Purple colour PUrple colour declareth need of much strength before it can be altered to a good urine This urine is a sign of burning choler And if it do continue very long it is a token of the yellow Jaunders with abundance gross and corrupt choller gathered in the â—ver And at the beginning there goeth wâ— it some spices and grudgings of the Agâ— with a little thirstiness but unless there bâ— discretion used in the diet of such a Patieâ— it may turn to a much worse disease Of Green Vrines Green colour GReen colour is an evill and a dangeroâ— token for it needeth not only long timâ— but also cotinual strength to bring it agâ— to a good trade The higher that this cold is the more it declareth that choller exceâ—eth the other humours which if it be aâ— more burned will cause black urine which I will anon speak But if green oâ—lour come of wasting of the fat then is somewhat like to oylie colour or popinâ— green but if it come of abundance of purpâ—lish colour and through increase of his quâ—litie then doth the colour incline more â—ward black and glistereth with shadow green drawing very nigh unto black Afâ— green choler followeth madness parbreaâ—ing and avoiding of choler sometimes wiâ— matter or else burned and also continuâ— thirstiness and burning heat of the tongue straightness about the stomack And like other things But if the patient continue strong and the colour of the urine do waxe lighter there is good hope else there is great fear least of the dryness and burning there do follow contraction of the sinews which will kill the patient Of Oilie Vrine or Popinjay Green Oilie urine or popinjay green OYlie Urine is of three sorts as I said in the fift Chapter that is light oylie stark oylie and dark oylie Oylie urines are a token of unnatural heat and the higher that the colour is the greater is the heat And also they betoken melting of the fat within a man for of it are they so coloured But at the beginning when there is a little fat melted the urine is light oylie For if it look stark oylie then it signifieth that the disease increaseth But if it come once to dark oylie then is the disease sore increased Hippocrates in the seventh Book of his Aphorisms speaking of fatness in urine saith thus Who so maketh urine with fatty flotes comming much and fast they have sharp pains in the reins Which sentence though it seem more to appertain to the contents then to the colour yet doth not onely Galen but also Aetinâ— Actuarius and also another Grecian who name I know not expound it amongst colours and by it declare the difference â— know whether that wast or melting â— fat be in the reins it self or in other parts oâ— the body For if it come fast together â— Hippocrates saith then commeth it from thâ— reins it self and betokneth the wasting â— be in them But if it come softly and increaâ— by little and little then doth it declare thâ— the whole body is overcome with unnaturall heat and that the fat of it doth wast it doth betoken as Act. witnesseth a wasting Ague consuming the body Of blew Vrine Ash-colour and Black BLew colour Ash-colour and Black do differ only in lightness and darkness For ash-colour is darker then blew anâ— black is darker then any of them both Blew colour Blew colour sometime cometh of moderate melancholy and then is the urine somewhat thin in substance And sometime iâ— commeth of great cold and then it is thick in substance And sometime it is a token oâ— mortifying of some part Yea and sometime even of whole nature namely if the colour change to worse and worse and there went before no token of concoction Ash-colour Ash coloured urine commeth of like causes and betokeneth like things Howbeit it is so coloured many times when the party that made it hath been sore beaten and bruised But in this you need not the help of urine for you may see the walts and tokens of the stripes in his body Black urine Urine which is extream black sometime betokeneth extream heat and sometime extream cold the which both you may distinctly discerne if you doe observe order of alteration in the colours of the urine that the patient made last before For if his urine before were green or like thereto then doth the black urine which follows it betoken extream heat But if it were last before blew or ash-coloured then doth it signifie extream cold This black colour though it be commonly an evill and deadly sign as I said before speaking of thick urine and black yet sometime it is a good token For in all diseases lightly that come of melancholy matter it betokeneth that the matter doth avoid and so the sicknes to end And such urine doth appear many times after purgations or other meats and drinks which purge the splene namely if a man do labour upon them that was before diseased of the spleen Howbeit sometime meats and drinks of liâ— colour cause black urine as Galen witnesseth namely after dark red wine and Allegant But in moderate Agues if such black â—rine doe appear it is a token of death excepâ— it be on some Criticall dayes And likewiâ— in sharp agues especially if the savour bâ— strong and stinking unless it come of somâ— grief of the bladder Quantitie of urine Let this suffice for this time as touchinâ— colours Now for the quantitie of urine â— when it is mean it is a good token so wheâ— it is either too much or too little it is an evill sign except it come of such cause as shewed before that altereth urine in healthfull man Much in a whole body As first excessive quantitie of urine comâ—meth of much drinking of thin wine as Reâ—nish wine and such like But that shall yoâ— thus know for the colour will be whitely and the substance thinner then a meanâ— the contents also will be divers and not dâ—ly knit Likewise if there be aboundancâ— of raw humours in a man unconcocted anâ— yet nature persevering strong then is therâ— great quantity of urine and somewhat thiâ— of substance but not so white as the otheâ— and the contents of this are better Alsâ— as Hippocrates saith much Vrine made iâ— the night 4. Aph. 3. is a token of small sege so that if any impediment let naturall sege then will the quantity of urine be the greater But in this as the colour is mean so is the ground both greater and grosser yet in healthfull folk may the urine by another means also be greater then a mean and that may be by medicines which provoke urine but then is the colour more naturall then the last that I spake of and the ground is thinner of substance so that it is dark and scarcely seene and then is there a certain glistering in the urine it self Little urine in a whole body Now
THE JUDGMENT OF Vrines By Robert Record Doctor of Physick Whereunto is added an ingenious Treatise concerning Physicians Apothecaries and Chirurgeons Set forth by an Eminent Physitian in Queen Elizabeths dayes With a Translation of Papius Ahalsossa concerning Apothecaries Confecting their Medicines Worthy perusing and imitating LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Peter Parker at the Leg and Star in Cornhil against the Royal Exchange 1679. To the Reader IF either the corruption or abuse of things might deprive us of this lawfull and necessary use of them even the sacred Scriptures our laws our provisions of life and clothing might fall under declension if not abolition It is true from the inspection of Urine some have presumed to pretend a larger judgement and indication then may justly be drawn or conjectured out of it yet it is generally concluded by Physitians both ancient and moderne that both Urine and Pulse are so necessary that without them all knowledge of Physick besides is doubtfull obscure and uncertaine whereof the first sheweth the estate of the liver and veines the second of the heart and arteries The Urine because with the blood it is conveâ—ed into all parts of the body and from thence returneth back again in the veines to the liver and urinall vessels bringeth with it some indicature of the state and disposition of all those parts from whence it commeth and who shall please to peruse that exact peice of Daniel Becherus shall finde observable peices both concerning the urine and divers experimented medicines made with it Concerning the judgement of the Pulse who shall please to peruse Doctor May upon Pennant shall finde the Pulses motion not so certain an indicature because in some diseases there is cessation or none or small appearance to conjecture by Concerning the Author he was one of the first who labour'd to reduce the tractate thereof unto order and method and hath been seconded by laborious Fletcher to whom our English Nation oweth much for their labours The antiquity and paines of the Author hath caused it to be presented again to the Presse hoping with judicious men it shall receive the acceptance is desired and studied By the well-wisher of your health R. R. The PREFACE The good use of a covetous example THough the unsatiable greedines of covetous men doe many and sundrie waies hurt yet some wayes it may do no lesse good if men will not disdain as they ought not to use it in such sort as I shall shew you But because that unsaciableness is never satisfied but beside thousand of means invented already to quench the unquenchable greedines it seeketh and findeth daily new and new means innumerable so that it were an infinite labour to declare them all I will wittingly and purposedly passe them over only taking one general sentence which shall be in stead of all the rest Vespasian one of the great schoolmasters of avarice which could pick out profit of every thing yea even of mens urine taught his Scholers I meane the whole court of covetous persons this lesson ensuing Lucri bonus odor 〈◊〉 qualibet Lucre is sweet and hath a good savour Though it come of Vrine dirt or Ordure This sentence if it be withdrawn from the filthy lucre of unsatiable covetousnesse wherein it is detestable and imployed rather to the due lucre of mans sustenance then it becomes tolerable But if it bee referred to the necessarie lucre of mans health then is it greatly commendable If there can be then any commodity for mans health gathered out of urine as there may be much men should not be negligent in seeking of that thing which should do good both to themselves and others seeing the covetous are so diligent in seeking for that thing which shall profit neither themselves nor others And the negligence is so much the greater if men be more remisse in seeking after so necessary a thing in a matter so commendable then the covetous in a bad thing But in as much as this thing by reason it is not plainly set forth is with no lesse difficulty to be studied on then it is necessary to be used the ignorant may have some excuse I therefore in the name of many other have taken this pains on me to set forth this thing so plainly Ignorance set aside that ignorance can have no excuse But that no man should doubt of the truth of this Treatise or of mine intent Why this Book is written in putting forth the same rather in this our English tongue then any other I shall briefly shew reasons of both First for the truth of it The first reason I will boldly speak knowing for certain that no man that can judge it will say or thinke otherwise but that it is as true as mans knowledge can devise it And it is the opinion of the most excellent writers of Physick both Greeks and Latine namely Hippocrates Galen Aetius Aeginâ—ta Philotheus Theophilus Actuarius also Cornelius Celsus Plinius Constantinus Africanus and Clementius Clementinus with others more conferring also with these Avicenna Egidius Polidamus and such like But with what temperance and moderation they that are learned may perceive These have I followed chiefly in this judgement of Urines And in the use of medicine and diseases touching urine I have joyned with them Dioscorides Quintus Serenus Columela Sextus Platonicus and divers others Now if there be any man that doubteth of the truth of those writers in this thing I am not here to force beleef upon them The inter of the Author But now as touching mine intent in writing this Treatise in English though this cause might seem sufficient to satisfie many men that I am an English man and therefore may most easily and plainly write in my native tongue rather then in any other yet unto them that know the hardness of the matter this answer should seem unlikely considering that it is harder to translate into such a tongue wherein the Art hath not been written before then to write in those tongues in which the terms of the Art are better expressed Now to shew briefly the causes moving me thereunto I am sure there are but few that ever sought counsell for their health but they know that the common trade to attain to the knowledge of the disease is by the judgement of the urine though not alone yet as the principall Likewise as there is not any thing so good but the abuse of it may cause harm to ensue therupon So this judgment of urines though it be a thing highly to be regarded yet if it be used rashly without foregoing signs it may cause as it doth often some error in the judgment of the Physitian though he were right excellently learned not so much by the ignorance of the Physitian as by want of knowledge in the patient which should instruct the Physitian in such questions as hee needed to demand of him and not to look that the Physitian should
other like Books of Physick hath there been put forth many yeers past And yet unto this day doe not learned wits sleepe How much is all England bound to that Worthy and Learned Knight Sir Thomas Eliot Sir Thomas Eliots Castle of Health which took the pains to build a Castle of Health for all English men besides many other learned Books that he hath puâ— forth in the Vulgar tongue whereby a man may learn both to govern himself so that though he escape not all sicknesses quiteâ— yet he shall eschew the great dangers of them England may rejoyce of such a Knight yea England hath too few that followeth such example But if England had as many well willing doers as she hath cruell and spitefull disdainers then were England the Flower of all Realmes in the world Now will I leave this and draw nearer to my purpose and will desire all men that shall read this Book patiently to bear with my boldness and thankfully to receive my good minde And if there shall bee found in this Book or in any other that I shall put forth a small error or oversight for greater errors I dare say there shall be none I shall desire all them that shall find any to advertise me thereof by word or writing and I shall be ready not onely to render condign thanks but also to amend duely that shall be thought amisse or else to yeeld a reason for the proof of the same An exhortation to the Reader And now to make an end I will desire every man soberly and discreetly to use this my Book not using it to the taunting or checking of other men nor to trust in â—heir own knowledge further then they ought And likewise I shall exhort all men not to mock and jest with any Physitian as some light wits do tempting them with Beasts stale in stead of mens urine others bringing to them mens water for womens and such other like things For in this doing they deceive not the Physitian but themselves For a mans water to be like a womans it need seem no strange thing Howbeit again there is a notable difference insomuch that that water which in a man declareth health if it were a womans might declare some disease and likewise that which in a woman signifieth health if it were a mans water it might betoken sicknesse And if a mans water and womans be like and betoken both diseases those diseases may be divers and not one Yea two mens waters being both alike shall not declare alwaies one grief except they agree also in age diet exercise and other like things Also that a Beasts Water may be like a Mans the Mans sicknesse being thereafter Hypocrates witnesseth and experience teacheth as I shall declare hereafter Therefore if you seek the Patients health look that you receive the urine diligently and as soon as you can present it to the Physitian and be diligent to instruct him in all things that you can and that he shall not have need to aske And so no doubt you shall receive great commodity of that Art to the health of man and the glory of God which hath given such knowledge unto man THE URINALL OF PHYSICK CHAP. I. Of the Division and Order of this Book BEcause that nothing done confusedly can be well understood of the Readers for every thing the better order it hath the better it may be understood and is much more easily remembred when the order of it is well and certainly known The sum of this Book I have therefore digested this Book orderly as I shall here set forth to the intent that you may read as it were in grosse the whole Book and thereby keep it the better in remembrance First therefore I will declare the nature of urine what it is and how it is ingendred within man and how it passeth forth from man Secondly of the order of receiving it in a convenient vessell And of the time and place meet to consider it Thirdly how many things are to bee considered in urine and how many wayes they may be altered in a healthfull man Fourthly what significations and tokens may be gathered of urine concerning any alteration in man past present or to come Fiftly to what use in medicine urine may serve and of other good uses of it to mans commodity And last of all I wil declare certain diseases touching urine which either let it or cause it to void unwillingly with the Medicines and remedies meet for the same CHAP. II. How Vrine is ingendred in Man and how it passeth forth AS unto them that are learned and know by the Art of Anatomy the scituation of the parts of man and the naturall office of every part it is easie enough to perceive the originall generation and cause of urine without any example so unto them that neither know the scituation nor offices no neither yet the names of the parts of mans body it is scarce possible to make them to perceive the generation of urine without some sensible exampleâ— But because it is very hard to find an artificiall example which can alone duely expresse this work of nature I will use therefore an example of a natural work which shall expresse in many points this thing though not in all for such can there none be but the thing it self And in as much as this example is not easie to be understood of all men though the most part do now a daies partly know it by experience of finding springs of waters I will first propose an artificiall example to make both the other to be the better perceived An example of Stilling It is daily seen in distilling of Waters that the temperate heat of the fire doth separate the purest part of the juice from the herbs and also from the grosser juice This by naturall lightness is drawn into the head of the Stillatorie where by the coldness of the helmet it is made somewhat grosser and so through naturall heat descendeth and passeth forth by the Pipe of the Stillatorie The Originall And as the Art of man useth to make this water so doth nature use to make the water of springs whereof come all rivers streams and floods except the sea For seeing the earth is not perfectly sound and thick of substance Cause of springs as stones and some woods appeareth to be but it is hollow and full of holes as you see that cork is so that the air which by his subtleness pierceth into never so little a hole entreth and filleth this hollowness nature so leading to it because no place should be emptie In which place by the coldness of the earth the air is turned into water as you may see in walls and pillars of stone namely of marble how the coldness of the stone turneth the air into water and hangeth full of drops which sometimes trickle down apace as if they did sweat So when the earth hath turned the air
If it be thin or unpure the ground shall be either obscure and little or much and that divers and unconcoct And this is the working of these four qualities when they exceed alone But and if two of them exceed together there may result of that sort four other distemperances as hot and dry hot and moist cold and dry and cold and moist Compound distemperatures of qualities Now what alterations these and every one of them doth cause the urine you may easily conjecture if you keep in mind that which I said of the four simple qualities and so adde togethet the alterations And this must you remember therewith that where they both agree in any alteration they cause that alteration to bee the greater and where they be contrary they cause the alteration to be nearer to a mean howbeit somewhat to help you take this brief declaration A temperate man As a temperate man doth make that perfect urine written of before in Chap. 6. so the urine of a sanguine man which is hot and moist shall be yellow or light saffron coloured by the reason of the heat and somewhat gross by reason of the moisture A cholerick man In a cholerick man being hot and dry 〈◊〉 the urine shall be in colour as in a sanguinâ— man but in substance thin by reason of thâ— dryness A melancolike man The urine of a melancholy man whose nature is cold and dry shall be white througâ— the cold and cleer for the dryness A flegmatick man The flegmatick man which is cold anâ— moist maketh urine white through cold anâ— thick by the moisture for as heat and colâ— altereth the colours so dryness and moisturâ— changeth the substance Now if you havâ— remembred all that I have written before then shall you be the meeter and better able a great deal to perceive the reasons 〈◊〉 the tokens which vrine doth give And 〈◊〉 shall your knowledge be the more certaiâ— if you know not only the thing but also thâ— cause of it Now therefore will I wriâ— of the signification of the parts of urinâ— particularly that you may perceive thâ— first and chief commoditie of urine which 〈◊〉 worketh for mans health CHAP. VIII The significations of the parts of Vrine particularly I Told you in the sixt Chapter of this Book what urine was most perfect sound and healthfull of all other And I said that it was the rule and tryall to examine all other urines by so that the neerer that any urine was to it the better it was and the further that it declineth from it the worse it is This I said should be as a generall rule which thing to be true in healthful men you may perceive by that I have written already And that it is also true in sick men Hypocrates witnesseth saying That Vrine is best whose ground is white duly knit and stable all the time that the sickness prevaileth But Galen to supply that that is understood in this saying and so to make it perfect addeth thereto That it must be of colour partie golden or pale and of a mean substance between thick and thin And also in these things is required stableness to make it a perfect Urine for that which is unstable in any part in that it is not perfect Here were a place to speake of the difference of this changeableness or unstableness for there is one sort called ordinary and another called unordinarie and of both these are there divers differences But because they depend of an exacter judgement theâ— unlearned men can well attain unto I overpass them for this time and will declare the other differences of urine whereby it altereth from this mean urine in all parts particularly Substance or urine And first I will begin with the substancâ— of urine the which as I said before is oâ— three kindes thick thin and mean Mean A mean urine is that that is in the middle between extream thick and extreaâ— thin And as it is mean between them iâ— substance so is it mean in signification so it doth betoken of it self only good temperance and health But the other two betoken distemperance and default of concoctâ—on and that diversly according to the diversity of the causes of them as you shall noâ— consequently hear Thin urine First to speak of thin urine either it doth still â— continue thin as it was first made or else it doth sheâ—ly waxe thick and troubled That that doth continâ— still thin doth betoken lack of concoction and so doâ— the other also but yet this that continueth thin beâ—keneth more lack of conoction for it betokeneâ— that nature hath not yet begun to concoct Aâ— therefore is that water a sign of extream crudâ— or rawness in nature But that that waxeth thick it beginneth to cool though it betoken lack of concoction yet doth it declare that nature hath begun to concoct alreadie notwithstanding it is an evill urine for it signifieth that nature hath need not only of great strength to perform that concoction which she hath begun but also that there is required long time to the performance of the same For the which cause Galen calleth this Of all Vrines the worst Thus have you heard touching crudity and concoction what thin urine doth signifie so that all thin urine betokeneth crudity And beside that doth further betoken as witnesseth Hypocrates gatherings or apostumations in the nether parts of the bodie namely if it continue so very long and the patient escape death Thin and white Furthermore if such thin urine have with it a light whiteness it is a very evill sign For if it be in a burning ague it is a token of frensines But if the patient be fransick alreadie and the urine doth so continue it doth most commonly betoken death And if he escape death the which is seldome seen then shall he be long sick and escape hardly Thin urine also betokeneth divers other things as the stopping of the reins and of the water veins And likewise if a man have had much bleeding or laxe or pissing his urine will be white and thin and almost without ground Like manner in old age and long weakness of sickness Also in young children if it continue long it is a deadly sign Yet thin urine doth sometime betoken the end of sickness and recovery of health as in Agues namely quotidians if at the beginning of them and so after the urine did appear thick and troubled and especially if the colour amend therewith Thin and â—axen And if it be thin in substance and of flaxen colour then is it better then thin and white for because the colour is better thoughâ— the substance bee all one so that thoughâ— it betoken some weakness and lack of concoction yet not so much as doth the other for the colour is meanly concoct that is to say naturall heat is meanly increased Thin and golden But if it be thin and golden it
all â—ther signs be good Pale light saffron Pale and light saffron as you have heaâ— before are the best colours and most tempâ—rate which betoken exact concoction Golden saffron But golden and saffron colour declare eâ—cess of heat Claret red Crimson Purple Green oily Claret is next and then red after it crimson and then purple then green and lâ— of them is oily urine which as they goe in oâ—der so they declare greater and greater heâ— with increase not only of the qualitie bâ— also of the matter containing the same Blew ash-colour But now of the other side blew urine anâ— ash colour are tokens of excessive cold sometime with matter and sometime with out and so likewise of black urine howbeit it cometh sometime of excess of heat But how you may know the difference both of it and all the other now will I shew in order with the rest of their significations White White urine if it come in great quantity in a whole man it betokeneth much drinking of thin wine But if it be mean in quantity with a due ground it declareth cold distemperance of the liver The urine doth appear white with a dis-form and unconcocted ground in them that have the dropsie But in old men white â—rine is no great evill sign as you may perâ—eive by that I said before of Ages how â—hey alter urine But in yong men and such â—s are of freshest age it is a worse sign and â—pecially if it have either no contents or else evill contents And if urine continue â—ong time white without changing it betokeneth painfull beating of the head daselling of the eies and giddiness and also the falâ—ing evill lothsomness of good meats and â—usting sometime after evill meats greedie hunger pain in limbs and painfull moving of the sinewes and divers griefes of the head and reines and also pain in the fundament and great weakness by sickness for all these doe follow continually lack of concoction either cold or stopping of the urines and conduct or transposing of the humours But the differences of these cannot easily bee known of every man yet such as are learned may gather certain distinctions of them by the accidents which follow diseases Milk white hornwhite gray Dark white colours as milk white white white like horn and grey If they appear in the beginning of Agues and in the increase of them they doe betoken much pain But in the decrease of Agues they declare he especially if it come plentifully Pale flaxen Pale urine and flaxen do not lightly pear in Agues except they be easie Agâ— and short as those which continue but day but if that it do follow after buâ— Agues it declareth that they be fully dâ—ved Pale saffron As for pale and light saffron they are 〈◊〉 I said before the best and most perfect â—lours namely in young men and fâ— youth But in old men women and childâ— whose urine as I have said declineth â—ward white and pale it doth betoken tâ— their bodie is too hot either by reasonâ— their diet or else of their exercise Buâ— as much as it is but mean excesse it declareâ— but small grief Golden saffron colour Golden and saffron coloured urine if be either somewhat thin or very thick â—ther it hath no ground or else very few aâ— dark contents But in this they differ thâ— golden urine declareth excess of heat aâ— matter also by reason of meats sharp medâ—cines chafing of the bloud through angeâ— heat of the bowels or else heat of the timâ— of the yeer But saffron colour appeareth rather witâ— default of matter through some affection oâ— the mind watching heat of the sun labour and such like things which increase thin and yellow choller and diminish naturall heat â—o that the cause of this colour is choler it self increased either in quantity or else in qualitie But in old men and women and â—uch other there is some greater cause that occasioneth it for it signifieth an Ague comâ—eth of saffronly choler dispersed through the whole body after which there followeth commonly giddiness headach bitterness of â—he mouth lothsomeness of meat thirstiness Also in yong men such urine is caused through much exercise and use of hot meats Of Claret and red Vrine Claret urine CLaret and red urine is coloured either of the mixture of red choler or else of the corruption of bloud such urine oftentimes goeth before Agues For when the blood doth so abound that it cannot be duly laboured nor can take no ayre there is engendred a certain corruption which as it is red of colour it self so it causeth the urine to be red in colour if it be much else it maketh only claret colour But if it be exact red lik grain it betokeneth that bloud issueth into it out of some veins nigh to the reins which either are broken or other waies â—pened But how it may be known frâ— whence it commeth and how there are â—ny means to search but because they areâ— light to perceive I will reserve them for Pâ—sicians that are learned This colour oâ— self is no great evill sign namely in yoâ— men for it betokeneth excess of bloud whâ— may well bee born of them But in old mâ— it is a very evill sign for it betokeneth â—ther long sickness or else death sith naâ— is so weak that it cannot keep in her natuâ— humour And if that red colour comeâ— red choler as it doth in young men for 〈◊〉 most part and not of blood which thing learned Physician may conjecture partly 〈◊〉 the former diet and other signs more tâ— accidents shal be the more troublous hoâ—beit yet not so evill as when it commeth 〈◊〉 saffron or golden choler for this cause greater thirst and more troublous sleep thâ— the other Of Crimson colour Crimson colour CRimson colour is a token that the gooâ— humours of the bodie are burned anâ— turned into red or black choler which cauâ— worse griefs then the other howbeit if 〈◊〉 have a good ground the grief is the more moderate But if it have either no contents for a space or else evill contents and the urine appear like a thick myste but somewhat glistering light it is a sign that nature needeth such strength to recover her selfe to her own state Notwithstanding such urine is caused sometime in whole folk by reason of much labour and long journying and then it hath some good signs therewith But in them that have a sharp Ague such crimson colour of urine doth betoken that corrupt blood doth abound and that it doth putrifie and turn into choler And commonly they that make such urine doe thirst much and are dry in their mouth and are troubled in their sleep and feel sharp Agues and are half distract and feel pain of the liver with coughing Howbeit yet these signs may be sometimes as well good as bad according as the colours do change to better or worse Of Purple Colour
contrarie waies and of contrary causes cometh small quantitie of urine For it cometh sometime of lack of drinke or dry meats and then is the colour light saffron with a smal ground but yet somewhat gross Also both meats and medicines that are clammie and apt to stop the water-pipes do cause little urine but then is the ground also little and thin Besides these much sege causeth urine to be lesser for if the one excrement be greater then nature would the other must needs be lesse if the body be healthful In this urine as you may partly know the cause of it by the knowledge of the excessive sege so will the urine it self be thinner and the ground very dark thin and not duely knit And thâ— many waies may this alteration appear in healthfull body Much urine in a sick body Now in a sick person much urine eitheâ— betokeneth the dropsie and then is it likâ— water with a raw and diverse ground or else if it be white thin and withoâ— ground then doth it betoken the pissing â—vill And this urine as witnesseth Galen â— in his first Book of Judicials is the worst â— any other of like sort Diabete I mean which declaâ— lack of concoction for it declareth the decayâ— yea I may say the utter extinction of twâ— naturall powers that is the retentive power and the alterative power also Much urine in colour fierie and light saffron or of any like colour is to be feared namely if it be coupled with evill contents But if it be of crimson or purple colour and so proceed especially if no concoctioâ— went before it then doth it encline to evill and betokeneth a certain mortifying and wasting of the whole composition of the body But if much urine come in an Ague namely toward the end and that there went before it little urine thick and ruddie then is that a good token 4. Aph 69. as witnesseth Hypocrates for it betokeneth the Ague to be at an end And this Urine will bee white and thin moderately and will have a mean ground Little urine in a sick body Now little quantity of urine with a grosse ground unduly knit and unconcoct is an evill token for it betokeneth the weakness of the alterative power which is not able to extenuate concoct neither alter the matter and therefore doth it with much difficulty pass forth in such grossnes Howbeit if there follow after it a more thinner urine with the ground well and duly knit and stable then is it without fear For this latter urine as you heard before is a token that the cause of the other is overcome and vanquished This little quantitie of urine cometh sometime in vehement Agues and then is the violent heat cause thereof Sometime also it cometh of the stopping of the water-pipes not only through clammy meats and drinks but also of some disease or grief in them And this now shall suffice for an Introduction as touching the substance colours and quantitie of urine Contents It followeth next to speak of the contents which so greatly help to the right judgement of urine that Hippocrates in his second book of Prognostications doth by them only yea and that by one of them I mean the ground pronounce the judgement of a perfect urine saying That that is the best Vrine Sediment which hath his sediment or ground white duly knit and stable and that continually all the time of the sickness Now seeing this great Clerk and Father of Physick doth thus esteem the ground it shall not seem unmeet that I orderly doe write briefly of those principall things that are to be considered as touching the contents and first of all of the ground which hath alteration as you have heard both in substance colour and quantitie But now as touching the substance then is it only mean when the third concoction in the veins is perfect For the ground is the excrement as you might say of that third concoction and is like in forme to matter save that it is more duly knit together then is matter and doth not smell so evill as it or else you may liken it to thin steam Grosse ground This Ground is then gross when the veins are replenished with raw humors Howbeit this grosseness or thickness is not alwayes an evill token for sometime it is a sign that nature hath prevailed against the crude humours which caused diseases and doth expell such superfluous excrements And that shall you discerne by the goodness of the colour and also if it come in the declining of the sickness for if it come at the beginning either in the increase of the sickness then are they to be suspected as evill especially if they bring with them evill colours Thin ground A thin ground being also pure and so cleaving to the bottom of the Urinal that it will not lightly rise though the urinall be shaked it is a token of great weakness of nature in the third concoction and such a ground appeareth most in white and watrie urine Howbeit sometime a thin ground cometh by the reason that the raw humors are extenuate through naturall heat which getting new strength doth extenuate and disperse all grossness of raw humors within the veins For the propertie of heat is to knit and bind together thin things and to extenuate and disperse grosse and raw things Colour of the grounâ— Now as touching the colours of the ground the perfect ground is neither exceeding white neither yet pale but mean between both for if there appear any such excessive white then is it some rag of phlegmatick matter or else matter extreamly concocted which commeth from some inward member being sore and that you may discern as I said before by the toughnes and by the savour And if any man be desirous to know the cause why the ground is white of colour let him remember that the ground is the superfluous excrement of the bloud being perfectly concocted in the veins Now that the bloud it self when it is exactly concocted is turned into a white or at least a party white colour you may conjecture by the generation of milke and also the seed of man yea and of matter which all three are nothing else but bloud exactly concocted save that matter cometh of evill bloud Pale Flaxen And therefore whensoever the ground hath in it any other colour then white it is no good token As first if it be pale and flaxen coloured then it is swarved from his right and commendable colour Howbeit yet it may be born as but meanly evill because that that colour commeth of small excess of choler Saffron Actuarius But if it be more higher coloured by choler so that it be saffron coloured then is it an evill token as Actuarius saith for it declareth that choler is excessively increased either by the order of diet or else by the corruption of bloud or some other wayes 7. Aph.
are like bran there is one sort smaller and another grosser the smaller sort is like the bran of Wheat that is finely ground and those may I call fine bran The grosser is like bran of Barley or of evill ground wheat and may therefore be called gross bran Fine bran Gross bran for it is thrice as big as the other Scales The third sort which is like Scales hath no notable thicknesse but onely breadth and length These three doe betoken waste of the strongest parts of the bodie but yet not all alike as Hippocrates doth declare in the second Book of his Prognosticks Howbeit because that place of Hippocrates is so difficult that scarcely the great learned men can agree thereon I will not now meddle therewith but will write Actuarius mind of those three Fine bran When the Ague saith he is grounded in the bottome of the veins then there appeareth such fine bran Howbeit sometimes it is a token of the onely grief of the bladder being scabbed as witnesseth Hypocrates 4. Aphor. 77. But then hath the Patient no Ague and again there doth appear tokens of concoction in the urine But when it cometh of the whole body this is the cause thereof The Ague getting power and prevailing unto the hard parts of the body as in those Agues which are called Fevers hectike then in the striving between those parts and the Ague the Ague having the masterie doth by his violence raise of such brannie scurffe For the nature of fire whose operation the Ague hath is to work according as the matter is that it findeth either to melt it if it be a liquid and unctuous thing either else to scale it and fret it if it be hard and unpliant and the harder that the matter is the greater scales it fretteth off which thing you may see by daily experience how fire melteth wax and tallow and such like turning them into liquids whereas of iron and of other metals Scales it maketh scales and not liquor But when the Ague hath attained and overset not onely the substance of the veins but also the strong parts of the body and doth melt and waste them then doth there appear in the urine scales broad and thin which you shall know to come 〈◊〉 the whole body as I said of the other before if the Pacient have an Ague or theâ— appear default of concoction in the urine â— else if these two be absent it may come oâ— the blistering of the bladder as Hippocrateâ— writeth 4. Aphor. 81. and namely if therâ— be in the urine an evill savour withall Gross bran Now to speak of the great and grosse bran which as it is much greater then the other so doth it declare a greater strength of the Ague and that in the whole body and all the parts of it enflaming and burning the whole substance thereof and therefore is it not only the worst of them all but is nigh unto a deadly sign Note and that either by the waste and consuming of the great and strongest parts of the body or else by the burning or drying up of the bloud Which two things you may discern asunder by the colour of them For if they be red then come they of the burning of the bloud but if they be white then come they of the wast of the strongest parts of the body Hippoc. 7. Aphor. 31. Of this kind of contents speaketh Hippocrates saying In whatsoever Agues there doth appear grounds like unto grosse bran it is a token that the sickness shall continue long Which saying Galen doth understand so to be true If the Patient have sufficient strength to continue with such sickness else it may be a sign rather of short life then of long sickness For as that token is commonly deadly so those few that doe escape do recover hardly and not without the long sufferance of the violence of that cruell Ague Now as touching the foreknowledge of it whether the patient may endure with it or no that shall you gather of the multitude order and stableness or unstableness of it For if they be many in number and proceed to worse and worse then it is an evill and mortall sign and doth declare that nature is wearied and doth quite faint thorow the waste and decay of the whole constitution of the body But contrariwise if they appear few and do alter continually unto lesse evill tokens then is there good hope of health And this shall suffice as touching these Ragged scraps Now to speak of the rest of the ragged scraps hairs and other like First you shall understand that sometime a good ground is coupled with certain evill and unconcted fragments of all sorts of humours for sometime there appeareth with the contents certain ragged scraps enclining in colour toward a yellow or a white â— else some such like if those appear in greâ— quantitie they declare the matter to be haâ— unconcoct and that the humour who scraps they are doth abound in the depth â— the body and is as dust or burned but if theâ— bee few then declare they the malice â— the humour to be milder and that the â— of evill meats doth cause them the greatâ— that such ragged scraps are the lesser aduâ—on of humours they declare to be in tâ— veins and the lesser they be the greater he they do betoken For the cause of sucâ— ragged scraps is excessive heat which do turn those humors into a thickness and as â— were a bony nature by reason that they haâ— remained long in certain veins and weâ— neither dissolved nor extenuated nor yeâ— quickly expelled by urine Hairs Besides these there are hairs of sundrâ— lengths some an inch and some an handfuâ— long some longer and some shorter anâ— these are in colour whitely and do betokeâ— grief of the reins These are ingendred in thâ— water-pipes which go from the reins tâ— the bladder so that as long as those water-pipes are in length so long may those hair also be which are a gross and baked humor wrought in form of a hair Of those speaketh Hippocrates saying 4. Aph. 76. In whose Vrine soever there doth appear little peeces of flesh either as it were hairs those same come from the reins namely if the urine be thick Howbeit these are sometimes seen in such mens urines as feel no grief in the reines but only have fed some continuing space on flegmatick meats which will prepare matter to such diseases as they do also to many other griefs of which to speak in this place it is meet But to go on with this thing that wee have in hand beside such ragged scraps and hairs as I have spoken of there appear sometimes in the ground of the urine and also dis-parkled abroad in the urine it self sundry and divers kinds of motes as it were which do declare that there is grief dispersed in sundry parts of the body Motes The places of