is that Plant called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that drives away this madnesse and restrains furious and Lunatick people that are as mad as doggs though they chance to be bitten by them But if you cut that Worme from whelps tongues they will never run mad nor will they ever bite any man that the biting shall prove mortall and they will trouble us but seldome with barking but this creature hath his melancholique blood inflamed and kindled and the other humours of his body all about When Doggs run mad especially when the Dogg-days cause great heat and contagion bred from corruption makes him rage and run mad so that his tongue will swell and the Nerve that is under it and so his mouth is full of venemous froth and moysture that is contagious that will infect one if it do but touch him For if this creature meet those he knoweth The fome of a mad Dogg is dangerous or whether he knows them not he will hurt them all alike and if any fome or froth stick upon any part it will endanger a man though the dog bite him not unlesse you presently wash it off with Salt-water But since many remedies have been invented to cure this biting none is more ready at hand and certain than presently to dilate the wound and to scarify the skin fastning cupping-glasses to the part affected with a great flame then to lay on a Cataplasm of Leeks Onions Garlick Rocket Remedies for a Doggs madnesss Centory the lesse Worm-wood and Salt-Butter made up with honey Also the Urine of a young boy applyed to bathe the part draws forth the Venome also Opopanax Rue Salt Figgs red Colewort-leaves pounded in a Morter with Honey and Butter and applyed to the place hurt are good But a vein must not be opened by any means for by that unseasonable remedy The biting of a Dogg needs no Vein to be opened the venome is drawn inwardly and presently runs to the vitals and infects the humours and Spirits wherefore such means as will discusse and dissipate venemous vapours must be given inwardly What things drive forth madnesse as Theriac Mithridate Garlick Scordium Masterwort and Angelica which is in virtue next to Masterwort Zedoary root Rue Marigolds Balme Orris roots dried Elecampane Figs Decoction of Pock-wood Basil Cunula Hysop wild Thime Origanum each of them hath a discussing virtue and is Diaphoretick that by opening the pores of the body and provoking sweat dispells the Poyson and will not let it passe into the Veins The force of the Sea for the biting of a Dogg Our Countrey-men that live neere to the Sea take such as are bitten by a mad dogge to the Sea and also bruit Beasts and plunge them seven times in not superstitiously observing that number but that the venome may be washed out the better whereby they get thus much Mad people fear the Water that all fear of the water called Hydrophobia which is that troubles them extreamly is wholly taken away For those that are so affected both thirst after water and are frighted by reason of the alienation of their minds and because they want reason whence it comes to passe that without making any difference or choice of things that are good they refuse what is wholsome for them Drink not to be with-held from roaring people and choose things hurtfull for if they drink abundantly they are cured Wherefore though they abhorr water and all liquid matter yet they must be forced to drink that so the venome may be washed away and not have opportunity to run so fast to the internall parts But it is wonderfull that poysons not onely given inwardly will prove deadly but bitings and stingings of venemous Creatures outwardly do insensibly by degrees lay hold on the vital parts and will make way to the heart the Fountain of Life The danger of spittle and other principall parts So the spittle of those that are sick of the Elephantiasis or Leprosie and the fome also of a mad Dogg being but sprinkled the skin will penetrate and become pernicious unlesse they be presently wiped off and the part rubbed with Salt so that if the nervous parts or those through which the Arteries are derived chance to be bit or torn or infected with such foul filthy moysture and froth the venome is communicated to the Heart and Brain so that the Heart the vital Spirit being infected How the Venome is drawn to the internalls falls into swounings and deliquiums also the brain by reason of the Nerves affected that proceed from it is laid hold on from whence ariseth fury and madnesse and alienation of the mind But if it happen that the fleshy parts are affected which are nourished by the blood out of the veins or are bitten the mortal venome passeth through the Channels of the Veins to the Heart and Liver and other principall parts and about the 40th day or a little before the sick grow mad and abhor the water But remember that you may rightly and with good successe undertake the cure Those that are bit are mad about the 40 day that you do not rashly suffer the wound to close together and come to cicatrice which also must be accurately observed in Carbuncles and Bubos and other pestilentiall tumours for if the least spark of the contagion stay within the disease will grow again and come on with more violence The place bit not to be closed up presently Synapisms and precipitate powder good for the bite Wherefore you must purge the venome with a synapisme or powder of precipitate for that will keep the wound that lyeth open from closing and effectually draws forth the venom In the mean time by intervals and gently melancholy humours must be purged away that the madnesse may be driven out or grow more mild for which purpose you may conveniently give in a decoction or infusion Sena Polypod Epithym Hellebour Harts-tongue Walfern Fumetory buglosse and especially confectio Hamech with syrup of Epithym and Fumetory which also may be given for the bitings of other Creatures whereof some are more dangerous than others are CHAP. VI. Of the Nature and force of Gold and what effect it hath if it be at any time used for the health and defence of Man's Body Man is affected with transitory things The great hunger after Gold AMongst all those things that by Man's care and industry are dug forth of the bowels of the earth Man's mind desires nothing more greedily which seeks not solid matters but frail uncertain fugitive transitory things than Gold yet with Gold can he never be filled nor satisfied though he do obtain it by heaps in abundance The use and necessity of Money Now the principall use of Gold and Silver consists in this for the Commonwealth is held together by the benefit of Money as the body is by the Nerves and with it are all contracts Bargains Fairs Meetings agreements and
life and will not easily let it go because that she finds the greatest force of spirits to be in it which being exhausted the whole body pines away and the works of nature are performed worse than they were But when some nutriment is given Meat to be offered before blood letting it will run forth more readily For the spirits are quickned by eating and much cheered by drinking and moderate exercise and the blood runs all over the body and makes it more ruddy and well colour'd But it is a question whether it be fit to sleep presently after bloud-letting Whether we may sleep after a vein opened I unlesse one be used to it or be weary with heat and long travell do not think it fit or good for ones health in the spring and summer to sleep at noon nor do I think it good for to sleep presently after opening a vein especially if ones belly be full or his body fat After blood-letting be temperate For some of these are of opinion that after blood-letting they should restore their strength by cramming themselves with meat and drink Who become sleepy and drowsy and fall asleep with no small losse to their health and danger For their brains are so filled with thick vapours and the veins do so swell thereby oft-times that the orifice opens and the blood runs forth again to the great inconvenience of their health I remember that this fell out upon one of our Magistrates who in the Ides of May An example of one that died by sleeping when prayers unto God and abstaining from â—abour are commanded for three dayes he had a vein opened at that time and as the custome is at dinner he eat green garlick and drank wine plentifully about noon his head being fill'd with fumes he first slept then died Wherefore he that would do best for his health the day a vein is opened should live on a sparing diet and abstain from sleep so long as he can but if it come upon him against his will and he cannot hold open his eyes yet let him keep from sleeping so long till the force and motion of the bloud be setled which is done after one hour and half Then he may quietly repose himself and taking care not to hurt that part of his body that was cut let him lye half down and lean his head on a pillow if he cannot sleep upright in a chair But if he sleep above two hours he must be pulled that he may awake lest the spirits should grow dull and the body should be oppressed by a general dark vapour whereby the party falls to vomiting and loathing and can hardly shake off his yawning CHAP. XXVI Physiognomy that is the reason how to look into the Nature and manners of men and with which by the marks and signs of the body we may judge of the motion and propension of the mind is not to be disliked Moreover I shall prove by Testimony of Scripture what is most convenient to be observed hereby The countenance and eyes are the Tables of the mind SOme Arts are held unlawfull and not fit to be used because they are near of kin to false Imposture and because they have some curious and neat observations But Physiognomy which by the face eyes countenance lineaments and the whole habit discovers the propension of the mind and body is in no part of it to be referred to unlawfull arts for the most excellent men were very studious in it and carefull to adorn it But since there is no part of the body though never so small base and ignoble that offords not some argument of the imbred nature and to what the mind is inclined yet the chief marks and tokens appeare in the face and countenance and which is the most certain discoverer of the mind in the volubility and aspect of the eyes For in them do shine hate anger Indignation fear hope joy modesty arrogance jealousy covetousnesse aemulation and all internall affections of the mind in the outward habit of the body So when God saw Cain sad and his countenance cast down he said unto him Gen. 4. Why art thou sad and why is thy countenance fallen Also Joseph when he saw his fellow Prisoners sad he asked them why is your face more sad than ordinary Gen. 40. for he observed that there was some ill apprehension in their minds and the certain notes of it were seen in their Countenance To which appertains that of Isaias Cap. 3. A place of Esaias explained The shew of their Countenance doth witnesse against them Whereby he shews â—â—at wicked men may be caught by their looks For their countenance shews what malice they are fill'd with what they meditate what they desire to undertake and whither their wicked intentions are bent There are many things to prove this that we may read in David and Solomon's lives Psal 34. whereby they do condemn the wickednesse of some men and expresse it by their forehead eyebrows eyes rolling up and down biting of their lips their nostrils wrinkled their cheeks swoln their proud gate unseemly behaviour their nodding and fierce countenance Whence saith the Wise man Prov. 6. A wicked and ungodly man goeth with a proud lock he winketh with his eyes speaketh with his feet teacheth with his fingers frowardnesse is in his heart he deviseth mischief and continually soweth discord But in those that are of a pleasing and mild spirit all things appear well in their countenances Their standing going lying down their countenance eyes hands motion serve all to expresse an honest and comely mind as also in the face wisdome honour honesty and other vertues appear But though all things do not exactly answer the praedictions of this art and many things fall out contrary to the marks that are outwardly on the body and that either by reason of education or the Industry of Parents or else by the grace of God yet for the most part they are true and the event is certain For in such as are marked with some visible note Art finds out the truth Notes of the body shew the condition of the Mind For where there is an errour about some principal part there the mind partakes of some inconvenience and cannot perfectly perform her offices So they that are deformed with a bunch-back so it be a natural Infirmity and not accidental nor come by any fall or blow are commonly wicked and malitious because the depravation is communicated to the heart that is the fountain and beginning of life Next to these are squint blind blear-ey'd people and such as have rolling eyes and such as cast their eyes aside because Nature failed about the brains But deaf mute stuttering stammering people and such as cannot speak plain by reason of the weaknesse of the nerves and muscles are not free from vice yet they do not deserve to be much blamed for it For the lesse noble and generous
bowels before its due time Whereby the use and fruit that a man should have of his meat is lost and by obstructing the bowels causeth putrefaction of humours and becomes the seminary of Feavers and other diseases And the same Inconvenience befalls them who before meat when they go to meals drink abundantly For the meats are presently washed away and cannot stay long in the stomach We must drink by degrees and not greedily Wherefore I think it is good counsell for people not to drink greedily and great draughts when they eat but by little and little that so both may mingle as they should and be concected alike especially those that have large passages and wide veins But those that use to eat so that they do not drink in the middle of their meat must drink great draughts that the beer may penetrate and be mingled with their meat Also they that are in hot feavers Who must drink largely and desire to be refreshed with drink must drink abundantly but not suddenly and in haste but leasurely and drinking long For so it will moisten the stomach very abundantly nor doth the drink presently run away to the bladder For a little drink neither quencheth thirst nor abates the heat but augments it the more A simile from a Smiths shop For as Sea-coles in Smiths forges wetted with wet brushes sometimes will flame and burn the more so the heat of a Feaver is kindled the more and not quenched with a little drink and makes the sick the more thirsty But they that are thirsty from wearinesse and heat of the weather they must quench their thirst gently and sweetly For so the liquor will stay the better and moisten all the dry parts It is sometimes better to eat than to drink But I thought fit to joyn to this argument such as consume by a hectick Feaver or consumption and are grown exceeding lean by diseases it is better for them to eat some solid meat than to drink any drink For the weight of the mâ—at dilates the jugular passages and makes the waies of the throat passable that it may fall down more easily which drink cannot do For since the parts and passages of the throat destinated for this use are sunk down that the sides lye one upon the other drink being thin and not weighty cannot open them easily and passe down inoffensively unlesse they drink abundantly for so the throat will give away and the drink run down The like to this befalls those that have the Palsy The spirits cannot so well passe to the nerves as the meat or the Apoplex For the spirits being thin and subtile do not easily passe from the brain to the nerves Whence it is that sense and motion are taken from them but the humours that feed the parts make a way for themselves by their weight and find a passage to the parts of the body which they open A simile from the sun and hail So the sun beams cannot part a thick and dark cloud whereas hail can do it easily Wherefore let not any man wonder how it is that paralytick limbs are nourished when they want both feeling and motion for the parts receive nutriment by the broad passages and by their thicknesse make themselves a way which the spirits are too thin to do wherefore the nerves being deprived of the animall spirit The nerves have sense and motion deprive the parts of sense and motion but they are fed by other wayes than by the nerves namely by the rivers and receptacles of bloud which are the veins CHAP. XXXIX All such things as hastily come to maturity or rise to their full length do the sooner fail and cannot last long as we see it in children and some kind of plants A simile from Trees AS in trees and all plants that grow up to their full growth and come to their full maturity before their due time and course of nature they soon decay and fail suddenly so in the wits and bodies of men if any endowments and parts do shew themselves sooner than ordinary and they grow ripe before they should they use to continue the shorter time and to fall to decay the sooner For there is no solid force in them nor do they depend on a firm foundation and so do not easily come to perfection So children that soonest breed teeth It is ominous to be born with teeth as some are born with teeth in their heads soonest cast their teeth For their first teeth by reason of the softnesse of the binding nerves are not so fast nor do they stick so firmly So they that soon stand on their feet and go use to have weaker legs but such as are long before they go go stronger and fall not so often Which is also observed in those that speak very soon they will afterwards speak more stammeringly and will not bring forth their words so articulately and significantly Wherefore it is better that things should proceed more leasurely and increase more slowly Rare fruits soon decay For when nature heaps up her forces on the parts more abundantly than is fit it falls out that as they grow elder she wants to supply them withall Whence it is that those parts perform their offices worst as not being supported by any forces or nutriment flowing to them And we observe in all kind of plants and fruits Late fruit lasts longest that those that come late to be ripe last longest but those that are soon ripe are spongy and lither and soon rotten For ripenesse that comes in haste decays first Those that are soon ripe are not so solid Wherefore we like in young boyes a soon ripe and hasty wit the worst as also many gifts of nature or endowments of body or mind that come on more hastily than ordinarily they use to do or is fit for that age For such are found not to be so long lived and to dye in a short time Hence the Hollanders have a proverb A common Proverb on children that are active too soon They make too much hast whereby they mean that contrary to the common course of nature and usual time and order of things and contrary to reason many things come to perfection the similitude being taken from children that will stand and go before they be a year old and stay by nothing to hold them up which afterwards they perform very weakly and will hardly go at all CHAP. XL. Sometimes our meats are hurt and contract a venemous quality by the sitting of some venemous creatures upon them Likewise in mens bodies from filth abounding in them some things are bred as Frogs Toads Mice Rats Bats and an example of this is set down NOt onely faulty and virulent humours breed from corrupt nutriments of the body but besides some sorts of Worms divers sorts of living creatures breed in the secret cavities of the bowels The beginning of living Creatures in
the first moment of Conception are perfected the eighteenth day then till the fourty fourth day the other parts are perfected and the child begins to live and feel though it move not being weak or it moves so weakly that the Mother cannot perceive it At this time the rational soul is thought to enter and to add force to the natural faculties and to perfect the whole work which Augustine proves by the testimony of Moses Quaest 32. Exod. 20. If anyone saith he strike a woman great with child and she miscarry if the child were formed he shall pay life for life but if the child were not alive he shall pay a sum of money for it Whereby he proves that the soul is not in the child nor can it be called Man unlesse all the members be perfected that it have the perfect form of a man Since therefore it is infused into the body made no man may think it comes in with the seed For if the rational immortal Soul were in the seed or should flie out with it many souls saith he would vanish with the daily running forth of the Seed Wherefore it is not fit to think that the Soul was propagated by Adam or any of our progenitours but that God doth every moment create and infuse them Which I think may be confirmed by this saying of our Saviour John 5. My Father worketh unto this time and I do work Whereby he implyes that the great and good God the Father and the Son also that is equal to him and of the same essence are still working in creating and saving the souls of men and are busied in producing them and of other Creatures souls also whereby they live and have their being To which belongs that of the Psalmist God saves both man and beast and feeds and fills them with his plenty Psalm 35. Davids words explained Who being peculiarly affected toward man he hath bestowed more rare gifts on his soul For man is in a more excellent condition by far than the beasts are For God hath given to man reason and a mind which other creatures have not and hath taught him to know his maked and hath breathed into him a divine soul which bounty Job confesseth He teacheth us more than the beasts of the Earth Job 35. he instructeth us above the Fouls of the Ayre whereby he shews that men excell other creatures and that God hath given man better parts in abundance But imperfect births and Monsters want these singular gifts of God For though some of them panâ— and seem to be alive yet they have not that from a rational soul but from the forming faculty and the generative spirit that are in the seed and bloud An Embrio in the first Moneth deserves not a Mans name for these for the first fourty dayes nourish the conception and enliven it and form it like a man Also the other creatures have a vitall spirit and other powers of the soul to live and perceive which they have from the faculty of the soul and the flowing of bloud and by these they grow in the belly and receive life For which that of Leviticus may be alleadged Levit. c. 17. For the life of every Creature is in the blood thereof For the life and spirit of every living creature is in the blood and fed by it as the Lamp is by the oyle Which force of the soul as Galen knew very well so he ingenuously confesseth that he is ignorant what is the substance of Mans soul and whence it comes But had he been learned in better Philosophy What the Soul is he would not have doubted to say that the soul is a spark of the divine mind and a blast of God that distinguisheth man from beasts and makes us immortal But that every man hath a particular soul as it is proved by many things so especially the vast difference between the manners wits judgments opinions and affections of men doth confirm this So Horace writes So many Men so many minds L. 2. Ser. Satyr 1. Pers Sat. 5. As shapes so thoughts are of all kinds Each Mans will 's his own Which I think proceeds onely from the divers conditions of their souls For God saith David Psalm 33.15 hath in particular fashioned the hearts and minds of all men and hath given to every one its proper being and a soul of its own nature Hence Solomon rejoyceth that God had given him a happy soul and a pure body agreeing with the manners of his soul Many of the Ancients question in what part of the body the soul hath its seat Philosophers say in the middle of the heart which the Wiseman seems to point at Keep thy heart with all diligence because life proceeds therefrom Prov. 4. But Physitians that have searched the works of nature more narrowly The house of the soul place the soul in the Brain from whence all the senses and faculties of the soul and the actions proceed Yet the force of it is diffused through all the parts of the body it fosters and enlivens all the parts with heat and gives them force But it doth give peculiar force to the heart the fountain of life Apoplectick-veins by the Arteries carotides or sleepy Arteries that pats upon the throat which being cut men grow barren or if they be stopt they become apoplectick for there must necessarily be some ways and passages of the veins and Arteries through which the humours and spirits animal and vital may passe to and fro receive native heat from the soul For as a Parlour though it be large grows hot with a good fire and a Dining room is warmed all over with a hot Stove A simile from a hot fire so the body receives effectually the forces of the soul spread all over and by the help thereof performs its operations For though the soul is said to reside in one place yet the force of it passeth far and near and is seen in every part of the body and exerciseth every member So the eyes ears nostrils tongue the joynts of hands and feet are the Souls Instruments that she useth The parts are the Soul's Instruments But if the Instruments and Organs that serve the Soul be unfit or out of tune or hindred they perform the operations of the Soul the more imperfectly As we see in fools old men children and mad-men in some of them the faculties of the Soul shew themselves after a long time and in others they are lost A Simile from fire rak't up For as fire under ashes doth not shine forth and the Sun under a thick cloud affords but little light so the Soul drown'd in moyst or faulty matter is darkned and reason is over-clouded by it The Soul in Children is imperfect by reason of the Organs And though reason shines lesse in Children than in grown people yet no man must think that the Soul is an
of their Emrods and monthly terms or from some usual evacuation restrain'd who when as their brain is filled with a black and dark smoke their mind is vexed with absurd Imaginations and is so changed and forced that sometimes men of good lives and of great esteem have been brought to fearfull ends thereby That a man would wonder there should be such great force and violence in a melancholique humour that it should overwhelm reason and take away a mans understanding A simile from a dark Cloud But as a thick dark cloud shadows the Suns light so a melancholique humour darkneth the mind and drives it on to many mischiefs The evil spirits also mingle themselves with ill humours and especially with black choler Evill spirits mix with melancholy because that humour when it exceeds Natures bounds is most fit to move us to any wickednesse For men of this constitution conceive grievous and sharp passions and that last long for the contumacy of the humour that will hardly melt and be dissolved Whence it followes that evill thoughts and apprehensions stay long in their minds Whence melancholique people Imagine absurd things which sometimes break forth into action that they fall foul upon those they know and those they know not making no difference and do mischief both to others and sometimes to themselves So the humours do afford fire-brands to cholerick men but when they are angry they hurt others and not themselves But that the cause of these things consists in the humours and not in the wicked spirits though they help to trouble the humours may be collected from hence for that mad melancholique and frantique persons are wont to be cured by opening the emrods that are stopped and so are reduced to better minds those fuliginous smokes of the humours being removed that did vitiate the imagination and animal spirits L. 6. Aph. 21. as may appear by Hippocrates his Aphorism If the melancholique veins or emrods run in those that are mad they are thereby cured nature deriving the ill humours from the principal part to the parts more ignoble Again II. Aph. Ill vapours hurt the brain the Emrods are healthfull for mad people and such as are troubled with diseases of the kidneys For when that humour whether it be in the Hypochondres or the Spleen or be heaped up in the whole body or in any part fills the brain with an ill and filthy exhalation it causeth fear sadnesse sorrow heavy groans astriction of the heart ringings in the ears and reason being oppressed and the light of the mind extinguished they begin to despair sometimes desiring death sometimes fearing and abhorring it How Melancholy may be driven out Wherefore as Galen saith when the Spring and Autumn begin that humour must be gently and by degrees purged out by vomit belching purging downward breaking of wind by opening a vein and by causing the Emrods and courses to run And whosoever is subject to this disease he must earnestly and with great care resist it and must by no means entertain Imaginations that falsly creep into his mind at first pleasing and amiable but afterwards as they grow strong they can hardly be resisted A fault by hiding will the stronger grow Virg. 3. Georg. Physick can cure that onely which we know But if adversities and misfortunes have brought on this mischief you must oppose against it an undaunted courage of your mind and support your self with Gods Word and with confidence in him and so with the lesse labour you shall overthrow those terrible phantasms and representations that assault you The Mind must be underpropt by Gods Word For by these helps the most noble Heroes have stood firm who when all was come to be almost past recovery and they desired to put an end to their miseries by death yet the greatnesse of their griefs could not overcome them 3 Kings c. 19. So Helias in his afflictions desired to die So David so often assaulted by his enemies began to distrust So Job even in despair chose rather to die Ch. 7. and to end his life any way We must not do violence to our life than longer to endure so great miseries Lastly Christ like one in despair and taking our cause upon him complains that he was forsaken by his Father But all these by the hope and assurance of better things cast away all trembling and distrust looking unto God with a steadfast mind In Som. Scip. But this as Cicero saith all men should be perswaded of that the Soul must be kept in the custody and watchfulnesse of the body nor must it leave its station untill God command that gave it lest we should seem to reject so great a gift of God Bel Judaic l. 3. Wherefore Josephus seems to speak excellently that what evil soever comes to us we should bear it with a cheerfull and undaunted courage And let no man think it lawful for him to end his life basely beneath the worthy condition of Man appointment of nature Melancholique people worthy to be pitied But if any man by reason of a disease or alienation of his mind do come to an unhappy end let no man trample on men of such a condition or censure them too severely but let every one rather pity their case and grieve for their mishap for since they were not well in their wits and had lost their reason understanding their mind was turned upside down and they were deceived and blind in the choice of things For when the vertue of imagination is corrupted absurd things present themselves to our minds and we judge confusedly of things and discourse erroneously For the like happens to our minds as doth to our eyes A simile from Glasse where glasses are looked through that are of many colours for through them all things seem to be blew or green or red or yellow or of the same colour alwaies as the Glasse is so that the objects appear in their species otherwise then they are in themselves Why feavourish and drunken men dote Hence men that are drunk or angry think they see double objects when there is but one So those that are doting in Feavers think they see divers Hobgoblins and the corrupt Imagination and organs vitiated present strange fantasmes to the mind by reason of the agitation of ill humours and the spirits that passe here and there and wander up and down in the brain Corporeal spirits stir the mind wherefore the spirits and humours are of great efficacy in troubling the mind and moving the affections and wounding the conscience But if they be sincere and no way defiled men are of a pleasing disposition and not complaining and touchy But if they be once stain'd and troublesome many passions of the mind arise and turbulent affections Since therefore both Soul and body are affected together first care must be taken to sweeten and abate the troubles of
these and many more wherewith the Art of Physick abounds being rightly administred we see such persons restored and to be the same they formerly were When therefore the humours very frequently boil and the spirits are much troubled thereby and the exceeding swift motion of the mind brings forth some language not known before as we see sparks fall from striking of a flint A simile from striking sire with a flint Now it is natural to mans mind to be fit and ready to learn and it is endowed with Arts before it hath the use of them so that Plato's saying is not unlikely that all our knowledge is but remembrance The mind is endowed with Arts before we learn them In Phaed. For the mind of man contains in it self the knowledge of all things but it being oppressed with the weight of the body and thick humours cannot easily illustrate it self and as fire raked up in ashes it must be stirred and fostered A simile from fire racked up in ashes though imbred sparks and light of nature may shine forth When therefore this diviner part of man the Soul is shaken with diseases she brings forth such things as lay hid within her and useth her imbred forces An excellent simile from the sweetnesse of plants For as some plants smell not at all till you crush them in your hand so the imbred faculties will not shew themselves unlesse they be tried like Gold on a Touchstone By the same reason Jet Amber will not alwaies draw chaff and straws and such other things as are driven with the wind A simile from the effect of stones and plants but onely when they are rubbed and heated So when you whet daggers often and swiftly you make sparks fly forth Also the force of nature may be known in plants and Jewels For Piony Misseltoe Fruticulus Vervain Corall bloudstone Pearls Emrods Whence there is force in raysing spirits and other Amulets that is such things as drive away things hurtfull applied to the body or hanged about the neck by a present force either discusse diseases or stop bloud and do other things according as their natural quality is But all these are of more force taken inwardly A simile from the efficacy of wine You may make experience by strong wine that if you smell to it it refresheth the mind and spirits and heart but when you drink it down into the body for it doth nothing in the vessel but when it comes into the veins then it shewes its force and will make dull fellows very eloquent in speech For the heat of the wine sharpens the mind and brings forth what lyes hid in the brain Just so do the humours affect men when the whole force of the disease hath filled the cranies of the brain and the mind and spirits both vital and animal begin to be stirred We see some in burning Feavers that are most vigorous commonly in Summer who will discourse very well and speak very eloquently and in that dialect which when they are recovered they cannot perform which I said were not troubled with the devil and that they did not this by the devils instigation but from the force of the disease and violence of the humours whereby the mind of man is inflamed as if a firebrand were put under it I have recovered some of these by Opiates in potion and fomentations applyed to their heads and so brought them to their right minds when the disease was gone they forgot all they spake or did and when I told them of some things they were ashamed of them and wondred they had so much forgot themselves So those that are dying because there is an ardent force of the mind rais'd in them and some divine Inspiration comes into them before their Souls depart use to prophesie and to foretell certainly what shall follow hereafter and that so considerately and handsomely that the standers by admire at it Why a Soul departing will foretell things to come But that the Soul as it partakes of a heavenly original can foreknow things to come especially when death is near shall be shewed by me in its proper place CHAP. III. Of the Epilepsie's violence which disease the common people both now and formerly ascribe to certain Saints lastly how it may be cured And by the way that such are not to be buried presently that die of the Falling-sicknesse Lethargy or Apoplex WE have shewed elsewhere what effects the humours work in the bodies of men but since they do diversly affect us according to the diversity of places I thought good to speak of those also that are inherent in the brain For those diseases that are in the highest part of the body do not onely afflict us with pain but also take away sense and motion and hurt the mind as we may see in the Apoplex Lethargy and the Epilepsie that is weaker in children and women To whom the Epilepsie must be ascribed The Falling-sicknesse against Hippocrates mind was ascribed by the Antients to some special Saints for when those that stood next saw the diseased so suddenly tortur'd and pull'd We must not ascribe to Saints the torments of diseases they thought some Saints that were their Enemies or some ill spirits must be the cause thereof and sent such mischief wherefore they made vowes to them and set up Tables for their deliverance Hence our Age hath distinguished the Epilepsie into many sorts and one they ascribe to St. John the Baptist another to Cornelius and Hubert but as no man should deride the folly of these men so I think by degrees we should perswade them better to understand that these things should be referred to natural causes For they are of divers sorts in respect of the habit of the body or largenesse of the passages or abundance of clammy humours hence some howl and bark like dogs some hiss and gnash their teeth some cry loud and terribly Differences of Falling-sicknesses some are wholly mute especially their brain being stuffed with grosse humours and their midriff oppressed and the conduits of breathing stopped Whence it comes that they cannot freely draw their breath and these are most tormented of all men in my opinion But the symptoms increase most at the full and new Moon or when she is in those signs that respect the brain or heart For then the humours abound most especially when after North winds the South winds begin to blow for as these winds are turbulent and unwholesome so are they cold and moyst The Moon exasperates moyst diseases For moyst bodies that use moyst meats and are in a moyst climate are more fit and subject to this disease which is evident because children and women are most subject unto this and if it cease not about the 25th year when the natural heat is augmented Aphor. 7. Com. 5. and causeth a dryer temper and if it continue beyond that age it useth to
he had given occasion to the Enemies of God to blaspheme and not onely to insult over Gods people but to revile and speak hardly of God himself But to passe to the other part of the Argument It falls out sometimes that children for the Parents faults undergo some marks and notes of Infamy and Ignominy and some disgrace comes unto them thereby For example if the Mother commit adultery When children are forced to carry their Parents faults if she be a drunken sot or noted for any notorious crime part of this disgrace is derived to her children So if any one be born by incest or unlawfull copulation or by natural conjunction but before marriage whence by custome such children are called natural the people will commonly scoff at such children What children are natural and deride them as the nature of mortal men is to be rash petulant reproachfull Mans reproachfulnesse and injurious but this reproach proceeds commonly from men of depraved manners and affections since the children are in no fault For the writers of the Gospel were not ashamed in setting down our Saviours Genealogy to reckon up many that were not lawfully begotten in the state of Matrimony Homil. 3. in Math. which Chrysostome thinks was done purposely and so do many more that no man might grow proud by the dignity of his progenitours nor be dejected if he were born of mean Parents or that were not famous for their vertues so they themselves endeavour and contend to do what is worthy to be commended For every man is ennobled by his own worth and not by that nobility he derived from his Predecessours by his birth Let no man be proud of the nobility of his Parents And as an idle worthlesse man is not made glorious by his Parents vertues or glorious country he was born in so a noble minded man is not to be dishonoured for his Parents faults For race and birth are not our works Nor ours can be said Metamor L. 13. To which purpose speaks the Satyrist Juvenal Satyr 8. If thou be noble as Achilles stout What is true nobility Born from Thersites base I had rather Than thou should'st like Thersites prove a lowt And boast that Achilles was thy Father All which shews that true nobility and honour are not to be so much measured by the stock and noble descent men come from as by their own vertue integrity of life and sincerity of manners And Lastly that men of good parts are not to be despised though they be of mean place or Parentage if they aim and endeavour themselves to perform noble actions Which is shewed in that whole narration of Ezechiel where this matter is fully amplified and the rash Judgements of men and their inconsiderate and reproachfull speeches against God are strongly convinced and reprehended CHAP. II. Wherefore when men grow well after a disease do their genitall parts swell and they naturally desire copulation and of this matter here is a safe admonition and wholesome counselset down WHen people that were sick recover of their diseases they do not presently grow well and regain the strength they had but they are restored by good diet and wholesome nutriment for though the disease be shaken off and the Feavourish heat extinguished yet there remain in the body still some prints and impressions of the health dejected and cast down so that by reason of feeblenesse no part almost can well perform its office when we should use them Venery ill for such as are newly recovered onely the genital parts ordained for procreation of children recover first and get strength to do their businesse and are very prone thereunto and lusty yet it is very pernicious to use venerious actions in this case But these are certain and undoubted arguments that health is restored and that no reliques of the disease stay in the body when the genital parts swell and stand stiff though all the other parts are weak and feeble and can do nothing in conjugal matters nor can endure â—he labour of it I think the reason is because the obstructions of the veins are taken away and the passages are opened and the Liver and Reins Why such as recover are prone to venery and other parts destinated to distribute the nutriment do first enjoy the benefit of the nourishment from meats and therefore are restored before the rest whence it follows that they grow strong and are abundantly filled with natural and vitall spirits by the motion and agitation whereof the obscene and secret parts swell and are frothy and lustfull when the remotest parts as the feet arms shoulders ankles hips thighs neck cheeks are later watred with alimental and vitall juice When therefore the secrets by the office of the Liver are filled and fatted with exquisite and wholesome nutriment they first of all recover and get strength that upon the least lustfull thought the Cods swell and shew what force they have Signs of health in boyes Also young Boys shew some tokens of this for though those parts be weak in them and want the faculty of generation yet the spirits stretch them out and cause erection and they grow stiff by their lying on their backs wich is a sign they are well and in good health So though men newly recovered be weak and feeble and being wasted with the disease Erection of the genitals sign of health their body is lean and starved yet that secret part which Tully calls Mentula first gives signs of health restored For in regard of nearnesse the nutriments are first carried thither and because that partâ— is joyned to the principal parts and produced from one stock of veins nerves and arteries Venery hurtful for men that are sickly If then those that are freed of their disease and upon growing to be well fall to venery before it is fit and the strength of their bodies will allow the vitall spirit and purer juice being exhausted they are mortally afflicted and all grows worse and worse with them For the more sincere and pure part of the nutriment and the dewy humour wherewith the dry and decayed parts are wet and moistned is drank up and cast forth like to Cream whence it falls out that the forces that began a little to increase fall again and are cast down But as for women the reason is otherwise for they are not so much wearied by copulation as men are but rather they get strength by it so that some who are extream letcherous sometimes fain themselves sick for this very cause that they may allure their husbands to embrace them and to lye with them Lascivious women Hence the Low-Dutch have a Proverb The Wife that is sick would alwaies have something Whereby they mean that when their wives are sick it is not alwaies for sweet wines and delicate meats but for something else that men can better please them with then by presenting them
most part when nine Moneths are past produceth Mankind either Male or Female of the same shape and form with the progenitors But to proceed in relating the other parts of what I have undertaken The third time to make up this fabrick is set when those three principal parts shew themselves evidently and perspicuously namely the Heart from whence spring the Arteries the Brain from whence as some threads from a distaff the Nerves proceed and the Liver from whence the Veins are propagated To frame these the faculty of the Womb is busied from the time of conception unto the 18. day of the first Moneth But lastly which time reacheth to the 28. or 30. day the outward parts are seen exquisitely elaborated and distinguished by their joynts and then the child begins to grow and to pant from which progresse of dayes because all the Limbs are parted and the whole artifice is perfect it is no longer seen as an imperfect child or Embryo that is a concretion that springs forth but is held to be a perfect and absolute child Males for the most part are perfect by the 30. day but Females on the 42. or 45. day It is by reason of heat that Males are sooner perfected than Females for heat extends the humour like to soft Wax Why Males are soâ—ner perfected than Females diffuseth and dilates it and by its force frames and fashions it So heat and vigour of the body and the alacrity of nature in Men makes them to move in three Moneths When the child stirs but Women in four Moneths At which time also his hair and nails come forth and the child begins to stir and kick in the Womb so that great bellied Women can plainly perceive the motion of them and are troubled with nauseating and loathing of their meat and farther they desire to feed on some absurd meats and such as are strange to nature as Rubbish Coles Pots shels some have longed for raw fish and mens Limbs I knew some that longed for live Eels and Congers and rent them with their teeth in pieces and swallowed them down Yet there are many Noble women that are not subject to this enormous appetite and desire for that they have not much excrementitions or faulty humours heaped up in their bodies but it is otherwise with the common people for those women are ravenous and have heaped up much filthy and feculent humours and blood in their containing vessels within from whence about the third Moneth after conception proceed nauseating loathing sowre belchings and the preternatural desire and coveting of many things is stirred up in them I saw at Bridges a City in Flanders An example of two twins that suffered abortion an abortion of Twins that hapned in three Moneths they were both boyes and from this longing desire the woman miscarried because she could not have what she eagerly longed for The child was a finger long or something more and of the same thicknesse all the Limbs of it were perfect and no want in any part so that you might plainly see the eyes with a black pupill the Nostrills Ears Fingers Navell Privy Member Thighs Shanks Calfs Ankles Feet and Toes When both these children panted and appeared to be alive they were brought to the font to be Baptized when that was ended they appeared no longer to be alive The scituation of the child in the Womb. Moreover I shall shew by the way how the child lyeth scituate in the Womb. It is carried in the Mothers Womb fastned with a long string to her Naver as the Apple is fast to the Tree by its stalk by which by the help of the umoilical Vein it is nourished and drinks at a fountain of pure bloud not by the mouth and lips which are of no use yet for to eat by as the Arse and Bladder serve not yet to cast forth the excrements by For the umbilical vein springing from the Matrix enters the Liver in two parts and is terminated in vena porta from which the most pure bloud by the seminary vessels is derived to the Matrix Hence it is that the bloud and spirits like auxiliaries and a supply of more forces are alwaies carried downwards that none of these may be wanting Wherefore by these channells and rivers of Veins and Arteries that proceeding from the Mothers body are carried to the Womb and then are presently fastned in the Navel is the child fed and by the faculty of the seed that is fostered by the heat of the Womb and is moistned with bloud is it perfected in such a time in all its parts But the Infant is equally ballanced in the middle of the Womb as it were in the Center of it lying all of an heap and being something long is turned round so that the head a little inclines and he layes his chin on his brest his heels and ankles upon his buttocks his hands on his cheeks and eyes but his legs and Thighs are carryed upwards with his hams bending and they touch the bottom of his belly the former and that part of the body that is over-against us as the Fore-head Nose Face is turned toward the Mothers back and the head inclining downwards it hath its eyes and face toward the Coccyx that is the rump bone that is fast to os sacrum the Dutch call it destier this in the birth parts together with the os pubis and is loosned whence it is that commonly males come with their faces downwards or with their head turned somewhat obliquely that their faces may be seen but Females are commonly scituate the contrary way so that they come forth with their faces upwards and look up toward heaven and cry Births contrary to Nature But these things do not alwaies proceed according to natures order for many births are contrary to nature and many children there are not born with their heads foremost and their bodies longwayes and with their hands lying on their hips but some come to the door with their feet crooked and wide some with their necks bowed and their heads lying obliquely with their hands stretched out as they have that swim and with their shoulders downwards with great danger to themselves and their mothers and no lesse trouble to the Midwives But when all things proceed orderly and naturally the child when the time is accomplished in the Womb endeavours to come forth and inclining himself roles downwards For he can no longer lye hid in these hiding places than he can find nutriment by the Navel and the heat of the heart can subsist without external respiration Wherefore being grown great he is desirous of nutriment and of light and he so desires to take Ayre Whence comes pain in Child-birth that he breaks the Membranes and coverings wherewith he was covered and fenced against any attrition and with bitter pangs of his mother he comes forth to the light and that not onely from the narrow and straight passages
with divine gifts CHAP. LVIII Whether hearbs and pretious stones have any force to drive away Devills and to put to flight things hurtfull THough plants have principally that use and those forces given them by the Authour of nature Plants profitable for many things that they serve for nutriment and Physick for mens bodies yet in antient writings some plants are honoured for that they resist witchcraft and drive away all charms and fascinations whatsoever These are called Amulets and remedies against witchcrafts because they drive away from man all hurtfull things Jewels have a secret vertue This vertue is ascribed to Jewels and pretious stones also which they have not from their first qualities that is their temperament of heat cold moysture drinesse but by a specifique vertue and hidden quality and secret property the cause whereof cannot at all be explained So the Loadstone draws iron to it Jet and Amber draw chaff and straws the Saphir which is of a blew heavenly colour defends chastity The Jacinth and Chrysolite worn upon the ring-finger resist the Plague The Emrauld and Prasius being green stones refresheth the Heart Erranos that is a blew coloured stone commonly called a Turcois preserves a man from falling down and from ruine or if any such thing happen it keeps the body from hurt Corall bound to the neck takes off turbulent dreams and allays the nightly fears of Children The Carbuncle and stone called Sardius commonly called the Corncel having this name from the red berry of the Tree called the Cornel-Tree makes a mans heart merry and his countenance lively diffusing the bloud into the body So other Jewels have other vertues and drive away Hobgoblins Witches Night-mares and other evill spirits if we will believe the Monuments of the Antients So amongst hearbs there are some that resist diseases Strange diseases driven away by the help of plants which have much assinity with the vexations and tortures of the Devils As Melancholly Frezy Madnesse Epilepsie and most cruel diseases that befall maids and widows from the affection of the Matrix or when their courses are long before they come or they stay long unmarried For by these fumes and black thick vapours their mind is so affected that they seem to be tormented by some hurtfull spirit and they are perswaded that the Devil possesseth their minds and drives them to conceive many absurd imaginations Against this evil first opening a vein in the ankle it is good to apply such wholesome plants that can free them from these accidents as are Mugwort Savory wild Marjoram wild Thyme Pennitoyal Origanum Clary But amongst hearbs which relieve afflicted minds and keep them free from venemous vapours that offend the brain or from the Devil or an imagination that some have of him are Rue Squils of the juice whereof there is made both an Oxymel and Vinegar Masterwort Angelica which is a kind of Ferula or Laserpitium Alysson or Rubia Minor which cures the Madnesse of Dogs and such as are bit by them which disease is not much different from theirs who rage and are tormented by the Devil Rosemary purgeth houses and a branch of this hung at the entrance of howses drives away devills and contagions of the Plague as also Ricinus commonly called Palma Christi because the leaves are like a hand opened wide So Coral Piony Misseltoe Contrary to the Epilepsy drive away the falling sicknesse either hung about the neck or drank with Wine Some of these if any man think they may be given to drive away devills let heathenish superstition and vanity be laid aside let there be no foolish prayers and strange words used whereby such as professe Magical Arts are use to effect their Incantations if there be any force in plants as we find by experience there is Plants have their effects from God you must remember they had it from God For all Medicaments and hearbs that are applyed to mens bodies become effectual not from themselves but by the blessing of God and so they procure some safe operation Wherefore if thou determine to do any thing by the help of hearbs trust not so much to hearbs as unto God For so in curing of diseases you shall come to a happy end with good successe otherwise all your endeavours are vain and the Artist fails of the event when there is no thought of God from whom all things have their being and effects and we do not rely upon him Hence it was that Asa king of Judah Why King Asa was not cured 3 Kings 15.2 Chron. 16. when he was afflicted with most sharp pains in his feet and asked no Counsel of God but onely trusted to the Physicians found no help by all their fomentations but died as the History saith of the Gowt in his Joynts God doth not forbid to use the Physitians assistance but onely that we should not rely on them too much and not to regard him who makes men whole and whose gift it is that all things become effectual Psalm 3. Yet they do superstitiously and they attempt a thing not far from Idolatry who apply hearbs that are consecrated with some fained prayers to cure witchorafts or go about to conjure away discases by them So they prepare Fern gathered in the Summer Solstice pulled up in a tempestuous night Rue Trisoly Vervain against Magicall impostures and thus they gull the rude and ignorant people and dazel their eyes that they may cheat them of some moneys and wipe their noses of what they have Yet those vain Artists never grow rich Hearbs must not be used for Magical inchantments Studious Reader I thought fit to insert these things to this argument that so every man may abstain from Magical inchantments and observe from whom we ought to ask aid against diseases too and how despising heathenish superstition we may use ready and obvious remedies which God hath given us abundantly of his munificence CHAP. LIX Of the Majesty and Power of the Supream Deity and how various appellations the one Essence of God distinguished into three Persons hath by the contemplation whereof the mind of man receives comfort and tranquillity and conceives the highest confidence in God BEcause that excellent and Almighty Power God and that eternal Mind is free from all mortall concretion The nature of God is Inserutable and is immense filling all places governing all things and ruling them by his power for these reasons that one God is distinguished by many names by reason of the vertues and excellency of his works John â— and he is illustrated by many famous titles both amongst the Hebrewes and other Nations that had any knowledg of a God So in the holy Scripture he is called Iehovah El Elohim Adonai God hath many names Emanuel whereof every one siguifies a peculiar power and vertue and ascribes great force unto God which he exerciseth upon inferiour creatures Whence when he propounds the precepts of