Temperaments in the third of Humors in the fourth of Spirits and natural Heat in the fifth of the parts in the sixth of the faculties and Functions in the seventh of the generation of Man The first sensible principles which are the foundation of the fabrick of Mans body are the first elements of all things from the various permistion of which there results a various temper various Humors have a dependence upon the temper upon the Humors Spirits which preserve and make vigorous the natural Heat To the Humors Spirits and natural Heat all the parts owe their production and sustenance all which cannot be effected without the help of the Soul which being richly furnished with faculties compleates all these operations and is the first mover in the conservation and primary generation of the whole Man And this is the order which Physiology observes in delivering the instructions of natural things which is meerly compositive proceeding punctually from the first principles to their productions till it hath fully represented the perfect and absolute artifice of Nature The First Section of the first Book of Elements The First CHAPTER Of the Nature of Elements Elements are Simple bodies out of which all others are compounded and into which they are at last resolved ELements are called simple bodies because they are not compounded of other bodies of a divers species but only of Matter and Form which are the first principles of all things yet are not bodies The Elements therefore are the first Simple bodies and the ingredients to the composition of all others for it is beyond the reach of knowledg to find a body perfectly mixt which comprehends not in it self the substance of the four Elements which is evidently visible in our bodies which are compounded of four Humors of strait affinity to the nature of the four Elements but this is more clearly manifested from the dissolution of mixt bodies which thereupon flow again into Elements as it is asserted in the definition for example in the combustion of Wood part thereof is converted into Aire as it appeareth by smoak which abundantly streaming from it is changed into aire part alters into water sweating out at both ends part into earth by ashes which are of a terrene Nature lastly part thereof is transmuted into fire as it is apparently demonstrated by the coals and flame But though many bodies in their corruption have not straightway an immediate transition into Elements but by a kind of vicissitude invest themselves in other substances yet they at length in their ultimate resolution retire into those Elements out of which they were conflated as it appears in our Food which in Mans body first is changed into Chyle then into blood and next into the substance of the body which after Death is resolved into Elements but part of this aliment degenerates into excrements which in their dregs partly represent Earth partly Water in Sweat and Urine partly Fire and Aire in Steams which insensibly leave the body being habitually disposed to such transpiration CHAP. II. Of the Number of Elements The Elements are four Earth Water Aire and Fire SOme of the ancient Philosophers held the Elements to be infinite whom Aristotle in his First Book of the Heavens convinceth others contracted the Elements into one only whom Hipocrates in his Book of Humane Nature confutes by the force of this indissoluble Argument If saith he man were constituted by one Element he would not be sensible of any pain The reason which confirms this consequence is this because what ever Sympathize in pain partake of the same sense and are alterable but contrariety is the cause of every alteration if therefore there were but one Element there could not exist any contrariety because nothing is contrary to it self and whatsoever suffers the passion thereof proceeds from another thing But the cause why we precisely oblige our selves to four Elements appears by the first qualities which being four are very distinct one from another to wit Calidity Frigidity Humidity and Siccity which being accidents it is necessary every of them should have its particular distinct and separate subject Nor can it be conclusively objected that there are but two Elements because calidity with siccity and frigidity with humidity are coupled together in one and the same body For if from hence we gather that there are two Elements Calidity being linck'd with Humidity and Frigidity with Siccity we may gather that there are two more besides the probation of four Elements is sensibly confirmed by the dissolution of mixt bodies which are resolved into those four first bodies according to the assertion of the preceedent Chapter CHAP. III. Of the Qualities of the Elements The Qualities of the Elements are first and second The First Qualities are those which are primarily in the Elements and upon which the others have a dependence And they are Active or Passive The Active are those which have chief efficacy in the mutual alteration of the Elements and in the constitution of mixture THese are not nominated Active simply and absolutely as some were of opinion because they only act the rest being purely passive but this distinction is caused only by Comparison because the Action of them is more efficacious than of those others which are termed Passive for that they are more Passive than Active though they be not wholly destitute of action for Humidity acts upon Siccity Siccity upon Humidity And these Actives are Calidity and Siccity Calidity is the first Active Quality the effect of which is the congregating of things Homogeneous and dissipating of Heterogeneous as Aristotle in his second Book of generation Logicians terme those things Homogeneous which partake of the same nature and species Heterogeneous which are of diverse Species which understanding closeth not with this discourse for Heat in the generation of a mixt body doth not only congregate things Homogeneous but Heterogeneous also viz. moist with dry which differ in Species So also different Aliments in the ventricle are congregated by Heat and chylifyed We must then here understand by things Homogeneous those which bear such a relation of similitude to one another that they may be convenient to constitute the nature of one thing and to be converted into it So moist and dry by reason of their unition in generation of a mixt body are called Homogeneous so in concoction Aliments distinct in their Species are Homogencous whereof that part which cannot aptly be reduced to Chyle as the excrements are only Heterogeneous and therefore segregated And there are other proprieties of heat viz. Resolution Operation Incision Maturation and Attenuation Nature is infinitely stored with examples of these proprieties but they are more apparent in the matter of Medicaments which by the vertue of them are very efficacious Frigidity is a first active quality which musters together things Homogeneous and Heterogeneous So water with water wax with wax and any other thing adhering or incident to them as Straws Stone
THE UNIVERSAL BODY OF PHYSICK In five Books COMPREHENDING THE SEVERAL TREATISES Of Nature of Diseases and their causes of Symptomes of the preservation of Health and of Cures Written in Latine by that famous and learned Doctor LAZ RIVERIUS Counsellour and Physician to the present King of France and Professor in the Vniversity of MONTPELIER Exactly translated into English by VVILLIAM CARR Practitioner in Physick Quid non Gallia parturit ingens LONDON Printed for Philip Briggs at the Dolphin in Pauls Church-yard MDCLVII TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE And truly noble Sir WILLIAM PASTON Knight and Baronet Right Worshipful LEst the honour of your Worships patronage should contract a blemish by undertaking for and fixing on so mean an object as my self I beseech your Worship think that most noble Physician Riverius himself humbly prostrate at your Worships feet and as a stranger to this Climate ambitious of your gracious protection To present to your Worships favourable acceptance any thing which I dared call mine own were highly presumptuous and injurious to so discerning an eye as yours being conscious to my self of these superficial besprinklings and that slender knowledge which is allowed me in Physick as unseemly it were to offer to your Worships view any one but this or one so nobly learned as this Princely Physician Riverius who I hope will not be the less acceptable to your Worship for that he hath learned to speak English If these the first fruits of my undeserving endeavours may be cherished with the warm raies of your Worships favour and defended against those stormes and winds with which puffing Censurers may attempt to blast them they may at length become more mature and afford a sweeter and more pleasing relish to your Worships palate I beseech your Worship pardon and accept this my humble boldness and though I should acknowledge my self very happy in your Worships perusal of these unpolished lines yet that your Worship may never have occasion to use any thing in this or any other such treatise contained is the real desire of SIR Your Worships ever humble servant WILLIAM CARR THE EPISTLE TO THE READER Reader I Presume thou wilt be courteous when that precious and invaluable jewel Health is offered unto thee and doth as it were desire thy acceptance Here she is richly attended and furnished with all those necessary conveniencies which are requisite for her preservation when she is in a good state so that if thou wilt make a careful disquisition into those things which are here presented thee thou mayest stand impregnable against the assaults and violence of diseases and be a stranger to sighes and groans the bed-fellows and campanions of sick persons or if thou art fallen into a valetudinary and sickly state here thou maist have materials to repair those ruines and batteries which are caused by the fury of vehement diseases here you are instructed how to break and quell the rebellion of those contumacious humors which treasonably conspire and make head against the body that harbours them which though they have found lurking holes in which they may lye to a less cautious eye undiscovered till they have gathered strength enough to assail and overthrow Health yet an accurate observer may by the rules herein proposed open their secrecy and prevent their malignity so that prehapes some may think us no less commendable then the American Travellers who by the periclitation and endangering of their health labour after new-found worlds while we by further discoveries and inquisitions into nature endeavour to preserve the old one I omit other things whereby this book is commendable and ought to be acceptable lest I should swell an Epistle beyond its natural proportion and here prevent that praise which will be due upon perusal of the matter it self This includes the whole that Riverius is the Author who because an eminent Physician is worthy of respect and honour because a stranger a fit object of the glory of this Nation entertainment and hospitality Nor need any one cavil that he is a Frenchman for we may embrace a French cure though we abhorre a French disease he that will peruse this Treatise may be his own Physician and patient and reserve his Angels to be tutelary to himself AN Index of all the Books and Chapters contained in this Treatise Introduction to the whole body of Medicines Page 1 THE FIRST BOOK Containing Physiology The Preface The first Section Of Elements OF the nature of Elements Chapter 1. Page 4 Of the number of Elements chap. 2. p. 4 Of the qualities of the Elements chap. 3. p. 5 Of the mixtion of Elements chap. 4. p. 8 The second Section of Physiology Of Temperaments OF the nature of Temperaments chap. 1. p. 10 Of the difference of Temperaments chap. 2. p. 10 Of a well mixt Temperament chap. 3. p. 12 Of the judging of Temperaments chap. 4. p. 13 Of the Tempers of the several ages chap. 5. p. 14 Of the Temperaments of the sexes chap. 6. p. 16 Of the Tempers of the seasons of the year chap. 7. p. 17 The third Section of Physiology Of Humors OF the nature of Humors chap. 1. p. 19 Of the differences of Humors chap. 2. p. 19 Of bloud properly so called chap. 3. p. 21 Of a limentary flegme chap. 4. p. 22 Of alimentary choler chap. 5. p. 23 Of alimentary melancholy chap. 6. p. 24 Of secundary humors chap. 7. p. 25 Of Excrementitious choler chap. 8. p. 26 Of Excrementitious melancholy chap. 9. p. 27 Of serum chap. 10. p. 29 Of Excrementitious flegme chap. 11. p. 30 The fourth Section of Physiology Of the spirits and innate heat Of the nature of spirits chap. 1. p. 32 Of the differences of spirits chap. 2. p. 33 Of innate heat chap. 3. p. 36 The fifth Section of Physiology Of the Parts OF the nature of the Parts chap. 1. p. 40 Of the differences of parts and first of similar parts chap. 2. p. 41 Of dissimilar and organical parts chap. 3. p. 42 The sixth Section of Physiology Of the faculties and functions OF the nature of faculties and functions chap. 1. p. 44 Of the differences of faculties and functions chap. 2. p. 45 Of the natural faculty and function and their species and first of nutrition chap. 3. p. 46 Of the Auctive faculty and of accretion chap. 4. p. 51 Of the generative faculty and of generation chap. 5. p. 53 Of the vital faculty chap. 6. p. 54 Of the animal faculty and fanction and first of the principal faculties chap. 7. p. 55 Of sleeping and waking chap. 8. p. 57 Of dreams chap. 9. p. 58 Of the less principal faculties chap. 10. p. 59 The seventh Section of Physiology Of the procreation of Man OF the seed of both sexes chap. 1. p. 60 Of Menstreous bloud chap. 2. p. 62 Of Conception chap. 3. p. 63 Of the delineation and perfection of every part chap. 4. p. 64 Of parturition of bringing forth chap. 5. p. 65 Of
Lilly p. 368 l. 21 r. Doronicum p. 375 l. 30 r. snakeweed p. 395 l. 37 r. spike LAZ RIVERIVS HIS UNIVERSAL BODY OF PHYSICK Introductions to the Whole Body of MEDICINE Medicine is a Science unravelling the Dispositions of Mans Body for the Conservation of present Health and the Restitution of it being lost A Controversie hath been with much heat moved among Authors concerning the determination of the Genus of Medicine which being for the most part conjectural and aiming at a certain end viz. the acquisition or conservation of Health it seems to be fitly rank'd in the number of Arts. But because it stands upon the Basis of its proper Principles Actions and Demonstrations raised upon natural and some of which are more evident than Natural Demonstrations as being intrusted to the apprehensions of Sense and having one reall Subject existing of it self and excellent above others viz. Mans body whose proprieties it unmasketh it seems in all reason more aptly to be related to the Sciences To which opinion I rather incline for the knowledg of Arts is acquired only by frequentation of practice in which they are wholly imployed and the habit of Medicine as true Sciences is gained by customary study and instruction of learned Men Nor can any Art be produced which by Actions and Principles demonstrates the passions and proprieties of its subject as Medicine doth For though it be in some part conjectural and delivers some precepts which are something wide of certainty This is no argument or ground for us to imagine it related to the Arts for by this means Natural Philosophy should be referred to the Arts also because of the conjectural probation of many things by reason that their true causes are not brought under perfect knowledg Now the end which it intends is discerned by the method of its institution as Alexander Aphrodisaeus hath well observed For Medicine falls under the notion of a double consideration First Either as it is taught by sure solid and indubitable principles and thus it hath no less right to the name of a Science than Astrology Geometry or Arithmetick being able to traffick upon her own single stock Or secondly as it is applicable to the benefit of Men as Astrology to the constitution of hours Geometry to the commensuration of the Earth Arithmeticke to numerical computations And Medicine thus considered steers to the most beneficial and excellent and of all But yet lest I should seem too obstinate in the defence of mine own opinion I say Medicine may entertain the appellation of Science in a wider sense which Aristotle in the second Book of his Metaphysicks and the second Chapter proposeth as it comprehends sciences speculative and practical but yet in such method that sciences practical are distinguished from true Arts. The Subject of Medicine is Mans body as Curable In every subject of sciences there are required four qualifications two relating to the subject it self two to the science First as to the subject 't is requisite that it comprehend all those things which are proposed in the science Secondly that it give unity and specification to the science that from thence may be spun a definition But as to the science 't is necessary that it make no digression to any thing which is not its object or consequential to it Next that it unravel the causes passions and proprieties of its subject as Aristotle proves in the fourth book of his Metaphysicks Chapter the first All which do so evidently appear in Mans body that it may without exception deservedly be called the true Subject of Medicine It may be objected that Medicine doth not only treat of Mans body but also of things natural not natural and preternatural and so circles almost the whole Creation as plants animals minerals and what ever else is comprehended in the large extent of the universe may be termed the subject of Medicine To this I Answer that a Physician handles not these things simply and in themselves but as they bear a relation to Mans body as they may be prejudicial or commodious for it and these things are termed the subject of contemplation but mans body the subject of reduction viz. to which all other things are reduced But the End is Health Galen calls that the end in the acquisition of which the Artist resteth because no action starts forward to infinity but is at length brought to some perfection in which the Agent doth acquiesce which he is alwayes intent to attain which is the scope of all precedent actions and this perfection is called the end which in Medicine is Sanity to which all Medicinal operations are directed which being attained the Physician sits down for company Some again may object That Medicine being as to its genus a Science practical whose end is action as Contemplation of Sciences speculative the end of Medicine is not rightly plac'd in rest I Answer to this That there is one ultimate end to which the rest are subordinate but there are more intermediate ends which are actions previous to the arriving to that end to these we referre when we constitute action the end of practical Science The Parts of Medicine are Five the Physiological Pathological Semeiotick Hygiastick and Therapeutick The first and general division of Medicine is into two parts The one consists in Theory the other in Practice the Theory delivers doctrines and Theorems which are only officious in the acquisition of knowledg and of no affinity to practice they enquire into the nature constitution and various passions of their subject viz. as it declines from Health into Disease and the contrary they also instruct by what symptomes those various dispositions may be apprehended by a Physician Hence from the Theory of Medicine flow three parts the Physiological Pathological and Semeiotick But because these are points of Speculation in Medicine that present Health may be preserved or Health lost recovered There are two other parts constituted which belong to practice which squares our operations to a method and order viz. the Hygiastick To the conservation of Health and Therapeutick to banish Diseases The whole bulk therefore of these institutions shall be divided into five Books comprehending all the parts of Medicine The first Book of Medicinal Institutions containing Physiology THE PREFACE In Physiologie we are to consider all those things which are naturally coincident to the constitution of Mans body THE Subject of Medicine being Mans body we must first make a curious enquiry into the nature thereof that afterwards we may with the more ease understand the preternatural affections which accidentally accompany it and that means may be found to dissipate them and preserve the state of nature To this purpose the first part informes us in all those requisits the concurrence of which constitutes Man 's body and are necessary to the performance of all his operations And this is quarter'd into Seven Sections in the first we treat of the Elements in the second of
form of a mixt body for example when seeds of divers plants are so mingled that there remains a possibility of separation this is called apposition but when water and wine or such other things are mixed so that the union cannot be parted and yet no new form produced this is called Confusion And both of these are improperly termed mixtion Four Conditions are requisite to produce mixtion 1 The Miscibles must be contrarily qualified that they may be fit for mutual action and passion If the things mixed did not mutually act one on the other they could not be reduced to a due temper whose spawne mixtion is and by that means they would not be moved from their former state 2 A just proportion of Miscibles is necessary as well for quantity as for quality For if one exceed in quantity or quality that will destroy the rest and appropriate them to its own nature hence will arise the generation of one and the corruption of the rest but no mixtion 3 While the Elements are mixed they must be minc'd into very smal particles that every iota of the mixt body may comprehend in it self the four Elements This unition is caused by nature which by making the Elements penetrable fits them for a mutual incursion that so the transmutation may be the easier 4 The forms of the Elements must remain in mixt bodyes This causeth a difference between generation and mixtion for in generation by the accession of a new form the precedent are corrupted but in mixtion the new form produced together with the constitutive form of the mixt bodies dwell peaceably under the same roofe The truth of which may hence be asserted because the form is author of all action but the skirmish of contrary qualities in mixt bodies of which their destruction is the consequence cannot be caused by their form for by this meanes it would be treacherous to it self and accessary to its own destruction which runs counter to true Philosophy This implies a necessity of its dependence upon the formes of the Elements and so that the Elements remain formally in mixt bodies This affords matter of objection That if a mixt body admits of plurality of forms it loses its unity of being for of many actuall beings cannot arise one being by it self as Aristotle in the 2. of his Metaph. but only accidentally aggregate but the form gives an actual being to every thing For the delumbation of this argument I Answer that this is true if we level the vertue of forms into an equality so that no one may Lord it over the rest but in mixt bodies there is a herauldry one form being nobler than another which is the form of the mixt body it self to the commands of which the forms of the Elements comming short of it in perfection pay the tribute of obedience and comparatively to it they are as the Matter though in relation to the Matter of the Elements they are true forms Which that we may the more easily understand we must know that the Elements are considered in a double relation either in relation which they bear to the Materia prima out of which they are conflated with their proper forms or to that body whose matter they are in the first consideration they are said to have an actual being in the latter a potential only For as in Logical predication the intermediate genus is in regard of its inferiors a genus of its superiors a species so in the essence of things there are some mediate acts which compared to the precedent matter may be called actual which in respect of a compleater composition are only potential Now though the forms of Elements in comparison to the form of a mixt body are as matter and only potential yet in respect of the matter of which the Elements are compounded they are alwayes actual and continually labouring to alter the matter that they may retreat into their former nature and be set at liberty but the form of the mixt body according to its authority quels and suppresses these active tumults for the better securing of its preservation till they summon in external causes as Auxiliaries to invade the honour and disloyally shake off the yoke of this noble form and so procure the destruction of the mixt body I might enlarge in the explanation of this knotty and intricate Theoreme but in which I have been brief because as Galen himself in the first book of the Elements affirms it is very little conducible to Medicine Here therefore I will put a period to the first section The Second Section of Physiology of Temperaments The First CHAPTER Of the Nature of Temperaments A Temperament is a proportion of the four Principal Qualities resulting from the mixtion of the Elements for the due performance of operations A Temperament retains to mixtion as the effect to its cause arising from that mutual contemperation of the first qualities which produceth that due proportion requisite to the execution of all actions but it is called proportion as being a relation which the qualities so tempered mutually bear to themselves not a quality differing from the four first as Avicenna fansyed whose opinion Fernelius copiously confutes It may be objected That if Temperament be a relation the actions shall have no dependence on it because relation hath no active vertue nor can one Temperament be properly termed contrary to another because relation admits of no contrary To this I Answer That the Temperament acts not by vertue of proportion which is a relation but of the foundation on which this relation is established for the first qualities are laid as the basis of this proportion and upon these the actions do essentially depend for the whole essence of the Temperament consists not in the relation of the proportion but necessarily imports such a relation as if we should say that Temperament were the first qualities reduced to a certain proportion CHAP. II. Of the Difference of Temperaments The Temperaments are Nine four simple Hot Cold Moist Dry four compound Hot and Moist Hot and Dry Cold and Moist Cold and Dry one moderate called Eucrasy BOdies so tempered that one quality exceeds the rest are said to be of a simple Temperament but when two qualities stand as it were in competition for supremacy over the rest they have a compounded Temperament but when all the qualities are fixed to a due Mediocrity they are then esteemed to be perfectly tempered Hence may arise an objection That the first eight differences of Temperaments are caused by some predominant Element or at least in our bodies by some predominant Humor hence some Temperaments are termed bilious some pituitous and so of the rest but every Element is fortified with two qualities by whose excess the consequence of theirs is necessary humors also haue two predominant qualities therefore there can be no simple Temperament but all are compound To this I oppose That in mixtion or alteration there may possibly be such
a concurrence of the Elements that one quality may be broken when the other is in excesse viz. if Aire and Fire exceed the humidity of the one will temper the Siccity of the other but when both are hot they will cause an excess of heat so it fares with humors for the Siccity of Choler tempers the humidity of the blood but when both are hot they inflame to an intemperancy of heat These Temperaments are said to be such either absolutely or comparatively Absolutely such are those in which one or two qualities are predominant which afford them a denomination So Fire is absolutely hot water cold so all perfect animals are absolutely hot because of the predominancy of Heat in them for Heat is the vigour of life Comparatively such are those in which these qualities do more or lesse exceed then in those with which they are compared So a man in relation to a Fish is hot to a Lion cold the brain cold in respect of the heart from whence it appears that one and the same thing is comparatively cold which notwithstanding is absolutely hot And this comparison may be triple either according to the genus or the species or Individuum Comparison according to the genus is that which is between things of a diverse genus As when we compare the temper of an animal with a plant or mineral Comparison according to the species is between things differing in species As when we compare the temper of a Man with the temper of a Lion or a Dog Comparison according to the Individuum is when individuals of the same species are conferred As when we compare the Temperament of Socrates with that of Plato and thereupon passe judgement that one is hotter or colder then the other There arise also many comparisons of Temperament in an individual by a comparison reflected upon it self and that either in the whole individual as when Socrates now decrepit casts a comparative glance upon the time of his youth or when he is dismembred to a comparison as when the Temperament of his Liver is compared to that of his Stomach and other such like of which knowledge is easily attained CHAP. III. Of a well mixt Temperament A well mixt or moderate Temperament is twofold one ballanced by Weight the other by Justice Moderate according to Weight is that in which the first qualities of the Elements are reduced to such an accurate proportion that one is not counterpoised by another SOme term that a body tempered according to Weight in which there is not onely found an equal proportion of Qualities but of Elements also which is an impossibility in Nature and not comprehensible by Fancy for Immobility is the necessary attendant thereof every mixt body steering by the motion of its predominant Element nor would any find its proper place for every thing naturally hath a station which is proper to such predominant Element We must therefore understand it onely of qualities equally mixed which whether there be any such thing in Nature is with some disputable who are of opinion that it was by Authors constituted onely to represent as an Idea a perfect Temperament and to be the rule and square of the rest that by comparison we might pass the better judgement of their excess As Plato hath modelled such a perfect Common-wealth Cicero such a perfect Orator and the Stoicks such a perfect Sage as never were in being And Galen himself in his first Book of the Preservation of Health Chap. 5. affirms that such a Mediocrity is not easily found And if any one should accidentally meet with it it will escape the quickest stroke of the understanding subsisting not the least divisibility of time without variety of change It is therefore rather imaginable then truely subsisting especially being not so conducible to the exercise of various acts as that which is called Temperament according to Justice as it shall after appear It is called Temperament according to Weight because it consists of the just measure and at it were ballance of Elements which is not ground enough to make this denomination proper Philosophers call it Temperament according to Arithmetical proportion because as in Arithmetical proportion there is a parity in numbers or in the distances of the numbers so that there is no larger interstitium from 2 to 3 then from 3 to 4 So in this Temperament there is a kind of parity in the qualities so that one is equal to another That Temperament is called Moderate according to Justice in which the first qualities of the Elements are so apportioned that every thing according to its species is fitted for the execution of its proper actions Things different in species differ in Functions and all the Functions of every thing depend upon the Temperament therefore it is necessary that their Temperaments be various whereby that may incline to such variety of action so that in one body Heat masters Cold in another Humidity reigns over Siccity for differing tempers are required to execute the operations of a Man a Lion and an Horse and so forth And this is called a Temper according to Justice for as Justice scatters not her favours nor inflicts her penalties equally on all but according to the dictates of Reason proportions to some more to some less by which disparity of distribution there appears much equality in Justice So the justice of Nature lends divers Temperaments to things distinct in species by the help of which they may be enabled to a compleat and perfect execution of those duties to which they are by Nature designed This is called by the Philosophers a Temperament according to a Geometrical proportion for as in Geometrical proportion we examine not the equality of Difference but of Reason so in this Temperament we weigh not the proportion of these qualities by the ballance but by their apt congruity and acommodateness to the nature of every species CHAP. IV. Of the Judging of Temperaments All the differences of Temperaments are perceptible by the Touch. ALL those differences rely upon the excess of the first qualities which are the object of the sense of touching as Colours of Seeing Sapors of Tasting and Odors of Smelling The organ of Touch is the Skin which chiefly we have at our fingers ends An organ adapt for the disquisition of the excess of all qualities must have an inherent mediocrity of them all and not lean to a partiality This is the Skin of a well-tempered Man in which resides an equal portion of seed and blood which cause a moderate Temperament parts wholly Carnous being hot and moyst Spermatick cold and dry But that the excess of qualities may be perceptible by the Skin it must enjoy its natural temper free from the overballancings of any one quality for instance if it be almost congealed with cold it is uncapable of this office The skin of the Hand is better qualified for it then of any other part not that extended over the palm because
and nips them for coldness is biting according to Hipp. it is cold to such extremity that the expurgation of it is actually cold by the testimony of Galen by a near experiment in himself as in his 4. book of affected parts Gypseous flegme is the production of crasse flegme emulating Limc or a stone almost in hardnesse This rejects the name of humor being consolidated therefore improperly placed in the classe of humors It proceeds from heat pillaging all the humid parts so that there is nothing left but earthy parts which are indurated into a Tophaceous matter almost resembling lime this often perplexeth the joints causing the knotty Gout The Fourth Section of Physiology Of the Spirits and innate Heat The First CHAPTER Of the Nature of Spirits Thus much of the Humors the Treatise of Spirits succeeds which are generated out of them but chiefly out of Blood THE Spirits of our bodies being of substance so thin that they are imperceptible to the quickest glance of sense and by this means reason only can confirm us in the truth of their existence it will not be amisse therefore to inform that our bodies have such attendents before their nature and essence be proposed First Therefore the context in Hippocrates 6. Epid. sect 8. is very convincing where he reckons three things which constitute the composition of our body viz. things containing contained and causing motion by the containing he signifies the parts by the contained the humors by those that cause motion the spirits according to the explanation of Galen himself for such is the tenuity and nobility of the spirits that with wonderfull swiftnesse they can shoot themselves to any place and insinuate themselves into all the parts of the body Secondly Platonicks do thus demonstrate the necessity of spirits nature doth not usually joine two contraries or things of wide distance without the help of a medium but the soul and body differ in the whole latitude of their genus for the soul is incorporeal and immortal but the body corporeal frail and mortal therefore such a dissiliency in natures cannot be forced to unition but by some medium and common obligation leaning as it were to both natures such are the spirits which indeed are material but in tenuity ambitious of the nature of things immaterial Thirdly This appears by prolifical seed which is wholly spumous and inflated with spirits which disappearing leave nothing but a waterish and unfruitful liquor Fourthly We are nourished by the same things of which we are conflated but attraction of breath or aire is necessary to our conservation therefore we comprehend in us some such substance Lastly This is evident by those great and empty cavities which are found in the ventricles of the brain and arteries of men deceased which are observed in the living swelled to a palpitation which clearly convinceth that those vacuities could not be repleat with any other thing then such spirits But a Spirit is a substance thin clear and etherial proceeding from the exhalation of pure blood and the inspiration of aire necessary for the due performance of all duties the body is engaged to It is called a thin substance because with incredible subtility and clerity it penetrates and courses thorough the whole bulk of the body and steals into the narrowest pores of the least particles and intervals of the muscles it is called clear and bright not according to the vulgar opinion as Argenterius fansies but because it excels in splendor and perspicuity which is easily seen in the observation of the eye the ball of which is very clear and we may spin an argument for the probation of it out of this that when some vapours of the melancholick humor or of over-swelling in drunken men are predominant the mind is in a present perturbation by reason of the dulness of these fogs which suffocate the spirits And of this Avicenna's demonstration is beyond all exception because saith he our soul which transacts every thing by her servants the spirits loves light and no darkness and the spirits do their duty with much more alacrity in a serene then in a cloudy day hence it is plain that they are excited by similitude They are also called Aetherial because the matter of them is by long elaboration so defecated that it stands in competition with that higher Element which is next neighbour to the celestial bodies and is called the Element of fire or etherial But that the spirits start out of the permixtion of blood and aire shall appear in the explication of their differences The uses of them are declared in the end for the soul cannot in the least operate upon the body without the officiousness of the spirits because they have the honour to be immediately and principally subservient to her CHAP. II. Of the Differences of Spirits Spirits are two-fold Inbred and Adventitious Inbred is the relict of the first principles in every part IT is called inbred innate or implanted according to the Greek Connate but while our parts are composed out of the first principles of our generation viz. seed and blood that spiritous substance which is contained in the seed constitutes the inbred spirit But this reason convinceth that this spirit is communicated to every part because the adventitious cannot be brought forth without the midwifery of this every production being like to its Author And also the prolifical seed issuing from every part argues that a spiritous matter is derived from every part from the sound parts sound from morbous parts morbous which in the issue represent their dispositions Adventitious is that which flowes and is sent in from some other place for the nutrition and conservation of the Inbred The Inbred spirit continually laborious in the performance of the functions of the parts would easily be consumed unlesse it were preserved and refreshed by the continual influence of this stranger therefore nature hath contrived some parts which should be the forge of great plenty of spirits which by their allotted courses influx into all the parts of the body to defend the inbred spirit This spirit is three-fold Natural Vital and Animal The Natural is produced in the Liver out of the thinner part of Blood tempered with a little Aire whose influence is thorough the veins into the whole body for the due exercise of the natural faculties This Natural spirit hath caused much dissention among Authors because some upon the ground of pregnant reasons deny nature the assistance of any such spirit First Because Galen was not resolved of it book 12. method cap. 5. where he thus discourseth If any spirit be natural it is contained in the Liver as its fountain and in the veins as its instruments And his first book of parts affected last chap. the natural faculties are by him differenced from the animal by this distinction that the natural are implanted in the parts but the animal are sent in from some other principle as light from the Sun whence it
heat is immediately suffocated as appears in Suspension But this native heat being weak in most parts of our body and so easily obnoxious to extinction Nature hath so provided that by the continual influence of heat it may be nourished and sustained Hence Physicians divide Heat into two parts viz. implanted and adventitious The adventitious flows in from the two fountains of heat viz. the Heart and Liver in company of the spirits and blood A COROLLARY LEarned Fernelius was so transported in admiration of the noble effects of this native heat that he was of opinion that it was to be struck out of the number of Elementary qualities as being of a higher extract and wholly divine and heavenly which lest he should seem an indeliberate babler he endevours to evince by the following reasons First All action depends upon a predominant quality but there are in Nature examples of many Plants as Poppy Hemlock Mandrakes and of Animals as the Salamander which is thought to be cold in the fourth degree yet they live and heat is the cause of life it is therefore necessary to constitute another heat differing from the Elementary which in them is very weak by the help of which they live and exercise their actions Secondly If Elementary heat caused life Brimstone Arsenick and such like things which are intensely hot would chiefly live but they live not because they are destitute of this celestial and vivifying heat so cadaverous reliques retain Elementary heat yet live not Thirdly If our heat were Elementary it would admit of no contrary Elementary heat as that of a Feaver which most of all dissolves it Fourthly Fernelius grounds this assertion upon the authority of Aristotle Book 2. of the Gener. of Anim. Chap. 3. where he affirms That native heat is not of an igneous but some more divine nature correspondent in proportion to the Element of the Stars But though this opinion is grounded upon the invention of a most ingenious and excellent Artist we cannot betray our reason to it by a quiet assent for the species of the qualities of our bodies are not without the command of necessity to be multiplyed our judgement therefore is that native heat is wholly of an Elementary nature as we shall prove by the following arguments First Celestial bodies have not the first qualities for then they would be corruptible for all corruption depends upon the qualities so the Philosophers prove the Heavens incorruptible because they have no qualities So they argue the Sun to have no heat in it but to produce it in these inferiour bodies energetically and virtually viz. by motion light and influence Secondly If native heat were celestial it would abhor a contrary according to the sense of Fernelius himself But Elementary cold hath a contrary for the extremity of cold sometimes causeth death by the extinction of native heat therefore it is not celestial Thirdly If it were celestial it would want no fuel to prey on and if it wanted it could not be proportioned to it in our body for Celestial cannot be nourished by Elementary To this is opposed That this heat though it be celestial is by a familiarity with elementary heats changed as it were into elementary or at least models it self into an elementary fashion which seems not satisfactory because celestials receive the impress of no passion from elementaries it is not possible their nature should be so inverted as to savour of the conditions of things elementary Fourthly Native heat derives its original from seed and seed from blood and spirits which are also the production of blood but the blood is elementary therefore by consequence native heat The Arguments of Fernelius though they represent some truth yet may be easily thus resolved by us To the first I answer That heat in a living body is twofold one as the body is mixt the other as it is living as mixt it hath the foure first qualities tempered and so only potential heat mixt bodies inanimate affecting not the touch with heat as living it hath actual heat by the help of which it exercises the functions of life and this heat though it be no ingredient of mixtion and though its operations are performed in a different manner from the operations of mixt heat yet it is not distinguished from it specifically but onely numerically as if Pepper be heated in the fire that acquired actual heat differs from the heat produced by mixtion yet both are elementary To the second I reply That Brimstone Arsenick and such like live not through the defect of a soul which is the true and principal Author of life whereof heat is but onely the instrument but the instrumental cause acts nothing of it self but at the command of the principal though that heat proceeding from mixtion as before is said concurs not to the operations of life but onely the living heat of which they are destitute So dead carcasses have neither soul nor that actual heat so bodies just expired retain that heat for some time yet live not wanting a soul So seed is largely fraught with that native heat though it live not through defect of a soul though our learned Neoterikes judge it to be animate which discourse shall be referred to its proper place To the third I answer That feaverish heat is contrary to the native as it is more intense for an intense degree of the same quality in comparison with a more remiss is accounted contrary because it effects its destruction by raising it to intensity Besides feaverish heat is contrary to native by reason of the passive quality attending it for feaverish heat is dry native moist Lastly we shall thus disoblige our selves from the duty we owe to Aristotle's authority that he referred to the effects not the nature of native heat But the effects of this heat are almost divine the honour of which is rather to be conferred upon the soul and its faculties though the heat of our fire being temper'd according to Art produceth admirable effects in Chymistry And so even in our Culinary fire as in Aegypt according to the report of Scaliger Eggs are wont to be excluded in some Furnaces so artificially built that the heat of the fire may be in them so temperate that it may be fit to effect generation The fifth Section of Physiology Of the Parts CHAP. I. Of the Nature of the Parts A Part is a body cohering to the whole Mass and participating of life and fit for its functions and offices THIS definition of a Part being the most ingenious invention of Fernelius was afterwards ratified by the consent of most learned men For he considers a Part as it is related to Medicine viz. as it is capable of health or disease and in his opinion all those deserve not the name of Parts which though they concur to constitute the body yet they cannot sympathize in a Disease Therefore the Humors and Spirits have no share in this definition because they
occult from the senses yet all of them are understood by symptomes which are their effects and most of all by labefacted action which immediately and by it self depends upon disease and so essentially that if we assert action hurt we necessarily imply a disease on which it hath dependence But it may be objected That action is often hurt immediately by the very morbifick causes for aliment too copiously burdensome to the ventricle is hurtful to concoction without the interposing of a disease Therefore all action hurt depends noton a disease I answer That the coction of the ventricle is not therefore hurt because it cannot concoct a great plenty of aliment for it being requisite that there should be a certain proportion between the Agent and Patient for the right exercise of action if the Aliment be too copious or of quality troublesome the action of the ventricle is not hurt though it cannot master it as it is not troubled though it cannot concoct Iron This defect therefore depends on the disproportion of the object It is again thus objected Some symptomes may primarily and by themselves hurt action as the quality changed in the eye viz. the yellow colour of the cornea tunica of men troubled with the Jaundies caused by the effusion of yellow choler into it which immediately produceth sight for they can discern no colour but their own but no disease can be impeached of such treason against the eye Therefore that colour which is the symptome doth immediately injure action I Answer in the eye peculiarly a preternatural colour may be termed a disease for the eye in its natural constitution ought to be without any colour that it may be the fitter for the reception of the species of external objects pure and inconfused and their various colours for that colour of the eye may be referred to diseases in number because the number of qualities which ought naturally to be in the eye is increased The same may be held of an extraneous taste in the tongue and sound in the eare which are impediments to the due perception of taste and sound hence it appears that in these peculiar instruments of sense peculiarly constituted we may admit a peculiar kind of disease Here ariseth lastly cause of objection That in Sympathetick affects the actions of the parts are hurt without the violence of any disease for if a disease were in the sympathizing parts we should endeavour remedy for the which is not done neither when the action of the nerves is hurt by the obstruction of the brain can we impute a disease to the nerves but only to the brain I oppose to this That Therapeutick Physicians number not the sympathetical affects with the diseases because we apply no remedies to them but if we consider more seriously we shall find they may be referred to some genus of disease viz. the influence of animal spirits into the nerves is block'd up by the obstruction of the brain by the defect of which motion and sense decay but this defect may be reckoned among diseases in the number of deficients and so we may hold of many others CHAP. II. Of the Kinds and Differences of Diseases Hitherto of the Nature of disease it followes now that we discourse of the Differences thereof GAlen confounds the genus species and differences of diseases in 2. of his method and useth them for one and the same for he is not precise in their strict and logical consideration though either of them may be truely predicated in a diverse respect viz. in relation to the disease it self which is the principal genus they must be called species or differences in relation to the subordinate species into which they are subdivided they are honoured with the Title of genus But the differences of diseases are some essential some accidental The Essential are taken from the very essence of the disease and are otherwise called specifical because out of them the genus and species are constituted But they are three viz. similar organical and common The whole essence of accidents depends upon subjects therefore their essential differences must be derived from the differences of their subjects but the subjects of diseases are the parts of our body which are properly called such viz. which cohere to the whole mass and partake of life in common for although by Hippocrates the parts be divided into the containing the contained and those that cause motion where by the containing he understands the living parts designed for the exercise of actions by the contained the humors by those causing motion the spirits there the name of part is tentered to the widest sense for nor humors nor spirits can be the subjects of diseases nor do they communicate of life but they are rather the causes of diseases when they are extravagant in quality or quantity Therefore seeing those living parts branch out into two differences viz. similar and organical diseases also shall be divided into similar and organical but because in both the forementioned parts there is required another common disposition besides their due temper and conformation that they may behave themselves according to the rule of nature viz. a natural continuity or union of these parts the corruption of which is the generation of another species of disease termed Common CHAP. III. Of the species of a similar disease Every similar disease is called Intemperancy THE similar Parts are composed of Elements onely and their actions are executed by the symmetry of the foure first qualities and the allaying them to a due fixation of temper For the similar Parts as similar are voyd of any action nutrition excepted by reason of which they retaine convenient aliment when it is attracted concoct it and thrust out superfluities all which are in them performed by the temper alone As long therefore as a due temper is preserved in the similar parts they regulate themselves according to nature But when they are intemperate they are in a morbous condition and so every disease affecting the similar parts will be intemperateness But intemperateness breaks out into other differences of which some are essential some accidental Again the Essential are some simple some compound the simple are foure 1 Hot 2 Cold 3 Moist 4 Dry. The Compound are the same in number 1 Hot and moist 2 Hot and dry 3 Cold and moist 4 Cold and dry These intemperatures are called morbous when they swell to such an excess that they do manifestly hurt the actions otherwise they confine themselves to the prescripts of health for instance though a man of a bilious temper be hotter and dryer than is convenient for the moderation of a fit temperament yet as long as in the exercise of his actions he is not irregular as to the prescript of his innate temperament he is not said intemperate to disease till transgressing the proper limitation of health he falls for example into a feaver or some other hot affect The accidental differences
these causes for that first the formal cause is nothing else but the proper essence of every thing but we have at large explained the nature and essence of diseases before Next there is no material cause in diseases for disease being an accident needs no matter out of which it should be produced but in which it should exsist which is nothing else but the subject thereof or the parts of our body As for the final cause though the lesion of actions may be termed as it were such yet this is by accident as it follows the generation of the disease but diseases by themselves and properly have no final cause as neither all those things which are constituted in a kind of imperfection therefore the efficient cause remains onely considerable in this discourse which is here taken by the Philosopher not only for that from which the effect is first produced but in a wider signification as appears by our description for all that which is in any manner conducible to the generation of the disease CHAP. II. Of the Differences of Causes The cause of a disease is either by it selfe or by accident The cause by it self is when by its own proper and implanted strength without the intervening help of any thing else it produceth a Disease But the cause by accident is when any thing else is summoned as auxiliary to the production of a morbous disposition SO cold water sprinkled upon our body by it self and naturally causeth a chilness but by accident upon the densation of the skin and contraction of the vapors within it heats So Scammony being an extreme hot Medicine by it self over-heats the bowels but by its powerful expurgation of choler and hot humors by accident it refrigerates and cures a feaver And there are causes of diseases some principal some helping some without which nothing could be The principal cause is that which either gave the first motion to the effect or is able alone to excite it The helping cause is that which produceth not the effect alone but is auxiliary to the principal The cause without which nothing could be is that which neither causeth the affection it self nor performs any thing else but without it nothing can be transacted The Gout is exemplary in all these three causes for the cold constitution of the air and the copiousness of excrementitious humors is the principal cause of a defluxion into the joynts the auxiliary cause is the tenuity of the humors but the cause without which nothing could be is the infirmity of the joynts and laxity of the passages There is also one cause of a disease remote the other nigh The remote is that between which and the disease others intercede The near cause is that to which the disease owes its immediate production The proposed differences of causes are of frequent use in the Art of Medicine but the succeeding are most frequent and of great validity in the explication of all diseases therefore in them we shall act the curious Scrutinists The causes of diseases are some external some internal The external causes are those which either outwardly applyed or differing from the constitution of our body usually cause diseases The term of external seems not very convenient because sleep waking and the passions of the mind are comprehended under it which yet seems to be contained among internal things yet because it hath found much acceptance with Physicians therefore we also reject it not averring those causes to be external because many of them are outwardly applyed as the air meat drink c. But the rest as sleep waking and the passions of the mind are so manifest that they are granted without any dispute for external positions Celsus therefore calleth them evident by a very apposite term Others call them procatarctick precedent and primitive because from them the first original of diseases flows But of them some are necessary some are unnecessary The necessary are those which do necessarily affect us and inevitably light upon us Yet though they necessarily affect us they do not necessarily introduce diseases but they are neutrals fluttering in an indifferency between health and disease for by the orderly use of them health is preserved but by the abuse and immoderateness of them it is destroyed But they are six 1 Air 2 Meat and drink 3 Motion and rest 4 Excretions and Retentions 5 Sleeping and Waking 6 The Passions of the mind They are vulgarly called the six not-natural things because by themselves they are neither agreeable to nor disconsonant from the nature of mans body but are made hurtful or useful according to the mode of well or bad using them They are peculiarly handled in that part of Medicine which treateth of Dyet therefore we omit the discourse of them The unnecessary are they which happen fortuitly and not concurring to the ordinary use of life All fortuite things are comprehended under these as the strokes of swords or stones the bitings of wilde beasts c. The internal causes are those which lurk within our body imperceptible to sense and discoverable only by an artificial conjecture So the humors spirits excrements flatulency vapors particles of the parts themselves and whatsoever is contained in them or agnate to them are circled into the nature of internal morbifick causes But they are either antecedent or concomitant The antecedent cause is that which is before the concomitant and moveth it and by the mediation of it effects a disease So in continuall feavers the antecedent cause is the matter fitted for putrefaction the concomitant which actually putrefies So in swellings caused by humors the flowing humor is accounted the antecedent cause the flux the concomitant The Concomitant cause is that which immediately and by it self produceth the disease Examples of this are after proposed in the explication of the antecedent But it is observable that external causes are sometimes concomitant as the sword which immediately makes the wound and therefore all the causes are not seldome divided into procatarctick antecedent and concomitant omitting the consideration of internal and external The concomitant cause is again simply concomitant or containing Simply concomitant is that which if it be the disease is but if it be taken away the disease remains So supposing the action wounding the wound is supposed but taking away the action that remains Continent cause is that which being supposed a disease is supposed and being taken away that follows So supposing the stone or some other matter causing obstruction we must suppose obstruction which if we take away obstruction removes also So taking away a sixth finger making an excess in number the error depending on that is taken away Hence it appears that all diseases have not a containing cause but some onely but all the rest have necessarily a concomitant cause CHAP. III. Of the Causes of Similar Diseases Thus far of the Causes of Diseases in their genus it followes that we handle them in their species
that in buying ground the wholesomnesse of the air is first to be lookt at For no sound man ought to lay out his money in a pestilent air though never so fruitful a soil when the enjoyment thereof is so hazardous And therefore a temperate air both for heat and cold is to be sought almost begirt with a hill which neither freezes with continual frost in the winter nor too much evaperates in the summer nor at the top of a hill subject to all wind and weather An exquisitely tempered air as it were in the middle between hot and cold moist and dry fits a contrary constitution best So it is better for those of a hot temper to live in a moist air and for those that are of a colder temper to live in a hot air those that are dry love a moist those that are moist love a dry aire But when every one cannot finde out an air fit and proper for his constitution we must supply by art what nature denies Thus a hot air is to be cooled a cold air heated a moist to be dry'd a dry air moisten'd If for a hot body we want a cold air which is not such either through the situation of the Countrey or house it must be brought to a coldnesse by often watering by the use of cold flowers and plants by opening windows to the north that the wind may cool the house If the air be cold it must be heated with good fires all the crannies and inlets of the house must be stopped up to hinder the approach of the cold or else to live in a stove as the Germans and all the northern people do A moist air must be dry'd by suffumigations and fires a dry air by irrigations of waters must be moisten'd A hot air renders the body hot melts the humours attenuates and dissolves them weakens the natural strength if the heat be immoderate weakens concoction and makes life short Aristotle would have the Lybians and those that inhabit the sun burnt parts of Lybia to be short liv'd because the sundries up their natural heat and hastens age through the drynesse of the body A cold air cools the body thickens bindes and helps concoction increases plenty of urine causeth Catarrhs and other diseases of the head if the cold be intense The heat being driven inward by the force of the ambient air is more strong and vigorous Therefore Hipp. saith that the belly is hotter in winter by which heat concoction is the sooner performed Cold air increases urine by reason that the pores of the body being shut the humours that were to expire being kept within condense and are carried to the passages of the urine and therefore the matter of sweat and urine is the same so that the sweat flowing out there is lesse plenty of urine and the sweat being stopped there comes forth a greater plenty of urine So common experience teaches that in winter time and when the North wind blows men do pisse in greater quantity But in the summer time and when the South winds blow in a far lesse quantity but if the cold be intense it causes catarrhs through the coldnesse of the brain cold being very hurtfull to the brain as Hipp. teaches in Aph. A moist air softens the skin moistens the body increases excrements makes it slow and heavy brings a dulnesse upon the wit A dry air dries the body diminisheth the excrements makes the body nimble and the senses quick A troublesome cloudy air fils the body full of ill humours and impure spirits increases flegm in the flegmatick Daily experience teaches that in moorish plashy places or near great rivers or which have a thick and troubled air through any other cause putrid and malignant Feavers are most common CHAP. XXVI Of the seasons of the year TO the air are referred the seasons of the year because of the great variety in them Astrologers have divided the year into four equall parts So that the Spring should begin the Sun entring into Aries and end when he leaves Gemini The Summer from the beginning of Cancer to the end of Virgo Autumn from the beginning of Libra to the end of Sagittarius and Winter from the beginning of Capricorn to the end of Pisces But the Physitians and divers people measure the seasons of the year by the temper of the air and as the air in some places is naturally more hot in others colder there the summer there the winter is longer So Hipp. defines the winter in Thasus where he liv'd 3. de diaet From the setting of the Pleiades or the beginning of November to the vernal Equinoctial the Spring from the vernal Equinox to the rising of the Pleiades or the 7. day of May the Summer from the rising of the Pleiades to the rising of Arcturus or the middle of September Autumn from the rising of Arcturus to the setting of the Pleiades By which computation four moneths and ten daies are allowed the Winter and as many to the Summer but two moneths only and some daies to the Spring and hardly two moneths to Autumn In the Northern Countreys the cold is most fierce in the Equinox that the Winter season may be said to last five moneths and more Prosper Alpinus l. 1. de med Aegypt c. 7. writes that the air is remperate in Aegypt and that the Spring flourishes in January and February that the Summer begins in March and lasts to the end of August that Autumn is in September and October and that the Winter lasts only November and December therefore from the temper of the air the times of the year according to the doctrine of the Physitians are to be defin'd by the following Theorems The Spring is the most temperate of all the seasons of the year and is in the middle between the first qualities neither being over cold and moist as in the Winter nor over hot and dry as in the Summer Hipp. in his Book of Humane Nature saith that the Spring is hot and moist which is to be understood in comparison of other seasons for in respect of the Winter it may be said to be hot in respect of Summer cold but considered in it self without any other relation it may be said to be temperate Which Galen shows in his first Book of Temperaments by common experience For seeing that we do not freeze as in Winter the Spring keeping its natural constitution nor are oppressed with heat as in the Summer nor abound with humors nor are tormented with drought nor feel any manifest excesse of these qualities we must necessarily judge the spring to be temperate But this moderate temper is not to be found through the whole course of the Spring for at the beginning it resembles Winter and at the end it is like Summer The Spring is the most wholesome season of the year according to Hipp. Aph. 9. sect 3. The Spring approaching our bodies which were bound in Winter begin to be loose and