happens that animal actions do not seldome perish in the parts though they receive no hurt but only the principle of them but the natural are never hurt while the parts are free from harme Secondly Aire is the matter of all spirits for out of it and clear exhalations from the blood they are produced But there is no passage thorough which the air may be conveyed to the Liver Therefore that can be no seat for the generation of spirits Thirdly The spirits are according to Hippocrates the causers of motion therefore if the veins harbour spirits they should beat no lesse then the Arteries But the principal argument to confirme the assertion of natural spirits is this Three actions specifically distinct are exercised in our bodies viz. Animal Vital and Natural but the exercise of action is the duty of the spirits as Galen very often affirms therefore we must necessarily constitute three spirits differing in species viz. the Animal Vital and Natural If you object that natural actions are exercised by the inbred spirits I Answer that the adventitious are absolutely necessary for conservation of the inbred which bear a similitude of nature to them the production of which is acknowledged from the Liver I Oppose therefore to the first argument established by the authority of Galen in opposition to this that the rudeness obscurity and non-purity of this spirit created sometimes in Galen a doubt it being more caliginous and terrestrial then the Vital and proportioned to those actions which it is designed to performe But though the faculties be implanted in the parts they want the help of the adventitious spirits for exercise and to hinder the dissipation of the implanted spirits To the second I Answer That the natural spirits want but little aire which by insensible transpiration by the Arteries knitted to the veins of the Liver and by the continual ventilation of the Diaphragma are easily imparted to the Liver To the third I Answer That the beating of the Arteries is not caused by the spirits but by a pulsifick vertue communicated to them from the heart But the Liver being not endowed with such a faculty the veins which have a dependence upon it do not beat for it is not necessary because the blood and natural spirits want no such ventilation but are well enough preserved only by transpiration The Vital is generated in the heart by the natural spirit and the attraction of the air by inspiration and by the help of the Arteries flowes into the whole body for the preservation of natural heat and defence of life It stands better with reason that the vital spirits which surpasse in tenuity should be generated out of that spiritous substance prepared and attenuated in the Liver rather then out of the venal blood only which is destitute of spirits for as the animal owes its production to the vital so it may be supposed the vital is related to the natural Therefore that natural spirit being conveyed to the left cavity of the heart with the purer part of the blood is intermixed with aire arriving thither by the inspiration of the Lungs thorough the venal artery whence by the inbred force of the heart and innate heat by joynt elaboration the vitall spirits are generated which being after transported to the Arteries are conducted thorough the whole body that they may nourish and preserve the whole body by their vigorous heat The Animal is generated in the brain by the concurrence of the Vital and the aire attracted by the mouth and nostrils whose influence on the whole body is by the nerves for the exercise of animal functions A portion of the vital spirit is conducted to the brain by the Arterie Carotides whose course is thorough the neck and in the ventricles of the brain is mingled with air attracted thorough the high-way of the mouth and nostrils where by the idiosincracy of the brain it is changed and acquires a new form and becomes Animal spirit fit for the performance of animal actions for during its continuance in the veins it is the principal officer and chief instrument in the execution of these actions but while it flowes thorough the nerves into the various parts of the body it compleates and perfects the motion of the senses A COROLLARY THE reasons following will sufficiently evince that there is no Animal spirit First The cold and moist substance of the brain cannot be convenient for the generation of spirits which are hot and thin since there must necessarily be a relation of similitude in all productions Secondly All vapors which ascend to the brain by the frigidity of it are condensed to a concretion and turned into water Therefore if the spirits which are of a like nature were contained in the brain they would in like manner be infrigidated to a concretion Thirdly If there were such spirits their chief place of residence would be the ventricles of the brain but that is impossible because those ventricles are continually feculent with excrements to the expurgation of which they are designed but they would infect the spirits Fourthly If these spirits were lodged in these ventricles of the brain they would easily make escape thorough those passages which are appointed for the evacuation of the excrements Fiftly If these spirits were housed in the brain sensation and cogitation would alwayes be quick because the faculties of the soul give constant attendance and are alwayes in action till they want instruments To the first I Answer That the brain is not in such a measure cold but that it is actually hot which heat is sufficient for the generation of the Animal spirits which are not simply the production of heat but of the very idiosyncracy of the brain which must necessarily incline to coldness that the heat of the vital spirits might be allayed that our cogitations and sensations may be constant and firm which otherwise those incendiaries the spirits would blow up to a deliration and madness as we see in men phrenetical To the second I Answer That the spirits are not concrete in the brain as the vapors because they are not the chief constitutions of a waterish nature but rather of Aery or Aethereal one To the third with Aristotles consent 2. of the soul chap. 8. I Answer That Nature can imploy the same thing in the business of divers offices as the tongue primarily for the taste secundarily for speech the nostrils primarily for smel and inspiration of aire but secundarily for the conveying away of mucous flegme so the ventricles of the brain are primarily contrived for the generation of spirits secundarily for the expurgation of excrements but these excrements by reason of their continual purging and effluxion cannot be infectious to the Animal spirits as long as the brain squares to Nature To the fourth I oppose That the spirits break not forth thorough those channels in which the excrements stream being retained by the friendly nature of the part and familiarity of the
conservation of it will be the conservation of life hence this faculty is significantly termed Vital or the preservative of life And so life is an action depending upon this faculty as an effect upon its cause The Vital faculty is attended by two servants Pulse and Respiration It is ignorantly asserted by some that the Pulse is the chief of Vital actions and immediately to depend upon the Vital faculty for life as we before affirmed immediately depends upon that but the pulse is only a subservient action to it caused by a pulsifick faculty whose vertue is only to cause systole and diastole in the heart by which means it performs its duty to the Vital faculty Pulse is a function of the heart and Arteries composed of Systole and Diastole with some interposition of rest caused by the pulsifick faculty of the heart to further the generation of the Vital spirits and effect the distribution of them thorough the whole body The Pulse of the heart and Arteries is composed of three parts viz. diastole systole and the intercession of a pause By Diastole the heart and Arteries are impregnate When the heart dilates it selfe it attracts the Aire from the Lungs by the help of the Arteria Venosa and the blood from the Vena Cava that from the commistion of them in the left closet of the heart the spirits may be generated but the Arteries being strtech'd to a dilatation attract the spirits from the heart and are tumid with them as also the external Aire entertained by those orifices which are terminated in the skin and in this manner is transpiration caused which by this intromission of external aire fixes the internal heat to a due temperament and cherishes it for all heat is preserved by a moderate compliance of cold according to Hippocrates By Systole or contraction the heart by the assistance of the Arteria venosa purges out at the Lungs all the fuliginous excrements left in the generation of spirits For the Arteries by an insensible transpiration drive out the fuliginous vapors contained in them and send the spirits more copiously to the parts Lastly there mediate between the systole and diastole and intercessive quiet because a transition from one contrary to another cannot be effected but by a medium A doubt may be moved whether the spirit and blood contained in the heart moves upon its coarctation I Answer that there are two doores in the heart one in the right corner another in the left which are dilated when the heart is contracted and are so filled viz. the right with blood contained in the right cavity but the left with spirits contained in the left Three things are requisite to cause pulsation Faculty Instrument and Use The first necessary is a pulsifick faculty which is the primary and principal agent Secondly instruments disposed to pulsation viz. the Heart and Arteries moved by that faculty Thirdly use and necessity forcing the faculty to action viz. the generation of spirits and conservation of native heat Respiration is an action partly Animal partly Natural by which the Aire is ushered in thorough the mouth to the Lungs by the distention of the breast and by the contraction of the same the smoaky vapors are excluded for the conservation of Native heat and the generation of Vital spirit The parts of Respiration and of Pulsation are three Inspiration expiration and immediate quiet By inspiration the breast is dilated by the muscles destin'd to this office and in compliance with the dilatation of the breast the lungs are also dilated lest there should happen a vacuity in that cavity and the lungs are filled with air as bellowes the inspiration of which aire tempers the violent heat of the heart and thence the vital spirits are generated as is before urged But by expiration the breast and lungs are contracted which by their contraction turn out of doores the hot aire and fuliginous vapors issuing from the heart The concurrence of three things is necessary for expiration Faculty Instrument Use First Animal faculty concurs moving the muscles of the breast as also the natural implanted faculty causing motion in the lungs that they might be helpful to the heart Secondly There is a concurrence of instruments as all the parts designed for Respiration And Lastly use or necessity of Respiration for the ventilation of the heat in the heart A COROLLARY It is much disputed whether Respiration be purely Animal or mixt viz. partly Natural partly Animal Which being ingeniously disputed by Laurentius question 20. book the ninth I referre the Reader to him CHAP. VII Of the Animal faculty and function and first of the Principal faculties The Animal faculty is that vertue of the soul which moveth a man to the exercise of sense Auction and other principal functions of the mind The principal are three Imagination Ratiocination and Memory Imagination is that action of the Soul by which the species of every object offered to the external senses is made perceptible and distinctly discerned EVery sense enjoyeth its proper and peculiar object as shall after appear whose species it entertains in its proper organ without passing judgment of it for this is the prerogative of the Imagination only to which the spirits presents the species conveyed by the nerves from the brain to the instruments of the senses The brain therefore being the Court of the principal faculties while the objects of divers senses promiscuously resort to it they are first represented and distinguished in the imagination which the peculiar senses are not able to perform for instance the whiteness of milk is only represented to the sight but not the sweetness of it on the contrary the sweetness is represented to the taste not the whiteness But they are both together perceptible to imagination which rightly distinguisheth to what sense they be related Besides imagination apprehends not only things present as the senses but things absent also and represents them to the mind composing many things never existent yet in Analogy to those which are apparent to the senses The Philosophers divide those operations of the mind which we consenting to Galen include under the notion of imagination into two species viz. into the common sense and into fantasy or imagination commanding as it were the common sense to welcome only the species of present objects but the imagination to propose to it self things absent as if they were really present as also things not in being and impossibilities But seeing that they differ only in the method of their operation it is not necessary that they should depend upon faculties differing in species Ratiocination is that action of the soul by which a man discourses understands and reasons This is appropriate to man the others being enjoyed also by brutes But this receives the species of things from the imagination dividing and compounding them and unravelling their nature by the help of discourse distinguishing good from bad truth from falsity drawing out of them many things
parenchyma's have a dull sense So when the stone presses the the substance of the reins it causes a gravative pain but when it crowns the head of the ureter a pungitive So likewise in the pleurisie when the matter seiseth on rib-surrounding membrane it raiseth a pungitive pain but when it makes a transition to the lungs the pain is changed to gravative Pulsatory The pulsatory pain shews an artery or some adjacent part to be affected therefore in all the inflammation of the parts wherein the artery is lodged there is caused a pungitive pain Excrements But those excretions which are conveyed thorough several parts of the body do usually discover the part affected in this manner Of the essence of the part A cartilaginous substance expelled by cough speaks an affection in the aspera arteria or the concavities of the lungs but a minute part of fungous flesh excreted shews the lungs themselves to be affected but a crass substance proceeds from crass parts Naturally contained If meat or urine or dregs be expelled by a wound we know that the ventricle bladder or intestines are wounded Preternaturally contained If small stones or sand be excreted by urine the reins or the bladder are affected Maw-worms expelled by the mouth or the gut shew the intestines affected Quality of excrements Air too hot sent forth by expiration discovers the heart or lungs to be hot but too cold shews the heart to be much refrigerated and next neighbour to death First second third The blood too hot too thin and too yellow and issuing as it were by leaps shews an artery wounded Tenuity and colour Small dejections of the belly and red like the water in which raw flesh hath been washed shew an infirmity in the liver Spumosity and manner Spumous excretions expelled by coughing shew the lungs affected They whose excrements in the effluxions of their belly are spumous have a defluxion of flegme out of their head Aph. 30. Sect. 7. For flegme flowing from the brain mingled in the intestines with flatulencies is become spumous Taste Acid belching shews the ventricle to be replenished with crudities Quantity If a great quantity of blood be expelled in coughing the vessels of the lungs are affected those which are in the aspera arteria being too narrow for a plentiful effusion of blood The excretion of blood in urine if it be not much may be conjectured to proceed from the bladder if much from the reins or superiour parts where it is more copious Manner Excrements rejected by spitting signifie the mouth by sneesing the jaws by coughing the lungs or the aspera arteria by vomiting the ventricle affected Order If white corruption usher out urine there is an ulcer in the yard it self if it issue after urine there is one in the bladder or reins In a dysenteria if such corruption or pure blood flow out before the feculency it is credible that the intestinum rectum is rather ulcerated than the rest but if after it or much confused with it it shews the superiour or middle intestines to be affected Qualities changed The qualities changed do sometimes discover the part affected for instance whatever part of the body is possessed by heat or cold there is a disease Aph. 39. Sect. 4. Colour A leaden or pale colour thorough the whole body shews the liver to be refrigerated an orange colour the bladder of the gall to be obstructed blackish the milt to be so affected A lasting red in the cheeks and of a deep grain shews an inflammation in the lungs Taste A bitter taste in the tongue signifies the ventricle replete with choler But a salt taste shews the defluxions of salt flegme from the brain Sound A tinckling and hissing of the ears whispers an affection there A rumbling in the belly speaks the intestines troubled with flatulency CHAP. VI. Of the signes of a part primarily diseased or by consent IN all preternatural dispositions it happens for the most part that they confine not themselves to the narrow limits of one part but overspread many because that which is at first affected infects by sympathy those parts that have any commerce with it where a Physician must be very accurate in distinguishing sympathetical from idiopathetical affections For the better performance of this we must derive the signes from the mentioned heads of which some give occasion onely of a slight conjecture but some of better assurance but our united collection of all together is infallible The heads therefore of these signes may be taken out of the following table marked with the letter C. C. A Table of the signes shewing a part primarily or by sympathy affected The signes shewing a part to be primarily or by consent affected are drawn either from The Essence to which is referred The temper in the qualities First heat cold moisture driness Second hardness softness thinness thickness Vicinity Kinde Office Connexion The Causes which are either Helpful Hurtful The Effects or symptomes in which is considered Magnitude Time Order Duration The linkes of this chain of signes will be unlocked by the following theorems illustrated with examples The Essence The hotter parts are more compassionative to a sympathy then colder First qualities because they easily attract the noxious humors and vapors so the heart and liver do more easily sympathize with the other parts then the ventricle bladder or womb c. Parts thin and soft do more easily sympathize Second qualities then thick and hard because they easily receive the noxious causes and do not make resistance So the skin by reason of its rarity easily receives the humors flowing from the inner parts so the lungs are often attempted by the defluxions of humors from the head Neighbouring parts incline to sympathy more then remote ones Vicinity So the hand communicates a sense of its evils to the arm the bones to the adjacent flesh the ventricle to the liver the pleura to the lungs the lungs to the heart and so round Parts placed under the same genus Genus and possessing the same nature are easily excited to a mutual compassion So the nervous parts sympathize with the nervous the carnous parts with the carnous The whole body sympathizeth with those parts which are publick officers in the body Office So when the brain heart or liver is affected the whole body is ill Those parts which execute the same office in the body do mutually sympathize so the breast with the womb the bladder with the reins Those parts which are directly superiour or inferiour to others Situation easily receive their affections So the head easily receives the vapors ascending from the inferiour parts and the lungs the humors descending from the head Parts united by connexion are mutually compassionate Connexion So the affections of the nerves are communicated to the brain of the arteries to the heart of the veins to the liver and so on the contrary The Causes Secondly from causes helpful and
duly perform its action unless it first rightly conform and especially acquire a proper figure so for instance the head ought to be round the arm long and so forth Besides the parts for the discharge of their offices must have certain passages and cavities so the veins and arteries have their passages the ventricle useth the passage of the Esophagus but the cavity is all that space which contains the aliment Thirdly some parts for their more convenient operation ought to be smooth as the aspera arteria whose interior superficies is smooth and polite for the sweeter modulation of the voyce for it is not termed rough as being unequal and rugged according to the usual acception of that term but being made up of an unequal viz. cartilaginous and membranous substance But it is requisite some parts should be rough and rugged as the interior superficies of the ventricle that it may the better contain the aliment A certain and determinate magnitude also is proportioned to every member requisite to the exercise of its action So the Liver is bigger than the Heart the Brain than the Eye and so forth But one part of the same kind are sufficient for the exercise of certain actions for others many So for speech the tongue onely is requisite but to hold any thing many fingers are necessary Conjunction signifies two things viz. site and connexion So the liver is situated on the right hypocondrium but the milt in the left the intestines in the middle of the abdomen the wombe between the bladder and the intestinum rectum so the bones effect motion by their mutual connexion in the joynts on the contrary the lips and the eye-lids for the performance of their offices ought not to have any connexion but are open and separate But the organical parts are two the principal and the ignoble The principal are they which are without exception necessary for the conservation of the individual and are liberal in the distribution of faculty and spirit to the whole body And these are three the brain the heart and the liver There are in our bodies three faculties as we shall afterwards instance the animal vital and natural every of these keeps a peculiar court in peculiar members in which it is more glorious and majestical and from which in fellowship with the spirits which are also generated in it it flows into the whole body hence these parts are nobilitated with the title of Principal This is the ancient and customary tenent of School-Physicians which we propose for the sake of young Practitioners from which opinion in the Physical Schools it was a sin to dissent though it be inconsistent with the assertions of the Peripateticks who obtrude that the Soul with the train of all its faculties resides wholly in the whole and wholly in every part therefore there needs no influence of faculties they dwelling in every part and operating every where if they want not convenient instruments which caused Aristotle to say If the eye were placed in the foot the foot would see The ignoble are they which send forth no faculties nor spirits or which are the servants and vassals of the principall So the organs of the senses are framed for the sake of the brain onely so the lungs midriffe and arteries are designed to the temper and purgation of the heart so the ventricle intestines milt reins both bladders are made for the use of the liver To be short all the parts of the whole body are ignoble excepting the three principal parts mentioned Yet Galen in his Ars parva reckons the testicles among the principal parts because they are necessary for the conservation of the species We must therefore distinguish that in respect of the species they are principal parts not in relation to the individuum A COROLLARY THat which should here be discoursed of the substance temper figure situation action and use of every part is so accurately and perspicuously handled by the learned Laurentius in his Anatomical History that repetition will be superfluous Therefore thus much shall suffice to be spoken of the Parts The sixth Section of Physiology Of the Faculties and Functions The First CHAPTER Of the Nature of Faculties and Functions The Faculties and Functions depending upon the Soul as their first cause it will not be amiss to explain what the Soul is The Soul therefore is the substantial form of a living body by which we enjoy life sense nutrition understanding and local motion ARistotle defines it the perfection or act of an organical body potentially living which definition lies invelop'd in obscure terms and is a point of nice speculation We therefore suppose this our definition to be more clear and more convenient for our conduct in the course of Physick for man being constituted of matter and form as all other natural bodies and all his parts being the matter it is consequent that the soul should be the form For all actions having a dependency upon the form and the soul being the cause and principle of all the actions of a living body we must necessarily acknowledg that the soul is the form Hence in the absence of the soul action ceaseth By this means we arrive at the knowledg of her by her actions onely because immaterial substances are understood only by their effects But these various actions are exercised by the soul through the help of divers vertues and proprieties which are the immediate retainers to its Essence and immediately depend upon it and these proprieties are termed faculties of which we institute our following discourse A Faculty is a proper and inseparable accident of the soul which is instrumental to it in the execution of certain Functions in the body The faculties are accidents referred to the second species of quality Their subject is the soul in which they inhere not as common but as proper and inseparable accidents hence Fernelius weakly asserts them separable from the soul which he endeavours to verify by an instance of the auctive faculty which he affirms to be abolished when the vigor of Age declines Yet this faculty is not abolished but only lies idle for want of Instruments for the whole Aliment is wasted in nutrition because the body being well grown requires more nutriment and innate heat being debilitated cannot operate accretion of which nature also is unmindful while it hath filled the body to its due proportion yet this faculty is not extinct as neither the procreating faculty in a Child though it is quiet without wantonizing till Youth when it finds the seed elaborated to maturity fit for the exercise of its functions A Function is an Active motion or the effect of a Faculty in any part of the body As the faculties wait immediately upon the form or the soul so the functions upon the faculties as effects depend upon their causes But in this lies the distinction between the actions and faculties that they are appropriated to the soul the functions to
proceeds not from the copiousness of aliment viz. after nutrition performed will in this convincingly appear because experience shews that they grow and fill who use but little nutrition as is evident in boys and youths diseased who though they be very lean are yet continually growing because at such age the auctive faculty is most efficacious and so potent that it plunders the nutritive it self of aliment conveying it chiefly to the solid parts viz. the bones by the extension of which the whole body is extended therefore the aliment by virtue of the auctive faculty is carried to these parts and the carnous parts are defrauded of their due nutriment Hence those that are in growth appear lean On the contrary we find many fat and well stuffed and fed with high delicacies which yet arrive not to a due or decent procerity of body But though to the auctive and nutritive faculties the same object is proposed viz. nutriment yet they use this object in divers relations For the nutritive useth it as it tends simply to the conservation of the substance of the part But the auctive as it is directed to heighten the substance to a just magnitude and quantity For though the substance acquired by nutrition have quantity it being impossible for a material substance to be destitute of quantity yet nutrition regards not the substance as it hath quantity but as it is a substance but accretion is related to it not as a substance but as having quantity So for example as the blood is incarnated so far goes nutrition respecting only the substance of the flesh but as blood is changed into a greater proportion of flesh here enters accretion regarding not the substance of the flesh but only its quantity The end of accretion is not commensurated by life but accretion is most usually extended to twenty five or thirty Nature hath measured out a certain proportion to every living body therefore a living body is so long in a tendency to augmentation as it is in attaining to this determination of time But when it is augmented to a compleat magnitude in obedience to the command of Nature it stops there and makes no further progress Besides because accretion immediately depends upon the extension of the solid parts according to the three dimensions the sequel will be that a body doth so long increase as the parts thereof may in this manner be extended But now in the course of our life the solid parts are so hardened and dryed through the continual resolution of primigenious moisture occasioned by the action of native heat that they will no longer yeeld to extension But though the auctive faculty after the limitation aforesaid operates no more yet we must not assert it corrupted or idle as some fancyed it being not necessary that the faculties of the soul should be alwayes secondly actual and in operation for in our apprehension generation and local motion is not ever actual and therefore also there is no necessity of a continual growth but the faculties upon their arrival to their appointed end repose themselves So the auctive rests upon the assecution of its end viz. the due stature of magnitude After that it is obstructed in its operation having no fit subject viz. a body not disposed to an aptitude for extension The cause therefore sprouts into two branches one taken from the end the other from the subject A COROLLARY Here is obvious a Probleme worthy our knowledge Why all men are not advanced to an equality of magnitude but some are taller others of shorter stature I answer That the cause of this is threefold The first drawn from the various disposition of bodies for the more moist and hot they are the fitter they are for extension and grow more and in less time than cold and dry bodies whose parts submit not so easily to extension The second proceeds from nutrition for the more perfectly and copiously a body is nourished it is of a better and more speedy growth and the more imperfectly and sparingly it hath been supplyed with nutriment it groweth the less and the slower The third cause is the similitude of the Parents for tall Parents generate tall Sons short short ones because the seed transfers the idea and conditions of all the parts from the Parents upon the Children CHAP. V. Of the Generative faculty and of Generation The Generative faculty is that virtue of the Soul by which a man produceth a thing like to himself for the perpetual conservation of his species Hence Generation is a production of something like the producer GEneration according to the Philosophers is twofold Univocal and Equivocal That is termed Univocal when every thing generates something resembling it self such is the generation of all perfect animals Equivocal is when things of a various and dissenting nature are generated such is the generation of imperfect animals whose wombe is putrefaction Therefore univocal generation is principally applicable to perfect animals Hence Mules and Eunuchs are not fit for generation By this it appears that the name of Generation is not used in so large a sense by the Physicians as by Philosophers who call all introduction of form into matter Generation but here it is taken onely for the production of a like thing which is also called procreation To the Generative faculty two other are subservient the alterative and conformative The Alterative is that which alters and changes the subject matter of generation Seed is the subject matter of generation which is incompatible with the nature of various parts unless all its qualities as well first as second be variously changed for this cause the soul is endowed with a peculiar faculty which may execute this duty which is therefore called alterative or immutative The Conformative is that which graphically delineates and effigurates the whole body and all its parts The Conformative faculty entertains the seminal matter altered and prepared and out of it commensurates all the parts of the body and assignes to every of them a due magnitude figure site connexion and all other things commodiously which are requisite for the convenient exercitation of every peculiar action A COROLLARY All other relations to the Generative faculty are more largely disputed in the succeeding Section which treats of the Procreation of Man CHAP. VI. Of the Vital faculty The Vital faculty is that virtue of the Soul by which the vital spirits are generated in the heart and life is preserved in the whole body THE Spirits plainly demonstrate that there is in the Soul a peculiar faculty distinct from the rest which from the fountain of the heart copiously flow into the Arteries but every spirit is the instrument of some faculty But this faculty generates Vital spirits in the heart which spirits are the subjects of the influent heat which two communicate themselves to every part of the body the heat whereof with the implanted spirit they preserve But life necessarily depending upon implanted heat the
the quantity and manner are considerable In respect of the quantity of motion or duration one disease is called long another short So a day-expiring feaver is a short disease because it is quickly at an end as dropsie long because it persists a long time In respect also of the quantity of motion or duration one disease is called acute another chronical Acute disease is that in which magnitude and brevity are companions Therefore it moves nimbly with vehemence and danger The Chronical is commonly opposed to this though it be not totally contrary to it For Chronical and Long speak the same and it is so called only because it is of long continuance although it be usually great as the palsie dropsie and the like to which the short ones are truely and properly opposed Observe That some diseases are in respect of their proper essence Chronical in respect of their paroxisme Acute as the Epilepsie which is a disease very long and hath paroxismes very acute Acute disease is threefold the first peracute the second acute simply the third acute by dilapsion or decidence The Peracute is again divided into extremely peracute and simply peracute Extremely peracute is that which is so vehement and swift in motion that the third or fourth day it ends either in health or in death Simply peracute determines the seventh day But acute simply so called is either exactly or not exactly such Exactly such ends with the fourteenth day Not exactly such continueth to the twentieth or further Lastly acute by decidence reaches the fortieth day and after its arrival to that it is called a long and continuing disease And these are the differences hewn out from the quautity of motion those follow to be proposed which result from the manner of motion In respect then of the manner of motion some disease is called continual some intermissive Continual disease is which troubleth without cessation and in its whole duration is impatient of mitigation by any intervening pause But intermissive is that the fury of which in its career is usually allayed by perfect intermissions And so much of the Motion now follows the manner of Disease 3. In respect of the Manner a disease is called gentle or malignant A gentle disease is that which is very remiss and induceth no dangerous symptomes But that is malignant which comes accompanied with some malignant and venemous quality attended by dangerous symptomes Malignant is again threefold the first venemous the second pestilent the third contagious A venemous disease is that which is intimated with a quality that is a desperate antagonist to our life produced by assumption or application of poyson or from noysome humors internally generated Pestilent disease is that which is malignantly and deleteriously qualified and is impartial to all Lastly Contagious is that which riseth to an high accompt in multiplication and usually infects many others with the same kind of disease So far of the Manner of disease the Event thereof follows 4. In respect of the Event some disease is healthy some deadly some dangerous Healthy disease is that which threatens the life with no danger Deadly disease is that which brings along with it assured destruction Lastly Dangerous is that which hovers in a doubtful event sometimes tending to health sometimes to death And these are the differences proceeding from those proprieties which are concomitants to essence those now which are derived from the causes remain to be proposed But those causes are either material or efficients or helps without the advantage of which nothing could be produced To the Material we refer the subject to the Efficient the humors to those without the help of which nothing could be the place There are many other kinds of Causes which here we propose not because we have determined to spin the accidental differences of Diseases out of these alone as also neither to lay down all that may be pick'd out from them but only the most useful 1. In respect of the subject some disease is called Idiopathetick some Sympathetick The Idiopathetick is that which is primarily produced in the part by its cause and hath in it a place of duration So a Pleurisie Inflammation of the lungs and Phthisis and others are termed Idiopathetick Sympathetick is when the affect of one part idiopathetically diseased is communicated to another Yet the affection is so communicated to this compassionate part that upon the ablation of the former viz. the Idiopathetick the Sympathetick is also taken away otherwise if it should remain by it self it would become Idiopathetick and then Physicians term it Deuteropathetick or secondary But the primary is called Protopathetick because the affection owes its first production to that part But a Sympathetick disease is usually generated by five causes First because of vicinity Secondly because of the society of the genus Thirdly because of the community of office Fourthly by reason of situation Fifthly by reason of connexion Because of vicinity the hand sympathizeth with the arm the bone with the neighbouring flesh the ventricle with the liver the ribs with the lungs the lungs with the heart and so on the contrary By reason of the society of the genus the nervous parts sympathize with the nervous and the carnous with the carnous as being constituted under the same genus and partaking of the same nature By community of office the breasts with the wombe the bladder sympathizes with the reins because they are designed to the same employment in the body By reason of situation the head is easily compassionative with the inferiour parts as the ventricle liver wombe and the like as being in a direct eminency to them and so the vapors by them elevated are with ease conveyed to its reception So also the ventricle and lungs easily sympathize with the head as lying directly under it and so easily entertaining the defluxions of humors streaming from it By reason of connexion the nerves are compatible with the brain the arteries with the heart the veins with the liver and on the contrary as bordering upon them Again all sympathetical disease is caused two wayes viz. positively or privatively Positively when any thing is conducted from one part to another So the vapors steaming from the ventricle to the brain produce aches vertigoes and such like sympathetical affections which are termed positive Privatively when there is no influence where there ought to be one So in the apoplexy the sense and motion of the whole body decayes by the non-influence of the animal faculty and spirits from the brain caused by the obstructions of the ventricles thereof And so it is said to proceed from the privation of matter or faculty 2. In respect of the efficient causes or the humors operating diseases some are called legitimate some spurious The legitimate is which is graved with that impress of Nature which is proper to its species and the cause of whose usual production is whole and sincere The spurious is that which
Pain A pulsatory pain is a signe of inflammation in the part aggrieved A stupid pain shews a cold distemper A sharp and eroding pain discovers exulceration Vital Actions A great and frequent pulse shews an hot distemper a small and rare one a cold distemper Natural Actions Attraction A dejected appetency and great thirst shews a hot distemper A great appetency and small thirst argues a cold distemper Expulsion Nidorous belching shews a hot distemper but acid a cold Frequent vomiting and excretion of feculencies hindred shews an obstruction lurking in the intestines Generation The appetite to coition being lost signifies a cold distemper A vehement desire of coition with a perpetual and painful erection shews an inflammatory affection Excrements By the mouth Bloud copiously expelled by coughing through the mouth shews a ruption of the vessel but a small quantity permixt with purulent matter an exulceration Belly Fragments ejected through the belly shew exulceration in the intestines Bladder Urine having red and sandy sediments is a sign of the stone or of an hot distemper of the reines scorching the humours Heart Small sweats and frequent interludes of shaking signifie an Empyema 10 Coat 1. By the acrimony of the corruption the internal parts are vellicated which is the cause of trembling but the small sweats proceed from the debilitated faculty Substance Aliments excreted in the same manner as they are taken shew a Lienteria drink if it be expelled unchanged by urine signifies a Diabete Yellow Choler excreted in the beginning of a paroxysme signifies a Tertian Feaver Manner Blood copiously flowing through the nostrils in the beginning of a Feaver signifies a synochical one Bloud flowing abundantly from any part signifies a ruption or anastomosis of the veines but softly sweating out a diapedesis Quality changed Redness in a deep grain in any part speaks a phlegnumous inflammation so redness in the cheeks signifies a peripneumony A Yellow colour shews an Erisipelatous affection so in an exquisite pleurisie the eyes do often appear as it were delineated in yellow colours so the Jaundise doth not seldome succeed bilious Feavers A yellow colour of the whole body without a Feaver shews an obstruction in the bladder of the gall The skin of the whole body preternaturally drawn in a blackish colour signifies an obstruction in the milt CHAP. VIII Of the signes of a great and a small disease A Physician who undertakes the cures of diseases is not sufficiently furnished for it by the bare knowledge of their essential differences by their proper signes for the accidental differences also are to be diligently inquired after that we may pass a certain judgement of them We will therefore propose signes of the chiefest of them viz. of those which are of near necessity to the practise of the Art in respect of which every disease is called great or small gentle or malignant acute or slow and so forth That disease is termed great which is very intense and oppresseth our body with much violence The signes of which are taken from the three heads aforesaid for we judge that disease great which being great in its Essence was produced by great and intense causes and hath great and vehement symptomes all which for clearer instruction are in order to be handled as is described in the following Table noted with the Letter E. E. A Table of the signes shewing a disease to be great or small The signes of a great or small disease are taken either from The Essence The causes Efficient External Internal Helpfull and hurtful Material or subject Effects or symptomes which are either Actions Animal Vital Natural Excrements Qualities changed That we may therefore in proposing the signes of a great disease conform to this Table we shall institute the following theorems The Essence Great distempers or inflammations great tumors great obstructions great wounds or ulcers extended to the full dimensions long broad and deep shew great diseases The Causes External Whatsoever external Causes are very prevalent in affecting our body do usually produce and discover great diseases So long and violent exercise used in a very hot air doth excite a great Feaver Internal Those humours which are nested in our body and which are the ordinary causes of most diseases if they extremely erre in quantity or quality they cause and foreshew great diseases So the bloud copiously abounding or very hot either choler copious sharp or putrified are signes of a great disease Helpful and hurtful Those diseases to which there are none or few remedies profitably many noxiously applied are accounted great Those diseases which outrage the dignity of the principal or the publickly officious parts are in respect of them judged great if they be but accompanied with any other signe of magnitude So a wound though of it self inconsiderable if it be inflicted on the Heart Liver Lungs or other the like parts is counted great in respect of the part affected as also because it produceth great symptomes EFFECTS Animal Actions Whatsoever disease introduceth a deliration profound sleeping immoderate watching privation of sense or motion or a very vehement pain discovers a great disease Vital Actions Whenever we perceive in any sick person a great frequent and difficult respiration a great frequent or else very small pulse we may safely pronounce him troubled with a great disease Natural Actions A small appetite or thirst or on the contrary an insatiable appetite and ever quaffing thirst inconcoction or a long flux of the belly and suppression of urine or a tedious and copious profusion thereof signifie a great disease Excrements A superfluous quantity of excrements or a total suppression of them or a bad colour or a most fetid smell or substance very remote from their natural one are signes of a great disease Qualities changed A Colour of the body very red yellow or pale a tast bitter in the tongue the colour thereof black and much driness declare a great disease A Corollary By these signes before mentioned we may easily discern what diseases they are which deserve the name of small diseases viz. all those in which the mentioned signes are not found CHAP. IX Of the signes of a gentle and malignant disease WE term those malignant diseases which are attended by some malignant and venomous quality and their signes may be derived from the same heads All which shall be in the following Table mark't with the Letter F orderly proposed F. Of the signes of a gentle and malignant disease The signes shewing the benignity or the malignity of a disease are drawn from either The Essence The Causes which are either Material Out of which Aliments Medicaments In which The disposition of the parts Efficient External Necessary Aire Not-necessary Venery Fortuit Wounds Internal Bloud Flegme Divers species of choler Helpful and hurtful Effects which are either Actions Animal Vital Natural Excrements ejected by Vomit The belly Urine Habit. Qualities changed and proper accidents Therefore to follow the series of this Table
those are together with the humors in them contained refrigerated it is not to be admired if they infrigidate the sweats conveyed through them though caused by very frequent humors imprisoned within Cold sweat then in acute feavers is a signe of death because it shewes that the native heat is too weake to lord it over these cold humors and must therefore submit to their pleasure But in more gentle feavers it signifies longitude because by reason of the exiguity thereof it doth not so enervate the strength as to lay it naked to the invasion of death yet plenty of cold humors cannot under a long space be concocted and subdued The second A very great extenuation of the whole body signifies a long disease If a person troubled with no inconsiderable seaver remaines in the same plight of body without extenuation this denotes a long disease Aph. 28. Sect. 2. For permanence and non-extenuation depends upon the density of the skin and crasseness of the humors and it therefore signifies a long disease The body very pale or of an orange colour denotes duration of a disease For this colour shewes a wide recess from natural state which cannot be retrograde but in a long time CHAP. II. Of the signes of a disease tending to health or death THat is called an healthy disease which endangers not the life but that a deadly one which threatens death to the sick party The prognostick signes of them are derived from three heads The Essence Causes and Effects according to the following table marked with the Letter L. L. The signes of an healthy and deadly disease are taken either from its Essence in respect of which it is either Similar Organical Common and these either Simple Complicate The Causes which are either Efficient or various humors Material or the subject Helpful or hurtful The effects which are either Actions Animal Principal Less principal which are either Sences Internal Sleep Watching Dreams External Seeing Hearing touching c Motion to which is referred A voluntary commotion of the members Lying down Trembling Convulsion Stiffness and shaking Sternutation Vital to which refer Respiration Pulse Natural to which belong Attraction to which Hunger Thirst Expulsion to which The Hicough Excrements ejected by The eyes Ears Nostrils Mouth Belly Bladder to which referurine Liquor Contents and in these Substance Quantity Quality Manner of excretion Sweats Abscesse and pimples Qualities First Calidity Frigidity Second Hardness Softness Third Colour Smell Taste Sound Proper accidents chiefly considered in The eyes Ears Nostrils Teeth Temples Lips Tongue Jawes Hypochondriums By observing the series of which Table the following Theorems will discover an healthy or deadly disease The Essence A day-expiring Feaver and all true intermitting Feavers are healthy and bring no danger The Solution of a strong Apoplexy is impossible of a slight one difficult Aph. 42. Sect. 2. That is called a strong Apoplexy which introduceth a total privation of sence and motion together with a great laesion of respiration But a slight one is that in which there is no such loss of sence and motion or so violent an injury of respiration In a strong one the brain is so oppressed that it cannot by any means free it self from it nor in a slight one neither without much struggling so that alwaies if a solution is made it degenerates into the Palsie by reason of the weakness of nature unable any longer to expel the morbifick matter Those who are taken with a Tetanus dy within four dayes but if they escape in them they recover A Tetanus according to Galen in his comm is a disease compounded of an emprosthotonus and an opisthotonus in which the body is so stiffe and unmoveable that the breast alone can hardly be moved It being therefore such a violent disease it kills a man in the first quaternion which if he escapes it is a signe that the fury of the disease is remitted otherwise it were intolerable Those who frequently and strongly swoune without the appearance of any manifest cause dye suddenly Aph. 41. Sect. 2. For this signifies a great infirmity or oppression of vital strength by which nature is soone overthrown Almost every dropsy is in its own nature deadly Because the temper of the liver being vehemently injured is irreparable All Feavers continual and burning as also the inflammations of internal parts as Phrensies Quinsies Pleurisies peripneumonies hepatitides and the like are naturally dangerow Yet they are not wholly mortal but according to the various condition of the sick person they end sometimes in health sometimes in death Nor can a Physician under pain of convincible ignorance give sentence of health or death on the beginnings of these affections but the critical dayes are to be expected which do commodiously discover unto us whether the disease incline to death or health Upon cessation of a Feaver into a dangerous disease without any evident cause death not health is to be expected Whatever Feavers not intermitting on the third day grow stronger are more dangerous But those which pause sometimes signifie no danger Aph. 43. Sect. 4. Continual Feavers either alwaies keep one station or are increased or diminished Those which are increased and exacerbated are worse then those which are not exacerbated because the evil in exacerbation is made much worse and more troublesome to the sick person But they are exacerbated either every day or every third day But those which are exacerbated every third day are more dangerous for that they are caused by bilious and so more hot juyces to which it is proper to be moved every third day Of this kind are burning Feavers and semitertians which are usually most dangerous But those Feavers which intermit are not dangerous because as Galen in his comm asserts they proceed not from any inflammation nor malignant putrefaction for neither of these acquiesceth without a Feaver Yet it is known by experience at least in these regions that intermitting tertians have been fraught with much malignity which in a third or fourth paroxysme did kill the sick parties We must say therefore that this opinion is of them which do most commonly but not perpetually happen or we may answer to the defensive argument of Hippocrates and Galen that these intermitting tertians have no perfect apyrexy and there alwaies lies hid some obscure sparkles of a Feaver raked up in the embers of intermission They who by an asthma or cough are distorted to gibbosity dye before their puberty Aph. 46. Sect. 6. For the heart and lungs being augmented by which they become disproportionable to their place this crookedness hindring the amplification of the breast it happens that the augmenting bowels cannot be long crouded up in too narrow a lodging so that sherly after gibbosity it introduceth death not that we may draw a consequence from this that the sick persons presently dye but that they fall far short of that diuturnity of life to which otherwise they might attain A Dropsie accompanying
cold sweat on the sixth again she was extreme cold with an universal sweat yet coldness of the extreme parts fondness convulsions followed it and she died the same day because that coldness happened not on a critical day but on the sixth day which by Galen is termed tyrant so that Hipp. deservedly said Aph. 29. Sect. 4. If coldness happen the sixth day to febricitating persons an hard judgement followes Yet it may be objected that Larissea a maid whose history we find in 3. Epid. Sect. 3. aegr 12. was on the sixth day upon a coldness which was seconded by a copious flux of bloud and universal hot sweat perfectly judged To which we must answer with Galen in the comment that this is one of those rare examples in which Hipp. observed judication to be sometimes made on even daies which so rarely falls within the compass of example that it will no way disorder the common method of good Crises To this adde that her months then first flowing from her were very advantageous for the solution of the disease If coldness do happen without the intermission of the Feaver the sick person being now infirm it is deadly Aph. 46. Sect. 4. Galen in his comment saith that it signifieth not the same to say if it shall happen and if it do happen for the word shall happen denotes one assault of cold do happen many therefore upon cold happening once we may sometimes presage good sometimes bad as appeareth by the precedent theorems but for cold to happen often without any deficiency of the Feaver being otherwise not good is in infirmity more pernicious for if any evacuation follow the coldness which causeth no intermission both conduce to a mans dissolution as well because by reason of imbecillity the body cannot bear the agitation of the cold as because the strength is by evacuation dissolved but if coldness alone happen without the attendance of evacuation it is both waies bad for as a bad cause it tries the strength of a man and is a bad signe shewing his imbecillity which did usually evacuate the noxious humors in colds but now it is not able Coldness often coming in a long disease or rather shakings without any order or type signifie an internal suppuration Hipp. in Coac Or they may signifie plenty of depraved humors by which sharp vapors are usually elevated See Hipp. 1 Coac Apn. 10.13.16 Shakings frequently appearing in the beginning of acute Feavers are bad For they shew a very great pravity of humors vellicating the sensible parts and the infirmity of nature spending her labour in vain to move the humors Such shakings do usually appear in the beginning of malignant and pestilent Feavers Frequent tremblings of the loyns with a quick return of heat are dangerous for it signifies a painful suppression of urine and for it to sweat out there is perillous 1. Coac Aph. 18. For it signifies an inflammation of the spinalis medulla or the membranes thereof which parts by the violence of preternatural heat are scorched and by the want of native heat they are refrigerated as it happens in a sudden and frequent mutation of the parts into both This also is not seldome found in an Empyema but the suppression of urine followes because by frequent cold the native heat of the bladder is extinguished and so its expulsive faculty destroyed and sense of irritation lost Shaking after sweat is not good Aph. 4. Sect. 7. Iudicatories which judge not are bad so sweat breaking forth on a Critical day if it be not beneficial to the sickperson but shaking followed it is a bad signe for it shewes that either the useful humors onely were evacuated by sweat and the vseless and copious keep their station or that a part onely of these depraved humors was evacuated by sweat but the rest dwell within and vellicate the sensible parts and so cause shaking It is therefore evident that either nature is so weak that she cannot rid her self of the morbifick matter or the humors so strong that they give nature the foile Sternutation It is observed that if a sick man sneese onely once that he will yeild up to the ferocity of the disease but if he sneese twice the disease will lose the day and he recover But the contrary is noted in women if any of them dangerously sick sneese twice this is destructive and exitial if the sneese be once it is an healthy sign Forest obser 487. distillations of the head and sneesings precedent or subsequent in the diseases of the lungs are bad But in other even exitial diseases sneesings raise hopes of solution Hipp. 2. progn chap. 16. In a phthisis pleurisie and peripneumony by that concussion of the brain sneesing the parts of the breast are lacerated and violently torn which increaseth much the inflammation and so there is no vacuation of the morbifick matter But in other diseases the morbifick cause may be dissipated and dispelled by the strength of nature sallying upon it by that violent motion therefore sneesing signifies that nature resumes strength and is excited to expulsion whence we may conjecture that it is the beginning of a recovery Galen in his comment on this place affirms that sternutation without rheume in the declination of a disease or after the sickness is past is alwaies a good sign though the sickness be pernicious Sternutation happening to a woman in hysterical fits or when she brings forth with difficulty is good Sneesing is very commodious in hysterical suffocations dissicult labour and retention of secundines both as a signe and as a cause as a signe because it shews that nature is mindful of her proper motions and that being before dulled she is now excited and revived because she casts out some superfluity as a cause for that by vehement concussion and fervour it partly rouses up nature partly causeth excretion of those things which adhere to the parts of the body Vital actions Good and easie respiration conduceth much to health in acute diseases Hipp. 1. progn Respiration For as Galen instructs us in his com good respiration signifies that the breast heart lungs ribs midriffe and all the parts subservient to spiration are in good case And when they are so we need fear no danger from an acute discase unless it be malignant and pestilent For such feavers do often as it were surprise us by an ambuscado so that we cannot be sensible of any injury offered to respiration though in their progress they are deadly affections When in a not intermitting Feaver difficulty of spiration and desipiency happen it is a deadly signe Aph. 50. Sect. 4. Because the two grand Patrons of life the heart and brain are vehemently hurt and sympathize to destruction but both passions viz. desipience and difficulty of spiration must last long that they may be called mortal for both sometimes do happen healthfully in a critical perturbation Great and unfrequent respiration in an acute Feaver is very bad For this shews
as being lesse moist and excrementitious The tame ones which are brought up at home are fatter indeed and more fleshy but much inferior in taste and wholsomenesse to the wilde ones they taste of the pasture where they feed and therefore if they eat Cabbage as sometimes they do they taste abominably If they eat wheat they grow very fat and afford a delicate nourishment The wilde ones which in our thickets are fed with Thyme Lavender Origan and other aromatical herbs afford a pleasant and wholsome nourishment CHAP. XVIII Of the Entrails and extreme parts of Beasts THe substance of the Liver considered in the generation thereof affords a thick nourishment and of hard digestion and fit to increase obstructions Yet there is great difference in respect of the several sorts of creatures from whence they are taken For the Livers of Hens Capons Geese Chickens and Pullets are excellently good But concerning the Livers of four footed Beasts those of Kids Calves and Hogs yeeld an indifferent good nourishment The Spleen produces a melancholy juice and affords a very depraved nourishment which is hard to be concocted and distributed The Reins are of a hard concoction by reason of the solidity of the substance wherewith they are endued they breed a thick juice and evill by reason of the various and excrementitious humours which continually oppress them The Heart hath a kinde of fibrous flesh solid and hard and therefore is of a hard digestion slowly distributed and generating an evill juice yet if it be well concocted it affords not a little nourishment and that not evil The Lungs are of an easier digestion then the Liver and Spleen because they are softer and looser yet not inferior to the Liver as to nourishment All Kernels have this common among them that in meat they appear sweet tender and short they give a thick nourishment and if the beast be sound very good and being well concocted in the stomack they nourish as much as musculous flesh Not well digested they breed flegmatick and raw juice this is chiefly to be understood of the Kernels of the brest for of other Kernels those which are soft generate flegmy bloud but those which are hard raw bloud The tongue of Calves Kids Lambs Hogs and Sheep are of easie digestion and breed laudable juice Neats Tongue is thicker but more fit for nourishment and not dry'd The Brains afford a flegmatick diet of a thick juice hard to be concocted slowly descending it banes the appetite and causeth nauseousnesse Fat and Grease are of little nourishment and rather sawce for our meat then nourishment They loosen the tunicles of the stomack and spoil the retention thereof and therefore they breed nauseousnesse and dull the appetite In cholerick bodies they turn into choler and are of hard digestion The substance of the Stomack is filmy and therefore cold hard dry and glutinous It is of a hard digestion generates flegm begets obstructions and is the cause of many diseases Soft and Sedentary men must abstain from it it being only fit for Potters Ploughmen and Mariners The same reason serves for the Guts because they are of like nature but the Guts of younger creatures as of Lambs and Kids are of an easier substance and concoction The Feet and other extreme parts of four-footed Beasts consisting of membranes ligaments nerves veins arteries and gristles are cold and dry clammy viscous of little nourishment and hard digestion We except the extreme parts of young and sucking Animals as before where we spake of the Stomack and Guts CHAP. XIX Of the nourishment contained in the parts of four-footed Beasts THE Bloud is hot and moist hard of digestion and breeds many excrements For although while it is contained in the veins it easily turns into the substance of the body yet after it is drawn out of them and hath lost its spirit and vigour it congrals and hardens into an evil substance Marrow is hot and moist it gives good nourishment if it be well concocted taken in too great a quantity it loosens the stomack and begets a nauseousnesse Milk in the active qualities is temperate inclining to cold in the passive moist by reason of the fat and watry substance thickning through its caseous or cheesie quality and abstersive in respect of its serous quality asswaging in respect of its butyrous quality That is best which is white clear pure and sincere sweet voy'd of all acrimony sowrenesse bitternesse and saltnesse rendring a sweet but little sent For its substance moderate neither over thick or caseous nor over thin and serous not fluid but sticking to the nail if it be dropt thereon new and milked from one that is well fed and in good pasture Milk thus qualified is of all nourishments the best it is easily concocted and presently turned into bloud it nourishes sufficiently and fattens but it swels the stomach and guts But for all this it must be used only by those whose bodies are in health and free from superfluities In cold stomacks it turns sowre in cholerick at begets adust smell But bad Milk is most pernicious and is so far from breeding good juice that it breeds very bad humours in the bodies of those that use it The bad effects of vitious Milk Galen shewes in l. 3. de Alim fac c. 15. by the example of nurses who in times of famine used wilde herbs and their children sucking their Milk became full of ulcers and other diseases As also by the example of Goats fed with Scammony and Tithymal whose Milk purges Of all the sorts of Milk fit for the diet of healthy people Cowes Milk is the thickest and fattest for it hath most of the caseous substance and least of the serous So that it loosens the belly lesse and nourishes more It is more difficultly concocted more slowly curdled slower to descend and more hard to be distributed and more liable to breed obstructions Goats Milk is of a midling substance as also Ewes Milk which is thicker then that of Goats for it hath more of cheese and lesse whey and therefore loosens lesse and bindes the more Asses Milk is thinnest and most wheyie But that concerns the cure more then the preservation of health Butter is hot and moist in the first degree and almost of the same nature as oyl of ripe Olives as Avicen witnesseth But is more moist then hot stale Butter is hotter and thinner new almost temperate in the active qualities It nourishes loosens fattens and is good against the cough The too much use of it loosens the retention of the stomack takes away the appetite and begets a nauseousnesse and therefore to be avoided by those who are subject to loosnesse as also by men of hot complexions who burn it and turn it into choler it is to be eaten first for it speedily descends into the paunch and makes way for the other meat but if it be eaten last it loosens the stomack and hinders the orifice from embracing
week or twice in a moneth The form of prescribing them is such ℞ c. with syrup of Roses solutive make an Opiate of which you may take ℥ ss by it self or dissolved in the decoction of Borage Fumitory and Cichory once in a week with great care and good government of art A Corroborating Opiate is composed of Conserves to ℥ j. or ℥ j ss Conditements to ℥ ss ℥ j. Confections to ʒ ij ss Powders to ʒ iij. ℥ ss ʒ vj. with convenient Syrup Sometimes for ornament leaves of gold are mixed N. ij or iij. and they are prescribed after the powders The dose is from ʒ ij to ʒ iij. or which is most usual about the bigness of a Chestnut drinking after it convenient liquor as some proper distilled water or white Wine or red Wine tempered with water All which are prescribed in this form ℞ c. with syrup c. make an Opiate of which take about the bignesse of a Chestnut every day in the morning two hours before dinner drinking after it a little draught of tempered wine or borage-water Sometimes they are prescribed to be taken two hours before supper if any other remedies be to be taken in the morning CHAP. XVII Of Conditements Conditements are made in the same manner as corroborating Opiates with the same quantity of conserves confections and powders adding as much white sugar or sugar of Roses as equals the weight of them all in this form ℞ of Conserves c. sugar of Roses to the weight of them all make a Conditement covered with gold which may be taken frequently in a spoon by it self or dissolved in broths or with potable water in time of thirst between meals But a Conditement differs in this from an Opiate because that may be prescribed to corroborate or alter all parts but this only for affects of the heart and lungs CHAP. XVIII Of a Lohoch or Colegma LOhochs are convenient only in pectoral affections to expectorate the humours contained in the lungs smooth the roughnesse thereof and to stop spitting of bloud They are commonly made of Bechical powders to ʒ iij. ℥ ss of sugar candied or penidiate or of rose tablets ʒ vj. ℥ j. of convenient syrup q. s Or to the foresaid are frequently added pulps of fruits as of Raisins Figs Jubebs to ℥ ss Lohochs are also made several other waies but lesse commonly which may be seen in several Authors They are prescribed after the following form ℞ c. with syrups c. Make a Lohoch to be used frequently with a stick of Liquorice licking it by little and little CHAP. XIX Of Tablets TAblets are twofold Purging and Corroborating Purging Tablets are in the shops common and magisterials are seldome or never prescribed Roborating Tablets are made of simple powder or compounded ℥ ss ʒ vj. of sugar dissolved in proper water ℥ iiij or vj. in this form ℞ c. Make Tablets in weightʒ ij of which take one every day two hours before meat drinking c. in the same manner as in a corroborating Opiate Tablets are also frequently used in affections of the Lungs made of convenient powders in the same method Of Pills Pills are double common in shops or Magisterial Those in the shops are prescribed in cold affections especially and in the winter season to evacuate the remote parts from the stomack The form of prescribing them is this ℞ Mass of Pills c. let them be softned with c. water or conventent syrup form 6 or 7 gilt Pills to be taken after the first sleep If the Pills are weak add gr iiij or v. of Diagrid or Trochis Alhand Magisterial Pills which are vulgarly composed by the Physicians according to several indications and are vulgarly called usual because the use of them ought to be frequent that is once in a week or twice in a moneth They are composed of several purgatives viz. Aloes Agarick Turbith Hermod Rhub Diagrid Troches Athandal with correctives all being reduced into powder and mingled with convenient syrup The Basis of all these Pills is commonly Aloes and prescribed usually to ʒ iij. or ℥ ss the other purgatives taken together exceed not the quantity of ℥ ss the correctives to ʒ j. or ʒ j ss the quantity of the syrup is not proportioned The dose of the Pills is to be measured according to the efficacy of the purgatives so that they may not purge vehemently they must not exceed ʒ ss or ℈ ij Sometimes against obstructions Gum Ammoniack or Bdellium dissolved in vinegar is mixed with the purgatives to ʒ ij or ʒ iij. They are prescribed in this form ℞ Aloes hepatical c. make a powder of them all and with syrup of Roses solutive make a masse of Pills of which letʒ j. be formed into pills gilt take N. iij. or iiij in the morning two hours before dinner once in a week CHAP. XXI Of Troches TRoches are seldome prescribed by the Physicians who are content with those in the shops yet if a make them he may easily do it by taking powders fit for his intention to ℥ j. or ij and moistning them with convenient liquor or mucilage of which being mixt together make a paste and of that tablets to be dried in the shade CHAP. XXII Of Powders POwders are prescribed to purge corroborate and for other intentions Purging powders are composed of simple powders acceptable to the taste with their correctives and sugar in persons more delicate the dose whereof is to be measured according to the efficacy of the purgatives These powders are taken dissolved in broth or other liquor in the morning with care and good government Among the corroborating powders those for the stomack are most in use which are called digestive they are made of the sweeter stomachicals as Corianders Anise Fennel Cinamon and the like to ℥ ij with an equal or double quantity of sugar in this form ℞ c. an equal or double proportion of sugar mingle them make a powder of which take one spoonfull after meals eating or drinking nothing after it THE SECOND ARTICLE of the SECOND SECTION OF The Composition of midling Medicaments CHAP. I. Of Suppositories SUppositories are used commonly to loosen the belly but sometimes though very seldome against some affections of the fundament and straight gut Those that loosen the belly are composed of hony to ℥ j. boyled and hardned adding fit powders to ℥ j. or ℈ iiij but those powders are common salt Hiera picra or if stronger Medicaments be required Sal gemmae Ammoniack hiera Diacolacynth Hellebore powdered The form of them is thus ℞ c. Make Suppositories of which one anointed with oyl or butter may be put into the fundament as often as need requires CHAP. II. Of Clysters CLysters some are mollifying and laxative some cleansing others binding others easing pain others for other intentions Mollient and laxative are made of the decoctions of mollifying herbs to lb j. or lb j. ss laxative opiates to ℥
ss the quantity of the wax is not determined The form of prescribing them is thus ℞ c. Make a powder of them all to be mixed with white wax whereof make many little bulls chew one of them in the morning with the head downward spitting often CHAP. IX Of Collyriums COllyriums are composed in many forms either in the form of an oyntment or a liquor or a cataplasm The most usual are those which are liquid which are truly and properly called Collyriums They are composed of distilled waters to ℥ iij. or iv with which mingle convenient powders as Tutty prepared white Troches of Rhasis washed Antimony Sarcocol steept in womans milk c. to ʒ j. or ʒ j ss sometimes juices are mingled with them or the white of an egge beaten to ℥ j. or ij The form of prescribing them is thus ℞ c. Make a Collyrium to be instilled into the eyes morning and evening The other forms of Collyriums are taken from particular practise because they require an exact choice of remedies and an accurate preparation and dose by reason of the exquisite sense of the part THE THIRD ARTICLE of the SECOND SECTION OF The Composition of external Medicaments CHAP. I. Of an Epithem AN Epithem is chiefly applyed to the heart and liver to alter and corroborate those parts It is twofold liquid and solid That which is liquid is made of distilled waters to ℥ viij or lb j the juices of fruits as Limons Granates fragrant Apples to ℥ ij or iij. of vinegar of Roses to ℥ j. or ℥ j ss of cordial powders to ʒ ij iij. Note when sharp juices of Limons and Granates are prescribed there is no need of vinegar Note also in an Epithem for the Heart if the lungs be peculiarly affected sharp things are not to be prescribed because they hurt the breast Also in an Epithem for the Liver a greater quantity of sharp juices or vinegar is to be prescribed then in an Epithem for the heart Sometimes beside cordial powders cordial confections are also mixed with them Alkermes or Hyacinth to ʒ j. or ij and Troches of Caphura in a refrigerating Epithem to ℈ ss Saffron in a heating Epithem to gr v. The form of prescribing them is thus ℞ c. Make a liquid Epithem to be applied to the region of the heart lukewarm frequently with scarlet clothes dipped and squeezed in this liquor The solid Epithem is only applied to the heart and is composed of cordial conserves to ℥ iij. consections ℥ ss powders ʒ j. ss or ʒ ij with convenient cordial water The form of them is thus ℞ c. with Rose water make a solia Epithem to be applied to the region of the heart with a scarlet cloth This solid Epithem is not seldome prescribed alone where there is a greater necessity of corroborating then altering The liquid one is never applied but the solid one must be applied after it presently Therefore the Physicians use to prescribe the liquid and solid one one after another adding in the end of the prescription make a solid Epithem to be applied to the region of the heart presently after the liquid one To Epithems are referred the younger sorts of Animals dissected in two through the middle sprinkled with cordial powders and applied to the region of the heart Those animals are Pigeons or Whelps the form of prescribing them is thus Apply to the region of the heart a young Pigeon cut in two in the middle and sprinkled with powder of cold Diamargarite Electuary Or ℞ of the powder of cold Diamargarite Electuaryʒ ij sprinkle the inside of a young Pigeon cut in two to be applied to the region of the heart Sometimes those Animals are applied to the forepart of the head shav'd and sprinkled with Cephalick powder to strengthen the brain CHAP. II. Of Fomentations FOmentations are made in divers parts but most commonly in the side against Pleuretick pains on the stomack to corroborate it on the Hypochondriums to remove obstructions For the sides decoctions are made of Emollient simples with addition of Anodynes and Resolvers all which are prescribed in the dose of an Apozem in this form ℞ c. make a decoction of them all with which frequently foment the side that is in pain with a Hogs bladder half full of the decoction For the stomack are prescribed stomachical simples in lesser dose then of an Apozem to which are added Spices or Cloves Nutmegs Spikenard in a sufficient quantity viz. of every one ʒ ij iij. or ℥ ss Make a decoction in equal parts of fountain water and of astringent red Wine added at the end or if no binding be required in stead of fountain water smiths water is to be prescribed The form of it is thus ℞ c. Make a decoction in equal parts c. with which foment the region of the stomack while it is warm a good while before meals with two of the foresaid bladders half full of simples For the Hypochondriums is made a decoction of opening simples in the said dose some emollient things being mixed therewith in equal parts of fountain water and white Wine added at the end so that a hot distemper do not hinder it The form of it is thus ℞ c. Make a decoction c. with which frequently foment the Hypochondriums with linnen clothes dipped in the warm decoction and squeezed If one Hypochondrium be pained only you must prescribe that the region of the spleen or liver be fomented according as this or that part is affected those simples being mixed in the decoction which concern the parts most especially CHAP. III. Of Bathes BAthes are prepared for many intentions viz. to refrigerate and moisten to move the moneths help conception and in external affections as scabs and leprosie They are composed of roots 3 4 or 5 ana lb j. lb j ss herbs 5 6. of every one fasc j. of seeds from lb ss to lb j. fruits from lb j. to lb j ss flowers to M. iij. or iiij The form of prescribing them is thus ℞ c. Make a decoction for a bath to bathe in warm without sweat twice a day for two or three daies CHAP. IV. Of a Semi-cupe A Semi cupe is nothing else but a half bath which is but up to the navel of the Patient It is made of the same simples with the Bath the dose being half as much and prescribed as followeth R. c. Make decoction for a Semi-cupe for the patient to sit in from the knees to the navil morning and evening a good while before meals for two or three daies or when necessity requires if it be prescribed to ease pain CHAP. V. Of Oyles OYls are very seldom composed by the Physicians because they are ready in the shops upon all occasions but if any one desire the way of composing Oyls he may thus proceed Prescribe first of common oyl or of the shops of one or more lb ss of powdered simples ℥ j.