be laid vpon a written paper it causeth the letters to shew twice so great as they are The substance thereof is waterish The substance thereof but it runneth not abroad as the others doe it is faster and more solide to the end that the formes of obiects may settle themselues therein it is also through-cleere and full of light to the end it may haue some correspondencie with his obiect which is lightsome it is of no colour that so it may receiue all maner of colours the more indifferently for if the christalline humour should be tainted either with greene or red or yellow all the obiects thereof would appeare and seeme to be of the same colour Why the christalline humor is not nourished with blood Here we cannot but wonder at the prouidentnes of nature which would not haue this christalline to be nourished with blood as all the other parts of the bodie are for feare that the blood should make it red but for the better assurance hath dedicated vnto it the vitreous humour to turne his nutriment into a white colour and play the part of a cooke according as the neede thereof should require His shape The shape is round and yet not altogether and exactly sphericall but some what flat on the two sides as is a fetch or the end of a pestell and this is the reason why the Grecians haue called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I conceiue that it was thus shaped that so it might abide more firme and not to be thrust out of his place vpon euery violent motion of the eye For such things as be exquisitelyround doe moue as it were of themselues and haue no stay resting themselues but vpon a poynt His situation It is placed in the middest of the eye as in his center to the end it may equally and indifferently intertaine and admit of both the lights On the hinder part it is vnderlaid with the vitreous humour and feemoth as it were to swimme vpon the top of the same on the forepart it hath the waterish humour and round about it is wrapped in his proper coate called Aranoides The glassie humour The third and last humour is called glassie because it resembleth in colour and consistence the moulten glasse The chiefe vse thereof is to prepare nourishment for the christalline humour not that the christalline humour should feede vpon it owne substance as Auicen hath thought For one part is neuer nourished or fed of the substance of another but this doth blanch or turne white the blood and serue for cooke to the christalline It presserueth also the christalline from all annoyance that might happen by the hardnes of the membranes and keepeth in the spirits The quantitie thereof is in greater abundance then any of the rest it is clothed with his owne coate which is more then the ancient learned in this profession did euer attaine vnto to know CHAP. IX Of the sinewes veines arteries and other parts of the eye The sinew of sight THere are as yet remaining vntouched though necessarie sarie helpes to the sight two paire of nerues and certaine other small arteries The first paire is called opticke From whence it springeth and it bringeth the animall spirit and inward light vnto the christalline humour This paire springeth not from the first ventricle of the braine as the Arabians would haue it neither yet from out of the midst of the lowest part of the braine as the Grecians haue perswaded themselues and as all Anatomists of our time doe as yet beleeue but from the hinder part of the braine where the great and little braine doe ioyne together This obseruation is new but most true and I receiue it because I haue often seene it Why the sinewes of sight doe grow into one The opticke therefore comming from the hinder part and hauing finished more then halfe his course in corporateth it selfe the one with the other and so becommeth one not growing one vnto another only as the cōmon sort doth thinke much lesse onely touching one another as the mullet doth the milstone but as hath been sayd before they doe in such sort incorporate themselues the one with the other as that no man is able by any cunning skill to separate them The first reason This incorporation was needfull for that they being very soft and hauing such a large peece of ground to trauerse might haue bended and becomming crooked could neuer haue carried directly forward their spirit if they had not by this their combination one strengthened the other It was meete and conuenient that these two nerues should The second applie themselues wholly to the seruice of the christalline and that they should bee drawne along as in the same leuell or directline with the eyes otherwise the sight would haue bin continually false for euery simple obiect would haue appeared double But in very deede it had not been possible for them to haue continued their leuell being so long and so tender if they had not been thus vnited in the middest The third I will yet adde vnto these fomer a third benefit by this vnion and it is to shew that by this meanes the perfection of the sight is greatly furthered and aduanced for by this meanes euen in a moment the spirit may passe from one eye to the other and then the one eye being stopt the other will become fuller of spirit and so more strong and able to see a farre off for so are wee accustomed to doe namely to shut the one of our eyes if westriue to behold anything a farre off The insertion of the sinewes of sight The opticke nerues after this their vnion doe againe diuide themselues and march on forward either of them grafting himselfe into his proper eye the inward part of the sinew being marrowish doth in large it selfe and maketh the netlike tunicle the outward part doth make the mēbranes called Cornea and Vuea Herophilus Galen and almost al other Anathomists haue supposed this sinew to bee hollow but it is only spungie for it is not possible for any man to finde any cauitie in the same The sinewes of the eye seruing for motion The other couple of sinewes march on vnto the muscles of the eyes and serue to help their motion their diuiding of themselues is pretie full of kindnes for they send to euery muscle as it were a little fine thred The veines and arteries There are in the eye many pretiesmall veines and arteries which bring life and nourishment to the same they all spring from the branches of the veines and arteries called Iugulares and Carotides The fat The fat that lieth about the eye doth keepe it moyst thereby keeping it from withering it keepeth it also from the iniurie of the cold preseruing his naturall heate which is the cause that the eye is neuer tainted with a shiuering or quaking cold The glandules There are belonging
seeing I haue sometimes delighted my selfe to crop and picke out thereof whatsoeuer I could finde or see to be faire and for profit But for as much as one of the principall causes of the weakenes of the sight yea I dare be bolde to say that it is more common then any of the rest doth proceede of a superfluous moisture of the eye and of the impurenes of the spirits I will ordaine an exquisite order for the same which shall serue for a patterne and scantling the better to aime at the curing of all the rest of the diseases of the eye The art which teacheth to heale diseases called by one word of the Grecians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is ordinarily performed by three instruments as Diet or the manner of liuing Chirurgerie and Medicine Good diet hath the first place in the curing of whatsoeuer diseases The maner of liuing is alwaies set in the forefront and hath bin iudged of the ancient learned to bee the chiefe and most noble part because it is most fauourable and familiar to nature not disturbing her any maner of way or molesting her in any respect so as medicines and manuall operations doe This maner of liuing doth not consist onely in meate and drinke as the common people imagine but in the ordering of the sixe things which the Phisitions call not naturall and these are the ayre meate and drinke sleepe and watching labour and rest emptines and fulnes and the passions of the minde The power of the ayre I will begin my order of diet at the ayre in as much as no man can want it the least minute and for that it hath a marueilous force to alter and change our bodies on the sudden The direct passages thereof is through the nose to the braine and through the mouth to the hart by the pores of the skinne and mouing of the arteries it goeth throughout the whole bodie it prouideth matter and nourishment for our spirits This is the cause why that famous Hippocrates did note very well that of the constitution of the aire doth wholly depend the good and ill disposition of our humours and spirits The qualities of the ayre In the ayre wee must looke vnto his first and second qualities his first are heate colde moysture and drines of which the two first are called actiue and the two latter passiue the second qualities are when the ayre is grosse thicke subtile pure darke light but let vs now make our profit of all this What ayre is good for the sight It behoueth vs for the better preseruation of our sight to chuse an ayre which is temperate in his first qualities as being neither too hot too cold too moyst or drie It is not good to abide in the heate of the Sunne neither in the beames of the Moone or in the open aire The Southerne and Northerne windes are hurtfull to the eyes The windes that are bad for the sight Reade that which Hippocrates writeth in his third section of Aphorismes The South winde saith he maketh a troubled sight hardnes of hearing a heauie head dull sences and all the body lazie and lither because it begetteth grosse spirits The North winde is very sharpe and therefore as saith the same author it stingeth and pricketh the eyes The places that are low waterish moyst and full of marishes are altogether contrary to the welfare of the sight It is better a great deale to dwell in drie places and such as are somewhat rising If a man be forced to dwell in moyst places his helpe is to alter and rectifie the ayre with artificiall fires How to correct the ayre by art made of the wood of Lawrel Iuniper Rosemary and Tamariske or otherwise to very good purpose hee may make the perfume inuented of the Arabians and vse it in the chamber where hee keepeth most Take of the leaues of Eyebright A perfume Fennell and Margerome of euery one an ounce of Zyloaloe finely powdred a dramme of Frankinsence three drammes mingle them altogether and perfume your chamber oftentimes therewith How the ayre must be affected in his second qualities As concerning the second qualities a grosse thicke and foggie ayre is contrary to the sight wee must choose such a one as is pure and cleane purged from all waterish earthie nitrous sulphurous and other such like mettal like vapours especially those of quicksiluer the dust fire and smoke do wonderfull harme to the eye and this is the reason why such as haue a weake sight should neuer intermeddle with Alchimy for so at once they should consume both their sight and their purse the vapours arising out of standing waters and from dead bodies are very noysome Neither yet must the ayre bee too lightsome What light is bad for the sight for an excessiue light doth scatter the spirits and causeth the sight oftentimes to be lost Wee reade that Zenophanes his souldiers hauing passed the snow became all of them as it were blind and Dionisius the tyrant of Sicile did after the same maner put out the eyes of all his prisoners for hauing shut them vp in a very darke hole caused them to bee led forth on the sudden into a very bright light so that they al therby lost their sight What colours doe comfort the sight Vnto the light wee will adioyne colours All colours are not profitable for the sight the white colour scattereth the spirits drawing them to it the blacke maketh them too grosse there is not any but the greene blew and violet which doe much comfort it And this hath nature taught vs in the framing of the eye for she hath died the grape-like coate with greene and blew on that side which is next vnto the christalline humour The colour of the Saphire and Emerauld is very commodious for the sight If you desire often to looke vpon these two colours mixed together I wil shew you to attaine therunto very easily Take of the flowers of Borage of the leaues of Burnet and when you are disposed to drinke cast them into the glasse and this will serue you for two purposes The colour will comfort your eyes and the hearbes by their propertie will represse the vaporousnes of the wine And thus much let bee sayd of the ayre Of meates and drinkes The second poynt of ordering thy diet aright consisteth in meate and drinke It behoueth therefore to know what victuals are good and what they be which can hurt the sight A man must altogether refraine such victuals as are of grosse nourishment as also slimie vaporous salt windie sweete and sharpe meates and such as make many excrements there must also bee made a more spare supper then dinner Of bread The bread must be made of cleane wheate well leauened and some what salted wherein may bee put Fennell or Anise-seede it must not bee eaten new nor after it is aboue three daies old Vnleauened bread doth hurt the
the heart and this saith he liueth first and dyeth last the onely storehouse of spirit the originall of veines arteries and sinewes the principal author of respiration the fountaine and welspring of all heate containing within the ventricles thereof a subtile and refined blood which serueth as a burning cole to kindle and set on fire all the other inferiour and smaller sorts of heate and to bee briefe the onely Sunne of this little world And euen in like sort The heauens and the heart finely compared together as the heauens are the principals whereon depend and rest all other elemental generations and alterations so the hart is the first and principall originall of all the actions and motions of the bodie The heauens bring forth their wonderfull effects by their motions heate and influence the heart by his continuall mouing which ought no lesse to rauish vs then the flowing and ebbing of Euripus and influence of his spirits doth put life into all the other parts endoweth them with this beautiful and vermillionlike colour and maintaineth their naturall heate The mouing and light which are in the superiour bodies are the instruments of the intelligences and of the heauens of the intelligences as being the first cause of mouing in others being themselues immoueable of the heauens as first mouing the other and being themselues moued The mouing of the heart and vitall spirit which distributeth it selfe like vnto light throughout and that as it were in the twinkling of an eye are the instruments of the mind and heart of the minde which is a chiefe and principall mouer and yet not moued of the heart as of a chiefe and principall mouer which is moued of the minde It is therefore the heart according to the doctrine of the Peripatetikes which is the true mansion of the soule the onely prince and gouernour in this so excellent and admirable disposing of all things in the gouernment of the bodie Chrysippus and all the Stoikes haue followed the same opinion and doe beleeue that all that region which containeth the parts which wee call vitall is named of the Grecians and Latines Thorax because it keepeth within it as it were vnder lock this heauenly vnderstanding so called of Anaxagoras this burning heate so called of Zeno replenished with a million of sciences this admirable fire which Prometheus stole out of heauen to put soule and life into mankinde this altering spirit whereof Theocritus made so great account Behold how these Philosophers haue diuersly spoken of the seate of the soule It is not my minde to bestow any time in the particuler examination of all these opinions either is it mine intent in this place to enter into any dispute intending to content my selfe with the simple deliuerie of the trueth That the brain is the principall seate of the soule For I assure my selfe that it shall be strong enough to ouerthrow all these false foundations I say then that the principall seate of the soule is in the braine because the goodliest powers thereof doe lodge and lye there and the most worthie actions of the same doe there most plainly appeare All the instruments of motion sence imagination discourse and memorie are found within the braine or immediatly depending therevpon Anatomie manifesteth vnto our eyes The reasons to proue the same The first how that there issue out from the lower part of the braine seuen great paire of sinewes which serue at a trice to conuey the animall spirit vnto the instrument of the sences and doe not any of them passe out of the head except the sixt paire which stretch out themselues to the mouth of the stomacke We see also that from the hindermost part of the braine where the great and little braine doe meete together doth proceede the admirable taile the beautifull and white spinall marow which the Wiseman in his booke of the Preacher calleth the siluer threed how it is carefully preserued within a sacred chanell as Lactantius calleth it From the same men see that there rise a million of little sinewes which conuey the powers of mouing and feeling vnto all such members as are capable of the same Men doe also perceiue the outward sences placed round about the braine The second which are as the light horsemen and messengers of the vnderstanding the principall part of the soule Philo saith that when men come within the view of a princes guard they thinke himselfe not to bee farre off we see all the guard and seruants of reason as the eyes the eares the nose the tongue to bee situated in the head whereupon by consequent we ought to iudge that this princesse is not farre off Experience also giueth vs to vnderstand that if the braine haue his temperature altered The third as for example if it be too hot as it falleth out in such as are franticke or ouer cold as it falleth out in melancholick men it corrupteth presently the imaginatiue facultie troubleth the iudgement weakeneth the memorie which is not incident in the diseases of the heart as namely either in a hectick feuer or when a man is poysoned The soule saith that diuine Philosopher Plato doth not please and content it selfe with that braine which is too soft The fourth too close and compact or too hard it requireth a good temperature If the proportion of the head be but a little out of square so that it be either too great or too little or too coppeld as that which men reade of Thersites in Homer or altogether round and not flat on the sides as naturally it ought to be men may perceiue all the actions of the soule to be depraued and thereupon doe call such heads foolish without iudgement without wisedome all which ought to make vs as well to beleeue that the braine is as much the organe and instrument of all these actions as the eye is the instrument of sight Furthermore this kind of round shape which is peculiar vnto mankinde The fift this head thus lifted vp to heauen this great quantitie of braine which is almost incredible doth shew very well that man hath something in his head more then other liuing creatures The wise Sages of Egypt haue very well acknowledged the same for they did not sweare by any other thing but by their head they ratified all their couenants by the head and forbad the eating of the braines of liuing creatures for the honour and reuerence sake which they bare to this part I thinke also that the falling sicknes was not for any other reason called sacred of the ancients but because it did assaile the soueraigne and sacred part of the body Let vs then acknowledge the braine to be the principall seate of the soule the originall of mouing and feeling and of all the other most noble functions of the same I know well that some curious spirits will aske me how it can bee the author of so many goodly actions seeing it is cold
loftie and continually glistering in feare cast downe and as it were set fast in the head in ioy pleasant and cleere in pensiuenes all heauie mournfull and darke To be short they be wholly giuen to follow the motions of the minde they doe change themselues in a moment they doe alter and conforme themselues vnto it in such maner as that Blemor the Arabian and Syreneus the Phisition of Cypres thought it no absurditie to affirme that the soule dwelt in the eyes and the common people thereabout think so vntil this day for in kissing the eyes they thinke they kisse the soule Momus condemned See here thy selfe condemned O shameles find fault and vtterterly ouerthrowne in thine action and delay not but come and make condigne satisfaction by honorably recompencing of nature whom thou hast so maliciously and falsely accused of follie in the framing of mans bodie for that she did not set two windowes next neighbours to the heart through them to spie all the passions of the same Canst thou wish more goodly windowes then these of the eyes Doest thou not see therein as in a glasse the most hidden things of the mind The poore man at the barre doth he not reade written in the eyes of his iudge his sentence either of condemnation or absolution There is saith Theocritus a broad trodden way betwixt the eye and the heart a man can not so dissemble the matter but that such will be the passion of the eye as is the passion of the heart It grieueth me that euer I should finde so vaine a discourse as should containe the eger desire of any man to haue the bread framed of christalline cleerenes to the end he might see what is within the heart seeing we are alreadie possessed of this round christalline humour within our eyes which casteth forth most liuely light much like the glittering beames comming from a shining glasse moued in the Sun But if it may be granted me to mixe one dram of Phisick amongst the large masse of these Philosophicall and Poeticall sentences I dare auouch that in the eyes wee perceiue and discerne the whole estate of the health of the bodie That the eyes doe shew the whole estate of mans health Hippocrates that sacred Oracle of Greece which all the world as yet euen to this day hath in singular reuerence and rare admiration hath obserued the same very well in his Epidemickes and in his treatise of Prognostications he commandeth the Phisition when he goeth to see the sicke partie to behold and looke well vpon the face but chiefly vpon the eyes because that in thē as in a glasse is easily espied the strength or weaknes of the animal powers if the eye be cleere and bright it maketh vs well to hope but and if it bee darke withered and clowdie it presageth death Galen calleth the eye a diuine mēber that part of euery liuing thing which most resembleth the Sun and therewithall doth so highlye steeme of it as tha the verely beleeueth that the braine was made onely for the eyes The Lawyers doe hold it as a Maxime that a blind man cannot plead or handle a case well because he cannot see the maiestie of the Iudge Arislotle that light of nature in his second booke of the generation of liuing things sayth that from the eyes men take infallible signes of fruitfulnes as if in dropping some bitter water into a womans eye she by and by feele the taste thereof vpon her tongue it is a signe of her aptnes to conceiue The eyes sayth the same Philosopher are full of spirit and seede and this is the reason why in new married persons they bee so much the lesser and as it were languishing But what neede I to alleadge so many proofes concerning the excellencie of these two Sunnes seeing that nature her selfe doth sufficiently demonstrate the same vnto vs Let vs reade in the booke of nature Natures care for the preseruation of the eyes and see how carefull she hath been to preserue the eyes as her most de are and trustie messengers let vs admire the arte and skill she hath vsed in working their safetie and defence wee shall finde her not to haue forgotten or left out any thing but so to haue bestirred her selfe as those men which haue a purpose to fortifie a place and make it impregnable The fortifications seruing for the safetie of the eye First she hath lodged them as in a bottome or little valley that so they might not be subiect to the assaults of manifold dangers and hurts and to the end that nothing might commaund this little valley she hath raised vp foure notable bulwarkes all fortified with bones as hard as any stone which in such sort doe swell and bunch out as though they were little hillockes made to receiue the blowes and beare off the violence of euery enemy that might assaile them Aboue them is the brow bone vnderneath them the cheek bone on the right and left hand the two corners the one of them somewhat greater then the other and is that which is next the nose the lesser one being that which is set right ouer against it And for as much as the forepart of this place lay wide open without any couer for feare that the prince commanding the same which is the eye should be ouertaken or offended with too much winde cold or smoke nature hath made as it were a draw-bridge to be pulled vp and let downe as the gouernour shall commaund and this is the eye lid which openeth and shutteth as best pleaseth vs. The chaines by which this bridge is drawne let fall are the muscles the instruments of voluntary motion It appeareth then plainly enough by this great care which nature hath for the preseruation and defence of the eyes how excellent they are and therewithall we haue our lesson taught vs how carefull we ought to bee for the preseruation thereof CHAP. V. Of the composition of the eye in generall SEeing it is now time to lay open the skilfull workmanship of these bright starres appearing and rising together I purpose to describe them in such liuely sort and perfect maner as that the most curious and such as are borne onely to carpe it may be will content and hold themselues satisfied therwithall letting passe all those notable obiections and questions which might bee made about the parts of the eye for that I haue at large handled them in the sourth booke of my Anatomicall workes And euen as Cosmographers and those which trauailing applie themselues curiously to obserue and marke things do first inquire of the names of the prouinces view and consider the situation beauty largenes strength and entrances of cities together with whatsoeuerels may be seene without before they enter into them so will I describe the forme situation fortresses largenes vse and number of the eyes with whatsoeuer els may bee marked in generall before I enter into any particular search
braine and of a merueilous simpathy with the same will suffer first of all The euill disposition of the eye weakeneth the sight very oft although that the facultie be intire and strong Such disposition is found sometimes in the whole eye as when it is too fat and great or too small and leane sometimes in some speciall parts thereof as in the tunicle humors muscles spirits sinewes veines and arteries vnto euery of which doe happen their particular diseases which I will runne through in the chapter following The sight depraued and falsified The corrupting or falsifying of the sight falleth out when the obiect sheweth it selfe to be of another colour forme quantitie or situation then it is as for example if a white thing should shew yellow or red because the instrument of sight is tainted with some colour this it is which maketh them that haue the yellow Iaundise to see euery thing yellow when the thing which standeth fast seemeth to moue as it falleth out in them which haue the disease called Vertigo through the disordered and extraordinarie mouing of the spirits and when one single thing seemeth two and this falleth out either through default of the instrument or through the euill situation of the obiect or of the eyebeames If both the eyes be not in one and the same leuell but that the one be high and the other low out of doubt euery thing which they behold will shew double the causes hereof are oftentimes a palsie in the one and a conuulsion in the other The nerue opticke also being relaxed and mollified on the one side causeth all things that are looked vpen to seeme double as it happeneth to such as are drunke If you presse and beare downe the one eye with your finger not touching the other you shall see euery thing double of which missight the situation of the instrument is the principall cause and the situation of the obiect is the next As if you whirle a staffe round about you would thinke that it were a circle and if long wise you would iudge it to be nothing but a long stretched line which happeneth by the swift mouing of the obiect out of his place for so before the first figure be worne out a second commeth into his place The last cause consisteth in the diuerse situation of the eye beames as if you looke yourselfe in a crackt looking glasse your face will seeme two faces vnto you The losse of the sight The vtter losse and depriuation of the sight which we call blindnes commeth either of the drinesse of the humors or of the hindring of the two lights that they cannot meete and ioyne together in the christalline humour The inward which is the animall spirit is hindred by the obstruction of the nerue opticke and this disease is called gutta serena the outward is hindred by the cataract which shutteth the apple of the eye the window of the christalline humour Therefore the sight cannot be hurt but by one of these three waies CHAP. XII A briefe rehearsall of all the diseases of the eye I Doe not intend here to trouble my mind in drawing forth an exquisite description of all the diseases of the eye the attempt would be too great and I could not make so few as twentie chapters of the same seeing there are so many particular diseases of the eye I will content my selfe to lay out the way and best ordered course thereunto for the benefite of young Phisitions and Chirurgeons for whose sake I haue made choice of this chapter The diuision of the diseases of the eye Now then as concerning the diseases of the eye some of them are common to the whole member some others are proper vnto some particular part of the same Those which concerne the whole eye are either similar or instrumentall or common The similar ones are the moyst the drie the hote the colde distemperature The diseases to be referred to the whole eye as also the simple the compound the distemperature without matter and that which is accompanied with matter The instrumentall doe shew themselues in the euill shape of the eye as when it is ouer great or ouer little or not so situate as were requisite for comelines and vse The diseases comming of the bignes of it are when the eye is either too great or too little The greatnes of the eye the great eye is called the oxe eye it hindereth the action of the eye for the sight is not so quicke by reason of the excessiue expence of spirits neither is it so readie in motion The cause of this greatnes is either the error of the first forme and shape committed by nature or else some accident whether flegmatike humor or inflammation or else some great fluxe of humours falling down vpon the same The disease contrarie to this The smalnes of the eye is the smalnes of the eye which either is the worke of nature and is called the Pigges eye or else happeneth by some other meanes as by wasting of the naturall heate by suffering of intollerable paines much watchings sharpe rhewmes and continuall agues in such cases the whole eye being weakened it attracteth not his naturall nourishment or though it doe yet it cannot concoct it and this disease is called the pining away or leanenes of the eye The eye bolted out The diseases of situation is when the eye is out of his place as when it commeth out and when it falleth quite downe if it come forth it is called a falling out of the eye in greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Auicen obserueth that it happeneth either of an outward cause as of a blowe a fall or straine in coughing vomiting blowing or of an inward cause as of some suddaine falling down of humors which looseth all the muscles and whole bodie of the eye or of a great inflammation or other humor Solution of continuitie The common disease is called the solution of continuitie which happeneth when the eye is burst or when all the humours thereof are mingled and iumbled together Loe these be the diseases which may be referred to the whole bodie of the eye for the diseases called Nictalopia Myopiasis and Amblyopia are Symptomes touching onely the spirits or humors and not the whole eye The particular diseases of the eye The particular diseases differ according to the parts of the eye Now we haue alreadie obserued for parts of the eye the humors coates sinews and muscles of the same so then there are diseases proper vnto euery one of these parts I will begin to describe those which happen to the humours as being the noblest parts of the eye as also because Galen in his booke of the causes of accidents hath taken the same course The disease of the christalline humour Glaucoma The christalline humour is subiect to all maner of disease but the most vsuall is a drie distemperature and his going out of his place
it but it cannot see any more then one at a time if the obstruction be euen in the middest of the apple of the eye all the things which it beholdeth will seeme to be deuided and as it were clouen and withall it is not possible for such persons to see the middest of the obiect if the water be not as yet gathered close together but that it be scatteringly dispersed here and there one shall see as it were flies to flie in the ayre The differences of Cataracts are gathered from their greatnes The differences of Cataracts substance colour fastning situation and maner of growing For there are some great and some small some thicke and some thin some white some of colour like ashes or chalke some red some blacke Their inward causes and some of a citrine colour The inward causes are the humours and vapours which grow thicke the humours come either from the braine by the sinewes veines and arteries or else are ingendred in the member it selfe by reason of the weakenes of the concocting and expelling facultie The imaginations going before Cataracts Cataracts haue alwaies for their forerunners certaine false visions which men call imaginations for men thinke they see flies haires or threeds of a spider web in the ayre which yet are not there The cause of these visions is a darke shadowie vapour got betwixt the hornie membrane and christalline humour This vapour sheweth not it selfe in his proper forme for then the grape-like coate should as well be seene but in one of those formes which are in the ayre it is true that the christalline humour iudgeth these vapours to be without the eye because it is so accustomed to see outward obiects that it thinketh that which is within the eye to be without it These vapours rise sometimes from below sometimes from the humours which are in the braine or in the eye it selfe The diseases of the muscles of the eye The wrested eye The diseases of the muscles of the eye are principally three the wrested or wrie eye the shaking eye and the astonished eye The wrested eye is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is caused either of a Palsey affecting some of the muscles and then the part diseased yeeldeth vnto the sound part as it happeneth in all other parts that haue the Palsey and opposite muscles or else it is caused of a conuulsion affecting some of the muscles and then the sound part of the eye yeeldeth vnto the diseased Whatsoeuer it is this disease is caused either of drynes or of superfluous moisture now in this disease the eye is wrested and set a wrie many waies The diuerse sorts thereof as on high a low and then there is nothing seene but the white of the eye Hippocrates calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the eye is wrested to either side and maketh the squint eye The shaking eye The shaking eye called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a fault in the muscles of the eye being so much weakened that they cannot holde the eye still All the auncient writers haue beleeued The error of the ancient writers that this shaking of the eye did proceede of a seuenth muscle which doth imbrace the nerue opticke but they deceiued themselues for it is not found in men as I haue shewed in the historie of the eye I beleeue then that as the pausing motion which naturallie holdeth the eye firme and immoueable is then accomplished when all the sixe muscles draw equally that euen so this shaking is caused when the said muscles loose their fibers not drawing or bending the same at all The fixed eye There is a disease cleane contrary to this as when the eyes are let in the head and cannot moue Hippocrates calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it happeneth then when the muscles haue lost all their power of mouing either by obstruction or Palsie possessing die sinew that bringeth motion The diseases of the sinew of sight Obstruction The diseases of the nerue opticke are obstruction compression the Palsie the falling and bursting therof a hard and melancholike humour inflammation Obstruction is suddainlie caused through a cold grosse humour in as much as the hollownes of the sinew is very smal It is pressed together through some blowe Compression Palsey the Palsey taketh it by reason of some thin and waterish humour which doth mollifie and soften it The falling thereof is called in Greeke The falling of it together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when the membranouse endes thereof fall together not leauing any space for the marrowie substance which should be betwixt them the bursting thereof commeth of a blow The breaking of it after which the eye first starteth out and after sinking in againe pineth away All these diseases of the sinew of sight doe make one common disease which the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Arabians Gutta Serena This as Aetius doth very well define it Gutta Serena is a blindenes and vtter losse of the sight without any fault or let appearing in the eye this blindenes commeth by hindering of the course of the inward light The disease of the spirits Day blindnes Night blindnes The best learned Phisitions doe number the spirits among the parts of the eye and assigne them their diseases as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the first one cannot see but in the darke as in the dawning of the day and twylight for at midday this disease will not let a man reade In the other it falleth out cleane contrarie for it causeth that a man cannot see except he be in a very cleere light some impute this vnto the spirits those which haue subtile and thin spirits cannot see in a great light because such spirits 〈◊〉 therby scattered such as haue grosse spirits haue neede of a cleere and bright light to enlighten them Loe here in a short briefe the principall diseases of the eye I meddle not with those of the eye-lids of the corners of the eye or of the bordering parts because I feare me I haue wandred too farre out of my way alreadie hauing purposed with my selfe onely to shew the excellencie of the sight and how men may learne the waie to preserue the same I will therefore returne againe into my way CHAP. XIII A generall and most exquisite regiment for the preseruation of the sight in which it handled very particularlie whatsoeuer may hurt the eyes as also whatsoeuer is profitable for them IT is now high time to mixe some profitable thing with the pleasant and delightsome whosoeuer they bee that feele some impairing of their sight or feare some future weakenes of the same shall see in these two chapters whatsoeuer precious and excellent thing that is to be found in the gardens of the Greeke Arabian or Latine Phisitions for the preseruation thereof
whilest thou liuest and purchase to thy selfe a million of good witnesses to reioyce and glad thy hart withall in the day of thy death and dissolution Farewell TO THE NOBLE LADIE MADAME DVTCHESSE OF VZEZ AND COVNTESSE OF TONNERA MAdame since the houre that I had the hap to become knowne vnto you you haue done me the honour as to commit your health altogether into my hands and to vouchsafe me as great credit as if I had been a second Aesculapius This affection and goodwill which I acknowledge to proceede more of your kindnes and naturall inclination then of any deserts of mine haue so preuailed with me that neither the loue of my country nor the number of my friends which was not small nor the honourable place of publique Lecturer which I discharged with sufficient commendation in one of the most famous Vniuersities of Europe could stay or hinder me but that passing ouer all difficulties and breaking all these bonds I haue intirely and wholly deuoted my selfe vnto you and haue followed you wheresoeuer it hath pleased you to commaund me I haue wherein I may exceedingly praise my selfe and as hitherto to rest contented with my fortune which hath been so fauourable vnto me as to make all my seruice profitable and well liked of I am verely perswaded Madame that it was Gods will to vse me as the meanes for the lengthening of your yeares and making of your old age more blessed and happie You haue had sufficient triall thereof within these two yeares for being very forcibly assailed with three of the most violent and extraordinarie diseases that euer man hath seene and which were strong enough to haue shaken the best complexion in the world and to haue spilt the prosperous estate of a more flourishing age then yours yet you haue not felt any eclipse of your vigour and lustines This is of God alone which hath opened my vnderstanding to finde out fit remedies and himselfe to giue good successe thereunto to whom I am bound to render all glorie There now remaineth in you onely your three ordinarie diseases which I labour to vanquish day by day by obseruation of good Diet and such gentle medicines as are no way able any thing to alter and hurt the good disposition of your naturall constitution In your right eye you haue some small beginnings of a Cataract but the other is perfectly sound You feele at certaine times some touches of the windie melancholie but so sleight as that they vanish away like the smoke The thing that is most tedious and troublesome vnto you is those pettie distillations and fluxes of humours which fall down vpon your eyes teeth armes and legges Your spirit which is able to conceiue of any thing in the world be it neuer so rare strange hath been very inquisitiue to vnderstand the causes and to know from whence all these accidents should proceede which I haue oftentimes spoken largely of and that both in vulgar and common speeches as also in the artificiall and plaine tearmes of Phisicke In the end my reasons became so well liked of by you that when you had withdrawne your selfe to the Abbey of Marmonster to sport your selfe with the beautie of the place and goodnes of the ayre you commaunded me to set downe the same in writing and to cause them to come to light vnder the shield of your authoritie I cannot with honestie denie it vnto you howsoeuer yet it were meete that so waightie a matter according to the desert should bee garnished with infinite varietie of authorities and proofes from the learned which my memorie could not affoord through my want of bookes I haue therefore fitted vp and made readie three discourses for you touching your three diseases the first is Of the excellencie of the sight and the meanes to preserue it the second is Of windie melancholie and other melancholike diseases the third is Of Rheumes and the meanes for to heale them And vnto these in the ende I haue ioyned a little treatise of Olde age which may bee for your vse against the time to come For there is no shadow of reason why I should as yet call you old seeing you are not incombred with any of the infirmities of old age For is not this one of the miracles of our age to heare your communication so wise and graue to see your vnderstanding and iudgement so sound and vncorrupt your memorie so fresh and plentifull and your sences so absolute as that on your sound eye you vse to reade a farre off the smallest letter that any man can bring vnto you without spectacles Your hearing also continueth very easie and quicke and your taste also as exquisite and daintie as euer it was your heart so couragious and lustie as that notwithstanding all the assaults that euer your windie melancholie could giue vnto it yet it hath not been able at any time so to shake it as that it could make it alter his course your liuer so liberall as that it ministreth store of blood more then is needfull in so much as that we are cōstrained to cause you to tame it once a yeare I will say nothing of the goodnes of your stomack you your selfe know it well enough hauing an appetite at euery houre and disgesting whatsoeuer you bestow vpon it Seeing then the faculties of the soule doe euery one of them so well execute and performe their functions and offices can a man call the instrument thereof ouerworne or old I am perswaded Madame that no man can call you old in any respect if it were not that you are past fiftie and that custome in accounts hath designed the first degree of old age to this number You haue great occasions to praise God for this long and happie life is a certaine testimonie of his loue because the most excellent reward which he promiseth vnto them whom he loueth in this world is that they shall liue long vpon the earth Cheere vp your selfe then Madame you are but yet on the first step of your old age which is ouergrowne with flourishing greene and affoording an vndaunted courage you haue other two behinde and remaining God who hath giuen this strength vnto your bodie and which hath honoured you with so gracious and good a soule vouchsafe to make them as happie as your Ladiship can wish or desire them Your most humble and obedient seruant ANDREAS LAVRENTIVS B The Author to the Reader I Doubt not but that these treatises are in danger to be euill spoken of and bitterlie inueighed against by an infinite number of persons which are borne for nothing else but to carpe and finde fault before they be well knowne Some Phisitions will finde themselues grieued for that I haue made vulgar the secrets of our Art and they will be able to alleadge that the Egyptians which were the first inuentors of Phisicke to the end they might not make so diuine and sacred a gift of God profane and common did write
in such maner as that he may seeme to haue gone about to hide the secrets of nature and mysteries of his Philosophie not with the vaile of fained fables as doe the Poets neither yet with any superstitious conceit of numbers as Pithagoras his sect were wont to doe but by an obscure breuitie resembling the cuttle fish which to the end that she may not fall into the hand of the fisher casteth vp a blackish water and so hideth her selfe The fourth The sences sayth Aristotle are but fiue because the meanes by which they worke cannot be altered any moe then fiue wayes Aristotle his proofe for the number of the sences The meanes by which we haue the vse of our sences are onely two the one is outward the other is inward the outward is the ayre or the water the inward is the flesh or the membranes The ayre and water do receiue the obiects that are outward either as they are transparent and then they serue the sight or as they are moueable and thin bodies and then they serue the hearing or as moist ones doe receiue and embrace that which is drie and then they be the subiects of smelling The flesh or membranes may be considered of two maner of wayes either according to the temperature of the foure elementall qualities and then they bee the subiects of feeling or els according to the mixture of the qualities drie and moyst and then they are the subiects of relishes for the taste But howsoeuer the case standeth for the reason of this number we see there are but fiue externall sences which are all placed without the braine These are the proper posts and messengers of the soule these are the windowes by which wee see cleerely round about vs. These are the watch or doore keepers which make vs way into their most priuie closet if they performe their faithfull seruice vnto reason then do they set before her a million of delightsome obiects whereof she frameth marueilous discourses But alas and woe is me how oft doe they betray her Oh how many dangers do they inwrap her in and how subiect are they vnto corruption The sences become the cutthrotes of reason It is not without cause that this thrice renowmed Mercurie doth call the sences tyrants and the cutthrotes of reason for oftentimes doe they make captiue the same vnto the two inferiour powers they make her of a mistresse a seruant and of a free woman a drudge and thrall to all slauerie She may well commaund but she shall be obeyed all one as lawes and Magistrates are in an estate troubled with ciuill dissentions Yea tell me how many soules haue lost their libertie through the sight of the eyes How that the sences steale away and rob reason of her libertie Doe not men say that that little wanton that blind archer doth enter into our hearts by this doore and that loue is shaped by the glittering glimces which issue out of the eyes or rather by certaine subtile and thin spirits which passe from the heart to the eye through a straite and narrow way very secretly and hauing deceiued this porter doe place loue within which by little and little doth make it selfe Lord of the house and casteth reason out of the doores How oft is reason bewitched by the eare If thou giue thine eare to hearken vnto these craftie tongues and cogging speeches vnto these cunning discourses full of honie and a thousand other baits doubt not but that thy reason wil be surprised for the scout watch being fallen asleepe the enemie stealeth vpon them softly and becommeth master of the fort The wise Vlisses did not he stop the eares of his companions fearing least they should bee bewitched and besotted with the melodious tunes and sweete songs of the Syrens The licorishnes of the taste surfetting and drunkennes haue they not spoyled many great personages And the sence of feeling which nature hath giuen to liuing creatures for the preseruation of their kinde being the grossest and most earthly of all the rest and so by consequent the most delicate of al the rest doth it not oftentimes cause vs to become beasts Reason then is neuer ouertaken but through the false and treacherous dealing of these doore keepers no man can at any time come within her pallace but by the priuitie of these watchmen for that as I haue sayd in the beginning of this chapter the soule being fast shut vp within the bodie cannot doe any thing hut by the aide and assistance of the sences CHAP. III. That the sight is the noblest of all the rest of the sences AMongst all the sences that of the sight in the common iudgement of all the Philosophers hath been accounted the most noble perfect and admirable Foure things prouing the excellencie of the sight The excellencie thereof is to be perceiued in an infinite sort of things but most principally in foure as first in respect of the varietie of the obiects which it representeth vnto the soule secondly in respect of the meanes of his operation which is as it were altogether spirituall thirdly in respect of his particular obiect which is the light which is the most noble and perfect qualitie that euer God created and lastly in respect of the certaintie of his action First therefore it is out of all doubt The first that the sight causeth vs to know greater varietie and more differences of things then any of the rest of the sences For all naturall bodies are visible and may bee seene but all of them cannot bee felt neither doe they all affoord smels tasts or sounds the heauen the worlds ornament and most noble substance amongst all the rest will not suffer vs to touch the same neither can we heare the sweete harmonie which proceedeth of the concords and agreements of so many diuerse motions There is nothing but the sight which acquainteth vs therewithall soft bodies make no sound neither is there any taste in the earth or fire and yet euery one of these may bee seene The sight besides his owne proper obiect which is colour hath an infinit sort of others as greatnes number proportion motion rest situation and distances And this is the cause why the Philosopher in his Metaphysiques calleth it the sence of inuention as for that by the meanes thereof all the goodliest Sciences and Arts haue been inuented and found out By the meanes of this noble sence it came first to passe that man should begin to play the Philosopher for Philosophie was not begot but by admiring of things and admiratiō sprung not from elswhere then from the sight of pleasant and beautifull things Whereupon the minde raising it selfe on hie toward heauen and rauished with the consideration of so many marueilous things was desirous to know the cause of them and thereupon began to play the Philosopher And yet I will say further that the sight is the sence of our blessednes For the chiefe felicitie
of the particular and pettie parts of the same The names of the eye The Grecians call the eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they make vs see and the Poets affirme that they are the children of the Nymph Thea. The Hebrewes haue called them by the name of High to put vs in minde from whence we sprung as also to teach vs that our eyes must serue vs to behold the things which are high The Latines call them Oculi because they are as it were hidden and inclosed within a hollow valley The forme of the eye The shape and figure of the eye is round but not euery way for it is somewhat long and steeple fashioned hauing his foundation outward and his top inward towards the sinew of sight This figure was most agreeable vnto it The cause of the roundnes of the eye to the end it might containe much moue nimbly and free it selfe of offered iniuries The Mathematicians doe maintaine that the sphericall figure is of all other most apt to containe much and Ophthalmists do confidently affirme that if the eye had not been round it could neuer haue comprehended the hugenes of great bodies neither yet could euer haue seene at one time many obiects because that no man can see but by a direct line On what side soeuer then that the eye turneth it selfe many lines doe offer themselues at once to the apple of the eye which is round but this could not by any meanes come to passe if it were flat or fouresquare This circular shape doth also serue the eye that it may moue the more nimbly and easily whether it bee vpward or downward to the right hand or to the left or circularly for sphericall bodies doe moue as it were of themselues being stayed and resting onely vpon a narrow poynt And I conceiue this roundnes not to bee vnprofitable for the defence of the eye for amongst all the sorts of figures the sphericall or round figure is the strongest and withstandeth the assaults of outward hurts and harmes because it is all alike and hath no vneuenes in it therein a man shall neither finde corner nor poynt which may worke the ruine and dissolution of the same The eyes are seated vpon high in the body in the forepart thereof The situation of the eye and as it were in a valley Vpon high to discouer from a farre and to keepe that nothing may assaile vs at vnwares they serue the creature for spies and watches and are oftentimes called Phares in the holie Scripture The cause why they be situated on high But watchmen are vsually wont to bee placed in such plots as doe ouerlooke all the rest and no man assigneth any other place to the lanterne but the top of the tower and highest place of the ship They are set in the forepart of euery creature rather then behinde And the cause why before because that euery liuing thing moueth forward by which meanes it hath the oportunitie to spie out whatsoeuer might offend it and indeede it is not at any time permitted the watch to stand with their backs or blind sides toward the enemie Such as write of Anatomie say that it was necessary to place the eyes forward for that the sight had great need of a verie soft and marrowish sinew that by it vpon the sudden there might great store of spirits bee brought vnto the eyes and that such sinewes cannot possibly bee found to put forth backward seeing that way there is none that spread themselues but such as are too hard and drie I my selfe haue elsewhere approued this reason but hauing afterward obserued that all the nerues doe rise from the hinder part of the braine and hauing seene the optickes to rise also from thence as well as the rest I was enforced to chaunge mine opinion The cause why they be set in a hollow place Finally the eyes are fastned within a little hollow pit which the common people call a collet for their better safetic and to preuent the prodigall expence of spirits This little valley is fortified and entrenched on euery side either with the brow bone or with the bone of the nose or the cheeke-bone all which are raised round about the same in maner of little hillockes and and for that the forepart was without any thing to couer it nature hath shut it in with a lid which openeth and shutteth at our pleasure for feare that the eye should bee corrupted and turned from his nature either by the offence of too much light or leaft that it being alwais open his spirits should spend and quite vanish away or least in sleeping it might bee hurt by outward causes To which causes I will yet adde one other of mine owne which is that if the eye should neuer shut and thereby the spirits vncessantly be gazing vpon the light it would come to passe that they would bee vnable to withdraw themselues so speedily into their center and our sleepe would neuer be so peaceable for the Philosophers are of opinion that sleepe is caused by the retraction of the spirits into their secret and inner roomes The substance of the eye The nature of the eye which men call in anatomic all tearmes the substance of the eye is altogether soft bright and shining cleere thicke and waterish soft that so it may readily admit and receiue the formes of things shining and through cleere that so the light may pearce it through as also that thereby the instrument may haue some correspondencie with his obiect thicke to the end that his obiects may haue wherin the better to rest themselues Now it is the water alone that can haue all these properties whereupon it commeth to passe that the eye is of a waterish substance and not of a fierie substance as Plato sayd which thing I shall handle more largely in the 10. chapter The vse of the eye is double The vse the one is to serue as a guide and watch to discouer whatsoeuer might annoy and this is common to all liuing creatures the other is proper to man alone being to teach him the knowledge of God by the things that are visible to perfect his vnderstanding and thirdly to consummate his happines for by the sight man is made partaker of the beautie of the heauen by which meanes his vnderstanding part is much beautified and inriched and he himselfe made as it were like vnto his Creator The number The eyes are two and that because of the excellencie and necessitie of this sence that thereby the one might serue if that the other were either diseased or vtterly lost They be also two in respect of the better perfecting of the sight for by that meanes a man may see many things at once for if that man had but one eye and that placed in the middest of the forehead as the Poets faine of the Cyclops wee should onely see the things right afore vs and not
those which should be on either side These two eyes although they bee farre enough separated the one from the other That they can not moue the one without the other haue such a fellow-feeling and doe so well agree the one with the other in their actions as that the one of them cannot moue without or otherwise then the other for it is not in our abilitie to looke vp with the one and downe with the other or els to stir the one and hold the other still Aristotle his error Aristotle imputeth this to the coniunction of the sinewes of sight and is perswaded that the eyes doe moue together because they haue the originall and principal cause of their motion which is found to be in the coniunction of the sinew of sight common But this worthie man deceiueth himself in this as he is ouertaken almost in al other things wherein he hath to doe concerning Anatomie The nerue optick medleth not at all with the motion of the eye it onely bringeth the spirit of sight for being stopped in the disease called Gutta Serena the sight is quite lost and yet the motion thereof abideth stil It behoueth vs therefore to attribute the cause thereof to the end and perfection of this sence The eyes must moue together that so the obiects thereof may not seeme double For if wee could looke vp with the one and downe with the other at one and the same time this sence which is the worthiest of all the rest should euermore delude it selfe and become most imperfect in as much as euery single thing that it shuld behold would appeare double the proofe whereof may easily be had if with thy finger thou force the one of thine eyes either higher or lower then the other Their tempenature The temperature of the eye is cold and moist It feeleth most exquisitely and hath a merueilous fellow-suffering with the braine Their feeling Man alone hath his eyes of sundry colours and this varietie commeth either of the humors The colours of the eyes or of the grape coloured coate or of the spirits The variation by humors is because they alter three waies as either in their situation and placing in the eye which is sometime more deepe and inward and sometimes more superficiall and outward or else in their substance as that which may be grosse or subtile cleere or dim or lastly in their quantitie If the christalline humor be very bright cleere and subtile if also it be large and placed forward in the eye the eye will seeme fierie and sparkeling if contrariwise it be duskish grosse and set very much inwardly the eye will shew blacke or browne the grape-like tunicle being oftentimes of diuerse colours is also a cause of this varietie and the spirits doe not a little further and serue to procure the same CHAP. VI. A very particular description of all the parts of the Eye and chiefely of the sixe muscles of the same IS it not one of the wonders of the world that this little member which seemeth as though it were nothing shall be made of more then twentie seuer all parts all differing one from another and yet so decently ioyned and incorporated one with another as that all the wit of man is not able to blame the same either of want or surplussage I purpose to describe one after another and that in such order as is to be obserued if one should goe about to dissect or anatomise the same The eye then is framed of sixe fleshie strings A briese rehearsall of the parts of the eye which men call muscles and these cause it to moue vpward downeward to the right side to the left and circularlie of sixe coates or tunicles which inwrap all the parts together nourishing and contayning the humors euery one of them within their owne precincts and bounds of three humors all cleere and thorough-shining which doe receiue alter and keepe all the obiects of sight of two sinewes which conuey the animall spirit the one seruing the sight and is therefore called the nerue opticke the other seruing for the motion of the eye of many small veynes which serue for victualers and of as many arteries to prolong the life thereof of much fat by his slipperines to make it nimble and of two little glandules or kernels which keepe it moist and fresh least by his continuall motion it might be ouer heat and so ouer drie The description of the muscles The muscles were of necessitie prouided and giuen to the eye that so it might moue on euery side for if the eye stoode fast and immoueable we should be constrained to turne our head and necke being all of one peece for to see but by these muscles it now moueth it selfe with such swiftnes and nimblenes without stirring of the head as is almost incredible and this is the cause why they are tearmed of the Poet rolling The foure streight muscles The muscles of the eye are onely sixe foure direct or streight and two oblique or crooked ones the direct serue for direct motion as the first of them draweth the eye vp the second downe the third towards the nose and the fourth from the nose The olde writers being groslie conceited in matters of Anatomie The error of the olde writers haue thought that these foure muscles sprung from within from the membrane called Dura mater but they were foulie deceiued for so they ought not and much lesse could they They ought not because the said membrane is a very sensible part and couereth the sinewes of sight in such maner as that the muscles performing their offices and mouing backeward toward their roote and originall should presse the sinew hinder the passage that should be at libertie for the spirit to passe through and for the exquisite sensiblenes that is in Dura mater their motion should be alwaies ioyned with much paine They cannot rise from thence because their foundation and stay would not be firme and fast enough their piller would haue been to weake for it is a poynt of necessitie that the drawing part should euer be stronger then that which is drawn We must therefore beleeue and hold that these foure muscles doe take their begininng from within the collet from some part of the bone called Sphenoides and holding diuerse courses doe fasten themselues vnro the white coate the two other muscles called oblique The two oblique muscles doe stirre the eye in his oblique and as it were circular motion the one aboue and the other below alwaies outwardly and neuer inwardly because the eye hath nothing within to beholde or looke vpon The first of the obliques springeth from the place of the foure direct ones The amorous pulley and as it commeth neere vnto the great corner it maketh a round and white string which passing through a little pipe or cartilagenous ring informe of a pulley maketh a semicircular motion and inserteth it selfe in
to refresh the christalline humour when it is wearied This skinne doth notable good seruice to the christalline humour and other parts of the eye The offices of Vuea For first it is the meanes to hinder that the hardnes of the hornie membrane should not hurt the christall then it refresheth the same with the varietie of his colours thirdly it keepeth together and hemmeth in the spirits which otherwise would spend and disperse themselues abroad and lastly doth store with nourishment the hornie and netlike membranes as also the humours and this is the cause why nature hath made it soft and full of vessels The fourth membrane is called Aranoides because it is very fine and resembleth the ciper web The cobweb-like coate or threeds which the Spider draweth out with her feete it couereth and lyeth close vnto the christalline humour and serueth to vnite and retain the formes of things as the lead doth in looking glasses The netlike coate The fift is the netlike tunicle ouercast with a million of little threeds after the fashion of a net It groweth from the softest part of the sinew of sight which naturally is giuen to dilate and widen it selfe and this is the cause why when it is cast into water one shall perceiue it to be all white soft and as it were marrowlike The vse thereof is to conuey the inward light The vse thereof which is the animall spirit vnto the christalline humour and to carrie backe againe whatsoeuer receiued formes first vnto the nerue optick and from thence to the braine to iudge thereof The glassie tunicle The last is called the vitreous or glassie tunicle because it couereth and containeth the glassie humour The learned of ancient time haue not knowne it There is to be seene in the midst thereof a round circle like vnto the eyebrie I suppose it to be a number of small veines which conuey blood vnto the said vitreous humour that there being laboured it may be made white and fit for the christalline humour CHAP. VIII Generally of the three humours of the eyes but more specially of the becautie and excellencie of the christalline humour The excellency of the christalline humour LOe thus all vailes shadowes and couert being taken away it is now time to make a plaine and open shew of the most precious iewell of the eye that rich diamond that beautifull christall which is of more worth then all the pearles of the East This is that icelike humour which is the principall instrument of the sight the soule of the eye the inward spectacle this is that humour which alone is altered by colours receiueth whatsoeuer formes of the things that are to be seene This is that christalline humour which in more hardie wise then Hercules dares to encounter two at one That all the parts of the eye are seruants to the christalline namely the outward and inward light This is that onely christalline humour which all the other parts of the eye acknowledge their soueraigne and themselues the vassals thereof for the hornie tunicle doth the office of a glasse vnto it the apple the office of a window the grapelike coate is as a fayre flowring garden to cheare and reioyce the same after wearisome labour the cobweblike coate serueth as lead to retaine such formes as are offered the waterish humour as a warlike foreward to intercept and breake off the first charge of the obiects thereof assaying all vpon the sudden and with headlong violence to make breach and entrance The vitreous humour is his cooke dressing and setting forth in most fit sort his daily repast The nerue opticke one of his ordinary messengers carrying from the braine thereto commandement and power to see and conueying backe againe with all speede whatsoeuer hath been seene The muscles are his loftie steedes and couragious coursers whereupon being mounted it aduanceth it selfe aloft casteth it selfe alow turneth it selfe on the right and left hand and finally in euery such sort as seemeth best vnto it selfe In briefe this is the principall part of the eye which I intend to describe when I shall haue shewed you that which is before it I meane the waterish humour All the Anatomists agree that there are three humours in the eyes the waterish The descriptiō of the waterish humour the christalline and the glassie The waterish called also the white humour hath this name because it is of the consistence of water and is as it were like vnto the white of an egge Why the watrie humour is set before the christalline Nature hath placed it before the christalline to be in stead of a rampier to the end it might not be hurt by the hardnes of the membranes and that the first and fierce assaults of obiects might bee somewhat rebated and in such maner as that it may seeme to be an inward meane to conuey the formes of obiects vnto the christalline humour And looke how the lungs vndertaketh the first encounter of the ayre and maketh it true fauourite vnto the heart euen so the waterish humour altereth the light which commeth from without and reconcileth it to that which is within This humour serueth also to water the christalline and to keepe it moyst for being drie it can not admit the formes of things It manageth also the spirits which otherwise of their owne nature would alwaies be mounting aloft and wandring abroade and will not suffer them in such sort to spend themselues being set before them as a barre to keepe them in It also keepeth asunder the grapelike coate and the christalline humour and stretcheth foorth and filleth continually the hornie membrane that so by the withering and shrinking thereof the sight may not bee lost This humour hauing all these goodly vertues That the watrie humour is a part of the eye it is not very like that it should bee an excrement of the christalline humour as Auicen the prince of Arabia for Phisicke hath seemed to affirme And I am so farre from being of his minde as that I take it for a spermaticke part not yeelding any thing in title of eldership vnto the christalline as hauing ouer and besides his limited proportion or permanent quantitie his constant abiding place and his double partition-wall of two membranes keeping it and the christalline asunder whereunto may bee added that contrary to the nature of an excrement if it be once lost or spilt it can neuer be recouered againe but causeth vs to lose our sight The next in sequence is the christalline humour The description of the christalline which is bright and icelike as is the christall which is pure and well pollished This is the steele-glasse of the minde by which it looketh vpon the formes and faces of things and combineth the lights which before were seuerall and asunder Some men are of iudgement that the inuention and vse of spectacles was taken from the christalline humour because that if it
to the eye certaine glandules or kerneis which water the eye as also drinke vp like a spunge the moysture falling vpon them from the braine CHAP. X. How we see as namely whether it be by the sending foorth of spirits or by taking in of the formes of things I Thinke my selfe by this time to haue deciphered exactly enough the whole workemanship of the eye and of all his parts let vs now looke about and see how it dischargeth his function which is sight and how it is accomplished The things necessarie to make vs see All Philosophers haue well agreed in this one poynt that there are three things necessary for to make the sight perfect that is to say the instrument which is the eye the obiect which is the colour and the meanes inlightned which is the aire or the water or some other thorough-cleare and christal-like thing but when it should come to passe that they should ioyne these three together and shew the maner of this action which is the liueliest and briefest of all the other sences they iarre among themselues and cannot agree Some of them would haue that there should issue out of the eye bright beames or a certaine light which should reach vnto the obiect and thereby cause vs to see it other some would haue it that the obiect commeth vnto the eye and that nothing goeth out of the eye the first doe hold that we see by emission or hauing something going forth of the eye the latter by reception or receiuing of the obiect into the eye The former sect doe ordinarily alleage Plato as their prince and chiefe pillar Plato his opinion how that we see sending forth of some thing one of his princip all foundations standeth vpon this that the eye is all full of light and of the nature of fire not such as vseth to burne and giue light together neither yet that which burneth but giueth no light but such as giueth light and burneth not like vnto the celestiall fire This foundation seemeth to rest vpon some shew of trueth The found tion of this opinion for the eye being rubbed yea though it be when it is most darke doth cast forth some bright streames and commonly wee see the eyes of such as are angrie all fierce and fierie Reasons to proue the eye to be of the nature of fire Plinie hath obserued that Tyberius Casar did make afraid many souldiers with his onely looke it was so quicke and full of light Aristotle reporteth that one Antipho a yong man did alwaies see his owne image by the reflexe of the bright straines which came forth of his eyes Galen telleth of a souldier who becomming blinde by little and little perceiued euery day as it were a light to come forth of his eyes and returned not againe And doe we not in the night perceiue the Cat the Woolfe and many other liuing creatures to haue shining eyes Moreouer the more then credible readines and nimblenes of the eye the performance of his actions in a moment and without local motion his steeple-like shape doe all euidently testifie that it is of a subtile nature and full of fire the eye also is neuer seene to quake through colde although it be in the colde because it selfe is all on a flame Finally it cannot bee denied but that the instrument must bee sutable to his obiect the obiect of sight is colour and auncient writers haue defined colour to bee a flame going out of bodies it is of necessitie therefore that the instrument should be of the same nature If this be true I meane that the eye is full of fire and sparkling streames we shal be forced to beleeue that the eye seeth by emission This is also the most common receiued opinion and that which hath drawen manie great learned Clerkes after it as Pithagoras Empedocles Hipparcus Democritus Leucippus Epicurus Chrysippus Plato and in a maner all others which haue written of the eyes And now take a viewe of their principal reasons Reasons to proue that we see by sending foorth something The Basiliske by his sight poy soneth all them which looke vpon him women hauing their natural courses infect the looking-glasses vpon which they cast their eyes Some report that if a Woolfe doe first see a man that then such a man will become hoarse The first Men of olde time haue thought that with the looke one might be bewitched and inchanted according to the complaint of the Poet I know not what eye hath bewitched my tender lambes The second If a man come neere to one that hath enflamed eyes and behold him earnestly which hath red eyes without all peraduenture he shall bee troubled with the same disease all which sheweth that there commeth something out of the eye Whereupon is it that a great whitenes doth hurt the sight but onely for that it wasteth the spirits which come forth of the eye Wherefore should the eye grow weake with looking The third but because there commeth out of it too much light and that all the spirits vanish and fade away The fourth Whence commeth it that such as would see a very little thing a far off do claspe their eyes halfe close their eyelids It is not that so they may vnite the beames and ioyne together the spirits The fift to the end that afterward they may cast them out more forcibly cibly and directly Go not the Cats on hunting in the night and then do they cast out some glittering streames The sixt Furthermore if we should not see by sending something foorth of the eye it should seeme vnnecessary that the eye should turne it selfe vnto his obiect the forme thereof should offer it selfe sufficiently to vs yea we should see in not seeing The seuenth If we should see onely by taking and receiuing something into our eyes then great eyes should see better then small ones because they are the more capable and so also such eyes as haue large apples should see better then those which haue small ones which is quite contrary to trueth a small thing should be assoone seene as a great The eight and it would be as easie to see a farre off as neere if the formes be al in the aire Looke wel say they which write of the eyes vpon a small needle which hath his point standing vp yet at the first cast thou shalt not disceme the point but afterward hauing turned thine eye on the one side and the other thou shalt see it because that by such turning some one bright straine or other will haue met with it of the same reason and nature is that which happeneth in smal things that are on the earth The ninth a man cannot tell how to behaue himselfe to see them at the first dash Finally if we see by taking something into the eye the eye should containe at one and the same instant two contrarie things which is
against the lawes of nature neither could it being so smal containe the greatnes no nor yet the shape of great mountaines whereupon we must needes conclude that we see by sending forth something Behold here all the faire and goodly forces on this side which I am now about to pitch and plant in the plaine field and now let vs goe to view the squadrons on the contrary side The contrary opinions of such as hold that we see by taking in something Chiefe captaine and generall of the same is Aristotle whose followers be the whole band of the Peripatetikes as also Auerrhoes Alexander Themistius and an infinite number of others All these hold that wee see by receiuing something into the eye and that there doth nothing goe out of the eye which may helpe vs to see but that either the obiect or the forme there of doth come vnto the eye The foundation and maine reason is cleane contrary vnto that of the Platonists for Plato was verilie perswaded that the eye was all full of fire and Aristotle maintaineth that the eye is all full of water and this he demonstrateth most excellently and therefore accordingly I will doe my endeuour to set it out most plainely A cleere and plaine proofe that the eye is all of water The instrument of the sight must be thorough cleere and transparent that is to say cleere as christal to the end there may be some likenes betwixt the obiect and the instrument and that there maybe some equality betwixt the thing doing and the thing suffering This principle is cleerely agreed vpon in naturall Philosophie But of the things which are christal-like cleere some are of subtile and thin bodies and othersome are more compact and thicke The eye was not to be made christal-like cleere and thin because that so it could not haue retained his formes they would haue speedely past away not finding any resting place as doe the bodies which are in the ayre and the glasse it selfe which is in looking glasses would neuer make shew of any picture or resemblance if it were not steeled or leaded on the backeside Whereupon it followeth that the eye must be christallike cleere and thicke Now of all the elements there is no one that is so cleare and thicke besides the water for the ayre and fire are in deede cleere but therewithall thin it followeth therefore that the eye is of the nature of the water This firme and demonstratiue argument is vnderpropped by another which cannot be gainesayd Another plains and strong proofe The chiefe part of the eye is the christallike humor which is nothing else but a congealed water which hath before it the waterish humor and behinde it the vitreous which doth feede and nourish it if you pearce the eye you shall not perceiue any other thing to come forth but water so that we must rather beleeue that the eye is of the nature of water then of fire Reasons prouing that we see by taking in something This foundation thus laid it will be easie to make sure the rest of the building and to maintaine that we see by receiuing of some thing into the eye and the rather because it is the propertie of moist things to receiue and take in Loe here the chiefest reasons of this sect as they follow The action of euery sence is a suffering and to doe the office of any of the sences is nothing else but to suffer The first euery action therefore of the sences is accomplished by receiuing and not by sending forth of anything which is an action as for example the eare heareth by receiuing of sounds smelling by receiuing of odours taste by receiuing of tastes and feeling The second by receiuing of such qualities as may be felt and then why should the eye be debarred of this receite Aristotle saith that they which haue their eyes very moyst doe seeme to see things bigger then in deede they bee which argueth that the formes of things are receiued into and as it were grauen in the christalline humor for bodies seeme alwaies to exceede themselues in greatnes being within the water Euery obiect exceeding in his qualitie The third doth destroy his sence as an exceeding great whitenes doth dimme and dasle the sight then it must follow that it is violently receiued Aristotle in his Problemes moueth a question The fourth which may be of some force in this place as wherefore the right hand is ordinarilie more nimble and strong then the left and not one care giuen to heare more readilie then the other Whose answer is that the facultie which causeth the hands to moue setteth it selfe on worke and that that which causeth sight and hearing is set on worke in such sort as that the eyes and cares may equally receiue and suffer Olde men commonly doe see things a farre off The fift better then those which are at hand and this cannot happen of any fierie streames or light going out of the eye because that those in them are of small quantitie and greatly delayed with darkenes the cause must needes be referred to the forme which comming from a thing farre remoued becommeth more fine and subtile and lesse participating of materiall substance and by consequent no more fit to be receiued The sixt In winter if the weather be calme and faire the Starres are often seene at midday which neuer hapneth in summer which is because in winter the ayre being more grosse and thicke the formes thereof doe consist and abide more permanently as also in greater number in the ayre but in summer by reason of the thinnes and subtilenes of the ayre their saide formes haue no staide abode or meanes to multiplie and this sheweth that we see by receiuing in and not sending forth of any thing Finally the eye is like vnto the looking glasse The seuenth and this receiueth all such shapes as are brought vnto it without sending any thing of it owne vnto the obiect They differ onely in this that the looking glasse hath no power to recommend his formes and shapes vnto their iudge as the eye doth vnto the common sence by the nerue opticke Loe here the two battels orderly in array and right ouer one against the other I could wish my selfe able to agree them being the same that Galen hath attempted but in deede there is little likeliehoode For the trueth cannot vphold and defend two things The Author his opinion contrary one to the other I will therefore set in foote with the stronger side and maintaine with Aristotle that wee see by receiuing only and that there goeth nothing out of the eye which may serue for the making of vs to see I will vse for my first incounter this reason which as it seemeth me is sharpe enough If there goe any thing out of the eye it is either some fine and subtile bodie Arguments plainly conuincing the Platonists as the animall spirit
or els some streame onely If it be a bodie how can it bee carried forthwith and in a moment as high as heauen seeing that euery bodily substance requireth time to moue in but the sight is finished at one instant This bodily substance shal it not be beaten scattered and deceiued by the winds before it come to the obiect This bodie thus going forth of the eye shal it pearce the ayre or shal the ayre giue place to it pearce it cannot because that nature can no more abide the pearcing of bodies then she can abide that there should bee a place wherein should bee no bodie if the ayre make way for it then there will neuer be any sight for so the coherence and continuitie of straines would bee interrupted because the ayre would follow it hard at the heeles and thrust it selfe betwixt the two If to auoyde the push of these pikes That it cannot bee any bright beame which goeth out of the eye which yet are sharpe enough thou wouldest say that that which goeth out of the eye is a bright beame or light which pearceth the ayre and communicateth it selfe in a moment with all that which is the meane as doth the shine of the Sunne which inlighteneth the whole ayre without any motion I will vrge thee more neerely and will cause thee to see that there is not light enough in the eye to reach vp to heauen Marke well and consider that a flame of fire casteth not his streames any further then the proportion of the bignes there of will beare it out one candle cannot giue light enough to one whole parlour and how canst thou imagine that this little member should bee able in a moment to reach heauen with his bright beames It is no difficultie for the Sunne because it is as great as the whole earth to cast forth his beames and to spread them ouer the whole world but it cannot bee so sayd of the eye Therefore there can nothing goe forth of the eye that can reach to the things to be seene Furthermore if the streames going foorth of the eye should bee the cause of sight then they should returne vnto the eye againe or els stay by the way if they come not backe againe neither can they make returne of such bodies as they touch if they do come back againe yet there is nothing but bright glittering bodies which can bee seene because no other then these giue any reflexion and so it should follow that huge and great hils should not bee seene Let vs say more that if these streames serue to cause vs to see that then of necessitie they must either returne emptie or laden with their backes full of bodies if they come emptie there will be nothing to see if they bring formes or semblances of things with them then haue wee our desire that is that wee see by receiuing something into the eye The ground-proofes of the Platonists As concerning the foundations of the Platonists it is easie to ouerthrow them all I confesse that the eye hath great quantitie of brightnes in it but it proceedeth not from fire it commeth of the christalline humour and of the shining of the tunicles for all polished substances being after the maner of the hornie membrane doe shine in the darke The action of the eye performed on the sudden and the great quicknes of the same cannot compell me to thinke that it is full of fire For the action is sudden because the eye receiueth but the bare shapes or likenesses of things without matter and bodie For the nimblenes and dexteritie thereof we may conceiue that it is no great peece of worke for sixe muscles readily to moue so small a member The eyes doe not at any time quiuer with colde because as Aristotle sayth in his Problemes they bee full of fat which accidentarilie doth keepe them warme as our garments doe vs or because they be in continual motion There is no fire then within the eyes there is nothing to be found but water christall and glasse Answere to the reasons of the Platonists And as for the reasons which they alleage they be very light for the Basilisk and the inflamed eye do not infect vs by the bright beames which come from them but by a naturall substance which is very subtile that is to say by a vapour insensiblie breathing out of the whole bodie which infecting the ayre is by it transported to vs. That which is alleaged of the wolfe The second is no better worth then to bee derided And as for any inchantment proceeding from the eye we hold that naturally there can no such thing bee Exceeding much whitenes doth ouerthrow the sight because it draweth out all the spirits which ought to keepe within the eye to enable it the more vnto the performance of his office The third The eye groweth weake and wearie with looking as euery other part will doe which is for that the naturall heate and spirits which labour and take paines in the motion of the eye as also in the holding of the same still doe spend and waste themselues The fourth Wee doe halfe shut our eyes when we would see a farre off not to the end to vnite the shining straines of the eye but rather that the outward light should not suddenly rush in and scatter the inward The fift The eye must needes turne it selfe towards his obiect because sight doth neuer act but by a direct line The sixt Great eyes and those apples of eyes which are broad see not so well as the contrary because the inward spirits are thereby lost being very necessary in the receiuing of those formes which are to enter into the eye The seuenth As concerning the needle I answere that at the first wee see not the poynt because it is not proportionable The receiuing of two contraries and of the most huge mountains The eight is no absurditie seeing the eye in all cases medleth with nothing but the formes of the things which are without all matter and substance Wherfore let nothing let vs to conclude that the sight is effected by the receiuing in of some thing A plainer declaring of the maner of receiuing in something But the maner of this receiuing is a very difficult thing and vnderstood of a very few To make plaine therefore the same I will doe my indeuour to search out what it is that the eye receiueth in what part it receiueth the same when it receiueth in any thing and how Concerning the first poynt What it is that the sight receiueth or taketh in I finde great oddes in opinions Democritus and Leucippus doe firmely hold that wee receiue in bodies more small then that they will suffer any diuision Epicurus thinketh that we receiue in the only beames of the obiect Alexander the Peripatetick the image of the obiect and that not as in his proper subiect but as it were in
a looking-glasse Aristotle maintaineth that we receiue in nothing but the forme which is produced of the obiect and multiplied or continued in an vnseparable continuitie in and by the ayre as the bodie maketh and produceth the shadow and the Sunne the light And this is the soundest iudgement of all the rest but such as needeth a plainer declaration That the eye receiueth nothing but the formes of things for euery man is not able at the first blush to vnderstand what is meant by the forme of the obiect We affirme then that this forme hath not his seate and place in the vnderstanding as also that it is not the same which schoolemen call Ens rationis What this forme is but that it is a certaine reall thing seated in the ayre and eye Now whatsoeuer hath a reall being is either a substance or an accident This forme cannot be a substance because that thereby it should be more noble and perfect then his obiect which is colour Then it is an accident But what kinde a one Shall we call it a quantitie No for then it would haue the allowance either of height bredth or depth and we dare not call it a relation because relation hath not the force to doe any thing but this forme causeth vs to see And least of all may wee reduce and bring it vnto the predicament of Action It must then needes bee a qualitie without matter or bodie and vncapable of all maner of diuision such a forme is called of the Philosophers intentionall which hath respect vnto the obiect and is immediatly produced and made shew of as the shadow of the bodie This forme doth multiplie it selfe throughout the ayre for the ayre being subtile moyst is apt to receiue all the formes and receiuing one part of the obiect representeth the whole obiect This forme is not seene but maketh vs to see for there is nothing but the obiect which can be seene Question Some man may demaund how this forme altereth the sight in vniting or dispersing of the spirits it selfe being voyd of al matter for whitenes disperseth the spirits and blacknes keepeth them together Answer I answere that this alteration commeth not of the forme but of the light which commeth of the colours And it is most certaine that a great light wasteth the sight because our spirits which are very subtile and light come foorth to ioyne themselues vnto this outward light on the contrary they beholding darknes and a blacke colour withdraw themselues shunning their enemie There is nothing then but a forme without matter which is receiued and hence it is that we see a thing in a moment and not by intermission of time as al the other sences haue their operations and actions In what part of the eye this receipt is made Now let vs see in what place that is whereabout or in what part of the eye this forme is receiued Some there are which thinke it to be receiued in the braine because it is the seate of common sence and for that there is none of the sences which hath not his originall from the braine Auicen did verely thinke that this receipt was where the nerues optickes doe ioyne together and that the obiect doth not appeare double because the formes are vnited in this coniunction of the sinewes Others are of minde that this receipt is accomplished in the cobweb-like tunicle which is more cleere and bright then any looking-glasse But we hold with Aristotle Galen and the trueth also that this receipt is effected in the christalline humour because this is the most noble part of the eye hauing such a substance as none other hath and the same seated in the middest of the instrument as in his center where the two lights doe meete each other the outward which entreth at the apple of the eye as at a window and the inward which is brought thither by the nerue optick Notwithstanding if thou bee disposed to reconcile all these seuerall opinions The true and proper meanes by which we haue sight thou maist say that the receipt is made in the christalline humour the rebating of their violence in the tunicles the perfect consummation in the coniunction of the nerues optickes the knowledge triall or discerning of the same in the substance of the braine Of all this long discourse these are the fruites which we shall reape that the sight is effected onely by receiuing of some thing into the eye and not by sending any thing out of it that the christalline humour being the chiefe instrument of sight receiueth nothing but formes which are as the shadowes of things that may bee seene that these formes being produced and multiplied along throughout the ayre are by a direct line and not else receiued and that at an instant I am constrained to adde this disputation in this small treatise of the eye as hauing been vrgently pressed or rather expressely commanded to doe the same CHAP. XI How many waies the sight may be endamaged and hurt THe whole discourse which I haue gone about to make concerning the excellencie of the sight the cunning workemanship of the eye and of all his partes besides the delight which it will bring to such as are curious will not in my iudgement be vnprofitable vnto them which shall earnestly desire to know the diseases of the eyes and would vndertake to heale and cure the same For we holde it for a principle in phisicke that no man can know that which happeneth contrarie to nature in any part if he doe not first know that which is naturall vnto the same part The direct saith Aristotle in his first booke of the soule or straight line is a rule both to iudge it selfe and the crooked by It behooueth then that the Phisition should know the naturall state of the eye and whatsoeuer is needefull for the execution of his office if so be he be desirous to know how many waies it may be hurt Euery action as Galen obserueth in many places may be hurt three waies How many waies a function may be hurt for either it is wholie lost or else greatly impayred or else corrupted and depraued These three faults may happen to the sight the impeachment or weakenes thereof is ordinarie with olde folkes the sight is then depraued when the obiect sheweth other then it is the vtter losse thereof is called blindenes The sight groweth weake How the sight is weakened either through default of his faculties or through the euill disposition of the instrument The facultie which is that power of the soule which maketh vs see hath his seate in the braine if then the brain be altered in his temperature as whē it falleth out to be too hote cold moyst or drie or when it is not fashioned well commendablie then all the sences will bewray a great impeachment in their actions but aboue all the rest the sight because the eye being next neighbour vnto the
were asleepe because the substance of their braine is too thicke and the spirits laboured therein too grosse these are no fit men for the vndergoing of weightie affaires neither apt to conceiue of profound mysteries a bed and a pot full of pottage is fitted for them Whereunto the sanguine complexion is inclined The sanguine persons are borne for to be sociable and louers of companie they are as it were alwaies in loue they loue to laugh and bee pleasant this is the best complexion for health and long life because that it hath the two maine pillars of life which are naturall heate and moysture in greatest measure and yet such folke are not the fittest for great exployts nor yet for high and hard attempts because they bee impatient and cannot belong in doing about one thing being for the most part drawne away either by their sences or els by their delights whereto they are naturally addicted Cholerike persons being hote and drie haue a quicke vnderstanding The properties of a cholerike persons abounding with many sleight inuentions for they seldome sound any deepe and hidden secrets it fitteth not their fist to graple with such businesses as require continuance of time and paines of the bodies they cannot be at leisure their bodies and spirits doe let them their spirits are soone spent by reason of their thinnesse and their weake bodies cannot indure much watching I will adde also that one thing which Aristotle mentioneth in his Ethickes as that they loue change of things and for this cause are not so fit for consultations of great importance The melancholike are accounted as most fit to vndertake maters of weightie charge and high attempt That melancholike persons are ingenious and wittie Aristotle in his Problemes sayth that the melancholike are most wittie and ingenious but we must looke that we vnderstand this place aright for there are many sorts of melancholie That there are three sorts of melancholie there is one that is altogether grosse and earthie cold and drie there is another that is hot and adust men call it atrabilis there is yet another which is mixed with some small quantitie of blood and yet not withstanding is more drie then moyst The first sort which is grosse and earthie maketh men altogether grosse and slacke in all their actions both of bodie and minde fearefull sluggish and without vnderstanding it is commonly called Asse-like melancholie the second sort being hote and burnt doth cause men to be outragious and vnfit to be imployed in any charge There is none then but that which is mixed with a certaine quantitie of blood that maketh men wittie and causeth them to excell others Why melancholike men are wittie The reasons hereof are very plaine the braine of such melancholike persons is neither too soft nor too hard and yet it is true that drynes doth beare the sway therein But Heraclitus oftentimes said that a drie light did make the wifest minde there are but small store of excrements in their braine their spirits are most pure and are not easilie wasted they are hardly drawne from their purpose and meaning their conceit is very deepe their memorie very fast their bodie strong to endure labour and when this humour groweth hot by the vapours of blood it causeth as it were as kinde of diuine rauishment commonly called Enthousiasma which stirreth men vp to plaie the Philosophers Poets and also to prophesie in such maner as that it may seeme to containe in it some diuine parts See here the effects of the foure complexions and how they may all foure be within the bounds of health It is not then of these sound melancholike persons that we speake in this treatise We will intreate onely of the sicke and such as are pained with the griefe which men call melancholie which I am now about to describe CHAP. IIII. The definition of Melancholie and all the differences of it DIseases commonly take their names either from the place which they seaze vpon or of some irkesome accident accompanying them Whence melancholie tooke his name or of the cause which causeth them Melancholie marcheth in his hinder-most ranke for this name was giuen it because it springeth of a melancholike humour Wee will define as other good authors doe a kinde of dotage without any serue hauing for his ordinarie companions feare and sadnes without any apparant occasion Dotage in this definition standeth for the Genus the Greekes call it more properlie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines Delirium The diuerse sorts of dotage There are two sorts of dotage the one without a feuer the other with a feuer that which is ioyned with a feuer is either continuall and haunteth the sicke continually or else it taketh him at certaine times distinguisht by distance that which is continuall is properly called frensie and it commeth either through the inflammation of the muscles called Diaphragma and this is the cause why the auncient Greeke writers do call the said muscle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that dotage which commenth by fit happeneth commonly in burning agues and in the stage or full strength of feuers tertains and it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The other sort of dotage is without a feauer and it is either accompanied with rage and furie and then it is called Mania or madnes or else with feare and sadnes and then it is caled melancholie Melancholie therefore is a dotage What dotage is not coupled with an ague but with feare and sadnes We call that dotage when some one of the principall faculties of the minde as imagination or reason is corrupted All melancholike persons haue their imagination troubled for that they deuise with themselues a thousand fantasticall inuentions and obiects which in deede are not at all they haue also verie oft their reason corrupted Why melancholie is not accompanied with a feuer Wherefore we cannot make any doubt whether melancholie be a dotage or no but it is ordinarylie without a feuer because the humour is drie and hath these two qualities coldenes and drynes which are altogether contrarie vnto putrefaction so that there cannot any putrisied vapour breath out of them no more then there doth out of meere ashes which might be conueyed to the heart there to kindle the fire and procure a feauer Feare and sadnes are vnseperable companions of this miserable griefe for some reasons which I will set downe in the chapter following Beholde here the description of melancholie as it is a symptome or accident which hath relation to some action hurt and hindered that is to say to the imagination and reason depraued and corrupted This accident is as it were an effect of some cause and dependeth immediatlie vpon a disease for as the shadow followeth the bodie euen so the symptome followeth and accompanieth the disease Melancholie is a similar disease All the Phisitions both Greekes and Arabians doe thike that the cause of this accident
is a similar disease that is to say a cold and drie distemperature of the braine The braine then is the part grieued and hurt How that in it the temperature of the braine is hurt but that not by reason of any misshapednes of the same either by any tumour against nature neither yet by any thing oppressing or obstructing his ventricles as it happeneth in the Apoplexie and falling sicknes but in his proper substance and temperature the temperature is corrupted it is become too drie and colde How it commeth to passe that melancholike men fall into the falling sicknes Hippocrates hath obserued the same in his Epidemikes and Aphorismes very excellently Such saith he as haue the falling sicknes become melancholike and such as are menlancholicke fall into the falling sicknes according as the menlancholike humour doth possesse the ventricles or the substance of the braine if this humour corrupt the temperature which he calleth the minde because that it seemeth that the most excellent powers of the minde doe execute their functions by the helpe of this temperature without doubt it will cause melancholie but if it shut vp it selfe in the ventricles and cauities of the braine it will cause the falling sicknes because the ventricles being stuffed and the spirit not being able to passe freely to the sinewes the braine draweth it selfe together thereby to enlarge his ventricles and in this retraction doth equallie and as much draw and pull his great tayle from whence all the sinewes doe arise as it selfe and thus thereupon ariseth an vniuersall conuulsion I take it that the definition of melancholie is made cleere and plaine enough by this little discourse Now let vs come to the differences and diuers sorts thereof The differences of melancholie There are three kindes of melancholie the one commeth of the onely and sole fault of the braine the other sympatheticallie proceedeth from the whole bodie when as the whole temperature and constitution of the bodie is melancholike the third ariseth from amongst the bowels but especially from the spleene liuer and the membrance called mesenterium The first is called simplie and absolutelie by the name of melancholie the latter is called the windie melancholie with an addition The first is the most tedious of all the rest it vexeth the patient continuallie affoording little or no breathing whiles vnto him that which riseth from amongst the bowels doth handle the grieued nothing so roughlie it hath his periods oftentimes making truce with the diseased The first hath many degrees of afflicting if it haue nothing in it extraordinarie it shall not alter his name but and if it fall out to affect the partie altogether with sauage conditions it shall be called Wolues melancholie if with raging and violent passion of loue Knights melancholie The flatuous or windie melancholie hath also his degrees for there is some sorts of it but easie and light and there are other some that are very fierce and violent And now intending to handle all these sorts in order I will begin with that which hath his seate in the braine CHAP. V. Of melancholie which hath his proper seate in the braine of all accidents which doe accompanie the same and the causes of feare sadnes watchings fearefull dreames and other Symptomes THat melancholie with commeth of the drie cold distemperature of the braine is ordinarilie accompanied with so manifold and tedious accidents that it should stirre vp euery one to be moued with pitie and compassion for the bodie is not onely cast into a traunce but the minde is yet a great deale more violently set on the racke The accidents happening to melancholike persons For here beholde all the tirannous excecutioners and tormentors of melancholie feare keepeth companie with it day by day and now and then assayleth the partie with such an astonishment as that he is made afraide and becommeth a terror vnto himselfe sadnes doth neuer forsake him suspition doth secretly gall him sighings watchings fearefull dreames silence solitarynes bashfulnes and the abhorring of the Sun are as it were vnseparable accidents of this miserable passion Here we haue ample occasion administred to enter into some Philosophicall discourses and for pleasure sake I minde to recreate my selfe in searching out all the causes of these accidents beginning with that of feare The greatest Phisitions are at controuersie from whence this feare in melancholike persons should come Why melancholike men are alwaies afraide Galen his reason Galen imputeth all vnto the colour which is blacke and thinketh that the spirits being made wilde and the substance of the braine as it were cloudie and darke all the obiects thereof appeare terrible and that the minde is in continuall darkenes And euen as wee see the night doth bring with it some maner of feare not onely to children but sometimes also to the most confident Auerrhoes mocketh Galen euen so melancholike persons hauing in their braine a continuall night are in vncessant feare Auerrhoes that had deeper insight in Philosophie then same for his skill in Phisicke and being the sworne enemie of Galen The colour of the humour is not the cause of feare The first reason laugheth to scorne this reason The colour saith he cannot be the cause of this feare because colours can alter nothing but the eyes being onely the obiect of the sight so that the minde can see nothing without the eyes But there is neuer an eye in the braine how then can it finde it selfe agrieued at the blacknes of the melancholike humour seeing that it cannot see it The second I adde for the more confirmation of Auerrhoes his argument that the blacknes of the colour is so farre from being any cause of this feare in melancholike persons as that it is rather that colour which they most loue as being enemies to Sun and light and following darkenes altogether seeking after shadowed places walking often in the night and that with greater boldnes then vpon the day The third Furthermore madnes is caused of an humour as blacke as that which causeth melancholie for the humour called blacke choler is altogether blacke and glistning like pitch and therefore can make blacke the spirits and braine as well as the other But we see it falleth out that mad men are nothing fearefull but rather bolde and furious not taking acknowledgement of any danger as appeareth in their headlong casting of themselues into the deuouring fire The fourth and vpon the murtherous knife Finally if blackenes should be the cause of such feare it should follow on the contrarie that whitenes should make them bolde but how is it then that such as abound with Phlegme are also commonly fearefull the colour therefore cannot be the cause of this feare But saith Auerrhoes Auerrhoes his opinion it must needes be that the cause hereof is the temperature of the melancholike humour which is colde and worketh effects contrarie vnto those of heate Heate maketh men
bolde quicke of motion and headlong in all their actions colde on the contrarie maketh them fearefull leaden-heelde and not resoluing of any thing All such as are of a colde temperament become fearefull olde folkes ordinarilie are fearefull and so are gelded men also women are alwaies more timerous then men and to be briefe the qualities of the minde doe follow the temperament of the bodie The authors iudgement Loe here here the contrarie opinions of these two great and famous men I thinke they may be reconciled if wee would ioyne these two causes together that is the temperature of the humour as the chiefe and principall and the blacke colour of the Spirits as that which may much further and helpe forward the same The melancholike humour being colde doth not onely coole the braine but also the heart being the feare of this couragious facultie of the Soule which men call the instinct and pronenes of nature vnto anger and rebateth the flames therein hence creepeth out feare the same humour being blacke causeth the animall spirits which ought to be pure subtile cleere and lightsome it maketh them I say grosse darke and as it were all to be smoked But the spirits being the chiefe and principall instrument of the minde if they be blacke and ouercooled also doe trouble her most noble powers and principally the imagination presenting vnto it continually blacke formes and strange visions which may be seene with the eye notwithstanding that they be within This is a deepe reach which no man hitherto it may be hath attayned and it serueth infinitely for the defence of Galen That with our owne eyes we may see something within the same The eye doth not onely see that which is without but it seeth also that which is within howsoeuer it may iudge that same thing to be without Those which haue some small beginnings of a Cataract doe see many bodies flying like to Ants flyes and long haires the same also doe such as are readie to vomite Hippocrates and Galen place amongst the signes adn tokens of a criticall fluxe of blood these false apparitions as when one seeth red bodies hanging in the ayre which yet notwithstanding are not there because that then euery one should see them this is an inward vapour which offereth it selfe vnto the christalline humour in his naturall colour and so if it arise of blood it appeareth red if of choler yellow and wherefore then should not the vapours of the melancholike humour and of the spirits being blacke ordinarilie present themselues and appeare in their naturall colour vnto the eye and so vnto the imagination The melancholike partie may see that which is within his owne braine but vnder another forme because that the spirits and blacke vapours continually passe by the finewes vaines and arteries from the braine vnto the eye which causeth it to see many shadowes and vntrue apparitions in the aire whereupon from the eye the formes thereof are conueyed vnto the imagination which being continuallie serued with the same dish abideth continuallie in feare and terror That which maketh me to ioyne the blacke colour with the temperature is because the braine is very oft of colde distemperature and notwithstanding we finde not the partie troubled either with such feare nor yet such gastlie sights Fleagme is yet more colde then melancholie and notwithstanding it troubleth not the imagination because his whitenes hath some resemblance of the substance of the braine That the melancholike humour is altogether contrarie to our spirits and with the colour and cleerenes of the spirits but the melancholike humour is altogether opposite and enemie vnto the same Our spirits account colde and darkenes to be their enemies feeling the colde they drawn themselues in and as darkenes presseth on more and more so they flie blacke into their fort and castle forsake the vtter parts and procure vs to sleepe the melancholike humour hath both these properties it is colde and darke it ought not therefore to astonish vs if that we see it to molest the most noble and principall powers of the minde seeing it tainteth and brandeth with blackenes the principall instrument thereof which is the spirit which passing from the braine to the eye and from the eye to the braine backe againe is able to moue these blacke sights and to set them vncessantly before the minde Loe heere the first accident which haunteth melancholike persons they are alwaies full of feare for they feare euery thing euen that which is furthest off from feare they are hartlesse they honour their enemies and abuse their friends they conceiue of death as a terrible thing and notwithstanding which is strange they oftentimes desire it yea so eagerlie as that they will not let to destroy themselues but this falleth out then only when feare is turned into dispayre it is true in deede that this happeneth so oft vnto those whom melancholie simply assaileth as vnto those which are mad Mad men doe more oft kill themselues then melancholike perspons Wee haue very few examples of meere melancholike persons which haue slaine themselues but of mad men very many are found and those of great reputation Empedocles Agrigentinus became mad and cast himselfe headlong into the burning flames of the mountaine Aetna Examples Ariax the sonne of Telamon was out of his wits for that he was not thought worthie of Achilles armour but that it was adiudged vnto Vlisses Whereupon he passed ouer some part of his furie in killing all maner of cattell he met withall thinking he had slaine Vlisses and all his companions Cleomenes being likewise out of his wits slew himself with his own sword Orestes hauing slaine his mother Clytemnestra was so furiously outraged that if his deare friend Pylades had not carefully watched ouer him he had destroyed himselfe a hundred times It falleth out therefore more oft vnto mad then to melancholike men to kill themselues Why melancholike persons are sad The second accident which almost neuer leaueth melancholike persons is sadnes they weepe and know not wherefore I beleeue the distemperature of the humour is the cause thereof for as ioy and cheerefulnes proceede from heate and moysture well tempered so heauines and sadnes come from the two contrarie qualities which are found in this humour For the most part of men of sanguine complexion are cheerefull and merrie because they consist of a mixture of moysture and heate cholerike persons are way ward and vnpleasant because their heate is drie and hath as it were an edge set vpon it melancholike persons are sad and peruerse because they bee cold and drie Euen so it befell the sillie Bellerophon who as he is very artificially set out in Homer went wandring through the defart places continually mourning and lamenting And the Ephesian Philosopher named Heraclitus liued in continuall teares because sayth Theophrastus that he was possessed of melancholie and as his writings altogether confused and darkned with obscuritie
doe sufficiently witnesse the same Why they be suspicious The accident of suspition followeth the two former hard and close at the heeles the melancholike party is euermore suspicious if he see three or foure talking together he thinketh that it is of him The cause of such suspition riseth of the former feare and of a corrupt kinde of reasoning for being alwaies in feare he thinketh verely that one or other doeth lie in wait for him and that some doe purpose to slay him Melancholike men sayth Aristotle doe deceiue themselues commonly in matters which depend vpon choice for that they oftentimes forget the generall propositions wherein honestie consisteth and chuse rather to follow the motions of their foolish imaginations The cause of their restlesnes They are neuer at rest either in their bodies or in their spirits they can make no answere to such questions as are propounded them they oftentimes change from one kinde to another This disquieting and distracting of themselues ariseth of the diuersitie of matters which they propound and set before themselues for receiuing all maner of formes and stamping them with the print of dislike they are constrained oftentimes to change and to find out new things which being no more acceptable to them then the first doe still continue them in these restles distractions The cause of their sighing Melancholike folke are commonly giuen to sigh because the minde being possessed with great varietie and store of foolish apparitions doth not remember or suffer the partie to bee at leisure to breathe according to the necessitie of nature whereupon she is constrained at once to sup vp as much ayre as otherwise would serue for two or three times and this great draught of breath is called by the name of sighing which is as it were a reduplicating of the ordinary manner of breathing In this order it falleth out with louers and all those which are very busily occupied in some deepe contemplation Sillie fooles likewise which fall into a wonder at the sight of any beautifull and goodly picture are constrained to giue a great sight their will which is the efficient cause of breathing being altogether distracted and wholly possessed with the sight of the image Why they watch and can not sleepe There is yet another accident which is very tedious and euen consumeth these poore melancholike men euen continuall watchings I haue seene some that haue abode three whole moneths without sleepe The causes of sleepe Now the causes of such watchings are easie enough to vnderstand if wee know what it is which causeth vs to sleepe Men are giuen to obserue in sleepe the materiall formall finall and instrumentall cause The materiall is a pleasant vapour which is cast vp from the first and second concoction which whē it commeth to slacken and stop all the sinewes by his moysture it causeth all sence and motion for to cease The finall cause is the repayre of spirits and the rest of all the animall powers which hauing been wearied by continuall labour doe craue a little reliefe and recreation this end cannot be obtained if so bee the minde which setteth all the powers of the bodie on worke be not vouchsafed some maner of peaceable rest in this sort the sillie Dido all ouer whelmed with musing pensiuenes could not espie the approach of night to the shutting vp of her mournfull eyes or easing of her oppressed heart The formall cause of sleepe consisteth in the withdrawing of the spirits and naturall heate from the outward parts to the inward and from all the circumference vnto the center The instrumentall cause is the braine which must be of good temperature for if it be too hot as in frenticke folkes or drie as in old folkes the sleepe will neuer be with peace and quietnes The causes of all that watchfulnes which is in melancholike persons In melancholike persons the materiall is wanting the minde is not at rest the braine is distempered the matter is a melancholike humour drie as ashes from whence cannot arise any pleasant and delightsome vapour the braine is distempered and greatly ouerdried the minde is in continuall restlesnes for the feare that is in them doth continually set before them tedious grieuous things which so gnaw and pinch them as that they hinder them from sleeping But if at one time or other it fall out that they be ouertaken with a little slumber it is then but a troublesome sleepe accompanied with a thousand of false and fearefull apparitions and dreames so dreadfull as that it were better for them to be awake The causes of all these dreames are to bee referred to the propertie of the humour The causes of all their fearefull dreames for as the phlegmatike partre dreameth commonly of riuers of water and the cholerike of flaming fire so the melancholike person dreameth of nothing but dead men graues and all other such mournfull and vnpleasant things because he exerciseth his imaginations with formes altogether like vnto the humour which beareth sway in him vpon which occasion the memorie beginneth to stirre and rouse vp her selfe or else because that the spirits being growne as it were wilde and altogether blacke ranging the braine throughout and bending themselues to the eye doe set before the iamgination all manner of darke and obscure things The cause why they loue darknes Melancholike men are also enemies to the Sunne and shunne the light because that their spirits and humours are altogether contrary to the light The Sunne is bright and warme the melancholike humour is blacke and colde They desire solitarines because they vsing to bee busie and earnestly following their imagination doe feare to bee drawne away by others their presence and therefore doe auoide it but the cause of such their vncessant perseuerance in their imaginations is because their spirits are grosse and as it were immoueable They haue their eyes fixed and as it were set fast by reason of the cold and drines of the instrument they haue a hissing in their cares and oftentimes are troubled with swimmering or giddinesse Why they loue to be silent and as Galen obserueth they loue silence out of measure and oftentimen cannot speake not for any defect of the tongue but rather because of I cannot tell what maner of conceitednes finally they inuent continually some one or other strange imagination and haue in a maner all of them one speciall obiect from which they cannot be weined till time haue worne it out CHAP. VI. Whence it commeth that melancholike persons haue all of them their particular and altogether diuers obiects whereupon they dote THe imagination of melancholike men bringeth forth such diuersitie of effects according to the difference of the matters where about it is occupied as that a man shall searse finde fiue of sixe among then thousand which dote after one and the same maner Whereupon ancient writers haue compared this humour to wine for as wine according
Buglosse Hops Syrupes and Violets doe macerate this humor in very good sorte You may prepare an apozeme with the same hearbes which I haue mentioned here aboue The vse also of Whay and Goats or Asses milke will serue well to water and moisten this humour withall Outward remedies The outward remedies are either vniuersall or particular the vniuersall are bathes Galen boasteth himselfe to haue cured many melancholike persons with the onely vse of baths of warme water Bathes or else you may if the whole body bee very drie and the skinne very rugged make an artificiall one with the rootes of Holibocks leaues of Mallowes Violets Lettuses Succorie with the seedes of Melons and Gourds Barley and the flowers of Violets you must bathe oft and stay long in at a time but not so long as to cause any sweate At the time of being in the bath you may haue two bags filled with sweete and bitter Almonds and the seede of Melons grosly pownded and therwith rubbe all the skinne ouer If you wil make your bath well you must put warme water in your bathing tub ouer night and there let it stand and breath till morning Ointments for the whole bodie at which time you shall go into it There be many practicioners in Phisicke which make such baths of milke only as also it is oftentimes done in the case of consumption In comming forth of the bath there are some which inioine the body to be annointed al ouer with the oile of sweete Almonds Violets or new fresh butter Applying of remedies vnto the head There are which applie remedies vnto the head as being the part most affected and they vse such as doe moisten whether they be lotionsor embrocations and these made of warme water and of the same decoctions or else of the oyles of the seede of Gourdes sweete Almonds and Violets or else of milke Comforting medicines The third kinde of remedies good in melancholike cases is of such as doe strengthen and cheere vp the spirits which are as Auicen saith become wilde and duskish It behooueth therefore to strengthen the braine and to cheere vp the heart the which intentions are effected by inward and outward meanes the inward Sytupes Opiates Lozenges and pouders Inward remedies the outward are Epithemes bags and ointments I will giue you an example of each of them An excellent Syrope The fittest syrupe that I haue found both for the cheering and moistening of melancholike persons is this which I am about to set downe being first inuented by Mounsieur Castellane mine vncle and one of the greatest and happiest Phisitions of his time and ordinarily imployed in his calling by Kings and Queenes Take of the iuice of Borage and Buglosse a pound and a halfe of the iuice of apples that are very sweete a pound of the iuice of Balme halfe an ounce of Diers graines infused in the former iuices a long time and after strained out three drammes of Saffron halfe a dramme of fine Sugar two pounds make these in a syrupe boyled to his height and aromatize it with a dramme and a halfe of the powder of the Diamargaritum that is cold and foure scruples of the powder of Diamber there must be taken of it euening and morning two or three spoonefull There are many sorts of Opiates but I will content my selfe to set down this one Take of the Conserue of the rootes of Buglosse Opiates and of the flowers of Borage of each one ounce of preserued Mirabplanes and of the rindes of Citrons condited of each halfe an ounce of the confection of Alkermes three drammes of the powders of Diamargariton and of the Electuarie of precious stones of each one dramme make thereof an Opiate with the syrupe of Apples whereof you must take a little in the morning drinking after it some Claret wine delayed with the water of Buglosse I will set downe some receipts of lozenges and powders in the chapter intreating of that melancholie which is begot amōgst the bowels and called the flatuouse or windie melancholie Outward remedies for the cheering vp of the spirits The outward remedies are applied vnto the braine and heart Vnto the braine there are applied powders and caps But in asmuch as the greatest part of these aromaticall things are hote and drie we must vse them but sparinglie Vnto the heart wee may more boldly applie Epithemes Bags and ointments An Epitheme for the heart Take of the waters of Borage and Buglosse of each halfe a pound of the waters of Balme and Scabiouse of each foure ounces of good white wine two ounces of the powder of colde Diamargaritum one dramme of the confection of Alkermes three drammes of the seede of Balme and Diers graines of each one dramme mixe al together and make Epithemes thereof and applie them to the region of the heart with a piece of scarlet If liquid Epithemes dislike you then you may vse a solide one with the cordiall conserues or else you may weare bags vpon the region of your hart the descriptions whereof I leaue vntill I come to the chapter of windie melancholie where they shall come in more fitly for the purpose in asmuch as those which are troubled with the windie melancholie haue almost continually the panting and beating of the heart And thus much for the three kinds of remedies which are in my mind needful for the curing of that melancholy which is setled in the braine being purgatiues alteratiues and comfortatiues The means to remedie too much watchfulnes There remaineth as yet vnremoued a tedious and trouble some accident which is continuall watching which now and then whippeth melancholike men so cruelly as that therby many haue bene plunged into the pit of despaire Wherefore I will addresse my selfe with all the best wits I haue or deuises I can inuent to set downe the meanes of their comfort Inward means to procure sleepe Sleepe is procured by inward and outward meanes We will haue diuers sortes of the inward because melancholike persons doe loue varietie We shall make for them mundified barlie a Condite an Opiate a Tart a Restauratiue a Potion a bole and masse of pils all giuen to procure sleepe A mundified barley The mundified barley is made with the flowre of barley prepared as is meet with Almonds which haue been infused in Rose water with the foure cold seeds the seeds of Poppie rosed Surgar A Condite The forme of the condite shal be such Take of the conserues of the flowers of Borage and Buglosse of each three drammes of the pulpe of Gourds confected and of the rindes of Citrons of each two drammes of white Poppie and Mellon seedes of each a dramme of rosed Sugar so much as is needfull make thereof a condite whereof you shall take at night two or three spoonefuls An Opiate The Opiate shall be thus made Take of the conserues of the pulpe of
the excrements and superfluities of the principall parts Hippocrates hath debated this matter so well in his booke of Glandules as that a man cannot tel how to adde any thing therevnto The skin was by nature made weak to the end it might containe al the superfluities that are frō within whereupon some call it the vniuersall emunctorie Parts may also be weak by some accident as by a fall or blow or some distēperature in what maner soeuer they bee weake it maketh them apt to receiue the refuse of their neighbour parts How the part attracteth the humour to it selfe The last cause is the part his attraction of the humour The Arabians haue acknowledged three causes of this attraction heate paine and the auoyding of vacuitie Heate attracteth of it owne nature because it rarifieth the parts neere about attenuateth and maketh thin the humours and enlargeth the waies and passages for the humour to runne through How paine attracteth Paine doth not attract of his owne nature because it is an affect of feeling but feeling is a patient and no agent and euery one of the sences is executed by taking in of some thing but the humours flow to the pained part by reason of the weakenes of the same as also because the naturall heat thereof is weakened by the paine and cannot well concoct the humour it must needes bee that it should stay in that place They who affirme that the humour floweth vnto the part which feeleth the paine because nature sendeth thither both spirits and blood that she may comfort the same doe deceiue themselues in my judgement and offer great wrong vnto nature for if she knew that such a part stood in need of spirits and blood she would know therewithal that in sending this blood she should profit the part nothing at all but rather hurt it so that paine doth not properly attract and draw The last cause of distillations is imputed to the humour For if it bee thin in substance hot in temperature sharpe and pricking in qualitie it will be a great deale the more apt to flow CHAP. V. A generall order of diet to be obserued for the preuenting and curing of Rheumes and distillations I Will follow the same order and course in the laying downe of this regiment which I haue taken in the other two going before Wee must therefore so dispose of all the sixe things which are called not naturall as that they may not only hinder the engendring of rheumes but also consume and cure the same being alreadie begotten Let euery man therefore make choise for himselfe of such an ayre as is temperate in his actiue qualities and as for the passiue that it bee altogether drie I say that it must be temperate in heate and cold because that a hot ayre resoluing the humours of the braine and a cold pressing them out causeth them to fall downe aboundantly If the ayre bee too cold it may bee corrected with good fires made of Iuniper Rosemarie Bay-tree Oke and Fig-tree if it be exceeding hote it may be cooled with hearbs and flowers that are indued with such propertie There must care be had to auoide the Northerne and Southerne windes because the one filleth the head full and the other presseth it out You must not abide much in the Sunne-beames nor yet in the open ayre The windes which pearce through chinkes and rifts are extreamely dangerous for the rheume The inequalitie of the ayre as Celsus obserueth very well doth mightily further the begetting of rheumes it is called an vnequal aire when it is now hot now cold As concerning the passiue qualities the ayre-must in all maner of distillation incline vnto drines and for that cause it is good to dwell vpon mounted places and such as are farre from riuers In meates three things are to be obserued the quantitie qualitie and manner of vsing them As concerning the quantitie In meats three things are to be obserued all repletion and full gorging is enemie to such complexions as are subiect vnto rheumes we may not at any time eate to the full it is better to rise from the table hungrie and hee cannot but fare the better which cutteth of one meale in a weeke As concerning the qualitie it must bee contrary vnto the disease or the cause thereof the cause of rheumes is a superfluous humour so that it will bee fittest to vse such meates as may dry vp the same All vaporous meates in generall must bee abstained as also meates that are grosse windie full of excrements and hard to disgest In the maner of vsing of these meates there must many rules bee obserued as there must no new meate bee taken into the stomacke before the former bee throughly disgested You must content your selfe to feede vpon one onely dish and that such as is good for varietie filleth all full of cruditie and it mingleth it selfe with the blood in the veines and ministreth rheumatike matter vnto the braine You must vse to eate more at dinner then at supper in as much as sleepe which succeedeth supper within a short time doth send great store of vapours vnto the braine which are afterwards turned into water The bread must bee of good wheate and throughly baked Bread not cleane purged from his branne but retaining a little branne and mixt with some salt it must neuer be eaten hot at the latter end of meate you may eate bisket wherein some Anise and Fennell seede haue been put Rosted meates are much better then boyled Flesh and of them such as doe not abound with humours we allow the vse of Capon Pigeon Partridge young Hare Kid Hart Feasant Quailes Turtle doues and all birds of the mountaines all which maybe interlarded with Sage and Hissope of the mountaines The vse of water-fowles Porke Lambe Mutton and young Veale is forbidden broths and pottage are very ill Fish is exceedingly contrary Fish All sort of milk-meates is an enemie in rheumatike diseases as also all maner of pulse As concerning hearbes Hearbes the Arabians recommend vnto vs Sage Hissope Mints wilde Time Margerome Rosemary Burnet Cheruill Fennell and Costmarie Aetius tolerateth Coleworts and Leekes but he forbiddeth in expresse tearmes Garlick Onions because they send vp many vapours and all cold moyst hearbes as Lettuse Purcelane Sorrell and such like All fruites that abound in moysture Fruites as Apples Plums Melons Cucumbers and Mulberies are forbidden But as for such as haue propertie to drie as Pine apples small nuts Pistaces Almonds Peares Quinces Figs drie Raisines Medlers Ceruisses they may be vsed after meate And thus much concerning meate As concerning drinke Drinke cold water and all maner of licour that is actually cold it is enemie to al such as are subiect to the rheume if so bee that such rheume be not extreame hot pricking and accompanied with an ague Barley water with a little Sugar and Cinamome is very good and fit or a Ptisane or
qualitie which is drynes some there are which take vpon them to ouerthrow it and say that this old age is moist and not drie because a man shal see the eyes of these old men alwaies distilling teares their nose alwaies running there commeth out of their month euermore great store of water yea they doe nothing but cough and spet The temperature of old men is cold and drie but Galen answereth verie learnedly in his booke of temperatures that old men are moist through a superfluous moisture but that they are drie concerning radicall moisture and in the first booke of the preseruation of the health he saith that old men haue all those parts drie which infants haue moist that is to say the solide parts of which dependeth the constitution of the whole body This is the opinion comming neerest to the trueth which we must take hold vpon for their leannes wrinckles stifnes of sinewes and skin and stifnes of ioints doe sufficiently shew their drie temperature the ringwormes also and itches ouer al their bodies the scales which they haue on their heads maketh it plainely appeare vnto vs that their braine is full of salt humors and not of sweete flegme In the end commeth the last olde age which is called decrepite in which as the kingly Prophet saith The last degree of old age is called decrepise there is nothing but paine and languishing griefe all the actions both of the bodie and minde are weakened and growne feeble the sences are dull the memorie lost and the iudgement failing so that then they become as they were in their infancie and it is of these that the Greeke prouerbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say that old men are twice children is to be vnderstood This last old age is described in the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes in so notable an allegoricall sort that there is not the like againe for excellentnes in all the world It was also the greatest Philosopher and profoundest scholler in natures workes that euer was which tooke the same vpon him this is that sage Salomon which elsewhere is sayd to haue knowne all the secrets and mysteries of nature which hath discoursed of all the plants of the field from the Ceder of Libanus to the Hissope which groweth out of the walls that is to say from the tallest and highest vnto the least and lowest for by this Hissope wee vnderstand one of the capillar hearbes which is called Saluia vitae which is one of the least hearbes that may be seene I will set downe the whole maner of this description from the beginning to the end because that besides the pleasantnes of it wee may reape instruction and a plaine and manifest declaration of the thing we haue in hand An excellent Allegorie describing and laying out the estate of old age Remember sayth he thy Creator in the daies of thy youth before the Sunne the starres and light grow darke and the clowdes returne after raine for then the keepers of the house will tremble and the strong men will bow themselues and the grinders will cease and bee no more in like manner the lookers through the windowes will be darkened the doores will be shut without because of the base sound of the grinding and he shall rise vp at the voyce of the bird so shall all the singing maides be humbled they shall feare the hie thing the Almond-tree shall florish and the grashoppers shall grow fat the Caper-tree shall be withered before that the siluer chaine doe lengthen it selfe or the ewer of golde bee broken and the water pot dasht in peeces at the head of the spring or the wheele broken at the cesterne and that dust returne vnto the earth as it was from thence and the spirit goe vnto God See here the description of the last age which is admirable and which hath neede of a good Anatomist to helpe out with the true vnderstanding of the same The interpretation of the Allegorie In decrepite old age the Sunne and starres do waxe darke that is the eyes which doe lose their light The clowdes returne after raine that is to say after they haue wept a long time there passeth before their eyes as it were clowdes being nothing else but grosse vapours which grow thicke and foggie The keepers of the house tremble that is the armes and hands which were giuen vnto man for the defence of the whole bodie The strong men bow that is to say the legges which are the pillars whereupon the whole building is set The grinders doe cease that is to say the teeth which serue vs to bite and chaw our meate The seers grow darke by reason of the windowes those are the eyes which are couered and ouergrowne oftentimes with a cataract which shutteth vp the apple of the eye which is commonly called the window of the eye The doores are shut without because of the base sound of the grinding that is the iawes which cannot open for to eate any thing or the passages of meate which are become narrow and streite They rise vp at the voyce of the bird that is to say they can not sleepe and are alwaies wakened with the cockcrow All the singing maides are abased that is their voyce which faileth them The Almond-tree doth florish that is the head which becommeth all white The grashoppers waxe fat that is the legges become swolne and puffed vp The Caper-tree withereth that is their appetite is lost for Capers haue a propertie to stirre vp appetite The siluer chaine groweth longer that is the faire and beautifull marrow of the back going all along the bone which groweth loose and boweth and causeth them to bend in the back The golden ewer is broke that is the hart which containeth much after the maner of a vessell the arteriall blood and vitall spirit which are somewhat yellow and of golden colour which ceaseth to moue and cannot any longer containe or hold much after the nature of a thing that is broken The water pot is broken at the spring head that is the great veine called the hollow veine which cannot draw blood any more out of the liuer which is the common store-house and fountaine which watereth all the bodie in such sort as that it yeeldeth no more seruice then a broken pitcher The wheele is broken at the cesterne that is the reines and bladder which become relaxed and cannot any longer containe the vrine Then when all this happeneth dust that is to say the body which is materiall doth returne to the earth and the spirit which is come from aboue doth returne to God Loe here the fiue ages described and bounded with their number of yeares according to their seuerall contents That the number of yeares doth not make old age But I would not that from hence any man should so tye himselfe to the number of yeares as that he should make youth and old age necessarily to depend thereupon but that
he would rather iudge thereof by the rule of the temperature and constitution of the bodie for euery man that is cold and drie is he whom I may call old There are very many which become old men at fortie and againe there are an infinit sort which are young men at sixtie there are some constitutions that grow old very speedily and others very slowly They which are of a sanguine complexion grow old very slowly because they haue great store of heate and moysture melancholike men which are cold and drie become old in shorter time Why women grow old sooner then men As for the difference of sexes the female groweth old alwaies sooner then the male Hippocrates hath very well obserued it in his booke intreating of the seuenth moneth childbirth The females males sayth he as they are in their mothers wombe are formed and grow more slowly then males but being once out they come sooner to growth sooner to ripenes of wit and sooner to old age by reason of the weakenes of their bodies and of their manner of liuing Weakenes maketh them to grow vp sooner and to waxe old sooner for euen as trees which are short liued grow vp to their height by and by euen so the bodies which must not long continue come very speedily to the top of their perfection Their manner of liuing also doth make them to waxe old because they liue as it were alwaies in idlenes But there is nothing that hasteneth old age more then idlenes CHAP. III. An order of gouernment for the prolonging of the strong and lustie estate of man SEeing that the naturall and vnauoidable causes of our old age are three as the contrarietie of the principles of our life the waste of radicall heate and moisture and the excrements which are ordinarily ingendred by our nourishment it behoueth vs if wee will keepe our bodies in good plight and preserue them from waxing old so soone so to dispose of and order these three things as that the agreement and vnitie of the elements which is called temperature be throughly prouided for that our heate and moysture which waste euery houre bee well repaired and that the excrements which hide themselues and stay behinde in the bodie bee hunted out We shall obtaine all this very easily by keeping good order of gouernment and diet without hauing need to haue recourse to Phisicke Now this name of Diet as I haue alreadie sayd comprehendeth many things all which may bee referred to sixe The Phisitions call them not naturall because that if they be rightly vsed and that a man know how to make the best maner of seruice of them they doe preserue the health and may bee called naturall But and if a man abuse them if they be vsed either too little or too much though it bee neuer so little they are the causes of many diseases and may be sayd to be contrarie to nature They are these which follow the ayre meat and drinke sleepe and watching labour and rest emptines and fulnes and the passions of the minde which I am about to runne through in order CHAP. IIII. What choise wee must make of the ayre for our longer life as also what ayre is most fit for such persons as are old The necessitie of the ayre AMongst all the causes which may alter our bodies there is not any one more necessary more headlong or which concerneth vs more neerely then the ayre The neede wee haue of it doth sufficiently appeare in sicknesses which abridge and depriue vs of breathing for if it happen that any one of the instruments which are appointed either for the giuing of entrance or receiuing or preparing of the ayre bee greatly impeached the man dyeth by and by strangled in so much as it seemeth hereby that the ayre and life are things inseparable in all such kindes of creatures as are called perfect The naturall heate if wee beleeue Hippocrates is preserued by moderate cold and if you take the ayre away from the fire which is as a continuall bellowes vnto it it is quenched and choked incontinently Our spirits which are the principal instruments of the soule are begotten and nourished by the ayre they doe not vphold nor purge themselues but by the passing of the ayre in and out this is the cause also why all the bodie is porouse and perspirable this is the cause why our arteries doe continually beate and that nature hath made so goodly and wonderfull doores and entrances for the two vessels in such sort as that I dare bee bold to say that the ayre is as needfull for man as life it selfe The quicknes and celeritie of the ayre As for the celeritie and swiftnes which it participateth wee perceiue it euery day In a trice it passeth through the nose to the braine and pressing through a million of streits which are to bee seene in the admirable net it entreth in into the most secret chambers thereof it dispatcheth it selfe downward after that with like incredible celeritie and swiftnes through the mouth vnto the lungs and from thence vnto the heart it pearceth and cannot bee perceiued the pores of the skinne and entreth by the transpiration of the arteries vnto the most deepe and hidden corners of our bodies This is a bodie so common and neere vnto vs that it compasseth vs about continually without forsaking vs any moment yea we must whether we will or no make our daily supping meate thereof Diuine Hippocrates hauing very well perceiued this powerfulnes of the ayre sayth in his Epidemikes and in his second booke of Diet that the whole constitution of our spirits humours and bodie doth depend wholy vpon the ayre Wherefore the chusing of a good ayre and of a fayre and pleasant dwelling place must alwaies in all good order of diet keepe the first and chiefe place Wherein the goodnes of the ayre consisteth The Phisitions take acknowledgement of the goodnesse of the ayre by his substance and qualities By his substance as when it is well purified not hauing any seeds of corruption in it neither yet being infected with any venemous vapours which might rise from dead bodies priuies and filthines of townes or from the putrifaction of standing waters There are also certaine plants which a man must hardly come neere vnto to make his ordinarie lodging because they haue a contrary qualitie vnto the animall spirit as the Nut tree Figge tree Colewort Danewort wilde Rocket Hemlocke and an infinite sort of others The vapour of forges and mines is a very great enemie vnto the hart and causeth as Aristotle obserueth the greatest part of them which labour therein to fall into a consumption How to rectifie the ayre If the ayre bee corrupted and that wee cannot auoide it very quickly wee must purifie it with artificiall fires of Rosemarie Iuniper Cypers Bay tree and with parfumes of the wood of Aloes Saunders Iuniper beries Fusses and such other aromatical things The vapour of