WARME BEERE OR A TREATISE WHEREIN is declared by many reasons that Beere so qualified is farre more wholsome then that which is drunke cold With a confutation of such objections that are made against it published for the preservation of health CAMBRIDGE Printed by R. D. for Henry Overton And are to be sold at his shop entring into Popes-head Alley out of Lumbard-street in London 1641. To the Reader GAlen hath a saying in his second book De facultat naturali in the end of his 9. chapter and that is this Studium eorum laudandum est qui vel explanant rectè dicta à sapientibus vel supplent si quid omissum sit ab eis The which I hope gentle Reader will be a protection for this my book against such as think nothing well done which they do not themselves for that I endeavour to do both these things which Galen commendeth that is explain some points heretofore writ by our learned Masters and not regarded and also to adde some things before not thought upon by them And although I have no great hope by this my writing to work a generall good because errours long used make us both blind and deaf be the truth never so apparent not unlike the owl as Aristotle saith whose sight the sun-beams dull yet I doubt not but some will take it thankfully and making use will take benefit thereby assuring themselves I write nothing here which I hold not for the truth and have made long experience of both by self and divers of my friends I have therefore published it in our native tongue respecting a generall good referring the commendations of the thing to the proof and us all to the Almighty Amen The preface of the Publisher to the Reader CHristian and beloved Reader hearing of this ensuing Treatise of warm beer lying in the hand of a worthy Gentleman and friend of mine I made bold to send to him for it who hearing of my practice according did very kindly send it to me The which after I had read the same and considered the arguments brought for the proof thereof and weighed them together with mine own experience in the use of it I was thereby exceedingly strengthened in my judgement and abundantly confirmed in my custome Then speaking of this treatise and the subject matter thereof to some of mine acquaintance and friends and what benefit I found by the use thereof they desired to see the same and when they had read it they intreated me that it might be printed and that I would declare mine own experience which I had found by constant use of the said warm drink that it might be published for the generall good to whose request I could not but consent And therefore I shall not speak any thing by way of commendations of this book but will leave it rather to the judicious Reader and true practicer thereof and will onely relate unto you what I have found true by long experience First heretofore when I did alwayes drink cold beer and now and then a cup of wine I was very often troubled with exceeding pain in the head which did much distemper me also with stomach-ach tooth-ach cough cold and many other Rheumatick diseases But since my drinking my beer small or strong actually hot as bloud I have never been troubled with any of the former diseases but have alwayes continued in very good health constantly blessed be God yet I use not to drink wine because I find that hot beer without wine keepeth the stomach in a continuall moderate concoction But wine and hot beer doth over-heat the stomach and inflameth the liver especially in cold stomachs which have hot livers and men oftentimes drinking wine to heat their cold stomachs they thereby also inflame their livers and so the helping of the cold stomach is the means of the destruction of the liver But hot beer doth prevent this evil for it heateth the stomach and causeth good digestion and nourisheth and strengtheneth the liver And that hot beer actually made hot doth cause good concoction you may conceive it by this comparison The stomach is compared to a pot boyling over the fire with meat now if you put cold water therein it ceaseth the boyling till the fire can overcome the coldnesse of the water and the more water you put in the longer it will be before it boyl again and so long time you hinder the meat from being boyled So it is with the stomach If you drink cold beer you hinder the digestion of the meat in the stomach and the more cold you drink the more you hinder it Also cold water doth not onely hinder the boyling of the meat in the pot but also causeth the meat to be hard so that if it should boyl six houres longer then ordinary yet still the meat will be hard and never tender and soft Right so it is with the stomach Cold beer doth not onely hinder concoction but also harden the meat in the stomach as you may see by them which drink over much cold beer at or after dinner or supper six houres after they will vomit up the same meat again as raw and undigested as if it were but even then eaten which they could not have done if they had not cooled their stomachs so much with cold beer because nature would have digested the meat before that time But on the contrary hot water put in a boyling pot with meat hindereth not the boyling thereof neither doth make the meat hard but continueth the boyling thereof nourishing the meat with sufficiency of liquour and maketh it soft and tender fit to be eaten So in like manner doth hot beer to the stomach It hindereth not concoction nor hardeneth the meat in the stomach but contrariwise it continueth its concoction and maketh it fit for the nourishment of the whole body Again in the second place as this hot beer is excellent good for the keeping of the stomach in good order for concoction and consequently good health so it is most excellent for the quenching of thirst For I have not known thirst since I have used hot beer let the weather be never so hot and my work great yet have I not felt thirst as formerly Nay although I have eaten fish or flesh never so salt which ordinarily do cause thirst and drinesse yet I have been freed from it by the use of hot beer and have been no more thirstie after the eating of salt meat then I have after fresh And the reasons make it manifest being confirmed by experience if we consider when a man is thirstie there are two master-qualities which do predominate in the stomach namely heat and drinesse over their contraries cold and moisture When a man drinketh cold beer to quench his thirst he setteth all foure qualities together by the ears in the stomach which do with all violence oppose one another and cause a great combustion in the stomach breeding many distempers therein For
are examined NOw as touching the third thing promised to be handled in this book let us examine the reasons which are given for the use of actuall cold drink and first let us alledge such authorities if there be any as do make any way for it I remember Plinie in is 28. book of histories his 4. chap. affirmeth that it is against nature for us to drink hot drink because saith he No other creature doth use it nor is there any beast but desires cold drink Again Bernardino Gomes a Spanish physician in his Enchiridion amongst other remedies alloweth cold drink made cold with snow for a wholesome remedie against the gout and morbus arthriticus which he would not have done if it had been hurtfull or a weakner of the stomach Monardus also in a treatise he writeth of drugs that came from the west Indians commends cold drink and affirmeth hot drink dest roieth the liver It is alledged that it better quencheth thirst that it helps concoction whereas hot destroieth it It is alledged cold drink is good and pleasing unto the tast of man and so is not hot It is alledged the finest spirits fly away in the heating whereby it nourisheth not so much That Plinie so writeth I cannot denie but with how little consideration of the matter let the reader judge he useth no argument to maintain his opinion but onely this It is not fit nor good for us because bruit beasts love it not which onely imitate their naturall instinct and so doth thereby as it were inferre that it is not naturall unto us But how ridiculous how unworthy a reason it is to be answered let any man judge for it is as much as to say because bruit beasts eat their food raw therefore it is against nature for us to have ours rosted or sodden But if I should so say I doubt not but I should not be believed And therefore as small cause is there to believe Plinie in the other for it is one and the self same reason Secondly whereas Bernardino Gomes the Spaniard in the aforenamed place not alledging any reason for his opinion might very well be answered without reason yet because it shall be seen how little credit his authority ought to carry and of how small worth it is to be esteemed I will endeavour to give the reason why it is a mere senselesse thing either so to affirm or write unlesse onely for the avoiding of a further inconvenience as I will hereafter declare First gouts and all diseases of that kind depend on and grow most especially from the weaknesse and crudity of the stomach which Trincavell in his 96. counsel doth make manifest These be his words Nulla particula majorē vim habet podagram id genus dolores procreandi quà m ventriculus qui vel suapte naturâ fit crudior imbecillior quà m ut possit rectè conficere cibum ingestum vel ex incongrua victûs ratione No part conferres more influence to the breeding of the gout and diseases of that kind then the stomack which either of its own nature is too crude and weak for to digest the meat or else because of its incongruous power and virtue Now to prove that the stomach is said to be rawer when as it wants heat and that we use to call that raw which wants concoction by heat heare what Johannes Langius Fol. 75. writes these be his words Quicquid à calore nativo congenita viscerum caloris temperatura non fuerit concoctum elaboratum id cùm in corporis alimentum converti nequeat crudum appellare solet Hippocrates Whatsoever is not well concocted by the naturall and connate temperature of heat in the bowells seeing it cannot be changed into the nourishment of the body Hippocrates useth to call it crude Consider then gentle reader if the gout be especially bred through the weaknes of the stomach for want of heat how unfit a generall medicine cold water is and what warrant Gomes his authoritie is for us For although Galen giveth two reasons how the gout is bred which are Imbecillitas articulorum affluxus materiei imbecillitie of the joynts and abundance of grosse humours yet the principall is a bad stomach But because I will not judge that a man in any sort learned will so much passe himself in writing but upon some great reason moving him thereunto I conceive he calling to mind Galens words where he saith Vinum potens nervosis particulis nocet Strong wine hurteth the sinewy parts or peradventure Mesues where he saith Vinum per se nocet articulis nervis Wine of it self hurteth the joynts and nerves giving this reason because fundendo attenuando maximo calore suo excitat fluxiones by running through and attenuating it doth with its most powerfull heat provoke fluxes and living in a place where there was nothing but strong sack thought of two evils the least was to be chosen and knowing water could not so vehemently pierce and carry fluxes as those strong wines advised water But if this or some such like reason moved him not I think it very absurd for any man of learning to write and too foolish for us to believe and therefore you may understand that upon what occasion soever Gomes wrote it is no warrant for us Thirdly that Monardus writes hot drink destroies the liver and cold contrarily helps I cannot deny but yet I will shew that in so saying he playeth the right Spaniard who meaneth least the matter that he seemeth to speak plainest For whereas in generall words he affirmeth hot drink to destroy the liver he afterwards makes such an exception as I think few at this day live who be not comprehended within some one branch thereof so that he either saith nothing in his generall position or else so little that few there be that it concerns And that this is true you may judge by his exception following where he saith that these here under excepted may best drink their drink actually hot viz. old men idle persons whether it be in body or mind and that have weak stomachs or abound with raw and crude humours all that have infirmities in their lungs or pipes of respiration all that have weak backs or weak kidneys all that be subject to windinesse all youth and young children Judge now indifferent reader how many live in this age who have not some touch of this exception And although he seems to make it currant yea made cold with snow for them which have hot livers I pray you how many be there of those that have not cold stomachs And whereas he saith that cold drink cools the liver I absolutely deny it unlesse he means killing for cooling And for proof I produce Galen upon one of Hippocrates aphorismes where he saith Aquae frigidae occursus aut vincit nativum calorem aut colligit whereas hot drink by deoppilating doth eventilate it naturally and so
ut nè permiserit quidem aliquid amplioris potûs penetrare For the weasand or the stomach as a tunnel receives plenty of liquour or what else we will whence it comes to passe that a man doth drink the most part into his belly but he doth also drink into his lung-pipe or rough artery lesse indeed and so much as can slide in in the swallowing for so exact a lidde doth cover it that it will not suffer any great quantity to enter By these authorities now you do not onely learn that part of our drink doth passe to our lungs but also by what passages to wit per asperam arteriam being taken in per rimam epiglotidis It is therefore to be understood that our wind-pipe pipe being called aspera arteria in Latine hath joyning to the toppe of it next to the mouth a certain stopple as it were formed of divers muscles sinews veins and arteries called Larynx of our anatomy-Masters whose uppermost part hath a covering formed like a little tongue which stoppeth it that nothing we eat can descend into the wind-pipe for when we offer to swallow any food it bears upon that and so stops it the closer But when we drink some little quantity of liquour slides in between the chink It may be some unlearned will say What is this to the lungs I answer from thence it goes to the lungs for to omit that aspera arteria is cartilaginea semicirculariter as not appertaining to this treatise I am to shew you how it is clothed duabus tunicis quarum altera interior est oesophago linguae palato ori communis altera exterior magìs tenuis Haec arteria ubi ad jugulum pervenit bivio distracta in pulmonem numerosâ serie spargitur inter venam arteriosam arteriam venosam media that from that it may draw bloud and into this transmit aire And by this means doth the drink taken into the rough artery enter the lungs Neverthelesse peradventure some will say grant all this be true yet why doth cold drink hurt the lungs I answer for divers causes but one effectuall cause here to be mentioned is because it is contrary to the temper of the lungs for the lungs be hot although Hippocrates in his book De corde seemeth to affirm the contrary for it is but comparativè in respect of the heart Nor do I respect some other places both of Galen and Hippocrates touching that point and therefore here I omit them as not appertaining to this place affirming with some of our late writers the lungs to be hot being nourished with the most aeriall and spirituall bloud elaborated in the right concave of the heart Furthermore cold drink hurts in another respect for that the lungs be easily affected with obstructions and phlegmatick humours which all come à frigida temperatura that is of cold By this may the Reader see how cold drink doth hurt to the lungs that he needs not rest satisfied onely because Galen so saith but because reason perswades Now it follows to prove it an enemy to the stomach which if we do considering the stomach is radix corporis which nourisheth the whole body as Hippocrates saith I hope there is none so obstinate but will adjudge it worthy the forbearing Therefore concerning this because it falls out here in course to be spoken of I will adde something not spoken of before Understand then that drink actually drunk cold is not hurtfull to the stomach in one respect onely but in divers First in respect of the composition of it Secondly in respect of the temper Thirdly in respect of the parts that depend upon it Fourthly in respect of of our life it self In respect of its composition because it is compounded ex tunicis venis arteriis nervis to which cold drink is the greatest enemy witnesse Trincavell in his first book of his counsels his xxxix counsel where he hath this saying A cervisia frigida prorsus abstineto quia maximè nocet nervis 2. In respect of its temper because naturally it should be warm as may be seen by the provident care of Nature placing it sub Diaphragmate which not onely by his own proper heat but also with a forrein heat borrowed from the heart doth warm it It hath also on the right side the liver on the left side the spleen in the lower part omentum colon intestinum having plentie of fat and in the fore part epiploon with the help of peritonaeum and the muscles abdominis vena umbilicalis are to it a covering in the hinder part there are the muscles of the back and last of all a great branch of vena cava and the great artery which all shew that Nature hath incompassed it round about like a caldron with fire How fond a thing is it then to cool that which nature would have warm and how contrary to the health of man Thirdly in respect of the parts that depend upon it it is very prejudiciall as shall be shewed And first to begin with the head the stomach never suffereth in any small degree but the head beareth his part also so the offence done to the one is committed to the other Which happeneth in respect of the great community of those great sinews which come à sexto conjugio from the brain unto it That this is true although it be so well known to men of learning that there needeth no proof yet for the better satisfaction of the unlearned let them but weigh these instances following First the stomach being but troubled with melancholy you shall see the brains participate of the same so the stomach never suffereth hunger but it doth lacessere cerebrum vibratis nervis yea such is the communion between them that neither the one nor the other doth hardly suffer but conjunctivè together For let the head be wounded and the scull be broken whereby dura mater is but exposed to the aire or let any thing but presse it or the brain and presently the stomach will vomit aut flava aut aeruginosa because the stomach jure societatis is drawn in sympathiam per similitudinem vasorum communionem which be the chiefest causes of sympathy as Galen in his comment ad Sect. 1. lib. 31. Epid. doth well note The heart suffereth likewise by communion as may be seen in cardiaca passione that is swounding Syncope and the utter exclusion of all strength which cometh diverse times the mouth of the stomach being ill affected as if the heart it self were The meseraick vains also suffer being by cold stopped and so made unable to draw as naturally they should and thereby is nourishment hindered It doth for the like respect and cause hurt the liver for as Galen 1. De Symptomatum causis doth excellently shew and Andreas Laurentius doth notably explain exhaustus partium is chiefly necessary to nourishment and then their sucking and drawing For the parts that be exhausted
sanguinens bene concoctus The spirits be proportioned to the bloud for they are nothing else but the vapour of the bloud well digested whatsoever then maketh ill bloud maketh ill spirits and whatsoever doth so shorteneth our life but cold drink worketh that therefore it shortneth our life My major is averred by Montanus in the place before cited My minor I prove in this manner God bloud is made by good concoction but the actuall cold in the stomach breedeth crudity and not concoction and that crudity consequently ill bloud therefore cold breeds ill bloud My minor I prove in this sort out of Aristotle lib. 4. De partibus Animalium where he saith Calor vim habet concoquendi Heat hath the force to concot and in his second book De generatione Animalium where he also saith Frigus est privatio caloris Cold is the privation of heat what hindereth then but the conclusion is good That actuall cold drink breeding ill bloud causeth a defect of the spirits and so consequently abreviateth our life For Galen in his first book De humoribus saith Virium robur adesse nequit ubi crudorum humorum copia coacervata est that is Strength can not be where store of raw humours be and in his book De sub Facult. Natur. he saith all actions come from concoction But to make it somewhat plainer I will use some more authorities Our life as Galen observeth doth consist in naturall heat and radicall moisture which is nothing else as Avicen writeth then an oyly unctious vapour arising from the bloud to which Aristotle consenteth This naturall heat as Avicen in lib. de complexionibus writeth is diminished two wayes Aut per resolutionem naturalis humiditatis aut per augmentum extrancae that is Either by decay of naturall moysture or by the increase of forrein Now naturall moysture doth decay either by the aire in which we live that drieth it up or by labours of the body or mind ill proportioned as he testifieth in his first book Fenic act 4. cap. 7. and forrein moisture doth increase either by the use of meats which by their own nature ingender and breed it of which sort are Mellons Cucumbers and such like fruit being either immoderately or unseasonably eaten or else of ill concoction by means whereof such an unnaturall humour doth grow in our bodies that the outward and remote parts deprived of their nourishment languish wither and dy because they are not nourished Which Isaac de Febribus doth well note using these words Talis humor per depravatam concoctionem à natura alienus propagatur ut externae remotae corporis partes privatae suis alimentis languescunt exarescunt emoriuntur quia non nutriuntur Hereby may the Reader discern in what sort actuall cold doth offend our life upon great consideration therefore did Avicen in his fourth book Canone 4. Capitulo De rebus quae caniciem retardant use these words Digestio est radix generationis naturalis non-naturalis humoris that is Digestion is the root of the generation of naturall and unnaturall moysture But some ignorant person will say although the stomach be offended yet the liver may make good bloud if so be it be not distempered To the which I answer No more then a Cutler a good blade of naughty iron and bad steel which is not possible be he never so good a workman For as the iron and the steel being the materiall cause of the blade cannot contrary to their nature be made perfect in the workmans hand no more can the chylus first made in the stomach being the materiall cause of bloud being bad be made perfect by the help of the liver By this now you see how contrary to our health it is to use actuall cold drink But let us examine what hurt it doth to other particular parts Hippocrates hath these words in his Aphorismes Sedi pudendis utero vesicae calidum amicum frigidum inimicum that is Heat is a friend but cold an enemy to the seat the privities the belly and bladder And Cornelius Celsus saith Frigidum inimicum intestinis vesicae utero c. that is Cold is an enemy to the intrals bladder and stomach So as it appeareth it hurteth the bladder the bowels and the kidneys the mother and what not But because we will not conclude it is so because Hippocrates and Celsus say it is so we will examine first the reason and then experience the best master in trying any thing The reason why it hurteth the bladder is in respect principally of the neck thereof which being stopped with a musculeous substance cold offendeth and divers times procureth a strangury But this will be thought very untrue and unlikely that drink drunk cold can passe so to the bladder and there offend but let us examine experience and see whether it ever have been known so Forrestus an excellent Physician alledgeth in himself the cause of a strangury happening unto him to the great indangering of his life to be drinking of cold beer after his return out of Italy And I know my self a gentleman of great worship who because he is living shall not be named who coming from hunting hot and drinking cold drink suffered such pain as I being with him did fear some erosion in the neck of the bladder Besides it divers times cometh to passe that with cold this part suffering a resolution the party can in no wise hold his water but it cometh from him without his knowledge To the mother also it is hurtfull as Hippocrates Cornelius Celsus and divers learned Authours write whereof although they give not the reason yet I will shew it may be so in divers respects as first in respect of its composition being made ex tunicis nervis venis arteriis ligamentis to all which cold is an enemy as hath been proved before Secondly in respect of its temper which naturally ought to be hot because Injectum semen calore multo eget ut suscitetur concipiatur formetur et foveatur Thirdly in respect of its vicinity with other parts as the bowels and the bladder between which est maxima conjunctio per villos complures to which cold is a great enemy Whereupon seldome is the mother diseased either by inflammation or otherwise but either an inordinate desire to go to the stool or of urine doth insue so great is the affinitie between the matrix bowels and bladders And last of all cold is hurtfull to the matrix in respect of its community with the stomach for that the stomach being hurt with cold transfers tanquam ad sentinam cloacam corporis such abundance of superfluities to the matrix as doth evert its naturall temper and strength and is the authour of many irreparable diseases But some will say that this is strange although it be true that cold will work these effects in the mother that beer drunk actually cold can passe to these places being so