satisfie Nature but force it down many times contrary to natural inclination and when there is a reluctancy against it as Drunkards that pour in Liquor not for love of the drink or that Nature requires it by thirst but only to maintain the mad frollick and keep the Company from breaking up Some to excuse this intemperance hold it as good Physick to be drunk once a month and plead for that liberty as a wholsom custom and quote the authority of a famous Physitian for it Whether this Opinion be allowable and to be admitted in the due Regiment for preservation of health is fit to be examined Omne nimium naturae est inimicunt It is a Canon established upon good reason That every thing exceeding its just bounds and golden mediocrity is hurtful to Nature The best of things are not excepted in this general rule but are restrained and limited here to a due proportion The supports of life may prove the procurers of death if not qualified and made wholsom by this corrective Meat and drink is no longer sustinance but a load and over-charge if they exceed the quantum due to each particular person and then they are not what they are properly in themselves and by the appointment of Nature the preservatives of life and health but the causes of sickness and consequently of death Drink was not appointed man to discompose and disorder him in all his faculties but to supply nourish and strengthen them Drink exceeding its measure is no longer a refreshment to irrigate and water the thirsty body but makes an inundation to drown and suffocate the vital powers It puts a man out of the state of health and represents him in such a degenerate condition both in respect of body and mind that we may look upon the man as going out of the World because he is already gon out of himself and strangely metamorphosed from what he was I never knew sickness or a Disease to be good preventing Physick and to be drunk is no other then an unsound state and the whole body out of frame by this great change What difference is there between sickness and drunkenness Truly I cannot distinguish them otherwise then as genus and species Drunkenness being a raging Disease denominated and distinguished from other sicknesses by its procatartick or procuring cause Drink That Drunkenness is a Disease or sickness will appear in that it hath all the requisites to constitute a Disease and is far distant from a state of health for as health is the free and regular discharge of all the functions of the body and mind and sickness when the functions are not performed or weakly and depravedly then Ebriety may properly be said to be a Disease or sickness because it hath the symptoms and diagnostick signs of an acute and great Disease for during the time of drunkenness and some time after few of the faculties perform rightly but very depravedly and preternaturally if we examine the intellectual faculties we shall find the reason gone the memory lost or much abated and the will strangly perverted if we look into the sensitive faculties they are disordered and their functions impedited or performed very deficiently the eyes do not see well nor the ears hear well nor the pallate rellish c. The speech faulters and is imperfect the stomach perhaps vomits or nauseates his legs fail Indeed if we look through the whole man we shall see all the faculties depraved and their functions either not executed or very disorderly and with much deficiency Now according to these symptoms in other sicknesses we judge a man not likely to live long and that it is very hard he should recover the danger is so great from the many threatning symptoms that attend this sickness and prognosticate a bad event here is nothing appears salutary but from head to foot the Disease is prevalent in every part which being collated the syndrom is lethal and judgment to be given so Surely then Drunkenness is a very great disease for the time but because it is not usually mortal nor lasts long therefore it is slighted and look't upon as a trivial matter that will cure it self But now the question may be asked Why is not Drunkenness usually mortal since the same signs in other diseases are accounted mortal and the event proves it so To which I answer All the hopes we have that a man drunk should live is first From common experience that it is not deadly Secondly From the nature of the primitive or procuring Cause strong Drink or Wine which although it rage and strangely discompose the man for a time yet it lasts not long nor is mortal The inebriating spirits of the liquor flowing in so fast and joyning with the spirits of mans body make so high a tide that overflows all the banks and bounds of order For the spirits of mans body those agents in each faculty act smoothly regularly and constantly with a moderate supply but being overcharged and forced out of their natural course and exercise of their duty by the large addition of furious spirits spurs the functions into strange disorders as if nature were conflicting with death and dissolution but yet it proves not mortal And this first because these adventitious spirits are amicable and friendly to our bodies in their own nature and therefore not so deadly injurious as that which is not so familiar or noxious Secondly Because they are very volatile light and active Nature therefore does much sooner recover her self transpires and sends forth the overplus received then if the morbifick matter were more ponderous and fixed the gravamen from thence would be much worse and longer in removing as an over-charge of Meat Bread Fruit or such like substances not spirituous but dull and heavy comparativè is of more difficult digestion and layes a greater and more dangerous load upon the faculties having not such volatile brisk spirits to assist Nature nor of so liquid a fine substance of quicker and easier digestion So that the symptoms from thence are much more dangerous then those peracute distempers arising from Liquors So likewise those bad symptoms in other diseases are more to be feared and accounted mortal then the like arising from drunkenness because those perhaps depend upon malignant causes or such as by time are radicated in the body or from the defection of some principal part but the storm and discomposure arising from drunkenness as it is suddenly raised so commonly it soon falls depending upon benign causes and a spirituous matter that layes not so great an oppression but inebriates the spirits that they act very disorderly and unwontedly or by the soporiferous vertue stupefies them for a time until they recover their agility again But all this while I do not see that to be drunk once a month should prove good Physick all I think that can be said in this behalf is that by overcharging the stomach vomiting is procured and so carries
Vita Sana Longa. THE Preservation of Health AND Prolongation of Life Proposed and proved In the due observance of Remarkable Praecautions And daily practicable Rules Relating to Body and Mind compendiously abstracted from the Institutions and Law of Nature By E. Maynwaringe Dr. in Physick Non accepimus brevem vitam sed fecimus Senec. LONDON Printed by J. D. Sold by the Booksellers 1669. EVERARDUS · MAYNWARINGE · MEDICINAE · DOCTOR · AETATIS · SUAE · 38 · 1668. The Preface HAving some Years since put forth a rough draught or indigested Notions upon this Subject with intentions then to revise and finish at more leasure when opportunity was afforded me yet other Subjects and business so put me by as I thought not at all to reassume this matter again nor make any farther prosecution But being informed by several that this Subject and the managing of it was acceptable to many and that no Copies was remaining with the Book-sellers but clear sold off and yet inquired for but not to be had I was sollicited and desired to reprint it for the publick good and satisfaction of those that desire to be regulated in the course of their lives and to be informed the right way for preserving of Health and prolonging of Life Considering then that Health and long-life are the two great desiderable enjoyments and perfection of Humane Nature coveted and aimed at by all and that I might not be taxed as refractory and obstinate refusing to gratifie such reasonable Desires for the acquiring those laudable ends I was hereby moved to set upon the Work again for improvement and finishing what I had left imperfect and defective in the former Tract But upon revising those sheets much came in my mind to add and to alter so that little of the old stock would remain I then thought it best to lay a new foundation or Platform of Title that I might not be ingaged to the Order Rule or Matter of the old Structure but have full liberty to manage the Work as my genius should lead me Accordingly and with this freedom I have here proceeded to draw forth and present to you this delectable Theam of Health and Long-life with the most profitable advantages the Subject imports and ease of acquiring your capacities will admit Whosoever therefore desires to live long to see their Childrens Children to preserve their youth strength and beauty to be free from molesting pains and loathsome Diseases to preserve their senses and enjoy the perfection of mind to the extremity of Age let them conform and be obedient to the Hygiastick Laws and Rules hereafter prescribed and they may expect what is here proposed for their reward Nor shall I exact and require of you an irkesome strictness or Lessian preciseness to eat and drink by weight and measure but a reasonable observance suteable and well agreeing with a sober rational person not restraining convenient liberty and the lawful pleasure of life Nor can a regular course of life be thought troublesome as a difficult and hard restraint but most pleasant and free Quod assuescenti primum difficile non erit assueto except to those accustomed to the contrary and the leaving of those ill customs is the difficulty but the Rules injoyned be facile and easie to observe And having once acquired a good habit and constant use to return to an irregular intemperate living would be a far greater burthen and irkesome if enjoyned and imposed then the declining and deserting a destructive course for a laudable wholesome regimen most consonant to a rational Creature Qui medicè vivit sine medicis diu vivet Qui non medicè vivit cum medicis saepe sed non diu erit He that lives by Rule and wholesome Precepts takes the best course of Preventing Physick he 's a Physician to himself and needs not the help of others but they that live carelesly and irregularly contemning Physical Rules as unnecessary Observations shall be constrained to Physical Remedies as necessary helps and must often resign into the hands of Physicians E. M. LONDON From my House in Clarkenwell-Close Licensed August the 4th 1669. ROGER L'ESTRANGE ERRATA PAge 5. line 19. read illae p. 21. l. 17. immethodically p. 27. positivè in the Margent p. 39. l. 13. parts p. 36. l. 17. aromatical p. 72. inimicum in the Margent p. 151. l. 29. quis In the second Part. Page 24. line 27. read eradicate p. 30. l. 14. radiant p. 32. l. 15. deobstruct Long Life AND Means to attain it Section I. IN the Primitive Age of the World mans life was accounted to be about 1000 Years but after the Flood the Life of Man was abreviated half Mans Age shortned and none then attained to the tearm of the first Age except Noah who lived 950 Years and after three Generations from the Flood their lives were reduced to a fourth of the Primitive Age and their lives ordinarily exceeded not two hundred Years About Moses his time the Age of Man was yet shorter commonly not exceeding 120 Years Mans Age 120 years which also was his Age when he died yet we find upon Record in Sacred Writ and from Ecclesiastical Writers that after Moses some lived 240 and 260 yet that was rare but more frequently 120 which was then the common Age. Now the Age of Man is reduced to half that Mans Age 60 years 60 or 70 years we count upon But although in general we find this gradual declension and abreviation of mans Life in the several Ages of the World yet must understand it was not equally so in all parts of the World together but places and climates and manner of living of a people cause much difference in the protraction of their lives Age of man differ in several places that at the same time some people of peculiar places were longer lived by a third or fourth part then others of another Climate or Region as the Northern People and in colder Countreys they are longer lived then in the hot Climates and this by reason of the heat that opens the Pores and causeth so great a transpiration that exsiccates and enervates the body but a cooler Air prohibits and restrains such immoderate transpiration and exhaustion keeps the spirits vigorous and united and preserves the alimentory Juyces of the body from too frequent and immoderate exsudation If we examine into the Ages of other Creatures we find little difference in their durations Other Creatares keep their Age. to what they were in the Primitive Times and infancy of the World who keeping to the Rule of Nature implanted in them do preserve their Beings and degenerate little from the integrity of their durations allotted to them from the beginning Now why mans days should be thus abreviated and shortned from what they were and the tearm of his life reduced to so short a continuance gradually declining in the several Ages of the World is fit matter to inquire into
his long worn Cloathes perhaps more careful of his Garments remembring their price but thinks his health cost him nothing and coming to him at so easie a rate values it accordingly and hath little regard to keep it is never truly sensible of what he enjoyed until he finds the want of it by sickness then hoc unum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 health above all things is earnestly desired and wished for This great concernment Health falls under a three-fold consideration First In its causes from whence it does immediately arise in the body Secondly In its effects the consequents and benefits that accrue to us by it and what is the state of a healthy man Thirdly The right course to obtain and means to preserve this invaluable treasure so long as the capacity of humane nature will admit And first Here we must distinguish of Health which may be taken either strictly or largely Health distinguished health in the strictest acceptation admits of no organical indisposition morbous effect or morbifick Seminary to abide in the body that although no sensible injury or inconvenient alteration may appear yet notwithstanding a person may be said not to be in perfect health as when the latent seminaries of Diseases are not budded do not sprout forth so as to be dolorous impedite any faculty or make some disturbance or alteration yet they are planted in the body and have a real Being as haereditary Diseases whose seminaries are obscured do not come to maturity of production until such an Age of the Person or some irritating occasion given to produce it sooner or later as the person is ordered well or ill in the diaetetick regiment So likewise the first ground-work and foundation of the stone is not perceptible until some time and progress give it perfection during which time that person is not in a state of health in a strict sence So likewise some Diseases do lie dormant for a time and discover nothing during that season and have their periodick motions wherein they awake and are stirred up to shew themselves upon some irritating provocations and occasions given as the epilepsie the Gout Hysterical passions and such like that have their times of cessation and returns yet these during their intermissions and cessations from hostility are in being although they do not act so as to injure and deprave any function sensibly Secondly Health may be taken largely and in the common acceptation as when no function is impedited or sensible alteration from a good state does appear we say then such a man is in health In the first and strictest sense few can be said to be in health but in the latter many are to be accounted healthful And this is the state of health understood by Galen Avicen and Averrboes in their definitions of it Which imports thus much Health what it is Health is a due power and aptitude for the exercise discharge of all the faculties in the body So that when every part and faculty perform their duty regularly and vigorously that man is said to be in health but when any faculty is impedited ill affected or depraved in its function the man then is not in perfect health So that the actions of the body and mind are the chief discoverers of health and sickness And here we see that health is seated in the faculties and does assurge or result from the regular discharge of their functions As when the appetite is sharp Signs of Health the digestion not sluggish and heavy the belly soluble the senses perfect free from pain in all parts the mind pleasant quiet sleeps the spirits brisk and lively the whole body strong nimble and vigorous in motion these are signs of Health so that examining all parts and faculties we find nothing preternatural or irregular but in every part and faculty we find a good discharge of their Office then that person is to be accounted in a right state of health so far as is discoverable by any manifest or conjectural sign The benefits and excellencies of this health is best known to those that have lost it Carendo magis quam fruendo Excellency of Health positive quid valeat cognoscimus You that have it and know not how to prize it I 'le tell you what it is that you may love it better put a higher value upon it and endeavour to preserve it with a more serious strict observance and tuition Health is that which makes your meat and drink both savory and pleasant else Natures injunction of eating and drinking were a hard task and slavish custom Health is that which makes your bed easie and your sleep refreshing that renews your strength with the rising Sun and makes you chearful at the light of another day 't is that which fills up the hollow and uneven places of your Carcase and makes your body plump and comely 't is that which dresseth you up in Natures richest Attire and adorns your face with her choicest colours 'T is that which makes exercise a sport and walking abroad the enjoyment of your Liberty 'T is that which makes fertile and encreaseth the natural endowments of your mind and preserves them long from decay makes your wit acute and your memory retentive 'T is that which supports the fragility of a corruptible body and preserves the verdure vigour and beauty of youth 'T is that which makes the soul take delight in her mansion sporting her self at the casements of your eyes 'T is that which makes pleasure to be pleasure and delights delightful without which you can solace your self in nothing of terrene felicities and enjoyments Having cursorily glanced at the excellencies of Health in this short Narrative and Epitome of its worth it remains we should next draw forth and present to your view the wayes and means to obtain and preserve this invaluable enjoyment Health as it is the result of Nature in her integrity and perfection is maintained and kept in that order and due Oeconomy by the regular and right use of those natural supports that our bodies daily require and do depend on in Being as Air Food Sleep Exercise c. Now those things that do necessarily belong and daily attend us ought so to be chosen and mannaged as does best conduce and sute with the institution of Nature to which they are appointed but if otherwise unseasonably disorderly or immoderately used they then prove pernicious and destructive more or less according to the degree and continuance of their irregularity and incongruousness Nature hath appointed both times and order and set a regular course how and when every thing should be used in its proper mode and season There is a moderation also enjoyned and limits prescribed by Nature in the use of these things which if we exceed and run into excess we then put Nature out of her mediocrity and equality in which course she cannot long continue and that also with much trouble to us by bodily
of former kindness The body that had the magnatism and secret attraction of souls may now be approached without loss or danger of being snared and fettered as a bondslave The Lilly and the Rose that Nature planted in the highest Mount to shew the World her pride and glory is now blasted and withered like long blown flowers The eye that flasht as lightning is now like the opacous body of a thick Cloud that roled from East to West swifter then a Celestial Orb is now tyred and weary but standing still that penetrated the Center of another microcosm hath lost its Planetary influence and is become obtuse and dull The hollow sounding breast that echoed to the chanting Bird and warbled forth delightful tunes now runs divisions with coughing strains and pauses with a deep fetch 't sigh for breath to repeat those notes again The Venal and Arterial Rivulets that ran with vital streams bedewing the adjacent parts with fruitful moisture is now drunk up with parching heat or muddied and defiled with an inundation of excremental humours The want of health converts your House into a Prison and confines you to the narrow compass of a Chamber 't is that which sowers the sweetest and most beloved enjoyments 't is that which disunites and breaks the league of copartnership between soul and body alienates and makes them at jars discomposeth their harmony and weary of their wonted sweet society A sick man is like a Clock out of order and due motion which is of little worth or use so long as it continues in that condition so is man useless both to himself and others in such a state one Wheel being faulty or defective puts the rest out of order and regularity that depend upon that motion and one part or faculty of Mans body being disordered and irregular several others consent with or share in the discomposure more or fewer as the part is more noble and principal commanding some chief Region of the Body or inferior and of a lower orb or private station The reason of this sympathy and consent of patts is first From the general agent and principle of life which is one and the same throughout the whole Secondly Because all the parts of mans body though they have their peculiar and different motions to themselves and special properties yet they are all concurrent and cooperating co-ordinately or subordinately serving to the general design of Nature and maintainance of the whole body and are so concatenated and linked together in the Oeconomy of office that their motions are dependant and of mutual concern for each others wellfare Humane bodies being in a fluxible state and apt for mutation and changing are not long in a through state of health but some part or other by some accident natural debility or disorderly living is discomposed and jarring whereby the Oeconomical harmony is disturbed The signs of such defections and a preternatural change of the body approaching is discovered by the senses our own or others making observation And these signal marks are very apparent to reasonable discerning persons that every one may have some apprehensions if they will be cautilous of sickness coming upon them and a discrasyed body As a state of Health is known by all parts acting in their Offices unblameably that viewing and examining from head to foot nothing appears unwonted or disordered So on the contrary when any part declines its duty or appears any way unwonted from its natural condition declares the beginning of a degenerate valetudinary state which in time will dammage and disorder the whole if not prevented in that particular part and a stop given to that defection Now what this part is whether principal or inferior of a general or more private use and how the prejudice does arise is necessary to be considered which will discover whether the infirmity be of greater or lesser concern of speedy or slower danger So that by noting such signs which are the fore-runners and warnings of great diseases coming on every one may in time look out for means to check the present evil and avoid the greater threatned If the Body which was fat or plump and fleshy afterwards grows lean and thin or if lean and spare bodies grow big and corpulent here is just cause of suspition that all is not right although no great prejudice at present or sensible injury by the alteration yet these cases require due examination from whence they do proceed If the Appetite abate or unwonted heaviness and fulness follow eating argues the digestion not good and the Stomach falling from the due discharge of its duty and office The Consequents of which are very considerable If sleepiness exceed the Custom and Age of the Person or watchfulness and indisposition to rest both presage no good So likewise in other particulars which for brevity sake I shall not instance In general therefore whatever alterations happens in any part or faculty of the body unusual and contrary to the custom of Nature in her integrity does not only declare for its self as a particular infirmity of that part where it buds forth but does presage upon the continuance something worse to come and that the root from whence it springs is of a spreading Nature able to bring forth more then what is manifest at present in as much as the parts are dependant upon each other in office and use and dammage to one brings detriment to the rest Precautions and Rules for the preservation of Health and Prolongation of Life In the choice of Air and places of abode AIR is so necessary to Life that without it we cannot subsist which surrounding us about and being continually suck't and drawn in must needs affect the body with its conditions and properties and by observation you may find the body by the various constitutions and changes in the Air to be variously affected well and ill disposed of which infirm parts are most sensible that they prognosticate before an alteration come the mind also by the mediation of the spirits is drawn into consent and hath its dispositions and variations when the Air is close thick and moist the spirits are more dull heavy and indisposed but at the appearance of the Sun and a serene Skie the Spirits are unfettered vigorous and active the mind more chearful airy and pleasant The Spirits are of an aetherial Nature and therefore do much sympathize with the present constitution and change of Air for of the Air drawn in by the motion of the vital parts are the vital spirits ventilated the blood volatised therefore the pureness of the Air makes much for the purity of the spirits and mass of blood A gross impure and noysom Air obtunds and deads the spirits makes a slow pulse obstructs the Pores and hinders ventilation generates superfluous humours and causeth putrefaction A serene sweet thin Air perfumes and purifies an unwholsome body cherisheth the heart makes a lively pulse and much enliveneth the vital spirits
to help distribution of aliment but great draughts cause fluctuations Hasty motion opens the Orifice of the stomach precipitates and vitiates digestion Forbear reading writing study or serious cogitations for two hours after meat else you draw off from the stomach abate the strength of digestion and injure the brain Omit a meal sometimes it acuates and sharpens the stomach concocts indigested matter and makes the next meal rellish better Eat no late suppers nor variety at once a good stomach may endure it for a while but the weaker is more sensible of the injury the best is prejudiced in time Let not the common custom of meals Nemo sanitatis suae studiosus aliquid comedat nisi ad hoc certo prius invitante desiderio ventriculo una cum reliquis superioribus intestinis à praesumpto cibo vacuatis Avicen invite you to eat except your appetite concur with those times and keep a sufficient distance between your times of eating that you charge not the stomach with a new supply before the former be distributed and passed away and in keeping such a distance your stomach will be very fit and ready to receive the next meal the former being wrought off perfectly no semi-digested crude matter remaining to commix with the next food and that is one chief cause of crudities and a foul stomach when a new load is cast in before the former be gone off which begets much excrements not much aliment clogs the body and procures Diseases The stomach that is empty receives closeth and embraceth food with delight will be eager and sharp in digestion and the body will attract and suck the aliment strongly each part as it passeth along will perform its office readily and sufficiently which they will not do if often cloyed with depraved and indigested aliment but slowly and with reluctancy for although they do not act by reason yet they have a natural instinct or endowment to discern their proper and fit object If your body becomes lean and your flesh looser then formerly do not pamper and feed your self highly expecting to recover and regain the lost flesh for in so doing you add more mischief and make your body fouler then before Corpora impura quo plus nutries eò magis laedes Hipp. and miss of your purpose and unless the former impediments that hindered and frustrated nutrition be removed in vain it is to expect it from the addition and greater supply of food or high nourishers SECT VI. Preservation of Health in the choice of Drinks and Regular Drinking DRink for necessity not for bad fellowship especially soon after meat which hinders the due fermentation of the stomach and washeth down before digestion be finished but after the first concoction if you have a hot stomach a dry or costive body you may drink more freely then others or if thirst importunes you at any time to satisfie with a moderate draught is better then to forbear Accustom youth strong stomachs to small drink but stronger drink and Wine to the infirm and aged it chears the spirits quickens the appetite and helps digestion moderately taken but being used in excess disturbs the course of Nature and procures many Diseases for corpulent gross and fat bodies thin hungry abstersive penetrating Wines are best as white-Wine Rhenish and such like For lean thin bodies black red and yellow Wines sweet full bodied and fragrant are more fit and agreeable as Malaga Muscadel Tent Alicant and such like For Drink whether it be wholsomer warmed then cold is much controverted some stifly contending for the one and some for the other I shall rather chuse the middle way with limitation and distinction then impose it upon all as a rule to be observed under the penalty of forfeiting their health the observations of the one or the other There are three sorts of persons one cannot drink cold Beer the other cannot drink warm the third either You that cannot drink cold Beer to you it is hurtful cools the stomach and checks it much therefore keep to warm drink as a wholsom custom you that cannot drink warm Beer that is find no refreshment nor thirst satisfied by it you may drink it cold nor is it injurious to you you that are indifferent and can drink either drink yours cold or warmed as the company does since your stomach makes no choice That warm drink is no bad custom but agreeable to Nature in the generalitie first Because it comes the nearest to the natural temper of the body and similia similibus conservantur every thing is preserved by its like and destroyed by its contrary Secondly Though I do not hold it the principal Agent in digestion yet it does excite is auxiliary and a necessary concomitant of a good digestion ut signum causa Thirdly Omne frigus per se pro viribus destruit Cold in its own nature and according to the graduation of its power extinguisheth natural heat and is destructive but per accidens and as it is in gradu remisso it may contemperate allay and refresh where heat abounds and is exalted Therefore as there is variety of Pallates and Stomachs likeing and agreeing best with such kind of meats and drinks which to others are utterly disgustful disagreeing and injurious though good in themselves so is it in Drink warmed or cold what one finds a benefit in the other receives a prejudice at least does not find that satisfaction and refreshment under such a qualification because of the various natures particular appetitions and idosyncratical properties of several bodies one thing will not agree with all Therefore he that cannot drink warm let him take it cold and it is well to him but he that drinks it warm does better And this is to be understood in Winter when the extremity of cold hath congelated and fixed the spirits of the Liquor in a torpid inactivity which by a gentle warmth are unfettered volatile and brisk whereby the drink is more agreeable and grateful to the stomachs fermenting heat being so prepared then to be made so by it There are three sorts of Drinkers one drinks to satisfie Nature and to support his body without which he cannot well subsist and requires it as necessary to his Being Another drinks a degree beyond this man and takes a larger dose with this intention Primum crater ad sitim pertinere secundum ad hilaritatem tertium ad voluptatem quartum ad insanium dixit Apuleius to exhilerate and chear his mind to banish cares and trouble and help him to sleep the better and these two are lawful drinkers A third drinks neither for the good of the body or the mind but to stupifie and drown both by exceeding the former bounds and running into excess frustrating those ends for which drink was appointed by Nature converting this support of life and health making it a procurer of sickness and untimely death Many such there are who drink not to
which are very injurious and destructive to Health Seasonable and moderate Venus alleviates Nature and helps digestion but immoderate exhausts the strength by effusion of spirits exsiccates and dries the Body hurts the Brain and Nerves causeth tremblings dulls the sight debilitates all the faculties hastens old age and shortens life But of this more at large in my Treatise of Spermatick Consumptions Cibo vel potu repletis superfluè evacuatis sive exercitatis coitus interdicitur Tempus optimum est manè post dormias Hyeme vere frequentius permittitur aestate parcissimè Juvines sanguinei pituitosi liberalius parcius Melancholici parcissimè biliosi Senes emaciati Menstrual evacuations are proper to the Female Sex and come to them at certain years to some at fourteen or fifteen to others at sixteen or seventeen and then Nature challengeth them monthly as her due except she hath conceived nurseth or being grown old Nature does not require this evacuation And this is of such concernment with them that if this menstrual Flux be not right in the several requisites according to times quantity and quality the whole body oftentimes is disturbed but alwayes some infirmity or complaint does follow And therefore it much behoveth Women to have a special regard that this course of Nature be regular according to each persons propriety of body for all have them not alike nor is it to be expected and when it happens otherwise a due course is to be taken to reduce them into order and procure them aright This Flux ariseth from a redundance and is granted to Women for conception-sake that they might both nourish the foetus in the Womb and have sufficient to supply their own bodies Therefore when there is no conception Nature hath appointed a menstrual evacuation to spend the over plus this way during her capacity of having Children and when that time is past Nature taks up and makes no such provision and then this evacuation ceaseth SECT X. The different state and variation of Bodies Commonly distinguished by four Constitutions THat the Condition Properties and Habit of Bodies do much differ one from the other and also the same by time doth vary and alter much from what it was is that which I need not insist on the proof every one almost will confess the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is convinced of this truth But how this comes to pass and the reasons of this difference and variation is not unanimously agreed upon but great dissenting about the matter The Galenists do comprise the diversity of bodies under four Constitutions Sanguine Phlegmatick Cholerick and Melancholick And this they will have to arise from the difference of bodies in mixtion according to the different proportions they receive of the four Elements participating more of some then the other The Chymical Philosophers some of them will have the difference of bodies to assurge out of three Principles Sal Sulphur and Mercury Others increase that number and will have have them five Spirit Salt Sulphur Water and Earth But I must not now ingage in the controversie between the Chymists and Galenists or make another party to oppose both but reserve that as more proper for a Polemical Tract This Work being not intended controversal but Canonical I therefore pass on to state the Matter These four tearms of Sanguine Cholerick c. although I do not adhere to them in the common acceptation and in every point as the Galenists use them yet they being so familiar and well known to such for whom chiefly this work is intended I shall retain these names with distinction and limitation to serve our present purpose rather then impose new words upon you not so well understood I do not therefore understand by Phlegm Choler c. that every body is composed of these four humours as their constitutive parts resulting from proportionate and disproportionate mixture and combination of the four Elements But that persons may participate of or abound with a degenerate humour and that the succulencies of the body may incline to such a condition affine and analogous or having such properties as that which is assigned to and called Phlegm Choler c. may be ascerted and we may call them by such names But you must also take notice that the degenerate matter in mans body is so various that you must not think to reduce all such depraved Juices exactly to these three heads of Choler Phlegm and Melancholly and if you add twice three more the number would not be sufficient But since there is not peculiar appellations to distinguish all precisely by better have some general tearms then none The variation of bodies in relation to Temperament Habit and Constitution does arise immediatè from the variation of digestions and the different products from thence so that one and the same person shall by time be of different constitutions according as the functions of the body are performed well or ill The changing or establishing of Constitutions procatarcticè does depend upon subjection and obedience to the Diaetitick Rules As every one is ordered prudently and regularly or negligently and incongruously shall be disposed to this or that Constitution If a man live idle plentifully feeding indulging himself in raw Fruits and sleeps much this disposeth him to be Phlegmatick that is his digestions shall not be so good and there will be crude relicts abounding such as is called Phlegm If a man be of an active cogitative spirit eager in business giving himself little rest accustomed to Wine and high seasoned Meats This manner of life fires and heats the body the Juices then will not be so mild temperate and balsamick but acrid bot and sharp and this person then may be said to be of a cholerick constitution or condition of body If a fresh sanguine person of a pure wholsom body be oppressed with care and grief live a sedentary life or too much given to study and serious contemplation and feed grosly This course of life shall change and alter the best constitution the sanguine brisk airy person shall by these means be of a dull heavy disposition and sad mind the body also shall degenerate from its purity the humours more fixed and feculent The Soul being the great Spring or Wheel that keeps all the functions in motion upon which they do depend primò principaliter as the Fountain of all Vital Actions If this be dejected and taken off its speed the functions are then performed very heavily as if weights and clogs were hung upon them and then the elaboration of food is not well performed and a pure alimentary Juice produced but a degenerate succus of a heavy oppressing nature not duely fermented by the Spleen dyscrasyed by the preceding Causes from whence a melancholly constitution is begotten and may so be denominated for distinction The diversity of Constitutions being thus understood we may make use of and retain these distinguishing tearms at this time to serve the