another change for now there were very few puâ—â—les seen and almost no pains or much gentler but many gumoleties and which seenâ—ed wonderful in al the shedding of the haire made men almost ridiculous some appearing without beard some without hair on their eyebrowes others with bald pates from which change Fracastorius had good hopes and did think that the old age of this disease was now entring and that ere long it would come to pass that it could not propigate it self by contagion because the matter grew dayly â—â—icker in which both fewer and weaker seminaries are produced but his hope did much deceive him and this disease last even in these times nay as some think 't is welâ—nigh worse than it was of old CHAP. III. Of the Nature of the Veneral Disease SInce then so great a Hodge-podge of diseases and Symptoms appear in this affect we must diligently enquire what the nature of it is of which divers Authors have their divers opinions and as Epiphanius Ferdinandus writes of this business in Hist Med. Hist 17. the Authors which have writ of this Disease although they amount to the number of eighty and perhaps more are al almost differing concerning the Essâ—â—ce of this Disease and every one defines it at his own pleasure for whenas this Disease was unknown to the Ancients nor described by them nor they had not The Veneral diseas is from an occult quality as is usually wont to be the opinions of the Ancients to insist upon every Modern using his own liberty hath proposed his own Opinion Truly I think this is not doubted that 't is a Contagious Malignant and Venenate Affect neither doth it seem to want any great pains to prove it for it appears sufficiently by this that in so smal a quantity of matter by which this Disease is contracted by contagion there is so great force and power of action as no first quality or the temperament made up of the first qualities can have and the variety of Diseases and Symptomes in this evill is so great that it cannot be reduced to any manifest cause therefore as in pestilent constitutions such as that Aâ—tick one was in Thucidides and that which Hippocrates hath described 3. Epid. there was so great a multitude of evils that they were forced to fly to occult qualities and a venenate cause so also there being so great a filth of diseases and symptomes in the Venerous Disease that the original of them all cannot be refer'd to any manifest quality here also we fly to a malignant and occult quality But although these things be thus yet Authors differ stil of this What it is whether that malignity consist only in the cause or whether there be also some malignant Disease present Capivaccius de Morb. Gal. Cap 1. thinks this affect not to be the Disease but the cause while he defines the Veneral Disease Capivaccius opinion that it is an excrement wholly preternatural abâ—e to hurt man many waies produced out of humane substance by its like Thus also Hercules Saxonia de lue Vener Cap. 1. writes Hercules Saxony that the Veneral Disease is the Cause not the Disease nor the Symptome therefore because it can exist our of mans body in Linnen or other such kind of vertues besides in the sweat Seed and Blood being seperated from the body but within mans Body it infects and possâ—sses also those parts which are not living and are not subject to Diseases viz the humors and spirits Aurelius Minadous de virulentia Vener holds that 't is neither the disease Aurelius Minadous nor the cause nor the symptom nor the disease for this cause cap. 17. because 't is neither a distemper nor evil Composition nor a solution of unity but he denies it to be the cause of the Disease Cap. 9 since that is properly the preternatural the cause between which and the Action there fals a medium viz. the disease whenas the disease is that which doth next of al hur the Action but the cause doth hurt it by intervention of the Disease but between the Veneral virulency and the action hurt he thinks there fals no medium but that of it self by its own strength doth promarily and immediately vitiate and hurt the operations but that the Veneral virulency doth of it self and primarily hurt the operations he thinks this is confest amâ—ngst Physitians and therefore deems it to be presupposed and unless this virulency did of it self and primarily hurt the operations so many Physiâ—ans would no have labored in searching out its nature He proves it is no Symptome Cap 18. beâ—â—â—e it is no action hurt nor quality changed nor excrement altered That it is no action hurt he proves by this because the veneral vituleâ—cy it selâ—â—is that which hurts the actions neither is it any quâ—lity changed because the qualities changed to follow the actions hurt and besides so many diseases are seen in this virulency which are not Symptomes But Aurelius Minadous himself when he had rejected aâ—â—ne opinions definitioâ—s of others at length he fiâ—s himself to make a perâ—ect definition and to explain the nature of this evil But first of al Chap. 16 he preâ—uppores this as the ground of his opinion viz that the French Disease ought not to be defined by a quality but rather by the name of a body for this reason because it passeth from one body to another which is the propriety of bodies not of qualities and because it toucheth other bodies for none but bodies can touch and be coughâ— again as Lucretius hath it Again if it were a quality it were either maniâ—est or occuâ—â— no manifest one as he proves rightly by many Arguments but that it is no occult quality he brings no special Argument but repeats the general one because 't is moved from place to place and toucheth other bodies This presupposed afterwards Chap. 30. he affirmes the Veneral virulency to be somwhat corporeal internal and truly a spirit or a vapor for this reason because 't is carried commuicated and participated in a very short space of time Yet he holds it to be such a vapor which is endewed with an occult quality and veâ—â—ue from its whol substance or the whol mode of its nature by reason of which quality it cannot only infect any humors of the body but also al parts of the body and corrupâ— them turn them to its own likeness but that this evil consists in a spiritual substance he further proves because some are infected not only by the act of Venery but also by a Kiss or the use of garments next of al because some have felt no other hurt from this evil than only the falling of their hair because the â—oots of the hairs were gnawed off by the acrid vapors Thirdly because some only by vehement exercise have discussed this virulency Yet he denies that vapor or spirit to be properly an excrement Chap. 20. whenas that is properly
an excrement which redounds from nourishment which is cast off from another although he grants there that is commonly called an excrement whatsoever is superfluous in the body whether it be a spirit or humor or some other solid body whether it be usual or unusual whether according to nature or preternatural furthermore he holds this vapor to be wandring thin and viscid Chap. 21. and to be raised from a spirituous humorous solid substance but he proves Chap. 22. by many Arguments that this vapor is contrary and preternatural by its whole substance of which we shal speak hereafter and at last Chap. 27. he desines the Veneral vitulency that it is a vapor by its whol substance inimicous to the natural faculty working by degrees And that he might unfold his mind more clearly and not leave the Reader doubtful to what kind of things preternatural this vitulency ought to be referred when as he had said before that it was neither the Disease nor the cause nor the Symptome yet it primarily hurt the actions at length Chap. 28. he holds that 't is an externall error and he endeavors to prove it by this Sylogisme whatsoever doth primarily hurt the operation and is not of the constitution of the body is an external error but the Veneral virulency doth primarily hurt the operation and is not of the constitution of the body therefore 't is an external error Some that they may briefly quit themselves and hold with al men say that this disease is a heap of al evils Diseases and symptomes That we may clear our selves out of this difficult controversy The Veneral disease depends on an occult quality first of al 't is already proved and shal be proved more at large hereafter that they are in the right who do here admit of an occult quality and a power depending on the whole substance as they commonly speak neither can they hold any other waies Since 't is without doubt that 't is a contagious and malignant disease while it is such Iâ— performes two things to wit it alters the body by which it is received and changeth it to its owne similitude and indeed it alters it not by the first qualities as shal be said by and by since it is not expeld by the first qualities neither is that change alwaies with putrefaction whenas putrefaction is not induced but by a long time but this change is made in a moment as it were neither is it an adustion as John Baptista Montanus and some others do h old whenas there is not alwaies a hot dry distemper present neither is it cured by cooling and moistening things and oftentimes there is a fordid putrefaction in which there is no exustion But whereas they hold this malignity is only in that matter seated without the living parts 'T is a disease and that there is no such disease present in this they erre very much Indeed we willingly grant that that contagious inquination sent forth from the body infected with the veneral disease may adhere to the garments neither do we deny this that the humors in our body may be tainted with the same yet in the interim it doth scarce follow that the living parts remain free and found for as in a purrid feaver though the humors and spirits do first grow not by the feaverish heat yet afterwards the living parts are seized on by the same distemper so though the humors in the Veneral disease are first infected by that occult malignity yet there is no cause why the same fault may not be communicated to the living parts But though some do acknowledg that this cause cannot be idle Not hot and dry yet whenas they know nothing beyond the manifest and first qualities they endeavour to reduce also the effects of the veneral virulency to manifest causes John Baptista Montanus as was said even now thinks the essence of this evil consists in a hot and dry distemper but the cure tels otherwise whenas 't is cured by hot and dry Medicines as by the Decoction of Guajacum and the like besides because there is a great putrefaction in the Humors which doth not proceed from a hot and dry distemper Nicolaus Massa de Morb. Galli Cap. 5. Not cold and dry saith it is a coldness of the Liver declining to a little driness with an occult quality but as concerning the occult quality he writes truly but that it is no cold distemper the effect doth teach us as the Ulcers rottenness of the bones and the like and what other distemper soever they alleage Yet they produce nothing agreeable to the Diseases and Symptomes which appear in this Disease nor to the Cure Therefore when as the action of the veneral virulency can be referred to no manifest quality We may wel say that by that is induced an occult quality But occult For first of al every efficient cause is said to be a cause from the nature of its efficiency and therefore this malignant quality doth not only alter and change the humors but also the living parts into its likeness again though the morbifick cause be taken away and this disease seem now to be overcome yet unless that malignant disposition be destroyed the man recovers not his perfect health For it hath been observed that the Veneral Disease hath somtimes grown fresh after thirty years past which doubtless happened not because the Vitious Humors lay so long hid in the body for these would have sooner discovered themselves by their signs but because that malignant disposition imprest on the body was actually there which afterwards by degrees produced vitious humors and corrupted and so broke forth into act and Trincavellius Lib. 11. de curand rat particul affect cap. 11. reports that a certain Woman brought forth a Child sick of the French Disease and every whereful of crusty Ulcers whenas she her self never had any sign of that Disease contracted but was alwaies wholly wel and on the contrary it may happen that one may have a French Ulcer which yet when that Malignity is distroyed is no longer rightly said to be Gallical but is cured by vulgar Medicines as other Ulcers Al which being thus we conceive the the Veneral Disease doth not only exist in the Humors but also in the living parts and that it doth consist not only in the change of the first qualities but also there is an occult malignant quality imprinted on the parts and therefore the veneral Disease is to be referred to diseases and those of occult qualities Which are called by Fernelius diseases of the whol substance but not on every part rightly explained as we have said before the which if Capivaccius and Saxonia had known the one would not have defined this evil by the excrement nor the other by the cause An examination of Aurelius Minadous opinion if the same also had been known to Aurelius Minadous he would not have endeavoured to maintain that this
evil was no Disease but an external error For whereas he endeavors to prove that the veneral Disease is not a Disease of the similar parts because it is not a distemper nor an evil composition nor a solution of unity in this proof he labors to no purpose for al this we willingly grant but this he ought to prove that there is no other kind of Disease in the similar parts besides the distemper of the first qualities but that there are such diseases which Fernelius calls of the whol substance we more rightly of occult qualities is sufficiently proved above part 1. and this very Disease as all other venenate Diseases do shew that it can be referred to no other kind than to malignant qualities this follows from Minadous his own supposition and confession which he hath Cap. 20. where he writes that the Veneral virulency hath power not only to infect al Humors but al parts of the body and to corrupt and convert them to its own similitude The same Minadous if he had known these Diseases had not taken so much pains to what kind of preternatural things the veneral virulency ought to be referred For first of al there was no need of excluding from the number of causes those vitious Humors which are found in the bodies sick of the veneral Disease and have power to alter and change the Humors themselves and parts of the body For whereas he saith that is properly the cause between which and the action hurt the disease doth interceed that is true of the next cause but the antecedent causes also may do hurt as they have the Nature of a vitious object and external Error and in this very Disease whiles the virulent Humors do imprint a malignant quality on he parts between them and the action hurt that Malignant disposition and occult quality doth intercede Therefore whereas he thinks that Humor or venenate vapour in the veneral disease doth imediately hurt the action 't is false unless that humor have the nature of an external error For al hurt actions in the Veneral disease do happen whiles between them and the humor or malignant vapor a midling diseafe doth intercede to wit that of occult qualities But whereas he denies the Veneral virulency to be a quality The Veneral disease is not a Body and holds it to be a body first of al he confounds the cause and the disease next of al he doth not distinguish between the quality and its subject For whiles we say the Veneral evil we understand either the disease it self or its cause if the disease that is a quality as al diseases are to wit a preternatural disposition of the parts and indeed an occult and malignant quality but if the veneral evil be taken for the cause either which without being communicated doth induce this disease or which is in the body which raiseth divers diseases and symptomes and can infect others we grant that cause may be called a body But we must take notice that those humors or vapors are not said to be causes as they are bodies but as they have an occult and malignant quality which Minadous himself cannot deny while Cap. 20. he writes That that vapor or spirit which he cals the veneral virulency is endewed with an occult quality and vertue depending on its whole substance by which it is able not only to infect any humors of the body but al its parts and to corrupt and convert them to its own similitude For what similitude is that I pray to which the Veneral virulency converts not only the humors but also the parts of the body unless it be that occult quality with which that vapor is endewed Whereas last of al Cap. 38. he refers the Veneral virulency to external error because it primarily hurts the operation and is not of the constitution of the body But before denied it to be either the disease or cause of the disease or symptome in vain doth he multiply things preternatural for there are not more preternatural things than the disease cause and symptome and the Veneral virulency as he describes it doth wholy belong to the causes two manner of waies for either it induceth the like disposition into the parts of the body or it raiseth other diseases while it eats and exulcerates the parts But whenas he saith the Veneral disease taken for the cause Whether it be a Vapor or a spirit is a vapor or a spirit that is rightly to be understood for indeed it can no way be denied that it is a humor also whenas in copulation 't is rubbed against the body and sticks in the cloaths yet such is its nature as 't is also of other contagious humors that though it be resolved into vapors and the least bodies yet every one of them contains its whole essence and hath power to affect others and this thing may be declared by musk castor and the like For those things though they be bodies and humorous too yet are such that though they be resolved into the least bodies nevertheless they retain their ful strength After the same manner it is in the Veneral disease and other contagious diseases in which though the malignant and contagious humor he resolved into the least bodies yet every one of them obtaines the same essence and vertue and power to infect others But whereas he thinks that humor and vapor is not to be called the cause but an external error in that also he is mistaken for an external error belongs unto the causes from whence the Symptomes arising from an external error are called the symptomes of the cause where this also is to be observed that Physitians do not vouchsafe the name of the cause to the next cause only but also to the antecedent which do not yet effect the disease therefore there is bad nourishment by reason of vitious humors although they have not yet imprinted a distemper and vitious disposition on the parts but whereas he denies the Veneral virulency considered as a vapor to be the cause because it hurts the actions not by the mediation of a disease but next of al and imediately he presupposeth that which is not yet granted and so begs the question for this spirit or vapor hurts the very constitution of the similar part and imprinteth on it a malignant quality the which he himself cannot deny whiles Cap. 23. he holds that by this disease of venery many actions are hurt but not al in al people but the hurt of the natural faculty is common to al and that there is none that is possest with this disease who is not troubled with some fault in his natural actions and hence proceeds al that filth of excrements and the gummosities arising from thence tumors pustles pains running of the reins ulcers rottenness and such like evils and that the Veneral virulency hath a peculiar enmity and discord with the natural faculty and is inimicous to it by its
the Head and Joynts 23. But chiefly the Nature of the Contagion it self from which the sick contracted the disease doth manifest the force and greatness of the disease for this poyson hath somtimes a greater somtimes a less activity and Physitians do relate who have often had such Patients in cure that somtimes of ten strong yong men who have had to do with the same Whore not one of them hath scaped therefore if it be known from what he or she this evil was contracted the Physitian may the easier judg of the event of the disease 24. Other things being alike this evil is easiest cured which is contracted by Whorish Copulation but that is harder to Cure which the Infant hath sucked in with the milk whenas the virulency goes into the stomach with the milk and hence in the Liver there is generated a virulent blood which afterwards runs through the whol body and Pollutes that But the Hereditary evil is hardest of al to Cure and that which is communicated from infected Parents with the Seed and blood 25. As for the parts affected if the Liver only be affected the evil is the easier Cured whenas it hath a strong expulsive faculty and Medicaments can easily penetrate unto it but the Spleen Kidneys Womb and external joynts are not so easily Cured but hardest of all the Brain and the Lungs because they have a weaker expulsive faculty and Medicaments do not easily penetrate thither 26. From al which 'tis easily collected what wil be the event of the Disease for by how much the more and more grievous diseases and Symptomes are joyned with the Veneral disease by so much the more the sick are indangered by how much the fewer and lighter by so much the less and those chiefly die who to their putrid and Malignant Veneral Disease have supervenient those Feavers they call Gallical for the Veneral Virulency whiles it corrupts the Humors and induceth a Malignant quality into them makes the Feaver worse and also debilitates the innate heat whence neither the Feaver nor that Malignant disease can be overcome by Nature 27. Very many also die of a wasting of the body and a hectick Feaver or rather a slow and putrid one for both the Veneral virulency it self and the pains watchings and other symptomes do debilitate the innate heat hurt nutrition whence follows a wasting of the whol body to which is joyned a slow putrid Feaver raised from the evil Humors 28. Sanguification also being hurt some die of a Dropsie 29. Many also die by reason of Catarrhes falling down on the jaws and Lungs hindering and taking away their breath or the Vessels of the Lungs being eaten by a sharp Catarrhe and first of al spitting of blood being raised then a Phthisick they die 30. Somtimes the Vessels being eaten in two by the acrimony of the Humors and Vomiting of blood caused the sick die by too great a Flux to the stool or by the Womb. CHAP. VIII Of Prevention WHenas 't is safer to prevent a Disease than to cure it Prevention some Physitians endeavor to teach by what means one may keep himself clear though he have had to do with an infected Woman Of which business Fallopius treats in the whol Chapter 89. de Morb. Galli and he writes that he should seem to have done nothing unless he teach how one seeing a handsome Woman and lying with her though she be infected may be preserved from the French Disease and he cals the immortal God to witness that he hath made tryal of it in ten thousand men and none of them was infected and he propounds there two medicaments by which the Contagion received may presently be drawn forth dissipated or dryed up Hercules Saxonia propounds the same de lue Vener cap. 16. and does very much commend them and as Aurelius Minadous speaks of this business many confide that being guarded with those Medicines as with a buckler they may enter the most infected whores and freely ramble al the world over Eustachius Rudius also proposes the like Medicaments Lib. 5. de morb occult cap. 13. But indeed I do not beleeve that those things can be taught with a good conscience by which so many men are encouraged to lust whom perhaps the fear of this Disease might have frighted from it and therefore we wil say nothing of these Medicines but Aurelius Minadous thinks they themselves are deceived that teach such things Cap. 31. de Virulentia Venerea Where he overthrows Fallopius foundation who thinks that this Disease is only communicated by the least purulent bodies which if they be wiped away extracted dissipated this Disease may be turned off and he teacheth that the Contagion doth not only enter by the external parts of the Privities but also chiefly by the internal and runs through the Body and that the infected Vapors and spirits do pass through the internal porosities and are admitted by the Veins and therefore no man can promise himself health and safety from washing which only reaches to the external parts nor from other Medicaments outwardly applied neither can such external Medicaments take away the Pollution conceived within The safect way therefore to avoid this Disease is to abstain from whores and to remember that Whoremongers and Adulterers the Lord wil judg who yet is wont also to punish them in this Life with that most filthy Disease Yet Jul. Galmarius hath another way of prevention of this Disease to wit by internal Medicaments and he writes that he hath found out an antidote or a Mullet by the use of which mens bodies are rendered safe against this Disease yet he entreats and conjures al Physitians and Chyrurgeons that they do not communicate and make known that Medicine in obedience to lustful people and that they make not themselves fosterers of lusts but to them only who must necessarily converse with those that are suspected or defiled But he describes that Antidote Lib. 1. cap. 8. and this is it Take of the Amulet for the Pox and of old Mithridate by Galens description of each six drams Conserve of the flowers of Bugloss of broom of Rosemany of each three drams mix them give one dram or a dram and an half or two drams at the most in the morning two hours before meat eight or ten daies together But if any one suspect himself to be infected he admonisheth that he earnestly use a greater care for prevention therefore let him take of the Alexipharmacal Medicine even now described swallowing a dram or a dram and an half in the morning and before supper for eight or ten daies together whose Verture that it may reach the easier to the more remote parts when they have swallowed it 't is expedient they drink presently after it somwhat of this Julep by which as its vehicle it may be carried into every part Take of the water of blessed thistle burnet Devils-bit of each two ounces of Syrup of the juyce of Sorrel of Lemmons
it is that the former of these is more easily separated either in the Stomach or in the Liver and so is thrust forth either by the belly with the rest of the excrements or else it is voided by Urine but this other being mingled with the spirit of the Wine passeth into the very Mass of the blood and so penetrateth into the most inward parts of the body And that those Salts that were fixed may be made Volatile the Distillations of Chymists do sufficiently prove and that the Tartar may be made as it were Spiritual and elevated by the Alembick this we are taught by the Tartarized Spirit of Wine yea and Metals may also be so dissolved in strong Waters and Spirits that they may not only be strained through paper but that they may likewise be elevated into the Alemâ—ick But yet nevertheless in regard that this Salt although it be subtile is altogether unfit for the nourishing of the body as partaking of a Mineral Nature which is not fit for the nourishment of living Creatures albeit it doth together with the blood penetrate into the Veins yet not withstanding as superfluous and useless it is at length by Nature cast forth of the Veins and Arteries and thrust out unto the Joynts And therefore whether or no Wine be apt to generate and cause the Gout we are in the first place to judg of this by the place where it groweth and its effect and then next of al by the strength therof For by how much the stronger Wines are by so much the more exactly and subtilly is this Salt mingled with them and becometh more spiritual like as it appeareth in the Spirit of Wine that is Tartarizated which is more strong than the simple Spirit of Wine All which notwithstanding is thus to be taken if by reason of the distemper and weakness of the Bowels as we also said before that which in the Wine is Excrementitious and Tartarous may not be separated For if it may be separated the Wine wil then be wholsom and without any hurt in it Yea and if any such Wine could be had that having but little of such a like Tartarous matter in it should yet strengthen the weak Bowels that do not wel separate these Excrements and so shal help the Concoction and promote the separation and evacuation of the Excrements we grant that this would prove to be not only harmless but likewise very useful and profitable if moderately drunk And some tel us that the Pucine Wine is such and therefore they commend it for the prevention of the Gout But I much doubt whether this Wine be in al respects answerable unto what hath been said and therefore I conceive that it is good first to make trial and to consult with Experience We have indeed above spoken somthing as touching the cause for which certain Wines breed and cause the Gout wine how it doth generate the gout but yet nevertheless my desire and purpose is here to explain the thing and so to make the matter somwhat more cleerly to appear I think it to be a very plain and cleer truth that Wine produceth the Gout not as it is Wine but as it containeth in it somthing that is unfit and somthing likewise that is extraneous and unuseful unto our bodies which is therefore by Nature thrust forth unto the Joynts And this appeareth if by nothing else yet by this That there are some certain Wines that do not generate the Gout and such are our Gorubergensian Wines and many others also that here in these Regions grow in Sandy places For albeit these Wines be drunk for a dayly and ordinary drink and that not scantly but very plentifully yet there was never any that from hence contracted the Gout But on the contrary the Moravian Bohemian Austrian Hungarian and likewise very many more Wines of other Regions are most apt to breed the Gout Yea and not only the Wines but even the Waters of some places dogenerate the Gout And so it was related unto me by that eminent Physitian Dn. D. Tobias Knoblochius In certain places waters also generate the gout that at Iglavia in Moravia where he had practised Physick there for some yeers that not only the Wealthier sort of People that drank Wine but even the poor who hardly ever tasted a Cup of Wine were al of them very subject unto the Gout Colick and Falling-sickness Diseases Epidemical in that place But now What that is that maketh that certain wines are apt to breed the gout Inquiry is to be made What that should be which maketh that certain Wines are apt to generate the Gout Where we are first of al to take notice that nothing doth nourish touching which we have spoken elswhere but what proceedeth from things animated or enlivened And therefore al other things as Minerals Metals and divers kinds of Earths are unapt to nourish our bodies and thereupon if they be at any time taken in they are again to be evacuated either by the Urine or else by the belly and this if it be not done they are then by Nature thrust into the Joynts and so they there generate the Gout And therefore those Vines that grow in a sandy Earth that is not at al fat and rank have nothing that they may attract and draw unto them besides the Alimentary Juyce but those that grow in Clayish grounds or any other fat Earths do not attract unto themselves only a vegetable juyce but also a Mineral juyce as it were and such as is wholly unuseful for our bodies which is not unfitly termed Tartar a substance to wit that consisteth of a fixed and volatile Salt and of an Earthy and almost Mineral matter such as not only sticketh fast unto the sides of Casks but is likewise throughly mingled with the substance of the Wine And this is altogether the Nature of Salts that they reduce other bodies into the smallest Atomes and then do associate the Atomes unto themselves We may see an Experiment of this in the dissolving of Metals in strong Waters in which the Metals bodies otherwise thick are so united unto the salt of the Waters that dissolve them that they may pass through a Card or Paper And the very same we likewise see in the dissolving of Pearls Margarites Cerals and Crabs Eyes which sticking fast unto the Salt of the Vinegar are throughly mingled with the Water and may be strained through a Card but being precipitated they will dissolve no further We have likewise an Example hereof in Vitriol which being dissolved in Water may likewise be strained through a Card but when the vitriol is Calcined and the Salt drawn forth of it there remaineth an Earth that is not dissolveable by any liquor whatsoever And so in hot Baths of Water there is an Earthy substance so exactly mingled therewithal that it cannot possily be discovered by any sense But yet when this afterwards shall stick fast unto the wooden
And moreover I speak it without detracting in the least from the worth of men so eminent be it so indeed that such a pain and impediment of the motion may proceed from driness yet I much doubt of this Whether or no this pain be caused only by the wasting of that humidity whereby the heads of the bones are as it were anointed and oyled For in the whol space in the which they are joyned together the bones are not covered with any Periostium and thereupon they are wholly void of sense and therefore in this place pain cannot be excited But it seemeth to be more agreeable to truth if there be any impediment of the motion or any pain excited in the joynts by reason of driness that this happeneth by reason of the over drying of the Tendons the extremities of the Muscles and Ligaments by means of which the Members are rendered unfit for motion and if it be so that they ought to be moved there is a necessity of their being violently extended and this violent stretching forth breedeth a pain Seeing therefore that a naked and bare distemper cannot cause the Arthritis Whether a windiness may cause the Arthritis it remaineth that we make enquiry from what matter it may be excited There are some indeed as Guainerius and Matthaeus that make mention of windiness and of the degrees the of But a windiness cannot possibly excite so great a pain and oftentimes also of long continuance in these parts unless by windiness any one be minded to understand the spirit touching which we shall speak more hereafter And although the pain be oftentimes movable and flitting from place to place yet this is not from any windiness but from the humor which is also most apt and fit for motion There are some likewise that unto Arthritis refer that Affect which by the Arabians is called Nakir Nakir what kind of Affect it is which Albucasis in his second B. and 93. Chap. thus describeth There is saith he in this Country of ours a certain sickness or Disease which they call Nakir and it is a pain that happeneth in some certain Members and afterwards is changed from one Member to another and of this disease I once saw such an Example as this that I shal now relate I was upon a time called unto a certain woman being sick and weak in a Village not far from me She uncovered her Arm where I beheld a smal Inflation in the Vein of the Arm and about an hour after I saw this Inflation to proceed forward with great speed like as a worm creepeth and ascending upwards unto the Shoulder much sooner than could possibly be imagined and it was moved upwards like as Quick-silver is moved when it runs from place to place The pain therefore departed out of the place where it was at first and fixeth it self in the Shoulder And afterwards as she her self told me it rowled up and down throughout the whole Body even as I my self might very easily discover it to be so I therefore greatly admired the swiftness of its motion from Member to Member for indeed I had never until now seen any such kind of Disease as I saw in this Woman Indeed I have seen many that have felt the pain changing and going from one member to another but not after this manner or with this celerity neither could I here conjecture any other cause then this to wit that the Woman was quite spent and dispirited by the heat of the Sun and her hard labor and pains-taking such as they are wont to undergo that live in villages her Body being very dry and her Veins uncovered And hereupon therefore that windiness appeareth to be changed even sensibly and of necessity it is that it cannot appear after this manner in such as live idle and delicate lives and in moist Bodies and where the Veins are kept covered And therefore whensoever thou attemptest the curing hereof and the Patient Feel that pain then if it be the same it appeareth to the Eyes as we said before Then hasten and bind both upon it and under it and cut upon it till the Windiness that is pent up and kept in hath a vent and passage made for it to go forth and Cauterize the place But if it be so that thou canst not see the place that is affected and the pain then Cure it with the excussion of the Body and some kind of Remedy that expelleth windinesses and extenuateth them And for this purpose very necessary and useful are the Foetid Pills the Pills de Sagapeno and the like Thus far Albucasâ—s But this Disease is not Arthritis For neither is it only about the Joynts but it ariseth from a Windiness or furious spirit poured forth out of the Vessels and running to and fro throughout all the external parts of the Body There are some who think that this motion of windinesses and spirits is made in the Veins themselves And true indeed it is that oftentimes in the Vessels and Bowels such like windinesses do run up and down with great violence and rushing like as Antonius Benivenius in his Tract of hidden Diseases and the Cure of the Causes Chap. 81. Relateth that Ludovicus Nicolinus was so affected with a winde rushing violently into his Bowels and Stomack that not only his Bowels and Breast but his shoulder-blades were likewise extended with an incredible pain and he was likewise forely troubled with a great and miserable streightness of breathing whereupon also he died the third day But in that History of Albucasis it is probable that the Flatulent and windy spirit that he speaketh of was poured forth of the Vessels into the very superficies and outside of the Body For seeing that the motion there spoken of was Joyned with a great pain that spirit could not be contained only in the Vessels as being such that are destitute and void of all sense And some there are who think and this rightly enough that this Affect if it be not one and the same yet that it is very neer of kin unto that described by Wierus in a peculiar Tract in a Book he wrote in the German Tongue touching unknown Diseases of which likewise Henricus a Bra wrote an Epistle to Petrus Forestus which Epistle is annexed unto the observations of Forestus in his twentyeth B. of Observations Those of our times do for the most part refer them to inchantment and they tel us I know not what of Elves and Fayries that as they conceive breed those pains when yet notwithstanding these and such like of flitting pains that run up and down in the Body may also have their Natural Causes and they may have their Original from a certain sharp Flatulency or a sharp whey bred out of a Humor almost Scorbutick and roving up and down the Body by the Membranous parts and Muscles And from hence it is also apparent that they cannot be fitly referred neither unto the Dracunculi
whol kind that is by its form by its specifick faculty by its whole substance and occult propriety but he further describes the enmity against the natural faculty that it is by its nature destructive to the natural spirit that the Veneral virulency hath unspeakable qualities hindering the generation of the natural spirits and those not manifest but occult But whenas there is required to a natural action the soul the temperament and the innate heat or the implanted spirit and the influent heat he further concludes rightly that the soul is not hurt as that which can no waies suffer nor the manifest temperament as was proved hitherto but chiefly the implanted spirit or the innate heat al which whenas they are so rightly spoke and the Veneral virulency is an enemy to the implanted spirit and truely not by manifest qualities but by its form by its specifick faculty by an occult propriety by which it indeavours to change not only the humors but also the living parts and the implanted heat in them into its own similitude certainly the like malignant quality is induced into the parts which vitious malignant quality what other thing I pray is it than an occult malignant disease Al which being thus we rightly conclude The Veneral evil is an occult venenate Disease the Veneral evil is an occult and venenate disease for it is induced by causes of that kind and immediately exerciseth such effects which cannot be referred to any manifest distemper but onely to an occult quality neither is it cured by medicines that work by manifest qualities correct known distempers but by proper and specificks which al Physitians at this day and especially those who lived at the beginning of this disease have restified and to their own and patients damage have found it true For when they followed the common way of cure and could do no good for the cure of this disease they began to be despised by many til the Spanish Physitians shewed them medicaments brought out of the Indies and bold Chyrurgeons ventered upon Quick-Silver But that al this may be made clearer What is the subject of the Veneral Disease we must enquire what is the subject to this disease concerning which physitians do differ Some have thought the privities are first insected for by these parts for the most part this evil is contracted by impure copulation and the footsteps of this disease unless it be perfectly cured do chiefly appear about the privities the but is easily excoriated in venery the flesh oftentimes remaines callous for a long time with a running of the reines and breaking forth of buboes in the groin But though it cannot be denied that oftentimes the original of this evil is from the privities and doth chiefly discover it self in that place Yet that doth not happen alwaies Not the Priveties but the same disease may be contracted by kissing sweat embraces vestures nay infants also may be infected by the milk they suck from their nurse they that are infected after this manner have not this disease appearing in their privities Some as Leonicenus do hold say that the skin is the subject of this evil as in the scab tetter and the like affects but the skin alone is not alwaies affected but other parts also the privities the jawes the bones which become rotten Not the skin nay sometimes also the internal parts Hercules Saxonia de lue Vener Cap. 3. maintains a threefold subject one in the beginning another in the middle another in the disease confirmed in the beginning he holds that the natural spirit is affected or the vaporous part of the mass of blood then the juyces and excrementitious humors at last the alimentary humors but in process of the disease adust humors and the parts affected are the stomach liver thence chylification sangification are hurt but when the evil is old flegmatick humors are the subject of it the parts affected are simelar bones nerves membranous bodies but we willingly grant that as the disease is new or old so and also sometimes more sometimes fewer parts are possest and corrupted as we deny not this neither that the excrementitious humors are easier corrupted than the alimentary whenas nature doth alwaies more defend the profitable humors than the excrementitious into which without any difference this evil doth easily almost diffuse it self but indeed the question is not here what may be infected by that virulency but this is the Querie what is the subject of this disease which we have demonstrated to be for as in putrid feavers the spirits and humors wax hot yet are not the subject of the feaver so also though a malignant quality from the Veneral virulency be imprinted on the humors yet they are not the subject of the disease but only the living parts and which of them is the subject of this disease is the question and whiles that he somtimes holds the Liver and stomach sometimes the similar parts to be the subject of this disease in that he is wavering for whether the disease be new or old the subject is the same There were some others also Not the spermatical parts who held those parts we cal spermatical the nervous and membranous were the subject of this disease but not only the membranous and nervous parts but also the fleshy parts are affected in this disease Others hold the Liver to be the chiefe subject of this disease and this opinion is most consonant to truth Whether the liver but when as many other parts are affected 't is conveniently to be explained as shal be said by and by Aurelius Minadous de virul Vener Cap. 34. first of al presupposeth this that there is no peculiar member in our body Whether al the parts which is alwaies affected in the Veneral virulency which is true in its way whiles somtimes this somtimes that part is affected next of al he holds that this viulency is chiefly an adversary to the natural actions or rather to their faculties which natural power when as it is in al parts the veneral virulency is not an enemy to one part in speice but to al in which that power is In the third place he adds this That that natural vertue implanted in the natural parts doth performe its operations without any influx and that there is no natural faculty influent as there is an animal influent secondly he confutes them in particular who hold the Liver to be the first and perpetual subject of this disease for it may come to pass faith he that one after an impure copulation may presently suffer an exulceration in his privities whom certainly no body wil deny to be infected with the Veneral disease whenas yet in him the Liver is not affected and the same reason is for other parts which are first affected by contagion nay he holds that one external part being infected the humors in the body may be infected without any
addition of such Herbs doth cause that the Decoction wil not last so long to prevent this such herbs are to be added not to the whol decoction but to about one pound of it Some not unprofitably especially to those accustomed to it and whose stomach is weak do add towards the end of the decoction three pound of a sweetish white wine some prepare the whol decoction in wine but not so rightly for the best part of the wine doth evaporate in boyling and there is left an ingrateful Flegm as was said before Aurelius Minadous also doth admonish that the decoction of the wood is to be given with a vehicle which may direct the vertue of the Medicine to the parts principally affected and the Head most of al affected we must mix Cephalick things the Reins affected things Nephtitical the Liver Hepatical the Spleen things Splenitick Which as we do not wholly disallow of so we do not alwaies think it necessary whenas the vertue of the decoction doth easily of it self penetrate into the whol body but we must chiefly have a care least by the admistion of such Medicines the decoction be rendered nauseous and ingrateful to the Patient which when he himself also considers he admonisheth rightly that such Medicines are more commodiously taken by themselves reduced into a pouder or Bolus or some other forme than mixt with the decoction but we shal speak hereafter of compound decoctions The Chymists whenas they fear least by the long boyling Distilled water from Guajaum which is to the half or a third part the Spirituous and subtile parts should exhale and be dissipated and so the vertue of the Medicine be diminished prepare this decoction another way so that it loseth nothing of its strength they take the pouder of Guajacum and put it into a retort and pouring a sufficient quantity of water they place the retort in the ashes and apply the receiving vessel and making a fire under it first they make a digestion then distil it to the Consumption of one half of the water they give of the distilled water four ounces yet it were most commodious if the distilled water were mixed with the rest of the decoction in the retort being strained for so they would have al the vertue to that decoction remaining in the retort may be poured more water and let it digest twelve hours afterwards distil it and the liquor distilled may be given for common drink and whenas it happens somtimes that Infants are born infected with the Veneral disease or are infected by their Nurses this distilled and sweetned with Sugar may be given them instead of Juleps Also after that the first decoction prepared the common way The second decoction is strained twelve or eighteen pound of water again is poured to the wood remaining after the first boyling according as the Patient is wont to drink more or less and is boyled to the Consumption of the third part and being strained is given for ordinary drink at dinner and supper if they desire a more pleasant and sweeter drink you may add four ounces or more of Raysons or instead of Raysons one ounce or two of Coriander seed prepared and sweeten the decoction with two or three ounces of Sugar But if any Herbs have been added to the first decoction the decoction for drink at meals must not be made of the remainders of the first decoction because it would be nauseous but you must prepare another fresh decoction but more dilute or a wine of Guajacum which is made thus Wine of Guajacum Take four or five pound of the wood four pound of white Sugar ten pound of white Wine and put the wood into a wooden Vessel and heat the Wine and powr it to it Some boyl the wood the third time and use the decoction to boyl meat in The third decoction the same decoction also may be used to wash the hands to clense the Nostrils and mundisie Ulcers And some give this wood other waies some in the form of a pouder An Electuary of Guajacum others make electuaries of it Thus Nicol. Massa Lib. 2. de Morb. Gal. Cap. 6. he takes of the Indian wood most finely prepared one pound and with Syrup of Fumitory boyles it to the form of an Electuary of which he gives half an ounce or an ounce or take of the wood of Guajacum Sarlaparilla finely poudered of each one ounce of the species of the three saunders and Diarrhodon Abbatis of each two drams Conserve of Succory Roses of each six ounces with Syrup of Succory make an Electuary Others with a convenient Syrup make pills of it But others not without cause do here admonish us that such Medicines are less effectual and that many who were newly infected when as they hoped for health by the use of such Medicaments by that delay and lingring and weakness of the Medicine have fallen into a most grievous evil for as was said such Medicines do less penetrate into the body Yet towards the latter end of the Cure when the evil is almost overcome and 't is only feared that there may remain some evil disposition and the long continued drinking of the decoction of the wood is nauseous to the patient such Medicines may be used to consume the reliques of the disease An extract of this wood is more commodiously prepared and out of that pills An extract of Guajacum or rowles but after the use of it there is need of taking some liquor by whose vehicle the extract may be distributed and carried into the whol body nay these extracts according to the opinion of Hercules Saxonia have scarce so great strength as to overcome this disease if it be very great and ancient but the decoction is deservedly preferred before them Hercules Saxonia de lue Vener cap. 27. writes that the oyl is stronger The oyl of Guajacnm and he thinks the whol Alexipharmacal power of the wood is placed in this Oyl and he relates that he hath proved by experience that by the benefit of this oyl the greatest and ancientest disease hath been overcome But he gives it divers waies in wasted bodies with milk in others of a hotter temperament with Conserve of Roses or whey of Goats in Melancholly with conserve of Burrage or Bugloss in Flegmatick with Conserve of Betony in those that have knobs with Turpentine and two scruples for a dose But doubtless it was not oyl which Saxonia gave but a liquid extract or Tincture as they cal it For no oyl is distilled from this wood by an Alembick but that which is distilled by a retort or descent by an open fire is found to be such that it cannot conveniently be given into the body nay scarce with safety I attribute more to the spirit of Guajacum The spirit of Guajacum the preparation of which is not every bodies work for it requires a longer and more diligent digestion and fermentation for
danger so bitter hazard but that quick-silver may be applied to external and contumacious Ulcers is known to every body But to evacuate vitious Humors it may be used three manner of waies How many ways quick-silver doth Evacuate either to move by stool and vomit or to cause sweat or to cause Salivation and spitting Coneerning the giving of quick-silver to move by stool or vomit is already spoken before and the Chymists are large in the praise of it and do extol it with wonderful commendations By stool and vomit and Crollius calls Mercury the Balsome of Nature in which there is both a vertue incarnative and regenerative which doth wonderfully renew and purge from al impurities and therefore cals it a divine Medicine to whom Beguinus assents who in Lib. 2. Tyrocin Chym. cap. 3. writes that Mercury is the chiefest Alexipharmacum against al corruption and putrefaction from whom though Platerus do not wholly dissent while he teacheth that this Disease may easily be cured by purging with Mercury and truly in no long time but very speedily being scarce drank twice or thrice from whence is raised a plentiful flux of the belly and also vomiting somtimes also sweat and Urin is provoked yet he cannot deny that it doth perform this by a violent irritation of Nature and not without danger But I would have a Physitian rather timorous than bold and rash in the use of this Medicine 'T is to be given warily for that which Pliny said was the poyson of al things Lib. 37. cap. 6. that wil not spare mans body but offends the stomach Liver Guts and al the bowels and is especiallly an enemy to the Nerves and brain but though the Chymists affirme that being prepared it may grow more mild and that it may not hurt they precipitate it sublime it and prepare flowers of it Aquilam Aurum vitae and other things yet though you expel Nature with a fork she wil stil returne for as it was said even now out of Platerus it purges violently and not without danger and as Fernelius Lib. de lue Vener cap. 17. writes of this business upon the giving of prepared Mercury doubtless he meant precipitate presently from the compass of the whol body Humors of al sorts break forth upwards and downwards with so great force and so violent that the spirits being exhausted and the strength wasted the sick do either die presently or lie some daies without strength like unto dead men somtimes al the mouth is inflamed and contracts a Gangreen putrid Ulcers and very stinking and somtimes the jaws swel that the Patient for some daies is not able to swallow at al although somtimes it work more gently yet it purges violently enough But if it do work more mildely either it retaines the nature of that which is crude or being fixt it doth almost put on the nature of a fixt mettal of the first sort is metcurius dulcis of which Angelus Sala saith in the riper aged it works little unless it be given in a great dose to wit thirty five grains and then it easily raiseth salivation and that this is true a certain Physitian wel known to me learnt to his cost and found it so by experience as we have said de consens et dissen cap. 18. but if it be more fixt it doth not move the belly therefore it must needs be that it have a middle nature if it ought to purge that it may stimulate nature where yet alwaies to hold that medium is very difficult Yet amongst those medicines we have nominated of prepared mercury that which is called mercurius vitae doth easily challeng the first place so that I think it would be needless to make mention here of more medicines prepared out of mercury but we must note this concerning mercurious vitae that it is no pure mercurial medicine but there is contained in it some part of antimony as appears by the vitrum and Regulus which may be made out of the mercurius vitae but can by no art be prepared out of mercury alone but that they may be made of antimony is wel known Yet when we are minded to administer mercurius vitae When it is to be given in the Venereal disease and other mercurial medicines we must diligently consider Mesues rule that it is a grane of wisdom not to come to strong medicines but where weak ones wil not satisfy If therefore this evil be new and gentle which may be cured by gentler purgers and by the decoction of Guajacum or Sarsaparilla we must not rashly come to the use of quicksilver But if the evil be stubborn and inveterate and there be many virulent humors in the body mercurial medicines may be given without danger for then 't is not easily to be feared that it should assail mans body when it hath vicious humors enough to work upon And oftentimes necessity compels us to come to the use of quicksilver and some do hope in vain to affect the same buismess by weak medicines often repeated as by stronger taken plentifully at once For experience hath long since taught us that we do oftentimes spend our time in vain in such medicines given against pertinaceous diseases On the contrary that strong in 〈◊〉 and amongst them quicksilver after once or more times taking have happâ—ly overcome pertinacious diseases whose cause was about the stomach the cavety of the liver the spleen pancreas the cal and from thence was communicated to other 〈◊〉 Sweating medicines made of quicksilver Secondly out of quicksilver are prepared sweating medicines to wiâ—the whitspirit of mercury or the white or red oyl of mercury one drop of which or two are given to drink in treacle water and spirits of Guajacum or some such like decoction to move sweat as also other preparations and fixt medicaments of quicksâ—â—ver and in case that quicksilver performe that for which end it is given and move sweat and discuss the vitious humors by it 't is not so dangerous a medicine Salivation by quick-silver The third way is by Salivation and many indeed do place al their hopes of the cure of this disease in Salivation so that Platerus writeth unless that in the cure by quicksilvet Salivation be raised by the use of it And at last be supervenient the cure doth not succeed neither is it fitting so much to condemne the use of it and wholy to reject it for the faults which happen in the mouth in this cute or for other accidents amongst which convulsions are cheifly to be feared which are wont somtimes to happen if there be any great error committed in the use of it whenas afterwards in the cure the faults of the mouth are easily corrected again On the contrary Fernelius de lue Vener cap. 6. doth exactly set forth this manner of cure and describes its inconveniences so great saith he is the cruelty and harshness of this unguent that the patient presently begins
about the joynts The cause of the gout Solution of Unity in the Gout from whence it happeneth Now this solution proceedeth not as Capivaccius wil have it only from a Compression of the sensible parts about the joynt caused by a preternatural repletion of the Ligaments with a Humor flowing thereto For why the Ligaments are most solid and most thick in so much that in the first place they themselves cannot admit of the Humors and the pain is oftentimes in the highest degree when there is scarcely any swelling appearing and indeed far greater then that it should possibly be caused by compression only This pain is therefore rather caused by the distention and twinging or pricking in the sensible and tender parts about the Joynt But now what the Cause of this distention Pulling and Pricking is cannot easily be explained by reason of the difference in Opinions among Physitians touching the same For some there are that teach us how that the Gout is generated only from a distemper others from a Winde a third sort only from a Humor and some of these will have this Humor to be flegm others Choler others Flegm with Choler others assert it to be Flegm mingled with blood others Crude and Watery blood others say that it is a whey and others there are that admit of all these Humors And indeed some affirm that this Humor floweth down from the Head others again from the internal parts others from the external parts between the Skul and the Skin some again wil have it to flow forth of the Veins and others by both these waies touching which we intend to discourse more at large below in the seventh Question But in brief The neerest causes of the gout that we may here in a word state the Controversie the immediate and neerest Cause of the Gout is a Humor partly distending the parts of a quick sense about the joynt and partly pricking and lancing them to wiâ— the serous or wheyish Humor and yet such as is not waterish but Salt and sharp and as the Chymists call it Tartarous bred in the sanguification in the Liver and in the Spleen and by Nature thrust forth by the Veins and Arteries into the parts about the joynt And indeed this Humor is altogether of a peculiar Nature and much different from these other Humors that breed an inflammation in other parts and it hath its original from the same kind of Aliment that Plants draw from the Earth For in all sorts of Earth there is somthing that is saltish and partaking of a Mineral Nature Which whether we call it the Salt of the Earth or else Tartar with the common sort of Chymists it matters not with me so that we agree in the thing it self And yet notwithstanding it seems not al one to me Whether the Salt of the Earth and Cartar differ whether we call it the Salt of the Earth or else Tartar For Salt is indeed a simple Body of its own kind but Tartar as it is in truth taken here generally in this place by the Chymists is a compound of Salt and Earth yea and of Sulphur likewise From whence also it is that there are constituted Differences of such like Earths and so there ariseth a diversity of the Humor breeding the Gout in divers Bodies and places And from either the abundance or scarcity of this Salt and the mixture of it with other Juyces there arise various differences of Earths so that some of them are dirty others muddy a third sort Clayish a fourth sandy and Crumbling a fifth Limye and in some Earths there is an abundance of that we call Marle in others Chalk and in others there is somthing else that aboundeth and in some Earths in the which likewise Bread Corn grows very plentifully there is so great a store of this Salt that even out of them there may be destilled a certain spirit that dissolveth Metals That Salt or Tartar is attracted from Plants together with their Aliment out of the Earth and hence it is derived into men unto whom those Plants serve for Meat and Drink and unless it be severed and separated in a Convenient manner it is at length mingled together with the blood and being altogether unfit for the nourishing of the Body it is in the end driven down and thrust into the joynts for those Causes that we shal anon declare unto you And this Salt Humor that causeth the Gout oftentimes cometh very neer unto the Nature of spirits as the Chymists call them such as are those of Wine and other Vegetables endued with a volatile Salt as also of Salt Vitriol Nitre and Aqua Fortis which although that they are thin Subtile and Resemble the Nature of Water yet notwithstanding they contain in them a most sharp and biting Salt And this Salt is contained as well in the Arteries as in the Veins from whence likewise it is that being most subtile it exciteth very extream intollerable and most acute pains For it is not requisite that those Humors should alwaies hurt the Body in a thick and gross manner but oftentimes they are made spiritual as we shal afterwards also in the Causes shew you touching Wine And many things there are that teach us the truth of this First of all the very vehemency and fiercenss of the pain it self which cannot possibly proceed from a Flegmatick or watry Humor or else from Blood distending the parts but from a very sharp Humor being oftentimes indeed but little in its quantity and bulk but yet in power very great and most efficacious And moreover it appeareth from this that at length there are generated in the Joynts certain hard knobs and knots out of which there is taken and goeth forth a matter like unto Lime such as also some certain Wines before they be wrackt and taken off their Lees do yield forth which happeneth not at all in other Tumors which are rather turned into Pus then any such matter as this and therefore it sufficiently sheweth that the Gout hath some other peculiar cause that the rest of the Tumors or swellings have not And Thirdly the Causes do argue and prove the same since that there is nothing that maketh more for the generation of the Gout then Wine which most of all aboundeth with such a Salt and Tartar as we mentioned before there being no plant as we shall also further shew you below that doth more attract that that is Salt Clayie and Limye in the Earth then the Vine it self although indeed other Plants likewise as Wheat and Barley do draw unto them the very same matter as the Vine doth but in nothing neer so great an abundance Yea and this matter is somtimes likewise contemed in the Water and from hence it is that now and then such as are Abstemious or that otherwise by reason of their poverty they drink no Wine but Water are yet troubled with the Gout and in some places we find that
to exercise themselves even until they sweat But then after this motion and exercise of the Body Let him neither Eat nor Drink before such time as the heat contracted by the motion be wholly vanished And if there be at any time an Error committed in the excess either of rest or motion better it is that it should be in motion then in idleness and Rest For by Idleness and slowth the heat is much diminished and the strength of the Body made to languish the Concoctions to be depraved and the Excrements not evacuated and driven forth of the Body Whereupon it is that Galen in the Sixth Sect. Ephorism 28. tels us that ease and idleness is as much the Cause of the Gout as Epicurism and Satiety And we may see by experience that Men addicted to labor and exercise are seldom or never taken with the Gout And instead of the Morning exercise the Patient may likewise somtimes use frictions or Rubbings so soon as he is up in the morning To stand much as also to walk overmuch or to ride long Journeys is greatly hurtful for such as are troubled with the Gout And in the like manner as Exercise and Rest so also ought the Patients sleep and abstinence therefrom to be moderate and alwaies in a mean And yet of the two extreams better it is to want sleep then to exceed therein provided that the strength of the Body be hereby nothing impaired nor Crudities bred Neither may the Patient accustom himself to sleep presently after meals As for fulness and empriness Care must be taken Repletion or fulnâ—ss that the Belly be made every day to discharge its office and that the Humors may not be heaped up in the first waies Eccoprotick or Cutting Medicaments are somtimes to be made use of for these do gently case and empty the Belly Sweats in the morning are very useful and convenient for the prevention of the Gout in regard that they take out of the Body the serous or wheyish Humors And therefore the sick persons are by all manner of means to accustom themselves unto these sweats and to this end they ought wel to cover themselves with Bed-clothes at night when they go to Bed that so in the morning if they sweat not yet they may have a Moistness all over their Bodies The Patient ought likewise to abstain from excessive Venery Venery which together with Bacchus or Wine is the Parent of the Gout as begetting and breeding it for as Scaliger turns it out of the Greek of Loyn-loosening Venus and Loyn-loosening Bacchus there is born and bred the Loyn-loosening Gout For by the overmuch use of Venery the whole Body is debilitated and the spirits and Native heat dissipated whereupon all the Concoctions are hurt and many Excrements are treasured up The immoderate affections of the mind Affects of the mind and especially Anger and Fear are to be shunned and the Patient is rather to give himself unto Mirth and Cheerfulness And that kind of Diet which is observed by Rich persons Why the Rich are more troubled with the Gout them the poor and people of rank and quality is the true Cause why these are more frequently taken with the Gout then poor people and such as live in the Country For the Rich aboundeth with store of al kind of Meat and dainty dishes and thereupon they usually eat of many dishes at one and the same meal and not only so but they also exceed in the quantity and take too much thereof even more then they can Concoct and hereupon Crudities are generated and especially they too much indulge themselves in the use of Wine And then again they want those Laborious exercises by which the excrementitious Humors in the Body and chiefly the serous might be evacuated And moreover for the most part they abhor all manner of Medicaments and they wil not at all make use of them unless they be fitted for their Palates And so in general those things that are by the Physitians in other Cases commanded as touching a good and orderly Diet they are here especially to be observed by such as are troubled with the Gout concerning which Alexander Trallianus largely treateth in his Eleventh B. and 1. Chap. and so also Andraeas Gallus in his Consil Collected by Scholtzius Consil 270. And Petrus Andraeas Matthiolus ibid. Consil 220. and Antonius Ferrus in his Tract of the Gout And yet notwithstanding besides a good course of Dyet The distemper of the bowels to be corrected it is likewise necessary lest that the vitious Humors should be heaped up that there be no notable distemper suffered to be in the Bowels And therefore if there be any distemper of the Liver or Spleen or that the Stomack being colder then ordinary cannot rightly Concoct those distempers are in a fit and convenient manner to be Corrected as we have further shewn you in its proper place For unless those Bowels be wel constituted although there be little or no Error committed in point of Dyet yet notwithstanding good food albeit it be taken in a just quantity is converted into a vitious humor or supplieth such a Blood that is not pure but hath likewise vitious humors mingled therewithall Whereas on the contrary Those that have their Bowels wel constituted and strong which exactly separate from the useful Blood that which is faulty in the Meat and Drink and evacuate it forth by convenient waies may overcome many Errors of Dyet as we see many greedy gluttonous Persons stuffing themselves with abundance of food and guzzling in dayly great store of Wine and this not alwaies so wholsom as it should be and yet notwithstanding all this they are not at all troubled no nor so much as subject to the Gout But because that it is altogether impossible but that he which lives not unto himself alone but hath his dependance for the most part upon others and is a Servant unto the publique or is set over and imployed in other kind of affairs and is somtimes necessitated to live in an unhealthy Air or to ride Journeys or to sojourn with others it being impossible I say that they can keep themselves from all kind of Errors in point of Dyet and that thereupon Excrements should be collected in the Body it ought therefore to be one main part of the Physitians care that he prevent in this respect the heaping up of those Excrements in the Body lest that they afterwards excite the Paroxysm which is done if they be maturely taken out of the Body Venesection And therefore in the first place Venesection although the Gout doth not immediately arise from the Blood as such yet notwithstanding in regard that it may in its own manner concur unto the generating of the Gout whiles it either maketh for and furthereth the extream and boyling beat of the wheyish humor if it aboundeth or else may be an impediment in the exhibition and administring of those
it exciteth most vehement and grievous pains Neither let any be hereat moved and wonder that we say that this matter is one while spiritual and somtimes also Tartarous and so very fit likewise for the generating of those hard knots which they cal Tophi For that I may speak with the Chymists spinits may proceed from bodies and again bodies may be from spirits This matter in its original and while it was in the Earth was a body and somwhat as it were Earthy and Mineral like but it cometh afterwards to be attenuated in the various Concections both in Plants and Men and so it is made as it were spiritual which hath been acknowledged by many of Galens followers and among the rest by Cardanus who upon the 47. and 49. Aphorisms of the sixth Section writeth that the Matter to wit the cause of Arthritis is as it were a spirit And Lucian in his Tragopodagra calleth it a violent and injurious spirit And yet afterwards this thin humor or spirit when it hath once gotten a fit place to wit the bones and the places about the joynts it again betaketh it self into the body and is there coagulated like as it is a thing generally wel known unto the Chymists and other salt spirits may again be coagulated and return into bodies And yet nevertheless if any one shal assert that there is likewise a volatile Salt in the very Earth it self which the Plants draw unto themselves this doth no way thwart or oppose this Opinion of ours but the whol result of the business and Controversie in hand cometh al unto one and the same conclusion Quest 7. Where the Humor the cause of Arthritis is generated and by what waies it floweth into the Joynts IN what place the Humor that is the cause of the Arthritis is bred and by what waies and passages it floweth into the joynts in this Physitians do greatly differ among themselves which disagreement of theirs hath much hindered the Cure and made it far more difficult than otherwise it would have been and therefore not without cause is it that Fernelius in his sixth B. of the Diseases of the parts and the Symptoms Chap. 18. writeth that from the very ignorance of this thing the pain of the joynts hath hitherto been held and left for incurable and called the shame and disgrace of the Physitians We have briefly above given you our Opinion as touching this thing in Controversie But because there are many and those some of them of the more able and learned Physitians that are of another Judgment and differ from me in their Opinion as in this darkness of Mans mind it is generally wont to be even in the greatest and most serious Controversies I shal not think it time mis-spent nor my pains il bestowed in laying before you with what brevity I can their several Opinions and in the recital of them I shal weigh them accordingly And first I shal indeed begin with Fernelius who asserteth that they are much mistaken who think that the Humor the cause of Arthritis doth break forth of the more secret and inmost parts of the body into the Joynts For how saith he is it possible that any pure and sincere humor can from the bowels and the most inward seats be carried through the Veins or that that humor which was so lately mingled with the blood should now without any mixture thereof by the Orifices of the veins fall pure into the blood or if there should also together with the humor flow forth any of the blood which being collected and gotten together in the Joynts doth it not excite a Phlegmone And why likewise doth not the crude humor which is carried into the Joynts by any other passages than by the Veins cause the Arthritis For in the Cacheâ—ie the crude humors that from the bowels fall down into the feet and cause them to swell do not yet excite the Gout in them But even Fernelius himself taketh it for granted and plainly asserteth that the Head is the Fountain and Original of this Malady from whence saith he a flegmatick humor and this very thin floweth forth into the Joynts And this humor as he tels us is not indeed gathered together in the Brain as whose excrements are either purged forth by the Nostrils or else by the Palate fall down upon the great rough Artery and the Lungs or else into the Stomack and the more inward seats but it is saith he collected in the external parts of the Head and such as are placed without the Skul and by the top and superficies of the body run along downward under the Skin For seeing that there are many Veins running forth thither that are derived from the external Jugular Veins he conceiveth that they may there lay up their thin and serous excrements and that in regard the Skin of the Head is thick and impenetrable so that the humors cannot easily expire and breath through the same that therefore in progress of time they are there stored up and from thence by the superficies and outside of the body fall down into the joynts There are very many other Physitians that follow this Opinion of Fernelius of the which some of them wil have the humor the Cause of Arthritis to be collected in the Head alone betwixt the Skul and the Skin of the Head and they tel us that is the one only place from whence the matter floweth down unto the Joynts but there are others of them who although they likewise add other waies yet notwithstanding they do withall joyn this way of Fernelius and there are very few or none of them who do not believe but that this matter doth withall flow down likewise from this place of the Head But in very truth what Fernelius complaineth of touching the other Opinion that by reason of it it so came to pass that the Arthritis was almost lest as a desperate and incurable Disease and was termed the Opprobium or disgrace of Physitians I conceive without disparagement unto any mans Judgment that it may more truly be affirmed of this his own Opinion and I am of Opinion that that Physitian who seeketh for the Spring and Fountain of this Malady in the Head only neglecting in the mean time the true Fountain and sourse thereof is scarcely ever likely to cure the Arthritis For albeit it be indeed true that certain various flitting and wandring pains may be here and there excited by the serous humor falling down from the extenal part of the Head under the Skin by the outside and supersicies of the Body yet notwithstanding the Arthritis is never from hence generated neither is that matter wont to subsist about the Joynts but for the most part about the membranes of the Joynts But now the generating of the humor that is the Cause of the Arthritis is very different and of a far other nature For this is generated in the sanguification by reason of the Errors