parts and what evils it causeth we shall now shew what Symptoms it produceth in the habit of the body For it is thin and not only fills vacuity but dissolves continuity tears the membranes in themselves and from the bones and swiftly strikes like a dart upon any part causing great pain Sometimes like cold air it affects the sensible nervous parts without great pain but this is little and very thin and easily vanisheth by the natural heat and Fomentations But it is harder to be discussed when it gets under the skin or membranes of the bones being thicker and more and swells them to a windy Impostume Galen distinguisheth this from Oedema which is from water and yields to the finger and pits deep But an inflation is from wind either under the skin or membranes of the bones or under the Muscles This pits not with the finger but sounds like a drum with a fillip Sometimes it causeth no tumour but lying under the skin through which it cannot breathe being thick it only beateth this the Vulgar call the life And Langius in an Epistle wittily shews the arrogancy and ignorance of some Chirurgions that when they see the Muscles of the Temples Forehead Cheeks or Jaws tremble by wind in the skin and to swell they say there is the soul or life as in a prison also without purging which is less dangerous then bleeding they let blood and beholding the blood to tremble in the Porringer by reason of wind they fear that life is gone forth with the blood and therefore they make the patient drink it off hot Silly fellows that know not that air feeds the vital and animal spirits gets not only into the Arteries of the Brain Lungs and Heart but into all parts by inspiration and the pores and is mixed with the blood by the Anastomosis of the Arteries with the Veins and wind will breed from clammy humours not only in the Muscles and all parts that may be stretched as the Stomach Guts Liver Spleen Midriff and Womb in teeming women which move the womb so that they think the Child moveth And it causeth a trembling not only in the Muscles and other members but chiefly in the Heart And as wind shut up in the bowels of the Earth shakes as it is ready to get forth so wind in the body being comprehended in the muscles or other stretchable parts shakes them till it gets forth Thus Langius and Galen lib. 2. de Art curat ad Glauc confirms him saying that that sort of wind which is gross sometimes lyes under the membranes of the bones sometimes under the Peritonaeum sometimes in the guts and belly sometimes under the membranes about the muscles and the membranous tendons and the spaces of the muscles and other parts Therefore the force of wind is wonderful that like Thunder passeth through insensible passages into private places even into the bones and marrow and causeth pain but being between the bone and the Periostium it teareth them asunder with great pain Hence many complain of pain of the Shins by fits when there is no distemper external neither tumour nor pain when it is pressed except there be much gathered So much of the Symptoms now we shall speak of the Prognosticks of Wind. CHAP. XI Of the Prognosticks of Wind. ALL diseases of wind in any part are hard to be cured if it cannot get forth the thicker and more close it is the longer it remains and causeth worse Symptoms When it separates the parts it causeth pain and pain causeth flux of humours and the humour getting into the crannies of the part stretched causeth a tumour the tumour distends the skin and membranes and contracts them hence the blood being not cooled comes corruption and increase of preternatural heat If this tumour be hard and yield red and beating it is an inflammation if it be white yielding to touch and pit it is an Oedema if it be white yielding and transparent it is an inflation Sometimes wind makes a Dropsie as Hippocrates lib. de Flatibus saith wind gets through the flesh and makes thin the pores and then follows moisture to which the wind before had made a passage and the body is moistned the flesh melts and the humours fall down to the Legs and then comes a Dropsie They in whom wind hath long remained are subject to all these diseases as the Aphorism saith They who have pains about the Navel and Loyns that will not away with Physick or other ways will have a dry Dropsie This wind is not discussed by medicines or other things by reason of the habitual distemper of the part which persevering causeth a Tympany the worst of Dropsies I never knew it cured when confirmed If then it be so dangerous because the wind will yield to no remedies by reason of the cause that feeds it Hippocrates Prognost lib. 1. said well it is very healthful for wind to pass forth without noise but it is better to break with noise then stay and move about and cause pain If any from modesty when they are sound will rather dye then fart let them know that they dote or must endure pain If one fart willingly it signifies no ill but only it were better to be voided without noise For a noise shews much wind or straitness of the vessels but that noise which is heard in new diseases in the Hypochondria pains or swellings is not bad Hippocrates lib. 2. Prognost saith new pains and swellings in the Hypochondria without inflammation are dissolved by noise chiefly if there be stools and urine and if the wind goes not forth it is good that it goes downward These tumours being only of wind are dissolved by their rumbling it shews wind joyned with a humour and sign fies good that is that the wind will go forth with the humour it is mixed with or if not that it will go downward and the pain and tumour will cease And Hippocrates Aph. 73. lib 4. saith they who have stretched Hypochondria with rumbling and after that a pain in the Loyns will have a moist belly or loosness except they fart or piss much The Hypochondria rumbles and swells from wind alone or mixed with humours and if it alone breaks forth upward or downward with the humour it is without danger and the pain and tumour suddenly depart For the Liver and Spleen lying in the Hypochondria if they be much pained it is from strong inflammation or wind if from wind a Fever coming removes the pain As Hippocrates Aph. 52. lib. 7. saith they whose Liver is much pained are cured by a Fever for the heat of it doth discuss the wind Now a Fever doth not follow an inflammation but comes with it nor doth it take off pain but increase it It appears that the heat of a Fever discusseth wind because they in the Jaundice seldom have fits of wind because they are hot of constitution as Hippocrates Aph. 78. lib. 5. saith they in the Jaundice are not
be alike is joyned to these The natural Spirit is made when the more pure or aerial part of nourishment turns by concoction into thin blood like a vapour This takes force from the imbred spirit in the Liver and goes to the Heart by the hollow vein with the rest of the blood then by heat being more refined it turns to a sort of air and becomes a vital spirit which spread through the whole body by the arteries gives life part of this carried by the arteries of the neck into the net-work of the brain and so into the ventricles increaseth by the air received at the nose and by force of the spirit imbred in the brain becomes animal and being sent to the whole body gives sense and motion The spirit we shall speak of differs much from these and is the fourth spirit in our bodies of the same nature with wind and it is so called It is gross and not so aery or thin as the other You may best know the nature of it if you consider the air in a South or North wind The windy spirit in us is like the South wind and the natural is like the North. Let us leave the innate or imbred spirits which are well described by others and speak of the flatuous or windy spirit CHAP. II. Of the Analogy or Proportion between the flatuous Spirit and Wind or the Wind in Man and in the Earth THere are two things that chiefly blow up our bodies and prepare them for diseases diet and the air Food though at first unlike is at length made like us and turned into the substance of the body Therefore by long use the body will be of the same nature For all Diet though well concocted keeps it in a natural and genuine condition therefore Lettice and other cold things though they be overcome by concoction yet cool the stomach and whole body and produce cold blood So Wine and Garlick produce hot blood Fish Cheese and salt Meats gross blood By which it is clear that not only the spirits and humours by which we are preserved are changed but the constitution of the whole body Therefore a cool diet prepares the body to breed wind by oppressing the native heat Also too much of the best meats and drinks such as burdens Nature cannot be well concocted or turned into good blood but many crudities will be which will cause obstructions and rottenness or corruption by which the natural heat is suffocated as the wiek of a candle by too much grease This crudity and abundance of humours is gathered in all chiefly the Northern Inhabitants these as if it were too low a thing to slay with a sword or hang with a halter or fight publickly kill themselves with kindness they contend in drinking healths and riot night and day and add new surfeits to the former and leave not off till they vomit what they take in or are ready to burst forgetting the saying That gluttony and drunkenness kill more then the sword When too much food is taken it causeth a disease It is no wonder if such have many excrements and wind which for their abundance are not easily voided Also the Country and air is of much force For a hot Country as the Summer inflames the spirits dries the humours and increaseth Choler which causeth most acute diseases But a cold and moist air as it is in the North is like the Winter stupifies the spirits stops the Pores and burdens the body with many superfluous humours and oppresseth the native heat Hence the concoction is weakned and there are crudities and fluctuations of food in the stomach distillations chronick diseases stones worms wind and the like These breed in Man the little world as in the great unto which Aristotle compares him For as in the great world there are four Elements Fire Air Water Earth so there are the same in the little and as in all those Elements are divers substances bred as in the earth stones and trees in the water divers Creatures in the air thunder lightning rain so in man there are bred bones as stones and worms and lice as living Creatures and distillations as rain and wind or a flatus like the wind in the earth To be short the image of the Universe is clear in man For God when in six days he had wonderfully made the world and set all things in order so that nothing seemed to be wanting made man as the abridgment of all the rest to extol his Divine power and wisdom and admire his works Moreover there is nothing in Heaven or Earth the like whereunto may not be found in man if you diligently search and consider the Soul is his God the understanding and will are his angelical Spirits heat cold moisture and driness answer to the outward Elements In the heat appear divers flashes and fiery representations Frenzies Inflammations Erysipelas Feavers In the moisture are distillations and Nodes that come from thence like hail also the humours ebbe and flow in the veins and arteries But the earthy Element of this little world is most like the great in which are stones which our bones do resemble and Ovid calls the stones the bones of our great mother Earth As the Plants Corn and Trees are in the Earth so are the hairs in man As Galen saith hairs grow as Plants For as some grow by the art of the Husbandman others by natural causes only so in animals the head is like a Wheat or Barley-field and the hair in other parts is like other plants in drier ground What shall I say of the Earthquake when many exhalations are bred in the bowels of the Earth by force of the Sun and Stars from a moisture that is sunk into the Earth and from the matter of the Earth when they cannot get forth by reason of the Earths closure or the grossness of the wind there must needs be an Earthquake in part So when flatuous spirits or wind is shut up in the cavity of the body and strives to get out there is great trembling as Langius saith if we may confer great things with small as wind shut up in the bowels of the Earth makes it tremble when it strives to get out so a flatulent air or wind being kept in by the covers of the Muscles and other parts that may be stretched shakes them till it breaks through the Membrane that covers them the vulgar ignorant of this suppose this to be the soul or life-blood While it goes forth without doing hurt at the Pores there is no trembling but if they be stopt it hunts about and gets into cavities and strives to break through so the wind striving to get out shakes the body There is another reason of this trembling The wind shut up in the cavities being beaten back by the heat of the bowels and natural motion grows hot by reason of the want of freedom and so thinner This insinuates it self into any part even the
it admits no farther industry therefore the Ages following and ours according to the ingenuity of the best in the time did refine and digest into order those parts of Physick that seemed imperfect They cut off what was superfluous and supplied what was defective and did all with such industry that the Art seemed to have a new face For no part of Physick though obscure and hard can now be concealed For famous men have not ceased to study the Heavens and Stars with their motions and the Nature of the Elements and to search into the bowels of the Earth and to find out by great labour the force of Herbs and all Plants and to know all sorts of living Creatures nay to search into the bowels of Mankind by a kind of cruelty that they might be preserved against the storms of so many malignant Causes This is the reason why we bestow our labour and study for the Common Good in writing this Book and others and in perusing Authors out of which we have gathered this Treatise of Wind that troubles the Body of Man Men are of divers ingenuities and every one follows that which his Nature and heat of Spirit draws him unto Some follow Musick and the Mathematicks others Morality others Religion without any respect to other Sciences Some in obedience to their God Belly follow head-long after lust and spend more time and pains in pleasure and luxury then in honesty and lay up treasure by any means good or bad to maintain their lusts These vain Wretches having nothing but a body which shews their manhood pass away and their memory rots But such whose Souls dwell more nobly in them and think of the adorning of their Divine part lose no time for meditation that they may declare things more clearly to Posterity and be famous to Eternity Of this sort there are many in our Age chiefly Physitians who have so laboured to purge and adorn their Science that no Age hath done more For no Science is so absolute in all things but there is something new that the Ancients did not take notice of or leave unfinished For humane industry is fed by meditation and grows hot by an unwearied force And a generous Soul submits his private studies to the Judgment of the Learned and grows more studious afterwards For if his works are approved by them he is more inflamed to go forward if not he labours to recover his honour and to hit that the second time which he missed at the first Fall how it will an ingenious generous Spirit loseth nothing but gets much This is the cause why we have taken in hand to clear that part of Physick which treats of Wind and is of great consequence to mankind that we may not live in silence as if born for our selves And the rather because there is no disease more usual and vexatious chiefly in the North and less understood by Physitians though indifferently learned then those of Wind. And there is no part of Physick more neglected by Authors for none hath written exactly of Wind but Hippocrates and he hath written so that little benefit is to be gotten thereby We confess the reverend old Man had a wonderful Spirit in shewing the Cause of every Disease But he useth Arguments far fetcht and such as teach rather the Wit of their Author then the knowledge or Cure of the Diseases that come from them And he handles but slightly the breeding of Wind from meat drink of flegm He only speaks of the force of the Air breathed in Nor is it a wonder For his Age was very temperate and no ways given to Luxury Also the Country he lived in chiefly Cous was a temperate Island and did not breed these torments from Wind. But our Age from Gluttony and Drunkenness affords few that are not tormented with Wind. Therefore we shall provide that such as are troubled therewith may be cured and that by bad diet they do not relapse and be again troubled therewith And we shall leave Hippocrates who wrote on this subject more learnedly then profitably and discover for the Common Good those Principles that we know by Experience to be profitable Farewel W. R. A Short TREATISE Concerning Wind in Mans Body CHAP. I. That Wind is a Spirit and of the Division of Spirits I Suppose none doth question but that that substance whether it be air wind or blast which is strong to be heard or felt though not to be seen is called a Spirit For so Hippocrates calls them in his Book of Winds And Galen saith they are spirits Epid. 1. Com. 3. And in his Book of the difficulty of breathing and differences of breathing and in his Prognosticks and that a belch is a kind of spirit and doth after a sort communicate with the spirits of breathing Thus it appears by these sayings of Galen that wind is a spirit now there are differences of spirits therefore I shall shew the nature of all spirits and begin from the chief to the meanest Spirits are either within or without our bodies They without are of three sorts There is the spirit of the living God and of universal Nature and of the Soul The spirit of God shews his hidden Majesty and Power and goes through all things and is every where comprehending all things It hath the minds and souls of all in its power and can carry them where it pleaseth The spirit of Nature is that which all the Philosophers and Poets so commend Plato calls it the soul of the world Galen calls it a mind brought hither from above Aristotle Lib. de mund ad Alex. sets it forth more plainly by this definition saying this spirit is an animate substance that generateth in Plants and living Creatures belonging to all being largely extended it contains all rejoyceth all carrying the vital soul of the world with it and Nature it self and making all things live that it gets into Also there is a spirit under the form of every mortal and concrete thing which knits it to its thick body being of a mean condition between both it joyns things different being like unto both and this spirit is governed and preserved by the other which is the universal spirit of all Nature To these three differences of spirits Arist Lib. de mund adds a fourth saying that wind ariseth from a dry exhalation when it is cast off by cold so that it spreads abroad it self so that wind is only much air stirring about and forced and this is called a spirit also For air is strong though not visible but known by its effects and our apprehensions and Hippocrates in his Book of Wind saith that all that is between Heaven and Earth is full of spirits Also the spirits in the body are comprehended in their several members for they are natural vital or animal All these are called by the name of innate or imbred spirits wind or the flatulent spirit that the great and little world Man might
For finding no passage out it stretcheth them vehemently and tears them from the bone This distemper is known from others for there is neither heat nor heaviness except there be flagm there but only a stretching with noise or ringing Also it is of much concernment if it be much or little thick or thin move quickly or slowly For if it be much thick and move quick it will be perceived like swift flowing water or like a drum or such an instrument as makes a shrill noise with a large blast of wind If it be little or thick and move quick it is like the breaking and falling of a tree or an house or a conduit If it be much but thin and move quick it causeth jingling or ringing or ringing or like the whistling of wind in at the cranny of a door If it be much gross and move not quickly it causeth rumbling If it be little thick and move slowly it causeth a whistling or Susurrus whispering When it is much thin and moves slowly it causeth hissing They that have it are commonly dull both in the inward and outward senses chiefly in the hearing by reason of the grossness of the spirits impurity and coldness and the pain is not constant but by fits Also wind gets into the roots of the Teeth and stretcheth their Nerves or the Membrane of the Cheek-bone and causeth wonderful pain almost not to be asswaged It is easily known for it is not constant nor alike all the fit as when humours logde there but it is by fits worse and hath a quick motion like a dart Though as Galen saith the Lungs feel no pain yet being stretched there is pain felt in the breast and back from the membrane that compasseth them which hangs from breast to back by fibres As often then as wind stretcheth this membrane by its abundance or quick motion there wil be a pain in the breast or back and which is worse it sometimes breaks the veins and causeth a flux of blood and so a consumption though seldom Wind often causeth a bastard Pleurisie and sometimes difficult to be cured as when it is between the skin and the ribs or between the membranes under the ribs and pulls them from the parts they cleave to This stops the breath and keeps it from large and free passage because the side and the breast are stirred up to move in breathing Sometimes from pain it causeth a dry Cough and a Feaver and it resembles a true Pleurisie which is from a Phlegmon and many ignorant Physitians that are content with a few signs and such as shew not the disease are deceived thereby and cause dangerous Symptoms by false directions But this Pleurisie differs far from a true and to shew the signs of a true is not to our purpose but the Pleurisie of wind is with a wandring pain not long in the same place except it be a very gross and cloudy vapour It is milder by heat and fomentations and is dispersed it comes from too much cold drink or milk chiefly a great draught after exercise from cold and wet feet or other windy causes as we shewed before Also palpitation of the Heart is from wind when it gets into the Pericardium through invisible passages and cannot get out it tormenteth by a vehement Systole and Diastole contraction and dilatation so that when it extends the heart it intercepts the motion of the Artery We shall know when this is from wind and not from a humour For the humour will be much or little thick or thin That which is much and thick cannot get through the thick membrane and be dissolved into air through the habit of the body If it be much and thin though it may at length be dissolved and dryed up yet it requires longer abode it cannot quickly come and go be violent and cease this is a plain sign that then the palpitation of the Heart is from a windy substance But if it were little and thin it would easily vanish and not make that kind of palpitation Therefore it is probable that there is a thick substance or a cloudy wind which the heart labours to shake off because it oppresseth the vital faculty and by its heat and continual motion extenuates the thickness and so disperseth it and then the palpitation ceaseth which comes from surfeits idleness bashfulness or too much or sudden fear as the evident causes But the palpitation which is from humours contained in the Pericardium is different For it is perpetual seldom intermitting but in time of rest it grows worse from motion and continues often for many years even till death Fernelius saith that sometimes it hath broken the adjacent ribs and put them out of their place and dilated the Artery outward as big as the fist The other from wind is troublesom but comes by fits and is not so dangerous There are no oftner or greater Symptoms from wind then those that trouble the stomach and gut Colon the first is called Inflation the second the Colick from the part affected Inflation is from a fault from the retentive and embracing faculty of the stomach For the goodness of the stomach consists in the time of the embracing of the food being equal with the time of concoction and when it so binds up the food that there is no empty space between it and the meat But quick evacuation and corruption of meat in the lower belly follow an unfit time of retention and a weak retention causeth inflations These torment the stomach and the pain descends to the back For the stomach lies under the Midriff and begins at the Malum Punicum or Pomegranate and so tends to the left side for the upper part bends chiefly thither but the lower part bends more to the right side The hinder part lyes upon the Back-bone to which it is bound cleaving as far as the first Spondil of the Loyns The mouth of it is united not to the Back-bone but to the Diaphragma Liver Heart Spleen Guts and other parts by Membranes Nerves Arteries and Veins Hence when the stomach is stretcht with wind those parts are pained that are joyned to the stretched part of the stomach Therefore when the back parts are stretched by wind there is chiefly pain in the Loyns and Kidneys as if it were the Stone which deceives not only the vulgar but the learned sometimes so that they think them to have the stone which are stretched with wind in the stomach But this is chiefly in such as have the Colick as shall be proved When the upper part of the stomach is extended there is pain over the breast chiefly on the left side When the lower parts are stretched the Liver is sometimes pained or the other side If the mouth of the stomach be stretched the Gullet hath a Convulsion as if it were contracted with hands so that they say it is like a stick fixed and they can scarce swallow For as Galen Lib. 6. Aph. 39. saith
boil them and to a pint add Electuary Ind. maj Hiera Logodii each four drams Honey of Roses two ounces Oyl of Bayes three ounces Electuary of Bayes two drams make a Clyster If they will not take Clysters give Pills of washed Aloes of Hiera aureae Cochic after preparation and abatement of pain But if pain be great and the matter small omit preparation and evacuation and fall upon that which most disturbeth therefore asswage pain speedily apply a small Cupping-glass without much flame twice or thrice to the shoulder then take Gith Cummin seed Pellitory and Parsley roots each half an ounce boil them in Wine to the consumption of half wash the teeth with it hot it will discuss and attenuate and amend the cold distemper and draw out much slimy matter which breeds wind Or boil Pellitory roots half an ounce white Pepper a dram in Vinegar and wash the mouth therewith or you may make a Bag and apply it to the Tooth thus Take Calamints Hysop Chamomil each a handful Milium parched Bran Salt each a pugil Cummin half an ounce make a Bag. Then put a red hot Iron into an earthen Jug and pour into it three or four spoonfuls of Vinegar and let the Bag take the Fume at the mouth of the Jug The Women hold it for a great Secret to apply a roasted Turnep behind the Ears for it revels strongly and abates pain to my knowledge I never allowed Narcoticks in this Disease for they thicken the wind too much and make it fix like a cloud upon the Nerves and roots of the Teeth and congealing makes a little ease but increaseth the Disease But if the pain be intolerable to refresh Nature you must use Narcoticks with hot things to abate their force and look both at the Symptom and cause Thus Take Pellitory Pepper each a scruple Opium half a scruple bind them in a Clout and infuse them two or three hours in Vinegar and apply it to the Tooth Or Take Henbane seed Stavesacre and Pellitory each a scruple and with Vinegar make a Pill hold it at the Tooth for an hour it abates pain wonderfully and doth no hurt yet I could wish that only Discussers might remove pain CHAP. XVII Of the Cure of a windy Pleurisie THe pain is great which is from wind in the side when it gets into the cavity of the Breast or between the Membranes that are under the Ribs for then as in a true Pleurisie there is a Cough restlesness and sometimes a Fever thirst and stretching pain which may be distinguished from a true Pleurisie by many signs yet Hippocrates for better security bids us soment with hot things and if the pain increase it is certainly from a defluxion and chiefly of hot matter if it abate it is from wind or a small defluxion which easily breaks forth when the skin is made thinner by the Fomentation It is not good to use Fomentations only but to give Clysters to make passage for the wind for in this disease the excrements are hard by idleness or driness when the moisture is gone to the veins or from much flegm that is gross which stops the passages therefore give a common Clyster first then a stronger to purget see the precedent Chapter If he will not take a Clyster give this Medicine Take Diacatholicon four drams Electuary of Dates two drams species Hierae s half a dram with Sugar make a Bole. Or give this Powder in Cock-broth or Wine Take Senna four scruples Rhubarb half a scruple Diagredium two grains Aromaticum rosatum eight grains Sugar a sufficient quantity After Evacuation open the Liver-vein on the side affected if there be much blood or great pain otherwise not then use Fomentations and the like to the part Take Calamints Pennyroyal Rosemary each one handful Rae Bayes each half a handful Juniper berries and Chamomil flowers each a pugil seeds of Foenugreek Line and Bran each three ounces Boil them to half then put the Liquour and Herbs in a Bladder and apply them or use a Cloth or a Sponge dipt in it do this often This concocts the thick and crude spirit extenuates and discusseth after this anoint with Oyl of Chamomil or bitter Almonds and apply a hot cloth Or make a Bag of Rue Thyme Wormwood Lavender Rosemary Chamomil Gith seed Cummin Carrot Bay-berries as in Chap. 16. When the wind is thus discussed it is good to apply a great Cupping-glass six fingers breadth below the part without Scarification but with a great flame twice or thrice this will discuss the wind easier it would not at first be discussed by a Cupping-glass If this will not do but the wind is bred still from clammy flegm prepare it thus by Inciders and Extenuaters Take roots of Orris Parsley Elicampane each an ounce bark of Dwarf-elder roots and of Tamarisk each four drams Sage Rosemary Hysop Roman Wormwood each half a handful Dodder a handful of the four great hot Seeds each two drams Raisons stoned a pugil Liquorish four drams boil them to half to a pint strained add Syrup of the five Roots two ounces of French Lavender Oxymel of Squills each an ounce and Sugar and a dram and half of Cinnamon make an Apozem for four draughts to be taken twice a day Then purge flegm thus Take Agarick four scruples Ginger half a dram infuse them in Fennel-water and white Wine twelve hours strain and add Benedicta laxativa three drams Electuary of the juyce of Roses half a dram Syrup of Calamints an ounce Or Take Turbith a dram Ginger half a dram Sugar two drams give it in powder with white Wine or Broth. Afterwards repeat the Fomentations Oyntments and Cupping-glasses and use Diacyminum or Electuary of Bay-berries or this Confection Take Conserve of Borage flowers candied Elicampane each half an ounce species of Diacyminum Dianisi Bay-berries each a scruple Cinnamon half a scruple with Syrup of Citron peels make an Electuary give a dram fasting in a decoction of Chamomil flowers and Aniseeds in white Wine It is good also to foment with Spirit of Wine and Oyl of bitter Almonds and apply a hot clout You must do the like in inflations of the Lungs CHAP. XVIII Of the Cure of a windy Palpitation A Palpitation is a Symptom of the Heart namely an elevation and depression of it preternaturally caused by wind and it is more dangerous then another palpitation because the part is most noble For if it be strong or last long it so weakens the vital faculty that it turns to fainting or sudden death Therefore presently strengthen the Heart with good Diet and Physick discuss wind and remove the cause Let the air be clear hot and dry not stinking or cloudy make it so by art if it be not naturally clear and sweet by sweet cordial things Let him abstain from strong passions of mind chiefly from sudden fear and shamefulness and from much Wine but moderate doth well and Venery and sleep in the day cold