and at the assault the day af er they entered into the City I trepaned eight or nine who were hurt at the breach with the stroaks of stones There was so malignant an air that divers died yea of very small hurts insomuch that some thought they had poysoned their bullets those within said the like by us for althought they were well treated in their necessities within the City yet they died also as well as those without The King of Navar was hurt in the shoulder with a bullet some few daies before the assault I visited and helpt to dress him with his own Surgeon named M. Gilbert one of the chief of Montpeliar and others They could not finde the bullet I searchd for it very exactly I perceived by conjecture that it was entred by the head of the Ad jutorium and that it had ruâ— into the cavity of the said bone which was the cause we could not finde it The most part of them said it was entred and lost within the cavity of the body Monsieur the Pâ—ince of the Roch upon You who intimately loved the King of Navar drew me to one side and askt me if the wound was mortal I told him yea because all wounds made in great joints and principally contused wounds were mortal according to all Authors who had written of them Hâ— inquired of the others what they thought and chiefly of the said Gilbert who told him that he had great hope that the King his Master would be cured and the said Prince was very joyful Four dayes after the King Queen Mother Monsieur the Caldinal of Bourgon his brother Monsieur the Prince of Roch upon You Monsieur de Guise and other great personages after we had dressed the King of Navar caused a consultation to be made in their presences where there were divers Physicians and Surgeons each man said what seemed good unto him and there was not one of them who had not good hope of him saying that the King would be cured and I persisted alwaies on the contrary Monsieur the Prince of the Roch upon You who loved me withdrew me aside and said I was only against the opinion of all the rest and prayed me not to be obstinate against so many worthy men I answered him that when I saw any good signs of cure I would change my advice Divers consultations were made where I never changed my word and prognostick such as I had made at the first dressing and alwaies said that the arm would fall into a Gangrene which it did what diligence sover could be had to the contrary and he gave up his soul to God the eighteenth day of his hurt Monsieur the Prince upon You having heard of the death of the said King sent his Physician and Surgeon toward me named Feure now in ordinary to the King and the Queen-mother to tell me that he would have the bullet taken out and that it should be lookt for in what place soever it could be found then I was very joyful and told them that I was well assured to finde it quickly which I did in their presences and divers Gentlemen It was lodged in the very midst of the cavity of the Adjutory bone My said Prince having it shewed it to the King and Queen who all said my prognostick was found true The body was laid to rest in the Castle-Galliard and I returned to Paris where I found divers hurt men who were hurt at the breach of Rowen and chiefly Italians who desired me very much to dress them which I did willingly there were divers that recovered and others died I beleive my little Master you were called to dress some of them for the great number there was of them The voyage of The battle of Dreux 1592. THe day after the battle was given at Dreux the King commanded me to go dress Monsieur the Count of Eu who had been hurt with a Pistol-shot in the right thigh neer the joint of the hip which fractured and broke the Os femoris in divers places from whence divers accidents did arise and then death which was to my great grief The day after my arrival I would go to the field where the battle was given to see the dead bodies I saw a league about all the earth covered where there was by estimation five and twenty thousand men and more All which were dispatchd in the space of two hours I would my little Master for the love I bear you that you had been there to recount it to your scholars and to your children Now in the mean time while I was at Dreux I visited and drest a great number of Gentlemen and poor souldiers and amongst the rest many Swisser-Captains I dressed fourteen in one chamber only all hurt with Pistol-shot and other instruments of diabolical fire and not one of the fourteen died Monsieur the Count of Eu being dead I made no long tarrying at Dreux there came surgeons from Paris who performed well their duty towards the hurt people as Pigray Cointeret Hubert and others and I returned to Paris where I found divers Gentlemen wounded who had retired themselves thither after the battle to be drest of their hurts The voyage of the Battle of Moncontour 1596. DVring the battle of Moncontour King Charles was at Plessis the Towers where he heard they had won it a great number of hurt Gentlemen and Souldiers withdrew themselves into the City and suburbs of Towers to be drest and helpd where the King and Queen-Mother commanded me to shew my duty with the other Surgeons who were then in quarter as Pigray du Bois Portail and one named Siret a Surgeon of Towers a man very skilful in Surgery and at that time Surgeon to the Kings brother and for the multitude or the wounded we were but little in repose nor the Physicians likewise Count Mansfield Governour of the Duchy of Luxembourg Knight of the King of Spains order was greatly hurt in the battle in the left arm with a Pistol-shot which broak a great part of the joynt of the elbow and had retired himself to Bourgueil neer Towers being there he sent a gentleman to the King affectionately to beseech him to send one of his Surgeons to help him in his hurt Counsel was held what Surgeon should be sent Monsieur the Marshal of Montmorency told the King and Queen that it were best to send his chief Surgeon and declared to him that the said Lord Mansfield was one part of the cause of winning the battle The King said flat he would not that I should go but would have me remain close to him Then the Queen-Mother said I should but go and come and that he must consider it was a strange Lord who was come from the King of Spains side to help and succour him And upon this he permitted me to go provided that I should return quickly After this resolution he sent for me and likewise the Queen-Mother and commanded me to
he commanded me to wear I may say I was as glad of it as a dog that hath a clog for fear he should go into the vineyard and eat the grapes The Physician and Surgeon led me through the Camp to visit their hurt people where I took notice what our enemies did I perceived they had no more pieces of Cannon but twenty five or thirty pieces for the field Monsieur de Vandeville held Monsieur de Bauge prisoner the brother of Monsieur de Martigues who died at Hedin The said Lord of Bauge was prisoner in the Castle of the heap of wood belonging to the Emperor who had been taken at Therowenne by two Spanish Souldiers Now the said Lord of Vandeville having looked well upon him conceived he must be a Gentleman of some good house and to be the better assured he caused him to have his stockings pulled off and seeing his stockings and his feet clean and neat together with his fine white sock it confirmed him the better in his opinion that it was a man was able to pay some good ransome He demands of the Souldiers if they would take thirty Crowns for their prisoner and that he would give it to them presently to which they agreed willingly because they had neither means to keep him nor feed him besides they knew not his worth therefore they delivered their prisoner into the hands of the said Lord of Vandeville who presently sent him to the Castle of the heap of wood with a guard of four souldiers with other Gentlemen prisoners of ours The said Lord Bauge would not discover himself who he was and endured very much being kept but with bread and water and lay upon a little straw The said Lord of Vandeville after taking of Hedin sent word to the said Lord Bouge and other prisoners that the place of Hedin was taken and the list of those that had been slain and amongst the rest Monsieur de Martigues and when the said Lord of Bauge heard the sound of the death of his brother the Lord Martigues he began much to weep and lament his keeper demanded of him why he made so many and so great lamentations He declared unto tham thut it was for Monsieur de Martigues his brothers sake Having understood that the Captain of the Castle dispatchd a man away quickly to tell it to Monsieur de Vandeville that he had a good prisoner who having received this good news rejoyced greatly and the next day sent me with his Phyâ—icians and four Souldiers to the Wood-Cas le to know if this prisoner would give him fifteen thousand Crowns for a ransom so he would send him free to his own horse and for the present he desired but the security of two Merchants of Antwerp that he would name The said Lord Vandeville perswaded me that I would make his agreement with his prisoner See then why he sent me to the Wooden Castle and commanded the Captain of the Castle to use him well and to put him into a Chamber hung with Tapestry and that they should make the Guard more strong and from that time they made him good chear at his expence The answer of the said Lord of Bauge was that to put himself to ransome he was not able and that that depended upon Monsieur d' Estamps his Uncle and of Mistris de Bressuere his Aunt and he had not any means to pay such a ransome I returned with my keepers to the said Lord Vandeville and told him the answer of his said prisoner who told me perhaps he should not get out at so good a rate which was true for he was discovered And forthwith the Queen of Hungary and the Duke of Savoy sent word to the Lord Vandeville that this morsel was too great for him and that he must send him to them which he did and that he had enough prisoners besides him he was put to forty thousand Crowns ransom besides other expences Returning toward the said Lord Vandeville I passed by S. Omer where I saw their great pieces of battery whereof the greatest part was flawed and broken I came also by Therowenne where I did not see so much as stone upon stone unless the mark of a great Church For the Emperor gave commandment to the country people within five or six leagues about that they should empty and carry away the stones insomuch that now one may drive a cart over the City as is likewise done at Hedin without any appearance of Castle or Fortress See then the mischief which comes by the wars And to return to my purpose presently after my said Lord Vandeville was very well of his ulcer and little wanted of the entire cure which was the cause he gave me my leave and made me be conducted with a Pass-port by a Trumpet to Abbeville where I took post and went and found the King Henry my Master at Ausimon who received me with joy and a good countenance He sent for the Duke of Guise the high Constable of France and Monsieur d' Estrez to understand by me what had past at the taking of Hedin and I made him a faithful report and assured them I had seen the great pieces of Battery which they had carried to S. Omer Whereof the King was very joyful because he feared lest the enemy should come further into France He gave me two hundred Crowns to retire my self to my own house and I was very glad to be in liberty and out of this great torment and noise of thunder from the Diabolick artillery and far from the Souldâ—ers blasphemers and deniers of God I will not omit to tell here that after the taking of Hedin the King was advertised that I was not slain but that I was a prisoner which his Majesty caused to be written to my wife by Monsieur dn Gogular his chief Physician and that she should not be in any trouble of minde for me for that I was safe and well and that he would pay my ransom The battle of S. Quintin 1557. AFter the battel of S. Quintin the King sent for me to the Fere in Tartemis toward Monsieur the Marshal of Bourdillon to have a pass-port by the Duke of Savâ—y to go to dress Monsieur the Constable who was grievously hurt with a Pistol-shot in the back whereof he was like to dye and remained a prisoner in his enemies hands But the Duke of Savoy would not give consent that I should go to the said Lord Constable saying he would not remain without a Surgeon and that he doubted I was not sent only to dress him but to give him some advertisement and that he knew I understood something else beside Surgery and that he knew me to have been his prisoner at Hedin Monsieur the Marshal of Bourdillon advertised the King of the Dukes denial by which means the King writ to the said Lord of Bourdilloon that if my Lady the Lord high Constables wife did send any body of her house which
an Art For so we find it recorded in ancient Histories before the invention of Physick that the Babylonians and Assyrians had a custom amongst them to lay their sick and diseased persons in the porches and entries of their Houses or to carry them into the streets or market places that such as passed by and saw them might give them counsel to take those things to cure their diseases which they had formerly found profitable in themselves or any other in the like affects neither might any pass by a sick man in silence Also Strabo writes that it was a custom in Greece that those which were sick should resort to Aesculapius his Temple in Epidaurum that there as they slept by their dreams they might be admonished by the God what means they should use to be cured and when they were freed from their diseases they writ the manner of their infirmities and the means by which they were cured in Tables and fastned them to the pillars of the Temple not only for the glory of the God but also for the profit of such as should afterwards be affected with the like Maladies All which tables as fame reports Hippocrates transcribed and so from those drew the Art of Physick Beasts also have added much to his Art For one Man was not only instructed by another but learned also much from brute beasts for they by the only instinct of nature have found out divers herbs and remedies by which they freed and preserved themselves from infirmities which might presently be transferred to mans use Wherefor considering that such and so many have concurred to bring this Art to perfection who hereafter dare call in question the excellency thereof chiefly if he respected the subject thereof Mans body a thing more noble than all other Mundane things and for which the rest were created Which thing moved Herophilus in times past to call Physitians The hands of the Gods For as we by putting forth our hand do help any man out of the water or mud into which he is fallen even so we do sustain those that are thrown down from the top of health to the gates of death by violence of diseases with happy medicines and as it were by some special and divine gift delivâ—r them out of the jaws of death Homer the Prince of Greek Poets affirms that one Physitian is far more worthy then many other men All Antiquity gave Physitians such honour that they worshipped them with great veneration as Gods or the sons of their Gods For who is it which is not much delighted with the divine force of healthful medicines with which we see by daily experience Physitians as armed with Mercuries rod do bring back those languishing souls which are even entring the gates of Death Hence it cometh to pass that the divine Poets of ancient times as Orpheus and Musaeus and Hesiod and the most renowned Philosophers Pythagoras Plato Aristotle Theophrastus Chrysippus Cato Censorius and Varro esteemed nothing more excellent than to excell in the knowledg of Medicines and to testifie the same by written monuments to Posterity For what can be more noble and worthy of a generous disposition than to attain to that by the benefit of Physick that adorned with the ornaments of dignity thou mayest have power over other men and favoured of Princes Kings and Emperors mayest appoint and prescribe to them those things which are profitable to preserve health and cure their diseases But if thou look for benefit by Sciences then known that the professors hereof have beside sufficient gain acquired much honour and many friends Hippocrates coming to Abdera to cure Democritus of his madness not only the men of the City but also the Women Children In what esteem Physitians have formerly been and people of every age sex and rank went forth to meet him giving him with a common consent and loud voice the title of a Tutelary Deity and father of their Countrey But the Athenians for freeing their Countrey from the Plague with triumphant pompe celebrated playes to his honour and bountifully set upon his head as if he had been a King a Crown of Gold weighing a 1000. pieces of their Golden coin and erected his statute for a perpetual monument of his piety and learning Erasistratus the Nephew of Aristotle by his daughter received freely given him by Ptolomy King of Egypt for the cure of his son 100. Talents of gold The Emperor Augustus honoured Antonius Musa with a golden statue Quintus Stertinius yearly received out of the Emperors Treasury 12500. pieces of gold In the time of our Grandfathers Petrus Aponensis called Conciliator was so famous through all Italy for his knowledg in Physick that he could scarce be intreated to come to any man of fashion that was sick unless he gave him 50. crowns for every day he was absent from home but when he went to cure Heronius the Bishop of Rome he received 400. crowns for every day he was absent Our French Chronicles relate in what credit and estimation James Cotterius the Physitian was with Lewis the 11. King of France for they report he gave him monthly out of his Treasury 10000. crowns Physick in times past hath been in such esteem with many famous and noble personages that divers Kings and Princes delighted with the study thereof and desirous to attain glory and credit thereby called sundry herbs after their own names For so Gentian took its name of Gentius King of Illyria the herb Lysimachia of Lusimachus Names given to Plants the King of Macedon the Mithridatick herb or Scordium of Mithridates the King of Pontus and Bithinay Achilla of Achilles Centory of Chiron the Centaure Artemisia of Artemisia the Queen of Carias Attalus King of Pergamus Solomon of Judea Evax of Arabia and Juba the King of Mauritania were not only inflamed with a desire of the knowledg of Plants but either they have written books of it or for the great commodity of posterity invented by their skil many choice antidotes compounded of divers simples neither the desire of learning this noble science is yet altogether extinct as may appear by that Indian plant Tabacco called by some the noble herb Catherines herb and Medices herb but commonly the Queens herb because Catherine Medices the Mother of our Kings by her singular study and industry made manifest the excellent vertue it hath in curing malign ulcers and wounds which before was unknown to the French For these worthy men understood that their glory thus fastened and ingraffed into the deep and as it were ever living roots of plants would never decay but should be propagated to all posterity in many succeeding ages growing up with their sprouting and budding shouts stalks flowers and fruits Neither did these famous men whilst they adorned this part of Physick suffer the other which treats of the dissection of mans body be buried in oblivion and without their knowledg as instructed with the precepts and learning of the wisest men
spongy flesh of the tongue it self which affected with the quality of the Object doth presently so possess the nerve that is implanted in it that the kind and quality thereof by the force of the spirit How touching may be carryed into the common sense All parts endued with a nerve enjoy the sense of touching which is chiefly done when a tractable quality doth penetrate even to the true and nervous skin which lyeth under the Cuticle or scarf-skin we have formerly noted that it is most exquisite in the skin which invests the ends of the fingers The Object is every tractable quality whether it be of the first rank of qualities as Heat Cold Moisture Dryness or of the second as Roughness Smoothness Heaviness Lightness Hardness Softness Rarity Density Friability Unctuosity Grosness Thinness The Medium by whose procurement the instrument is affected is either the skin or the flesh interwoven with many Nerves Of motion The next Action is that Motion which by a peculiar name we call Voluntary this is performed and accomplished by a Muscle being the proper Instrument of voluntary Motion Furthermore every motion of a member possessing a Muscle is made either by bending and contraction or by extention Although generally there be so many differences of voluntary motion as there are kinds of site in place therefore Motion is said to be made upward downward to the right hand to the left forward and backward Hither are referred the many kinds of motions which the infinite variety of Muscles produce in the body How respiration may be a voluntary motion Into this rank of Voluntary Actions comes Respiration or breathing because it is done by the help of the Muscles although it be chiefly to temper the heat of the Heart For we can make it more quick or slow as we please which are the conditions of a voluntary Motion Lastly that we may have somewhat in which we may safely rest and defend our selves against the many questions which are commonly moved concerning this thing we must hold that Respiration is undergone and performed by the Animal faculty but chiefly instituted for the vital The third principal Action The principal Action and prime amongst the Voluntary is absolutely divided in three Imagination Reasoning and Memory Imagination is a certain expressing and apprehension which discerns and distinguisheth between the forms and shapes of things sensible or which are known by the senses Reasoning is a certain judicial estimation of conceived or apprehended forms or figures by a mutual collating or comparing them together Memory is the sure storer of all things and as it were the Treasury which the mind often unfolds and opens the other faculties of the mind being idle and not imployed But because all the fore-mentioned Actions whether they be Natural or Animal and Voluntary are done and performed by the help and assistance of the Spirits therefore now we must speak of the Spirits CHAP. X. Of the Spirits THe Spirit is a subtile and airy substance What a Spirit is raised from the purer blood that it might be a vehicle for the faculties by whose power the whole body is governed to all the parts and the prime instrument for the performance of their office For they being destitute of its sweet approach do presently cease from action and as dead do rest from their accustomed labours From hence it is that making a variety of Spirits according to the number of the faculties they have divided them into three as one Animal another Vital Spirits threefold another Natural The Animal hath taken his seat in the Brain for there it is prepared and made that The Animal Spirit from thence conveyed by the Nerves it may impart the power of sense and motion to all the rest of the members An argument hereof is that in the great cold of Winter whether by the intercepting them in their way or by the concretion or as it were freezing of those spirits the joynts grow stiff the hands numb and all the other parts are dull Why so called destitute of their accustomed agility of motion and quickness of sense It is called Animal not because it is the * Anima Life but the chief and prime instrument thereof wherefore it hath a more subtil and airy substance and enjoys divers names according to the various condition of the Sensories or seats of the senses into which it enters for that which causeth the sight is named the Visive you may see this by night rubbing your eys as sparkling like fire That which is conveyed to the Auditory passage is called the Auditive or Hearing That which is carried to the instruments of Touching is termed the Tactive and so of the rest This Animal spirit is made and laboured in the windings and foldings of the Veins and Arteries of the brain of an exquisit subtil portion of the vital brought thither by the Carotidae Arteriae How it is made or sleepy Arteries and sometimes also of the pure air or sweet vapour drawn in by the Nose in breathing Hence it is that with Ligatures we stop the passage of this spirit from the parts we intend to cut off An Humor which obstructs or stops its passage doth the like in Apoplexies and Palsies whereby it happens that the members situate under that place do languish and seem dead sometimes destitute of motion sometimes wanting both sense and motion The Vital spirit is next to it in dignity and excellency The Vital Spirit which hath its chief mansion in the left ventricle of the Heart from whence through the Channels of the Arteries it flows into the whole body to nourish the heat which resides fixed in the substance of each part which would perish in short time unless it should be refreshed by heat flowing thither together with the spirit And because it is the most subtil next to the Animal Nature lest it should vanish away would have it contained in the Nervous coat of an Artery which is five times more thick than the coat of the Veins as Galen out of Herophilus hath recorded It is furnished with matter from the subtil exhalation of the blood What the matter of it is and that air which we draw in breathing Wherefore as it doth easily and quickly perish by immoderate dissipations of the spirituous substance and great evacuations so it is easily corrupted by the putrefaction of Humors or breathing in of pestilent air and filthy vapours which thing is the cause of the so suddain death of those which are infected with the Plague This Spirit is often hindred from entring into some part by reason of obstruction fulness or great inflammations whereby it follows that in a short space by reason of the decay of the fixed and inbred heat the parts do easily fall into a Gangrene and become mortified The Natural spirit if such there be any hath its station in the Liver and Veins There is some
left side c. the left ureter inserted into the bladder neer to r. dd the spermatick vein which goeth to the left testicle marked with i. ee the spermatick vein which goeth to the left testicle with i also f. the trunk of the great artery from whence the spermatical arteries do proceed gh the spermatical arteries ii the two testicles ll a branch which from the spermatick vessels reacheth unto the bottom of the womb mm. the leading vessel of the Seed which Fallopius calleth the tuba or trumpet because it is crooked and reflected n. a branch of the spermatick vessel compassing the leading vessel oo a vessel like a worm which passeth to the womb some call it Cremaster p. the bottom of the womb called fundus uteri b. a part of the right gut r. s the bottom of the bladder whereto is inserted the left Ureter and a vein led from the neck of the wome neer unto r. t. the neck of the bladder u. the same inserted into the privity or lap x. a part of the neck of the womb above the privity yy certain skinny Caruncles of the Privities in the midst of which is the slit and on both sides appear little hillocks The Figures belonging to the Dugs and Breasts αα The veins of the Dugs which come from those which descending from the top of the shoulder are offered to the skin β. the veins of the Dugs derived from those which through the arm-hole are led into the hand γ. the body of the Dug or Breast δδ the kernels and fat between them εε the vessels of the Dugs descending from the lower part of the neck called Jugulum under the breast-bone It hath a middle temper between hot and cold moist and dry It hath the same use as a mans Praeputium or fore-skin that is that together with the Nymphae it may hinder the emeance of the air by which the womb may be in danger to take cold The lips of the Privities called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Latines Alae contain all that region which is invested with hairs Alae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and because we have faln into mention of these Nymphae you must know that they are as it were productions of the musculous skin which descend on both sides from the upper part of the share-bone downwards even to the orifice of the neck of the bladder oft-times growing to so great a bigness that they will stand out like a man's yard Wherefore in some they must be cut off in their young years yet with a great deal of caution lest if they be cut too rashly so great an effusion of blood may follow that it may cause either death to the woman or barrenness of the womb by reason of the refrigeration by the too great effusion of blood The latter Anatomists as Columbus and Fallopius besides these parts have made mention of another Particle which stands forth in the upper part of the Privities and also of the urinary passage which joyns together those wings we formerly mentioned Cleitoris tentigo Columbus calls it Tentigo Fallopius Cleitoris whence proceeds that infamous word Cleitorizein which signifies impudently to handle that part But because it is an obscene part let those which desire to know more of it read the Authors which I cited CHAP. XXXV Of the Coats containing the Infant in the womb and of the Navel THe membranes or coats containing the Infant in the womb of the Mother are of a spermatick and nervous substance Their substance magnitude figure and composure having their matter from the seed of the Mother But they are nervous that so they may be the more easily extended as it shall be necessary for the child They are of good length and bredth especially near the time of deliverance they are round in figure like the womb Their composition is of veins arteries and their proper substance The veins and arteries are distributed to them whether obscurely or manifestly more or fewer from the womb by the Cotyledones which have the same office as long as the child is contained in the womb as the nipples or paps of the nurses after it is born For thus the womb brings the Cotyledones or veins degenerating into them through the coats like certain paps to the Infant shut up in them These coats are three in number according to Galen one called the Chorion Secundine or After-birth The number the other Allantoides the third Amnios I find this number of coats in Beasts but not in Women unless peradventure any will reckon up in the number of the coats the Cotyledones swollen up and grown into a fleshy mass which many skilful in Anatomy do write which opinion notwithstanding we cannot receive as true I could never in any place find the Allantoides in Women with child neither in the Infant born in the sixth seventh eight or in the full time being the ninth month although I sought it with all possible diligence the Midwives being set apart which might have violated some of the coats But thus I went about this business I divided the dead body of the Mother croswise upon the region of the womb and taking away all impediments which might either hinder or obscure our diligence with as much dexterity as was possible we did not only draw away that receptacle or den of the Infant from the inward surface of the womb to which it stuck by the Cotyledones but we also took away the first membrane which we called Chorion from that which lies next under it called Amnios without any rending or tearing for thus we poured forth no moisture whereby it might be said that any coat made for the containing of that humor was rent or torn And then we diligently looked having many witnesses and spectators present if in any place there did appear any distinction of these two membranes the Allantoides and Amnios for the separating the contained humors and for other uses which they mention But when we could perceive no such thing we took the Amnios filled with moisture on the upper side and having opened it two servants holding the apertion that no moisture might flow out of it into the circumference of the Chorion or Womb then presently with spunges we drew out by little and little all the humidity contained in it the Infant yet contained in it which was fit to come forth that so the coat Amnios being freed of this moisture we might see whether there were any other humor contained in any other coat besides But having done this with singular diligence and fidelity we could we see no other humor nor no other separation of the membranes besides He shews by three several reasons that there is no Allantoides So that from that time I have confidently held this opinion that the Infant in the womb is only wrapped in two coats the Chorion and Amnios But yet not satisfied by this experience that I might yet
divided into four lobes disjoyned with a manifest and visible division on each side two whereby they may be the more easily opened and contracted and the air may the better enter Besides also in large bodies who have a very great Chest there is found a fifth lobe arising from the second lobe of the right side as a cushion or bolster to bear up the Hollow-vein ascending from the Midriff to the Heart In little men who have a shorter Chest because the Heart is so near as to touch the Diaphragma this lobe is not seen yet it is alwayes found in Dogs The Lungs represent the figure or shape of an Oxes foot or hoof Figure for like it they are thicker in their basis but slenderer in their circumference as you may see in blowing them up by the Weazon with your mouth or a pair of bellows Composition They are compounded of a coat coming from the Pleura which on each side receives sufficient number of nerves from the sixth conjugation and also of the Vena arteriosa coming from the right ventricle of the Heart and the Arteria venosa from the left as shall be shewed in the Anatomy of the Heart besides the Aspera arteria or Weazon coming from the Throat and lastly it s own flesh which is nothing else than the concretion of cholerick bloud poured out like foam about the divisions of the foresaid vessels as we have said of other parts The body of the Lungs is one in number unless you will divide it into two by reason of the variety of its site because the Lobe of the Lungs stretched forth into the right and left side do almost involve all the Heart that so they may defend it against the hardness of the Bones which are about it they are tyed to the Heart chiefly at its basis but to the roots of the ribs and their vertebra's by the coat it hath from thence but by the vessels to these parts from whence they proceed The sticking of the Lungs to the ribs But oft-times presently from the first and natural conformation they are bound to the circumference of the ribs by certain thin membranous productions which descend from thence to the Lungs otherways they are tyed to the ribs by the Pleura The nourishment of the Lungs is unlike to the nourishment of other parts of the body Their nourishment for you cannot find a part equally rare light and full of air which may be nourished with blood equally thin and vaporous In temper they incline more to heat than to cold whether you have regard to their composure of cholerick blood or their use which is to prepare and alter the air that it hurt not the Heart by its coldness The Lungs is the instrument of voice and breathing by the Weazon or Wind-pipe For the Lobes are the instruments of voyce and the ligaments of respiration But the Larinx or Throttle is the chief instrument of the voyce for the Weazon first prepares the voice for the Throttle in which it being in some measure formed is perfected in the Palate of the Mouth as in the upper part of a Lute or such like Instrument by the help of the Gargareon or Uvula as a certain quil to play withall But as long as one holds his breath he cannot speak for then the muscles of the Larinx ribs the Diaphragmn and the Epigastrick muscles are pressed down whence proceeds a suppression of the vocal matter which must be sent forth in making or uttering a voice Nature would have the Lungs light for many reasons the first is Why the lungs are light That seeing they are of themselves immoveable they might be more obsequious and ready to follow the motion of the Chest for when it it straitned the Lungs are straitned and subside with it and when it is dilated they also are dilated and swell so big that they almost fill up all the upper capacity thereof Another cause is That by this their rarity they might more easily admit the entring air at such times as they have much or sodain necessity as in running a race And lastly That in Plurisies and other purulent abscesses of the Chest the Pus or matter poured forth into the capacity of the Chest may be suckt in by the rare substance of the Lungs and by that means the sooner sent forth and expectorated The use of respiration is to cool and temper the raging heat of the Heart The use of respiration or breathing For it is cooled in drawing in the breath by the cool air and in sending out thereof by avoiding the hot fuliginous vapor Therefore the Chest performs two contrary motions for whilst it is dilated it draws in the encompassing air and when it is depressed it expels the fuliginous vapor of the Heart which any one may easily perceive by the example of a pair of Smiths-bellows CHAP. X. Of the Pericardium or Purse of the Heart Whence it hath its matter THe Pericardium is as it were the House of the Heart which arising at the basis thereof either the ligaments of the Vertebra's situate there or else the vessels of the Heart yielding it matter is of a nervous thick and dense substance without any fibers It retains the figure of the Heart and leaves an empty space for the Heart to perform its proper motion Wherefore the bigness of the Pericardium exceeds that of the Heart It consists of a double coat one proper of which we have spoken another common coming from the Pleura and also of the veins arteries and nerves the vessels partly coming from the Mamillary partly from the Diaphragma chiefly there where it touches it the nerves come on each side from the sixt Conjugation Number and Connexion It is only one placed about the Heart and annexed to it at the basis thereof by its membranes to the original of the Lungs and the Vertebra's lying under them and by the vessels to the parts from whence it received them It is of a cold and dry temper as every Membrane is Use The use thereof is to cover the Heart and preserve it in its native humidity by certain natural moisture contained in it unless you had rather say that the moisture we see contained in the Pericardium is generated in it after death by the condensation and concretion of the spirits Although this seems not very likely because it grows and is heaped up in so great quantity in living bodies that it hinders the motion of the Heart and causes such palpitation or violent beating thereof that it often suffocates a man From whence the matter of the watery humor contained in the Pericardium For this Palpitation happens also to hearty and stout men whose Hearts are hot but blood thin and waterish by reason of some infirmity of the Stomach or Liver and this humor may be generated of vapors which on every side exhale into the Pericardium from the blood boyling in the
up in store lest by continual speaking it should grow dry and fail For thus this spittle being consumed by feaverish heats the Patients are scarse able to speak unless they first moisten their tongue by much washing their mouth The Cruse of their tumor These Glandules because they are seated in a hot and moist place are very subject to inflammations for there flows into these oft-times together with the bloud a great quantity of crude phlegmatick and viscous humors whence arises a tumor which is not seldom occasioned by drinking m ch and that vaporous Wine by too much Gluttony and staying abroad in the open air Symptoms Swallowing is painful and troublesome to the Patient and commonly he hath a Feaver Oft-times the neighboring Muscles of the Throttle and Neck are so swoln together with these Glandules that as it usually happens in the Squinzy the passage of the breath and air is stopped and the Patient strangled Cure We resist this imminent danger by purging and bloud-letting by applying Cupping-Glasses to the Neck and Shoulders by frictions and ligatures of the extream parts and by washing and gargling the mouth and throat with astringent Gargarisms But if they come to suppuration you must with your Incision-Knife make way for the evacuation of the Pus or Matter but if on the contrary Extreme diseases must have extreme remedies these things performed according to Art defluxion be increased and there is present danger of death by stopping and intercepting the breath for the shunning so great and imminent danger the top or upper part of the Aspera arteria or Weazon must be opened in that place where it uses to stand most out and it may be done so much the safer because the Jugular-veins and Arteries are furthest distant from this place and for that this place hath commonly little flesh upon it And that the Incision may be the fitlier made How you must open the Weazon the Patient must be wished to bend his head back that so the Artery may be the more easily come to by the Instrument then you shall make an Incision overthwart way with a crooked Knife between two Rings not hurting nor touching the gristly substance that is to say the membrane which tyes together the gristly Rings being only cut you shall then judg that you have made the Incision large enough when you shall perceive the breath to break out by the wound the wound must be kept open so long until the danger of suffocation be past and then it must be sowed up not touching the gristle But if the lips of the wound shall be hard and callous they must be lightly scarified that so they may become bloudy for their easie agglutination and union as we shall shew more at large in the cure of Hare-lips I have had many in cure who have recovered that have had their Weazon together with the gristly rings thereof out with a great wound as we shall note when we shall come to treat of the cure of the Wounds of that part CHAP. VII Of the Inflammation and Relaxation in the Uvula or Columella THE Uvula is a little body spongy and somewhat sharpened to the form of a Pine-Apple What the Vvula is and what the use thereof hanging even down from the upper and inner part of the Palat so to break the force of the Air drawn in in breathing and carryed to the Lungs and to be as a quill to form and tune the voyce It often grows above measure by receiving moisture falling down from the brain The Cause of the swelling thereof becoming sharp by little and little from a broader and more swoln Basis Which thing causes many Symptoms for by the continual irritation of the distilling humor the Cough is caused Symptoms which also hinders the sleep and intercepts the liberty of speech as also by hindering respiration the Patients cannot sleep unless with open mouth they are exercised with a vain indeavouring to swallow having as it were a morsel sticking in their jaws and are in danger of being strangled This disease must be resisted and assailed by purging bleeding cupping taking of clysters The Cure using astringent Gargles and a convenient dyet but if it cannot thus be over come the cure must be tryed by a caustick of Aqua-fortis which I have divers times done with good success The cure by Chirurgery But if it cannot be so done it will be better to put to your hand than through idleness to suffer the Patient to remain in imminent and deadly danger of strangling yet in this there must very great caution be used for the Chirurgeon shall not judg the Uvula fit to be touched with an instrument or caustick which is swoln with much inflamed or black bloud after the manner of a Cancer but he shall boldly put to his hand if it be longish grow small by little and little into a sharp loose and soft point if it be neither exceeding red neither swoln with too much bloud but whitish and without pain Therefore that you may more easily and safely cut away that which redounds and is superfluous desire the Patient to sit in a light place and hold his mouth open then take hold of the top of the Uvula with your Sizzers and cut away as much thereof as shall be thought unprofitable Otherwise you shall bind it with the instrument here-under described The invention of this Instrument is to be ascribed to Honoratus Tastellanus that diligent and learned man the Kings Physitian ordinary and the chief Physitian of the Queen-mother Which also may be used in binding of Polypi and warts in the neck of the womb The Delineation of Constrictory-Rings fit to twitch or bind the Columella with a twisted thread A Shews the Ring whose upper part is somewhat hollow B A double waxed thred which is couched in the hollowness of the Ring and hath a running or loose knâ—t upon it C An Iron rod into the eye whereof the fore-mentioned dou le Thread is put and it is to twitch the Columella when as much thereof is taken hold of as is unprofitable and so to take it away without any flux of bloud When you would straiten the Thread draw it again through this Iron-rod and so strain it as much as you shall think good letting the end of the thred hang out of the mouth But every day it must be twitched harder than other until it fall away by means thereof and so the part and patient be restored to health I have delineated three of these instruments that you may use which you will as occasion shall be offered A Figure of the Speculum oris by which the mouth is held and kept open whilest the Chirurgeon is busied in the cutting away or binding the Uvula But if an eating Ulcer shall associate this relaxation of the Uvula together with a flux of bloud then it must be burnt and seared with an hot
opposite to that which received the blow What a Resonitus is as if the right side be struck the left is cloven this kind of Fracture is very dangerous because we cannot find it out by any certain sign as it is written by Hippocrates Lib. de vuln Capitis Wherefore if at any time the Patient dye of such a Fracture the Chirurgeon must be pardoned And although Paulus Aegineta laugh at this kind of Fracture and thinks that it cannot happen to a mans head as that which is hard and full as it happens in empty glass Bottles Lib. 6. cap 90. yet I have sometimes seen and observed it Neither is their reason of any vailidity who think Nature therefore to have framed the head of many bones knit together by sutures lest the fracture of the one side In whom this fracturâ— may take place in diverâ— bones of the Skull should be stretched to the other For peradventure this may take place in such as have express Sutures seated and framed according to Nature But it takes no place in such as either want them or have them not seated according to Nature or have them very close and so defaced that it may seem one Bone grown together of many This shall be made manifest by recital of the following History A servant of Massus the Post-master had a grievous blow with a stone upon the right Bregma A History which made but a small wound yet a great Contusion and Tumor Wherefore that it might more plainly appear whether the Bone had received any harm and also that the congealed bloud might be pressed forth the wound was dilated the skin being opened by Theodore Hereus the Chirurgeon who as he was a skilful workman and an honest man omitted nothing which Art might do for his cure When he had divided the skin the bone was found whole although it was much to be feared that it was broken because he fell presently to the ground with the blow vomited and shewed other signs of a fractured Skull so it happened that he dyed on the one and twentieth day of his sickness But I being called to learn and search how he came by his death dividing the Skull with a Saw found in the part opposite to the blow a great quantity of Sanies or bloudy matter and an Abscess in the Crossa Meninx and also in the substance of the very Brain but no Sutures but the two scaly ones Therefore that is certain which is now confirmed by the authority of Hippocrates as also by reason and experience that a blow may be received on the one side and the bone may be fractured on the opposite especially in such as have either no Sutures or else so firmly united and closed that they are scarse apparent The Resonitus may be in the same bone of the Skull Neither is it absurd that the part opposite to that which received the stroak of the same bone and not of divers bones may be cloven and in those men who have their Skulls well made and naturally distinguished and composed with Sutures and this both was and is the true meaning of Hippocrates That this may be the better understood we must note that the opposite part of the same bone may be understood two manner of ways First when the fracture is in the same surface of the smitten bone as if that part of one of the bones of the Bregma which is next to the Lambdal suture be smitten and the other part next to the Coronal suture be cloven Secondly when as not the same superficies and table which receives the blow but that which lyes under it is cleft which kind of fracture I observed in a certain Gentleman a Horseman of Captain Stempans Troop He in defending the breach of the wall of the Castle of Hisdin A History was struck with a Musket bullet upon the Bregma but had his helmet on his head the bullet dented in the helmet but did not break it no nor the musculous skin nor skull for as much as could be discerned yet notwithstanding he died apoplectick upon the sixt day after But I being very desirous to know what might be the true cause of his death dividing his Skull observed that the second Table was broken and cast off scales and splinters wherewith as with Needles the substance of the Brain was continually pricked the first and upper Table being whole for all this I afterwards shewed the like example to Capellanus and Castellanus the King and Queens cheif Physitians in the expedition of Roane But Hippocrates prescribes no method of curing this fifth kind of fracture by reason he thinks it cannot be found out by any circumstance whence it happens that it is for the most part deadly Yet must we endeavour to have some knowledge and conjecture of such a fracture Why Hippocrates set down no way to cure a Resoritus if it shall at any time happen Wherefore having first diligently shaven away the hair we must apply an Emplaister of Pitch Tar Wax Turpentine the Powder of Iris or Flower-deluce roots and Mastich now if any place of the head shall appear more moist The manner to know when the Skull is fractured by a Resonitus soft and swoln it is somewhat likely that the bone is cleft in that place so that the Patient though thinking of no such thing is now and then forc'd to put his hand to that part of the Skull Confirmed with these and other signs formerly mentioned let him call a counsel of learned Physitians and foretell the danger to the Patients friends which are there present that there may no occasion of calumny remain then let him boldly perforate the Skull for that is far better than forsake the Patient ready to yield to the greatness of the hidden disease so consequently to dye within a short while after There are four sorts or conditions of fractures by which the Chirurgeon may be so deceived that when the Skull is broken indeed yet he may think there is no fracture The first is when the bone is so depressed that it presently rises up into its true place and native equability The second is when the fissure is only capillary The third is when the bone is shaken on the inside the utter surface nevertheless remaining whole forasmuch as can be discerned The fourth is when the bone is stricken on the one side and cleft on the other CHAP. IX Of the moving or Concussion of the Brain Gal. lib. 2. de comp m dic cap 6. Com. ad Aph. 58. sect 7. BEsides the mentioned kinds of fractures by which the Brain also suffers there is another kind of affect besides Nature which also assails it by the violent Incursion of a cause in l ke manner external they call it the Commotion or shaking of the Brain whence Symptomes like those of a broken Skull ensue Falling from aloft upon a solid and hard body dull and heavy
blows as with Stones Clubs Staves the report of a peece of Ordnance or crack of Thunder and also a blow with ones hand Lib. 5. Epidem Thus as Hippocrates tells that beautiful Damosel the daughter of Nerius when she was twenty yeers old was smitten by a woman a friend of hers playing with her with her flat hand upon the fore-part of the head and then she was taken with a giddiness and lay without breathing and when she came home she fell presently into a great Feaver her head aked and her face grew red The seventh day after there came forth some two or three ounces of stinking and bloudy matter about her right Ear and she seemed somewhat better and to be at somewhat more ease The Feaver encreased again and she fell into a heavy sleepiness and lost her speech and the right side of her face was drawn up and she breathed with difficulty she had also a convulsion and trembling both her tongue failed her and her eyes grew dull on the ninth day she dyed But you must note that though the head be armed with a helmet yet by the violence of a blow the Veins and Arteries may be broken not only these which pass through the Sutures The vessels of the brain broken by the commotion thereof but also those which are dispersed between the two Tables in the Diploe both that they might bind the Crassa meninx to the Skull that so the Brain might move more freely as also that they might carry the alimentary juyce to the Brain wanting Marrow that is bloud to nourish it as we have formerly shewed in our Anatomy But from hence proceeds the efflux of bloud running between the Skull and Membranes Signs or else between the Membranes and Brain the bloud congealing there causeth vehement pain and the Eyes become blind Vomitting is caused Celsus the mouth of the Stomach suffering together with the Brain by reason of the Nerves of the sixt conjugation which run from the Brain thither and from thence are spread over all the capacity of the ventricle whence becoming a partaker of the offence it contracts it self and is presently as it were overturned whence first The cause of vomitting when the head is wounded those things that are contained therein are expelled and then such as may flow or come thither from the neighbouring and common parts as the Liver and Gall from all which Choler by reason of its natural levity and velocity is first expelled and that in greatest plenty and this is the true reason of that vomitting which is caused and usually follows upon fractures of the Skull and concussions of the Brain Within a short while after inflammation seizes upon the Membranes and Brain it self which is caused by corrupt and putrid bloud proceeding from the vessels broken by the violence of the blow and so spread over the substance of the Brain Such inflammation communicated to the Heart and whole body by the continuation of the parts causes a Feaver But a Feaver by altering the Brain causes Doting to which if stupidity succeed the Patient is in very ill case according to that of Hippocrates Stupidity and doting are ill in a wound or blow upon the Head Aph. 14. sect 7. But if to these evils a Sphacel and corruption of the Brain ensue together with a great difficulty of breathing by reason of the disturbance of the Animal faculty which from the Brain imparts the power of moving to the Muscles of the Chest the Instruments of Respiration then death must necessarily follow A great part of these accidents appeared in King Henry of happy memory A History a little before he dyed He having set in order the affairs of France and entred into amity with the neighbouring Princes desirous to honour the marriages of his daughter and sister with the famous and noble exercise of Tilting and he himself running in the Tilt-yard with a blunt-lance received so great a stroak upon his Brest that with the violence of the blow the vizour of his helmet flew up and the trunchion of the broken Lance hit him above the left Eyebrow and the musculous â—kin of the Fore-head was torn even to the lesser corner of the left Eye many splinters of the same Trunchion being struck into the substance of the fore-mentioned Eye the Bones being not touched or broken but the Brain was so moved and shaken that he dyed the eleventh day after the hurt What was the necessary cause of the death of King Henry the second of France His Skull being opened after his death there was a great deal of bloud found between the Dura and Pia Mater poured forth in the part opposite to the blow at the middle of the Suture of the hind-part of the Head and there appeared signs by the native colour turned yellow that the substance of the Brain was corrupted as much as one might cover with ones Thumb Which things caused the death of the most Christian King and not only the wounding of the Eye as many have falsly thought For we have seen many others who have not dyed of farr more grievous wounds in the Eye The History of the Lord Saint-Johns is of late memory he in the Tilt-yard A History made for that time before the Duke of Guises house was wounded with a splinter of a broken Lance of a fingers length and thickness through the visour of his Helmet it entring into the Orb under the Eye and piercing some three fingers bredth deep into the head by my help and Gods favour he recovered Valeranus and Duretus the Kings Physitians and James the Kings Chirurgeon assisting me What shall I say of that great and very memorable wound of Francis of Lorain the Duke of Guise He in the fight of the City of Bologne had his head so thrust through with a Lance A History that the point entring under his right Eye by his Nose came out at his Neck between his Ear and the Vertebrae the head or Iron being broken and left in by the violence of the stroak which stuck there so firmly that it could not be drawn or plucked forth without a pair of Smith's pincers But although the strength and violence of the blow was so great that it could not be without a fracture of the Bones a tearing and breaking of the Nerves Veins and Arteries and other parts yet the generous Prince by the favour of God recovered By which you may learn that many dye of small wounds and other recover of great yea Why some die of small wounds and others recover of great very large and desperate ones The cause of which events is chiefly and primarily to be attributed to God the Author and Preserver of Mankind but secondarily to the variety and condition of Temperaments And thus much of the commotion or concussion of the Brain whereby it happens that although all the Bone remains perfectly whole yet some veins broken
of bloud-letting yet remain that is the greatness of the disease and the constant strength of the Patient The two chief Indications in bloud-letting I being glad of this took three Saucers more of bloud he standing by and was ready to take more but that he wished me to defer it until the afternoon wherefore returning after dinner I filled two Saucers more so that in all this young man to his great benefit lost twenty seaven Saucers of bloud at five times within the space of four days Now the ensuing night was very pleasing to him the Feaver left him about noon the tumor grew much less the heat of the inflammation was asswaged in all parts except in his eye-lids and the laps of his ears which being ulcerated cast forth a great quantity of Pus or matter I have recited this history purposely to take away the childish fear which many have to draw bloud in the constant strength of the Patient and that it might appear how speedy and certain a remedy it is in inflammations of the head and brain Now to return from whence we digressed The discommodity of venery in wounds of the head you must note that nothing is so hurtful in fractures and wounds of the head as venery not only at that time the disease is present but also long after the cure thereof For great plenty of spirits are contained in a small quantity of seed and the greatest part thereof flows from the Brain hence therefore all the faculties but chiefly the Animal are resolved whence I have divers times observed death to ensue in small wounds of the head yea when they have been agglutinated and united How hurtful noyse is to the fractures of the skull All passions of the mind must in like sort be avoided because they by contraction and dissipation of the spirits cause great trouble in the body and mind Let a place be chosen for the Patient as far from noise as can be as from the ringing of Bells beatings and knocking 's of Smiths Coopers and Carpenters and from high-ways through which they use to drive Coaches for noise encreases pain causes a Feaver and brings many other symptoms I remember when I was at Hisdin at the time that it was besiged by the forces of Charles the fifth A History that when the wall was beaten with the Cannon the noise of the Ordnance caused grievous torment to all those which were sick but especially those that were wounded on their heads so that they would say that they thought at the discharging of every Cannon that they were cruelly strucken with staves on that part which was wounded and verily their wounds were so angered herewith that they bled much and by their pain and Feavers encreased were forced with much sighing to breathe their last Thus much may serve to be spoken of the cure in general now we will out of the monuments of Ancients treat of the particular CHAP. XV. Of the particular cure of wounds of the head and of the musculous skin LEt us begin with a simple wound Of a simple wound of the flesh and the skin for whose cure the Chirurgeon must propose one only scope to wit Union for unless the wound pierce to the skull it is cured like other wounds of the fleshy parts of our bodies But if it be compound as many wayes as it is complicate so many Indications shew themselves In these the chiefest care must be had of the more urgent order and cause Therefore if the wound shall be simple and superficiary then the hair must first be shaven away then a plaister applyed made of the white of an Egge Bole Armenic and Aloes The following day you must apply Emplastrum de Janua or else de gratia Dei until the wound be perfectly healed But if it be deeper and penetrate even to the Pericranium the Chirurgeon shall not do amiss if at the second dressing he apply a digestive medicine as they call it which may be made of Venice-Turpentine A digestive medicine the yolks of Egges Oyl of Roses and a little Saffron and that shall be used so long until the wound come to maturation for then you must add Honey of Roses and Barly flour to the digestive Hence must we pass to these medicines into whose composition no oyly or unctuous body enters A sarcotick medicine such as this â„ž Terebinth venetae â„¥ ij syrupi rosar â„¥ j pul Aloes Myrrhae Mastich an Ê’ ss Let them all be incorporated and made into an unguent which shall be perfectly regenerated An Epulotick then it must be cicatrized with this following powder â„ž Aluminiis combusti corticis granatorum combust an Ê’ i. Misceantur simul fiat pulvis but if the wound be so large that it require a suture it shall have so many stitches with a Needle as need shall seem to require A H story Whilst I was at Hisdin a certain Souldier by falling of the earth whilst he undermined had the Hairy scalp so pressed down even to the Pericranium and so wholly separated from the beginning of the hind-part of his head even to his fore-head that it hung over his face I went about the cure in this manner I first washt all the wound with Wine a little warmed that so I might wash away the congealed bloud mixed with the earth then I dryed it with a soft linnen cloth and laid upon it Venice-Turpentine mixed with a little Aqua-vitae What things we must observe in sewing wherein I had dissolved some Sanguis Draconis Mastick and Aloes then I restored the hanging skin to its former place and there stayed it with some stitches being neither too strait nor too close together for fear of pain and inflammation which two chiefly happen whilst the wound comes to suppuration but only as much as should serve to stay it on every side and to keep forth the air which by it entrance doth much harm to wounds the lower sides of the wound I filled with somewhat long and broad tents that the matter might have passage forth Then I applyed this following cataplasm to all the head â„ž farinae hâ—rd falarum an â„¥ vi olei rosatiÊ’ iij aceti quantum sufficit fiat cataplasma ad formam pultis this hath a faculty to dry cool repel mitigate pain and inflammation and stay bleeding When we must not let bloud in wounds I did not let him blood because he had bled much especially at certain arteries which were broken neer his Temples he being dressed after this manner grew well in a short time But if the wound be made by the biting of a wild Beast it must be handled after another manner as shall appear by this following History As many people on a time stood looking upon the King's Lyons who were kept in the Tilt-yard at Paris A History for the delight of King Henry the second and at his charges it happened that one
But for the wounds of the Testicles and genital part because they are necessary instruments for the preserving the species by generation of a succession of Individuals and to keep all things quiet at home therefore the Chirurgeon ought to be very diligent and careful for their preservation Wherefore if they should chance at any time to be wounded they shall be dressed as we have formerly delivered the medicines being varyed according to the state of the wound and the appearing and happening symptoms for it would be a thing of immense labour to handle all things in particular CHAP. XXXVI Of the Wounds of the Thighs and Legs Why wounds of the inside of the thigh are oft-times deadly WOunds which have been received on the inside of the Thighs have often caused sodain death if they have come to the vein Saphena or the great Artery or the Nerves the associates of these vessels But when they are simple there is nothing which may alter the usual manner of cure Yet the Patient must be careful to lye in his bed for the vulgar Italian Proverb is true La mano al petto la gamba al letto that is The hand on the breast and the leg on the bed But when they penetrate more deeply into the substance of the part they bring horrid and fearful symptoms as an inflammation an abscess from whence oft-times such aboundance of matter issues forth that the Patient fals into an Atrophia and consumption Wherefore such wounds and ulcers require a careful and industrious Chirurgeon who may fitly make Incisions necessary for the corrupt parts and callosity of the fistulous ulcer Some Chirurgeons have been so bold as to sow together the end of the Tendons of the Ham and of other joynts when they have been quite cut asunder The large Tendon of the heel hard to consolidate But I durst never attempt it for fear of pain convulsions and the like horrid symptoms For the wounds of that large Tendon which is composed in the calf of the Leg by the concourse of three muscles and goes to the heel I have observed that when it hath been cut with the Sword that the wounds have been long and hard to cure and besides when at the last they have been healed as soon as the Patient hath got out of his bed and indeavoured to go they have grown ill and broke open again Wherefore in such like wounds let the Patient have a care that he begin not to go or too boldly to use his hurt leg before it be perfectly cicatrized and the scar grown hard Therefore that the Patient may be in more safety I judge it altogether necessary that he use to go with Crutches for a good while after the wound is perfectly healed up CHAP. XXXVII Of the Wounds of the Nerves and nervous parts Differences drawn from things woulded THe continuity of the nervous parts is divers ways loosed by the violent incursion of external things as by things which contuse batter and grind in sunder as by the blow of a stone cudgel hammer lance bullet out of a Gun or Cross-bow by the biting of greater teeth or the pricking of some sharp thing as a Needle Bodkin Pen-knife Arrow Splinter or the puncture of some venemous thing as of a Sea-Dragon or the edg of some cutting thing as a Sword or Rapier or of stretching things which violently tear asunder the nervous bodies Hence therefore it is that of such wounds some are simple others compound and the compound some more compound than other For of these some are superficiary and short others deep and long some run alongst the nervous body others run broad-ways some cut the part quite asunder others only a portion thereof Their symptoms The symptoms which follow upon such wounds are vehement pain and defluxion inflammation abscess feaver delirium swooning convulsion gangrene sphacel whence often death insues by reason of that sympathy which all the nervous parts have with the brain Why a puncture of a nerve is deadly Amongst all the wounds of the nervous parts there is none more to be feared then a puncture or prick nor any which causeth more cruel and dangerous symptoms For by reason of the straitness of the wound medicines can neither be put in nor the sanious matter pass forth now the sanious matter by long stay acquires virulency whereby the nervous parts are tainted and swoln suffer pain inflammation convulsions and infinite other symptoms of these the wounds are most dangerous by which the nervous and membranous bodies are but half cut asunder For the portion thereof which remains whole by its drawing and contracting it self towards the original causeth great pain and convulsion by sympathy The truth hereof is evident in wounds of the head as when the Pericranium is half cut or when it is cut to apply a trepan For the cutting thereof infers far greater pain than when it is cut quite asunder Wherefore it is safer to have the nervous body quite cut off for so it hath no community nor consent with the upper parts neither doth it labour or strive to resist the contraction of its self now this contrariety and as it were fight is the cause of pain yet there arises another misery from such a wound for the part whereinto the nerve which is thus cut insunder passes thence forwards loseth its action CHAP. XXXVIII Of the cure of Wounds of the Nervous parts IT is the ancient doctrine of the antient Physitians that the wounds of the nervous parts should not presently be agglutinated which notwithstanding the general and first indication usually taken from the solution of continuity requires but rather chiefly if they be too strait A wound of the nervous parts indicates contrary to the general cure of wounds that the punctures should be dilated by cutting the parts which are above them and let them be kept long open that the filth may pass freely forth and the medicine enter well in Yet I in many cures have not followed this counsel but rather that which the common indication requires That cure is in fresh memory which I performed upon Monsieur le Coâ—q a Proctor of the spiritual Court who dwelt in our Ladies-street he gathering and binding up some loose Papers A History run a Penknife which was hid amongst them through his hand Also one of his neighbours who went to spit a piece of Bief thrust the spit through the midst of his hand But I presently agglutinated both their wounds without any danger dropping presently in at the first dressing a little of my Balsom warm and putting about it a repelling and astringent medicine and by this means they were both of them healed in a short time no symptom thereupon happening Yet I would not have the young Chirurgeon to run this hazard for first he must be well practised and accustomed to know the tempers and habit of men for this manner of curing would not do
noble parts or ignoble the fleshy nervous or bony some whiles with rending and tearing asunder the larger vessels sometimes without harming them Now these wounds are only superficiary or else pierce deep and pass quite through the Body But there is also another division of these wounds taken from the variety of the Bullets wherewith they are made For some Bullets are bigger From the difference of Bullets Wounds made by Gunshot are usually round some less some between both they are usually made of Lead yet sometimes of Steel Iron Brass Tin scarse any of Silver much less of Gold There arises no difference from their figure for almost all kinds of wounds of this nature are round From these differences the Chirurgeon must take his Indications what to do and what medicins to apply The first care must be that he think not these horrid and malign symptoms which usually happen upon these kinds of wounds to arise from combustion or poyson carryed with the Bullet into the wounded part and that for those reasons we have formerly handled at large But rather let him judg they proceed from the vehemency of the contusion dilaceration and fracture caused by the Bullet's too violent entry into the nervous and bony Bodies For if at any time the Bullet shall only light upon the fleshy parts the wounds will be as easily cured as any other wound usually is which is made with a contusing and round kind of weapon as I have often found by frequent experience whilst I have followed the wars and performed the part of a Chirurgeon to many Noblemen and common Souldiers according to the counsel of such Physitians as were there overseers of the cure CHAP. II. Of the signs of Wounds made by Gunshot WOunds made by Gunshot are known by their figure which is usually round Signs of wounds from their figure by their colour as when the native colour of the part decays and in stead thereof a livid greenish violet or other colour succeeds by the feeling or sense of the stroke when in the very instant of the receiving thereof he feels a heavy sense as if some great stone From their colour or piece of timber or some such other weighty thing had faln upon it by the small quantity of bloud which issues out thereat for when the parts are contused From the feeling of the blow within some small while after the stroke they swell up so that they will scarse admit a Tent whence it is that the bloud is stopped which otherwise would flow forth of the orifice of the Wound by heat which happens eitner by the violentness of the motion or the vehement impulsion of the air From the bleeding or the attrition of the contused parts as the flesh and nerves Also you may conjecture that the wounds have been made by Gunshot if the Bones shall be broken From the heat of the wound and the splinters thereof by pricking the neighbouring bodies cause defluxion and inflammation But the cause that the Bullet makes so great a contusion is for that it enters the body without any points or corners Whence these wounds are so much contused but with its round and spherical body which cannot penetrate but with mighty force whence it cometh to pass that the wound looks black and the adjacent parts livid hence also proceed so many grievous symptoms as Pain Defluxion Inflammation Apostumation Convulsion Phrensie Palsie Gangrene and Mortification whence lastly Death ensues Now the Wounds do often cast forth virulent and very much stincking filth by reason of the great contusion and the rending and tearing of the neighbouring particles A great abundance of humors flow from the whole Body and fall down upon the affected parts which the native heat thereof being diminished forsakes and presently an unnatural heat seises upon it Hither also tend an universal or particular repletion of ill humors chiefly if the wounds possess the nervous parts as the joynts Verily neither a Stag with his horn nor a Flint out of a sling can give so great a blow or make so large a wound as a Leaden or Iron Bullet shot out of a Gun as that which going with mighty violence pierces the body like a Thunderbolt CHAP. III. How these Wounds must be ordered at the first dressing THe Wound must forthwith be inlarged unless the condition of the part resist Sâ—range bodies must first be pulled forth that so there may be free passage forth both for the Sanies or matter as also for such things as are farced or otherwise contained therein such as are pieces of their Cloaths Bombast Linnen Paper pieces of Mail or Armour Bullets Hail-shot splinters of Bones bruised flesh and the like all which must be plucked forth with as much celerity and gentleness as may be For presently after the receiving of the wound the pain and inflammation are not so great as they will be within a short time after This is the principal thing in performance of this work The manner how to draw them forth that you place the Patient just in such a posture as he was in at the receiving of the wound for otherwise the various motion and turning of the Muscles will either hinder or straiten the passage forth of the contained bodies You shall if it be possible search for these Bodies with your finger that so you may the more certainly and exactly perceive them Yet if the Bullet be entred somewhat deep in then you shall search for it with a round and blunt probe lest you put the Patient to pain yet oftentimes you shall scarce by this means find the Bullet As it happened to the Marshal of Brissac in the siege of Parpignan who was wounded in his right shoulder with a Bullet which the Chirurgeons thought to have entered into the capacity of his body But I wishing the Patient to stand just in the same manner as he did when he received the wound found at length the place where the Bullet lay by gently pressing with my fingers the parts near the wounds and the rest which I suspected as also by the swelling hardness pain and blackness of the part which was the lower part of the shoulder near unto the eighth or ninth spondil of the back Wherefore the Bullet being taken forth by making Incision in the place the wound was quickly healed and the Gentleman recovered You shall observe this and rather believe the judgment of your fingers than of your Probe CHAP. IV. A description of fit Instruments to draw forth Bullets and other strange Bodies BOth the magnitude and figure of Instruments fit for drawing forth of Bullets and other strange Bodies are various according to the diversity of the incident occasions For some are toothed others smooth others of another figure and bigness of all which sorts the Chirurgeon must have divers in a readiness that the may fit them to the Bodies and Wounds and not the Wounds and Bodies to
suppurative medicine composed of Lard the yolk of an Egge Turpentine and a little Saffron In the year 1538. there was at Turin whilst I was Chirurgeon there to the Marshal of Montejan the Kings Lieutenant General in Piemont a certain Chirurgeon woundrous famous for curing these wounds and yet he used nothing else but the Oyl of Whelps the description whereof I at length obtained of him with much intreaty and expence and he used it not scalding hot as some have imagined but poured it scarse warm into their wounds and so did mitigate their pain and happily bring them to suppuration Which afterwards almost all Chirurgeons after they had got the description hereof when I first published this Work have used and daily do use with happy success But in contemning and condemning Aegyptiacum I think he hath no partaker The force of Aegyptiacum against putrefaction seeing there as yet hath been found no medicine more speedy and powerful to hinder putrefaction if beginning or correct it if present Now these wounds often degenerate into virulent eating spreading and malign ulcers which cast forth a stinking and carion-like filth whence the part gangrenates unless you withstand them with Aegytiacum and other acrid medicines being greatly approved by the formerly named Physitians and all Chirurgeons But saith he this Unguent is poysonous and therefore hath been the death of many who have been wounded by Gunshot Verily if any diligently inquire into the composition of this Ointment and consider the nature of all and every the ingredients thereof he shall understand that this kind of Unguent is far from poyson that on the contrary it directly opposes and resists all poyson and putrefaction which may happen to a fleshy part through occasion of any wound The force of the air in breeding and augmenting diseases It is most false and dissonant from the doctrin of Hippocrates to affirm that the seasons of the year swerving from the Law of Nature and the air not truly the simple and elementary but that which is defiled and polluted by the various mixture of putrid and pestilent vapours either raised from the earth or sent from above make not wounds more malign and hard to cure at some times than they are at othersome For the air either very hot or cold drawn into the body by inspiration or transpiration generates a condition in us like its qualites Therefore why may it not when defiled with the putredinous vapours of bodies lying unburyed after great battails and shipwracks of great Armadoes infect with the like quality our bodies and wounds A History In the year 1562. when the Civill Wars concerning Religion first begun in France at Pene a Castle lying upon the River Lot many slain Bodies were cast into a Well some hundred Cubits deep so stinking and pestilent a vapour arose from hence some two months after that many thousands of people dyed all over the Province of Ageneis as if the Plague had been amongst them the pernicious contagion being spread twenty miles in compass Which none ought to think strange especially seeing the putrid exhalations by the force of the winds may be driven and carryed into divers and most remote regions dispersed like the seeds of the Pestilence whence proceeds a deadly corruption of the spirits humors and wounds not to be attributed to the proper malignity or perverse cure of wounds but to be the fault of the air Therefore Francis Daleschampe in his French Chirurgery in reckoning up those things which hinder the healing of Ulcers hath not omitted that common cause which proceeds from the air defiled or tainted with the seeds of Pestilence Hip. Aph. 1. sect 3. For he had learnt from his Master Hippocrates that the mutations of times chiefly bring diseases and he had read in Guido that this was the chief occasion that wounds of the head at Paris and of the legs at Avignion were more difficultly healed Lastly even Barbers and such as have least skill in Chirurgery know that wounds easily turn into a Gangrene in hot and moist constitutions of the air Wherefore when the wind is southerly the Butchers will kill no more flesh than to serve them for one day In our second discourse I have formerly declared the malignity of the wounds occasioned by the air in the siege of Ronen which spared none no not the Princes of the bloud who had all things which were requisite for their health Which caused me made at length more skilful by experience to use Unguentum Aegyptiacum and medicines of the like faculty in stead of Suppuratives to wounds during all that season that so I might withstand the putrefaction and Gangrene which so commonly assailed them The power of the Stars upon the a r and our bodies But if the various motion of the Stars can by their influx send a Plague into the air why then may it not by depravation of their qualities infect and as by poysoning corrupt both wounds and wounded bodies obnoxious to their changes and that of the air We learnt long since by experience that all pains but principally of wounds grow worse in a rainy and moist season specially because in that southerly constitution the air replete with thick and foggy vapours causes the humors to abound in the body which forthwith easily fall upon the affected parts and cause increase of pain But saith our Adversary in the battel at Dreux and at S. Dâ—nais which were fought in winter there dyed a great number of men who were wounded by Gunshot This I confess is true but this I deny that it was occasioned by applying suppuratives or corrosives but rather the vehemency and largeness of their wounds and the spoil the Bullet made in their members but above all by reason of the cold For cold is most hurtful to wounds and ulcers Aphor. 40. sect 5. as Hippocrates testifies it hardens the skin and causes a Gangrene If this my Gentleman had been with me in the siege of Metz he might have seen the legs of many souldiers to have rotted and presently taken with a Gangrene to have faln away by the only extremity of cold if he will not believe me let him make tryal himself and go in winter to the Chappel at Mount Senis one of the Alpine-hills where the bodies of such as were frozen to death in passing that way are buryed and he shall learn and feel how true I speak In the mean time I think it fit to confute the last point of his reprehension The similitude between Thunder and great Ordnance maintained He cavils for that I compared Thunder and Lightning with Discharging of pieces of Ordnance First he cannot deny but that they are alike in effects For it is certain that the flame arising from Gunpowder set on fire resembles Lightning in this also that you may see it before you hear the crack or report I judg for that the eye almost in a moment perceives its
ribs for that they are bony may be broken in any part of them In what place the short ribs may be broken But the bastard ribs cannot be truly broken unless at the back-bone because they are only bony in that part but gristly on the foreside toward the breast-bone wherefore there they can only be folded or crooked in These which are subject to fractures may be broken inwards and outwards But oft-times it comes to pass that they are not absolutely broken but cleft into splinters and that sometimes inwards but not outwards Thus the fissure doth oft-times not exceed the middle substance of the rib but sometimes it so breaks through it all that the fragments and splinters doe prick and wound the membrane which invests and lines them on the inside and then there is great danger But when the fracture is simple without a wound compression puncture of the membrane and lastly without any other symptome then the danger is less Therefore Hippocrates wisheth that those who are thus affected Sent. 56. sect 3. de art fill themselves more freely with meat for that moderate repletion of the belly is as it were a certain prop or stay for the ribs keeping them well in their place and state which rule chiefly takes place in fractures of the bastard ribs For such as have them broken usually feel themselves better after than before meat For emptiness of meat or of the stomach makes a suspension of the ribs as not underpropped by the meat Now that fracture which is outwardly is far more easie to heal Why an internal fracture of the ribs is deadly than that which is inwardly for that this pricketh the membrane or Pleura and causeth inflammation which may easily end in an Empyema Adde hereunto that this is not so easily to be handled or dealt withall as the other whereby it cometh to pass that it cannot be so easily restored for that these things cannot be so fully and freely performed in this kinde of fracture which are necessary to the setting of the bone as to draw it out hold it and join it together It is therefore healed within twenty dayes if nothing else hinder The signs of fractured ribs are not obscure The signs for by feeling the grieved part with your fingers you may easily perceive the fracture by the inequality of the bones and their noise or crackling especially if they be quite broke asunder The cause of spitting blood when the ribs are broken But if a rib be broken on the inside a pricking pain far more grievous than in a plurisie troubles the Patient because the sharp splinters prick the Costall membrane whence great difficulty in breathing a cough and spitting of bloud ensue For bloud flowing from the vessels broken by the violenee of the thing causing the fracture is as it were sucked up by the lungs and so by a dry cough carryed into the Weazond and at length spit out of the mouth Some to pull up the bone that is quite broken and deprest apply a Cupping-glass and that is ill done for there is caused greater attraction of humours and excess of pain by the pressure and contraction of the adjacent parts by the Cupping-glass wherefore Hippocrates also forbids it Sent. 15. sect 3. de art Paulus lib. 6. cap. 96. Avicen 4. The cure Therefore it is better to endeavour to restore it after this following manner Let the Patient lye upon his sound side and let there be laid upon the fractured side an emplaister made of Turpentine Rosin black Pitch Wheat flour Mastick and Aloes and spread upon a strong and new cloth When it hath stuck there some time then pluck it suddenly with great violence from below upwards for so the rib will follow together therewith and be plucked and drawn upwards It is not sufficient to have done this once but you must do it often untill such time as the Patient shall finde himself better and to breath more easily There will be much more hope of restitution if whilest the Surgeon do this diligently the Patient forbear coughing and hold his breath Otherwise if necessity urge as if sharp splinters with most bitter tormenting pain prick the Costall membrane overspread with many nerves veins and arteries which run under the ribs whence difficulty of breathing spitting of bloud a cough and feaver ensue then the only way to deliver the Patient from danger of imminent death is to make incision on the part where the rib is broken that so laying it bare you may discern the pricking fragments and take them out with your instrument or else cut them off And if you make a great wound by incision then shall you sew it up and cure it according to the common rules of curing wounds Now diet phlebotomy and purgation A simple fracture may be cured only by Surgery which as Hippocrates saith are not very needfull in a simple fracture for that there are no symptomes which may require such remedies yet they by reason of the complicated symptoms as a convulsion feaver Empyema and the like must here be prescribed by the advice of the Physician which oversees the cure A Cerate and other remedies fitting the occasion shall be applyed to the grieved part no other ligatures can be used than such as are fit to hold fast and stay the local medicins There is no other Rule of site and lying than such as is taken from the will and content of the Patient CHAP. XII Of certain preternatural affects which ensue upon broken Ribs MAny symptoms ensue upon fractured and contused ribs but amongst the rest there are two which are not common whereof we will treat in this place The first is the inflation or rising up of the contused flesh which also ensues upon light affects of the bone which have been neglected at the beginning But the flesh is not meerly puffed up of it self but also within a certain phlegmatick glutinous and viscous humour gathering thereinto The cause hereof is The cause the weakness of the digestive faculty of the part occasioned by the stroak and distemper which therefore cannot affimilate the nourishment flowing more plentifully than it was wont either drawn thither by means of the pain or sent thither by a blinde violence of nature stirred thereto by a desire of its own preservation Wherefore this half crude humor remaining there raiseth much flatuling from its self or else wrought upon by the weaker heat it is resolved into cloudy vapours whence it cometh to pass that the flesh is swoln up in that place The signs and the skin on the contrary grows soft as if it were blown up with a quill Therefore laying your hand thereon you may hear the noise of the winde going forth thereof and see a cavity left in the part as it is usually seen in oedematous tumors Unless you remedy this inflation there will ensue an inflammation feaver abscess difficulty of breathing and lastly that
luc lb. ii aq vitae â„¥ vi agitentur omnia simul diligentissime Lutetur alembicum luto sapientiae fiat distillatio lento ignae in balneo mariae Use it after the following manner â„ž aq stillatitiae prescriptae â„¥ ii aut iii. According to the operation which it shall perform let the patient take it four hours before meat Also radish-water distilled in balneo mariae is given in the quantity of â„¥ iiii with sugar and that with good success Baths and sem cupia or halt baths are artificially made Why the use of diureticks is better after bathing To cleanse the ulcers of the kidnies and bladder relax soften dilate and open all the body therefore the prescribed diureticks mixed wtih half a dram of treacle may be fitly given at the going forth of the bath These medicines following are judged fit to cleanse the ulcers of the kidnies and bladder Syrup of maiden-hair of â—oses taken in quantity of â„¥ i. with hydromel or barlie-water Asses or Goats-milk are also much commended in this affect because they cleanse the ulcers by their serous or whayish portion and agglutinate by their chees-life They must be taken warm from the dug with hony of roses or a little salt least they corrupt in the stomach and that to the quantity of four ounces drinking or eating nothing presently upon it The following Trochises are also good for the same purpose Trochisces to heal the ulcers of the kidnies â„ž quatuor sem frigid major seminis papaveris albi portulâ—cae-plantag cydon myrtil gum tragacanth arab pinear. glycyrrhi mund hordei mund mucilag psilii amygdal dulcium an â„¥ i. bâ—â— armen sanguin dracon spodii rosar mastich terrae sigil myrrhae an â„¥ ii cum oxymelite conficiantur secundum artem trochisci Let the patient take Ê’ ss dissolved in whay ptisan barlie-water and the like they may also be profitably dissolved in plantain-water and injected into the bladder Let the patient abstain from wine and instead thereof let him use barlie-water or hydromel or a ptisan made of an ounce of raisins of the Sun Drink instead of wine stoned and boiled in five pints of fair water in an earthen pipkin well leaded or in a glass untill one pint be consumed adding thereto of liquorice scraped and beaten â„¥ i. of the cold seeds likewise beaten two drams Let it after it hath boiled a little more be strained through an hypocras bag with a quartern of sugar and two drams of choice cinnamon added thereto and so let it be kept for usual drink CHAP. LVI Of the Diabete or inabilitie to hold the Vrine THe Diabete is a disease wherein presently after one hath drunk the urine is presently made in great plentie What Diabete is by the dissolution of the retentive faculty of the reins and the depravation or immoderation of the attractive faculty The external causes are the unseasonable and immoderate use of hot and diuretick things and all more violent and vehement exercises The causes The internal causes are the inflammation of the liver lungs spleen but especially of the kidnies and bladder This affect must be diligently distinguished from the excretion of the morbifick causes by urine Signs The loins in this disease are molested with a pricking and biteing pain and there is a continual and unquenchable thirst and although this disease proceed from a hot distemper Why the urines are watrish yet the urine is not coloured red troubled or thick but thin and white or waterish by reason the matter thereof makes very small stay in the stomach liver and hollow vein being presently drawn away by the heat of the kidnies or bladder If the affect long endure the patient for want of nourishment falleth away whence certain death ensues For the cure of so great a disease the matter must be purged which causes or feeds the inflammation or phlegmon and consequently blood must be let We must abstain from the four cold seeds for although they may profit by their first qualitie The cure yet will they hurt by their diuretick faculty Refrigerating and astringent nourishments must be used and such as generate gross humors as rice thick and astringent wine mixed with much water Narcotick things to be applied to the loins Exceeding cold yea narcotick things shall be applied to the loins for otherwise by reason of the thickness of the muscles of those parts the force unless of exceeding refrigerating things will not be able to arrive at the reins of this kinde are oil of white poppie henbane opium purslain and lettuce-seed mandrage vinegar and the like of which cataplasms plasters and ointments may be made fit to corroborate the parts and correct and heat CHAP. LVII Of the Strangurie What the Strangurie is THe Strangurie is an affect haveing some affinitie with the Diabete as that wherein the water is involuntarily made but not together at once but by drops continually and with pain The causes The external causes of a strangurie are the too abundant drinking of cold water and all too long stay in a cold place The internal causes are the defluxion of cold humors into the urinarie parts for hence they are resolved by a certain palsie and the sphincter of the bladder is relaxed so that he cannot hold his water according to his desire inflammation also and all distemper causeth this affect and whatsoever in some sort obstructs the passage of the urine as clotted blood thick phlegm gravel and the like And because according to Galens opinion all sorts of distemper may cause this disease diverse medicines shall be appointed according to the difference of the distemper Therefore against a cold distemper fomentations shall be provided of a decoction of mallows Com. ad aphor 15. sect 3. roses origanum calamint and the like and so applied to the privities then presently after let them be anointed with oil of bays and of Castoreum and the like Strong and pure wine shall be prescribed for his drink and that not only in this cause but also when the strangurie happens by the occasion of obstruction caused by a gross and cold humor if so be that the body be not plethorick But if inflammation together with a Plethora oâ— fulness hath caused this affect we may according to Galens advice Ad aphor 48. sect 7. heal it by blood-letting But if obstruction be in fault that shall be taken away by diureticks either hot or cold according to the condition of the matter obstructing We here omit to speak of the Dysuria or difficultie of making water because the remedies are in general the same with those which are used in the Ischuriae or suppression of urine CHAP. LVIII Of the Cholick WHensoever the guts being obstructed or otherwise affected the excrements are hindred from passing forth and if the fault be in the small guts the affect is termed Volvulus Ileos and Miserere mei but if it be in
Lovain of the age of fifteen years Amongst the rest she cast forth at her fundament together with her excrements a living creature some foot and half long thicker then ones thumb very like an Eel but that it had a very hairy tail I have here given you the figure of the monster as it was expressed by him The figure of a Monster that came forth of a Maids belly An history Master Peter Barque and Claude le Grand Surgeons of Verdun lately affirmed to me that they cured the wife of a certain Citizen of Verdun which out of an Abscess broken in the belly cast forth a great number of worms together with the quitture and these were of the thickness of ones finger with sharp heads which so gnawed her guts that the excrements for a long time came forth at the ulcer but now she is perfectly recovered Anthony Benenius a Physician of Florence telleth that one John Menusierus a man of forty years of age An history troubled with continual pains at his stomach was often at the point of death neither found he any help by the counsels of many Physicians which he used At length coming to have his advice he gave him a vomit by means whereof he cast up a great quantity of corrupt and putrid matter yet was he not thereby eased of his pain Therefore he gave him another Vomit by force whereof he cast up much matter like to the former and together therewith a worm of four fingers long having a red round head of the bigness of a great pease covered over the body with a soft downiness with a forked tail in manner of an half moon going upon four feet two before and two behind The figure of a Worm cast forth by Vomit The efficient and material causes of such things as are preternaturally generated in our bodies Why should I mention the prodigious bodies which are found in Abscesses as stones chalk sand coles snail-shels straws hay horns hairs and many kinds of living and dead creatures For there is nothing in the generation of these things caused by corruption preceeded by much alteration which may make us admire or holdâ—s in suspence especially if we shall consiâ—er that nature the fruitful parent of all things hath put divers portions and particles of the universal matter whereof the greater would is compoâ—ed into this microcosmos or little world man wheâ—eby he might the rather seem to be made to the resemblance and form of the greater Wherefore it so desports it self here that iâ— may counterfeit and resemble all the actions and motions which it useth to perform in the scene of the greater world in this little one if so be that matter be not wanting CHAP. IV. Of the Worms which use to breed in the guts How worms are generated A Gross visâ—id and crude humor is the material cause of Worms which having got the beginning of corruption in the stomach is quickly carryed into the guts and there it putrefies having not acquired the form of laudable Chylus in the first concoction This for that it is viscid tenaciously adheres to the guts neither is it easily evacuated with the other excrements The reason that they somtimes come forth at the mouth therefore by delay it further putrefies and by the efficacy of heat it turns into the matter and nourishment for Worms This alimentary humor being consumed unless some fâ—esh supply the want thereof which may ease their hunger they move themselves in the guts with great violence they cause grievous and great pains yea and oftimes they creep up to the stomach and so come forth by the mouth and sometimes they ascend into the holes of the palace and come forth at the nose Worms are of three sorts for some are round and long others broad and long others short and slender The first are called by the Antients Teretes that is round for that they are long and round The second are named Teniae for that their bodies are long and broad The differences of worms like a rowler or swathe The third are termed Ascarides for that they commonly wrap themselves up round Other differences of worms are taken from their colours as red white black ash-coloured yellowish Some also are hairy with a great head like the little fish which the French call Chabot we a Millers-Thumb in some diseases many worms are generated and cast forth by the fundament as small as hairs and usually of color white and these are they which are called Ascarides The diversity of colours in worms proceedeth not from the like distinct diversity of humors whereof they are generated For the melancholick and cholerick humor by their qualities are wholly unfit to generate worms But this manifold variety in colour is by reason of the different corruption of the chylous or phlegmatick humor whereof they are bred The long and broad worms are oftentimes stretched alongst all the guts being like to a mucous or albuminous substance and verily I saw one voided by a woman which was like to a Serpent and some six foot long which ought not to seem strange seeing it is noted by the Antients that they have seen worms so long An history as the length of the whole guts that is seven times the length of ones bodie Wierus writes An history that he saw a Country-man who voided a worm eight foot and one inch long in head and mouth resembling a Duck which therefore I have thought good here to express The figure of a worm generated in and cast forth of the gut Valeriola affirmeth that he saw a worm above nine foot long Now as worms differ in shape In observat so are their places of generation also different For the round and long worms are commonly generated in the smaller guts the rest in the greater but especially the Ascarides In what places of the belly-worms are generated none breed in the stomach as that which is the place of the first concoction There truly the matter which bâ—eedeth these worms gets the first rudiment of corruption but comes to perfection only in the guts they breed in some infants in their mothers bellies by the pravity and corrupt nature of the humor flowing from the mother for the nourishment of the childe which for that then they do not expeâ—l it by siege it by delay putrefieth the more and yields fit matter for the breeding of worms Ad finem lib. 4. de morbis as some have observed out of Hippocrates Lastly worms breed in people of any age that are Belly-gods and given to gluttony as also in such as feed upon meats of ill juice and apt to corrupt as crude summer-fruits cheese and milk-meats But to know in what part of the guts the worms do lurk you must note that when they are in the small guts Signs of worms in the small guts the patients complain of a pain in their stomach with a dog-like
appetite whereby they require many and several things without reason a great part of the nourishment being consumed by the worms lying there they are also subject to often fainting by reason of the sympathy which the stomach being a part of most exquisite sense hath with the heart the nose itches the breath stinks by reason of the exhalations sent up from the meat corrupting in the stomach through which occasion they are also given to sleep but are now and then waked there-from by sudden startings and fears they are held with a continued and slow fever a dry cough a winking with their eye-lids and often changeing of the colour of their faces But long and broad worms being the innates of the greater guts Signs of worms in the great guts Signs of Ascarides shew themselves by stools replenished with many sloughs here and there resembling the seeds of a Musk-melon or Cucumber Ascarides are known by the itching they cause in the fundament causing a sense as if it were Ants running up and down causing also a tenasmus and falling down of the fundament This is the cause of all these symptoms their sleep is turbulent and often clamorous when as hot acrid and subtill vapors raised by the worms from the like humor and their food are sent up to the head but sound sleep by the contrary as when a misty vapor is sent up from a gross and cold matter They dream they eat in their sleep for that while the worms do more greedily consume the chylous matter in the guts they stir up the sense of the like action in the phantasie They grate or gnash their teeth by reason of a certain colvulsifick repletion the muscles of the temples and jaws being distended by plenty of vapors A dry cough comes by the consent of the vitall parts serving for respiration which the natural to wit the Diaphragma or midriffe smit upon by acrid vapors and irritated as though there were some humor to be expelled by coughing These same acrid sumes assailing the orifice of the ventricle cause either an hicketting or else a fainting according to the condition of their consistence gross or thin these carried up to the parts of the face cause an itching of the nose a darkness of the sight and a sudden changeing of the colour in the cheeks Great worms are worse then little ones red then white living then dead many then few variegated then those of one colour as those which are signs of a greater corruption Why worms of divers colors are more dangerous Such as are cast forth bloody and sprinkled with blood are deadly for they shew that the substance of the guts is eaten asunder for oftimes they corrode and perforate the body of the gut wherein they are contained and thence penetrate into divers parts of the belly so that they have come forth sometimes at the navel having eaten themselves a passage forth as Hollerius affirmeth When as children troubled with the worms draw their breath with difficulty and wax moist over all their bodies it is a sign that death is at hand If at the beginning of sharp fevers round worms come forth alive it is a sign of a pestilent fever the malignity of whose matter they could not endure but were forced to come forth But if they be cast forth dead they are signs of greater corruption in the humors and of a more venenate malignity CHAP. V. What cure to be used for the Worms The general indications of cureing the worms IN this disease there is but one indication that is the exclusion or casting out of the worms either alive or dead forth of the body as being such that in their whole kind are against nature all things must be shunned which are apt to heap up putrefaction in the body by their corruption such as are crude fruits cheese milk-meats fishes and lastly such things as are of a difficult and hard digestion but prone to corruption Pap is fit for children for that they require moist things but these ought to answer in a certain similitude to the consistence and thickness of milk that so they may be the more easily concocted and assimilated and such only is that pap which is made with wheat flower not crude but baked in an oven that the pap made therewith may not be too viscid nor thick if it should only be boiled in a pan as much as the milk would require or else the milk would be too terrestrial or too waterish all the fatty portion thereof being resolved the cheesie and wayish portion remaining if it should boil so much as were necessary for the full boiling of the crude meat they which use meal otherwise in pap yield matter for the generating of gross and viscid humors in the stomach whence happens obstruction in the first veins and substance of the liver by obstruction worms breed in the guts and the stone in the kidnies and bladder The patient must be fed often and with meats of good juice lest the worms through want of nourishment should gnaw the substance of the guts Now when as such things breed of a putrid matter the patient shall be purged and the putrefaction represt by medicines mentioned in our Treatise of the Plague Wherefore and wherewith such as have the worms must be purged For the quick killing and casting of them forth syrup of succory or of Lemmons with rubarb a little treacle or methridate is a singular medicine if there be no fever you may also for the same purpose use this following medicine â„ž cornu cervi pul rasur ebâ—ris an Ê’i ss sem tanacet contra verm an Ê’i fiat decoctio pro parvâ dosi in colaturâ infunde rhei optimi Ê’i cinam ℈ i. dissolve syrupi de absinthio â„¥ ss make a potion give it in the morning three hours before any broth Oil of Olives drunk kills worms as also water of knot-grass drunk with milk and in like manner all bitter things Yet I could first wish them to give a glyster made of milk hony and sugar without oils and bitter things lest shunning thereof they leave the lower guts and come upwards for this is natural to worms to shun bitter things and follow sweet things Whence you may learn that to the bitter things which you give by the mouth you must alwaies mix sweet things that allured by the sweetness they may devour them more greedily that so they may kill them Harâ—s horn good against the worms Therefore I would with milk and suger mix the seeds of centaury Rue wormwood aloes and the like harts-horn is very effectual against worms wherefore you may infuse the shaveings thereof in the water or drink that the patient drinks as also to boil some thereof in his broths So also treacle drunk or taken in broth killeth the worms purslain boiled in broths and distilled and drunk is also good against the worms as also succory and mints also a
so much as hurt some third man You may also observe the same in purging medicines For the sume purge given to diverse men in the same proportion will purge some sooner some later some more sparingly others more plentifully and othersome not at all also with some it will work gently with othersome with pain and gripings Of which diversity there can no other cause be assigned then mens different natures in complexion and temper which no man can so exactly know and comprehend as to have certain knowledg thereof how much and bow long the native heat can resist and labour against the strength of poyson or how pervious or open the passages of the body may be whereby the poyson may arrive at the heart and principal parts For in such for example sake as have the passages of their arteries more large the poyson may more readily and speedily enter into the heart together with the air that is continually drawn into the body CHAP. IV. Whether such creatures as feed upon poysonous things be also poysonous and whether they may be eaten safely and without harm Such things as feed upon poyson may be eaten without danger DUcks Storks Herns Peacocks Turkies and other birds feed upon Toads Vipers Asps Snakes Scorpions Spiders Caterpillers and other venomous things Wherefore it is worthy the questioning whether such like creatures nourished with such food can kill or poyson such persons as shall afterward eat them Matthiolus writes that all late Authors who have treated of poysons to be absolutely of this opinion That men may safely and without any danger feed upon such creatures for that they convert the beasts into their nature after they have eaten them and on the contrary are not changed by them This reason though very probable yet doth it not make these beasts to be wholly harmeless especially if they be often eaten or fed upon Dioscorides and Galen seem to maintain this opinion whereas they write that the milk which is nothing else then the relented blood of such beasts as feed upon scammony hellebore and spurge purgeth violently Therefore Physicians desirous to purge a sucking child give purges to the nurses whence the milk becoming purging becomes both meat and medicine to the child The flesh of thrushes which feed upon Juniper-berries savors of Juniper Birds that are fed with worm-wood or garlick either tast bitter or have the strong sent of garlick Whitings taken with garlick so smell thereof that they will not forego that smell or tast by any salting frying or boyling for which sole reason many who hate garlick are forced to abstain from these fishes The flesh of Rabbits that feed upon penny-royal and Juniper savor of them Physicians wish that Goats Cows and Asses whose milke they would use for Consumptions or other diseases should be fed some space before and every day with these or these herbs which they deem fit for the curing of this or that disease Lib. de simp facult For Galen affirms that he doubts not but that in success of time the flesh of creatures will be changed by the meats whereon they feed and at length savor thereof Therefore I do not allow that the flesh of such things as feed upon venemous things should be eaten for food unless it be some long space after they have disused such repast and that all the venom be digested and overcome by the efficacy of their proper heat so that nothing thereof may remain in tast smell or substance but be all vanished away For many die suddenly the cause of whose deaths are unknown The occasion of sudden death in many which peradventure was from nothing else but the sympathy and antipathy of bodyes for that these things cause death and disease to some that nourish othersome according to our vulgar English proverb That which is one mans meat is another mans poyson CHAP. V. The general signs of such as are poysoned WEe will first declare what the general signs of poyson are Common signs of such as are poysoned and then wee will descend to particulars whereby we may pronounce that one is poysoned with this or that poyson We certainly know that a man is poysoned when as he complains of a great heaviness of his whole body so that he is weary of himself when as some horrid and loathsome tast sweats out from the orifice of the stomach to the mouth and tongue wholly different from that tast that meat howsoever corrupted can send up when as the colour of the face changeth suddenly somewhiles to black sometimes to yellow or any other colour much differing from the common custom of man when nauseousness with frequent vomiting troubleth the patient and that he is molested with so great unquietness that all things may seem to be turned upside down We know that the poyson works by the proper and from the whole substance when as without any manifest sence of great heat or coldness the patient swounds often with cold sweats for usually such poysons have no certain and distinct part wherewith they are at enmity as cantharides have with the bladder But as they work by their whole substance and an occult propriety of form so do they presently and directly assail the heart our essence and life and the fortress and begining of the vital faculty Now will wee shew the signs whereby poysons that work by manifest and elementary qualities may be known Those who exceed in heat burn or make an impression of heat in the tongue the mouth throat stomach guts and all the inner parts Signs of hot poysons with great thirst unquietness and perpetual sweats But if to their excess of heat they be accompanied with a corroding and putrefying quality as Arsenick Sublimate Rose-ager or Rats-bane Verdegreace Orpiment and the like they then cause in the stomach and guts intolerable pricking pains rumblings in the belly and continual and intolerable thirst These are succeeded by vomitings with sweats somwhiles hot somwhiles cold with swoundings whence sudden death ensues Sgins of cold Poysons Poysons that kill by too great coldness induce a dull or heavy sleep or drowziness from which you cannot easily rouze or waken them somtimes they so trouble the brain that the patients perform many undecent gestures and antick tricks with their mouths eies arms and legs like as such as are frantick they are troubled with cold sweats their faces become blackish or yellowish alwaies ghastly all their bodies are benummed and they die in a short time unless they be helped poysons of this kinde are Hemlock Poppy Night-shade Henbane Mandrag Dry poysons are usually accompanyed by heat with moisture for although sulphur be hot and dry yet hath it moisture Signs of the dry poysons to hold the parts together as all things which have a consistence have yet are they called dry by reason that dryness is predominant in them such things make the tongue and throat dry rough with unquenchable thirst the
have made mention of Bezoar in treating of the remedies of poysons I judge I shall not do amiss If I shall explain what the word means and the reason thereof Poyson absolutely taken is that which kills by a certain specifick antipathy contrary to our nature So an Antidote or Counter-poyson is by the Arabians in their mother tongue termed Bedezahar as the preservers of life This word is unknown to the Greeks and Latines and in use only with the Arabians and Persians because the thing it self first came from them as it is plainly shewed by Garcias ab horto Physician to the vice-roy of the Indies in his history of the Spices and Simples of the East-Indies In Persia saith he and a certain part of India is a certain kinde of Goat called Pazain wherefore in proper speaking the stone should be termed Pazar or the word Pazain that signifies a Goat but we corruptly term it Bezar or Bezoar the colour of this beast is commonly reddish the height thereof indifferent in whose stomach concretes the hoâ—e called Bezoar it grows by little and little about a straw or some such like substance in scales like to the scales of an onion so that when as the first scale is taken off the next appears more smooth and shining as you still take them away the which amongst others is the sign of good Bezoar and not adulterate This stone is found in sundry shapes but commonly it resembles an Aâ—orn or Date-stone A sign of true Bezoar it is sometimes of a sanguin colour and otherwhiles of a honie-like or yellowish colour but most frequently of a blackish or dark green resembling the colour of mad apples or else of a Civet-Cat This stone hath no heart nor kernel in the midst but powder in the cavity thereof which is also of the same faculty Now this stone is light and not very hard but so that it may easily be scraped or rasped like Alablaster so that it will dissolve being long macerated in water at first it was common amongst us and of no very great price because our people who trafficked in Persia The use of Bezoar bought it at an easie rate But after that the faculties thereof were found out it began to be more rare and dear and it was prohibited by an Edict from the King of the Country that nobody should sell a Goat to the stranger-Merchants unless he first killed him and took forth the stone and brought it to the King Of the notes by which the stone is tried for there are many counterfeit brought hither the first is already declared the other is it may be blown up by the breath like an Oxes hide for if the winde break through and do not stay in the density thereof it is accounted counterfeit They use it induced thereto by our example not onely against poysons but also against the bites of venomous beasts The richer sort of the Country purge twice a year to wit in March and September and then five daies together they take the powder of this stone macerated in Rose-water the weight of ten grains at a time for by this remedy they think their youth is preserved as also the strength of their members There be some who take the weight of thirty Grains yet the more wary exceed not twelve grains The same Author addeth that he useth it with very good success in inveterate melancholick diseases as the itch scab tetters and leprosie therefore by the same reason it may well be given against a quartane fever Besides he affirmeth for certain that the powder contained in the midst of the stone put upon the bites of venomous beasts presently freeth the patient from the danger of the poyson as also applied to the pestilent Carbuncles when they are opened it draws forth the venom But because the small pox and meazles are familiar in the Indies and oftimes dangerous Lib. 5 in Diosc cap. 73. it is there given with good success two grains each day in Rose-water Matthiolus subscribeth to this opinion of Garcis witnessing that he hath found it by frequent experience that this stone by much exceeds not onely other simple medicines of this kinde but also such as are termed theriacalia and what other Antidotes soever Hereto also consents Abdanalarach Wee saith he have seen the stone which they call Bezahar with the sons of Almirama the observer of the Law of the God with which stone he bought a starely and almost princely house at Corduba An history Some years ago a certain Gentleman who had one of these stones which he brought out of Spain bragged before King Charles then being at Clermount in Avern of the most certain efficacy of this stone against all manner of poysons Then the King asked of mee whether there were any Antidote which was equally and in like manner prevalent against all poysons No one thing can be an Antidote against all poysons I answered that nature could not admit it for neither have all poysons the like effects neither do they arise from one cause for some work from an occule and specifick property of their whole nature others from some elementary quality which is predominant Wherefore each must be withstood with its proper and contrary Antidote as to the hot that which is cold and to that which assails by an occult propriety of form another which by the same force may oppugn it and that it was an easie matter to make trial hereof on such as were condemned to be hanged The motion pleased the King there was a Cook brought by the Jailor who was to have been hanged with in a while after for stealing two silver-dishes out of his masters house Yet the King desired first to know of him whether he would take the poyson on this condition that if the Antidote which was predicated to have singular power against all manner of poysons which should be presently given him after the Poyson should free him from death that then he should have his life saved The Cook answered chearfully that he was wiling to undergo the hazard yea greater matters not onely to save his life but to shun the infamy of the death he was like to be adjudged to Therefore he then had poyson given him by the Apothecary that then waited presently after the poyson some of the Bedezahar brought from Spain which being taken down within a while after he began to vomit and to avoid much by stool with grievous torments and to cry out that his inward parts were burnt with fire Wherefore being thirsty and desiring water they gave it him an hour after with the good leave of the Jaylor I was admitted to him I find him on the ground going like a beast upon hands and feet with his tongue thrust forth of his mouth his eies fiery vomiting with store of cold sweats and lastly the blood flowing forth by his ears nose mouth fundament and yard I gave him eight ounces of
oil to drink but it did him no good The caustick force of sublimate for it came too late Wherefore at length he died with great torment and exclamation the seventh hour from the time that he took the poyson being scarcely passed I opened his body in the presence of the Jaylor and four others and I found the bottom of his stomach black and dry as if it had been burnt with a Cauterie whereby I understood he had sublimate given him whose force the Spanish Bedezahar could not repress wherefore the King commanded to burn it CHAP. XXXVII Of Mineral Poysons MInerals or metals are either so taken forth of the bowels of the earth The symptoms of such as have taken sublimate or else from fornaces Of these many are poisonous as arsenick sublimate plaster ceruss litharge verdegrease orpiment filings of Iron brass the load-stone lime and the like Such as have taken sublimate the tongue and jaws become straitned and rough as if they had drunk the juice of unripe services you cannot amend this asperity with lenitive gargarisms but with labour and time for assoon as it descends into the stomach it sticketh to it Therefore presently after it frets and exulcerates it causeth unquenchable thirst and unexplicable torments the tongue is swoln the heart faints the urine is supprest the chest can scarce perform the office of breathing the belly is griped and so great pains happen to other extreme parts that unless they be helped the patient will die for presently will grow upon them unless it be speedily hindered the devouring and fiery fury of the poyson rending or eating into the guts and stomach as if they were feared with an hot iron and blood floweth out of the ears nose mouth urinary passage and fundament and then their case is desperate These and who else soever shall take any corroding poyson shall be cured with the same remedies as those that have taken Caentharides Verdegreas so stops the instruments of respiration that it strangles such as have taken it Verdegreas The cure is performed by the same remedies as help those that have taken Arsenick Litharge causeth a heaviness in the stomach suppresseth urine Litharge makes the body swelled and livid We remedy this by giving a vomit presently then after it pigeons-dung mixed in strong wine and so drunken Peter Aponensis wisheth to give oil of sweet almonds and figs. Also it is good to give relaxing and humecting glysters and to annoint the belly with fresh butter or oil of lillies The scales of Brass drunk by troubling the stomach cause a casting and scouring The remedy is The scales of Brass if the patient forthwith vomit if he enter into a bath made of the decoction of Snails if he annoint his belly and brest with butter or oil of lillies and inject laxative and humecting glysters The Load-stone makes them mad that take it inwardly The Loadstone The Antidote thereof is the powder of gold and an emerald drunk in strong wine and glysters of milk and oil of sweet almonds The filings of Lead and the scales or refuse of Iron Filings of Lead and scales of Iron cause great torment to such as take them down The which we help with much milk and fresh butter dissolved therein or with oil of sweet almonds drawn without fire with relaxing and humecting glysters used untill the pain be perfectly asswaged Risagallum Rose-aker or Rats-bane because it is of a most hot and dry nature Arsenick Rose-aker or Rats-bane induces thirst and heat over all the body and so great colliquation of all the humors that although the patients by medicines speedily given escape death yet can they not during the residue of their lives use their members as they formerly did being destitute of their strength by reason of the great driness and contraction of the joints The Antidote thereof is oil of Pine-kernels speedily given and that to the quantity of half a pinte then procure vomit then give much milk to drink and glysters of the same and let them sup up fat broths Unquencht Lime and Auripigmentum or Orpiment drunk Unquenched Lime and Orpiment gnaw the stomach and guts with great tormenting pain and cause unquenchable thirst an asperity of the jaws and throat difficulty of breathing stopping of the urine and a bloody flux They may be helped by oil fat humecting and relaxing things which retund the acrimony by lenitive potions and such as lubricate the belly as also by creams and the mucilages of some seeds as with a decoction of the seeds of Line mallows marsh-mallows and other such things set down at large in the cure of Cantharides These exceeding acrid and strong waters wherewith Gold-smiths and Chymists separate gold from silver being taken into the body are hard to cure Aqua foriâ— because they are forthwith diffused over all the body first burning the throat and stomach Yet it may be helped by the means prescribed against unquenched Lime and Orpiment Ceruss causeth hicketting and a cough makes the tongue dry Ceruss and the extreme parts of the body numme with cold the eies heavy to sleep The patients very often in the midst of the day see some vain phantasie or apparition which indeed is nothing they make a black and oftentimes bloody water they die strangled unless they be helped The Antidote in the opinion of Aetius and Avicen is Scammony drunk in new wine or hony and wine and other diuretick things and such things as procure vomit and purge by stool Plaster Plaster because it concreteth and becommeth stony in the stomach causeth strangulation by straitning and stopping the instruments that serve for breathing The patients receive cure by the same remedies as those who have eaten mushroms or drunk Ceruss you must add Goos-grease in glysters and annoint the belly with oil of lillies and butter CHAP. XXXVIII Of Quick silver The reason why it is so called QUick-silver is so called because it resembleth silver in the colour and is in perpetual motion as if it had a spirit or living soul There is a great controversie amongst authors concerning it For most of them affirm it hot among whom is Galen Halyabas Rhasis Lib 4. simp in 2 practic c. 148. 3 ad alman 4. Meteor Aristotle Constantine Isaac Plattarius Nicholas Massa they maintain their opinion by an argument drawn from things helping and hurting besides from this that it is of such subtill parts that it penetrates dissolves and performeth all the actions of heat upon dense and hard metalls to wit it attenuateth incideth drieth causeth salivation by the mouth purgeth by the stool moveth urine and sweat over all the body neither doth it stir up the thinner humors only but in like sort the gross tough and viscous as those which have the Lues Venerea find by experience using it either in ointments or Plasters Others affirm it very cold and moist for that put into
Lewis Vartoman who denies that Unicorns are wild or fierce for he saith that he saw two which were sent out of Ethiopia to the Sultan who kept them shut up in Penne in Mecha a city of Arabia Felix renowned by the Sepulcher of Mahomet Thevet travelling thither tells that he diligently inquired of the inhabitants what their opinion was of such a beast yet could he never hear any tidings thereof Whence it is easie to discern that such beasts have neither been in our not in Vartomans times The so great variety of dissenting opinions easily induceth me to believe that this word Vnicorn is not the proper name of any beast in the world and that it is a thing only feigned by Painters and Writers of natural things to delight the readers and beholders For as there is but one right way but many by waies and windings so the speech of truth is but one and that alwaies simple and like it self but that of a lie is diverse and which may easily refel it self by the repugnancy and incongruity of opinions if one should say nothing What the ordinary unicorns horns are What therefore will some say of what creatures are these horns which we see wholly different from others if they be not of Unicorns Thevet thinks them nothing else then Elephants bones turned and made into the fashion that we see them for thus in the Eastern Countries some crafty merchants and cunning companions turn hollow and being softned draw to what length these please the teeth of the fish Rohard which lives in the Red and Ethiopian Sea and being so handled they sell them for Unicorns horn Verily that which is termed Unicorns horn being burnt sends forth a smell like to Ivory Now Cardanus affirms that the teeth and bones of Elephants made soft by art may be drawn forth and brought into what form you please like as Ox-bones are For what is there in the world which the thirsting desire of gold will not make men to adulterate and counterfeit The Unicorns born is not effectual against poyson But it is time that we come to the third scope Grant there be Unicorns must it therefore follow that their horns must be of such efficacy against poysons If we judg by events and the experience of things I can protest thus much that I have often made trial thereof yet could I never find any good success in the use thereof against poysons in such as I have had in cure If the matter must be tried by witnesses and authorities a great part of the Physicians of better note have long since bid it adieu and have detracted from the divine and admirable vertues for which it formerly was so much desired And this they have done moved thereto by many just but two especial reasons Lib. de ponder cap. 19. Horns and bones not effectual unless to dâ—ie The first is of Rondoletius who in this case affirms that horns are endued with no taste nor smell and therefore have no effect in physick unless it be to dry Neither saith he am I ignorant that such as have them much predicate their worth so to make the greater benefit and gain by them as of the shavings or scrapings of Unicorns horn which they sell for the weight in gold as that which is singular good against poysons worms which things I think Harts-horn and Ivory do no less effectually perform which is the cause why for the same disease and with the like success I prescribe Ivory to such as are poor and Unicorns horn to the rich as that they so much desire This is the opinion of Rondoletius who without any difference was wont for Unicorns horn to prescribe not only Harts horn or Ivory but also the bones of Horses and Dogs and the stones of Myrabalanes Another reason is that whatsoever resists poyson is cordial that is fit to strengthen the heat which is chiefly assailed by poysons but nothing is convenient to strengthen the heart unless it be by laudable blood or spirit which two are only familiar to the heart as being the work-house of the arterious blood and vital spirits For all things are preserved by their like as they are destroied by their contraries for all things that generate generate things like themselvs But Unicorns horn as it contains no smell so neither hath it any aery parts but is wholly earthy and dry neither can it be converted into blood by the digestive faculty for as it is without juice so is it without flesh For as it cannot be turned into Chylus so neither is it fit to become Chymus that is juice or blood Therefore it is joyned to the heart by no similitude nor familiarity Furthermore there is not a word in Hippocrates and Galen corcerning the Unicorns horn who notwithstanding have in so many places commended Harts-horn Therefore D. Chapelain the chief Physician of King Charls the ninth often used to say that he would very willingly take away that custom of dipping a piece of Unicorns horn in the Kings cup but that he knew that opinion to be so deeply ingraffed in the minds of men that he feared that it would scarce be impugned by reason Besides he said if such a superstitious medicine do no good so certainly it doth no harm unless it be to their estates that buy it with gold or else by accident because Princes whilst they relie more then is fitting upon the magnified virtues of this horn neglect to arm themselves against poysons by other more convenient means so that death oft-times takes them at unawares When as upon a time I inquired of Lewis Duret the Kings Physician and Professor by reason of the great opinion that all learned men justly had of his learning and judgment what he thought of this horn He answered that he attributed no faculties thereto for the confirmation whereof he rendred the second reason I have formerly given but more largely and elegantly neither feared he to affirm it aloud and in plain words to his auditory of learned men coming from all parts to hear him In what cases good But if at any time ore'come by the fault of the times and place he prescribed this horn that he did it for no other intent then to help faintings or swoundings that happen by the abundance of serous humors floating in the orifice of the ventricle which makes men ill disposed because this mixed with other things endued with the like faculty hath power to drink up the waterish humidity by its earthy driness But some will reply that neither the Lemnian nor Armenian earth have any juice in them neither any smell nor aiery spirit It is granted neither truly are such things truly and properly called cordial but only by event and accident for that by the excellent and astrictive faculty they have and stopping the passages of the vessels they hinder the poison from entring into the heart This is my opinion of Unicorns horn which if any
hinder natures diligence and care of concoction For as in the Dog-Dayes the lees of wine subsiding to the bottom are by the strength and efficacie of heat drawn up to the top and mixed with the whole substance of the wine as it were by a certain ebullition or working so melancholick humors being the dregs or lees of the blood stirred by the passions of the minde defile or taint all the blood with their seculent impurity We found that some years agon by experience at the battle of S. Dennis For all wounds by what weapon soever they were made degenerated into great and filthy putrefactions and corruptions with severs of the like nature and were commonly determined by death what medicines and how diligently soever they were applied which caused many to have a false suspicion that the weapons on both sides were poysoned But there were manifest signs of corruption and putrefaction in the blood let the same day that any were hurt and in the principal parts disected afterwards that it was from no other cause then an evil constitution of the air and the mindes of the Souldiers perverted by hate anger and fear CHAP. V. What signs in the Air and Earth prognosticate a Plague WEe may know a plague to be at hand and hang over us if at any time the air and seasons of the year swerve from their natural constitution after those waies I have mentioned before if frequent and long continuing Meteors or sulphureous Thunders infect the air Why abortions are frequent in a pestilent season if fruits seeds and pulie be worm-eaten If birds forsake their nests eggs or young without any manifest cause if we perceive women commonly to abort by continual breathing in the vaporous air being corrupted and hurtful both to the Embryon and original of life and by which it being suffocated is presently cast forth and expelled Yet notwithstanding those airy impressions do not solely courrupt the air but there may be also others raised by the Sun from the filthy exhalations and poysonous vapors of the earth and waters or of dead carkasses which by their unnatural mixture easily corrupt the air subject to alteration as that which is thin and moist from whence divers Epidemial diseases and such as are every-where seize upon the common sort according to the several kinds of corruptions A Catarrh with difficulty of breathing killing many such as that famous Catarrh with difficulty of breathing which in the year 1510 went almost all over the world and raged over all the Cities and Towns of France with great heaviness of the head whereupon the French named it Cuculla with a straitness of the heart and lungs and a cough a continual fever and sometimes raving This although it seized upon many more then it killed yet because they commonly died who were either let blood or purged it shewed it self pestilent by that violent and peculiar and unheard of kinde of malignity The English Sweating-sickness Such also was the English Sweating-sickness or Sweating-fever which unusual with a great deal of terror invaded all the lower parts of Germany and the Low-Countries from the year 1525 unto the year 1530 and that chiefly in Autumn As soon as this pestilent disease entred into any City suddenly two or three hundred fell sick on one day then it departed thence to some other place The people strucken with it languishing fel down in a swound and lying in their beds sweat continually having a fever a frequent quick and unequal pulse neither did they leave sweating till the disease left them which was in one or two daies at the most yet freed of it they languished long after they all had a beating or palpitation of the heart which held some two or three years and others all their life after At the first beginning it killed many before the force of it was known but afterwards very few when it was found out by practice and use that those who furthered and continued their sweats and strengthened themselves with cordials were all restored But at certain times many other popular diseases sprung up as putrid fevers fluxes bloody-fluxes catarrhs coughs phrenzies squinances plurisies inflamations of the lungs inflamations of the eies apoplexies lithargies The Plague is not the definite name of one disease small pox and meazles scabs carbuncles and malign pustles Wherefore the Plague is not alwaies nor every-where of one and the same kinde but of divers which is the cause that divers names are imposed upon it according to the variety of the effects it brings and symptoms which accompany it and kinds of putrefaction and hidden qualities of the air What signs in the earth foreteâ—l a plague They affirm when the Plague is at hand that Mushroms grow in greater abundance out of the Earth and upon the surface thereof many kinds of poysonous insecta creep in great numbers as Spiders Catterpillers Butter-flies Grass-hoppers Beetles Hornets Wasps Flies Scorpions Snails Locusts Toads Worms and such things as are the off-spring of putrefaction And also wilde beasts tired with the voporous malignity of their dens and caves in the Earth forsake them and Moles Toads Vipers Snakes Lizards Asps and Crocodiles are seen to flie away and remove their habitations in great troops For these as also some other creatures have a manifest power by the gift of God and the instinct of Nature to presage changes of weather as rains showrs and fair weather and seasons of the year as the Spring Summer Autumn Winter which they testifie by their singing chirping crying flying playing and bearing with their wings and such like signs so also they have a perception of a Plague at hand And moreover the carkasses of some of them which took less heed of themselves suffocated by the pestiferous poyson of the ill air contained in the earth may be every-where found not onely in their dens but also in the plain fields These vapors corrupted not by a simple putrefaction but an occult malignity How pestilent vapors may kill plants and trees are drawn out of the bowels of the earth into the air by the force of the Sun and Stars and thence condensed into clouds which by their falling upon corn trees and grass infect and corrupt all things which the earth produceth and also kills those creatures which feed upon them yet brute beasts sooner then men as which stoop and hold their heads down towards the ground the maintainer and breeder of this poyson that they may get their food from thence Therefore at such times skilful husbandmen taught by long experience never drive their Cattle or Sheep to pasture before that the Sun by the force of his beams hath wasted and dissipated into air this pestiferous dew hanging and abiding upon the boughs and leaves of trees herbs corn and fruits But on the contrary that pestilence which proceeds from some malign quality from above by reason of evil and certain conjunction of the Stars is
speedily putrefie Men that are of an ill juyce are also most apt to this kind of Pestilence for in the naughty quality of the juyce there is a great preparation of the humors unto putrefaction You may know it by this that when the Pestilence reigneth there are no other diseases among the common people which have their original of any ill juyce but they all degenerate into the Plague Therefore when they begin to appear and wander up and down it is a token that the Pestilence will shortly cease or is almost at an end But here also I would have you to understand those to be of an ill juyce which have no pores in their skin by which as it were by rivers the evil juyce which is contrary to nature may be evacuated and purged Who least subject to take the Plague And I have noted and observed that those are less in danger of the Pestilence which have Cancerous Ulcers and stinking sores in their Noses and such as are infected with the French-Pox and have by reason thereof tumors and rotten Ulcers or have the Kings-evil running upon them the Leprosie or the Scab and to conclude all those that have Fistulaes and running in their bodies I think those that have quartane Fevers are the better priviledged for the same because that by the fit causing sweat that cometh every fourth day they avoid much of the evill juyce that was engendred This is more like to be true then to think that the poyson that cometh from without may be driven away by that which lurketh within Contrariwise women that are great with childe as I have noted Who subject thereto because they have much ill juyce being prohibited from their accustomed evacuations are very apt to take this disease and so seldom recover after they are infected Black or blew Impostumes and spots and pustles of the same colour dispersed over the skin Signs the disease is incurable A good sign argue that the disease is altogether incurable and mortal When the swelling or sore goeth or cometh before the Fever it is a good sign for it declareth that the malignity is very weak and feeble and that nature hath overcome it which of it self is able to drive so great portion thereof from the inner parts A deadly sign But if the sore or tumor come after the Fever it is a mortal and deadly sign for it is certain that it cometh of the venomous matter not translated but dispersed not by the victory of nature but through the multitude of the matter with the weight whereof nature is overcome When the Moon decreaseth those that are infected with the Pestilence are in great doubt and danger of death because then the humors that were collected and gathered together before the Full of the Moon through delay and abundance do swell the more and the faculties by which the body is governed become more weak and feeble because of the imbecillity of the native heat which before was nourished and augmented by the light and so consequently by the heat of the Full Moon For as it is noted by Aristotle the Wainings of the Moon are more cold and weak and thence it is that women have their menstrual fluxes chiefly or commonly at that time In a gross and cloudy air the pestilent infection is less vehement and contagious In what air most contagious then in a thin and subtil air whether that thinness of the air proceed from the heat of the Sun or from the North winde and cold Therefore at Paris where naturally and also through the abundance of filth that is about the City the air is dark and gross the pestilent infection is less fierce and contagious then it is in Province for the subtilty of the air stimulates or helps forward the Plague But this disease is mortal and pernicious wheresoever it be because it suddenly assaulteth the heart which is the Mansion or as it were the fortress or castle of life but commonly not before the signs and tokens of it appear on the body and yet you shall scarce find any man that thinketh of calling the Physician to help to preserve him from so great a danger before the signs thereof be evident to be seen and felt but then the heart is assaulted And when the heart is so assaulted what hope of life is there or health to be looked for What effects fear and confidence produce in the Plague Therefore because medicines come oft-times too late and this malady is as it were a sudden and winged messenger of our death it cometh to pass that so many die thereof And moreover because of the first suspicion of this so dire and cruel a disease the imagination and mind whose force in the diversly much stirring up of the humors is great and almost incredible is so troubled with fear of imminent death and despair of health that together with the preturbed humors all the strength and power of nature falleth and sinketh down This you may perceive and know by reason that the keepers of such as are sick and the bearers which are not fearful but very confident although they do all the basest offices which may be for the sick are commonly not infected and seldom die thereof if infected CHAP. XVIII How a pestilent Fever comes to be bred in us THe Plague oft-times findeth fuel in our bodies and oft-times allurements to wit the putrefaction of humors or aptness to putrefie but it never thence hath its first original for that comes alwayes from the defiled air therefore a pestilent Fever is thus bred in us The pestilent air drawn by inspiration into the lungs The original of the Plague alwayes from the air and transpiration into the utmost mouths of the veins and arteries spread over the skin the bloud or else the humors already putrefying or apt to putrefie therein are infected and turned into a certain kind of malignity resembling the nature of the agent These humors like unquench't lime when it is first sprinkled with water send forth a putrid vapor which carryed to the principal parts and heart especially infecteth the spirituous bloud boyling in the ventricles thereof and therewith also the vital spirits and hence proceeds a certain feverish heat This heat diffused over the body by the arteries together with a malign quality taints all even the solid parts of the bones with the pestiferous venom and besides causeth divers symptoms according to the nature thereof and the condition of the body and the hâ—mors wherein it is Then is the conflict of the malignity assailing and nature defending manifest in which if nature prevail it using the help of the expulsive faculty will send and drive it far from the noble parts either by sweats vomits bleeding evacuation by stool or urine buboes carbuncles pustles spots and other such kinds of breakings out over the skin Signs that nature is oâ—â—come But on the contrary if the malignity prevail
may be given Clysters that provoke sleep must be used which may be thus prepared Take of Barly-water half a pirate oil of Violets and water-Lillies of each two ounces of the water of Plantain and Purslain or rather of their juice three ounces of Camphire seven grains and the whites of three eggs make thereof a Clyster The head must be fomented with Rose-vinegar the hair being first shaved away leaving a double cloth wet therein on the same and often renewed Sheeps-lungs taken warm out of the bodies may be applyed to the head as long as they are warm Cupping-glasses with and without scarification may be applied to the neck and shoulder-blades The arms and legs must be strongly bound being first well rubbed to divert the sharp vapors and humors from the head Frontals may also be made on this manner Take of the oil of Rose and water-Lillies of each two ounces of the oil of Poppy half an ounce of Opium one dram of Rose-vinegar one ounce of Camphire half a dram mix them together Also Nodulaes may be made of the flowers of Poppies Henbane water-Lillies Mandrags beaten in Rose-water with a little Vinegar and a little Camphire and let them be often applied to the nostrils for this purpose Cataplasms also may be laid to the forehead As Take of the mucilage of the seeds of Psilium id est Flea-wort and Quince-seeds extracted in Rose-water three ounces of Barly-meal four ounces of the powder of Rose-leaves the flowers of water-Lillies and Violets of each half an ounce of the seeds of Poppies and purslain of each two ounces A Cataplasm of the water and vinegar of Roses of each ounces make thereof a Cataplasm and apply it warm to the head Or take of the juice of Lettuce of water-Lillies Henbane purslain of each half a pinte of Rose-leaves in powder the seeds of Poppy of each half an ounce oil of Roses three ounces of vinegar two ounces of Barlie-meal as much as shall suffice make thereof a Cataplasm in the form of a liquid Pultis When the heat of the head is mitigated by these medicines and the inflamtion of the brain asswaged we must come unto digesting and resolving fomentations which may disperse the matter of the vapours But commonly in pain of the head they do use to binde the forehead and hinder part of the head very strongly which in this case must be avoided CHAP. XXVII Of the heat of the Kidneyes THe heat of the kidnies tempered by anointing with unguent refrigerans Galeni newly made adding thereto the whites of eggs well beaten that so the ointment may keep moist the longer let this liniment be renewed every quarter of an hour wiping away the reliques â—â—â—e old Or â„ž aq ros lb. ss succi plant â„¥ iv alb ovorum iv olei rosacei nenuph. an â„¥ ii An ointment for the reins acetires â„¥ iii. misce ad usum When you have annointed the part lay thereon the leaves of water-Lillies or the like old herbs and then presently thereupon a double linnen cloth dipped in oxycrate and wrung out again and often changed the patient shall not lie upon a fether-bed but on a quilt stuffed with the chaff of Oats or upon a Mat with many doubted cloaths or Chamlet spread thereon An ointment for the heart To the region of the heart may in the mean time he applied a refrigerating and alexiterial medicine as this which followeth â„ž ung rosat â„¥ iii. olei nonupharini â„¥ i. acet ros aq ros an â„¥ i. theriacae Ê’i croci Ê’ ss Of these melted and mixed otgether make a soft ointment which spred upon a scarlet cloth maybe applied to the region of the heart Or â„ž theriaca opt Ê’i ss The noise of dropping water draws on sleep succi citri acidi limonis an â„¥ ss coral rub sem rosar rub an Ê’ss camphurae croci an grain iii. let them be all mixed together and make an ointment or liniment At the head of the patient as he lies in his bed shall be set an Ewer or cock with a basin under it to receive the water which by the dropping may resemble rain Let the soles of the feet and palms of the hands be gently scratched and the patient lie far from noise and so at length he may fall to some rest CHAP. XXVIII Of the Eruptions and Spots which commonly are called by the name of Purples and Tokens THe skin in pestilent Fevers The differences of the spots in the Plague is marked and variegated in divers places with spots like unto the bitings of Fleas or Gnats which are not alwaies simple but many times arise in form like unto a grain of miller The more spots appear the better it is for the patient they are of divers colours according to the virulencie of the malignity and condition of the matter as red yellow brown violet or purple blew and black Their several names and the reasons of them And because for the most part they are of a purple colour therefore we call them purples Others call them Lenticulae because they have the colour and form of Lentiles They are also called Papiliones i. Butterflies because they do suddenly seize or fall upon divers regions of the body like unto winged Butterflies somtimes the face sometimes the arms and legs and sometimes all the whole body oftentimes they do not only affect the upper part of the skin but go deeper into the flesh When signs of death specially when they proceed matter that is gross and adust They do sometimes appear great and broad affecting the whole arm leg or face like unto an Erysipelas to conclude they are divers according to the variety of the humor that offends in quantity or quality If they are of a purple or black colour with often swounding and sink in suddenly without any manifest cause they fore-shew death The cause of the breaking out of those Spots is the working or heat of the blood by reason of the cruelty of the venom receieed or admitted They often arise at the beginning of a pestilent Fever many times before the breaking out of the Sore or Botch or Carbuncle and many times after but then they shew so great a corruption of the humors in the bodie that neither the sores nor carbuncles will suffice to receive them and therefore they appear as fore-runners of death Somtimes they break out alone without a botch or carbuncle which if they be red and have no evil symptoms joyned with them they are not went to prove deadly they appear for the most part on the third or fourth day of the disease and sometimeslater and sometimes they appear not before the patient be dead because the working or heat of the humours being the off-spring of putrefaction is not as yet restrained and ceased Why they sometimes appear after the death of the patient Wherefore then principally the putrid heat which is greatest a little
before the death of the Patient drives the excremental humours which are the matter of the spots unto the skin or else because nature in the last conflict hath contended with some greater endeavour then before which is common to all things that are ready to die a little before the instant time of death the Pestilent humor being presently driven unto the skin and nature thus weakned by these extreme conflicts falleth down prostrate and is quite overthrown by the remnant of the matter CHAP. XXIX Of the cure of Eruptions and Spots They are to be cured by driving forth YOu must first of all take heed lest you drive in the humor that is coming outwards with repercussives therefore beware of cold all purging things phlebotomy and drowsie or sound sleeping For all such things do draw the humors inwardly and work contrary to nature But it is better to provoke the motion of nature outwardly by applying of drawing medicines outwardly and ministring medicines to provoke sweat inwardly for otâ—erwise by repelling and stopping the matter of the eruptions there will be great danger lest the heart be oppressed with the abundance of the venom flowing back or else by turning into the belly it infers a mortal bloudy flux which discommodities that they may be avoided I have thought good to set down this remedy whose efficacy I have known and proved many times and on divers persons when by reason of the weakness of the expulsive faculty and the thickness of the skin the matter of the spots cannot break forth but is constrained to lurk under the skin lifting it up into bunches and knobs The indication of curing taken from the like I was brought unto the invention of this remedy by comparison of the like For when I understood that the essence of the French-pox and likewise of the pestilence consisted in a certain hidden virulency and venomous quality I soon descended unto that opinion that even as by the annointing of the body with the unguent compounded of Quick-silver the gross and clammy humours which are fixed in the bones and unmovable are dissolved relaxed and drawn from the center into the superficial parts of the body by strengthening and stirring up the expulsive faculty and evacuated by sweating and fluxing at the mouth that so it should come to pass in pestilent Fevers that nature being strengthened with the same kind of unction might unload herself of some portion of the venomous and pestilent humor by opening the pores and passages and â—etting it break forth into spots and pustles and into all kind of eruptions Therefore I have anointed many in whom nature seemed to make passage for the venomous matter very slowly first looâ—ing their belly with a glyster and then giving them Treacle-water to drink which might defend the vital faculty of the heart but yet not distend the stomach as though they had the French-pox and I obtained my expected purpose In stead of the Treacle-water you may use the decoction of Guaicum which doth heat dry provoke sweat and repel putrefactioâ— adding thereto also Vinegar that by the subtilty thereof it may pierce the better and withstand the putrefaction This is the description of the unguent An ointment to draw them forth when as they appear too slowly Take of Hogs-grease one pound boil it a little with the leaves of Sage Thime Rosemary of each half an handful strain it and in the straining extinguish five ounces of Quick-silver which hath been first boyled in Vinegar with the fore-mention herbs of Sal Nitrum three drams the yelks of three eggs boyled until they be hard of Treacle and Mithridate of each half an ounce of Venice-Turpentine oyl of Scorpions and Bayes of each three ounces incorporate them altogether in a mortar and make thereof an unguent wherewith annoint the Patients arm-holes and groins avoiding the parts that belong to the head breast and back-bone then let him be laid in his bed and covered warm and let him sweat there for the space of two hours and then let his body be wiped and cleansed and if it may be let him be laid in another bed and there let him be refreshed with the decoction of a Capon reer eggs and with such like meats of good juyce that are easie to be concocted and digested let him be annointed the second and third day unless the spots appear before If the Patient flux at the mouth it must not be stopped when the spots and pustles do all appear and the Patient hath made an end of sweating it shall be convenient to use diuretick medicines for by these the remnant of the matter of the spots which happily could not all breath forth may easily be purged and avoided by urine If any Noble or Gentlemen refuse to be annointed with this unguent let them be enclosed in the body of a Mule or Horse that is newly killed and when that is cold let them be laid in another until the pustles and eruptions do break forth being drawn by that natural heat For so Matthiolus writeth In pâ—oaem lib. 6. Diâ—sc that Valentinus the son of Pope Alexander the sixt was delivered from the danger of most deadly poyson which he had drunk GHAP. XXX Of a pestilent Bubo or Plague-sore A Pestilent Bubo is a tumor at the beginning long and moveable and in the state What a pestilent Bubo is and full perfection copped and with a sharp head unmoveable and fixed deeply in the glandules or kernels by which the brain exonerates it self of the venomous and pestiferous matter into the kernels that are behinde the ears and in the neck the heart into those that are in the arm-holes and the Liver into those that are in the groin that is when all the matter is gross and clammy so that it cannot be drawn out by spots and pustles breaking out on the skin and so the matter of a Carbuncle is sharp and so fervent that it maketh an Eschar on the place where it is fixed In the beginning while the Bubo is breeding it maketh the patient to feel as if it were a cord or rope stretched out in the place or a hardned nerve with pricking pain and shortly after the matter is raised up as it were into a knob and by little and little it groweth bigger and is inflamed these accidents before mentioned accompanying it If the tumor be red The signs of Buboes salutary and deadly and increase by little and little it is a good and salutary sign but if it be livid or black and come very slowly unto his just bigness it is a deadly sign It is also a deadly signe if it increase suddenly come to his just bigness as it were with a swift violence and as in a moment have all the symptoms in the highest excess as pain swelling and burning Buboes or Sores appear sometimes of a natural colour like unto the skin and in all other things like unto an oedematous tumor which
away the flesh that was under them that the rough artery or winde-pipe might be seen bare when the Eschar was fallen away I had once a Carbuncle which was in the midst of my belly so that when the Eschar was fallen away I might very plainly see the Peritoneum or Rim and the cicatrice that remaineth is as broad as my hand but they do not spread themselves so far without the great danger or death of the patient There are also some Carbuncles which beginning at the parts under the chin disperse themselves by little and little unto the battle-bones and so strangle the patient So in many the Buboes in the groin arâ—se above a great part of the muscles of the Epigastrium Truly of those abscesses that are so large great in quantity Huge pestilent Abscesses commonly deadly and so terrible to be seen there is great danger of death to the patient or at least to the grieved part For after the consolidation the part remaineth as if it were leprous which abolisheth the action of the part as I have seen in many Oftentimes also the corruption of the matter is so great that the flesh leaveth the bones bare but Carbuncles often leave the joints and ligaments quite resolved through the occasion of the moisture that is soaked and sunk into them for they often cast out putrefied â—nd virulent sanious matter whereby eating and creeping ulcers are bred many blisters and pustles arising up in the parts round about it which shortly breaking into one make a great ulcer These come very seldom and slowly unâ—o suppuration or at least to cast out laudable matter especially if they have their origional of choler because the matter is sooner burned with heat then suppurated Therefore then if they can be brought to suppuration by no medicines if the tumor still remain black Deadly Carbuncles if when they are opened nothing at all or else a very little sharp moisture doth come forth they aâ—e altogether mortal and there is scarce one of a thousand who hath these accidents that recovereth health Dispersed small blisters coming of vapors stirred up by the matter that is under the skin and are there staied and kept from passage forth do not necessarily fore-shew death â—n Carbuncles But if the part be swoln or puffed â—p if it be of a green or black colour and if it feel neither pricking not burning it is a sign of a mortal Gangrene Buboes or Carbuncles seldom or never come without a Fever but the Fever is more vehement when they are in the emunctaries or nervous parts then when they are in the fleshly parts yet it is less and all Symptoms are less and more tolerable in a man that is strong and of a good temperature Carbuncles not only affect the outward but also the inward parts and oftentimes both together Jf the heart be vexed in such sort with a Carbuncle that nothing thereof appeareth forth on the superficial parts all hope of life is past and those die suddenly eating drinking or walking and not thinking any thing of death If the Carbuncle be in the midriff or lungs they are soon suffocated If it be in the brain the patient becometh frantick and so dieth If it be in the parts appointed for the passage of the urine they die of the suppression of their water as it happened in the Queen-mothers waiting maid at the Castle of Rossilion of whom I spak before If it be in the stomach it interreth the accidents that are shewed in this history following While I was Surgeon in the Hospital of Paris a young and strong Monk of the order of St. Victor being overseer of the woman that kept the sick people of that place An history fell into a continual Fever very suddenly with his tongue black dry rough by reason of the putrefied and corrupted humors and the vapors rising from the whole body unto that place and hanging out â—â—â—e unto an hounds with unquenchable thirst often swounding and desire to vomit He hath convulsions over all his body through the vehemency and malignity of the disease and so he died the third day Wherefore those that kept the sick people in the Hospital thought that he had been poisoned for the certain knowledg whereof the Governors of the Hospital commanded his body to be opened I therefore calling to me a Physician and Surgeon we found in the bottom of his stomach a print or impression as if it had been with an hot iron or potential Cautery with an Eschar or â—ruâ—â— as broad as ones nail all the rest of his stomach was greatly contracted and shrunk up together and as it were horny which we considering and especially the Eschar which was deep in the substance of the stomach we all said with one voice that he was poysoned with Sublimate or Arsenick But behold while I was sowing up his belly I perceived many black spots dispersed diversly throughout the skin then I asked my company what they thought of those spots truly said I it seemeth unto me that they are like unto the purple spots or marks that are in the pestilence The Physician and the Surgeon denied it and said that they were the bitings of fleas But I perswaded them to consider the number of them over all the whole body and also of their great depth and depression into the flesh for when we had thrust needles deep into the flesh in the middest of them and so cut away the flesh about the needle How to distinguish purple spots from flea bitings we found the flesh about the needle to be black moreover his nostrils nails and ears were livid and all the constitution of his body was contrary and far unlike to the bodies of those that died of other sicknesses or diseases Also it was credibly reported unto us by those that kept him that his face was so altered a little before he died that his familiar friends could hardly know him We perswaded by these proofs revoked our former opinion and sentence and made a Certificate to be sent unto the Governors and Masters of the Hospital setting our hands and seals unto it to certifie them that he died of a pestilent Carbuncle CHAP. XXXIV Of the Cure of a pestilent Carbuncle BY the fore named signs of a pestilent Carbuncle and especially by the bitterness of the pain malignity of the venomous matter Why emplastick very hot and great drawers are not good for a Carbuncle and by the burning fever that is therewithall annexed I think it manifest that very hot emplastick and drawing medicines should not be applied to this kind of tumor because they prohibit or hinder the exhalation or wasting forth of the venenate malignity because that by stopping the pores of the skin they increase and cause a greater heat in the part then there was before Therefore it is better to use resolving medicines which may asswage heat and resolve the pores of the skin Therefore first
womb There are women that bear the childe in their womb ten or eleven whole moneths and such children have their conformation of much quantity of seed wherefore they will be more big great and strong and therefore they require more time to come to their perfection and maturity for those fruits that are great will not be so soon ripe as those that are small But children that are small and little of body do often come to their perfection and maturity in seven or nine moneths if all other things are correspondent in greatness and bigness of body it happeneth for the most part that the woman with childe is not delivered before the ninth moneth be done A male will be born soonner then a female or at the leastwise in the same moneth But a male childe will be commonly born at the beginnâ—ng or a little before the begining of the same moneth by reason of his engrafted heat which causeth maturity and ripeness Furthermore the infant is sooner come to maturity and perfection in a hot woman then in a cold for it is the property of heat to ripen CHAP. XXXI How to preserve the infant in the womb when the mother is dead IF all the signes of death appear in the woman that lieth in travel and cannot be delivered there must then be a Surgeon ready and at hand which may open her body so soon as she is dead whereby the infant may be preserved in safety neither can it be supposed sufficient if the mothers mouth and privie parts be held open for the infant being inclosed in his mothers womb Why it is not sufficient to preserve life in the childe to hold open the mouth and privie parts of the mother so soon as she is dead and the childe alive in her body and compassed with the membranes cannot take his breath but by contractions and dilatations of the artery of the navel But when the mother is dead the lungs do not execute their office function therefore they cannot gather in the air that compasseth the body by the mouth or aspera arteria into their own substance or into the arteries that are dispersed throughout the body thereof by reason whereof it cannot send it unto the heart by the veiny artery which is called arteria venalis for if the heart want air there cannot be any in the great artery which is called arteria aorta whose function it is to draw it from the heart as also by reason thereof it is wanting in the arteries of the womb which are as it were the little conduits of the great artery whereinto the air that is brought from the heart is derived and floweth in unto these little ones of all the body and likewise of the womb Wherefore it must of necessity follow that the air is wanting to the cotyledons of the secundines to the artery of the infants navel the iliack arteries also and therefore unto his heart and so unto his body for the air being drawn by the mothers lungs is accustomed to come to the infant by this continuation of passages How the bellie of the woman that dieth in travel must be cut open to save the childe Therefore because death maketh all the motions of the mothers body to cease it is far better to open her body so soon as she is dead beginning the incision at the cartilage Xiphoides or blade and making it in a form semicircular cutting the skin muscles and peritonaeum not touching the guts then the womb being lifted up must first be cut lest that otherwise he infant might perchance be touched or hurt with the knife You shall oftentimes finde the childe unmoveable as though he were dead but not because he is dead indeed but by reason that he being destitute of the accesse of the spirits by the death of the mother hath contracted a great weakness yet you may know whether he be dead indeed or not by handling the artery of the navel for it will beat and pant if he be alive otherwise not but if there be any life yet remaining in him How it may be known whether the infant be aâ—ive or not shortly after he hath taken in the air and is recreated with the access thereof he will move all his members and also all his whole body In so great a weakness or debility of the strength of the childe by cutting the navel string it must rather be laid close to the region of the belly thereof that thereby the heat if there be any jot remaining may be stirred up again But I cannot sufficiently marvel at the insolency of those that affirm that they have seen women whose bellies and womb have been more then once cut and the infant taken out when it could no otherwise be gotten forth and yet notwithstanding alive which thing there is no man can perswade me can be done without the death of the mother by reason of the necessary greatness of the wound that must be made in the muscles of the belly and substance of the womb for the womb of a woman that is great with childe by reason that it swelleth and is distended with much blood must needs yield a gread flux of blood which of necessity must be mortal And to conclude when that the wound or incision of the womb is cicatrized it will not peâ—mit or suffer the womb to be dilated or extended to receive or bear a new birth For these and such like other causes this kinde of cure as desperate and dangerous is not in mine opinion to be used CHAP. XXXII Of superfetation SUperfetation is when a woman doth bear two or more children at one time in her womb What superfetation is and they be enclosed each in his several secundine but those that are included in the same secundine are supposed to be conceived at one and the same time of copulation by reason of the great and copious abundance of seed and these have no number of daies between their conception and birth but all at once For as presently after meat the stomach which is naturally of a good temper is contracted or drawn together about the meat to comprehend it on every side though small in quantity as it were by both hands so that it cannot rowl neither unto this or that side so the womb is drawn together into the conception about the seeds assoon as they are brought into the capacity thereof and is so drawn in unto it on every side that it may come together into one body not permitting any portion thereof to go into any other region or side so that by one time of copulation the seed that is mixed together cannot engender more children then one which are divided by their secundines A womans womb is not distinguished into diverse cells And moreover because there are no such cells in the wombs of women as are supposed or rather known to be in the wombs of beasts which therefore bâ—ing forth many
gums by the comming forth of the teeth The signes of that pain is an unaccustomed burning or heat of the childes mouth The cause of the pain in breeding teeth The signs which may be perceived by the nurse that giveth it suck a swelling of the gumbs and cheeks and the childes being more way-ward and crying then it was wont and it will put its fingers to its mouth and it will â—ub them on its gums as though it were about to scratch and it slavereth much That the Physiaian may remedy this he must cure the nurse as if she had the fever and she must not suffer the childe to suck so often The cure but make him cool and moist when he thirsteth by giving him at certain times syrupus Alexandrinus syrup de limonibus or the syrup of pomgranats with boyled water yet the childe must not hold those things that are actually cold long in his mouth for such by binding the gums do in some sort stay the teeth that are newly comming forth but things that lenifie and mollifie are rather to be used that is to say such things as do by little and little relax the loose flesh of the gums and also asswage the pain Therefore the Nurse shall oftentimes rub the childes gums with her fingers annointed or besmeared with oil of sweet almonds fresh-butter honie sugar mucilage of the seeds of psilium or of the seeds of marsh-mallows extracted in the water of Pellitorie of the wall Some think that the brain of a hare or of a sucking pig roasted or sodden through a secret property are effectual for the same and on the outside shall be applyed a cataplasm of barlie-meal milk oil of roses and the yelks of eggs Also a stick of liquorice shaven and bruised and annointed with honie or any of the forenamed syrups and often rubbed in the mouth or on the gums is likewise profitable What power scratching of the gums hath to asswage the pain of them so is also any toy for the childe to play withall wherein a wolves tooth is set for this by scratching doth asswage the painfull itching raryfie the gums and in some weareth them that the teeth appear the sooner But manie times it happeneth that all these and such like medicines profit nothing at all by reason of the contumacy of the gums by hardness or the weakness of the childes nature therefore in such a case before the fore named mortal accidents come I would perswade the Chirurgian to open â—he gums in such places as the teeth bunch out with a little swelling with a knife or lancet so breaking and opening a way for them notwithstanding that a little flux of blood will follow by the tention of the gums of which kinde of remedy I have with prosperous and happy success made tryal in some of mine own children in the presence of Feureus Altinus and Cortinus Doctors of Physick and Cuillemeau the Kings Chirurgian which is much better and more safe then to do as some nurses do who taught only by the instinct of nature with their nails and scratching break and tear or rent the childrens gums An historie The Duke of Neves had a son of eight moneths old which died of late and when we with the Physicians that were present diligently sought for the cause of his death we could impute it unto nothing else then to the contumacious hardness of the gums which was greater then was convenient for a childe of that age for therefore the teeth could not break forth not make a passage for themselves to come forth of which our judgment this was the trial that when we cut his gums with a knife we found all his teeth appearing as it were in an arraie redie to come forth which if it had been done when he lived doubtless he might have been preserved The end of the twentie fourth Book THE FIVE and TWENTIETH BOOK Of Monsters and Prodigies THE PREFACE WEe call Monsters what things soever are brought forth contrary to the common decree and order of nature What a Monster is What a Prodigie is So we term that infant monstrous which is born with one arm alone or with two heads But we define Prodigies those things which happen contrary to the whole course of nature that is altogether differing and dissenting from nature as if a man should be delivered of a Snakeâ— or a Dog Of the first sort are thought all those in which any of those things which ought and are accustomed to be according to nature is wanting or doth abound is changed worn covered or deformed hurt or not put in his right place for sometimes some are born with more fingers then they should othersome but with one finger some with those parts divided which should be joyned others with those parts joined which should be divided some are born with the privities of both sexes male and female And Aristotle saw a Goat with a horn upon her knee No liveing creature was ever born which wanted the Heart but some have been seen wanting the spleen others with two spleens and some wanting one of the Reins Lib. 4 gen anim cap. 4. And none have been known to have wanted the whole Liver although some have been found that had it not perfect and whole and there have been those which wanted the Gall when by nature they should have had it and besides it hath been seen that the Liver contrary to his natural site hath lien on the left side and the Spleen on the right Some women also have had their privities closed not perforated the membranous obstacle which they call the Hymen hindering And men are sometimes born with their fundaments ears noses and the rest of the passages shut and accounted monstrous nature erring from its intended scope But to conclude those Monsters are thought to portend some ill which are much differing from their nature CHAP. I Of the causes of Monsters and first of those Monsters which appear for the glorie of God and the punishment of mens wickedness THere are reckoned up many causes of Monsters the first whereof is the glorie of God that his immense power may be manifest to those which are ignorant of it by the sending of those things which happen contrary to nature for thus our Saviour Christ answered the Disciples asking whether he or his parents had offended who being born blinde received his sight from him that neither he nor his parents had committed any fault so great but this so happened only that the glorie and majestie of God should be divulged by that miracle and such great works Another cause is that God may either punish mens wickedness or shew signs of punishment at hand because parents sometimes lie and join themselves together without law and measure or luxuriously and beastly or at such times as they ought to forbear by the command of God and the Church such monstrous horrid and unnatural births do happen The
Sena at one time brought forth seven children of which four were baptized In our time betweeen Sarte and Main in the parish of Seaux not far from Chambellay there is a family and noble house called Maldemeure the wife of the Lord of Maldemure the first year she was married brought forth twins the second year she had three children the third year four the fourth year five the fifth year six and of that birth she died of those six one is yet alive and is Lord of Maldemeure In the valley of Beaufort in the countie of Anjou a young woman the daughter of Mace Channiere when at one perfect birth she had brought forth one childe the tenth day following she fell in labor of another but could not be delivered untill it was pulled from her by force and was the death of the mother The Picture of Dorithie great with childe with many children Martin Comerus the author of the Polish historie writeth that one Margaret The ninth Book of the Polish Historie a woman sprung from a noble and ancient familie neer Cracovia and wife to Count Virboslaus brought forth at one birth thirtie five live children upon the twentieth daie of Jan. in the year 1296. Franciscus Picus Mirandula writeth that one Dorothie an Italian had twentie children at two births at the first nine and at the second eleven and that she was so big that she was forced to bear up her bellie which lay upon her knees with a broad and large scarf tied about her neck as you may see by this figure And they are to be reprehended here again who affirm the cause of numerous births to consist in the variety of the cels of the womb for they feign a womans womb to have seven cels or partitions three on the right side for males three on the left side for females and one in the midst for Hermophrodites or Scrats and this untruth hath gone so far that there have been some that affirmed every of the seven cels to have been divided into ten partitions into which the seed dispersed doth bring forth a divers and numerous encrease according to the varietie of cels furnished with the matter of seed which though it may seem to have been the opinion of Hippocrates in his Book De natura Pueri notwithstanding it is repugnant to reason and to those things which are manifestly apparent to the eies and senses The opinion of Aristotle is more probable who saith twins and more at one birth Lib. 4. de gen anim cap. 4. are begot and brought forth by the same cause that the sixth finger groweth on the hand that is by the abundant plentie of the seed which is greater and more copious then can be all taken up in the natural framing of one bodie for if it all be forced into one it maketh one with the parts encreased more then is fit either in greatness or number but if it be as it weâ—e cloven into divers parts it causeth more then one at one birth CHAP. IV. Of Hermophrodites or Scrats ANd here also we must speak of Hermophrodites because they draw the cause of their generation and conformation from the abundance of seed and are called so because they are of both sexes the woman yeelding as much seed as the man For hereupon it commeth to pass that the forming facultie which alwaies endeavors to produce something like it self doth labor both the matters almost with equal force and is the cause that one bodie is of both sexes Yet some make four differences of Hermophrodites the first of which is the male Hermophrodite who is a perfect and absolute male and hath only a slit in the Perinaeum not perforated and from which neither urine nor seed doth flow The second is the female which besides her natural privitie hath a fleshie and skinnie similitude of a mans yard but unapt for erection and ejaculation of seed and wanteth the cod and stones the third difference is of those which albeit they bear the express figures of members belonging to both sexes commonly set the one against the other yet are found unapt for generation the one of them only serving for making of water the fourth difference is of those who are able in both sexes throughly perform the part of both man and woman because they have the genitals of both sexes complete and perfect and also the right brest like a man and the left like a woman the laws command those to chuse the sex which they will use and in which they will remain and live judgeing them to death if they be found to have departed from the sex they made choice of for some are thought to have abused both and promiscuously to have had their pleasure with men and women There are signs by which the Physicians may discern whether the Hermophrodites are able in the male or female sex or whether they are impotent in both these signs are most apparent in the privities and face for if the matrix be exact in all its demensions and so perforated that it may admit a mans yard if the courses flow that way if the hair of the head be long slender and soft and to conclude if to this tender habit of the body a timid and weak condition of the minde be added the female sex is predominant and they are plainly to be judged women But if they have the Perinaeum and fundament full of hairs the which in women are commonly without any if they have a a yard of a convenient largeness if it stand well and readily and yeeld seed the male sex hath the preheminence and they are to be judged men But if the conformation of both the genitals be alike in figure quantity and efficacy it is thought to be equally able in both sexes although by the opinion of Aristotle Lib. 4. de gener anim cap. 5. those who have double genitals the one of the male the other of the female the one of them is alwaies perfect the other imperfect The figure of Hermophrodite twins cleaving together with their backs Anno Dom. 1486. in the Palatinate at the village Robach near Heidelberg there were twins both Hermophrodites born with their backs sticking together The effigies of an Hermophrodite having four hands and feet The same day the Venetians and Geneses entred into league there was a monster born in Italy having four arms and feet and but one head it lived a little after it was baptized James Ruef a Helvetian Cirurgian saith he saw the like but which besides had the privities of both sexes whose figure I have therefore set forth Pag. 647. CHAP. V. Of the changing of Sex AMatus Lusitanus reports that in the village Esquina there was a maid named Maria Pateca who at the appointed age for her courses to flow had instead of them a mans yard laying before that time hid and covered so that of a woman she became a man and therefore laying
cut even to the hollowness thereof Whilst Pus or matter is in generating pains and fevers happen rather then when it is already made 18. 5. Cold things are hurtful to the bones teeth nerves brain spinal marrow but hot things are good 46. 2. Two pains infesting together but not the same place the more vehement obscures the other 74. 7. A corruption an abscess of the bone is caused by the corruption of the flesh 50 6. Coacar praenot A livid or drie ulcer or yellowish is deadly 19. 6. When as a bone or gristle or nerve or small portion of the cheek or the prepuce is cut a sunder it neither increases nor grows together 24. 6. Aph. 513. Coacar If any of the small guts be cut it knits not again 50. 7 Those that have the brain sphacelate that is corrupt they die with in three daies if they escape these they recover 9. 7. Bleeding at a wound causing a convulsion is the fore-teller of death 20. 5. Cold is biting to ulcers hardens the skin causes pain not easily comming to supputation blackness aguish shakings convulsions cramps 508. Coac Those who have the temples cut have a convulsion upon the parts contrary to the section 44. 7. Whosoever being suppurate are burnt or cut if pure and white quiture shall flow forth they escape but if that which is bloody feculent and stinking then they dye Galen Comment ad Aphor. 29. 2. It is not fit to take in hand to cure such as are in a desperate case but to leave them one fore-telling the end of the disease Celsus cap. 10. Lib. 20. It is better to trie a doubtful remedy them none at all The Effigies of GALEN the Prince of Physicians next to HIPPOCRATES AEQuum erat Hippocratem divino è semine Divûm Orbem muneribus conciliare sibi Scripta sed involvit tam multo aenigmate verum Ut quamvis solers nullus habere queat Pergamei auxilio nisi sint monimenta Galeni Qui doctâ ambages sustulit arte senis Ergò macte esto virtute arcana resolvens Quae nulli fuerant nota Galene priûs Obstringens que orbem aeterno tibi munere totum Aeternis sacras te quoque temporibus BON. GRA. PARIS MEDIC Rules of Surgery by the Author 1 PRactice is an operation agreeable to the Rules and Laws of the Theory 2 Health is not received by Words but by Remedies fitly used 3 Remedies known and approved by use and reason are to be preferred before such as are unknown or but lately found out 4 Science without experience gets the Physician no great credit with the Patient 5 He that would perform any great and notable work must diligently apply himself to the knowledg of his subject 6 It is the part of a good Physician to heal the disease or certainly to bring it to a better pass as nature shall give leave 7 The Surgeon must be active industrious and well-handed and not trust too much to Books 8 He that hath not been versed in the operations of the Art not a frequent auditor of the Lectures of such as are leaned therein and sets forth himself for a Brave Surgeon for that he hath read much he is either much deceived or impudent 9 He shall never do any thing proise-worthy that hath got his mastery in Surgery by gold not by use 10 You shall comfort the patient with hope of Recovery even when as there is danger of death 11 To charge Physicians and Surgeons is troublesome but not good for the Patient 12 Though the disease prove long yet it is not fit that the Physician give over the Patient 13 Great wounds of large vessels are to be jadged deadly 14 Every contusion must be brought to suppuration 15 As the nature or kinde of the disease must be known so also must the remedy 16 An Abscess of the bone of the palat is in danger to cause a stinking breath 17 Bleeding caused by heat must be represt by cold 18 Wounds of nervous parts require medicines which by the subtilty of the parts may enter in and draw from far 19 It is not fit for such as have Ulcers in their Legs either to walk stand or fit but to rest themselves in bed 20 All biting and acrid medicines are offensive to clean Ulcers 21 For restoring of dislocations you must hold them fast them out and force them in 22 A great Gangrene admits no cure but cutting 23 A monster is a thing dissenting from the laws of nature 24 Wounds of the Chest presently become famous and purulent 25 The wounds made by all venemous creatures are dangerous 26 The south-winde blowing wounded members easily become mortified 27 Such as are wounded and desire to be quickly whole must keep a spare diet 28 Untemperate bodies do not easily recover of diseases 29. Round Ulcers unless they be drawn into another figure do not easily heal up 30 An Erysipelatous Ulcer requires purgation by stool 31 Crying is good for an infant for it serves in stead of exercise and evacuation 32 Grief is good for none but such as are very fat 33 Idleness weakens and extinguisheth the native heat 34 An ill-natured Ulcer yields not unless to a powerful remedy 35 A bath resolves and discusses humors and gently procures sweat 36 Cold diseases are troublesome to cold people and hard to be helped but in young bodies they are neither so troublesome not contumacious 37 Exercised bodies are less subject to diseases 38 Moist bodies though they need small nourishment yet stand they in need of large evacuation 39 Sick people dye sooner of an hot distemper then of a cold by reason of the quick and active operation of fire 40 The quitture that flows from an ulcer is laudable which is white smooth and equal The end of the Twenty Seventh Book The EIGHT and TWENTIETH BOOK How to Make Reports and to Embalm the Dead Why a surgeon must be careful in making of Reports NOw it only remains that we instruct the Surgeon in making and framing his Report or opinion either of the death of any person or of the weakness of deprivation of any member in the function or execution of its proper office and duty Herein it is meet that he be very considerate that is to say ingenious or wise in making his Report because the events or diseases are often-times doubtful and uncertain neither can any man fore-tel them certainly whether they will be for life or death by reason of the manifold nature of the subject of which we speak and also the uncertain condition of the humors both in their kinde and motion What judgment is difficult Which was the cause why Hippocrates even in the first of his Aphorisms pronounceth that judgment is difficult But first of all is is very expedient that a Surgeon be of an honest minde that he must alwayes have before his eyes a careful regard of the piety that is to say the fear of God and faith in
concavity of the body Signs that a wound hath pierced in the concavity of the chest if the air come forth at the wound making a certain whizzing noise if the patient breathe with great difficulty if he feel a great heaviness or weight on or about the midriff whereby it may be gathered that a great quantity of blood lieth upon the place or midriff and so causeth him to feel a weight or heaviness which by little and little will be cast up by vomiting But a little after a fever commeth and the breath is unsavory and stinking by reason that the putrifying blood is turned into sanies the patient cannot lye but on his back and he hath an often desire to vomit but if he escape death his wound will degenerate into a Fistula and at length will consume him by little and little We may know that the lungs are wounded by the foaming and spumous blood comming out both at the wound and cast up by vomiting Signs that the Lungs are wounded That the Heart is wounded he is vexed with a grievous shortness of breath and with pain in his sides We may perceive the heart to be wounded by the abundance of blood that commeth out at the wound by the trembling of all the whole body by the faint and small pulse paleness of the face cold sweat with often swooning coldness of the extreme parts and sudden death When the midriff which the Latins call Diaphragma is wounded The Midriff the patient feeleth a great weight in that place he raveth and talketh idlely he is troubled with shortness of winde a cough and fit of grievous pain and drawing of the intrals upwards Wherefore when all these accidents appear we may certainly pronounce that death is at hand Death appeareth suddenly by a wound of the hollow Vein or the great Artery The Vena Cava and great Artery by reason of the great and violent evacuation of blood and spirits whereby the functions of the Heart and Lungs are stopped and hindered The marrow of the back bone being pierced The spinal marrow the patient is assaulted with a palsie or convulsion very suddenly and sence and motion faileth in the parts beneath it the excrements of the bladder are either evacuated against the patients will or else are altogether stopped When the Liver is wounded much blood cometh out at the wound The Liver and pricking-pain disperseth it self even unto the sword-like gristle which hath its situation at the lower end of the breast-bone called Sternon the blood that followeth from thence down into the intestines doth oft-times infer most malign accidents yea and sometimes death When the stomach is wounded the meat and drink come out at the wound The Stomach there followeth a vomiting of pure choler then commeth swearing and coldness of the extreme parts and therefore we ought to prognosticate death to follow such a wound When the Milt or Splene is wounded black and gross blood cometh out at the wound The spleen the patient will be very thirsty with pain on the left side and the blood breaks forth into the belly and there purrifying causeth most malign and grievous accidents and often-times death to follow When the guts are wounded the whole body is griped and pained The Guts the excrements come out at the wound whereat also oft-times the guts break forth with great violence When the reins of Kidnies are wounded the patient will have great pain in making his urine The Kidnies and the blood commeth out together therewith the pain commeth down even unto the groin and yard and testicles When the Bladder and Ureters are wounded the pain goeth even unto the entrails The Bladder the parts all about and belonging to the groin are d stended the urine is bloody that is made and the same also commeth oftentimes out of the wound When the womb is wounded the blood commeth out at the privities The womb and all other accidents appear like as when the bladder is wounded The nerves When the sinews are pricked or cut half asunder there is great pain in the affected place and there followeth a sudden inflammation flux abscess fever convulsion and oftentimes a gangrene or mortification of the part whereof commeth death unless it be speedily prevented Having declared the signs and tokens of wounded parts it now remaineth that we set down other signs of certain kindes of death that are not common or natural whereabout when there is great strife and contention made it oftentimes is determined and ended by the judgment of the descreet Physician or Surgeon Signs that an infant is smothered or over-laid Therefore if it chance that a nurse either through drunkenness or negligence lies upon the infant lying in bed with her and so stifles or smothers it to death If your judgment be required whether the infant died through the default or negligence of the nurse or through some violent or sudden disease that lay hidden and lurking in the body thereof you shall finde out the truth of the matter by these signs following For if the infant were in good health before if he were not froward or crying if his mouth and nostrils now being dead be moistened or bedewed with a certain foam if his face be not pale but of a Violet or Purple colour if when the body is opened the Lungs be found swoln and puffed up as it were with a certain vaporous foam and all other intrails sound it is a token that the infant was stifled smothered or strangled by some outward violence If the body or dead corps of a man be found lying in a field or house alone and you be called by a Magistrate to deliver your opinion whether the man were slain by lightning or some other violent death you may by the following signs finde out the certainty hereof Signs of such as are slain by lightning For every body that is blasted or stricken with lightning doth cast forth or breathe out an unwholsome stinking or sulphureous smell so that the birds and sowls of the air or dogs will not once touch it much less prey or feed upon it the part that was stricken oftentimes sound and without a wound but if you search it well you shall finde the bones under the skin to be bruised broken or shivered in pieces Lib. 2. cap. 54. But if the lightning hath pierced into the body with making a wound therein according to the judgment of Pliny the wounded part is far colder then all the rest of the body For lightning driveth the most thin and fiery air before it and striketh it into the body with great violence by the force whereof the heat that was in the part is soon dispersed wasted and consumed Lightning doth alwaies leave some impression or sign of some fire either by ustion or blackness for no Lightning is without fire Moreover whereas all other living creatures when they are
stricken with lightning fall on the contrary side only man falleth on the affected side if he be not turned with violence toward the coast or region from whence the lightning came If a man be stricken with lightning while he is asleep he will be found with eyes open contrariwise if he be stricken while he is awake his eyes will be closed as Pliny writeth Philip Commines writeth that those bodies that are stricken with lightning are not subject to corruption as others are Therefore in antient time it was their custom neither to burn nor bury them for the brimstone which the lightning bringeth with it was unto them in stead of salt for that by the driness and fiery heat thereof it did preserve them from putrefaction Signs of wounds given to a living or dead man Also it may be inquired in judgment Whether any that is dead and wounded received these wounds alive or dead Truly the wounds that ate made of a living man if he dye of them after his death will appear red and bloody with the sides or edges swoln or pale round about contrariwise those that are made in a dead man will be neither red bloody swoln nor puffed up For all the faculties and functions of life in the body do cease and fall together by death so that thenceforth no spirits nor blood can be sent or flow into the wounded place Therefore by these signs which shall appear it may be declared that he was wounded dead or alive Signs whether one be hanged alive or dead The like question may come in judgment when a man is found hanged whether he were dead or alive Therefore if he were hanged alive the impression or print of the rope will appear red pale or black and the skin round about it will bee contracted or wrinkled by reason of the compression which the cord hath made also oftentimes the head of the aspera arteria is rent and toâ—n and the second spondyl and the neck luxated or moved out of his place Also the arms and leggs will be pale by reason of the violent and sudden suffocation of the spirits moreover there will be a foam about his mouth and a foamy and filthy matter hanging out of his nostrils begin sent thither both by reason that the Lungs are suddenly heated and suffocated as also by the convulsion and concussion of the brain like as it were in the falling-sickness Contrariwise if he be hanged dead none of these signs appear for neither the print of the rope appears red or pale but of the same color as the other parts of the body are because in dead men the blood and spirits do not flow to the greived parts Whether one found dead in the water câ—me therein alive or dead Whosoever is found dead in the waters you shall know whether they were thrown into the water alive or dead For all the belly of him that was thrown in alive will be swollâ— and puffed up by reason of the water that is contained therein certain clammy excrements come out at his mouth and nostrils the ends of his fingers will be woâ—â— and excoriated because that he died striving and digging or scraping in the sand or bottom of the river seeking somewhat whereon he might take hold to save himself from drowning Contrarywise if he be thrown into the waters being dead before his belly will not be swoln because that in a dead man all the passages and conduits of the body do fall together and are stopped and closed and for that a dead man breaths not there appeareth no foam nor â—â—lthy matter about his mouth and nose and much less can the tops of his fingers be worn and excoriated for when a man is already dead he cannot strive against death But as concerning the bodies of those that are drowned those that swim on the upper part of the water being swoln or puffed up they are not so by reason of the water that is conteined in the belly but by reason of a certain vapor into which a great portion of the humors of the body are converted by the efficacy of the putrifying heat Therefore this swelling appeareth not in all men which do perish or else are cast out dead into the waters but only in them which are corrupted with the filthiness or muddiness of the water long time after they were drowned and cast on the shore But now I will declare the accidents that come to those that are suffocated and stifled or smothered with the vapor of kindled or burning charcoals Of such as are smothered by Charcoal and how you may fore-tel the causes thereof by the history following In the year of our Lord God 1575. the tenth day of May I with Robert Gleauline Doctor of Physick was sent for by Master Hamel an Advocate of the Court of Parliament of Paris to see and shew my opinion on two of his servants of whom the one was his Clerk and the other his Horse-keeper All his family supposed them dead because they could not perceive or feel their Arteries to beat all the extreme parts of their bodies were cold they could neither speak nor move their faces were pale and wan neither could they be raised up with any violent beating or plucking by the hair Therefore all men accounted them dead and the question was only of what kinde of death they died for their Master suspected that some body had strangled them others thought that each of them had stopped one anothers winde with their hands and others judged that they were taken with a sudden apoplexy But I presently inquired Whether there had been any fire made with coals in the house lately whereunto their master giving ear sought about all the corners of the chamber for the chamber was very little and close and at last found an earthen-pan with charcoal half burned which when we once saw we all affirmed with one voyce that it was the cause of all this misfortune and that it was the malign fume and venemous vapor which had smothered them as it were by stopping the passages of their breath Therefore I put my hand to the regions of their hearts where I might perceive that there was some life remaining by the heat and pulsation that I felt though it were very little wherefore we thought it convenient to augment and increase it Therefoâ—e first of all artificially opened their mouths which were very fast closed and sticking obstinately together and thereinto both with a spoon and also with a silver-pipe we put aqua vitae often distilled with dissolved hiera and triacle when we had injected these medicines often into their mouths they begâ—n to move and to stretch themselves and to cast up and expel many viscous excremental and filthy humors at their mouths and nostrils and their lungs seemed to be hot as it were in their throats Therefore then we gave them vomitories of a great quantity of Oxymel and beat them often
because it burned divers poor souldiers it also took hold on the house it self and we had been all burned had not great help been used for to quench it there was but one Well there wherein was water in our Casile which was almost quite dried up and in stead of water we took beer and quenched it then afterwards we had great scarcity of water and to drink the rest that remained which we must strain through napkins Now the enemy seeing this smoak and tempest of the fire-works which cast a very great flame and clashing noiâ—e they beleived we had put the fire on purpose for the defence of our breach to burn them and that we had great store of others That made them to be of another opinion then to take us by assault they did undermine and dig under the greatest part of ouâ— walls so that it was the way to overthrow wholly the Castle topsie-turvy and when the mines were finisht and that their artillery shot the whole Castle did shake under us like an earth-quake which did much astonish us Moreover he had levelled five pieces of Artilery which they had seated upon a little hill to play upon our backs when we would go to defend the breâ—ch The Duke Horace had a Cannon shot upon one shoulder which carryed away his arm on one side and the body on the other without being able to speak one only word His death was to us a great disaster for the rank which he held in his place Likewise Monsieur de Martignes had a â—â—oke with a bullet which pierct through his Lungs I drest him as I will declare hereafter Then we demanded Parl and a trumpet was sent toward the Prince of Piedmont to know what composition it pleased him to make us His answer was that all the chieâ— as Gentlemen Captains Lieutenants and Ensigns should be taken for ransom and the Souldiers should go out without Arms and if they refused this fair and honest proffer the next day we ought to be assured they would have us by assault or otherwise Counsel was held where I was called to know if I would sign as divers Captains Gentlemen and others that the place should be rendred up I made answer it was not possible to be held and that I would sign it with my proper blood for the little hope that I had that we could resâ—st the enemies force and also for the great desire which I had to be out of this torment and hell for I slep not either night or day by reason of the great number of hurt people which were about two hundred The dead bodies yeelded a great putrefaction being heaped one upon another like fagots and not being covered with earth because we had it not and when I entred into one lodging Souldiers attended me at the door to go and dress others at another when I went forth there was striving who should have me and they carryed me like a holy body not touching the ground with my foot in spite one of another nor could I satisfie so great a number of hurt people Moreover I had not what was necessary to dress them withal for it is not sufficient that the Surgeon do his duty towards the Patients but the Patient must also do his and the assistants and all exterior things witness Hippocrates in his first Aporism Now having understood the resolution of the yeelding up of our place I knew our affairs wâ—nt not well and for fear of being known I gave a velvet coat a Satin doublet a very fine cloth-cloak lind with velvet to a souldier who gave me a scurvy old torn doâ—blet cut and slâ—sht with using and a leather jerkin well examined and an ill-favored hat and a little cloak I smucht the collar of my shirt with water in which I had mingled a lâ—ttle foot likewise I wore out my stockings with a stone at the knees and at the heels as if they had been wore a long time and I did as much to my shoos insomuch that they would rather take me â—or a Chimny-sweeper then a Kings Suâ—geon I went in this Equipage towards Monsieur de Martigues where I prayed him that he would take order that I might remain near him to dress him which he agreed to most willingly and had as much desire I should remain with him as my self Soon after the Commissioners who had charge to elect the prisoners entred into the castle the seventeenth day of July one thousand five hundred fifty three where they made Messieures the Duke of Bouillion the Marquess of Villars the Baron of Culan Monsieur du Pont Commissary of the Artillery and Monsieur de Martigues and I to be taken through the request that he made to them and all other Gentlemen which they could perceive were able to pay any ransom and the most part of the Souldiers and the chief of Companies having such and so many prisoners as they would Afterward the Spanish Souldiers entered by the breach without any resistance for ours esteemed they would hold their faith and composition that they should have their lives saved They entred in with a great fury to kill pillage and to rifle all they retained some hoping to have ransom they tied their stones with Arquebus-cords which was cast over a pike which two held upon their shoulders then pulled the said cord with a great violence and deriâ—â—on as if they would ring a bell telling them that they must put themselves to the ransom and tell of what houses they were and if they saw they could have no profit made them cruelly dye between their hands or presently after their genital parts would have faln into a gangrene and total mortification but they kild them all with their daggers and cut their throats See now their great cruelty and perfideousness let him trust to it that will Now to return to my purpose being led from the Castle to the City with Monsieur de Martigues there was a Gentleman of the Duke of Savoyes who asked me if Monsieur de Martigues wound were curable I answered not who presently went and told the Duke of Savoy now I thought he would send Physicians and Surgeons to visit and dress my said Monsieur de Martigues in the mean time I thought with my self whether I ought to make it nice and not to acknowledg my self a Surgeon for fear lest they should retain me to dress their wounded and in the end they would know I was the Kings Surgeon and that they would make me pay a great ransom On the other side I feared if I should not make my self known to be a Surgeon and to have carefully dressed Monsieur de Martigues they would cut my throat so that I took a resolution to make it appear to them he would not dye for want of good dressing and looking to Soon after see there were divers Gentlemen accompanied with the Physician and Surgeon of the Emperor and those of the said Duke of
joyned by Anastomosis or ineculation 10. 10. The second called Pudenda 11. spent upon the privy parts 11. The third Coxalis 12 upon the Muscles of the Hip. 12. Here the outer Iliacal vein having past through the Peritoneum or rim of the Belly enters the Crus and begins to be called the Crural Trunk Γ Γ. that is undivided as far as to the two lower heads of the Thigh But it reaches forth four propagations before its division The first 13 13. is called Saphena which creeps through the inside of the Leg under the skin as far as to the ends of the Toes 14. Another 14 called Ichia is spread out into the skin upon the Hip-bone The third 15 named Muscula is sent to the Muscles 15. which extend the Leg. 16. The fourth 16 named Poplitea is distributed into the Calf of the Leg. 13. The vein Saphena also scatters from it self four surcles 17 the first 17 into the upper part of the skin of the inside of the Thigh 18. the second 18 about the middle of the Thigh 19. the third 19 into the Knee the fourth 20 is carried forward and backward to the middle of the Leg. 20. Δ. The division of the Crural Trunk near to the two lower heads of the Thigh into an inner branch Θ Θ. and an outer one Λ. Λ. Θ. The inner distributes little branches to the Muscles of the Calf 21 12. and then runs down under the inner ankle to the great Toe 22. 22. Λ. The outer presently is cleft into two branches an inner one Ξ Ξ. and an outer Π. That is spent wholly upon the Muscles of the Calf Π. this passes on near to the Fibula or lesser bone of the Leg through the outer and back-side of the Leg. The second Treatise Concerning The ARTERIES CHAP. I. Shews the upper or ascendent Trunk of the great Artery with its propagations that are distributed through the Head THere is no controversie among writers of Anatomy concerning the number and original of the Arteries The Original of the great Artery but an unanimous consent that all the propagations which are scattered throughout the body take their rise from one which they call Aorta and that this is derived out of the Heart But the Heart consisting of two sinus or cavities a right and a left one this great Artery grows out of the left sinus or ventricle A where it is largest and more hard and griestly then elswhere But as soon as it is grown out and before it fall out of the Pericardium or purse of the Heart Arteriae Coronariae the Crown-Arteries it presently propagates two small sprigs a a one of each side which they call Arteriae Coronariae the Crown-Arteries because together with the vena Coronalis or Crown-vein they compass the basis of the Heart in manner of a Crown and from these many propagations are scattered downward all along the Heart But they are more and greater about the left then the right ventricle as we have also formerly said concerning the vein because the Heart needs a greater plenty of blood on that side as which beats with a perpetual and more violent motion wherein more blood is digested then the right sinus or ventricle does yet that propagation is bigger and longer which arises on t of the right side of the Artery sometimes also there is only one at whose orifice a little valve is found Those propagations being thus disseminated the Artery ascends somewhat under the Trunk of the vena Arteriosa The divisions of the great Artery into two Trunks or Arterial vein and pierces through the Pericardium and having got above it is cleft B into two branches which because of their natural greatness we will call Trunks and because one ascends C and the other runs downward Q that shall be the Ascendent Trunk this the Descendent Yet the Descendent and lower one is bigger by much then the upper What parts both the Trunks nourish The order of that which is to be said because that serves more parts then this For the Ascendent one goes only to some parts of the Chest to the Head and Arms but the lower to very many parts of the Chest to all the lowest belly and the Legs That therefore we may treat of the great Artery with more perspicuity we will first shew the Ascendent Trunk and its progress through the Chest and Head and after that its branches distributed through the Arms. Then we will fall upon the Descendent one add explain the manner of its distribution through the Chest and lowest belly and lastly through the Legs The Ascendent therefore or upper Trunk of the Aorta C being fastened to the Oe sophagus or Gullet climbs upward betwixt the rough Artery and Hollow-vein and the mediastinum or partition of the Chest Which situation of it they ought diligently to observe who desire to know the reason of that Aphorism which is the four and twentieth of the fifth Section in Hippocrates For sayes he cold things as snow and ice are enemies to the Breast provoke coughs and cause eruptions of blood and distillations Truly they are enemies to the Breast because whilest they are swallowed down through the Gullet they cool the rough Artery that lyes next to it together with the Gullet which part being of it self cold does easily take harm from so violent a cold hence the cough and other diseases of the Brest follow one another in a long row But issues of blood happen in like manner the great Artery being cooled whereby the vital Spirits and the blood are driven back to the Heart and from thence are sent up forcibly to the Head which being stuft eruptions of blood are caused by its dropping forth at the Nostrils as also catarrhs and distillations it being driven down undigested to the inferiour parts And hence also a reason may be rendered why some upon drinking of cold water after vehement motions and exercise of body have presently been suffocated the passion of the heart and grievous swoundings following thereupon For the Artery being vehemently coold the blood is congealed as well that which was in the Aorta or Great artery as that which abides in the heart from whence happen at first fearful symptoms and then suddain death But we have seen in these men that a vein being opened the blood hath come out thick and cold and with very great difficulty whence also we have not found a more present remedy for them then such things as by reason of the thinness of their parts have a power of dissolving the clots of blood Hence also a reason may be given why in burning fevers the tongue becomes black the diseased can hardly swallow For although it be true which is the cause commonly assign'd that many vapors are sent up from the whole body to the head yet we may ascribe a main
out by putting in of warm water made it credible that the plant was poysoned by their spittle and urine whereby you may understand how unwisely they do who devour herbs and fruits newly gathered without washing Also we must take heed lest falling asleep in the fields we lie not near the holes which toads or other venomous beasts of the same nature have made their habitation For thence a venomous or deadly air may be drawn into the lungs May frogs For the same cause we must abstain from eating of frogs in the month of May because then they engender with toads Oxen in feeding somtimes lick up smalltoads together with the grass which presently will breed their great harm for thereupon the Oxen swell so big that they often burst withall Neither is the venom of toads deadly only being taken inwardly but even sprinkled upon the skin unless they forthwith wipe the place and wash it with urine water and salt Such as are poysoned by a toad turn yellow swell over all their bodies are taken with an Asthmatick difficulty of breathing a Vertigo convulsion swounding and lastly by death it self These so horrid symptoms are judged inherent in the poyson of toads not only by reason of the elementary qualities thereof coldness and moisture which are chiefly predominant therein but much rather by the occult property which is apt to putrefie the humors of that body whereto it shall happen The cure Therefore it will be convenient to procure vomit especially if the poyson be taken by the mouth to give glysters and to weaken the strength of the poyson by hot and attenuating Antidotes as treacle and mithridate dissolved in good wine but in conclusion to digest it by baths stoves and much and great exercise Rondeletius in his book de piscibus affirms the same things of the cursed venom of toads as we have formerly delivered yet that they seldom bite but that they cast forth either their urine the which they gather in a great quantity in a large bladder or else their venomous spittle or breath against such as they meet withall or assail besides the herbs which are tainted by their poysonous breath but much more such as are sprinkled with their spittle or urine are sufficient to kill such as eat them Antidotes against the poyson of Toads The Antidotes are juice of betony plantane mug-wort as also the blood of Tortoises made with flower into pils and forthwith dissolved in wine and drunken Plinye writes that the hearts and spleens of Toads resist poyson The vulgar opinion is false who think that the Toad-stone is found in their heads which is good against poyson CHAP. XXV Of the Stinging of a Scorpion The description of a Scorpion His tail A Scorpion is a small creature with a round body in form of an egg with many feet and a long tail consisting of many joynts the last whereof is thicker and a little longer then the rest at the very end thereof is a sting it casts in some two hollow and replete with cold poyson the which by the sting it casts into the obvious body it hath five legs on each side forked with strong claws not unlike to a Crab or Lobster but the two foremost are bigger then the rest they are of a blackish or sooy colour they go aside aside and oft-times fasten themselves with their mouths and feet so fast to them Winged Scorpions that they can scarce be plucked there-hence There be some who have wings like the wings of Locusts wasting the corn and all green things with their biting and burning Such are unknown in France These flie in divers countries like winged Ants. This is likely to be true by that which Matthiolus writes that the husband-men in Castile in Spain in digging the earth oft-times finde a swarm of Scorpions which betake themselves thither against winter Plinie writes that Scorpions laid waste a certain part of Ethiopia by chasing away the inhabitants The Antients made divers kinds of Scorpions according to their variety or difference of colours some being yellow others brown reddish ash-coloured green whitish black dusky some have wings and some are without They are more or lesse deadly according to the countries they inhabit In Tuscany and Scithia they are absolutely deadly but at Trent and in the Iland Pharos their stinging is harmless Symptoms The place stung by a Scorpion presently begins to be inflamed it waxeth red grows hard and swells and the patient is again pained he is one while hot another while cold labour presently wearies him and his pain is some-whiles more and som-whiles less he sweats and shakes as if he had an Ague his hair stands upright paleness dis-colours his members and he feels a pain as if he were pricked with needles over all his skin winde flieth out backwards he strives to vomit and go to stool but doth nothing he is molested with a continual fever and swounding which at length proves deadly unless it be remedied Dioscorides writes Lib. 2. cap. 44. lib 6. ca. 10. that a Scorpion beaten and laid to the place where he is stung is a remedy thereto as also eaten rosted to the same purpose It is an usual but certain remedy to annoint the stung place with the oil of Scorpions There be some who drop into the wound the milky juice of figs others apply calamint beaten other-some use barly-meal mixed with a decoction of Rue Snails beaten together with their shells and laid thereon presently asswage pain Sulphur vivum mixed with Turpentine and applied plaster-wise is good as also the leaves of Rue beaten and laid thereto In like sort also the herb Scorpioides which thence took its name is convenient as also a briony-root boiled and mixed with a little sulphur and old oil Lib. 3. cap. 1. Dioscorides affirms Agarick in powder or taken in wine to be an Antidote against poysons verily it is exceeding good against the stingings or bitings of Serpents Yet the continual use of a bath stands in stead of all these as also sweat and drinking wine some-what allaid Now Scorpions may be chased away by a fumigation of Sulphur and Galbanum also oil of Scorpions dropped into their holes hinders then coming forth Juice of raddish doth the same For they will never touch one that is besmeared with the juice of radish or garlick yea verily they will not dare to come near him CHAP. XXVI Of the stinging of Bees Wasps c. BEes Wasps Hornets and such like cause great pain in the skin wounded by their stinging by reason of the curstness of the venom which they send into the body by the wound yet are they seldom deadly but yet if they set upon a man by multitudes they may come to kill him For thus they have sometimes been the death of horses Wherefore because such as are stung by these by reason of the cruelty of pain may think they are wounded by a more
virulent and deadly creature I think it not amiss to set down what signs follow upon their stingings Symptoms Great pain presently ariseth which continueth untill the sting left in the part is taken forth the part becomes red and swoln and there riseth a push or little blister The cure is The cure forthwith to suck the wound very hard and thereby to draw forth the stings which if they cannot thus be gotten out the place if nothing hinder is to be cut or else temper ashes with leven or oil and so apply them the part also may be very conveniently put into hot water and there fomented for an hours space and at length washed in sea-water Cresses beaten and applied asswage the pain and discuss the humor causing the tumor Ox-dung macerated in oil and vineger and applied hot doth the same There are some who apply to the part the same creatures beaten as we formerly said of Scorpions beans chawed and laid to the part asswage pain Vinegar hony and salt applied exceeding hot are good if besides you dip a cloth therein and lay it upon the place sulphur vivum tempered with spittle hath the same effect The milky juice of unripe figs incorporated with hony is judged very effectual but it is much the better mixed with treacle Wasps will not sting nor bite such as anoint their bodies with the juice of mallows mixed with oil They may be quickly chased away with the fume of brimstone and such like things A wasp is said if she find a viper dead to dip her sting in the others poison The bites of Bear-worms and thence men learned to empoison the heads of their arrows The rough and hairy worms which are commonly called Bear-worms especially those which breed about a Pine-tree cause great itching redness and swelling in the part which they bite touch or grate upon very hard A remedy hereof is onions beaten with vinegar and the rest of the things formerly mentioned CHAP. XXVII Of the bite of a Spider SPiders weave webs with various art yet in these they alwaies make a lurking hole Differences of Spiders to lie in wait to catch the intrapped flies and so to prey upon them There are many sorts of Spiders one is termed Rhagium round and like a black-berry whence it taketh the name it hath a very small mouth under the midst of the belly and most short feet as if they were imperfect her bite is as painful as the sting of a Scorpion Another is called Lupus or the Wolf-Spider because she doth not only lie in wait to catch Flies but also Bees and Wasps and all such things as may flee into her Web. The third is named Myrmecion it is larger then an Ant but headed like one the body thereof is black and hath white spots or streaks running towards the back The fourth kinde may be called Vesparium in other things resembling a Wasp but that it wants the wings of a reddish colour and living only on herbs The Antients have thought their bitings to be venomous Now their poison is therefore thought to be cold because the symptoms thence arisiing are winde in the belly refrigerations of the extreme parts of the body numness in the bitten part with sense of cold and shaking The wound must forthwith be washed with very hot vineger then must you lay thereto Onions and such like things beaten then procure sweat by art as by baths and stoves yet nothing is more effectual then treacle and mithridate CHAP. XXVIII Of Cantharides and Buprestes CAntharides shine as it were with a golden colour acceptable to the eie The description of Cantharides by reason of the commixture of a blewish or greenish colour therewith yet their smell is ungrateful They are hot and dry in the fourth degree and so caustick corrosive and venomous not only by reason of their caustick quality but because of a secret antipathy Enemies to the Bladder Symptoms which they naturally have against the urinary parts which effects they produce not only if they be taken by the mouth into the body but even applied outwardly to raise blisters Such as have taken them inwardly have the taste of pitch or some thing like cedria or rosin of Cedars in their mouths it is likely that this tast proceeds from the humors dissolved by the putredinous heat in the stomach guts and liver and the vapors that there-hence arise for taken inwardly they gnaw exulcerate and burn all parts from the mouth even to the belly whence ensueth a bloody-flux excrements flowing out which resemble the washings of new-killed flesh Then follows a burning fever vertigo madness restlesness the bram being disturbed by the plenty of vapors lifted up from the corroded and burnt parts and humors which therefore when as they appear you may know the affect is uncurable In the parts appointed for the receiving and conveyance of the urine they cause a burning inflammation excoriation strong and continual erection of the yard whence ensues a bloody and painful strangury in stead of which there oftimes happens or succeeds an Ischurie or stoppage of the water whence a gangrene and mortification of the part and so in conclusion of the whole body besides When as Cantharides are taken inwardly the remedy is vomiting drinking of Cows-milk to correct the heat and driness good also to mitigate the ulcers and stay the dysenterie it is good also to inject it into the guts by glister In stead thereof salleâ—-oil or oil of sweet almonds is convenient to retund the acrimony of the poison fastned to the sides of the stomach The rest and whole cure of this poison you may learn by the following history An History A certain whore the better to enjoy the company of a young Abbot who loved her entertained him with a banquet and sprinkled divers of their cakes with the powder of Cantharides to incite him the more to venery The next day when as the Abbot cast forth pure blood at his fundament and yard which stood very stiffe he called some Physicians who presently by the fore-mentioned symptoms which were all very apparent in him The Cure understood that he had Cantharides given him wherefore they purged him upwards with vomits and downwards by glisters made with French-barly Rice a decoction of mallows seeds of line and faenugreek oil of lillies goats-suet then presently after they gave him a little treacle with a good quantity of conserve of violets which might draw the poison outwards they gave him milk to drink and caused him to use injections into the urinary passage and guts made of refrigerating things as the juice of lettuce puâ—slain cucumbers gourds melons of tough and viscid things that so they might stick the more easily and longer to the ulcerated parts as the mucilages of psilium mallows quince-seeds syrup of water-lillies poppies and violets fresh butter and oil of sweet almonds and they made him drink only barly-water or the common ptisan
Christ and love toward his neighbors with hope of life everlasting left that he being carried away by favor or corrupted with money or rewards should affirm or testifie those wounds to be small that are great and those great that are small for the report of the wound is received of the Surgeon according to the Civil Law Wounds termes great for three respects It is recorded in the works of antient Physicians that wounds may be called great for three respect The first is by reason of the greatness of the dissolved Unity or resolution of Continuity and such are these wounds which made by a violent stroke with a back-sword have cut off the arm or leg or overthwart the breast The second is by reason of the dignity or worthiness of the paâ—t now this dignity dependeth on the excellency of the action therefore thus any little wound made with a bodkin knife in any part whose substance is noble as in the brai Heart Liver or any other part whose action and function is necessary to preserve life as in the Weasant Lungs or Bladder is iudged great The third is by reason of the greatness and ill habit or the abundance of ill humors or debility of all the wounded body so those wounds that are made in the nervous parts and old decayed people are said to be great But in seaching of wounds let the surgeon take heed that he be not deceived by his probe For many times it cannot go into the bottom of the wound but stoppeth and sticketh in the way either because he hath not placed the patient in the same posture wherein he was when he received his hurt or else for that the stroke being made down right slipt aside to the right or left hand or else from below upwards or from above downwards and then he may expect that the wound is but little and will be cured in a short time How long a Surgeon must suspend his judgment in some cases when it is like to be long in curing or else mortal Therefore from the first day it behooveth him to suspend his judgment of the wound until the ninth for in time the accidents will shew themselves manifestly whether they he small or great according to the condition of the wound or wounded bodies and the state of the air according to his prinitive qualities or venemous corruption General signs whereby we judg of diseases But generally the signs whereby we may judg of diseases whether they be great or small of long or short continuance mortal or not mortal are four For they are drawn either from the nature and essence of the disease or from the cause or effects thereof or else from the similitude proportion and comparison of those diseases with the season or present constitution of the times Therefore if we are called to the cure of a green wound whose nature and danger is no other but a simple solution of Continuity in the musculous flesh we may presently pronounce that wound to be of no danger and that it will soon be cured But if it have an Ulcer annexed unto it that is if it be fanious then we may say it will be more difficult and long in curing and so we may pronounce of all diseases taking a sign of their essence and nature But of the signs that are taken of the causes let this be an example A wound that is made with a sharp-pointed and heavy weapon as with an halberd being stricken with great violence must be accounted great yea and also mortal if the accidents be correspondent But if the patient fall to the ground through the violence of the stroke if a cholerick vomiting following thereon if his sight fail him together with a giddiness if blood come forth at his eyes and nostrils if distraction follow with loss of memory and sense of feeling we may say that all the hope of life remaineth in one small sign which is to be deduced from the affects of the wound But by comparing it unto the season that then is and diseases that then assault mans body Wounds deadly by the fault of the air we may say that all those that are wounded with Gun-shot are in danger of death as it happened in the skirmishes at the siege of Rean and at the battle of Saint Denis For at that time whether it were by reason of the sault of the heavens or air through the evil humors of mans body and the disturbance of them all wounds that were made by Gun-shot were for the most part mortal So likewise at certain seasons of the year we see the small-pocks and meazles break forth in children as it were by a certain pestilent contagion to the destruction of children only inferring a most cruel vomit and lask and in such a season the judgment of those diseases is not difficult Signs of a fractured scull But you by the following signs may know what parts are wounded If the patient fall down with the stroke if he lye â—ensless as it were asleep if he avoid his excrements unwittingly if he be taken with giddiness if blood come out at his ears mouth and nose and if he vomit choler you may understand that the scull is fractured or pierced through by the defect in his understanding and discourse You also may know when the scull is fractured by the judgment of your external senses as if by feeling it with your finger you finde it elevated or depressed beyond the natural limits if by striking it with the end of a probe when the Perictanium or nervous film that investeth the scull is cut cross-wise and so divided there from it it yield a base and unperfect sound like unto a pot-sheard that is broken or rather like to an earthen-pitcher that hath a cleft or rent therein But we may say that death is at hand if his reason and understanding fail him Signs of death by a wound on the head if he be speechless if his sight forsake him if he would tumble head-long out of his bed being not at all able to remove the other parts of his body if he have a continual fever if his tongue be black with driness if the edges of the wound be black or drye and cast forth no sanions matter if they resemble the colour of salted-flesh if he have an apoplexy phrensie convulsion or palsie with an involuntary excretion or absolute suppression of the urine and excrements Signs that the throat is cut You may know that a man hath his throat that is his weason and winde-pipe cut First by the sight of his wound and next by the abolishment of the function or office thereof both wayes for the patient can neither speak nor swallow any meat or drink and the parts that are cut asunder divide themselves by retraction upwards or downwards one from another whereof cometh sudden or present death You may know that a wound hath pierced into the brest or