operation for the difference of bodies is such in operation especially purging that they require a different quantity oftentimes for their proportion which cannot so exactly be determined and appointed by the praescience of the most skilful Physitian but by rational conjecture until the first experiment and trial of their bodies and after the first Dose your own Reason and ability of body will prompt you in the next whether to keep to the same to augment or abate Taking this caution that 4 or 5 stools in a day is enough and that number I intend you to aim at and no more For example if you have a stubborn body difficult and hard to purge and your Physick works very little the next Dose you may take one Pill more but if you have a lax gentle body and easie to purge then take a lesser Dose and abate a Pill if the former work too nimbly with you and remember this as a necessary Caution That you covet not strong purges to have many stools in a day a common error which offers violence to Nature and forcibly sweeping down both good and bad together but rather choose to draw away the offending cause gently by degrees giving Nature time for separation the pure from the impure and noxious 4 or 5 stools in a day is sufficient and you will find it much more beneficial Nature more kindly assisting and less weakned Some there are brain-sick fools who unless their Physick work a douzen times think they have kept house for nothing and their money cast away accounting the goodness of their Physick by the number of stools but they deceive themselves very much in desiring strong purgations which weaken and impare Nature leaving such impressions behind sometimes worse than the disease they took them for These Pills although purgative yet their chief vertue is not contained in the purgative faculty but in other appropriate qualities opposing the several diseases to which the laxative adjunct property is but a Handmaid and subsidiary nor must you expect alwaies the disease to be brought into the Close-stool there are other Conveyances and ways of emission of Natures providing besides the common back door Concerning preparation before purging muck talked of take this advice That soluble bodies easily yielding obedince to gentle purging Medecines need no other preparation than what Nature hath provided in the disposition of their own bodies for those bodies that are hot and costive it will be advantagious and facilitate their purgation to eat stewed Prunes or drink Whey two or three daies before which will prepare and open your body make it more soluble and easie in purging For the manner of taking whereas these Pills are appointed to be taken one Pill over night the other part in the morning yet if you find any inconvenience thereby you may take the whole Dose in the morning very early but if you have not a just cause of alteration observe the former prescription For going abroad after your Pills if you desire it or your occasions require take this advice if your body be indifferent strong not apt upon small occasions to take cold the weather temperate having ordered the Dose of your Pils to work but three or four times you may then go abroad without prejudice but if otherwise it is better to forbear The Catholick Elixir BEfore I proceed to tell you the vertues and profitable use of this Medecine I must first give you the reason of the Title that none may stumble at it Catholick is universal and this Medicine may be stiled so not that it cures every disease ' but that it is effectual against some disease or infirmity in every faculty as they are thus divided and distinguished into the natural vital animal and genital faculties and being thus endowed with a competent measure of universality it may not improperly be called a Catholick or universal Medicine since its vertue is extended to all the grand faculties But you may ask why an universal Medicine should be composed and appointed for a particular disease it being intended chiefly for the Scurvy In answer to this if you look into the preceding Tract you will find the Scurvy not to be a single disease but a complication of diseases whose root or branches if arrived at some height extend to all the faculties bringing detriment and decay throughout the body For the word Elixir concerning its Etymologie and derivation there are several opinions some will have it from the Arabick others from the Greek but I shall not trouble you with that it is sufficient that you understand it is a Medicine of noble descent and may have the use of it If you expect I should tell you of what it is made and the process how you must pardon me there it does not belong to you If an Artist should view the ingredients of this Medicine before operation upon them would determin them only for the deficiency of the natural faculties and their parts as the Stomack Spleen Gall Mesentery Liver Reins c. but being spiritalized graduated and advanced they do extend further as also for that the other faculties do depend very much upon the integrity of these as well as the compleatness of their own peculiar organs by and in which they execute their several functions for either by transmission or consent the rest suffer if these be injured I shall not demonstrate this truth and explain it further being a Doctrine not so necessary for you to know but proceed to give you an account of the vertues this Medicine is pregnant with and manner of use And first of their essicacy in the natural functions This Elixir is used with good success against most infirmities seated in the Stomack Spleen Guts Pancreas Mesentery Liver and Reins especially if they be languid and weak degenerating and falling off from their duties being obstructed loaded or clogged with crude depraved and indigested matter wanting spirit and vigor and accuteness of ferment fit for their proper works This Medicine does acuate and vigorate giving spirit and activity in the performance of their duties For surfeits oppression and overcharging the Stomack it is a sure Remedy working off the offending matter cherishing and refreshing the stomack It excites and quickens a dull or weak appetite and procures a good digestion which is the main pillar of health being very auxiliary and assistant to the stomacks digestive ferment deficient and decayed or obtunded and overlaid with crudities or depraved matter from intemperance incongruous diet and bad customs By its Balsamick Amaritude is healing and grateful to a waterish crude raw stomack corrects nauseousness and vomiting safely in breeding women suppressing and subduing the offensive causes leaving a good astriction upon the stomack and roborating the retentive faculty Is helpful to those molested with belching and grip'd with wind in the stomack or guts by correcting and digesting crudities and preventing a discordant fermentation the causes thereof Amends a strong offensive breath
the Spirits being torpid dull and inactive do not rarify and circulate the blood as when by motion they are excited and stirred up to their duties and performances by seasonable exercise the digestions are strengthened obstructions opened and evacuations more duly performed and since an idle Life doth procure and promote this Disease you must account it as your enemy to avoid it And like to this is the indulging of sleep unseasonably beyond its limits and due times from whence necessary evacuations are restrained and put by their due accustomed times and superfluous humours accumulated and lodged that otherwise Nature would have sent forth profitably in good time the spirits are made sluggish dull and inactive and all the faculties injured But on the contrary let not watching exceed its just times appointed by Nature for from hence the inconveniencies are as great especially to such bodies as are lean and spare or inclining to be Consumptive and hectical by over-watching the spirits are heated and tyred the bloud degenerates and turns acrid or sharp leaving its balsamick nature and is disposed to a colliquation or separation of parts the vigour of nature is hereby abated and the functions depraved Passions of mind though in the last place accounted are not the least but principally to be regarded and due order to be kept there for preservation from infirmities for the Soul being the better and more noble part from whose command and power bodily actions do proceed of necessity if that be discomposed and disordered the instrumental part must act irregularly and depravedly and of all the Passions melancholly and sadness do most dispose to this Disease and aggravate it the reasons are these The Soul in that Passion suspends and withdraws her influence and emanative vertue which was wont to be enlarged and let forth into all the faculties mediately by the spirits her chief and appropriate Agents and the Soul in this state and condition of sadness being as it were lock'd up and straitned within her self darkened and overspread with a cloud of melancholly does not emittere emanare send forth her wonted quickning power by which suspension the Spirits are disposed to cessation from their duties whereby the faculties are enervated and deficient in their functions The Spleen which is accounted the seat of this Passion is chiefly debilitated and impedited in its office the spirits hereby are fixed and deaded fermentation cohibited and restrained from whence scorbutick effects do ensue for that by the benefit of fermentation our food is decocted deserts its crudity and fixity is raised and promoted to a state of volatility that it may be fit for nutrition and assimilation into the substance of the body but if fermentation be deficient and wanting neither chylification nor sanguification can be good but altogether depraved and vitiated But concerning the several Passions of mind and their various effects wrought in the body is set forth in that book called Tutela Sanitatis to which I refer the Reader for satisfaction Determinations of the Scurvy concerning the difficulty and facility of the Cure BEfore I enter upon discourse of the Cure to lay down fundamental precepts and rules upon which it does depend I shall say something as to the possibility of the Cure in particular persons in whom there is a great difference that by examination every one may give a rational conjecture of their own condition and state in this Disease and be something satisfied of the difficulty or facility of their Cure before they undertake the Course and method to effect it Many there are more curious and inquisitive to know what their Disease is how dangerous and whether curable than they will be industrious afterwards for a Cure If it be the beginning of a Disease and not very troublesome they contemn and slight it if it be of long standing and difficult to deal with they despond and have no hopes to part being so long associated together and then give themselves the liberty of their phancies in the discipline and order of themselves whether it be good or bad for or against their Disease Others more rational in their actions desire a satisfaction concerning the nature and radication of their Diseases and state of their bodies that they may order themselves to the best advantage and to oppose their Disease with that strictness and diligence in the use of good means as is thought requisite for such a cure In satisfaction to such which are scorbutical that you may know in what condition you are and the strength of your Disease and what possibility of Cure whether difficult or more easy Examine your self by these questions 1. What Functions in the body are decayed and irregular more or fewer and whether such faculties so injured be principal or of a lower degree for according to the number of Functions disordered and debilitated is your Disease better or worse and if they be from principal faculties the worse also therefore look to the distinguishing Characters that belong to each faculty which will declare whether they perform regularly or disorderly and dificiently the Characters of rectitude are the common signs when every part performs its Office according to the custom of Nature the characters of declension and a depraved condition are all such as declare the contrary 2. The duration and time how long such symptoms and signs hath appeared and been manifest for by how much the longer this Disease hath been rooted in the body by so much the more difficult it is to be eradicated for that the vital principles have so long deviated from their rectitude and integrity and is more difficult to return by the length of time habituated to the contrary The Scurvy in the beginning is of easy cure and soon yields to gentle medicines properly appointed with due orderly Customs but after it is fixed and radicated firmly by time stamping impressions of its depraved Nature upon all the Parts is then more stubborn and difficult to be removed and will require more time in the prosecution against although with effectual medicines 3. Whether the Scurvy be haereditary that is descended of scorbutick Parents or their Ancestors and here you must know that the Scurvy haereditarily derived is worse than that which is acquired by ill dyet bad air melancholly and unwholsom customs for if the Scurvy be worse and more difficult to be removed in those habituated to it by length of time acquired only by a declension and degeneration then much more when it is radicated in the principles of Nature from the birth and derived from their Parents or Ancestors it being then connatural to them à principio 4. What Sex Male or Female the Sex makes some difference in the facility or difficulty of a Cure it being worse in Women who are more obnoxious to the prejudice of this disease than men First because they are of a weaker nature more apt to degenerate and accumulate ill humors whose constitutions are sooner
which is the due regiment and imperial power of the kidneys They open obstructions in Women whose Courses are stopt contrary to the custom of Nature and brings them into their right order they clense the matrix and evacuate noxious humours collected there dissipate vapours and is profitably used by those who are subject to fits of the Mother For diseases of the head they are not improper but fit and efficacious against infirmities afflicting the Brain and Nerves by eradicating their occasional causes that require abstersion and evacuation in the lower regions of the body Diseases attributed to the head for the most part do arise from inferior parts occasioned by their impurities obstructions and distempers for one that is idiopathically afflicted ten is Sympathically affected by consent of parts and transmission of some morbifick matter thither but the foundation of the disease is elsewhere and to that part must the Cure be directed And therefore if well observed we frequently meet with scorbutick palsies scorbutick convulsions apoplexies soporiferous or sleepy diseases falling sickness pains of the head giddiness tremblings deafness dull fight and blindness And all these arifing from the Scurvy or Scorbutick impurity of the body oftentimes And these are not cured but by antiscorbutical medicines and those that endeavour otherwise with their specifick and appropriate medicines to the parts where such symptoms and diseases do appear labour in vain and are frustrate in their intended cures For those that are troubled with Rheums arising from indigestion and crudities these Pils are profitable not so much that they attract rheum but because they cleanse and strengthen the digestions and so the antecedent cause is cut off And for the same reason they are good in pectoral infirmities diseases of the breast arising from phlegm and crude indigested humors sometimes sharp or falt causing pertinacious coughing and disturbing the Lungs in the performance of their office by an unquiet irritation sometimes viscous tough and thick stopping the pipes of the Lungs and vessels for respiration obstructing and occluding the pores of the Lungs which ought to be pervious into the Cavity of the breast whereby the air is drawn in with difficulty although so thin a body and penetrating from hence Asthmaes wheezings short and painful breathing and in these cases of obstructions the Lungs or rather the intercostal muscles to supply this defect is forced to a double or swifter motion that the heart should not want air necessarily required in the performance of its noble office And that these infirmities are caused oftentimes from the Scurvy none that understand will deny and so great have these Scorbutick Asthmaes been that many have been suffocated in the extremity of a sudden paroxism or fit of this disease And not only difficulty of breathing but angustness compression palpitations of the heart or heart-beating and swoonings somtimes are caused by this disease in such cases these Pils are proper and beneficial they open obstructions dissipate putrid malign vapours that afflict the heart and disturb the regularity of its motion There is also Scorbutick Consumpsions accompanied for the most part with a Hectick fever whereby the body wasts and pines away being defrauded of good nutriment that should support and maintain the faculties but is converted into impure depraved matter and excrementitious hereby the body is enfeebled and weak the spirits heavy dull and sad the skin lax or loose the flesh soft and wasting and all the faculties languishing and declining In this case these Pills are a fit medecine to begin the Cure then use the Elixir following but cooling drinks and restaurative Broths hurtful Corpora impura quo plus nutriveris eo magis laeseris foul bodies the more you feed and endeavour to nourish them the worse you make them Finally for all occasions where purgation and clensing is necessary these Pills are fitly used and is a universal medicine in purgation Nor do they only clense and carry away excrementitious degenerate matter which occasions many diseases according to the diversity of parts to which it is transmitted and from consent of parts though not transmitted but also do roborate and strengthen the parts in their passage being amicable and friendly to Nature The Dose for man or woman is 3 or 4 Pils perhaps 5 Pils may be required according to the strength and condition of the body to operate So great a difference there is in bodies for purging that two or three of these Pils are sufficient for some when as others will require 4 or perhaps 5 if a robustick body therefore try your body first with a lesser Dose then if it require more you may add to the next and be not too Bold at first The times for taking them generally is thus except good reason to the contrary Take one Pill over night going to bed having eaten but a light supper at 6 of the clock before the next morning early in bed take the remaining part of the Dose and you may sleep an hour after if you will but lie not long in the morning when you are up drink a little warm posset-drink and forbear eating until dinner time but drink you may These Pils take thus every fourth or fifth day and you will find it best to give such intermission Chronick or old diseases must have time to be eradicated and you must reduce Nature from an ill habit by degrees better than hastily as diseases come on gradually prevailing upon Nature so Nature by degrees must be restored again to its power and regularity Cum natura malè sustinet repentinas mutationes But on the intermittng daies you are not forbidden every thing medicinal but may take the following Elixir conveniently Concerning Doses I must say something more that none may mistake but know what is meant by a Dose A Dose is the true quantity of a Medecine to be taken at once or for one operation A Dose is not a set quantity as some may suppose to be given equally alike to all but such a proportion as is convenient for the condition of every body to some more to others less according to strength and concondition of the body in operation For the Doses or quantities of Physick sutable to every body chiefly in purging there is as much variety as in the proportion of meat for every mans stomack so much as will fully satisfie and be convenient for one man may be too little for another and too much perhaps for a third Therefore in a regular diet to the weaker sort of persons we allow a spare and slender diet but to the strong and lusty firm and solid bodies we allow a larger proportion and that necessarily The same Rule in Physick is to be observed to fit every one with a due quantity and Dose to strong bodies more to weaker less The Dose of these Pills is not praecisely appointed to a Pill neither more nor less to all but with some latitude 3 4 or 5 being gentle in
and checks unsavory risings in the stomack from frustrated and corrupt digestions prevents and destroys worms bred from such putrid indigested matter This Elixir hath an aperitive and opening power and is profitably used by those molested with hypocondriack Melancholy that have obstructed Livers or Spleens distended and full in the sides under the short ribs or pained there by reason of wind and humors obstructed in motion 'T is a good Medicine in the cure of Dropsies and beneficial for Hydropick persons or inclining thereto and troubled with a watry humor in any part it digests superfluous humidity opens obstructions of the vessels leading to the reins excites the attractive faculty of the Kidneys which before were sluggish imbecile or impedited in the attraction and transmission of urine roborates the parts and confirms them in their duties For intermitting Fevers called Agues quotidian tertian or quartan it is very good they being seated in the fore-named parts to which this Medicine is properly assistant and auxiliary dischargeth its vertue upon the parts so affected alters and subdues their morbifick causes and hastens their diseases to a period by removing their fuel of conservation and continuance and afterwards does strengthen those parts debilitated and weakned by such diseases harbouring there and raseth out the bad impressions left behind them which breed future inconveniencies and are foundations laid for other diseases which will succeed if not prevented after this manner by good Medecine to clense and restore the parts as frequently we do observe in practice In the vital faculties this Elixir is of good use and beneficial for those that are troubled with palpitations of the heart angustness and compression there arising most frequently from vitiated digestions and scorbutick feculency an ill affected spleen or matrix from whence noxious vapours arise and are communicated to the vital Spirits which afflict and irritate the heart to this distempered motion and if the cause be very great and suddain sometimes swooning is caused thereby as in Fits of the Mother and passions of the spleen this medicine dissipates the vapours and prevents their causes of generation by rectifying and roborating the parts from whence they proceed It is good in asthmaes and stoppings of the breast from crude Phlegme opens the pipes of the Lungs and helps difficulty of breathing strengthens the Lungs and is very advantagious for Consumptive Persons and that have a faint short breath or that are molested with a troublesom and dangerous Cough inclining and disposing them to a Consumption 'T is Cordial and restaurative cherisheth and refresheth the Spirits by the aromatick vertue and pleasant transpiration of its odour raising the Spirits and affecting them with delight In the animal faculties and for infirmities of the head as Convulsion falling Sickness Vertigo or giddiness sleepiness lassitude and dulness pains of the head rheumes and superfluous moisture this medicine is very good and beneficial to strengthen the brain and nerves to enervate lessen and abate the antecedent causes of these infirmities generated in other parts although they appear and shew themselves most here And although this medicine is more peculiarly appropriate to supply the natural faculties than the other primo intentionaliter yet consequenter and in effect the vital the animal and generative faculties is improved and made more vigorous in their performance and functions and also freed from many diseases by the rectitude and integrity of the natural faculties both in respect of prevention and cure for that the natural faculties are the basis and foundation of the rest in conservation and are supported from thence as the Tree from radix the Branches from the root and defects impediments and decay of the natural faculties causeth debility disorder and infirmities in the rest by transmission or consent And though the Symptoms appear in one part and disorder one faculty more apparently the cause often lies obscure and is the proper defect of another between which you would think there were no relation nor commerce or incommodation one from the other If the natural faculties be vitiated in their functions all the rest decline from rectitude and abate in their vigour as in the Scurvy first the natural faculties are debilitated and disordered then from hence the vital the animal and genital do degenerate and are discomposed and there is sufficient reason for that these are supplied from thence and when the natural faculties are restored to their vigour and rectitude the other also participate of this change and are restored in a great measure except the particular Organs of those faculties be made incapable Wherefore and for these Causes if I extend the vertues of this Medicine yet farther and shew its power and prevalency against more infirmities I do not ascribe above what it doth justly challenge In the genital parts if I should tell you it were good against deficiency in generation and defects of the seed as crudeness thinness degenerate pravity and infaecundity the causes of barrenness perhaps you would think I go beyond my bounds but I could easily prove and make it a rational assertion deductive from the principles of Physick besides what is said before but my intention here is not so much to improve your knowledge as your health the preservation of the bodily functions in their integrity and restoration of them declining languishing and deviating from their primitive rectitude if your faith will not put you upon the tryal I shall not raise arguments to convince your reason and perswade believe what you please It is very good for Women that have lost their Complexion looking pale yellow and ill coloured by reason of that weakness called the Whites or wanting the due course of nature by reason of obstructions from cold bad dyet ill customs and vitiated digestions or a distempered melancholy mind which disturbs nature in her constant order and due regiment of preservation it is very profitably used during the time of their monthly purgations it procures them effectually For those that have sores or abound with corrupt humours which enforceth them to keep issues open to prevent greater inconvenience danger this Medicine applyes to the springs from whence they issue and where they are bred prevents them in their causes in some persons in all it abates and lessens in the quantity corrects and alters the stinking corrupt quality and makes your body more sweet and wholsome This Elixir as it is properly used in the particular cases mentioned singly so likewise in the same conjunct and variously complicated and graduated amounting to or challenging the denomination and title of the Scurvy against which this medicine is very effectuall and necessarily follows the use of the preceding pills to strengthen the faculties after abstertion and cleansing whereby the like Scorbutick impurity and ill symptoms arising from thence for the future is prevented and a return of the disease prohibited in a regular due course of living for as the disease did grow by errors
and defects in the digestions producing such various symptomes so are they prevented by assisting the digestions and preserving them in their integrity due course of nature from declension For which purpose and intention this medicine is prevalent to roborate the faculties and principal parts ordained for those offices resolveth and volatiseth coagulate and fixed matter attenuates and rarefies gross subsiding humours which cause obstructions tumours and pains resists putrifaction depurates and renovates the blood from a degenerate condition stained with Scorbutick feculency and impurity restoring its balsamick nature and genuine proprieties Of necessary use for aged and weak persons whose faculties fall off from their integrity and abated in their vigour do perform but weakly and deficiently as also for such who are recovering or lately recovered from some great disease which hath enervated and debilitated all the functions leaving the character and impressions of an evil cause behind upon the parts chiefly where they were seated which renders them indisposed and unfit in their duties and layes the foundation of new diseases to ensue from hence In such cases this medicine is a good assistant and requisite auxiliary help to performance and restoration of vigour in a competent measure if there be a capacity of restoration in the parts remaining where such faculties do reside and are exercised And that you may use this medicine to the best advantage take this advice that if your body be foul first cleanse with a dose or two of the Scorbute pills then begin with this Elixir to strengthen the faculties and you will daily perceive a growing benefit incouraging you to continue the use thereof which is done with the least of trouble not incommodating your occasions that amidst affairs in journeys it prevents you not in your lawfull customs or tyes you to inconvenient observance nor of the season but is profitably used at any time of the year Take this caution be not too hasty in your expectations and leave not the use of it too soon your disease came on gradually and was longer in breeding than you imagine though the symptoms or signes of it appear to you suddainly and lately perhaps some years or many years have laid the foundation and but now makes a discovery being arrived at some heigth you must then in reason allow some time for eradication and removall since nature will not admit of violence and suddain changes but is disturbed and injured at such rude dealing therefore take time as nature and the medicine does require nor will you want incouragement to persevere but have daily advantage against your infirmity The full dose for Man or Woman of strength is thirty drops for twelve years old twenty drops for five years old ten drops And observe this rule that at the first taking you begin but with half the dose that is appointed for your age as thus thirty drops is appointed for a Man let him begin with fifteen drops and then augment two or three drops every day after until he ascend to thirty and there continue Take it in bed if you be very weak in a spoonful of good Canary and one spoonful after to wash your mouth every morning fasting an hour and a half after and likewise at five of the clock in the afternoon those dayes only excepted that you take pills but you are not so strictly to observe the afternoon that if your occasions do not well permit as when you must be abroad or the like you may omit Note that this Elixir is never to be taken or tasted alone but mixed in some liquor Of Diseases and Medicines IN the preceding tract of the Scurvy you may remember that in the body there are several digestions and digestive offices for the preparation of food subordinate one to the other whereby aliment is prepared gradually untill it receive the complement and perfection of assimilation for nutrition and conservation of the body These digestive offices as they are the grand laboratories of the body necessary for preservation so occasionally by their errors and defections from their integrity of operation most diseases in the body do arise and are planted radically in some principal member the mansion assigned where these faculties do reside and exercise their power jurisdiction And although Diseases are very numerous and various in their denominations sometimes from the diversity of symptoms that accompany them as if they were the off-spring of divers Parents by their several faces and appearance yet trace them up to their original descent you may find many to spring from one radix and own the same occasional causes notwithstanding their dissimilarity in their growth and progress yet their affinity is such by birth that with a single medicine or perhaps two may be required rightly prepared and fitted for the work you shall eradicate or destroy the root and the branches that grow from thence though spread in divers parts of the body shall whither and fall away It is not necessary therefore to multiply medicines for every particular spmptom that springs from a disease but to level and aim at the root or fountain from whence they spring The discourse is metaphorical and carries illustration with it but to make it more plain and facile to your apprehension and to shew you the verity of it take this example for a Confirmation A Physitian coming to his Patient finds him thus affected feavourish head ach pained at the Stomach grip'd in the belly a looseness all which may proceed from one cause and will be cured with one good medicine The cause producing all these symptomes may be acor indebitus a domestick luxuriant or peregrine acidity in the first digestion hence a febrile temper ariseth from the Spirits tumultuating agitated and troubled at this exorbitant hostile quality the stomach pained by the lancing of its sharpness the head ach by consent from thence the belly grip'd and collick pains by transmission of this peccant acidity with the chyle a flux or looseness procured by the same purging quality stimulating and provoking the expulsive faculty which endeavours to eject and expel it You see that one morbifick cause may produce various symptoms and effects and it is unnecessary yea improper and without success to apply particular medicines to each not respecting the cause and herein a wise Physitian is known from him that is otherwise In the case recited some there are and those thinking they do secundum artem will prescribe a Julip to abate or prevent the feaver increasing apply a frontale to the head or give a specifick medicine for the head ach an emulsion for pain of the stomach and griping of the guts which allayes for the present but soon after it is received into the body turns sour and joynes with the morbifick cause For the loosness perhaps you will give an astringent medicine and lock the Thief up but I will imagine you to be wiser and consult about a Clyster to draw away the cause
consider and know that all things which belong and are necessary for the preservation of the body and support of Nature that they also may be the antecedent procuring causes of sickness as also the fomenting and aggravating causes of diseases already generated as when contrary to the law or disposition of our peculiar Natures they are applied or used unseasonably immoderately incongruously or any waies unsutably to our Nature and Condition of Body And therefore both in the time of preservation and curation they are to be regarded And since there is not a moment of time in which we do not stand in need of air and that being constantly drawn into the body must needs make for or against the continuance of health according to the conditions and properties it is pregnant with Wherefore in preservation from the Scurvy it is of no small concernment the air and climate that you live in to dispose or defend you from it the nature of the air is such in some places that few there are not tainted with it and this as a principal cause And therefore in Holland Denmark Sweden and such places this disease is most common and chiefly in the Fenny and Marrish parts for that a moist foggy cold air is apt to ingender this disease or increase it because the spirits thereby are clogged and fixed dull and inactive from whence defects in fermentation humors incrassated and obstructions the pores occluded and transpiration prohibited But a warm drie serene air makes much in the preservation from the Scurvy the spirits thereby are kept more vigorous lively and brisk humors attenuated volatile and freely circulating the pores more open and perspirable giving emission to excrementitious vapours unprofitable and hurtfull to be restrained and all the parts more free in their communications and subserviency one to the other Those that retire themselves voluntarily to a studious sedentary life or are confined to a close chamber airy are thereby disposed to this disease or much aggravated and encreased if already they are scorbutick more specially if melancholy be their companion and where the air is impure not to be avoided as in great Cities correct it somthing by Art in your houses with wholsom fumes especially in moist cold weather They that live in Cities especially some parts thereof more close and noisom than others as in narrow streets lanes and Allies are much prejudiced in their health There is great difference in the place and parts of a City to live in the broader streets and places more open and airy the wholsomer and the outside caeteris paribus near the fresh fields is better than to be crouded in the middle provided no stinking ditches or dunghils be adjacent And here I cannot but take notice of Bloomsbury the Right Honourable Earl of Southampton's propriety and Seat for the best part about London both for health and pleasure exceeding other places It is the best air and finest prospect being the highest ground and overlooking other parts of the City The fields bordering upon this place are very pleasant and drie grounds for walking and improving of health a fit place for Nobility and Gentry to reside in that make their abode about London there being the Country air pleasure and City conveniencies joined together Now lately improved and built upon and still encreasing with fair and well contrived Buildings a good addition and Ornament to this place The next considerable in a regular preservation from the Scurvy is Diet which ought to be duly observed for as by convenient food sutable and agreeable in all the requisite circumstances quantity quality time and order so on the contrary by a disproportionate and unsutable diet the faculties are disordered and debilitated in their several functions inclining to this or that disease according to the nature and quality of the food and other circumstances that attend it And therefore some kind of meats and drinks do dispose and are the antecedent causes of this disease as also do cherish and help to maintain it where it is already generated although procured first by other causes The grosser meats and such as do not easily digest are to be avoided but light meats and such as the stomack does well agree with covet and digest best keep to such Milk and Milk-meats in a foul body do soon alter and degenerate and therefore injurious to Scorbutick Persons but in clean bodies 't is good food Broom buds Capers and Sampire are good sauce to your meate helps the Stomack in digestion and is profitable for the Spleen a part chiefly affected in the Scurvy Also Oranges and Lemmons Berberries and Sorrel helps fermentation and are good But old flesh drie and hard meats long kept Rie-bread and brown especially Crusts fried or broyled meats are to be avoided for these are more stubborn do not soon yield to fermentation nor beget good nutriment as also salt fish and meats smoak-dried as hang'd Bief Bacon dried Tongues and such like are injurious and promote this disease But for variety of meats and their qualities you may see a Catalogue in my Tutela Sanitatis therefore I shall not repeat them here For Drinks take these observations Drink not your Beer new because not yet fully purified by fermentation but rather stale well hop'd clear reasonable strong if your stomack be weak and declining And it is very considerable of what water your drink is made for that there is great variety and difference in the goodness of waters being impregnated with several qualities from the nature of earth through which it passeth and several accidents that happen to change water from its genuine properties and make it impure and unwholsom by carrion filth and such like admixtures that may corrupt it And from these causes many places are more disposed to breed the Scurvy than others from bad water with which their Beer or Ale is made and meats dressed And Plyny relates that Caesars Army by drinking of bad water but a few daies had the symptoms of the Scurvy Ale I do not approve of but white Wine and Rhenish is good for you to drink a glass or two somtimes to open obstructions cleanse and whet the appetite and promote fermentation Sider also is good drink if it be made of the best Apples as Pippins Pearmains and such like and that it be clear having had good time to ferment separate and purifie but withall have respect to your stomack that it be agreeable and desired by it but if you have a cold raw stomack a warmer liquor will be more acceptable as a glass of Canary somtimes to fortifie the stomack and help digestion is agreeable to the most The next considerable for praecaution of the Scurvy is exercise and motion which duly and moderately used is a good preservative from this disease a sedentary sloathful life makes the body to degenerate from its purity and vigour Corrumpunt otia corpus From hence Defects in fermentation humours incrassate and obstruct