that there is no sympathy betwixt the stomach and the hands because there is a threefold reason of sympathie A threefold reason of sympathy First of vicinitie the second of familiaritie of function the third by communion of vessels which things we may apply to the Liver and the hands For betwixt them there is no vicinitie or nearnesse in regard of scituation no familiaritie of function if there be any sympathy it must be of the third kinde to wit by communion of vessels but the vessels that issue out of the Liver are not carried to the hands alone but to the whole body In the hands besides the veines there are arteries which convey to them a greater heat from the heart Therefore from the hands ought not to be inferred rather the heat of the Liver then of the heart Besides the heat of the Liver is perpetuall or at least of long continuance but that heat of the hands is fugitive 6. Epid. Sect. 2. text 32. Fen. 13. lib. 3. tract 1. cap. 3. 4. Colliget cap 4. often goes and comes again Againe other Authours attribute it to the Spleen to wit if the Spleen tend upwards but if it incline downwards the lower parts are said to be hot * Avicenne will have long fingers to shew the magnitude and heat of the Liver but * Averrhoes laughs at him And the man whom thou knowest saith that the shortnesse of the fingers betokens a little Liver and herein it appears that he knew not wherein the power of forming did consist and considered not but in the parts themselves but let him goe with the rest Which are the words of Averrhoes who believed not that the signes of the temperature or conformation of the Liver could be drawn from the hands seeing there is no more peculiar sympathy between these parts than others Therefore Galen in Arte parvâ when he explicates the signes of an hot Liver omitted that figne of the heat of the hands as did the rest of the Greeks Aetius Aegineta and others Argenterius in his commentary on the forenamed place of the Art of Physick blames Galen for omitting this sign But more rightly do others defend Galen because that signe is nothing else then the vaine imagination of the vulgar for not onely the hands but the whole body is necessarily made hot neither is that heat of the hands permanent but unstable and uncertain CHAP. XII Of them that complaine of a hot Liver but a cold Stomach IT is a common and ordinary thing for many to complaine of the heat of the Liver and coldnesse of the Stomach because they feele winde and crudities in their Stomach together with some running heats in the body as in the face hands and feet But these are to be admonished of some things First it is certaine that the Stomach because it is a spermaticall part membranous and bloodlesse and white is of a cold temperament The Stomach is naturally of a cold temperament but to thinke that the heat of the Liver can hurt it is an absurditie For Galen writes that it was fenced about by Nature on every side with hot Intrailes that it might more compleatly execute its functions it lies in the middle between the Liver the Spleen the Caule and the gut Colon and is encompassed with them on every side that like a cauldron among a great many fires it may be made hot by them wherefore Riolanus in his Anthropographie doth not thinke it a thing probable that the heat of the Liver should diminish the heate of the Stomach but rather augment it Secondly it ought to be observed that the forenamed symptomes doe often happen in them that be in health that have a hot temper of the bowels but use an ill diet For by too much drinking either of wine and of Ale and Beere abundance of crudities in the belly doe grow and swimmings belchings windinesse and spittings doe arise for it is an ordinary thing Strong drinks breed cold diseases for cold affects to proceed from too much gulleting even of hot drinks which do not happen by a distemper of the part but through the fault of him that takes them In the mean while the Liver drawes unto it the thinner spirits of those drinkes whereby it is enflamed and so distributes too hot blood to the whole body Thence it is that they seem to feele heat in the body and cruditie in the Stomach at the same time And so they falsly accuse the contrary distempers of the parts not blaming their owne intemperance But if they would live soberly and use moderate drinkes they should experience no such matter Thirdly some are troubled with it although they live soberly and such are hypocondriacke persons whose * They are the parts contained in the belly hypocondres are hot and dry and obstructed which evill is very common in this country and it arises most commonly from the aforesaid cause namely a disordered diet But in them the Stomach is not made colder by reason of the vicinitie of the hot hypocondres but because many melancholy and flatulent humours are cast into the stomach which vitiate concoction whereupon they thinke they have a colder stomach than indeed they have Thence it is that Physicians demand how it comes to passe that hypocondriake persons seeing they are oppressed with a hot disease doe neverthelesse abound with winde and cruditie◠The cause whereof although some Physicians referre to the cold Stomach yet it is better as we have said to referre it to the corrupt humours weakning the temper of the Stomach from whence proceed not onely tart crudities which come from cold but also nidorous belchings which doe arise from heate especially if the party cat nidorous meat as fried Egges and the like Hence one sayes well that the symptomes in an hypochondriake passion are many of them cold but the cause is hot CHAP. XIII That the Husband cannot breed his Wives childe AMong very many Errours this seems most worthy to bee laughed at that the husband is thought to bee sick and troubled with the same symptomes wherewith a woman with child is wont yea and many will have this thing to be confirmed by experience I had a patient sick of a Feaver with a very high coloured and troubled urine who would not be perswaded of any other cause of his sicknesse then his wives being with childe I doe not remember that I have read of it at any time nor heard it observed in any place but in England It is certaine that women with childe in the first moneths of their conception are wont to bee troubled with very many and sundry symptomes especially they that are of cacochymick and impure bodies Now they doe usually arise from the retention of their Flowers For seeing Nature is wont to use that Flux not only for the purging out of superfluous blood but of corrupt and vitious humours also such blood being retent and kept in they are likewise retained
I could finde by urine alone a certaine knowledge of a womans conception nor of the epilepsie nor of a quartane feaver for it is but a deceitfull and equivocall messenger Which things indeed doe very much agree with our times I have often seene that opinion which by the urine the Physician had declared to have beene changed when he saw the sicke partie and which is more many simple fellowes that impudently meddle with Physick being called to the patient by whose urine they had before fully explained the disease not onely to have changed their opinion but to become lesse able to judge at al of the disease although they had both the Patient and his urine before their faces Fiftly the urine is altered by meates drinks exercises aire sleepe washing and divers other causes and so makes the judgment to be but conjecturall therefore Avicenne after six houres others after two houres would not have an urine looked into How grosly then doe they erre that rashly judge of urines that be brought to them many miles Hence it comes to passe that many that are noe Physicians but meerly made to cheat the people doe promise more then good Physicians are able to performe Nor can I except even ministers that practise Physick who of all men should be most holy Sixthly * Galen sayes well that in urine there are noe signes that doe certainly portend the frenzy 2. proch text 2. or the affects of the head for it onely signifyes saith he the distempers of the liver kidneys and bladder but there be other signes and symptomes of the diseases of the braine Yet Actuarius saith that the diseases of the liver braine necke breast yea and of his joynts also may be discerned by urine and Hippocrates writes that when a mans urine is like to the urine of a beast it shewes a paine in the head In like manner the excrements of the whole body have recourse as Physicians say to the belly and the urine by which it may be changed thus thinne fleame falling from the head makes a frothy urine 4 aphot 73. and Hippocrates thinkes that the grievous frettings and gripings of the gutts and hypochondres may be resolved by urine But this belongs onely to prognostickes for the very gripings themselves cannot be knowne by the urine much lesse their solution But the most witty Argenterius did deservedly laugh at Actuarius for endeavouring to point out in urine the signes of diseases in the braine the breast and the joynts For though the excrements of the whole body may be evacuated by the urine yet that happens not alwaies for many parts although grievously affected doe not alter the urine at all Moreover the excrements are but the causes of diseases and not diseases themselves As for that which may be said of the headach and the frenzy Galen answers it Text 4 Sect 1. proch * where he saith that the signes of the frenzy are either those that are alwayes in the phreneticke and in them onely or which are alwaies in them but not in them onely or which are neither alwaies in them nor in them onely but sometimes are apparent and sometimes not and happen from other causes From whence it is manifest saith hee that neither in urine nor in dejections of the belly nor in spittle nor in vomits are there any signes of the Frenzy Neither doe troubled Urines nor such as have any elevation aloft nor frothy Urines alwaies betoken the aforesaid affects but doe likewise proceed from other causes and if at any time they declare any of these they doe it with other signes for the aforesaid affects may bee without such Urines From whence it may bee concluded that those signes which doe not alwaies accompany a disease nor yet folely cannot indicate any disease but such are urines For Galen teaches that they by chance may betoken a frensie because they iddicate a windy blood but not by themselves and properly Therefore saith he in the afore cited place what hath been said of Urines makes nothing to a judgement of the Frensie yet they doe conduce to the discerning whether the sick bee in any great danger or no. And therefore in all diseases it is not amisse to consider the Urine that the danger may be discerned Galen teaches in many places that the excrements are signes of the parts affected and of the disease as that the dejections are signs of the belly the spirtle of the breast snot of the brain and the urine of the liver and veines to wit that they are signes of the concoction which is made in those parts but seldome of the diseases themselves Therefore Urine cannot shew forth all diseases as for example the Plurisie is known by a paine of the side a Feaver a hard Pulse difficultie of breathing and cough without the urine and spittle for if these come likewise they shew the cause and prognosticks of the disease already known by other signes For though the Plurisie and Frensie cannot be knowne by urine yet if the urine appear very much changed it is an ill signe for it hetokens a distemperature not onely of the vitall and animall but of the naturall parts also And when many parts are out of frame the sick lies in so much the more danger Moreover sometimes the Urine shewes whether the disease be joyned with a Feaver or no for Galen teaches that in the affects of the belly 2. De Cris cap. 7. if they be without a Feaver only the excrements of the belly are to be looked into but if with a Feaver then the urine likewise not that wee may know the disease it selfe but that we may the better judge what will be the issue of the disease already known CHAP. II. That the sexe and being with childe cannot be discerned by Vrine whereof a certaine story THey that bring Urines to Physicians doe often aske them whether it be a mans or womans water and whether the woman be with childe or no. It is admirable to see how cunningly some in this case deale with the people But that neither the sex nor graviditie can bee discerned I will demonstrate For although the Urine of a young man and an old man of a man and a woman be different each from other yet that is onely in colour and consistence which seeing they may bee changed by divers other causes it will not properly shew whether it be a mans or a womans for a cholerick woman after exercise and the use of hot meats will make higher coloured urine than a flegmatick man Moreover she which hath a Feaver or some other disease without doubt changes her urine according to the nature of the disease How shall he therefore that lookes into an urine discerne the Sex when he knowes not the temperature of them that made the urine Therefore if a healthfull man be compared with a healthfull woman a cholerick man with a cholerick woman and a sick man with a sick woman
and no externall thing happen which may change the urine perhaps the womans urine may be in some respect discerned from the mans but otherwhiles not at all when oftentimes it is unknown from whence the urine is brought to the Physician And so it is to be understood which some Physicians write concerning the difference betwixt a mans water and a womans for because men are said to be hotter and are given to exercises they make thinner urine and higher coloured with fewer contents but women because colder make whiter urine with a larger sediment A whitish colour saith Fernel is a signe not onely of cruditie but of the Sex likewise But even the hottest man may make such urine by reason of the causes that change urine Therefore in this there is no certainty and it is too much rashnesse to pronounce any such thing by urine Concerning women with childe A woman cannot be known to be with child by urine it is a greater doubt and it is ordinary with women for this cause alone to send their waters to a Physician Avicenne teaches to know it by a sediment like unto carded cotten and by some other markes But seeing experience shewes the contrary he is deservedly to be rejected It is not necessary for every urine of a woman to have a sediment but that only which is well concocted First Hippocrates who hath exactly searched out all the signes of conception never made mention of urines Secondly the urine is not changed by the graviditie it selfe but onely by the suppression of the flowers which as cannot be denied may alter the urine by the reflux of blood and excrements into the veines But that same change of urine may appeare as well in Maids by the stopping of their flowers yea in all diseases that arise from the like suppression as also in the obstructions of other internall parts Thus urine will manifest here no proper or peculiar thing Wee see urines sometimes of a low colour as happens frequently in obstructions sometimes very high coloured sometimes like to the healthfull when the woman with childe is in health sometimes thinne sometimes thick such as may likewise be seen in other affects But if the woman bee sick the urine is so changed by the violence of the disease that all the signes of being with childe if there bee any are obliterate Thirdly that the knowledge of graviditie is not so easie Hippocrates himself shewes who after he had reckoned up many probable signes of it as if those were not certaine he betakes himselfe to some Empyricall signes Aphor. 41. lib. 5. If you would know saith he whether a woman hath conceived or no give her some water mixed with honey to drinke when shee goes to sleep if shee feeleth gripings of her belly shee hath conceived if not she hath not And in his booke of the Barren he saith Stampe Honey and Anise well together dissolve it in water give it her let her sleep if she feele gripings about her navell shee is with childe but if not she is not So that hence it may appeare how hard a thing it is to know if a woman be with childe before the stirring of the infant when besides many other signes Hippocrates hath recourse to such Empyricall signes How foolish then are they that professe themselves to be able so easily to divine that by urines Avenzoar a Physician of principall note among the Arabians reports that he was deceived in his own wife although hee had seen her urine and had other signs whereby he could know a woman to be with childe if the knowledg thereof were so easie Saxonia relates that he was judged by Physicians to be a * mole Or false conception and that his mother did take many medicines to destroy the conception which yet did not prevail And to this opinion do all the modern Physicians assent who have written of the diseases of women Hither is to be added a certain fable A merry story which hath been related to me as a story by men of good note and this is it A certain maid did carry her Mistresses urine to a Physician and having by chance spilled it not knowing now what to doe she catched the urine of a Cow which at that time by good hap staled and carryed it to the Physician he gave answer that the patient did eat too many sallets Indeed the Physician was worthy to be commended for his skill who could divine that I say this is a fable because I have heard the same in divers places of sundry Physicians as also because it is alwayes ascribed to some Physician that is dead the like to whom is no man living And its true indeed no man this day is living or ever was that could certainly know a beasts urine from a mans If the urine be like to that of beasts that are accustomed to the yoke Aphor. 70. lâ—b 4. paine of the head is either present or will ensue saith Hippocrates noting that a man may make urine like in colour and consistence to that of beasts Therefore hitherto it hath been doubted in what respects a mans urine might be discerned from other liquors I know there are some rules and marks prescribed by Avicenne and others whereby they may be discerned from each other but they are all false and uncertain And nothing is more easie then to deceive a Physician though wary by shewing him him other liquours and urines But if a man may make urine like to that of beasts how can a Physician not knowing from whence it comes discerne one from the other CHAP. III. The Solution of the arguments that seeme to favour looking into Vrines SOme that too much approve Ouroscopie or looking into Urines do use the authority and arguments of Hercules Saxonia a very learned Physician heretofore among the Italians who desired to patronize a little Ouroscopie For he would have not only the causes of diseases but also their Idea's magnitude and states to be known by urine not in generall only but also in particular whose opinion we will briefly lay down First saith he urines shew diseases in distemperature without matter and with matter A hot distemper without matter is either universall or of a determinate part and this is sometimes without a fever sometimes with a fever An hot universall distemper doe these urines shew to wit reddish saffron colour greene black fatty atomous branny or scaly sediments and sharp urines Neverthelesse these doe not shew a distemper without matter but with matter for urine hath not these colours but by the mixture of humours hence in a diary fever Galen writes that the urine is made somewhat reddish through the mixture of choler Moreover 1. ad Glauc cap. 2. 3. method cap. 2. 10. de crisib cap 12. these doe only betoken a hot distemper in generall not any particular sort of it for a hot distemper may be Synochus a burning fever or a tertian it
That blood retained because for the smalnesse of the young one in the beginning of her graviditie it is not at all spent for the nourishment thereof doth putrifie and hath recourse either to the noble parts or at least annoyes them with filthy vapours which it sends forth from whence arise the aforesaid symptomes in the stomach intrailes belly head and the whole body as vomiting loathing of meat unsatiable longing and lusting gripings dizzinesse of the head and such like Seeing therefore the husband hath not in him the causes of these affects but his wife onely it stands with reason that shee onely should be sick Nor if any husband be sick when his wife is with childe was hee infected by his wife for that distemper may happen through some peculiar fault of his owne body As while I write this it raines yet neither is my writing the cause of the raine nor the raine of my writing It is no new thing for husbands and their wives to bee both sick together But it is a wonder and heretofore a thing unknown that graviditie or a womans being with childe is a contagious disease and that not other women but men only whom nature hath freed from this travaile should be infected therewith Furthermore it is observed that the same symptomes do not happen to all women or at least not all to every one and yet it often falls out that when the woman is in good health the husband is sick yea sometimes being many miles off But if he endure that by his wives being with childe how comes it to passe that she continues well at the same time For naturall causes doe sooner worke upon the near than upon the remote subject And for that cause seeing the woman carries about her such noxious humours she should be sooner and more grievously sick I know something might be said of simpathy antipathy contagion fascination and other such trifles But if these things be so why do not maids and widows who are very often troubled with the like symptomes through suppression of their flowers infect their bedfellows and familiars seeing there is the same cause and without doubt they may have a sympathy with some of them To cause a contagion not only the efficacie of the agent but also a disposition and analogy in the patient is requisite But who believes not that another woman is more prone to receive and take the symptomes of gravidity than a man seeing they were all created for propagation of children and therefore one woman ought to take great heed to her self of another Moreover it may happen that a woman that is sore troubled with the green sicknesse as they call it is married to a man whom notwithstanding although her flowers be suppressed she shall never infect why then when the same woman is with childe and there is no other reason of sickness then suppression of the flowers shall her husband be sick Men would be in an ill case if as often as there were a suppression of their wives flowers so often they not their wives should bee sick But because by the very relating of it the absurdity of this errour doth appeare I will adde no more Iupiter bore Bacchus in his thigh and Pallas in his brain but let this be proper to him alone CHAP. XIIII Whether forraine Physicians and Aliens can know the temper of the sick of another Countrey TO know the temperature of the sick conduces much to the knowledge of diseases and their cure and this businesse requires a long and difficult handling I will onely say thus much that some are of opinion that Strangers cannot know the temperature of them of another Country as French men of the English But that is repugnant to the nature of the Art of Physick the precepts whereof are generall The precepts of Physick are generall and may easily be applyed to any Country For every art is of universals not of particulars therefore here in England all that are skilfull Artists doe practise Physick according to the precepts of Galen and Hippocrates which if any man doe well understand he is able to discerne the diversitie of men according to their ages countries and the different temper of the aire and what medicaments are convenient for them Concerning which Hippocrates hath written an excellent book of aire waters and places For the Art of Physick wheresoever it is taught doth lay downe marks and signes which are taken from Countries both for the knowledge and prognostication of diseases and indications which the diversitie of Countries doth afford for the appointment of a right diet letting of bloud prescribing of purges and administring of all other remedies Otherwise it were no Art if it should accommodate its precepts to some particular place only Galen who was borne and brought up in Greece practised Physick at Rome Hence 3 prognost Hippocrates saith that his documents may be applyed to any Country either hot or cold to Lybia Delos Scythia and the rest Also the Arabians have borrowed from the Greeks their precepts of curing which are the very same with the Galenists which we promiscuously follow Therefore it was wisely ordered by the Spaniards and Portugals that in India where they beare rule Physick should be practised after the self same manner that it is in Europe according to the doctrine of Galen and Hippocrates I know much might be said of that variety of temperature which Countries doe give to the inhabitants for even in one and the same Kingdome there is a great diversitie of inhabitants in respect of the divers situation of the Countryes nature of the soyle blowing of the wind and other causes for the diligent search of all which the Art of Physick layes down rules And yet whatsoever the Climate and Country be even in the most Northern Climates there are men of every temper hot cold cholerick flegmatick sanguine melancholick One that without license practised Physick a Surgeon by profession that he might doe me a displeasure was often wont to say that Frenchmen cannot understand the nature and constitution of the English I once asked him what was that constitution of an Englishman wherein he differs from a Frenchman by what signes he could know it seeing that in every place are men of every temperature which things seeing they cannot be knowne but of a learned Physician it is no wonder if every simple medicine-monger be ignorant of them For it is a thing exceeding hard to be known Therfore Galen said that if he could but perfectly know the temperature of his Patients he should be another Aesculapius I will now only adde thus much that what is talked by the vulgar concerning the temperature of divers people is well understood but of few for all men have their proper temperaments differing from others ingendred in them from the principles of generation they cannot therefore have any thing common in which all men can agree That same therefore is onely a certain
afraid lest the sick dye with hunger Yet I doe not altogether disallow of meat for by it alone is the strength preserved But I have in this Chapter insinuated that the quantity quality and time of using it ought to bee prescribed by the advice and counsell of Physicians CHAP. V. Of the quality of meats about the Sick IT is an usuall thing likewise for them to erre not only in quantity but in quality also For they are often wont to offer to the sick yea to such as bee sick of feavers divers strengthening meats as they call them as ale boyled with eggs mace nutmeg and cynamon and other meats which they call by sundry names yea and they urge them sometimes to take solid meats but all this very foolishly And first it is certaine that solid meats are unfit for the sick seeing they cannot be well concocted by the stomack Supping meats sooner nourish then solid meats But those meats that are to be supped are more easily overcome by the stomack and doe soonest nourish and therefore Hippocrates in divers places perswades to nourish the sick with supping meats rather than with solid meats For by such a diet nature is sooner strengthened and is not hindred from the conflict which it hath begun with the disease Aph. 11. lib. 2. It is more easie to bee filled with drinkes than with meat where by drinkes he meanes whatsoever is taken by supping as interpreters observe Secondly it is to observed that in the healthfull meats ought to be alike because the naturall state doth require to be preserved but every thing is preserved by things that are alike But in the sick the quality of meats ought to resist the disease that there may be medicine in meat for to every disease its contrary must be applyed To a hot nature 6 Epid. sect 6. cooling drinking of water rest From whence it comes to passe that they that goe about to strengthen the sick with such a diet doe oftentimes more hurt to them and more increase the cause of the disease and so the strength is more impaired Therefore the judgment of a Physician is alwayes to be used nor ought the by-standers rashly to exhibite any thing which otherwise is profitable to the healthfull for the same doth prove many times very hurtfull to the sick And let this suffice to be said in this place for the larger explication of this subject belongs to them that write of the matter of Physick For it is not my purpose to teach Physick but onely to shew to the people their errours as I have said in another place CHAP. VI. Of the time of using meates A Physician ought also to be consulted withall at what time meates may most fitly be administred otherwise a pernicious Errour may happen to the sick and at this day this Errour is too familiar For the By-standers especially the women doe usually offer meat to the sick at inconvenient seasons Where they must know Not good to easin fit that in the fits they should altogether abstaine from meat as Hippocrates teacheth In the fits it is good to abstaine Aph. 11. lib. 1. for to give meat then is hurtfull and they to whom the fits doe come by circuit must abstaine in the fit And in the nineteenth Aphorisme of the second book It is good to give nothing to them that have fits by circuit nor to compell them to eate but to withdraw from their ordinary diet till after the crisis Wherein they erred not a little in Hippocrates his time as also in this our age in which there are many that without difference doe feed the sick having no regard to the time Now he doth not here onely forbid to give meat in the fit but also to compell the sick to take it for it is the fashion of many to urge them to eat For while nature in the fit wrestles against the disease it is but little intent upon digesting the meat whereby it comes to passe that it being unconcocted doth encrease the disease and the symptomes thereof Now what what harme comes by the unseasonable eating of meat 4. De acut the same Hippocrates teacheth The First is the suffocation of heat for in the paroxysme the morbous humours returne into the inward parts and oppresse naturall heat but much more after the taking of meat The Second is the increasing and lengthning of the paroxysmes and the disease for the matter of the disease and the meat cannot be well concocted together and therefore excrements are necessarily increased which doe afterward increase inflammations heats and other symptomes of the disease it selfe But because there is a certaine case wherein it is not onely lawfull In what case it may do good to nourish the sick but also necessary to nourish the sick in the paroxysme to wit when the sick is of an hot and dry temper hath the mouth of of his stomach feeble and of a most exquisite sence so that it is easily offended by every humour and causes danger of swouning At that time to nourish with those things which corroborate the stomach Galen judges it to be most profitable 10. Method cap. 3. where he tels the story of a young man who in Summer lying sick of a Tertian unlesse he did eat meat in his fit he fell into a Syncope But this case is very rare and requires not a little skill and judgement in the Physician and exceeds the capacitie of the vulgar and therefore it is not safe to imitate this without the advice of a prudent Physician All which I have said that men may seriously consider that they ought not adventurously to use those remedies which otherwise seeme to be most familiar with nature for in the application of every remedy many things are to beloonsiderect which the skilfull Physician alone doth know But many that adveaturoufly practise Physick are ignorant of them who take care onely that they may get popular applause and please the people that they may seem to be solicitous for the strength of the sick the confervation of which neverthelesse doth not depend on words but on the seasonable administration of remedies Let all men know therefore that the sick ought not alwaies to be obeyed as if he desire that which is hurtfull to him 6. Epid. sect 4. text 7. But in these things saith Hippocrates the sick are to be obeyed Namely that their meate and drinke be cleanly dressed When good to obey the sick that those things be pleasant which they see and soft which they touch provided they hurt not too much and that they be easie to be amended as the administring of cold water when there is need and such like So Avicenne in the third Section of his first booke wils that those things which are desired of the sick be granted so as no harme come to the body aph 38. lib 2. And Hippocrates saith Meat and drink a little worse but pleasing
stone Men should not therefore give credit to them that prescribe remedies for it Duretus upon Hollerius reports that hee saw the bladder exulcerated with such remedies and death ensue the stone not being worne at all A certaine man as Duretus reports fearing the extreame paine of cutting by the advice of some drank juyce of Limmons for 3 months together and died with exulcerations in his stomack caused by that juyce For sharp medicines must of necessity molest and exulcerate the parts through which they passe with their sharpnesse Sanctorius in his Commentaries upon Galens Ars parva tells a story of an Italian Physician who while hee used Electuarium de vitro to break the stone of the bladder in stead of lessening the stone brought in a mortall dysenterie flux He tells also of another who by the advice of a certaine quacksalver used very forcible diureticks which when by their abstersive quality they had evacuated very much fleagm insomuch as the sick seemed to be more at ease yet the stone being made sharper began to prick the bladder more vehemently and made a Gangraenous Ulcer as was seen when the body was dissected and so the sick died miserably Capivaccius also confesses that hee knowes not any remedies which can break the stone of the bladder Cap. 94. text 3. And Galen in Arte parvâ reckons onely cutting among the remedies for the stone in the bladder where Argenterius observes well that even from hence is their opinion refuted which think the stone may be cured with remedies taken by the mouth CHAP. XLII That the wormes of the belly are not presently to be killed in Fevers IT falls out sometimes that both children and young men are grievously troubled with wormes and that divers diseases in the body do arise from thence among which a Feaver is not the least which is of a double nature for either it is caused by the wormes themselves and then it is a very gentle Fever or it comes from other causes Dangerous Fevers from wormes and concurres with the wormes and this is usually a malignant and violent Fever which is thought to have been sometimes called by Hippocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fierce and wilde as a beast In the curing of these wormes the people many times doe erre much First in that they thinke when there are wormes together with a Fever that the fever is alwaies caused by the worms when rather the wormes doe oftentimes proceed from the matter of the Fever For as Aetius teaches Cap. 39. lib 1. tetrab 3. if they breed about the beginning of the disease they take their substance from the corrupt matter if about the height from the malignitie of the disease if about the declination from the change to a better which also are quickly voided Therefore in the beginning of acute diseases they betoken a malignitie of the disease for when wormes are the cause of a Fever that Fever is never violent and acute but most commonly they appear in a malignant fever which is to be noted for in the former case the cure of the wormes is the cure of the Fever but in this latter when the Fever is cured the wormes are wont to be cast forth by nature it selfe the disease tending to a crisis as Hippocrates teaches in divers places as in his Prognosticks and in his booke de crisibus Secondly they erre in that in this case they consider onely the worms and presently direct their cure to them neglecting the disease on which they depend or making it worse with their remedies undiscreetly administred for oftentimes those things which kill the wormes doe increase the feaver Seeing therefore worms Note because they are in every respect besides nature are to bee killed and expelled yet that ought not to be done with any kindes of remedies indifferently but the nature of the disease that doth accompany them is to be regarded to which especially remedies must be applied for when it is once cured nature it selfe casts them out in the declination of the disease Wherefore because they are so ordinary in malignant Fevers those remedies which do cure malignant Fevers do serve for them likewise such are many Cordials as Harts-horne Unicornes-horne Corall Triacle Mithridate the seed of Citron c. And there are scarce any Cordialls which are not good against wormes although not alwaies hence it is that we see many of those remedies which are said to bee good against wormes to doe no good at all namely because they are used after the manner of Empyricks without any difference of causes and regard of the other circumstances which ought to be respected Let us hear what Rondeletius saith excellently concerning this subject in his Chapter of Wormes When Wormes saith he are voyded in acute diseases as burning Feavers and other diseases of old men and children wee ought not to convert our whole intention against them as women doe and Physicians that study to humour them whereby it comes to passe that the sick do perish in that the disease is neglected or because they bend themselves more to the curing of the wormes then of the disease as if one bee holden with a continuall Fever or some other Cholerick disease or a flux of the belly or if in the beginning of acute diseases one chance to voyd wormes they commonly give Wormeseed which doth inflame the Feaver more or else they are wont to administer Corall and other things which are astringent to kill the wormes all which are very ill for the principall diseases as very bitter things for the Fever and flux of the belly and astringent and drying things for Fevers Wherefore the Physician ought diligently to distinguish whether the Fever depend upon the wormes or whether the wormes which are alwayes within the belly be cast out by some other cause And if one perceive that the Fever doth proceed from another cause because it is a Quartane or a Tertian or a true Quotidiane and that there is no other ill symptome they must be let alone or only those medicaments prescribed which are good against the principall disease and the worms Which words of his we have set downe at large because they doe so plainly explicate this whole businesse Forestus also in his observations and Mercatus in his Chapter of the worms and others do observe the same CHAP. XLIII That Cinnamon is not well prescribed to stay womens fluxes IT often falls out that women are troubled with an immoderate flux of their flowers or of their courses or other humours for the curing of which I have oftentimes known Cinnamon to be prescribed by other women as a very astringent remedy Indeed in a Diarrhaea and the fluxes of the belly I deny not but it may sometimes be good for it corroborates and strengthens the stomach and bowels whose weaknesse is many times the cause of a flux of the belly but it is to no purpose at all to use it for the staying of the
its owne nature which is indeed much more true Minerals that are of a mischievous nature It is therefore to be noted that that Antimonie which we call crude to wit unprepared at all is of no force to move the body and therefore the Antients who were ignorant of Chymicall art knew no inward use thereof Now the first and easiest preparation of all is that which we call the Regulus in which the forme of the Mettall is not taken away but doth melt into to a certaine forme of Lead Hence Dioscorides saith that Antimonie melted turnes to Lead having some light knowledge of that Regulus for it is made of it being melted onely and so a little refined and it doth retaine all malignity of the Antimonie which laid as it were asleepe before under the earthly excrement This doe Mettall-men use and mixe in Guns Bels and other the like engines but seeing it doth yet possesse all the naughty and mischievous qualities of Antimonie it must necessarily follow that the Cup made of it is most dangerous Therefore the best Alchymists have quite abandoned it from any use in Physicke save that by a further preparation may be extracted out of this Regulus the glasse of Antimonie and many other such things farre better then the Regulus it selfe Wherefore some in the stead thereof have used the glasse of Antimonie as did frequently that most excellent Physitian Matthiolus the people call it Stibium and are sore afraid of it whereas indeede it ought to be preferred before the regulus Neverthelesse Quercitanus Hartman and some others of principall note among the Alchymists who doe highly extoll the vertue of Antimonie doe thinke this preparation of the mixture of impure Sulphur which is not yet taken away And therefore waving those two as not safe they doe familiarly use the Crocus or Hepar Antimonij Saffron or liver of Antimony Puluis emiticus the vomiting powder and Mercurius vitae Mercury of the life Which preparations the Colledge of Physitians at London hath inserted in their dispensatory and there is almost no shop in which both the substance and infusion of them is not to be sold From whence they that doe so much extoll this Cup may gather that they use a pernitious and dangerous remedy whereas the same much better prepared is every where obvious and to be sold yet at a very easie rate Of the force of the Cup. AS touching the force of the Cup it doth not gently but mightily provoke vomit and stooles now every vomit although it be caused by the most gentle Medicines of all is neverthelesse alwaies more harsh to Nature then any Purgation by the inferior parts because the stomacke was not made for expulsion but for reception for it is one of the noble parts and of exquisite sence and hath a very great sympathy with the Braine and the heart in so much as when it is affected the people thinke and complaine that their heart akes It is therefore not good to straine such a noble part with such a violent medicine But besides a vomit doth offer much violence to the strength of the whole Body straine head braine muscles of the belly the breast and all the intrailes which are contained in the lower belly and sometimes in grosse bodies breakes the veines and le ts out the bloud Wherefore if wee must not use other purging medicines but with a great deale of care and premeditation much lesse vomitaries for of all evacuations a vomit is the most grievous and dangerous And therfore many things are to bee regarded in the provoking of vomit First the nature of the Patient and his aptnesse or difficulty for vomiting for in them that vomit hardly there is a great deale of danger although they bee sick of disease which might bee cured by vomit Such are they that are fat those that are strait brested many slender persons who have weak stomacks such as are subject to a Cough or difficulty of breathing which have Tumours or Ulcers in their brests they that have weak heads and eyes and such as are troubled with the inflammation or pain in the Midriffe Secondly the time of the yeare is to be considered for it is not convenient at every time of the yeare Thirdly the nature of the diseases for in some diseases it doth more hurt than good and in those wherein it may doe good it must not yet be alwayes used and therfore the founder of the Cup is mistaken when he saith that that the Cup is good for all the diseases which stand in need of purging as we shall manifest afterwards Fourthly the constitution of diseases for it cannot bee administred at all times of diseases without danger to the Patient The Physician must consider in all Evacuations the beginning increasing state of the disease much more in a vomit Fifthly great care is to bee had of preparing the body and the humours and many things are to be regarded both before the vomit and in the very act of vomiting which are not to be handled in this place So as there is no evacuation which requires so much consideration as that which is done by vomit Now seeing these things can be knowne only by a Physician and that not every one but by a very learned and skilfull man I cannot but wonder at the adventurous rashnesse of some men yea and women who being unread in the rules of Physick grossely ignorant both of Diseases and their causes their times and not knowing the method of Curing dare neverthelesse vex and torment such a noble subject as Mans body with variety of medicines Secondly perswade unto vomit the most dangerous and difficult evacuation of all other Thirdly provoke it with a Minerall which is most contrary to nature Fourthly To doe it with Antimonie then which no Minerall is more churlish And Lastly to use that preparation of it which is the very worst of all Not that I doe altogether dislike the use of Antimonie for I have often used it with good successe but better prepared But especially the founder of the Cup is to be blamed for selling such a cheap medicine at so deare a rate the right use whereof hee doth neither teach the people nor I think he himselfe knowes And therefore I have known many who by taking the infusion of it have been grievously tormented and some that have dyed who despising the counsell of Phisicans have preposterously used it For Physick although it bee in its owne nature very good and is the hand of God yet it is but like a sword in the hand of a mad man as we have said in another place out of Herophilus Of the Founder of the Cup and the Authors cited by him AS for the Founder of the Cup he professes himselfe a Minister and Preacher of Gods Word that is a man that will scorn to deceive any body and will not meddle beyond his knowledge and therefore without question he hath brought us a very Soveraign