Vein opened an hour after the blood will continue pure Hors-dung dissolved in Carduus Water and strained doth powerfully disperse the pain and the humor in the Pleurisie White Hen-dung given in a dram of the same Water doth as much These Dungs have much Volotile Salt which is very piercing and discussing You may make a Potion of them both thus Take of Hemp seed one ounce bruise them then put to them of the white Dung of a Hen and of Horse Dung of each half an ounce dissolve them in five ounces of Carduus Water strain them and drink it The Blood of a wild Goat given to ten drops with the aforesaid Water doth powerfully discuss the Pleurisie In the want thereof you may give the blood of a tame Goat But because the strength of him is little you may give thereof to the quantity of one dram You must prepare it thus Hang up the Goat by the Horns and bend his hinder Legs backward to his Horns then cut out his Stones and take the Blood in a broad Vessel dry it in the Sun in Summer or at other times upon an Oven It is far different from the Goats Blood in the Shops The Soot of a Chimney given to a dram is very good but much rather the spirit of Soot described by Hartman in his Practice of Physick In an Epidemical Pleurisie Sudoroficks are to be given such as are prescribed in malignant Feavers which also ought to be made as proper for this Disease as may be A Diarrhoea coming upon a Pleurisie is dangerous therfore you must give Syrup of Myrtles which doth stay the Diarrhoea and also expectorate and this is to be mixed with other Syrups Let me Belly and Reins be anointed with astringents as useth to be done in all Diarrhoea's Give Clysters made of Barley Water which as Galen saith doth cool and astringe if it be boyled with red Roses and also Yolks of Eggs be dissolved in it Chap. 3. Of Peripneumonia or Inflamation of the Lungs PEripneumonia hath the same essence with a Pleurisie and is distinguished only by the part affected because that is the inflamation of the Lungs and this of the Membrane that compasseth the Ribs They differ somwhat in the matter for a Pleurisie comes often of Choller but a Peripneumonia of Flegm although all humors as we said of a Pleurisie may produce this disease I mean humors which are like blood and make up the mass of it For as thick humors do hardly penetrate the thick Membrane called Pleura but thin and Chollerick easily so on the other side thick flegmatick humors do easily go to the soft and thin substance of the Lungs and stick close thereto but thin and Chollerick humors do easily pass by But this hindereth not but the Chollerick blood may somtimes cause the Inflamation of the Lungs as Hippocrates 1. de morbis describeth the Erysipelas or Chollerick tumor of the Lungs which comes from Chollerick blood thrown into the Lungs from the right Ventricle of the Heart by the Arterial Vein But an oedematous Inflamation comes from flegmatick blood falling upon the Lungs by way of defluxion from the Head But only excrementitious flegm falling as a Catarrh from the Brain can make a Peripneumonia because it putrifieth in the Lungs and attracteth blood by the mixture whereof there is an Inflamation and this often happeneth in old folk Mesue saith that this Peripneumonia comes rather of Choller because the Lungs are nourished with Chollerick blood which cometh in great plenty to them by the Arterial Vein To whom we answer that fresh thin and steeming blood made in the right Ventricle of the Heart is carried into the Lungs which by reason of its purity is easily governed by Nature and is sent by the Venal Artery to the left Ventricle of the Heart and it seldom is altered from its Natural condition which useth to make a Peripneumonia But contrarily a defluxion from the Head cutting through the large passages into the Bronchia of the Lungs if it there putrifie will draw blood unto it and make a Peripneumonia This Peripneumonia is somtimes alone without another disease somtimes it followeth other diseases as Squinzy or Pleurisie Galen in Com. 11. Sect. 7. Aphor. teacheth that a Peripneumonia doth follow a Pleurisie two waies Either when a Pleurisie is turned into a Peripneumonia or when an inflamation of the Lungs followeth a Pleurisie This transmutation is when the former disease ceaseth and the other comes but it comes upon it when it is white the former remaineth Therefore the immediate internal cause of a Peripneumonia is blood often flegmatick seldom chollerick and most seldom melanchollick Which either comes from the whol body being plethorick or cachochymical that is full or of evil habit or from some part which is replete or distempered The External Causes of Peripneumonia and Pleurisie are the same namely whatsoever defluxion can come to those parts the chief whereof are First great exercise and violent motion of the Body especially after long rest and high feeding For then the humors abounding from high diet and kept in by long rest by exercise are dispersed attenuated and heated and are after sent to the weaker parts most fit to receive them among which the Breast and Lungs are chief because by strong exercise there is caused great and often breathing and so they become wearied and the substance of the Lungs being soft and loose can easily receive the humors coming to them Secondly Among the external Causes the cold and Northernly Air is reckoned when it comes suddenly after a Southern and warm for the pores are opened by warm Air and the humors are more fluid which by the cold Air coming after are compressed and the humors sent to the weak parts Lastly From Hipp. lib. of Air Places and Waters the drinking of standing Pools and Lakes begets the Peripneumonia for saith the Divine old man we observe diseases of the Lungs to be most in Marshy Countries Also the Signs of a Peripnumonia do agree with the signs of a Pleurisie Two are the same as a sharp Feaver and a Cough which somtimes is dry somtimes moist or with more Flegmatick spittle coloured with Choller or Blood and in the progress of time the spittle becomes Mattery when the matter of the Disease grows ripe and concocted by heat which somtimes comes to pass when the substance of the Lungs is not hurt for if they ulcerate a Consumption wil sollow So we may observe That in sore Eyes that are Mattery the humors are converted into Matter when the substance of the Eye is neither suppurated nor ulcerated The other signs differ in respect of the part affected the difficulty of Breathing is greater than in a Pleurisie by reason of the narrowness of the part inflamed so that the Patient seems to be choaked and cannot breath but with the head upright For the part cannot be compressed by reason of the extention and repletion nor be more dilated
5. A Suppuration on both sides of the Thorax is more dangerous than in one also that on the lâ—fâ— side is more dangerous than on the right by reason of the left Ventricle of the heart which is more greivously affected with the matter gathered on that side Whosoever are Burnt or Cut for a Suppuration if the Matter cometh forth pure and white they escape but if it be bloody foul and stinking they die Aphor. 44. Sect. 7. If the Matter flow plentifully by Stool and Urine and the Patient continue strong it is a sign oâ— Recovery although this Evacuation is very seldom yet is it spoken of by Galen Aetius and Paulus As also the way declared by Galen through which it passeth 3. de loc affect cap. 4. and com in aphor 30. sect 3. In the first place he speaks thus This question doth not a little disturbe thâ— followers of Erasistratus who think that there is nothing but spirits in the Arteries But we find no difficulty in it because we know that the smooth Artery in the Lungs so much Pus as it received from an Imposthume broken can carry the same into the left Ventricle of the heart which after goeâ— to the Reâ—ns by the great Artery In the last place he saith That the matter contained in the Lungâ— doth first come to the Ventricles of the Heart and then to the great Artery or by the hollow Veiâ— to the outside of the Liver from thence to the inside and so to the Guts From which you may easily see the way by which an Empyema may be purged by stool and urine If the Patient grow better and be almost clensed and then again raiseth stinking Spittle he dieth of that which remaineth and returneth Hipp. in Coac For the Cure of this Disease First if you cannot hinder the Suppuration of the matter in the Thorax you must further it by convenient Cataplasms As Take of Marsh-mallow Roots three ounces fat Figs ten Raisons stoned one ounce Chamomel and Melilot flowers of each one pugil Boyl them all well then beat them and strain them then ad the flower of Line Foenugreek seed and Wheat of each one ounce Oyl of Lillies sweet Almonds and fresh Butter and Turpentine of each one ounce Make a Cataplasm Also to help Concoction and maturation within you may give this following Apozeme Take of Marsh-mallow Roots and of the greater Comphry of each one ounce Agrimony Coltâ—foot Scabious and Maiden-hair of each one handful the four great cold seeds of each one ouncâ— Annis seeds one dram Liquoris and Raisons of the Sun stoned of each one ounce the three Cordial Flowers and Chamomel of each one pugil Make a Decoction to one pint and an half dissolve in the straining Syrup of Colts-foot Liquoris and Sugar-candy of each two ounces Maâ—â— an Apozeme perfumed with the Pouder of Flower deluce Root one dram for five mornings draughts This following Eclegma is good for the same purpose Take of the pulp of fat Figs one ounce fresh Butter two ounces Oyl of sweet Almonds newly drawn without fire one ounce Sugar candy two ounces Starch two drams Make a Lohoch Venice Turpentine washed with Barley Water given to the quantity of three drams with the pouder of Liquoris doth much profit for Maturation Discussion and Clensing But if the Empyema will not be spit up as somtimes it will not you must come to opening of it which you must do between the fourth and fifth Ribs beginning to count from below with many Cautions which are elegantly set down by many Chyrurgions especially by Hieromâ— Fabricius ab Aquapendente in his Book of Manual Operations But it is more profitable to open the Imposthume which comes from a Pleurisie before it break and the Pus flow into the Cavity of the Breast which is known by the Tumor which is against the place of Suppuration and by other signs of an Empyema And then you must not open it below and between the fourth and fifth Rib because if you make an orifice far from the imposthume there wil no matter come forth but you must open it in the middle of the Tumor first applying a Caustick But if no Tumor appear it is hard to open it before the Imposthume be broken But if any will tâ—y he must find out the place in which the Patient finds weight pain and heat And it must be made between two Ribs upon the higher part of the Rib because there is a Vein and Artery neer the Inferior which you must observe in the opening of every Empyema While the matter is taken forth by degrees let the Patient take a Wound Drink twice a day which will purge the blood clense the Ulcer and hinder putrefaction As Take of Sanicle Bugle Scabious Bettony St. Johns wort Carduus Mousear Burnet Perewinkle Agrimony Plantane of each one handful the seeds of St. Johns wort and Carduus benedictus of each half a dram Cordial Flowers one pugil Boyl them in Hydromel to a pint and an half Take six ounces every time With this same Decoction Injections may be made into the Cavity of the Breast For his Drink let him take Hydromel or Barley Water or Spring Water with Sugar If after the Breast is opened the matter do not flow freely you must draw it forth with the following Plaister which doth powerfully draw from all Imposthumes Take of Rozin of the Pine-tree that is fresh cleer and sweet half a pound Oyl of Bayes and â—urpentine of each one ounce Gum Elemi two ounces First let the Rozin and the Gum be â—elted and mixed then ad the Turpentine and the Oyls and let them boyl a little then strain â—â—em Make a Plaister thereof for the part change it once a day in Winter and twice in Sumâ—er cut it in two or three places that the matter may pass through Chap. 5. Of the Dropsie in the Breast THe Dropsie in the Breast is like to Empyema which comes from a serous humor contained in the Cavity of the Breast The common Practitioners do not describe this Disease although Hippocrates doth it excellently 2. Lib. of Diseases called dropsies in the Lungs thus There is a Feaver and a Cough quick breathing the feet swell the Nails are contracted and they suffer as â—â—ey do in an Empyema but not so violently and longer and if you powr any thing in or apply a â—omentation or fumigation the matter doth not follow and by this you may know that it is not â—atter but water that is within and if you try a long time to discover it by your Ear laid to his â—â—de it boyls inward like Vinegar after that it goes into the belly and then he seems to be recovered But in progress of time the belly is inslamed and that endureth the same or more some swell in the â—elly cods and face Thus Hippocrates This Disease seldom happeneth it is more often than it is discovered for it is not ordinarily â—nown Many relations of it are given
Diseases But the Heart hath a Natural Faculty to contract and dilate it self therefoâ—e a Palpitation cannot be without its motion And they do in vain muster up Galens Reasons so thought by them to prove that the Palpitation of the Heart comes not by Nature but by a Diâ—ease or cause of a Disease For Galen in all those places speaks of no other Palpitation than that which is in the Skin and other external parts and not of the palpitation of the Heart which is of another Nature and Galen 2. de sympt caus cap. 2. saith that the Palpitation of the Heart and Arteries is different from that of the other parts Therefore the Palpitation of the Heart is an immoderate and preternatural shaking of the part with a great Diastole or Dilatation and a vehement Systole or contraction which somtimes is so great that as Fernelius observes it hath often broken the Ribs adjoyning somtimes displaced them which are over the Paps and somtimes it hath so dilated an Artery forth into an Aneurism as big as ones fist in which you might both see and feel the pulsation This immoderate shaking of the Heart comes from the Pulsative Faculty provoked But here may be objected That in Feavers all these things are found for this is an immoderatâ— Systole and Diastole by the provocation of the Faculty through some troublesom matter or by encrease of heat in the Heart To this we answer That the motion of the Heart in Feavers is distinguished from Palpitation only by its degrees and the depraved motion of the Heart when it is vehement is called Palpitation but if it be not vehement it is called a quick great and swift Pulse and is referred to the differenceâ— of Pulses Now the Efficient Causes of this Palpitation may be referred to Three Heads Either it is somwhat which troubleth and pricketh or necessity of Refrigeration or defect of Spirits which two latter may be referred to the encrease of Custom The Molesting Cause is most usual so that many Authors knew no other the other are rare and that is either a vapor or wind which troubleth the Heart either in quantity or quality or both The quality is either manifest or occult A vapor troublesom in a manifest quality is either in the Heart and its parts adjoyning or it is sent from other parts and this suddenly getting to the inmost parts of the Heart doth stir up the Expulâ—ive Faculty which being Naturally very strong ariseth powerfully with all its force to expel the enemy In the Heart and thereabout especially in the Pericardium are gathered somtimes cold and thick Humors which send up vapors to the Ventricles of the Heart which cause Palpitation But from more remote parts vapors and wind are sent to the Ventricles of the Heart as from the Stomach Spleen Mother and the other parts of the lower Belly Many times a Vapor that troubles the Heart by an occult quality ariseth in malignant Feavers Plague and after Poyson and somtimes from Worms putrified and the terms stopped from corrupt feed or other putrid matter which do much stir up the Expulsive Faculty thereof Divers Humors do molest the Heart either with their quantity or quality so too much Blood oppresâ—ing the Veins Arteries and Ventricles of the Heart so that they cannot move freely makes a Palpitation by hindering motion which that the Faculty may oppose it moveth more violently So Water in the Pericardium being in great quantity doth compreâ—s the substance of the Heart and its Ventricle so that they cannot freely dilate themselves The same do Humors flowing in abundance to the Heart as it happens somtimes in Wounds Fear and Terror Humors offending in quality hurt the Heart if they be venemous putrid corrupt sharp or too hot especially burnt Choller coming to the Heart and provoking its Expulsion Also Tumors though seldom cause this Disease as Inflamation of the Heart Imposthumes or Swelling in the Arteries of the Lungs neer the Heart which Galen saith befel Antipater the Physitian 4. de loc aff by which after an unequal Pulse he fell into a Palpitation and an Asthma and so died so Dodonaeus reports that he found a Callus in the great Artery next to the Heart which caused a Palpitation for many yeers Also Tumors in the Pericardium whether they be without humors and scirrhus or with humors in them as the Hydatides or watery Pustles and little stones bones and pieces of flesh are somtimes growing in the Heart which cause Palpitation So Platerus reports that in one who had a long Palpitation and died thereof there was found a bone in his Heart But Schenkius reports that in a Priest who was from his youth to the age of forty two troubled with a Palpitation there was found in the bottom of his Heart an Excrescens of flesh which weighed eight drams and resembled another Heart The Second Cause of Palpitation is necessity of refrigeration which is when there is a pretâ—â—natural heart in the Heart by which the Spirits are inflamed within and therefore the motion of the Heart and Arteries is encreased that what is spent may be restored and the heat cooled and this comes somtimes from an internal cause which is rare but oftener of an external as anger vehement exercise and the like As Platerus observed in a yong man who being hot and angry at Tennis fell into a Palpitation of the Heart and so died The third Cause is the defect of Spirits which comes by hunger watching anger Joy fear shame and great Diâ—eases and other causes which do suddenly dissipate the Spirits which defect the Heart laboring to repair that it may beget more quick and plentiful and send them into the whol Body sooner it doth enlarge its motion and make it quicker You must observe for conclusion that it is more ordinary to see a Palpitation which comes by consent from other parts than from the Heart it self For it hath a consent with all parts by the Veins and Artâ—ries by which Vapors Wind and Humors are sent Which all shall be shewed in the Diagnosis following The Diagnosis or knowledg of this Disease is directed either to the Disease or the Causes which produce it The Disease is subject to sence it may be felt with the hands somtimes seen and heard for the Artery may be seen to leap especially in the Jugular And Forestus saith it may be heard by an Example of a yong man that they who passed by might hear it by laying their Ear to the Window Also the Causes are distinguished by their Signs A hot distemper is known by the greatness of the Pulse and swiftness by a Feaver and heat of the Breast by great and often breathing and desire of cold things If the Palpitation come of wind it quickly comes and goes and is presently raised by little motion and the Breath is difficult with trembling somtimes at the knees mists in the Eyes noise in the Ears and somtimes pain of some
the Jaws and Neck are red these Angina's continue longer but they are chiefly preserved who have red necks and breasts and the holy fire without not within The fourth kind is least and safest because the inflamation is furthest from the Throat Hence Hippocrates Aph. 37. Sect. 6. saith If a Tumor appear in the neck in him that hath an Angina it is good for the Disease comes forth He confirms the same in 3. Progn Text. 20. thus But it is most safe to have a Tumor or redness come forth Hippocrates seems to comprehend all these Differences in one Sentence 6. Epid. Sect. 7. where speaking of the signs of an Epidemical Angina he saith In the sum of all To them that could only not swallow the disease was mild and easie to be endured but it was desperate to them who had withal a difficulty of breathing If the matter causing the Angina be carried to the Lungs either the Patients die or else turn Fools or Empyick that is imposthumated between the Breast and Lungs as Hippocrates Aph. 10 Sect. 5. and 3. Progn In an Angina that is strong if the Patient foam at the mouth it is deadly Aph. 43. Sect. 2. for it shews a great straitness about the Heart and violent heat from which the proper moisture of the Lungs is squeezed forth and carried to the mouth in a kind of froath They who have an Angina if they spit not concocted matter but a little viscid slimy and thick are desperate Hipp. in coac The Tumors of the Jaws in an Angina suddenly vanishing without reason are deadly Hipp. in coacis Without cause or reason that is without a precedent Evacuation by Art or Crisis for it signifies the returning of the matter inward from whence a more dangerous Disease may be in the internal parts or as it somtimes fals out the matter returning to the same part makes a sudden suffocation The Cure of the Angina is made by the same Indications which are observed in the Cure of all Inflamations so the humor flowing to the part is to be revelled and repelled that which is there is to be derived and dissolved But if it cannot be dissolved it is to be disgested and suppurated all which may be done as followeth First appoint a slender cooling and moistening Diet of Barley Cream Chicken Broth or Capon Broath with cool Herbs and the like If the Patient cannot swallow by reason of the narrowness of the Oesophagus so that from thence you fear loss of strength and death You may free him from that danger by putting down a Catheter into the Oesophagus to which you may fit a Syringe by which you may send Broath into the Stomach The Practical Physitians use nourishing Clysters by which some nourishment may be carried to the Liver from the Meseraick Veins Let his drink be Barley Water and other things used in acute Feavers Let the Air be temperate and without extremity for the cold will stop the pores and the hot will encrease the defluxion and inflamation The Patient must lie with his head high and his neck upright that he may better breath he must avoid much sleep as in internal inflamations for as Hippocrates saith Blood runs inward in time of sleep and so the confluxion of humors to the part affected will be encreased But since Angina is a most acute Disease and somtimes kills a man in one day you must use great Remedies with much diligence Therefore in what hour soever the Physitian comes let him presently let blood on the same side that is affected out of the Head Vein or if that appear not out of the Median to a pound or a pound and an half or two pound as much as his strength will permit for in this there is most hope but you must not take all that blood away at once lest the Patient faint by which he would be in danger but by degrees and intermission at every third or fourth hour This kind of blood-letting is so necessary in this disease that it may be hindered by no contrary indication So in the flowing of the Terms or at any other time you must take away blood in a great quantity Of which we have a president in Zacutus Lucitanus 2. Prax. admir cap. 135. of a Woman which was in her seventh month great with Child and was taken with a Squinzy but being seven times let blood in one day was cured If the Disease be not violent you may first give a Clyster but if otherwise afterwards While Phlebotomy is iterated make other revulsions in the same day with Cupping-glasses both dry and with scarrification upon the shoulders and loyns make frictions and painful Ligatures upon the extream parts Having bled enough fall to purging the next day not expecting the concoction of humors because the disease admits of no parley therefore give one proper to the humor nay if the disease do constrain you let blood and give a purge both in the same day as Trallianus did by his confession Lib. 4. Cap. 1. in these words I truly remember that I when occasion required opened a Vein in the morning under the Tongue and at night gave a purge of the extract of Scammony in Broth and could scarce hinder strangulation for all that and another the next day after I had opened both the Arms purged him again Now your purge must be of gentle things if the disease come of Choller lest the humors should be moved too violently and so come to the part affected Also if the Inflamation come only of blood it is better to abstain altogether from purging But if flegm run with it make stronger Purges and give Agarick and Diaphoenicon with Senna nay in a strong flegmatick Angina you may rise to those Medicines which cause violent vomiting and among the rest the Aqua Benedicta of Dr. Rowland is the best which given to the quantity of two ounces doth wonders and for the most part cureth the disease in the space of two hours Moreover it hath no evil taste and so may easily be sipped up which you cannot do in other Medicines which by reason of their evil taste cannot be taken but at one draught by the Patient therefore they can seldom be purged till the passages are a little opened But that is supplied by often Clysters and therefore they who cannot take Aqua Benedicta Rulandi by reason of its heat or their weakness because they must be strong who take it nor any other Medicine must use often Clysters that are very sharp to draw down the Humors For the same Revulsion it is good to apply Cupping-glasses to the Neck and Shoulders with scarrification Frictions and Ligatures to the lower parts and to wash their Feet with hot Water But a Vesicatory to the Neck behind doth more strongly revel the humors flowing from the head which you must do presently after blood-letting After Revulsions are sufficiently and diligently made you must derive the Humor from the part
Operation nor any other in his time But he confesseth it may be used so that the Lungs and rough Artery be not full of filth and he sheweth the manner of it in its proper Chapter most exactly from whence any one may take it The End of the Sixth Book THE SEVENTH BOOK OF THE PRACTICE OF PHYSICK Of the Diseases of the Breast The PREFACE BY this name Thorax or Breast we mean those parts only which serve for breathing for although the Heart be contained in the Thorax yet the Diseases therof shall be set down in a Book by themselves But in this we will only speak of those which hinder breathing and hurt the part of Respiration as Astbma Pleuresie Peripneumonia or Inflamation of the Lungs Empyema and Phtysis and we have ordained proper Chapters for each of them Chap. 1. Of Asthma or Difficulty of Breathing THe Breath is hindered by divers Causes either by sympathy or propriety of part The hinderance of breathing by propriety called Idiopathica comes from the Lungs distempered and therefore every Disease of the Lungs hurts their action which Diseases are either in the substance of the Lungs or in the Vessels thereof In the substance of the Lungs come inflamations pimples imposthumes ulcers and somtimes a drying and atrophy of the part somtimes a serous watery humor is suckt into the spungy substance of the Lungs and hinders their free dilatation somtimes though seldom there is a schirrus a stone or hard swelling in them In the Vessels of the Lungs there are often obstructions which hindering the free passage of the Air cause difficulty of breathing Breathing is hindered by sympathy or consent from other parts which are not only neer but remote so the Membrane that goeth about the ribs being inflamed or the Diaphragma or Mediastinum the breath is hindered So by custom there is a great and often breathing when the heart is inflamed as in Feavers and on the contrary when the Heart is cold as in dying men it is diminished and ceaseth the same happeneth in swouning or syncope when the action of the Heart and consequently Respiration ceaseth So in the Empyema or Dropsie of the Breast when matter or water is collected in the Cavity of the Thorax the Dilatation of the Lights and Respiration is also hindered So the Muscles of Breathing being hurt hinder Respiration as in wounds and tumors of them especially in an Apoplexy when the influence of the Animal Spirits is kept from them Moreover The Inflamation of the Muscles of the Larynx makes difficulty of breathing in a Squinzy So also the Diseases of the Hypochondria do hinder Respiration by consent as tumors of the Liver Spleen Sweetbread or Pancreas do by their weight draw down the Diaphragma to which they are joyned and so hinder the motion of it Also vapors and wind sent from those parts compress the Diaphragma and hinder its action from whence comes a flatulent Asthma The same happeneth by the abundance of wind or water contained in the belly of an Hydropical man and compressing the Diaphragma Lastly Vapors coming from the Mother hinder Respiration from whence this disease is called Suffocatio Hysterica Among the aforesaid hinderances of Respiration the Asthma is handled by it self because the other depend upon other Diseases they shall be mentioned in their places Although Asthma used generally comprehendeth in a large signification all kinds of difficulty of breathing yet it signifies more specially that shortness of breathing which comes from the stuffing of the Lungs and the obstruction of the Bronchion or Gristles of the Wind-pipe which of its self essentially is without a Feaver although somtimes it be joyned therewith And again it is subdivided into three other kinds as first Dyspnoea the second called also Asthma the third Orthopnoea Dyspnoea is a difficulty of breathing in which the breath is drawn oftener and thicker from the stuffing of the Lungs This is less than Asthma or Orthopnoea because the matter obstructing is less and it rather stops the substance of the Lungs than Gristles or Bronchia hence it is that there is no snorting at all which comes from the commotion of the humors contained in the Bronchia with the Air continually passing through Asthma is a great and often breathing in which the Diaphragma the Intercostal Muscles between the Ribs and of the Abdomen are violently moved joyned with snorting and wheesing For in a true Asthma properly so called the Btonchia of the Lungs are filled with flegm which as is said being moved by the Air make that noise Orthopnoea is a great difficulty of breathing in which the Patient cannot breath but sitting and with the neck extended upright and the aforesaid Muscles are not only moved vehemently but also those of the Breast and Shoulders The names Dyspnoea and Orthopnoea as we said of Asthma are used commonly for all difficulties of breathing which happen in Pleuresies or Inflamation of the Lungs or the like The same may be said of Apnaea which doth not only signifie a depravation of breathing as the former but also a diminishing or abolishing thereof and this happeneth in syncope Hysterical Passions and strong Apoplexies The humor which causeth an Asthma is for the most part flegm which falls from the Head into the Lungs and obstructs the Bronchia or Wind-pipe Somtimes it comes from crude and serous humors brought by Arteria Venosa into the Lungs and if these flow to the Bronchia they produce a true Asthma with snorting but if to the substance of the Lungs or smooth Arteries they cause a bastard Asthma without snorting This kind of Asthma which is unknown to vulgar Physitians who will acknowledg no other cause but a defluxion from the Head is confirmed not only by not snorting but from the thick and turbulent Urine of the Patient at that time especially in the sit because some part of those thick and crude humors in the Veins is sent to the Reins and Bladder And some Asthmatical men are subject to stoppage of Urine and when they are so they are free from it But when the fit of the Asthma comes the difficulty of Urine ceaseth because the matter of the disease contained in the Veins goes from one place to another We have also seen some subject to a flux in the Belly who while they were so were free from the Asthma but when that stopped the Asthma returned Moreover this kind of Asthma which is without snorting is so directly opposite to bleeding that when a Vein is opened in the fit as soon as it bleedeth the Patient begins presently to breath better and in the end or after a little space they are cured of their fit And finally these kind of Asthmatical men are for the most part of an ill habit of body and have an oedematous humor in their feet which sheweth that the cause of the Asthma at that time came from the Liver and is contained in the Veins so that somtimes a Dropsie
although it be much dilated yet it takes in but little Air therefore the respiration is quick and often with snorting This is augmented by a Feaver by which the breath is hotter and the desire of cold air is greater The Pulse is great faint and soft by reason of Flegm and the looseness of the Lungs yet there is some hardness by the Choller and blood it is unequal from the compression of the Artery neer the Heart and in thick Humors most Somtimes it is intermitting watery vermicular when the Lungs are rotten by too much moisture There is a heavy pain that reacheth from the Breast to the Back somtimes it is between the Shoulders and somtimes under one only Shoulder and from thence communicated to the Throat and Pap Especially in a Cough somtimes they feel no pain til they begin to Cough somtimes there is also a pricking pain in the side when it is joyned with a Pleurisie as it often happeneth Although the Membrane that covers the Lungs be of the same nature with the Pleura as Galen taught 4. de loc affect cap. 5. Yet there is not so great pain in a Peripneumonia as in a Pleurisie for two Differences which are laid down by Galen in the place afore-cited The First is Because the Nerves that go to the Membrane of the Lungs are few and very little but they which go to the Pleura are many and great Th Other is Because the Breast consists of Bones and Flesh which wil not be stretched from whence the pain is greater But the Lungs are soft and yeilding and therefore their pain is less There is Redness in the Cheeks by reason of the hot vapors which fly into the head and carrying with them the thinner blood And this Colour is most in the Cheeks because their skin is thinnest There are besides these signs Heaviness Weakness and a Tossing with great sense of Heat in the whol Body The Tongue is Yellow and then it groweth Red a great thirst swelling of the Eyes and of the veins of the Temples There is a Delirium or Doting when it comes from Choller and a Coma when it comes from Flegm If the Disease comes of Chollerick blood the spittle wil be yellow the heat and thirst greater more difficulty of breathing with less Heaviness the air breathed forth is more hot the Feaver is very violent the Pulse swift the Delirium great the Water thin yellow and cleer the age time of the year the Country and Diet before do al attest for Choller If Flegm which is most ordinary produce the Disease the spittle wil be white viscous and froathy the Feaver burning of the Breast thirst and driness of the tongue wil be less the weight of the Breaâ—â— greater the Pulse slower and softer the Age old Habit of body time of the Yeer and the Country are cold and moist If the Disease come from pure Blood the Spittle wil be Red the Urin Red and Thick the Face more Red the Veins of the Temples more swoln with heaviness and distention of the whol body and other things that declare abundance of blood Lastly If Melancholly blood be the Cause the Spittle wil be black or blewish the Tongue black from the beginning dry and rough there wil be also heaviness and great sighing between breathing and al the signs of Melancholly predominating in the whol body The Prognostick of this Disease is thus to be made A Peripneumonia is more dangerous than a Pleurisie and for the most part deadly by reason of the necessity of respiration and the neerness of the Heart Celsus saith That this kind of Disease hath more Danger than Pain and for the most part Killeth But strength of Body less vehemency of Symptomes yellow Spittle not mixed with much Blood raised in the beginning a great flux of blood at the Nose in the Critical day or a flux of the Belly which is Chollerick and froathy or a flux of the Hemorrhoids or Terms do shew some hope of recovery Imposthumes about the Ears or inferior parts being well suppurated and kept open do foretel recovery as Hipp. in proga If a Peripneumonia be turned into a Pleurisie it is good and though it seldom happen as Galen teacheth Comment Aphor. 11. Sect. 7. because there is a going from a Disease more dangerous to one less dangerous And this transmutation is known by a pricking pain of the side coming thereupon and by abating the shortness of breath But the vehemency of the Disease and symptomes do declare a dangerous and deadly Peripneumonia as want of spittle continual watching a Delirium or Coma coldness of the extream parts snorting with great difficulty of breathing blewness and crookedness of the nails Moreover A Peripneumoma coming upon a Pleurisie is most dangerous as Hippocrates teacheth Aph. 11. Sect. 7. because the translation of a humor from an ignoble part to a more noble is evil and the strength being spent by the disease foregoing can endure the force of a new and worâ—e When the urine is thick in the beginning of the Disease and after before the fourth day it becomes thin death is at hand Hipp. in Coacis The Cure of the Peripneumonia is very like that of the Pleurisie and there must be first bleeding as much as the strength will permit once or twice in a day till the disease abate for since the Lungs are then full of blood and draw much from the heart which is inflamed you need not fear to let blood thrice four five or six times But if a Peripneumonia follow a Squinzy or Pleurisie you may let blood more warily because the strength is abated by the former Disease You must let blood from the Basilica Vein of both arms if the whol Lungs be equally affected or from either on that side the pain is or on which the Patient sets more weight or from which he supposeth he raiseth most spittle You must bleed women in this disease first in the Ancle Vein and after within six hours in the Arm except it be so desperate that you are constrained at the first to bleed in the Arm. In which case all the time you bleed and a little before you must apply Cupping-glasses to the Thighs But after if the strength will not permit further phlebotomy you must apply Cupping-glasses to the Shoulders and â—ack both dry and with Scarrification as much as the Patient can suffer Also Emollient and loosening Clysters are good revulsives but you must not use too strong purging Medicines therein lest you bring a flux of the Belly which is most dangerous in this Disease If a crude flegmatick humor coming from the head cause this disease or nourish it a Vesicatory laid to the hinder part of the Head doth very much good In the mean while use the Juleps and Emulsons prescribed in the Cure of a Pleurisie Anoint the breast with Oyl of Violets sweet Almonds or with fresh Butter or the like or with this Liniment Take of Oyl
the Lungs and to Cure Ulcers Take this following for an Example Take of green Coltsfoot eight handfuls Hysop two handfuls bruise them and put them in a Pot with a little water lute it close then set it into the Oven when the Bread is half baked and then take it out with the Bread and put a Funnel into a hole made at the top and so take in the smoak through the mouth at the Lungs and put it out at the Nose and it wonderfully provokes spetting You must also Morning and Evening use a Cooling Liniment to the Breast As Take of Gum Tragacanth and Arabick of each one dram infuse them in Rose water a day and a night put then thereto of Oyl of Violets one ounce and an half Fresh Butter half an ounce Sal. Prunellae two drams Camphire one scruple Breast-milk as much as will serve Mix them in a Mortar to an Oyntment To Repair a Consumption or to Prevent or Hinder it besides Restoring Diets which are principally made of Barley Almonds Pine-nuts Rice Nuts and the like which Authors declare Milk commended at first is very good and a Bath of hot Water of Barley and Almonds bruised but this is not good in a Catarrh nor while there is a putrid Feaver nor when the Lungs are ful of Excrements Let his Drink be Water and Sugar Barley Water and Liquoris an Infusion of Liquoris a thin Hydromel or a weak Decoction of China The End of the Seventh Book THE EIGHTH BOOK OF THE PRACTICE OF PHYSICK Of the Diseases of the Heart The PREFACE THE Heart hath many Diseases Similary Organick and Common But because few will submit to the Physitian in regard of the nobleness of the part which will endure long pain but a man is suddenly gone and there is no time for Physick we who intend to bring all our Labors into practice will lay down only three Diseases of the Heart which are usual and require many Medicines and we shall bring them into three Chapters The first shall be of Swooning The second of Palpitation of the Heart And the third of Weakness Chap. 1. Of Syncope or Swooning Syncope is defined by Galen 12. meth c. 5. to be a sudden failing of all the Strength For although the Heart only suffer and the Vital Spirits are only intercepted yet when it fails the rest must suffer because they have a continual and necessary influence from it It is called a sudden failing of all the Strength that it may be distinguished from other Diseases in which the strength goes by degrees till death come nor is the Doctrine of Avicen against it Fen. 1. Lib. 3. Tract 2. Cap. 2. where he propounds the sign of a Syncope that comes by degrees for although the Causes that dissolve the Spirits do somtimes work by degrees yet when they grow great they make a sudden Syncope and therefore Avicen rather propoundeth the signs that go before a Syncope than those that accompany it Moreover This Definition may seem to agree with an Apoplexy in which there is a sudden failing of all the strength but in an Apoplexy there is strength in the Heart and the Pulse is generally great and full And also there is great hinderance of breath with snorting but in a Syncope the breath is no waies stopped The question is Why When the action of the heart ceaseth doth the action of the Brain also cease since the Animal Spirit is made of the Vital by way of Concoction and must therefore stay some time in the Brain although the Vital do not constantly come to it We answer That the Brain as all other parts for the perfecting of its actions doth alwaies stand in need of adventitious heat which is brought to it by the Vital Spirits and therefore when the Vital Spirits come not neither doth heat come for the Brain to perform its functions There are other Diseases very like to Syncope differing only in degrees from it namely Eclusis Leipothumia and Asphuxia Eclusis is a light fainting Leipothumia or Leipopsuchia or Apopsuchia is a very strong and great fainting Syncope is the greatest which if it go so far that the pulse in the whol Body ceaseth to beat it is called Asphyxia which is next unto death The word Synchope was not used by Hippocrates and the Ancient Greeks but they call'd this Disease Leipothymia Lipopsychia and Asphyxia But it was invented a little before Galens time and used for the greatest so Galen 1. ad Glauc cap. 14. saith Leipothymia is an imperfect Syncope and goes before it By what hath been said it appears that the part affected is the Heart where the Vital Spirits are all made by whose influence the Natural heat and Spirits in every part are made to act therefore when that ceaseth by stoppage of the Influx of the Vital Spirits it is necessary that the strength of all parts should fail and their actions cease The immediate Cause of this Disease is the defect of the Vital Spirits not wholly for then sudden death would come but so great that Nature is constrained lest the strength of the Heart should totally fail to fetch the Spirits from the other parts to the Heart by which means the parts lose their functions Now this defect of Spirits comes four waies Either because they are Naturally few or because they are dissipated and spent or because they are preternaturally altered and corrupted or lastly because they are suffocated and destroyed They are few by fault of the faculty making or matter from which they are made The Faculty is hurt either by a disease proper to the Heart or by consent from another part The proper Diseases of the Heart which are the chief are great distempers which overthrow the Natural temper or destroy the substance of the parts or of the Natural heat as swooning Feavers sharp and malignant Syntacticae or Colliquantes or fainting pestilential hectical or Marasmodes which consume to this come organical diseases as too much constriction and dilatation and constant solutions which come to the Ventricles of the Heart The Faculty may be hurt by consent from other parts which have great sympathy with the Heart as the Brain and Liver and somtimes from the mouth of the Stomach by reason of its neerness and exquisite sence from whence a Syncope is divided into a Heart and Stomach Syncope The Cardiaca or Heart Syncope is when the Heart is principally affected but the Stomachia or Stomach Syncope is that which comes by consent from the Stomach Somtimes it comes from the Mother by filthy vapors sent from thence to the Heart from whence comes the Suffocation of the Matrix Apnoea or want of breath and Hysterical Syncopes as those vapors do assault the Lungs Diaphragma or the Heart The fault is in the Matter when the Air or Blood is defective or corrupted from whence the Vital Spirits are generated There is defect of Air when the Respiration and Transpiration is hindered but the defect of
Blood is when Nutrition is hindered there is a corruption of both when their qualities are changed So when the Air is infected in time of Pestilence it begets Leipothymia and Syncope as also stinking vapors and sweet also do the same with some Women and the blood is corrupted from evil meats Too great Evacuations whether sensible or insensible do disperse the Spirits The sensible are chiefly of Blood from the Mouth Nose Womb Belly Hemorrhoids Phlebotomy and great Wounds and next of other Humors which though they are Excrementitious yet because of their great Evacuation the Spirits are much dispersed and cause a Syncope These Humors are discharged by Vomit Stool Urine Sweat the opening of a great Imposthume especially if it be inward as an Empyema or outward as in a Dropsie when the Navil is tapped The insensible Evacuations are by the Rarifaction of the Skin and by the acrimony and thinness of the Humors immoderate heat hot Baths or Houses great Labors Also long watchings and fasting Lechery great anger and joy long and violent sickness do dissipate the Spirits as also great pain of the Heart Stomach Guts Reins Ears Teeth and of all Nervous parts An evil disposition of the Bowels doth alter and corrupt the Spirits and whatsoever doth procure a malignant quality which is adverse to the Heart as Air Stinks venemous and pestilential taken in by the Breath or bred in the Body from putrifaction of Humors as also poyson taken in or applied outward or sent to the Heart by biting of venemous Creatures Lastly The vehement returning of blood and Spirits to the Heart and an abundance of evil vapors gathered about the Heart and the parts adjacent and too much cold and thick blood gathered about the Heart and its Veins Arteries and parts adjacent do suffocate and destroy the Spirits We lately saw a Noble Lady a Virgin which from her Infancy was subject to this Disease that with every light passion of the mind she was taken therwith taken with a violent Syncope which ushered death in by a sudden return of blood and Spirits to her heart for when she should have been married to a fine yong man which loved her deerly and her Parents Friends and Kindred were solemnly met about it they gave her a Pen to write her hand to the Contract but she having not fully written her name fel down dead upon the ground Hence we easily conjecture that there was a great and sudden retraction of the Blood and Spirits to the Heart by a vehement passion of the mind which choaked the Natural heat and the Spirits therein of which she died suddenly Petrus Salius Diversus saw as he reporteth Lib. de aff part cap. 4. a Girle of fourteen years old fal into a Syncope from abundance of cold and thick blood garhered about her heart and the great vessels for having for a whol day a heaviness of head with giddiness and disturbance she died the next day after suddenly After being opened the blood appeared so congealed in the great Artay and Vena Cava or hollow Vein that taking it by the end you might draw it out like a Sword from a Scabbard Wherefore we judged That the sudden death came from the interception and stopping of the Veins by congealed blood This happeneth seldom for you shal seldom see blood in dead bodies so congealed for the veins have such a property to retain blood that even after death they keep it thin though without them it growth alwayes thick But Salius gives the Reason of this Congealation by comparing it with blood without the Vessels which as soon as it is cold is congealed and the sooner from the coldness thickness and slyminess of the Melanchollick or Phlegmatick humor therein contained Somthing like to this may be-sal blood constrained in the veins which abounding with vicious juyce thick and cold doth â—o sill the greater Veins that it stops the spirits and so extinguisheth them and then the blood grows cold and thick from those humors which otherwise would have been thin The Spagiricks refer this to a congealing Spirit made of a peculiar and extraordinary mixture of Humors which since it seldom happeneth the Disease is very rare And truly a simple Refrigeration cannot cause that concretion for then in dead bodies especially in winter the blood would alwayes be thick in the Veins but we find it alwaies thin but we may suppose that this Congealing Spirit is like that which causeth a Catalepsis or Congealation which makes the parts inflexible The Chymists do acknowledge such kind of Congealing Spirits to be in many Creatures Vegetables and Minerals such as are reported to be raised out of the Earth in some Histories of Men and Beasts who have been Congealed by filthy vapors coming from Earth-quakes or Dens so that their bodies became presently stiffe And Cardanus saith That such spirits are in Thunder-bolts in his History of the Eight Mowers who Supping under an Oak were struck stiffe and remained as at first the one seeming to Eat the other to reach the Pot and the other to Drink The Signs to this Disease by either are from the Subject which is more capable to receive it or from the Fit either coming or present or from the Causes that produce it The Subjects which are most fit to receive a Syncope are men who by some Natural Debility or Weakness from some Disease become faint-hearted Women rather than Men especially in their Terms or with Child As also they who have fine Constitutions subject to the Jaundice Spleen or Melancholly These things signifie that a Syncope is coming to them who are subject to it Anxiety and sudden disturbance of mind heaviness in the head giddiness an apprehension of divers colours green and yellow a sudden and often change of the colour in the face and of the beating of the Pulse When Leipothymy is present the same signs are but greater and there is often a cold sweat as also the sick complain of their faintness But these signs shew a Syncope A sudden failing of al strength a slow pulse low and at length stopping a pale and blewish face coldness of al the body especially externally a cold sweat especially in the temples neck and breast from whence the Disease is named The signs of the Causes are commonly manifest for Feavers malignant acute syncopal or fainting cause a proper Syncope or Swoonding are easily known As also those external Causes which make a sudden Syncope may be plainly seen As Anger extraordinary and Joy a sudden Fright stinking smels great bleeding and other large evacuations long watchings and fasting much lechery and grievous pain These things do signifie that the Humors and the Body are thin a sharp nose hollow eyes temples fallen and the gnawing of the mouth of the stomach trouble of mind pricking heat and great pain do shew abundance of Choller When there is abundance of crude Humors you may know by the enlarging of the body swelling about
the breast a pale colour black and blew a smal obscure and unequal pulse A swoonding by way of Sympathy from other parts is known by the sign of those parts affected so that if it come from the stomach that hath been distempered with loathing vomiting gnawing the mouth hath been bitter and dry and the like The same Judgement is to be taken in other parts but if you see no sign of any other part affected you may conclude that it comes principally from the heart Moreover A Syncope is distinguished from other Diseases by its proper signs From an Epilepsy because that hath a Convulsion but a Syncope not From an Apoplexy because in that the breath is stopt and there is often snorting and the pulse is not much abated except when Death is at hand but in a Syncope the Pulse is almost gone and the breath is free It is distinguished from the Mother for in that the breathing parts are most affected so that the Patient is almost strangled but the Pulse is not much altered nor the colour of the face but keeps its natural complection and somtimes is higher coloured but in a Syncope the breath is not stopt but the pulse is almost gone and the face is pale But somtimes a Syncope is joyned with the Suffocation of the Mother and then the Pulse is not perceived The Prognostick of this Disease is first taken from Hippocrates Aph. 41. Sect. 2. They who often and violently faint without a manifest Cause do die suddenly For as it is said a great Syncope doth quite take away the strength from the heart A Syncope from which a man is not recovered by Rose Water thrown in his face and Wine given to drink with sneezing-pouder put into the Nose is deadly When one is raised from a Syncope health is not to be promised for if his Pulse return not but his colour be wan and he still be cold he wil quickly Relapse in which is danger That Syncope which comes from immoderate Evacuations fear sorrow or some evident Cause is of less danger than that which comes from an internal Cause As for the Cure because it comes from divers Causes it must be various But of what Cause soever it come in the time of the Fit these are good Lying upon the back throwing of cold Water in the face provoking to neez putting of strong Wine Cinnamon or imperial Water Aqua vitae Coelestis and the like into the mouth holding of hot bread to the Nose loud calling and shaking stopping of the Nostrils wringing of the Fingers pulling of the Hair rubbing binding and cupping But in respect of the Causes which are divers you must vary the Cure thus If it come from want of meat he wil be Cured with strong Wine and a Toast or Sop Also with nourishing broths and Restoring distilled Waters among other things a dish of Eggs with sugar Wine and Cinnamon described in the following Chapter If it come from thinness of the Humors by which the spirits do easily flie away give him sweet things and meats of good juyce and thickning let the pores of the skin be stopt with Oyl of Roses and let the Patient stay in a cold place If it come from the Mother you must give Medicines for that If it come from some evil quality give Cordials and Antidotes such as are prescribed in malignant Feavers If from poyson give things to expel it First a Vomit and then Treacle and then if he feel burning or gnawing in the Guts let him take Milk of Butter or fat Broth or cooling Cordial Potions If it come of immoderate Evacuation let the Patient be refreshed with Scents Meat Drink sleep and rest If from too great loss of Blood lay him upon his bed with his Head backwards dash his face with cold Water give him a little Wine with cold Water If it come of too much Purging give him new Treacle or old if you cannot get new with two grains of Opium dissolved in Wine or three grains of Laudanum which is better And let the Belly be anointed all over with this following Oyl Take of Oyl of Myrtles and Quinces of each one ounce and an half Oyl of Wormwood one ounce With a little Rose Vinegar mix them and anoint often Give a Clyster of steeled Milk with three Yolks of Eggs and two drams of Philonium Romanum Use Frictions of the Arms and upper parts give him a Sop in Wine or Wine alone And lastly Every Evacuation whether it be of Blood from the Nose or Womb or other parts or of Humors by Vomit or Stool must be stopped with their proper Medicines prescribed in their several Chapters That Syncope which comes from too much Sweat is cured by Medicines that restrain Sweat as with Cold or Rose Water alone or with a little Vinegar sprinkled upon the Face and Hands Also let the Air be cooled with the same Water and with Fanning Apply cold Epithems to the Heart made of Rose Sorrel and Borrage Water with Pouder of Diamargariton frigid with a little Wine to make it pierce You must also give often cooling Juleps made of Syrup of Sorrel Violets and Apples or Lemmons with cooling Waters and Lapis Prunellae Let the Pores be closed with anointing the Skin with Oyl of Roses Myrtles and Mastich Let him abstain from Wine Let him not be rubbed bâ—t let him move often gently being lightly covered Let his bed be perfumed with this Pouder following Take of the flowers of Water-lillies red Roses of each three ounces the best Labdanum half an ounce Storax two drams Myrtles and grains of Sumach of each two ounces Make a Pouder If it come from suffocation of the Spirits you must call them forth by Frictions Ligatures Cupping-glasses and the like And if this Suffocation came of Repletion you must bleed plentifully but by degrees If it comes from terror and fear you must also bleed lest it cause an Obstruction or Inflamation Chap. 2. Of the Palpitation or Breathing of the Heart AS in a Synoope the motion of the Heart is diminished so in this Disease it is depraved It iâ— wrongly stiled by some a trembling of the Heart when trembling is a passion of the Animal and voluntary motion and is not proper to any parts but such as have voluntary motion Galen in his Book of Trembling Palpitation and Convulsion saith That Palpitation comes only from the Disease that is from the Cause which lifteth up and depresseth the part without any help of the Faculty but Trembling comes partly from the Faculty partly from the Disease Hence it is that many using the word Palpitation indifferently to any part think it is in the Heart as in the Skin and Muscles in which it comes from wind driven violently thither for if the Heart be moved as a Bladder by water or wind they suppose that to be a Palpitation But the reason is different for the Skin and Muscles cannot naturally dilate and contract themselves but by
part which quickly is gonâ— but you must gather the Nature and quality of the Vapor by the signs of the Humor which aboundeth in any part because vapors do alwaies arise from Humors If the Palpitation come from Humors in the Heart the Disease doth not come so suddenly and continueth longer and you may know what kind of humor it is by the signs of the Humor which abounds throughout the whol Body And especially if it be from Blood from which it most often proceedeth and this is known by a divers and unequal Pulse somtimes great somtimes smal slow and swift to which the Breathing answereth in proportion the Patients heart seemeth to be bound and oppressed as appears by the exceeding heat distension of the Veins redness of Face the time being Spring the Age Region and Diet causing Blood to abound That which comes by consent from other parts is known by the proper signs of the parts affected so we know that it is from the stomach when there is want of Appetite loathing vomiting of base Humors and gnawing at the Stomach A troublesom breathing about the Pancreas or Spleen or any other disease of the Spleen sheweth that the matter lurketh there from whence the vapors fly to the Heart so suppression of the Terms and Hysterical fits declare that it comes from the Womb. The Water abounding in the Pericardium is harder to be known but we may conjecture if the Pulse be weak and faint and the Patient bemoaneth himself that his heart as it were is somtimes in Water and is suffocated and if it be constant and he incline to an Atrophy or Hectick If malignant humors cause it there will be great change in the Pulse a loss of strength somtimes fainting and other signs of malignity If it come from a Tumor there is remarkable variety in the Pulse and the motion of the Heart is different from the natural very unequal and inordinate and if the humor be hot there will be great inflamation in the Body great thirst difficulty of breathing and fainting will follow with death but if the Tumor be hard and in the Pericardium the disease is constant and the Patient decayes by degrees without any manifest cause if flesh or any more solid thing grow to the heart there will be a continual Palpitation from the beginning of the Disease to the end of Life Lastly You may know when it comes by want of Spirits by the precedent causes which destroyed the Spirits and by the quick and smal pulse and when it comes from the least labor or motion Somtimes the like befals them that are well from walking or other motion with a change of Pulse and a resembling Palpitation The Prognostick is to be taken thus It is dangerous from the hinderance of the motion of the Heart by which Life is preserved and it brings Syncopes and death For it is a true Observation of Galen Com. Aph. 41. Sect. 2. and 5. de loc aff cap. 2. All that in youth or in declining age are troubled with the Palpitation of the Heart very much die before they are old for the often Palpitation is a sign that the Vital faculty was very weak A Palpitation by Propriety is worse than by consent and somtimes deadly And that which is of an internal is worse than that which comes of an external Cause unless it be from poyson or some great wound If it come from a Tumor or solution of Unity it is incurable The Cure is various according to the variety of the Causes and first that which comes from a peculiar distemper of the Heart and Pericardium is incurable therefore we must look only at the Cure of that which is by consent which depends upon the divers diseases of the parts whose Cure must be sought in their proper Chapters But besides those Remedies which take away the Cause you must use those which asswage the Symptomes by refreshing the Heart and strengthening it and which discuss the vapors which arise from melancholly or crude waterish Humors as Cordial Juleps Opiates Epithems Perfumes which are prescribed in weakness and these that follow Take of Conserve of Balm Rosemary-flowers Borrage-flowers and Clove-gilly-flowers of each one ounce Confection of Acorns and old Treacle of each one dram the Pouder of Diamber and Diamoschi dulcis of each one scruple with the Syrup of Citron Barks make an Opiate which let him take often Take of Bugloss Rose and Orenge-flower Water of each two ounces the syrup of Clove-gilly-flowers one ounce and an half Cinnamon Water half an ounce the spirit of Roses two drams Confection of Acorns one dram mix them and give two spoonfuls now and then This following Liquor which immitateth the Juyce of Hearts described in the following Chapter is good Take of Hogs or Sheeps Hearts three Cinnamon and Cloves of each one dram Lettice and Sorrel seeds of each one dram and an half white Wine two ounces Borrage Scabious and Rose Water of each one ounce and an half Confection of Alkermes one dram boyl them all between Two Dishes and let him take two spoonfuls of the Liquor morning and evening Take of Red Roses and Rosemary-flowers of each two drams Lavender flowers one dram Angelica seeds Citron peels Cloves Cinnamon and Mace of each half a dram Saffron one scruple Musk and Amber-greece of each six grains Make a Bag with red Silk and sprinkle it with Rose water and white Wine and apply it warm to the Heart Take of Oyntment of Roses half an ounce Oyl of Cinnamon and Cloves of each six drops Musk and Amber-greece of each four grains Mix it for a Liniment for the heart Purging Clysters and Carminative to expel Wind are often to be given But in the Fit it is best to open a vein And Galen witnesseth 5. de loc aff cap. 2. That he never did it without profit Some apply Cupping Glasses without Scarrification to the Breast which they say are excellent to discuss Wind there contained Others to the Hypochondria when the matter of the Disease is there But Zacutus Lusitanus applied a Cupping Glass with Scarrification to the heart with wonderful success as you may read in prax admir obs 133. lib. 1. Others commend true Rhapontick given to two scruples in Wine or Wine wherein the same hath been steeped Chap. 3. Of WEAKNESSE ALthough Weakness of Strength doth generally comprehend the hinderance of al Actions Animal Vital and Natural yet more particularly it comprehends the Vital which are known by a Weak Pulse yet this Weakness useth to be found in al great Diseases in which Nature doth yeild or resist the Cause Therefore as in Palpitation the Action of the Heart that is Pulsation is depraved so in Weakness it is diminished Which is the same with a Syncope but it differs in this In a Syncope it is so little that it is hardly perceived but in Weakness the Pulse is manifest and not so little In this also the Animal Faculty is
alwaies offended Hence comes weak motion without hurt of the Brain Nerves or Muscles but from the defect of Vital Spirits which are not so sufficiently sent to the Head that they may be made Animal The immediate Cause of Weakness is Defect of the natural heat and spirits from which the life and strength of the parts do depend And this Defect is in every part from the Defect of Vital Spirits and heat flowing from the heart Now the Vital Spirits are Defective either because they are not bred many or because they are dissipated after they are Bred or Corrupted or Suffocated as we said in a Syncope where there is this difference That in a Syncope the Causes of Defect of Spirits do suddenly produce their effect but in Weakness they operate by degrees And therefore in Syncopes and Leipothymia al the Vital Spirits almost do suddenly fail but in this there are fewer then ought to be communicated to every part Moreover When the Natural heat wants not only adventitious heat but also radical moisture to feed upon if this moisture be wanting and diminished the natural heat must be less and the strength abated Now the Causes which hinder the spirits from being Generated or maketh them disperse themselves or Corrupt or Suffocate them are propounded in the Treatise of a Syncope The Diagnosis of this Disease needs no Explication because it is manifest and the Patients do complain of their Weakness But the signs of the Causes were Propounded in the Syncope The Prognostick depends upon the various disposition of Causes for as they are greater or less there is more or less danger The Cure of this Disease is to be directed to two things To the taking away of the Cause and the Restauration of the Heart and vital spirits The Causes are almost al great Diseases in which either Nature yeilds to or resisteth with difficulty therefore the taking away of the Cause belongs to the Cure of almost al Diseases which you must take from their proper Chapters But the strengthning of the Heart and restoring of the vital spirits are to be here declared somtimes to be preferred before the Cure of the Cause when death seems to be at hand but we must alwayes take heed least when we encrease the strength we encrease the Cause of the Disease and therefore in a hot Disease you must use more temperate Cordials but in a Cold Disease those that are more hot First then mix Cordials in his nourishment as Confectio Alkermes or Confectio de Hyacyntho in Broths or with pleasant Wine or Cinnamon Water if there be great weakness Boyl also between two Dishes a piece of a Leg of Mutton after the skin and fat is taken off and after that let the Patient drink the Broth being strained at one daught Or Take the Flesh of a Capon after the skin and fat is taken away cut it in pieces and put it in a glassed Pot well Luted and set it in Balneo Martae to boyl for five hours then let the Patient take two or three spoonfuls of the Liquor in all his Broths Or you may make a distilled Water thus Take a Capon or an Hen after the skin is taken off and the fat cut it in pieces then powr upon it Water of Bugloss Borrage Sorrel Roses and Orange Flowers of each half a pound the Pouder of three Sanders Aromaticum Rosatum and Cinnamen of each half an ounce yellow Sanders one ounce Lemmons sliced three Distill them according to art which must be given every hour by the spoonful The Juyce of Legs of Mutton only is of much use Half roast a Leg of Mutton and slash it upon the Spit take the Juyce and boyl it a little in the dish and give it either alone or with Broth or with Yolks of Eggs. Valeriola doth much commend the Juyce taken out of Sheeps Hearts And Zacutus Lucitanus confirms it by his Experience saying That he with this only Medicine a mouth continued cured a rich man who often swouned through weakness of the Vital Faculty and resolution of the Blood and Spirits when many other Medicines had been used in vain The Juyce is thus taken forth Slit the Heart of a Sheep or Goat in the middle then wash it well and last wash it with Rose Water then cut it in slices and put it in a glassed Vassel with a few Cloves and no other Liquor And after the Pot is well luted put it into the Oven after it is drawn till the Juyce come forth Give this to the Patient to drink The Italians use Caudles of Yolks of Eggs Wine Sugar and Cinnamon which is very restorative Zacutus Lucitanus makes a fine dish of twenty Yolks of Eggs as you may see in the 107. Observation Lib. 2. of his Admirable Practice You may make Cordial Juleps thus Take of the Water of Bugloss Roses and Orange flowers of each one ounce Syrup of Apples and Lemmons of each half an ounce Confectio Alkermes one dram Cinnamon Water two drams Make a Julep Or make this following mixture Take of white Sugar two ounces moisten it well with the best Cinnamon Water then put to it as much Spirit of Vitriol as is sufficient to make it sharp then ad of the Essence of Cinnamon four drops the Essence of Mace Nutmegs and Annis seeds of each three drops the Essence of Cloves two drops Mix them and take it either by it self or in Broth. You may also make a restoring Opiate thus Take of Conserve of Roses Bugloss Borrage and Clove gilli-flowers of each one ounce Citron Barks and Nutmegs candied of each three drams one candied Myrobalan Confectio Alkermes half an ounce the Spirit of Roses and Essence of Citrons of each half a dram the Essence of Cinnamon six drops With the Syrup of Apples make an Opiate take it often This Water following is excellent Take of the Jelly of Harts-horn drawn with white Wine four pints the Blood of a Lamb and a Calf clensed with the hands from all fibres of each two pints Muschadel Canary and Malago Wine of each three pints of Calfs Hearts cut in pieces four Crums of new white Bread dipped in Milk two pound and an half the Juyce of Balm one pint and an half Rose and Orange Flower Water of each one pint great Citrons sliced three Cinnamon four ounces Mace one ounce Put them in a large glass Still and still them in Balneo Mariae You may make a most excellent and precious Cordial Water after this manner Take of Amber-greese two drams Musk two scruples Lignum Aloes one dram and an half the white part of Benjamin three drams after they are bruised and mixed put them into Spirit of Wine and setting them upon a gentle fire draw out the Tincture fully and then filter off the Liquor and draw off half the spirit with an Alembick upon the ashes with a very gentle fire keep the Liquor close stopped in a Glass with a Cork waxed over and a
and they are eâ—pecially troubled therewith who are Melanchollick have Obstructions or want their usual Flux of the Haemorrhoids It is Disputed much among Authors Whether a Depraved Appetite require those Things which are like to the Preternatural State or Distemper of the Stomach or those that are Contrary Galen raised the first Dispute cap. 3. artis parvae where he teacheth That the Stomach being distempered doth desire Contraries and in its natural state and temper it desireth things like to its self Which Doctrine Avicen following Fen. 13. lib. 3. tract 2. cap. 10. speaks thus When there is an evil Humor gathered in the stomach different in quality from its own nature then it doth require things contrary to it therefore some desire Clay Coals Earth Loam Chalk and the like by reason of the quality that is in them to dry up and cut that which is contrary to the quality of the Humors But they who are in health desire judicially rather things like than contraries for since fancy is much imployed in stirring up of Appetite and is much stirred up from the disposition of the body it is probable that the humor predominating should move the fancy to desire things like unto it For as chollerick men both in time of health and sickness do dream of Fire and Anger and Flegmatick men of Snow Ice and Waters the Apprehension of which things proceeds from the Humors predominating in the body So when the seat of Appetite the mouth of the Stomach is affected by foul humors there long conâ—inuing they do imprint their similitudes in the Fancy which stirs up the Appetite to desire things like it though never so contrary to reason which is now overcome by the force of imagination Moreover If things contrary to the disease or its cause were desired by the continual use thereof the disease would be cured daily experience confirmeth this By which we are taught That Virgins in the Green-sickness and Women with Child do for the most part desire those things which are agreeable to their present Distemper and evil Habit so that they who have Salt and Adust Humors long for Coals Salt Spices and the like but they who have Melancholly or Salt Flegm predominating desire Vinegar green Fruits and the like As for the Authority of Galen some wholly reject it saying That if it were true That Diseased Dispositions should desire their Contraries al sick men of evil Habit would desire Meat of good nourishment which is not true for we often see that sick men desire evil meats and refuse good and we see that bodies inflamed whether they are in a preternatural state as in Feavers or in a natural as by violent exercise require cooling Some desire to Reconcile this Opinion of Galens saying That in this Pica the distemper upon the Stomach is habitual and connatural and therefore doth cause an Appetite like to a natural which is for things like it which may be thus explained When we say that every natural temper doth require the like and every preternatural the contrary the last is to be understood of distempers which come without overflowing moisture for they which are with much moisture when it is sucked up by the tunicles of the Stomach do rather desire things like the moisture with which they are wet because the Humor which now pierceth al the Tunicles although it be noxious yet it is not troublesome On the contrary when the humor only possesseth part only of the Stomach or is only in the bottom the Stomach desires the contrary to that which is offensive unto it but if it possess the whol Stomach and be soaked into its Tunicles then the natural Faculty is destroyed and so changed that it doth not desire any thing but what is like to the Humor so soaked in and so it may be rightly said that the humors was become as it were connatural Platerus and Sennertus do easily free themselves from these difficulties by flying to an occult quality and they take occasion from hence if the Patients so affected should require things like to the cause of the disease then by the plentiful use of them the disease would be exceedingly encreased but we see that they wil devour Chalk Clay Coals and the like trash and receive not the least hurt thereby by which men that are sound would be almost killed Moreover They say that Women with Child wil often void salt and sowr humors and yet not require salt or sowr things but the contrary And lastly they affirm constantly that there is no agreement of Coals Chalk raw Flesh and the like with the Humors And therefore they say that they must not rest in manifest qualities and that the Cause of this Symptome and wonderful Appetite cannot be taken from them but they must fly to some occult quality not to be explained Yet Sennertus confesseth that it is probable that this Appetite depraved should proceed rather from a like than a contrary quality but what that quality is cannot be explained because the things which are desired have no agreement with the humors either sweet salt or sowr in manifest qualities We may Reconcile al these thus The desire of Trash is stirred up by humors of the like nature and temper but these humors besides their native temper have a certain peculiar fault from corruption which since it cannot be wel explained it may be called an Occult Quality The Knowledg of this Disease is easie for the Patient can relate it it is manifest that the part affected is the mouth of the Stomach for that is the Seat of Appetite The Cause also may be found out by conjecture from the supposed desire of things like For if they desire Coals Salt and the like we may gather that the disease depends upon Salt and burnt humors which will more cleerly appear if any of those Humors be cast forth by vomit or stool if there be sharp belchings or salt a tast bitter sowr or salt As to the Prognostick This Disease is Chronical of continuance but not very dangerous if the Body by Nature or Art may be brought to its old condition which is not very difficult For in time the Humor offending may be sent forth by vomiting naturally or by Medicines and the Terms or Haemorrhoids stopt which caused this disease first may in time be discharged which if neglected and Nature sinks under the burden great diseases follow For when the first Concoction is hurt it is necessary that the second and third be corrupted from whence come great Obstructions evil habits and dropsies Or if the Humor be carried in greater plenty to the Stomach and partake of greater Malignity somtimes it produceth violent Cardialgiaes or Heart diseases from whence fainting swooning and somtimes death doth follow If Women in this disease begin to abstain from trash and to eat good meat with less disdain it is a most certain sign of health at hand Women with Child use to be freed of this
by reason of the superfluous Humor which is contained in the Veins being an Enemy to Nature yet it cannot be denied but it is greatly decayed by those grievous vomits and stools It is better therefore first to allay the violence of the Humors and after the symptomes are asswaged to open a Vein And because in this Disease the strength quickly fails by strong evacuations you must be very careful in the restoring of it by that way which is shewed in the Cure of weakness in the eighth Book and the third Chapter Chap. 10. Of Pain in the Stomach called Dolor Ventriculi IT is a sad and troublesom sence in that part from some things that gnaw and stretch it till it break or be wounded In the Stomach you must consider three parts which much differ one from the other namely it s upper Orifice and its lower called Pylorus and the rest of its Body which maketh up the whol Cavity The upper Orifice is of exquisite sence by reason of the great Nerve which it hath from the sixth Conjugation and therefore pain therein is very sharp and makes the Heart which is the most noble part and neer unto it sensible of the same from thence it is called Cardialgia and Cardiogmos for there is such a neer consent between the mouth of the Stomach and the Heart that the Ancients called it by the name of the Heart Cardia But if the Membranes of the Cavity or the Pylorus be pained it is called simply Dolor Ventriculi and somtimes Colica Ventriculi especially when it comes of wind The immediate Cause of this pain is solution of Continuity by things sharp and distending and they are chiefly Humors or Wind and somtimes Worms gnawing the Tunicles Sharp and malignant Humors as green Choller or black salt Flegm corrupt Matter sent into the Stomach from an Imposthume broken in the Liver or Breast and all other sharp Humors which may cause pain Also sharp vapors coming from those Humors use to cause this pain The Wind contained in the Cavity of the Stomach doth cause swelling and painful distension especially if it be restrained within its Tunicles which makes a very stubborn Disease and cannot easily be sent out The Diseases both of the Stomach it self and of the parts adjoyning use to breed this pain as any great distemper either hot or cold and especially an Inflamation and somtimes a Schirrus or other hard Tumor which maketh a heavy pain as also Wounds and Ulcers of the same part and swellings in parts adjoyning by wind or other waies cause this pain by compression of the Stomach Now these Humors and Winds which cause pain in the Stomach either come from the whol Body or some parts thereof From the whol Body in Feavers or when the Body is filled with evil Humors And from other parts especially the Liver Spleen and Brain from the Liver there comes Choller from the Spleen Melancholly and from the Head salt Flegm Also this pain may arise from other extraordinary Causes not usual as Schenkius observes from stones bred in the Stomach lib. 3. observat And Fabricius Hildanus observ 33. lib. 4 reports that a Woman had a piece of Rind or rusty Bacon two yeers in her Stomach wherewith she was continually pained and which after by taking a Vomit she threw up and was cured The external Causes of this Disease are either evil qualified or of sharp Nourishment which of themselves produce it or things apt to breed Wind or things taken in too great a quantity which putrifie and turn sharp or things that are too hot and breed much Choller As also strong sharp deadly Medicines either taken in too great a quantity or not sufficiently corrected and poyson The Diagnostick Signs are from the part affected and the cause And first when the pain is under the Cartilage Ensiformis or Xiphoides it shews that the upper Orifice of the Stomach is affected but that it is a true Cardialgia in the mouth of the Stomach you may know more certainly when there is a most sharp pain from the exquisite sence of the part with such trouble and disturbance that the Patient cannot stay in a place or in one posture but often swounds and fainteth by consent and sympathy of the Heart with the Stomach not only by neerness to it but also by reason of the dissipation of the Spirits by the pain Somtimes the Brain consents by Reason of the famous Nerve which is in the Stomach and the sharp vapors which are directly sent into the Head from thence from whence come Cephalalgia Hemicrania Vertigo and Epilepsie In other parts of the Stomach there are great pains but they have not so great Symptomes and therefore they are like the Chollick differing only in place The Causes also are known by their proper signs The most manifest are taken from the Excrements for Choller Flegm Wind or Worms are voided at the Mouth or Belly it is easie to conjecture that the Disease depends upon these Causes But if no Humor be discharged we may know when Choller Flegm or Wind abounds by their proper signs and the signs of Worms are to be taken out of their proper Chapter As also the proper diseases both of the Stomach and parts adjoyning which produce this Disease are known by their proper signs The knowledg of the Humor causing this pain is also taken from the time of its coming encrease and cessation Some are troubled most violently before meat and this shews that Choller is predominant which is stirred in time of emptiness and drawn to the Stomach and made more sharp Some are pained presently after meat because the raw biting Humors which before were quiet and fixed to the Tunicles of the Stomach are moved when Meat is taken or they which were in the bottom of the Stomach are raised up and disturb the mouth of the Stomach Others are pained in time of Concoction because sharp gnawing vapors arise from the Matter causing the Disease from the heat encreased in the Stomach in time of Concoction Others are pained four or five hours after meat because it is corrupted by evil concoction and so gnaweth the Stomach Some are worst after sleep and that comes from a Catarrh from the Head in the time of sleeping which being heaped up in the Stomach produceth pain afterwards Somtimes the pain is appeased after Meat because the sharpness of the Humors is qualified by the sweetness of the Meat As for the Prognostick it is most certain that Cardialgia is more dangerous than any other disease of the Stomach by reason of the exquisite sence of the Mouth of the Stomach and its great consent with principal parts The danger is more or less according to the malignity of the Cause and the vehemency of the symptomes A continual acute Feaver joyned with a great pain of the Stomach threateneth great danger as Hippocrates saith Aph. 65. Sect. 5. In Feavers if there be great heat about the Stomach and
cast upon the hot coals and let the fume thereof be received in a large funnel by a hollow chair tying a wooden or silver pipe to the narrow hole and putting it into the Fundament A Fumigation made of Mullein is the best of all If you can apply Remedies to the Veins that bleed it is best therefore that they may appear And therefore let the Patient be laid upon a Table and strain as if he were at stool till they appear using an Instrument if there be need And then apply the afore mentioned Cataplasm of the Hair of an Hare and Spiders Webs or other very drying Remedies Bole Allum or burnt Vitriol Also to touch the Vein with Oyl of Vitriol is good or in extream danger with Aqua fortis Which things if they prevail not Hippocrates in his Book of Diet in acute Diseases and of the Hemorrhoids shews the way of tying cutting and burning of them which operation is out of fashion now as being most painful and perilous Although Massaria saith that he once saw it the story whereof will be prositable to be related for by that you may learn the way of working and the event The History is this Frederick Corsicus of Vincentia first had the pain then the immoderate flux of the Hemorrboids And when he had in vain tried many things went to Padua where the Physitians by a common consent concluded that the blood must be stopped But when many means inwardly and outwardly were in vain used in the end finding no Remedy they concluded to try this Manual Operation But having no fit Chyrurgion they sent for a Neapolitan who professed this Art and he cut tied and burnt the Hemorrhoids of Fabricius thus First he bound him so that he could no waies move then he separates the Hemorrhoids from the Intestine then with a Needle he passeth throw and seweth them and tieth all about strongly then cutting off the part of the Vein which is above the sewing he burns it with a hot Iron It was a painful Operation from the Ligature Section and Burning So that Frederick had a Feaver and great pain But the Chyrurgion gave him a few Medicines by which he was freed both from feaver and pain in a few daies to the admiration of all men there and recovered from bleeding But it is not to be omitted how he being too confident and neglecting bleeding and purging which he stood after in need of keeping no orderly diet the next yeer he was taken with a pestilent Feaver and died From whence we may observe the Precept of Hippocrates Aph. 12. Sect. 6. That one Hemorrhoid must be kept open Except the Patient as Aetius observeth had rather prevent the danger that comes by stopping of it by a good diet exercise bleeding and purging But in an ordinary Cure by Medicines you must consider the Liver and Spleen because the Meseraick Veins are inserted into them especially if they be hot or weak And therefore not unprofitably do we apply Epithems or cooling and strengthening Oyntments such as we prescribed in the flux of the Liver and shal more at large be laid down in the hot distemper and inflamation of those parts Somtimes the Obstruction of the Bowels and Meseraick Veins do cause this Disease which are to be taken away for the Cure of the Patient And we have somtimes done it with Pills of Steel which are prescribed in the Obstruction of the Liver The whol time of Cure let the Patient drink ordinarily Iron Water or the Decoction of Yarrow At the same time above all things you must rectifie the blood which is the chief cause of this flux Therefore if it be sharp and Chollerick it is often to be corrected with the infusion of Rhubarb and Tamarinds If it be hot and thin with thickening and cooling Medicines if watery with dryers if much with a slender Diet. For it is vain to think of stopping of the blood except the original of the evil be first taken away Which Solenander observed Cons 22. Sect. 4. in this following History I remember saith he that I had one Ann a Dukes Daughter of a great flux of the Hemorrhoids and because she was far spent I took much pains to stop the flux But when I perceived that the first day after they were stopped she began to swel about the Heart Being sent for again the seventh day I opened the Veins again nor could I safely stop them before I had given gentle Evacutions and alteâ—â—ng and strengthening things for the Liver After you have cured the flux of the Hemorrhoids you must prevent their return which is done by good Diet and bleeding twice or thrice in a yeer and with an ordinary Purge of a Magistral Syrup or other Medicine with an issue made in the Leg and the like which are to be altered according to the divers dispositions of Bodies Moreover Mineral Waters of Vitriol Allum and Iron are very convenient Fonseca commends the Decoction of the Mastich Tree or the Infusion of it in VVine for a Prevention thus made Take of the shavings of Mastich wood two ounces infuse them in twelve Pints of Wine twenty four hours in a warm place then strain it and drink of it a whol month for ordinary drink for it hath strength to stop the Haemorrhoids and strengthen the Stomach Chap. 11. Of the Pain of the Haemorrhoids THe Haemorrhoid Veins that are in the end of the Rectum Intestinum or streight Gut somtimes do swel and cause very great pain This swelling comes of the same Cause with the Flux or bleeding of the Haemorrhoids namely Of blood offending in Quantity or Quality which if it findeth not away and cannot open the ends of the Veins there it settleth and by filling of the Veins causeth a Tumor with Inflamation and pain The principal Cause why Blood cannot get out of the Veins is the thickness of it because it is Melancholly for commonly the Hemorrhoid Veins especially internal are said to receive Melancholly from the Spleen and somtimes to purge it forth Authors give many differences of Hemorrhoids from their greatness number figure and place whence some are called great others little some more some less some are like Grapes Mulberries Warts or Bladders thence termed Uval Moral Verrucal or Vesical Some are External some Internal From these things the knowledg of them is easie for from a Tumor in the outside of the Fundament from its greatness color and consistence the differences are known And they are to be distinguished from other Diseases which use to be in the Fundament as Rhagades Clefts Condylomata Swellings with Inflamation Thymi Kernels Fici Piles and the rest Rhagades are certain Ulcers like Clefts in the Hands and Lips from vehement cold They have no likeness with the Hemorrhoids but we will explain them with the rest although they are properly to be referred to external Diseases that you may with the knowledg of the Hemorrhoids know all diseases of the Fundament Condylomata
is fitly placed among the Diseases of the Spleen This Disease comes of Preternatural Melancholly and other adust Humors especially Blood or Choller or Natural Melancholly This Melanchollick Humor is not pure by its self but commonly mixed with others as Choller Flegm and Water from whence come the diversity of Symptomes which hereafter shal be mentioned These Humors breed in the Spleen especially when it is distempered with heat and also in the Liver hence it is that they draw meat and drink to themselves which is not concocted that which is thin of the Chyle sooner than that which is thick and then the thicker part for want of somthing to carry it staies in the Meseraick Veins and the longer it staies the thicker it grows and somtimes is burnt and afterwards coming to those parts it is not well concocted Moreover thine parts in their Natural state should concoct by boyling now do it by roasting hence comes this great adâ—stion of Humors It may also be that this Disease may be bred without the distemper of theâ—e parts from evil Nourishment that breed Melancholly blood and also from good blood retained too long in the veâ—sels and being too much as in the stoppage of the Terms and Hemorrhoids which continuing long in the Vessels is burnt and turned into Melancholly It may also come from the Stomach not well concocting but turning it into a parched Crudity from which those evil Juyces are bred in the Liver and the Spleen And Galen 3. de loc affect cap. 7. following Diocles thought the proper seat of it was in the Stomach because in this Disease there are commonly signs of an ill Stomach But it is more probable that the Stomach should be afflicted secondarily from the Liver or the Spleen as we will cleerly shew hereafter These evil Humors are gathered into the Veins and Arteries which are in the bottom of the Stomach especially in the great branches of the Gate Vein the Spleen Veins and those of the Mesentery Caul and Belly in which they have often great and grievous ferventations or workings from whence stinking Vapors are sent to the Brain Heart and Midriff which cause those divers Symptomes in those parts which we shall after mention Also the Humors are contained in the Bowels especially in the Spleen and Sweet-bread and the Glandles of the Mesentery the substance of which parts is foft and like a Spunge and therefore is more ready to receive them and harder to cast them forth Besides the Glandles which are dâ—â—persed through the Mesentery to be a prop to Veins and Arteries and to hinder least they should be pressed by the Guts being full or by any other thing If these swell much they do press upon the Vessels and hinder the passage of the Humors whence come Obstructions in those passages Boyes and yong men are little subject to this Disease by reason of their moist temper unfit to breed Melancholly but men often because the Humors are burnt by heat in youth and when that heat decaies and the thin parts are exhaled there is a great encrease of Melancholly The Antecedent and principal Causes of this Disease are first Meats of evil Juyce and hard of Concoction which are fit to breed Melancholly as brown Bread or unleavened or crusty Pulse Cheese hard Eggs and fried Meats Water Fowl Beef Venison Hairs and all Salt and smoaked Meats and many other things of hard substance Secondly Great Passions of long continuance especially Sadness are very powerful to breed this Disease because they disperse the Spirits by which means the Concoction is weakened and so there is great Crudity which being burnt by the hot Bowels turn into Melancholly Thirdly Idleness by which the Excrements are retained especially if there be much study and watching hence it is that learned men and such as â—it much are very subject to this Disease Lastly The stoppage of the Terms and Hemorrhoids both in respect of their quality and quantity produce it For when Melanchollick Salt and burnt Humors used to be discharged by those waies if they are stopped they return to the Hypochondria and cause this Disease The Knowledg of this is taken from the Symptomes which follow and they are many because almost all parts of the Body suffer thereby when it is high We shall reckon them up admonishing first That all do not happen to all Patients but some to one some to another according to the diversity of the Humor and the part affected First therefore the Stomach commonly suffers not principally as Galen from Diocles supposed but secondarily When Blood coming from the Branches of the Gate Vein to nourish the Stomach is not good from whence the Stomach being ill nourished doth ill concoct and turns its Meat into corruption Hence comes a circular Evil when the Liver and Spleen send evil Blood to the Stomach and the Stomach breeds evil Chyle to return to them of which they make bad blood Therefore in this Diseaâ—e the Stomach commonly concocteth ill and turns the chief part somtimes into Water somtimes into sharp sowr and clammy substance which being not drawn by the Guts and Meseraick Veins because unfit for nourishment staies in the Stomach and coming upwards somtimes fills the Tongue with Spittle so that the Patients 〈◊〉 much and somtimes vomit Somtimes the Matter in the Stomach boyleth and fermenteth from whence comes wind which doth not only stretch the Stomach but the parts adjacent and make the Heart so sick that somtimes the Patient swooneth Somtimes the Wind is sent out upwards and downwards and by insensible transpiratiâ—â— or the Matter causing them is vomited forth Yet you must observe that al that is vomited out is not bred in the Stomach but is sent from the Spleen and other parts to it for somtimes the humors vomited are so sharp that they set the teeth on edg and these are sent by the short vessel from the Spleen to the Stomach In some there is blood so sent with Melancholly and other evil Humors which is cast forth partly upward and partly downward as we shewed at large in the Vomiting of Blood In this Disease there is often belching and noise beneath the ribs by reason of the abundance of Wind made of those Crude Humors hence it was wont to be called the windy Disease Now how Wind is bred of Melancholly we shewed in the Tympany Somtimes pains arise in the Stomach and Hypochondria of the same Wind which reach to the Back and Loyns so that you would think it the Stone of the Kidneyes especially if the Urine be thick and red as usually it is The Belly is often bound because the Meat is turned into clammy Matter which sticks to the Guts which the expulsive Faculty cannot cast out without help of Medicines and therefore the Patients are constrained to take Purges and Clysters often Somtimes there is a Flux of the Belly if the Humors grow sharp and have in them much Choller or burnt Melancholly
Symptomes appear besides these which are not found in that nor mentioned by Authors nor belong to another Disease you may conjecture that it is the Scurvy The Chief are these which are not al sound in one Patient but one of them is sufficient to shew that the Disease is such The First most remarkable Sign is in the Gums Mouth and Teeth in the Gums redness itching and putrefaction and somtimes bleeding and stink which are somtimes in the Palate Jaws and Teeth which are loose and black The Second which is an evident Sign also is Spots in the Legs which at first are Red and after Purple blue and black Somtimes there are in the Legs broad spots black or blue or both these come from the serous filthy part of the blood which is unfit to nourish the body and therefore is sent by nature out of the Veins to the Skin by the Nausiosis of the Veins as Hippocrates saies of Fractures and this happens often in the Shins and Legs because nature useth to send the worst Humors to the most ignoble and remotest parts somtimes when there is more plenty of matter you shal find them in the back arms neck and face The third sign is shortness of Breath and straightness of the Breast which comes commonly from thick vapors arising from the Hypochondria that get to the Midriff as also from Tumors and swellings by wind of those parts that press upon the Midriff especially from the Twelling of the Sweet-bread which commonly in this Disease is fulled with gross Melancholly Hence the Patients complain not of their Breast but of the part affected whereby they feel the weight and by reason whereof the Breath is short as Eugalenus noted well who was much acquainted with this Disease and many Observations therein yet he knew not the cause of this weight namely the swelling of the Sweet-bread nor doth any that write hereof make mention of it Yet we observed it in My Lord Audeyer President of the Senate of Gratianopolis whom we thought had the Scurvy as you may reade in his History at length in our Observations Cent. 3. Obs 85. For being very lean we did easily perceive with our fingers a hardness in the Sweet-bread and by handling of the part he confessed that all his shortness of Breath and straightness came from thence The fourth sign is Laziness and heavineâ—s of Body especially in the Legs which comes from watery and foul Humors which come through the Veins to the Muscles and the whol Body The fifth sign is in the Urine which is divers as in Hypochondriack Melancholly but in this they somtimes differ because they are cleer and red like a Lye from the plenty of salt Humors The redness is higher and inclining to black by how much the more salt humor there is As in a Lixivium somtimes the Urine is very thick with a red thick sediment like the Pouder of Bricks and somtimes this Humor is so much that it causeth burning and pissing by drops especially in them who have this Disease from stoppage of the Hemorrhoids and after it is setled the third or fourth part of the Urinal is filled with thick and black filth which makes some think it to be the Stone or Ulcer of the Bladder Somtimes the Urine varieth without manifest cause to day thick to morrow thin now pale then yellow or red The sixth sign is from the Pulse which is now weak and unequal leaping or formicans that you would wonder he should live with it anon it is great and hard without Inflamation And this is to be observed That in time of fainting and swooning with which he is often troubled his Pulse is greatest and strongest Which comes from the Heart contending to cast out those vapors with which it is oppressed The seventh sign is pain in divers parts in the Thighs heavy and somtimes stretching somtimes Ostokopos or at the bone somtimes in the Shins Ankles Soals of the Feet in the taps of the Fingers in the Hips Knees and other Joynts or parts to which the Salt Humors flow somtimes in the Belly like the Chollerick Chollick and it comes from these Humors flowing upon the Caul these in the Arms Thighs and Legs are like those of the Pox and may wel deceive a Physitian in France where the Scurvy is rare and the Pox common But they may be thus distinguished The pains in the Pox are between the Joynts and if they stay long make knots and there are or have been then also other Symptomes of it as running of the Reins Ulcer of the Yard Bubo and the like or Uncleanness with Women But the Scurvy pains seize upon al parts indifferently and then there are other signs of it or at least a Melanchollick Constitution and the Matter is certainly known if the Patient wil truly say that he hath not been with unclean Women Which caused our suspicion in a Magistrate who had a long time great pain in his Feet Shins and Thighs and was brought very lean â—o that you would have thought that he had the Marasmus or Consumption And when no Medicines for a long time would do him good we from his Melanchollick Complexion and other signs especially because he leâ— a â—ost chast life and because for many yeers his Gums did bleed at certain times conjectured that it was the Scurvy and by using of things against that Disease for some time he was cured Somtimes those pains remain in the Hypochondria somtimes in the Loyns so that they are weak and can scarcego Hence this Disease is called Lumbago Somtimes the pains are like the Stone and the Urine is very red or black and if you do not diligently observe you will think they are bloody and that it comes from the Reins wounded by the Stone when it is from a scurvy salt Matter in the Spleen and parts adjacent sent into the Urine Some have Head-ach and heat at nights if they caught this Disease from stoppage of the Hemorrhoids by reason of the vapors which ascend and all the night after they are as in a Feaver all over their Bodies which the next morning vanisheth by sweating They have often the Tooth-ach without any evident reason or cause and it is not in one place but movable from one Tooth to another making them loose and they again fix of their own accord the pain and tumor being discussed Somtimes the pain of the Scurvy is in the sides imitating the Pleurisie from which it is easily distinguished because it is without a Feaver at least a strong one the breath is not hindered there is no Cough no spitting nor is the pain constant but coming by fits Also it will be in the Joynts and we must declare how it is distinguished from a true Arthritis or Joynt-gout The pain of the Joynts in the Scurvy is not fixed and constant in the same place but runs from one Joynt to another either on the same or on the contrary side somtimes
half an ounce beat them in a stone Morter powring on by degrees the Decoction of Barley Liquoris Purslain and Mallow tops one pint and an half make an Emulsion for three Doses adding to each Dose one ounce of the Syrup of Violets and one dram of Lapis prunellae and if the pain be great add a little Syrup of Poppies and one dram of Gum Arabick in pouder or the Syrup of Marsh-mallows according to Fernelius or of Mucilages You may make Broths thus Take of Marsh-mallow Roots half an ounce Mallows one handful Liquoris half an ounce Quince seeds one dram boyl them with Chicken Broth make it often The Whey of Goats Milk is very good given in great draughts as we said in the hot distemper of the Liver And if there be no Feaver you may with more profit give Milk by it self because it doth not only clense but allay pain and temper the sharpness of the Humors In an old Disease it is good to give Mineral Waters that cool especially Allum Iron and Vitriol Waters for by Experience we find that they have cured this Disease when it hath been inveterate Instead of the aforesaid Juleps the simple Decoction of Mallows with Syrup of Violets may be used by which Forestus saith Obs 4. Lib. 25. he cured a grievous Dysury many times and that there is nothing like it Forestus also Obs 3. of the same Book that an Apothecary cured himself and others with the white of an Egg beaten with Rose Water He also reports that a woman cured an old man of Delf with Chamomel flowers boyled in Milk Amatus Lusitanus 58. Curat Cent. 6. saith that a Woman was cured when all means failed with Conserve of Mallow flowers she took one ounce morning and evening and drunk after it three ounces of Mallows Water And Curat 59. he saith that one who had a Dysury after he had voided a stone was cured by the same in three daies The Conserve of Marsh-mallow slowers is of the same or greater Vertue Some commend the Troches of Winter Cherries given with convenient Liquor the quantity of a dram because they are Diuretick abate sharpness and pain When the pain is very great it is good to put the Yard when you piss into warm Milk or a Decoction of Mallows and white Poppy seeds or warm Water only A smal Decoction of Mallows with Syrup of Violets and Conserve of Roses is good for ordinary Drink You may also make Injections into the passage of the Bladder of Milk or of an Emulsion of cold Seeds Plantane Water or Whey with the Water of a white of an Egg beaten or one scruple of the Troches of Winter Cherries External Medicines are also good as Baths half Baths Fomentations to the Privities made of cool Herbs Liniments of Oyl of Roses Water Lillies Unguent of Roses Galens cooling Oyntment Populeon with Camphire and the Mucilage of Fleabane made with Plantane Water Also you must apply Epithems that cool to the Reins and Liver and the aforesaid Liniments and the things mentioned formerly for the same When sharp and chollerick Humors flow from the Liver you may derive by an Issue in the right Leg or by opening the Hemorrhoids which is very good in al diseases of the Reins and Bladder according to that of Hippocrates Aph. 11. Sect. 6. because from the Spleen Vein called Ramus Splenicus there are branches go to the Reins Bladder and Hemorrhoids The End of the Fourteenth Book THE FIFTEENTH BOOK OF THE PRACTICE OF PHYSICK Of WOMENS Diseases The PREFACE THose are called Womens Diseases which are proper to them only and come from the defect of that part which is distinct in them from men viz. the Womb of which Democritus in his Letter to Hippocrates said that it was the cause of six hundred miseries and innumerable Calamities But we to lay down those Diseases of the Womb which are most usual will divide them thus Some come from the Vessels and some from the Body of the Womb or Cavity others are in respect of its chief and noblest act of Generation From the distemper of the Vessels of the Womb and the preternatural causes come Chlorosis or green Sickness stoppage of the Terms immoderate Flux the Whites Rage of the Womb and the Mother In the Cavity of the Womb are Inflamations Vlcers Scirrhus Cancer Gangrene Dropsie coming forth and shutting up thereof these may hinder Generation but by accident The Diseases which are in respect of Conception Breeding and Bringing forth are Barrenness acute and Chronical Diseases of Women with Child Abortion difficult bringing forth dead Child Secundine retained immoderate flux or suppression of blood and the acute Diseases of women in Child-bed All which Diseases we will speak of in as few words as the dignity of the Matter will permit Chap. 1. Of the Green-sickness called Chlorosis THis Disease by Hippocrates is called Chlorosis by the Modern Physitians the white Feaver the Virgins Disease the Pale color of Virgins the white Jaundice but vulgarly the Green-sickness It may be defined thus An evil habit of Body from the Obstruction of the Veins of the Liver Spleen and Mesentery and especially of those which are about the Womb which is accompanied with a heaviness or unwildiness of the whol Body beating of the heart difficulty of breathing a desire of evil Food and the like This Disease depends immediately upon the Obstruction of the parts in the lower Belly especially of those Veins which are about the Womb whereby the free passage of Blood to the Womb is hindered which abounding in Virgins when they begin to have their Terms and being hindered of its Natural course by those Obstructions runs to the upper parts and oppresseth the Heart Liver Spleen Diaphragma or Midriff and other parts destroyes their Natural heat stops the Vessels hence is there an evil Concoction in the Bowels and from thence their Body is ful of Crudities which being carried forth make an evil Habit. In other parts they produce divers Symptomes in the Hypochondria a swelling of the Bowels by which the Midriff is oppressed which causeth shortness of breath And because gross blood and wind are carried by the Branches of the hollow Vein and great Artery into the Heart which contend against them for fear of Suffocation by often moving of its Arteries there is a palpitation of the Heart and often a beating in the Temples Besides they have in this Disease a loathing of meat because the Stomach is filled with crude Excrements by reason of its evil Concoction and distribution which excrements having gotten an evil quality by a peculiar kind of corruption cause a desire of evil meats and things not ordained for nourishment as Salt Spices Chalk Coals Ashes and the like which Disease is called Pica Malacia or strange Longing which we have at large spoken of in its proper place among the Diseases of the Stomach The Causes of the Obstructions in the Veins of the Womb and the Hypochondria are
somtime it possesses the whol Head otherwhiles the forepart and then again the hinder part thereof and sometimes it is felt about the Eyes in such manner as if the Patients Eyes would leap out of her Head Now these pains are caused by the aforesaid sharp and malignant Vapors mounting into the Head and twitching as it were or grating upon these Membranous parts Also evil humors brought from the womb to the Head may cause the said pains For vitious Blood especially the more thin and wheyish part thereof ascends from the womb into the Head and being shed into the Membranous parts breâ—ds those pains VVhich pains are somtimes pricking smarting and sore as an Ulcer by reason of the sharpness of the Vapors or Humors ascending Sometimes they are stretching as it were and swelling because of the plenty and multiplicity which discend and stretch Somtimes they are pulsatory pain beating like the Pulse when the Vapors or Humors are carried thither in the Arteries or when the Arteries of some peculiar part of the Head are filled with over hot Blood The Falling-sickness springs from the womb being caused by the aforesaid sharp and malignant Vapors which being possessed with a very great Acrimony and malignity do vehemently and sharply smite the Nervous parts whereby they come to be contracted and whilst they endeavor to expel what offends them they draw themselves together and express these convulsive mocions Palpitation of the Heart is often caused by the said Vapors being carried from the womb to the Heart and provoking the expulsive faculty to the Heart Also a Pulsation is caused in the Arteries of the Back and about the short Ribs by reason of an over hot Blood carried from the womb into those Arteries and distending them whereby their Pulsation becomes greater which smiting the adjacent parts causes a feeling of the said Pulsation in them Yet somtimes such Pulsations are caused in Hypochondriacal melancholly which when we come to the Signs of this Disease we shal distinguish Divers disorders are likewise raised from the womb in the stomach liver and spleeâ— from the stomach disorders arise as appetite lost or more than is fit or desirous of absurd things or Hiccoughs Vomitings Belchings Heart-burnings al which Symptoms do spring from the aforesaid vapors sent into the stomach by the Hypogastrick and Caeliack arteries or other blind passages those vapors do stir up this variety of Symptoms according to the diversity of their Nature and the different degrees of their putrefaction and malignity For by their heat they cause want of appetite and thirst but if they be cold they hurt digestion And the coveting of absurd things as Chalk Oat-meal Smalcoles Linsey-Wolâ—ey cloth c. is caused by the malignant quality of the Humors and Vapors as we have shewed in our Discouse touching that Symptom and according to the different kind of malignity it comes to pass that the Patients appetite inclines her too long for this or that od thing as some for Coales others for Clay or Morter Salt Cinnamon Nutmegs c. And from a certain kind of malignity springs likewise the loathing of some certain meats and which is more wonderful in some hath been observed an universal loathing of al kind of Drink as Ludovicus Mercatus relates concerning a noble Gentlewoman which would not away with any Drink and of another who though she desired Drink yet did she Vomit it al up again being likewise vexed with other grievous Symptoms Where we may conjecture that the evil Humors in that Gentlewoman had attained such a kind of malignity as that is which causes Water-Fear in such as have been bitten with a Mad-dog It is notwithstanding undeniable that the diversity of parts into which these Humors and malignant Vapors are carried conduce not a little to the variety of the Symptoms For If they are carried unto the mouth of the Stomach they stir up Belchings and Vomitings if they stick to the Coates of the Stomach they induce perpetual inclinations to Vomit if they are endued with any singular Acrimony they cause Hiccoughs or pains of the Stomach which pains may also arise from the plenty of Humors weighing heavy upon and stretching the parts containing The Liver is easily offended by menstrual Blood retained and by the Veins â—lowing back thereinto hence springs the Green-sickness by reason of bad Blood flowing from the Womb into the Liver and from the Liver shed abroad into the whol Body Hence come Swellings Feavers and other Diseases very many in the whol Body and several parts thereof forasmuch as all of them are nourished by the Liver But if the vitious Blood aforesaid do flow back from the Womb unto the Spleen Swellings Stoppings and melanchollick and Hypochondriacal Diseases are wont to be raised And To conclude Women feel divers kinds of pains in their Loyns Thighs and other parts which arise from filthy Humors and Vapors conveighed from the Womb into the said parts Al which Symptoms taking rise from the Womb shal be distinguished from others which arise from other parts and are like them but produced from different causes in our following Description of the Signes of this Disease In the first place therefore Womb-sickness is known for the most part by what hath already been said of it For the fore recited Symptoms do appear therein not al in every one but some in one Patient some in another according to the differing condition of the Causes Now these Symtoms are Breathing depraved so as sometimes the Patient seems to be choaked other whiles her breathing is lessened or wholly taken away without any trouble or Sence of Suffocation Refrigeration or cooling of the whol Body and stopping or Interception of the Pulse somtimes also a taking away of Sence and motion somtimes Ravings Convulsions Swoonings Vomitings and Hiccoughs are joyned together But for a more clear Discovery of this Disease those Signs are first to be propounded which shew the Disease approaching such as have a noyse in their lower Belly first from the Navel downwards with belching or inclination to Vomit Wearinesses Yawnings and stretchings proceeding from a flatulent matter which begins to mount from the Womb into divers parts of the Body a sad Look pale Face caused by the drawing back of the Natural heat from those Parts to it's Fountains When the Disease gathers strength a sence of strangling begins to trouble the Patient as if they had swallowed some great morsel which stuck in their Throat Afterward their breathing stops and their Suffocation is increased And in conclusion al their Vital and Animal actions are depraved diminished or abolished Hence spring Ravings Convulsions and other grievous Symptoms In some the Womb is sensibly tossed and tumbled and gathered round like a Foot-bal and felt after that manner in divers parts of the lower part of the Body And when the Hysterical or Womb-Fit begins to go over a certain moisture flows out of the Water-gate their Guts rumble they lift up
the Patients belly above the Navel be strongly girt with a swath-band that the womb may be thereby reduced and the vapors hindred from ascending Concerning letting blood it is a great question Whether it be convenient in the sit or no For seeing there is at that time a great weakness in the Patient and somtimes despair of life and the body is cooled all over by malignant vapors which infest the Brain and Heart which can no waies be expelled by blood-letting no question the use thereof is very dangerous during the fits And of this Opinion are Varandaeus and Sennertus But Mercatus and Rodericus a Castro do determine contrarily That a Vein ought to be opened in the Patients Ankle or Instep when the Disease springs from an abundance of Menstrual blood retained and that the Patients strength oppressed with the burden the passages obstructed with too much blood and the danger of suffocation hence arising can be remedied by no other means but bleeding seeing in this case neither stinking smels nor sweet smels nor Cupping-Glasses can bring the Patient out of her fit Philippus Hoechstetterus in the second part of his Observations makes it appear by certain Histories that bleeding in the Foot hath done much good Insomuch as a certain Nun which had been speechless and in Convulsion fits for two daies together two hours after she had bled began to speak and to eat and drink Iam of Opinion a Vein may be opened if the Pulse be strong and there be evident tokens that blood doth super-abound But if the Pulse be weak we must forbear and stay till the fit is over for a more convenient season in which blood may be safely taken away Plaisters are profitably applied under the Navel of the Mass of Emplastrum Ceroneum which mollifies and discusseth and so is better than the vulgar Womb-Plaister which doth somwhat bind and therefore may retain the vapors and malignant humors Plaisters are likewise made of Galbanum and Assafoetida or of Caranna and Tacamahaca either alone or with some Spices mingled with them As for Example Take Gum Caranna half an ounce Pouder of Nutmegs and Cloves of each half a dram Oyl of Amber four drops Turpentine two drams Make all into a Plaister Such Plaisters are to be in fashion of a Shield or Scutcheon and in the pointed part of the Plaister which must be laid towards the Water-gate some of Musk or Civet are to be put that they may send forth a sweet smell and thereby allure the Womb back again Three grains of Musk may be put in a little Cotton moistened with Oyl and thrust into the hole of the Navel then lay on a sinal Plaister of dissolved Galbanum This some Women for a Secret Or four grains of Camphire may be dissolved in Oyl of sweet Almonds and put into the Navel and a Diapalma Plaister laid over it If the Disease seem to be fostered by plenty of wind and vapors Fomentations and Baths will be good of the Decoction of Rue Mugwort Time and Calaminth Fennel seed Annis seed Cummin seed Bay-berries Chamomel Flowers Dill flowers c. Also little bags may be prepared with Cummin seed Annis seed Carrot seed Salt Rue Bran in them and applied very hot and often renewed Or Take Oyl of Rue four ounces Spirit of Turpentine half an ounce Mingle them and dip therein a piece of Bread hot out of the Oven and lay it upon the Navel Also it will be good to anoint the lower part of the belly the Region of the womb Share and Loyns because such anointings do dilate the Passages attenuate the Vapors and discuss them They may be made of Nard Oyl Spike Oyl Oyl of Dill Sesamine Saffron Lillies and Sweet Almonds Authors do very much commend a fume of the warts which grow upon Horses Legs which being dried in an Oven and beaten to Pouder they are burnt under the Noses of women in these fits as a present Remedy whereby women are wont to be in an instant delivered of their fits to the admiration of the by-standers If the Disease spring from Retention of Seed nothing is better than carnal Conjunction as soon as the Patient is out of her fit if she be married Instead of carnal Conjunction where that cannot he had many advise that the Patient be rubbed and tickled by a Midwife in the Neck of her womb into which the Midwife must put her fingers anointed with Oyls of Spices that so the offensive Sperm may be voided But seeing that cannot be done without wickedness understand by a silly superstitious Papist that counts it a meritorious good work to burn Mother and Child in her womb alive as at Jersey and a wickedness to free a sick body of a little offensive humor a Christian Physitian must never prescribe the same To Discuss those malignant Vapors which cause the womb-fit many Medicines are wont to be given down the Throat among which is a dram of old Venice Treacle with water of Mugwort Penyroyal and Balme Troches of myrrh to the quantity of two scruples or Oyl of Amber to five or six drops with the said Liquors Pills are frequently used the best are made after this manner Take Castorium Myrrh Assa-foetida of each one scruple faecula Brioniae half a scruple seeds of Rue and Saffron of each seven grains with Syrup of Mugwoâ—t make twelve pills Let her take three or four if she cannot swallow them let them be dissolved in Water of Mugwort These following Pills are good in a violent fit which they are wont to remedy without fail Take Assafaetida one scruple Castoreum six grains Laudanum three grains make all into three or four Pills Let her take them presently Pilulae Faetidae majores although they be purging yet are they given to good purpose in the Fit to half a dram For they gently evacuate and are not wont to work till the fit be over so that there is no danger in their working Also many waters are wont to be given in the fit viz. Aqua vitae Cinnamon water or Treacle water Or a specifical water may be made after this manner Take Zedoary roots Carrot seeds Lovage roots of each two ounces red Myrrh Castoreum of each half an ounce Piony roots four ounces Misleto of the Oak gathered at the wain of the Moon three ounces powr upon all these being prepared four pints and an half of Feaver-fewwater Spirit of Wine half a pint let them digest three daies and afterward still them The dose is a spoonful by it self or with some other convenient liquor A more easie water to make more pleasant to taste and no less effectual is this following Take of the juyces of Bawm and Borrage clarified of each two pints the best Saffron one dram Let them be infused and distilled in Balneo The Dose is a spoonful with Broth. This following potion is vulgarly used Take of Cinnamon Water half an ounce Turnep Water four ounces Castoreum four grains Make all into
over wanton venereal embraces And in a word vehement motions of the Armes by drawing somewhat violently to a Body by turning a wheel or doing some such work may exceedingly further Abortion or Miscarriage The Signs of present Abortion are manifest of themselves But such as go before Abortion and prognosticate the same are these An unusual heaviness of the Loyns and Hips a loathness to stir Appetite gone shivering and shaking coming by fits pain of the head especially about the Roots of the Eyes a straitening of the sides and of the Belly above the Navel the flagging or falling and extenuation of the Dugs which made Hippocrates to say in Aphor. 37. Sect. 5. If the Dugs of a woman with child do suddenly grow small that woman will miscarry For the extenuation of a womans Dugs in such a case doth signifie want of blood in those Veins which are common to the womb and to the Dugs by means of which defect the child is in danger to miscarry But if Abortion shall be caused by some external essicient causing violent agitation of the Child in the Womb and a bursting of the Vessels with a pain raised in those parts the Spirits and Blood run speedily to the genital parts of which the Dugs being destitute grow smaller than they were Furthermore Plenty of Milk dropping from the Dugs doth argue weak Child and consequently portends Abortion according to Hippocrates in Aphor. 52. Sect. 5. But if frequent pains aâ—d almost continual do torment the Reins and Loyns reaching towards the Share as far as Os sacrum with a certain endeavor of going out of the Womb it is a certain sign of a woman that will shortly mscarry For those parts do signifie that the Membranes and Lâ—gaments wherewith the child is fastened to the womb are stretched and torn in â—under And if so be that pure Blood or such as is wheyish or water flowing from the Womb do â—ollow the foresaid pains and endeavors of coming out it shews that Abortion is hard at hand and that the Vessels and Membranes of the Womb are broken and the mouth of the Womb open At the same time the cituation or posture of the Child is changed for whereas it lay high and possessed the middle of the Womans Belly like a Sugar-loof bearing out it is now gathered round like a Foot-ball and roiled down towards the Water gate Also oftentimes there follow grievous Symptomes as shiverings tremblings Palpitations of the Heart Swoonings and abundant Bleeding Hereunto may be added what Hipâ—ocâ—aâ—es teacheth us in the second Book of Popular Sicknesses Text 17. That if after violent external câ—uses such as are blow a fall and such like vehement pain and perturbation arise in a Woman with Child she suddenly or at most the same day miscarries but if the external cause were weak the Abortion may be differred till the third day which being once over there is no longer danger of Abortion because such wounds and hurts are wont to grow well again upon the third or at most the fourth day or very much to be mitigated and asswaged whereupon the Child is again confirmed in the Womb and retained Which Precept is of great moment in the Practice oâ— Phyâ—ick that women with child being hurt by some external accident should keep their bed for â—nree daies or longer and use such Remedies as prevent Abortion The Prognosticks oâ— Abortion may be divers after this manner Women are more endangered by Abortion than by due and timely Child-birth because it is more violent and unseasonable for as in ripe Fruit the Stalks are loosened from the Boughs and the Fruit falls of it self so in a Natural Birth the Vessels and Ligaments wherewith the Child is tied to the Womb are loosened and untied as it were of their own accord which in case of Abortion must needs be violently broken asunder Very many women become Barren by their Miscarriages by reason of those exceeding rendings tearing which do wholly overthrow the dispositions of the Womb. Much bleeding accompanied with fainting raving and convulsions is wont to cause death and Aresaeus testifies he never saw any escape who in the time of their Abortion or aiterwards had Convulsion fits Inâ—lamation of the Womb caused by Abortion is for the most part deadly for Blood flowing to the Womb in great quantity is not purged out but putrefies therein and regurgitatâ—s or slows back into the upper parts whence arise burning Feavers pantings of the Heart Heart-burning and other Symptomes enumerated before Abortion is more dangerous in a woman that never bore Child before because being unaccustomed to Pains and having those Passages more strait she is longer and more vehemently tormented Women very lean or very fat are more endangered by Miscarriage the former because of their weakness the latter because of the narrowness of those Passages by which the Child must come forth Abortion is more dangerous in the sixth seventh and eight months because the Child being the greater is excluded with the more pain and difficulty Women which have a more loose and moist womb than ordinary domiscarry commonly without danger especially in the first month because those parts in such women do easily give way whence their pain and trouble is the less Hippocrates in the second Book of Popular Sicknesses affirms That to miscarry of a male Conception of three-score daies old helps a Woman whose Courses are stopped By stopping of Courses he understands only their imminution when women are not sufficiently or conveniently purged at their monthly seasons for by such an Abortion or Miscarriage as aforesaid those stopped passages are opened and the Blood is drawn towards the womb which came thither but slowly in former times Our ordinary women seem to have taken notice of the truth of this saying of Hippocrates who touching an Abortion of a few months are wont to say by way of proverb Amiscarrying woman is half with child again The Cure of Abortion consists in Preservation for that which is past cannot be helped But all the Symptomes which follow Abortion are the same which accompany women duly brought to bed The Preservation from Abortion hath two principal Points or Heads The one concerns the woman before she is with child The other when she is with child Before the woman is with child all evil dispositions of body which are wont to cause Abortion must be removed as fulness of blood badness of Humors and peculiar Diseases of the womb viz. Distempers Swellings Ulcers and such like Fulness of Blood opens the Veins of the womb or strangles the Infant while it is in the womb This if it be a pure and simple Plenitude may be cured by Blood-letting such as shall answer the quantity of blood super-abounding But badness of Humors is either chollerick and sharp so as to open the Orisices of the Veins or by provoking Nature to stir up the expulsive faculty whereby the child comes to be expelled with those evil humors or by
begun and an Inflamation bred which proves very troublesom whether the woman be sufficiently purged or not the superior Veins are presently to be opened right against the Part affected because such an Evacuation draws Blood out of the Part Affected But if the inferior Veins should be opened which are neither next the part affected neither can evacuate therefrom both the strength of the Patient will be weakened by the evacuation and that matter which is by Nature driven into a corner and subdued wil not be thereby diminished And so you must either draw all her blood in a manner out of her Veins to revel the matter of the Disease from the part affected or the woman will be killed by the Disease before sufficient Revulsion be made Neither need we fear lest by taking blood from the upper Veins we should draw the Course thereof from the womb because in such Cases the superior parts of the Body do abound with blood And although much blood be taken away yet are not the Veins so emptied that they should be forced to draw new blood from other parts Yet for the greater Caution it will not be unprofitable before blood be taken from the superior Veins to cause the Thighs to be lustily rubbed and presently after to tie them with bands so hard as to pain the woman which must abide so bound til the bleeding be over and a little after they may be loosened and now and then Cupping-Glasses must be fastened to the same parts or at least they must be again wel rubbed So we may procure an evacuation of the Matter offending and yet preserve the Natural course of the blood towards the Womb. The same course is to be taken in vehement and burning Feavers For although the matter offending be dispersed through the Body yet is the burning heat so great about the Heart and Bowels that it cannot be so wel extinguished by the opening of a smal and far distant Vein as by the opening of a neerer and greater such as is the Vein called Basilica This Method of Curing may be observed not only in Child-bed women but in other women who are taken with Acute Diseases and have their monthly Courses upon them If in the end of a Womans Lying-In an acute Disease befal her the same Course must be followed as in the middle the same conditions being observed observing this for a Rule That by how much a woman is further from the beginning of her Lying-In by so much more safely may the uper Veins be opened but the neerer she is to the beginning yea even in the middle we are to open those Veins with the greater premeditation And if the Disease be not importunate nor the sharpness thereof require such a thing and the Natural Purgation be copious we must wholly abstain But if the Purgation be scanty we must open the inferior Veins to supply that which is wanting in the Evacuation But if the contrary shal happen let us follow that Rule which we presceibed to be followed in followed in the urgency of an acute Disease The use of Purging in Childing Women that are held with acute Diseases shal be comprehended in these following Maxims While the Child-bed Purgations do Naturally flow a Purge is never to be administred for it is to be feared lest Nature be diverted from her business But if the Child-bed Purgations are not kindly we must consider whether their consist its Quantity or in Quality If they offend in Quantity so as to be too little so that the woman be purged either not at al or not sufficiently After al Remedies fit to procure these Purgations have been given in vain and the Morbisick matter appears digested eight ten or twelve daies being past since she was brought to Bed according to the more or less urgency of the Disease she may be purged gently wholly abstaining from al stronger Purgatives If other Purgations offend only in Quality so that a white flux or some other unnatural color do proceed from her the Matter being ripe she may in the last part of her Lying-In be safely purged But this must evermore be generally observed That by how much the longer a Childing Woman is distant from the day of her bringing to bed by so much the more safely she may be purged and contrarywise For Experience hath taught us That women wanting their Child-bed Purgations if after the seventh or ninth day they are taken with a loosness they commonly scape But if the Loosness seize upon them upon the first daies viz. on the secoed third or fourth for the most part they die And so have we finished the Cures of Womens Sicknesses all Praise and Honor be given to God therefore The End of the Fifteenth Book THE SIXTEENTH BOOK OF THE PRACTICE OF PHYSICK Of Diseases of the Joynts and Rhewmatick Pain of the whol Body The PREFACE THough all Diseases of the Joynts depend upon the same Causes differing only in respect of the place affected and are wont to be cured with the same Medicines yet is there some difference between the Sciatica or Hip-Gout and the pains of other Joynts by reason of the structure and largeness of those parts of which the Huckle or Hip-bone is articulated and made up in respect of which it requires some diversity in certain Medicines therefore it is that I have resolved to treat of the Sciatica by it self And because the Rhewmatick pain incident to the whol Body hath great Affinity with the running Gout which afflicts only the Joynts I have thought good to annex the Explication thereof in this place so that this Book will consist only of three Chapters Of which The First will treat of the Pains of the Joynts in General The Second of the Pains of the Huckle-bone called Sciatica The Third of those Rhewmatick Pains which seize all Parts of the Body Chap. 1. Of Pain in the Joynts called Arthritis or the Gout ARthritis or the Gout is a pain in the Joynts which comes for the most part by fits stirred up by an Influx of Humors into the said Joynts The parts pained are Membranes Tendons Nerves and al the Nervous parts that are neer the Joynts which are stretched by the Humor which flows into them or by their sharpness are pricked and twitched but the Ligaments which spring out of the Bones are void of sence Now the Humors which cause the Gout do seldom flow into the very Cavities of the Joynts and that only in an old Gout and where the Cavities are wider than ordinary as it happens in an old Sciatica in which somtimes the Thigh-bone fals out of its place the Ligaments and other parts binding the Joynts together being loosened and then the Cavity of the Joynt is filled with a snotty kind of flegm as we see in Hippocrates Apor 59. Sect. 6. It is wont here to be demanded why the Humors flowing into Nervous and Membranous Parts and distending and twitching then they should not cause a
Neither must we therefore beleeve that Critical Sweats doth never any good in these Feavers For by how much less Venom there is in the Disease they do so much the more good as it happens in ordinary Feavers And we find by Observation that 't is far the better for the Patients to Sweat often at the beginning of the Disease provided they be not worse after their Sweats for 't is a sign that Nature doth attenuate the Matter by little and little and expel the same by Sweat Loosness of the Belly is a very uncertain sign For oftentimes a Loosness at the beginning of the Disease hath been good which yet experience shews is somtimes a deadly token Again after some Coction we have seen the Patient killed by a loosness and somtimes by the same recovered Yet we must thus distinguish When a venemous Quality hath the mastery the more the Matter goes away by Stool at the beginning of the Disease the less danger But when the Disease arises most part from putrefaction of the Humors they are worse that are loose at the beginning of the Disease Purple spots when they are many and large and of a benign color and break out Critically they foretel that Nature wil Conquer But if they be few smal of a bad color and are Symptomatically put forth they signifie that Nature is never worsted And further If they go in again it s the worst sign of all for it shews that the morbific Matters reflux into the inward parts Exanthemata or wheels appearing in divers parts of the Body are effects of greater malignity than Purple Spots and consequently portend greater danger Carbuncles and Buboes or risings in the Groin and some other parts doth witness greatest malignity and threaten most danger seeing they are wont to follow those Feavers whose peculiar Character it is that more die of them than recover Carbuncles Buboes by how much they are the further from the Heart grow faster and come quicker to ripen by so much the less dangerous are they But if Tumors encrease suddenly with bad Symptoms 't is ill Carbuncles very great of a filthy color with an eating Ulcer or which turn into a Grangrene are deadly as also those which are neer the Heart or rise upon the Throat Experience hath taught that many Carbuncles are more dangerous than few and contrarily many Buboes or other risings are more safe than few Perotides or risings behind the Ears in malignant and Purple Feavers are in the Augment and state deadly But if they appear when the Disease doth never so little decline and come to Suppuration they are a good token The Cure of a Pestilential Feaver is divided into two parts The first contains the preservation of those that have it not the second contains the healing of those that have it The preservation from the Pest consists chiefly in taking away of those Causes which make Bodies fit to receive the Pestilence and breed it in them And they are Internal or External the Internal are a Disposition of the Body apt thereto a Plethorie a Cachochimy and Obstructions The External are especially a vitiated Air and a wandring Contagion Bodies disposed to this Disease are such as either Naturally or Accidently are more moist than they ought to be Weak lax and rare dense and compact Moist bodies must be dryed drie must be preserved in that temper the former must avoid full diet much drinking and all moist nourishments such as are especially Fruits that wil not keep Hearbs Fishes Meats made of milk the South air such as comes from lakes and especially the air of the night Idlenes long Sleep especially Sleeping after dinners Batheings and whatever else can moisten the Body Let weak bodies be strengthened with a restorative diet and with strengthening medicaments Those of a rare lax and thin constitution need the same waies of prevention with the moist But the dense and compacted constitution because it is most of al disposed to a pestileâ—â—ial disease must more carefully be freed from a plethorie Cacochymie and from obstruction which causes seeing in all bodies they may breed this kind of Feaver as internall causes we mâ—st perpetually studie their removal A Plethory requires Phlebotimy provided nothing do advise the contrary as a very cold or hot season of the year and a pestilential Constitution of the Ayr in which a vein must not be opened unless a Plethora ad vasa do manifestly urge the same or some usual evacuations of blood by courses hemorrhoids or nose-bleeding have been stopped For the blood being exhaust the air which is breathed in will more easily imprint it's pestilential qualitie and in case the disease happen the Patient will the hardlier escape for being weakened by blood-leting even as they who drink poison after blood letting it penetrates the more and they are with more difficulty recovered Also when we fear poyson we let not the patient blood so Galen Lib. 7. de diff Feb. Cap. 4. Where he propoundes a preservation from a pestilential Feaver he prescribes indeed Purgation and opening of obstructions but he makes no mention of Phlebotomy To Cacochymy we must oppose purgeing such as is proper for the bumors offending convenient preparation being premised if it seem necessary with this caution that benign medicaments be only used abstaining from such as have a malignant and deadly qualitie with which it will be good to mix some Bezoarticks and such things as are Alexipharmical Obstructions are caused by the multitude of humors their thickness and clamminess The multitude will be helped by such urin as evacuates the thickness by such as attenuate the cla mminess by things that are abstersive or clensing In respect of externall causes Precaution must be made first by correcting the excesses of the air viz. By cooling that which is too hot as we taught in continual Feavers by drying that which is over moist with sires both in streets in private houses and that as much as may be made with sweet woods as Juniper Bayes Rosemary and such like Secondly by removing al the causes above recited which do infect the air Thirdly by consuming and dissipating the infections in the air which may be don by kindeling of fires as was said in correcting the moisture of the air and the perfumes of sweet smelling and Alexipharmical materials Also by vehement agitation of the ayr to which end the frequent discharging of great Guns will be very effectuall But if the ayr shal be very much infected so as therefrom a Feaver truly pestilential shal arise the best kind of preservative is to change the air and they that are forced to continue or to converse in places infected and among the sick have need of many other cautions and they must often use Antidotes All which are at large set down by such Authors as have treated expresly of the Plague and from thence the reader must fetch them because my design is but briefly to touch such things
present remedy against poisons and drives them out of the body by sweat or insensible transpiration And they Conceive that Plant to be the Common ordinary food of Those beasts in which the Bezoar stone is found and that the stone hath its vertue primarily from thence A scruple or half a dram of this Root poudered may be given in Carduus matter or other medicaments Mendererus cries up this following pouder Take Sugar Candy three drams white-ginger two drams Camphire one dram Make al into a pouder the dose one dram in some convenient liquor But the Author doth advise that in great paines of the head or stomach Camphire is warily to be used which yet he highly commends in pestilential diseases and avouches that seasonably given il doth more good than the most precious bezoardick medicaments I conceive the pouder is too hot because of the Ginger and I have Composed this following in imitation thereof Which I have vsed with happy success Take mineral Bezoar three drams Sal prunella two drams Camphire one dram Make of all a pouder Give one dram at a time in Carduus water or som other convenient Liquor Pouders may likewise be made of the fragments of precious stones whose vertues many deride others as much admire so that from the times of the Arabian Physitians to our days many compositions are prepared of them in the shops as Electuarium de Gemmis Confectio de Hyacintho But in pestilential and venemous diseases many have extolled the great vertu of the Smaragd amongst the rest Avenzoar Mindererus and Zacutus Lusitanus Avenzoar 2 Teisir tract 1. Cap. 5. That himself being poysoned was thereby cured Mindererus Lib. de Pestilentia Cap 15. Relates that to a woman in a Pestilential Feaver who abhorred al Physick he gave the following Pouder which she might easily swallow haveing neither tast nor smel which when shee had taken the conbustions of cruel symptomes being allaied and the disease turning to health she was cured Take of the Smaragd stone prepared East-india Bezoar of each six grains Hyacinth prepared three graines mix them Make of all a pouder for one Dose And Zacutus Lusitanus relates that a Portugal Gentleman haveing through poyson fallen into a loosness and a Consumption from which no abstersives astringents or Antidotes could free him he was cured only by the Smaragd the pouder whereof to the quantity of twelve graines he tooke every other day in conserve of quinces and when he had taken it five times he was cured of his Loosness The Physitians of Mountpelier doe use in this Feaver as a most profitable Antidote no ways heating the Troches of Vipers which are usually prepared as an ingredient into Andromachus Treacle which they give from one scruple to half a dram in cordial waters or Juleps Yet the flesh of vipers were better being dried which hath no venemous quality as people imagine but is rather a potent Antidote which is much abated by boiling for it is boiled in water to make the troches So that we see greater effects wrought only by the heart and Liver of vipers being dryed without any other preparation The Alexipharmick Medicaments of the third Tribe viz. The Diaphoreticks and sweaters must be given only in the state or declination of the disease as was said before which is to be understood when they are given in a feaver simply malignant or spotted for in the true Plague they must be used at the very beginning that the venemous qualitie which would quickly kill the Patient may be suddenly and potently opposed and the malignant vapors discussed Yea verily and in simple malignant Feavers if the venemous quality seem to be greater than the putrefaction they are likewise to be given at the beginning in small quantity making choyce of such as are least hot mixing them with Juleps and other cooling medicines formerly precribed Now of these Diaphoretick medicaments there are divers degrees for som are more hot as Angelica Zedoary Dictamnum Treacle Mithridate Treakle water which are never to be given when the heat of the Feaver is at the highest but only when the same is much abated and when the signs of malignity do very much prevail But others are less hot as Scabious Carduus Mead-sweet Scordium which may safely be given though the Feaver be in it's height And these distinctions are carefully to be observed in practice and as for the formes of particuliar medicaments every Physitian can vary them according to the different degree of the Feaverish Heat and of the Malignitie But I shall here discribe such as are most effectuall Take water of Mead-sweet and Carduus of each two ounces juice of Lemmons one ounce old Treakle half a dram two scruples or one dram according as the fear of heating the Patient is more or less Mix al into a potion give it warm and cover the patient somwhat more than ordinary if there be great vehemency of symptoms new Treakle wil be more convenient because of the vigor of the Opium by means of which the vehemency of the symptoms will be allaied and the boyling of the Humors wil be restrained yea and somtimes when it seems unconvenient to use Treakle as in the beginning of the disease especially Laudanum Opiatum given to two grains mingled with Antidotes do much good For by the Narcotick and congealing power thereof those fervent Spirits so vexatious to the Heart are as it were fixed and the morbifick matter which is most pernicious while it is in motion is thereby stopped and remains in a manner unmoveable whence it comes to pass that Nature not being provoked by the malignant humors and spirits recollecting her strength doth more easily apply unto her self the vertu of Antidotes Aqua theriacalis seems fit to be preferred before Treacle it self For seeing it is exceeding thin and spiritous it doth more easily and suddenly peirce into and pass through the whol body and Cause sweat And because there are many descriptions of Treacle water their dose ought to differ according as they are compounded of Simples more or less healing I shal in this place propound the chief And first of al the Treacle water of Bauderon is most excellent because it is exceeding temperate For there goes no other Liquor thereinto than Vineger and Juyce of Lemmons by which the hot Ingredients are very much tempered and therefore it may be given from half an ounce to an ounce in Sudorofick decoctions or waters And although this is less heating than any of the rest prescribed by divers other Authors yet have I invented another easily made which is more cooling and does no less oppose the Feaver than the malignant quality and may consequently be used in the whol course of the disease at any period thereof It s composition is as followeth Take twelve fresh and juycie Lemmons Take away the bark or rind and the seeds and press out the fuyce and ad thereunto the said rindes and seeds and three pints of
of the external intercostal Muscles There are also other pains of the Side and other parts of the Breast which are improperly called a Bastard Pleurisie When the Mediastinum is inflamed the Lungs cleave to the ribs or when serous humors flow from the Head to the Membranes of the Breast or when Wind doth tear the Muscles or Membranes of the Breast or vapors rising from the Stomach as in the Worms We have said that in a true Pleurisie not only the Membrane Pleura but also the internal Muscles are inflamed because it is impossible but the Inflamation of the Membrane should be communicated to the contiguous Muscles Besides Others do affirm that the Lungs are inflamed in every Pleurisie and confirm their Opinion by Authority Reason and Experience The Authority is that of Hippocrates lib. de loc in homine where he saith That a Peripneumonia is when both parts of the Lungs are inflamed but if only one part be inflamed it is a Pleurisie Also Reason may seem to confirm this for the signs of a Pleurisie are also the signs of Peripneumonia namely a Cough continual Feaver difficulty of Breathing and spetting of Blood Also the Prognostick and Cure is the same in both They say moreover That they have found by experience in the opening of those who have died of Pleurisies that their Lungs appeared alwayes to be inflamed It is to be granted that in many the Lungs are affected as wel as the Pleura for the Defluxion may easily fal upon both because the Lungs are fastened to the upper part of the Pleura but we must avouch that often the Pleura alone is only affected and not the Lungs or at least they are so lightly affected that the Disease cannot be said to be an affect of that part The Authority of Hippocrates in this is cast off by some as false and contrary to many of his own Assertions in which he acknowledgeth the Pleura only as the part affected especially in his 1. lib. de morbis where he often saith That Choller and Flegm do stick to the side and cause vehement pain But Mortiamis doth reconcile this saying That Hippocrates speaks in that place of a Peripneumonia which comes of a Defluxion from the Head a portion whereof fals upon the Pleura and he cals it by the name of a Pleurisie that he may distinguish that which inflameth one part of the Lungs from that which inflameth both For the same nature of a Disease being in both the Pleurisie and Peripneumonia makes the likeness of Symptoms in both being both from inflamation and nearly adjoyned And though many who have died of Pleurisies have been found to have their Lungs affected it is not to be concluded that it is so in al for the most vehement Pleurisies which use to cause-Death do many times turn into a Peripneumonia But many do witness and we have found by experience That in many bodies dead of Pleurisies the Pleura only hath been found putrified It may be questioned Why the Pleura rather than other Membranes should be inflamed But the Answer is from Hippocrates 1. de morb text 124. according to the Division of Salius where he saith That the side is a very weak part because it is naked from flesh in respect of other parts and hath nothing to rest upon therefore when the humors are moved and inflamed their Defluxion is easily sent thither The matter Causing a Pleurisie is for the most part Chollerick Blood which doth easily penetrate a thick Membrane As Avicen speaking of a Pleurisie saith Except the Humor be thin and Chollerick it cannot pierce into the Membrane Other Humors may also Cause this Disease so they have a serous Chollerick Humor mixed with them for a Vehicle I say other Humors not Excrementitious but Natural which are contained in the form of blood and are called either blood it self or blood that is waterish or melancholly But you must note that thin Humors make a true Pleurisie and thick a Bastard Pleurisie Now this blood is carried by the Vessels which nourish the Breast especially the Vena Axillaris and Azygos and if it offend either in quantity quality or motion it is cast upon the Membrane and Muscles adjoyning The Difference of Pleurisies is taken from the part affected and the Causes In respect of the place of the pain it is divided by Hipp. 2. acutor into an ascending Pleurisie namely when the pain reacheth more to the Throat and a descending Pleurisie when it goeth down to the Hypochondria Somtimes it is extended more towards the back of which Hipp. 3. de morbis makes mention and somtimes it comes more forward In respect of the Cause and the Humor offending it is called either Sanguineous coming of blood Chollerick Phlegmatick or Melanchollick There is also another excellent Difference made by Hippocrates 1. acut where a Pleurisie is divided into a dry and a moist Pleurisie A dry one is that in which there is little or no spitting not only in the beginning but continuance of the Disease of which there are divers Causes as the Crudity of the matter the thickness and slimâ—ness thereof the weakness of the faculty the obstruction of the Bronchia or the vehemency of pain But a moist Pleurisie is that in which there is abundance of spittle from the beginning of the disease The Diagnosis or knowledg of this Disease is by the signs as saith Galen 5. de loc aff cap. 8. and elswhere who reckoneth Five 1 A pricking pain of the side 2 A continual sharp Feaver 3 Difficulty of breathing 4 A hard pulse like a saw 5 An often troublesom Cough A pricking pain is chiefly in the Membranes and comes from a Chollerick matter and this pain possessing the â—â—de stretcheth it self into the parts adjacent one while to the Throat another while to the Hypochondria by the continuity of the Membrane which covers the whol Cavity of the Breast By this sign a Pleuritis is distinguished from a Peripneumonia in which there is no pain or very little of the side except it be joyned with a Pleurisie A continual sharp Feaver hath its original from a Flâ—gmon or Sanguineous tumor in some part neer the Breast and therefore is symptomatical although somtimes an essential Feaver be joyned with a Pleurisie and gives it somtimes a being for it often happeneth in the beginning of continual Feavers that the blood boyling in the veins is expelled by Nature unto some part which is most fit to receive it as the sides and there it breeds an inflamation The sign of this is That the Feaver first seizeth upon the Patient and the second or third day after the pain is in the side But when the Feaver is symptomatical then the pain in the side comes first but the Feaver a little after Difficulty of breathing doth necessarily follow in this disease because the parts inflamed cannot sufficiently distend themselves to draw in a great quantity of Air which is requisite for
the cooling of an inflamed heart The Pulse is hard because the Membrane is affected and stretched forth which also distendeth the Arteries and they therefore make that difference of pulse called Serratilis like a saw for when you lay many fingers upon the Arteries of the Pulse one part seems to be more lifted up than the other so that it seems to represent a saw A troublesom Cough follows a Pleurisie because Nature doth continually strive to expel that which is troublesom from the part affected as also some of the matter sweateth from thence into the Lungs which moveth the expulsive faculty whence the Cough cometh There is also a spitting of blood as another sign which is neither in al Pleurisies nor at al times of the Disease therfore it is not reckoned as a proper sign They who say that the Lungs are alwaies affected in a Pleurisie do affirm that the blood is spit from the Lungs and they deny that it can pass from the Membrane about the Ribs to the Lungs because it is very thick and also the Membrane about the Lungs is of the same Nature and cannot therefore be pierced by that blood which is without the Vessels But Galen doth cleerly confute these 5. de loc aff cap. 3. where he first shews that the matter contained in the Cavity of the Breast may be taken into the Lungs and be sent upwards by two cleer Examples The one is those who have received a wound in the Breast that pierceth into its Cavity for if an injection of Honey and Wine be made into the wound and it be presently closed at the orifice in a little time the injection will be coughed up and spit forth and the Patient wil have the taste of it in his mouth Another Example is taken from a Fracture of a bone when the skin is not broken which while the Callus is growing and the broken bones begin to glutinate that blood which flowed to the part affected is carried forth to the skin and goeth through it so that it moistneth and fouleth all the rowlers and ligatures about the part Galen also shews the manner how blood matter or the like being contained in the Cavity of the Breast may be taken through the lungs namely by the extream outward orifices of the Bronchia or branches of the rough Artery which are spread through the Lungs and end in the superficies of them Although the orifices of the Vein Arterial and Artery Venal are also carried to the superficies of the Lungs yet the orifices of the Bronchia are more large and open than they For by how much greater the Body or Trunk of the rough Artery is than the Trunk of the Venal Artery or â—rterial Vein by so much the greater are its branches than theirs and its orifice than theirs because all these Vessels are equally divided and distributed into the whol body of the Lungs Moreover the substance of the rough Artery and its Bronchia or branches are Cartilaginous or grisly from whence it is that they cannot cloâ—e together so much as other Vessels and their orifices are more constantly open by which they can better receive the matter from the Cavity of the Breast But Galen teacheth that the matter contained in the Breast is taken through at the time of breathing when the Thorax is straightened for then the Thorax doth press those things that are in the Cavity of it and drive them into the Lungs so that some part of them at least is carried into the orifice of the Bronchia Neither is the softness of the Lungs which yeild to a compression and therfore cannot be forced to receive the matter any hinderance For this softness is the cause why all the matter is not received yet it is no obstacle but some part thereof may be received in although the greatest remain in the Cavity by reaon of the â—oftneâ—s aforeâ—aid Let us ad to this Doctrine of Galen the wonderful providence of Nature which hath found out waies not only manifest but also unknown and â—omtimes incomprehensible by which she useth to expel things hurtful as we said of the matter in Fractures which is purged forth by the insensible pores of the Muscles and of the Skin A bastard Pleuresie is distinguished from a true in that the pain is encreased when the Patient lieth on the contrary side in a true Pleurisie for then the part inflamed is pulled and more distended by its own weight but in the other the Muscles external being inflamed are compressed when the Patient lieth on the same side and therefore he hath then greater pain The times of this Disease are known by these signs following In the beginning of it all the symptomes are weaker the pain and feaver smal there is a dry Cough and very little and crude spittle In the encrease of the Disease the feaver and pain encrease and there is more spittle In the state or height the symptomes are more vehement want of rest dotage pain of the Head and if the disease will be cured there is much concocted spittle easily raised In the declination the spittle is perfectly concocted a free spitting and decay of all symptomes The signs of the Causes are generally taken from the temper of the Patient the time of the yeer the Country the Diet and the like But especially theâ—e things shew that a Pleurisie comes of pure blood red and bloody spittle a stretching and pricking pain the fulness of the Veins especially about the Forehead and Temples redness of the whol face a full Pulse thick and red urine somtimes with a blew crown These signs shew that it comes from Chollerick blood yellow spittle a burning feaver great thirst a hard and quick pulse a more acute pricking pain greater watchings and restlesness bitterness of the mouth a thin and very yellow urine These signs shew that it comes from Flegmatick blood a white viscous or frothy spittle sweet and slow in coming forth a remiss feaver little thirst much spittle a leâ—s but heavy pain more sleep a little pulse and not so hard pase and thick urine These signs shew that it comes of Melanchollick blood black spittle tough and slow in coming forth a less pain and feaver a red urine and dark a dry Cough a black and rough tongue a belly bound The Prognostick is taken first from the remission or vehemency of the Symptomes For if pain difficulty of breathing and a feaver be not great they signifie that the disease is gentle but if the pain be great and the Cough and there is nothing raâ—â—ed up and if the feaver be violent with great difficulty of breathing you must took upon it as a desperate Pleurisie A smal pulse quick and hard foreshew death in a Pleurisie And Galen saith that none of this have been cured Gal. 4. de praesag ex puls cap. 5. An exquisite Pleurisie in which nothing is raised by Cough or when with the spitting after it began is restrained having
which when he would have it more drying he adds Barley Meal and Millet Meal And if the pain be great he makes it of Milk He commends also the Cataplasm of Leek Heads boyled in Common Oyl or Oyl of Myrtles or made of Pilewort boyled in Water Green Elder Leaves boyled to slime in Water and then spread upon a cloth as big as the Palm of your Hand and applied hot to the Patient lying upon his Belly if it be often renewed for many hours and the part first anointed with common Oyl or the Decoction of the same is very excellent The Leaves also of Elder stamped and applied cold do take away the pain the third dressing Also Purslain stamped and applied asswageth pain and swelling heats the Ulcers and consumeth proud flesh A white Onion roasted in the Embers and made with fresh Butter into a Cataplasm doth asswage pain and discuss the Tumor Let Fomentations be applied to the part to take away pain made of the Decoction of Mullein Mallows Holyhocks Pellitory Lin-seed Foenugreek seed Marsh-mallows Chamomel flowers and Dill boyled in Milk or in the want of Milk in Water and Oyl or Tripe Broth. You may make a Bath with a greater quantity of the same Ingredients Cold Water alone is a good Fomentation and a Bath also But in Winter warm it Also foment in Rose Water in which Salt of Lead hath been dissolved especially if the part be inflamed To take away swelling it is good to foment with red Wine wherein Allum is boyled Polypody of the Oak and St. Johns-wort boyled in equal parts of Wine and Water doth sensibly abate the swelling of the Hemorrhoids if the Decoction be squeezed in by degrees with a spunge the Waters of hot Baths applied with Spunges or to sit in are also good Aquapendens applieth a Spunge dipped in Time Water and squeezed and after bound upon the part a Fumigation of the aforesaid Decoction while it is hot or of Mullein boyled in Milk with Rye Flower doth also appease pain Or Take of Housleek two handfuls boyl them in white Wine and let the Patient receive the Fume through an hollow Chair To consume and dry up the Piles a Fumigation made of the Pouder of Darnel Mullein Pilewort cast upon hot coals is good and better if you mix Brimstone therewith Also it is made of Brimstone only which taken in with a Funnel drieth up the blind Hemorrhoids Also a Fumigation made of a Fire-stone quenched in Vinegar And this following Injection is marvelous good for the same if often used Take of Juyce of Plantane and Oyl of Violets of each four ounces Natural Balsom half an ounce Make an Injection into the Anus Amatus Lusitanus in the 91. Cure Cent. 2. doth praise this following Suppository in these words A Roman Lady which lived at St. Angelo's Bridg having her Womb forth complained also of the pain of the Hemorrhoids And after we had used many choyce Medicines by which she received no benefit we gave her a Suppository of Goats Suet and Opium by which she was cured perfectly But we washed the part afterwards with strengthening things warm as ought to be after stupefying Medicines have been applied The same Amatus Curat 6. Cent. 3. commends this following Topick in these words A Reverend man was grievously troubled with the Hemorrhoids and after divers means used by Physitians was cured by us with this Medicine immediately Take an Orange and make it hollow and fill it with Oyl of Roses and of Spike then roast it and apply it hot repeated often it is wonderful The Lungs of a Goat are used commonly applied hot to the part or some slices made hot between two Dishes with a little VVater to asswage pain Both the aforesaid Ealsom of Sulphur and these following Oyntments are good for the Piles ulcerated Take of new Oyl of Eggs two ounces Stir them in a Leaden Mortar and apply them Take four ounces of Oyl of Roses and one ounce of Ceruss With half an ounce of Litharge and six drams of new Wax and four grains of Opium Make an Oyntment Or Take of Frankinsence Myrrh and Saffron of each one dram Opium two grains One Yolk of an Egg Oyl of Roses and Mucilage of Fleabane seeds of each as much as will make an Oyntment If they will not easily be dissolved you must open them after convenient Revulsions rubbing them with a rough cloth dipped in the Juyce of Onions in which there was dissolved one dram of Aloes This is Hartmans Secret But they are soon opened and with less pain with a Pen-knife or Hors-leeches Some special things are taken by the Mouth to asswage pain and consume the Hemorrhoids The chief are these The Decoction of Yarrow taken three daies as ordinary Drink and the seed of three Leaved Grass given many daies together with the Yolk of an Egg is also excellent The Pouder of Mullein given in Milk or otherwise is much approved against the Swelling of the Piles The Pouder of Yarrow and Tormentil are commended to do the same The Juyce of Mullein by its self or mixed with Sugar of Roses or Penedies or made into a Syrup with Sugar is also excellent Finally Pills of Bdellium taken often do consume the Piles and take away the cause of them insensibly An Issue made in the Legg is very good for them who are subject to this Disease The End of the Tenth Book THE ELEVENTH BOOK OF THE PRACTICE OF PHYSICK Of the Diseases of the Liver The PREFACE THe Liver as other parts is subject to all kind of Diseases For as it is compounded of similarly parts it hath divers distempers and as it is an organical part it is Affected with Tumors and stoppages as also with solution of Continuity which is Wounds and Vlcers And although the Dropsie be in the whol Abdomen or Belly as in an Ascites or Tympanites or in the whol Body as in Anasarca yet the Original thereof for the most part is from the Liver We intend here only to shew the chief Diseases which are most ordinary and we shal Comprehend them in Six Chapters The first whereof is concerning the Hot distemper of the Liver The second of the Inflamation Vlcer and Imposthume of the Liver The third of Obstruction of the Liver The fourth of the Jaundice The fifth of Scirrhus The sixth of the Dropsie Chap. 1. Of the Hot Distemper of the Liver MAny men have a Hot Distemper of their Liver from their Birth of which here we shal not treat but only of that preternatural Disease which manifestly hindereth the Actions of the Liver This Distemper is either Simple or Compound either with Matter or without but for the most part it hath Matter joyned with it because a Hot Distemper of the Liver useth to produce Hot and Chollerick Humors The Causes of this Distemper are Hot Weather immoderate Exercise much Anger and other great Passions of the Mind and especially hot nourishment and Physick or things Spiced a
pure and strong Wine drunken plentifully To these you may ad the Heat of the Part adjacent as in strong Feavers the Liver waxeth Hot from the heat of the Heart The Signs of a Hot Distemper of the Liver are Loathing of Meat especially Flesh Thirst binding of the Belly vehement heat in the whol body especially in the palms of the hands and soles of the feet leanness of the whol body the Patient is worse for hot things and better for cold and if there be plenty of hot Humors there wil somtimes be Vomiting and purging of Choller there is a bitterness in the mouth and for the most part a Feaver As to the Prognostick A Hot Distemper of the Liver is not very dangerous because it is not much contrary to the Constitution of the Liver but it useth to be the Cause of many Diseases not only of the Liver but also of other parts It is hard of Cure especially when the Stomach is cold as often it is for those things which are given to Cool the Liver hurt the Stomach and enlarge its Distemper The Cure consists altogether in the correction of the Distemper by cooling Medicines and by the Evacuation of the Chollerick humors which comes from the Liver encreasing the Distemper and that Distemper it and is the Cause of other Diseases And first Opening of a Vein doth much cool the Liver takes away some of the Choller and opens the Obstructions which comes from Choller therefore you must open the Liver Vein of the Right Arm and let such a quantity of blood as is agreeable to the fulness and strength of the Patient either at once or divers times according to the greatness of the Disease and the continuance of it and that after a Clyster or Laxative Medicine hath been administred Then you must give a Medicine which doth gently Purge Choller and Repeat it often at distance or an Apozem for divers Doses or the Magistral Syrup or Syrup of Succory Compound with a four-fold proportion of Rhubarb which is most convenient because it doth innocently purge the Chollerick Humors cooleth the Liver strengthneth it and opens Obstructions The Forms of these Medicines are these that follow Take of clensed Senna and Tamarinds of each half an ounce Annis seeds one dram Succory and Sorrel of each one handful scraped Liquoris three drams the three Cordial Flowers of each half a pugil boyl them to three ounces and dissolve in the straining of Rhubarb infused with a little Lavender Spike in Succory Water one dram and an half double Catholicon three drams syrup of Roses one ounce make a Potion give it in the morning with due custody For the finer sort of People you may make Clarified Potions which are lately invented which are in form of a Julep but somwhat unpleasant to the taste and in them there is prescribed a double quantity of Purging Medicines because the much strength of them is lost in the Clarifying so that they do seldom work upon strong bodies especially in a dry Country where the Humors are less flowing and not so obedient to purges but in moist Countries these kind of Medicines work succesfully This following is an Example of Clarified Potions Take of clean Senna one ounce Annis seeds one dram Succory Leaves and Maiden-Hair of each one handful scraped Liquoris half an ounce boyl them to ten ounces and infuse in the straining two drams of Rhubarb Cassia new drawn and double Catholicon of each one ounce bruised Tamarinds half an ounce Coriander seeds prepared one dram syrup of Roses one ounce strain them and clarifie them according to art make a Potion An Apozeme to Purge Choller is thus made Take of Sorrel Dogs-tooth Succory and Dock Roots of each one ounce Endive Succory Dandelion and Maiden-hair of each one handful of the Four great seeds of each three drams scraped Liquoris one ounce Succory Bugloss and Violet flowers of each one pugil clean Senna two drams Tamarinds one ounce Mace and Cloves of each one dram boyl them to a Pint and a Quarter in the straining dissolve half an ounce of Rhubarb infused in the aforesaid Decoction with a little Cinnamon of compound syrup of Succory and Roses solutive of each two ounces make an Apozeme clarifie it and aromatize it with two drams of yellow Saunders for four mornings draughts A Magistral Syrup may be made of the ingredients of the former Apozeme with a treble quantity of Purgers and adding an equal proportion of Sugar to the Decoction A Syrup made of Juyces is most used amongst us it is of great power in Chronical Diseases which come from a Hot Distemper of the Liver and from yellow and burnt Choller And it is made thus Take of the new made Juyces from their Faeces of Endive Succory Sorrel Fumatory Burrage and Bugloss of each three Pints the Juyce of sweet Apples newly drawn and purified two Pints fresh Polypody of the Oak half a pound clean Senna eight ounces Dodder of Thyme three ounces Agarick newly Trochiscated half an ounce Mace and Cloves of each half a dram infuse them and boyl them according to art while there remains one Pint and an half of the straining in which dissolve of Rhubarb infused with a little Lavender in the aforesaid Juyces and strained one ounce white Sugar one pound and an half make a Syrup well boyled clarified and aromatized with two drams of Triasantalon keep this syrup in a Glass give two ounces at a time or three twice or thrice every month with Chicken Broth wherein Endivs Succory and Sorrel have been boyled or in Whey These things following are excellent to cool the Liver And first for ordinary Drink use the common Ptisan made of Barley Water and Liquoris or with Dog-tooth and Sorrel Roots Or mix such a Decoction with Syrup of Lemmons or Maiden-hair Or they who are more dainty may take only the simple Spring Water mixed with the aforesaid Syrups And if you desire to cool more you may put as much Spirit of Sulphur or of Vitriol as will make it a little sharp And when the heat is very vehement you may give a dram of Lapis Prunellae therewith There is also made a most pleasant Drink of Conserve of Roses mixed with Spring Water and strained to which you may ad some drops of Spirit of Sulphur or Vitriol to make it sharp and red like VVine You may also make a Tincture of Roses thus Take of red Roses dried one ounce warm Water three pints Spirit of Sulphur or Vitriol one dram and an half Infuse them three or four hours add to it being strained three quarters of a pound of white Sugar Keep it for your use The Alexandrine Julep for this purpose is made thus Take of Spring Water one pint Rose Water Juyce of Lemmons and white Sugar of each four ounces Boyl them with a gentle fire till they are skinned These two last Remedies are used two waies either for ordinary Drink or as a Julep twice