished The internal Causes are a stroak or a fall or a retention of the Spirits as in Women in Child-birth and Trumpeters A stroak or fall make a defluxion to the Eyes hence comes extending of the Pupilla retention of Spirits makes wind and humors from whence comes distention The knowledg of this Disease is not difficult because it may be seen with your Eyes especially if the Physitian knew before it became infirm how large naturally the Pupilla was as also if there be a hinderance of the sight by reason of the over largeness of it Moreover The natural largeness of the Pupilla is known by this If when you shut one Eye the Pupilla of the other is larger which will not be in a Preternatural dilatation because then the Uvea cannot be further extended Lastly If this dilâ—aation of the Pupilla be only in one Eye it is Preternatural and signifieth one Eye only is affected As to the Prognostick The Dilatation of the Pupilla from the original so is incurable but that which cometh after is hardly cured especially that which comes of driness but that which comes of other â—inuance is curable because yong diseases of the Eyes according to Galens Doctrine may be cured out old may not but with very much difficulty be cured The Cure is to be varied according to the variety of the Cause and if it come from driness which can scarce come from an internal cause but also the whol Body must be so afflicted therefore we must refresh the whol body with moist Remedies and nourishments and such as are restaurative such we use in Hectick Feavers but more peculiarly the Body is to be moistened with a bath of warm water and new milk which also must be often put into the Eyes especially womans Milk If it comes from a humor which filleth the Eye because it floweth from the Head you must purge the Head and the whol Body also and then you must discuss the humor that is fixed in the Eye Which when they may be sufficiently performed by the Remedies propounded for the cure of a Cataract or Suffusion we shall not in vain repeat them here but send you to the asoresaid Trearite for them where you shall find all things necessary for the discussing and dissipating humors contained in the Eyes Yet you may after use some astringents which may make the Pupilla which is too much enlarged more narrow for this end you may
4. de comp Med. sec loc cap. 8. But if the disease be stubborn you must foment the Eye with the Decoction of Foenugreek Marsh-mallows Fennel Rue Celondine or let the fume of the same be received into it And finally all Medicines prescribed in the Cure of a Cataract may be very proper for the cure of this But more especially when the disease is old and the redness turneth black Galen commends dried Hysop tied in a rag and put into hot water and applied to the Eye and Experience teacheth that this Medicine is of such force that the blood is drawn away by it sticking to the clout And lastly The yellow color of the Jaundice which most appears in the Eyes when the Jaundice is cured is easily discussed if you would hasten the Cure take the fume of Vinegar into the Eyes CHAP. VIII Of Ophthalmia or Inflamation of the Eyes THe Tunicle called Adnata is so joyn'd to the Cornea that many diseases are in both as the Inflamation of the Eyes though it is proper to the Adnata yet it is often extended to the Cornea and produceth divers Diseases in it namely Ulcers Hypopyon when matter is underneath Albugo or Pin and Web and others So also Pustals and other Tumors Wounds and Ulcers are common to both Tunicles Therefore because all the Diseases of these Tunicles cannot be spoken of severally we will only speak of the Diseases of the Adnata before we speak more of the Cornea Beginning with an Ophthalmy We say that it is as the word in Greek sheweth only an Inflamation of the Eye and by all Authors it is used for the inflamation of the Adnata or Conjunctiva It is called by the Latines Lippitudo or blood-shotness since Cornelius Celsus This Inflamation as it is greater or less hath a three-fold difference The first is called in Greek Taraxis in Latin Conturbatio which according to Paulus cometh from an external cause namely the Sun smoak dust oyl and the like but it may also come of an internal namely by fault of the stomach after drinking of Wine or other Distempers and this is a light Inflamation called Phlogosis with a smal pain and redness yet it somtimes turneth into a true Ophthalmy and is the original of it But a true Ophthalmy comes alwaies from an internal cause and it is a true inflamation with which tumor redness and pain it is called by Celsus Lippitudo or blood-shotness because there cleaveth a thick excrement which the Latins call Lippa The third is called Chemosis in Greek in Latin Chemosis also and it is when an inflamation groweth so high that it is very great with vehement pain and both the Eyebrows are inverted so that the Eyes can scarce be covered therewith and the white of the Eye stands higher and the red doth cover most part of the Iris or Circle In Children and such as have great Eyes this hath often happened and it comes from a great repletion and from flegmy humors There is another Difference of the Ophthalmy taken out of Hippocrates Aph. 14. Sect. 3. by which it is divided unto a moist and a dry Ophthalmy The moist Ophthalmy is that which is already described and hath a weeping But the dry Ophthalmy called by Hippocrates Xerophthalmia which cometh in dry weather is made of Choller or burnt or adust Melancholly and is such as wanteth humidity in part and therefore there is no weeping There are other subdivisions from the adjuncts for if there be an itching joyned with it it is called Psorophthalmia but if it come with hardness of the Eye-lids it is called Sclerophthalmia There is also another Difference of Ophthalmies taken out of Galen 2. de diff febrium cap. 11. where he saith That some are Periodical or such as cometh by fits to those which have a very hot and moist head and weak Eyes fit to receive a defluxion These after many yeers have a consumption of their Eyes and lose their sight hence it is called Tabida Ophthalmia or a consuming Ophthalmy or an Ophthalmy which ends in a consumption of the Eye There is also another difference taken from the immediate cause which is defluxion or congestion that is gathering of humors It comes for the most part by defluxion but by congestion only when there is either a distemper or weakness of the Conjunctiva by which there is no equality or Omoiosis in the part but many excrements are gathered together from whence through the weakness of the part cometh an inflamation The Conjunct cause of an Odhthalmy is Chollerick or Waterish or Melanchollick Blood flowing into the Eyes or gathered into them The Causes of defluxion are manifold both external and internal ordinarily known But the causes of Congestion or Cumulation are all such as distemper or weaken the Eyes so that an Ophthalmy which at the first came only by defluxion in time by weakening of the part may spoil its concoction and so it may be said to be an Ophthalmy partly from defluxion and partly from Congestion which is often seen in old Ophthalmies But when an Ophthalmy comes only by way of defluxion it is certain that it comes for the most part from the head and almost all Authors acknowledg this Notwithstanding Experience teacheth that many violent Ophthalmies come from the Liver and the humors that come from thence to the Eyes insomuch that Cauteries applied to the hinder part of the head eâ—crease the Disease which otherwise are good Remedies when the defluxion is from the head for they draw up the humors and we have often seen that old Ophthalmies which were accounted incurable have suddenly gone away of their own accord by stopping of an issue which hath long been kept open namely when the motion of the humors from the inferior to the superior parts hath ceased which before was caused by the Cautery or Issue in the Neck by Nature sending part of the humors to the weakened Eyes not far distant from the Issue That defluxion which cometh from the head either is carried by internal Veins which are under the Skull into the Eyes or by the external Vessels which is most frequent namely by the Veins and Arteries which come from the Pericranium by the Forehead and Temples to the Conjunctiva An Ophthalmy is easily known because the blood diffused upon the Conjunctiva may be easily seen and if redness appear without a tumor coming of an external it is called Taraxis or Conturbation But if besides the redness there be swelling and heat with weeping it is a true Ophthalmy and at length if it so encrease that it cover the black of the Eye and the Eyelids be inverted then is it called Chemosis Hence we fetch the signs of the Causes for if it comes from repletion and of blood alone not only the Tunicle Adnata but also the whol face will be red as also there will be a swelling of the Veins drouziness of the Sences and whol Body and a manifest swelling
pains and other Symptoms for which purpose also Topicks are good such as are prescribed in Ophthalmy for asswaging of pain especially the Collyria made of Mucilages the white Troches of Rhasis and prepared Tutty with the water of Roses Nightshade and Plantane This following Water is a good Collyrium to wash the Eye with Take of the Roots of Pilewort and herb Robert of each two handfuls Ribwort Nightshade Borrage Bugloss Purslain Eyebright and Bettony of each one handful green Frogs and whites of Eggs of each twelve in number the seeds of Foenugreek and Quinces of each one ounce let the Roots and Seeds be bruised and the Leaves Cut then pour upon them of Eyebright and Rosewater of each one pint mix them and Distil them in a pewter Still The flesh of Chickins is very powerful to alswage pain and some say that the Disease it self hath been Cured by it alone So Maritius Cordaeus Comment 7. in lib. 1. Hipp. of Womens Diseases relates a history of a noble Woman who had the right side of her face a long time infected with a Cancer ulcerated and having tryed al means she could from Italian French German and Spanish Physitians was at length Cured with this vulgar Medicine by a Barber He took Chickins and cut them in thin broad pieces which he often applied to the Cancer Others apply the flesh of yong Pigeons so cut while it is warm Finally The true Cure of a fixed Cancer is only by taking it out by the roots and is by a taking out of the Eye which Fabricius Hildanus saith may be done very safely and he sheweth the manner and Circumstances thereof at large Observ 1. Cent. 1. so that we shal not here Repeaâ— them Chap. 13. Of the Rupture of the Cornea SOmtimes the Cornea Tunicle is so divided that the watery Humor and somtimes the Vvea also cometh forth and this is called the Rupture of the Cornea The Cause of this is an Ulcer or Wound in the Membrane or a great afflux of Humors by which the said Membrane is so distended that it cracks in the middle and the Humors conteined are let ouâ— As Paraeus reports it happened to a certain Woman in Paris lib. 16. cap. 13. This Disease is for the most part incurable and takes away sight because the Humors of the eye cast forth cannot be repaired but if the Wound be smal so that only a portion of the watery Humor is only lost it may be Cured for the watery humor may somtimes be renewed as Galen taught 4. de â—ymp caus cap. 2. You must use Astringent and Glutinating Medicines having first Bled and Purged if necessary as the white of an Egg with the white Troches of Rhasis dropt into the Eye Let the part be Fomented with a Decoction of red Roses of Solomons Seal Bramble buds shepheards-purse and Plantane boyled in red Wine if there be no inflamation but if there be in spring water Take of Quinces half a pound red Roses three pugils Acacia two drams Saffron one scruple boyl these in red Wine and make a Cataplasm to be applied to the part For the perfect Consolidation and Cure use this Collyrium Take of washed Aloes Tutty prepared and Sarcocol steept in breast Milk of each half a scruple Saffron five grains with the Mucilage of Gum Traganth make a Collyrium Chap. 14. Of the Coming forth of the Uvea UPon the Rupture of the Cornea often comes the shooting forth of the Vvea which is called in Greek Propto sis Ragoidous there are four kinds mentioned by Authors especially by Paulus of which the first is called Muâ—cephalon because it is like the head of a Fly and this is when a smal portion of the Vvea comes forth The second is called Staphuloma and this is when a great part of the Vvea comes forth so that it is like the stone of a Raison The third is called Melos when there is so great eruption of the Vvea that it seems like an Apple The fourth is called Elos or Clavus when the Vvea being come forth groweth hard The Cure of this Disease is Difficult and the more when the Vvea comes most forth but when it is smal as in Muocephalon it is Curable by moderate astringents such as we prescribed in the Rupture of the Cornea The Antients as Paulus Aetius and Celsus do labor to Cure them when old and not moveable by Medicines with Chirurgery but this is now out of fashion by reason of its great difficulty and doubtful success but if any wil try it he shal find the way exactly set down in Jerom. Fabricius ab Aquapendente cap. destaphylomate Chap. 15. Of Aegylops and Fistula Lacrymalis HItherto we have spoken of the Diseases of the Eyes which happen in the humors and upon the Tunicles it remaineth that we speak of the Diseases of the Corners of the Eyes and Eye-lids And first of the Tumor in the great Corner of the Eye by the Root of the Nose called Aegylops and Anchylops if not broken This little Tumor is either with or without Inflamation When it is inflamed it is like a smal Phlegmon or Bile red about with a shooting pain And it comes of thin and chollerick blood that flows into the part by the veins of the Temples Fore-head and Face and so impostumateth which being open produceth an Ulcer which speedily turns hollow and then it is called Fistula Lachrymalis And if this continueth one yeer there is a Caries or foulness of the Bone as Hippocrates saith 45. Sect. 6. In Ulcers of a yeer old the Bone is foul And this Caries is known by the Cavity which is known by the finger and by the stinking Matter flowing from it Somtimes it comes without Inflamation and then it is bred of a thick slimy Humor like Pulse or Hony As the Tumors called Atheromata Steaâ—omata Meliceris which are without pain The Cure of an Aegylops is very hard both in regard Medicines are ill to be applied to it by reason the sight is so nigh and because an Impostume wil quickly Ulcerate in such a tender part as aforesaid But it is most difficult when the Impostume breaks out at the Nose and the Matter flows through the Nostrils because thereby the Bones wil be putrified Somtimes Aegylops turns to a Cancer which comes with a pricking pain extension of the veins hardness and blewness of the skin and then it is better to let it alone because Medicines wil enlarge it and encrease pain A Lachrymal Fistula that is newly begun and which hath an external orifice to be seen is cureable by Medicines but that which is deep and old and hath fouled the Bone is scarcely Cured without burning The divers times of these Diseases require divers Medicines And First in the beginning of an Aegylops you must revel the defluxion from the part by bleeding and purging and use repelling Medicines to the Forehead by which somtimes the Progress is stopt before it come to suppuration
For this end use the following Ceratum Take of Pomegranate-peels Acacia Pomegranate flowers Galls Cypress-nuts Roch-Alum Bole-Armenick of each one dram white Wax four ounces Turpentine three drams Make a Cerate After the use of Repercussives you must apply Resolvers to the part affected as this Decoction Take of pure Honey and Aloes of each two ounces Mirrh one ounce Saffron one dram and an half Water two pints Boyl them gently to the consumption of half dip a piece of soft Spunge therein squeeze it a little and apply it hot to the part bind it on and do thus often Amatus Lucitanus Curatione 68. Cent. 5. prescribes a Cerat against Aegylops which he highly commends which is this Take of the Pouder of Cockle shels two drams Mirrh washed Aloes and Frankinsence of each half an ounce Sarcocol Dragons blood and Ceruss of each three drams Opopanax dissolved in Wine Vinegar and Blood-stone of each one dram and an half Saffron two scruples Wax and Rozin of each three ounces Mix them according to art at the fire and make a Cerate to be applied to the corner of the Eye If the Tumor wil not be resolved with the former Medicines but wil come to suppuration you must help it forward with a Plaister of Simple Diachylon or if there be pain or inflamation you may apply a Cataplasm of Crums of Bread If it wil not break open it with a Lancet and delay not least the matter contained do corrode the parts and make an incurable Fistula Many open it with a hot Iron but the cold is best After the imposthume is opened you must clense the Ulcer and heal it as others But if it fistulate cure it thus First make a general Evacuation by bleeding and purging You must divert the defluxion from the Head by Cupping-glasses Vesicatories and Causticks applied to their proper places and then use the decoction of China or Sarsaparilla for many daies And at the same time dry the Brain with Fumes and Head Pouders as in a Catarrh Instead of a Cautery you may apply a Seton to the Neck for Fabricius Hildanus reports Obs 41. Cent. 1. that it hath done it alone without other means If the distemper of the Liver be the Cause of the defluxion as it often is you must have a special care to administer Medicines proper for that When you use Topicks open the orifice of the Ulcer and dilate it by degrees with a Tent made of an Elder pith a spunge made fit or a Gentian Root When it is large enough apply this following Medicine commended by Forestus Obs 17. Lib. 11. Take of Honey two ounces Verdegreece one dram Water of Rue four ounces Pouder the Verdegreece very fine and boyl it with the rest at a gentle fire till the third part be consumed and make a warm injection of the strained Liquor with a Syringe if this be too sharp wash the Vlcer every day with the Water of Rue and after apply a little Unguentum Apostolorum Continue this course for three weeks laying on some convenient Plaister and defending the Eye with Rose Water When the Ulcer is sufficiently purged use this following Collyrium to incarnate and cicatrize Take of Frankinsence Aloes Dragons blood Pomegranate flowers Allum and Antimony of each one dram Verdegreece five grains Pouder them fine and with Rue Water make a Collyrium to be dropt in with a stalk of Rue thrice in a day and put in a tent wet therewith laying upon it a Diapalma Plaister Lessen your Tent by degrees and at length take it quite out only washing the part with the aforesaid Collyrium and laying on Diapalma Forestus in the place cited saith that new fistulaes have been cured thus by a famous Chyrurgeon of his time If it appear that the bone be foul it must only be cured by an actual Cautery the manner of which is exactly described in Paraeus Fallopius and Aquapendente in their Works But Fabricus Hildanus Obs 22. Cent. 5. boasteth that he cured a Fistula lachrymalis with foulness at the Bone that was four yeers old and counted desperate in a child of thirteen yeers of age with Medicines alone dilating of it with prepared Spunges and after sprinkling Euphorbium into it and that very much and often and after applying only an Emplaister of Gum Elemi Having used these things diligently for the space of divers weeks he perceived a scale of the Bone which he drew forth and then with half a drop of Tolutan Balsom upon a little Lint once in a day conveyed into the Ulcer he perfectly consolidated the Fistula in a short time Chap. 16. Of Rhyas and Encanthis ANother Disease often followeth the Fistula Lachrymalis called Rhyas and this is the consuming or diminishing of the smal flesh in the great corner of the Eye from whence it is enlarged This comes also of other Causes as sharp humors falling upon the part or from clensing Medicines formerly misapplyed Encanthis is contrary to Rhyas which is the immoderate encrease and swelling of the Caruncle or little flesh in the great corner of the Eye and this comes from much blood flowing to the part and the not orderly curing and drying up of the Ulcer The Cure of Rhyas is by Incarnatives such as follow Take of red Roses one pugil Cypress Nuts and Myrtles of each two drams Aloes one dram and an half old Wine one pint Boyl them till the fourth part be consumed wash the part often with this Decoction Or Take of Aloes and Frankinsence of each one dram Dragons blood half a dram red Roses and seeds of Sumach of each one scruple Rose Water one pint boyl them to the consumption of the fourth part Make a Collyrium Encanthis is cured by taking away of the superfluous flesh growing in the corner of the Eye this is done with eating Medicines beginning with the mildest first therfore first use burnt Allum after proceed to Apostolorum Aegyptiacum or burnt Vitriol But if these will not do cut it out or burn it with an Iron But before you do these things you must prepare the Body with convenient Evacuations least you cause a new defluxion but in the cutting burning or consuming of this Caruncle with Medicines you must take heed that you take it not wholly away but only that which is superfluous otherwise it wil turn to Rhyas Chap 17 Of Epiphora THe word Epiphora signifieth any Defluxion into any part But through custom it is used especially for the defluxion of a thin Rhewm from the Eyes hence it is called involuntary weeping which flows dayly from the corners of the Eyes For the producing of which Humor flowing preternaturally there is an evil disposition in the part from whence it cometh and in the part receiving it the part that sends this humor is the Brain which when it is too hot or too cold gathereth a watery Humor and so sends it to the inferior parts which are fit to receive it The part receiving is the Glandle
there comes a roughness or inequality in the part which while the Nourishing Faculty labors to make equal it fills with blood and begets a preternatural encrease or covereth it with a Skin And because many Excrements do use to flow to an Eye disordered therefore the Haw is not bred of pure Blood but of many Excrements also whence arise many sorts of Haws Because Some are Hard others Soft some White some Red some Yellow some Brown others are easily separated from the Adnata and Cornea others stick fast some are simple and without Malignity others are Cancerous and filthy The Diagnosis or Knowledge of this Disease is known by what is said also the Causes namely The Humors of which it is made may be known by their Colour for a Red Haw comes of pure Blood a Yellow of Choller a White of Flegm a Dark and Black one of Melancholly As to the Prognostick This Disease is scarcely to be Cured and that in a long time because sharp Medicines which are proper for to eate it away cannot be used but by degrees by reason of the exquisite sense of the Eyes If the Eye Affected grow smaller it is an evil sign for it argueth the Debility of the part A new Haw and smal may be Cured with Medicines but an over-grown old and one covering the black of the Eye cannot but by Chirurgery A Haw which is thick turn'd out stretcht forth hard and black cannot be Cured for it is of a Cancerous nature The Cure is to be by the Antecedent and Conjunct Cause In respect of the Antecedent first good Diet is to be enjoyned such as is mentioned in other Diseases of the Eyes from Fluxes Also the afore-mentioned Evacuations and Revulsions may here be used namely Purgations Bleeding Cupping Vesicatories and the like And when the Body is sufficiently Purged we must come to Topicks which may Consume the Haw Beginning first with Mild such as were they which we spake of in Curing of the Spots in the Eye called Phlyctaenae which not prevailing we must use stronger which are frequent in Authors Forestus commends this following Take of the juyce of Fennel four ounces the juyce of Celandine three ounces the juyce of Rue two ounces the juyce of Mallows two ounces and an half Aloes one dram Vitriol two scruples Verdugreese one scruple Ginger and Cinamon of each half a scruple the Gall of an Eel half an ounce the Gall of an Ox or Hog two drams Sugar Candy two scruples Let the juyces boyl with the rest and then clarifie it and make a Collyrium This also is by him Commended Take of Blood-stone two drams white Vitriol and Verdegreece calcined of each three drams Myrrh and Saffron of each one dram Long Pepper half a dram Sugar Candy half an ounce Pouder them very fine and mix with one dram of this Pouder two drams of Radish-water and apply twice or thrice in a day as the Patient can endure it Before you use these Remedies you must Foment the part with an Emollient Decoction which you must do also afterwards to asswage the pain Among the Mildest this following is best Take of Cuttle Bone one scruple Sugar Candy one dram Vitriol half a scruple Tutty Prepared half a Dram Mix them and make a fine Pouder to lay upon the Haw If it cannot be taken off with these Topicks you must fall to Chirurgery and taking up the Vngula with a Hook at the bottom or root draw a double Thred through it with a Needle then laying it down close on both sides beneath cut it off with your Cissours as is more at large shewed by Celsus Paulus Aetius Jerom ab Aquapendente in their Chirurgery and by others Having made Incision lay on a little Lint dipped in Rose-water and the white of an Egg to asswage pain and hinder Inflamation And Lastly you may Heal it up with drying Medicines as Collyriums of Tutty Frankinsence Aloes the white Troches of Rhasis and the like The End of the Second Book THE THIRD BOOK OF THE PRACTICE OF PHYSICK Of the Diseases of the Ears The PREFACE THe Ears as Galen sheweth in 1. de symp caus cap. 2. have divers Diseases similary organick and common which because they are not to be known but by their Symptomes I determine to reduce them into a Series of Symptomes The symptoms in the Ears either are such as come from the Action hurt or the fault of the Excrements The Action is hurt either in the Ear alone or in all instruments of Sence The Action proper to the Ear namely Hearing is hurt by being abolished or diminished and depraved It is abolished by Deafness diminished by thickness of Hearing depraved by a noise in the Ears The Action common to all the Instruments of Sence is Feeling by which they are subject to pain The fault in the Excrement is seen by all those things which come preternatur ally out of the Ear. So this whol Book hath four Chapters The first is of Deafness and thick Hearing The second of noise in the Ears The third of pain in the Ears The fourth of those things which preternaturally come forth of the Ears Chap. 1. Of Deafness and thick or dull Hearing WEE comprehend Deafness and thick Hearing in one Chapter because they come of the same Causes differing only in Degrees so that when they are great they take the Hearing quite away when less they diminish it And both these are called vulgarly Deafness for they who cannot hear any but such as speak very loud are called deaf folk But Surditas properly or Deafness is called in Greek Cophosis when the Hearing is totally gone so that the Patient either heareth no noise or if he do he cannot distinguish it These are often dumb if they are born so not only because men learn to speak by Hearing but by reason of the great consent that is between the Instruments of Hearing and Speaking by the Nerve of the fifth Conjugation whose chief Branches are brought to the Ears but some of them reach to the Tongue and Throat whence â—â— is that when the inner Ear is pulled there is a cough raised and the reason is plain for they who are born deaf if they had their Instruments of Speech corrupted would by a Natural instinct send forth some Articulate voyce as other Creatures although they are kept from their birth from other Creatures of the same kind so that they never hear them yet they produce their connatural voyce but men born deaf never sent forth an articulate voyce but only a confused sound which argueth a manifest hurt of those parts which serve for Speech Now the hurt of those parts is chiefly from humidity which affecting that Nerve which goeth to the Ears Tongue and Throat must needs hinder both Speech and Hearing Thick Hearing is called in Greek Baruecoia and they who are so hear difficultly and understand not what men say except they speak very loud Others cannot hear so wel and not
each one ounce Mixthem and put them hot into the Ears Or Take of the Oyl of white Lillies and Castor of each one ounce the Oyl of Dill half an ounce white Hellebore half a dram Aqua vitae one ounce Boyl them in Balneo Mariae till the Aqua vitae be consumed strain them for the use aforesaid Or Take of Cypress Roots Bay-berries Annis and Cummin seed poudered of each one dram Pouder of Castor half a dram Oyl of Rue as much as will be sufficient Mix them and put them into a great hellow Onion roast it and strain out the Liquor to be dropped into the Ears Chymical Oyls work most powerfully as Oly of Rosemary Marjoram Sage Fennel Spike Cloves which are too strong to be used alone therefore you must mix a very smal quantity of any of them with the Medicines mentioned thus Take of the Oyls aforesaid two ounces Oyl of Spike Fennel Cloves or the like half a dram oâ— a dram Mix them There are also some Waters which if dropped into the Ears do much good Some Authors commend the Water of an Ash which is made by putting one end of a green Ash into the fire and taking the water out of the other end this is best when deafness cometh of a hot cause and you fear to use hot Medicines But if not then you may mix as much Aqua vitae therewith Mathiolus mixeth this Water with Juyces and commends it highly in these words We know that the Water which â—â—mes out of Ash when it is burnt mixed with the Juyce of Sowbread Squils and Rue in equal â—â—rts warmed together to be excellent against Deafness if it be dropped into the sound Ear when the Patient goeth to bed and lieth upon that Ear which is Deaf but when both Ears are deaf then into that which is least affected The Spirit of Wine wherein white Hellebore hath been infused being dropped into the deaf Ear is very efficacious Others commend the clarified juyce of Ivy mixed with strong white Wine The Galls of Beasts as of Hairs Goats Partridges are much commended if they be used fresh with an equal portion of Honey and warmed in the shell of an Onion The fat dripping of an Eel is much used Put a great Eel upon a Spit and take the dripping upon Bay Leaves and drop it warm into the Ears Zechius commends Ants Egs in these words Ants Egs mixed with the Juyce of an Onion and dropped into the Ear do cure the oldest Deafness The Blood of a yong Wolf dropped hot into the Ears doth the same Lastly If the Disease be so stubborn that it will not yield to the Medicines prescribed it will not be amiss to use the last Remedy which is prescribed by Fonseca consult 58. tom 2. namely an Unction with Quick-silver because when Deafness cometh of the French Pox it is so cured and it may be when it comes otherwise and the reason is because Quick-silver doth dissolve and discuss â—ard tumors when they are gathered upon any part and therefore when flegm is gathered in the Ears which no other means can dissolve Quick-silver may dissolve it But this Remedy must not be tried but in a desperate condition for it is doubtful what the event wil be and the Unction with Quicksilver doth much weaken the Brain and cause defluxions So that some who have been cured of the Pox by Quick-silver have after fallen deaf by defluxions although somtimes as I said deafness coming of the French Pox is cured thereby and Quick-silver rightly used after due Purgation doth â—o hurt to the Brain This you must alwaies observe in the use of Topicks That you never put cold things but warm into â—he Ears and you must not dress them till the old Medicine be taken out And after dressing you must â—top the Ear with Cotton Muskified for that only conduceth much to the Cure as Forestus saith Obs 15. lib. 12. in these words A woman of Delf after a long disease fell deaf which after sufficient â—urging abstained from Physick at length she was perswaded by an old woman to put a grain or â—wo of Musk into her Ears with a little Cotton and so doing she was wonderfully cured I have â—ured many the same way whose Ears have run Chap. 2. Of Noise in the Ears THe sence of Hearing is hindered by noise in the Ears for as the Eyes must be void of all colors that they may truly perceive the colors of all Objects and when they have a preternatural coâ—or as in the Jaundice the sight is depraved so the Ears must have no sound in themselves that they â—ay more distinctly receive al other sounds and if there be any noise in them the Hearing is depraâ—ed This is called in Greek Paracousis in Latin Obauditio vulgarly a noise in the Ears This comes from a preternatural motion of the Air which is naturally contained in the Ears for â—s Aristotle saith Though the natural Air in the Ear do move yet the noise is not heard except you â—top the Ears with the hollow of your hand or the like for then the hearing is more inward when â—he outward air is kept out This is seen by Experience when one stoppeth his Ears and holds the â—andle of an Instrument in his teeth the sound wil be four times greater than when his Ears are open â—or it passeth through the moutth there is a Natural Motion of air in the Ear by the Spiritus Acouâ—â—ico continually working But if it be too violently moved then there is a preternatural noise in â—he Ear which hindereth the hearing The Causes are many of this preternatural Motion but chiefly a vapor or wind sent from other â—arts into the Ear or bred there either coming from the whol body or from some peculiar part In Feavers it comes from the whol body whence Hippocrates saith in Coacis A noise in the â—ead coming in an acute Disease is deadly for it cometh of wind sent by the Arteries from the whol â—ody into the Ears it useth to come chiefly in the beginning of a fit and before bleeding Wind is â—lso sent to the Ear from a peculiar part namely the Stomach Liver Spleen Midriff Womb and â—he like whence it comes to pass that in great Vomitings in Hypochondriack Melancholly and â—â—ts of the Mother there is for the most part a noise in the Ears Often there is a wind sent from the â—ead coming of a cold flegm through want of heat to the Ears by the Veins and Arteries and the â—erves of the fifth Conjugation by which passages also vapors come from the inferior parts Wind is bred in the Ear also of flegm contained therein whence it comes to pass that thick Hearing is alwaies accompanied with a noise in the head For by the humor there is a stoppage from whence comes deafness and from the wind that proceeds from that humor comes the none There are other causes of this noise as a great stroak upon the head a
great sound Ulcers in the Ears a hot distemper weakness and exquisite sence A stroak by moving the Spirits in the Head too violently causeth a noise A great sound doth violently move the natural Air. And Ulcers by the heat of the matter boyling and working make a noise and by the Spirits gathered thither and moving the Natural Air. A hot distemper fills the inward Arteries of the Ear with much Spirit whence a great beating noise proceedeth Somtimes too much Spirit is sent by those Arteries into the Ears and the Natural Air is thereby moved from whence cometh a noise And from this cause may come a continual none for some months or yeers Weakness of hearing useth to make a noise in the Ears as in sick people because every sence debilitated is hurt by every violent or moderate object so they who have weak sight are offended by a small light And lastly When the sence is most exquisite as Galen lib. 3. de comp med sec loâ— cap. 1. there will be a noise in the Ears becauâ—e even moderate objects are too vehement for it Now this exquisite sence must be preternatural for the exquisitness of â—ence cannot of its self produce a depraved action but rather the more exquisire it is the leâ—s will it Err. This preternatural exquisitness of sence comes from a hot distemper ulcer or the like as parts inflamed do depravâ—dly that is painfully feel moderate touchings Or if the exquisitness of sence be Natural you must suppose that the cauâ—e of the noise is Preternatural for the vapor which is so little that it cannot be felt of dull sence and so the action not be hurt will be felt of him that hath exquiâ—â—te â—ense and will cause a noise so that in one it is Preternatural in another Natural There are divers sorts of sounds in the Ears which proceed either from the quantity of the vapors as they are more or few thinner or thicker swift or slow in motion for if the vapor be much thick and of quick motion it wil make a noise like swift running water or like a drum or like â—ome such Musical Instrument or a rushing wind or the like but if it be little thick and move quick the noise is like the falling of a â—ree or House If it be much thin and swift in motion it causeth a hissing or is like falling of a gentle Water If it be little thin and quick in motion it causeth a tickling If it be much thick and of slow motion it makes a murmuring noise If the matter be little thick and slow in motion it makes a kind of whispering noise If it be much thin and of slow motion it causeth a hissing And lastly Because the degrees of thickness and thinness of greatness and smalness of swiftness and slowness are infinite therefore there are innumerable sorts of sounds in the Ears There is no certain knowledg of the causes aforesaid as Galen teacheth 3. de comp med sec loc c. 1. but we may make conjecture from the precedent Causes and Circumstances We conjecture that the noise comes from wind because somtimes it ceaseth and returneth again as also when the Patient hath formerly used to eat windy meat It cometh by consent from other parts when there is some peculiar disease in them It appears to come from the Brain when pain and heaviness of the Head went before and when other sences also are hurt That the fault is in the Ears appears by a continual noise without any intermission We know that that Disease comes from a cold matter if the Patient be better for the use of hot things and if in time of health great noise be not much disturbance The difference of sounds above mentioned do shew whether the disease comes of thick or thin many or few vapors it will easily appear by what hath been said When it comes from the weakness of the faculty of hearing as from some Diseases aforegoing of which the Patiâ—nt is scarce recovered We conjecture that it comes from a hot distemper and from an exquisite sence coming thereupon when the Patient perceiveth a heat in his head about his Ears when some hot Causes went before and Medicines that discuss wind do encrease the disease as also when the Patient in time of his health could not endure any great noise by reason of the exquisitness of sence As to the Prognostick A new begun noise in the head is easily cured but an old hardly and the more if it come from the French Pox. That which proceeds of a hot cause is more easily cured than that which comes of a cold An old noise coming of flegm contained in the Ear turneth to deafness for when the matter is encreased the passage of Hearing is stopped The Cure of this Disease is divers in respect of the diversity of Causes And first the Cure of Noyse in the Head coming from consent with other parts depends upon the Cure of the Diseases of those parts and must be taken from their proper Chapters But that which comes principally from the Ear Distempered must have its proper Cure And if it come of a cold Distemper and thick Vapour it wil be â—ured as in the Treatise or thickness of Hearing for they are complicated and joyned together For Noyse in the Ears is the fore-runner of thick Hearing and Deafneâ—s Therefore al Remedies both Universal and Particular may be used here which we prescribed in the former Chapter of Deafness and thick Hearing If the Noyse come from an Ulcer in the Ear it requireth no other Cure than that which is proper for the Ulcer And that shal be laid down in the following Chapter If it cometh from weakness of Sense as in them who are lately Recovered of some great Disease it wil vanish of its self as the Body gathereth strength yet you may drop some proper temperate Oyls somtimes into the Ears to mitigate as Oyl of Chamomel Dill Sweet Almonds and the like And Finally If it come from a hot distemper and exquisite Sense you must prescribe a Cooling and Moistning Diet as also drop Cool things into the Ears beginning with mild first and after proceeding to stronger And first Uâ—e the Decoction of Barley Violets Lettice Water-Lillies to which you may put a little Balm or Chamomel to make it pierce which not prevailing you must use the juyce of Lettice Purslain Henbane Galen alloweth the Juyce of Poppy and Opium its â—elf but these must be used sparingly and with much Caution lest by weaking the natural heat of the part the Hearing grow more dull Chap. 3. Of Pain in the Ears PAin of the Ears called Otalgia in Greek is a violent Disease both in respect of the part affected namely the inward Membrane which goeth about the Cavity of the Ear as 〈◊〉 by reason of the neerness of the Brain which often suffereth at the same time But since al pain comes from the solution of Continuity al those things do cause
pain in the Ears which do dissolve the Continuity of those sensible parts which compass the Cavity of the Ear the chief whereof are Distempers both without and with Matter Wounds Ulcers or things fallen or put into the Ears Externally A Cold Distemper doth somtimes cause pain in the Ears and it comes from cold Winds cold Laâ—hs and other very cold Causes A Hot Distemper without Matter seldom or never produceth a pain in the Ears as a cold doth For Cold is an Enemy to these Nervous and Membranous parts but Heat is a Friend to them Nor can it cause any pain but that which is excessive and wil cause a defluxion of Humors to the parts and then it is not without Matter For this Cause neither Galen nor any of the anciâ—â—t Greeks made mention of a Hot Distemper although Avicen of al the Arabians have mentioned it Now the Cold Matter which causeth pain in the Ears is either flegm or water which comes from the Brain into them or else wind coming from the Brain or the inferior parts But the Hot Matter is either Choller that fals from the Veins and Arteries into those parts or Blood from whence cometh Inflamation The afore aid Cause produceth an occult Solution of Continuity from whence cometh Pain But manifest Solutions of Continuity as Wounds and Ulcers are more evident Causes of pain Wounds come from external Punctures Cuts and Contusions But Ulcers come either after Inflamation and breaking of an Impostume or from sharp Humors that corrode the parts Finally Things that get into the Ear outwardly if they be hard sharp or any wayes piercing or biting wil cause pain You may know al these Causes thus If the Distemper be without Matter there wil be no heaviness distention or tumor And you may know that the Distemper is Cold when cold Causes have preceded as travel in Winter when the pain increaseth in cold weather or with cold Medicines and decreaseth with hot but you may know a hot distemper by hot causes preceding as being long in the Sun or heat and when hot Medicinâ—s hurt and cold do profit If the Pain come from flegm there wil be a heavinâ—ss in the Ear and the Head as also a Rhewin wil fal upon some other part besides cold Causes did prâ—cede as cold and Northerly weather cold meats or it is winter and the Patient is old and the like If it come from Wind there wil be a great pain without weight or heaviness not constant but intermitting and with noyse That it comes from Water the Patient wil have other Diseases from the same as sharp and thin defluctions upon the Teeth Eyes Ears Breast and other parts and Evacuation of serous Matter by Vomit Stool Urine or Sweat If it come from a Chollerick Humor the pain wil be sharp and pricking and there wil be sensible heat it wil be mitigated with cold things and Choller wil somtimes come forth of the heat the Body is of a Chollerick temper the Party yong the Weather hot and Diet also with the like by which the Patient is often distempered An Inflamation is known by a great beating pain with great heat and redness about the Cheeks and Temples to which there is joyned a continual violent Feaver somtimes Doting Swooning Convulsion and coldness of the extream parts A Wound is known by the blood which wil come forth of the Ear but an Ulcer by the filth or matter but because somtimes there is a defluxion of filth from the Brain by the Ears we must distinguish for it if comes from the Brain there wâ—nt before it a Head-ach and other signs of an Impostume in the Brain And first the matter is sent forth in great abundance and after by degrees while it is al spent From an Imposthume in the Ear may come plenty of Matter but then there went signs before of an Inflamation there and afterward followed an Ulcer whâ—ch you may know whether it came from an Imposthume or a Defluxion of sharp Humors by theâ—e signs following There is a constant Flux of a little filth or matter by degrees there is felt a pain burning and shooting in the Ear especially if it be picked Moreover We may conjecture of the Difference of the Ulcers For if it be in the Bone it is known by the thin Matter yellowish and by the long continuance oâ— the Disease If it be deep you shal know it by much Matter If it be clean by the â—audible Matter If it be foul by the thickness and plenty If it be virulent by the thinness If putrid by the stink of it If it be corroding by blood following If fistulous from the oldness of the Ulcer the virulency of the Matter the callosity and hardness of the flesh Finally If there be any thing fallen into the Ear either it may be seen or related by the Patient The Prognostick of pain in the Ears is divers according to the diversity of the Causes That which comes from a bare distemper is easily cured That which comes from a cold â—â—egmy ferous or windy matter is not very dangerous but uâ—eth to continue â—ong But that which cometh from hot humors and especially such as cause inflamation is very dangerous for the Brain being nigh must needs consent and be also affected from whence Deliriums and Convulsons use to proceed In this Disease yong men are in most danger for they being of a hot temper and their blood â—ot the inflamation is greater and this dissolveth the natural heat of the Brain and killeth the Patient Hence it is that they die for the most part within seven daies But old men who are colder have â—ess inflamation and so are in less danger Ulcers in the Ears are hard to be cured because the Brain being nigh doth send its excrements to those parts But those which follow an Imposthume are easier cured especially if the matter be â—audible But where the matter is virulent stinking or the like it is difficult especially if the Ulcer be cavous and the bone foul The Cure as the Diagnostick and Prognostick is to be varied according to the Cause For if it comes from a bare cold distemper hot Medicines applied to the Ears are sufficient such as are in the cure of Deafness espâ—cially Fomentations and Fumes as also the warm Oyls there described But when a hot distemper comes without matter it may be cured with Topicks which are cooling which we will shew afterwards and especially with the white of an Egg beaten with Breast milk and put into the Ear. If it come from a cold distemper with matter as flegm water or wind you must use the Medicines prescribed in the cure of Deafness First Purge the whol Body then correct the distemper of the Brain and apply warm Topicks that discuss unto the Ears If it come from a hot distemper with Choller which is of long continuance or comes by fits First revel the humor that floweth to the part by Phlebotomy by
the Medicine then you must dip lint in the same Medicine and lay it to the Hole of the ear and round about In the state of the Disease you must mix gently resolving Oyls with Anodines thus Take of Oyl of Chamomel sweet Almonds and Violets of each one ounce the Oyl of Lillies half an ounce Mix them But these Fomentations and Fumigations which are made of the following Decoction do resolve more powerfully Take of Marsh-Mallow-Roots one ounce Mallows Nightshade St. Johns-Wort of each one handful Linseed half an ounce the seeds of Mallows Maâ—sh â—allows and white Poppies of each two drams the Flowers of Chamomel Dill and Roses of each one pugil make a Decoction in Water and Milk for a Fomentation and Fumâ—gation â—ateâ— taken out of Ashen sticks being dropt into the Ears easeth pain and dissolveth the cause of it You must put green Ashen sticks in to the fire and take the Water that comes from both ends If the Tumor cannot be dissolved but it seems to tend to suppuration which you may perceive by the encrease of pain by greater Pulsation and a stronger Feâ—ver You must help the motion of Nature and apply this following Cataplasm Take the faeces of the former Decoction made for a Fomentation and Fumigation and put to them of Dâ—cks and Hens-grease Marrow oâ— Veaâ— and the Mucilage of Fleabane and Foenugreek-seeds of each one ounce the Oyl of Chamomel and Vâ—olets of each â—nâ— ounce Fresh Buâ—ter one ounce and an half Saffron half a dram Make a Caâ—aâ—lasm A Cataplasm oâ— Crums of Bread is also very good for it aâ—â—wâ—geâ—h paâ—ns and furthers suppâ—ration gently without inflamation and therefore it is very proper in al Phlegmous or hoâ— Tumors you must make it thus Take of the Crums of white Bread one pound boyl it in Goats Milk to a Pultis then ad of the two Yolks of Eggs the Oyl of Roses two ounces Saffron one scruple Make a Cataplasm The Cataplasm made of an Onyon is much commended of Victorius Faventinus Made thus Take one Onyon Fresh Butter two ounces Oyl of Chamomel and Roses of each one ounce Saffron one scruple Make a Cataplasm apply it warm The Suppuration being made the Imposthume breaketh and the Matter comes forth either by the Membrane of the Ear made thin or else corroded and then the Patient must lie upon the Ear that is pained that the quittour may come forth and you must drop such things into it as may clense Take of the Decoction of Barley four ounces Honey of Roses one ounce drop this warm into the Ears at several times If an Ulcer come from sharpness of Matter you must have a peculiar way of Cure such as is used to an Ulcer caused from a Defluxion of Humors And first because according to the opinion of Galen 4. de comp Med. sec loc we may not apply Topicks to any part except the whol Body be first often purged we must use ordinary Evacuations by Bleeding and Purging according to the nature and temper of the Patient and these must be repeated through the whol time of Cure as often as need requireth Then we must apply Drying and Clenâ—ing Topicks or Medicines to the place affected beginning with the mildest first The Examples of which are these Take of the best Honey and old white Wine of each three ounces boyl them and skim them drop of this into the Ear and stop it with Cotton dipt in the same After that it may be stronger mix the juyce of Horehound Smallage Wormwood and the lesser Centaury or of Sowbread with Honey boyl them gently and drop thereof into the Ear. Or Take of the Juyce of Beets one ounce Horehound half an ounce the best Honey six drams â—oyl these a little then ad of the Syrup of Wormwood two drams Mix them You may make a stronger Medicine thus Take of the Juyce of Sowbread one ounce Myrrh one dram Saffron half a scruple Frankinsence one scruple Verdegreece half a scruple old Wine one ounce and an half boyl them gently till the Wine be consumed drop of this twice or thrice in a day into the Ear. Observe Before you drop any liquor into the Ear you wash the ear in warm Hydromel or water and Honey and wipe it wel with lint upon a Probe armed When the Ulcer is sufficiently Clensed you must come to Cicatrizing Thus. Take of Round Birthwort Pomâ—granate peels and Galls of each half an ounce boyl them in equal parts of Wine and Smiths-forge-water to half a pint when it is strained ad to it of the juyce of Plantane and Poligonum of each one ounce Honey of Roses two drams mix them and drop of this into the Ear. Or Take of Frankinsence and Myrrh of each one dram Gum of Juniper half a dram Sarcocol and Labdanum of each one scruple Make a Pouder of them and mix it with Turpentine into Balls which you must lay upon the Coals so that the Patient may take the Fume into his Ear by a funnel Or You may mix that Pouder with some of the aforesaid Juyces and drop thereof into the Ear. Or You may mix burnt Allum with white Wine for this hath a very great Drying quality If the Ulcer be stubborn and old it is nourished by a Defluxion which you must labor to remove by usual Purges Diets of Lignum vitae and Sarsa by Errhins Masticatories Cauteries and other Remedies that wil divert Then must you use stronger Medicines to dry the Ulcer such as we prescribed of juyce of Sowbread Myrrh and Verdegreece Or this following Medicine of Valescus with which he saith that he Cured a Priest that had an Ulcer in his Ear from the eighth yeer of his age Take of Honey ten drams Vinegar eight drams boyl them take off the scum and put to one dram of Verdegreece Mix them These must be dropt morning and evening into the Ear after it is washed with this Decoction Take of Wormwood Marsh Mallows and Agrimony of each one handful boyl them in equal parts of water and white Wine put to it towards the conclusion to half a pint Dissolve in the strained Liquor Oximel simple one ounce and an half Allum poudered one dram wash the ear with this warmed and after dry it with an armed Probe If the pain come from sharp Medicines drop in the Oyl of sweet or bitter Almonds with Myrrh Aloes and Saffron and if it be violent mix a little Opium or drop in the Oyl made of yolks of Eggs in a leaden Mortar If the Ulcer be very foul you must use Aegypâ—iacum Dissolved in the aforesaid Juyces Lastly Galen Aerius and Others both Greeks and Arabians do much Commend the Rust of Iron for the drying of Ulcers in the Ear. Galen 3. de comp med sec loc useth Scales of Iron ground or boyled with the sharpest Vinegar Hollerius in his Comment upon that Chapter doth prefer the Arrabian Preparation for they first grind the Iron with Vinegar then they dry it
of Smelling or neer it in the Meninges are not smelt by the Patient but by them that stand by for it is fit that whatsoever toucheth the sence of Smelling should be brought from other parts Moreover a foul stinking vapor arising from other parts as the Stomach Jaws and Brain be carried to the Processus Mamillares and so infect them that all the scents that are brought thither shall smel thereof as when the Tongue is foul with Choller all things which you tast seem bitter The Causes are easily known A cold and moist distemper of the Brain and slimy flegm coming from the Brain shew an abundance of flegm An obstruction if it come from flegm shall be known by the same signs If it come from Sarcoma or Polypus you may learn the knowledg thereof from their Chapters Now the place in which the matter causing obstruction is contained is known thus If it be in the passage of the Nostrils the voyce is hindered because the Nostrils conduce to Speech but the voyce is perâ—ect if the matter be in the Processus Mamillares or the fore part of the Brain You may know by the default of the parts from whence comes the scent which hurts the instrument of Smelling As to the Prognostick When the Smelling is newly hurt and coming of a simple Coryza or defluxion is easily cured but when it is of long continuance and from a setled distemper hardly that which comes from the ill shape of the Nostrils is incurable You must order the Cure diversly according to the diversity of the Causes If it come from a cold Distemper you must use those Medicines which were prescribed for a Cold Catarrh For the taking away of the Obstruction or stopping of the Nostrils and Processus Mamillares by flegm fastened there You must use Medicines that Purge those parts as Errhins Neezings and Gargarisms which were propounded by us in the Cure of the Cold Distemper of the Brain If the Nostrils be stopt by a Sarcoma or Polypus you must fetch the Cure from the Precedent Chapter Chap. 4. Of the Stink of the Nostrils THe Stink of the Nostrils and of the Breath do much differ for that comes only from the Nostrils and this from divers parts as from the Stomach Lungs Gums Jaws or being Ulcerated which you may know by sense or by their proper signs But the stink in the Nostrils comes of stinking Vapors either bred in the Nostrils as in Ozaena Sarcoma or Polypus or sent thither from putrid Humors contained in the fore-part of the Brain or about the Processus Mamillares or Os Cribrosum Now the Humors do putrifie in the said parts when they are too long retained in them especially if the Brain be hot and moist and they are retained either by the stoppage or astriction of the parts and in flat Noses The Diseases of the Nostrils which produce this stink are known by their proper signs above mentioned but if you find none you must conjecture that the stink comes from a putrid Humor in the Brain Processus Mamillares or Os Cribrosum The Prognostick of the stink in the Nose coming of an Ulcer Polypus or Sarcoma depends upon their Frognostick but that which comes from corrupt Humors contained in the fore-part of the Brain if it be New is easily Cured if Old uncurable especially if it come from a depression and flatness of the Nose The Cure is performed by removing the Causes and appeasing the Symptoms The Cure of an Ulcer Sarcoma and Polypus is above mentioned but you must take away the putrid Humor in the Brain Processus Mamillares or Os Ethmoides by emptying and Clensing means And first You must use Universal Evacuations for Clensing the whol body and the brain from flegmy Excrements by Pills Apozems and the like to which you may ad if there be great plenty of Humors a Sweating Diet afterwards administer Errhins that clense and bring forth the Matter conjoined And first of al Let him morning and evening snuff up white Wine from the palm of his hand in which the Lesser Centaury and Calamints have been boyled Then let the juyce of Beets extracted with the Water of Marjoram be used in like manner Or Take of Cyprus Roots and Calamus Aromaticus of each half an ounce Red Roses one pugil Myrrh two drams boyl them in white Wine for an Errhine That you may draw down the flegm more violently make this Take of Flower-de-luce-Roots half a dram white Hellebore and long Pepper of each half a scruple Annis-seeds and dryed Marjoram poudered of each one scruple Euphorbium one grain Oyl of Spike Chiry and Violets of each as much as is sufficient make a soft Oyntment in which dip the top of your little finger and anoâ—â— the Nostrils within or put it with a Tent or Pledget as big as a Pease into the Nostrils Lastly To oppose the stink you must snuff up sweet things as Galla Moschata dissolved in sweet Wine Angelica-water or the like Chap. 5. Of Coryza or Pose COryza called in Latin Gravedo is a Catarrh falling from the Brain into the Nose which Defluxion is of a crude Humor contained in the fore Ventricles of the Brain and comes for the most or an External Cause as from the heat of the Sun drinking of much Wine hot Baths and the like which do melt and dissolve the thick flegm gathered in the Brain It comes also of External Causes which Cool the Brain for then it is squeezed like a spunge and so it sends down the Humor into the inferior parts as also by over-cooling the Brain there is an encrease of flegm for through want of heat the Excrements are not concocted therefore are they sent forth through the open passages by the Expulsive Faculty This Disease appears of its self for the Humor is sent in abundance out of the Nose Among al kinds of Catarrhs that which is through the Nose is most safe and gentle easily Cured if it be New and come of an External Cause but that which is Old and comes from a stubborn Distemper of the Brain is difficult As also when it proceeds of a hot Distemper of the Liver which somtimes causeth sharp and hot Catarrhs by which the Nose is often Ulcerated and ill affected otherwaies The Cure of this Disease is by Curing the Catarrh for it requires the same Evacuations Revulsions and Derivations except that here you must not use Errhins lest they should draw the Humors to the part affected but Gargarisms and Masticatories after Universals are very good And besides these Authors do commend those things which properly belong to the stopping of a Cataarh as the vapor of boyled Marjoram or of Marjoram water taken into the Nose The fume of Vinegar sprinkled upon a red hot Iron is good for the same and the better if red Roses have formerly been infused therein If the Defluxion be very Cold dry Fumigations of Nigella Frankinsence and the like thrown upon Embers are very good for by
is good to take the vapor of hot water into the Nose or to anoint the Nostrils with Oyl of Roses sweet Almonds Violets or with fresh Butter or to snuff up warm Milk into the Nose by which only Remedy Forestus presently cured the Maid mentioned formerly Chap. 7. Of Bleeding at the Nose called Haemorrhagia THe word Haemorrhagia vulgarly signifieth any flux of blood coming from any part But peculiarly when it is named simply of Hippocrates it signifieth only that flux which cometh from the Nose as the first and most evident kind as Galen observed Com. 1. in 1. Epid. An Haemorrhagia of the Nose is a Symptome in the excrements of those things which are wholly against Nature For Blood coming through the Nose either comes from the Veins and Arteries in the Brain or from the Vessels coming from the Pallat to the Nostrils which ate like the Hemorrhoid Veins in the Womb and Fundament But since every Symptome depends upon a Disease as its immediate Cause the cause of this will be either an Organical or a Common Disease The Organical is two-fold The opening of the Vessels which is called in Greek Anastomosis and the thinning or rarefaction of them called Diapedesis The Common Disease is two-fold The breaking of the Vessels called Rexis and the Erosion called Diabrosis The Causes immediately producing those Diseases are either exceeding in quantity or quality of Blood Blood offending in quantity can either break the Veins or open the Orifices of them In quality if it be too hot or too thin it will flow out by Anastomosis because heat doth dilate the Orifice and thinness maketh it flow more easily Also the same qualities make a Diapedesis for heat maketh the coats of the Vessels thin and the thinness of the blood makes it easie to pass through the pores of those coats Lastly The sharpness of the Blood gnaweth the Tunicles of the Veins and ulcerateth them from whence cometh a Diabrosis The external Causes also do concur to produce this Disease either mediately or immediately Immediately as falls stroaks wounds and the like which break and divide the Veins They work mediately which do encrease warm and make thin the blood as plentiful Diet Drunkenness Idleness too much Exercise great Noise Heat long staying in the Sun and the like The Differences of Hemorrhagia are these Some are Critical some Symptomatical Critical Hemorrhagia's are in acute Feavers by the force of Nature endeavor to expel the cause of the Disease this way as especially in those Diseases which are joyned with the Inflamation of some Entral especially of the Liver or the Spleen which are many times discharged by these waies somtimes it comes without a Feaver when Nature dischargeth her self of the superfluous blood whence we see many in their youth have an Hemorrhagy by fits and others blâ—ed other waies A Symptomatical Haemorrhagy happeneth chiefly in Chronical Diseases in which filthy blood is produced by reason of the debility of the Liver or some other great Distemper which either flows through those Veins by the weakness of the retentive faculty or is sent forth by the expulsive as an unprofitable burden because impure blood is not fit to nourish the Body Haemorrhagia is known of its self But its Causes are thus distinguished That which cometh by Anastomosis hath this common with that which comes by Rexin or rupture in that in both the blood floweth plentifully but in this they are distinguished If a blow or a fall went before we should suppose it to be Rexin But when Ruption cometh from Plethora or much Blood as also apertion of the Veins thus they may be distinguished When the Vessel is broken the Blood sloweth constantly when it is opened at a distance and by fits only because the Orifices of the Vessels use to be knit and closed when there is less plenty of the Humor which dilateth flowing thereto but broken Vessels stand alwaies open and therefore blood continually sloweth till the solution of continuity be united Moreover the opening of a Vein is distinguished from the breaking by the substance of the blood For if it be thin it comes from a Vessel opened if thick it comes from a broken Hence it is that Hemorrhagy comes in yong men for the most part by the opening of the Vessels because their blood is thin but in old men from Ruption because theirs is thick If it comes from Eroâ—â—on of the Veins there will be signs of Cacochymia or ill juyce in the body of an Ulcer and matter somtimes comes forth or at least a salt Catarrh hath gone before If it comes by Diapedesis or Rarefaction the blood is thin and little The Causes autecedent and external are easily distinguished For if it come from plenty of blood there is a red face and large veins as also the Diet hath been large and hot or there hath been some external cause which hath melted and made thin the blood and these especially befal them who have very hot Livers If it come from evil Juyce it is known by its proper signs which declare whether Choller or Melancholly doth abound Moreover the Blood will appear corrupt either from the Nose or taken from the Arm. If it come from the weakness of the retentive faculty the face wil be pale and the whol body weak as also some Disease hath gone before by which the Liver was first weakened and then very little bloâ—â— comes forth and by degrees If the blood comes immediately from the Veins of the Nostrils it is easily stopt with astringent Medicines applied thereto and there will be no pain in the Head Contrary wise if it come from the Brain there is some pain in some part of the Head the flux is hardly stopped and things put up into the Nose do no good Somtimes blood comes from other parts as the Liver Spleen Womb whose signs are the pains and extensions in those parts If the blood flows from an Artery it comes with force it is hot pure fresh and clear but when it comes from a Vein it is dark red thick somtimes foul and comes forth with smal force The Prognostick of Hemorrhagy coming especially if it be Critical is taken from the hurt actions when the Excrements and qualities are changed as watchings and dreams of red things a great pain of the Head and Neck heaviness in the Temples and great beating of those Arteries ringing and noise in the Ears dulness of the Eyes with redness thereof and of the whol face hating of light involuntary tears itching of the Nose a drop of Blood upon the day that declares the Crisis difficulty of breathing an extension of the Hypochondria without pain The Reason of which signs is When the Blood begins to be carried to the Head it begets in the Head Phantasms of red things both waking and sleeping as it happened to a yong Roman which Galen mentioneth lib. de praesag ad Posthumum cap. 13. he had an acute Disease and thought he saw a
the Patient was cured without manual Operation which is seldom seen because those Tumors are of the Nature of Imposthumes and are contained in a little bag so that when the matter hath been discussed they have been filled again If this Tumor cannot be cured with discussing Remedies you must open it which must be often done for it will not often be discussed You must not make a smal Orifice when you open it because the matter contained in the Bagg wil be again gathered and the bagg filled unto which the part being loose and soft is very much disposed but you must make a very long Incision through the height of the Tumor in both sides that the whol matter may be discharged at once then you must wash the Ulcer first with gentle things as the Decoction of Mallows and then with Clensers as white Wine and Honey of Roses or Diamoron and after with Oxymel till it be clean and free from the Bagg And finally to heal it up wash the mouth with red Wine in which Allum is dissolved Forestus Cured the like in a Woman by an Incision made on both sides and after by washing with Wine and Water mixed with a little Salt If the Disease be old and the Ulcer wil not be cured by the aforesaid Remedy let it be touched with Oyl of Sulphur twice every day mixed with Rose-water one drop of Oyl to six of Water for so the Distemper wil be corrected and the part dryed which must be often washed for confirmation with Red Wine with Allum dissolved in it If after the use of these the Disease return you must come to an actual Cautery the manner whereof is taught by Paraeus lib. 7. cap. 5. Chap. 3. Of the Taste being Hurt THE Taste as other Sences and al actions of the Body is hurt Three waies by being Diminished Abolished Depraved it is lessened when it scarce perceiveth remiss savors and strong savors but a little It is Abolished when it no waies perceiveth those savors whether they be great or little It is Depraved when the object seems to be of another taste The Causes of Diminishing and Abolishing the taste are the same only they differ in degrees for if they be light and weak they Diminish if great they Abolish the taste And these Causes are either a Defect of the Animal Spirit in the part or a Distemper of the Third pair of Nerves which come to the Tongue or the Tongue it self is Preternaturally affected The Spirits fail either by reason of their scarcity as in dying men or of the obstruction of the Nerves of the Third Conjugation by which they are carried or by reason of a Tumor bred in that part of the Head from whence those Nerves do arise The Tongue is either covered with a moist slimy matter or hath Tumors Pustuls or Ulcers and by these the proper action of taste may be diminished or abolished The Taste is Depraved when the Tongue is infected with an evil Humor as in Feavers when the Tongue is infected with Choller al things tasted are thought better otherwise if it be with salt flegm or melancholly al things appear to be salt or sowr for the outward objects being brought to the Tongue do move the vitious juyce of it which at that time striking upon the tongue most leaveth its savor thereon and so those things which are tasted seem to be of the same taste It happeneth also somtimes that the Tongue perceiveth the savors of the juyces contained in its self although no external Object be applied as Galen teacheth 1. de sympt caus cap. 4. And it is confirmed by daily Experience in men in Feavers whose tongue is covered with Choller which if it be very bitter they find a continual bitterness on the Tongue though they take nothing into their mouths The Diversity of the Causes aforesaid is known by the variety of the tasts and disposition of the Tongue for a sweet taste and redness of the Tongue signifieth blood bitterness and yellowness Choller whiteness with sweetness Flegm blackness and sharpness Melancholly a Nauseous taste sheweth that evil Humors are contained in the stomach Pustuls Tumors and Ulcers are manifest to the Eies And Lastly If the taste be hurt and there appear no change in the Tongue you must suppose that the Cause lieth in the Brain or Nerves The Cure is various according to the diversity of Causes and therefore if the Disease lie in the Brain or Nerves you must apply Remedies thereto especially such as use to be prescribed for the Cure of the Palzey but when the taste is depraved by ill Humors commonly that Symptom depends upon other Diseases especially upon Feavers which being Cured the Symptoms also are removed If the Taste be offended by Tumors the Cure thereof depends upon the Cure of the Tumors above mentioned Finally If it come from Pustles or Ulcers of the Tongue you must Cure them by blood letting and Purging of sharp Humors to which you may ad Cooling Drying and Binding Topicks in form of a Gargarism And if foul Ulcers be found let them be clensed with Honey of Roses with a little Oyl of Sulphur or Vitriol in such a quantity as may gently touch upon the Tongue Or if you wil Dry more violently Let the part Affected be often touched with the aforesaid Oyls pure and not mixed for so the Aphthe or Thrush and al Ulcers of the Mouth and Tongue are quickly Cured Chap. 4. Of the Palzey of the Tongue and the Hurt Motion thereof THE Chief Action of the Tongue is Speech and this is Abolished Diminished and Depraved by divers Causes which are referred to Similary Organick or Common Diseases As for the Similary A moist Distemper with Matter maketh the Tongue more soft and loose so that it cannot freely exercise its motions Dryness doth too much foul the Tongue as in Feavers But Organical or Diseases of the Instrument are when the Tongue is enlarged as we said before concerning Tumors which hinder the free motion of it also when the figure or shape of it is deformed as when the Tongue is naturally too short or by being partly cut off or if it be tyed too strait as also when the seventh pair of Nerves which come from the Brain to the Muscles which move the Tongue are stopped Lastly Common Diseases are Solutions of Continuity or Wounds in the part Too much moisture maketh Balbuties a kind of Stammering which keepeth men from prououncing of the Letter R. And this is either natural as in Children by reason of their much moisture who are Cured by age when the superfluous moisture is consumed But in some there is a moist distemper al their Life and they are alwaies stammerers of which Hippocrates speaketh Aph. 32. Sect. 6. thus Stammerers are most subject to long Fluxes of the Belly Galen in his Comments saith That they who naturally stammer have either a moist Brain or Tongue or both From the moist Brain much moisture may
a large evacuation of blood agreeable to the Plethory is the best remedy for all pains which we have found true by experience not only in the paine of the teeth but in other parts Let him purge the day following with that which is proper for the humor in the form of a Potion if a hot with Pills if a cold humor be the cause of pain After this if the pain continue apply Cupping-glasses to the Shoulders with scarrisication or one great one between the shoulders without scarrisication A Vesicatory applied to the neck or behind the Ears doth violently draw back the humors Also to hinder the defluxion apply astringents to the Temples as Emplaister of Gum Elemi or Mastich only upon a piece of Silk and heat with a brass pestle the Shop Emplaister of Mastich or that against Ruptures called ad berniam Or this following is good Take of Frankinsence Hypocistis Labdanum of each one dram and an half Pitch and Mastich of each one dram Opium half a scruple Oyl of Mastich as much as is sufficient Make a Mass of Emplaister The Root of Comfry fresh and bruised applied to the Temples doth intercept the defluxion very well There is also a good Plaister made of pouder of Allum and Galls mixed with Pitch Riverius the chief Physitian to Henry the Great had this Plaister as a Secret Take of Cyprus nuts red Roses Mustard seed torrefied or parched Mastich and Terra Sigillata of each one dram and an half Let them be steeped in Vinegar of Roses twenty four hours then dry them Opium dissolved in Aqua vitae three drams Pitch and Colophonia of each one dram yellow Wax melted in the expressed Oyls Henbane and white Poppy as much as is sufficient Make an Emplaister apply it to the Arteries and the part affected with pain And because the smal Veins by which nourishment is carried to the Teeth do run by the Ears you put Medicines into them for the Cure of the Tooth-ach as Oyl of bitter Almonds to the Ear on the same side or the fume of Vinegar in which Penyroyal and Origan have been boyled Others put Vinegar into the Ear by which the defluxion is mightily stayed especially if the flux be hot But in a cold defluxion the Juyce of Garlick mixt with Treacle and dropt warm into the Ear doth wonderfully asswage the pain of the Teeth A Clove also of Garlick peeld and put into the Ear is good Also astringents in the beginning of the defluxion may be applied to the part pained cold if the matter be hot but if it be cold you must put hot things with your repellers But in every cause if the pain be great you must mix Anodines with Repellers As Take of the Roots of Snakeweed Five-leaved-grass and Tormentil of each one ounce the Leaves of Vervain Plantane and Maudlin of each one bandful Cypress Nuts Galis and Acorn Cups of each two drams red Sanders and Crystal of each one dram and an half red Roses and Pomegranate Flowers of each one pugil boyl them in red Wine and Vinegar and wash the part grieved often therewith warm This may be used in the beginning of a hot defluxion but in a cold ad Cypress Roots Box Bark Ivy Leaves and the like A plainer Medicine is made of Plantane and Rose Water with as much Vinegar like an Oxycrate Or boyl Galls in Vinegar and wash the Teeth therewith Or Take of the Roots of Cinkfoyl half an ounce Willow Leaves half a handful Galls two drams boyl them in red Wine and wash the mouth This staies the defluxion and takes away pain Then you must use these Remedies which asswage pain and take away the cause of which there is in authors and vulgarly a multitude we will give you the best of which you must make your choyce with this judgment That those which do not only dissolve and discuss but also astringe and stop the flux be used in the beginning and the encrease of the pain but things that only discuss in the state and declination Take of the Juyce of Housleek and Nightshade of each two ounces Cow or Sheeps milk eight ounces Oyl of unripe Roses one ounce and an half Opium and Saffron of each three grains mix them and apply it warm with a cloth to the Jaw of the same side often Take the Papp of sweet Apples two ounces Bran steept in Vinegar three ounces Oyl of Roses one ounce Saffron half a scruple Opium two grains mix them for a Cataplasm to the part pained Or Take of Barley and Bean meal of each three ounces Oyl of Roses and sweet Almonds of each half an ounce the juyce of Housleek one ounce and an half Milk as much as is sufficient make a Cataplasm to be applied often warm to the part Or Take two whites of Eggs beat them with Rose Water and dip stuphs therein sprinkled with two drams of Pepper Poudered Apply them to the pained side over the whol Cheek But here observe That you apply not Astringents to the Jaws if they be swoln for it is to be seared That the Humor wil so be Repelled to the Throat and the Patient Choaked An Example of which Valesius de Taranta giveth of a Physitian troubled with the Tooth-Ach and Inflamation of the Jaws who applied only Oyl of Roses with Vinegar which brought him to a Squinzy and he died Other Waters may be made to wash the mouth Thus. Take of the best white Wine four ounces white Henbane Roots two drams let them boyl to the Consumption of the third part strain them and ad one ounce of Vinegar Varnish one dram let them boyl a heat and let the Mouth be washed often therewith The plain Decoction of Vervain is Commended of many for the same Also a Decoction of Guaiacum made with Wine or Water and a little salt Or Take of Arsmart and the barks of the Roots of Henbane of each equal parts boyl them in Rose Vinegar and wash the mouth And if the pain cometh from a Hot Cause only boyl a Henbane Root in Vinegar If the Arsmart be too sharp take a less quantity Nay you may leave it quite out in a Defluxion coming of a Hot Cause and put Persicaria Macutata instead of it which is Astringent and Cooling and his juyce may be given safely at the Mouth in al Defluxions that are sharp and Chollerick Also you may use the Leaves of Henbane instead of the Root Some use the Leaves of Henbane and Persicaria Maculata as a secret Magnetick Charm they boyl them in Vinegar they burn the Leaves being boyled with a gentle fire and wash their Teeth with the Vinegar and they say that as soon as the Leaves are burnt the pain wil be gone But I rather think it is Cured by the Vinegar with which the Teeth are washed In the aforesaid Decoctions if the Vinegar be so sharp that the Patient can scarcely endure it you may mix half Wine and in a Cold Cause make them of
Throat are for the most part inflamed as aforesaid but also the parts adjacent and the outward part of the Neck as shall be said in the Diagnostick and Prognostick of this Disease In all these kinds of Angina's when there is great danger by the difficulty of swallowing then those things which are given use to fly out at the Nose especially if they be liquid things which are more hard to be swallowed at that time because they spread themselves abroad and therefore cannot so easily be comprehended of the Muscles to be sent into the Oesophagus which Muscles cannot sufficiently contract themselves by reason of the inflamation but solid nourishment being more corpulent need only the superficial action of the Muscles and are swallowed down by a smal contraction of them But it somtimes falls out that solid things are harder and liquid things easier to be swallowed which dependeth upon the diversity of the parts affected For the Muscles of the Larynx are ordained for to swallow meat as well as for the voyce and when the meat is thrown into the Oesophagus the Larynx is lifted up with the Tongue But for to swallow drink we use the Tongue most which while it is drawn inwards it brings the drink from the Lips to the Jaws If therefore the Muscles that move the Tongue are more affected it is harder to swallow drink But if the Muscles of the Larynx are more hurt it is harder to swallow meat Here by the way we must mark that Hippocrates somtimes by the word Angina doth understand only the inflamation of the Larynx and so it is taken more strictly of which there is an Example 6. Epid. Sect. 8. Text. 1. where he saith thus Some had inflamations of their Jaws some had Angina's where by the name Angina he understands the inflamation of the Muscles of the Larynx and distinguisheth it from the inflamation of the Jaws A Bastard Angina is without a Feaver and is two-fold The first and most ordinary comes of Rhewin falling upon the Jaws and parts neer unto the Larynx The other comes from the Luxation of the Vertebra's of the Neck by which the passage of the Gullet and Throat is pressed and made narrow The Cause of a true Angina as of other inflamations is either pure blood or mixed with Choller Flegm or Melancholly which falls upon the parts aforesaid out of the Branches of the Jugular Veins and this is either attracted by the heat or pain of those parts or sent from other parts because these parts are weak loose and fit to receivea defluxion especially if the whol Body abound with humors or the Head or the parts neer the Jaws For when evil blood aboundeth in the whol Body and is carried unto the Head if the Brain be strong it will not receive it but sends it down by the same Veins into the lower parts hence come divers inflamations as Parotides or tumors under the Ears Ophthalmies Angina's and the like Yong men are more subject to the Angina than old because they have much Chollerick blood and because they are full bodied and have much blood especially in the Head Some Authors say that men are more subject to Angina's than women which it seems Hippocrates observed 6. Epid. Sect. 7. where describing an Epidemical Constitution in which Angina's Coughs and Peripneumonia's or Inflamations of the Lungs were frequent he affirmeth that few women were sick and he gives no other reason but because they went less abroad than men and therefore were not so subject to injuries from the Air. Which Reason doth not agree with the universal Proposition That women are less subject to Angina's than men but this may be a true Reason because women have colder Blood a less Larynx or Wind-pipe and narrower Veins of the Throat For which Reason those parts do not so easily receive defluxions The precedent Diseases may be reduced to their internal Causes as continual putrid burning and especially Epidemical Feavers such as were mentioned by Forestus Obs 2. Lib. 6. which happened in the yeer 1517. at which time all that were infected had an inflamation of the Jaws and died within sixteen or twenty hours except they were let blood within six hours But in this Angina the Feaver is not Symptomatical but Essential and the Angina is symptome to it because part of the matter causing the Disease is sent to this place for in Epidemical Feavers Angina's Pleuresies Inflamation of the Lungs Disenteries and the like do happen from some secret force and influence of the Stars by which somtimes one part of the Body and somtimes another is more affected Whatsoever can cause a flux of humors to these parts may be reckoned among the external Causes of this Disease As Southernly winds according to Hippocrates Aph. 16. Sect. 3. in time of much rain many diseases happen as long Feavers Fluxes of the Belly Putrifactions Falling-sicknesses Apoplexies and Angina's Also for the producing of this last the inequality of weather doth much when the parts are made loose by heat and by cold suddenly coming thereupon the humors are sent thither A sudden cooling after heat and drinking of cold water doth the same or if the Head be kept too hot or too cold The first Cause of a Bastard Angina is propounded by Hippocrates 4. de vict rat in morb acut text 39. where he saith an Angina comes when in Winter and Spring time much slimy flegm falls from the Head to the Jugular Veins which obstructeth the passages of the Spirits with its cold glewiness There is another Cause of a Bastard Angina given by Hippocrates 2. Epidem Sect. 2. namely a Tumor rising in the Vertebra's of the Neck and especially in that which is called Dens or the shape of a Tooth by Hippocrates by which the Vertebrae are drawn inward and therefore a Cavity appears in the external part Now this Tumor either comes from flegm removing by its encrease the Vertebra from its seat or from blood falling upon the Muscles from whence comes an inflamation by which the Muscles being contracted draw the Vertebra's inward and then it is a true Angina coming from the inflamation of the said Muscles There may also be a Luxation of the Vertebrae by a flegmatick humor loosing their Nerves and making them slippery between the Joynts And lastly it may come from an external Cause as a fall or stroak as in other parts An Angina is generally known first by its proper signs namely difficulty of breathing and swallowing when there is no fault in the Breast and Lungs and when pain is felt about the Jaws and Throat and in a true Angina redness heat and a feaver are signs The Differences may be distinguished by their proper signs In Synanche there is less difficulty of breathing but great difficulty in swallowing so that moist things can scarce be swallowed but come out at the Nostrils In Parasynanche there is less difficulty of breathing nay very little because the inflamation of
the external Muscles of the Jaws doth little hinder respiration there is pain and redness outwardly in the Neck when the outward parts are inflamed In Cynanche there is great hinderance of Respiration so as the Patient seems to be strangled and somtimes is strangled for a short time and cannot breath but with the Neck upright and the Mouth open The Jaws are much pained yet there is no redness or Tumor inwardly in the Jaws nor outwardly in the Neck the Tongue is livid black and retorted or bent by reason of the great fulness of the Veins about it There useth also to be an acute Feaver you may find an acute description of this kind of Angina in Hipp. 3. de Morbis And this is remarkable which is observed of few the inward Muscles of the Larynx are not here only affected but the Lungs themselves from whence is difficulty of breathing and Suffocation which Dodonaeus observeth very wel Obs Med. Cap. 18. where he relates a history of a Butcher who at noon felt a pain about his Jaws and Throat and some difficulty in swallowing and died strangled the same night his body being opened the substance of his Lungs were found turned into matter He gave other Examples Anno 1565. in which yeer many had the Angina with pain about the Larynx which ceasing they fel into Peripneumonia and they being opened after death had either their Lungs ful of Water or imposthumated but nothing was perceived about the Larynx or its Muscles which might shew an inflamation And in these Causes he supposeth that the Larynx did not suffer principally but by consent and it is probable that the Aspera Artery or rough Artery and its branches may be filled and extended with the Humor flowing from the head and then if the Humor be sent to other vessels the Aspera Artery and Larynx are freed from pain and the Lungs are infected and so an Angina may turn into a Peripneumonia We may gather that the Lungs may be affected in an Angina from Hippocrates 4. acut text 30. 31. where he laies down Two kinds of Angina's from the diversity of the Humors one in which a Flux of Rhewm in Winter and Spring is carried to the Jugular veins another in which Choller abounds which is in Summer and Autumne of the last he speaks thus When a hot and salt Defluxion comes from the head being sharp it gnaws and ulcerates fils with Spirits brings an Orthopnaea or difficulty of breathing with the Neck stretched forth and much drouth Besides there is no Tumor the Tendons of the Neck behind are stretched like a Cramp the voice is hindered the breath is little and often stopped such have the Artery ulcerated and the Lungs inflamed so that they cannot breath Thus Hippocrates he saith also that a hot and sharp Defluxion wil bring an Orthopnaea because it biteth ulcerateth and filleth with Spirits which are carried to the place hurt hence comes the filling of the Lungs from whence Orthopnaea comes When there is no room for receiving of the external Air how much so ever the Lungs be enlarged Hippocrates affirms this 3. de morbis where in the Cure of a Squincy he saith the vein under the Breast or Papp is to be opened for in this part there is a hot Spirit from the Lungs and a little after he saith You must make hast to cause Spetting and that the Lungs may grow less as if the Lungs were swoln by the hot Spirit contained therein But it is most remarkable that when the Spirits are carried in great plenty to any part there is also blood carried therewith which if it flow in such a quantity that it cannot be wel governed by nature it useth to make inflamations and imposthumes from whence it is no wonder if in such an Angina the lungs become purulent or full of water In a Paracynanche the breath is less difficult than in a Cynanche but more difficult than in Synanche there is some redness and tumor about the Jaws A Bastard Angina is known by the Flegm by want of Feaver by the plenty of humors flowing to the mouth But a bastard Angina coming of a Luxation is known by the hurt motion of the Head and Neck and by the Preternatural Cavity which appears in the Neck by reason of the Vertebra inwardly depressed The knowledg of the Causes is taken from the universal and particular signs of the humors predominating in the whol Body When an Angina comes of blood there is heat and redness in the Face and a great distention in the part affected When it comes of Choller the pain and heat is greater with thirst bitterness in the mouth and sharpness And if it comes from flegmatick blood the pain and redness is less and the Feaver little From the part affected some knowledg of the humor offending may be had For Chollerick blood for the most part maketh an inflamation in the Muscles of the Larynx but flegmy blood goes rather to the Jaws for when the Veins of the Larynx are smal only thin blood goes thither but the Jaws being loose and spungy do more easily receive the flegmatick humors Finally From the time of the yeer you may know the peccant humor For Chollerick Angina's do come chiefly in the Summer and Autumn because in the Summer Choller breedeth and in Autumn it is â—eteined But flegm breeds in Winter and the Spring because the humors gathered in Winter are then melted and sent from the Head into the infeâ—ior parts As to the Prognostick A true Angina is a most acute Disease and very dangerous by reason of the hinderance of respiration and for strangulation which somtimes happens by the stoppage of the passages by which respiration is made Therefore by how much the greater the Constriction so much the more danger and so the first kind of Angina is most dangerous because the inflamation of the internal Muscles of the Larynx doth more stop the passage Whence Hippocrates Aph. 34. Sect. 4. saith thus If a Suffocation comes presently upon a Feaver and no Tumor in the Jaws it is mortal Which Opinion he confirmeth in coac progn saying that these kinds of Angina's do strangle in the same day and in the second third and fourth The second sort of Angina though it be very dangerous yet is it not altogether deadly as the first because the inflamation of the external Muscles of the Larynx doth not make so great and so sudden a constriction Of this Hippocrates spake 3. Prog. Text. 17. thus Whatsoever Angina's do resemble others in pain and make a Tumor and redness in the Jaws are very deadly and are of longer continuance than others if they be very red The third kind is less dangerous because the Breath is less hindered than the Swallowing from the inflamation of the internal muscles of the Jaws But the Swallow hurt is not so dangerous Of this Hippocrates speaks in the Book above cited Text. 18. in these words If
Operation nor any other in his time But he confesseth it may be used so that the Lungs and rough Artery be not full of filth and he sheweth the manner of it in its proper Chapter most exactly from whence any one may take it The End of the Sixth Book THE SEVENTH BOOK OF THE PRACTICE OF PHYSICK Of the Diseases of the Breast The PREFACE BY this name Thorax or Breast we mean those parts only which serve for breathing for although the Heart be contained in the Thorax yet the Diseases therof shall be set down in a Book by themselves But in this we will only speak of those which hinder breathing and hurt the part of Respiration as Astbma Pleuresie Peripneumonia or Inflamation of the Lungs Empyema and Phtysis and we have ordained proper Chapters for each of them Chap. 1. Of Asthma or Difficulty of Breathing THe Breath is hindered by divers Causes either by sympathy or propriety of part The hinderance of breathing by propriety called Idiopathica comes from the Lungs distempered and therefore every Disease of the Lungs hurts their action which Diseases are either in the substance of the Lungs or in the Vessels thereof In the substance of the Lungs come inflamations pimples imposthumes ulcers and somtimes a drying and atrophy of the part somtimes a serous watery humor is suckt into the spungy substance of the Lungs and hinders their free dilatation somtimes though seldom there is a schirrus a stone or hard swelling in them In the Vessels of the Lungs there are often obstructions which hindering the free passage of the Air cause difficulty of breathing Breathing is hindered by sympathy or consent from other parts which are not only neer but remote so the Membrane that goeth about the ribs being inflamed or the Diaphragma or Mediastinum the breath is hindered So by custom there is a great and often breathing when the heart is inflamed as in Feavers and on the contrary when the Heart is cold as in dying men it is diminished and ceaseth the same happeneth in swouning or syncope when the action of the Heart and consequently Respiration ceaseth So in the Empyema or Dropsie of the Breast when matter or water is collected in the Cavity of the Thorax the Dilatation of the Lights and Respiration is also hindered So the Muscles of Breathing being hurt hinder Respiration as in wounds and tumors of them especially in an Apoplexy when the influence of the Animal Spirits is kept from them Moreover The Inflamation of the Muscles of the Larynx makes difficulty of breathing in a Squinzy So also the Diseases of the Hypochondria do hinder Respiration by consent as tumors of the Liver Spleen Sweetbread or Pancreas do by their weight draw down the Diaphragma to which they are joyned and so hinder the motion of it Also vapors and wind sent from those parts compress the Diaphragma and hinder its action from whence comes a flatulent Asthma The same happeneth by the abundance of wind or water contained in the belly of an Hydropical man and compressing the Diaphragma Lastly Vapors coming from the Mother hinder Respiration from whence this disease is called Suffocatio Hysterica Among the aforesaid hinderances of Respiration the Asthma is handled by it self because the other depend upon other Diseases they shall be mentioned in their places Although Asthma used generally comprehendeth in a large signification all kinds of difficulty of breathing yet it signifies more specially that shortness of breathing which comes from the stuffing of the Lungs and the obstruction of the Bronchion or Gristles of the Wind-pipe which of its self essentially is without a Feaver although somtimes it be joyned therewith And again it is subdivided into three other kinds as first Dyspnoea the second called also Asthma the third Orthopnoea Dyspnoea is a difficulty of breathing in which the breath is drawn oftener and thicker from the stuffing of the Lungs This is less than Asthma or Orthopnoea because the matter obstructing is less and it rather stops the substance of the Lungs than Gristles or Bronchia hence it is that there is no snorting at all which comes from the commotion of the humors contained in the Bronchia with the Air continually passing through Asthma is a great and often breathing in which the Diaphragma the Intercostal Muscles between the Ribs and of the Abdomen are violently moved joyned with snorting and wheesing For in a true Asthma properly so called the Btonchia of the Lungs are filled with flegm which as is said being moved by the Air make that noise Orthopnoea is a great difficulty of breathing in which the Patient cannot breath but sitting and with the neck extended upright and the aforesaid Muscles are not only moved vehemently but also those of the Breast and Shoulders The names Dyspnoea and Orthopnoea as we said of Asthma are used commonly for all difficulties of breathing which happen in Pleuresies or Inflamation of the Lungs or the like The same may be said of Apnaea which doth not only signifie a depravation of breathing as the former but also a diminishing or abolishing thereof and this happeneth in syncope Hysterical Passions and strong Apoplexies The humor which causeth an Asthma is for the most part flegm which falls from the Head into the Lungs and obstructs the Bronchia or Wind-pipe Somtimes it comes from crude and serous humors brought by Arteria Venosa into the Lungs and if these flow to the Bronchia they produce a true Asthma with snorting but if to the substance of the Lungs or smooth Arteries they cause a bastard Asthma without snorting This kind of Asthma which is unknown to vulgar Physitians who will acknowledg no other cause but a defluxion from the Head is confirmed not only by not snorting but from the thick and turbulent Urine of the Patient at that time especially in the sit because some part of those thick and crude humors in the Veins is sent to the Reins and Bladder And some Asthmatical men are subject to stoppage of Urine and when they are so they are free from it But when the fit of the Asthma comes the difficulty of Urine ceaseth because the matter of the disease contained in the Veins goes from one place to another We have also seen some subject to a flux in the Belly who while they were so were free from the Asthma but when that stopped the Asthma returned Moreover this kind of Asthma which is without snorting is so directly opposite to bleeding that when a Vein is opened in the fit as soon as it bleedeth the Patient begins presently to breath better and in the end or after a little space they are cured of their fit And finally these kind of Asthmatical men are for the most part of an ill habit of body and have an oedematous humor in their feet which sheweth that the cause of the Asthma at that time came from the Liver and is contained in the Veins so that somtimes a Dropsie
the cooling of an inflamed heart The Pulse is hard because the Membrane is affected and stretched forth which also distendeth the Arteries and they therefore make that difference of pulse called Serratilis like a saw for when you lay many fingers upon the Arteries of the Pulse one part seems to be more lifted up than the other so that it seems to represent a saw A troublesom Cough follows a Pleurisie because Nature doth continually strive to expel that which is troublesom from the part affected as also some of the matter sweateth from thence into the Lungs which moveth the expulsive faculty whence the Cough cometh There is also a spitting of blood as another sign which is neither in al Pleurisies nor at al times of the Disease therfore it is not reckoned as a proper sign They who say that the Lungs are alwaies affected in a Pleurisie do affirm that the blood is spit from the Lungs and they deny that it can pass from the Membrane about the Ribs to the Lungs because it is very thick and also the Membrane about the Lungs is of the same Nature and cannot therefore be pierced by that blood which is without the Vessels But Galen doth cleerly confute these 5. de loc aff cap. 3. where he first shews that the matter contained in the Cavity of the Breast may be taken into the Lungs and be sent upwards by two cleer Examples The one is those who have received a wound in the Breast that pierceth into its Cavity for if an injection of Honey and Wine be made into the wound and it be presently closed at the orifice in a little time the injection will be coughed up and spit forth and the Patient wil have the taste of it in his mouth Another Example is taken from a Fracture of a bone when the skin is not broken which while the Callus is growing and the broken bones begin to glutinate that blood which flowed to the part affected is carried forth to the skin and goeth through it so that it moistneth and fouleth all the rowlers and ligatures about the part Galen also shews the manner how blood matter or the like being contained in the Cavity of the Breast may be taken through the lungs namely by the extream outward orifices of the Bronchia or branches of the rough Artery which are spread through the Lungs and end in the superficies of them Although the orifices of the Vein Arterial and Artery Venal are also carried to the superficies of the Lungs yet the orifices of the Bronchia are more large and open than they For by how much greater the Body or Trunk of the rough Artery is than the Trunk of the Venal Artery or â—rterial Vein by so much the greater are its branches than theirs and its orifice than theirs because all these Vessels are equally divided and distributed into the whol body of the Lungs Moreover the substance of the rough Artery and its Bronchia or branches are Cartilaginous or grisly from whence it is that they cannot cloâ—e together so much as other Vessels and their orifices are more constantly open by which they can better receive the matter from the Cavity of the Breast But Galen teacheth that the matter contained in the Breast is taken through at the time of breathing when the Thorax is straightened for then the Thorax doth press those things that are in the Cavity of it and drive them into the Lungs so that some part of them at least is carried into the orifice of the Bronchia Neither is the softness of the Lungs which yeild to a compression and therfore cannot be forced to receive the matter any hinderance For this softness is the cause why all the matter is not received yet it is no obstacle but some part thereof may be received in although the greatest remain in the Cavity by reaon of the â—oftneâ—s aforeâ—aid Let us ad to this Doctrine of Galen the wonderful providence of Nature which hath found out waies not only manifest but also unknown and â—omtimes incomprehensible by which she useth to expel things hurtful as we said of the matter in Fractures which is purged forth by the insensible pores of the Muscles and of the Skin A bastard Pleuresie is distinguished from a true in that the pain is encreased when the Patient lieth on the contrary side in a true Pleurisie for then the part inflamed is pulled and more distended by its own weight but in the other the Muscles external being inflamed are compressed when the Patient lieth on the same side and therefore he hath then greater pain The times of this Disease are known by these signs following In the beginning of it all the symptomes are weaker the pain and feaver smal there is a dry Cough and very little and crude spittle In the encrease of the Disease the feaver and pain encrease and there is more spittle In the state or height the symptomes are more vehement want of rest dotage pain of the Head and if the disease will be cured there is much concocted spittle easily raised In the declination the spittle is perfectly concocted a free spitting and decay of all symptomes The signs of the Causes are generally taken from the temper of the Patient the time of the yeer the Country the Diet and the like But especially theâ—e things shew that a Pleurisie comes of pure blood red and bloody spittle a stretching and pricking pain the fulness of the Veins especially about the Forehead and Temples redness of the whol face a full Pulse thick and red urine somtimes with a blew crown These signs shew that it comes from Chollerick blood yellow spittle a burning feaver great thirst a hard and quick pulse a more acute pricking pain greater watchings and restlesness bitterness of the mouth a thin and very yellow urine These signs shew that it comes from Flegmatick blood a white viscous or frothy spittle sweet and slow in coming forth a remiss feaver little thirst much spittle a leâ—s but heavy pain more sleep a little pulse and not so hard pase and thick urine These signs shew that it comes of Melanchollick blood black spittle tough and slow in coming forth a less pain and feaver a red urine and dark a dry Cough a black and rough tongue a belly bound The Prognostick is taken first from the remission or vehemency of the Symptomes For if pain difficulty of breathing and a feaver be not great they signifie that the disease is gentle but if the pain be great and the Cough and there is nothing raâ—â—ed up and if the feaver be violent with great difficulty of breathing you must took upon it as a desperate Pleurisie A smal pulse quick and hard foreshew death in a Pleurisie And Galen saith that none of this have been cured Gal. 4. de praesag ex puls cap. 5. An exquisite Pleurisie in which nothing is raised by Cough or when with the spitting after it began is restrained having
Vein opened an hour after the blood will continue pure Hors-dung dissolved in Carduus Water and strained doth powerfully disperse the pain and the humor in the Pleurisie White Hen-dung given in a dram of the same Water doth as much These Dungs have much Volotile Salt which is very piercing and discussing You may make a Potion of them both thus Take of Hemp seed one ounce bruise them then put to them of the white Dung of a Hen and of Horse Dung of each half an ounce dissolve them in five ounces of Carduus Water strain them and drink it The Blood of a wild Goat given to ten drops with the aforesaid Water doth powerfully discuss the Pleurisie In the want thereof you may give the blood of a tame Goat But because the strength of him is little you may give thereof to the quantity of one dram You must prepare it thus Hang up the Goat by the Horns and bend his hinder Legs backward to his Horns then cut out his Stones and take the Blood in a broad Vessel dry it in the Sun in Summer or at other times upon an Oven It is far different from the Goats Blood in the Shops The Soot of a Chimney given to a dram is very good but much rather the spirit of Soot described by Hartman in his Practice of Physick In an Epidemical Pleurisie Sudoroficks are to be given such as are prescribed in malignant Feavers which also ought to be made as proper for this Disease as may be A Diarrhoea coming upon a Pleurisie is dangerous therfore you must give Syrup of Myrtles which doth stay the Diarrhoea and also expectorate and this is to be mixed with other Syrups Let me Belly and Reins be anointed with astringents as useth to be done in all Diarrhoea's Give Clysters made of Barley Water which as Galen saith doth cool and astringe if it be boyled with red Roses and also Yolks of Eggs be dissolved in it Chap. 3. Of Peripneumonia or Inflamation of the Lungs PEripneumonia hath the same essence with a Pleurisie and is distinguished only by the part affected because that is the inflamation of the Lungs and this of the Membrane that compasseth the Ribs They differ somwhat in the matter for a Pleurisie comes often of Choller but a Peripneumonia of Flegm although all humors as we said of a Pleurisie may produce this disease I mean humors which are like blood and make up the mass of it For as thick humors do hardly penetrate the thick Membrane called Pleura but thin and Chollerick easily so on the other side thick flegmatick humors do easily go to the soft and thin substance of the Lungs and stick close thereto but thin and Chollerick humors do easily pass by But this hindereth not but the Chollerick blood may somtimes cause the Inflamation of the Lungs as Hippocrates 1. de morbis describeth the Erysipelas or Chollerick tumor of the Lungs which comes from Chollerick blood thrown into the Lungs from the right Ventricle of the Heart by the Arterial Vein But an oedematous Inflamation comes from flegmatick blood falling upon the Lungs by way of defluxion from the Head But only excrementitious flegm falling as a Catarrh from the Brain can make a Peripneumonia because it putrifieth in the Lungs and attracteth blood by the mixture whereof there is an Inflamation and this often happeneth in old folk Mesue saith that this Peripneumonia comes rather of Choller because the Lungs are nourished with Chollerick blood which cometh in great plenty to them by the Arterial Vein To whom we answer that fresh thin and steeming blood made in the right Ventricle of the Heart is carried into the Lungs which by reason of its purity is easily governed by Nature and is sent by the Venal Artery to the left Ventricle of the Heart and it seldom is altered from its Natural condition which useth to make a Peripneumonia But contrarily a defluxion from the Head cutting through the large passages into the Bronchia of the Lungs if it there putrifie will draw blood unto it and make a Peripneumonia This Peripneumonia is somtimes alone without another disease somtimes it followeth other diseases as Squinzy or Pleurisie Galen in Com. 11. Sect. 7. Aphor. teacheth that a Peripneumonia doth follow a Pleurisie two waies Either when a Pleurisie is turned into a Peripneumonia or when an inflamation of the Lungs followeth a Pleurisie This transmutation is when the former disease ceaseth and the other comes but it comes upon it when it is white the former remaineth Therefore the immediate internal cause of a Peripneumonia is blood often flegmatick seldom chollerick and most seldom melanchollick Which either comes from the whol body being plethorick or cachochymical that is full or of evil habit or from some part which is replete or distempered The External Causes of Peripneumonia and Pleurisie are the same namely whatsoever defluxion can come to those parts the chief whereof are First great exercise and violent motion of the Body especially after long rest and high feeding For then the humors abounding from high diet and kept in by long rest by exercise are dispersed attenuated and heated and are after sent to the weaker parts most fit to receive them among which the Breast and Lungs are chief because by strong exercise there is caused great and often breathing and so they become wearied and the substance of the Lungs being soft and loose can easily receive the humors coming to them Secondly Among the external Causes the cold and Northernly Air is reckoned when it comes suddenly after a Southern and warm for the pores are opened by warm Air and the humors are more fluid which by the cold Air coming after are compressed and the humors sent to the weak parts Lastly From Hipp. lib. of Air Places and Waters the drinking of standing Pools and Lakes begets the Peripneumonia for saith the Divine old man we observe diseases of the Lungs to be most in Marshy Countries Also the Signs of a Peripnumonia do agree with the signs of a Pleurisie Two are the same as a sharp Feaver and a Cough which somtimes is dry somtimes moist or with more Flegmatick spittle coloured with Choller or Blood and in the progress of time the spittle becomes Mattery when the matter of the Disease grows ripe and concocted by heat which somtimes comes to pass when the substance of the Lungs is not hurt for if they ulcerate a Consumption wil sollow So we may observe That in sore Eyes that are Mattery the humors are converted into Matter when the substance of the Eye is neither suppurated nor ulcerated The other signs differ in respect of the part affected the difficulty of Breathing is greater than in a Pleurisie by reason of the narrowness of the part inflamed so that the Patient seems to be choaked and cannot breath but with the head upright For the part cannot be compressed by reason of the extention and repletion nor be more dilated
although it be much dilated yet it takes in but little Air therefore the respiration is quick and often with snorting This is augmented by a Feaver by which the breath is hotter and the desire of cold air is greater The Pulse is great faint and soft by reason of Flegm and the looseness of the Lungs yet there is some hardness by the Choller and blood it is unequal from the compression of the Artery neer the Heart and in thick Humors most Somtimes it is intermitting watery vermicular when the Lungs are rotten by too much moisture There is a heavy pain that reacheth from the Breast to the Back somtimes it is between the Shoulders and somtimes under one only Shoulder and from thence communicated to the Throat and Pap Especially in a Cough somtimes they feel no pain til they begin to Cough somtimes there is also a pricking pain in the side when it is joyned with a Pleurisie as it often happeneth Although the Membrane that covers the Lungs be of the same nature with the Pleura as Galen taught 4. de loc affect cap. 5. Yet there is not so great pain in a Peripneumonia as in a Pleurisie for two Differences which are laid down by Galen in the place afore-cited The First is Because the Nerves that go to the Membrane of the Lungs are few and very little but they which go to the Pleura are many and great Th Other is Because the Breast consists of Bones and Flesh which wil not be stretched from whence the pain is greater But the Lungs are soft and yeilding and therefore their pain is less There is Redness in the Cheeks by reason of the hot vapors which fly into the head and carrying with them the thinner blood And this Colour is most in the Cheeks because their skin is thinnest There are besides these signs Heaviness Weakness and a Tossing with great sense of Heat in the whol Body The Tongue is Yellow and then it groweth Red a great thirst swelling of the Eyes and of the veins of the Temples There is a Delirium or Doting when it comes from Choller and a Coma when it comes from Flegm If the Disease comes of Chollerick blood the spittle wil be yellow the heat and thirst greater more difficulty of breathing with less Heaviness the air breathed forth is more hot the Feaver is very violent the Pulse swift the Delirium great the Water thin yellow and cleer the age time of the year the Country and Diet before do al attest for Choller If Flegm which is most ordinary produce the Disease the spittle wil be white viscous and froathy the Feaver burning of the Breast thirst and driness of the tongue wil be less the weight of the Breaâ—â— greater the Pulse slower and softer the Age old Habit of body time of the Yeer and the Country are cold and moist If the Disease come from pure Blood the Spittle wil be Red the Urin Red and Thick the Face more Red the Veins of the Temples more swoln with heaviness and distention of the whol body and other things that declare abundance of blood Lastly If Melancholly blood be the Cause the Spittle wil be black or blewish the Tongue black from the beginning dry and rough there wil be also heaviness and great sighing between breathing and al the signs of Melancholly predominating in the whol body The Prognostick of this Disease is thus to be made A Peripneumonia is more dangerous than a Pleurisie and for the most part deadly by reason of the necessity of respiration and the neerness of the Heart Celsus saith That this kind of Disease hath more Danger than Pain and for the most part Killeth But strength of Body less vehemency of Symptomes yellow Spittle not mixed with much Blood raised in the beginning a great flux of blood at the Nose in the Critical day or a flux of the Belly which is Chollerick and froathy or a flux of the Hemorrhoids or Terms do shew some hope of recovery Imposthumes about the Ears or inferior parts being well suppurated and kept open do foretel recovery as Hipp. in proga If a Peripneumonia be turned into a Pleurisie it is good and though it seldom happen as Galen teacheth Comment Aphor. 11. Sect. 7. because there is a going from a Disease more dangerous to one less dangerous And this transmutation is known by a pricking pain of the side coming thereupon and by abating the shortness of breath But the vehemency of the Disease and symptomes do declare a dangerous and deadly Peripneumonia as want of spittle continual watching a Delirium or Coma coldness of the extream parts snorting with great difficulty of breathing blewness and crookedness of the nails Moreover A Peripneumoma coming upon a Pleurisie is most dangerous as Hippocrates teacheth Aph. 11. Sect. 7. because the translation of a humor from an ignoble part to a more noble is evil and the strength being spent by the disease foregoing can endure the force of a new and worâ—e When the urine is thick in the beginning of the Disease and after before the fourth day it becomes thin death is at hand Hipp. in Coacis The Cure of the Peripneumonia is very like that of the Pleurisie and there must be first bleeding as much as the strength will permit once or twice in a day till the disease abate for since the Lungs are then full of blood and draw much from the heart which is inflamed you need not fear to let blood thrice four five or six times But if a Peripneumonia follow a Squinzy or Pleurisie you may let blood more warily because the strength is abated by the former Disease You must let blood from the Basilica Vein of both arms if the whol Lungs be equally affected or from either on that side the pain is or on which the Patient sets more weight or from which he supposeth he raiseth most spittle You must bleed women in this disease first in the Ancle Vein and after within six hours in the Arm except it be so desperate that you are constrained at the first to bleed in the Arm. In which case all the time you bleed and a little before you must apply Cupping-glasses to the Thighs But after if the strength will not permit further phlebotomy you must apply Cupping-glasses to the Shoulders and â—ack both dry and with Scarrification as much as the Patient can suffer Also Emollient and loosening Clysters are good revulsives but you must not use too strong purging Medicines therein lest you bring a flux of the Belly which is most dangerous in this Disease If a crude flegmatick humor coming from the head cause this disease or nourish it a Vesicatory laid to the hinder part of the Head doth very much good In the mean while use the Juleps and Emulsons prescribed in the Cure of a Pleurisie Anoint the breast with Oyl of Violets sweet Almonds or with fresh Butter or the like or with this Liniment Take of Oyl
by Schenkius by which it appears that he never see it till â—heir bodies who died of it were opened by him Therefore we will describe it exactly that a Phy-â—â—tian may not be deceived This serous humor either may be bred in the Lungs by the proper fault of them as when it doth â—ot concoct its own nourishment but turneth it into Water which by degrees is sent to the Cavity â—f the Breast or by bladders breaking upon the Lungs which are mentioned by Hippocrates in his â—ook of Internal Diseases and also by others Or it is sent into the Breast from other parts as from â—he Hypochondria especially when the Liver or the Spleen are distempered with a Schirrus or other â—isease by which much water is produced This watery humor is either sent by the Veins to the â—ungs which are weak or else from the Cavity of the Abdomen it is carried to the Breast by Insensiâ—le Transpiration Now Experience teacheth that this serous humor may be sent from one Belly to â—nother because the dropsie of the Breast turns into a dropsie of the Belly and a dropsie of the belâ—y into the Breast from whence they are suddenly choaked The Diagnosis of this Disease as hath been said is very hard for almost all the signs are the â—ame with the signs of other Diseases of the Breast But a noise of Water in the breast is only peâ—uliar to this Disease and to Empyema which may be heard within if the body be moved to and fro â—r be taken upon a strong mans shoulders and shaken But all the Signs which we mentioned from Hippocrates taken together may make a certain Diagâ—osis To which you may ad this one as being most evident to shew the Disease and by which â—he Dropsie in the breast is only distinguished from other difficulties of breathing namely When â—t every first beginning to sleep this difficulty of breathing cometh and hindereth it and by night enâ—reaseth and towards morning by degrees abateth To these you may ad somtimes a pain of one Arm or Shoulder which comes either from the humor falling from the Head into the Breast part whereof falls into the Arm being neer or from the water contained in the breast and sent to the Arms by the Axillary Veins of the Arm-holes or from â—he Refrigeration of the Intercostal Muscles from which the Nerves are derived to the Arms or from â—ome other sympathy by way of vicinity For Hippocrates in Coacis observed this Sympathy of the â—reast and arms If those parts or lobes of the Lungs which hang towards the right and left side of â—he Chest be vehemently inflamed so that they sway or rest upon one side of the Chest or Ribs the â—atery matter breaks out on the same side of the Body where the Lungs lean or rest This is a great Disease and hard to be cured for they who have it have their Natural heat very â—eak and their natural strength also from some great disease in the bowels from whence it comes that when the humor collected in the breast is evacuated by Medicines which is very difficult there â—omes more in the place of it from whence the disease is not only nourished but encreased so that â—t length by abundance of water they fall into the Dropsie called Ascites yet in the beginning beâ—ore the bowels are much hurt it somtimes may be cured For the Cure of this disease you must observe two Indications namely That the matter contaiâ—ed in the breast be evacuated and that the breeding thereof again be hindered It is a hard thing to empty the water contained in the breast because the waies are not open by which it should be brought forth Therefore Hippocrates doth advise to open the side which because â—e never see practised and never read in any Author that it was done with good success we cannot absolutely approve and we may speak of it as we have of the Opening or Tapping for the Dropsie in its proper Chapter Therefore it is better to attempt this Evacuation with Medicines that expel Water for which purpose al those Medicines prescribed by us in the Cure of the Dropsie are good Where we must observe diligently That if when the Disease is confirmed and much serous humor is gathered in the Breast you give a violent Purge those humors wil be much moved from whence there wil come a great Suffocation which wil kil the Patient therefore be wary and give your Medicine in a less Dose though oftener and mix them with strong Openers that purge Urin that both the passages may be unstopt and the Matter carried to the Uritories Among Water Purges the Minerals are best as Mercurius Dulcis and Mercurius Vitae so corrected that it may work only downward Also Diureticks alone or Medicines to provoke Urin often used are good because they turn away the matter coming to the breast to the bladder and by way of Consequence they bring it also from the breast Also Sudorificks are profitable to the carrying away of this serous matter and we saw a man of sixty years old who by the use of a Sweating drink made of Guaiacum and Sarsa taken fifteen days together and by provoking sweat with the vapor of the Spirit of Wine was Cured Cauteries applied to make Issues in the Thighes and Legs are also good to take Water from the breast You may hinder the breeding of this Water by amending the faults of those parts which send this Matter So if the Lungs be in fault you must apply proper Medicines unto them if the Liver or Spleen be troubled with Distemper Obstruction Schirrus or the like you must cure them by Medicines taken out of their several Chapters But those things which do strengthen the Vital and the Natural parts wil alwayes agree such as are prescribed in the Cure of Weakness Dropsie and Flux of the Liver Chap. 6. Of Haemoptysis or Spetting of Blood ALthough usually the word Haemoptysis doth signifie al manner of Spetting of blood from what part soever it doth proceed whether from the Breast Lungs Rough Artery or from the Jaws Gums Pallat Uvula Brain Stomach Liver and Spleen Yet Galen lib. 1. decris cap. 5. saith That Haemoptysis properly is taken for that spetting of blood which comes from the Vital parts as the Breast Lungs and rough Artery It is a Symptome in the excretion of those things which are wholly besides Nature But since every Symptome depends upon a Disease as its next and immediate Cause the Cause of this wil be either an Organical or a Common Disease The Organical is Two-fold the opening of the Vessels called in Greek Anastoriosis and Rarifaction called Diapedesis Also the Common Disease is Two-fold namely the breaking of the same Vessels called Rexis and the Corrosion of them called Diabrosis The Internal Cause immediately producing the Diseases is a great quantity of blood Blood exceeding in quantity wil either break the Veins or open their Orifices and so make either
a Rexis or Anastomosis The same blood offending in quality as when it is too hot or too thin it wil come forth by way of Anastomosis but because heat wil open the Orifices and the thinness causeth it to flow more easily Also the same qualities make a Diapedesis or Rarifaction for heat doth make thin the Tunicles of the Vessels and the thinness of the blood causeth it to flow more easily through the pores of those Tunicles Lastly The sharpness of the blood doth gnaw the Tunicles of the Veins and exulcerate them so cause a Diabrosis or Erosion this also is caused by sharp or salt humors which distil from the head or coming from other parts to the Lungs Moreover The External Causes do concur for the production of this Disease either mediately or immediately It is produced immediately by a stroak fal wound or the like but they produce it mediately which encrease blood heat and attenuate as high and hot feeding stoppage of Terms or Haemorrhoids too much exercise great clamor heat long staying in the sun and many others Moreover External Cold may cause the Ruption of the Vessels by making their Tunicles harder and not so easily to be extended but with this must be joyned strong Motion or abundance of Humors The Diagnosis of this Disease is difficult in respect of the part from whence it comes yet Galen declareth it in few words 4. de loc affect cap. 6. namely blood coming from the Gullet and Stomach is put forth by vomit when it comes from the Vital parts by Cough from the Jaws and Weazand by Hawking from the Mouth by simple spetting which wants a more cleer explication when blood comes from the head to the inner parts of the Weazand and the Jaws it comes forth by Coughing and so it doth when it comes from the breast and therefore it is not distinguished by this sign Moreover When blood coming from the Lungs or Breast is brought out by Coughing There are other necessary signs from which the parts affected may be distinguished First therefore when blood comes from the head although it somtimes cause Coughing yet the greatest part thereof is put forth by Hawking and there is a tickling in the Pallat as in a Catarrh as also when you look into the Pallat it appeareth to be foul and bloody and it is more confirmed to be from the Head if at that time the Nose bleed When the blood comes from the Lungs it is distinguished from that which comes from the Breast by Galen in the place mentioned for that which comes from the Lungs is froathy in greater plenty and without pain but from the Breast it is black little and with pain But it may be objected That blood coming from the breast is carried by the Lungs and by consequence is froathy because it is mixed with the air taken in as that which comes immediately from the Lungs And Avicen saith That blood from the breast is froathy I Answer That it is one thing to spet some froath mixed with the blood and another thing to spet nothing but froath which only comes from the substance of the Lungs Therefore you may observe Three degrees of froath for it is either wholly froathy from the flesh of the Lungs which it resembleth for the Lungs are but a congealed froath or it comes from the Vessels of the Lungs and is very froathy or it is mixed with froath and comes from the breast But the most certain sign that it comes from the Lungs is taken from the pain which is fixed and continueth where the solution of continuity is And you must observe That blood is somtimes sent from the Liver Spleen Matrix and other parts into the Lungs and spet forth so that the Breast is not primarily but secondarily affected which thing is hardly to be discovered But we may conjecture of it namely if any of the aforesaid parts be troubled with pain inflamation or any other distemper and there neither is nor hath been any other fault in the breast You may find out the signs of the Causes from what hath been said For if blood be brought by the Anastomosis of the Veins there went before some Cause that opened the mouth of the Vessels then blood is thrown forth in a pretty quantity and without pain But if it come forth by Diapedesis or Rarefaction then is it waterish little and without pain When it breaks forth by Rixis or Eruption it is very much if a Repletion went before or any External Cause that might break the Vessels Lastly If it comes by Diabrosis or Corrosion of the Vein there went before salt and sharp diffillations from the head The blood is salt and sharp and ill coloured and some Causes of sharp humors were formerly in the beginning there is but little blood but after when the Corrosion is greater then is much blood spet forth and at last there is a spetting of Matter Hippocrates Aphor. 25. Sect. 4. doth lay down the Prognostick of this Disease as what kind of blood soever is spet out of the mouth from any part below it is evil for every opening of a vessel which letteth blood come forth so is dangerous especially in the Lungs concerning which his Aphorism chiefly speaks But somtimes such spetting of blood may be without hurt namely When Nature by a critical Motion doth purge the superfluous blood by those waies And it is observed That Women which have had their Terms stopt have without harm at certain times spet blood from their Lungs by the Anastomosis of the veins In respect of the Causes Diapedesis or Rarifaction is less dangerous than Anastomosis or Apertion and Eruption is most dangerous for unless it be healed within three or four dayes there cometh an inflamation which being suppurated produceth an Ulcer from whence cometh a Consumption Whence Hippocrates saith Aphor. 15 16. Sect. 7. That from spetting of blood there followeth spetting of Matter and from spetting of Matter a Phthisis or Consumption But Diabrosis or Corrosion is most dangerous and Galen saith That it is incurable by reason the Ulcer that followeth it is incurable The Cure of Haemoptoe or spetting blood is wrought by Revulsion of blood from the Lungs by correcting the evil quality thereof and closing the vein that is opened by astringing and conglutinating means First therefore let blood from the Arm on the same side on which you find heaviness or pricking in a smal quantity often and at a distance for the better Revulsion After that open the vein in the Foot and so you wil make a Revulsion to a further distance and this will be more profitable if the disease come from obstruction of the Terms If the Patient be subject to the Hemorrhoids you must open them with Hors-leeches Also apply Cupping-glasses with Scarrification to the shoulders and back or without Scarrificaon to the Groins and under the Ribs Rub and bind the extream parts and in all the time of the Cure
both smal and evil proportioned The straightness of the Breast shews want of Natural heat and the evil proportion shews its weakness For if the Natural heat were much and vigorous the breast would have thereby been extended But such and so great is this disposition that Hippocrates calls it a Natural Consumption coming from a principle in Nature Wherefore they who are thus made must of necessity fall into a Consumption except some other disease take them off Which by the way is observable for if they have any acute disease who are thus inclined they seldom escape because the Natural heat is weak and little and therefore will easily be overcome by a strong disease Therefore the most wary Physitians in such kind of Natures and habits do use to prognostick rather death and danger than health or recovery when they fall into any disease In them who are inclinable to this Disease Youth is most dangerous according to Hippocrates Aph. 9. Sect. 5. especially from Eighteen to Thirty Five yeers in which time there is much blood for to break the vessels as also it is then thin and sharp more proper to open and corrode the Vessels In Children the Catarrh is made slow with much Moisture in Old Men it is allayed with Cold but in the Middle Age for the Reasons aforesaid it doth often exulcerate Moreover in Youth many distempers come by Diet by which many ill humors are produced and the blood infectedâ— as also by reason of violent exercise as running wrestling leaping fencing going in the sun a vein may be broken in the Lungs which may produce a Consumption The signs of a Consumption begun are set down by Hippocrates in his Book of Diseases before mentioned Text 10. in these words In progress of time the Lungs are exasperated and ulcerated within by the Catarrh putrifying there whereby the breast seems ponderous and there is a pain before and behind and there is more sharp heat in the body and the Lungs by reason of their heat draw moisture from the whol body and especially from the head which also is made hot from that body and spetteth forth thick matter In these Words there are Six Signs contained of a Consumption begun The First sign is That the Lungs are exasparated in progress of time that is The Cough is more violent for the Disease increasing the Distillation is stronger and the Lungs are peirced therewith and provoked to Cough forth that which hurteth them which Cough doth not only come from the matter flowing down but from that which flowed formerly for being not Coughed up it groweth foul by long continuance by which means the Lungs are more forced to expulsion The Second sign is The weight of the Breast which comes from the matter gathered into the Lungs For albeit the Lungs of themselves do feel little or nothing yet because they are tyed to the Breast by Membranes they perceive a weight when they are burdened A Third sign is A sharp pain before and behind for the matter contained in the Lungs doth with its evil quality offend them as wel as with its quantity and putrifaction by which the Membranes are pricked which cause great pain for the pain in the Membranes is alwayes pricking Now this pain is perceived before and behind because these Membranes are joyned before to the Sternon and behind to the Back and the cause of this pain is from a great Cough called by Hippocrates A Malignant or Cruel Cough The Fourth sign is When sharp Heat falls into the body and there followeth a violent Feaver for when through progress of time the matter putrifieth more it is probable that the Feaver wil be greater for although the matter from the beginning do only putrifie in the Lungs yet by reason of the Suppuration made in the Breast with an Ulcer the filth is communicated to the humors contained in the Veins from which come divers sorts or putrid Feavers and these differ from that Feaver which comes only from the Ulcer in the Lungs through the filthy vapors which are carried from them into the Heart which turns to an Hectick and therefore in a Consumption there is a Hectick Feaver often joyned with a Putrid The Fifth sign is When a great quantity of Flegm falls from the Head to the Lungs which Hippocrates confirms when he shews the Cause of that great Defluxion namely The Lungs by their Heat drawing Flegm from the whol body Hence it is that the humors contained in the whol body are the matter of a continual and great Flux which doth so trouble men in Consumptions The Lungs by the filth which they have contracted grow hot by which heat Flegm is drawn from the Brain which the Brain fetcheth from the whol Body And this is one of the principal Causes of the extenuation or the whol body for al the humors good and bad are carried to those parts and so the whol body decayeth The Sixth sign is Spetting of thick rotten Flegm for when the Matter putrifieth and there is an Ulcer quittor or filth must needs come from thence and therefore the Spittle is Mattery but it is between thick and thin for after that it hath by long continuance in the Lungs grown thick it is made thinner by the addition of that which breaks from the Ulcer and so it becomes moderate which Hippocrates calls Subcrassum or Thickish To these mentioned Signs of Hippocrates you may ad this as most certain namely The Extenuating the body with a lingering and constant Feaver For besides the putrid Feavers above mentioned which come and go by fits and grow from the humors which putrifie in the Veins there is also alwayes present a lingering daily Feaver coming from the vapors sent from the Ulcer to the Heart which corrupteth the nourishment of the whol body and makes it dry and hot from whence the body must needs grow extenuated To there you may ad Sweatings at Night with which men in Consumptions are often troubled as soon as they begin to sleep for by sleep the Heat is drawn in which encreaseth the Inflamation of the Lungs and the heat inwardly increased causeth abundance of vapors which are thickned in the skin and turned into sweat Moreover There is a continual rigor which comes from the sharpness of the matter which pricketh the Membranes And Lastly You may ad sweetness of spittle which useth to come when it begins to Suppurate which is the original of Saltness Hippocrates shews also the signs of a Consumption confirmed in his 11. Text of the Book above mentioned in these words The longer this Disease lasteth the more absolute matter will be spet and the Feavers be the sharper the Cough more frequent and strong the body will more consume and yet the body is disturbed downward from Flegm and this comes from the Brain when any man comes to this he must perish In these Words we may observe that there are Five Signs of a Consumption confirmed The First
the Lungs and to Cure Ulcers Take this following for an Example Take of green Coltsfoot eight handfuls Hysop two handfuls bruise them and put them in a Pot with a little water lute it close then set it into the Oven when the Bread is half baked and then take it out with the Bread and put a Funnel into a hole made at the top and so take in the smoak through the mouth at the Lungs and put it out at the Nose and it wonderfully provokes spetting You must also Morning and Evening use a Cooling Liniment to the Breast As Take of Gum Tragacanth and Arabick of each one dram infuse them in Rose water a day and a night put then thereto of Oyl of Violets one ounce and an half Fresh Butter half an ounce Sal. Prunellae two drams Camphire one scruple Breast-milk as much as will serve Mix them in a Mortar to an Oyntment To Repair a Consumption or to Prevent or Hinder it besides Restoring Diets which are principally made of Barley Almonds Pine-nuts Rice Nuts and the like which Authors declare Milk commended at first is very good and a Bath of hot Water of Barley and Almonds bruised but this is not good in a Catarrh nor while there is a putrid Feaver nor when the Lungs are ful of Excrements Let his Drink be Water and Sugar Barley Water and Liquoris an Infusion of Liquoris a thin Hydromel or a weak Decoction of China The End of the Seventh Book THE EIGHTH BOOK OF THE PRACTICE OF PHYSICK Of the Diseases of the Heart The PREFACE THE Heart hath many Diseases Similary Organick and Common But because few will submit to the Physitian in regard of the nobleness of the part which will endure long pain but a man is suddenly gone and there is no time for Physick we who intend to bring all our Labors into practice will lay down only three Diseases of the Heart which are usual and require many Medicines and we shall bring them into three Chapters The first shall be of Swooning The second of Palpitation of the Heart And the third of Weakness Chap. 1. Of Syncope or Swooning Syncope is defined by Galen 12. meth c. 5. to be a sudden failing of all the Strength For although the Heart only suffer and the Vital Spirits are only intercepted yet when it fails the rest must suffer because they have a continual and necessary influence from it It is called a sudden failing of all the Strength that it may be distinguished from other Diseases in which the strength goes by degrees till death come nor is the Doctrine of Avicen against it Fen. 1. Lib. 3. Tract 2. Cap. 2. where he propounds the sign of a Syncope that comes by degrees for although the Causes that dissolve the Spirits do somtimes work by degrees yet when they grow great they make a sudden Syncope and therefore Avicen rather propoundeth the signs that go before a Syncope than those that accompany it Moreover This Definition may seem to agree with an Apoplexy in which there is a sudden failing of all the strength but in an Apoplexy there is strength in the Heart and the Pulse is generally great and full And also there is great hinderance of breath with snorting but in a Syncope the breath is no waies stopped The question is Why When the action of the heart ceaseth doth the action of the Brain also cease since the Animal Spirit is made of the Vital by way of Concoction and must therefore stay some time in the Brain although the Vital do not constantly come to it We answer That the Brain as all other parts for the perfecting of its actions doth alwaies stand in need of adventitious heat which is brought to it by the Vital Spirits and therefore when the Vital Spirits come not neither doth heat come for the Brain to perform its functions There are other Diseases very like to Syncope differing only in degrees from it namely Eclusis Leipothumia and Asphuxia Eclusis is a light fainting Leipothumia or Leipopsuchia or Apopsuchia is a very strong and great fainting Syncope is the greatest which if it go so far that the pulse in the whol Body ceaseth to beat it is called Asphyxia which is next unto death The word Synchope was not used by Hippocrates and the Ancient Greeks but they call'd this Disease Leipothymia Lipopsychia and Asphyxia But it was invented a little before Galens time and used for the greatest so Galen 1. ad Glauc cap. 14. saith Leipothymia is an imperfect Syncope and goes before it By what hath been said it appears that the part affected is the Heart where the Vital Spirits are all made by whose influence the Natural heat and Spirits in every part are made to act therefore when that ceaseth by stoppage of the Influx of the Vital Spirits it is necessary that the strength of all parts should fail and their actions cease The immediate Cause of this Disease is the defect of the Vital Spirits not wholly for then sudden death would come but so great that Nature is constrained lest the strength of the Heart should totally fail to fetch the Spirits from the other parts to the Heart by which means the parts lose their functions Now this defect of Spirits comes four waies Either because they are Naturally few or because they are dissipated and spent or because they are preternaturally altered and corrupted or lastly because they are suffocated and destroyed They are few by fault of the faculty making or matter from which they are made The Faculty is hurt either by a disease proper to the Heart or by consent from another part The proper Diseases of the Heart which are the chief are great distempers which overthrow the Natural temper or destroy the substance of the parts or of the Natural heat as swooning Feavers sharp and malignant Syntacticae or Colliquantes or fainting pestilential hectical or Marasmodes which consume to this come organical diseases as too much constriction and dilatation and constant solutions which come to the Ventricles of the Heart The Faculty may be hurt by consent from other parts which have great sympathy with the Heart as the Brain and Liver and somtimes from the mouth of the Stomach by reason of its neerness and exquisite sence from whence a Syncope is divided into a Heart and Stomach Syncope The Cardiaca or Heart Syncope is when the Heart is principally affected but the Stomachia or Stomach Syncope is that which comes by consent from the Stomach Somtimes it comes from the Mother by filthy vapors sent from thence to the Heart from whence comes the Suffocation of the Matrix Apnoea or want of breath and Hysterical Syncopes as those vapors do assault the Lungs Diaphragma or the Heart The fault is in the Matter when the Air or Blood is defective or corrupted from whence the Vital Spirits are generated There is defect of Air when the Respiration and Transpiration is hindered but the defect of
the breast a pale colour black and blew a smal obscure and unequal pulse A swoonding by way of Sympathy from other parts is known by the sign of those parts affected so that if it come from the stomach that hath been distempered with loathing vomiting gnawing the mouth hath been bitter and dry and the like The same Judgement is to be taken in other parts but if you see no sign of any other part affected you may conclude that it comes principally from the heart Moreover A Syncope is distinguished from other Diseases by its proper signs From an Epilepsy because that hath a Convulsion but a Syncope not From an Apoplexy because in that the breath is stopt and there is often snorting and the pulse is not much abated except when Death is at hand but in a Syncope the Pulse is almost gone and the breath is free It is distinguished from the Mother for in that the breathing parts are most affected so that the Patient is almost strangled but the Pulse is not much altered nor the colour of the face but keeps its natural complection and somtimes is higher coloured but in a Syncope the breath is not stopt but the pulse is almost gone and the face is pale But somtimes a Syncope is joyned with the Suffocation of the Mother and then the Pulse is not perceived The Prognostick of this Disease is first taken from Hippocrates Aph. 41. Sect. 2. They who often and violently faint without a manifest Cause do die suddenly For as it is said a great Syncope doth quite take away the strength from the heart A Syncope from which a man is not recovered by Rose Water thrown in his face and Wine given to drink with sneezing-pouder put into the Nose is deadly When one is raised from a Syncope health is not to be promised for if his Pulse return not but his colour be wan and he still be cold he wil quickly Relapse in which is danger That Syncope which comes from immoderate Evacuations fear sorrow or some evident Cause is of less danger than that which comes from an internal Cause As for the Cure because it comes from divers Causes it must be various But of what Cause soever it come in the time of the Fit these are good Lying upon the back throwing of cold Water in the face provoking to neez putting of strong Wine Cinnamon or imperial Water Aqua vitae Coelestis and the like into the mouth holding of hot bread to the Nose loud calling and shaking stopping of the Nostrils wringing of the Fingers pulling of the Hair rubbing binding and cupping But in respect of the Causes which are divers you must vary the Cure thus If it come from want of meat he wil be Cured with strong Wine and a Toast or Sop Also with nourishing broths and Restoring distilled Waters among other things a dish of Eggs with sugar Wine and Cinnamon described in the following Chapter If it come from thinness of the Humors by which the spirits do easily flie away give him sweet things and meats of good juyce and thickning let the pores of the skin be stopt with Oyl of Roses and let the Patient stay in a cold place If it come from the Mother you must give Medicines for that If it come from some evil quality give Cordials and Antidotes such as are prescribed in malignant Feavers If from poyson give things to expel it First a Vomit and then Treacle and then if he feel burning or gnawing in the Guts let him take Milk of Butter or fat Broth or cooling Cordial Potions If it come of immoderate Evacuation let the Patient be refreshed with Scents Meat Drink sleep and rest If from too great loss of Blood lay him upon his bed with his Head backwards dash his face with cold Water give him a little Wine with cold Water If it come of too much Purging give him new Treacle or old if you cannot get new with two grains of Opium dissolved in Wine or three grains of Laudanum which is better And let the Belly be anointed all over with this following Oyl Take of Oyl of Myrtles and Quinces of each one ounce and an half Oyl of Wormwood one ounce With a little Rose Vinegar mix them and anoint often Give a Clyster of steeled Milk with three Yolks of Eggs and two drams of Philonium Romanum Use Frictions of the Arms and upper parts give him a Sop in Wine or Wine alone And lastly Every Evacuation whether it be of Blood from the Nose or Womb or other parts or of Humors by Vomit or Stool must be stopped with their proper Medicines prescribed in their several Chapters That Syncope which comes from too much Sweat is cured by Medicines that restrain Sweat as with Cold or Rose Water alone or with a little Vinegar sprinkled upon the Face and Hands Also let the Air be cooled with the same Water and with Fanning Apply cold Epithems to the Heart made of Rose Sorrel and Borrage Water with Pouder of Diamargariton frigid with a little Wine to make it pierce You must also give often cooling Juleps made of Syrup of Sorrel Violets and Apples or Lemmons with cooling Waters and Lapis Prunellae Let the Pores be closed with anointing the Skin with Oyl of Roses Myrtles and Mastich Let him abstain from Wine Let him not be rubbed bâ—t let him move often gently being lightly covered Let his bed be perfumed with this Pouder following Take of the flowers of Water-lillies red Roses of each three ounces the best Labdanum half an ounce Storax two drams Myrtles and grains of Sumach of each two ounces Make a Pouder If it come from suffocation of the Spirits you must call them forth by Frictions Ligatures Cupping-glasses and the like And if this Suffocation came of Repletion you must bleed plentifully but by degrees If it comes from terror and fear you must also bleed lest it cause an Obstruction or Inflamation Chap. 2. Of the Palpitation or Breathing of the Heart AS in a Synoope the motion of the Heart is diminished so in this Disease it is depraved It iâ— wrongly stiled by some a trembling of the Heart when trembling is a passion of the Animal and voluntary motion and is not proper to any parts but such as have voluntary motion Galen in his Book of Trembling Palpitation and Convulsion saith That Palpitation comes only from the Disease that is from the Cause which lifteth up and depresseth the part without any help of the Faculty but Trembling comes partly from the Faculty partly from the Disease Hence it is that many using the word Palpitation indifferently to any part think it is in the Heart as in the Skin and Muscles in which it comes from wind driven violently thither for if the Heart be moved as a Bladder by water or wind they suppose that to be a Palpitation But the reason is different for the Skin and Muscles cannot naturally dilate and contract themselves but by
Diseases But the Heart hath a Natural Faculty to contract and dilate it self therefoâ—e a Palpitation cannot be without its motion And they do in vain muster up Galens Reasons so thought by them to prove that the Palpitation of the Heart comes not by Nature but by a Diâ—ease or cause of a Disease For Galen in all those places speaks of no other Palpitation than that which is in the Skin and other external parts and not of the palpitation of the Heart which is of another Nature and Galen 2. de sympt caus cap. 2. saith that the Palpitation of the Heart and Arteries is different from that of the other parts Therefore the Palpitation of the Heart is an immoderate and preternatural shaking of the part with a great Diastole or Dilatation and a vehement Systole or contraction which somtimes is so great that as Fernelius observes it hath often broken the Ribs adjoyning somtimes displaced them which are over the Paps and somtimes it hath so dilated an Artery forth into an Aneurism as big as ones fist in which you might both see and feel the pulsation This immoderate shaking of the Heart comes from the Pulsative Faculty provoked But here may be objected That in Feavers all these things are found for this is an immoderatâ— Systole and Diastole by the provocation of the Faculty through some troublesom matter or by encrease of heat in the Heart To this we answer That the motion of the Heart in Feavers is distinguished from Palpitation only by its degrees and the depraved motion of the Heart when it is vehement is called Palpitation but if it be not vehement it is called a quick great and swift Pulse and is referred to the differenceâ— of Pulses Now the Efficient Causes of this Palpitation may be referred to Three Heads Either it is somwhat which troubleth and pricketh or necessity of Refrigeration or defect of Spirits which two latter may be referred to the encrease of Custom The Molesting Cause is most usual so that many Authors knew no other the other are rare and that is either a vapor or wind which troubleth the Heart either in quantity or quality or both The quality is either manifest or occult A vapor troublesom in a manifest quality is either in the Heart and its parts adjoyning or it is sent from other parts and this suddenly getting to the inmost parts of the Heart doth stir up the Expulâ—ive Faculty which being Naturally very strong ariseth powerfully with all its force to expel the enemy In the Heart and thereabout especially in the Pericardium are gathered somtimes cold and thick Humors which send up vapors to the Ventricles of the Heart which cause Palpitation But from more remote parts vapors and wind are sent to the Ventricles of the Heart as from the Stomach Spleen Mother and the other parts of the lower Belly Many times a Vapor that troubles the Heart by an occult quality ariseth in malignant Feavers Plague and after Poyson and somtimes from Worms putrified and the terms stopped from corrupt feed or other putrid matter which do much stir up the Expulsive Faculty thereof Divers Humors do molest the Heart either with their quantity or quality so too much Blood oppresâ—ing the Veins Arteries and Ventricles of the Heart so that they cannot move freely makes a Palpitation by hindering motion which that the Faculty may oppose it moveth more violently So Water in the Pericardium being in great quantity doth compreâ—s the substance of the Heart and its Ventricle so that they cannot freely dilate themselves The same do Humors flowing in abundance to the Heart as it happens somtimes in Wounds Fear and Terror Humors offending in quality hurt the Heart if they be venemous putrid corrupt sharp or too hot especially burnt Choller coming to the Heart and provoking its Expulsion Also Tumors though seldom cause this Disease as Inflamation of the Heart Imposthumes or Swelling in the Arteries of the Lungs neer the Heart which Galen saith befel Antipater the Physitian 4. de loc aff by which after an unequal Pulse he fell into a Palpitation and an Asthma and so died so Dodonaeus reports that he found a Callus in the great Artery next to the Heart which caused a Palpitation for many yeers Also Tumors in the Pericardium whether they be without humors and scirrhus or with humors in them as the Hydatides or watery Pustles and little stones bones and pieces of flesh are somtimes growing in the Heart which cause Palpitation So Platerus reports that in one who had a long Palpitation and died thereof there was found a bone in his Heart But Schenkius reports that in a Priest who was from his youth to the age of forty two troubled with a Palpitation there was found in the bottom of his Heart an Excrescens of flesh which weighed eight drams and resembled another Heart The Second Cause of Palpitation is necessity of refrigeration which is when there is a pretâ—â—natural heart in the Heart by which the Spirits are inflamed within and therefore the motion of the Heart and Arteries is encreased that what is spent may be restored and the heat cooled and this comes somtimes from an internal cause which is rare but oftener of an external as anger vehement exercise and the like As Platerus observed in a yong man who being hot and angry at Tennis fell into a Palpitation of the Heart and so died The third Cause is the defect of Spirits which comes by hunger watching anger Joy fear shame and great Diâ—eases and other causes which do suddenly dissipate the Spirits which defect the Heart laboring to repair that it may beget more quick and plentiful and send them into the whol Body sooner it doth enlarge its motion and make it quicker You must observe for conclusion that it is more ordinary to see a Palpitation which comes by consent from other parts than from the Heart it self For it hath a consent with all parts by the Veins and Artâ—ries by which Vapors Wind and Humors are sent Which all shall be shewed in the Diagnosis following The Diagnosis or knowledg of this Disease is directed either to the Disease or the Causes which produce it The Disease is subject to sence it may be felt with the hands somtimes seen and heard for the Artery may be seen to leap especially in the Jugular And Forestus saith it may be heard by an Example of a yong man that they who passed by might hear it by laying their Ear to the Window Also the Causes are distinguished by their Signs A hot distemper is known by the greatness of the Pulse and swiftness by a Feaver and heat of the Breast by great and often breathing and desire of cold things If the Palpitation come of wind it quickly comes and goes and is presently raised by little motion and the Breath is difficult with trembling somtimes at the knees mists in the Eyes noise in the Ears and somtimes pain of some
part which quickly is gonâ— but you must gather the Nature and quality of the Vapor by the signs of the Humor which aboundeth in any part because vapors do alwaies arise from Humors If the Palpitation come from Humors in the Heart the Disease doth not come so suddenly and continueth longer and you may know what kind of humor it is by the signs of the Humor which abounds throughout the whol Body And especially if it be from Blood from which it most often proceedeth and this is known by a divers and unequal Pulse somtimes great somtimes smal slow and swift to which the Breathing answereth in proportion the Patients heart seemeth to be bound and oppressed as appears by the exceeding heat distension of the Veins redness of Face the time being Spring the Age Region and Diet causing Blood to abound That which comes by consent from other parts is known by the proper signs of the parts affected so we know that it is from the stomach when there is want of Appetite loathing vomiting of base Humors and gnawing at the Stomach A troublesom breathing about the Pancreas or Spleen or any other disease of the Spleen sheweth that the matter lurketh there from whence the vapors fly to the Heart so suppression of the Terms and Hysterical fits declare that it comes from the Womb. The Water abounding in the Pericardium is harder to be known but we may conjecture if the Pulse be weak and faint and the Patient bemoaneth himself that his heart as it were is somtimes in Water and is suffocated and if it be constant and he incline to an Atrophy or Hectick If malignant humors cause it there will be great change in the Pulse a loss of strength somtimes fainting and other signs of malignity If it come from a Tumor there is remarkable variety in the Pulse and the motion of the Heart is different from the natural very unequal and inordinate and if the humor be hot there will be great inflamation in the Body great thirst difficulty of breathing and fainting will follow with death but if the Tumor be hard and in the Pericardium the disease is constant and the Patient decayes by degrees without any manifest cause if flesh or any more solid thing grow to the heart there will be a continual Palpitation from the beginning of the Disease to the end of Life Lastly You may know when it comes by want of Spirits by the precedent causes which destroyed the Spirits and by the quick and smal pulse and when it comes from the least labor or motion Somtimes the like befals them that are well from walking or other motion with a change of Pulse and a resembling Palpitation The Prognostick is to be taken thus It is dangerous from the hinderance of the motion of the Heart by which Life is preserved and it brings Syncopes and death For it is a true Observation of Galen Com. Aph. 41. Sect. 2. and 5. de loc aff cap. 2. All that in youth or in declining age are troubled with the Palpitation of the Heart very much die before they are old for the often Palpitation is a sign that the Vital faculty was very weak A Palpitation by Propriety is worse than by consent and somtimes deadly And that which is of an internal is worse than that which comes of an external Cause unless it be from poyson or some great wound If it come from a Tumor or solution of Unity it is incurable The Cure is various according to the variety of the Causes and first that which comes from a peculiar distemper of the Heart and Pericardium is incurable therefore we must look only at the Cure of that which is by consent which depends upon the divers diseases of the parts whose Cure must be sought in their proper Chapters But besides those Remedies which take away the Cause you must use those which asswage the Symptomes by refreshing the Heart and strengthening it and which discuss the vapors which arise from melancholly or crude waterish Humors as Cordial Juleps Opiates Epithems Perfumes which are prescribed in weakness and these that follow Take of Conserve of Balm Rosemary-flowers Borrage-flowers and Clove-gilly-flowers of each one ounce Confection of Acorns and old Treacle of each one dram the Pouder of Diamber and Diamoschi dulcis of each one scruple with the Syrup of Citron Barks make an Opiate which let him take often Take of Bugloss Rose and Orenge-flower Water of each two ounces the syrup of Clove-gilly-flowers one ounce and an half Cinnamon Water half an ounce the spirit of Roses two drams Confection of Acorns one dram mix them and give two spoonfuls now and then This following Liquor which immitateth the Juyce of Hearts described in the following Chapter is good Take of Hogs or Sheeps Hearts three Cinnamon and Cloves of each one dram Lettice and Sorrel seeds of each one dram and an half white Wine two ounces Borrage Scabious and Rose Water of each one ounce and an half Confection of Alkermes one dram boyl them all between Two Dishes and let him take two spoonfuls of the Liquor morning and evening Take of Red Roses and Rosemary-flowers of each two drams Lavender flowers one dram Angelica seeds Citron peels Cloves Cinnamon and Mace of each half a dram Saffron one scruple Musk and Amber-greece of each six grains Make a Bag with red Silk and sprinkle it with Rose water and white Wine and apply it warm to the Heart Take of Oyntment of Roses half an ounce Oyl of Cinnamon and Cloves of each six drops Musk and Amber-greece of each four grains Mix it for a Liniment for the heart Purging Clysters and Carminative to expel Wind are often to be given But in the Fit it is best to open a vein And Galen witnesseth 5. de loc aff cap. 2. That he never did it without profit Some apply Cupping Glasses without Scarrification to the Breast which they say are excellent to discuss Wind there contained Others to the Hypochondria when the matter of the Disease is there But Zacutus Lusitanus applied a Cupping Glass with Scarrification to the heart with wonderful success as you may read in prax admir obs 133. lib. 1. Others commend true Rhapontick given to two scruples in Wine or Wine wherein the same hath been steeped Chap. 3. Of WEAKNESSE ALthough Weakness of Strength doth generally comprehend the hinderance of al Actions Animal Vital and Natural yet more particularly it comprehends the Vital which are known by a Weak Pulse yet this Weakness useth to be found in al great Diseases in which Nature doth yeild or resist the Cause Therefore as in Palpitation the Action of the Heart that is Pulsation is depraved so in Weakness it is diminished Which is the same with a Syncope but it differs in this In a Syncope it is so little that it is hardly perceived but in Weakness the Pulse is manifest and not so little In this also the Animal Faculty is
alwaies offended Hence comes weak motion without hurt of the Brain Nerves or Muscles but from the defect of Vital Spirits which are not so sufficiently sent to the Head that they may be made Animal The immediate Cause of Weakness is Defect of the natural heat and spirits from which the life and strength of the parts do depend And this Defect is in every part from the Defect of Vital Spirits and heat flowing from the heart Now the Vital Spirits are Defective either because they are not bred many or because they are dissipated after they are Bred or Corrupted or Suffocated as we said in a Syncope where there is this difference That in a Syncope the Causes of Defect of Spirits do suddenly produce their effect but in Weakness they operate by degrees And therefore in Syncopes and Leipothymia al the Vital Spirits almost do suddenly fail but in this there are fewer then ought to be communicated to every part Moreover When the Natural heat wants not only adventitious heat but also radical moisture to feed upon if this moisture be wanting and diminished the natural heat must be less and the strength abated Now the Causes which hinder the spirits from being Generated or maketh them disperse themselves or Corrupt or Suffocate them are propounded in the Treatise of a Syncope The Diagnosis of this Disease needs no Explication because it is manifest and the Patients do complain of their Weakness But the signs of the Causes were Propounded in the Syncope The Prognostick depends upon the various disposition of Causes for as they are greater or less there is more or less danger The Cure of this Disease is to be directed to two things To the taking away of the Cause and the Restauration of the Heart and vital spirits The Causes are almost al great Diseases in which either Nature yeilds to or resisteth with difficulty therefore the taking away of the Cause belongs to the Cure of almost al Diseases which you must take from their proper Chapters But the strengthning of the Heart and restoring of the vital spirits are to be here declared somtimes to be preferred before the Cure of the Cause when death seems to be at hand but we must alwayes take heed least when we encrease the strength we encrease the Cause of the Disease and therefore in a hot Disease you must use more temperate Cordials but in a Cold Disease those that are more hot First then mix Cordials in his nourishment as Confectio Alkermes or Confectio de Hyacyntho in Broths or with pleasant Wine or Cinnamon Water if there be great weakness Boyl also between two Dishes a piece of a Leg of Mutton after the skin and fat is taken off and after that let the Patient drink the Broth being strained at one daught Or Take the Flesh of a Capon after the skin and fat is taken away cut it in pieces and put it in a glassed Pot well Luted and set it in Balneo Martae to boyl for five hours then let the Patient take two or three spoonfuls of the Liquor in all his Broths Or you may make a distilled Water thus Take a Capon or an Hen after the skin is taken off and the fat cut it in pieces then powr upon it Water of Bugloss Borrage Sorrel Roses and Orange Flowers of each half a pound the Pouder of three Sanders Aromaticum Rosatum and Cinnamen of each half an ounce yellow Sanders one ounce Lemmons sliced three Distill them according to art which must be given every hour by the spoonful The Juyce of Legs of Mutton only is of much use Half roast a Leg of Mutton and slash it upon the Spit take the Juyce and boyl it a little in the dish and give it either alone or with Broth or with Yolks of Eggs. Valeriola doth much commend the Juyce taken out of Sheeps Hearts And Zacutus Lucitanus confirms it by his Experience saying That he with this only Medicine a mouth continued cured a rich man who often swouned through weakness of the Vital Faculty and resolution of the Blood and Spirits when many other Medicines had been used in vain The Juyce is thus taken forth Slit the Heart of a Sheep or Goat in the middle then wash it well and last wash it with Rose Water then cut it in slices and put it in a glassed Vassel with a few Cloves and no other Liquor And after the Pot is well luted put it into the Oven after it is drawn till the Juyce come forth Give this to the Patient to drink The Italians use Caudles of Yolks of Eggs Wine Sugar and Cinnamon which is very restorative Zacutus Lucitanus makes a fine dish of twenty Yolks of Eggs as you may see in the 107. Observation Lib. 2. of his Admirable Practice You may make Cordial Juleps thus Take of the Water of Bugloss Roses and Orange flowers of each one ounce Syrup of Apples and Lemmons of each half an ounce Confectio Alkermes one dram Cinnamon Water two drams Make a Julep Or make this following mixture Take of white Sugar two ounces moisten it well with the best Cinnamon Water then put to it as much Spirit of Vitriol as is sufficient to make it sharp then ad of the Essence of Cinnamon four drops the Essence of Mace Nutmegs and Annis seeds of each three drops the Essence of Cloves two drops Mix them and take it either by it self or in Broth. You may also make a restoring Opiate thus Take of Conserve of Roses Bugloss Borrage and Clove gilli-flowers of each one ounce Citron Barks and Nutmegs candied of each three drams one candied Myrobalan Confectio Alkermes half an ounce the Spirit of Roses and Essence of Citrons of each half a dram the Essence of Cinnamon six drops With the Syrup of Apples make an Opiate take it often This Water following is excellent Take of the Jelly of Harts-horn drawn with white Wine four pints the Blood of a Lamb and a Calf clensed with the hands from all fibres of each two pints Muschadel Canary and Malago Wine of each three pints of Calfs Hearts cut in pieces four Crums of new white Bread dipped in Milk two pound and an half the Juyce of Balm one pint and an half Rose and Orange Flower Water of each one pint great Citrons sliced three Cinnamon four ounces Mace one ounce Put them in a large glass Still and still them in Balneo Mariae You may make a most excellent and precious Cordial Water after this manner Take of Amber-greese two drams Musk two scruples Lignum Aloes one dram and an half the white part of Benjamin three drams after they are bruised and mixed put them into Spirit of Wine and setting them upon a gentle fire draw out the Tincture fully and then filter off the Liquor and draw off half the spirit with an Alembick upon the ashes with a very gentle fire keep the Liquor close stopped in a Glass with a Cork waxed over and a
bladder of which you may give two three or four drops in Broth or in Juleps or in this following Syrup Take of Cinnamon Water four ounces the best Rose and Orange flower Water of each six ounces Mix them and dissolve therein as much Sugar candy as you can and make it into a Syrup without fire with a spoonful whereof mix four Drops of the aforesaid Cordial Liquor Of the Ingredients remaining from the former Liquor with as much of Damask Roses and four times as much Benjamin you may make Cakes to perfume the Chamber Apply both Liquid and Solid Epithems to the Heart and yong Pidgeons slit and sprinkled with Cordial Pouders Apply to the Stomach bags of Spices dipped in Wine Let the Stones and privy Members be fomented with Confection of Alkermes dissolved in Wine Let the Arteries of the Temples Hands and Feet be touched with Confectio Alkermes adding a little Cinnamon Water Apply this following to the Nose Take of the Leaves of Balm Bazil and Marjoram of each two drams Citron peels yellow Sanders and Cloves of each one dram Saffron half a scruple Amber-greese six grains Musk four grains tie them in a clout and dip them in Rose and Cinnamon Water and smell thereto often Or make a Balsom to anoint the Nostrils with the Chymical Oyls aforesaid of Nutmeg Cinnamon and Cloves with a little Wax The End of the Eighth Book THE NINTH BOOK OF THE PRACTICE OF PHYSICK Of the Diseases of the Stomach The PREFACE AS there are divers Actions of the Stomach so there are divers Hinderances of those Actions which Cause variety of Diseases For this part being ordained to Concoct meat and make the Chyle for the performance thereof first it is constrained to desire Meat and Drink by the Appetite which may be diminished abolished or depraved When it is abolished it is called Anorexia Apositia When 't is diminished it is called Inappetentia and Loathing But when it is depraved it is called Doggshungs or Pica or Malacia Too great desire of Drink is called Sitis Morbosa These Diseases mentioned do concern the attractive Faculty they which concern Concoction as it is diminished abollished or depraved are comprehended under the name only of Concoction hindered if the Retentive and Expulsive Faculty be hurt it consists in Vomiting and Hickocks There are divers kinds of Vomitings according to the divers Condition and nature of the Matter Vomited forth And because the Stomach is of exquisite sence of Feeling by reason of the famous Nerve it hath from the sixth Conjugation it is therefore as other sensible Parts subject to pains and it hath somtimes Tumors as other parts and Inflamations Imposthumes and Vlcers That therefore we may in this Book explain all the Ordinary Diseases of the Stomach we will Comprehend it in Eleven Chapters The First Of Inappetentia or Loathing or meat The Second Of Fames Canina or Dogs Appetite The Third Of Pica and Malacia or Green-sickness The Fourth Of Sitis Morbosa or diseased Thirst The Fifth Of Concoction hindered or hurt The Sixth Of Hickocks The Seventh Of Vomiting The Eighth Of Vomiting Blood The Ninth Of the Disease called Chollera The Tenth Of Pain in the Stomach The Eleventh Of its Inflamation Imposthume and Vcer Chap. 1. Of Want of Appetite or Loathing of Meat INappetentia and Loathing is either from the abolished or diminished Action of the stomach When it is Abolished it is called Anorexia Apositia but when it is Diminished it is called Dusorexia but by Custom Anorexia Apositia are used for both The Causes of this Disease are divers which that we may bring into Order let us consider the Natural Causes of Hunger or Appetite These are called by Galen lib. 1. de symp caus cap. 7. Symptomes and are Five The First whereof is emptiness of the parts The Second is the Natural Appetite of those parts so emptied The Third is the Sucking and Attraction of the Mesaraick Veins in the Stomach and Guts The Fourth is the sense of their sucking in the Stomach The Fifth is the Animal Appetite wch cometh from the Nerve in the mouth of the stomach which comes from the Brain and is endued with great sense and feeling As also the Melanchollick Humor which comes from the Spleen to the mouth of the stomach which with its sharpness gnaws the inmost Tunicle of the stomach and is like sawce to stir up Appetite which that it may be natural it is necessary that al those Causes be in Order for if there be any fault in either then there is a hurt or hinderance of Appetite Therefore the First Cause which is Emptiness of Parts if it be wanting there is no Attraction made by them from other parts and the stomach and so there is no Appetite now this Emptiness is wanting either when the parts are filled with plenty of crude juyces by reason of gluttony or drunkenness or for want of exercise or usual evacuations or when there is so much fat that it is sufficient to nourish the parts Also the great stoppage of the pores of the skin doth hinder the emptiness or the parts or great weakness of the natural heat so that it can disperse none or but little of the substance of the Parts or the calling of that heat to the concoction of the matter of a Disease wherby the nourishment of Parts is neglected as in Feavers The Second Cause is Natural Appetite and the Attraction of nourishment to the stomach and this is depraved when the Parts though empty wil not draw by the veins by reason they have lost their strength but languish and forget their duty As happeneth in acute malignant pestilential syntectick and hectick Feavers And in immoderate evacuations as in Flux of the Liver Womb Haemorrhoids Bleeding at the Nose Great Sweat much Lechery long Fasting and the like The Third Cause is The Attraction of the stomach by the Mesaraick Veins which useth to be depraved by stoppage of those veins by which means the empty Parts cannot attract their Chylus nor make the mouth of the stomach sensible so we may perceive in Children troubled with Struma to consume by a long Flux of Chyle by reason al the Mesentery is full of Glandles which stop its Veins and hinder the passage of the Chyle to the Liver by which means it is sent half concocted forth by siege and the Parts are deprived of their necessary nourishment The Fourth and Fifth Causes which are Sense of Sucking and Animal Appetite do require a good disposition in the Stomach brain and nerves Therefore whatsoever can alâ—er their dispositions may also destroy Appetite so every great distemper of the belly especially if it be hot and dry doth hinder Appetite Great heat by dispersing the moist substance of the stomach doth take away Appetite as also great Cold not only positive as when the bowels are so cold that they are stupified by Air Water Frost Snow and the like but also privative when
the native heat is spent which Galen cals Naâ—cosis or Stupefaction as by long bleeding feavers and the like by which the strength of the stomach and other Parts is consumed Evil also and corrupt Humors whether hot or cold do cause want of Appetite The hot are chollerick adust putrid or virulent whether they are bred in the stomach for want of Concoction or brought from other infirm Parts The Cold Humors are Flegmy and Slimy gathered in the stomach by evil Concoction or coming from the whol body as in them who by often Vomitings bring the corruption of other Parts into the stomach Or from the Brain by Catarrhs in which the stomalch useth to be troubled with Flegm The suppression of the Terms and Haemorrhoids also by choaking and smoothering the natural heat do also diminish the Appetite Moreover The distemper of the Brain and Nerves Cause that the Sucking is not flet in the stomach in them who have lost or depraved the Animal Faculty therefore they are â—ick in mind as in an Apoplexy Lethargy Phrenzy Madness and the like as also in a Palsie by reason of the Obstruction of the Nerve of the sixth Conjugation which comes to the Stomach or by reason of the stupefaction thereof by the use of cold and narcotick things The knowledg of this Disease is manifest for the Patient will complain of his want of appetite and loathing of Meat But the signs of the Causes are partly manifest and partly to be discovered by art And first they which cause the want of emptiness are known by former high feeding repletion want of exercise or evacuation long sleep and other Causes of crude Juyces as also if the body be full and the Veins swoln Also the thickness of the Skin signifieth the same for that hinders the dispersing of the nourishment as also some great disease in some particular part by which there is 〈◊〉 dispersing of the Natural heat in the whol Body so that it is so weak that it cannot concoct the nourishment brought to the parts and supply its wants The signs of the second Cause are manifest namely acute malignant pestilential and syntectickâ— Feavers strong evacuations and other Causes by which there is a great decay of Natural heat in the parts so that they cannot attract necessary nourishment The signs of the third Cause are obstructions whose signs are known in the diseases of the Liver Spleen and Mesentery The signs of the fourth and fifth Cause need a more curious search and first heat in the Praecordia especially in the Stomach thirst dryness and bitterness of the Tongue and Jaws and a Feaver do signifie a hot distemper of the stomach and abundance of Choller And if this hot humor do flow from other parts the disease of that part will shew it as inflamation of the Liver or other part But if no other part seem to suffer you must conjecture that the fault is in the Stomach or that evil meats have been received To these are joyned Cardialgia Heart-scalding Nausea or loathing Vomiting and Purging the Nature of which humors are known by what is sent forth A cold distemper and much flegm is known by cooling Causes afore going or such as disperse the Natural heat and extinguish it as also from the sence of weight in the Stomach from sharp belching or from a slimy thick humor sent out of the mouth or by stool The same is signified by a long Catarrh and a disease in some part which may send flegm or melancholly to the Stomach as of the Spleen Womb or the like Also the distempers of the Brain and Nerves are to be known by their proper signs As to the Prognostick As a good Appetite is good in all Diseases as Hipp. Aph. 33. Sect. 2. saies To be right in mind and to be willing to take that which is brought is good so want of Appetite useth to be an evil sign For it sgnifieth a great digression from the Natural state and it comes as Galen teacheth Com. in 3. Epid. either from evil Humors in the Mouth of the Stomach oâ— from the loss of the Faculty whose duty it was to be sensible of the want of nourishment and consequently to desire it So Hipp. in 1 Epid. saith concerning men in Consumptions that died in the time of an Epidemical disease they alwaies abhorred meat and drink And so Galen Comment in 3. Epid. saith that he hath seen many in a Plague time which could take no sustenance and died But some who were stronger and took courage and did eat recovered So in Hipp. 3. Epid. Sect. 1. Aegr 2. Hermocrates who died the twenty seventh day abhorred meat all the time and in the last daies could not tast And Sect. 2. of the same Book Aegr 6. Euryanactis her daughter abhorred meat all the while and drank nothing worth speaking of died about twelve daies after But we must observe that loathing of meat is sad if it come from the destruction of the Natural heat but it is not so dangerous if it come from abundance of evil humors and Cacochymia as you may see in Hipp. 7. Epid. by the Son of Cleomenis who without a Feaver abhorred meat for two months through abundance of crude and viscid flegm which he at last vomited up So in the beginning of Diseases and especially of Feavers want of Appetite is not so dangerous because then Nature being busie about the concocting of filthy humors is called from her usual desire of meat But after when the Feaver is appeased and the humors that caused the Disease being spent she returns to her old custom In Children want of Appetite is worse than in others because their substance is moist and easily dissipated and requires more use of nourishment to restore them In men recovered of a Disease loathing threateneth a relapse by reason the reliques of the Disease cause it In a continual Disease loathing and sincere dejections are evil Hipp. Aph. 6. Sect. 7. loathing is an evil sign in long diseases but they who are like to escape have the contrary that is a good appetite But sincere dejections coming do cause a worse Prognostick because Hippocrates understands by sincere dejections such as have no humidity mixed with them when the humor alone without any Water is cast forth whether Choller or Melancholly for these stools do shew that all the Natural humidity is burnt up by the heat of the Feaver In long Diseases of the Guts loathing of meat is evil and with a Feaver worse Hipp. Aph. 3 Sect. 6. when there are deep and putrid Ulcers in a dysentery the Stomach suffering with the Guts â—oth not well concoct which offence arising higher affects the mouth of the Stomach with loathing There are some in Dysenteries who abhor meat from the beginning of the Disease by reason of the wil humors which come from the Liver for the superfluous part of them comes to the mouth of the Stomach which is not alwaies dangerous But in
one ounce Oyl of Sulphur twelve drops mix them to be taken now and then a spoonful Clarret Water is usual and it is made thus Take of Cinnamon grosly poudered two ounces steep them in one pint of Aqua Vitae in a glass in another glass put six ounces of sugar with half a pint of Rose water let these Glasses stand two or three dayes every day shaking them often then mix them both together and strain them by filtration keep the Liquor in a Glass close stopt and let the Patient take a spoonful or two Fasting In Paris the Syrup of Wormwood made by Pena is highly esteemed made thus Take half a pound of candied Citron barks sliced boyl them in equal parts of the Waters of Succory and Agrimony make a strong expression and put to it the juyce of Quinces and Wormwood water of each half a pint in which infuse for four dayes four ounces of Schoenanth in a close vessel well glassed and set upon the Embers dissolve in the straining as much sugar as is needful then boyl them to a syrup in which when it is hot dissolve one dram of ash-coloured Amber keep it in a close Glass Cinnamon Water alone is excellent good in a Cold Stomach or with other Medicines as Syrup of Wormwood Mints or Coral to which you may also put Amber-greece The Syrup of Cinnamon made with Aqua Vitae according to Quercitanus Dispensatory is no less powerful And Cinnamon Water distilled with Juyce of Quinces And also the Spirit of Mastich made thus Take three ounces of Mastich one ounce of Galangal half a pint of spirit of Wine digest them and distil them The Elixir Proprietatis described by Crollius is good if you give twelve or fifteen drops in Wine they wonderfully strengthen the Stomach You may make Tablets for the same purpose thus Take of the pulp of Rinds of fresh Oranges and Aromaticum Rosatum of each two drams white Sugar dissolved in Orange flower water four ounces Make Lozenges Tablets of Aromaticum Rosatum Opiata Solomonis and old Treacle are good for the same A Decoction of Guajacum or Sassaphras taken many dayes togâ—ther with a little sweating or without in weak people is very good in this Disease being oâ— long continuance Also Sulphurous and Nitrous Baths as our Bellilucanae being taken in great quantity many dayes do powerfully clense the Stomach and Gutts from al slimy filth Take of Agrimony Centaury the less and common Wormwood of each half an handful boyl them to half a pint and ad one ounce of sugar drink it either in a cold or hot Cause Hartman exceedingly commends the use of Zeadoary in these words The often use of Zedoary doth so strengthen the stomach as nothing more therefore we may commend it having tryed it often and never missed you must eate it often Costaeus Commends hot Wine thus Hot Wine drunk ordinarily doth amâ—nd the imbecillity of the stomach It is usually observed that they who have been continually vexed with Wind and Pain from an evil Concoction when they have begun to drink warm drink have been cured and lived after a long time more comfortably You must give him Wine in Water wherein Coriander hath been boyled for his ordinary Drink But observe That if a hot distemper of the Liver meet with that of a cold stomach as often it doth you must give hot Medicines warily and rather those that are temperate Zechius Commends this Bolus following in these words That the stomach may be warmed gently and not dryed you can use no Medicine inwardly more powerfull Take of washed Turpentine two drams Pouder of Mastich half a dram Aromaticum rosatum haâ—f a scruple make a Bolus to be taken two hours before meat This digestive Pouder is usual to help Concoction Take of Coriander seeds prepared half an ounce sweet Fennel seed and Annis seed of each two drams Cinnamon and Cloves of each half a dram Sugar twice as much as the rest make a Pouder of which let him take one spoonful after every meal The Ballom of Peru is good if you give a few drops in Wine one hour before meat Or in form of a Pill one or two drops in sugar for many dayes There are some ordinary Medicines for this Hippocras Wine a Decoction of Annis Coriander and Cinnamon mixed with sugar for ordinary drink The Dukes Pouder commonly so called made of two parts of Sugar and one of Cinnamon to sprinkle upon al meats A Salt to be eaten with meat made of Coriander Annis seeds long Pepper Galangal and Nutmegg mixed with an equal proportion of Common salt Some Grains of Pepper whol or beaten taken fasting Acrons stuck with Cloves and Cinnamon and candied with Sugar Citron and Orange peels candied together Annis seeds Fennel Coriander and Cinnamon infrosted with Sugar al these men may use as they please Citron Peels are more pleasant than the rest but because it wil grow so dry that it wil hardly be chewed we are often constrained to make it up in a Mortar with Rose Water in the form of an Opiate Candied Myrobalans and Nutmegs may be used for the same and be made up as the former though they are not so apt to grow hard The Essences of Annis Cinnamon Citron peels Nutmegs and Olives are excellent to strengthen the stomach and they must be used as above in the Diseases of the Heart Of Meats They which are Salt do most provoke Appetite and Sharp things in a smal quantity and mixed with other things lest they cool the Stomach Outwardly apply Liniments Fomentations and Emplaisters thus made Take of Cypress Roots Galangal Flower-de-luce and dried Citron peels of each two ounces Mints Hysop Sage Rosemary and Marjoram of each one handful Annis seeds Bay-berries Nutmegs Cloves and Cinnamon of each three drams the flowers of Stoechas Schoenanth and Rosemary of each one pugil slice those that must be sliced and bruise those that must â—e bruised according to art and put them into two Bags with holes pricked through and steep them in strong Wine and lay them warm to the stomach one after another Take of the Oyl of Wormwood Mints and Spike of each half an ounce Oyl of Nutmegs two drams Wood of Aloes Mace and Cinnamon of each one scruple with a little Wax make a Liniment which will be better if you ad six drops of Oyl of Cloves and of Musk and Ambergreece of each eight grains Also there is a Liniment of Oyl of Nutmegs Balsom of Peru or of Oyl of Wormwood Mastich and Balsom of Peru. Take of the Emplaister of Mastich one ounce Aromaticum Rosatum one dram Oyl of Nutmegs as much as is fit to make a Plaister like a Buckler for the Stomach Crato doth wonderfully commend this following Plaister Take of Labdanum two ounces Wax four ounces Oyl of Nutmegs three drams Make an Emplaister Galen adviseth 7. meth not to keep these Plaisters long upon the part for at length they will dissolve the heat
unknown and not to be expressed Let us therefore search after it in the Macrocosm or grater World of which there is a great Analogy or resemblance in the little World And therefore the more witty Hermets say that there is a certain Spirit or acide Liquor sent from the Spleen into the Stomach which dissolveth the solid nourishment and shortly converteth it into Chylous Liquor and that is the principal Instrument of digestion And some conjecture that this may be made because Birds who digest the hardest nourishment have a Spleen round about their Maw for the flesh which is found about their Stomachs is like the substance of a Spleen from whence there is a more noble use of the Spleen than what is allowed by the Ancients who said that it was only for the purging of the grosser sort of Blood because according to this opinion it serveth for concoction of meat Therefore if the Spirit or sharp Liquor which comes from the Spleen when it is in its Natural condition makes a natural and moderate digestion the same spirit being altered from its natural condition and defiled or made sharper or more dissolving it will sooner dissolve solid nourishment and when they are so dissolved and thrown from the Stomach it will make a new immoderate Appetite We do not conclude that this new Doctrine is certain and undoubted but we only shew it that solid wits may examine it And we will talk of it again when we speak of the causes of the hinderance of Concoction The signs by which this disease is known are manifest for it will appear to them that eat and to the standers by that the Appetite is depraved which causeth such devouring of meat which afterwards is thrown up by vomit and then it is Fames Canina and if Vomits follow not then there is fainting with coldness of the extream parts and this is called Boulimia The signs of the Causes may be found by the Antecedents Concomitants and Consequents These are the signs of a cold distemper and of sharp humors in the Stomach belching and sharp vomiting crude dejections or stools want of thirst and external Causes of refrigeration afore going If it come from defect of Nourishment the Patient is lean and there are causes present or fore-going of the dissolving of the Humidity and lastly the signs of Worms shall be spoken of in their proper Chapter The Prognostick of this Disease is thus If it come only from External Causes it is not dangerous if they be presently taken away And if it come of Worms there is little danger for when they are taken away the Disease is cured But it is very dangerous if it follow great Evacuations and meltings of the body especially if after meat when the belly is yet ful there come a fainting for when that which should most help becomes unprofitable it signifies a great distemper of the Stomach So a Dog Appetite continuing with Vomiting and great Purging is dangerous for it useth to end in an evil habit dropsie lethargy consumption and the like As for the Cure because Fames Canina for the most part takes its Original from Melanchollick and Flegmatick Humors fastened in the Mouth of the Stomach therefore Medicines must principally be directed to them such as do empty and change the Humors and also strengthen the part affected You must Evacuate by Vomit or Stool with Medicines Prescribed in the Cure of Want of Appetite from a Cold Cause for although these Diseases are contrary yet come they from the same Humors different in the degrees of Coldness and second Qualities and such as diversly affect the Stomach Also the Remedies there Prescribed to heat the Stomach and strengthen it both internally and externally are excellent because they not only correct the Cold Distemper but dry and cause thirst and thirst coming hunger is diminished Moreover Wine plentifully taken asswageth hunger according to Hippocrates Aph. 21. Sect. 2 And especially the Spirit of Wine or Aqua Vitae They do properly stay Hunger which do much moisten the Stomach relax it and asswage the sharpness of humors As al Fat things and Oyls as Villanovanus reports That one thus diseased did eat a hot Loaf dipp'd in Oyl and a Woman drank the melted Sewet of an Ox with as much warm Oyl at Twice and both did so Disdain Meat That they eat nothing in Five Dayes and were Cured Narcotick Medicines by Dulling the too exquisite sense of the Stomach do lessen this Disease and new Treacle is most usual for it because besides its stupifying quality it doth correct the malignity of the Humors which is some cause thereof But because these are to be used but seldom and not without urgent necessity somtimes you may use old Treacle for the reason aforesaid as also to strengthen Five or Six Grains of Amber-greece taken in a rear Eg doth not only strengthen the Stomach but by a special quality cureth this Disease Chap. 3. Of Pica and Malacia PIca and Malacia are a depraved Appetite by which evil unprofitable and hurtful things are desired It is called Kitta or Pica from the bird called a Pye either in regard of the variety of colours or because it eateth lumps of Earth for Women in this Disease use to eat Earth and Chalk and the like It is called Malacia by Pliny for these Women through Weakness of mind and tenderness want that right and natural Appetite This Disease comes of evil corrupt Humors which are gathered into the Stomach by reason of its hurt Concoction or else sent from other parts Flegmatick and Melanchollick People are most disposed for the production of these Humors especially Women to whom this Disease seems proper and peculiar although somtimes Boyes and Men though seldom have the same Eating of evil Diet doth cause this want of any natural Evacuation especially of the Terms Sadness Distemper of the Liver and Spleen Obstructions and Weakness divers diseases of the Womb and the like These Vitious Humors according to the divers degrees of distempers and other dispositions have a diverse nature from whence come divers appetites of evil things For since som Humors are crude and inconcocted others burnt and adust some require sowr things sharp bitter and very cold so that they are delighted with the continual use of unripe Fruits Vinegar Juyce of Lemons Pomegranats and Orenges cold Water Snow Ice and the like Others desire Earthy Dry and Burnt things as Gloves Cinnamon Nutmegs and other Spices Salt-Ashes Chalk and the like This Disease is Common to Women in the Chlorosis or Green-sickness to Women great with Child and such as have their Terms stopped which staying in the Body corrupt and ascending do infect the Stomach from whence its Actions are depraved and chiefly the Appetite is taken from its natural Condition Boyes are somtimes troubled herewith and especially if they are born of a Woman that hath the Chlorosis Nor are men altogether free from it although it happen seldom
disease about the fourth month because then the Child is grown greater and so consumeth more of the humors and the mother hath sent it forth by often vomitings but if it last longer 't is dangerous for it signifies that the evil disposition of the Stomach hath taken deep root which will hardly be pluckt up It is better for people in this disease to desire sharp and sowr things it is worse if they desire things contrary to Nature as Avicen teacheth fen 13. lib. 2. tract 2. cap. 20. for it signifies a greater distance from the Natural state which is harder to be cured The Cure of this disease is divers according to the variety of the Bodies affected In Women with Child few Medicines are to be used by reason of the unfitness of the subject and danger of Misearriage but you may give them gentle things and such as were prescribed in the Cure of want of Appetite to clense and strengthen the Stomach Nor must you omit blood-letting which done sparingly and often is of great consequence But in Virgins of the Clorosis or green sickness this disease is cured with the same Remedies which shall be prescribed for the Cure of Clorosis in its proper place But the Pica which is in men is very seldom because it comes from obstructions of the Liver and Spleen you may use those things which shall be prescribed for the Cure of them Chap. 4. Of the Thirsty Disease called Sitis Morbosa THe Appetite of Drink or Thirst may be three waies hurt as that of Meat by diminishing abolishing and depraving it is diminished many times by a sweet insipid humor which moisteneth the Tunicle of the Stomach or from too much moisture in the whol Body from whence it is that the parts do not draw the drink from the Stomach It is abolished by acute Diseases through interception of the sence when the mind is sick or because the Natural Faculty is decayed by the extinction of the Natural heat from whence Hipp. saith It is evil not to thirst when a cause of thirst is taken and since thirst diminished doth depend upon the same cause from which want of Appetite is produced and thirst abolished is only in acute Diseases we shall not speak here of them particularly But we will only speak of thirst depraved as being most usual and this is to be divided two waies and Hunger The one requiring divers kinds of Drinks the other great quantities and often That which desireth filthy drink is to be referred to Pica as when they desire Vinegar Lemmons and salt Water It remains that we speak of thirst encreased which is an usual Symptome when the Appetite offends in the quantity of Liquor and much drink is desired The immediate Cause is a want of moist nourishment and driness of the Stomach and of other parts which make the Stomach sensible of their wants This driness and want of moisture useth to come from all such things which can consume the dewy moisture of the Stomach and the whol Body and dry it up and they are hot and dry The dry do principally suck up the Humor and the hot things secondarily Also this disease is either by Propriety or by Sympathy It is by Propriety when the innate moisture of the Stomach is altered and drawn forth by an unequal distemper dry or hot or both somtimes by a simple distemper but often by that distemper which is joyned with matter as a salt sharp or filthy humor fixed in the mouth of the Stomach or contained in its Cavity But that which is by Sympathy comes by consent from the whol Body or some part whose Veins having lost their moisture do suck from the Stomach as it is in Feavers Inflamations of the Liver Lungs and other parts as also in hot and dry distempers especially of the Reins as you may see in a Diabetes or invoiuntary pissing which is called by the name of Dipsacus by reason of the great thirst which accompanieth it The outward Causes are all such as extraordinarily heat or dry as very hot and dry Air long continuance in the Sun or at the fire use of Salt meats sharp and spiced much use of old rich Wine great watchings too much evacuation especially by purging The Hermetical Physitians say that immoderate preternatural thirst comes from some thirsty spirits which are bred of Sulphureous excrements which will not be satisfied with simple cooling and moistening but with other Spirits like unto themselves as we see in Feavers that a strong thirst is little allayed with much Water which with sharp Spirits of Vitriol Sulphur Salt and the like wil be satisfied with a less quantity of Water The knowledg is easie for the Patients will complain But the Causes are known by their proper signs as a hot and dry distemper cleaving to the Stomach and other parts as also sharp salt and bitter humors some whereof are somtimes cast forth or they have their tasts in their mouths if the humors are in the Stomach but if thirst come by consent from other parts the signs of those Diseases will be manifest As to the Prognostick That thirst which comes from Primary Causes is safest for that is quenched presently with drink But that which comes from internal Causes is more or less dangerous according to their differences That thirst which comes with Feavers and other easie cures endeth with them But if it come from great and dangerous Diseases it is very dangerous as in a Dropsie in which thirst is not slacked but rather encreased with drink The Cure of this Disease is often in Feavers and Inflamations of some parts which is described sufficiently in our Method of the Cure of Feavers Sect. 2. Cap. 2. But if Thirst be contracted by immoderate Evacuations causing a dry distemper of the Stomach and other Causes the Cure is by suppressing those Evacuations and by restoring the empty parts with moist Medicines Therefore first having ordered a restoring Diet as in a Hectick Feaver Consumption and Marasmus Two Remedies prescribed by Galen are the best 7. meth namely Milk and Baths Although Hippocrates Aph. 64. Sect. 5. forbids milk to thirsty people that is to be understood of those who thirst from abundance of Choller and putrid Humors in whom Milk is easily putrified not of those who thirst from driness and Consumption We shewed the use of Milk in the Cure of a Consumption Let the Bath be made of the Decoction of Althaea Roots and Lilly Roots with Mallows and Violet Leaves and of a Decoction of the Heads Feet and Guts of Sheep or melt fresh Butter or Oyl in warm Water to be changed often Going out of the Bath let the Loyns Back and Stomach be anointed with Oyl of Violets the Marrow of a Veal Bone and the like with which let as much Breast or Goats Milk be mingled as they will receive Let the Patient in the mean while use restoring Syrups and Lozenges and other Remedies which shall
be laid down in the Cure of an Hectick Feaver This following Opiate is excellent Take of Eryngus Roots candied and Conserve of Bugloss of each two ounces Conserve of Violets and Borrage flowers of each one ounce Confectio Alkermes half an ounce Diapenedion newly prepared without the Species two drams with Syrup of sweet Apples make an Opiate of which let him take the quantity of a Chesnut at the time of thirst drinking after it a little Borrage Water Chap. 5. Of the Hurt Concoction of the Stomach THe Concoction of the Stomach called Chylosis as of all other parts is hurt three waies either by diminishing abolishing or depraving This Concoction diminished is called Bradupepsia the abolished Apepsia the depraved is called Dyspepsia all which differences are comprehended in this one word Crudity Now this Crudity is two-fold either nidorous stinking and acidous or sharp The nidorous Crudity is when the nourishment is turned into a stinking burnt matter as when the stink of Eggs or rotten fish or fryed Oyl is smelt by belching which happens often in hot Chollerick Bodies But a sharp sowr Crudity is when meat turns sowr and the belchings are sowr and this comes from a cold distemper To these you may ad a third difference of Crudities when by reason of weak heat the matter is imperfectly concocted and is turned into flegm without sowrness The Causes that hinder Concoction in the Stomach may be brought into three Heads namely a fault in the Organ Object and things External and Internal The fault in the Organ comprehendeth all diseases in the Stomach whether they be Similar or Organ cal or Common all which may overthrow its actions but distemper is commonly the cause of hurt Concoction for since Concoction is made by a moderate heat according to Nature if at any time it want its due moderation the Concoction is hurt So a cold distemper of the Stomach which diminisheth the Heat if it be gentle it only weakeneth the Concoction and make a Brylypepsia or slow Concoction If the cold distemper be greater it abolisheth Concoction and makes Apepsia But a hot distemper doth deprave Concoction and make a Dyspepsia which is a difficult Concoction These distempers are somtimes simple and in such who have Naturally a weak Stomach and smal Natural heat or have a sharp and burning heat but they are commonly with matter hence in Hypochondriack Melancholly much flegm and fermentation of a black Humor use to cause Crudities Winds Swellings Rumblings and sowr Belchings The fault of the Object that is the nourishment which is the proper Object of the Stomach comes many waies when it offendeth in Substance Quantity Quality time or Order of being taken Nourishment is vitious in respect of its substance when it is too hard and difficult to be concocted as Deers flesh Hairs flesh especially if old and made hard with Salt or Smoak Bread full of Bran Mushroms Roots Pulse and the like which are called Dyspepta Meats offend in Quantity when too much is taken at once and therefore cannot be overcome by the heat hence come Crudities which are most usual among them who do surfet themselves If there be less eaten than is required it may seem to be crude because too little meat will be burnt and dryed in a Chollerick Stomach Meats offend in Quality which are too cold and moist and windy or they which are too hot whereby the thinner part of the Chyle is burnt and turned into nidorous vapors To this may be reduced the Art of Cookery and Sawce-making for the divers waies of roasting boyling and making of Sawce do alter the disposition of Meat by which means they become more easie or hard of Concoction The time and order of eating being preposterous may also spoil the Concoction as if any one should omit his usual time of eating and fall to at midnight or a little before he goes to sleep fill his Stomach or if after taking of solid and astringing things as Cheese Pears Quinces and the like they take liquid things which do soon corrupt Also external things may spoil the Concoction if they be immoderate so too cold Air by dulling the natural near if it be weak or too hot by dissipating the heat may hinder Concoction as also immoderate exercise especially after meat by drawing the natural heat forth from the Stomach to the external parts and so dispersing it extraordinarily as also by throwing the Chylus yet imperfect into the Guts The stoppage of the Belly and other excrements or an immoderate flux great watchings sleep in the day time great passions of the mind especialy sadness and deep study presently after meat and the like do not a little hinder the action of the Stomach Besides the Causes mentioned the Hermeticks of late time mention one less usual and not noted by the Ancients which also is not plainly demonstrated by them but it is confirmed by some conjectures not to be contemned of which we made mention in the explaining of the Causes of Fames Canina First therefore they ashrm that the Natural Concoction of the Stomach is not made by heat only but that quick melting of solid meats by which it is converted into Chylus is from another cause since Experience teacheth that meat boyling in a pot at a strong fire many daies will never be dissolved and bones in a Dogs Stomach are quickly dissolved and turned into Chylous Liquor and in the bellies of Fishes which have no actual heat all that is brought in is dissolved and concocted the same way Therefore they lay down the principal Cause of this dissolving to be a certain Spirit or sharp Liquor sent from the Spleen into the Stomach which hath great power to dissolve And they take this opinion from Galen by whom it is confirmed that a Melanchollick Humor sent from the Spleen into the Stomach doth cause appetite and that either by astringing or wrinkling the inner Tunicle of the Stomach or pulling of it by its sharpness which may be opposed for if it do it by astriction then all astringent things would do the same and if by pulling sharp things rather than sowr would provoke Appetite Therefore they think it more probable that that humor should stir up Appetite by accident by causing want of nourishment by dissolving of that which comes in And therefore they allow a more noble use of the Spleen than ever the Ancients thought of namely to be a chief instrument to serve the Stomach in Concoction This may be conjectured from Birds which dissolve the hardest seeds and have a Spleen round about their Stomach or Maw that it may more powerfully inspire that dissolving Spirit or communicate unto it sowr Liquor And Helmont from his own experience saith that that sowr Spirit is very strong in Birds for he relates that when he was a Boy and kept a Sparrow he gave it his Tongue which the Sparrow catching with his Bill disired to swallow and that touching the Throat of the
Convulsive Motion not a Convulsion which is only in the Muscles and parts given to voluntary Motion The immediate Causes of Singultus are propounded by Hipp. Aph. 39. Sect. 6. that is Emptiness and Repletion as of a Convulsion But Galen and Avicen ad a third Cause namely a provocation by a sharp matter Some labor to bring the matter provoking to a kind of repletion that they may excuse Hippocrates But when the matter is plain we need not confound and darken the evidences of things for Authors words For what is more cleer than that Singultus comes from the expulsive faculty provoked Therefore whatsoever can provoke is the immediate cause of Singultus or Hiccough But Humors and Vapors offending either in quantity or quality may provâ—ke the Stomach to expulsion and so repletion and acrimony are two distinct causes But it is not eaâ—e to shew how emptiness makes a Singultus For since its Essence is in defect none will say that Nature riseth to expel a defect but rather will be moved to refresh and repair it and so it doth rather move the Attractive than the Expulsive Faculty But if Singultus follow great Evacuations as in sharp Feavers and malignant and purging with Hellebore it is not simply to be attributed to the Evacuation but rather to a malignant quality in the Stomach coming from the Disease or some Medicine taken The Matter causing Singultus is either gathered in the Stomach or sent from the Liver Spleen Guts or other parts or from the whol Body So sharp Nourishment or sharp Medicines or sharp Humors or gnawing Worms contained in the Stomach cause a Singultus by propriety but inflamation of the parts adjacent by water or vapors sent to the Stomach make it by consent as also because the Tumor especially when the Liver is inflamed doth compress the Stomach by which the expulsive faculty is continually provoked Finally Humors may be brought from the whol Body or sharp humors to the Stomach in diseases of the whol Body as appears in sharp and malignant Feavers The Diagnosis or knowledg of this Disease is manifest of it self But the signs of the Cause are thus to be distinguished so that if it be by propriety the disease is more lasting and there will appear signs of the Humors contained in the Stomach and the disease is aâ—â—waged by Vomit The Humor contained in the Stomach is known by vomit belching taste in the mouth and by other signs And finally if it come from a disease in any other part you may take the signs thereof from their proper Chapters As to the Prognostick Singultus that comes from any principal Cause as Meat Drink or Cold is not dangerous as also that which goes before a Crisis by Vomit and then other signs must be healthful If any have the Hiccough in a great Feaver the Disease is very dangerous Hipp. in Coacis For it comes from sharp Humors and malignant which pull the Tunicle of the Stomach in wardly and force its expulsive faculty And Vallesius saith that he never knew any extenuated persons taken with a hot and malignant Feaver who had a Singultus to escape So it is in Hipp. 3. Epid. Sect. 2. Aegr 12. A woman living in the Market had many Hiccoughs upon the twelfth day and died the fourteenth day of her sickness Also Platerus observed that a Singultus coming upon burning Feavers and continuing is for the most part a forerunner of death and the same is deadly in a Dysentery or bloody flux After Vomiting Singultus and redness of the Eyes is evil Hipp. Aph. 3. Sect. 7. These two signs coming after Vomiting in acute Diseases and continuing any time therefore are said to be deadly because they declare an inflamation of the Brain or Stomach which inflamation is not only the cause of Hiccoughs and redness of Eyes but also of Vomiting For if Vomiting come from sharp Humors that gnaw the mouth of the Stomach and its Tunicles when those Humors are thrown out by Vomit the Singultus and vomiting would cease nor would any sharp vapor be sent to the Eyes which should make them red But when Vomiting doth not only not profit but also brings after it Hiccoughs and redness of the Eyes it is most certain that these three namely Vomiting Hiccoughs and Redness of the Eyes do come from the Inflamation of the Brain or Stomach for the Brain being inflamed doth through abundance of blood send it to the Eyes and into their extream Tunicles whence comes redness to which also the Stomach consenting by the Nerves of the sixth Conjugation is easily from the Inflamation of the Brain brought to Vomit and Hiccough Also the Stomach inflamed by a concourse of hot blood to the Eyes by reason of the great consent between those parts brings Vomit Hiccoughs and redness of the Eyes which the beginning of suffocations do demonstrate and the appearance of things before the Eyes which are in the Stomach disordered whence Hippocrates in his Book del ocis in homine affirms that the Eyes are chiefly hurt by Vomiting Singultus from Inflamation of the Liver is hurtful Hipp. Aph. 17. Sect. 7. which comes then as Galen shews in his comment upon that Aphorism when the inflamation is greater and worse for then it is so great in the Liver that it lieth upon the Stomach and brings the Singultus nay somtimes by conflux of matter there is somtimes an inflamation or Erysipelas in the Stomach or else there comes gnawing from the same being sucked into the Tunicles of the Stomach The Cure of this disease is directed to the Causes which as I said do either produce it by way of Sympathy or Propriety The Causes which produce it by sympathy are the diseases of other parts which being cured this is cured although these Medicines are to be administred then which are good to allay the Symptome which shall be afterwards declared This Disease by Propriety comes of Flegm Wind Choller or some sharp or malignant Humor That which comes from Flegm in the Tunicles of the Stomach is cured by Medicines which cut the Humor clense and purge it and by strengtheners of the part such as were prescribed for the Cure of want of Appetite coming of a cold Cause To which we may ad these following as more proper to this disease Take of Castor one dram the juyce of Mints four ounces Mix them let the Patient take one spoonful or two every fit and you may anoint the Stomach with the same Medicine warm twice or thrice in a day He may take Vinegar of Squils often to cut and dissolve the matter contained in the Tunicles of the Stomach or instead thereof Oxymel of Squils Cloves held often in the mouth do not a little profit Also the Elixir Proprietatis of Crollius is very profitable Take of Dill seeds two or three drams boyl them a little in eight ounces of the best Wine of which let the Patient take one ounce first and last Let
by Salivation whatsoever troubles the Stomach either in quantity or quality useth to stir that up when it cannot be voided by reason of the weakness of the Stomach or the strength of the upper Orifice or thickness of the Matter or sliminess But Vomiting which is called in Greek Emetos or Emesia is a Depraved motion of the Stomach which shaketh it by which the Expulsive Faculty is stirred up by Contraction of the Fibres of the lower part and loosening those in the superior doth sensibly with a violent Motion throw upward the Matter contained therein which is troublesom unto it it is called a Depraved Motion both in respect of the Object troubling it as also in respect of the Motion it self which is from the bottom of the Stomach to the Mouth of it turning it when the natural Motion of the Stomach is Compulsive towards the Guts and the Pylorus The Differences of Vomitings are taken from their Causes which are either External or Internal therefore it is Divided first into Natural and Artificial the Natural again is either without a Disease or in the Disease from whence ariseth a Three-fold Difference one is called Periodical another Critical and another Symptomatical Periodical is that which without a Disease is used for preservation often from whence we reade in Hippocrates That the Ancients did Vomit Twice every Month either at distance or together And there are many in our times who use either every Month or Week or Day to Vomit Choller or Flegm by which they are Preserved from many Diseases And this is not properly a Symptome because there is no Disease present but it is rather to be termed a Motion of Nature Critical Vomiting often happens in Diseases and by that the Matter of the Disease if preparation be first made is wholsomly Evacuated either al by which it is Cured or in part by which it is Diminished Symptomatical Vomiting comes from Nature provoked and weakned and without ease to the Patient because it is not enough or it is nourished continually with the Matter that maketh the Disease Other Differences of Vomitings are taken from the things vomited for they are either Nourishable or Excrementitious the first is of Meat Chylus or pure or mixed blood the latter is of Flegm Choller Melancholly Water Matter Worms and the like Artificial Vomiting generally is whatsoever is from an External Cause The External Causes are chiefly Stroaks Falls Compression of the lower Belly Southernly weather or infectious Air Poysonous Breath Stinking Smels Violent Exercise Riding Sayling at Sea especially in a Southernly wind beholding or conceiving of some filthy thing And the like External Causes which provoke Nature or move the Humors but especially things taken in have great force not only vomits called Emetica and Poysons which we distaste but also Nourishment either hurtful in their Nature or hated peculiarly of some as in Hippocrates who speaks of one who with eating of Mushromes or Toad-stooles died Vomiting The same happened to a Courtier of Antoninus the Emperor who by eating much mouldy Cheese died Vomiting The quality of Food wil do the same if it be Fat or Oyly as also a proposterous order in eating when moistning and loosning things are eat after astringents and also too much food taken though never so good as appears in Gluttons for then Nature being over charged desires to throw out what she cannot concoct to which she is also stirred up by the evil quality which is brought to those meats by corruption or evil concoction The internal Causes are either Antecedent or Conjunct The Antedent Causes either come from the whol Body or from some proper peculiar part into the Stomach They come from the whol Body in a Plethory evil habit or Cathexy Feavers and other diseases of the whol Body The Humors are often derived from some peculiar part into the Stomach in the Inflamation of the Liver Spleen or other Obstruction of the Mesentery from the Terms stopped or Hemorrhoids from a Catarrh or the like To this you may ad the evil Conformation of the Porus Cholidochus when it is not placed into the Duodenum but into the Stomach whence they are called Pichrocholi Ana who are often troubled with Chollerick Vomits by reason of this evil Conformation Alâ—o this vomiting cometh by the Peristaltick motion of the Guts when they are stopped in the Chollick and the humors cannot well get forth but come upwards also Worms coming up into the Stomach from the Guts and pulling the inward Tunicle thereof do cause vomiting And lastly An Imposthume broken in the Spleeâ— Mesentery and other parts of the Abdomen useth to cause a vomiting of Matter The Conjunct Causes of Vomiting are them before mentioned when they come to the Stomach for while they were in other they were antecedent Causes These are especially divers Humors some bred in the Stomach especially Flegm of which there is often much in the Stomach by Crudities and want of Concoction when the Stomach is weak and turns it into flegm So also is there somtimes green Choller in the Stomach bred of corrupt Humors as Galen teacheth Com. in 2. Progn and this cleerly appears in sucking Insants who through corruption of Milk in their Stomach use to avoid green stools like Leeches or Verdegreese This green Choller which comes from corrupt nourishment in the Stomach is not the same with that which cometh from yellow Choller by adustion and torrefaction The Signs of Vomiting are manifest But the Causes as they are divers so they have divers signs First then if Vomiting come from a fault in the Stomach there are signs of that part being affected as loathing of meat heaviness extension swelling in the Region of the Stomach slow and hand Concoction sowr and stinking belchings and other signs that shew the distemper of that part So if it come from a Common and Organical Disease in the Stomach as a Tumor or Ulcer the signs of these Diseases will discover themselves But if Vomiting come by sympathy from the whol body or other parts there will appear some Disease of the whol body or some part The whol Body is affected in Feavers evil Habit Jaundice Atrophy or want of nourishment But the Principal parts from which the Humors are sent more frequently to the Stomach are the Brain Liver Guts and Womb. If the Humors flow from the Brain to the Stomach there will appear signs of distillations frothy and flegmy vomitings and a great loathing at meat time If the Humor come from the Liver it is commonly Choller and Vomiting before meat is worse than after and there appears some disease in the Liver as pain or tumor If the Matter come from the Guts either there will be Chollick or Illiack passion or the signs of Worms Lastly If it come from the Womb there is Conception suppression of Terms or other Symptomes We may also know by some signs whether the Humor be contained in the Cavity of the Stomach or stick to the
Diabrosis The Antecedent Causes are the same with the Conjunct but they differ in place for when blood offending either in Quantity or Quality doth immediately open the Veins it is called a Conjunct Cause and the same being contained in the Veins is called an Antecedent Cause The parts sending of which the chiefare the Head Liver Spleen and Womb are antecedent Causes Often times Blood is carried from the Head to the Stomach by the Pallat and Gullet or Oesophagus and also a violent Catarrh of sharp and Salt flegm doth corrode the Stomach and open the Veins thereof It is carried from the Liver and Spleen by the Veins that go to the Stomach from the Womb when blood by the stoppage of the Terms runs back and opens the Veins of the Stomach so that some Women have had their Terms by vomiting blood constantly at the time Vomiting of blood comes oftener from the Liver and Spleen than from other parts and from the Spleen than the Liver because it doth more consent with the Stomach For it is evident by Anatomy that the great branch of the Gate Vein or Porta goeth to the Spleen from which many Veins are sent to the Stomach both above and below and these are so great that being distended with wind or blood they are as thick as the middle finger this we have observed in Dissection Moreover the Vas breve being wide as in a natural state it doth continually send Melancholly into the Stomach so being in a Preternatural state it may send great plenty of blood But observe here that in this case that blood is voided by stool as well as vomit both because a part thereof which went to the Stomach is sent downwards and also because the Meseraick Veins are open and send blood into the Guts which by its long passage through the Guts groweth black and comes forth like Tar. The external Causes are all things that can wound or bruise as also great heat which causeth boyling of the blood hence it is that yong men to the age of thirty five are very subject to vomit blood and other bleeding as also great cold by too much astriction may endanger to break the Veins the same doth unseasonable Motion and Labor unusual Exercise great hallowing and the like which move the blood violently in the Veins And finally All the Causes of Blood-spitting afore mentioned For Blood being violently moved either in the Veins or Arteries whether from an external or an internal Cause goes soonest to that part which is weakest and most fit to receive it and therfore if the Stomach or the Veins going thither are so disposed there will be vomiting of Blood rather than any other way of bleeding The Diagnostick of this Disease lieth chiefly in the discovery of the part from which the blood comes If from the Stomach the scituation of the part and the constant pain and heaviness thereof will demonstrate and there is less blood for the Veins of the Stomach are smal and it comes with loathing and there is a biting when they swallow as also somtimes it comes forth mixed with Meat Flegm or Choller If it come from the Head there will be tickling about the Jaws and Pallat and some blood will be blown out of the Nose with Snot there went before it some Head-ach or heaviness which after bleeding ceaseth If from the Liver or Spleen there is more plenty of blood and somtimes a tumor or dolor in the part From the Liver the blood is red and frothy from the Spleen it is thick and black Also Blood from the Liver goes most downwards because it commonly goes from thence to the Guts through the Meseraicks and must ascend from them into the Stomach to cause Vomiting but it doth easier descend Contrarily that which comes from the Spleen is rather by vomit because the Veins from the Spleen to the Stomach are shorter and narrower Lastly If from the suppression of the Terms you may know it from the Woman and it wil come at those times which wil be more probable if there be no disease in any other part As for the Prognostick Vomiting of Blood of what cause soever is dangerous for it either threateneth death suddenly or if it stay in the Stomach and putrifie it breeds faintings swoonings and suffocations Vomiting of blood from suppression of the Terms is less dangerous than that from the Liver or Spleen for when they are brought down it is usually cured as Hippocrates taught Aph. 34. Sect. 5. in these words When a Woman vomiteth Blood if her courses breakdown she is cured And in this case only the opening of the inferior Veins doth provoke the Terms especially if she take somthing besides for that purpose They who after Vomiting of Blood fall into the Dropsie called Ascites do die thereof Dodonaeus doth testifie that he never knew any that escaped and Experience teacheth that a Dropsie from any kind of bleeding is deadly for it comes from a great dissipation of Natural heat which cannot be repaired For the Cure of this Disease use Medicines which revel the Blood from the Stomach and correct its distempers and the open Veins with astringents and glutinatives To which ad those things which concern the part chiefly affected from whence the Blood is sent into the Stomach according to the divers Nature and Disease of the part And because Diet is of chiefest concernment in this Disease let us shew some Rules therefore Let his Nourishment be commonly astringent and Emplastick and cold both actually and potentially as Barley Almonds Rice Panadoes Gellies and especially Starch made without Chalk and boyled in Milk which is good also in spitting of Blood to all these you may alwaies add some Pomegranates or Vinegar of Roses Also hard Eggs steeped in Vinegar are good Bread crums steeped in cold Water and Chicken Broth with Sorrel Purslam Plantane and unripe Grapes the feet and hips of Sheep Kids and Calves boyled to a Jelly for the first course let him take that which is a stringent as a Quince or sowr Apple or Pear roasted in the embers Marmalat of Quinces or Jelly of sharp Cherries Medlers or Services Let him abstain from all sharp salt peppered and fried Meats as also from things that breed much Blood except he grow weak and then you may give him them sparingly He must be but little nourished for the less Blood is bred the Disease will be the less and the empty parts by their attraction will stay the flux Let him drink little only a little Iron Water with a little Juyce of Pomegranates He must drink no Wine except it be thick and sharp which we call Tortium and it must be when there is no Feaver Let the Air be cool without Wind Sun or Moon shine let him sleep little and not in the day for although all fluxes are said to be stopped by sleep yet this by long keeping the heat in the Center may be encreased Let his Belly be loose
by reason of the superfluous Humor which is contained in the Veins being an Enemy to Nature yet it cannot be denied but it is greatly decayed by those grievous vomits and stools It is better therefore first to allay the violence of the Humors and after the symptomes are asswaged to open a Vein And because in this Disease the strength quickly fails by strong evacuations you must be very careful in the restoring of it by that way which is shewed in the Cure of weakness in the eighth Book and the third Chapter Chap. 10. Of Pain in the Stomach called Dolor Ventriculi IT is a sad and troublesom sence in that part from some things that gnaw and stretch it till it break or be wounded In the Stomach you must consider three parts which much differ one from the other namely it s upper Orifice and its lower called Pylorus and the rest of its Body which maketh up the whol Cavity The upper Orifice is of exquisite sence by reason of the great Nerve which it hath from the sixth Conjugation and therefore pain therein is very sharp and makes the Heart which is the most noble part and neer unto it sensible of the same from thence it is called Cardialgia and Cardiogmos for there is such a neer consent between the mouth of the Stomach and the Heart that the Ancients called it by the name of the Heart Cardia But if the Membranes of the Cavity or the Pylorus be pained it is called simply Dolor Ventriculi and somtimes Colica Ventriculi especially when it comes of wind The immediate Cause of this pain is solution of Continuity by things sharp and distending and they are chiefly Humors or Wind and somtimes Worms gnawing the Tunicles Sharp and malignant Humors as green Choller or black salt Flegm corrupt Matter sent into the Stomach from an Imposthume broken in the Liver or Breast and all other sharp Humors which may cause pain Also sharp vapors coming from those Humors use to cause this pain The Wind contained in the Cavity of the Stomach doth cause swelling and painful distension especially if it be restrained within its Tunicles which makes a very stubborn Disease and cannot easily be sent out The Diseases both of the Stomach it self and of the parts adjoyning use to breed this pain as any great distemper either hot or cold and especially an Inflamation and somtimes a Schirrus or other hard Tumor which maketh a heavy pain as also Wounds and Ulcers of the same part and swellings in parts adjoyning by wind or other waies cause this pain by compression of the Stomach Now these Humors and Winds which cause pain in the Stomach either come from the whol Body or some parts thereof From the whol Body in Feavers or when the Body is filled with evil Humors And from other parts especially the Liver Spleen and Brain from the Liver there comes Choller from the Spleen Melancholly and from the Head salt Flegm Also this pain may arise from other extraordinary Causes not usual as Schenkius observes from stones bred in the Stomach lib. 3. observat And Fabricius Hildanus observ 33. lib. 4 reports that a Woman had a piece of Rind or rusty Bacon two yeers in her Stomach wherewith she was continually pained and which after by taking a Vomit she threw up and was cured The external Causes of this Disease are either evil qualified or of sharp Nourishment which of themselves produce it or things apt to breed Wind or things taken in too great a quantity which putrifie and turn sharp or things that are too hot and breed much Choller As also strong sharp deadly Medicines either taken in too great a quantity or not sufficiently corrected and poyson The Diagnostick Signs are from the part affected and the cause And first when the pain is under the Cartilage Ensiformis or Xiphoides it shews that the upper Orifice of the Stomach is affected but that it is a true Cardialgia in the mouth of the Stomach you may know more certainly when there is a most sharp pain from the exquisite sence of the part with such trouble and disturbance that the Patient cannot stay in a place or in one posture but often swounds and fainteth by consent and sympathy of the Heart with the Stomach not only by neerness to it but also by reason of the dissipation of the Spirits by the pain Somtimes the Brain consents by Reason of the famous Nerve which is in the Stomach and the sharp vapors which are directly sent into the Head from thence from whence come Cephalalgia Hemicrania Vertigo and Epilepsie In other parts of the Stomach there are great pains but they have not so great Symptomes and therefore they are like the Chollick differing only in place The Causes also are known by their proper signs The most manifest are taken from the Excrements for Choller Flegm Wind or Worms are voided at the Mouth or Belly it is easie to conjecture that the Disease depends upon these Causes But if no Humor be discharged we may know when Choller Flegm or Wind abounds by their proper signs and the signs of Worms are to be taken out of their proper Chapter As also the proper diseases both of the Stomach and parts adjoyning which produce this Disease are known by their proper signs The knowledg of the Humor causing this pain is also taken from the time of its coming encrease and cessation Some are troubled most violently before meat and this shews that Choller is predominant which is stirred in time of emptiness and drawn to the Stomach and made more sharp Some are pained presently after meat because the raw biting Humors which before were quiet and fixed to the Tunicles of the Stomach are moved when Meat is taken or they which were in the bottom of the Stomach are raised up and disturb the mouth of the Stomach Others are pained in time of Concoction because sharp gnawing vapors arise from the Matter causing the Disease from the heat encreased in the Stomach in time of Concoction Others are pained four or five hours after meat because it is corrupted by evil concoction and so gnaweth the Stomach Some are worst after sleep and that comes from a Catarrh from the Head in the time of sleeping which being heaped up in the Stomach produceth pain afterwards Somtimes the pain is appeased after Meat because the sharpness of the Humors is qualified by the sweetness of the Meat As for the Prognostick it is most certain that Cardialgia is more dangerous than any other disease of the Stomach by reason of the exquisite sence of the Mouth of the Stomach and its great consent with principal parts The danger is more or less according to the malignity of the Cause and the vehemency of the symptomes A continual acute Feaver joyned with a great pain of the Stomach threateneth great danger as Hippocrates saith Aph. 65. Sect. 5. In Feavers if there be great heat about the Stomach and
Cardiogmos it is evil for it signifieth that there is a great Inflamation of the Stomach or abundance of bad Humors contained therein The pain of the Stomach coming from Worms or Wind is commonly least dangerous because the Cause is not so bad and not fixed to the part But somtimes from Worms ghawing in the Stomach great Symptomes happen of which the Patient suddenly dieth So when the distemper which begets wind is stubborn and habitual it is not without danger for it turneth to a dry dropsie Hippocrates Aphor. 11. Sect. 4. In a Cardialgia coldness of the extream parts signifieth death at hand The Cure of this Disease is to be varied according to the diversity of the Causes If it come from the Diseases of other parts you must cure them But if the Cause be in the Stomach alone the pain comes either from wind or sharp Humors and Chollerick or from Inflamation Imposthume or Ulcer That which comes from Wind is to be cured by Medicines that discuss and evacuate that flatulent Matter as also the flegm from whence it comes And first you must give a gentle Emollient Laxative Clyster and presently after another Carminative that is expelling wind and discussing of the Decoction of Origan Calamints Penyroyal Rue the lesser Centaury Annis seeds Fennel seeds Carrots and Cummin seeds and the like In which dissolve Benedicta Laxativa Oyl of Dil Rue and Honey of Rosemary If the pain continue you must make a Clyster of equal parts of Sack or Hippocras Oyl of Rue or of Nuts with two ounces of Aqua vitae Or make a Clyster of white Wine with Oyl of Juniper or eight drops of the Chymical Oyl of Cinnamon or Cloves which doth Miracles Then foment the Stomach with this Take of Cypress Roots Galangal Calamus Aromaticus of each one ounce Mints Origan Penyroyal Marjoram Hysop Sage of each one handful Annis Fennel Caraway and Carrot seeds and Bay berries of each half an ounce Chamomel Melilot Rosemary and Lavender flowwers of each one pugil beat them and slice them put them into two bags and boyl them in Sack then squeeze them and apply them one after another to the Stomach and all the Belly When the Matter is not so cold this Fomentation following may be prepared which is highly commended by Forestus because it hath presently cured when other things failed Take of Althaea Roots half an ounce red Roses Chamomel Flowers and tops of Wormwood of each one handful Boyl them in common Water and Chamomel Water to one pint and an half adding in the end a little Rhenish Wine Rose Water and Vinegar Make a Fomentation After Fomentation anoint with Oyl of Rue and Dill mixed with Aqua vitae and a little Chymical Oyl of Sage or Cloves After the anointing apply a Plaister of Bay-berries or instead thereof a Cataplasm of Honey and Cummin seed While these are doing if there be loathing you may provoke vomiting gently or give a Purge against flegm After Purging give Oyl of bitter Almonds newly drawn mixed with white Wine or Hippocras mixed with Aqua Clareta or Cinnamon Water This following Juleps is most admirable to asswage pain discuss wind and strengthen the Stomach Take of Wormwood Centuary the less and Agrimony of each half a handful boyl them to five ounces and ad to it being strained one ounce of Sugar Let him take it two mornings together Amatus Lucitanus commends highly the distilled Water of Chamomel flowers as a most excellent Remedy to asswage the pains of the Stomach and Entrals of which you must give three ounces warm Or in the defect of that you may make a Decoction of Chamomel flowers which is so much commended by Forestus who saith that he cured a Merchant with this only Decoction once only given of great pain of his Stomach which made him to roar which when he had drunk off he belched and fell into a sweat and all his pain vanished as by an Inchantment so that he needed no other help You may also make a Vomit at the beginning of the disease which by evacuation may abate the pain of this Decoction made with Dill seeds or Agarick or the Roots of Asarabacca dissolving therein Oxymel Syrup of Vinegar or of Roses Solutive Galen teacheth that a Cupping glass applied to the Stomach doth presently take away pain But you must use this Caution That no crude Humor or very little lie in the Stomach otherwise the pain will be encreased Also you may with good success apply Bread hot from the Oven cut in the middle either by it self or sprinkled with Spices Lastly If the pain continue violent you must use a bath of the Decoction of mollifying Herbs that are hot which is most safe and powerful for it takes away the pain by discussing the wind and sending it forth by the open pores which it will better do if you give some discussing Medicine to the Patient while he is in the Bath for both internal and external helps concurring the work will be done The Bath must be very hot that the wind may be the better discussed and the thick Humors melted If by reason of the vehement pain Clysters can neither be given nor retained you must give a Purge in the Bath and let him stay therein an hour or half an hour till the power of the Medicine touch the Stomach Somtimes when the violence of the pain threateneth danger you must give Narcoticks which being wisely given bring wonderful effects Some mix Narcoticks with their Purges that the pain may be allayed and the Matter evacuated such as the Medicine of Elidaeus commended by Forestus made thus Take of Diaphoenicon half an ounce Philonium Romanum two scruples with the Water or Decoction of Chamomel make a Potion After the pain is gone let them who are subject to this Disease be purged once or twice in a month to take away the immediate cause of wind And let them use strengtheners such as were prescribed in the Cure of Concoction hurt That pain which comes of Choller is to be cured by the evacuation thereof with a gentle vomit or Purge or with frequent Clysters that are emollient not sharp or hot Afterwards qualifie the sharpness of the Humors with cooling Juleps that thicken with Emulsions of the great cold Seeds new Milk new Oyl of sweet Almonds Yolks of Eggs and the like In the mean while omit not Opiates and other strengtheners prescribed in the former Cures And at last when need requireth use Narcoticks Apply outwardly a Cataplasm of Bread and Milk with yolks of Eggs and Saffron Or Bread from the Oven broken in the middle and dipt in Vinegar Or Foment the part with the Decoction of Chamomil-flowers Violets and Water Lillies or which is best put the Patient in a warm Bath for that is most proper After the pain is gone lest it should return let the Patient Purge twice every month and let the hot Distemper of his Belly be corrected with a
Fourth of Lienterla or Coeliack Diseases The Fift of Diarrhoea The Sixth of Dysentery The Seventh of Tenesmus The Eight of the Hepatick Flux The Ninth of the Worms The Tenth of the Flux of the Hemorrhoids The Eleventh of the pain of the Hemorrhoids Chap. 1. Of the Chollick THe Chollick takes its Name from the part affected which is the Gut called Colon which is long and winding and ordained for receiving the Excrements of almost al the Body these Excrements retained too long use to cause this pain Therefore the Causes of the Chollick are excrementitious Matter which by distending pricking or corroding can make a Solution of Continuity and these are either Winds or Humors Winds are bred of Crudities or a cold Distemper of the Stomach or Intestines and if they be not sent forth by reason of the hard excrements or other things that obstruct the Intestines they are in great plenty shut up in the Guts especially the Colon and make a very violent pain Also gross Humors Cold and Flegmatick being fastened upon the Tunicles of the Guts cause the same pain both by gnawing if they are sharp or salt as also by cooling the part which by conâ—equence must suffer Constriction and Divulsion as Galen speaks of himself That having had a great Fit of the Chollick did void glassy Flegm that was actually cold and by producing Wind which is easily raised from a gross slimy and slow Humor by a weak heat Lastly Chollerick and sharp Humors as also Melanchollick and sowr by pricking and twiching the Guts make these pains but we may doubt in the action of these Causes how the Chollick should be somtimes more violent somtimes more remiss since the same matter remaineth in the Intestines To which Doubt we thus Answer That the matter doth somtimes lie quiet and then it causeth none or very little pain but somtimes it is moved and stirred up by divers Fermentations which happen among the Humors as in an Epilepsy the sits of the Mother and Agues But you must observe diligently that those Winds or Humors do not only remain in the Cavity of the Guts for then were they easily excluded by evacuating clensing and carminative Medicines but for the most part they are fixed to the very Coates of the Guts whence it comes that they are not so easily taken off but they make a long and a stubborn Disease which wil not easily be cured So thick Flegmatick and Melanchollick humors to flow by degrees through the veins of the Cuts into their substance and do not presently cause pain but til they so encreaâ—e that they provoke nature to expel them and so being moved they cause pain or send out Vapors which being included in the Tunicles of the Intestines do stretch and extend them and finding no passage cause a long pain And Choller being after the same manner spread and sucked into the veins of the Guts and the Tunicles thereof doth stir up sharp pains which use to be long because the Choller is very hard to be pulled from the substance of the Guts There is another kind of Chollerick Chollick which turns into a Palsie not known to the Antients which comes of a Chollerick Humor not in the Gut Colon as the former but suddenly sent into the Membranes of the Abdomen and it is carried thither from the Cystis or bladder of Gall or the Mesentery in the Crisis of continual Feavers or from great anger or some other external Cause when by reason of Obstructions it cannot be sent by the common passages but by a preposterous motion it is presently sent to the aforesaid Membranes of the Abdomen hence comes a cruel pain like that of the Chollick which neither by Clysters Formentations or other Medicines can be Cured but continueth many Months by which means the body consumeth somtimes it is like an intermitting Feaver somtimes and often like a continual lingring Feaver and at length when the pain begins to cease there is a Palsie by reason the Humor gets by degrees into the back by the Membranes of the Abdomen This Palsie doth trouble the upper parts most but the Thighs and Legs commonly are pained in some they are wholly resolved and made numb because the Choller being light flyeth to the upper parts Somtimes it gets into the Brain and begets Epileptick Convulsions from whence death commonly ensueth There are other Causes of the Chollick but less usual namely Stones bred in the Guts and knots of Worms which stop them The compression of the Guts from Tumors in the adjoyning parts or narrowness by reason of Inflamation and other Tumors of the Intestines or Contorsion or twisting of them by reason of Wind which is the way to the Iliack Passion somtimes also the Matter causing the Chollick is Poysonous and Malignant and makes a Pestilent Chollick as Paulus Aegineta reports That a Pestilent Chollick in Italy infected most of the Roman Provinces Finally al hard Bodies by Obstructing and Distending the Guts may make a Chollick as stones bred there many Cherry-stones swallowed hard Cheese and the like Platerus reports That a certain Governor long laboring of the Chollick with Convulsions after the use of Clysters voided a great quantity of hard Cheese which had a long time stuck in his Guts because before his Sickness he had eaten immoderately thereof The External Causes are Cold Air which constringe and indurate the Belly or too Hot Air by which the Excrements grow hard and loose their moisture the use of meat and drink not agreeing with the Constitution as raw Fruits and binding gross meats and hard of digestion too much rest and immoderate sleep unseasonable exercises immoderate venery and other External Causes which disturbe the Concoction of the Stomach The Knowledge of this Disease generally is easie For first the pain is very sharp for if it be light it cannot be called a true Chollick from the Opinion of Galen lib. 6. de loc aff cap. 2. And it is somtimes moveable somtimes more in one place than in another somtimes in the region of the Liver somtimes of the Spleen Stomach Reins somtimes above somtimes beneath the Navel and oftentimes it is most upon the left side in which as Bauhinus first observ'd there is a little streightness for when the Excrements in the upper and widest part of the Colon grow into hard lumps according to its Capacity great and then by Wind are driven into a streighter part they must needs pass with much pain in which Symptome the Chollick and the Spleen and the Stone are not distinguished but by comparison of other signs for somtimes the pain is like an Auger boring or a Stick fastened more fixed in some part When the Stomach consenteth there is vomiting of Flegm Choller that is green or the like After Meat the pain is greater because the Stomach being filled compresseth the Intestines The Belly for the most part is bound so that the Patient cannot so much as break wind and if any
thing be voided either naturally or by art it is for the most part windy and like Cow-dung with water at the top because it is most Flegm which useth to be so Somtimes the Belly is so bound that in the heigth of Pain Purging Medicines that are very strong will not work The Signs of the Causes are thus to be distinguished If the Pain come of Flegm it is not so great unless it be mixed with wind which cannot get forth of the places wherein it is contained for then the pain is very great somtimes in one part as if it were bored through with a wimble or stick somtimes in many if the wind do remove the Patient is better for hot and worse for cold things He used a Diet formerly which bred flegm his water is somtimes more crude and white not alwaies which deceiveth yong unexperienced Physitians and somtimes in a flegmatick and flatulent Chollick the Urine will be yellow and reddish by reason of the extraordinary pain which doth inflame the Spâ—riâ—s and Humors contained in the Veins and Arteries Which Avicen wisely observed Fen. 13. Lib. 3. Tract 3. Cap. 11. Let no man be deceived saith he to think by the foulness inflamation and redness of the Vrine that therefore the Disease is hot for that is common to all Vrines If the Chollick proceed of wind there will be a stretching pain and a swelling of the Belly the Patient perceiveth a rumbling of the Belly and much wind and he is better when he breaketh it he used a Diet to breed it as unreasonable drinking of cold water often use of Pease Rapes Chesnuts Sallets Fruits and the like And if the wind be contained in the Cavity of the Guts the pain is movable not in one place and is somtimes greater But if it be in the â—oats and Tunicles of the Guts the pain is fixed because the wind cannot move and it is constant because it cannot get forth If the Chollick come from a sharp and Chollerick Humor it is most grievous pulling and pricking there is heat thirst and often a Feaver the Urine is very Chollerick It is worse for hot Meats and Medicines and better for cold By sending forth of Choller the disease is diminished and there went before a Diet breeding Choller The pains of other parts under the Navil are easily distinguished from the Chollick by their proper signs except the Stone whose signs are so like with those of the Chollick that very skilful Physitians have been deceived by them As Galen himself was as he confesseth 2. de loc aff cap. 5. when he was troubled with the Chollick he thought that he had the Nephritis and that a stone was fastened in one of the Ureters till the Humor was purged away and the pain ceased after which he found it to be the Chollick But by these following signs these two Diseases may be plainly distinguished if they be well observed First The Nephritis or pain of the stone is fixed in the Reins and comes from thence to the Testicles according to the length of the Ureter But the Chollick is movable and girts about the middle of the Belly like a girdle Secondly The Chollick encreaseth after Meat by reason of the compression of the Intestines from the full Belly but the Nephritis encreaseth not but rather decreaseth because some of the Nourishment is carried to the Reins which doth somthing asswage the pain Thirdly In the Chollick the vomiting is more vehement and the Body is more bound because the Colon lieth in the bottom of the Stomach and the Intestines being stretched or much provoked do constringe themselves that they may expel what is noxious But both the Symptomes are common to both Diseases so that you can hardly know their intension and remission because a strong Nephritick pain may cause a greater vomiting and astriction of the Belly then a weak Chollick Fourthly In a Chollick there is more ease found after Evacuation than in a Nephritis Fifthly In a Nephritis or the stone the Urine â—sâ—first clear and thin afterwards there is a sediment and at length sand and little stones are voided But in the Chollick the Urine is thick from the beginning As to the Prognostick The Chollick for the most part if it be gentle and little and not long nor in one place constantly but intermitting and not binding the Belly is curable and without danger But if the pain is very great and fixed in one place not intermitting and if the Belly be bound that nothing can get forth with great watchings and if vomiting follow hiccoughs doting and coldness of extream parts with cold sweats it is deadly A stubborn Chollick coming of sharp and Chollerick Matter degenerateth into other grievous Diseases as Arthritis Epilepsie or Paralysis which is most usual An Epidemical Chollick which is contagious and pestilent is commonly deadly The Cure of this Diseale is divers according to the variety of the Causes And first there is the same Cure of a flatulent and pituitous Chollick which begins with an Emollient Clyster after which followeth one Carminative and discussing as was prescribed in the Dolor Ventriculi from the like Cause which must be repeated twice thrice or four times in a day till the pain be gone and if he go not to stool in one or two Clysters as somtimes happeneth you must give a sharp Suppository In one of the aforesaid Clysters you may do well to ad four ounces of the Aqua Benedicta Rulandi Or two or three drams of Coloquintida boyled in an Emollient and Carminative Decoction If Clysters will not give ease you must not stay too long upon them but use some gentle Medicine It hath been observed that when a sick man had taken three Clysters without benefit that another Physitian came and gave but one ounce and an half of Manna with two ounces of the Oyl of sweet Almonds in the fat Broth of a Hen and cured the Patient But in a pain that comes from grofs flegm you must give stronger Medicines Afterwards Fomentations Oyntments Baths Emplaisters and the like are good which were declared in the Cure of the Dolor Ventriculi of the same Cause to which you may ad some specifical things which are fit for this Disease Wash the Guts of a Wolf in white Wine then dry them in an Oven in an Earthen pot till they may be poundered Let the Patient take a dram thereof in white Wine and he will be presently cured Boyl fair Water and ad to it the fourth part of Oyl and some gross Pepper let him take three or four spoonfuls as hot as he can endure it and the pain will be instantly gone Take of the best Aloes one dram Laudanum four grains Diagridium six grains Mix them and make six Pills gilded Let him take them at a convenient time They take away the pain aster one hour and then purge out the noxious humor Instead of these you may give Diaphoenicon and Philonium Romanum as is
capable of the same Or rather from Eilesthai which signifieth to be rowled and girt about therefore the Latins call it Volvulus or Convolvulus because the Guts in this Disease seem manifestly to be rowled about and to be moved upwards it is also called Rordapsos because the Guts if you lay your hand on them seem to be like a stretched or twisted cord The Barbarians cal it Miserere mei because it is a miserable Disease and commonly deadly and therefore needs divine Commiseration This Iliack Passion is a preposterous motion of the Intestines in which the Belly is alwayes bound and the Excrements which should be carried downwards are brought to the Stomach and cast out by vomiting It is known that the Intestines have a natural motion by which the Chylus and Faeces are by degrees carried downwards which is called Peristalticus this motion is by the Orbicular and Transverse Fibres which contract the Intestines and is compared to the motion of Earth-worms which move the parts of their bodies successively And this motion is somtimes inverted by preternatural Causes as when the Fibres of the Intestines which ought to be contracted from above down-wards are contracted upwards and whatsoever is in the Guts is not sent towards the Belly but towards the Stomach and then is this Iliack Passion We observe somthing like this in Vomiting for when the Fibres of the Oesophagus contract themselves from the upper part towards the Stomach the meat is swallowed down but when by an inverted order they contract themselves from the part beneath up wards there is vomiting This Peristaltick inverted motion comes from the vehement stirring up of the Expulsive Faculty of the Guts which when it cannot throw down-wards the superfluous Excrementitious matter doth by a violent motion cast it upwards This motion is somtimes so violent that not only Chyle and Wind and Excrementitious Humors but the Faeces also and Excrements which should be sent out by the Anus are thrown forth by vomiting So that Clysters and Suppositories also are snatcht up and vomited out So Matthew de Gradi reports of a Girle of twelve yeers old who in this Disease for three dayes together did not only vomit up Dung and Clysters but also along Suppository a short time after it was administred unto her and when another Suppository was tyed to her Thigh that was presently broken off and vomited up with a piece of the Thred at it And when Thirdly a Suppository was tyed with four strong Threds as before that also was broken off and Vomited up with part of the Threds And at length when the Mother as desired by the Physitian to administer another it was drawn upward with so much violence that she was constrained suddenly to draw it out least it should be again Vomited up There are the like stories in Authors which for brevity sake we omit This stirring up of the Expulsive Faculty of the Guts comes from divers Causes The chief is Obstruction therefore whatsoever doth so violently obstruct the Guts that nothing can descend doth beget this Disease for after the Faculty hath long labored to throw out superfluities the ordinary way and is frustrate of her intention desiring to satisfie the necessity of exclusion she takes another Course and by a preposterous motion drives them upwards and vomiteth them out The Causes obstructing are hard Dung long retained gross vapors gathered in abundance into the Guts and violently distending them Inflamation and other great Tumors which wholly shut up the internal Cavities of the Gut and the circumvolution of it so that it is as it were tied in a knot which often happeneth in a Hernia or rupture and also in the Chollick after which often follows this Ileos because the Intestines being stretched with wind do rowl together and somtimes knit a knot The more unusual causes which do so provoke the expulsive faculty that are constrained to alter their motion are great Ulcers or sharp Humors which twitch the Guts for when the faeces or other Humors going downwards do touch the ulcerated part they so prick it that the faculty is provoked not to suffer so noxious a thing to pass but driveth it upwards with violence which motion the other Intestines stirred up by sympathy do follow till the noxious Matter goes to the Stomach which following the same Motion by the help of the aforesaid faculty drives it forth by vomit The Signs of the Iliack Passion are partly Common to those of the Chollick and partly proper The Common Signs are pain in the Abdomen swelling and pussing up of the Belly a bound Belly loathing of Meat Nausea Vomiting want of Rest difficulty of Breathing and Pissing Those which are Proper and peculiar to this Disease are a sharp pain and most violent pussing up and very violent distension an eminent hard tumor in the Hypogastrium a total suppression of seege so that nothing is voided that way In progress of the Disease there is irregular vomiting first of Choller then of Flegm and Chylous Matter and at length of dung or rather of a Matter like it of corrupt and stinking Meat for the faeces are seldom sent upwards when they are neer death there is abundance of cold sweat refrigeration of the extream parts trembling of the Heart disturbance and fainting Galen in Comment Aph. 10. Sect. 7. affirms that the proper and inseparable sign of this Disease is not to go to stool at all But Hippocrates seems to affirm the contrary 3. Epid. Sect. 2. Text. 7. in an History of a Woman thus affected which dwelt at Tisamen saying there were thin few and crude dejections To which difficulty we answer That in the beginning of the disease some stools may be from the faeces contained beneath the Gut affected which by Nature or Art may be excluded before all the Intestines consent and lose their proper and Natural faculty But when the Disease is confirmed and the motion of all the Guts is peristal like and inverted wholly there is nothing more sent downward The signs of the Causes are these If Ileos come from Inflamation which often happeneth the Disease is most acute and comes quickly to the heighth there is an intense feaver a most vehement pain Chollerick Vomitings and flegmatick do soon appear and faeces and dung do presently and other deadly signs before mentioned If it come from the faeces endurable there went before it a constriction of the Belly for many daies and in the beginning there is no pain but afterwards there is the Disease is of longer continuance nor is it so acute as that which comes from Inflamation neither is the pain so great nor the Feaver so strong and somtimes there is none If it come from wind or flegm it followeth for the most part the Chollick and signs of the Chollick of flegm and wind went before which are laid down in the Chapter afore going As for the Prognostick Every Ileos is dangerous but one more than another
filled with wind by the fire Paraeus also propounds another unusual Medicine by which he boasteth that he cured many at deaths door namely by drinking three pound of Quick-silver in Water alone for with its weight it doth untie the Gut and open and sends down the hard excrements which Remedy is commended by others who say that it may be taken without harm But we may wel fear so great a quantity lest it extinguish the Native heat with its coldness and coagulate the Blood in the Veins therefore in a desperate case it is better to give a less quantity Some give two ounces in a rear Egg and think good to repeat it if the first Dose do not succeed well but you may see in our Observations that one ounce hath done well But when the Illiack Passion comes from the Guts falling into the Cods all the care is to place them right which must be done by the gentle hand of a Chirurgion long fomenting the part affected first with an Emollient Decoction and Relaxing Oyls giving often Emollient and Carminative Glysters so placing the Patient that his Head be low and his Thighs high for some having been hung by the Heels were quickly cured If the Hernia comes with Inflamation of the Intestine it is cured with a fomentation of cold water If wind stretch the Gut discuss with a Fomentation of Spirit of Wine See the examples of both Cures in our Observations Chap. 3. Of Astriction or binding of the Belly BY Astriction of the Belly we do not understand all kind of supression by which nothing is â—et forth downwards as in the Ileos But only a dull and slow dejection by which the faeces and reliques of Meat are seldom and not according to the quantity of Food thrown forth therefore they are necessarily indurated because of their long continuance being dried with heat and some moisture is alwaies drawn from them by the Meseraick which reach not only to the thin but thick Guts It is a Symptome of the Expulsive faculty diminished or the retentive encreased and it is the cause of many diseases therfore the Excreta and Retenta are reckoned among the six things not Natural which not keeping the Law of Nature produce divers Diseases so it being bound sends vapors to the Head and produceth Catarrhs and other Diseases of the Brain disturbs the Concoction of the Stomach and the actions of other parts The Causes of this Symptome are many And first hardness of the faeces and driness are not only Effects but also Causes of them because being hard they are more difficult to be voided and do less provoke the expulsive Faculty They become dryer and harder chiefly and oftenest from the excessive heat of the Liver which powerfully draws away all the moisture contained in the Intestines and leaves the faeces dry This is also caused by violent motion especially riding also by few Excrements through want of food or because they have no actimony to prick the Intestines as it happens in cold Meats and when the Choller doth not go to the Guts as we observe in the Jaundice And lastly Many diseases of the Guts may cause this constriction as a cold and dry Distemper Tumors Obstructions Numbness of the Anus and Palsey and many others The Signs depend upon the knowledg of the Causes which must be taken from their proper Fountains The hot distemper of the Liver is to be taken out of its proper Chapter Also Tumors and other Diseases of the Guts have their proper Diagnosis or signs and so the external Causes as little Meat or coldness thereof riding and the like are known by relation of the Patient As for the Prognostick The Constriction of the Belly is more or less dangerous according as the Cause is greater oâ—less For if it come of Inflamation or other Tumor of the Intestines it is very dangerous but from other Causes less It useth to be contumacious and long when it comes from the faeces indurate and thence come often Chollicks which return after they have been cured by reason of the new dryness of the faeces as also because though the Belly seems to have been made sufficiently soluble by purging and many liquid Excrements are discharged yet there remains somtimes many hard Excrements in the Guts which breed new pains and cannot be taken out but by many Clysters given after Purging The Cure of this Disease depends upon taking away the Causes which are to be taken from their proper Chapters But because it is commonly long especially when it depends upon a hot distemper of the Liver and dryness of the Guts and in the mean time the Belly bound brings many inconveniences We will speak of its Cure by its self which is generally done by Emollients and Laxatives made thus Take of Althaea or Marsh-mallow and Lilly Roots of each two ounces Mallows Marsh-mallows Mercury Violets and Brank Vrsine of each one handful Lin-seed and Foenugreek of each half an ounce Annis seed one dram and an half sweet Prunes three pair Chamomel and Meltlot flowers of each one pugil boyl them to a pint and an half Dissolve in the straining Oyl of Lillies and Lin-seed of each two ounces fresh Butter one ounce and an half Diacatholicon and Diaprunis simple of each six drams Make a Clyster to be given as often as need requireth Somtimes instead of this use the following Take of the Decoâ—tion of Sheeps entrals one pint fresh Butter two ounces Cassia Diacatholicon and Diaprunis simple of each half an ounce red Sugar one ounce Make a Clyster Also twice in a month or thrice you may give one pint of common Oyl alone for a Clyster And because Nature will grow dull by too much use of Clysters and at length will never officiate that way but when she is provoked by one you must endeavor to mollifie the Belly with other means For this end sweet Prunes and roasted Apples with Sugar may be taken one hour before dinner as Galen sheweth 2. defacult alim cap. 31. For if they be taken immediately before dinner they will not work Or take Chicken Broth or other Broth in which have been bovled beets Borrage and some Apples or one spoonful of Oyl of sweet Almonds newly drawn without fire with as much Syrup of Maiden-hair or two spoonfuls of this Syrup following Take of the Mucilage of Fleabane seeds and of Quinces drawn with Mallows Water one pound and an half white Sugar one pound Make a Syrup according to art That the Prunes may work better let him drink half a glass of Vinum Lymphatum or Wine and Water before and after he taketh them fresh Butter taken an hour before Dinner the bigness of a great â—ut and drink Wine and Water will do the same thing Once in a week let him use one of these following Medicines Take of Cassia new drawn one ounce Cream of Tartar one dram Make a Bolus Take of 〈◊〉 one ounce or an ounce and an half Mix
it with Broth and take it in the morning Or Take of Oyl of sweet Almonds and Manna of each one ounce Dissolve them in Broth to be taken two hours before dinner Take of pulp of Cassia two ounces Tamarinds and Manna of each one ounce the pouder of Senna half an ounce Cremor Tartari two drams With Syrup of Roses solutive make an Opiate Let him take half an ounce or an ounce Or dissolve in the Decoction of Prunes half an ounce or an ounce of Manna let him take it one hour before dinner as all the aforesaid for so they will work better Ptisans of Succory Agrimony and Sorrel cast into Water that begins to warm and infused one night either drunk alone or with Wine for ordinary Drink doth keep the Body loose This following Broth doth most certainly loosen the Belly and keeps it so Take of Beets and Mercury of each one handful Boyl them in Broth and take it one hour before dinner Or Take of Conserve of Damask Roses with Manna and Sugar of each equal parts one ounce for adose Lastly A Bath or Tub with a Decoction of Emollient Herbs is very profitable to moisten all the parts Natural and mollifie the Belly Chap. 4. Of Lientery and Coeliack Passion LIentery is a kind of Flux of the Belly in which the Meat is quickly sent through the Belly as it was taken unchanged But in the Coeliack Passion the Meat comes forth crude and imperfectly concocted whence it appears that these two Diseases differ only in degrees so that Lientery is referred to the act abolished and Coeliack Passion to the act diminished For although the Meat is sent forth either altogether unconcocted or imperfectly concocted yet these Diseases are not to be referred to concoction hurt but rather to the retention for they are either il concocted or not at al because they are quickly sent forth and are not long enough retained to be concocted Hence it is collected that though this Disease bereckoned among the Diseases of the Guts yet the Stomach is much affected and somtimes more than the Intestines Hence Galen 6. de loc aff cap. 2. saith that a Lientery and Coeliack Passion come both by fault of the Stomach and Guts Many Causes of these Diseases are propounded by Authors all which we may refer to three Heads the cold distemper of the Stomach and Liver the provocation of those same parts and a great debility of the retentive faculty from some deadly disease The cold distemper generateth great plenty of flegmatick and glutionous humors which covers and 〈◊〉 over the wrinkles of the Stomach so that it cannot retain the food Hence we may admire why Galen 6. Aph. 1. doth speak against the old Greeks who called this Disease Lienteriam or smoothness of the Intestines therefore because the internal superficies or the Stomach being made smoother doth not retain the Meat whereas the Stomach doth not retain the Meat til a perfect concoction be made so much by the roughness of the inward coat as by an innate propriety of aâ—â—ringing For as we must confess that the principal cause of retent on is the faculty so also must we acknowledg that the faculty doth want instruments fitly disposed without which it cannot act and therfore since the in ward Tunicle of the Stomach is made rough and wrinkled that the Meat may be retained in the Stomach it is no doubt but if that roughness be taken away while the wrinkles are filled up with flegm the retention of the Stomach wil be hurt so that the Food wil slip away unconcocted The like is in the Womb whole inward Tunicle is rough and wrinkled that it may the better retain the Seed for Conception but if it be covered with glutinous Humors it doth not retain and the Seed presently comes forth whence many Women are barren But let us note That if any wil strictly exmine this word he shal find that this Symptome is rather to be called the Smoothness of the Stomach than of the Intestines neither doth it comprehend al its sorts but only that which comes from Flegm which because it is most usual the rest have their denomination from it The provocation of the Stomach and Guts is by sharp Humors which by twiching those parts 〈◊〉 them to send them forth too soon as it is in the Bladder which being pricked by Acrimony doth often piss Hence comes the Strangury Galen 6. Aph. 1. saith That by those sharp humors there is an Ulcerous Disposition in the Stomach as the Aphthae or Thrush is in the mouth of Children The great imbecillity of the Retentive Faculty in great and deadly Diseases often causeth a Lientery as you may see in a Dysentery which when nature is conquered degenerateth into a Lientery the Stomach being drawn to consent with the Guts which are so grievously affected and its Faculties being overthrown so also in Malignant Feavers there happeneth often a Lientery wherby the broth as soon almost as taken is cast forth unconcocted and the same is when Poysonous and Hurtful things are taken There is also another Cause different from the former which peculiarly makes a Coeliake Passion namely The Obstruction of the Mesaraike Veins which hinder the paslage of the Chylus to the Liver whence it must needs be cast forth by the Belly but that this may be it is necessary that al the Mesaraick Veins or the greatest part of them be stopped as in Children who have the Struma or Kings Evil whose Mesentery is found ful of Glandles by which the Mesaraike Veins are stopped and these continually have a Chylous and Coeliake Flux They eat much and grow leaner til they fal into a Marasmus Aetius and Celsus and many of their followers do propound another Cause of the Lientery namely A Smooth and Thick Scar in the Guts remaining after a long Dysentery by which the mouths of the Veins being stopped the distribution of Nourishment is hindered and thence comes a Lientery which Cause we cannot entertain for then al the Guts should have been Ulcerated and the Scar in them al should stop al the meseraiks which is not agreeable co reason because it is impossible that al the Guts should be ulcerated and the man not die The chief Signs of these Symptomes do appear by what is said for if crude meat and unchanged descend quickly and often through the Guts signifieth a Lientery but if it be somewhat changed and seem like Chylus it shews a Coeliack Passion The Signs of the Causes are thus gathered If Lientery or Coeliake Passion come of a cold distemper and Flegmatick humors there wil be sowr belchings the excrements of the belly are Flegmatick there wil be thirst and want of pain if the Flegm come from the Head as it often doth the excrements are frothy and the Flux is greater after sleep And there are other Causes which alter the Head and other Signs of a Catarrh If it come from Irritation or provocation there
saith that hot blood given as a Clyster doth wonderfully cure a flux Chap. 6. Of Dysenteria or Dysentery A Dysentery is an often and bloody loosness of the Belly with pain and torment depending upon the ulceration of the Intestines The word Dysenteria is taken commonly among the Antients for every bloody flux of the Belly but strictly and properly it is taken only for the bloody flux which comes from an Ulcer in the Intestines Gal. 3. de symp caus cap. 2. nameth four kinds of bloody fluxes which he commonly calls Dysenteries The first is when any part of the Body is cut or when any exercise is omitted or any bleeding is omitted as usual bleeding at the Nose and Haemorrhoids that by reason whereof the blood abounding is sent by the Meseraick Veins to the Intestines and so evacuated by the Belly The second is when by reason of the weakness of the Liver Watery blood like that water wherein flesh hath been washed is voided as it is in the Hepatick or flux of the Liver of which we shal hereafter speak The third is when Melanchollick and shining blood is cast forth which by reason of the long continuance in the Liver or Spleen is burnt and mixed with Melancholly Shining signifieth burning because blood which groweth black by cold doth not shine but loseth that brightness or splendor which it had before The fourth Difference is when the Patient at some short distance voids blood with Humors or Excrements with which somtimes there is mixed Pus or Matter and that with pain and torment by which we may conclude that there is an Ulcer of the Guts And this is properly called a Dysentery of which only we here discourse The Internal Causes of a Dysentery are sharp and ulcerating Humors as yellow Choller green like Leeks or Verdegreece and black as also salt flegm bred in the Head from great heat or in the Belly by putrefaction and so brought to the Intestines where cleaving a long time it doth ulcerate Here is a great Doubt propounded by Authors How yellow Choller in a short time should cause a Dysentery When green Choller in a long time maketh only a Diarrhoea which never turneth into a Dysentery since the green is made of the yellow by adustion and hath more sharpness Mercatus answereth That there must be a clamminess by which it may remain long in the Guts to corrode and gnaw them as wel as a sharpness And therefore if yellow Choller be such it causeth a Dysentery on the contrary if green Choller be more fluid and stay less while in the Guts it makes but a simple Diarrhoea Sennertus saith that this answer is probable but it doth not satisfie because oftentimes there are fluxes in which there is clamminess with sharpness and yet there is no Dysentery And contrarywise often times there is no clamminess in Chollerick Humors which cause a Dysentery and therefore he thinks that the Humors which produce a Dysentery have a peculiar occult quality with which the Intestines are offended and ulcerated as the Lungs are with the fish Lepus and the Bladder with Cantharides and no other part And he proveth that malignant quality in that a Dysentery is contagious for the most part so that the infections which come from the vapors rising from the excrements of those that have a Dysentery do only infect the Guts of them that are infected and not upon other parts The same happeneth in other Epidemical and infectious Diseases in which the poyson doth go only to some peculiar part so their Pleuresies Peripneumonia's or Imposthumes in the Lungs and Squinzies which are infectious So the Poyson of a mad Dog doth only infect the Head This is more cleer to be seen in Purging Medicines which have a peculiar vertue to move the Humors in the Body and bring them to the Guts which wil not only being taken at the Mouth purge by stool but laid to the Navil are taken by vapor at the Nose it is probable that they piercing into the Veins and Arteries by the Pores of the Skin and extremities of the Vessels do stir up motion and Fermentation or working in the Humors because the bad Humors are separated from the good and by pricking or stimulating of Nature they are driven to the Intestines by the force of the Medicine directing the expulsive faculty to those parts By the same reason but after another manner do Sudorisicks or Sweating Medicines and Diureticks or such as provoke Urine work the former forcing the Humors to the Skin the latter to the Bladder From which we may collect that the insection of a Dysentery by what manner or part soever it is admitted into the Body doth cause a certain fermentation or working in the Humors by giving them a Disposition like it self which being an enemy to the Guts doth provoke the flux of the Humors to them by which they are ulcerated and they being infected with the like disposition do infect the Humors and Nourishment from whence comes a true and proper Dysentery It is demanded of divers Authors What is that snotty and white Matter which is voided in such great plenty in Dysenteries mixed with Blood and other Humors Some think that it is the fat of the Guts others that it is that with which the Intestines are lined for the better passage of the excrements others that it is flegm from the Head or other parts others that it is Pus or Matter from the Ulcers But we conclude That it is nothing else but a preternatural excrement of the Guts for they being decayed from their Natural Constitution cannot convert their proper Nourishment into their own substance but by an imperfect way change it into that Matter which when it is unfit for nourishment of those parts is expelled forth and then the parts wanting again Nourishment attracteth or draweth new which is changed as the former and there must needs be a great encrease thereof because the part affected continually draweth Blood from the Veins which is changed into this slimy substance by which it is deceived of its expectation and therefore again draweth new for its Nourishment which it continually aimeth at but cannot turn into its own substance but into thâ— slimy Matter of which there is so great an encrease The same thing is done in other parts and especially in great and profound or deep Ulcers For the part Ulcerated when by reason of its evil disposition it cannot be wel nourished draws blood continually from the Veins which is changed into Pus or Quittor by which means the whol body by degrees consumeth Nor doth this befal only parts ulcerated but others that have no Ulcer or Imposthume so that although the aforesaid Excrement be like Quitt r yet is not true Pus or Quittor for that comes only from an Ulcer or Imposthume This chiefly appears in an Ophthalmy or Inflamation of the Eyes in which when there is no Ulcer or Imposthume there is a continual Excrement
say that the heat which is putrid in respect of the matter putrifying is native in respect of the Worms because the natural and putredinal heat differ but in degree but divers degrees of heat are required for the generation of divers Creatures and therfore heat which is putrid in respect of us may be natural in respect of another Creature So the heat which is natural to a Lyon would cause Feavers in us and by consequence is putrefactive Many flie to the heat of the Sun which is the universal Cause of al generation but we must alwayes acknowledge a particular Cause from whence the effect is immediately produced by the Concurrence and Co-operation of the universal Cause but here is a greater difficulty because it is a common axiome or theoreme That nothing can beget a thing more Noble than it self and therefore heat is not the chief agent in breeding of Worms which are in the praedicament of substance and heat is but an accident and whatsoever is spoken of the Sun the form of a Worm is more Noble than the form of the Sun because it is the form of a living Creature and that of the Sun is Forma mixta or the form of a mixed body only This Doubt brings us into that large and weighty Disputation of an Aequivocal Generation in the Circuit whereof very excellent Philosophers have Writ whol Volumns to which we send our Readeâ— and chiefly to Fortunius Licetus his Book of the Spontaneous Generation of Living Creatures Let it â—uffice in this place to say that many of their Opinions are brought to this They believe Seeds of many things to be in divers Substances which according to their divers Changings come to light even as the matter is more or less disposed by putrefaction or other alteration to receive this or that form and the Seed which is more agreeable to that Disposition is brought into act and bringeth into the matter a form proper to its self This Opinion doth not much differ from the old Philosophy which teacheth That Forms proceed from the power in the Matter but they think it safer to hide the Seeds of things in their Matter which are truly efficient than to acknowledge only the power of the Matter which hath no power to be an efficient for we must find out some efficient with the power in the â—atter which may raise a Form from it or rather introduce or bring a Form into it The material Cause of Worms is commonly sweet Flegm which groweth putrid by which it gets a Disposition to be turned into Worms but we think it no wayes necessary that food which wil breed Worms should be first turned into Flegm For Worms may breed of their immediately being putrified as we see in Flesh â—heeâ—e Cheâ—â—nuts Apples Pears Cherries and other Fruits which bring forth Worms by being putrified So it is in our bodies especially in Children which are given to Gluttâ—ny and eat the aforesaid things and take new commonly before the old is Concocted Hence is it that they putrifie and breed Worms But let yong Physitians observe this It is daily observed in Practice That Sucking Children that eat meat are most troubled with Worms and because their Stomachs are not able to digest it therefore it is corruption and turned into Worms moreover Milk is quickly digested in the Stomach and presently sent to the Guts and if it hath meat mixed with it which could not so suddenly be digested it wil be sent into the intestines with the Milk and therefore corrupt and breed Worms And observe That Worms never breed of Milk only so that as often as you consider the Disease of an Infant take notice Whether it have the Worms or no which Women alwayes proclaim and say al their Diseases came from thence as they ascribe al the Diseases of Women to the Mother and the Physitian may certainly pronounce that the â—hild hath not the Worms if it live only upon Milk and have eat neither meat nor Broth Galen â—â— his com aph 26. sect 3. taught this saying That in Children that Suck milk only no Worms do breed the Reason whereof is not plain Many say That in sucking Children the Heat is not strong enough to breed Worms And this is confirmed by Galen in the place cited where he saith That strong Heat is required for the Generation of Worms and thence he saith it comes that Worms are more in Youth than Infancy which also Hippocrates teacheth in the Aphorism aforesaid and which he seems to gain-say in lib. 4. de morbis where he saith That Worms breed in Children before they are born but these have not stronger heat than they that suck And Hippocrates gives another Reason why Children in the Womb should have Worms because their Excrements are reteined but when they are born they do not breed Worms because then their Excrements are not reteined But this wil not satisfie because oftentimes in Children that Suck the Excrements are reteined and yet they have no Worms while they live only upon milk therefore since the aforesaid Reasons do not content solid wits we expect the new Thoughts of Wise men touching this matter and in the mean while we wil briefly declare our Opinion and leave to the Judgment of the Learned We say then That Milk putrifying doth grow sowr and then is unfit for to breed VVorms but rather hindereth them for it is known that al sowr things do kill VVorms Hence it is that the Juyce of Lemons is so ordinarily given against them and in ordinary drink a little Spirit of Vitriol to sharpen it doth wonders It is Commonly thought That among the Material Causes of Worms Sweet things are the chief whâ—ch is to be doubted or because it is confirmed by a Common Axiome That Sweet things do easily turn into Choller and Choller by its bitterness doth kil Worms but we can easily answer this doubt thus In Chollerick Bodies and such as are sharp with heat sweet things do easily breed Choller because by over Concoction they grow bitter as we see dayly in artificial Concoction but in other Constitutions that are not Chollerick sweet things do not breed Choller but rather flegm when they are sent too soon from the Stomach into the Guts and so being crude and only half concocted they putrifie and become a fit Matter to breed Worms But there is yet a difficulty concerning Sugar and Honey which since they have a substance not subject to Putrefaction but rather that doth preserve other things from it cannot breed Worms This Reason convincing we say that Sugar and Honey will not breed Worms because their substance is incorruptible but being once bred they do feed and maintain them because the Worms loving sweet things do stir themselves at the approach of Honey and Sugar and get into the Stomach where they grow with speed from whence those Symptomes do arise which are proper to Worms The signs of Worms in the Guts are divers not all
But it is chiefly good for them who have the worms and a flux withal In which diseases coming together he commends also the Juyce of Plantane and the Decoction of Knot-grass given to drink To which may be added Topicks applied to the Belly partly astringent and partly having vertue to kill worms Women do use common Oyl given with Wine for that Oyl stops the pores of the Worms and so choak them for want of breath and VVine kills them by its sharpness But when there is a Feaver it is better to give Oyl with the Juyce of Lemmons or Pomegranates or which is better Oyl of bitter Almonds with the said Juyces or Orange flower water Stocherus in his Empirical Medicines commends the Oyl that is taken out of a dâ—ied Hazel stick if it be given but a drop or two at a time to a child or to a youth three or four in a crum of Bread For saith he it doth immediately kill them and cast them forth by stool also by but touching of Worms or Lice out of the Body it killeth them The best Authors will have this Oyl of Hazel to be the Oleum Heraclinum by which Martin Ruland did cure Children of the VVorms in a moment by anointing only their Lips and Navils as you may see in his Centuries But we have found by Experience that the Oyl of Juniper given but a drop at a time in Broth to be excellent for children so troubled if they have not a Feaver But Quick-silver would exceed all if we durst give it in wardly which great Doctors say may be done Some of whom I wil mention so that they who please to try it may have Authority for it Mathiolus in his fourth Epistle to Stephanus Laureus the Emperors Physitian saith Because Quick-silver as Dioscorides saith doth no otherwise kill but by tearing the Guts with its great weight we fear not that it will do it in a smal quantity especially because its weight and roundness will easily carry it through the Body Therefore let us not wonder why Brassavolus that famous Physitian of our Age hath written that he gave Quick-silver to Children without any inconvenience And also a padua Physitian used it with good success but never would tell us the way of giving and preparing of it And I though I never gave it have seen Midwives give a scruple or half a dram to Women that had hard labor without inconvenience and alwaies with good success Thus Mathiolus Fallopius in his Tractate of the French Pox Cap. 76. If saith he Quick-silver be drunk down it doth not so much as when it is used with an Oyntment I have seen Women to cause Abortion take a pound thereof without hurt I give it to Children for the Worms and it doth bring no symptome but only kill the Worms Platerus in the Cure of the Worms saith the same Give a drop or two or half a scruple of Quick-silver and it kills the Worms or makes them crawl out of the Body and it may be done without hurt as we shewed elswhere Fabricius Hildanus in his 71. Observation Cent. 2. saith of a woman troubled with the Worms sent to him by Gilbert Saracenus thus Having reckoned up many Medicines to these saith he I added the excellent Medicine of Quick-silver a dram and an half strained through Leather and yet she was not freed of them John Baptista Zappata in his Book of Womens Secrets Chap. 5. tells many famous Stories of the Cure of Worms by Quick-silver when Aloes and VVormwood would not do it He shews two waies of giving it The first is this Take of Quick-silver one dram but a scruple or two for little Children Benjamin half a scruple four or five drops of Aqua vitae mix them in a glass mortar with a glass pestle then put to it a little Conserve of Roses or Violets for a Bolus which let the Patient take in the morning by it self or with a little Bread The second way is this Take a little course Sugar and three or four drops of Spring Water mix them in a glass mortar till they are like Honey then put to it as much Quick-silver as was aforesaid mix them together with six or seven drops of Oyl of sweet Almonds which will keep the Quick-silver from coming again to its body And with a little Conserve of Roses make a Bolus Baricellus in his Book called the Genial Garden saith thus Quick-silver which some account poyson is safely given against worms and it is accounted so certain a Medicine in Spain that the Women there give three grains thereof to children which pewk up their milk I cured a Widdow which vomited nine daies together by reason of Worms and scarce eat in three daies neither could retain any thing she took to whom I gave two scruples of Quick-silver with a little Conserve of Quinces and she voided downwards above an hundred Worms and was cured the same day and went about her business to the great admiration of her Parents being formerly weak and lean I have given it also to others and with good success alwaies and I keep continually at home Quicksilver infused Water which Water I give to children for Worms nor did I ever receive any discredit thereby Mathiolus used the same Horatus Angenius and many other famous men who all do extol the benefit of this Medicine You may give it to Children in substance one scruple and to youths two scruples or a dram It is mortified and corrected with red Sugar in a glass mortar wherein it must be so long stirred that it be invisible and least it should return to its former condition you may add thereto two of the Oyl of sweet Almonds Give it with Sugar of Roses Violets or Quinces fasting Thus Baricellus Sanctorius in meth vitand error lib. 5. cap. 11. saith That except we use strong Medicines to kill worms as washed aloes or a scruple of Quick-silver with a little Turpentine and Aloes made into a smal Pill we do nothing They who fear to use Quick-silver crude may give it prepared as Mercurius dulcis not only thrice but six times calcined for by often preparation the malignity of it is abated with some few grains of Diagridium to carry it sooner out of the Body and expel both the Worms and the Matter of which they breed You must enlarge or diminish the quantity according to the Age of the Patient As for example to a Boy of eight or ten yeers old it may be thus given Take of Mercurius dulcis twelve grains Diagridium six grains Make Pouder to be given with a roasted Apple and Sugar or the like For ordinary drink the Water made of Quick-silver which was formerly mentioned is very profitable or that in which Quick-silver hath been shaken in a glass half full for the space of one hour Also VVater wherein melted Tin hath been often quenched But if you will rather use Quick silver it is better to let the Water boyl
with it and so it wil be stronger Also Spring Water made sharp with some few drops of the Spirit of Virriol or Sulphur is of no less force For sharp things do properly kill VVorms and the Water is to be made more or less sharp according to the age of the Party The Decoction of Dog-tooth with Coriander seed prepared is used vulgarly for ordinary drink mixed with Syrup of Lemons or of pomegranats Or you may put Sugar and a little Vinegar in the Decoction While the aforesaid Remedies are used you must give Clysters often the whol time of the Disease first made of sweet things to attract and draw down the VVorms as at first we said which may be made not only of a Decoction of Liquoris Raisons and Figs but also of Chicken-broth and Sugar and Honey of Roses or of Milk if there be no Feaver otherwise it wil be easily Corrupted But if we conjecture that the VVorms are already in the thick Guts because then they can scarcely ascend into thin Guts you may give Clysters to kil them made thus Take of Dog-Tooth Roots one ounce Beets Mallows Pot Mercury and Purslain of each half an handful Coralline one pugil Coriander seeds prepared and Wormseed of each two drams boyl them in a Quart of Water in one Pint of the straining dissolve two ounces of Oyl of Roses Cassia newly drawn six drams Hiera Picra two drams Honey of Violets one ounce make a Clyster If you wil have stronger Take of Gentian Roots one ounce common Wormwood and Southernwood of each one handful the lesser Centaury half an handful Lupâ—nes half an ounce Wormseed two drams make a Decoction In as much of the straining as you think fit dissolve the Oyl of Wormwood one ounce and an half Salt one dram and an half â—â—ake a Clyster which must be repeated and in the last that the Worms may be brough forth after they are killed dâ—ssolve of Benedicta Laxativa and Hiera Picra of each three dramâ— or half an ounce If there be a Flux of the Belly give this following Clyster Take of Tormenâ—l Roots and of Round Buth-wort of each one ounce and and an half Pomegranate Peels and Myrcha ans of each one ounce Pease a smal handful Myrtle berries one dram Red Roses one pugil make a Decoction and dissolve in the straining of Oyl of Mints or of Wormwood one ounce make a Cryster Outwardly may divers Topicks be applied not only those that were mentioned but these following Take of Gentian Roots one ounce Birth-wort Roots six drams Orange Peels one ounce Coloquintida one dram burnt Harts-horn two drams Saffron half a dram make a Pouder which mix with Oyl of Wormwood or Bitter Almonds and with a little Wax make an Vnguent Also common Oyl boyled with the Pulp of Coloquintida is powerful Also Oyl of Wormwood and St. Johns-wort must be applied to the whol Belly morning and evening Take of Oyl of Wormwood Mints and bitter Almonds of each half an ounce the Juyce of Wormwood and Rue of each two ounces Tormentil white Dittany and Zedoary of each half a dram Ox Gall three drams Aloes one scruple Pouder them and with a little Wax make an Oynment Or Take of Coloquintida six drams Pouder it and with an Ox Gall lay it to the Navel by which both the Worms are killed and the belly kept loose Take of Murrh seven drams Mast ch eight ounces Aloes eighteen ounces common Salt one pound bruise them all and Distil them by a Retort with a gentle Fire and great diligence first you will have a Water than an Oyl with which if you anoint the Navel of a Child all putrefaction will be clensed which is in the Mysentery Also you may make a Cataplasm thus Take of the meal of Lupines two ounces Myrrh and Aloes of each two drams Ox Gall as much as is sitting Oyl of Wormwood two ounces make a Cataplasm for the Belly If a Loosness hath Continued long apply this following Cataplasm Take of Oyl of Quinces and Wormwood of each one ounce the Juyce of Purslain extracted with Vinegar one ounce and an half Peaseflowr an ounce Lupine flowr half an ounce Red Coral and burnt Harts-horn of each three drams mix them together with as much Turpentine as wil make a Cataplasm A Cataplasm also made of only Hiera Picra is most powerful Somtimes you may use Fomentations when there is a great stretching and puffing up of the Belly Made thus Take of Wormwood Southernwood Tansie Scordium Mallows and Violets of each one handful beaten Lupines half an ounce Centaury one pugil boyl them in Vinegar and Water and Foment the whol Belly hot therewith very often Finally For Flat VVorms and Ascarides or Ars-Worms Clysters made of bitter things are good to which you may ad the Purging things aforesaid while the filth of which they breed be purged away Chap. 10 Of the Immoderate Flux of the Hoemorrhoids ALthough the moderate Flux of the Hoemorrhoids be healthful and preserveth a man from many and grievous Diseases as Hippocrates taught in epidemii and in his Aphorisms as from a Pleurisie Peripneumonia or Inflamation of the Lungs nephritis or the Stone in the Kidneys Madness Melancholly and innumerable other Yet the immoderate Flux is most dangerous and brings other pernicious Diseases as Weakness of the whol Body Coolness of the Bowels and especially of the Liver an Atrophy or want of nourishment an evil Habit and Dropsie by the loss of Natural Heat by spending too much Blood which is the treasure of Life and the cheerisher of the whol Body And this Immoderate Flux hath the same Causes which use to provoke other sorts of Bleeding namely Blood offending in Quantity or Quality when it offendeth in Quantity and is brought in great plenty to the Haemorrhoid Veins it doth violently dilate them and open their Orifices by the strength of the Expulsive Faculty but somtimes too much Blood coming thither doth oppress the Retentive Faculty Hence it comes that she being Defective in her duty there is a great Flux which must be restrained by art But while Blood off ends in Quality as sharpness it stirs up the Expulsive Faculty to cast forth by those Veins not only the unprofitable but profitable Blood the Blood Causing this Flux is made sharper by a mixture of Choller or sharp Water This immoderate Flux is known by the loss of Strength and a Sense of Weakness coming from a long Flux and loss of Blood As also from an evil yellowish colour of the whol Body as if it were the Jaundice If the Disease come from Quantity of Blood there went before Causes of increase of Blood and the Patient bears it wel in the beginning and is more cheerful but afterwards the Flux continuing he grows weak and dejected But if it comes from sharpness and thinness of the Blood there went before Causes that breed cholet or sharp Water the body is of a Chollerick Constitution and burnt the blood floweth
cast upon the hot coals and let the fume thereof be received in a large funnel by a hollow chair tying a wooden or silver pipe to the narrow hole and putting it into the Fundament A Fumigation made of Mullein is the best of all If you can apply Remedies to the Veins that bleed it is best therefore that they may appear And therefore let the Patient be laid upon a Table and strain as if he were at stool till they appear using an Instrument if there be need And then apply the afore mentioned Cataplasm of the Hair of an Hare and Spiders Webs or other very drying Remedies Bole Allum or burnt Vitriol Also to touch the Vein with Oyl of Vitriol is good or in extream danger with Aqua fortis Which things if they prevail not Hippocrates in his Book of Diet in acute Diseases and of the Hemorrhoids shews the way of tying cutting and burning of them which operation is out of fashion now as being most painful and perilous Although Massaria saith that he once saw it the story whereof will be prositable to be related for by that you may learn the way of working and the event The History is this Frederick Corsicus of Vincentia first had the pain then the immoderate flux of the Hemorrboids And when he had in vain tried many things went to Padua where the Physitians by a common consent concluded that the blood must be stopped But when many means inwardly and outwardly were in vain used in the end finding no Remedy they concluded to try this Manual Operation But having no fit Chyrurgion they sent for a Neapolitan who professed this Art and he cut tied and burnt the Hemorrhoids of Fabricius thus First he bound him so that he could no waies move then he separates the Hemorrhoids from the Intestine then with a Needle he passeth throw and seweth them and tieth all about strongly then cutting off the part of the Vein which is above the sewing he burns it with a hot Iron It was a painful Operation from the Ligature Section and Burning So that Frederick had a Feaver and great pain But the Chyrurgion gave him a few Medicines by which he was freed both from feaver and pain in a few daies to the admiration of all men there and recovered from bleeding But it is not to be omitted how he being too confident and neglecting bleeding and purging which he stood after in need of keeping no orderly diet the next yeer he was taken with a pestilent Feaver and died From whence we may observe the Precept of Hippocrates Aph. 12. Sect. 6. That one Hemorrhoid must be kept open Except the Patient as Aetius observeth had rather prevent the danger that comes by stopping of it by a good diet exercise bleeding and purging But in an ordinary Cure by Medicines you must consider the Liver and Spleen because the Meseraick Veins are inserted into them especially if they be hot or weak And therefore not unprofitably do we apply Epithems or cooling and strengthening Oyntments such as we prescribed in the flux of the Liver and shal more at large be laid down in the hot distemper and inflamation of those parts Somtimes the Obstruction of the Bowels and Meseraick Veins do cause this Disease which are to be taken away for the Cure of the Patient And we have somtimes done it with Pills of Steel which are prescribed in the Obstruction of the Liver The whol time of Cure let the Patient drink ordinarily Iron Water or the Decoction of Yarrow At the same time above all things you must rectifie the blood which is the chief cause of this flux Therefore if it be sharp and Chollerick it is often to be corrected with the infusion of Rhubarb and Tamarinds If it be hot and thin with thickening and cooling Medicines if watery with dryers if much with a slender Diet. For it is vain to think of stopping of the blood except the original of the evil be first taken away Which Solenander observed Cons 22. Sect. 4. in this following History I remember saith he that I had one Ann a Dukes Daughter of a great flux of the Hemorrhoids and because she was far spent I took much pains to stop the flux But when I perceived that the first day after they were stopped she began to swel about the Heart Being sent for again the seventh day I opened the Veins again nor could I safely stop them before I had given gentle Evacutions and alteâ—â—ng and strengthening things for the Liver After you have cured the flux of the Hemorrhoids you must prevent their return which is done by good Diet and bleeding twice or thrice in a yeer and with an ordinary Purge of a Magistral Syrup or other Medicine with an issue made in the Leg and the like which are to be altered according to the divers dispositions of Bodies Moreover Mineral Waters of Vitriol Allum and Iron are very convenient Fonseca commends the Decoction of the Mastich Tree or the Infusion of it in VVine for a Prevention thus made Take of the shavings of Mastich wood two ounces infuse them in twelve Pints of Wine twenty four hours in a warm place then strain it and drink of it a whol month for ordinary drink for it hath strength to stop the Haemorrhoids and strengthen the Stomach Chap. 11. Of the Pain of the Haemorrhoids THe Haemorrhoid Veins that are in the end of the Rectum Intestinum or streight Gut somtimes do swel and cause very great pain This swelling comes of the same Cause with the Flux or bleeding of the Haemorrhoids namely Of blood offending in Quantity or Quality which if it findeth not away and cannot open the ends of the Veins there it settleth and by filling of the Veins causeth a Tumor with Inflamation and pain The principal Cause why Blood cannot get out of the Veins is the thickness of it because it is Melancholly for commonly the Hemorrhoid Veins especially internal are said to receive Melancholly from the Spleen and somtimes to purge it forth Authors give many differences of Hemorrhoids from their greatness number figure and place whence some are called great others little some more some less some are like Grapes Mulberries Warts or Bladders thence termed Uval Moral Verrucal or Vesical Some are External some Internal From these things the knowledg of them is easie for from a Tumor in the outside of the Fundament from its greatness color and consistence the differences are known And they are to be distinguished from other Diseases which use to be in the Fundament as Rhagades Clefts Condylomata Swellings with Inflamation Thymi Kernels Fici Piles and the rest Rhagades are certain Ulcers like Clefts in the Hands and Lips from vehement cold They have no likeness with the Hemorrhoids but we will explain them with the rest although they are properly to be referred to external Diseases that you may with the knowledg of the Hemorrhoids know all diseases of the Fundament Condylomata
which when he would have it more drying he adds Barley Meal and Millet Meal And if the pain be great he makes it of Milk He commends also the Cataplasm of Leek Heads boyled in Common Oyl or Oyl of Myrtles or made of Pilewort boyled in Water Green Elder Leaves boyled to slime in Water and then spread upon a cloth as big as the Palm of your Hand and applied hot to the Patient lying upon his Belly if it be often renewed for many hours and the part first anointed with common Oyl or the Decoction of the same is very excellent The Leaves also of Elder stamped and applied cold do take away the pain the third dressing Also Purslain stamped and applied asswageth pain and swelling heats the Ulcers and consumeth proud flesh A white Onion roasted in the Embers and made with fresh Butter into a Cataplasm doth asswage pain and discuss the Tumor Let Fomentations be applied to the part to take away pain made of the Decoction of Mullein Mallows Holyhocks Pellitory Lin-seed Foenugreek seed Marsh-mallows Chamomel flowers and Dill boyled in Milk or in the want of Milk in Water and Oyl or Tripe Broth. You may make a Bath with a greater quantity of the same Ingredients Cold Water alone is a good Fomentation and a Bath also But in Winter warm it Also foment in Rose Water in which Salt of Lead hath been dissolved especially if the part be inflamed To take away swelling it is good to foment with red Wine wherein Allum is boyled Polypody of the Oak and St. Johns-wort boyled in equal parts of Wine and Water doth sensibly abate the swelling of the Hemorrhoids if the Decoction be squeezed in by degrees with a spunge the Waters of hot Baths applied with Spunges or to sit in are also good Aquapendens applieth a Spunge dipped in Time Water and squeezed and after bound upon the part a Fumigation of the aforesaid Decoction while it is hot or of Mullein boyled in Milk with Rye Flower doth also appease pain Or Take of Housleek two handfuls boyl them in white Wine and let the Patient receive the Fume through an hollow Chair To consume and dry up the Piles a Fumigation made of the Pouder of Darnel Mullein Pilewort cast upon hot coals is good and better if you mix Brimstone therewith Also it is made of Brimstone only which taken in with a Funnel drieth up the blind Hemorrhoids Also a Fumigation made of a Fire-stone quenched in Vinegar And this following Injection is marvelous good for the same if often used Take of Juyce of Plantane and Oyl of Violets of each four ounces Natural Balsom half an ounce Make an Injection into the Anus Amatus Lusitanus in the 91. Cure Cent. 2. doth praise this following Suppository in these words A Roman Lady which lived at St. Angelo's Bridg having her Womb forth complained also of the pain of the Hemorrhoids And after we had used many choyce Medicines by which she received no benefit we gave her a Suppository of Goats Suet and Opium by which she was cured perfectly But we washed the part afterwards with strengthening things warm as ought to be after stupefying Medicines have been applied The same Amatus Curat 6. Cent. 3. commends this following Topick in these words A Reverend man was grievously troubled with the Hemorrhoids and after divers means used by Physitians was cured by us with this Medicine immediately Take an Orange and make it hollow and fill it with Oyl of Roses and of Spike then roast it and apply it hot repeated often it is wonderful The Lungs of a Goat are used commonly applied hot to the part or some slices made hot between two Dishes with a little VVater to asswage pain Both the aforesaid Ealsom of Sulphur and these following Oyntments are good for the Piles ulcerated Take of new Oyl of Eggs two ounces Stir them in a Leaden Mortar and apply them Take four ounces of Oyl of Roses and one ounce of Ceruss With half an ounce of Litharge and six drams of new Wax and four grains of Opium Make an Oyntment Or Take of Frankinsence Myrrh and Saffron of each one dram Opium two grains One Yolk of an Egg Oyl of Roses and Mucilage of Fleabane seeds of each as much as will make an Oyntment If they will not easily be dissolved you must open them after convenient Revulsions rubbing them with a rough cloth dipped in the Juyce of Onions in which there was dissolved one dram of Aloes This is Hartmans Secret But they are soon opened and with less pain with a Pen-knife or Hors-leeches Some special things are taken by the Mouth to asswage pain and consume the Hemorrhoids The chief are these The Decoction of Yarrow taken three daies as ordinary Drink and the seed of three Leaved Grass given many daies together with the Yolk of an Egg is also excellent The Pouder of Mullein given in Milk or otherwise is much approved against the Swelling of the Piles The Pouder of Yarrow and Tormentil are commended to do the same The Juyce of Mullein by its self or mixed with Sugar of Roses or Penedies or made into a Syrup with Sugar is also excellent Finally Pills of Bdellium taken often do consume the Piles and take away the cause of them insensibly An Issue made in the Legg is very good for them who are subject to this Disease The End of the Tenth Book THE ELEVENTH BOOK OF THE PRACTICE OF PHYSICK Of the Diseases of the Liver The PREFACE THe Liver as other parts is subject to all kind of Diseases For as it is compounded of similarly parts it hath divers distempers and as it is an organical part it is Affected with Tumors and stoppages as also with solution of Continuity which is Wounds and Vlcers And although the Dropsie be in the whol Abdomen or Belly as in an Ascites or Tympanites or in the whol Body as in Anasarca yet the Original thereof for the most part is from the Liver We intend here only to shew the chief Diseases which are most ordinary and we shal Comprehend them in Six Chapters The first whereof is concerning the Hot distemper of the Liver The second of the Inflamation Vlcer and Imposthume of the Liver The third of Obstruction of the Liver The fourth of the Jaundice The fifth of Scirrhus The sixth of the Dropsie Chap. 1. Of the Hot Distemper of the Liver MAny men have a Hot Distemper of their Liver from their Birth of which here we shal not treat but only of that preternatural Disease which manifestly hindereth the Actions of the Liver This Distemper is either Simple or Compound either with Matter or without but for the most part it hath Matter joyned with it because a Hot Distemper of the Liver useth to produce Hot and Chollerick Humors The Causes of this Distemper are Hot Weather immoderate Exercise much Anger and other great Passions of the Mind and especially hot nourishment and Physick or things Spiced a
suffering do all escape but they who are corrupted in the very fleshy substance of the Liver die and there is good reason to be given why they do The immediate Causes of this Disease are too much Blood or the boyling heat thinness and sharpness of the same or the motion and stirring of it in the Veins from whence by the aforesaid Causes it is easily thrown into those parts which are most fit to receive it The Liver is most sit to receive blood abounding when it is too hot or hath any pain for heat and pain do attract or if it have any Natural or adventitious weakness For all parts that are burdened with any Humor do disburden themselves upon the weakest Among these Causes you may reckon the obstruction of the Liver by which the thick Humors are retained and are inflamed by a Preternatural heat The External Causes may be many as too much heat of the body from immoderate Excercise the Sun or fire but Meats sharp and spiced immoderate taking of two much strong Wine too much Letchery Fear a Stroak or Fall upon the Liver side also hot Medicines applyed without reason thereto as Fabricius Hildanus reports of one who having a cold distemper of the Stomach had Emplaisters and hot Oyntments of Pepper Cardamons Oyl of Cloves and the like applyed to him by which means the Inflamation of the Liver was encreased for the Liver covereth the Stomach and the Medicines which are applied to the Stomach do first touch the Liver with their Vertue Cupping Glasses applied to the Region of the Liver wil do the same of which Fabricius Hildanus brings an Example concerning one who bled at the Nose to whom he applied great Cupping Glasses upon the Region of the Liver which stayed the blood but a great Inflamation of the Liver followed The Signs of this Disease are many according to Galen and other Authors which we shal lay down severally because many errors are committed in the discovery thereof The First Sign is Heaviness in the right Hypochondrion which comes from the Repletion and Distention of the Liver because being of its own nature large and very compact if it be filled with much Humor it wil grow very heavy which the Patient apprehends when he turâ—eth from one side to the other The Second Sign is Pain which somtimes is perceived in one place somtimes in two or three in the Region of the Liver there is a weighty Pain somtimes it is very extending in the lower Ribs when the Inflamation reacheth to the Ligaments of the Liver which are fastned to the Ribs somtimes the Pain is communicated to the Throat by the continuation of the Membranes which have consent with the Membrane which covers the Liver The Third Sign is a Feaver which is commonly at night and is more or less sharp according to the Humor offending for in a Chollerick Inflamation it is most burning but in a Flegmatick gentle and in a Sanguine Inflamation moderate between both The Fourth Sign is Difficulty of Breathing because the Liver is tyed to the Diaphragma or Midriff and therefore by its weight forceth it downwards as also presseth it with greatness and swelling so that both wayes the free motion of the Diaphragma is hindered The aforesaid Signs are Universal or proper to declare the Disease there are many other equivocal Signs which also do much avail to the knowledge of the Disease As a dry Cough a hard Pulse unequal and like a Saw the colour of the Tongue first red and then black great Loathing of meat unquenchable Thirst vomiting of Choller and somtimes of Flegm a pale Colour of the whol Body tending to the Jaundice yellowish red and flaming Urin which is sharp when the Patient lieth with his face upwards he is more at ease than when he lieth on either side because when he lieth upon the right side the Liver is pressed upon by the Stomach when he lieth upon the left it is extended by its own weight hanging down the Belly is bound by reason of the Heat which consumeth al the moisture of the Chylus matter Somtimes it is loose namely when a great weakness of the Liver is joyned with the inflamation for then the Excrements are sent forth moist like the Water wherein Flesh hath been washed The Signs of the Differences are these If the Gibbous or Convex part of the Liver be affected there is a Tumor to be felt in the right Hypochondrion and it makes the figure of the Liver like a half Moon there is great pain in the Breathing and it reacheth to the right side of the Throat so that it seemeth to be pulled down There is a greater Cough and Difficulty of Breathing and greater weight But if the Hollow part of the Liver be affected the Tumor is not so easily felt but because as I have said one part of the Liver cannot be inflamed but the other must also suffer when the part is touched and pressed down some pain is perceived Moreover Because this part lieth upon the Stomach there is a greater loathing of Meat vomiting thirst and loosness of the Belly from the food corrupted in the Stomach which is distempered by the neerness of the Liver to it The Signs of the Causes are these If the Inflamation come from pure Blood there is either a perfect Red or duskish colour in the face the Pulse is great soft and waterish the Urin is red and thick the Body is full of flesh there is sweetness in the mouth the party is yong and hath fed high If Choller predominate the Face is yellow the Pulse swift hard and unequal the Urin thin and very yellow somtimes flaming the Body is lean and thin the Eyes hollow the Mouth bitter there is vomiting of Choller and Causes that bred Choller went afore But because the Inflamation of the Muscles of the Abdomen or Belly is very like the Inflamation of the Liver there we must distinguish them by their proper Signs In the Inflamation of the Muscles of the Abdomen the skin is so extended that if you lay hold of it you cannot move it the humors of the streight Muscles are long and over the whol belly comprehending the Navel and the inflamation of other Muscles is in the form of them On the contrary the Inflamation of the Liver is in the shape of the part affected and if you lay hold on the Muscles they yeild and the Tumor is somwhat deeper Moreover The color of the whol Body is of much concernment for the distinguishing of these Diseases for in the Inflamation of the Muscles it is fresh and almost in its Natural condition but in the Inflamation of the Liver it is pale yellow and like the Jaundice There is a famous Example of this in Galen 5. de loc aff cap. 7. of one Stesianus who when he was judged by other Physitians to have an Imposthume in the Liver Galen being sent for at the first view of his face
had no wind coming forth of the Cavity of the Belly neither did their Bellies but their Guts sink especially the thin Guts which were so stretched with wind that they came forth so rouled together that they could not be again thrust into the Belly But we must observe that the wind which causeth a Tympany is seldom contained in the Belly alone but for the most part mixed with Water as in an Ascites not only Water but Wind also is contained and both these Dropsies have their name of that which predominateth if there be more wind than water it is a Tympany but if more water than wind an Ascites but if they be equal it is between both â—o that we may doubt whether that Dropsie be a Tympany or an Ascites The Material Cause of Wind is a crude Humor and thick whether it be Flegm or Melancholly which being stirred and made thin by heat sends forth thick vapors which are hard to be dissolved and these are called Flatus This Crude and thick Humor is partly in the Stomach and Guts but especially between the Membranes of the Midriff and Guts from whence it is more hard to be moved than from the Cavity of the parts aforesaid The 11. Aph. Sect. 6. of Hippocrates makes this very probable They who have pains and gripings about the Navel and Loyns which cannot be removed have a dry Dropsie For because the Mesentery is joyned to the Guts by the fore part and to the Loyns by the hinder part we may easily perceive that the pains which reach from the Navil to the Loyns come from the Mesentery Besides The greatness of the pain shews that the Cause is deep in the substance of the part and cannot be removed For if it were in the Cavity of the Stomach and Guts it would easily be remedied Concerning the Efficient Cause Authors differ some say from a cold some from a hot distemper They which accuse a cold distemper think they have Galen on their side who saies that wind is bred of a weak heat To whom we answer That heat may be said to be weak in respect of the Matter which cannot be discussed or dissolved thereby But this is to be imputed to the Matter which is rather defective than the Heat which is commonly too great and Preternatural And we must acknowledg with the Learned That a burnt Melanchollick Humor is most fit to breed a Tympany which proceedeth from the parching heat of the Bowels which heat doth stir that Matter and produceth from it thick vapors that are hard to be dissolved The Dropsie called Anasarca comes of a Flegmatick Humor spread through the whol Body and therefore the Body is swoln and white from whence the Disease is called Leucophlegmatia This Flegm comes from a cold Liver which instead of good Blood produceth crude and flegmatick which when it cannot be turned into the substance of the parts leaveth the crude part that is unfit for Nourishment upon them and makes them swell hence comes Anasarca or Leucophlegmatia This Disease beginning is called Cachexia or an evil Habit and turns into Leucophlegmatia from which it differs but in degree The Antecedâ—nt Causes are all things that cool the Liver too much and hinder its Concoction as too much cold and moist Diet the stopping of the Terms or Hemorrhoids Obstructions cold Tumors Scirrhus and large bleeding and other great Evacuations by which the Native heat is diminished The Signs of a Dropsie and every sort of it may be known by what hath been said In an Ascites you may know that there is water in the Abdomen by its greatness lost Swelling and broad and if you press the sides you shall easily hear a noise of Water and when the Patient turns from one side to the other and then the whol Belly lieth as it were on that side then the Feet and Cods swell but the higher part grow less the Urine is little and thick somtimes red because there goes but little water to the Reins and Bladder and staies long there by which means it becomes red and thick In the progress or encrease of the Disease there is difficulty of Breathing by reason of the abundance of water which lieth upon the Diaphragma or Midriff especially when the Patient lieth down and therefore he is forced to stand or sit most usually There is a troublesom thirst from the saltness of the Humor with which the Stomach swimmeth And lastly there is a constant lingering Feaver from the corruption of the Water which at length doth corrupt all the Bowels swimming therein In a Tympany the Belly being strook sounds like a Drum the Bulk of the Belly is less burdensom than in an Ascites There were formerly pains about the Navel and Reins when the Patient lieth with his face upwards his Belly remains hard and stretched forth nor doth it turn aside when he turneth himself Lastly In an Anasarca not only the Belly Thighs and Leggs but also the Hands Arms Breast Face and whol Body swel and wheresoever you thrust your finger upon it it will pit and leave an impression The color of the Skin is pale and Earthy the Flesh soft and loose the Water thin and white breathing difficultly and somtimes a lingering Feaver As to the Prognostick Every Dropsie is dangerous and hard to be cured and the more hard by how much the elder but Anasarca is least dangerous but Ascites and Tympany are somtimes one more dangerous than another according to their Causes So if Ascites come from a Scirrhus of the Liver or Ulcer of some internal part it is more dangerous than a Tympany but if it come of drinking too much Water or new Obstructions it is less dangerous A Dropsie is more easily cured in Servants than in Free-men in Country men than in Noble men for they will be better constrained to abstain from Drink and the like and be more patient than they who have liberty A Dropsie from the hardness of the Spleen is less dangerous than from the hardness of the Liver because the Spleen is not so Noble a part A Dropsie coming upon an acute Disease is evil nor will it abate the Feaver but cause pain and death Hipp. 2. Prognost They whose Liver being full of water discharge it into the Omentum or Caul their Belly is filled with Water and they die Hipp. Aph. 55. Sect. 7. He who hath Water between the Skin or an Anasarca if that water which is in the Veins flows into the Belly the disease is cured Hipp. Aph. 14. Sect. 6. This Aphorism seems coutrary to the former But this contrariety is answered by saying that Hippocrates in the former by Belly understood the Cavity of the Abdomen but in this Belly its self for if the water flow through the Belly the Disease is at an end Which Opinion is more clearly explained by Hippocrates in Coacis in these words In the beginning of a Dropsie if there come a flux of the belly without
want of Concoction or Crudity it is prevented You must mark that it is in the beginning for if a flux come upon an old Dropsie it is not so safe because commonly there is some fault in the Bowels by continuance as a Scitrhus or corruption of substance which begets new matter and death also Henee Hipp. in Prorrh saith that they who are to be cured of the Dropsie must be Euspiagchnous that is those that have sound Bowels free from the great Diseases mentioned Otherwise if a flux of the Belly happen with a Scirrhus or corruption of the Liver they die presently as Galen shews 2. ad Glau. cap. 5. And Avicen saith thus Straitness of breath and flux of the belly signifie death within three daies Little Urine in Dropsies is evil the less the worse because the Drink runs into the Belly and not into the Reins Hence Hipp. in Coac saith Little and thick Urine and a Dropsie that is Feaverish is deadly but if the quantity of Urine encrease we may hope well Which is elegantly laid down by Celsus And then saith he there is hope of Health when they void more Urine than they drink Therefore it is good every day to measure the Urine and the Drink and the Belly with a string especially while Physick is given to see whether it grow less or not for if it encrease notwithstanding the Medicines it is desperate Imposthumes or spots in the Legs or Hydropical men are deadly Hippocrates confirms this 7. Epid. in the History of Bion and Ctesipthon the one whereof died presently after an imposthume which ran in his left Knee the other after he had a red and blewish gathering in his right Thigh Men that are cured by Medicines for Dropsies if they fall again into the same are desperate Hipp. in Coac For it signifieth that there is some incurable fault lurking in the Bowels which after the water is emptied reneweth it again If the Patient have sound Bowels and strength eat his meat and concoct well and be not sick after breath freely have no pain cough or thirst and his tongue grow not rough so much as in his sleep if Medicines presently purge him and if without Medicines he be bound and in a Natural order and if his Urine change according to his Diet or if he be not faint If all these things be present the Patient is recovered if some of them there is hopes of amendment if none he is desperate In a dry Dropsie to piss by drops is evil Hipp. in Coacis A Tympany in a Melanchollick Body is deadly and Remedies are given in vain If in a Leucophlegmatia a strong Diarrhoea follow the Disease is cured Hipp. Aph. 29. Sect. 7. but this Diarrhoea must be at the beginning or at least before the Disease be old or the strength of the Party weakened but if it happen when the Patient is weak it is dangerous The Cure of the Dropsie consists in the Evacuation of the Matter whether it be in the whol Body or in the Abdomen or Belly in taking away the Cause that produced that Matter and in strengthening of the Bowels especially the Liver The chief and most ordinary Causes are great Obstructions and Scirrhus or hard Tumors the Cure of which Diseases is to be taken out of their proper Chapters But if they will not suffice you must use these following which are more proper in Dropsies and vary them according to the variety of Causes and the Bodies sick And first you must give an ordinary Purge by an opening Apozeme that expels slegm and water made thus Take of the Roots of Eryngus Madder Smallage Parsley and Elicampane of each one ounce Valerian Asarabacca Dwarf-Elder and Flower deluce Roots of each half an ounce the Bark of the Roots of Capars and inward Bark of an Ash and Tamarisk of each six drams the Leavs of Agrimony Ceterach Maiden-hair Germander St. Johns-wort Wormwood and the lesser Centaury of each one handful Sold anella or wild Mercury half a handful the seeds of Carrots Parsley and Fennel of each half an ounce scraped Liquoris and Raisons stoned of each one ounce clean Senna one ounce and an half Agarick tied in a clout three drams the seeds of Dwarf-Elder and Jallap Roots of each one dram and an half Ginger and Cloves of each one dram Broom Elder and Tamarisk flowers of each one pugil Boyl them in equal parts of steeled Water and white Wine added towards the end to a pint and a quarter When it is strained dissolve therein Syrup of Succory with Rhubarb four ounces Make a cleer Apozeme aromatized with three drams of Cinnamon for four morning draughts After Universal Purging let the Patient take this following Pouder once a week Take of Clean Senna Gummy Turbith Hermodacts Dwarf-Elder seeds Jallan and Mechoacan of each one dram Cream of Tartar two drams Cambugia half a dram the pouder of Diamber Diarrhodon Abbatis and Fennel seeds of each one scruple Sugar candy three drams Make a Pouder of them all of which infuse two drams or two drams and an half all night in four ounces of white Wine Let him take the Wine and the Pouder in the morning The Syrup of Rhamus solutivus or Buckthorn made of the Juyce of its Fruit called Rhein Berries with Sugar given one ounce at a time doth wonderfully purge water It must be taken presently after Dinner Or give the Magistral Syrup made of the Decoction of the Apozeme afore mentioned the dose of Purgers being encreased or this following Take of the Juyce of Damask Roses two pints the Juyce of the Roots of Danewort Flowerdeluce Succory Leaves and Agrimony of each half a pint the seeds of Danewort Mechoacan Roots and of the best Rhubarb of each two ounces Spicknard three drams yellow Sanders two drams Crystal of Tartar one dram and an half infuse them a whol night and after a little boyling strain them then put as much white Sugar as is of the Liquor boyl it into a Syrup and add to it of the salt of Wormwood half an ounce Let him take two drams with opening Broth once in a week Or instead of this Syrup or at other times when it is not taken you may give these Pills which purge the evil Humors and also open Obstructions Take of the best Aloes steeped in the Juyce of Wormwood half an ounce Gum Ammoniack dissolved in Vinegar and strained the best Myrrh and Crocus Martis prepared with Sulphur of each three drams Salt of Wormwood and Tamarisk of each two drams Diagridium and Troches of Albandal of each one dram Saffron Ginger and Salgem of each one scruple With Oxymel of Squils make a Mass of Pills of which give half a dram twice in a week two hours before Dinner Also Purging Wines are much commended for the cure of the Dropsie of which there are divers Forms But these are best Take of the Roots of Asarabacca and Mechoacan of each two ounces the French Flowerdeluce and Bark of
Symptomes appear besides these which are not found in that nor mentioned by Authors nor belong to another Disease you may conjecture that it is the Scurvy The Chief are these which are not al sound in one Patient but one of them is sufficient to shew that the Disease is such The First most remarkable Sign is in the Gums Mouth and Teeth in the Gums redness itching and putrefaction and somtimes bleeding and stink which are somtimes in the Palate Jaws and Teeth which are loose and black The Second which is an evident Sign also is Spots in the Legs which at first are Red and after Purple blue and black Somtimes there are in the Legs broad spots black or blue or both these come from the serous filthy part of the blood which is unfit to nourish the body and therefore is sent by nature out of the Veins to the Skin by the Nausiosis of the Veins as Hippocrates saies of Fractures and this happens often in the Shins and Legs because nature useth to send the worst Humors to the most ignoble and remotest parts somtimes when there is more plenty of matter you shal find them in the back arms neck and face The third sign is shortness of Breath and straightness of the Breast which comes commonly from thick vapors arising from the Hypochondria that get to the Midriff as also from Tumors and swellings by wind of those parts that press upon the Midriff especially from the Twelling of the Sweet-bread which commonly in this Disease is fulled with gross Melancholly Hence the Patients complain not of their Breast but of the part affected whereby they feel the weight and by reason whereof the Breath is short as Eugalenus noted well who was much acquainted with this Disease and many Observations therein yet he knew not the cause of this weight namely the swelling of the Sweet-bread nor doth any that write hereof make mention of it Yet we observed it in My Lord Audeyer President of the Senate of Gratianopolis whom we thought had the Scurvy as you may reade in his History at length in our Observations Cent. 3. Obs 85. For being very lean we did easily perceive with our fingers a hardness in the Sweet-bread and by handling of the part he confessed that all his shortness of Breath and straightness came from thence The fourth sign is Laziness and heavineâ—s of Body especially in the Legs which comes from watery and foul Humors which come through the Veins to the Muscles and the whol Body The fifth sign is in the Urine which is divers as in Hypochondriack Melancholly but in this they somtimes differ because they are cleer and red like a Lye from the plenty of salt Humors The redness is higher and inclining to black by how much the more salt humor there is As in a Lixivium somtimes the Urine is very thick with a red thick sediment like the Pouder of Bricks and somtimes this Humor is so much that it causeth burning and pissing by drops especially in them who have this Disease from stoppage of the Hemorrhoids and after it is setled the third or fourth part of the Urinal is filled with thick and black filth which makes some think it to be the Stone or Ulcer of the Bladder Somtimes the Urine varieth without manifest cause to day thick to morrow thin now pale then yellow or red The sixth sign is from the Pulse which is now weak and unequal leaping or formicans that you would wonder he should live with it anon it is great and hard without Inflamation And this is to be observed That in time of fainting and swooning with which he is often troubled his Pulse is greatest and strongest Which comes from the Heart contending to cast out those vapors with which it is oppressed The seventh sign is pain in divers parts in the Thighs heavy and somtimes stretching somtimes Ostokopos or at the bone somtimes in the Shins Ankles Soals of the Feet in the taps of the Fingers in the Hips Knees and other Joynts or parts to which the Salt Humors flow somtimes in the Belly like the Chollerick Chollick and it comes from these Humors flowing upon the Caul these in the Arms Thighs and Legs are like those of the Pox and may wel deceive a Physitian in France where the Scurvy is rare and the Pox common But they may be thus distinguished The pains in the Pox are between the Joynts and if they stay long make knots and there are or have been then also other Symptomes of it as running of the Reins Ulcer of the Yard Bubo and the like or Uncleanness with Women But the Scurvy pains seize upon al parts indifferently and then there are other signs of it or at least a Melanchollick Constitution and the Matter is certainly known if the Patient wil truly say that he hath not been with unclean Women Which caused our suspicion in a Magistrate who had a long time great pain in his Feet Shins and Thighs and was brought very lean â—o that you would have thought that he had the Marasmus or Consumption And when no Medicines for a long time would do him good we from his Melanchollick Complexion and other signs especially because he leâ— a â—ost chast life and because for many yeers his Gums did bleed at certain times conjectured that it was the Scurvy and by using of things against that Disease for some time he was cured Somtimes those pains remain in the Hypochondria somtimes in the Loyns so that they are weak and can scarcego Hence this Disease is called Lumbago Somtimes the pains are like the Stone and the Urine is very red or black and if you do not diligently observe you will think they are bloody and that it comes from the Reins wounded by the Stone when it is from a scurvy salt Matter in the Spleen and parts adjacent sent into the Urine Some have Head-ach and heat at nights if they caught this Disease from stoppage of the Hemorrhoids by reason of the vapors which ascend and all the night after they are as in a Feaver all over their Bodies which the next morning vanisheth by sweating They have often the Tooth-ach without any evident reason or cause and it is not in one place but movable from one Tooth to another making them loose and they again fix of their own accord the pain and tumor being discussed Somtimes the pain of the Scurvy is in the sides imitating the Pleurisie from which it is easily distinguished because it is without a Feaver at least a strong one the breath is not hindered there is no Cough no spitting nor is the pain constant but coming by fits Also it will be in the Joynts and we must declare how it is distinguished from a true Arthritis or Joynt-gout The pain of the Joynts in the Scurvy is not fixed and constant in the same place but runs from one Joynt to another either on the same or on the contrary side somtimes
full by which means they make thin and fluid that thick earthy and salt humor and at length discuss it Moreover they have a certain preservative and opposing Vertue against the poyson of the Scurvy which is in the Melanchollick Humor Among these the chief is Dutch Scurvy-grass which is not in France Another is Cresses of both sorts but the Water-cress is best Brooklime Hors-Rhadish the lesser Celandine Woâ—mwood and Fumitory To which may be added many others but of less vertue and all they are such which can prepare correct and tame the Melanchollick Humor Hence it is that we directed the Cure against Hypochondriack Melancholly to be used here Those are Carduus Ceterach all the Capillar Herbs Hysop Germander Bettony Agrimony Borrage Bugloss Elicampane Asarum Ditch Dock Polypody of the Oak Capar Ash and Tamarisk barks Flowers of Elder Tamarisk and Dodder of Time In the choyce of these Plants you must alwaies observe this That you give the least quantity of hot things and that you alwaies mix with them cold or moderate things and in a greater quantity especially in hot Countries in which Melancholly is burnt And besides the Capillar Herbs with Borrage Bugloss and Agrimony before mentioned when there is a Feaver or we fear heat you may ad Endive Succory Sorrel Juyce of Citrons Lemmons Orrenges and also Spirit of Sulphur or Vitriol or whey Of these former Plants you may make many sorts of Medicines which are all gathered by Sennertus out of all Authors which every man may imitate as he pleaseth Yet this we must mark which all Authors mention That the aforesaid Plants work more powerfully if you â—ake their Juyce or make them into Conserves because the flying salt wherein all their vertue remaineth is gone by decoction as also if the Plant be dried We have used these following forms with good success Take of câ—eer Juyces of Water-cresses and Brook-lime of each one ounce the Juyce of Fumitory two ounces white Sugar two drams Make a Potion Or Take of the Juyce of Fumitory and Water-cresses of each two ounces mix them Or Take of the Juyces of Sorrel Fumitory and Water-cresses of each two ounces Miâ— them You may give more Juyce of Sorrel if you desire to cool more or Juyce of Lemmons oâ— thâ— like The power of the Medicines will be more to dissolve that sticking clammy Tartar if you add one dram of Salt of Tartar with Spirit of Sulphur or Vitriol one scruple or half a dram and because in the use of these Medicines we purge often it is good to infuse one dram or two of Senna all night in the said Juyces and give it every other day or every third day It is worth your while to give somtimes also some steeled Medicines such as we prescribed in Hypochondriack Melancholly as also the strengthening and opening Opiates and others as in wisdom you shall think fit And last Mineral Waters that are sharp and of Vitriol used in due season are very beneficial for the Cure of this Disease The End of the Twelfth Book THE THIRTEENTH BOOK OF THE PRACTICE OF PHYSICK Of the Diseases of the Mesentery Sweet-bread and Caule The PREFACE MAny Authors are very short in the explaining of the Diseases of the Mesentery Sweet-bread and Caul and the most of them have left them out because they are hard to be known and for the most part only from Dissection of dead Bodies as appears by stories in Schenkius Sennertus and others Yet they are very ordinary and usual from whence Fernelius saith That oftentimes there are causes of many Diseases in the Mesentery as of Choller Melancholly Diarrhoea Dysentery evil Habit Consumption Faintness of lingering Feavers Vomitings Chollicks Tumors and Imposthumes And Sylvius called the Mesentery the Mother of many Diseases by others she is called the Physitians Nurse We may say the same of the Sweet-bread and Caul for they are ignoble parts and as it were sinks of the Body to which the noble Members do send their Excrements And although these parts as all other are subject to all kinds of Diseases Similary Organical and Common and many Symptomes arise from them yet we will only speak of those which are most in practice and comprehend this Book in five Chapters The first shall be of the Obstruction of the Mesentery The second of the Inflamation of the Mesentery The third of the Imposthume Scirrhus and Vlcer of the Mesentery The fourth of the Diseases of the Sweet-bread The fifth of the Diseases of the Caul Chap. 1. Of the Obstruction of the Mesentery THese Obstructions in the Mesentery come of the same Causes which are mentioned in the Obstructions of the Liver and Spleen but they happen more easily and more often by reason of the straitness of the Meseraick Veins and especially of the Milky Veins which carry the Chylous Matter to the place of the second Concoction and when that Chylous Matter is filled with crude and thick juyce it comes to pass that not having a free passage it sticks in those little Veins and makes Obstructions Also the Meseraick Veins are stopped by thick Humors sent from the Liver Spleen and other parts and there continuing till they grow thicker so that somtimes they cause a Scirrhus With these Humors somtimes gross Vapors are mixed which use to be the cause of great Symptomes To the Obstruction or rather making narrow of these Veins we refer compression which comes from the Glandles which are spread through the whol substance of the Mesentery for when these grow beyond measure as in those who have the Kings Evil or Struma they compress the Meseraick Veins and hinder both the passage of the Chylus and of the Blood The Signs of these Obstructions are to be divided into three kinds as we did in the Obstructions of the Liver namely into such as shew the Disease the Part affected or the Cause The Signs of the Disease that is of the Obstructions lying in the Hypochondria and also the Signs of the Causes are the same with the Obstruction of the Liver and Spleen and are from that Chapter to be taken But those Signs which properly shew the peculiar Disease of the Mesentery are stretching and resistance in the middle of the Belly and under the Stomach and about the Navel a weight in the same parts and somtimes a dull pain and somtimes a most sharp when wind is contained in those parts somtimes there is pain in the back because the Mesentery is tied to that part there is rumbling in the Belly belching and vapors flying to the Head from whence come divers Symptomes and lastly all those which use to happen in Hypochondriack Melancholly signifie Obstruction of the Mesentery because that also proceeds and is maintained by the same Obstructions As for the Prognostick This Disease of its self is not dangerous because an ignoble part can endure great evils without danger of death moreover you may apply strong Medicines for the Cure which being well administred
do commonly bring about the desired effect except Hypochondriack Melancholly rise from thence which useth to be called the shame of Physitians by reason of the rebellious Nature of the Melanchollick Humor But because this part hath not exquisite sence and the Obstructions do not alwaies greatly disturb the Patient they are often neglected and become the causes of other most dangerous diseases The Cure of this Disease is the same with that of the Obstruction of the Liver and you must fetch it from the Chapter treating thereof Chap. 2. Of the Inflamation of the Mesentery WHen the Mesentery as I said is as it were the sink into which the Noble Parts do send their superfluous Excrements which afterwards are sent forth by Nature either by Vomit or Stool as you may see in some who send abundance of Humors forth at divers times by Vomit and Stool if those Evacuations be hindered by stoppage of the waies by which they are made or by any other cause those Humors which are there detained staying long in the part do get a preternatural heat from whence come putrefactions inflamations divers Feavers and imposthumes But an Inflamation is peculiarly made when blood heaped up in the Meseraick Veins by the opening of some branch is sent into the substance of the Mesentery but because by reason of Obstructions it is chiefly gathered in those Veins therefore all the causes of Obstructions may be referred to the Causes of Inflamation For the making of this Inflamation that sharpness and gnawing of the Humors gathered together do much conduce a fall or stroak upon the Belly the weakness of the attractive concoction or retentive faculty of the Liver too much heat of the body or inordinate use of cooling things the critical motion of Nature in malignant Diseases or smal Pox by which it sends the peccant Humors into this sink a Diarrhoea or Dysentery suddenly stopped The signs of the Inflamation of the Mesentery are a lingering Feaver without Thirst and great Symptomes want of Appetite a sence of stretching and heaviness beneath the Stomach without great hardness and which is not felt but by the hand pressing of it and without pain worth the speaking of because the part is of dull sence Chollerick stools which commonly hath thin matter without pain somtimes pure somtimes mixed with Excrements If the Mesentery be only inflamed all the aforesaid Symptomes are milder But if the Liver or Spleen or Guts are also inflamed all the Symptomes are stronger And besides the signs of the aforesaid parts affected will appear which are to be taken out of their proper Chapters And because the Inflamation and Imposthume of this part are very hard to be known if they be alone by reason of the dull sence of the part and because it performeth no action in the body whose hinderance may be perceived but only serveth for the distribution of the Chylus and the Blood therefore they are rather to be discovered by consequence than directly and according to artificial conjecture namely when there is a Feaver and other Symptomes and no sign of the Liver Spleen or Guts distempered A half Tertian Ague sheweth that the Guts are inflamed with the Mesentery which Spigelius observed to come commonly from the Inflamation of these parts Also this Difease is distinguished from the inflamation of the Muscles of the Belly because the Tumor and pain is enlarged according to their proportion and they are commonly long or over the whol belly and more in the outward parts so that they are perceived by the least touch and they use to bring great pain and a Feaver Lastly This Disease is to be distinguished from the Humors of the Midriff which have been as yet known to few Physitians for in them there is alwaies great difficulty of breathing removing of the Hypochondria a Pulse hard and smal without any sence of Tumor in the Hypochondria And if the Tumor come of a hot cause a sharp Feaver great pain doting and Convulsions do follow which Symptomes never happen when the Mesentery is only inflamed As for the Prognostick This Disease is very dangerous for it either ends in an imposthume or there follows a rottenness and corruption of the Mesentery Oftentimes the Matter of the Disease is sent by Nature another way and yet is not clean taken away whence the Disease returns and continues for many yeers somtimes till death now with a Feaver then a Chollick or Inflamation The Cure of the Inflamation of the Mesentery is not unlike to that of the Liver and Spleen and therefore you must peruse that Chap. 3. Of the Imposthume Vlcer and Scirrhus of the Mesentery THe Inflamation of the Mesentery often turneth into an Imposthume yet every Imposthume thereof is not from Inflamation but many times from vitious Humors therein contained which putrefie so that these Imposthumes come by degrees without a Feaver afore going or other great Symptomes as we see in other parts when Atheromata Steatomata and Melicerides and other kinds of Imposthumes are bred without Inflamation going before And when they are broken the Matter being voided there remains an Ulcer which is hard to be cured â—â—t if those Humorsare very flegmatick or Melanchollick and resist putrefaction they grow and somtimes are hardened and turn to a Scirrhus somtimes they are as hard as a stone as many affirm who have fouâ— stonâ—â— in the Mesentery The Knowledg of the Imposthume in the Mesentery is somtimes easie somtimes hard for if it comes from an Inflamation of that part that being perceived by the â—igns in the former Chapter it is a sign that the Inflamation could not be discussed but suppurated and turned into an Imposthume But when an Imposthume comes from evil Humors remaining long in the Mesentery and at length putrefying it is hard to know it so that many Authors who have written Observations upon such kind of Imposthumes say that they never were known but after death when the Bodies were opened For although for the most part they may be known by the touch yet somtimes they lie so deep that they cannot be touched and the part being dull in sence that they will not be discovered by pain But because they come divers waies they must be thus distinguished If the Imposthume of the Mesentery hath a visible Tumor it is first to be diâ—cerned from an Inflamation and a Scirrhus It is distinguished from an inflamation if it come not from it when there is no Feaver or at least but smal when none went before nor any other signs that may sâ—ew an Inflamation but if it follow an Inflamation it can no other waies be distinguished than by hardness continuance for if the signs of Inflamation have continued twenty or thirty daies it is a sign that it is turned into an Imposthume It is distinguished from a Scirrhus by hardness which is great in a Scirrhus but in an Imposthume there is some kind of softness as also by the want
of pain altogether for in an Imposthume there is alwaies some pain especially if it be pressed hard Moreover this Tumor is distinguished from the Tumor of other parts by the Scituation thereof as we said before of the Inflamation of the Mesentery But if the Imposthume lie in the Mesentery without any visible Tumor there can be no certain sign but by an artificial conjecture we may suspect namely if there be loathing of Meat or vomiting without manifest fault of the Stomach and a great fulness after little Meat weariness of the whol Body and fainting without manifest cause if the Belly be unaccustomarily bound or loose and void stinking Excrements and somtimes bloody without suspicion of a Dysentery To these you may add great watchings and if they sleep they faint and have great Sweats And though somtimes there appear neither Feaver nor pain yet there is commonly an obscure one of which if there appear no manifest cause we must conjecture that it comes from this Disease especially if any of the aforesaid signs be joyned there with as also if the Abdomen be violently pressed the Patient will perceive some inward pain it is true that by violent compression you may cause pain in sound places but if you perceive more pain in one part than in another after all parts have been pressed and when that part is alwaies most pained and the more by pressing you may strongly conjecture that the imposthume is there If at length there come forth Matter then the Imposthume will be manifest Commonly it is voided by stool of divers sorts according to the disposition of the part affected and of those adjacent Hence one while the Matter is pure and white in great plenty without sence of pain when it is sent by the Meseraick Veins into the Guts somtimes when the Imposthume is in the thick and lowest Guts the Matter is mixed with the Excreâ—ents somtimes it is sent to the Reins and cast forth by Urine somtimes being sent in great quantities between the Peritonaeum and the Muscles of the Abdomen it falls into the Cavity of the Belly by breaking of the Peritonaeum or breaks outwardly by an Imposthume so that a great quantity of Matter flows from the Navel and somtimes Worms therewith through the corruption of the Mesentery And that which sent forth by stool which is the usual is somtimes white and laudable as was said somtimes mixed with blood or water somtimes black blood and stinking somtimes other black Matter or of divers colors But whether this purulent Matter come from the Mesentery Liver Spleen or other part it is known by the proper signs of every part affected When the Imposthume is broken and the Matter floweth it is certain that there is an Ulcer in the Mesentery which somtimes is quickly cured and somtimes it is of long continuance and brings rottenness upon the whol part and a Gangrene As for the Prognostick The Imposthume of the Mesentery is dangerous for if it continue long in the part as it often happens it breeds filthy rottenness or a Gangrene or brings the Patient into a Consumption or Dropsie If it break and the Ulcer be not quickly cured but gets an evil condition it hath the like event a Gangrene Consumption or Dropsie Somtimes when the Imposthume is broken and very stinking Matter is sent into the Cavity of the Belly the Patient dies suddenly The Scirrhus or hard Tumor of the Mesentery is lest dangerous and if it be new will admit of a Cure but if it be old it brings the Patient to a Dropsie The Cure of these Diseases is to be varied according to the diversity of them And first an Imposthume bred requires opening and evacuation and it must be softened with opening and purging Medicines such as are laid down in the Obstructions of the Liver and Spleen not omitting outward Softeners and Looseners Fomentations Cataplasms and Liniments which do make the Matter of the Imposthume thin and open the passages that the Matter may better be voided After the Imposthume is opened you must clense the Ulcer and heal it for which purpose the Remedies mentioned in the Cure of the Ulcers of the Stomach Liver Reins and Womb are very good of which a wise Physitian may take his choyce according to the divers dispositions both of the Bodies and the Diseases And a Scirrhus of the Mesentery is cured with the same Medicines which are set down for the Cure of the Scirrhus or hard Swelling of the Liver and Spleen Chap. 4. Of the Diseases of the Pancreas or Sweet-bread THe Ancient Anatomists knew no action of the Pancreas or Sweet-bread but the use only namely to prop the Vessels least they should be in danger of breaking and to be instead of a Pillow to the Stomach least when it is full it should be hurt by the hardness of the Vertebrae or Back-bone But the Modern Anatomists have ascribed very great action unto it namely the first preparation of the Chyle and clensing of it so that it may be brought to the Liver more pure which the milky Veins seem to confirm because they are dispersed through the Pancreas Besides in the middle of it there is an open passage which goes to the Guts by which it is probable that the Excrements of the Chyle are purged therefore the Pancreas hath its Diseases which hurt the whol Body especially Obstructions and Tumors as the Mesentery hath namely when the Chylous Matter is crude and thick and is brought to it from the Stomach not sufficiently digested and when it doth not freely flow from it Riolanus observed a Scirrhus of the Pancreas in Augustine Thuanus that wrote the History of his Times most elegantly in Latin who when he had for four yeers among other Symptomes a heaviness continually in his Stomach especially when he walked or stood still without Swelling or hardness in the Hypochondria had a Pancreas as big as his Liver after he was dead hard and Scirrhus full of knots like Pidgeons Eggs. But because the Pancreas is covered with the Stomach its Tumors are scarce to be felt and this is the cause because there is no mention commonly of them and they have been found only after death Yet you may make a handsom Conjecture of them from what Riolanus observed in Thuanus namely If there be a sence of weight or heaviness in the Stomach and no Tumor or hardness in the Hypochondria and other signs of Obstructions than are mentioned in the Obstructions of the Liver Spleen and Mesentery To which you may add pain and other Symptomes of the Stomach by reason of its neerness shortness of breath by reason of the compression of the Diaphragma By which signs we suppose that the Lord Audeyerius President of the Senate of Gratianopolis had a Scirrhus of the Pancreas and we could perceive it by touching by putting our hand deep to the sides of the Stomach about the middle because he was lean and we found a
hardness there which being touched pained him the story whereof is at larger related in our 81. Observation Cent. 3. And in the knowledg of the Scurvy we observed which none that ever wrote thereof did That in all Scurvyes there is a Tumor of the Pancreas because you may find a straightness oppression and weight in the Region of the Stomach And this Sign is laid down for a cleer one by Eugalenus Sennertus and others There are some stories in Authors of Imposthumes found in the Pancreas which were not discovered while the Patients lived But by the Symptomes they had they may be partly known as some like those of the Scirrhus to which you may joyn these a lingering Feaver which is the companion of almost all inward Imposthumes much watching short sleep and after it pain swooning and cold sweats The Cure of the Obstruction Scirrhus and Imposthume of the Pancreas is the same with those of the Liver Spleen and Mesentery There you may fetch Medicines from the Chapters concerning them Chap. 5. Of the Diseases of the Caul or Omentum BEcause the Omentum is a soft part and fat fit by reason of its loosness to receive Humors that come from other parts It is subject to divers Diseases as the Mesentery and Pancreas And these are not described by Authors because they can scare be seen in living men but only by Anatomy as you may see in some Stories in our Observations Vesalius saith that he saw in a Body opened an Omentum so swoln that is weighed five pounds when in its Natural condition it would weigh scare half a pound Roussetus in lib. de partu Caesareo reports that in Paris there was found a great Imposthume in the Omentum Riolanus in his Anthropographia saith that he saw an Omentum in a Noble Youth of ninteen yeers of age so full of kernels by which it received abundance of filthy Humors the Mesentery and Pancreas being imposthumated and the Spleen almost consumed We also saw a Scirrhus Omentum in a Fryar of Montpelior all over the lower part of the Belly and four fingers thick it was of the color of the Spleen so that it was probable that it was caused by Melancholly from thence because he was of a Melanchollick temper and the passage is very open by the branches of the Spleen Veins to the Omentum by which branches as Hippocrates teacheth the water in a Dropsie is brought from the Spleen to the Omentum from which by degrees it distils into the Cavity of the Abdomen But because the swelling of the Omentum can by no means be distinguished from that of the Mesentery therefore we cannot appoint a distinct knowledg It is true that the Tumors of the Omentum are easier known at the first touch because it is immediately under the Peritonaeum but the Mesentery is so united to it and the Muscles of the lower Belly that they are sent forth by suppuration through the Navel or other external parts Yet this Difficulty of Knowledg doth not hinder the Cure because the same Medicines serve for all Tumors that are alike in all the parts of the belly but the Cure is worse to be made in the Omentum because it hath not fit way as other parts have for the purging of its self The End of the Thirteenth Book THE FOURTEENTH BOOK OF THE PRACTICE OF PHYSICK Of the Diseases of the Reins and Bladder The PREFACE THE Reins and Bladder have divers and all sorts of Diseases both Similary Organical and Common from which divers Symptomes arise both in the actions hurt and also in the fault of the Evacuations We will comprehend the chief in Nine Chapters The First shall be of the Stone in the Kidneys and the pain of the Reins called Dolor Nephriticus The Second of the Stone in the Bladder The Third of the Inflamation of the Reins and Bladder The Fourth of Pissing of Blood The Fifth of the Vlcer of the Reins and Bladder The Sixth of Diabetes or Involuntary pissing The Seventh of the not holding of the Water The Eighth of Ischuria or stoppage of the Water and Strangury The Ninth of Dysuria or scattering of the Vrine Chap. 1. Of the Stone in the Kidneyes and Pain in the Reins called Dolor Nephriticus THat is called Dolor Nephriticus which doth afflict the Ureters or Reins the common people call it the Stone-Chollick because of the great affinity it hath with the Chollick so that it is hard to distinguish them as you shall see in the Diagnostick or Signs The Cause of this Pain in manifold but chiefly the stone or thick flegm A stone continuing in the Reins causeth either little or no pain because the substance of the Reins hath little Sence but if it fall upon the Head of the Ureters or get into the passage and distend it and cannot be brought to the Bladder by reason of its greatness then it causeth grievous pain But gross flegm fastened upon the Ureters doth distend them and causeth the Nephritical pain The less ordinary Causes are thick blood fixed in the Ureters or thick Matter coming from the Kidneyes or other parts somtimes wind gets into the Cavity and causeth great pain There are many Controversies in Authors about the stone which is the chief and usual cause of the pain of the Reins which we shall not accurately declare but only touch those things which are necessary to declare its Nature and Causes And first they doubt under what kind of Disease they should reckon the stone Galen placeth it among the Diseases in number of those things which are wholly besides Nature as also the Worms For though a Disease in number properly doth respect living parts whose number being encreased or diminished maketh an organical Disease yet those things which are preternaturally added to the number of those things of which the Body is compounded ought to be referred to the Diseases in number so that somtimes the bare qualities are somtimes referred to Diseases in number when they do immediately hurt the actions as yellowness in the Eye of one that hath the Jaundice a noise in the Ears and a bitter tast upon the Tongue Oftentimes the stone is reckoned among Causes of Diseases as it breeds Obstruction or Distention It may also be placed among the Symptomes those that are voided or retained for if it be retained in the Kidneys Reins or Bladder when it should be voided it is to be reckoned among those things that are preternaturally retained but when it is voided it is to be reckoned among those that are voided wholly against Nature But there is more difficulty about the cause of the stone both material and efficient Galen and his posterity thought that flegm was the material cause of the stone which is thick and slimy fit to be hardened and as they say of late faeculent slimy and Tartarous and heat the efficient which drieth and hardeneth that matter and at length turneth it into a stone Which Doctrine
joyned with Earth like themselves by the force of the efficient cause they may be stones So we see in Wines turned to Tartar but Tartar calcined goes all into Salt which shews that it is chiefly made of Salt So in Urines that have much Salt especially in those which have slimy matter we see a tartarous Matter cleaving to the glass This Salt Matter which is mixed with the Urine comes from Meat and Drink so affected and they are cast forth in a sound Body nor are they retained in the Reins when the efficient Cause is absent We have called the efficient Cause Spiritum Lapidisicum or a Spirit that makes a stone Fernelius calls it a stony disposition which is in the Reins commonly Haereditarily But we like the foremost Title best For first some have stones which have them not Haereditarily if they eat or drink things that breed them because in them there is both the Material and Efficient Cause therefore the Hermets impute the Efficient Cause of stones to their proper seeds which in a Matter rightly disposed produce their form Moreover Many Histories shew that Stones come from a Stone making Spirit of Men Beasts and other things turned into Stones by a Breath or Spirit out of the Earth So in Aventinus lib. 7. Annal. Bavar an 1343. that more than fifty Country men and their Cows were turned into Stones And so saies Ortellius in his Description of Russia of whol Heards of Cattel So also Camerarius reports of a South wind that bloweth some times of the yeer in the Province of Chilo in Armenia by the blasts whereof whol Troops of Horses are suddenly turned into Statues of Stone and stand in the same rank and file in which they were This Stone making Spirit is not only in the Reins of those which have this Disease but also in the Juyce of those things that are eaten and drunk separated from them so that somtimes both come together Hence it is that some that eat but any Meats that incline to the breeding of the stone do presently produce it because there is a Stone-breeding disposition or Stone-making Spirit in their Reins But if their Reins be free from this Spirit such meat will not breed stones because their stone-making force is not strong enough without the assistance of the Reins to convert that matter into stone On the Contrary if the stone-making power be greater in the meats that are taken and they are often eaten stones will be bred although the Kidneys have no such disposition or stone-making Spirit So we see in divers places where the Water or Wine are full of stone-making juyce the greatest part of the Inhabitants are subject to the stone as we may see in Ovid concerning the Thracians in these Verses The Thracian Waters all things Marble make Their Guts turn Stone that inwardly them take And contrary If there be that stone-making vertue in the Kidneys it makes stones of any nourishment though never so wholsom So about three yeers since I saw one who for three or four months voided more than twelve little stones every day by Urine when all that while he kept his bed very sick and fed only upon Broth and Panadoes The Antecedent and Primary Causes either respect the supply of Matter for the stone or the constitution of the Reins by reason whereof the stones do more easily grow The Stomach Liver Spleen and Reins do much cause the breeding and heaping up of Matter for the stone chiefly the Stomach if it do not wel concoct there is a crude Chyle brought to the Liver and from thence impure and Earthy Juyces are sent with the Serum or Water into the Reins A hot liver doth bake the Chylous Matter and makes it fit to breed a stone as also being too cold it makes crude blood most fit for the same purpose A Spleen weak or stopped or otherwise disturbed doth not sufficiently purge the drossie part of the blood but sends part of it to the Reins which will more easily be turned into a stone And lastly the Reins besides their conjunct cause which is a stony disposition are an Antecedent Cause in two respects namely in respect of their Temper and of their Form In regard of their hot Temper they more violently draw the Stone-making Matter and thicken it more but in respect of their Form they are an Antecedent Cause if the Emulgent Veins are more loose so that that thick and Tartarous Matter may be more easily received into the Reins or if the Ureters and those Vessels that send the serous Matter to them be too narrow so that the thick Matter hath not a free passage but is retained in the Reins Thick and slimy Nourishment doth chiefly afford Matter for the Stone such as are full of Salt as Beef Pork Hairs Geese or things dried in the Smoak or poudered as Salt-fish Shel-fish Eeles Pulse Chees and all Milk meats hard Eggs Chesnuts Pears Quinces Medlars unleavened Bread and Rice thick Wine sharp or black or new Wine not purged standing Waters and such as are full of stone-breeding Juyce To these add very hot Meats as Pepper Ginger Garlick Onions old strong Wine which makes the Liver and Reins too hot too strong Diureticks which carry the Matter that will cause the Disease too violently to the Reins thick Garments Down Beds Baths inordinate Lechery which is a great Enemy to the Reins violent Exercue especially after meat too much feeding or long fasting great anger and other passions The Signs of the Stone taken by themselves are equivocal and common to other Diseases but if you consider them all together you may have certain Knowledg by them The First Sign is a fixed pain about the Loyns somtimes heavy when the Stone is fastened to the substance which being of a dull sence hath a weighty pain but as often as the Stone gets into the Head of the Ureters then it causeth a sharp and pricking pain and this is called the Nephritical pain or pain of the Reins and it continueth while the stone is there neither will it cease to torment the Patient till the stone get into the Cavity of the Bladder or turn back into the hollow of the Kidneyes The Second Sign is bloody Urine which comes from the opening or corrosion of the Veins which are dispersed into the substance of the Reins which comes from the rubbing of the Stone that sticks in the substance but if there be but little blood voided being mixed with Urine it looseth its color so that the Urine looks like a Lye This Sign is not alwaies but somtimes depends upon other causes But when it doth appear it is one of the chief which distinguisheth the Stone from the Chollick It useth to be caused by riding much walking and other violent exercise for then the stone if it be rough and snaggy being removed from its place doth cut and tear the tender Flesh of the Kidneyes The Third Sign is thin Urine
like Clay or snot in the bottom of the Vrinal a certain sign of a great stone in the bladder But because there is nothing constant in man it is not to be admired that some that have this Disease have not this sign as when the stone is smal as we observed m Cardinal Paleotus Now the cause of this muddy Excrement hath shewed in another place So far Zechius but where he shewed the cause of it we could never find But we plainly shewed it in former Chapter when we said that this snot-like matter is the proper Excrement of the bladder distempered when it cannot concoct the great quantity of blood and superfluous humors which are sent thither and turn them into its self but turns them into that consistence like snot and this evil disposition of the bladder comes from the stone therein Let that be perused for it maketh much for the understanding of what hath been said But there still remaineth one difficulty for some have dayly flegmatick slimy matter in their Urine and yet are free from the stone in the bladder And Cardanus reports of an Augustine Monk called Leo that shewed him often so much congealed flegm in the bottom of the Chamber pot as was bigger than a Goose Egg and yet he had not the Stone To this doubt we answer That the slimy matter that comes from the bladder is to be distinguished from that which comes from other parts because that which comes from the bladder is more clammy and glutinous so that it sticks fast to the bottom of the Pot or Urinal and cannot be shaken off when the Urine is powred forth but that which is from other parts doth so cleave but comes presently forth with the Urine Experience hath taught me this which hiterto no Author ever yet observed This clamminess comes from the Nature of the Bladder which is a Membrane and apt to produce this glewiness as you may see Glew is made of Membranous Skins of Beasts This tough glutinous Matter I say comes from the evil disposition of the bladder which is caused by the stone there and we can thus prove it besides what hath been said Because we have known a Child twelve yeers old that had a stone in the Bladder and pissed continually a glutinous matter that cleaved to the bottom of the Glass And after the stone was cut forth he voided the same for a month but afterwards none at all Which cleerly shews that that Matter comes from the evil disposition of the Bladder which could not presently be cured after the Bladder was cured that matter appeared no more which shews that it came from no other part but the bladder For a Conclusion of this let us take notice That whensoever this slimy matter appears with all the aforesaid conditions there is a stone in the Bladder but when it doth not appear it doth not follow that there is no stone for it often happeneth that the stone is smooth or little and so doth not hurt the bladder and then the Urine is alwaies cleer This is a true sign that there is a stone when it appears but when it is absent it is not a sign of no stone Nor would this Objection or rather Cavil become a wise man because from our Observation before mentioned we proved that such matter might be voided by Urine and yet no stone in the bladder for it was cut forth It is sufficient that either a Stone was lately there which was the cause of this Disease and so this kind of Matter signifieth either a Stone there now or lately hath been there The last sign is by tryal with the Catheter and putting the finger into the Anus which operation must be used to take away all doubt for the most part it doth for somtimes the Stone is covered with slimy matter so that the Cutters themselves are deceived thereby But the Catheter is more uncertain than the finger by which you may not be certain of the Stones being there but of the form and bigness of it As for the Prognostick of this Disease It is alwaies painful and dangerous painful because only very smal stones can pass through the Neck of the Bladder The great ones if like flint cannot be dissolved if soft like Chalk or brittle they may be dissolved with long use of powerful Medicines which for the most part the Patients wil not stick to and therefore they are seldom cured therefore there is often cutting which how terrible it is dayly Experience wil declare because many die under the Operation Hence Hippocrates in his Oath commands his Disciples that they use it not but leave it to men of that Profession only But in Women the Operation is less dangerous because their Passage for Urine is wider and it may be done without cutting only by enlarging the part The way of Cure is the same with that of the Kidneys first Evacuation of the antecedent matter Revulsion and hindering of the breeding of it and let the Matter conjunct or the Stone it self be diminished worn away or dissolved for which there are good Medicines in the Chapter aforegoing Of which the distilled Water of Onions is most excellent by which continued twenty daies we saw a stone bigger than a Bean thrown out of the Bladder But the best Authors and Experience teach That things taken at the mouth cannot dissolve the Stone in the Bladder Hence it is that we commonly refer them to the Cutter But because there are many stories of men cured by such Medicines we wil speak of the chief that every one may try them if he please before he go to the terrible Chyrurgion Somtimes the Stone is so soft and newly congealed that it is not impossible to dissolve it but hard flinty stones cannot Horatius Augenius Tom. 2. Epist Med. Lib. 9. Epist 8. I saith he have twice seen the stone broken in the Bladder Once by chance I had the same of one Janetus a Printer at Rome in cure whom I purged that he might be cut with more safety For he had tried all the Venetian and Florentine Physitians But when nothing did him good be sent for the Priest to consult about his soul and resolved to be cut The Priest being a Jesuite and hearing his Confession and the condition of his Disease told him a Medicine of which he had made tryal in himself and others He tryed and was cured in the space of nine daies The Medicine was this Take of the Pouder of Hog-lice or Sows one dram or four scruples at the most Aqua vitae half an ounce red Pease Broth nine or ten ounces Let him take it five hours before dinner I cured one of eighteen yeers of age of a hot and dry complexion by taking away some part of the Aqua vitae and gave it him but every other day and at other daies of Bean and Strawberry Water of each five ounces with six drops of Oyl of Vitriol and one ounce of the
Julep of Violets to cool him thus Take of the pouder of Sows prepared one scruple Aqua vitae two scruples red Pease Broth eight ounces Mix them and give it six hours before meat Thus Augenius Sennertus in his Chapter of the Stone in the Bladder tels a famous story of William Lauremberg Professor of Rostoch who being old and troubled with the stone was unwilling to be cut and therfore sought for other Remedies First he tried the famous Water against the Stone which is so much prized by Princes which is thus made Take of Salt of white Tartar one ounce Parsley Water one pint Mix them and strain them with a brown Paper and with Orange peels make it yellow He used also the Indian Jewel called in Spanish Igiada which is most famous for breaking the Stone but both to no purpose Therfore be desired to make tryal of the Medicine of Sows which Horatius Augenius saith cured two yong men In imitation of whom after general Physick and good Diet he took of Sows one scruple the Spirit of Juniper two scruples red Pease Broth ten ounces which he took in the morning but the first and second time he found a straightness in his Breast and a fainting so that he was constrained to take one dram of Treacle with the Potion and so used it fifteen daies but all this while he voided no gravel And then he added other things and made it thus Take of prepared Sows two ounces a Hares and Goats Blood prepared wild Rose Flowers and purple Violet seeds of each one ounce Species Lithontribi two scruples mix them for an Antidote of which take two scruples the Diuretick Decoction ten ounces the Spirit of Juniper two scruples Which Medicine after he had taken it the second time at five a clock in the morning four hours after he felt a great pain under the Os Publis about the Neck of the Bladder A little after he made a little Water and therewith some thin red things like scales of fishes which though they seemed to be slimy yet when they were touched turned to sand So that it plainly appeared that they were the outside of the Stone By the continuance of this Medicine every fourth or fifth day he voided the like scales and somtimes bigger pieces especially when he used a sweet bath But when the neck of the bladder was wounded by the fragments and the stone he used Medicines to asswage pain and by the use of these Medicines was in seventeen months cured The Decoction was Take of Liquoris four scruples Roots of Marsh-mallows Couch-grass Rest-harrow of each half an ounce Winter Cherries twenty red Pease six ounces Raisons one ounce the four great cold Seeds of each one scruple Barley two handfuls Boyl them in Winter Cherry Water Rest-harrow Strawberry and Bean Flower Water of each one pint and an half to the straining add of the Syrup of Marsh-mallows four ounces The Sows are thus prepared Take of live Sows two pound wash them in Rest-harrow Water then drown them in Spanish Wine then powr the Wine out and put them in Glasses the more Glasses the better because then they will dry better Put these Glasses well stopt into the Oven when the Bread is drawn that they may dry gently till they will pouder then put some Spanish Wine upon this Pouder as much as it will take in and dry it again do so thrice and fourthly wash it with this Liquor Take of Straw-berry Water three ounces Spirit of Vitriol half a dram mix them Then dry it and make it fine and keep it in a Glass for your use Besides the aforesaid the use of the distilled Water of Goats blood or of the Urin of a Goat newly slain which was formerly mentioned in the Stone of the Kidneys If the Stone cannot be broken with Medicines necessity requireth the manual operation though it be dangerous lest the Patient die with lingering pain This requires a skilful and wel exercised Artist and that it may have good success as we have observed It is the Duty of the Physitian before the operation to prepare the body by bleeding purging and diet as the state of the business requireth And observe that the taking away of a stone from a Woman hath no danger because it is done only by enlarging the Passage of the Urine which in them is very short If the Patient fear cutting or want a good Chyrurgion he may use asswaging Medicines least the Stone should cut and ulcerate the neck of the bladder such as are prescribed for heat of Urine But if a stone fastened in the neck of the bladder stop the Urine it must be shaken back with lying upon the back with the leg up and the body shaked and then by a good somentation or bath and with a Catheter let the stone be sent back into the bladder Chap. 3. Of the Inflamation of the Reins and Bladder BEcause the Inflamation of the Reins and Bladder are cured with the same Medicines therefore we will put them in the same Chapter although the Signs are different as shall be shewed This Inflamation is a Tumor of those Parts from the flowing of Blood or Choller unto them This is not very ordinary because the substance of those parts is solid and thick but somtimes it happeneth because the Kidneys are fleshy and apt to receive blood but the Bladder though it be without blood and spermatick because it receives blood for its Nourishment through the smal Veins is without question subject to Inflamation by too much blood as other Membranes of the Brain or Meninges the Pleura Mediastinum and the like We said that these Inflamations come from Blood or Choller as when Flegm or Melancholly in the Blood make the parts thicker because they cannot pierce into their thick substance The Causes of this Disease are either from things Natural not Natural or Pretematural From Natural things when there is a Natural Infirmity of those parts from the Parents or a great loosness of them a great heat originally in them by which they draw plenty of Humors In Youth these conduce much to an Inflamation From things not Natural as much Venery which weakeneth those parts and draws much blood or other Humors to them Gluttony Drunkenness and eating of Salt and Spiced Meats great Passions of the Mind lying upon the back in a soft bed great Exercise stoppage of some great Eâ—acuations as of the Months and Hemorrhoids or usual bleeding at the Nose those things which cause repletion and evil concoction and drive the humors to the inward bowels From Preternatural things as a stroak or wound upon the Reins or about the Bladder a pressing or bruise of those parts constant Feavers foulness of the Vessels or other parts that purge themselves by Urine as in a Pleurisie Empyema or imposthume in the side Obstruction of the Spleen breaking of the Mesentery and the like And lastly Disease of those parts do cause Inflamation as the stone
or drops in the Vrine and pain in the lower part of the Belly the Pecten or Perinaeum these have their disease from the Bladder If it come from the stone the signs thereof which are mentioned in its proper Chapter wil appear if they do not you must conclude that it comes from too much blood or sharpness thereof The abundance of blood wil be known by the signs of repletion and sharpness by the signs of Choller or Melancholly predominating also salt flegm in the Urine wil make a great stoppage of Urine and pissing of blood this hapneth often in old men that are very apt to be troubled with salt flegm And the pissing of blood from sharp humors is distinguished from that in the stone that in which there were first pains of the Reins and voiding of stones but not in the other whose Urine is cleer with no strange things therein And the Disease proceeds not only from immoderate Exercise which is ordinary to both causes but also from the passions of the mind when it comes from sharp humors which are much stirred up by passions so that they who are subject to this Disease after Anger and Sadness or great disturbance of the mind use commonly to piss blood As for the Prognostick A plentiful and often pissing of blood is very dangerous for it wil bring either a Consumption or a Dropsie And if it continue long it may cause an Ulcer in that part from whence the blood floweth if much blood flow at one time it wil cause a great stoppage of Urine in the Bladder or some other evil Symptomes as it encreaseth therein and grows evil qualified The Cure of this Disease is divers according to the variety of the cause And first if it come from blood abounding or from sharpness it must be first cured with Phlebotomy on the same side often and little for the better revulsion And by Cupping Friction and Ligatures in the upper parts and if blood flow violently Cupping-glasses must be applied to the Hypochondria For derivation let the Vein of the Ancle be opened and the Hemorrhoids When watery Chollerick Humors cause it let them be purged with Medicines mentioned in spitting of blood often repeated at distance To which also you may add these following at your discretion Take of the Pouder of torrefied Rhubarb one dram prepared Coral half a scruple Goats Whey or Plantane Water three ounces Make a Potion Take of Cassia newly drawn half an ounce the Pulp of Tamarinds six drams Eastern Bolearmenick half a scruple With Sugar make a Bolus After due Evacuations and Revulsions or at that time if need require you may use things to stop blood and knit the Veins And these are not presently to be used at the first left being stopped too suddenly it should grow cloddy in some part For this purpose the Juyce of Plantane newly drawn is much commended given four or five ounces in a morning and evening which is good for any kind of bleeding But if you fear it will cool the Stomach too much you may boyl it a little with Sugar Sheeps Milk is much commended by Forestus Lib. 24. Observ 13. Often saith he I have cured pissing of blood with only Sheeps Milk six ounces and one dram of Bole-armenick The same is an Experience of Gatinaria who also commands that none do sleep presently or exercise after it Also Hollerius and Duretus from Avicen and Hippocrates commend the same Also Decoctions of Knot-grass Horstail Purslain and Bramble tops are good for this adding the third part of the Juyce of sharp Pomegranates or Quinces Or to allay the heat of the Blood let him take the Apozeme following many times morning and evening Take of Lettice Purslain Plantane and Comphry of each one handful all the cold seeds of each one dram Jujubes three pair Liquoris half an ounce Water-lillies Violets and Roses of each one pugil boyl them to a pint and an half In the straining dissolve of Gum Traganth one dram and an half Syrup of Violets and dried Roses of each one ounce and an half Lapis prunellae half an ounce the Troches of Winter-cherries without Opium half a dram Make a Julep for four Doses To thicken and stop the blood more put one ounce of Syrup of Poppies thereto Also you may give the Pouders that stop blood as of red Coral Blood-stone Bole-armenick fealed Earth either with the Apozeme or with Rose or Plantane Water If the Disease continue give this Opiate Take of Conserve of Roses and Comphry Roots of each two ounces Sealed Earth Bole-armenick Sanguis Draconis red Coral Blood-stone and Troches of Amber of each one dram Hypocystis or Conserve of Sloes Kermes berries and Plantane seeds of each one scruple with Syrup of Poppies and Myrtles of each equal parts make an Opiate of which let him take the bigness of a Chesnut morning and evening drinking after a little Plantane Water If it yet continue it is good to give at distance the Decoction of Myrobalans in Whey or the like Hollerius affirms and Duâ—etus that the Troches of Gordonius are the best for it Christopher Vega commends the Troches of Amber given with Plantane Water and saith that he cured this Disease with giving them only once at night For ordinary Drink give the Infusion of Mastich wood in Wine made thus Take of sliced Mastich wood one ounce spring Water four ounces Infuse them in Balneo Mariae very warm in a close Vessel Keep the straining for your use But because clods of blood are often retained in the bladder which beget grievous Symptomes give warm Water and Vinegar or Mallow Water and sharp Vinegar warm Let the Vinegar be so little that it is scarce tasted Apply Topicks to the Loyns that cool and astringe Take of Snakeweed and Comphry Roots of each one ounce Plantane Purslain Hors-tail Knot-grass and Sbepheards-purse of each one handful Pomegranate peels half an ounce Sumach and Myrtle berries and Hypocystis of each two drams Acron Cups red and yellow Sanders of each one dram red Roses three pugils boyl them in Smiths Water and a little Vinegar With the straining let the Reins be fomented hot Of the same Decoction you may make a Bath to sit in adding more simples Take of Vnguentum Comitissae and refrigerans Galeni of each one ounce and an half wash it with Oxycrate and anoint the Loyns therewith Or to bind more Take of the Juyce of Plantane and Blood-wort of each two ounces Vinegar half an ounce Oyl Olive six ounces boyl them till the Juyces be consumed then add of Sanguis Draconis Mastich and Pomegranate peels of each two drams Camphire half a dram Vnguentum Comitissae four drams Wax as much as will make a Liniment put a little Vinegar to it when you use it Also a Plate of Lead ful of holes worn about the Reins is good You must guard the Liver when it comes from sharp Humors with Epithems and Oyntments When it comes from the
Also the Passage is stopped by the Stone by a Crude and Thick Humor by a Clod of Blood or Matter Besides The Urine may be stopt by a Tumor in some part nigh to the neck of the Bladder from the swelling of the Womb from the Excrements in the straight Gut or from the Hemorrhoids growing big Somtimes it comes from the long holding of the Water by which the Bladder is so stretched that it cannot contract it self to expel Urine by which stretching the passage is stopt and contracted Now the Bladder is filled by Urine too long detained two waies First when a sound man by urgent occasions in the Market Senate Church Banquet Running and the like holds his Urine for want of opportunity to void it which stretcheth it so that it cannot again contract it self and the pricking of the Urine is not perceived by reason of its dull sence from the distemper of the Nerves which come thither when those Nerves which are for the contracting of the Muscle are well and sound which Galen saith befel one 6. de loc aff cap. 4. when his Back bone was strained That is called a bastard Ischuria in which the Urine is stopped and the bladder empty because no Water descends into it There is a two-fold Cause why no Urine comes to the Bladder either because the Kidneys do not draw that wherof the Urin is made and send it down or because the Ureters wil not receive it therfore either the attractive or expulsive Faculty of the Reins is hurt The attractive or drawing Faculty is hurt by the Error of the Object or in its self This is from a strong distemper especially cold or from some stoppage in the Reins or in the Emulgent Veins These Obstructions proceed from the Stone thick flegm or Matter that falls down thither The obstruction of the Emulgents comes somtimes from too much blood or serous Matter a Story whereof we have in our Observations Observ I. Cent. I. By the fault of the Object the attraction of the Reins is hindered when the serum or water is spent as in burning Feavers or sent to other parts as in a Dropsie The Expulsive Faculty is hurt by the same Causes namely distemper the stone clods of blood matter or gross flegm or Inflamation The Ureters do not receive the Serum nor send it to the Bladder by reason of Inflamations or Obstruction by the Stone a clod of Blood Matter or thick flegm or by a compression from some humor in a part adjacent We must observe that both Kidneyes or Ureters are affected for the total stoppage of Urine for if one be open the Urine may pass The aforesaid Causes if they be violent may make a total Obstruction of Urine which is called Ischuria but if they be smal or remiss they make only an evacuation in part which is called a Strangury and both Diseases come from the same cause different in degrees A true Ischuria is known by the weight and enlarging of the lower part of the belly and by a Tumor in form like the bladder The Causes are known by things aforegoing or that accompany it For if it come from too great a quantity of Urine which hinders the Contraction of the Bladder the Patient wil tel you how that he forbore to piss by reason of long riding or the presence of some people of Honor and that before he never had any distemper in those parts But if he hath had a Delirium a Palsey or the like you may refer the stoppage to them The Stoppage which comes from Tumors of those or the adjacent parts or other Causes before mentioned wil be known by their proper Signs The stopping of the passage of the Bladder is known by a searing Candle put in or a Catheter which if they cannot pierce but are stopped by the way shew that there is a either stone or a Caruncle or a little Excrescens of flesh or the like in the passage And these are to be distinguished for if it be a Stone there was formerly a pain of the Reins whether it came from the Bladder or Reins If a Caruncle there was a stinking Gonorrhoea or running of the Reins or an Ulcer in the passage of the Yard that did long run And lastly If there be a Clod of Blood or Matter or Flegm you shal see some part of it come out of the Yard or it wil stick to the Catheter A Bastard Ischuria is hence known There is neither extension nor Tumor nor weight about the Privities but rather a kind of emptiness thereabout there is no desire to piss no tickling in the bladder and no Urine made there went before the signs of the Stone in the Kidneys or Ureters or of Inflamation or great fulness or much drink was taken which was not plentifully pissed forth whence the Veins might be swoln or else there is a burning Feaver or a Dropsie which signifie the revulsion and turning away of the Water or serous Matter As to the Prognostick The stoppage of Urine is very dangerous and if it continue above seven daies it is deadly for the Serum being retained in the Veins doth oppress the Liver infect the blood and runs into the whol body it brings danger of choaking and being carried to the brain produceth a Coma or kind of Lethargy The stoppage of Urine which comes from the back being wounded or by a fall or straining of the Vertebrae or back-bone is incurable If the Patient stink of Piss at his mouth or nose it is deadly If a Tenasmus or Needing follow a suppression of Urine it is death in seven daies And also if the Hiccough follow upon it The Cure of the stoppage of Urine whether it be total or partial must be by aiming at the Causes And first that supprestion which is called spurious and depends upon the Diseases of the Reins or Ureters is to be found in the Cure of the Inflamation pain or stone of the Kidneys that which comes from the fulness of the Emulgent Veins is to be cured by large bleeding and Medicines that purge Water A true Ischuria is cured by things that take away the cause and first if it come from Inflamation of the bladder or parts adjoyning you may find Medicines for it in the Cure of the Inflamation of the bladder But if it come from a stone in the neck of the bladder you must use these Remedies following First you must lay the Patient upon his Back with his Thighs lifted up and then shake him soundly to make the stone return into the Bladder And if this wil not do it use the Catheter But if the stone be in the passage of the Yard and you must labor to get it out with your fingers gently stroaking it to the end of the Yard and you must put the Yard into warm Water or Milk or the Patient into a Bath to open the Passage But if you can neither get it out nor in Practitioners say that you
under the name of Dysuria being they come all of the same Causes and are cured by the same Medicines The immediate Cause of painful pissing is a solution of continuity in the Sphincter Muscle or the passage of the Bladder and therefore whatsoever can cause a wound in those parts may cause heat of Urine The most usual Cause is sharpness of Urine somtimes without mixture of other Humors which is caused by a hot distemper of the Bowels or of the whol Body or by eating of hot and sharp Meats but it often comes by mixture of hot and sharp Humors as Choller and salt Flegm Somtimes matter coming from the Reins or Bladder being ulcerated may cause such a sharpness of Urine Somtimes a white Humor like Milk comes plentifully forth with the Urine and causeth scalding which is commonly thought to be Matter from the Reins but Sennertus denies it for this Reason For if all the Reins were turned into Matter they could not afford so much as is many times voided at once every day for a week together And he supposeth that it comes from an evil Concoction first of the Stomach then of the Liver because the error of the first Concoction cannot be mended in the second hence the Chylus and then the Blood remains crude not freed from its Salt and Tartar-like parts which ought to be separated in the first Concoction and they being after sucked into the Reins and sent to the Bladder cause pain in pissing He saith that he was brought to be of this Judgment because a Learned man who was troubled some weeks with heat of Urine which he voided plentifully with half an Urinal ful of such white Matter was when nothing else could asswage his violent pains cured only with drinking of Sack Also a stone in the Bladder if it strike against the Neck of it in time of pissing causeth pain and also large Gravel which grates upon the passage of the Urine Also Inflamation or Ulcer of those parts causeth heat of Urine because the sence is more quick at that time and though the Urine be wel tempered it is troublesom as we see externally how the least touch is offensive to a sore place So in a Gonorrhoea as long as the Parastates are inflamed there is a continual heat of Urine The Knowledg of this Disease is evident for the Patient is forced to roar somtimes with pain But you must distinguish the Signs of the Causes thus If it come from sharpness of Urine it wil be thin and high colored somtimes like fire or there wil be a visible mixture of Choller Flegm or Matter the Bowels wil be distempered or the Patient hath eaten hot and sharp meats and endured great heat The Stone and Inflamation of those parts are known by their proper Signs As for the Prognostick This Disease of it self is not dangerous but very painful and according to the cause it is somtimes hard to be cured especially in old men which if they be decrepit die thereof and in all ages if it continue long it ulcerateth the neck of the Bladder The Cure is first by taking away the Cause And therefore if it come from the Stone Inflamation or Ulcer you must cure them according to the Rules in their proper Chapters But these things after mentioned wil be good to allay the Symptome They who have it from the sharpness of Urine mixed with hot Humors are to be cured by the Medicines following And first Phlebotomy is good to correct the distemper of the Liver and other parts This must be often according to the Plethory and Inflamation first from the right Arm to evacuate and revel the Matter and after in the lower Veins to derive it from the part affected for which cause Hippocrates and Galen who followed him do command the lower Veins to be opened in Diseases of all parts beneath the Reins Purging also is good of mild and gentle things that cool lest the heat be encreased Therefore do not give any thing but a Bolus of Cassia alone and indeed that is best But you may make it cooler if you add the Pulp of Tamarinds Or you may mix it with the Decoction of Lettice Purslain and Mallow Tops and give it many daies together that the sharp Humors may be brought back from the part by stool But if you desire to purge more by reason of the plenty of Humors use this following Take Lettice Purslain Plantane and Mallow tops of each half a handful Tamarinds half an ounce yellow Myrobalans one dram boyl them to six ounces and add to it strained one ounce of Cassia strain it again and then add one dram and an half of Rhubarb infused in Lettice Water with yellow Sanders Manna and Syrup of Roses of each one ounce Make a Potion In an old Dysury the purging Opiate prescribed in the Ulcer of the Bladder is very good A gentle Vomit is excellent for it revelleth from that part affected and hinders those inconveniences which use to come by purging Therefore give it once or twice in a week to them that can vomit easily By often Clysters the sharp Humors are not only brought to the Guts and sent out by degrees but the distemper of the parts is qualified They are made thus Take of Marsh-mallow Roots one ounce Mallows Violets and Lettice of each one handful Water Lillies and clensed Barley of each one pugil boyl them to a pint Dissolve in the straining Cassia new drawn one ounce one Egg and two ounces of Oyl of Violets Make a Clyster The Mucilages of Seeds of Marsh-mallows Quinces and Foenugreek may be mixed with Clysters to asswage pain But Clysters of Milk only or mixed with the aforesaid things use to be so powerful to allay heat and pain that we have known some of long continuance cured by them alone and a Bath whereof we wil speak hereafter Experience hath found out many things good to be taken at the mouth to allay heat and to correct the distemper of the parts The chief are these following Take of Water Purslain Lettice Roses and Water Lillies of each one ounce Syrup of Violets and Water-lillies of each six drams Sal prunellae one dram Mix them for a Julep repeat it often Take of Marsh-mallow Roots one ounce Lettice Endive Purslain and Mallow tops of each one handful Melone Guord Mallows Lettice and white Poppy seeds of each three drams Jujubes and Sebestens of each six pair Violets Roses and Water-lillies of each one pugil boyl them in a pint and an half Dissolve in the straining Syrup of Violets Jujubes and Poppies of each one ounce and an half Sal prunellae half an ounce make a Julep for four Doses to be taken twice in a day Emulsions also may be used although they be Diuretick because they cool and clense the passage of the Bladder Make them thus Take of the four great cold Seeds and white Poppy Seeds of each three drams sweet Almonds blanched and infused in cold Water
thick slimy and crude Humors coming commonly from evil Diet for these Virgins drink great draughts of Water at bed-time or in the morning fasting or eat Vinegar Herbs unripe Fruits Snow or Ice hence it is that they lose their Natural heat and there is abundance of crude Excrements Others sleep too much or are very idle as Seamsters which by sitting stil al day are very cold Others watch too much and use unseasonable exercise as dauncing presently after meat and so continuing with their Sweet-hearts all night Moreover they have great cares and disturbances of mind by which the Concoction is destroyed and the Body filled with evil Juyce The Knowledge of this Disease is easie from the Symptomes following First The Face and all the Body is pale and white somtimes of a Lead color blew or green for crude flegmatick and â—erous Humors abounding and being carried to the habit of the body do discolor it and if Choller or Melancholly be mixed with that flegm the color wil be yellowish greenish or blew The Second is Swelling in the Face and Eye-lids especially after sleep because the motive heat being closed and contracted at night raised more vapors than it could discuss The Leggs also and Feet especially about the Ankles and the whol Body is loose and soft by reason of the abundance of flegm Thirdly Heaviness and Idleness in the whol Body a lazy stretching forth of the Leggs from the Humors being fallen down Fourthly There is difficult breathing especially when they move themselves or go up Hils or steep places then the thick blood grows warm and thence arise many vapors which cause shortness of breathing Fifthly There is Palpitation of the Heart and beating of the Arteries in the Temples when the Body is exercised by reason of the same evaporation which is raised from thick Humors heated by Exercise Sixthly There is often a great Head-ach and somtimes in the hinder part of the Head when the Womb suffers but in the Forehead when the vapors arise most from the Hypochondria Seventhly The Pulse is swift and quick as if they were in a Feaver and therefore this Disease is called the white Feaver by reason of the quickness of the Pulse which is so for this reason The vital faculty being weak makes the Pulâ—e little therefore Nature supplies the smalness of it with often beating Eightly The sleep is very sound they sleep til midnight except they be forcibly awaked and this is from many thick vapors which arise from the filthy flegm Ninthly There is a great loathing of wholsom meat by reason of the great collection of Crudities in the Stomach and parts adjacent and these Humors when they grow worse cause the Pica or longing for things that are not to be eaten Lastly When the evil encreaseth and the Obstructions are multiplied the Terms stop which shews the Disease to be at the height and confirmed As for the Prognostick That Disease commonly is not dangerous and continueth a long time But if it be too much neglected and suffered to take root so that the Nourishment is hindered there follow great Diseases of the Natural parts as Scirrhous and other Tumors and corruption of the substance of them which cause death by Dropsies long Feavers and the like When the Disease is less and comes only from the Obstruction of the Veins of the Womb in yong women it is cured by Marriage Women that have long been in this Disease either are barren or their Children are diseased and weak There is great hope of recovery when the Terms keep their ordinary course and their due quantity and quality The Cure of this Disease is by opening Obstructions by emptying of the filthy Humors from the whol Body and correcting the distemper of the Bowels and strengthening of them The Obstructions are taken away by the Medicines which were mentioned in the Cure of the Obstructions of the Liver and Spleen adding some things which respect the Womb and that are more proper to open those Veins First then give a purging Medicine agreeable to the Patients temper made of gentle things to clense the first Region only and a Clyster before it if the Body be bound Then open a Vein if the Disease be not very old and the Maid very much without blood and inclining to an evil habit Let the Vein of the Arm be opened first although the Terms be stopped for if then you draw blood from the Foot the Obstructions of the Veins of the Womb will be greater by their fulness And if the Liver be most stopped take blood from the right Arm if the Spleen from the left After you have bled sufficiently you must give an ordinary Purge by way of an Apozeme such as was prescribed in the Cure of the Obstructions of the Liver To which you may add some Herbs that are proper to the Womb as Mugwort Feaverfew Peny-royal and if the Spleen be stopped you may add proper things for that as Capar barks Ceterach or Spleenwort Harts-tongue It the temper be Chollerick and there be signs of a hot and dry Liver you must take all the hot simples out of the Apozeme and put in cold openers instead thereof For the more delicate Virgins instead of Apozemes you may give the Broths prescribed in the aforesaid Cure of the Liver and change the simples as we said of the Apozeme In the mean while you may use Fomentations and Liniments prescribed in the same Chapter not only to the Liver but to the Spleen and Womb. After Purging 〈◊〉 this Bath following to open and loosen the Vessels and to dissolve and digest the Matter 〈◊〉 Obstructions which are of such force that we have known somtimes the Terms to begin to flow at the third or fourth bathing when they have formerly been long stopped Take of Marsh-mallow Roots Lilly Roots Elicampane Briony wild Cucumer of each two pound Mallows Violets Mercury Penyroyal Feaverfew Balm of each four handfuls Linseed and Fenugreek beaten of two ounces boyl them in spring Water for a Bath Let her go into it warm twice in a day not sweating long before and after meat for two daies renewing each day the Decoction The day after the last Bath if the Terms be stopped let the lower Veins be opened and take away three ounces of blood and this may be done twice or thrice at that time in which the Terms used to flow Or if they never did appear at that time in which the Patient is most asslicted After these Medicines to strengthen the Bowels and to wear away the reliques of the Obstructions an opening and strengthening Opiate wil do very wel described in the place mentioned to which you may add two drams of Foecula Brioniae and as much of Salt of Mugwort But because somtimes the Obstructions are so great that they wil not presently be cured you must make a Magistral Syrup of the Ingredients to the Apozeme before mentioned with an encrease of the purging Medicines in quantity and
let the Patient take it twice or thrice in a month The ordinary Pils mentioned in the Cure of the stoppage of the Liver are most excellent to which you may add the Medicines there mentioned of Tartar Vitriol and Steel Zacutus Lusitanus Observ 99. Lib. 2. reports of a certain Woman which had the Green-sickness ten yeers with stoppage of her Terms and could not be cured with divers opening and purging Medicines and some made of Steel that he cured her with nothing but Conserve of Mugwort given thirty daies together drinking after it the distilled Water of Savin in which Rhubarb had been a whol night insused The same Zacutus Observ 117. Lib. 3. tels of a Virgin which eating much Salt every day felinto a Diarrhoea of Choller mixed with a Consumption which he cured after general Medicines with Goats Milk steeled and cold things applied to the Liver In the greatest Obstructions an Issue made in the right or left Legg as the Liver or Spleen is affected is very good After the Obstructions are opened you must diseuss the flegm like serous humors that remain in the Veins and in the habit of the Body by sweats for which you must use the Decoction of Guajacum in cold Constitutions or of China and Sarsa in those that are hot for fifteen or twenty daies with this Caution That every fourth or fifth day you give a Purge to clense the Bowels of Humors which cannot be sent forth by sweat and which if they continue wil grow hard and putrefie and be the occasion of Feavers and other Diseases For this Purpose you may use Brimstone Baths both for drink and bathing for by the drinking thereof when the passages are first open by the Medicines aforesaid the Humor that is contained in the first and second Region of the Body is clensed and sent forth by the belly and urine and the third Region is clensed by sweating in them And lastly Copulation if it may be legally done after the use of opening Medicines is very good for thereby the Natural heat is stirred up in parts Natural by which the Vessels of the Womb are much enlarged And Experience teacheth that somtimes these Women have their Terms the first night after Marriage and that others who in good health have them before their accustomed time Chap. 2. Of the stoppage of the Terms THe Terms are said to be stopped when in a Woman ripe of Age which gives not suck and is not with Child there is a seldom smal or no evacuation of blood by the Womb which used to be every month The cause of this stoppage is either in the Womb or in its Vessels or in the blood which comes or ought to come that way Divers Diseases of the Womb may cause this Disease namely a cold Distemper and dry which thickeneth and bindeth the Body of the Womb or a hot and dry distemper by drying the part or burning up the nourishment thereof from whence come evil humors which being fastened in the part hinder the Terms from flowing Also the Organical Diseases of those parts as inflamation or scirrhus the turning of the inward mouth thereof or compression from the Tumors of the parts adjacent or the Omentum or Caul growing too thick The thickness of the Womb it self Ulcer or Scars which they leave or from the tearing of the Cotyledones or Mouths of the Vessels in a great Abortion The Vessels of the Womb do often suffer Obstruction which is the chief cause of stopping of the Terms and they come from cold and thick Humors somtimes there is a suppression of those Veins by binding of them and that is from the parts adjacent being stretched and swoln as we said in the binding or closing of the Womb. The blood offending either in quantity quality or motion may be cause of the obstruction of the Courses It offends in quantity when it is too much or too little too much when it stretcheth out the Veins so that they cannot contract themselves to expel it as in the bladder when it is too full of Urine it cannot contract it self to send it forth too little when the Body hath not blood enough to nourish it The blood offends in quality when it is thicker and more slimy of its own Nature by reason of the cold distemper of the Liver and other parts or from the mixture of thick and flegmatick or melanchollick humors from whence commonly Obstructions come The blood offends in motion when it passeth other waies as by the Nose vomiting spittle urine hemorrhoids and many other parts I saw a Maid who had a Sore in her head which opened every month and bled plentifully and we have seen many that have sent forth blood at fixed times by their Lungs and this evacuation was instead of a Menstrual flux The external Causes are cold and dry Air Northern winds often going into cold water especially in the time of their flux too little or two much meat either too thick and cold or too astringent also hot things as too much Salt and Spice by drying of the substance of the Liver and other parts and by drying up the blood by which it groweth thick and fit to stop violent exercise and watchings which do consume the blood long sleep and idleness which do weaken the Natural heat and cause Crudities too long retaining of Excrements by usual bleeding at the Nose Hemorrhoids Diarrhoea and other evacuations by vomit urine or sweat and lastly great passions of the mind anger sudden fear sorrow jealousie and the like The Knowledge of this is to be taken from the Patients relation but because it comes either from Natural or Preternatural Causes we shal lay down some distinguishing signs left the Physitian be deceived by Women that would dissemble their being with Child and left he should rashly prescribe Medicines to provoke Terms to Women with Child First If they be with Child they have commonly their Natural Complexion but others are pale and ill colored Secondly The Symptomes which Women with Child have at the first do dayly decrease but in others stoppage of the Terms by how much the longer the Terms stop by so much the more the Symptomes encrease Thirdly In Women with Child after the third Month you may perceive the Scituation and Motion of the Infant by laying your hand upon the inferior Belly in others there is a Tumor to be felt but it is oedematous or flegmatick not hard neither is it proportionable to the Womb. Fourthly If a wise Midwife touch the inward Mouth of the Womb it will not be so close shut as in women with Child but rather hard and contracted and full of pain Fiftly Women with Child are commonly merry and little disturbed but when the Terms are otherwise stopped they are sad and sorrowful The Signs of the Causes are these The faults of the Womb which use to cause stoppage of the Terms shal be laid down in the following Chapters but the greatest
part of them is found out by touching seeing and relation of the Patients The Obstruction and straightness of the Vessels of the Womb are known by pain in the Loyns and parts adjacent especially in the time the Terms should flow and if any thing flow at that time it is slimy white and blackish Now the Diseases of the adjacent parts which may shut the mouth of the Womb or the Veins will appear by their proper signs You may know the abounding of blood in the Veins by the swelling of the Veins in the Thighs and Arms especially if the Woman be fleshy and red and have fed high You may suppose there is want of blood if the Woman be fat if she have had a long Feaver went before or loathing of meat The evil quality of the blood is known by the evil habit of the Body by the distemper of the Liver and other parts and especially by the blood it self if you can see some of it The preposterous motion of the blood when it flows another way is manifest of it self As to the Prognostick The stoppage of the Terms is very dangerous and many great diseases come thereof and some in the Womb it self as swellings imposthumes and Ulcers others in the whol Body and divers parts thereof as Feavers Obstructions evil Habits Loathing Dropsie Heart-ach Cough short Breathing Fainting sore Eyes Madness Melancholly Headach Joynt-gout and the like Hippocrates Lib. 1. of Womens Diseases hath shewed the encrease of Diseases from the stopping of the Terms in these words The third month after the stoppage of the Terms they begin to feel suffocations or shortness of breath with horrors heaviness of the Loyns and somtimes a Feaver But if it last long the Belly grows hard they piss much they loath meat and watch much they grate their Teeth in sleep and if they continue longer stopped the pains will be greater but in the sixth month that Disease which was formerly curable will be then incurable then she wil be troubled in mind and faint vomit flegm thirsty the Belly about the Privities will be pained there will be a Feaver and the Body bound and the Urine stopped the Back will ach and she will stammer Afterwards the Leggs Feet and Belly will swell and the Urine be red bloody and pain over all the Body especially the Neck and Back-bone and Groyns and so they die of a Dropsie Thus far Hippocrates But here is a doubt because the Author saith That in the sixt month the Disease is incurable when Experience teacheth the contrary and Hippocrates himself 4. Epid. reports that a Maid who had her Terms stopped for seven Yeers was restored to health by the return of them Hippocrates may be reconciled to himself by saying That after six months the Disease is incurable when the Terms are in the Body or Cavity of the Womb because there they putrefie and come to suppuration as in the After-birth or Blood retained But this is not to be understood of every Suppuration That Stoppage is least dangerous which comes from plenty of good Blood or fat bleeding or other Evacuations because those Causes may easily be removed That is harder to be cured which comes from heaviness of Humors Obstruction of Vessels or straitness because that stubborn Humor getting into the innermost passages cannot be got forth but by long pains and Medicines which Women are very unwilling to receive That stoppage which cometh from the distemper only of the Womb is worst because the part being hurt by propriety is hard to be cured by reason of the continual flux of Humors which the part is disposed to receive and therefore is called the Jakes of the whol Body The Cure of this Disease is divers according to the variety of the Causes And first if it come from too much blood you must abate the quantity by Phlebotomy in the Arm for if the lower veins should be first opened the blood would be drawn more to the Womb where it would make greater obstruction and distention of Vessels and break them or cause Inflamation of the Womb. After the Plethory or abundance of blood is taken away you must draw the blood down by opening the lower Veins about the time that the Patient used before to be clensed as also by Frictions Ligatures Cupping-glasses dry and with Scarrification These things done you must relax and soften the parts of the Womb with Fomentations and Baths and moistening Unguents which if they cannot master the Disease you may give Hysterical Purges and such as do properly provoke the Terms which we shal after descrhibe cusing the mildest If want of Blood be the cause as after long Feavers great Evacuations and Extenuation of the Body you must not provoke them till you have used Restoratives and blood be renewed and whatsoever is the cause of extenuation be removed which things being done the Terms do commonly flow of themselves which if they do not but Nature forgets her office you must open the inferior Veins and use the Medicines afore mentioned so that you take not away too much blood becaus the strength is little and lest the Patient fal into a Consumption But here you must diligently mark That every extenuation of the body doth not signifie want of blood but only after great evacuations consuming Causes for it comes to pass somtimes that the Terms stopt in the Veins get an evil quality which makes the blood unfit to nourish hence comes leanness although the Veins be filled with much bad blood and then large bleeding is very good as Galen confirms Comment 3. in Lib. 6. Epid. I saith he cured a Woman that had her Courses stopped eight months when she was lean by drawing much blood as also others But what happened to that famous Woman was remarkable I opened a Vein when other Physitians feared the success and were against me saying that it must hurt her not only because she was lean but also because she had no stomach to eat But these yong Physitians had a more Sophistical way to observe what happened to the Patients and to neglect the affects and Causes which are the ground of Cure I took to my best remembrance the first day a pint and an half of blood from the woman the next day one pint the third not above half a pint or eight ounces Thus Galen By which it is manifest That from lean women of this disease you may take a great quantity of blood although the women of our Age will not endure it The stoppage of the Courses comes from a preposterous motion of the blood when it is sent forth by the Nose Vomiting spitting or Hemorrhoids and the like The Cure is by repelling it from those parts and bringing it to the passage of the Womb. First while they bleed you must wash Arms Head and Face with cold Water and keep them from the use of those parts especially loud speaking then you must open a Vein beneath Two or three daies
a drachm Saffron one scruple With clarified Honey make all into a Pessarie which put into a warm thin rag and conveigh into the Womb but let it not abide long there for fear of inflamation Pilulae Cochiae minores brought into the form of a Pessarie doth excellently move the Courses Also injections are wont to be made into the Womb which are wont to be called Womb-Clysters for they wash away the filth which cleaves to the sides of the Womb and they open the internal Orifices of the Veins Now they are made of the Decoction of the Fomentation aforesaid â—leaving out the more sharp things or with a Decoction of fat Figs with Mugwort Penyroyal and Mercury or of the juyce of Mercury alone purified in which a little Benedicta Laxativa is dissolved For we must by no meanes use more sharp Ingredients for fear of Inflamation Yea and after the use of the aforesaid Injections which ought to be retained but an hour it will be good to Inject a Decoction of Mallows Barley and Violet leaves or a little Hydromel tempered with Whey of Goats-Milk In an old inveterate Disease Issues made in the Legs may do very much good For although Sennertus approves not of them because they rather derive from the Womb and teach the humors which were wont to flow unto the Womb to come rather that way and hinder their inclinations to the Womb Yet have they been found to do much good by the frequent experiences of Mercurialis Varandaeus and others For by those Issues the superfluous humors are continually evacuated and the Course of the humors is guided into the inferior parts And the derivation of superfluous humors from the Womb is so far from hindring the Flux of Courses to the Womb that it rather furthers the same by making the Blood more pure and more obedient to the command of Nature which with the Humors aforesaid is not drawn unto the Issues And hereunto that these Humors if they be not by these waies evacuated being retained inthe Veins they double the Obstructions and so do augment the suppression of Courses Howbeit We are of opinion that the menstrual purgations being restored to their due Course the Issues ought to be closed up that Nature may accustome her self to exclude superfluous Humors by the Womb. In the Use of the Remedies aforesaid some precepts are to be observed worthy of Note First That we must never use Medicines that move the Courses but after Universal Purgations least the Humors being plentifully carried to the Veins of the Womb should increase Obstructions or being much attenuated should reach into other parts of the Body and produce grievous Diseases As Schenkius relates in his Observations that a Physitian of Venice gave a Woman that wanted her Courses a certain Apozeme to move them not having first purged her Body of Flegm and a little after she had taken her Apozeme she fell into a Palsey Secondly That in giving such things as bring down the Courses we must begin with the gentler proceeding by little and little to such as are stronger Thirdly That Medicaments procuring the Flux of the Courses must be given in greater quantity than ordinary because their vertue is abated in their long passage from the Stomach unto the Womb. Fourthly That the Medicaments aforesaid are to be given either in the morning when the Patient is fasting or somtimes at her going into or coming out of the Bath For so the Medicine slipping into a warm and opened Body doth powerfully exercise it's strength and this it doth yet more effectually if it be given a little before the inferior Veins be opened Fifthly That Pessaries and Womb-Clysters or Injections are only to be prescribed to married Women and such as have been carnally imbraced by Men but to Virgins we must prescribe Nascalia viz. Wool dipped in the Medicament Fomentations Baths to sit in and Suffumagations Sixtly In Cholerick or Melanchollick Constitutions all hot Medicaments are to be avoided and only the gentler and milder sort are to be used and with them temperate Aperitines or openers as also moistning and softning Medicaments are to be mixed Chap. 3. Of the Immoderate Flux of the Courses WOmens monthly Courses being moderate in quantity and flowing in due season are Natural But if they exceed in quantity or come too often or stay too long They are to be accounted Immoderate and besides the intent of Nature The Causes of this Immoderate coming down of the Courses are the same which we in it's proper place have shewed do concur to Cause spitting of Blood viz. An opening of the ends of the Veins a soaking of the blood through the Coates of the Veins a forcible rending of the Veins and heir being eaten through by sharp humors all which are caused by the bloods over great abundance Heat Thinness or Sharpness By some blow fall or wound Which we have at large declared in our Speculations touching spitting of blood so that it is needless here to repeat the same Let the reader be pleased to peruse that Chapter The Signes of this Infirmity are either of the Disease it self or of it's Cause Immoderate Flux of the Courses is known by the il-bearing of the Patient decay of strength want of appetite to meat indigestion of Humors ill Habit of the whole Body colour of face like a dead Corps swelling of the Legs and other more grievous maladies caused by decay of Natural heat past away in the Blood To know the Causes observe these signes following A thin Habit of Body and softness of the Flesh with such a diet as tends to increase the wheyish and thinner parts of the Blood and especially the Blood it self appearing thin and watry in the cloaths coming from the Patient doth shew that the Blood hath soaked through the Veins That the Immoderate Flux is caused by an opening of the ends of the Veins or a breaking of their Coates is known by the Foregoing of Wounds Falls or Bruises by the use of dancings long outcries carrying unusual weights by a Person corpulent and full of Blood By some foregoing great heat extream Cold Immoderate carnal imbraces great Anger and the like The same may also happen after fore labor in Child-birth or by the unskilful handling of a Midwife after a miscarriage or after a long stoppage of the monthly Blood which makes the same being collected in too a great quantity breaks out on a sudden with violence That there is an Exulceration in the Womb whereby the Veins are eaten through appears by the Bloods dropping out by little and little with a sence of pain and sharpness and by the Bodies being replenished with salt and sharp Humors Also the blood which comes away is at first Matterish Wheyish Blackish or Yellow and afterward if the Exulceration increase some bits of the parts affected are eaten off whereupon follows a great effusion of Blood hard to be stopped Also there have proceeded such things as are wont to
require Hence Four Impediments of Conception do arise viz. If the woman receive not the Seed If she retain it not If she preserve and cherish it not If she nourish it not so as it encrease and grow Reception of the Seed is hindered by many Causes by things Natural things not Natural and by things Preternatural Among things Natural hindering the Reception of the Sperm in the first place is reckoâ—ed yongness of Age in which by reason of the smalness and straitness of the Genital Parts the woman cannot receive the mans yard or not without very great pain which makes her worse for Genial Embracements The same effect is caused by over great Age seeing that in elderly Virgins the Genital Parts through want of being exercised in actions tending to Generation do become withered flap and flaggy and so strait that they cannot afterwards easily â—dmit a mans Yard Likewise all such as are naturally lame with distorted Legs and their Crupper-bone depressed can hardly put themselves into such a convenient posture during the genial Embracement as a necessary that the Seed may be duly and rightly received Hereunto add over great fatness which straitens the Passages of the womb and by greatness of the Belly hinders the right and fit Conjunction of the man with the woman And lastly a cold distemper of the womb makes women dull and listless so that they enjoy no pleasure to speak of in the Genial Embracement or it is long before they are provoked with desire so that the inner Orifice of the Womb is not timely enough opened to receive the Mans Sperm Among things not Natural Passions of the Mind hold the first rank and especially hatred between Man and VVife by means whereof the VVoman being averse from this kind of pleasure gives not flown sufficient quantity of Spirits wherewith her Genitals ought to swel at the instant of Generation that her womb skipping as it were for joy may meet her Husbands Sperm graciously and freely receive the same and draw it into its innermost Cavity or Closet and withal bedew and sprinkle it with her own Sperm powred forth in that pang of Pleasure that so by the commixture of both Conception may arise The things Preternatural which can hinder the Reception of Seed are certain Diseases incident to the Genital Parts or to such as border neer upon them as Tumors Ulcers Obstructions Astrictions Shuttings up Distorsions Stone in the Bladder and other such like The Second fault in Women which hinders Conception viz. When the Seed is not retained depends either upon the over great moisture of the Womb namely when the womb is filled with many excrementitious Humors by which becoming looser and more flaggy than is fit it doth not rightly purse and contract it self together so as to retain the Sperm or the Orifice of the Womb is so slack that it cannot rightly contract it self to keep in the Seed which chiefly is caused by Abortion or hard Labor in Child-birth whereby the fibres of the Womb are broken in pieces one from another and they and the inner Orifice of the Womb over much slackened And that same immoderate moisture may arise both from the proper Constitution of the woman and from external causes of moisture such as Baths Idleness moist Diet and especially from the Whites which flux of Whites happens very frequently since the Womb is as it were the Common-shore whereinto all the parts of the Body do discharge their Superfluities so that this is wont to be the most frequent and ordinary Cause of Barrenness The Third Cause hindering Conception viz. When the Sperm is not sufficiently nourished in the Womb depends upon such things as are apt to corrupt the Seed as every distemper of the womb namely a cold distemper which extinguisheth the Seed an hot distemper which dissipates the Spirits a moist distemper which robs the Seed of its due thickness and a dry distemper consumes and drinks up the Seed and thus the Seed being by these distempers corrupted and degraded from its natural Constitution becomes unfit for Conception To these Causes Authors do add Witchcrafts and Charms by which all confess that Conception may be hindered Likewise external things as Meats and Poysons may do as much such as are reckoned up by Authors viz. Among Meats Vinegar Mint Water-Cresses Beans and such like and among Poysons or at least such things as have a certain venemous property causing Barrenness The Agate or Jet â—he Matrix of a Goat or Mule Glow-worms Sapphires Smaragds and the like And lastly Malignant and venemous Diseases may exceedingly corrupt the Seed and render it unfit for Generation as the Consumption Leprous Infections Whores-Pox stinking and cancerated Ulcers The Fourth and last Cause of Barrenness viz. When the woman doth not yield convenient matter to form the Conception and to augment the same depends upon a want of Seed and Menstrual blood so over yong women and over old do not conceive through want of both those Materials The Age of a woman fit for to conceive is commonly determined to be from the fourteenth to the fiftieth yeer of her Age. Yea and though those foresaid Materials are not wanting if yet they are ill disposed they are not fit for Generation And they may be ill disposed through divers distempers and other Diseases likewise by reason of bad Diet producing none of the best blood So women which gorge themselves with much raw fruit and cold smal drink breed wheyish blood unfit for Generation Yet we must needs confess that some women have conceived who never had their Courses as may be collected out of the Observations of divers Authors yet so much Menstrual blood was collected in those women as useth to remain over and above in such as have their Courses though they had not so much as to cause their monthly Courses To the Causes hitherto mustered up must be added a certain disproportion or unsutableness between the Mans Sperm and the Womans which makes they cannot be rightly mingled nor conspire to the Joynt-making up of an Embrion or Rudimental Infant though there be in the mean while no sensible defect either in the Man or Wife And it somtimes happens that the same man can have a child by another woman and the same woman by another man whereas they have lived together in the married estate barren It comes likewise to pass That a woman shall live with a man for ten or more yeers together and not conceive child and afterward shall begin to conceive and bring forth the Cause of which accident is The change of Temperature caused by yeers whereby the Seed comes to have another temper so that being before disproportioned to the mans Seed it comes by change of Age to be fitly proportioned thereunto Now this disproportion of Seeds consists chiefly herein When men much exceeding in some quality belonging to their temper are joyned with women which partake of the self same excess viz. When over hot men
are joyned with over hot women over cold men with over cold women for those distemperatures can procure no mediocrity in the Seeds and other causes necessary to Generation Some fly likewise to occult or hidden qualities which make the Sperms to agree or disagree though no excess of the first qualities can be discerned To these Authors add an hidden kind of Disposition which makes some women barren though no manifest cause of such Barrenness appear in them The Signs of Barrenness we will run over according to these four sorts of Causes propounded And in the first place Causes hindering Reception of Seed are not hard to be discovered being evident to our very Sences For tenderness of Age is easily observed and so is an over elderly state of yeers and the evil constitution of those parts which border upon the womb as when women halt have crooked wreathen Legs have their Crupper-bone deprest or are over fat as for the cold distemper of the womb we shall treat of that in our third Rank of Causes Hatred between Man and Wife is known by relation of themselves or of those that live with them Also the particular Diseases hindering the reception of Seed as Tumors Ulcers Obstructions Astrictions shuttings up Distorsions may be known through search of the Genital Parts made by a Midwife or Chyrurgion Of the Causes hindering the retention of Seed which make the second Rank we shall treat of over great moisture among those of the third Rank as for Abortion and hard Travel they are known by the womans relation The Causes of the third Rank viz. Which have power to corrupt the Seed to require more exquisite signs to know them by which we shall prosecute as followeth A Cold Distemper of the Womb is hereby known In that the Woman longs not after Carnal Embracements and feels little pleasure therein her Face is soft whitish and cloudy her feeling is dull about her Share Loyns and Thighs she voids thin and crude Sperm and with little pleasure her Courses are suppressed or they come every sparingly and keep no constant orderly time and they are pale and discolored Add hereunto Diet preceding of a cooling Nature consisting of a long use of Fruits and Herbs with much drinking of cold smal Drink A moist distemper of the womb is known by the lax and slap flaggy soft habit of the womans body her much sitting frequent and almost continual flux of Whites plenty of Courses thin and watry no appetite to fleshly Conjunctions heaviness of her Loyns aptness to miscarry plenty of Urine and a moist Diet. An hot Distemper is known by the manly and strong habit of the womans Body such as is seen in Viragoes and Amazones by a ruddy countenance black hair of the Head and Eye-brows a strong and manly voyce she is frequently disposed to be angry over prompt to all kind of actions heâ— thirst cannot be satisfied her Urine is yellow her Courses few their color is a dark red their heat and acrimony so great that oftentimes they exulcerate the secret Passages their Privities itch and they are prone to carnal Embracements they are quick and suddain in the voiding of their Seed they have frequent Polâ—â—tions and lustful Dreams A dry distemper of the womb is known by the smal quantity of Courses driness itching and choppings of the Mouth of the Womb little excretion of Sperm in the Genial Embracement trouble arising from over much carnal Conjunction and Leanness If the Seed be corrupted and Barrenness caused by Witch-craft all other signs will be absent which are wont to declare the Natural and manifest causes of Barrenness There will be likewise some alienation of minds between the married Couple of which neither of them can give any handsom account yea and somtimes they can both of them but seldom shoot forth their Seed and that with Labor and Difficulty Diet or poysons that extinguish Seed if they have been taken in we shall come to knowledg thereof by diligent questioning of the woman and those that are about her And lastly Malignant Diseases such as are of power to extinguish the Sperm as Leprous Manginess the Whores-Pox and such like are known by their proper signs The fourth Cause of Barrenness which consists in defect or badness of the Menstrual blood is known first by the over great fatness of the whol Body to the nutriment whereof the blood is carryed away and consumed and is not allowed for the nutriment of the child in the womb The same is likewise known by great Leanness of the Body and extream slenderness â—â—r when there is not blood enough to nourish the Body it can hardly superabound to nourish the Conception And in a word All such things as consume and much diminish the blood if they have preceded or be at present in the Patient they signifie want of blood in her body such as are extream labors and pains-taking immâ—derate sitting up and watching austere fastings large bleedings at nose or elsewhere 〈◊〉 or chronical Feavers Fistulous Ulcers and Issues that run much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over great quantity of blood doth hinder the nourishment of the Seed and of the 〈◊〉 for the Seed is oppressed with so great plenty and cannot exerciâ—e its formative faculty which is 〈◊〉 to happen in full bodyed and ruddy women such as live a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and delight â—n Feasting 〈◊〉 wombs are alwaies bedabled with a continual moisture Now the 〈…〉 on of the womans blood may be known by the ill habit of her Pody the color of her 〈…〉 her strange dispositions together with an ill diet foregoing The 〈…〉 and the Wiâ—es Seed is hardly known but if both of them be of a very hot or a very hot 〈◊〉 Constitution we may conjecture That the disproportion 〈◊〉 from those distempers 〈◊〉 more manifest causes of Barrenness do not appear It is yet harder 〈…〉 hat kind of Barrenness which depends of a certain hidden disposition no manifest 〈◊〉 thereof appearing Yet many Experiments are related by Authors whereby to know whether a Woman be â—â—turally Barren which though they carry no great certainty with them yet are Physitians 〈…〉 somtimes to make use of them in favor of Princes and Nobles who are permitted to divorce their Wives in case of Barrenness Hippocrates in â—phor 59. Sect. 5. saith If a Woman conceive not and thou wouldest know whether she shall conceive or not cover her with blankets and burn some perfume under her and if the smell proceed through her Body up to her Nostrils and Mouth know that she of her self is not Barren The same Hippocrates supposeth that it may be known whether a woman be fruitful or not by putting a head of scraped and peeled Garlick into her Womb for if the next day the smel shall come into her mouth she is apt to conceive if not she is barren Or put Galbanum softened at the fire and enclosed in Silk into the womans womb at night and bind her whol head
nourish the Infant in the Womb. Or if it be an acute Disease without a Feaver as the Falling-sickness Apoplexy Universal Convulsion of the whol Body the Mother and Infant cannot withstand the violence of the Disease neither can they bear such strong Medicines as are requisite to the Cure of those Diseases Yet we must know that this Prognostick is not perpetually true For we know by the Testimonies and Examples in Authors and by dayly Experience that many women with Child having acute Diseases escape with their lives But Chronical or lingering Diseases as Intermitting Agues Catarrhs Tenesmus c. do threaten Abortion and if they cause it not they can hardly be cured before the woman be brought to bed but do keep her company till she lie down Diseases Acute and Chronical in the first and last months are more dangerous than in the intermediate months For in the first months the bands wherewith the Infant is fastened to the Womb are weak so as they may easily be broken and the tender Infant is more easily over pressed with those preternatural Causes But in the last months namely the sixth seventh and eighth the Child being grown greater requires much nourishment which in these Diseases it is deprived of Also the foresaid bands do not stick so fast as in the third fourth and fifth months in which there is less danger of Abortion Therefore Galen doth excellently compare the Child in the Womb to Fruits hanging on a Tree which upon their first growing out have very tender stalks so that they may be easily shaken off with the wind or any other violent commotion and when they are neer ripe they hang not so fast upon the bough as in the intermediate spaces they did Likewise the Cure of the foresaid Diseases in women with child doth remarkably differ as touching their Diet and those two grand Remedies Blood-letting and purging whereunto we may ad Medicaments which evacuate by other waies viz. Such as move the Courie Piss-drivers and Sweat-drivers because it is feared lest by these evacuations abortion may be caused of these therefore we shall only treat at present referring what else belongs to the Cure of these Diseases to the proper Chapters where such respective Diseases are handled As for Matter of Diet it is not to women with Child in Acute Diseases to be enjoyned so spare lest the little Infant be famished neither is it to be allowed so liberal that the Feaver should be thereby strengthened but we must steer a middle course with this Caution That in the first months of their Belly-burden a thin Diet be enjoyned and in the latter somwhat more solid and plentiful because the Child doth then stand in need of more nourishment Yet if there must needs be some error in Diet it is better to err in keeping too full than too slender diet for recovery is chiefly to be expected from the strength of the Mother and the Child Touching bleeding that Aphorism of Hippocrates viz. the 31. of Sect. 5. is presently brought in opposition where he saies If a woman with child be let blood she miscarries especially if the child be grown And Galen renders the Reason in his Comment Because the Blood being let out the Infant wants its nourishment whence follows Abortion On the other side daily Experience shews That in very many Diseases of big-bellyed women especially acute diseases as the Pleurisie Inflamation of the Lungs continual Feavers and such like blood-letting is necessary and may be administred not only in the first but also in the middle months and somtimes in the last months of a womans Belly-bearing Which if it be omitted both Mother and Child are in great danger of death And to this latter Opinion the elder Physitians assent not dissenting from the Mind of Galen and Hippocrates by so doing For therefore it is they held a woman would miscarry if being with Child she were let blood because blood being taken away the Child would want its Nourishment So that if blood may so be taken away as that the Infant shall not want its nourishment there wil be no danger of Abortion thereby Now so the case may stand As first In the first Months of a Womans Belly-bearing while the Infant in the womb is little and wants but little Nourishment for then its Nourishment by bleeding will not be drawn away especially if certain signs of superfluity of blood be apparent in the Mother So that from the first month to the fift blood-letting may be safely practised But in the middle and last Months greater circumspection is to be used because the Child being greater and wanting more Nourishment cannot so safely admit of Phlebotomy Howbeit if the Woman abound with blood and a smal quantity be taken away she may safely be let blood because hereby the Disease will be allaied neither wil so much Nutriment be there by withdrawn from the Child as to cause Abortion But if it seem that Hippocrates thought otherwise let us consider that we let blood after a far other fashion than the Antients did they let blood by pounds and we by ounces The very truth is there is no better way to preserve women from Abortion than by blood-letting when it springs from overmuch blood strangling the Infant and overwhelming the same in such women as have been accustomed out of their time of being with child to have a plentiful flux of Courses for divers daies together Thus Petrus Salius Diversus in the 22. Chapter of his Book of particular Diseases I for my part protest quoth he that I have preserved many women from Abortion which they had often suffered only by letting them blood in the first months of their being big Neither would I have it thought that no other kind of blood-letting may be practised in childing women save that which is sparing or moderate For somtimes plentiful bleeding in the last month hath done very much good And I have somtimes experienced this plentiful Blood-letting in the last month when the women with Child were afflicted with a burning Feaver and were full of Blood hoping thereby an abatement of the Feaver and an hastening of the Birth both which I obtain'd by blood-letting and saved both child and mother in danger of death by this only Remedy Which being in some Patients omitted and neglected by Physitians minding more the words of Hippocrates than the matter it self hath been the cause that both child and mother hath miserably perished being strangled by the plenty and fer vency of blood So far Salius Amatus Lusitanus in the 57. Cure of his I. Section let a woman with child of eighteen yeers of age blood in the sixth month four times with happy succe she being in a burning Feaver And Rodericus a Castro in his third Book of Womens Diseaeases Chap. 21. writes that he let a woman of Lisbon blood who had a Pleurisie in the eight month and was given over for desperate by other Physitians four
of the extream bitterness is an enemy to the Child and is thought to open the mouths of the veines But if sometimes the use thereof seems necessary in some grevious infirmities of the stomach which are wont frequently to infest women with Child the first months of their being with Child bearing let it be carefully washed with Rose-water that the acrimony thereof may be taken away or let it be mixt with strengthening and astringent things as Rhubarb Mastich and such like Clysters are not very safe because by compressing the Womb they may cause abortion So that when there is need of them and in women accustomed to that kind of evacuation they must be made in less quantity and of such things as are rather mollfying and lenefying than much purging In a word touching Sweat-drivers Piss-drivers and such things as move the Courses our Opinion is That Movers of the Courses properly so called are never to be used in women with Child And Piss-drivers because they likewise are apt to bring down the Courses ought to be suspected and if the necessity of some disease require the use of them the gentler must be made choice of And finally Sweat-drivers may be safely given because they drive the humors out by the habit of the Body whereby no danger of abortion is incurred in so much that some women in the middle of their being with Child have bin Cured of the whores Pox without harm to their Child Chap. 17. Of Abortion or Miscarriage ABortion or Miscarriage is the bringing forth of an imperfect or unripe Child And consequently a child dead in the Womb is not counted an Abortion till it be excluded So that whether alive or dead Child be brought fourth not being ripe nor having attained to the just term of growth which it ought to have had in the Womb it is to be termed an Abortion or Miscarried Child The Causes of Abortion are some internal some external The internal may be reduced to four heads viz. to the Humors to the Child to the Womb and to the Mothers diseases The humors may cause Abortion while they offend in quantity or in quality They offend in Quantity either by way of excess or of Defect Humors offending by way of excess are seen in a Plethorick or over-full Constitution of Body for Blood being more plentyfull than is requisite to Nourish the Infant in the Womb flowes into the veines of the Womb and is excluded by way of the monthly Courses and brings away the Child with it Defect of Humor fitting to Nourish springs from such Causes which are able to draw the Nourishment from the Child as fasting whether voluntary or forced as when women with Child loath all kind of Meat or vomit it up again a thin diet in acute diseases immoderate bleeding by the Nose Haemorrhoides Womb or by immoderate Phlebotomy Whereupon Hippocrates in Aphor. 34. Sect. 5. If a woman with Child go very much to stool it is to be feared that she will Miscarry Hereunto may be referred extream leanness of the whol body wherein there is not Blood enough to nourish the Infant Of which Hippocrates in Aphor. 44. Sect. 5. Speakes thus Women with Child being very lean not by nature but accident as famin long-sicknes c. they Miscarry untill they get their flesh again In respect of the Child Abortion may happen if it be over great so that it cannot by reason of its bulk be contained in the Womb hence it falls often out that little Women miscarry especially if they be married to Men Bigger than ordinary whose Children grow very great and find not in the Womb place large enough to contain them till they come to their perfect growth Which made Hippocartes say In his Book of superfoetation If any Woman conceive frequently and do duly and at a certain period of time Miscarry as in her second third or fourth month or later the narrowness of her Womb is in fault which is not able to contain the Child as it grows great Also plurality of Children may cause abortion as when two or three or more are contained in the Womb at one time for then the Womb overloaden excludes the Children before the fit time which is the cause that Women often Miscarry of twinns Also the dead Child is to be reckoned among the causes of Abortion for as soon as the Child is dead Nature doth forthwith set her self to cast it forth Abortion happens in respect of the Womb it self if it be not of largness and capacity enough sufficiently to widen itself according as the child grows as was shewed above out of Hippocrates As also if there be any thing preternatural in the Womb as an Inflamation a Scirrhous Tumor an Impostume and very many diseases besides And finally if the Womb be overmoist and slack that it cannot contain the Child so well as it ought to do In respect of the Mothers diseases Abortion comes two waies First of all when as her diseases are communicated to the Child whereby it is killed or so weakened that it cannot receive due nourishment nor growth such as are continual and intermitting feavers the Whores-Pocks and many such like Secondly when the said diseases of the Mother do cause great evacuations or great commotions or the Body as â—â—rge Bleedings from what part of the Body soever fluxes of the Belly grievous swoonings Falling-sickness Vomiting and Tenesmus that is perpetual going to the stool and voiding nothing but a little slime which above all other diseases is wont to cause Abortion because by that frequent and almost continual endeavour of going to stool which perpetually attends this disease the Muscles of the Belly are perpetually contracted and do more compress the Womb than the streight Gutt upon which the Womb rests which continual compression or squeezing of the Womb doth at last cause Abortion External causes which further Abortion do some of them kill the Child others draw away its nourishment and others dissolve those bands wherewith the Child is fastened to the Womb. The Child is killed by greivous commotions of mind as Anger sadness Terror c. meates earnestly longed for and not obtained strong purging Medicaments such things as provoke the Courses such things as drive forth the Child such things as are reckoned by a secret property to destroy the Child in the Womb abominable smells especially the stink of a Candle ill put out The Child is deprived of its nourishment by the Mothers being famished and by immoderate loss of her Blood especially when the Child is big As Hippocrates teaches in the Aphor. 60 Sect. 5. The bands which fasten the Child to the Womb are loosed by vehement exercise Danceing Running Rideing or Jolting in a Coach or Cart carrying of an heavy weight or lifting it from the ground a violent fall and squelch a Blow upon the Belly that mauls the Child vehement motion of the Belly by coughing vomiting loosness neezing convulsions crying out immoderate or
over wanton venereal embraces And in a word vehement motions of the Armes by drawing somewhat violently to a Body by turning a wheel or doing some such work may exceedingly further Abortion or Miscarriage The Signs of present Abortion are manifest of themselves But such as go before Abortion and prognosticate the same are these An unusual heaviness of the Loyns and Hips a loathness to stir Appetite gone shivering and shaking coming by fits pain of the head especially about the Roots of the Eyes a straitening of the sides and of the Belly above the Navel the flagging or falling and extenuation of the Dugs which made Hippocrates to say in Aphor. 37. Sect. 5. If the Dugs of a woman with child do suddenly grow small that woman will miscarry For the extenuation of a womans Dugs in such a case doth signifie want of blood in those Veins which are common to the womb and to the Dugs by means of which defect the child is in danger to miscarry But if Abortion shall be caused by some external essicient causing violent agitation of the Child in the Womb and a bursting of the Vessels with a pain raised in those parts the Spirits and Blood run speedily to the genital parts of which the Dugs being destitute grow smaller than they were Furthermore Plenty of Milk dropping from the Dugs doth argue weak Child and consequently portends Abortion according to Hippocrates in Aphor. 52. Sect. 5. But if frequent pains aâ—d almost continual do torment the Reins and Loyns reaching towards the Share as far as Os sacrum with a certain endeavor of going out of the Womb it is a certain sign of a woman that will shortly mscarry For those parts do signifie that the Membranes and Lâ—gaments wherewith the child is fastened to the womb are stretched and torn in â—under And if so be that pure Blood or such as is wheyish or water flowing from the Womb do â—ollow the foresaid pains and endeavors of coming out it shews that Abortion is hard at hand and that the Vessels and Membranes of the Womb are broken and the mouth of the Womb open At the same time the cituation or posture of the Child is changed for whereas it lay high and possessed the middle of the Womans Belly like a Sugar-loof bearing out it is now gathered round like a Foot-ball and roiled down towards the Water gate Also oftentimes there follow grievous Symptomes as shiverings tremblings Palpitations of the Heart Swoonings and abundant Bleeding Hereunto may be added what Hipâ—ocâ—aâ—es teacheth us in the second Book of Popular Sicknesses Text 17. That if after violent external câ—uses such as are blow a fall and such like vehement pain and perturbation arise in a Woman with Child she suddenly or at most the same day miscarries but if the external cause were weak the Abortion may be differred till the third day which being once over there is no longer danger of Abortion because such wounds and hurts are wont to grow well again upon the third or at most the fourth day or very much to be mitigated and asswaged whereupon the Child is again confirmed in the Womb and retained Which Precept is of great moment in the Practice oâ— Phyâ—ick that women with child being hurt by some external accident should keep their bed for â—nree daies or longer and use such Remedies as prevent Abortion The Prognosticks oâ— Abortion may be divers after this manner Women are more endangered by Abortion than by due and timely Child-birth because it is more violent and unseasonable for as in ripe Fruit the Stalks are loosened from the Boughs and the Fruit falls of it self so in a Natural Birth the Vessels and Ligaments wherewith the Child is tied to the Womb are loosened and untied as it were of their own accord which in case of Abortion must needs be violently broken asunder Very many women become Barren by their Miscarriages by reason of those exceeding rendings tearing which do wholly overthrow the dispositions of the Womb. Much bleeding accompanied with fainting raving and convulsions is wont to cause death and Aresaeus testifies he never saw any escape who in the time of their Abortion or aiterwards had Convulsion fits Inâ—lamation of the Womb caused by Abortion is for the most part deadly for Blood flowing to the Womb in great quantity is not purged out but putrefies therein and regurgitatâ—s or slows back into the upper parts whence arise burning Feavers pantings of the Heart Heart-burning and other Symptomes enumerated before Abortion is more dangerous in a woman that never bore Child before because being unaccustomed to Pains and having those Passages more strait she is longer and more vehemently tormented Women very lean or very fat are more endangered by Miscarriage the former because of their weakness the latter because of the narrowness of those Passages by which the Child must come forth Abortion is more dangerous in the sixth seventh and eight months because the Child being the greater is excluded with the more pain and difficulty Women which have a more loose and moist womb than ordinary domiscarry commonly without danger especially in the first month because those parts in such women do easily give way whence their pain and trouble is the less Hippocrates in the second Book of Popular Sicknesses affirms That to miscarry of a male Conception of three-score daies old helps a Woman whose Courses are stopped By stopping of Courses he understands only their imminution when women are not sufficiently or conveniently purged at their monthly seasons for by such an Abortion or Miscarriage as aforesaid those stopped passages are opened and the Blood is drawn towards the womb which came thither but slowly in former times Our ordinary women seem to have taken notice of the truth of this saying of Hippocrates who touching an Abortion of a few months are wont to say by way of proverb Amiscarrying woman is half with child again The Cure of Abortion consists in Preservation for that which is past cannot be helped But all the Symptomes which follow Abortion are the same which accompany women duly brought to bed The Preservation from Abortion hath two principal Points or Heads The one concerns the woman before she is with child The other when she is with child Before the woman is with child all evil dispositions of body which are wont to cause Abortion must be removed as fulness of blood badness of Humors and peculiar Diseases of the womb viz. Distempers Swellings Ulcers and such like Fulness of Blood opens the Veins of the womb or strangles the Infant while it is in the womb This if it be a pure and simple Plenitude may be cured by Blood-letting such as shall answer the quantity of blood super-abounding But badness of Humors is either chollerick and sharp so as to open the Orisices of the Veins or by provoking Nature to stir up the expulsive faculty whereby the child comes to be expelled with those evil humors or by
reason of plenty of excrements heaped together in the first Region and distending the Belly it suffocates the child or it vitiates the blood in the whol habit of the Body rendring it unfit to nourish the child or it fills the Vessels of the womb which retain the child full of slime and snot This Badness of Humors may likewise be holpen by blood-letting but it must be in a lesser quantity seeing the principla scope of the Cure is by frequent Purgations to take away the super fluous Excrements of the Body And in the spaces between Purge and Purge such things must be used as help the distemper of the Bowels mitigate the sharpness of Humors if there be any or thicken the said Humors in case they be too thin Or if slegmatick Humors are too rife they must be discussed by Sweat-drivers Piss-drivers and other Remedies Howbeit we must diligently observe that whatever ill humor abounds Issues are wonderful profitable to prevent Abortion of which Zacutus Lusitanus gives a special note in these words By most happy Experiments I have observed That frequent Abortion caused by corrupted Humors which slow from the whol Body to the Womb and by their evil disposition or abundance do kill the child is hereby as by a most present help prevented Many women did miscarry upon this very account among which some having often times brought forth a Child of seven months or four months growth but torn and putrefied could by no other means be freed from so great a Calamity save by Issues made in their Arms and Thighs which were alwaies made at the beginning of the fluxion by which means they went out their time and brought forth Children healthy and not defiled with any Infection The peculiar Diseases of the Womb as over great Moisture Swellings Ulvers and such like must be cured by their proper Remedies described in the Chapters which treat of them In women with Child if the same Causes be present as in other women the difficulty is yet greater because big-bellied women cannot so easily bear all kind of Remedies Yet lest being destitute of all help they should remain in extream danger of Miscarriage and Death some kind of Remedies are to be used In case therefore the Patient be too full of blood she must have a Vein opened though with child especially in the first months and that the second and third time if need be Alwaies remembring that there never be much blood taken away at a time Of which kind of bleeding we have discoursed more at large in the foregoing Cure And when there is an abundance of some very bad Humors gentle Purgations must be reiterated especially in the middle months of a womans being with Child And if a moist rheumatick snotty or windy distemper do annoy the Patient we may somtimes proceed to a Sudorifick Diâ—t at least a gentle one in the stronger sort of women Mean while in the whol course of being with child astringent and strengthening Medicaments are to be used such as have a vertue to hinder Abortion Many of which have been described in our Chapter of immoderate flux of Courses whereunto these following may profitably be added Take of Kermes and Tormentil Roots of each three drams Mastich one dram and an half Make all into a Pouder of which give the Patient half a dram at certain distances of time or as much as may be taken up upon the point of a knife Or Take red Coral two drams Kermes berries Date Stones of each one dram Shavings of Ivory half a dram Pearls not bored through ascruple Make of all a Pouder Or ler her swallow every day certain grains of Mastich in the morning Our ordinary women do frequently use Plantane Seed which they take in the morning about the quantity of half a dram with Wine and Water or in an Egg or Broth or by it self almost every day the whol time of their being with Child and that not in vain To the same purpose very effectual Electuaries are compounded according to this following Example Take Conserve of Roses two ounces Citron peels candied six drams Myrobalans candied Pulp of Dates of each half an ounce Coral prepared Pearls prepared and Shavings of Ivory of each a dram With Syrup of quinces make all into an Opiate of which let the Patient take often the quantity of a Chestnut If a Liquid form shall be more desired a Decoction of Tormentil Roots sweetened with Conserve of Roses may profitably be given The following Lozenges are very good for they strengthen and do by little and little free the Body from Excrements though somtimes they do not visibly purge Take Mace the three sorts of Sanders Rhubarb Senna Carals Pearls of each a scruple Sugar dissolved in Rose-water four ounces Make all into Lozenges weighing three drams apiece Let her take one twice a week by it self or dissolved in a little Broth. Outwardly Oyntments and Plaisters are to be applied made after this manner Take Ship-pitch half an ounce Frankincense an ounce Mastich half an ounce Dragons Blood and red Roses of each two drams Make all into a Cerate or Plaister Or Take Oyl of Myrtles and Mastich of each an ounce red Sanders and yellow Hypocistis Acacia of each half an ounce Spodium red Roses of each two drams Bole Armoniack Terra Sigillata Shavings of Ivory of each two scruples Turpentine washed in Plantane Water an ounce Wax as much as shall suffice Make all into a Cerate or Plaister spread it upon a Cloth and apply it to the Reins Plaisters are compounded of the Mass of Emplastrum pro Matrice and Emplastrum contra Rupturam to be applied to the Region of the Share and of the Loyns Or after this manner following Take of the Mass or Rowl of Emplastrum pro Matrice three ounces Bistort Roots Acacia Hypocistis Pomegranate peels of each half an ounce Ladanum six drams Moisten and soften them with Juyce of Quinces and make a Rowl of Plaister for the use aforesaid Concerning Plaisters it is to be observed That they must not be worn long together but taken off ever and anon otherwise if they stick too long upon the Back they do so heat the Kidneys that the poor women are somtimes troubled with sharpness of Urine or do somtimes piss Sand Stones yea and Blood it self Neither must we omit such things which are accounted by a secret property of their Nature to retain a Child in the womb as an Aegle-stone worn about the Neck a Load-stone applied to the Navel Corals Jaspers Smaragds Bones found in the Hearts of Stags and such like worn under the Arm-pits or hanged about the Neck Zacutus Lusitanus in Obs 152. of the Second Book of wonderful Cures commends a Girdle made of the Hide of a Sea-horse and if that be not to be had he saith a Wolfs Skin may profitably be used instead thereof And that the success of these Medicaments may be happy the Patient must be enjoyned to rest
and keep her self as quiet as possibly she can both in her Body and Mind also to abstain from Genial Embracements which do vehemently towze and disquiet the Womb. For while the Womb opens it self to comprehend the Mans Sperm with which it is exceedingly delighted it drives forwards the lately conceived Child not yet throughly fastened in the womb But if notwithstanding the Medicines aforesaid by reason of the vehemency of the Cause whether it be internal or external the Patient be ready to Miscarry we must apply our selves to do the best we can with these following Remedies And in the first place so soon as pains and throws shall be perceived in the lower part of the Patients Belly towards her Share in her Loyns and about the Ossacrum we must seek to allay and stop them both by things given in and outwardly applied according to the variety of Causes For if Abortion be provoked by Crudities and Winds which is most usual when it begins from an Internal Cause a Pouder must be given compounded of Aromaticum Rosatum and Coriander Seeds Yea we may give of the Aqua Imperialis if the quantity of flegm and wind be very great At the same time let Carminative or Fart-forcing Medicaments be applied below the Patients Navel such are bags of Annis seed Fennel seed Foenugreek seed Flowers of Chamomel Elder Rosemary and Stoechados mingled together Or a Rose Cake fried in a Pan with rich Canary and sprinkled with Pouder of Nutmeg and Coriander or the Caul of a Wether newly killed or his Lungs laid on warm If with these means the pains cease not let a Clyster be cast in made of Wine and Oyl wherein two drams of Philonium Romanum may be dissolved or Narcoticks may be given inwardly in a smaller Dose to allay the violence of Humors and Winds as we are wont to do in pains of the Chollick But if by reason of contumacious pains that will not be asswaged or of the violence of some external cause blood begin to come away Revelling Medicines are to be applied to withdraw the course of the blood from the Womb such are Rubbings of the uper parts and painful bindings also Cupping-Glasses fastened to the Shoulder-blades under the Dugs and under the short Ribs on both sides Yea and if the Woman be ful of Blood it will not be amiss to take some blood from her both when she begins to void blood and especially before it begins to come and the blood must be taken away at several times a little at once And if all this will not suffice but the Flux of blood continues we must proceed to astringent and thickening Diet and Medicaments and so the Pouders and Electuaries formerly described may be administred Also Juyce of Plantane new drawn and Syrup of Poppies to the quantity of an ounce with Pouder of Bole-Armoniack or Dragons-blood Also outwardly may be used fomentations binding and strengthening made of Pomegranate peels Cyprèss Nuts Acorn Cups Balaustians Grape-stones and such like things boyled in Smiths water and red Wine Or a little Bag full of red Rose Leaves and Balaustians may be boyled and applied hot to the Patients Belly Hereunto may be added the foresaid Plaisters and Cerecloaths Or for to cause the more astriction make a Cataplasm of astringent Pouders with Turpentine and the whites of Eggs which must be spread upon Tow or course Flax and applied to the Navel and the Reins warm The Tow which shall be applied to the Navel must be moistened with Wine that which is to be applied to the Kidneys in Vinegar The two following Medicaments are accounted for Secrets and it is beleeved they will certainly hold the Child in the Womb if they be used before it be loosened from the Wombs Vessels Take twelve Leaves of Gold Spodium a dram the Cocks Treading of three Eggs that are not adle Mix all very well till the Gold be broken into smal Atomes Afterwards dissolve them in a draught of white Wine and give it to drink three mornings together At the same time let the following Cataplasm be laid on Take male Frankincense poudered two ounces five whites of Eggs Let them be stirred about together over hot coals alwaies stirring them that they may not clodder together add Turpentine to make them stick Then spread it upon Parcels of Tow which lay upon her Navel as hot as she can possibly endure them twice a day morning and evening on the three daies aforesaid Chap. 18. Of Hard Child-birth HArd Travel in Child-bearing is such as keeps not the due and ordinary Laws of Nature taking up longer time than ordinary and accompanied with more vehement pains than are usual and other more grievous Symptomes Divers causes here of may be assigned both internal and external The internal depend either of the Mother of the Womb or of the Child In respect of the Mother Travel with child may become sore and hard by the weakness of her Body either Natural or in regard of Age as in very yong and very ancient women or in regard of Diseases wherewith the woman was troubled during the time of her going with Child or is still troubled Hereunto also Leanness and over great driness of the whol body may be added as also over fatness and grossness compressing and straitening the passages of the womb ill shape of such bones as border upon and embrace the womb as in such as limp wind stretching the Guts stone or preternatural tumor possessing the bladder and pressing the Womb and the ill constitution of the Lungs and other parts serving for Respiration because holding the Breath is very necessary to exclude the Child In respect of the Womb divers Diseases thereof may cause a sore Labor as Swellings Ulcers Obstructions Astrictions Stoppages arising from preternatural Causes In respect of the Child Hard Travel is caused when there is some fault therein in respect of its substance its quantity its figure and certain things thereunto belonging The Child is faulty in regard of Substance when it is dead or putrefied or some waies infected or weakened with some Disease so that it hath no ability to contribute to its own exclusion In regard of Quantity likewise the Child doth not further it s own Birth which is either discrete or severed quantity or concrete and joyned the former is called Number the latter Magnitude In regard therefore of continued quantity the child is faulty if the Body or Head of it be over great which makes the Birth thereof become difficult and laborsom in regard of the disjoyned quantity of the child or burden Labor becomes difficult as when there are more than one in the womb so the Birth of Twins is more painful than of a single Child for the most part In respect of the Figure or Scituation of the Child in the Womb difficult Travel happens many waies as when the Child endeavors to come forth with its feet or its hands foremost or puts out one hand only or
to five or six grains Oyl of Cinnamon to four or five Drops Oyl of Amber to twelve or fifteen Drops in VVine Broth or other Liquor Sneezing hastens the Birth or Hippocrates in the Aphor. 35. Sect. 5. Sneezing which happens to a woman in sore Travail is good Sneezing may be provoked by the following Pouder Take White Hellebore half a dram Long Pepper one scurple Castoreum five grains Make all into a Pouder and blow thereof into her â—stâ—â—lls the quantity of a Pease The same Hippocrates prescribes another Remedy in the first Book of womens diseases which is omitted by all authors almost And that is the opening of one of the lower veines of the Body which he propounds in these words But if saith he a Big-bellied woman be so stopped that she cannot bring forth but continues divers daies in her â—ains if she be a yong woman vigorous and full of Blood her Anckleveines must be opened and Blood taken away according as her strength will bear Although this remedy be never used by our Practitioners and it seems much to be feared because in Travail nothing is so needful as strength which may be weakened by Blood-letting Yet if difficult Travail do arise from fullness of blood which Hippocrates doth insinuate in those words where he saies If the woman be yong and in the prime of her strength and very full of Blood there is no question but bleeding may be very profitable because the Veines being very full of Blood are wont to make al other inward passages of the Body more strait Whence it comes to pass that in pains of the Stone in the kidneys the like Blood-letting doth often work wonders and facilitate the expulsion of Stones conteined both in the kidneys and Ureters Also hard Travail may be holpen not only by those inward Medicines prescribed but likewise by outward Let the Midwife therefore frequently anoint the Womb of the Childing woman with Oyls of Lillies sweet Almonds Lin-Seed and such like Also let her belly be fomented on the nether parts with an emollient Decoction of Marsh-mallow and Lilly Roots Leaves of Mallows Violets Mugwort Seeds of Line and Fenugreek with the flowers of Chamomel and Melilot Let sharp Clysters be administred by the provokeing virtue of which the expulsive faculty of the womb may be likewise â—oused up and the Gutts being emptied will afford larger space for the womb Let her Navel be anointed with Oyl of Amber Some commend the Gaul of an Hen applyed to the same part Also such things may be used which are thought by a peculiar property to help the Birth as Aegle-Stone Load-Stone Storax and the rest being fastened to the Hipps Hartmannus Commends the Eyes of an Hare taken in the month of March which are carefully to be taken out and dried entire with Pepper Let one of these with Pepper be so tied to her Belly that the Sight of the Eye may touch her belly and it will bring forth the Child be it alive or dead Which being done take away the Eye least it bring forth the Womb it self He saies likewise that it is good to bring out the Mole Heed is likewise to be taken that the woman carry no Precious Stones about her either in rings or otherwise but let her lay them al away for many of them are conceived by a peculiar property to retain the Child in the womb If the Child seem to be weak it must be refreshed both with strengthening things given to the Mother as warm wine Confectio Alkermes Cinnamon Water and also with things outwardly applied as with a Crust of Bread or a Rose Cake strewed with Pouder of Nutmegs Cinnamon Cloves Kermes Berries and sprinkled with Aqua Imperialis or with warm Wine Or with a peice of Wether-Mutton a little broiled upon a Gridiron and sprinkled with Water of Roses or of Orange-flowers with the call of a wether newly kil'd not yet cold and such like If the Child begin to come forth in a disorderly manner as by putting out one Foot one Hand or any other way the Mid-wife must no waies receive it on that manner but thrust it into the Womb again and compose it to a right and natural posture or form of egress Which must be done by laying the Childing woman on her Back in the Bed with her Head somwhat low and her Buttocks high and then gently pressing her Belly towards the short Ribs and thrusting the Child into the Womb. Afterward let the Midwife endeavour to put the Child into a right posture for coming out by an artificial Hand procuring that the Child turn its face towards the Mothers Back and its Buttocks and shighes let her lift up towards the Mothers navel and so hasten the same unto a natural manner of coming forâ—h When all Hope of the Childs coming forth is past or when the Mether is almost dead some Authors proceed to the Caesarean Section that is to cut the Child out of the Womb as Caesar was cut out of which Francilcus Rossetus hath Printed a most elegant Treatise in which by many reasons and examples he endeavours to shew that such a thing may be somtimes done with good success Howbeit seeing this Operation is very dangerous and terrible it ought seldom or never to be practised by a discreet Physitian that would preserve his own reputation Chap. 19. Of A Dead Child IN sore Travel of Child-birth by reason of great and long Labour the Child is oftentimes killed and somtimes before a womans pains come upon her the Child happens to die through some preternaturall accidents such as those which are wont to cause Abortion and if it hath not attained to the due time of natural Birth it causes Abortion but if it have it causes an hard and sore Travel Because in a due and naturall Birth both the Mother and the Child ought to join their Forces to bring it from the Dark Dungeon to the Liberty of Day All such things therefore which cause difficult Child-birth being in a greater and more grievous degree are of power to kill the Child But especially the Child is wont to be kild if it come in so untoward and preposterous a figure that it can by no means be brought forth in that manner neither can the Midwife or Chyrurgion draw it forth or reduce it to a better Posture For while sticking thus in the mouth of the Womb it frustrates all the endeavours of the Mother straining her self to exclude it it comes to pass that in those sâ—â—ainings various motions and compressions somtimes both Mother and Child somtimes the Mother alone and somtimes the Child alone doth die It is to be admired which Fabricius Hildanus writes touching two women which died through hard Labour in whom their Wombes were found broken a sunder and the Heads of the Infants in their Mothers Bellies By which we may gather how strongly a lusty Child doth labour to work it self out of the Mothers Womb. A Dead Child is
known when the motion thereof ceaseth which either the Mother did feel or the Midwife perceive by hâ—r hand laid on or other warm and strengthening things which were wont to awaken and rouse up the powers thereof when they were in a slumber or stupified Also the Mothers find a greater sense of weight with which and pain of the Belly they are troubled when they turn from one side to another they perceive the Child to roul from one side to another like a Stone The lower part of their Belly feels very cold the native heat being extinguished and those spirits dissipated which were formerly in the Child their Eyes become hollow and troubled their face and Lips are pale their extream parts appear cold and of a Leaden-colour their Duggs become slap and flaggy and at length when the Child rots stinking moistures flow from the Womb like water and blood their belly is blown up with vapours asending thereunto a filthy smell and a stinking Breath comes both out of the Mouthes of such women and from their whol bodies If the After-Birth be excluded before the Child it is a certain token that the Child is dead in the Womb. As to the Prognostick A Child dead in the Womb is a very exceeding dangerous thing and if it be not timely voided forth it is wont to cause Feavers Faintings Dead-sleeps Convulsions and death it self Yet somtimes a Child dead in the Womb may be kept a long time as appears by many stories related by divers Authors which Schenkius hath collected in great number as rare Cases and Sennertus hath transcribed out of him touching many Women which have voided the Bones of Children dead and putrefied in the womb by their Water-gate their Dung-gate and by a Swelling that broke in their Belly I have seen one Woman which voided all the bones of her child by her Navel and her Navel growing afterwards whol again she recovered her perfect health The Cute consists wholly in the Exclusion or Extraction of the Child for seeing great danger of life at ends the Mother so long as the dead Child is in her Womb as soon as ever by the foregoing signs we certainly collect the Child is dead we must make hast to force it out Which is done by the same Remedies which were formerly propounded to hasten the Birth But among them we must chuse out the most strong and effectual whereunto some other things may be added which are yet stronger after this manner Take Leaves of Savin dried round Birth-wort Roots Troches of Mirrh and Castoreum of each one dram Cinnamon half a dram Saffron a scruple Mix all into a Pouder The Dose is a dram in Savin Water Or Take Dictamnus Creticus Savin Borax of each a dram Mirrh Asarum Roots Cinnamon Saffron of each half a dram Mix and make all into a Pouder The Dose is a dram in the foresaid or such like Liquor In the mean time let the Fomentations aforesaid be applied to the Privities the Share and space between the Water and the Dung-Gate adding Briony Roots Roots of wild Cucumer Florentine Orice round Birthwort called Aristolochia rotunda and Broom-flowers After Fomentation anoint the said Parts with Vnguentum de Arthanita or with this following Take Aristolochia rotunda or round Birthwort Coloquintida and Agarick of each one dram Gum Ammoniack dissolved in Wine and Bulls Gall of each two drams With Oleum Cherinum as much as shall suffice Make all into an Oyntment Also let this Pessary be put up into the Womb Take Aristolochia rotunda Orice Root Black Hellebore Coloquintida Mirrh of each one dram Galbanum Opopanax of each half a dram With Ox Gall make all into a Pessary Or this Take Ammoniacum Opopanax Castorium Sagapenum black Hellebore wild Vine round Birthwort Pulp of Coloquintida Scammony of each one scruple Euphorbium one dram With Juyce of Rue Bindweed wild Cucumer and an Oxes Gaul make all into a Pessary Zacutus Lusitanus in Obs â—54 of the Second Book of his strange and Admirable Cures doth testisie that a dead Child in the ninth months growth producing many Symptomes in the Mother was driven out by this Pessary and by help of an Oyly Bath wherein was mixed the Decoction of such Herbs as do open and widen the Passages of the Body A Fumigation of Galbanum or an Asses Hoof may be received by a Funnel into the Womb. If the Matter hang long it will be good the woman being sufficiently strong to give her a purging Medicine whereby evil Humors which in this case are easily collected may be evacuated and the dead Child comequently cast forth Angelus Sala in his Book which he calls Triumphus Emeticorum that is the Triumph of Vomits doth witness That in this case he had often with happy success given four or five grains of Mercurius vitae which doth most powerfully expel the dead Child and excel all other Medicines in that point Which notwithstanding in regard of its vehement working requires great Caution and Discretion in the Physitian that would use it If after Medicines long tried the dead Child cannot be ejected we must implore the Chyrurgions aid Who may pull it out either by Instruments as Paulus Aegineta describes the manner or only help of the hand as is taught by Carolus Stephanus Bauthine and others all which are diligently transcribed by Schenkius and Sennertus Chap. 20. Of the After-birth retained IN a Natural Birth commonly the Secundine is excluded presently after the Child yet somtimes it is retained in the Womb by which means the Mother is in great Danger of her life The internal Causes of this retention are the over thickness of those coats and their too great compactness by which means they cling more fast to the sides of the Womb their being swelled through conâ—luence of humors which is stirred up in a laborious Travel weakness of the Mother caused by hard Labor so that she wants strength to exclude the After-Birth and the shutting up of the Mouth of the womb after the Child is come away But the external causes are the Cold Air by force whereof the Secundine is repelled and the Wombs mouth stopped Certain smells by which the Womb may be enticed upwards or agitated some greivous passion of mind as fear or suddain terror or frowardness of the Childing woman which will not abide in such a posture nor use such endeavours as are necessary to this work the over great weight of the Infant by which the Navil-string is broak unawards and the secundine is left within and the Error of an unexperienced Midwife which cuts the Navil-strings too soon or holds them not fast in her leâ—t Hand as she ought to do for if she let them go they are drawn back into the Womb and there lie hid with the After-Birth which they ought to have holpen to pull out The Tokens of a Secundine retained are needless its apparant of it self yet somtimes a bit thereof is severed from the whol and
this manner Take Roots of Marsh-mallows and Water-lillies of each one ounce the long and round Birthwort of each three drams Leaves of Mallows Marsh-mallows Pellitory Mercury of each one handful Line seed and Fenugreek seed of each half an ounce Flowers of Chamomel and Elder of each two pugils Boyl all to a pint In the strained Liquor dissolve Oyl of Dill and Lillies of each one ounce Hiera simplex half an ounce Unguentum de Arthanita one dram Mix all into a Clyster Let her Thighs be rubbed downwards let the Toes of her Feet be tied till they ake again let divers Cupping-Glasses be fixed to her Groyns and Hips and let some of them be scarrified If these means suffice not open the Veins about the Knees or of both the Thighs or the Hemorrhoid Veins if Nature seem to incline that way If a Feaver be caused by suppression of these Purgations a Vein must be opened in the Arm as shall be said in the Diseases of Women in Child-bed This following Fomentation may be applied to her Belly beneath the Navel and to the Privy Parts Take Roots of Marsh-mallows Lillies Briony Angelica and Birthwort round and long of each an ounce Leaves of Mercury Mugwort Penyroyal Savine Calaminth of each one handful Lin-seeds and Fenugreek seeds of each an ounce Flowers of Chamomel Melilot Elder Tansie of each a pugil Beat them and cut them according to art and put them into two bags which boyl in Fountain Water and apply by course one after another After Fomentation anoint the foresaid Parts with Oyl of Lillies Sweet Almonds and Sesamum adding thereto a little Saffron Hereunto may be added such Pessaries and Fumigations as have been set down in our Chapter of Suppression of the Courses beginning with the most gentle Let her drunk a Decoction of opening Roots Cinnamon and red Vetches with a little Saffron Or Take Opening Roots of each two drams Leaves of Bettony Endive Maiden-hair of each a handful Schaenanth one pugil Annis seed and Fennel seed of each one scruple red Vetches a spoonful Boyl all to a pint and an half To the strained Liquor ad Cinnamon Water two drams Syrup of the five opening Roots three ounces Let her take four ounces twice a day Before the Feaver be encreased we may somtimes give Troches of Mirrh one dram with white Wine or Fennel water Forestus useth the following Decoction though there be a Feaver Take French Barley one handful Liquoris scraped half an ounce Schaenanth one dram and an half Boyl all to a pint for three Doses For the weaker he causeth one dram of Schaenanth to be boyled in Chicken Broth which he gives the Patient to drink Also a Purgation may be convenient seven or nine daies after she is delivered of the Infusion of Rhubarb Agarick or Senna or with a Laxative Broth made of opening Herbs and Roots with Senna or with an ounce and an half of Manna dissolved in Broth. Chap. 23. Of Gripings after Child-bearing GRipings do so frequently betide Women in Child-bed that very few Women are free from them But they are not wont to seek to the Physitian for these Pains because within two or three daies they go away But if they happen more sharp and of longer durance than ordinary they are forced to send for the Physitian who before he prescribe any thing must consider the Causes The chief Causes of Gripings and Pains after Child-birth are the plenty of Blood its thickness sharpness and narrowness of the Vessels For the Veins of the VVomb having for nine months forborn their usual evacuation of blood and the blood being gathered in great quantity and by its retention becoming thick and sharp while it goes through the narrow passages it causeth pains which return by fits as often as the womb endeavors a new expulsion of blood which being over they cease till such time as other blood doth seek its way forth Somtimes these gripings are caused by Winds or by Cold received into the Womb but not so often These Pains are differenced from others which are wont to afflict the Belly by their continuance and by the distances of holding up which they observe according to distant fits of the bloods issuing forth and the women themselves can easily distinguish these pains from all others Thick blood is known by clottering but the thin blood by its tenuity fresh color or yellowish If the Pain spring from wind it is more wandring being somtime in one part of the Belly and somtimes in another neither doth it observe the distances in which the Blood issues If cold Air have entred the Womb it may be known by a relation of what hath been acted about the sick woman These pains are not dangerous but for the most part exceeding troublesom therefore must be removed or mitigated as soon as may be The Cure of these Gripings ought to be directed to these ends viz. That the Vessels of the VVomb be made wider the Blood thinner and its sharpness mitigated All which may be accomplished by these following Medicaments And first of all let the Patients Belly be gently swathed that her womb may settle and not be moved this way and that way as often falls out after Child-birth by reason of the sudden evacuation Then give her three ounces of Oyl of sweet Almonds new drawn with an ounce and an half of Syrup of Violets and two ounces of Hippocras Let Clysters be cast in of Milk and Sugar with the Yolks of Eggs. Or they may be made of a Decoction of Chamomel flowers and Mugwort in Pullet Broth adding Oyl of Lillies and the Yolks of Egs. Anoint her Belly with Carminating or Wind-expelling and opening Oyls as Oyl of Dill Rue Jasmine or with this following which being of great efficacy ought to be made in time convenient and kept in the Apothecaries Shop for such occasions Take Roots of round Birthwort Orice and Peony of each one ounce Cypress Roots half an ounce dried Leaves of Mugwort Feaverfew Origanum Calaminth Penyroyal Dictamnus Cretensis Wormwood Savin Rue Bettony and Sage of each one handful Flowers of Rosemary Stoechados Lavender Chamomel Dill St. Johns wort and Elder of each half a handful Bay-berries and Juniper berries of each half an ounce Seeds of Cummin Rue Piony Carrots and Agnus Castus of each three drams Cloves Nutmeg Cinnamon Ginger of each two drams Storax and Mirrh of each one ounce Let all being beaten and cut be steeped in six pints of old Oyl adding a little white Wine And put them in an Earthen Vessel close stopped the space of a week and then boyl them over hot Embers the space of four oâ— five hours then let the Oyl be strained out and reserved for use If the foresaid Oyl be wansing upon occasion let the foresaid simples boyl in equal portions of Oyl and white Wine till the white Wine be consumed then let the Oyl be strained out Also a Fomentation may be made of the Decoction of Mugwort Bawm
Bay-leaves Calaminth Carrot seed Cummin and Caraway Seeds Flowers of Cheiri and Chamomel in Water white Wine or Milk Or the following Cataplasm may be applied Take three or four Onions well boyled in Water beat them in a Morter and put thereto Seeds of Line and Cummin beaten of each one handful As much Chamomel flowers Barley Meal as much as shall suffice to make all into a Pultiss And if need be add a little of the Water wherein the Onions were boyled Spread it upon a Cloth and apply it warm to her Navel It is likewise profitable to apply the Skin of a weather newly flead off while it is warm to her Belly For this kind of warmth is very neer of kin to our Natural heat concocts and mitigates the cause of the pain also it hinders the Skin of the Belly from gathering into wrinkles These following Medicines may be given inwardly Take Carrot Seeds poudered one dram white Wine three ounces Mix them Give it warm twice a day Or Take Nutmeg Annis seed Cinnamon of each one scruple mix them into a Pouder to be taken in white Wine or give one scruple of Oyl of Nutmegs in Broth. Or Take Date and Peach Kernels of each half a dram Nutmegs four scruples Pouder of Diamargaritum Calidum two drams Annis seed one dram Cinnamon two scruples Saffron ten grains Sugar the weight of all the rest Make all into a most fine Pouder whereof give two drams in Wine twice or thrice a day if the pains are much Forestus gave a Decoction of Chamomel flowers in Beer or a Decoction of Mugwort and Chamomel in Puller Broth with good â—ucceâ—s It 's good presently after the is brought to bed to give her the Broth of an old Cock three daies together earâ—y in a morning while she is fasting with a little Cinnamon and Saffron The following Pouder taked presently after the delivery of a woman doth wonderfully preserve her from Gripings insomuch that it is thought If it be given a woman after her first Childing she wil never after in her following Lyings-In be troubled with these Gripes Take the greater Comfry Root dried one dram Peach Kernels and Nutmeg of each two scruples Amber half a dram Amber-greece half a scruple Make all into a Pouder of which let her take one dram in white Wine or if she be Feaverish in Broth. For her ordinary Drink let her use a Decoction of Mugwort with Cinnamon If the Gripings be caused by Chollerick and sharp humors they are cured much after the same manner that the Chollick is cured when it proceeds from Choller As for Example Take Syrup of Vioâ—â—ts and Borrage of each one ounce Mucilage of Quince seeds drawn out with Violet Water half an ounce Water of Borrage and Scorzonera of each three ounces Mix all make thereof a Julep for two Doses Or Take Oyl of sweet Almonds two ounces Syrup of Violets an ounce Borrage Water half an ounce Mix all for a draught External Medicines must likewise be used such as are laxative and emollient which do likewise by one and the same labor ease pain Oftentimes after they are brought to bed women are pained in their Groyn by reason of their wombs being gathered together like a ball in their Groyn It is cured by applying to their Navel a Plaister of Galbanum and Anafoetida in the midst whereof some grains of Musk must be put Chap. 24. Of Acute Diseases of Women in Child-bed WHat we said before touching the Acute Diseases of women with Child we may now repeat touching the Acute Diseases of women in Child-bed viz. That they have the same Essence and the same Signs with the like Diseases in women which are not with Child and in men So that we shal refer the Reader for the Theory of these Diseases to their proper Chapters Now these Acute Diseases are for the most part continual Feavers both Essential as Synchus putrida a continual Tertian and the rest and also Symptomatical which accompany inward Inflamations as the Pleurisie Inflamation of the Lungs Inflamation of the Liver Phrenzy and such like Yet there is a peculiar sort of Feaver which besals almost al women in Child-bed which is called by them the Feaver of their Milk which is wont to befal them about the third or fourth day after they are brought to bed when their Milk begins to encrease in their Breasts and it ariseth from the reflux of the blood from the womb to the Dugs and the motion and agitation thereof Which kind of Feaver is reckoned among the Diary Feavers of the longest durance neither needs it any Medicines because within three or four daies viz. about the ninth after her delivery it is finished by sweat It is distinguished from putrid Feavers because commonly it seizes the woman about the fourth day after her being delivered and her Dugs begin to be filled with Milk and to be troubled with hardness pain and heat with heat and heaviness in her Back and Shoulders also her Child-bed Purgations slow duly which seldom is seen in putrid Feavers Now putrid Feavers do befal women in Child-bed from three causes viz. Suppression of their Child-bed Purgations or diminishing by the heaping together of bad Humors during the time of their Belly-bearing which were agitated by her Labors or by Errors in their Diet. Some add immoderate flux of the Child-bed Purga ions which is rather a sign of the secret badness of Humors causing the Feaver but cannot be it self any cause thereof In suppression of the Child-bed Purgations the blood and vitious humors which are collected during the whol time of her going with child do flow back again into the greater Veins and there putrefie and somtimes are câ—rrâ—ed to the Liver Spleen and other parts in which they raise Inflamations or if they abide in the Veins of the womb they putrefie and so cause a Feaver in those women which were before in perfect health But if the Child-bed Purgations duly flowing a feaver arise it comes either from superfluity of Choller or from errors in Diet. Evil Humors agitated by the Labors and Pains of Travel do easily inflame and putrefie and stir up a feaver Errors of Diet may happen divers waies And first in point of eating in which women that he In are wont to be very faulty stopping themselves with plenty and variety of Dishes which cannot be by them digested but causeth putrefaction in their Bodies Another error is committed when Childing women do unadvisedly expose themselves unto the cold Air especially while their Milk-feaver is in its vigor which is wont to be terminated by sweating and transpiration which is hindered by heedless admission of the cold Air whence it comes to pass that the Feaver which of it self was void of danger and would in a few daies have ceased is changed into a dangerous putrid Feaver There is yet another frequent Cause of the Feavers of Childing Women viz. When the After-births are not wholly cast forth but some
one dram Saint Johns Wort Seeds half a dram With Venice Turpentine make a Mass of Pils which because they Purge little may be given the oftener Also Evacuation by Vomit is very good for Prevention if the Patient can bear it well which is declared by Alsaharavius a famous Physitian in these words A Vomit is better than a purg to Root out such ill Humors of a gross Nature as are below the Knee even to the Foot as in the Knee-Gout Sciatica and such like Now Vomiting may be procured every Month two daies together because the second day drives out the Reliques of the first And some have observed that vomiting is more successful than ordinary when is in a Sign that chews the Cud such as the Bul the Goat or Capricorn It is good to Vomit the Moon after Supper the Patient having eaten divers Meats Fat sharp of Salt or Spice c. and others in great Quantity and afterward rubbing his stomach and putting his finger into his throat And if that will not do he must take a Vomit especially of Asarum and Broom Boiled together and the Decoction drunk which are otherwise good in the Cure of the Gout That Evacuation likewise which is made by sweat Purges the Blood from wheyish excrements and draws out the antecedent Cause of the Gout To this Purpose a Sudorofick Diet drink may be ordered for the Patient Spring and Fall of a Decoction of Salsaparilla China Sassasras or of Guaiacum as the temper of the Patient shall advise But some late Physitians have brought into use a Decoction which carrieth away the Matter meerly by invisible Transpiration through the Pores of the Skin without any sweat at all which hath done a world of good It s Composition and use is thus Take Sarsaparilla Crude Antimony Nut-shels of each six ounces China Root one ounce A little Brasil Wood Water nine pints Boyl them to four pints and an half Let the Antimony and Nutshels be poudered and tied in a cloth which must be so hanged in the pot that it touch not the bottom Let him take a good draught of the strained Liquor on mornings three hours before dinner in the afternoon four hours after dinner and three hours after supper for fifteen daies together Bleeding and universal Purgation being premised Of the Grounds remaining in the Strainer with like quantity of Water may be made a Diet-Drink for ordinary use instead of Beer Boyl the Water half away and ad Coriander and Liquoris as much as shall suffice to give it a good smack To prevent the Gout and to root the same out of the Bowels some Practitioners commend the use of Gout-quellers given an whol yeer together whereby they avouch many have been perfectly cured Among many of their Receipts this is the Principal Take Salsaparilla four ounces St. Johns-wort seeds Groundpine and Germander Leaves of each three ounces round Birthwort six drams Angelica three drams Cinnamon three drams Cloves four scruples Saffron two scruples Let all be finely poudered and incorporated with Spanish Honey clarified as much as shall suffice Make all into an Electuary which let the Patient use a yeer together taking every day in the Spring Fall and Winter one dram and an half in the Summer only one dram Let the Patient forbear to take it in the Dog-daies Let him wholly abstain from Wine and Lechery Peradventure the Decoction of Germander may be of the Nature of the Gout-quelling Medicaments our Practitioners talk of which was therefore commended to the Emperor Charls the Fifth exceedingly by the Physitians of Genoa and Solenander doth testifie That very many who drank this Medicine threescore daies together were perfectly cured The Composition of this Decoction is thus Take Germander gathered when it flowers and well preserved one handful Ripe Wine not very strong nor very smal three pints Boyl them in a double vessel five hours Let the Patient take a draught of the strained Wine and compose himself to sweat This is to be done after the Patient hath been purged And it is here to be noted touching those hot Medicines that they are not only unprofitable for hot Constitutions but they cause such Resolutions of Humors or Joynts or other inconveniences as can never be cured and therefore they must be given with great Caution Peradventure this following Electuary may be used with more safety and success which doth purge the Body by little and little from all superfluities without heating the same Take Senna half an ounce Turbith Hermodactils of each six drams Lignum Guajacum Sassapbras and Salsaparilla of each half an ounce China Roots one ounce and an half Nephritick Wood two ounces the three Sanders of each one ounce Annis Seed two drams Honey very well clarified fourteen ounces make all into an Electuary The Dose is one dram every day in the whol yeer except the Dog-daies Among the common People some hold it for a great Preservative from the Gout to swallow three Cloves of Garlick whol every morning for a month together For they heat and strengthen the Stomach without heating the Liver or other Bowels for they are voided forth with the Excrements whol but boyled and wrapped in clammy Flegm which they bring from the Stomach and Guts In the Gout proceeding of Chollerick Humors Waters of Medicinal Wels which are Acid Vitriolate and cooling such as that of Tunbridg in Kent Blackbois not far from Lewes in Sussex one in the Parish of Sandherst in Kent do very much good So that by the use of such Waters some persons have been for a long time freed from the Gout To the same purpose Hippocrates commends in his Book of Diseases the use of Asses Milk which Experience shews hath done good to many Gouty persons And in a word All things which are good against an hot distemper of the Liver and to strengthen that Bowel wil be good in this Case as they are described before in the Cure of the hot distemper of the Liver But if a wheyish Humor flowing from the Brain be Cause of this Disease as most commonly falls out the greatest care must be had of the Brain viz. That its distemper may be corrected and that the Humors bred therein may be derived and discussed To which intents Issues Vesicatories Medicines to be drawn up into the Nose Masticatories Pouders Spiced Caps will be very serviceable and other Remedies propounded in the Cure of Diseases of the Brain The last Point of Prevention is to strengthen the Joynts that they may not so easily receive the the Humor flowing in Yet it is to be noted that strengthening Medicaments are not only Vain but hurtfull also unless the antecedent Cause and the Humor ready to flow into the Part be carefully removed by the foresaid Medicaments Otherwise those strengtheners either are not able to hinder the influx of the Humors into the Joynt or if they do hinder the same the Humors retire to the more noble Parts of the Body
color in 〈…〉 pained 〈◊〉 and immediate Cause therefore of this Disease is a wheyish Humor which by reason of 〈…〉 doth not swel the parts and because of the substance thereof not apt to turn into Matter 〈…〉 it never makes any Imposthume but only a certain Inflamatory disposition arising from 〈…〉 of the wheyish Humor 〈◊〉 the Primary Original of this Disease ought to be ascribed to the Liver which being affected 〈◊〉 an hot distemper and being weakened breeds not blood convenient for to nourish and affects 〈◊〉 whol Body with the like weakness whereby it becomes exceedingly disposed to receive all suâ—â—â—â—luities And from the same Distemper and weakness of the Liver great quantities of evil Huâ—ors do arise which being long detained in the Veins and Arteties they become vitiously corrupted â—â—d are there dissolved and turned into the Nature of Whey and Blood-watry Liquors and as an 〈◊〉 burden are by Nature cast off into the ignoble Parts she being not strong enough to drive â—â—em out of the whol Body Now these wheyish and blood-watry Humors being very sharp do 〈◊〉 and cut as it were those parts unto which they are carried from whence pains and torments 〈◊〉 And although we conceive the Liver to be the primary Cause and Original of this Disease 〈◊〉 is apparent that these Humors do somtimes flow immediately from the Brain because the 〈◊〉 do often begin in the Neck and afterwards do descend unto the Shoulders and Arms. But the 〈◊〉 â—eneration of these sharp Humors was in the over-heated Liver which being translated from 〈◊〉 into the Brain do from thence afterward fal down into the inferior parts 〈◊〉 although these Humors are expelled by the Veins in manner of a Crisis yet is not their motion 〈◊〉 but is performed by little and little viz. When those evil Humors and corrupted 〈◊〉 for work in the Veins and are afterward leisurely by the Veins expelled and vomited as it 〈◊〉 for which cause this motion is wont fitly to be called the Vomiting of the Veins 〈◊〉 a ferous or wheyish Humor is the principal Cause of these pains many Reasons do convince 〈◊〉 because ordinarily they cause no swelling nor change of color in the part affected howbeit 〈◊〉 when the Humor doth much abound it raiseth the part into a little and very red Swelling which nevertheless is easily discussed Secondly Because these pains are exceeding movable and â—â— seize now this now that part of the Body and are suddenly gone from one part into another the former part being quickly wel and free from al pain which sudden mutations cannot come but from an Humor very apt to move and exceeding thin Thirdly Because this Disease is often terminated by Sweating Fourthly Because there appear many tokens of abundant Serosities in such as are troubled with this Disease Thin and abundant Urines beyond the Quantity of what they drink and abundance of Wheyish Humors appearing in the Blood that is taken from them And although a wheyish Humor be the principal and most frequent Cause of these Rheumatick 〈◊〉 yet probable it is that wind doth somtimes concur in the production of these pains Which we may conjecture by the quick Passage of the pain from one place to another and because there is â—â— weight or heaviness felt in the parts pained This is the Opinion of Avicenna who seems to deâ—â—ribe this Disease and to assign windy Vapors for the Cause thereof Fen. 1. Book 3. Tract 2. Chap. 7. in these words In pain Caused by winds the extension of the part is encreased the heaviness diminished somtimes it is with pricking somtimes with Corrosion and in a flatuous Pain there is no Heaviness And somtimes there is a Change of the Pain from one place to another These are the words of Avicenna unto which he Joyns these following which seem to come nearer the description of this Disease we treat of And the wind is somtimes in the Coates and fibres of the Members as in the Collick from wind or in the Coats of the Muscles and under the membranes and upon the Bones or in the Circumference of the Muscles between the soft flesh and the Skin or lurking in the Member it self And if any shall object that Diseases arising from wind do not endure so long because windy Vapours are soon discussed We shall answer that a wind conteined in the Parts Pained is easily discussed whence comes often change of Pains from one Part to another but there is a seminary in the Veins from whence winds may perpetually arise afterwards be carried to the Parts aforesaid Now this Seminary of winds is a thick viscid Humor and flegmatick which the Blood taken from them doth often testifie to be redundant in such as are troubled with these Pains it being frequently thick and clammy like Glew in appearance like crude and putrid flegm The knowledg of this Disease may easily be learned out of what hath been said yet shall we discource thereof a little more fully First therefore the Parts affected with these Pains viz. the Muscles and their Membrans and the Membranes which infold the bones do distinguish this Disease from all other For allthough the Pains of the Lechers Pocks do possess both the Joynts and the spaces between the Joynts and specially the membranes covering the bones yet they differ herein because they do not so universally infest the whol Body neither are so continual night and day for they vex the Party only in the nights and very little in the day time neither do they hinder the Patients from their business commonly whereas this Rheumatick Pain doth Nail them to their Beds so as they can hardly stirr themselves neither can those that look to them once so much as move without great trouble and encrease of their Torments And finally other signs of the Whores Pox have preceded or are present as Gonorrhea the Whores Boil Putrefaction of the Privities and such like Other symptomes also there are accompanying this Disease which help much to the knowledg thereof For if you lay your hand upon the Part pained you feel a kind of sharpness with Heat commonly there is a Feaver Joyned therewith but it is very small and some times there is none at all The Blood which is taken away is evidently corrupted thick and clammy like glew and after many times bleeding it is ful of wheyish moisture and so changed that it hath not the appearance of Blood When the Pain is quite gone or intermits there remains no weakness in the Part as is usuall in the Gout Purging Medicaments at the beginning do no good nor things outwardly applied to the Part affected they do rather augment the Disease and the Pain but when the Disease begins to decline both are profitable As for the Prognostick this Disease is seldom or never deadly but is very troublesome to the Patient by its length for it continues two or three months if it be without a Feaver nay verily
Augmentation but a long state The Epacmastick hath a long augment the paracmastick a long declination but the other times do quickly pass away Yet we must know that the times of Putrid Feavers are two waies considered either with respect to the Symptomes or with respect of coction and crudity which two in other Feavers do commonly comcide or happen at one and the same time But in these continent Feavers called Sunochoi it is not so For their times ought not so much to be defined by the increase and decrease of the Symptomes as by the signs of Concoction or non Concoctions which appear cheifly in the Urines Now Galen propounds two sorts of this continent Feaver called Synochus one springing from Blood putrefying of which he treates in the second of this Method Chap. 7. and 9. as also in the 9. of his Method Chap. 3. and 5. another arising of choller putrefying in the greater vessells of the kind of burning Feavers which he explaines in his second of the Differences of Feavers and the second of Crises Chap. 6. The first is called Synochus Sanguinea and the other Synochus Biliosa For allthough the whol Maâ—s of Humors conteined in the Veins do go under the name of Blood yet do we acknowledg four Parts thereof of which the more temperate is specialy called Blood the hotter Part Choller the rawer and colder flegm and the thicker and more dreggy Melancholy So then if that more temperate Part which is more especially called Blood do surmount the rest in quantity and the whol Mass putrefy that Feaver is caused which we term Synochus Sanguinea But if the thinner and hotter Part of the Blood which is of thâ— nature of Yellow Choller do exceed the rest and putrefy that Feaver is caused which we term Synochus Biliosa Synochus Putrida is ingendred by the same causes which are wont to produce the simple Synochus And so not only the shutting the pores of the Skin but the obstruction of the vessells also by reason of much Blood and thick and claâ—my Humors is wont to cause this Feaver For seeing by such like obstructions the Transpiration of Fuliginous Vapours is hindered putrefaction is bred in the â—lood redounding within the Veins A continual tertian which every third day doth more afflict the Patient than ordinary takes its Rise from bad and Chollerick Blood putrefying in the Vena Cava And the Causes thereof are all such things as multiply this Humor in the Body as an hot and dry distemper of the Liver Meats hot and dry Youthfull Age fasting or very spare Diet vehement and frequent exercise hot and dry constitution of the Air over great watchings and such like A continual Quotidian which the Barbarous writers term Latica or lurking because it hath a certain hidden and concealed heat is produced by flegmatick Blood putrefying within the Veins therefore it hath its exacerbations or fits every day It is wont to assail flegmatick bodies as of Infants and Children and old men as also of such as are of a fat and corpulent constitution given to idleness and cramming of bellvchear and inhabiting moist places This kind of Feaver happens but seldom because flegm is hardly putrefied A continual Quartan is that which is exasperated every fourth day being Caused of Melancholly Blood putrefying in the branches of Vena Cava And all things may Cause this Feaver which are apt to breed Melancholly Blood and to Cause the same to putrefy Howbeit this kind of Feaver is most rarely observed The accidental differences of Feavers are taken from their evil Symptomes which are wont to be complicated with the Essentiall and from them they are named Among these are wont to be reckoned Febris Ardens that is the Burning Feaver Colliquans the â—elter or dissolving Feaver the shivering Feaver Horrisica Assodes the tumbling tossing and vomiting Feaver â—lodes the sweating Feaver Syncopalis the swouning Feaver Epiala the Feaver which makes the Patient hot and cold at one and the same time Causus or Febris Ardens the burning Feaver is properly that which is perpetually accompanied with these two symptomes viz. an ardent burning heat and an unquenchable thirst though the Patient drink never so much Galen 3. Epidem Com. 3. text 34. It is divided by the same Galen in Com. 4. de Vict Rat in acutis text 13. into a Ligitimate or bastard burning Feaver The Legitimate or exquisite burning Feaver is that which hath the two symptomes aforesaid allwaies and evidently conjoyned therewith The bastard in which those symptomes are less vehement the thirst less Urgent and the body not so burning The Lightimate is Caused by a Chollerick Humor putrefying within the large Vessels near the heart the bastard is caused by Choller mingled with Flegm or Salt Flegm putrefying in the Vessels aforesaid Whence it appeares that a Ligitimate burning Feaver is no other but a continual Tertian Feaver whose Matter is more sharp and plentiful than ordinary and conteined in the larger Vessels which are neer the Heart whereas the Matter causing a simple continual Tertian is in Vessels Remoter from the Heart Again there are two sorts of an exquisite burning Feaver the one from the beginning to the end hath one only accession or fit which we before named Synochus Biliosa and it is likewise called Synochus Ardens which is caused when the Humor putrefying doth occupy al the Vessels which are most neert the Heart the other is named Ardens Periodica and conteines in it self divers fits or accessions it is caused by the same Choller conteined in the Vessels neer the Heart but not in al or not so neer as in Synochus Ardens So that a Continual Tertian Synochus Ardens and Ardens Periodica do differ one from another only as the Choller causing them is more or less sharp plentiful and neer the Heart Febris Colliquans the Melting Feaver is of the kind of burning Feavers which in regard of the exceeding heat doâ—h suddainly melt the Fat Flesh and substance of the solid Parts and somtimes the Blood conteined in the Veins and dissolve the same by insensible Transpiration Sweats Urines or Stools It is wont to be caused by a thin sharp and Chollerick Matter which is vehemently inflamed and Galen teaches that often times there is adjoyned thereunto a malignant and pestilential Quality Comment in 3. Epid. Sect. 3. Sent. 57. Horrifica Febris in Greek Phricodes is that Feaver in which the Patient doth often undergo shaking fits it is caused by a mingled Matter viz. Partly Chollerick and Partly Flegmatick oâ— wheyish which being unequally moved is wont to excite those Horrors or Shakings either because the thin sharp and wheyish Matter doth twitch and nip as it were the sensible and menbranous Parts or the inflamed Choller doth putrefy and put in motion the crude Humors or because Nature doth in Vain seek to shake of the crude undigested Humor whereupon the Heat being driven Back to the Centre the Extream Parts of the Body are cold and afterwards
the Caul or the Pancrea or other Parts or also somtimes when the Child or After-birth are corrupted in the Womb. And hence not only slow Feavers but somtimes also acute ones do arise according to the different Nature of the putrefactions And finally to this kind of slow Feavers those are to be referred which are found in Cachectical persons and in Maids which have the Green-Sickness which Fernelius conceives do arise from a light putrefaction of wheyish flegm shed abroad in the Body Besides these forenamed differences of continual Feavers which are most frequent and are commonly set down by Authors there are also some other arising from peculiar and extraordinary Causes which somtimes we meet with in our Practice The Case of a certain Infant may serve for example propounded by Zechius in his 46. Counsel The Infant was scarce two yeares old and had a continual Feaver with most greivous Symptomes viz. Unquietness convulsions and continual stomach Sickness enclining to Vomit and it was conjectured that there was some Malignity adjoyned because such greivous symptomes did not answer to that Feaver For al the external Parts were cold though the inner Parts were burned with heat as appeared by the heat about the brest and under the short Ribs and also from the dryness and blackness of the Tongue The Cause of which was blood putrifying conteined in the stomach For this Infant being tongue-tied was lately cut by a Chirurgion in which work some Veins or other was opened which shed some blood into the stomach which putrefying there by sending forth hot putrid and as it were poisonous Vapors into the heart and Brain was the Cause of al the symptomes aforesaid But how this cause was found out and removed it is worth the while here to recite out of the Story of Zechius So often quoth he as I diligently consider with my self how hard a thing it is to understand internal Diseases and thier causes I come easily to be of the mind that Hippocrates in his second Book of vulgar Diseases Sect. 4. did not without greatest premeditation leave in writing then in the Curing of all hidden Diseases the Physitian must diligently enquire the first assault of the Disease that is to say the first occasion of the Patients illness For of that for the most part depends the knowledg both of the Cause and Cure See an Example hereof This Disease of the Gentlemans Child was very acute and the Cause very hard to find had not I diligently asked of the Parents touching the conditions of the Child and the Nurse who told me that two daies before its being first ill a certain Chyrurgeon had cut the Membrane whereby the Tongue of it was fastened to the parts beneath it And when I again asked them if presently after this was done they had caused the Child to be held forward or if any blood had come out of its mouth they said no it was neither so held neither came any blood from the mouth of it Whereupon I presently conjectured that blood was fallen from the place cut into the Stomach and there putresied and was the cause of the Disease and symptomes aforesaid Neither did my Opinion deceive me for having given it Oyl of sweet Almonds to make it vomit it uttered a considerable quantity of clotted blood and matterish Also it voided with a Clyster many clodders of blood And presently by the blessing of God Almighty the Feaver was abated and all Symptomes began to cease Whereupon it fell greedily and lustily on sucking its Nurse and all the following night it slept quietly and was afterward perfectly well The Diagnostick Signs of putrid continual Feavers do some of them shew the continu'ty others the putrefaction and the rest the peculiar differences of them The continuity is easily known in that the Feavers is continual and hath no intermision The putrefaction is signified by a sharper heat than ordinary and more biting and by a sharp and biting Sooty vapor produced by the exhalation of putrid Humors The pulse is not only great and frequent and oftentimes unequal but it hath this peculiar property That the Systole is quicker than the Diastole because the Expulsion of Sooty Excrements is more necessary than refrigeration The Urins are in the beginning crude or very little digested The Exacerbations or fits keep their certain times which yet is not to be understood of the Feaver Synochus A cold shaking fit at the beginning of the Disease Hereunto are added various Symptomes commonly accompanying putrid Feavers as Ilness of stomach vomiting heaviness of the body pain of the head raving giddiness of the head hiccoughs anxiety heart-burning thirst roughness and blackness of the tongue stretching of the parts under the short ribs and the rest Before which preceded weariness without labor pursiness troubled sleeps watchings tension of the parts under the short ribs difficult breathing pain and pulsation of the head stomach-sickness want of Appetite plenty of stinking Excrements frequent yawnings and reachings or some of these But the peculiar Differences of continual putrid Feavers may be discerned by these Signs following A continual putrid Feaver called Synochus putrida hath the same signs which were propounded in Synocha simplici but more vehement for the heat is more sharp the watchings head-ach thirst disquiet and other Symptomes are more vehement also the pulse is unequal so that the Systole appears greater than the Diastole the Urines are crude red and thick The Signs of a Feaver from Choller are burning pain a pulse mighty frequent and swift a sharp Urine fiery in the beginning alwaies crude without Sediment Stomach-sickness Chollerick vomitings and Stools Chollerick much anxiety mighty thirst bitterness of the mouth driness and blackness of the tongue watchings raving and an ulcerous kind of weariness soregoing paleness of Face or a citrine Color youthful Age temperature hot and dry Summer season hot and dry Diet Chollerick Evacuations suppressed And a continual Tertian is distinguished from a Synochus biliosa or continent Feaver springing of Choller because it hath Exacerbations or fits every third day but the Synochus biliosa keeps stil one and the same tenor The Signs of a continual Quotidian are Heat at first rather vaporous than biting afterwards somwhat sharp but unequal because of the thickness of the Humor which is difficultly dissolved the Urines are at first white watry troubled afterward somwhat red and thick the Pulse is seldomer slower and less than in the rest of these Feavers thirst little or none seldom sweat unless there be salt flegm the Face of the Patient is somwhat bloat or blown up lax flaggy and as it were Lead colored Drowziness want of Appetite flegmatick Excretions a cold and moist Temperament old Age Winter Season Cold and Moist Diet Evacuations suppressed and a dayly Excretion of the Disease A continual Quartan is known by these Signs The Heat is less sharp than in Feavers of Choller yet sharper than in Feavers of Flegm likewise
thick and clammy humors abound the Syrup of Vineger will be very profitable in stead of those last named Also somtimes Conserve of Roses Violets or Borrage is wont to be mingled with cleer Water boyled with Barley Water and to be strained through an Hippocras bag for ordinary drink unto which some drops of spirit of Vitriol may profitably be added Or a Tincture of Roses is made after this manner most delightful in colour and in tast Take Red Roses one ounce Bloodwarm Water three pints spirit of sulphur or Vitriol one dram and an half Let them stand infusing cold for three or four hours To the strainings add white Sugar four ounces Rose-Water half a pint Make thereof a clear Julep for ordinary drink Also Julepus Alexandrinus is very good and extream pleasant It is thus made Take Fountain Water one pint Rosewater Juyce of Lemmons and white Sugar of each four ounces Boyl them over a light fire till you have taken away the Scum As for other things pertaining to Diet Sleep is extream good and watchings bad Yet over much Sleep doth overwhelm the natural heat and hinder the Evacuation of excrements Rest is necessary in acute Feavers but in long Feavers light and gentle exercise is good Also we must endeavor that nothing be retained which ought naturally to be expelled howbeit al immoderate Evacuations which exhaust the strength are to be stopped and al vehement Perturbations of mind must be turned out of Doors Among manual Operations Blood-letting holds the cheifest place for it doth not only diminish plenitude whether it be a simple fulness so as to stretch the Vessels or only a fulness with reference to the strength of the Patient whether it be in the whol body or in some Part but also revels the influx of Humors Causing obstructions cools the whol body and makes it perspicable keeps back putrefaction and furthers the concoction of putrefying Humors Presently therefore and at the beginning of the Disease blood must be drawn unless weakness hinder as in the Swooning Feaver and other like Cases and that after the Belly hath been loosened with a Clyster or a Suppository How much blood should be taken it gathered from the Patients strength from the greatness of the Pleâ—hora Custom of the Patient to bleed or not to bleed and other circumstances The Antients in the Synochus Putrida and the burning Feaver did let blood til the Patient fainted away But it is much more safe as we have said in the Cure of a simple Synochus to take away at several times so much as shall be sufficient then suddenly to put the Patient in danger of death Avicenna in a burning Feaver and in a continual Tertian doth forbid letting blood unless the Urine be thick and red For he fears lest Choller should be the more inflamed which he saith is bridled by Blood But the wiser Physitians do explode this Opinion of his seeing these kind of Feavers are often terminated even by Nature her self by bleeding at the Nose and they do somtimes cause Frenzies and other Inflamations and finally because Blood-letting doth potently refrigerate doth rather stop than further the Ebulition or boyling and working of the Blood and Choller comes away as wel as Blood when a Vein is opened so that in that Mass of Blood which is in the greater Veins remaining there is the same proportion of blood to Choller which there was before Nay verily when a Vein is opened if the sick party be any thing lusty and the blood flow amain only the putrid Blood which is offensive to Nature is voided the purer remaining in the Veins which few Authors have taken notice of although it be in the course of Practice every where observable For if the Blood flow out of the Vein drop by drop it is the purest Blood because it comes out of the Vein by its own proper motion But if it spring out with a forceable stream it appears foul and corrupted Nature expelling the worser part of the Mass of Blood Howbeit Blood is more sparingly to be taken from such as are of a very Chollerick Constitution in the middle of Summers Heat and the Dog-Daies than in other Natures and times But in Flegmatick and Melanchollick Feavers Blood must be taken away in lesser quantity and evermore great regard is to be had to Coindicants and Contraindicants forasmuch as Quotidian Feavers do for the most part happen unto Children or old Persons in cold Countries and cold Seasons of the yeer which considerations do lessen the Quantity of Blood which otherwise the Disease or its Cause require should be taken away When the Feaver is caused by over much labor blood must be taken away more sparingly If a Feaver happen by over great use of Carnal Embracements Blood-letting is pernicious Concerning the time of Blood-letting it is to be noted That a Vein must not be opened presently after the Patient hath eaten but after Digestion is past and after the Patient hath been at stool Again Blood is to be let when the Feaver is most remiss and not in the vigor thereof for then Nature is not able to bear both the violence of the Disease and the loss of Blood As for the repletion of Blood-letting if the same be necessary to cause Evacuation it must be repeated the same day if for Revulsions sake on another day For where Evacuation is necessary especially in acute Diseases the Body must be suddenly changed into another condition also it often happens that a Disease is quickly past its first time or beginning so that afterward we cannot so conveniently open a Vein But in Revulsion we have respect to the motion of the Humors which is then best ordered when it is done at divers times some space being interposed whereby Nature becomes accustomed to a contrary motion For in the space between Bleedings the Blood which was shed into the parts regurgitates into the Veins and by another Blood-letting is profitably drawn forth We understand that Blood-letting must be iterated if that blood which was first drawn forth were very much corrupted and there is reason to think that there is yet a great quantity thereof abiding in the Veins Yea verily Although the Blood at first seem pure and uncorrupted yet must we not desist from taking the same away but continue so doing until it appear more impure and corrupted And truly that Precept delivered by Hippocrates in his 4. de Victus Rat. in Morbis acutis in the Cure of a Pleutisie may very profitably be observed in acute Feavers viz. That Blood-lettings be so long continued til the blood change color so that if at first corrupt blood come away we must let it run till it appear more pure and on the other side if at the first the blood appear laudable we must suffer to flow til that which is impure and corrupted be come away Yet is there some diversity to be observed in both Cases For if at first good
also in the beginning of these Feavers Vomit is to be procured viz. when the Patient is much vexed with illness of stomach and with vomiting for then Nature endeavours to evacuate the morbifick matter upwards and the Physitian ought to assist her endeavours And many times it falls out that great Quantity of matter is conteined in the stomach and Parts thereabout which must be Evacuated as soon as possible may be by Vomit seeing no concoction can be expected of such excrementitious matter in so great a Quantity and what ever the Patient eats or drinks is changed into such a like Humor and encreases the Matter which is cause of the Disease For Fernelius hath well observed in his third Book of the Method of Healing Chap. 3. that all superfluity of Humors in the stomach spleen Pancreas Mesentery and the Cavity of the liver is conveniently emptied out by a Vomit which somtimes wil not be removed with Medicines that work downwards though divers times administred And it comes often to pass that the Matter being Vomited up the Feaver is taken away at the first which otherwise would have proved long in case that matter had been transmitted into the more inner Parts of the body and very wel mixed with the blood Now of the three degrees which we reckon of Vomitories the mildest is to be Chosen as Barley Water Luke-warm with Oyl of Almonds or common Oyl or with a little Quantity of white Vinegar Also Syrup of Vineger or Oxymel simple which Chicken broath or a Decoction of Dil Seed Raddish or Orach whereunto also Oyl may be added All which are to be given to the Quantity of a pint or more for in a less Quantity they abide in the stomach And seeing these weaker sorts of Vomits are of little efficacy we may somtimes apply our selves to those of the middle Rank which shall be propounded hereafter in the Cure of a Tertian Ague And not only in the beginning of the Disease before Blood-letting but also the whol Course thereof Clysters must be given every day or every other day if the Belly be not of it self very free made of a Decoction of Emollient and refrigerating things such as French Barley Prunes Mallowes Violet Leaves Mercury Leaves Beares-Foot Orach Lettice Endive Houseleek Water-Lillies dissolving therein Catholicum Cassia Diaprunum simple Red-Sugar Honey of Violets and Honey of Mercury Oyl of Water-Lillies Violets c. But in a violent hot Feaver it is better not to add the Oyls because they are easily enflamed Observe in the first place that not above three or four blades of Houseleek must go into one Clyster because it cools most potently and being taken in greater Quantity may hurt the Guts Observe secondly that in all Feavers of Choller Clysters are not to be injected actually hot but only Blood-warm In Feavers that spring from flegm Decoctions for Clysters are made of the Emollient Herbs with Annis Seed Seeds of Fennel and of Carthamus flowers of Chamomel and Melilote dissolving therein Hiera Picra Diaphoenicum Honey of Roses Honey of Mercury Oyl of Chamomel Dil or common Oyl And because as we noted before absolute and perfect Purgation which they cal Eradicative is not to be attempted till the Morbifick Cause be ripened and digested the Physitian from the beginning of the Disease after the first Blood-letting and when the passages nearest the stomach are clensed ought to use such Medicaments as prepare crude Humors for digestion and Evacuation and withal temper the Feaverish Heat hinder Putrefaction and open obstructions such as are Juleps broaths Emulsions and other things which shal be hereafter described Juleps are compounded in a Chollerick matter offending of Syrups of Lemmons Pomegranats Sowr-Grapes Vinegar simple of the Juyce of Sorrel of Cichory simple with Waters of Endive Sorrel Grass and Cichory Or better of the Decoction of the Roots of Sorrel and Cichory of the Leaves of Sorrel Maiden-Hair Garden Endive Dandelion the four cool Seeds Tamarinds with the Syrups aforesaid And sometimes that we may cool more effectually a dram of Sal Prunella is added for every Dose of the Julep or so much spirit of Vitriol or Sulphur as shall suffice for a moderate sharpness Sowr things are never to be omitted in Feavers springing from Choller because bitter things are sweetened by Sowr and acid things which if they are Sowr in an high degree as spirit of Vitriol and of Sulphur they deface the bitterness even of Aloes and Coloquintida Now yellow Choller being plundred of its bitterness iâ— dead And Harmles Juleps also of great Virtue may be made of Juyces and which are very grateful to the tast after this manner Take Juyce of Apples that smel sweet newly drawn out and setled four ounces Juyce of Lemmons three ounces Rose-Water two ounces Juyce of Pomegranats one ounce finest Sugar half a pound Make of al a clear Julep for three Doses If very thin Choller and sharp be in motion and cause either a Loosness or some other greivous fluxion Juleps must be compounded which thicken of Waters of Lettice Purslain Plantan flowers of Water Lilly Red Poppy and Violets with the Syrups aforesaid Yet we must observe that Syrup of Violets and other of the sweeter sort of Syrups are not to be given alone both because they loosen the stomach as also because ere they can Pass into the Veins they are turned into an hot Vapor which doth afterwards cause thirst to encrease And therefore there must evermore some Quantity of sharp Syrup be mixed with the sweet Syrups aforesaid that they may more easily peirce into the Veins and the better resist the Heat of the Feaver In the Progress of the Feaver when Coction begins to appear to the foresaid Decoctions must be added Roots of Asparagus and Liquoris Leaves of Agrimony Pimpernel Liverwort and Maiden-Hair In Flegmatick and Cronick Feavers things more cutting attenuating and opening are prescribed beginning with the more weak such as are Syrup of Vineger of Maiden-Hair Syrupus Bizantinus with a Decoction of Egrimony Maiden-Hair Betony Liquoris Raisens And in the progress of the Feaver unto the former we add Syrup of the opening Roots Vineger compound of Hyssop Oxymel simple and compound And to the Decoction we add the five opening Roots Leaves of Hyssop Carduus benedictus and if the matter be very impact Clammy and roapy of Germander and Centory Whereunto if Salt of Tartar and spirit of Vitriol be added they work more happily In Feavers springing from Melancholy such things are added which do moisten as Syrup of Violets of bugloss of Borrage and Apples towards the Beginning and afterwards Fumitory of Epithymum of the five opening Roots Oxymel of Squils with a Decoction first of Bugloss Borrage Cetrach or wall-fern Maiden Hair Fumitory Hops and afterward Dodder Scordium Centory Bark of Capers of the Ash-tree and of Tamarisk And finally in bastard Feavers which arise from the mixture of different evil Humors the Medicines aforesaid must be mixed together
little but the malignant quality intense and then the Feaver in regard of putrefaction shews no such bad symptoms seems remiss yet the strength of the patient is more than ordinarily weakned For somtimes the putrefaction is so remiss that it is in a manner none at all but the malignant quality in a very high degree and then we have a Feaver which seems neither to the Patient nor by standers any thing troublesom but it seems at first sight mild as mild can be when as indeed and intruth it is very mortall for when the malignant qualitie is increased the patients strength is dejected and the Heart wholly overwhelmed and this kind of Feaver doth not only deceive the Patients and by-standers but somtimes the Physitians themselves are thereby cheated whiles there being no sign present either by crudity or pravity of Humors the Pulse being in a manner in it's natural state and the heat of the Body at first appearance seeming mild and gentle it leads unto destruction Som such thing is likewise wont to happen in the first difference viz. When it is joyned with the highest degree of malignity for putrefaction being by convenient medicaments subdued and the signes of recovery appearing death notwithstanding somtimes ensues by reason the malignant quality did remaine uncorrected And finally the differences of a Pestilent Feaver are taken from its adjuncts and they are very many and most evident for there is no evil symptom nor kind of deadly disease which is not somtimes joyned with this Feaver The symptomes are Head-ach Watchings Raveings Dead sleepes Thirst Stomach-Sickness and Vomiting want of Appetite Swooning Fainting Hiccoughing Unquietness Loosness Sweats and such like which are common also to other kind of Feavers But there is one Symptom proper and peculiar to a pestilential Feaver which doth not happen in other Feavers viz. Purple Specks or Spots on the whol Body but especially in the Loyns the breast and back like unto Flea-bitings for the most part which the Italian Physitians name Peticulae or Petechiae and these Feavers which have these Symptoms are commonly named Purpuratae or Petechialis Purple or Spotted Feavers For these Purple Spots do not appear in all Pestilential Feavers but when they appear they are a most certain Sign of a pestilential Feaver Now we call them Purple Spots because they are for the most part of a Purple colour Yet they are many times of a violet colour Green blewish or black and then they are far worse and do signifie greater Malignity And although these Spots are for the most part like Flea-biâ—ings yet they appear somwhat greater So as to represent those black and blew marks which remain after whipping and then they are worse And somtimes they are very large and possess whol Members and a great part of the body viz. the Arms Thighs and back and then the parts appear tainted with redness which in few hours oftentimes vanisheth away and then returns again as it were by Fits whilst the Feaver undergoes it's Fits or Exacerbations wherein the blood boiling doth send forth it 's thinner Exhalations to the surface of the Skin by which the Skin is not swelled but only infected with a red Color Oftentimes notwithstanding by these Ebullitions the Skin is in divers parts puffed up with a certain redness and makes certain broad and soft tumors in the Skin which in a few hours vanish away and are commonly called Ebullitions of the blood In these and the aforesaid there is alwaies some Malignity but so light that it threatens no danger unless in the progress of the Disease it prove more intense Now the Spots aforesaid like to Flea-bitings do differ from those Pushes which are wont also somtimes to appear in these Feavers and are mentioned by Hippocrates in Epidemiis which have an Head and are a kind of Tumors which come somtimes to Suppuration or Exulceration But the Purple Spots have as was said no eminence or Head and were unknown to the Antients being described only by later Physitians of after Ages As to those Diseases which are joyned to a Pestilential Feaver we may affirm what hath been said of the Sym ptoms viz. that many deadly Diseases are joyned with these Feavers namely Phrensies Squâ— iâ—es Pleurisies Inflamations of the Lungs Inflamations of the Liver bloody Fluxes and very many more But the chief Diseases which shew themselves in a Pestilential Feaver are two viz. a Pestilent Bubo and a Carbuncle which declare the venemous quality to be in the highest degree and are not found but in the true Pestilence and are wont commonly to accompany the same So that the common People call them by the very name of the Pestilence The Causes of Pestilential Feavers are some Internal others External and the Internal are some Immediate others Mediate The Immediate Cause of this Disease as we hinted before is a corruption of the Humors joyned with putrefaction From the Corruption they acquire an evil and venemous Quality and from Putrefaction the Feaver is bred The Mediate Causes are a Plethory Cacochymie and Obstructions Now we understand such a Plethory or fulness of Blood not as distends the Vessels but such at least as the strength of the Patient cannot master which not being regulated by Nature doth easily undergo Corruption and Putrefaction Now a Cacochymie or abundance of evil Humors is easily corrupted and putrefied Finally Obstructions are apt to breed all kind of Feavers forasmuch as Humors being close shut up in an hot and moist place wanting free transpiration do casily putrefie The Internal Mediate Causes are by Authors commonly called Morbosus Apparatus a sickly Disposition of Body and the efficacy thereof is so great that it alone is somtimes sufficient to produce a gentle Pestilential Feaver such as is commonly called a Malignant Feaver simply or a Purple Feaver without the Intervention of any External or common Cause For we oft-times see when the year is not Pestilential and there is no Epidemical sickness abroad some persons through the evil Condition of their Humors fall into such Feavers which are accompanied with many Symptoms of Malignancy yea and with other Purple spots Concerning the point of Obstruction we must observe that it doth necessarily concur as the principal Cause in Malignant Feavers which proceed from Internal Causes and are not Epidemical but that Epidemical Feavers which proceed from a common Cause viz. A Pestilent constitution of the Air or are gotten by Contagion have not necessarily any Obstructions for their Cause For the venemous quality is received only by breathing in the corrupt Air or only by Infection from others by which venemous Quality the Humors of the Body declining from their own proper Nature do of their own accord putrefie For even as Fruits that will not keep and other things apâ— to corrupt though they have never so much freedom of the Air yet cannot be preserved from Corruption Even so the Humors when they have conceived that pernitious Quality
are apt to Corrup-tion so that though there be no Obstruction present they necessarily fall into a Putrefaction and a Feaver Howbeit Putrefaction being by this means brought into the Humors when Nature doth no longer rule them they are wont for the most part to breed Obstructions whereby the Feaver is augmented so that in these Feavers Obstructions may Concur which though in the beginning they were not the Cause of the Feaver yet do they follow the same being cherished by the Causes of the Feaver and being infected with Pestilential Venom The External Causes of Pestilential Feavers are the six Non-natural things which as they are necessary so do they necessarily alter our bodies and when they are far departed from their Natural condition they breed in us Malignant and venemous Qualities Among these the Air holds the chief place which as it is a most common Cause so Diseases that are common doth for the most part proceed from some fault thereof Now the Air becomes vitious and hurtful to men for the most part by a threefold means First If it be not blown through with wholsom Winds Secondly If it be polluted with the Infection of putrid and stinking Exhalations Thirdly If by an excess or preposterous condition of the first Qualities it doth so alter Men that thereby evil and malignant putrefactions of the Humors be ingendred The first is evident enough For if the Air be not blown through and stirred with Winds it is easily corrupted Whence Hippocrates in the 3. Epidem Describing a most grievous Pestilential constitution saith This year had no Winds And the Second is most effectual and frequent viz. When Putrid Filthy and malignant vapors are mingled with the Air and do infect the same which is wont to arise from divers things viz. Lakes Pooles Fiâ—h-ponds and other quiet and still Waters or such as are full of mud or wherein Flax or Hemp have been steeped Or from the stink of Privies Dung-hils and nasty Allies Or from the unburied bodies of such as have bin slain in battle Or out of Dens or Caves or Caves wherein the Air having been longshut up hath gained a filthy putrefaction being opened by an Earth-quake or some other â—asualtie But the third Reason which consists in the Excess Inequality or Preposterous condition of the first Qualities may happen divers waies and especially when there is a great excess of Heat and moisture For those Qualities when they are extranious and adventitious and encreased above their Natural condition they are the principles of putrefactions Hence a Southern Wind lasting long in the Seasons of the year according to Hippocrates in Epidem was the principal cause of all Pestilential Feavers there described But a dry Constitution of the Air though in the Opinion of Hippocrates it 's more wholsom than a moist yet because excess of Qualities is hurtful to our Nature certain it is that a very dry Constitution of the Air more than ordinary doth produce Pestilential Feavers especially if it be joyned with Excessive Heat A cleer example wherof we have in Livy in the first Book of his History Decad. 4. viz. How by over great dryness a Pestilence happened at Rome because there had been little or no Rain that year neither was there scarcity of Water from Heaven alone but the Earth was scarce able to continue her Springs Now this dry Constitution doth therefore Cause the Pestilence because the Humors being above measure burnt dried up degenerate into the Matter of Biles Carbuncles and consequently of a Pestilential Feaver and being very much thickned they produce grievous Obstructions wherby in a matter otherwise wel disposed therunto Malignant putrefaction is easily bred Add hereunto That this immoderate driâ—ess of the air doth corrupt the Corn hindring it from attaining its due maturity For it brings the Corn sooner out of the Earth and it gives it at first plentiful nourishment and afterward Scanty whereby the Corn is unequally digested being Burnt without but within quiâ—e Raw like Flesh scorched with an over violent Fire and so it proves a Cause of indigestion and divers Crudities It is proved also from Hippocrates That immoderate Cold doth produce a Pestilence 1. Epidem Sect. 5. tempest 1. where he saith In the Country of Thasus a little before the appearance of Arcturus a Star or Constellation and whilst He appears the North Wind blowing there are many and great Rains In which places he fetches the Cause of a Pestilential Season from over great Coldness Also we may read in Livy Lib. 5. Decad. 1. That a Pestilential Season was caused by vehement Cold in these Words The year was remarkable for a Cold and Snowy Winter so that the Wayes were stopped up and the River Tyber was unnavigable So sad a Winter was followed by a grievous and Pestilential Summer Mortal to all kind of Living-Creatures whether iâ— were occasioned by the sudden change of the Air from one extream to another or by some other means And the reason of this Accident is at hand viz. That by reason the Pores of the Skin are closed up by the extream Cold so that the vapors cannot steem forth so as naturally they should there follows the greater putrefaction and more grievous poison whereupon follows more dangerous feavers than in the Summer in which the condition of the air although in some sort it gives beginning to the Disease yet doth it make the pores and passages wider Through which that which putrified does exhale and the natural and preternatural evaporations doe readily breath out Inequality of the Season is wont also to be the Cause of this kind of Feavers viz. when it is sometimes Hot sometimes Cold sometimes wet sometimes dry in a short time or when these various seasons doe endure longer one after another As when after long vehement Hot weathâ—â— a freezing cold claps in or after long rains an extream drought steales upon us or contrarywise Or when after a preposterous fashion it is hot in Winter and cold in Summer Now these inequalities of Seasons may help the production of Pestilential Feavers because in them the humors are exceedingly disturbed by which means they arrive unto an evill condition far from their natural stare and fit to produce malignant Diseases especially in those bodies which during the Course of the Seasons aforesaid by disorderly Course of Diet and liveing have contracted either a Plethory a Cacochymy or some notable obstructions To this kind of Causes may be added the malignant Influence of the Constellations which by changeing the Ayr are wont diversly to affect the Bodies of Liveing Creatures Such they say are the Conjunction of the superior Planets Saturu Jupiter and Mars in humane Signes such as Virgo and Gemini and especially when Mars is Lord. Which do bring Diseases in otherwise they by change of the Ayr so far as to corrupt the Nature and substance thereof And that change is wrought two waies and is by the manifest qualities as when
an even balance out of which diversity of influences notwithstanding it could hardly come to pass but that som parcel of things so different should sometiems suffer not in any whol kind oâ— sort which should tend to the destruction of the universe but only in some individuals that were less able to resist and for the most part misaffecred and only in some part of the Air more disposed to receive malignant influences From whence we may conclude that those corruptions doe chiefly depend upon the defect of sublunary bodies forasmuch as many places are in the world where the air is so perfectly constituted and the inhabitants â—o evenly tempered that let never so malignant Influences of Starrs showâ— upon them yet are they never infected whith other pestilence To the same kind of Causes must we refer the Defects and Eclipses of Sun and Moon unusual Meteors and especially Blazing Stars which are never wont to appear but that Epidemical and Pestilential Sicknesses and Divers changes in the World do follow as is Consirmed by the experiments of many Histories whence that usually Cited verse of Claudian is become as a Proverb In Caelo nunquam Spectatum impune Cometam A blazing Star does not appear But some Beholders plagued are A most evident witnes whereof was that hairy Comet which appeared Anno 1618. Towards the East on the 27 of November and was afterwards seen near upon the whol Moneth of December moving and shining It 's thicker and more solid part being turned towards the Sun did behold the East and did far exceed Venus both in the clearnes of its shining and in its largnes thickly compacted and conglobated together The remaining part being more thin and less enlightened by the Sun because of its thinnes did move like fairly spred beard and stretched towards the West This Comet first appeared under the sign of Libra nere the Aequinoctial Line but by a private and peculiar motion of its own it was carryed from thence through the feet of Virgo the middle of Bootes and the tail of the greater Bear And at length its light decreasing by little and little and the matter whereof it consisted being dissipated it vanished betwen the great Bear and the Dragon It was carried with the common motion of the Stars from East to West but it seemed to be moved som what swifter than the Stars for in the first Daies of its Apparition it was wont to rise a little before five in the morning and afterwards it rose about four a Clock and before four and so sooner and sooner till it prevented the Midnight and Bed-time And we have reason to believe that this Comet was the Prognostick and sorerunner of malignant and pestilential Diseases and also of those Wars wherewith whole Europe in a manner hath since that time been laid Wast And although the Air be chief among the mediate Causes of malignant and pestilential Feavers yet sure enough other non-natural things do concur to their generation as I shall particularly and berifly declare The next to air are Aliments because bad Diet Causth a sickly disposition of the body which is an internal efficient and Causasine qua non or malignant and Pestilential Feavers Whereupon Galen in his Book De Cibis boni et mali Succi and in the 1. de Differ Feb. Chap. 3. Does demonstrate that from bad and corrupt Diet Pestilential Diseases do arise Now meats are said to be evil and the Causes of those diseases in many respects And in the first place when the Fruits of the Earth and of Trees by reason of a bad constitution of the year viz. Over moist or over dry or corrupted by mists or some tempestuous weather or some malignant influence of the stars do being eaten produce bad Juices in the body Secondly when there is great Famine and scarcity of Corn From whence came that Proverb Ho loimos meta limon the Plague follows famine For then the poor common People are forced to fill their bellies with such meats as are cheap and bad whence arises abundance of bad Humors And which is much worse when a plenty presently followes famine they do then suddenly cram themselves with much meat which by the languishing heat of their internal parts cannot be well digested and thereupon those meats come to participate of a malignant putrefaction Thirdly VVhen Aliments which in their own Nature are good do by some way or other gain putrefaction or some evil qualitie such are wheat barly beans and pease and other kind of grain which being either overlong kept or ill laid up in a moist place or otherwise misaffected do come to be musty or have some other putrefactive qualitie Such is flesh over long kept or stinking or such as is of beasts that were not killed but died of some disease as Julius Obsequens relates that in the Isle called Lipara when the Sea was made hot the fires which by meanes of an Earth-quake were forcibly vomited out of the Mount Aetina and had boiled the Fishes casting them upon the shoâ—â—â— the Inhabitants eating greedily of those Fishes a sore Pestilence followed Neither is there less power in drinks when putrid and corrupted wines or beer or other liquors are drunk or when water is drunk out of putrid and muddy Lakes or otherwaies infected As good Histories do â—â—stiâ—ie that numerous Armies have been destroied by pestilential Diseases with drinking such waters These non-natural things mentioned viz. Ayr and Meates and drinks have the greatest force to engender malignant Feavers but the four remaining viz. things voided or retained Motion and Rest Sleep and waking with Pamons of the Mind are of less efficacy and do only concur as adjuvaut Causes or such as dispose the body to conceive a malignant pucrefaction as in our exposition of them shal preâ—ently appâ—ar The â—â—tention of Courses in women or of some other accustomed evacuation Men as of the Hemorrhoides bleeâ—â—ing at nose and Loosenes which betides some persons at certain seasons when they happen in a pestilential year they are wont to produce a malignant disease For those things which are wont to be avoided as superfluous and burdensome to Nature if they be retained in the body they do easily conceive putrefaction so likewise over great evacuations either of blood or other humors do much weaken the Body and do Cause that Natural Heat being weakned it is soon infected by the vitious and pestilential impurities of the Air. As for motion and rest certain it is that overmuch Idleness is a Cause that Natural heat is not sufficiently eâ—entilated and consequently the Humors conceive putrefaction so over great exercise does very much open the pores and dissolves the Heat whereupon the body becoming weak and more apt to take impression does easily receive the Infection And too much sleep makes many Excrements and fils the body with Humidities which easily putrefie but too much watching does engender Crudities and they easily putresie because Natural Heat cannot wel
burning Feaver These things being thus premised we shal decribe the order of signs beginning from the actions hindered Because therefore the Heart is cheifly afflicted in these diseases by the malignant and venemous quality thereof therefore its action viz. The Pulse is diversly changed according to the varietie of times and the divers condition of the diseasâ— For somtimes at the first it is in a manner natural and very like the pulse of persons in health as Galen shews in the 3 de presag cap. 4. but in the progress and augmentation of the disease it is little weak and unequall Also the frequentness of the pulse is alwayes more than the increas of heat can require because the Heart being provoked by the malignant qualitie doth in that regard disturb it self more than the necessity of eventilation doth require Likewise the signs of this Feaver are Cardialgia Heart burning or pain of the mouth of the stomach which Hippocrates condemns as a sign of malignity 1. Progn in these words Pam of the mouth of the stomach with distention of the Hypochondria and Head-ach are signs of malignity Somtimes great thirst exceeding the measure of the Patients heat and somtimes want of thirst with a vehement Feaver and dryness of the Tongue for both are signs of malignity Great want of appetite which make many abhor al kinds of meat as much as if they were the most loathsom medicines Now this is wont to arise from malignant vapors which vex the stomach Stomach Sickness and vomiting arising from the same Cause especially when it happens in the beginning of the disease and is so divers that some presently vomit what they eat other vomits as soon as they have taken broath but they vomit not the broath which they took but divers kinds of Humors some keep any kind of meat but vomit their Drinks Iuleps Emulsions and whatever drinking matter is given them presently great thirst notwithstanding remaining with dryness and blacknes of the tongue A frequent and inordinate shivering which comes divers times in a day springing from sharp and biting exhalations of an adverse qualitie to our natures which are carried unto the sensitive parts which kind of shivering does rarely happen in other putred Feavers because the vapors in them have not the like malignitie In malignant intermitting tertians somtimes a sign of malignitie is taken from the shaking and the cold For it somtimes happens that in the beginning of the fit with a light coldness or shivering the heat doth so much retire inwards that the flesh of the patient is very cold and the face is like that of a dead person and the pulse so little as if it did not beat at al. After which follows an Heat which neither in the Augment nor in the state doth to the touch feel great or sharp yea and the flesh of the patient is either lukewarm to feel to or coldish even to the declâ—nation The pulse when the heat comes doth more appear yet it is small unequal frequent and very weak and many other symptomes of a pestilential Feaver are present which may sufficiently prove that there are intermitting malignant Feavers as well as continual as was hinted before Wearyness of the whol bodie Heaviness and a breaking as it were of the members appear in the beginning of the disease by reason of the foresaid vapors dispersed through the whol Body Paines of the Head Watchings and Raveings which al come from the same causes viz. from sharp and venemous vapors which when they lodg themselves in the membranes of the Brain they cause head-ach and in as much as they heat and dry the very substance of the brain if the alteration be but small they cause watchings if great they cause ravings And to these symptomes besides Heat and Dryness the venemous quality contributes much because in the vulgar Feavers such symptoms do not happen unless the distemper be much more than ordinarie And paines in this Feaver have a peculiar property to be very diverse to shift places For somtimes only the fore part of the head otherwhiles the hinder part now the forehead anon the eyebrowes are cuâ—aâ—under as it were with pam and sometimes other parts as the shoulder-blades the sides the back c. Somtimes it is fixed in one part otherwhiles it changeth place and vexes now this now that part of the body In some patients drousie and sleepie dispositions happen viz. In such as have their brains ful of flegmatick excrements which flegmatick excrements are desolved by hot vapors ascending from the inferior parts and doe hinder the functions of the Brain The urin in these pestilential Feavers is sometimes like the urin of sound persons namely when the humors doe more offend through a malignant Qualitie than by putrefaction somtimes it continues so for the first days afterwards it becomes thick troubled Somtimes in the state of the disease it appears concoct though the sick are in a perishing condition sometimes it is thin and crude haveing no sediment or such a sediment as is more like an excrement than a sediment But most commonly it appears thick and troubled and of an high colour and hath a thick red distrubed and scattered sediment And finaly al evil dispositions of urines doe happen in this disease according to the divers alterations of the putresieing and corrupted Humors Chollerick fluxes of the belly which either comes of themselves or through some like occasions by some gentle Clyster or medicament which bring many to their end So Hippocrates relates in 3. Epidem In a pestilential Constitution there described that many died of the loosness and Bloody-flux For the Humors being made more furious by the malignant qualitie which is in them doe exceedingly provoke Nature so that she indeavors to drive them out the neerest way Now in these Stooles there is wont to be a mighty stink by reason of the extream corruption of the humors An abundance of Worms is wont to be avoided in this disease especially at the beginning For the great Putrefaction doth very much dispose the Humors to breed Worms Frequent sweates small short and unprofitable doe break forth in the beginning of the disease The Heat is mild and gentle to feel to so that they searse seem to have a Feaver whereupon Galen 9. Simp. cap. de Bolo Armen Avic fen 4. lib. 1. cap de febre pestilenti Doe teach that pestilential Feavers have ofâ—times a mild and gentle Heat and the reason is because these diseases are rather caused by a malignant and venemous quality than of an ordinarie distemper and Pucrefaction Readness of the eyes isoften seen in pestilential Feavers because the membranes of the Brain are in a sort inflamed by sharp vapors ascending into the head which they easily communicate to the Tunica adnata or skin of the eyes so called which is propagated from the said membranes Finally purple spots like Flea-bitings called by later Physitians Peticulos or Petechiae are the proper
and peculiar Signs of a malignant Feaver For they are found in no other kind of Feaver forasmuch as they do arise from a vitious quality of the blood or other humors joyned with malignity Yet there do appear in other diseases spots very like unto those aforesaid but springing from a far different Cause viz. From the over thinnes of the blood which being exagitated by the heat or the expulsive faculty does sprout forth of the Capillary Veins into the Skin These spots are wont for the most part to appear in such as have some flux of blood because the blood in such is more thin and watry and also in splenetick persons in such as have the Jaundise and old obstructions of the Bowels and in a word in al such who by reason of the weaknes of their Bowels do breed watry blood and are apt to fal into a Cachexy For in such persons the blood being made thinner than ordinary sometimes flows out at the Nose somtimes at some other part and somtimes it comes out of the Capillary Veins into the Skin where being retained it losethits own coluor and becomes either blewish or black or light red and causes great variety of spots which notwithstanding are very far different from the spots of pestilential feavers and do argue nothing but the watry thinness of the blood and weakness of the Liver Now those spots which come out in Pestilential feavers do arise from Humors putrefiing and infected with an evil quality Furthermore those spots do break out somtimes critically and somtimes Symptomatically Critically when as Nature haveing either in Part or in whol overcome the putrefaction and corrected the bad quality does drive the corrupt humor to the external parts And then the disease is evermore abated Symptomatically when Nature is pricked forward by the quantity or evil quality of the morbifick matter does transmit a portion thereof unto the Skin before it be concocted or the evil quality thereof amended And from thence the Patient receives no Ease but rather Nature haveing unprofitably wrastled with the disease it is a token rather that shee is conquered than conquers The Colours of these spots are divers and do show the Diversity of the humors by which they are bred For the red spots are bred of the purer sort of blood and the black from chollerick blood more or less adust As for the store of these spots somtime they appear in greater numbers and somtimes in less They begin to appear somtimes on the fourth fifth seventh or ninth or some other critical day if their coming out portend any good somtimes on other daies when there is little good to be hoped for thereby Somtimes they are seen in al parts of the body but most frequently in the Loynes brest and Neck Now the Diseases which come upon a pestilential feaver for the most part are somthing coming out like Pox called Exanthemata Pushes and Ulcers of the Mouth Carbuncles Risings in the Groyn and behind the Ears The Exanthemata aforesaid differ from the purple spots because in the spots there is only the color changed but here is a certain rising in these Exanthemata to an head Somtimes they are like warts and somtimes less resembling millet seed Somtimes they are red being caused by blood somtimes white proceeding of flegm or Serosities yellow from choller purple from adust Choller blewish or black by reason of great burning or Mortification Some break out Symptomatically others Critically others in a middle way Some dry away others come to matter others grow to be ulcerous To these may be referred pushes appearing in the Mouth which have al the differences of the forsaid Exanthemata and are somtimes so malignant that the sick can hardly endure to eat and drink From Children they often Cause Death because they wil not endure the pain of eating and drinking These pushes do somtimes degenerate into Ulcers which breed very great trouble to the patients hindering the motion of their tongue and especially their swallowing But somtimes Ulcers are bred in the Mouth immediately without any pustules or pushes foregoing which the Greeks cal Aphthe of which there are many sorts For some are superficial others profound some clean others foul some benign others malignant some with a Crust others without And the Crust is somtimes white somtimes yellow somtimes blewish or black Those which are deep filthy and malignant and that have a black Crust are the most dangerous Carbuncles and Buboes are wont to rise in divers parts of the body but especialy where the Glandules are because the expulsive faculty being provoked by a malignant quality does expel the pernicious matter from the internal parts especially the more noble ones to the external so that from the Brain shee sends it to the Glandules or kernels behind the Ears from the Heart to the Arm-pits from the Liver to the Groyns whence swellings under the Ears called Parotides those in the Groyn called Bubones do arise Which kinds of tumors do cheifly appear in a true pestilential feaver especially those in the Groyn which therefore the common people call the Pest or Plague But Carbuncles and Parotides orrisings behind the Ears do also break out in malignant Feavers but in such as are at the top of malignity and come very neer the Nature of true Pestilential Feavers Signs commemorative are chiefly in request when Physitians are called to view the Corps of the dead at â—uch times as there is a Plague abroad or some suspition thereof that it may be known whether the party died of the plague or not And first of al in such dead bodies there do somtimes appear those spots of which we spake before and somtimes marks or stripes as it were after whipping for these are the tokens of a Pestilential disease and venemous seeing those that are poysoned have also these signs And those spots do especially denote the Pestilence when they are of a lead Color or black Also those Exanthemata spoken of before do shew the same especially if they have a bad Color but much more the Buboes Tarotides and Carbuncles whereunto may be added such signs as have appeared in the Course of the disease for the recounting of them wil make a certain demonstration The Prognostick of Pestilential Feavers is so uncertain that nothing can be certainly affirmed touching their Event until certain tokens appear either that Nature or the disease hath gotten victory which is not wont to happen unless about the end of the state or the Beginning of the Declination Where the discreet Physitian ought to delay and suspend his Judgment touching the Issue of the disease in the Beginning and the Augment Wee must nevertheless propound the chief tokens out of which we may draw a great Conjecture whether the disease wil end in Death or Health by help whereof we may foresee what is to be hoped or feared yet not being over confident for Experience hath taught us that many have escaped
palate with Skinns of fragrant apples with the pulp and juyce of Citrons and a chick and to them sal prunella may somtimes be added for to cool more effectually Also Emulâ—ions may be made of sweet Almonds and the greater cool Seeds with the Decoctions of the Juleps And for the greater quelling of the venemous Quality to the aforesaid Seeds may be added Seeds of Citrons of Navew or Turnep and of Carduus Benedictus And to commend the tast the aforesaid Syrups may be mingled therewith Now in the whol Course of the Disease Antidotes must be used not only mingled in Juleps Broths and Emulsions as was said before and shal be further declared But also contrived into other forms And because al are not to be used indifferently nor at all times of the Disease that their right Use may be wel distinguished they must be sorted into four Tribes The first conteins those which besides the Specifical Quality by which they resist poyson are cold and dry and moderatly astringent and consequently they hinder putrefaction strengthen the Heart bridle the Venom that it cannot be so easily spred into the whol Body and hinder the dissolution of the parts thereof by a kind of compression as Bole-Armoniack Terra Sigillata Coral Cinkfoyl Roots and the Roots of Tormentil The second Tribe contains such as by their coldness and the tenuity of their substance do resist putrefaction and restrain the venemous Quality as Juyce of Lemmons Spirit of Sulphur and of Vitriol as al acid things and Vinegar it self The third comprehends hot Diaphoretick medicaments which expel venemous Humors and Vapors from the Heart and bring them from the Centre to the Circumference as Angellica Zedoary Dictamnus Meddow-sweet Scordium Carduus Scabious Treacle Mithridate Treacle water The fourth contains such as by a Specifical vertue without any excess of the first Qualities do oppugn the venemous Quality as Bezoar stone Harts-horn Unicorns-Horn Troches of Vipers and such like The Medicines of the First Second and Fourth Tribe do best agree in the beginning and the Augment and those of the Third Tribe in the state and Declination Now these medicaments must be exceedingly varied and diversly mixed according to the different degree of malignity or putrefaction according to the various Intention or Remission of the Feaver and according to the divers temperaments Sex and Age of the Patient and according to other Circumstances the determination whereof depends wholly upon the Judgment and Prudence of the Physitian and cannot be determined by any certain Rules Only one thing I shall advice you of which is very well known viz. That when there is a vehement burning of the Feaver we must chiefly use Refrigerating cooling things but the hot and Diaphoretick must not be medled with which notwithstanding wil be very proper when the Feaver is more remiss and the malignant Qualâ—ty is that which most offends Of these Tribes therefore divers medicaments mâ—y be Compounded according to the judgment of the Physitian But least yong Practitioners should be wholly destitute of some forms I shal ad a few in imitation whereof they may deviâ—e a thousand others as the occasion of practise shal require Take Roots of Sorrel Bugloss and Tormentil of each one ounce Leaves of Endive Cichory Sorrel Pimpernel of each one hand uâ— Tamarinds one ounce Boil al to a pint In the strained Liquor disolve syrups of Pomegranats and Lemmons of each an ounce and half Makes of al a Julep to be taken at thrice adding to every dose a drant of Confection of Hyacinths bezoarstone six graines This form of a Julep may do wel in the beginning of the Feaver But if the Feaver be very high and the Patient of a Chollerick constitution a dram of Sal Prunella may be added to every dose or as much spirit of vitriol or sulphur as may suffice to make it moderatly tart or both of them together â—uâ— in a Feaver not very high may be added to the decoction Rootes of the white-Thistle and of Cinkfovl Leaves of Scordium and Scabious Take sweet Almonds blanched one ounce Seeds of Melones Gourds Navew Citrons and Carduus of each two drams Beat them together in a Marblemorter pouring on by little and little a pint and half of the aâ—oresaid Decoction Syrup of Lemmon three ounces Sal prunellae three drams Make an Emulsion for three Doses to be taken twice or thrice in a day In the whol courâ—e of the Disease let the Patients use in their Broaths the Confection of Hyacinths or the following pouder which is not unpleasant Take of prepared 〈◊〉 Pearls prepared shavings of Ivory Harts-horn and Bezoar of each one scruple Mix them Make of all a pouder of which give half a scruple in every mess of Broath The Innovators of this Age who endeavor to banish Gemms Pearls Coral and al Cordial things from the use of Physick and cure all Feavers even those that are malignant with Blood-letting and meer refrigerating Apozemes may be convinced wiâ—h this one Experiment at least touching Coral and Pearls which being poudred if they be infuâ—ed in Vinegar Juyce of Lemmons Spirit of Vitriol or Aquafortis they take away all the Acrimony of those Liquors Whence we may gather that the same Medicaments taken into our bodies do sweeten and molifie the acrimony and malignant quality of humors and reduce them to a moderation They which have tasted the solutions of Pearles and Corals made in juyce of Lemmons or diâ—â—illed Vineger do know the truth hereof very wel Where the malignant and venemous quality is very rise Alexipharmaca or Poâ—on-quellers are to be given in Juleps broths the ordinary drink of the Patients and 〈◊〉 they take in that by a perpetual and incessant Conflict the troublsom Enemy may be oppoâ—ed Bezoar stone is given alone to the quantity of five or six graines with water of Mead-sweet Scorzonera Carduus or such like not only to oppose the malignant quality but also to help the Diaphoretick motion for this stone is reputed for a sweating Medicament which notwithstanding many approved Authors doubt of because they could never see any sensible effect by the giving thereof And truly to speak out my mind there can no great Confidence be put in this stone because although we may allow to the true and genuine bezoar stone those faculties which are hereunto ascribed yet because the great price thereof Causes that many Traders take a world of paines to sophisticate the same we can now a dayes hardly get any but counterfeit A clear testimony whereof is that the writers of the Indian Histories do aver that Bezoar stone is very scarce and of great price among the Indians themselves when we have plenty of them and cheap enough More credit should of right be given to that same Root which the Spaniards have in this Age of ours brought out of Italy which they cal Contra yerva which signifies the Poison-pelting or Antidotary Herb because the pouder thereof is a
work and puresie it clenses both it self and the Vessel Now this working doth commonly happen to Children howbeit somtimes to those that are elder and have attained Mans estate because it is evermore set on work by some external Cause such as is especially a certain disposition of ayr proportionable to this disease whence it comes to pass that somtimes the smal Pocks somtimes the Measles are rise because the Ayr is somtimes enclined to the one and somtimes to the other Neither can those impurites of the Mothers blood infect her and cause in her the same diseases althought Hippocrates saies in his Book de Natura Pueri that there are three parts of the blood one most pure with which the Child is nourished another impure wherewith the Mother is nourished and another most impurer which is kept in the Veins of the Womb the whol time of Going with Child and after the Birth is purged away in the Child-bed purgations For first seeing the Mother hath parts more hard and solid they do not so soon take impresion as the tender and soft body of the Child Again that most impure part of the blood which is kept in the Veins of the womb and of the After-birth the whol time of belly-bearing doth infect the blood in the passage which is carryed through those parts to Nourish the Child whence the Child contracts and evil quality which in its time is the Cause of that ebullition in the blood of the Child But that impurest part of the blood remaining in the foresaid places doth not infect the body of the Mother Furthermore it s not to be wondered at that the breaking out of the smal Pocks and Measles is somtimes so long deferred as that some have them at Mans estate For those impurites do not substantially remain in the body as many imagine for they would be corrupted by long stay and acquire a most grevious putrefaction But only an evil quality is by them imprinted upon the parts of the Child which in process of time infecting some part of the humors becomes offensive to Nature which then rowsing her self doth drive those infected portions of the humors into the Skin And forasmuch as in the Mass of blood a twosold excrement is found the one thick the other thin of the thick the smal Pocks are bred of the thin the Measles And although the evil and malignant quality be one and the same insecting both excrements yet because the Nature of the excrements is different the Analogy of the external Cause unto them both is Different whence it comes to pass that sometimes the smal Pocks and somtimes the Measles are Epidemically spread abroad And although the smal Pocks are wont to break forth in the whol body yet are they wont to appear in greatest quantity in the face feet and hands which is otherwise in the purple spots of the Purple Feaver for they appear most on the breast and back The Cause of which difference is this that inasmuch as the smal Pocks arise from an ebullition of the blood by help whereof an Excretion is made of the excrements lurking therein unto the Skin and the Liver being the Fountain and original of blood whose Emunctories are the Face Hands and Feet whence it comes that such as have hot Livers have red and rubied faces and feel intense heat in the palmes of their hands and Soals of their feet it follows that the smal Pocks and Measles must come out there more than any where else Contrarywise the purple spotts which appear in malignant Feavers do arise principally from the Misaffection of the Heart and therfore they break out chiefly in parts near the Heart and especially about the Loines because in them the Vena Cava ascendens and the Arteria aorta which are annexed unto the Hair have their Course Also another difference is to be noted between the smal Pocks and Purples because the smal Pocks and Measles appearing on the third or fourth day from the beginning of the Feaver are wont to be critical and for the most part void of danger but the purple spots though they appear on the seventh day are commonly Symptomatical and render the disease worse whenas a man would think it should be otherwise for a disease is more crude on the fourth than the seveuth day But the Cause of this difference consists herein that in the smal Pocks and Measles the Feaver commonly begins at the highest so that not only on the third and fourth day but also on the first or second daies excretions may be in them critical But malignant Feavers proceed more slowly and their beginning is commonly Extended to the seventh day so that Excretions which then happen cannot be critical Now that the Pox and Measles come so soon to their state and not the malignant Feavers is hence because the Pox and Measle-Feaver comes from the lightest putrefaction and rather from an Ebullition of the blood than from any intense putrefaction of the matter and therfore Nature by help of Coction makes it to cease before the seventh day because it was a light Feaver and rose from the slightest Causes But in malignant Feavers so great and fordid is the putrefaction that it cannot be corrected in the fourteenth nor somtimes in the twentieth day And therefore the spotts breaking out before that time the disease is exasperated because Nature was forced to expel them without Concoction and symptomatically The expulsion therefore of smal pox and Measles is caused by an Ebullition of the blood which Ebullition according to Avicennas doctrine is twofold the one perfective the other corruptive The perfective or depurative is that in which only the impurer and excrementitious parts of the blood are by Nature purged forth that the whol mass may afterward remain pure and then the smal Pocks are innocent which are cured without any help of Physick But the corruptive is wherein not onely the excrementitous parts of the blood but the sincere blood it self is putrefied whence arise dangerous and deadly pox and according as there is more or less putrefaction in more in more or fewer parts of the blood so is the danger more or less This corruptive Ebullition doth cheifly happen when those diseases are epidemical being occasioned by a malignant Constitution of the Air by which an ebullition of the humors and a malignant putrefaction is caused whonce many and dangerous smal Pocks are caused which are somtimes according to Rhasis the Forerunners of the Plague Pocks and Measles are reckoned among acute diseases because ordinarily they are terminated within the space of fourteen daies Now som do wittily observe a double order of times in times in this disease viz. the time of ebullition and the time of eruption the time of ebullition is commonly terminated in four daies so that the first day is counted the beginning the second the Augment the third the state and the fourth the declination for then the Feaver and other symptomes
is somtimes a gnawing in the Stomach a heat in the Hypochondria there is great thirst sharp excrements and chollerick As for the Prognostick Thus Lientery and Coeliack Passion lasting long is dangerous because it catcheth a way the nourishment from the whol body from whence comes an Atrophy or a Dropsie and if it follow great and acute Diseases it useth to be deadly The Cure of this Disease is to be altered according to the variety of the Causes that produce it And First That which cometh from Flegm may be Cured by those Remedies which were propounded for the Cure of Want of Appetite coming of a cold Cause Chusing those things which are most Astringent to stay the Fux of the Belly Therefore you must begin with Purging of the peccant humor with Medicines made of Aloes Rhubarb and Myrobalans Clysters are here of little force while the Stomach is chiefly distempered except an immoderate Flux do require them and then they must be Astringent and strengthening according to the Forms which shal be propounded in the following Cures After Purging sufficiently you must strengthen the Stomach with Opiats Pouders Fomentations Plaisters and other Remedies mentioned in the place above quoted in which as I said you must not omit Astringents as Mastich Citron peels Coriander seeds Snake-weed Roots Tormentil Coral c. And besides others the Opiate following which is greatly Commended by Amatus Lusitanus is Convenient by which he saith he Cured an Old man after many other Medicines failed Take of Conserve of old Roses six ounces of the best Treacle six drams Syrup of Quinces as much as will make an Opiate of which let him take half an ounce in the morning not drinking presently after That which comes of Choller is to be cured by those Remedies which were laid down against Chollerick Vomiting as also by those which shal be described in the Cure of a Chollerick Diarrhoea That which comes from the imbecillity of the Retentive Faculty in a deadly or at least dangerous Disease is to be cured first with Fomentations applied to the Region of the Stomach thus made Take of the Roots of Snakeweed Tormentil and dried Citron peels of each two ounces the Leaves of Mints Plantane and Sea Wormwood of each one handful Nuâ—meg Cloves and Cinnamon of each three drams red Roses four pugils beat them and cut them according to art and fill two bags pinked therewith and steep them in equal parts of Iron Water and red astringent Wine or in Wine alone if there be no great Feaver and let them be applied to the Stomach warm one after another After wards use this Oyntment or some Emplaister made of those which are prescribed for Chollerick Vomiting Also anoint the whol Belly with Oyls or astringent Liniments Give Clysters of Broth in which red Roses have been boyled dissolving therein Sugar and Yolks of Eggs and somtimes Confectio de Hyacintho if the Patient be very weak And finally You may give at the Mouth strengthening and astringent things as in the Cure of Vomiting before mentioned as also thus which shal be shewed for the flux of the Belly In a Coeliack Passion the Food is sent forth crude and imperfectly concocted It only differs from Lientery in degree and is cured with the same Remedios But if the stools be altogether Chylous this Disease doth not depend upon the fault of the Stomach but upon the obstruction of the Meseraick Veins which is usual especially in Children And therefore it is to be cured by Remedies which open obstructions and strengthen the Liver because that is commonly also weak but you must use no astringents least another kind of flux should sollow These Medicines are at large set down in the Cure of the Diseases of the Liver Chap. 5. Of Diarrhoea Dlarrhoea is that kind of flux of the Belly by which the excrementitious Humors are sent forth without Blood or Food and without the Ulceration of the Intestines By the Conditions of Diarrhoea properly so called is distinguished from other kinds of fluxes because in Lientery and Coeliack Passion the Food is cast forth unconcocted or half concocted in a Dysentery and Tenesmus Blood is mixed with the Excrements as in the flux of the Liver called Hepaticus and in the Haemorrhoidal Many are the Differences thereof which that they may be cleerly explained are to be referred to three Heads The first whereof respects the Matter which is voided the second the place from whence it comes the third the Manner and efficient Cause which produceth the flux of the Belly In respect of the Matter voided this flux is divided into a Chollerick Flegmatick Melanchollick and serous or watery In respect of the place from whence it comes either it comes from the whol Body or some peculiar Part as the Brain Stomach Guts Liver Spleen Mesentery Womb and other Parts Thirdly In respect of the Manner and Efficient Cause one Diarrhoea is Critical another Symptomatical one comes from an internal Cause as a distemper or evil disposition of the internal parts another from an external as from some Medicine or Poyson These Differences are seldom found single but they are often complicated in one and the same flux So a Chollerick flux is from the Liver or the whol Body a Flegmatick from the Brain or Stomach a Melanchollick from the Spleen and a Serous from the whol Body Also these Differences are complicated from a divers mixture of Humors so that somtimes Choller Flegm and Water are sent forth by the same flux There is another kind of Diarrhoea different from the rest which is called Syntectice or Colliquativa coming from the melting away of the substance of the Body and Humors by the violent hot distemper of the solid parts such as happeneth somtimes in the Inflamation of the Bowels in a strong burning Feaver hectick or pestilential in which a fat Matter as it were mixed with Oyl or Grease is voided Lastly Fluxus stercorosus or a dungy flux is another kind in which much liquid excrement is often voided which comes from excrementitious Meats corrupted in the Stomach or a great plenty of Excrements heaped up in the Intestines The Knowledg in general is manifest namely when more liquid Excrements are voided and oftener than usually Nature doth allow The Signs of these Differences which are taken from the matter are manifest to the Senses namely Whether they be Flegmatick Melanchollick Chollerick or Serous The Parts Sending have a more difficult Diagnosis or way of Knowledg yet they are thus Distinguished If the Humors flow from the whol body there either is or hath lately been a continual Feaver or some other disease of the whol body as Cachexia evil Habit or Leucophlegmatia or white Dropsie or there hath been over-eating or drinking and there is no sign of any Disease of any peculiar part If it be Critical it is a benefit to the Patient and is easily endured and thence the Disease is either Cured or Diminished Somtimes there
great pain exulceration heat of Urine and stoppage thereof or the like The Signs of the Inflamation of the Reins are a weighty pain in the Reins somtimes beating if the place be affected where the Arteries are And this pain extendeth to the parts adjacent so that the Patient can neither lift himself up not stand upon his feet and scarce turn himself and neither lie upon his side nor his Belly because then the part inflamed will hang down therefore he lies alwaies upon his back and if he either neeze or otherwise move his Body the pain is encreased He hath a numbness or pain in the Leg on the same side by reason of the Nerve that goes from thence to it He hath difficulty of pissing by reason of the heat which is sent to the Urine and filth mixed with it coming from the inflamed part The Urine is first thin and yellow but after red and thick â—e hath a constant sharp Feaver which is attended often with watchings dotings and other great Symptomes also loathing and vomiting by which he voids Choller Flegm and other Humors Somtimes the Gut Colon is inflamed and if it be that part which is neer the Liver it brings the like Symptomes but here is the difference In the Inflamation of the Reins the pain reacheth to the short Ribs the Back and Bladder but that of the Colon tends more to the Belly and there is a greater change of Excrements of the Belly than in the Inflamation of the Kidneys But in the Inflamation of the Kidneys there is a pain about the Pubis and Perinaeum in which there is heat and somtimes redness There is constant heat of Urine but that is stopped when the part swelleth and stoppeth the passage The straight Gut suffers by reason of its neerness hence it is that there is often desire to go to stool with burning somtimes the belly is bound when the Gut is stopped by the inflamed Bladder There are also other common Symptomes mentioned in the Inflamation of the Reins as a Feaver watching doting thirst and the like There can be no good Prognostick in this Disease For the inward Inflamation of the noble inward parts do threaten continual danger of death It is most deadly when a Convulsion or dotage followeth or the like great Symptome and if there be a cold sweat death is at hand In the Inflamation of the Reins if the Hemorrhoids follow it is good If the Inflamation Suppurate and the Imposthume break and go into the passage of the Urine there is hope but if it go by the Emulgent Veins into the Liver and labor to get way through the Guts it is dangerous A final Inflamation of the Bladder with a Sediment in the Urine that is white and equal promiseth health An Inflamation of the bladder is somtimes cured by an Erysipelas or Chollerick Humor arising in the Skin suddenly and by making much Urine The Cure of both Inflamations of the Reins and Bladder is made by revelling deriving cooling and moderately repelling by Anodines Resolvers or Ripeners if need be and the like whose Matter and way of using shall be as followeth And first Phlebotomy is very necessary in the Liver Vein on the same side the pain is twice thrice or four times or oftener if the strength will bear it til the defluxion ceaseth which you may know by the abating of the pain But in the Inflamation of the bladder the right side is to be chosen by reason of the Liver from whence as from a Fountain the blood floweth to the part After much blood is taken away and revulsion is made by the upper Vein you must also open the inferior for derivation sake in the Ham or Ancle as also the Hemorrhoids are to be opened especially if they be swelled Cupping-glasses with Scarrification are also good for Revulsion both above and beneath and Frictions with strong Ligatures of the extream parts to draw the humors outward After and before blood-letting give a mollifying and cooling Clyster that is a little loosening and let it be of a smal quantity lest it oppress the Tumor thus made Take of Marsh-mallow Roots one ounce Mallows Violets Lettice of each one handful sweet Prunes four pair Barley and Violet Leaves of each one pugil make a Decoction to eight or ten ounces In the straining dissolve of Cassia or Diaprunes simple one ounce Oyl of Violets four ounces two Yolks of Eggs Make a Clyster Allay the heat of the blood with Juleps and Emulsions made thus Take of Endive Littice and Purslain Water of each four ounces Syrup of Pomegranates two ounces Syrup of Water Lillies one ounce Make a Julep for three draughts morning and evening Or Take of Sorrel Roots two ounces Mallows Plantane Purslain and Endive of each one handful the tops of white Poppies half a handful Annis and Lettice seed of each one dram Borrage Violets and Water-lilly Flowers of each one pugil boyl them to a pint and an half then add four ounces of the juyce of Pomegranates Or Take of sweet Almonds blanched one ounce fresh Pine-nuts half on ounce Lettice Sorrel Purslain and Poppy seeds of each three drams beat them according to art powering on by degrees of Barley Lettice and Purslain Water one pint and an half Dissolve in the straining Sugar of Roses one ounce Make an Emulsion for three Doses in which we leave out the great cold Seeds because being Diuretick they may draw somthing to those parts especially in the time of the defluxion but in the declination they may be useful You may profitably add to the Emulsion the Syrup of Poppies to stop the flux more violently Also the parts inflamed may be cooled by Clysters made of the Decoction of the Julep aforesaid with Oyl of Roses or Violets two ounces In the beginning of these Inflamations purging is not proper for it is to be feared lest the Humors being moved should flow to the parts affected so that if there then be a great flux of the Belly it is to be stopped for that cause But when the Inflamation is a little allayed and the disease declineth a Purge made of gentle things may be good as of Manna Cassia Rhubarb Tamarinds Diaprunes simple Catholicon and Syrup of Roses with a Decoction of Lettice Purslain and other cooling things prescribed in the Juleps Or you may make a Bolus of some of them Out wardly All the time of the Disease you must apply cooling things that gently repel as moist Epithems of the Water and Juyce of Plantane Sorrel Endive Nightshade Roses with a little Vinegar red Sanders and Camphire Liniments also of Oyl of Roses and Olives Violets Cerat of Sanders white Oyntment or Populeon alone or mixed with a little Vinegar which you must apply to the parts aforesaid every hour cold Or you may make a Liniment of an Egg wel beaten with a little Oyl and Rose Vinegar Or you may make that which is excellent of Oyl of Roses with Vinegar
half an ounce beat them in a stone Morter powring on by degrees the Decoction of Barley Liquoris Purslain and Mallow tops one pint and an half make an Emulsion for three Doses adding to each Dose one ounce of the Syrup of Violets and one dram of Lapis prunellae and if the pain be great add a little Syrup of Poppies and one dram of Gum Arabick in pouder or the Syrup of Marsh-mallows according to Fernelius or of Mucilages You may make Broths thus Take of Marsh-mallow Roots half an ounce Mallows one handful Liquoris half an ounce Quince seeds one dram boyl them with Chicken Broth make it often The Whey of Goats Milk is very good given in great draughts as we said in the hot distemper of the Liver And if there be no Feaver you may with more profit give Milk by it self because it doth not only clense but allay pain and temper the sharpness of the Humors In an old Disease it is good to give Mineral Waters that cool especially Allum Iron and Vitriol Waters for by Experience we find that they have cured this Disease when it hath been inveterate Instead of the aforesaid Juleps the simple Decoction of Mallows with Syrup of Violets may be used by which Forestus saith Obs 4. Lib. 25. he cured a grievous Dysury many times and that there is nothing like it Forestus also Obs 3. of the same Book that an Apothecary cured himself and others with the white of an Egg beaten with Rose Water He also reports that a woman cured an old man of Delf with Chamomel flowers boyled in Milk Amatus Lusitanus 58. Curat Cent. 6. saith that a Woman was cured when all means failed with Conserve of Mallow flowers she took one ounce morning and evening and drunk after it three ounces of Mallows Water And Curat 59. he saith that one who had a Dysury after he had voided a stone was cured by the same in three daies The Conserve of Marsh-mallow slowers is of the same or greater Vertue Some commend the Troches of Winter Cherries given with convenient Liquor the quantity of a dram because they are Diuretick abate sharpness and pain When the pain is very great it is good to put the Yard when you piss into warm Milk or a Decoction of Mallows and white Poppy seeds or warm Water only A smal Decoction of Mallows with Syrup of Violets and Conserve of Roses is good for ordinary Drink You may also make Injections into the passage of the Bladder of Milk or of an Emulsion of cold Seeds Plantane Water or Whey with the Water of a white of an Egg beaten or one scruple of the Troches of Winter Cherries External Medicines are also good as Baths half Baths Fomentations to the Privities made of cool Herbs Liniments of Oyl of Roses Water Lillies Unguent of Roses Galens cooling Oyntment Populeon with Camphire and the Mucilage of Fleabane made with Plantane Water Also you must apply Epithems that cool to the Reins and Liver and the aforesaid Liniments and the things mentioned formerly for the same When sharp and chollerick Humors flow from the Liver you may derive by an Issue in the right Leg or by opening the Hemorrhoids which is very good in al diseases of the Reins and Bladder according to that of Hippocrates Aph. 11. Sect. 6. because from the Spleen Vein called Ramus Splenicus there are branches go to the Reins Bladder and Hemorrhoids The End of the Fourteenth Book THE FIFTEENTH BOOK OF THE PRACTICE OF PHYSICK Of WOMENS Diseases The PREFACE THose are called Womens Diseases which are proper to them only and come from the defect of that part which is distinct in them from men viz. the Womb of which Democritus in his Letter to Hippocrates said that it was the cause of six hundred miseries and innumerable Calamities But we to lay down those Diseases of the Womb which are most usual will divide them thus Some come from the Vessels and some from the Body of the Womb or Cavity others are in respect of its chief and noblest act of Generation From the distemper of the Vessels of the Womb and the preternatural causes come Chlorosis or green Sickness stoppage of the Terms immoderate Flux the Whites Rage of the Womb and the Mother In the Cavity of the Womb are Inflamations Vlcers Scirrhus Cancer Gangrene Dropsie coming forth and shutting up thereof these may hinder Generation but by accident The Diseases which are in respect of Conception Breeding and Bringing forth are Barrenness acute and Chronical Diseases of Women with Child Abortion difficult bringing forth dead Child Secundine retained immoderate flux or suppression of blood and the acute Diseases of women in Child-bed All which Diseases we will speak of in as few words as the dignity of the Matter will permit Chap. 1. Of the Green-sickness called Chlorosis THis Disease by Hippocrates is called Chlorosis by the Modern Physitians the white Feaver the Virgins Disease the Pale color of Virgins the white Jaundice but vulgarly the Green-sickness It may be defined thus An evil habit of Body from the Obstruction of the Veins of the Liver Spleen and Mesentery and especially of those which are about the Womb which is accompanied with a heaviness or unwildiness of the whol Body beating of the heart difficulty of breathing a desire of evil Food and the like This Disease depends immediately upon the Obstruction of the parts in the lower Belly especially of those Veins which are about the Womb whereby the free passage of Blood to the Womb is hindered which abounding in Virgins when they begin to have their Terms and being hindered of its Natural course by those Obstructions runs to the upper parts and oppresseth the Heart Liver Spleen Diaphragma or Midriff and other parts destroyes their Natural heat stops the Vessels hence is there an evil Concoction in the Bowels and from thence their Body is ful of Crudities which being carried forth make an evil Habit. In other parts they produce divers Symptomes in the Hypochondria a swelling of the Bowels by which the Midriff is oppressed which causeth shortness of breath And because gross blood and wind are carried by the Branches of the hollow Vein and great Artery into the Heart which contend against them for fear of Suffocation by often moving of its Arteries there is a palpitation of the Heart and often a beating in the Temples Besides they have in this Disease a loathing of meat because the Stomach is filled with crude Excrements by reason of its evil Concoction and distribution which excrements having gotten an evil quality by a peculiar kind of corruption cause a desire of evil meats and things not ordained for nourishment as Salt Spices Chalk Coals Ashes and the like which Disease is called Pica Malacia or strange Longing which we have at large spoken of in its proper place among the Diseases of the Stomach The Causes of the Obstructions in the Veins of the Womb and the Hypochondria are