breath it comforts and strengthens the heart and stayes the fainting of the Spirits Angelica Sol. Leo. heats and cherisheth the Heart and Spirits against poyson and pestilence ill Air and Vapors Epidemical diseases it strengthens old and cold stomachs it easeth all pains coming of cold and wind provided the body be not bound Plurisies diseases of the Lungs Coughs Ptysicks Chollick Stone Strangury difficulty of Urine it provokes the termes expelleth the After-birth it discuseth all inward tumors and windiness obstructions of the Liver and Spleen it takes away all crudities and indigestion of the stomach and is a present remedy for Surfeits the juyce cleanseth Ulcers well the root is held to be stronger in operation then the leaves the wild Angelica is that which we in Sussex call Kexweed and is good in all the former premises but not so effectual as the garden Rue is a mighty antidote against Poyson Sol. Leo. by it Mithridates that renowned King of Pontus so fortified his body against Poyson that he made it invincible though some unworthy wretches in our age are not ashamed to say he fortified his body against poyson by accustoming it to Poyson and when being vanquished by Pompey the great and betrayed by his own Sonne he would have Poysoned himself but could not a likely tale as though if he had accustomed his body to hot Poysons cold would not quickly have dispatched him and the contrary But to leave the grand lyars of the worâ—â— the most of which the more is the pity arâ— schollars and to come to our business Rue is a counter-poyson against dangerous medicines ill Air it preserves the whole body â—n health being but in a very small quantity taken every morning it takes away lust and is aâ— enemy to Venus it is admirable in pains of the sâ—dâ—s coughs difficulty of breathing Ptysicks â—sthma's Inflamations of the Lungs sharpness of urine it kills Worms and helps the Dropâ—â—e and Warts in any part of the body and is admirable against the bitings of venemous beasts THE Chyrurgeons GUIDE OR THE ERRORS OF Some unskilfull Practitioners in CHYRURGERY Corrected by Nich. Culpeper Gent. late Student in Physick and Chyrurgery LONDON Printed for Nath. Brook at the Sign of the Angel in Cornhill 1659. THE The Chyrurgeons Guide OR The Errors of some unskilful Practitioners in Chyrurgery The first Error which they use is touching the Disease called in Latine Lues Venerea and in English the French Pox. THe Errors which are used at this present touching the Venerian Disease are very great but chiefly at the beginning for when it first breaks forth it appeareth in the Yard with inflamation ulcers and excoriation of the conduct of the Urine which cometh from the neck of the Bladder and after that commonly followeth Aposthumes of the Groins with Pushes and such other like discoloured Pimples according to the infected humour for the cure of the which unskilful persons begin with vehement or strong Medicines as Colocinthis Confection of Hamech or such like And the next day they open a Vein in the right or left arm respecting not that there may follow a lask of their vehement Purgation and then minister their unctions and suffumigations which is certainly a manifest Errour By the which means they draw the infectious blood and humors to the noble parts and feeling the inward anoyance of the same sendeth it to divers outward parts of the body The which doth ingender hard tumors as knots and kernels not easily curable and most sharp and fretting rebellions against curation botches with such other like And so by the maliciousness of the humour it corrupteth and eateth the bone with such pains and torments that the poor Patients are so afflicted that they know not where to rest and especially more in the night then in the day Therefore at this present I have thought good according to my little skill to teach a Method for to bring these errours into a perfect order At the beginning of this contagious Disease you shall first begin this curation by evacuating of the body with gentle Lenitives which do both cool the boiling rage of the blood and also make it thinner in mundifying the blood this must be used according to the temperature of the Body The which shall be done after that the body is prepared to the end that the solutives may the better work upon the aforesaid humors For in this case nature must rule the Chyrurgeon and not the Chyrurgeon nature Then after that it is necessary and profitable to open the Anckle vein in the right or left foot according as the Apostume doth appear and if there be no Apostume according to the discretion of the learned Chyrurgeon this done you divert or pull back the aforesaid infectious humors from the principal parts And upon the Apostume you shall apply continually mollifying and drawing Medicines in doing what may be to bring him to suppuration This Indications being accomplished you shall use of the potion made with Ebenum and Guaiacum prepared according to the temperature of the humors which shall be used the space of a moneth or thereabouts And although that some learned men have an opinion that the decoction of Guaiacum ought to be used without any other Medicines yet nevertheless it hath been found by experience that the use of other simples with it being fit and agreeing to the diseases hath a great deal more profited and been found of better effect then if it had been ministred alone for in a compound disease a simple remedy is not requisite Although that Alphonsus Ferrus hath written to the contrary the which Alphonsus useth this decoction of the Wood in a manner to all diseases whose opinion is not to be followed which decoction is used in Phtisi etiam si dies placuerit in senio Philippi Moreover they have greatly erred which have set forth the Radix Chini being a root very dear unprofitable and altogether without taste and the greatest error of all is committed among them which have brought in use the diet of the decoction of Box-tree which is an Astringant wood stinking and an enemy to all the principal parts And if you will have a wood which is most agreeable to the Guaiacum you shall use of Fraximus the which openeth obstructions of the Liver of the Milt and of the Reins for I have known many which by the use thereof have recovered their health The second error touching the said disease when it cometh to suppuration WHen this disease hath been once taken in hand and evil handled either by Ignorance of the Chirurgeon or the negligence of the Patient The common Chyrurgeons use commonly new errors that is with giving solutives without preparing of the evil humors By the which means they take away the best and leave the worst behinde whereof ingendreth Nodes old and Cankerd sores and such like Then they as evil or rather worse apply their Unctions or Suffumigations before that the Ulcers
is the most convenientest I will speak first of it This kind is no other then a certain descending down of the Intestines in Scrotum the cause of the which is when the Peretoneum is broken or relaxed in the place where the Spermatick vessels do pass which comes commonly by some vehement strain as by vehement running leaping lifting or vehement crying and such other like the signes to know when the Intestines is descended into Scrotum is when he lies they will easily be put up again without any manner of trouble or may be reduced the Patient standing with ones hands and in the reducing you shall hear a gurguling or noise and by this you may know it from Zirbus because that when the Zirbus is put up it makes no noise and also it is not so painful the other signes shall be declared when we come to speak of the Herni Zirbale When this kind is not very farre gone and that it be not compleat the best way is to cure it by Medicines as well to be taken inwards as to be applyed without that is to say with emplaisters and so by convenient trussing and boulstering steept in the Juyce of Herbs convenient 〈◊〉 Ruptures which are of astringent and glutinative â—aculty I have seen many by these aforesaid Medicines have been perfectly cured yet nevertheless if for the oldness of it that it be not to be cured by these means then you must come to the last remedy which is by cutting for the executing of the which I wish all men to chuse an expert Chyrurgeon and not to trust too much to these Runners about and as for this kinde it may be cut without taking away of the Testicle Of Herni Zirbale HErni Zirbale which the Greeks do call Epiplocele is another thing then the falling of Zirbus which is a grease that covereth the Guts into Scrotum the which most commonly falls within Didimes but yet sometimes by the breaking of the Didimes it falls out the causes as well inward as outward are the same which cause Herni Intestinale for look how the Peretoneum is broken or relaxed in the other even so doth it in this the signes are much like also saving that it is much more softer for in the touching it handleth like Wool and is also less painful and it is more difficult to put up then the Herni Intestinale and in the reducing makes no noise this kind is less dangerous then the others by reason that the pain is less and also because that the excrement is not in it as it is in the Herni Intestinale Now here is a special thing to be noted in this kind which the common cutters do use that is they do use to cut away the Zirbus which is discended within Didime without either tying or cautrising and so there followeth a flux of Blood which having no issue but is retained in the belly there doth corrupt which causeth most perilous accidents and most commonly death Of the relaxation of the Peretonium called Herni Inguinale HErni Inguinale is a descending of the Intestines or Zirbus into the Groins which the Latines call Inguina the which sort doth never go further then the Groin for when the Intestines or Zirbus doth pass thorow the Peretoneum then it is either Intestinale or Zirbale for this kind is nothing but a relaxation of the Peretoneum The causes are as of the others aforesaid and it is easily to be known by the roundness and it will be more easily reduced then any of the others you may know when the Intestines is descended by noise that it will make though not commonly yet most oftennest as hath been said of Enterocele but if it be the Zirbus it makes no noise and is much more softer and not so painful Of the kinds of Hernies which be by similitudes or improperly called WE have spoken of those three kinds of Herni which are properly called now it remains â—o speak of the five kinds which are by similitudes and first we will begin with the Aquose which is no other thing then a certain watrish tumor of Croton increased by little and little and for the most part lies between Heritroides and the Spermatick vessels howbeit sometimes it may be contained between Dartos and Heritroides and between Dartos and the Scrotum as many learned men have written the signes are that the Scrotum doth wax big by little and little and for the most part without pain and the tumor is heavy and glistering and hard principally when the Scrotum is filled it waxes in length and doth not return as doth the Intestinale and Zirbale but remains at one stay This kind if that the water have long lien there and so corrupted the Testicle it must be taken away Of Herni Charneuse HErni Charneuse which the Greeks do call Sarcocele is a tumor against nature in the Scrotum which there doth grow to a certain scireuse flesh and doth much resemble the Verequeses or Swelled Veins the causes of the which are by the gathering together of abundance of gross humors which nature cannot rule because of the weakness the signes are unequable hardness and inflamation which doth alwayes remain in the part that is to say the Didime and doth alwayes increase with pain being unequal and not even wherefore Guido saith that this kinde and Vanqueuse are very dangerous Hernie Verequese HErnie Verequese is an appearance of Veins not accustomed about the Testicles and other parts contained within Scrotum The causes are gross humors gathered together as melanchollick blood and such like which nature cannot disperse because of weakness The signs are repletion of the Veins about like to the twigs of Vines with softness of the Testicle or Dideme This kinde if it be not very great and far gone it may be healed by solutive Medicines The Hernie Ventose HErnie Ventose is a tumor of the Cods increased by winde and from the imbecillity or weakness of the part affected it is known by the swelling of the Cods and Yard which glistereth like unto a slikt paper it comes suddenly and is round and light if that there be not another humor joyned with it It is to be cured with Carnificatives as Oleum Nucum Oleum Anethinum Costinum c. And there may be added too of Seeds and Herbs as Semen Anisi Carvi Faeniculi Agni casti Ruta Calaminta Origani c. Hernie Humorale HErnie Humorale is an Aposthume contained likewise in the Cods which is ingendred of humors hot and cold not much declining from the natural habit which may lie between Scrotum and Dartos or between Heretroydes and Dartos or onely within Heritroydes as for the causes the signs and curation are like to other Aposthumes Now that I have declared the definition causes and signs of Hernies it shall not be amiss to expound in few words those parts which must be opened when any of these kindes are cured by handy operation and this is
kinde of Excrement is common to all living Creatures as well Beasts as Men for which cause Nature as a wise Mother hath provided that every concoction hath its excrement or superfluity the Stomach sends out dung the Liver Urine the Veins Sweat so after the third and last concoction which is done in every part of the body that is nourished there is left some profitable blood reserved by Nature for Procreation which blood we call the Generative Seed the timely evacuation whereof avails much for the bodies health for by it the body is made light and disburthened of Phlegm and other superfluous humors which otherwise would wax rank as may be observed in ancient Maids and some chaste Schollers for besides their secret flames and imbridled affections which dispose their mindes to extravigant imaginations we see them also ill complexioned by reason of such vaporous fumes which ascend up towards their cloudy brains To pass over other inconveniences they are subject to as the Green-sickness the Night-mare the Spleen the palpitation and trembling of the heart and their polluted dreams the best advice I can give such persons is to marry in the fear of God and chiefly those are required who are Sanguine or lean for such persons abound with blood Physicians hold the Winter to be the best time for Carnal Copulation and in the Spring-time when Nature is desirous without the help of Arts and Drugs and at night when the stomach is full and the body somewhat warm that sleep immediately after it may lenifie the Lassitude caused through the action thereof In the Summer in May and July when the Spittle thickens on the ground it cannot be so wholesome nor in frosty wâ—ather Immoderate Venery weakeneth the strength hurts the brain extinguisheth radical moisture and hasteneth on old age and death the Spâ—rm or Seed of generation being one of the greatest comforters of life which being wilfully shed or lost hurteth more then if he should bleed forty times as much That Batchelors and Maids may drive away their unclean dreams at nights let them refrain from Wine and Venerious Imaginations not use to lie in soft Beds let them read the Bible and moral Philosophers use exercises let them eat Agnus Castus in English Park and they shall finde a strange effect to follow Of Bathing BAthing in cold Water so that the same be clear clear from Rain or a silver colour'd Brook in the summer time before meats doth wonderfully delight nature provoke the appetite and is very good against Rhumes the Dropsie and Gout and causes digestion you shall finde it wonderful expedient sometimes to bathe the head with hot Lee made of ashes after which you must cause one presently to pour three or four quarts of cold water then let the head be dried with cold Towels the suddain powring down of the water stirs up the natural heat of the body quickneth the memory keepeth from baldness In the summer washing of the hands often doth much avail the eye-sight In the Winter time when the Water is cold and Frozen this kinde of artificial Bath is very expedient and wholsome take two pounds of Turpentine four ounces of the Juyce of Wormwood and Wilde Mallows one ounce of fresh â—â—cor one dram of Saffron mingle them and seethe them a pretty while and being hot wet four Linnen cloathes therein and therewith bathe your self or else make a Bath after this manner take Fumitory Enula Compana Leaves Sage Fetherfue Rosemary and Wormwood of each a handful or two seethe them in a sufficient quantity of water till they be soft and put as much as a Walnut of Allom and a little Brimstone powder and therewith bathe the affected places of the body he that uses these bathes in convenient time may live healthfully for by them superfluous excrements are extracted in sweat But with this caution I commend Baths that no person that is distempered through Venery Gluttony Fasting Watching or violent Exercise do enter into them Diet for a Feaver and Ague I Do advertise every one that hath a Feaver or an Ague to eat no meat six hours before his fit doth take him and in no wise as long as the Ague doth endure to put off his shirt or dublet nor to rise out of the bed but when need shall require and in any wise not to go nor take the open Air for such provision may be had that at the uttermost at the third fit he may be delivered of the Feaver Let the Patient beware of casting his hands and arms at any time or to spraul with his Legs out of the bed it is good for the space of three fits to wear continually Gloves and not to wash the hands He is to eat little and those temperate meats to refrain from Wine Beer and Cider and all other things whatsoever that are not of a very light digestion Diet for the Chollick and the Stone THe Iliack and Chollick are ingendred of ventosity the which is intrused or inclosed in two Guts the one is called Ilia and the other is called Colon for these two infirmities one must beware of cold and it is not good to be long fasting and necessary to be laxative but in no wise to be constupate These things following are not good for those which have these aforesaid infirmities new bread stale bread new ale they must abstain also from drinking of Beer of Cider of Red Wine and Cinamon also refrain from all meats that Honey is in from eating of cold Herbs Beans Pease Pottage beware of fruits and of all things the which do ingender winde For the Stone abstain from eating of Red herring Martilmas-beef and Bacon salt fish salt meats Beware of going cold about the middle especially about the Reins of the back and make no restriction of wine and water nor seege that water would expel Diet for several kindes of the Gout They which are troubled with the Gout or any kinde of it I do advertise them not to sit too long forgetting to exonerate the bladder and the belly when need shall require and also to beware the Legs hang not without some stay nor that the Boots or Shoes be not over strait Whosoever hath the Gout must refrain from drinking of new Ale of Beer and Red Wine Also he must not eat new Bread Eggs fresh Salmon Eels Fresh Herring Pilcherds Oysters all shell fish he must avoid the eating of fresh Beef of Goose of Duck and of Pigeons he must beware of taking of cold in his Legs or riding or going wetshod Beware of Venerous acts after refection or after or upon a full stomach from all things that ingender evil humors and are inflative Diet for the Lepors HE that is infected with any of the four kindes of Leprosie must refrain from all manner of Wines and from new drinks and strong Ale let him beware of riot and surfeiting let him abstain from eating of Spices Dates from Tripes Puddings and all inwards of Beasts Fish
shall onely treat of that pain that doth follow asharp disease by the inflamation of the inner skin for if the inflamation be in the outward Muscles or if the pain be great because of windiness this is but a basterd Pleurisie and the Patient is without a Feaver The signs of this disease besides the difficulty of breathing and a vehement Cough is a pricking pain which plainly doth demonstrate that the membranes and some other tender parts are affected this pricking pain sometimes spreads it self over the sides and breast sometimes to the short Ribs to the Channel-bone of the Throat so that the Patient is forced to breath short and thick also there is a continual Feaver because the inflamation doth border on the heart the Pulse is thick not too great hard and unequal and by that means tough and like to a saw a cough also cometh withal the first day and then nothing cometh at length spettle is voided and comes up coloured according to the nature of the excrements and it is also moister there are many other signs the cause for the most part is blood running from the hollow Veins into the Ribs thin Veins sometimes it is caused by Phlegmy blood and then the disease is longer of continuance and the spettle frothy and white sometimes the blood is Chollerick and then a sharper disease is caused The suppression of the Hemrhoides or monethly tearms will cause a Pleurisie this disease is dangerous to old men to Women with childe and such as have been sick twice or thrice of it it vexes the Patient more in the night then day time whosoever is sick of a Pleurisie and is not cleansed in fourteen dayes they turn to supuratiâ—â— This disease kills by choaking or too mâ—ch pain or by the translation of the matter into the Lungs whereby the Consumption of them is caused and also Ulcers The air the Patient lives in must be temperate somewhat inclining to heat his meat easie of digestion he is not to drink Wine till the disease be abated he may be permitted longer then ordinary sleep his belly must be kept loose Of the Bleeding at the Nose THe Bleeding at the nose called Hemorrhagia doth signifie a Bleeding at the Nose whether it doth come immediately from the Nostrills carried thither by the Veins of the palate through which for the most part nature doth expel the superfluous blood of many or else whether it comes from the Veins of the Head further off but in general it doth signifie any bleeding whether it be of Nose Womb or any other part of the body when blood comes forth moderately in the beginning of a Pleurisie Impostume Squinancy Burning Feaver Small Poxs it is alwayes for the best yet this Bleeding in some other diseases is Critical foreshewing death the Nostrills are chiefly affected but not alwayes the essence of the Nostrils but they are affected by the consent of some other part the Veins by which this blood is cast out at the Nose run from the palate and Mouth into the Nostrills and sometimes from the head when too much blood is voided the colour of the face waxeth pale the body is of a leaden colour the outward parts are cold and a swooning follows and many times after death Oftentimes bleeding at the Nose is caused by nature which doth by this means expel the excrements and which is troublesome to the body Sometimes it is caused by the evil affection of the Veins wherein the blood is contained and the blood runs out of the Veins the Veins being opened by the plenty of blood which they could not contain There are sundry other causes If bleeding have continued long swooning weakness and too much cooling of the Liver Lachexia or the Dropsie is to be feared Bleeding at the Nose without coldness of the outwards parts is mortal The air the Patient should live in must be somewhat cold his meat must be such as doth nourish well and easie of digestion he must avoid exercise and speak little he must avoid all passions of the minde especially anger Of the Falling-sickness THe Falling-sickness is a Convulsion of all the parts of the body not continual but that which cometh by distances of time the minde and senses being thereby hurt This disease doth either happen when the brain hath the cause of the disease in it self which is usual or by the evil effect of the mouth of the stomach or from some other part underneath by which the venemous effect creepeth into the brain through secret passages the Patient feels the cause of this Disease like a vapour of cold winde to be carried to the brain by the continuity of the other parts from the part of the body wherein the Disease is chiefly seated the cause of this Disease being for the most part a venomous vapour carried up from some lower part of the body into the brain and then the Patient doth suddenly fall with a Convulsion The brain is the part affected either by it self or by the consent of the stomach or by some other parts The fit comes oftentimes suddenly with much foam which because it is slimy may be drawn out at length yet in a gentler Falling-sickness this doth not appear when the Patient is deprived of his senses he falls to the ground with a violent shaking of his body his face is wrested his eyes turned upwards his chin somewhat driven to his shoulder and oftentimes he voids seed and ordure against his will his Muscles are loosened all these are signs of a strong fâ—t Sometimes their teeth are so fast closed together that they are in danger of stifling paleness of the face inordinate motion of the tongue pain and heaviness of the head forgetfulness sadness troublesome dreams are ushers to this Disease the Patient being taken with a giddiness sometimes darkness and divers dim glisterings appear before his eyes This Disease is for the most part caused by abundance of melancholâ—ck and phlegmatick humors from whence corâ—upt venomous and stinking vapors break out whereby obstructions are caused in the passages â—f the brain and the passages of the spirits are â—â—ereby hindred by this means the brain and the roots of the Sinnews shrink and as it were tremble in the expelling of that which is obnoxious whether it be vapor or humor This disease frequents children because they are of a moister brain then yong men next to these men oâ— a full growth and old men least of all This Disease is more incident to men then women and usually it doth stick close to the Patient unless it be taken away by medicines in the minority If the Disease be vehement and come often on the Patient it is incurable but if a quartane Ague or any longer Feaver surprize him iâ— portends health The air wherein the Patienâ— lives must be hot and dry his meat mixed with such things as do dissolve and extenuate the humors exercise of the body and frication of thâ— head are prevalent
as nature affordeth not to us of our own work either garments or houses or any kind of instrument but onely the matter whereof such instruments may be made leaving with us an industry rightly to frame them and wisdom to use them so no more â—is Lettis Poppy Rhewbarb or Scammony a medicine then an Oak a Table or Ship or a Quarry of Stones an House Moreover all medicines standing in a kind of relation to the disease which by means of the Patients age sex time of the year custom and such like occasions greatly vary no Nature which alwayes keepeth constant in her own kinde can therefore either be a Medicine or properly bear the name thereof which I wish to be noted lest it be thought that Simples and such other natural things were Medicines because commonly they carry the names of them And thus much shall be sufficient to have said of the nature of a Medicine Now a Disease which remaineth last to be defined is such a state of the body as thereby it is unabled to perform aptly the actions thereto belonging or those actions which the Soul doth accomplish by the instrument of the Body Thus much briefly concernâ—ng the explication of the tearms wherein this â—ruth is propounded Now the reasons whereby both I am moved to be of this judgement and â—m so hardy as to propound it to others to be received whereof the first riseth from the Christian Doctrine of Gods Providence which as it serveth greatly to establish the chiefe points of Physophy so being drawn and more particularly applied to the maintenance of mans life carrieth with it as a sufficient provision for maintenance and preservation of health a like furniture and as answerable to the necessity of the Patient health being decayed I will not stand to intreat of Providence being well known to Christians and being a truth in Divinity and Christianity cannot be false in Philosophy Although the best of the Ancient Philosophers and Poets have alwayes kept it as a sure ground who as they serve little to establish us having a surer foundation yet may they justly condemne the Atheist of this Age who so far hath quenched those remnants of the light of the first Creation that all things seem to him Fortune and Chance There is no Nation under Heaven so poor and destitute but it hath of the own Countrey soyl sufficient to content Nature with of Food and Apparel which as they be two pillars of life so from them are taken the means of preservation of Health which as to Beasts are applied by natural instinct so are they used of man by reason the temperer of appetite and affection This provision of sustenance is most agreeable with the goodness of the Creator who as he is Authour of being to the Creature so faileth he not to maintain and preserve the same Creature the whole term of the being thereof and because the necessity of the Creature is perpetual his wisdom hath also foreseen and provided a perpetual supply of such sustenance as is fit for that Nature which standeth in need thereof and because the need is not once for all but parted into times varying according to the divers disposition and nature of that for which this provision is made he hath also so bestowed his goodness in this point that at all times to all things necessary sustenance should not be to seek and this extended not to men onely but even to bruit beasts and all things which require nourishment The end of this Provision is the preservation of the Creature which Nature most carefully studieth if it might be perpetual and eternal thereto to bring it the goodness of the Creator will have nothing wanting his wisdom will have it wait upon the necessity of the Creature wherefore as the Earth is called the Mother of all things not because it bringeth them forth onely but yieldeth them perpetual nourishment so is the Countrey of all people to them named the Parent of all parents Then by Natures law all things being abundantly ministred unto us for the preservation of Health at home in our own Fields Pastures Rivers c. how can the Wisdom of God and his Goodness stand with the absence of Medicines and Remedies necessary for the recovery of Health the need being as urgent of the one as of the other and so as great an occasion of practice of the same Goodness and Wisdom in the one as in the other which being most plain and evident it followeth necessarily that the Medicine should be as ready for the sick as meat and drink for the hungry and thirsty which except it be appplied by the native Countrey cannot be else performed It is known to such as have skill in nature what wonderful care she hath of the smallest creatures not onely giving to every part of them a careful discharge of sundry duties as of attraction retention concoction expulsion of excrements distribution and such like but also to the whole creature a knowledge of Medicine to help themselves if haply diseases annoy them neither out of India nor Arabia but from their very haunt which being not denied to them much more is granted to us in so much as the work of Nature being most excellent in man she is more vigilant over mankinde then over other creatures as by the shape thereof most plainly appeareth The Swallow cureth her dim eyes with Celendine the Weasel knoweth well the vertue of Herb-grace the Dove the Vervine the Dog dischargeth his maw with a kinde of Grass the Spider is triacle to the Monkey the Hippopotamus dischargeth the abundance of his blood by opening a Vein and Ibes is said to have shewed the use of the Glyster and too long it were to reckon up all the Medicines which the Beasts are known to use by Natures direction onely and those not so far fetched as our Drugs but familiar with them and taken from the place of their Food it being very probable she hath bestowed this gift even upon all one having interest in Natures care as well as another By this then may we gather if Nature fail not the very beasts in this behalf neither sendeth them to borrow afar off much more is that performed unto us the Lords of all the Creatures and for whose use all things were created except we be thought less subject to diseases then they wherein we be so little priviledged that no creature in that respect is so frail as we and those most subject to infirmities which are governed and dieted by us So that we of all creatures have greatest need of Natures liberal hand in this behalf For be it for the most part we are more healthful then sickly and so have greater use of the means of keeping Health then of restoring yet hardly can a man say which of them is more necessary to be ready and prest at hand the danger of Diseases being alwayes imminent although Diseases themselves be not alwayes present Now if
the common saying amongst the people to the great discredit of our Art There is not a purgation but it hath a smack of poison Truth it is no purgation can work without natures annoyance being in part a prick of nature to avoid her excrements but when she is so provoked that she sweateth cold sweats that she giveth over that the patient soundeth not by the excess of purging onely but for the most part through the evil quality of the medicine it is surely an argument it wanted his proper subject to work in If needs we will take unto us the practice of such strange Medicines I call them Medicines according to the common phrase else properly be they matter onely it were to be desired which in part is performed that such Medicines as be so perillous might be planted in our natural countrey that through the familiarity of our soil they might first grow into acquaintance with us before we entertain them not into our bosomes but into our hearts and chamber them with our vital spirits And as it is said of the tree Persea which in Persia being poison translated into Egypt becometh wholesome bearing fruit to be eaten and good for the stomach so those natures receiving such mitigation of our soil might in time better fit us then they do which as it cannot alter their nature being impossible to be done by change of place so doubtless might it purge away that evil quality which annoyeth us and seemeth rather to be an evil complexion and as it were a cacochimy and disease of the thing then any necessary propriety belonging to the nature This which hath been said of Persia is also to be seen in other Simples which in other places are poison and kill with the very shadow yet brought into England and planted with us clean change that venomous quality Ugh called Taxus of Dioscorides is said to be so dangerous and of such venomous nature that in Navar the very shadow thereof poisoneth him that sleepeth under it and Aegenita saith being taken inward it strangleth and swiftly killeth This Taxus notwithstanding being so perillous in other places our English soil hath so reformed that boldly our children do eat of the fruit thereof without danger the like may be verified of our Hemlock which although it be to be numbred among the poisoning Herbs yet it is far behinde that which groweth in Candy or Megara or Cilicia scarce to be accounted poison in comparison of that in those Countreys Now if thou shalt think gentle Reader as the change of a Region altereth some qualities so all and thereby empaireth the vertue of the Medicine thou mayest easily be deceived For as they depend not one upon another so may the one be well without the other though by one common form they seem to be linked together to make one nature Rhewbarb is known to have two qualities one contrary to another of purging the body and stopping yet by steeping may the one be separated from the other the purging vertue being drawn out by steeping and the stopping still remaining in the substance steeped so likewise may the noisom quality of the Medicine be eschewed the wholesome and medicinable vertue notwithstanding being in full force yea greater retained I say greater insomuch as the hurtful quality would hinder the operation of the healthful which being freed and unyoked from the other doth far better accomplish his work Of all kindes of Honey that of Greece and namely of Attica and Hible are most commended the next price is given to the Honey of Spain and Navar yet it is certainly known by experience that the English Honey is most agreeable to our English Bodies and greater quantity thereof may be taken with less annoyance yea none at all to those which are not of too hot a temper the other kindes being more fiery more apt to engender Choler and to inflame the blood and more unfit to loose the body Whereby we may evidently see that Nature useth not one shoe for every foot but either ministreth a divers commodity in kinde or else by the Countrey Air and Soil doth so temper it that greater use may be thereof to the inhabitant of the same Countrey By this then which hitherto hath been said it is manifest we receive great hurt by the use of strange Medicines and not upon reason onely but from plain experience even with hurt to our own bodies which as it is the greatest price of knowledge so therefore ought we the more to set thereby and more carefully to seek to avoid the danger Again it is evident that the planting of strange Simples frameth them more to our use Wherefore as there be many excellent Gardens in England especially in London replenished with store of strange and outlandish Simples it were to be wished such endeavours were of others followed that so we might acquaint us better with these strangers and by Vsu capio make them our own But what soils will brook all things it is true yet no doubt of those that it will brook which I dare say are four or five hundred this frugality of nature toward us as it is thought might bear a greater show and more safely use them especially the purgers which carry with them greatest anoyance Now if it be objected the force of outlandish Simples are thereby more feeble as we finde the Organ of Candy surpassing ours in strength I mean the same kinde with that of Candy planted in the Gardens which may be said also of other strange Herbs planted by us It cannot be denied but they are so neither can the strange Simples in all points be equal with his kinde keeping his Native soil yet is the difference scarce half a degree under or if it were a degree full out what reason were it to fetch that one degree with much peril and charge as far as Candy Spain or Venice or from another world whereas a little increase of the quantity of the thing would easily supply that want though I mention not the gain of freshness of the same which maketh no small recompence of wanting in the force neither is the nature or vertue of a Medicine to be esteemed by taste or smell neither by the force it hath against the disease the nature of a medicine lying in an equal matching of the cause of the disease which if it overmatch so far off it is from the praise of an wholesome medicine that it becommeth 〈◊〉 cause of a contrary disease wherefore the â—ommendation of a medicine lieth not in force â—â—t in such force And therefore the counsel of â—he best Physicians is if the disease will bear any delay as the most do rather to apply a medicine of weaker force then at once with a vehement â—one to shake the frame of Nature And the weaker medicine being weak either in respect of the nature of the Simple or the small quantity they counsel rather to use that kinde of curing which is by
might be thought like never to be subject unto and such things as in respect of their nature might seem vile unto us afford us being skilfully applied most sovereign medicine whereof for a taste I give two or three examples Milke is either to be considered in all the parts together or them severed All kinde of Milke boiled especially burned with stones taken from the sea-shore helpeth all inward ulcers chiefly of the jawes the lungs the guts the bladder and the kidneys it is good against the itch and wheals and it helpeth bloody flixes New Milke is good against frettings made with poisons received inward as of Cantharides and such like it is profitably gargled against swellings and frettings in the jaws The whay of Milk is good to purge the body especially of such as be melancholike and disposed to the falling sickness leprosie and breaking out with scabs The cheesie part of it as curds fresh without salt softneth the belly which pressed and broiled stayeth the laxe Cheese laid on helpeth the inflamation of the eyes The butter of Milke drunk softneth the belly and serveth against poison for want of oil rubbed upon their gums with honey helpeth the toothing of children and cureth the itching of their gums and sores of their mouthes It helpeth such as are bitten of the serpent called Aspis The soot of butter is very effectual against watering eyes and swiftly skinneth sores Thus thou seest Reader what treasure is hid in Milke even an excrement being used both whole and in parts That which I have said of Milke belongeth also to most of creatures which both all serve for medicine and each of them for sundry purposes whereby natures endeavour to furnish us with all help of medicine may evidently appear yea most of all when she seemeth to be so jealous over our health that she provideth against Drysinus against the Scorpion the Viper and Cerastes and the most of venomous bitings of Serpents wherewith notwithstanding we are not as other nations encumbred and those not common medicines onely but even proper unto them As the venom of Drysinus is abated and utterly extinguished with the Trifolie and with all kinde of mast be it of the Beech or Oke or of any kinde of tree that beareth Acorns Penerial cureth the Scorpions sting Against the biting of a Viper Garlike Onions and Leeks new gathered are principal triacles wherewith also the venom of Cerastes is overmatched Ergo if Nature fail us not against the venome of strange â—erpents from which we be freed by reason of the temper of our Region repugnant to their nature all things being done in the actions of nature in exquisite wisdom and by a precise rule of Gods providence much more are we furnished against the Diseases bred in our bowels That which hath been said of venomous Beasts may also be shewed in the cure of strange Diseases wherein Nature seemeth to be as careful as in the other The French pocks is an Indian Disease and not known to this part of the world within this hundred years before that voyage of Charles the Emperor which he took against Naples where being brought over with â—he Spaniards which returned with Christopherus â—olumbus who first discovered the West Indies 〈◊〉 hath since infected the whole world Now his strange and Indian disease hath nature proâ—ided remedy against not onely out of India â—s the Gnaicum and Salsa Parilla but even out Europe as effectual as the Smillax aspera â—herewith Fallopius saith at Pisa he cured diâ—ers of the French Pocks And La Reviere in â—is French Apology affirmeth the same to be â—â—one with the essence of the Primrose and Cowâ—ip The anointings with Mercury is known by â—aily practices what force they have against this most grievous Disease which although some do mislike because indiscreetly used it is somewhat â—angerous yet Antonius Chalmetous a skilfull Chyrurgeon in the fifth Book of his Enchiridion â—nd fifth Chapter affirmeth That therewith he â—ath perfectly cured divers without danger and â—f it hath otherwise fallen out with some that it hath rather proceeded of unskilful using then â—y the nature of Mercury Now gentle Reader thou art to understand the Pocks in India being the same Disease with that we call the French Pocks is there a gentle disease not much differing from the Scab void of such grievous â—ymptoms as it bringeth to these quarters corrupting not onely the fleshy parts of our bodies but even the very bones also This testifieth Fallopius in his Book of the French Pocks Yet needs not our Medicines crave the help of India for the cure thereof no not although it â—age far more fiercely as it doth against us then against them which being evident let us consider how justly nature may be blamed to fail in the provision of medicines Scarce would a man look for any great vertue of medicine in the Worms of the earth being a creature so abject yet joyn they and glew together wounded sinnews they cure Tertians they help the pains of the ears the Toothache and the powder of them drunken provoketh urine The little vermine called Sowes which being touched runne together round like a peese who would think they cured the difficulty of making water the Jaundies the Quinsey For which purposes they be of great force and for to discharge stuffed Lungs with tough and gross humours nothing may be compared Likewise the Cornes of Horse legs called Lichenes although they be base and vile excrements yet help they such are taken with the Falling-sickness The decoction of Frogs with Salt and Butter is a treacle against the bitings stingings and poisons of all Serpents and the ashes of them burnt stayeth the Flux of bloud being thereto applyed These base creatures the rather I propound that being known the treasures which nature hath hid and laid up in them with such variety of vertues we might the better esteeming of her benefits and the blessings of our own countrey both acknowledge them accept them and be more thankful unto God for them The which base creatures the viler they seem to be the more commend they the goodness of the Creator who would not the abjectest thing that is should altogether be without wherewith to serve and do homage to his Lord and Master which if these things afford us what may we justly promise to our selves and require of the rest more excellent creatures Let not the reason seem strange and weak to the Reader who art a Christian which is taken from the Providence and Wisdom of GOD to prove the sufficiency of his execution and performance of the same For if Galen thought it reasonable as it is most reasonable to gather the Wisdom and Providence of the Creator by his work in the Creature and maintenance thereof which he in the end of his Books of the use of Parts calleth a point of Divinity far to be preferred above the whole Art of Physick much more reasonable is it for me and the
BEer is made of Malt of Hops and Water It is a natural drink for a Dutch-man and of late it is much used in England to the detriment of many English men especially it killeth them which are troubled with the Collick and the Stone and the Strangullion for the drink is a cold drink and doth inflate the Belly as it doth appear by the Dutch-mens Faces and Bellies if the Beer be well served and be fined and not new it doth qualifie the heat of the Liver Of Cider CIder is made of the Juyce of Pears or the Juyce of Apples sometimes of both but the Best Cider is made of clean Pears which are Dulcet it is not praised in Physick for Cider is cold of operation and full of ventosity it ingenders evil humors and doth asswage too much the natural heat hinders digestion and hurts the Stomach except it be to those which are constantly used to it it is most in request in Harvest time Of Mead. MEad is made of Honey and Water boiled together if it be fined and pure it preserveth health but it is not good for them which have the Chollick Of Metheglin MEtheglin is made of Honey Water and Herbs boiled and sod together if it be fined and stale it is better then Mead. Of Whey WHey if it be well ordered especially that Whey the which doth come of Butter is a temperate drink and moist and it doth nourish and cleanse the breast purgeth red colour of the face clarified as it ought to be it purges moderately and cannot be sufficiently commended Posset Ale POsset Ale is made with hot Milk and cold Ale it is a temperate drink and is good for a hot Liver and for hot Feavers especially if cold Herbs are sod in it Of Coit COit is a drink made of water in the which is laid a sowre and a salt Leaven three or four hours then it is fit to drink it is usually drunk in Picardy in Flanders in Holland and in Brabant Of Honey HOney as well in meat as in drink is of admirable efficacy for it not onely cleanseth and nourisheth but it also for a long time preserveth that incorrupted which is put into it this excellent matter is most wonderfully wrought and gathered by the little Bee Mead which is made on part of Honey and four times so much of pure water boiled till no skin doth remain Galen highly commends as an excellent drink to preserve health There are many rare qualities in Honey which I intend hereafter particularly to write of Of Bread A Vicen saith that bread made of Wheat causeth fat especially when the bread is of new Wheat Bread made of fine flour without Leaven is slow of digestion but it doth nourish if it be truly ordered and well bak't when it is Leavened it is soon digested as some old Authors affirm But bread having too much brand in it is not laudible In Rome and other high countries their Loaves of bread are little bigger then a Walnut and many little Loaves joyned together which do serve for great men and are saffroned I praise it not I do love Manchet bread and great Loaves which are well moulded and thorow bak't the brand abstracted Bread made of Mestling or of Rye MEstling-bread is made half of Wheat and half of Rye and there is also Mestling made half of Rye and half of Barley Some strange people will put Wheat and Barley together Bread made of these aforesaid grain or corns thus potched together may satisfie the belly but will never do good to man no more then horse-bread or bread made of Beans and Pease Howsoever this matter doth go much by the education or the bringing up of the people which have been used to such bread Barley doth ingender cold humors Pease and Beans and the substance coming from them are windy 〈◊〉 but if one have an appetite to eat and drink of 〈◊〉 grain besides Malt or Barley let him drink of what may be made of Oats for Haver-cakes in Scotland are many a good Lierd and Lierds Dish and if it will make good Haver-cakes consequently it will make good drink Good bread doth comfort confirm and stablish a mans heart Hot Bread is unwholesome for any one foâ— it doth lie in the stomach like a spunge exhausting undecocted humors yet the smell of new Bread is comfortable to the Head and to the Heart Simnels and Cracknels and Bread bak't on a stone or on iron and Bread that Saffron is in is not so wholesome Burnt Bread hard Crusts and pasty Crusts do ingender Choller adust and Melancholly humors Wherefore chip the upper Crusts of your Bread and whoso doth use to eat the second Crust after meat it maketh him lean and so doth Wheaten Bread the which is full of Bran. Bread which is nutritive and praised in Physick should have these properties First it must not be new but a day and a night old it is not good when it is past four or five dayes old except the Loaves be great it must not be mouldy nor musty well molded it must be thorow bak't it must not be heavy temperately salted Old Bread or stale doth dry up the blood or natural moisture of man and it doth ingender evil humors and hinders digestion wherefore there is no Surfeit worse then the eating of bad bread occasions Of Broaths in general ALl manner of liquid things as Pottage and other Broaths do repleat one that eats them with ventosity Pottage is not so much used in all Christendom as in England Pottage is made of the liquor in the which flesh is sod with putting to chopped Herbs and Oatmeal and Salt The Herbs with the which Pottage is made withal if they be pure good and clean not worm-eaten nor infected with the corrupt air desending on them they comfort notwithstanding their ventosity But for as much as divers times many parts of England are infected with the Pestilence through the corruption of the air which doth infect the Herbs in such times it is not good to make Pottage nor to eat them Of Furmity FUrmity is made of Wheat and Milk for it is hard of digestion But when it is digested it doth nourish and strengthen Of Pease Pottage and Bean Pottage PEase Pottage and Bear Pottage doth repleat with ventosity Pease Pottage is better then Bean Pottage for it is sooner digested lesse windy they are both absâ—â—â—ine and do cleanse the body Bean Pottage encrease gross humors Of Almond Milk and Rice Pottage ALmond Milk and Rice Pottage Almonds are hot and moist it doth comfort the Breast and it doth mollifie the Belly and provokes Urine Rice Pottage made with Almond Milk doth restore and comfort Nature Alebrues Caudles and Cullesses ALebrues Caudles and Cullesses are for weak men which cannot eat sollid meat Caudles made with Hemp-seed and Cullesses made of Shrimps do warm the blood and comfort Nature Honey Sops and other Broaths HOney Sops and other Broaths of what kinde or substance
fore-part of all manner of beasts and fowls are more hotter and lighter of digestion then the hinder parts are The marrow of all beasts are hot and moist are nutritive if well digested they mollifie the stomach and take away the appetite wherefore one should eat Pepper with it The blood of all beasts and fowls are not wholesome but hard of digestion All the inwards of beasts and of fowls as the heart the liver the lungs tripes trilibubs with all the entrails is hard of digestion and doth encrease gross humors The fat of flesh is not so much nutritive as the lean it is best when lean and fat is mixt one with another The tongues of beasts are hard of digestion and of little nourishment The stones of a Cockrel and stones of other beasts are very nourishing Of roasted boiled bak't fried meats BEyond Sea at the Universities boiled meat is used at dinner and roast to supper as boiled meat is lighter of digestion Broiled meats are hard of digestion and naught for the Stone fried meat is harder of digestion then broiled it ingenders Choller and Melancholly Bak't meat buried in paste is not praised in Physick All manner of flesh which is inclined to humidity should be roasted and all flesh which is dry should be boiled Fish may be sod roasted broiled and baken every one after their kinde and use and fashion of the Countrey as the Cook and the Physician may agree and devise For a good Cook is half a Physician Of the Roots of Borage and Bugloss THe Roots of Borage and Bugloss sod tender and made in a succade do ingender good blood and a wholesom temperance Of Elisaunder and Elina Campane THe Root of Alisaunder sod tender and made in a succade is good for to destroy the Stone in the Reins of the Back and Bladder the Roots of Elina Campane sod tender in a succade is good for the breast for the lungs and for all the interial members of man Of Parsley and Fennel THe Roots of Parsley sod tender and made in succade are good for the Stone and to make a man piss Fennel sod is good for the lungs and the sight Of Turnips and Parsnips TUrnips boiled and eaten with flesh augments the seed if they be eaten raw and moderately they provoke a good appetite Parsnips sod doth encrease nature and are nutritive and expels urine Of Raddish and Carrets RAddish roots doth break winde and do provoke urine but they be not good for those which have the Gout Carrets sod augment and encrease nature and cause urine Of the Roots of Rapes RApe roots if they be well boiled nourish if they be moderately eaten immoderately they ingender ventosity and offend the stomach Of Onions ONions provoke to Venery and Sleep and if a man drink sundry drinks they rectifie and reform the variety of the operation of them they cause a good appetite Of Leeks LEeks open the breast and provoke urine cause and encrease bad blood Of Garlick GArlick of all roots is much used in France and some other Countreys it opens the breast and it doth kill wormes in the belly which the Lumbrici Ascarides and Cutuibicini which are small little long worms that tickle in the fundament it also heats the body and desolves gross winds Of Cabbage CAto in his book De re rustica writes too highly in praise of Cabbages as he judges them to be a sufficient medicine against all diseases some are of opinion if they are eat raw before meat with Vinegar that they preserve the stomach from Surfeits and the brain from drunkenness this I am certain of that if they are constantly eat they injure the sight except the eyes are very moist they cause and break winde the opinion of most writers is that they are not so wholesom as Lettice being hot in the first and dry in the second degree Of Asparagrass NO kinde of Herbs nourish more being freed from their bitterness and eaten hot they are temperately moist and exceed not in heat the first degree they increase Venery strengthen the Liver and help conception Of Musk Melons MUsk Melons are not so moist or cold as the ordinary sort of Melons are they ingender better blood and descend more speedily into the belly fruits of this kinde are dangerous not to be eaten presently out of the ground but rather let them lie a week though that they are ripe that there watrish moisture may be abated Garden Pompeons and Melons may lie in a warm Kitching till Christmas Of Potata Roots POtata roots nourish mightily either Sod Bak't or rosted the newest and heaviest are the best they ingender much flesh blood and seed Of Raddishes RAddishes cause rank belchings are hardly digested they burn the blood ingender Lice cause Leanness spoil the eye-sight and corrupt the whole mass of nourishment Of Skirret Roots SKirret Roots have a long string within them which taken away before they are sod makes them eat exceeding sweet they are of a milde and temperate nature agreeing with complexions did we know all the vertues of them they would be more nourished then they are in our Gardens Of Borage and Bugloss BOrage doth comfort the heart ingender good blood and causeth mirth so doth Bugloss which is taken of more vigour strength and efficacy Of Artechokes and Rokat THere is nothing usually to be eaten of Artechokes but the heads of them when they are almost ripe sodden tender in the broth of Beef or with Beef eat them at dinner they increase nature and provoke Venery Rokat doth increase the seed stumulate the flesh and doth help digestion Of Succory and Endive SUccory doth help the Stomach and keep the head in temper and qualifie Choller Endive is good for them which have hot and dry hot Stomachs Of white Beets and Purslane WHite Beets are good for the Liver and for the Spleen are abstercine Purslane doth abate the ardor of lasciviousness and mittigates heat in the inward parts of the head and eyes if preserved in brine it heats and purges the stomach it is cold in the third degree and moist in the second Of Time and Parsley TIme breaketh the Stone desolves winde and causeth Urine Parsley breaks the Stone causeth Urine is good for the Stomach and causeth a sweet breath Of Lettice and Sorrel LEttice extincts Venery causeth milk in womens Breasts it is good for a hot Stomach provokes sleep increases blood temperates it Sorrel is good for a hot Liver and also for the Stomach being sod it looseth the belly in the time of the Plague taken fasting sucking or chewing some of the Leaves it preserues against infection the seeds thereof brewed and drunk with Wine and water are good against the Chollick and the stopping of Fluxes excellent against overcharged Stomachs Sorrel possets are soveraign in sundry distempers This Herb is cold in the third and dry in the second degree Of Marigolds MArigolds the Herb and Flowers are of great use with us amongst other
little cynamon and seed of Annis white wine mixt with water musick is good in this disease and such means must be used as may cause sleep Of Melancholly of black Choller THis disease is a kinde of doting without a feaver arising from such maligne and melancholick humors which distrub the seat of the Minde The signs of melancholly are fear and sadness evil thoughts without any cause proceeding from such vapors of black Choller as darken the mind and over-cloud the brain Melancholy which seizes on the essence of the brain and continues there long is altogether incureable The Air where the Patient resides must be of a wholesom smell moist and temperate his diet moist but of good juyce easie of digestion Let him drink white wine and exercise himself moderately his sleep should be somewhat longer then ordinary he is to be cherisht with mirth and good hopes perturbations of minde being wholly avoided Of the overflowing of the monethly Tearms THe superfluous flux of moneths is when it doth tend to be the hurt rather then the good of the woman by reason that they are purged more then they should but in such women as are of a moist constitution that have good diet and much ease the moneths may be suffered to flow more then ordinarily they use The womb is the part chiefly affected sometimes the whole body sympathizeth this affection is an accident which appertains to the immoderate excretion it is not altogether against nature as it is in the bleeding of the nose and other bleedings for here onely too great a quantity of the monethly flux is unnatural This distemper takes away the appetite hinders digestion breeds crudities weakens the whole body the colour of the face is changed feaverish heats arise in the body sometimes the feet are swelled and a dropsie follows one cause is by reason of the heat thinness or abundance of blood more then is requisite or else because of the continual motion for when these concur Nature is defeated Immoderate fluxes caused by the birth of a large Infant are less dangerous because they will stay of themselves This disease is to be feared if the body be weakned or the colour of the face changed the woman being reduced to such coldness faintness of heart swoundings and sometimes death The Air that this Patient lives in should be temperate the meat binding and thickning exercise is forbidden her rest and sleep must be moderate her minde pleased Of the suppression of the Moneths AS the overflowing is dangerous so the retention on the contrary is as dangerous and unnatural if they be of age unless they have conceived the womb is chiefly affected in regard of the fatness thereof whereby the veins are crushed together and so the flux is hindred In this disease the forepart of the head is pained spreads it self to the neck shoulders and loins her appetite is taken away her minde unquiet her stomach queasie she loathes meat her face discoloured she is troubled with phlegm and taken with a trembling her urine is thick red and muddy sometimes blackish with a red watry substance in the bottom the chief cause is gross and phlegmy matter mixed with blood which stops the veins leading to the womb whereby the straitness of the veins doth happen or else from the inflammation of the womb if the Tearms are stopt other diseases must of necessity follow The Air she is to breathe must incline to heat her meat must be heating she must not sleep too long her minde must not be disquieted Of the Obstruction of the Liver THe Obstruction of the Liver is a binding or straitning of the Veins or Liver passages The Liver is the Store-house of blood from which all parts of the body draw nourishment and together with purer blood gross and slimy humors are generated in the Liver seeing that the branches of the hollow Veins are knit unto the Vena Porta in such sort that the knitting and combination doth not come within the compass of our sight as also that all the nutriments of the body must be conveighed through the port Veins and the hollow Veins ends which are very small where they end in the Liver substance so that it is no wonder that by reason of the passages and straitness Obstructions are oftner caused in the Liver then in any other Bowel This Disease doth breed in the extream parts of the vessels of the hollow part and Veins and they are terminated in the Livers substance with thin ends knit one into another with little bones the universal nourishment of the whole body being to be made through these This Disease is to be discerned by a heaviness and stretching pain in the right side then most to be perceived when the Patient is exercised presently after meat The narrowness of the Liver and Veins passages is the cause of this Disease The air for the Patient must be hot and clear his diet such as may heat not stopping he must shun bathing and exercise after meat his diet moderate he may sleep in the day time but not too long at night not at the most above seven hours his belly must be kept loose and his minde delighted The Hicket THe Hicket called Singultus is a violent or vehement motion of the Stomach whereby it doth endeavour to expel such things as rest in the Tunicles and in the Body and also such as do stick fast thereto The Hicket though it much resemble vomiting yet this Disease is rather stirred up then vomit when the humors are strongest the part affected is the mouth of the Stomach sometimes the inflamation of the Liver This Disease comes often for the most part by fits as the Cough doth with a swooning the cause of the swooning in this disease is the straitness of the passage of the air which is contained in the stomach it being often caused by fulness and superfluous moisture by which the Patient is either loaded â—or in a manner shrunk together If this disease be caused by fulness if a sneezing come the Patient will soon be rid of it if it be accompanied with wringing in the guts commonly called Illiaca passia it is a bad Omen but if it follow doating swooning or convulsion it is mortal A temperate air is best for the Patient his meat must be such as doth heat and dry a small quantity of Wine may be permitted Of the Stone THe Stone of the Kidneys is a hard substance bred like a Sand-stone in the Reins from whence by the force of the Urine it is often conveighed through the straight pipes into the Bladder if it be not too great which doth so stretch the passages of the Urine that great pain doth follow the settled pain is in the Veins and sometimes the right side or the left is affected or both at one time even as the right or left Kidney is affected for the gravel is bred in the mouth of the Kidney or substance of them This Disease is
instruments of breathing by some violent course from whence the Cough is caused The beginning of a Cough is for the most part from the Lungs whereby the Muscles of the Breast are stirred up and the chest is vehemently pressed by which means all things that are in the way are expelled when as the breath breaks forth so strongly the Lungs have this passion following it even as freezing follows cold in the brain and to bring this motion into act first the Lungs become wider then again they are shrunk the Midriff also being a help to this motion the Lungs are the affected part sometimes the Midriff Stomach and Liver for neither the Breast in the Plurisie nor the Liver can any wayes beget a Cough unless also the Lungs are hurt sometimes a Cough follows the stopping of the passage through which the breath is moved The signs of this disease are manifest for thâ— Cough is so strong that let one do what he caâ— he cannot forbear coughing there being ofteâ— a kinde of tickling in the inward parts of thâ— mouth this disease is often caused by an humor from the head into the Winde-pipe anâ— Lungs which if it run abundantly and witâ— great force the Patient breaths with greaâ— difficulty If the Cough hinders sleeping it is 〈◊〉 bad sign also a continual and vehement Cough with a distillation is accounted very dangerous because by this there is some danger of a Consumption a continual Cough is caused by aâ— old obstruction or corruption of the Lungs noâ— by Rhumes for when those stay the Cougâ— also stayes The Air where the Patient lives must be temperate and inclining to driness hiâ— meat must be easie of digestion very moderate he must avoid such things are sharp and bitter his exercise must be moderate day sleeps are hurtful his belly either by art or nature must be kept loose and all perturbations of minde to be avoided Of the Flux of the Belly A Disentery so properly called is a Flux of the belly with exulceration and excoriation whereunto great pains with gripings are joyned chiefly fat corpulent bodies are galled by sharp humors and sometimes the Filmes of the inward tunickles of the Bowels are voided by stool the inward parts are affected as those things which are voided do testifie for the excrements are thick and some fat or bloody drops are mixed therewith and sometimes foamy which is voided with winde this blood for the most part swims upon the excrements if the Ulcer be fastned on the inward Bowels but if the pain rest about the Navel or somewhat higher or that a quantity of blood is mixed and drowned with the stool in the beginning of this disease for the most part slimy biting Chollerick excrements of divers colours are voided wherewith at the last some quantity of blood is mixed also there is a griping of pain of the Bowels the excrements are little and expelled by little and little and after this a small quantity of flesh is voided and sometimes parcels of the Bowels â—â—ward Tunicles do appear in the Excrements This Flux is caused by sharp humors such as are putrefied and very much biting Signs of this disease are the weakness of the Stomach increase of thirst continual Flux of the Belly also if the Urine be not answerable to that which is drunk and black Excrements are voided the body being lean The air wherein the Patient is to remain ought to be temperate his diet easie of digestion and such as will breed good Blood because the Concoctive and retentive faculties are feeble exercise and motion are not to be â—sed watchings and all perturbations of minde â—â—e hurtful Of the Hemorhoids or Piles HEmorhoids are veins of the Fundamenâ— stretching beyond measure or swoln most excessively sometimes they appear abouâ— the Fundament and then they are called outward Hemorhoides sometimes they swell inward and then their swelling is not so great and therefore the Veins do not appear outwardly these are called the inward Hemorhoides when they run too much then they void Melancholly and thick blood but after it good anâ— red blood is perceived to issue after the blood iâ— of a Citron or pale colour the strength of thâ— body failing the weakness of the Legs and 〈◊〉 heavy pain of the Hips concuring the Blood iâ— oftentimes this way evacuated because abundance of dreggy blood which is this way generated by evil digestion would else rot and putrifiâ— in the body wherefore nature hath provideâ— that the Liver Spleen and other parts adjoyning through the former branches should senâ— all their corrupt blood through the Fundament Hemrhoids coming on such as are mad or molested with black Choller or the effects of thâ— Kidneys are good yet if they bleed too mucâ— there is great danger for they threaten a Dropsie if they flow naturally neither an inflamation of the Lungs Sides or else eating Ulcer oâ— Leprosie Melancholly or a Quartane Ague wiâ— soon follow The air the Patient lives in must bâ— dry his meat such as breeds very few Excrements his drink Wine some what binding Of Swoondings SWoonding called Sincope is a suddain failing of the strength and so it is in a degree in a manner deadly because it is the beginning of natures dissolution the heart in this disease is affected as may appear by the suddain failing of the strength of the body smallness and weakness of the pulse and coldness of the extream parts In this distemper the Patients face looks as if he were dead because the blood flies inward the extream part of the body by reason of faintness and looseness of the body wax cold their sweat being ill savoured by reason of the dissolution of the parts this disease is often caused by great watching anger sadness vexation and grief of minde by Feavers emptiness of the belly sweating labouring vomiting at the stool or by a suddain evacuation of water in a Dropsie for hereby moderate evacuations and resolutions of the Spirits are caused by which means the heart cannot but be greatly overthrown if when this sick person is in a swound the head fall on the Shoulders or Breast and he neither breaths nor his Pulse beats his face appearing green and of a leaden hue if a sneezing Medicine will not prevail present death is at hand The air this Patient is to remain in ought to be temperate for hot or cold offend his Chamber should be lightsome his meat easie of digestion his sleep not long except in extraordinary cases and a Physician by to observe the Patient in his sleeping and waking for if while the Patient is awake his pulse colour of his face and breathing be better or settled his sleep may be broken but those accidents being better whilest he sleeps he may continue sleeping Of the Spleen THe tumor of the Spleen is sometimes soon hardned and swells even as the Liver doth though it hath a thinner substance then the Liver because his nutriment is thick and besides the Spleen
the moderate use of Venery is healthful his excrements must be voided iâ— due time and if Nature be deficient herein Arâ— must be used his sleep must be moderate and his minde pleased Of Rheum RHeum in Latine called Catarrhus is a distillation commonly taking a deflux of humors and excrements from the head or brain into the other parts of the body and because thâ— brain is of a cold and a moist nature and dotâ— want plenty of nourishment by reason of thâ— largeness thereof so likewise it doth breed many excrements and the slight distemper being cold and moist will further it for vapors senâ— from the lower parts get up thither and these being thickned by reason of the brains thinness are entertained and even as these superfluous humors are sent back again to some one or other part of the body oftentimes in the first Ventricle if they do not offend much in quantity and then they are soonest purged by the Pallat sometimes they spread through divers places when they flow too much and then they are voided at the Nose Pallat Ears or Eyes and they do often fall into the Stomach and Lungs from whence several diseases are occasioned The Brain is most affected as may appear by those things which are voided at the Mouth Nose and Pallat and then it is a more continual disease neither is any hurt of any other part perceived whereby it may be cherisht but while it is caused by other parts of the body it will the better be known by its proper signs This is an affection which is caused by moderate excretion if the excrements of the head fall on the Lungs it doth cause for the most part hardness of breathing and a great Cough and Hoarseness bringing pain and soreness to the aforenamed places the hot distemper of the brain is sometimes the cause the great weakness thereof being oftentimes the cause sometimes it is occasioned from the brains cold and moist distemper for then the nutriments conveighed to the brain are not well digested whereby many superfluities are gathered and store of excrements lodged in the brain Surfeits and too much fulness encreases this Disease or by too much sleep also by the weakness of the digestive and expulsive faculty of the brain If the humor fall from the head to the nose it is but a small grief if to the throat worse if to the lungs worst of all for the lungs are in danger of being exulcerated from whence comes a Consumption the Winter season is very obnoxious to this disease because of the uncertainty of the weather The air the Patient lives in should be moderately hot and rainy weather as also Northern and Southern blasts must be avoided his meat must be very easie of digestion and such as breeds good blood his sleep must be moderate and sometimes in the day time his head must be so covered that neither too much cold nor too much heat offend it his body must daily either by art or nature be emptied of excrements he must use moderate exercise and shun the passions of minde Of the Pain of the Stomach THe pain of the Stomach called Cardialgia is a painful sense of the mouth of the stomach caused by a biting matter This distemper hath an affinity with the Disease called Cardaica passio which is in like manner a Disease oâ— the mouth of the stomach caused by corrupt humors and such as are biting and violent which either came from some other place or else werâ— there generated and gathered together Thâ— Cardaica passio differs from this Disease becausâ— this is caused by biting humors but that is caused by virulent humors venomous and so malign that a very hot and sharp Feaver accompanies it The mouth of the Stomach is primarily affected the heart being hereby hurt because of the nearness a pinching pain with biting and fretting being felt under the Breasts grissels In this Disease there is a gnawing biting and pricking of the stomach there is an oppressing pain there whereby the Patient breaths with difficulty sometimes the belly doth cast out the chollerick stuff and sometimes he doth vomit choller a Feaver seldom comes with this In this Disease the appetite is abated the Patient is in more pain before then after meat this Disease is often caused by sadness for by those causes Choller comes into the stomach whereby bitings and gnawings are caused sometimes by inflamation or by sharp or phlegmy humors if this Disease comes without a Feaver it is less dangerous Let the air the Patient lives in be cold either by art or nature his meat easie of digestion and such as is least subject to corruption rest asswages the pain his sleep must be moderate â—is belly must be rendred answerable to nature â—erturbations of his minde are to be shunned especially choller Of the Gout THe Joynt-Gout is a feebleness of the Joynts and pain coming upon them at several diâ—â—ances of time for the most part it is caused by 〈◊〉 Flux which windeth it self betwixt the Ligaments Films and Tendons of the Joynts for in this disease the Joynts do first receive the Humor which at length doth insinuate into the Films adjoyning sometimes there is a Gout in the fingers sometimes in the knee sometimes in the hips from whence it spreads it self to the Thighs Calves of the Legs and to the end of the Feet yet this Gout sticks not in the Hip but is fastned above the Hip at the toâ— of the Buttock if the Gout stick in the feet ' tiâ— called Podagra or the Feet-Gout whether it bâ— in the ankles soles of the feet or great toeâ— joynt sometimes it seizes on the shoulder-joynts and turning-joynts of the Back-bone oâ— Chine sometimes not any knitting of thâ— bones is free from this pain The parts affecteâ— are the joynts tendons ligaments films of thâ— parts of the body which either knit or inviron the bones are here affected and sometimes thâ— Membranes are filled and stretcht the Patient iâ— tormented for a long space when this Diseasâ— doth first surprize him yet the pain is but little by the use of evil diet almost all the joynts oâ— his body suffering alike sometimes not one parâ— of the body being free from this Disease In thâ— Feet or Hip-Gout for the most part no swellinâ— doth appear but in the Hand and Knee-Gout swelling redness and heat by extream pains aâ— easily to be perceived sometimes an inflamatâ—on is caused and then the appetite is lost anâ— the Patient is troubled with watchings and Feaver The cause of every Joynt-Gout is foâ— the most part great store of phlegmatick humors or some other humors overflowing in the greater Veins the Liver and Head so that the parts are therewith surcharged and that these parts may likewise be free of this burthen they do cast these excrements upon the joynts ligaments and tendons and films whereby they are filled stretcht and weakned There are four causes of these superfluities of humors the
immoderate use of strong Wine Venery crudities and feebleness of the parts to which may be added the relinquishing of accustomed exercises and suppression of evacuation This disease is an an hereditary Disease The pains of the Feet-gout trouble the Patient at the Spring time and Autumn if this Disease be not cured before the Patient comes to his perfect growth it will not be pefectly cured The air the Patient lives in must be temperate inclining to heat and driness such meats as do moderately nourish are good and such they must eat but sparingly when their Disease hath left them they may use exercises otherwise not their sleep must be moderate for too long sleep cherishes this Disease his belly must alwayes be kept loose the use of Venery is hurtful all perturbations of the minde are to be avoided Of Congelation COngelation called Catalepsis is a sudden detaining both of soul and body with the which whosoever is taken the same figure of body doth neverthelesse remain he abides sitting or lying if he did either sit or lie when the fit took him By some this disease is stiled an awaking amazement because the disease takes away sense and motion in all parts of the body this disease agrees in some things but differs very much in others from an Apoplexy In this disease the brains hinder-part is chiefly affected the animal part being hurt as well imaginative as sensitive and motive In this disease the Patient is dumb his body is bereft of sense and motion and though he retain the form of one being awake yet his minde and senses are asleep and that on such a sudden that the lookers on are amazed This disease in so vehemently seizing on the Patient that he rather thinks he is transported to heaven then dead the minde is assaulted so violently that the person in this distemper remains in the same figure wherein he was when he was stricken he can neither void excrements make water by reason of the senses dulness his pulse beating little and faintly but in the mean time equal This affect is caused by a cold and weak distemper of the brain whereby the brain and animal spirits are congealed and dried up not onely cooled A cold and dry matter causeth this disease as melancholly the air cold and dry the mixture of Phlegm and Choller when both overflow they are in great hazzard of life that are taken with this disease if this disease be strong it is hardly to be cured The air the Patient lives in must be hot and moist his meat Ptisan Cream his drink small white Wine and somewhat a stringent Of the Frenzy A Right Frenzy is an inflamation of the brain and the films thereof bringing with it a sharp Feaver doating and alienation of minde it is a kinde of a madness both dreadful and dangerous because this disease is generated in part which is the chief sense of the faculties of the Soul and because a true Frenzie hath its beginning from a false it will be convenient first to treat of a false Frenzie It is an alienation of the minde with disquietness without an impostume of the brain and it doth follow a Feaver caused by Blood or Choller doatings do not fret and grieve so much as they do that are possest with a true Frenzie and as the Feaver doth increase or decrease so the fate of the Frenzie is increased or decreased especially in the hour of the Crisis or conflict betwixt Nature and the Disease In these Feavers dry Vapors get up into the Brain whereby the animal parts are disquieted sometimes Impostumes are the cause of this disease The parts affected are the Pia mater or dura mater In this distemper there is a continual and dry Feaver and as the Patient sleeps very disquietly so his watchings are more troublesome he breaths by fits he will if he be not lookt to start out of his bed suddainly he will weep sing and cry out the Patients tongue is withered black he is very thirsty his Urine is thin and fiery sometimes white and thin then he is in great danger This distemper is caused with too much blood and such a one is mad with Laughter yet he dotes less and is not so Feaverish but when it is caused by burnt Choller then is the Patient stark mad and must needs be bound as he is in this distemper very strong A Feaver is the inseparable companion of this disease this is a most sharp and dangerous distemper and speedily kills if present remedy are not given for all kindes of Frenzies are mortal being bred in the place where the souls principal part is resident The air the Patient remains in must be temperate and bright no variety of Pictures must remain in his sight his diet must be such as may moisten and cool the body he must avoid too much motion frictions on the lower parts are to be used especially when the disease is milder sleep must be procured by Local Medicines and such as are received in at the mouth the Excrements of the Belly must be evacuated for if they are kept in they do encrease the disease perturbations of his minde are to be avoided Of the Dropsie THe Dropsie is such a passion that it is not without plenty of watry humors because the blood-making-faculty is vitiated it is a long disease for the most part caused by the coldness of the Liver There are three kindes of Dropsies Anasarca which is a dispersing of Phlegmy humors over the whole body In this Disease the body increaseth most unnaturally for it is all over swelled and an humor mixed with Phlegmy Blood is spread over all the body between the skin and the flesh and the body doth suck it up even as a sponge sucks up water and by reason of this an ill colour passes over the whole body The second sort of Dropsie called Ascites is that when great store of windes but greater of water are gathered together in one place which doth lie between the Guts and the Stomach In this Disease first the belly and Abdomen by little and little then the Thighs are swelled and all the other parts of the body by little and little wax lean but when there is a greater store of winde then water whereby the Abdomen is stretcht beyond measure called Timpanites then rather a noise of winde then water is perceived if the belly be strook for there is the sound of a Tabor from whence this Disease hath its name The natural colour of the face in this Disease is not altered the Liver is the part affected for hereby the blood is generated and from this the Dropsie is caused by the primary affect of the Liver and then the Cough comes withal because the hugeness of the Liver causeth the obstructions of the Lungs also the Excrements are not very liquid Sometimes this Disease is caused by the consent of the Misentery Spleen Stomach Meseraick Veins and Jejunium intestinum whereof
dry and binde it ought to be of a slimy substance he must eat sparingly he may drink wine and water mixed together he must shun all exercise he must breath very gently for violent breathing is offensive he must not sleep in the day time his sleep at night must be moderate his belly must be kept loose by art or nature perturbations of his minde must be avoided especially anger The Postscript COurteous Student observing my indisposition of Health to encrease and still seize more powerfully on me I have so ordered through the trust I have imposed in some of my best Friends that these Papers preserserved for the publique good should out-live me in which as the old Saying is I have inclosed Homerâ— Iliads in a Nut-shel in these few Pages epitomized the Mystery of the Skill of Physick in this small Looking-glass representing to thy clear view above forty of the most dangerous and desperate Diseases that chiefly in this Life afflict ouâ— frail Bodies It cannot be expected that having confined my self to such narrow limits that I should have annexed there more particular Cures they having been so seriously and I hope through Gods Blessing successfully treated of in my foregoing Treatises I acknowledge in these my last Endeavors that I have in part made use of an excellent Manuscript amongst others some years since that came happily to my perusual whether it were 〈◊〉 Original a Coppy a Translation or the Authors Name I know not but whosoever he were I so approved of his admirable Reason that I thought it fit to joyn the best Experience of my own continued Practice to it Vis unita fortior It is â—â—t out of any arrogance or prerogative of my own fancy that I have stiled these three Diet Reaâ—on and Experience Doctors those that know 〈◊〉 rightly can determine that I was never so inmoured with that Title but onely to inform my â—istaken Countrey-men that it is not the Cowl â—â—at makes the Munk the shaking of the Vrinal â—e stroaking of the Beard hard Words the Plush â—loak a large House with a Monster in the first â—â—om to amaze the Patient but deep grounded Reaâ—â—â—n and tried Experience that commences a Physiâ—an with Diet Reason and Experience The three â—â—re-mentioned Authentick Doctors I have conâ—lted I commend their Advice to the well affectâ—â— and judicious for others I care not Nicholas Culpeper Chymical INSTITUTIONS DESCRIBING Natures Choicest Secrets in Experienced Chymical Practice shewing the several Degrees of Progression in the Physical Cabinet of that Art BY Nich. Culpeper Gent. late Student in Physick and Astrology LONDON Printed for Nath. Brook at the Sign of the Angel in Cornhill 1659. Chymical Institutions Describing Natures Choicest Secrets in Experienced Chymical Practice shewing the several degrees of Progression in the Physical Cabinet of that Art Chap. 1. Vinegar of Squills TAke of Squills the outward skins and hard root at the bottom being cast away one pound slice them with an Ivory or Bone Knife for Iron spoils them then put them into three quarts of strong Vinegar stop them close and in one moneth they will be ready for use and then if you please with Honey you may make them into a Syrup * According to the quality of the Patient strength of nature of the disease so let the Dose be 3 and therefore no certain Dose can generally be determined The Dose is one spoonful in the morning â—sting and walking an hour after it It preserveth the body in health even till exâ—eam old age as Samius recorded by Gallen â—oved whom he affirmed to live one hundred â—â—d seventeen Years in health using no other â—edicine but onely this It causeth good digestion long winde clear â—â—ce acute sight good hearing it expelleth winde and makes a good colour it suffers no offensive thing to remain in the body Winde Choller Phlegm Dung nor Urine but bringeth them forth brings out filth though it lies in the bones it hath been known to cure such as have been given over by all Doctors it cures hardness of the Liver and Spleen takes away Gouts and all swelling of the Limbs In a word I commend it for a wholesome Medicine for soundness of body conservation of health and vigor of minde The Colledge of Physicians of London laid all their heads together to hammer out the time when this Squill must be gathered or taken out of the earth and the result of all their consultations was this That it must be gathered at the rising of the Dog-star and so they very learnedly quoted it in that stately piece of Wit their Pharmacopeia but which of the two Dog-stars they mean whether Cyrius or Procyon or whaâ— rising whether Comiscal Acronychal or Heliacal I know not I nor I think themselves neither so that a childe in Astrology cannot chuse buâ— admire at their learned ignorance Chap. 2. Elixir Vitae TAke of Cloves Nutmegs Zedoary Giâ—ger Galangal Pepper white and blacâ— Juniper-berries Citron pills Orange pills Sagâ— Basil Rosemary Mints Marjoram Bay-berrieâ— Penniroyal Gentian Calamint Elder leave Roses white and red Spicknard Cubebs Aloe Hapatique the seeds of Mugwort and Marjoram of each two drams Figs Raisins Dates Almonds Pine-nuts of each six ounces white Honey a pound Musk one dram fine Sugar four pound bruise the things that may be bruised and infuse them all together in fifteen pints of Aqua vitae for ten dayes or thereabouts afterwards still it in a bathe till the feces be dry Take this water and stop it close in a glass let it stand in Horse-dung two Moneths then have you the first water good Then take out the feces and distil them in sand with a strong fire and there will come out a water red like blood and thick which will stink admirably place this in Horse-dung as the former this is the second water of the nature of fire The first water if a childe take a dram of it every third day in the morning it keeps its body sound from diseases it cureth wounds at three times washing with it or four at the most it helps all infirmities in the eyes a drop being put into them the face and breast being washed with it it preserveth Youth being taken inâ—ardly it provoketh Lust and makes barren women fruitful The latter water a spoonful will recover and revive a man that is half dead it helps pains in the Matrix and cures Pleurisies being used by â—nction it cures pains of the Chollick helpeth â—ardness of the Spleen pains in the teeth stinkâ—ng breath Feavers of all sorts being taken inwardly and powerfully prevails against humors of all sorts if any one be so sick that he cannot speak give him a drachm of this with a drachm of the former water and so soon as it is in his mouth he will speak This Dr. Floravantus saith he hath proved an hundred times yet if it lack not above half the number it is no matter Chap. 3. Aqua Mirabilis TAke of Turpentine one
Dung as before we have directed concerning digestion and let it be fermented there one Moon or thereabouts according as the season is and when you see the matter to be resolved into water and the gross substance residing in the bottom of the Pellican to be separated quite from the water then take it out of the dung and put it in Balneo Mariae with an Alimbeck and distil it with a gentle fire as before is spoken of the Quintessence of Wine And when you have performed the first distillation mix it again with the Feces which remain in the Distillatory and let it putrifie again in the dung until you see the pure to be separated from the impure and the pure and subtle matter to swim above the Feces And if the season be fair and clear let it putrifie a longer time then if it were cloudy or rainy weather This being done distil it again the second time then mix it again with the Feces to digest and then distil it repeating this course four times over at least After the fourth distillation circulate it a long time in the same manner as you do the Quintessence of Wine till it come to the perfection and purity of a Quintessence of humane blood which hath a noble vertue to sustain humane nature in all infirmities and free the body from all Diseases Let this therefore suffice to have spoken concerning humane blood If you would also extract a Quintessence from Flesh or Eggs let the Flesh be finely and subtly minced and then bray it in a Mortar with a tenth part of common Salt In like manner let the Eggs be beat in a Mortar with alt till they be reduced into water afterwards put them in a Cucurbite and place thereupon a blinde Alimbeck and worâ— in all things in digestion fermentation and distillation as is directed touching humanâ— blood Chap. 18. To draw a Quintessence from Apples Pears and other fruits IF you would draw a Quintessence from Apples Prunes Cherries Chestnuts or such kinde of Fruits first cut them small with a knife then beat them in an earthen Mortar and incorporate them well with the tenth part of common Salt afterwards put them in a Cucurbite and place thereupon a blinde Alimbeck well luted and set it in Horse-dung to putrifie as before is spoken concerning humane blood and then the vertue and excellency of the Fruit cometh forth out of its essence which lies occult in the matter and when it is separated from its Feces and gross matter it is reduced to a certain immaterial and incorrupt matter deservedly by Philosophers called the Quintessence of Fruits and hath an hundred times greater vertue then it had before when it was an Elementary Body Chap. 19. To extract a Quintessence from Flowers Herbs and Roots IF you would separate a Quintessence from the four qualities of Flowers Herbs and Roots take them when they are at their full maturity with their whole substance in a clear and serene season the Moon increasing near the full for then the Herbs are more free from corruption and after you have cut them small beat them in a Marble Morter with the tenth part of salt and impose in a circulatory Let it ferment in Horse-dung a moneth renewing the dung once a week then at the monthes end take it out of the dung place upon it a blinde Alimbeck and distil it in Balneo Mariae augmenting the fire to the third degree then reserving the distilled water take the feces and pulverize them finely afterwards powre the distilled water upon the feces and again set on a blinde Alembick luting all well distil them as at first in Balneo Mariae abating the fire half a degree Afterwards pulverize the feces again and powre on them the distilled water let it digest again and distil it the third time and putrifie it alwayes abating the fire half a degree decrease also the putrifaction half a degree alwayes see that in the second digestion it putrifie one and twenty dayes in the third fourteen dayes and in the fourth eight so that it is to be fermented four times After the fourth distillation is performed put it in a Circulatory and bury it in Horse-dung or in Balneo making the fire in the first degree or it may also be set in the Sun in Summer and circulated there one moneth or a little more while the superfluous humidity of the four qualities is quite digested consumed and resolved in the Circulatory by frequent ascension and descension and thus you have a Quintessence wherein consists the greatest vertue of Herbs Flowers and Roots You may do it likewise after the same manner as Chelidonia and it will be the stronger Chap. 20. How to distill Vinegar and mans Vrine wherein all calcined Metals may be resolved WE have already declared that Sol may be dissolved in distilled Vinegar we come now to describe the manner of distilling the Vinegar for there is a great difference between the distillation of Aqua vitae and Vinegar for in Aqua vitae the better substance is first distilled but in Vinegar it is last take therefore the best Vinegar you can get put it in a Cucurbite and set thereon an Alimbeck and distill it in ashes or in sand or in Balneo Mariae with a gentle fire until no more water will come forth taste the water often upon your Tongue if it be very sharp with a kinde of ucerdacity or biting then it is time to remove the receiver and put another in his place which is to be well luted and augment the fire a little and when you see little white lines as it were little Clouds in the Alimbeck continue distilling until the spirits do arise the Vapors whereof you shall see arise unto the top of the Cucurbite and pass out of the Alimbeck into the receiver but when you see as it were drops of blood in the Limbeck then apply another receiver and let it distil until all that sanguine matter be come into the receiver and this matter is very fetid smelling of Combustion and therefore is not fit to resolve Calcined Sol to make Aurum potabile but good to tinge mettals because the fetor of the Combustion will adhere to the substance of the Sun whereby the Aurum potabile will be corrupted But if you would distill mans Urine wherein leaves of Gold or Calcined Gold may be dissolved from which the Urine being so distilled may be extracted a colour to make the Aurum potabile so much spoken of which hath an excellenâ— virtue against the Gout the feet being twice or thrice in a day bathed therewith and let dry of themselves it is good also for such as are Ptysical and for many other diseases which for brevities sake I omit Take therefore the Urine of a man of a sanguine complexion or a sound Choller one that drinks good Wine and is not above thirty five years of age distil it four times by an Alimbeck in Balneo Mariae