those things which are not agreeable to nature To what things besides nature But the things which are called Natural may be reduced to seven heads besides which there comes into their fellowship those which we term Annexed The seven principal heads of things Natural are Elements Temperaments Humors Parts or members Faculties Actions Spirits To these are annexed as somewhat near Age Sex Colour Cmpoosure Time or season Region Vocation of life CHAP. IV. Of Elements AN Element by the definition which is commonly received amongst Physitians is the least and most simple portion of that thing which it composeth or What an Element is that my speech may be the more plain The four first and simple bodies are called Elements Fire Air Water and Earth which accommodate and subject themselves as matter to the promiscuous generation of all things which the Heavens engirt whether you understand things perfectly or unperfectly mixed Such Elements are only to be conceived in your mind Elements are understood by reason not by sense being it is not granted to any external sense to handle them in their pure and absolute nature Which was the cause that Hippocrates expressed them not by the names of substances but of proper qualities saying Hot Cold Moist Dry because some one of these qualities is inherent in every Element as his proper and essential form not only according to the excess of latitude but also of the active faculty Why Hipp. expressed the Elements by these names of Qualities to which is adjoined another simple quality and by that reason principal but which notwithstanding attains not to the highest degree of his kind as you may understand by Galen in his first Book of Elements So for example sake in the Air we observe two qualities Heat and Moisture both principal and not remitted by the commixture of any contrary quality Two principal qualities are in each Element for otherwise they were not simple Therefore thou maist say What hinders that the principal effects of heat shew not themselves as well in the Air as in the Fire Because as we said before although the Air have as great a heat according to his nature extent and degree no otherwise than Fire hath yet it is not so great in its active quality Why the Air heats not so vehemently as the Fire The reason is because that the calfactory force in the Air is hindered and dulled by society of his companion and adjoined quality that is Humidity which abateth the force of heat as on the contrary driness quickneth it The Elements therefore are endewed with qualities Names of the substances Fire Air Water Earth is Hot and dry Moist and hot Cold and moist Cold and dry Names of the qualities These four Elements in the composition of natural bodies How the Elements may be understood to be mixed in compound bodies retain the qualities they formerly had but that by their mixture and meeting together of contraries they are somewhat tempered and abated But the Elements are so mutually mixed one with another and all with all that no simple part may be found no more then in a mass of the Emplaister Diacalcitheos you can shew any Axungia oil or Litharge by it self all things are so confused and united by the power of heat mixing the smallest particulars with the smallest and the whole with the whole in all parts You may know and perceive this concretion of the four Elementary substances in one compound body by the power of mixture in their dissolution by burning a pile or heap of green wood For the flame expresses the Fire the smoak the Air the moisture that sweats out at the ends Why of the first qualities two are active and two passive the Water and the ashes the Earth You may easily perceive by this example so familiar and obvious to the senses what dissolution is which is succeeded by the decay of the compound body on the contrary you may know that the coagmentation or uniting and joyning into one of the first mixed bodies is such that there is no part sincere or without mixture For if the heat which is predominant in the fire should remain in the mixture in its perfect vigor it would consume the rest by its pernicious neighbourhood the like may be said of Coldness Moisture and Driness although of these qualities two have the title of Active that is Heat and Coldness because they are the more powerful the other two Passive because they may seem more dull and slow being compared to the former The temperaments of all sublunary bodies arise from the commixture of these substances and elementary qualities which hath been the principal cause that moved me to treat of the Elements But I leave the force and effects of the Elementary qualities to some higher contemplation content to have noted this that of these first qualities so called because they are primarily and naturally in the four first bodies others arise and proceed which are therefore called the second qualities as of many these Heaviness Why the first qualities are so called Lightness variously distributed by the four Elements as the Heat or Coldness Moistness or Driness have more power over them For of the Elements two are called light because they naturally affect to move upwards the other two heavie What the second qualities are by reason they are carryed downward by their own weight So we think the fire the lightest because it holds the highest place of this lower world the Air which is next to it in site we account light for the water which lies next to the Air we judg heavie What Elements light what heavy and the earth the center of the rest we judg to be the heaviest of them all Hereupon it is that light bodies and the light parts in bodies have most of the lighter Elements as on the contrary heavie bodies have more of the heavier This is a brief descripion of the Elements of this frail world which are only to be discerned by the understanding to which I think good to adjoin another description of other Elements as it were arising or flowing from the commixture of the first For besides these there are said to be Elements of generation and Elements of mans body Which as they are more corporal so also are they more manifest to the sense By which reason Hippocrates being moved in his Book de Natura humana after he had described the Nature of Hot Cold Moist and Dry What the Elements of generation are he comes to take notice of these by the order of composition Wherefore the Elements of our generation as also of all creatures which have blood What the Elements of mâ—xt bodies are seed and menstruous blood But the Elements of our bodies are the solid and similar parts arising from those Elements of generation Of this kind are bones membranes ligaments veins arter es and many others manifest to the eys
troublesome harsh touchy froward crabby and often complaining untill at the length deprived of all their senses tongue feet and understanding they doting return again to childishness as from the staff to the start And thus much of the Temperaments of ages The tempers of the seasons of the year But now in like manner we will explain the Temperatures of the seasons of the year which are four the Spring Summer Autumn Winter The Spring continues almost from the twelfth or thirteenth day of March to the midst of May Hippocrates seemeth to make it hot and moist which opinion seemeth not to have sprung from the thing it self but from an inveterate error of the ancient Philosophers who would fit the Temperaments of the four seasons of the year as answering in proportion to the temperatures of the four ages How the spring is temperate For if the matter come to a just tryal all men will say the Spring is temperate as that which is in the midst of the excess of heat cold moisture and dryness not only by comparison because it is hotter than Winter and colder than Summer but because it hath that quality of its own proper nature Wherefore it is said of Hippocrates Aphoâ— 9 â—â—ct 3 The Spring is most wholesome and least deadly if so be that it keep its native temper from which if it decline or succeed a former untemperate season as Autumn or Winter Aphor. 20. sect 3. it will give occasion to many diseases described by Hippocrates not that it breeds them but because it brings them to sight which before lay hid in the body Summer is comprehended in the space almost four months it is of a hot and dry temper a breeder of such diseases as proceed from choler because that humour at this time is heaped up in many bodies by adustion of blood bred in the Spring but all such diseases do speedily run their course The beginning of Autumn Autumn unequal is from the time the Sun enters into Libra and endures the like space of time as the Spring But when it is dry it hath great inequality of heat and cold for the morning and evenings being very cold the noondays on the contrary are exceeding hot Wherefore many diseases are in Autumn and them long and deadly especially if they incline towards Winter because all daily and soddain changes to heat and cold are dangerous The Winter possesses the remnant of the year and is cold and moist it increases natural heat stirs up the appetite and augments Phlegm How Winter encreases the native heat It encreases heat by Antiperistasis or contrariety of the encompassing air which being then cold prohibits the breathing out of heat whereby it happens that the heat being driven in and hindered from dissipation is strengthened by co-uniting its forces But it augments Phlegm for that men are more greedy the Appetite being encreased by the strengthened heat from whence proceeds much crudity and a large store of diseases especially Chronick or Long which spread and encrease rather in this Winter-season than in any other part of the year To this discourse of the temper of the seasons of the years is to be revoked the variety of tempers which happens every day which certainly is not to be neglected that there may be place of election Aphor 4. sect 3. especially if nothing urge For hither belongs that saying of Hippocrates When in the same day it is one while hot another cold Autumnal diseases are to be expected Therefore an Indication taken from hence is of great consequence to the judgment of diseases for if it agree with the disease the disease is made more contumacious and difficult to cure Whereupon the Patient and Physitian will have much trouble but if on the contrary it reclaim and dissent the health of the Patient is sooner to be expected Neither is it a thing of less consequence to know the customs and habits of the Places and Countreys in which we live as also the inclination of the Heavens and temperature of the Air. But let us leave these things to be considered by Natural Philosophers that we may deliver our judgment of the temperaments of Humors Blood The temperaments of Humors as that which answers to the Air in proportion is of a hot and moist nature or rather temperate as Galen testifies for saith he it is certain and sure that the Blood is neither hot nor moist but temperate as in its first composure none of the four first Qualities exceeds other by any manifest excess as he repeats it upon the 39th Sentence Phlegm as that which is of a waterish nature Lib. de natura humana ad Sent. 36. sect 1. is cold and moist no otherwise than Choler being of a fiery temper is hot and dry But Melancholy assimilated to earth is cold and dry The temperature of the Blood This which we have spoken in general of Phlegm and Melancholy is not alwayes true in every kind of the said Humors For salt Phlegm is of a hot and dry temperature as also all kinds of Melancholy which have arose or sprung by adustion from the native and alimentary as we will teach in the following Chapter Fpom whence we judg of the temperature of Medicines Now the temperaments of Medicines have not the same form of judgment as those things which we have before spoken of as not from the Elementary quality which conquering in the contention and mixture obtains the dominion but plainly from the effects which taken or applyed they imprint in a temperate body For so we pronounce those things hot cold moist or dry which produce the effects of Heat Coldness Moisture or Dryness But we will defer the larger explication of these things to that place where we have peculiarly appointed to treat of Medicines where we will not simply enquire whether they be hot or cold but what degree of heat and cold or the like other quality In which same place we will touch the temperature and all the nature of Tastes because the certainest judgment of Medicines is drawn from their tastes Hitherto of Temperaments now we must speak of Humors whose use in Physical speculation is no less than that of Temperaments CHAP. VI. Of Humors TO know the nature of Humors is a thing not only necessary for Physitians The knowledg of the Humor is necessary but also for Chirurgeons because there is no disease with matter which ariseth not from some one or the mixture of more Humors Which thing Hippocrates understanding writ every Creature to be either sick or well according to the condition of the Humors in the body Lib. De Natura Humana And certainly all putrid feavers proceed from the putrefaction of Humors Neither do any acknowledg any other original or distinction of the differences of Abscesses or Tumors neither do ulcerated broken or otherwise wounded members hope for the restauration of continuity from other
pale Of Taste bitter It provoketh the expulsive faculty of the guts attenuates the Phlegm cleaving to them but the Alimentary is fit to nourish the parts of like temper with it Melancholy is Of Nature earthly cold and dry Of Consistence gross and muddy Of Colour blackish Of Taste acide sour or biting Stirs up the Appetite nourishes the Spleen and all the parts of like temper to it as the bones Blood hath its nearest matter from the better portion of the Chylus and being begun to be laboured in the veins at length gets form and perfection in the Liver but it hath its remote matter from meats of good digestion and quality seasonably eaten after moderate exercise but for that one age is better than another and one time of the year more convenient than another For blood is made more copiously in the Spring because that season of the year comes nearest to the temper of the bloud by reason of which the blood is rather to be thought temperate than hot or moist for that Galen makes the Spring temperate and besides at that time blood-letting is performed with the best success Lib. 1. de temp Youth is an age very fit for the generation of blood or by Galens opinion rather that part of life that continues from the 25 to the 35 year of our age Those in whom this Humor hath the dominion are beautified with a fresh and rosie colour gentle and wel-natured pleasant merry and facetious The generation of Phlegm is not by the imbecillity of heat as some of the Ancients thought who were perswaded that Choler was caused by a raging Blood by a moderate and Phlegm and Melancholy by a remiss heat But that opinion is full of manifest error for if it be true that the Chylus is laboured and made into blood in the same part One and the same Heat is the efficient cause of all humors at the same time and by the same fire that is the Liver from whence in the same moment of time should proceed that strong and weak heat seeing the whole mass of the blood different in its four essential parts is perfected and made at the same time and by the same equal temper of the same part action and blood-making faculty therefore from whence have we this variety of Humors From hence for that those meats by which we are nourished enjoy the like condition that our bodies do from the four Elements and the four first Qualities for it is certain and we may often observe In what kind soever they be united or joyned together they retain a certain hot portion imitating the fire another cold the water another dry the earth and lastly another moist like to the air Neither can you name any kind of nourishment how cold soever it be not Lettuce it self in which there is not some fiery force of heat Therefore it is no marvail if one and the same heat working upon the same matter of Chylus varying with so great dissimilitude of substances do by its power produce so unlike humors as from the hot Choler from the cold Phlegm and of the others such as their affinity of temper will permit There is no cause that any one should think that variety of humors to be caused in us The heat of the Sun alone doth melt was and harden clay rather by the diversity of the active heat than wax and a flint placed at the same time and in the same situation of climat and soil this to melt by the heat of the Sun and that scarse to wax warm Therefore that diversity of effects is not to be attributed to the force of the efficient cause that is of Heat which is one and of one kind in all of us but rather to the material cause seeing it is composed of the conflux or meeting together of various substances gives the heat leave to work as it were out of its store which may make and produce from the hotter part thereof Choler and of the colder and more rebellious Phlegm Yet I will not deny but that more Phlegm or Choler may be bred in one and the same body according to the quicker or slower provocation of the heat yet nevertheless it is not consequent that the Original of Choler should be from a more acide and of Phlegm from a more dull heat in the same man Every one of us naturally have a simple heat and of one kind which is the worker of divers operations not of it self seeing it is always the same and like it self but by the different fitness pliableness or resistance of the matter on which it works Wherefore Phlegm is generated in the same moment of time The divers condition of the matter alone is the cause of variety in the fire of the same part by the efficiency of the same heat with the rest of the blood of the more cold liquid crude and watery portion of the Chylus Whereby it comes to pass that it shews an express figure of a certain rude or unperfect blood for which occasion nature hath made it no peculiar receptacle but would have it to run friendly with the blood in the same passages of the veins that any necessity hapning by famin or indigency and in defect of better nourishment it may by a perfecter elaboration quickly assume the form of blood Cold and rude nourishment make this humor to abound principally in Winter and in those which incline to old-age by reason of the similitude which Phlegm hath with that season and age It makes a man drowsie dul fat The effect of Phlegm swollen up and hastneth gray-hairs Choler is as it were a certain heat and fury of humors which generated in the Liver together with the blood is caryed by the veins and arteries through the whole body That of it which abounds is sent partly into the guts and partly into the bladder of the gall or is consumed by transpiration or sweats It is somewhat probable that the arterial blood is made more thin hot quick and pallid than the blood of the Veins by the commixture of this Alimentary Choler This Humor is chiefly bred and expel'd in youth and acid and bitter meats give matter to it but great labours of body and mind give the occasion It maketh a man nimble quick ready for all performance lean and quick to anger and also to concoct meats The effects of Choler The melancholick humor or Melancholy being the grosser portion of the blood is partly sent from the Liver to the Spleen to nourish it and partly carryed by the vessels into the rest of the body and spent in the nourishment of the parts endued with an earthly dryness it is made of meats of gross juyce and by the perturbations of the mind turned to fear and sadness The effects of Melancholy It is augmented in Autumn and in the first and crude Old-age it makes men sad harsh constant froward envious and fearful
The present state of the Air one while for some small time is like the Spring that is temperate otherwhiles like the Summer Aphor. 4. sect 2. The force of the Winds that is hot and dry otherwhiles like the Winter that is cold and moist and sometimes like the Autumn which is unequal and this last constitution of the Air is the cause of many diseases When upon the same day it is one while hot another cold we must expect Autumnal diseases These tempers and varieties of constitutions of the Air are chiefly and principally stirred up by the winds as which being diffused over all the Air shew no small force by their sudden change Wherefore we will briefly touch their natures That which blows from the East is the East-wind and is of a hot and dry nature and therefore healthful But the Western wind is cold and moist and therefore sickly The South-wind is hot and moist the Author of putrefaction and putrid diseases The North-wind is cold and dry therefore healthy wherefore it is thought if it happen to blow in the Dog-days that it makes the whole year healthful and purges and takes away the seeds of putrefaction if any chance to be in the Air. But this description of the four Winds is then only thought to be true if we consider the Winds in their own proper nature which they borrow from those Regions from which they first proceed For otherwise they affect the Air quite contrary How the winds acquire other â—ies than they naturally have according to the disposition of the places over which they came as Snowie places Sea Lakes Rivers Woods or sandy Plains from whence they may borrow new qualities with which they may afterwards possess the Air and so consequently our bodies The Westwind oâ— it self unwholsome Hence it is we have noted the Western-wind unwholsom and breeding diseases by reason of the proper condition of the Region from whence it came and such that is cold and moist the Gascâ—ins find it truly to their so great harm that it seldom blows with them but it brings some manifest and great harm What force stars have upon the Air. either to their bodies or fruits of the earth And yet the Greeks and Latins are wont to commend it for healthfulness more than the rest But also the rising and setting of some more eminent Stars do often cause such cold winds that the whole Air is cooled or infected with some other malign quality For vapors and exhalations are often raised by the force of the Stars from whence winds clouds storms whirlwinds lightnings thunders hail snow rain earthquakes inundations and violent raging of the sea have their original The exact contemplation of which things although it be proper to Astronomers Cosmographers and Geographers yet Hippocrates could not omit it but that he must speak something in his book De Aere Aquis where he touches by the way the description of the neighbouring Regions and such as he knew From this force of the Air either hurtful or helping in diseases came that famous observation of Guido of Cauâ—ias That wounds of the head are more difficult to cure at Paris than at Avignion and the plain contrary of wounds of the legs How the air of Paris comes to be ill for wounds of the head and good for those of the leggs for the air of Paris compared to that of Avignion is cold and moist wherefore hurtful and offensive to the wounds of the head On the contrary the same air because it obscures the spirits incrassates the blood condensates the humors and makes them less fit for defluxions makes the wounds of the legs more easie to be healed by reason it hinders the course of humors by whose defluxion the cure is hindred But it is manifest that hot and dry places make a greater dissipation of the natural heat from whence the weakness of the powers by which same reason the Inhabitants of such places do not so well endure blood-letting but more easily suffer purgations though vehement by reason of the contumacy of the humor By what means the air changes our bodies caused by driness To conclude the Air changes the constitutions of our bodies either by its qualities as if it be hotter colder moister or drier or by its matter as if it be grosser or more subtil than is fit or corrupted by exhalations from the earth or by a sudden and unaccustomed alteratâ—on which any man may prove who makes a sudden change out of a quiet air into a stormy and troubled with many winds But because next to the Air nothing is so necessary to nourish mans body as Meat and Drink I will now begin to speak of them both CHAP. XIV Of Meat and Drink THat this our Treatise of Meat and Drink may be more brief and plain I have thought good to part it into these heads as to consider the goodness and illness of both of them their quantity quality custom delight order time and to accommodate them all to the ages and seasons of the year We judge of the goodness and pravity of meats and drinks The goodness of nourishments from the condition of the good or vicious humours or juyce which they beget in us For evil juyce causeth many diseases As on the contrary good juyce drives away all diseases from the body except the fault happen from some other occasion as from quantity or too much excess Wherefore it is principally necessary that those who will preserve their present health and hinder the access of diseases feed upon things of good nourishment and digestion as are good wine the yolks of eggs good milk wheaten bread well baked the flesh of Capons Partridge Thrushes Larks Veal Mutton Kid and such like other which you may find mentioned in the Books which Galen writ De Alimentâ—rum facultatibus where also he examins those which are of evil juyce by their manifest qualities as acrimony bitterness saltness acidity harshness and such like But unless we use a convenient quantity and measure in our meats howsover laudable they be Their quantity we shall never reap these fruits of health we hoped for For they yield matter of diseases by the only excess of their quantity but we may by this know the force of quantity on both parts because often the poisonous quality of meats of ill nourishment doth not hurt by reason they were not taken into the body into a great quantity That measure of quantity is chiefly to be regarded in diseases for as Hippocrates saith If any give meat to one sick of a Feaver The quantity of meats must be esteemed according to the nature of the disease and strength of the Patient he gives strength to the well and increases the disease to the sick especially if he do not use a mean Wherefore it is a thing of no small consequence to know what diseases require a slender and what a large diet
of the former For these modern inventions are such as easily exceed all the best appointed and cruel Engines which can be mentioned or thought upon in the shape cruelty and appearance of their operations For what in the world is thought more horrid or fearful than thunder or lightning and yet the hurtfulness of thunder is almost nothing to the cruelty of these infernal Engines which may easily appear by comparing together both their effects Pliny Lib. 2. Cap. 59. Man alone of all creatures is not alwaies killed by being touched with thunder but it immediately killeth all other things which are subject to be toucht therewith Nature bestowing this honour upon him seeing so many creatures exceed him in strength For all things lye contrary to man and Man unless he be overthrown with it doth not dye thereof But these fire-spitting Engines do no more spare man Plin. Lib. 2. Cap. 55. than they do other creatures and kill without difference from whence soever they come whither soevâ—r they are carryed and howsoever they touch There are many but more are said to be the remedies against thunder for beside the charms whereby the ancient Romans did suppose thy might be driven away they never penetrate deeper into the ground than five foot therefore such as was fearful thought the deeper caves most safe Sueton. in Tiberio Of thâ—se things which grew out of the earth they do not touch the Bay tree and that was the cause that it was counted a sign of Victory both in ancient and modern times Wherefore Tiberius Caesar otherwise a contemner of God and Religion as he who indued with the Mathematical sciences thought all things governed by Fate yet because he exceedingly feared thunder he alwayes carryed a Lawrell wreath about his neck when the aire was troubled for that this kind of leafe is reported not to be touched by thunder Some report that he made him â—onts of Seales skinnes because it toucheth not this kind of creature of all those things that live in the Sea as neither the Eagle amongst birds which for that is fained to be Joves squire The wondrous force of great Ordnance But on the contrary charmes the victorious Bay the Seale or Sea-calfe the Eagle or any such thing profits nothing against the violence of these fiery engines no not a wall of ten foot thick will advantage Lastly this argues the immense violence of brasen Cannons above thunder for that Thunder may be dispersed and driven away with the noise and ringing of Bells the sounding of Trumpets the tinkling of brasen kettles yea also by the shooting of such great Ordnance to wit the clouds by whose collision and fight the Thunder is câ—â—sed being dispersed by this violent agitation of the air or else driven further to mâ—re remote parts of the skies But their fury once provoked is stayed by no opposition appeased by no remedy As there are certain seasons of the year so also there are certain Regions of the earth wherein Thunder is seldome or never heard Thunders are rare in Winter and Summer and that for contrary causes for that in Winter the dense aire is thickned with a thicker coat of clouds and the frosty and cold exhalation of the earth extinguisheth what fiery vapours soever it receives which thing keeps Scythia and the cold countries about it free from Thunder And on the contrary to much heat preserves Egypt Plin. Lib. 2. Cap. 50. For hot and dry exhalations of the earth are condensed into very thin subtile and weak clouds But as the invention so also the harm and tempest of great Ordnance like a contagious pestilence is spread and rages over all the earth and the skies at all times sound again with their reports The Thunder and Lightning commonly gives but one blow or strike and that commonly strikes but one man of a multitude But one great Cannon at one shot may spoil and kill a hundred mâ—n Thunder as a thing natural falls by chance one while upon a high Oak another while upon the top of a Mountain and somewhiles on some lofty Tower but seldom upon Man But this hellish Engine tempered by the malice and guidance of man assails man only and takes him for his only mark and directs his bullets against him The Thunder by its noise as a messenger sent before foretells the storm at hand but which is the chief mischief this infâ—rnal Engine roars as it strikâ—s and strikes as it roars sending at one and the same time the deadly bullet into the breast and the horrible noise into the ear Wherefore we all of us rightfully curse the author of so pernicious an Engine on the contrary praise those to the skies who endeavour by words and pious exhortations to dehort Kings from their use or else labour by writing and operation to apply fit medicins to wounds made by these Engins Which hath moved me that I have written hereof almost with the first of the French But before I shall do this it seemeth not amiss so to facilitate the way to the Treatise I intend to write of wounds made by Gunshot to premise two Discourses by which I may confute and take away certain erroneous opinions which have possessed the minds of divers for that unless these be taken away the essence and nature of the whole disease cannot be understood nor a fitting remedy applyed by him which is ignorant of the disease The arguments of the following discourses The first Discourse which is dedicated to the Reader refells and condemnes by reasons and examples the method of curing prescribed by John de Vigo whereby he cauteriseth the wounds made by Gunshot supposing them venenate and on the contrary proves that order of curing which is performed by suppuratives to be so salutary and gentle as that prescribed by Vigo is full of errour and cruelty The second dedicated to the King teaches that the same wounds are of themselves void of all poison and therefore that all their malignity depends upon the fault of the air and ill humors predominant in the bodies of the patients The first discourse wherein Wounds made by Gunshot are freed from being burnt or Cauterized according to Vigoes Method IN the year of our Lord 1536. Francis the French King for his acts in war and peace styled the Great sent a puissant Army beyond the Alpes under the Government and leading of Annas of Mommorancy high Constable of France both that he might relieve Turin with Victuals souldiers and all things needful as also to recover the Cities of that Province taken by the Marquis of Guast General of the Emperours forces I was in the Kings Army the Chirurgeon of Monsieur of Montejan General of the foot The Imperialists had taken the straits of Suzâ— the Castle of Villane and all the other passages so that the Kings Army was not able to drive them from their fortifications but by fight In this conflict there were many wounded on both
thin and serous although the pestilence doth not alwaies necessarily arise from hence but some-whiles some other kind of cruel and infectious disease How the air may be corrupted But neither is the air only corrupted by these superiour causes but also by putrid and filthy stinking vapors spread abroad through the air encompassing us from the bodies and carkasses of things not buried gapings and hollownesses of the earth or sinks and such like places being opened for the sea often overflowing the land in some places and leaving in the mud or hollownesses of the earth caused by earth-quakes the huge bodies of monstrous fishes which it hides in its waters hath given both the occasion and matter of a plague For thus in out time a Whale cast upon the Tuscan shore presently caused a plague over all that country But as fishes infect and breed a plague in the air so the air being corrupted often causeth a pestilence in the sea among fishes especially when they either swim on the top of the water or are infected by the pestilent vapors of the earth lying under them and rising into the air through the body of the water the later whereof Aristotle saith hapneth but seldom Lib. 8. hist â—nim But it often chanceth that the plague raging in any country many fishes are cast upon the coast and may be seen lying on great heaps But sulphureous vapors or such as partake of any other malign qualiy sent forth from places under ground by gapings and gulfs opened by earth-quakes not only corrupt the air but also infect and raint the seeds plants and all the fruites which we eat and so transfer the pestilent corruption into us and those beasts on which we feed together with our norishment The truth whereof Empedocles made manifest who by shutting up a great gulf of the earth opened in a valley between two mountains freed all Sicily from a plague caused from thence If winds rising suddenly shall drive such filthy exhalations from those regions in which they were pestiferous into other places they also will carry the plague with them thither If it be thus some will say it should seem that wheresoever stinking and putrid exhalations arise as about standing-pools sinks and shambles there should the plague reign and straight suffocate with its noysom poyson the people which work in such places but experience finds this false We do answer that the Putrefaction of the Plague is far different Pestiferous putrefaction is far different from ordinary putrefaction and of another kinde then this common as that which partakes of a certain secret malignity and wholly contrary to our lives and of which we cannot easily give a plain and manifest reason Yet that vulgar putrefaction wheresoever it doth easily and quickly entertain and welcome the pestiferous contagion as often as and whensoever it comes as joyned to it by a certain familiarity and at length it self degenerating into a pestiferous malignity certainly no otherwise then those diseases which arise in the plague-time the putrid diseases in our bodies which at the first wanted viâ—ulency and contagion as Ulcers putrid Fevers and other such diseases In a pestilent constitution of the air all diseases become pestilent Lib. 1. de differâ— fâ—b raised by the peculiar default of the humors easily degenerate into pestilence presently receiving the tainture of the plague to which they had before a certain preparation Wherefore in time of the Plague I would advise all men to shun such exceeding stinking places as they would the plague it self that there may be no preparation in our bodies or humors to catch that infection without which as Galen teacheth the Agent hath no power over the Subject for otherwise in a plague-time the sickness would equally seize upon all so that the impression of the pestiferous quality may presently follow that disposition But when we say the air is pestilent we do not understand that sincere elementary How the air may be said to putrefie and simple as it is of its own nature for such is not subject to putrefaction but that which is polluted with ill vapors rising from the earth standing-waters vaults or sea and degenerates and is changed from its native purity and simplicity But certainly amongst all the constitutions of the air fit to receive a pestilent corruption here is none more fit then an hot moist and still season for the excess of such qualities easily causeth putrefaction Wherefore the south winde reigning A Southerly constitution of the air is the fuel of the Plague which is hot and moist and principally in places near the sea there flesh cannot long be kept but it presently is tainted and corrupted Further we must know that the pestilent malignity which riseth from the carkasses or bodies of men is more easily communicated to men that which riseth from oxen to oxen and that which comes from sheep to sheep by a certain sympathy and familiarity of Nature no otherwise then the Plague which shall seize upon some one in a Family doth presently spread more quickly amongst the rest of the Family by reason of the similitude of temper then amongst others of an other Family disagreeing in their whole temper Therefore the air thus altered and estranged from its goodness of nature necessarily drawn in by inspiration and transpiration brings in the seeds of the Plague and so consequently the Plague it self into bodies prepared and made ready to receive it CHAP. IV. Of the preparation of humors to putrefaction and admission of pestiferous impressions HAving shewed the causes from which the air doth putrefie become corrupt and is made partaker of a pestilent and poysonous constitution we must now declare what things may cause the humors to putrefie and make them so apt to receive and retain the pestilent air and venenate quality Humors putrefie either from fulness which breeds obstruction or by distemperate excess Three causes of the putrefaction of humors or lastly by admixture of corrupt matter evil juice which ill feeding doth specially cause to abound in the body For the Plague often follows the drinking of dead and mustie wines muddy and standing waters which receive the sinks and filth of a City and fruits and pulse eaten without discretion in scarcity of other corn as Pease Beans Lentils Vetches Acrons the roots of Fern and Grass made into Bread For such meats obstruct heap up ill humors in the body and weaken the strength of the faculties from whence proceeds a putrefaction of humors and in that putrefaction a preparation and disposition to receive conceive and bring forth the seeds of the Plague which the filthy scabs malign sores rebellious ulcers putrid fevers being all fore-runners of greater putrefaction and corruption Passions of the minde help forward the Putrefaction of the humors do testifie Vehement passions of the minde as anger sorrow grief vexation and fear help forward this corruption of humors all which
into a stove to supper whereas were divers of our acquaintance a certain woman knowing this mans nature lest that he should see her kitling which she kept and so should go away in chafe she shut her up in a cup-board in the same chamber But for all that he did not see her neither heard her cry A wonderful antipathy between a man and a Cat. yet within a little space when he had drawn in the air infected with the breath of the Cat that quality of temperament contrary or enemy to Cats being provoked he began to sweat to look pale und to crie out all of us admiring it Here lies a Cat in some corner or other The Antidote against the brains of a Cat. neither could he be quiet till the Cat was taken away But such as have eaten the brains of a Cat are taken with often Vertigoes and now and then become foolish and mad they are helped by procuring vomit and taking the Antidote against this poyson that is half a scruple of Musk dissolved and drunk in wine There be some who prescribe the confection Diamoscum to be taken every morning four hours before meat By this you may gather that it is not so fabulous that the common sort report that Cats will kill or harm children Cats dangerous for children for lying to their mouths with the weight of their whole bodies they hinder the passage forth of the fuliginous vapors and the motion of the chest and infect and stifle the spirits of tender infants by the pestiferous air and exhalation which they send forth CHAP. XXXV Of certain Poysonous Plants HAving described the poysons that come from living creatures Apium risus I come to speak of such as are from Plants beginning with the Sardonian herb which is also called Apium risus this is a kinde of Ranunculus or Crow-foot and as it is thought the round-leaved water Crow foot called Marsh-crow-foot or Spear-wort it taketh away the understanding of such as have eaten thereof and by a certain distention of the nerves contracts the cheeks so that it makes them look as if they laughed from this affect came that proverbial speech of the Sardonian laughter taken in evil part His Bezoar as one may term it is the juice of Balm His Antidote Napellus or Monks-hood The juice fruit and substance of Napellus taken inwardly killeth a man the same day or at the furthest in three dayes yea and such as escape the deadly force thereof by the speedy and convenient use of Antidotes fall into an hectick fever or consumption and become subject to the falling-sickness as Avicen affirmeth And hence it is that barbarous People poyson their arrows therewith For the lips are forthwith inflamed and the tongue so swells that by reason thereof it cannot be contained in the mouth but hangs out with great horrour their eies are inflamed and stand forth of their head and they are troubled with a Vertigo and swounding they become so weak that they cannot stir their legs they are swoln and puffed in their bodies the violence of Poyson is so great The Antidote thereof is a certain little creature like a * Our author deceived by the Arabians who it may be mistock the greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in stead thereof read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a Flie a Mouse for there is no Mouse to be found but whole swarms of Flies which feed thereon you may â—â—â—de the deâ—â—â—pâ—â—â—â— of an Antidote made with 〈◊〉 in Lebels Sâ—â—p 〈◊〉 pag. 3â—â— Mouse which is bred and lives on the root of Napellus being dried and drunk in â—owcer to the weight of two crams In want hereof you may use the seed of Raddish or Turnips to drink and annoint the body also with oil of Scorpions Doricinum and Solanum Manicum or deadly Night-shade Doricinum and Solanum Manicum or deadly Night-shade are not much different in their mortal symptoms or effects Doricinum being drunk resembleth milk in taste it causeth continual hickeâ—â—ing it troubleth the tongue with the weight of the humor it causeth blood to be cast forth or the mouth and certain mucous matter out of the belly like that which cometh away in the bloody flux A remedy hereto are all shell-fishes as well crude as rosted also Sea-Lobtâ—â—s and Crabs and the broth or liquor wherein they are boyled being drunk Now the root of Solanum Manicum drunk in the weight of one dram in wine The symptoms causeth vain and not unpleasing imaginations but double this quantity causes a distraction or alienation of the minde for three dayes out four times so much kills The remedies are the same as there prescribed against Doricinum Hen-bane Hen-bane drunken or otherwise taken inwardly by the mouth causeth an alienation of the minde of like drunkenness this also is accompanied with an agitation of the body and exsolutition of the spirits like swounding But amongst others this is a notable symptom that the patients so dote that they think themselvs to be whipped whence their voice becomes so various that somtimes they bray like an Ass or Mule The antidote neigh like an Horse as Avicen writes The Antidote is pistick nuts eaten in great plenty treacle also and mithridate dissolved in sack also wormwood rue and milk Mushroms Of mushroms some are deadly and hurtful of their own kinde and nature as those which broken presently become of divers colours and putrefie such as Avicen saith those are which be found of a grayish or blewish colour others though not hurtfull in quality yet eaten in greater measure then is fitting become deadly for seeing by nature they are very cold and moist and consequently abound with no small viscosity as the excrementitious phlegm of the earth or trees whereon they grow they suffocate and extinguish the heat of the body as overcome by their quantity and strangle as if one were hanged and lastly kill Verily I cannot châ—se but pitty Gourmondizers who though they know that Mushroms are the seminary and gate of death yet do they with a greet deal of do most greadily devour them I say pittying them I will shew them and teach them the art how they may feed upon this so much defited dish without the endangering of their health Their Antidote Know therefore that Mushroms may be eaten without danger if that they be first boyled with wild pears but if you have no wilde pears you may supply that defect with others which are the most harsh either newly gathered or dried in the sun The leaves as also the bark of the same tree are good especially of the wilde for pears are their Antidote yet Conciliator gives another to wit garlick eaten crude whereunto in like sort vinegar may be fitly added so to cut and attenuate the tough viscous and gross humors heaped up and in danger to strangle one by the too plentiful eating of Mushroms Iâ— 5. epidemy as it
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
suffocation of the womb live only by transpiration without breathing will stain or make the glass duskie Also a fine downish feather taken from under the wing of any bird or else a fine flock being held before the mouth will by the trembling or shaking motion thereof shew that there is some breath and therefore life remaining in the body But you may prove most certainly whether there be any spark of life remaining in the body by blowing some sneesing powders of pellitory of Spain and Elebore into the nostrils But though there no breath appear yet must you not judge the woman for dead for the small vital heat by which being drawn into the heart she yet liveth is contented with transpiration only and requires not much attraction which is performed by the contraction and dilatation of the breast and lungs unto the preservation of it self For so flies gnats pismires and such like How flies gnats and pismires do live all the winter without breathing because they are of a cold temperament live unmoveably inclosed in the caves of the earth no token of breathing appearing in them because there is a little heat left in them which may be conserved by the office of the arteries and heart that is to say by perspiration without the motion of the breast because the greatest use of respiration is that the inward heat may be preserved by refrigeration and ventilation Those that do not mark this fall into that error which almost cost the life of him who in our time first gave life to Anatomical administration that was almost decayed and neglected For he being called in Spain to open the body of a noble woman which was supposed dead through strangulation of the womb behold at the second impression of the incision-knife A history she began suddenly to come to her self and by the moving of her members and body which was supposed to be altogether dead and with crying to shew manifest signs that there was some life remaining in her Which thing struck such an admiration and horror into the hearts of all her friends that were present that they accounted the Physicâ—an being before of a good fame and report as infamous odious and detestable so that it wanted but little but that they would have scratched out his eyes presently wherefore he thought there was no better way for him if he would live safe then to forsake the Country But neither could he so also avoid the horrible prick and inward wound of his conscience from whose judgment no offendor can be absolved for his inconsiderate dealing but within few dayes after being consumed with sorrow he died to the great loss of the Common-wealth and the art of Physick CHAP. XLVII How to know whether the strangulation of the wombe comes of the suppression of the Flowers or the corruption of the seed The signs of suffocation of the womb comming of corrupt seed THere are two chief causes especially as most frequently happening of the strangulation of the womb but when it proceedeth from the corruption of the seed all the accidents are more grievous and violent difficulty of breathing goes before and shortly after comes deprivation thereof the whole habit of the body seemeth more cold then a stone the woman is a widow or else hath great store or abundance of seed and hath been used to the company of a man by the absence whereof she was before wont to be pained with heaviness of the head to loath her meat and to be troubled with sadness and fear but chiefly with melancholy Moreover The signs when it comes of the suppression of the flowers when she hath satisfied and every way fulfilled her lust and then presently on a sudden begins to contain her self It is very likely that she is suffocated by the suppression of the flowers which formerly had them well and sufficiently which formerly had been fed with hot moist and many meats therefore engendring much blood which sitteth much which is grieved with some weight and swelling in the region of the belly with pain in the stomach and a desire to vomit and with such other accidents as come by the suppression of the flowers The signs of one recovering of or from the suffocation of the womb Those who are freed from the fit of the suffocation of the womb either by nature or by art in a short time their colour cometh into their faces by little and little and the whole body beginneth to wax strong and the teeth that were set and closed fast together begin the jaws being loosed to open and unclose again and lastly some moisture floweth from the secret parts with a certain tickling pleasure but in some women as in those especially in whom the neck of the womb is tickled with the Midwives finger instead of that moisture comes thick and gross seed which moisture or seed when it is fallen the womb being before as it were raging is restored unto its own proper nature and place Why the suppression of the seed is not perilous or deadly to men and by little and little all symptoms vanish away Men by the suppression of their seed have not the like symptoms as women have because mans seed is not so cold and moist but far more perfect and better digested and therefore more meet to resist putrefaction and whiles it is brought or drawn together by little and little it is dissipated by great and violent exercise CHAP. XLVIII Of the cure of the Strangulation of the Womb. The pulling of the hairs of the lower parts are profitable both for this malady and for the cause of the same SEeing that the strangulation of the womb is a sudden and sharp disease it therefore requireth a present and speedy remedy for if it be neglected it many times causeth present death Therefore when this malady cometh the sick woman must presently be placed on her back having her breast and stomach loose and all her cloaths and garments slack and loose about her whereby she may take breath the more easily and she must be called on by her own name with a loud voice in her ears and pulled hard by the hairs of the temples and neck but yet especially by the hairs of the secret parts that by provoking or causing pain in the lower parts the patient may not only be brought to her self again but also that the sharp and malign vapour ascending upwards may be drawn downwards the legs and arms must be bound and tied with painfull ligatures all the body must be rubbed over with rough linnen clothes besprinkled with salt and vineger untill it be very sore and red and let this pessary following be put into the womb A Pessary â„ž succi mercurial artemis an â„¥ ii in quibus dissolve pul bened Ê’ iii. pul radic enula camp galang minor an Ê’ i. make thereof a pessary Then let the soals of her feet be anointed with oil of bayes
them to have carts and carters to help to carry them to the said Thionville Our said carters being returned back brought us word that the way was paved with dead bodies and that they never led back the half for they died in their Carts and the Spaniards seeing them at the point of death before they had cast our their last gasp cast them out of their câ—â—ts and buryed them in the mud and mire saying They had no order to bring back the dead Mo eover our said carters said they met by the way divers carts loaden with baggage sticking in the â—â—ire which they durst not send for back for fear lest those of Mets should fall upon them I will again return to the cause of their mortality which was principally through hunger plague and cold for the snow was two foot thick upon the earth and they were lodged in the caves of the earth only covered with a little straw Notwithstanding each Souldier hâ—d his field-bed and a covering strewed with glittering stars more bright then fine gold and every day had white sheets and lodged at the sign of the Moon and made good chear when they had it and paid their hoste so well over-night that in the morning they went away quite shaking their ears and they needed no comb to take away the down out of their hairs either of head or beard and found alwaies a white table-cloth losing good meals for want of Victuals Also the greatest part of them had neither boots nor buskins slippers hose or shooes and divers had rather have none then have them because they were alwaies in mud half way of the leg and because they went bare-legd we called them the Emperors Apostles After the Camp was wholly broken I distributed my Patients into the hands of the Surgeons of the City to finish their cure then I took leave of Monsieur de Guise who came back toward the King who received me with a loving countenance and demanded of me how I did enter into the City of Mets. I recounted to him all that I had done he caused two hundred Crowns to be given me and one hundred I had at my going out and told me he would not leave me poor then I thanked him most humbly for the good and the honor which he pleased to do me The Voyage of Hedin 1553. CHarls the Emperor caused the City of Therowenne to be besieged where Monsieur the Duke of Savoy was General of the whole Army it was taken by assault where there was a great number of our men slain and prisoners The King willing to prevent that the Enemy should not also come to besiege the City and Castle of Hedin sent Messiers the Duke of Bevillion the Duke Horace the Marquess of Villars a number of Captains and about eight hundred Souldiers and during the siege of Therowenne the said Lords fortified the said Castle of Hedin in such sort that it seemed impregnable The King sent me to the said Lord to help them wiâ—h my Art if there were any need Now soon after the taking of Therowenne we were besieged with the Army there was a quick clear fountain of Spring within Cannon-shot where there was about fourscore whores and wenches of the enemies who were round about it to draw water I was upon a Rampart beholding the Camp and seeing so many idlers about the said Fountain I prayed Monsieur be Pont Commssiary of the Artillery to make one Cannon-shot at that roguish company he made me much denial answering me that such kinde of people were not worth the powder they should waste Again I prayed him to levell the Cannon telling him The more dead the fewer enemies which he did through my request and at that shot fifteen or sixteen were killd and many hurt Our souldiers sallied forth upon the enemies where there was many killd and slain with musket shot and swords as well on the one side as of the other and our souldiers did often make sallies forth upon the enemies before their trenches were made wheâ—e I had much work cut out so that I had no rest night nor day for dressing the wounded And I will tell this by the way that we had put many of them in a great Tower laid upon a little straw and their pillows were stones their coverlets were their cloaks of those that had any Whilst the battery was making as many shot as the Cannons made the patients said they felt pain in their wounds as if one had given them blows with a staff the one cryed his head the other his arm and so of other parts divers of their wounds bled afresh yea in greater quantity then first when they were wounded and then it was I must run to stay their bleeding My little Master if you had been there you had been much troubled with your hot-irons you had need to have had muâ—h charcoal to make them red hot and beleive they would have slain you like a Calf for this cruelty Now through this diabolical tempest of the Eccho from these thundering Instruments and by the great and vehement agitation of the collision of the air resounding and reveâ—berating in the wounds of the hurt people divers died and others because thâ—y could not rest by reason of the groans and cries that they made night and day and also for want of good nourishment and other good usage necessary to wounded people Now my little matter if you had been thâ—re you would hardly hâ—ve given them gelly restauratives cullites pressures panado cleansed barly white meats almond-milk prunes raisins and other proper meats for sick people your ordinance would only have been accomplisht in paper but in effect they could have had nothing but old Cow-beef which was taken about Hedin for our munition salted and half-boiled in so much that who would have eat it he must pull it with the force of his teeth as biâ—ds of Prey do carrion I will not forget their linnen wherewith they were drest which was only rewashed every day and dried at the fire and therefore dry and stubborn like Parchment I leave you to think how their wounds coâ—ld heal well There were four lusty whores to whom charge was given to wâ—sh their linnen who discharged their duty under penalry of the battoon and also they wanted both sope and water See then how the sick people died for want of nourishment and other necessary things One day our enemies feigned to give us a general assaultâ— to draw our souldiers upon the breach to the end to know our countenance and behaviour every one ran thitheâ— we had made great provision of artificial fire to defend the breach a Priest belonging to Mousieur â—u B uillon took a granaco thinking to throw it on the Enemies and set it on fire sooner then it ought to have done it brake asunder and the fire fell amongst our fire-works which were pâ—t into a house near the breach which was to vs a marvellous disaster