reteine the vertue of the simples whereof they are distilled whereof we have at large already discoursed Some of these waters againe are compounded of many severall simples and take the denomination either from that which is most predominant as the Theriacal-water or else from the sublime and extraordinary effects as aqua coelestis aqua mirabilis c. and sometimes from the Author also as Doctor Stevens his water But whosoever is too busie or bold with any of these hot waters in ordinary use either for furthering concoction or otherwise shall at length finde them produce the like effect as lime laid to the roots of trees which howsoever it hasten the fruit for the present yet killeth it the trees in a short time And this I have in some of my very good friends and patients often found too true with whom I wish sound reason might have more prevailed than their owne disorderly appetites I have observed in some who had these hot liquors in too frequent use as they pretended to warme their stomacks that at length they came to this pitch that whether they drunke any of these sublimate waters or the best sacke or other wine whatsoever they found no more heat in it than of a cup of cold water powred downe their throats But this was not all the harme from thence ensuing but was after accompanied with an extraordinary great distempered heat both in the liver and kidnies and in some an irrecoverable scirrbus in the liver a disposition to a dropsie and in conclusion an untimely death I could easily at great length dilate and discourse largely upon this one point but that I hasten to the other matters which yet remaine to handle CHAP. XV. Of divers drinkes made of hony mulsum mulsa or hydromel and oxymel with the various waies of composition and their excellent vertues ALthough wee have already handled hony with the vertues thereof and divers other things concerning this subject yet now wee are to speake of it againe at more length at least of some drinkes made thereof of no small use in the Diet of the Diseased And the praise of it may from hence appeare in that the Land of Canaan was commended and that by the Authour of truth himselfe to be a Land flowing with milke and hony Of this many excellent drinkes were made by the antients which with us at this day are not in so great request Howbeit even at this day some nations where hony is plentifull make thereof some drinkes very usefull both in sicknesse and in health as namely the Polonians Lituanians or country of Lettow and other territories subject to the Polonian Crowne where good wine is scant and good hony plentifull and therefore in stead of wine use this drinke And wee have already made mention of Metheglin made in Wales Now of hony were made three sorts of drinkes differing one from another The first of those was called Mulsum or a drinke made of hony and wine another Mulsa or Hydromel a drinke made of water and hony the third of hony and vineger water sometimes being mingled therewith and by them called Oxymel at this day with us in no small request in pectorall diseases especially The first of these then is that which the antients called Mulsum and so celebrated by that Roman Pollio as wee have already mentioned And that this was a very antient drinke may by a late learned Writer appeare who proveth the same against Plutarch who held it in his time to be but a new invention His opinion hee proveth both by the authority of Homer and Hippocrates who call this drinke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of this drinke Pliny maketh one Aristeus a Thracian the author and the which drinke he brought into that credit and reputation that in these daies there was no sort of drinke in greater request howsoever now in our daies neglected It was made of tart or sharpe wine and hony taking its name a mulcendo from mitigating and qualifying the sharpnesse and tartnesse of the wine Pliny would have it made of old wine as being easiliest incorporated with the hony That this is that Oenomeli mentioned by Dioscorides may by comparing that place of Pliny with his easily appeare Plutarch writeth that honie spoileth and corrupteth the wine and may therefore be questioned whether it be wholesome or no I answer that being new made it is windy but being well boiled and kept a good while it becommeth a most wholesome drinke And many saith the same Pliny have by the continuall use of this drinke atteined to old age as hath been already in Pollio instanced This drinke is in some places of Hippocrates prescribed in pectorall infirmities The likest to this drinke is that famous Metheglin so much used in Wales In some sea-cities of Germanie they make this Mulsum and mingle therewith many aromaticall simples There was another drinke made of the same hony and water onely and in no small request among the antients called therefore Hydromel Of this drinke there were divers manners of composition Dioscorides maketh it of two parts of old river water and one part of hony boiled together and set a long time in the Sunne Pliny composeth it of hony and raine-water long kept boiling the water with the third part of hony untill the third part of it were wasted away There was also another drinke made of hony in request among the antient Greekes called Apomeli and was made of the hony-combes washed and boiled in faire water Galen maketh yet mention of another manner of composing this drinke taking of vineger one part of hony two parts of faire water foure parts and so boiled them where no mention is made of the combes The Arabian Physitians made their Mulsa or Hydromel after this fashion They tooke one pound of very good yellow hony and not too old which they boiled with eight times as much spring-spring-water in an earthen or stone vessell skimming them well and boiling altogether at a great fire and then straining it thorow a cleane linnen cloth In Hippocrates wee read of two sorts of this Mulsa or Melicratum one ravv another boiled The former was made of three parts of spring-spring-water or old raine-water and one of very good hony well mingled together and set a long time in the Sunne The second sort which was boiled was composed of the same quantity but presently boiled to the wasting away of the third part Besides he maketh there two sorts of this drinke according to the predominancy of the one or the other of these two for when the quantity of water exceeded that of hony it was called Melicratum aquosum but when there was greater store of hony than water then it was call Sincerum Melicratum or pure and plaine hony-water In our daies some make this drinke of good pure hony one part and six times as much good spring
c. But that of barly for the sicke was alwaies in highest esteeme And this diversity ministred occasion to Aristotle to aske the question whether Ptisan made of wheat or barly were the best for the use of the sick And Ptisan made of wheat was for these reasons preferr'd before that made of barly first by reason that such as eat bread of wheat are cōmonly more vigorous and sound of body than those who use barlybread Againe say they barly is harder of concoction than wheat And thirdly barlybread was never in so high an esteem as that of wheat but alwaies esteemed of farre meaner account The answer is easy that the comparison here is not absolute but relative having relation to the sicke Indeed absolutely compared together wheat doth excell the other but in relation to the sicke barly is farre better especially in Fevers and pectorall diseases being more cooling and cleansing than the other which indeed is rather harder to be concocted and apter to ingender obstructions And for this cause Hippocrates useth this most commonly in restorative diet and that of barly in acute diseases The manner of preparation of this antient ptisan or creame of barly as we may call it was after this manner they tooke graines of barly full perfectly ripe neither too old nor too new this they steeped a little in water then beat it in a morter to cleanse away the chaffe and husks afterwards washed it and rubbed it with their hands and afterwards let it dry when they made use of it for this ptisan they tooke one part of barly thus prepared and twelve parts of faire water which they let boile at a soft fire while it swelled and was boiled to a thinne pap having lost all the windinesse and being so boiled they gave it their sicke Some added to this messe sweet new wine boiled which they called sapa and some a little hony wheat or flowre and sometimes a little oile vinegar or salt In many places of this kingdome there is commonly in use for this purpose a certaine kind of ready prepared barly to be sold in shops called French barly whereof both this cream of barly is commonly made and whereof wee make use in our broths also and barly-water This barly we use to boile and shift twice or thrice the waters untill it colour them no more and then boile it with a sufficient quantity of faire spring water the proportion of the antients may be observed and then straine it through a clean linnen cloth adding thereto a little sugar or sugar-candy and a little rose-rose-water To correct the crudity especially in a weake stomacke and it bee often to bee used wee may boile with it some whole mace or else when it is strained we may adde thereunto a little small cinamon-cinamon-water which will both correct the crudity and not overheat the body If some acid juice of lemmon or other shall be added thereunto if need so require thou mayest use thy discretion in acute and maligne Fevers especially but not in pectorall diseases In defect of cinamon-water a little powder of cinamon may be used In this decoction who listeth may also boile other cooling or pectorall herbs according to the nature of the disease and party diseased as violet leaves strawberry leaves succory endive agrimony or the like But beware the taste be not marred lest the patient reject all and boile no sorrell nor other acid or sharpe thing in it especially if it be to be kept for oftner than once or twice but the fresher it be the better it is This is very soveraine good in all Fevers and pectorall diseases especially for young people for hot and dry cholericke constitutions But I will advertise thee of one thing that whereas there is an opinion held among many that no barly but this they call French will serve the turne our owne barly may bee easily so prepared that it may very well serve our use And to this purpose it may either be beaten in a bagge as wheat is commonly ordered for frumenty or else which is the cheaper and lesse chargeable provide a deep stone or wodden trough wherein put a little quantity of rough barly with a little warme water and then with a beetle with a long head for the purpose beat it untill the husks come off afterwards winnow it still rubbing it with thy hands and then let it dry and when thou wilt use it wash it in warme water which thou maiest shift untill it looke cleane and white and colour the water no more And this may with a small labour and I am sure with lesse charges be made ready as often as need shall require And this may be used whensoever we need the use of barly either for this we have spoken already for broth barly water almond milke or any like use And thus they prepare it in the north parts of this kingdome in all the kingdome of Scotland and in Ireland also where they use much barly in their brothes and for other uses also and yet never make use of any but this And besides in Scotland of this graine there is made a dish which they there call orgemond and is made of barly thus prepared together with milke and hony and is answerable to our frumenty here but in my opinion farre wholesomer and this is a dish at most of the country merry meetings in no small esteeme there among them There was yet besides this they called a ptisan a barly-water in use among the antients wherof Hippocrates indeed maketh mention howbeit setteth not downe the manner of preparation no more then doth Galen explaining that place To the Arabians therefore for this barly-water are wee most beholden who used it much Oribasius maketh particular mention of the same where hee would not have the barly prepared as we have already set downe but onely a little bruised and twice washed in warme water and afterwards boiled in a gallon of water till it was burst ad crepaturam hordei This liquor being strained was reserved for the use of the sicke and was called barly-water Barly-water was in very great request among the Arabian Physitians both made of whole barly and of barly prepared and cleansed That of prepared barly was of two sorts as may bee collected out of Mesue first thus take of barly prepared and cleansed one pound boiling it in twenty times so much faire spring-spring-water in an earthen glased pot untill the halfe or two parts of the water were wasted away this they called a physicall barly-water The other was thus made take of barly as before well prepared often washed in warme water one pound which they let boile a wame or two in twenty times as much faire spring-spring-water and after this was cast away they added againe as much more water and let it boile untill the halfe of the water was wasted away and this they called
to speake of such waters as be beneficiall for the life of all living Creatures In the first place then let us examine the qualities of the best water The goodnesse thereof is principally discerned by the lightnesse and thinnesse the which according to Hippocrates is soone warme and soone cold againe if it bee free from any smell or taste if any kind of pulse bee quickly tender that is boyled therein if put in a silver vessell it cause it no to rust and leave no slime at bottome It is also accounted a good signe of wholesome water if a handfull of sage being throwne therein it be presently dispersed if it nourish good fish and good and wholesome plants grow in it we thinke well of it but if it nourish toads snakes or other such vermine it is utterly to be rejected The weighing of water is not to be trusted to for a venomous water may be as light as that which is of a more laudable quality and besides one and the same water may be heavy in winter and light in sommer as for any other experiments either by a linnen cloth or round piece of wood as idle and impertinent I passe by and come to the differences and severall sorts of water Water that is in request for the ordinary use as well of man as beast as for Physicall waters we referre them to their proper place and venomous waters we will not meddle with wee will divide into Celestiall and Terrestriall Celestiall are either snow or raine-waters Terrestriall is either spring or river-water well-water or of a pond and standing lake Raine-water is engendred in the middle region of the aire of certaine vapors which the Sunne by his heat in the day-time draweth up Aristotle is of opinion that some hot and dry vapors are therewith mingled which causeth the saltnesse in the sea In raine-water againe we are to observe both the time and the manner of falling Hippocrateâ— rejecteth that which falleth in the winter-time as being heavier and harder than in the Sommer The best in his opinion is that which falleth in Sommer and in the most temperate part of the same not in the extreme heat of the canicular dayes it being then farre worse Some notwithstanding hold that the winter and spring raine water are the best and to be preferred before that which falleth in Sommer and Harvest and that by reason it is not so soone putrified But the opinion of Hippocrates is to be preferred who measureth the water by the lightnesse and thinnesse thereof Of the parts of the day that which falleth in the morning is accounted best The manner of the falling is likewise of some moment whether it fall with force or violence or mildly and softly with greater or smaller drops That which falleth with smaller drops and with violence Hippocrates esteemeth better than that which falleth more leisurely and with greater drops and that which falleth with great stormes of wind is accounted worst The substance of raine-water is most subtile and sweet by reason that the most subtile and thinnest parts are exhaled and drawne up by force of the Sunne-beames Snow-water is either of snow alone or of snow mingled with haile or yee or else snow and yee are mingled with other water Both these sorts are to be rejected by reason that the thinnest and subtilest parts by congealing doe exhale and vanish away the thicker and more terrestrious part still remaining behind Of this a triall may be made by letting some water freeze in the night-time and the next morning being dissolved by the heat the quantity shall easily bee discerned to bee diminished Now what harme insueth by drinking of these snow-waters is by the testimony of Hippocrates apparent and such as doe inhabite the Alpes and Pyrenean hills and Auvergne in France are sensible of this hurt being much molested with great throats whom for this cause their neighbours call Goitreux Cisterne waters are of a very neare affinity with raine-water as being nothing else but raine-water conveighed into a cisterne as a fit and convenient receptacle Pliny approves not of raine-waters because by reason of their standing they putrifie and ingender noisome creatures harden the belly and are hurtfull to the throat But since raine-water is so usefull and soveraine I see no reason why cisterne-cisterne-water should be blamed And since of raine-water there be some better and some worse we must choose the fittest and convenientest time to wit that which falleth in the Sommer As for the slime filth which often accompanieth rainewa-ter being strained thorow gravel and sand they easily leave al that behind the as for the feare of putrefaction it may easily be avoided by casting in some small fishes which will keepe it in continuall motion As concerning the quality of such water it is by some Physitians beleeved that it bindes but that which is reserved in the middest of Sommer rather looseneth then bindeth the belly And by the same reason boiled water rather looseneth than bindeth the belly contrary to the vulgar opinion and that by reason that being boiled it is more easily againe expelled out of the body Now as for terrestriall waters among then Fountaines or Springs challenge vnto themselves the prerogative of the first place above any others In fountaines or springs wee are to consider three things their originall situation and places through which they passe The best springs in the judgement of Hippocrates are such as spring out of high places and earthy hills Such as spring out of rockes he mis-liketh as also such as runne neere any hot bath or thorow mineralls It may be objected that springs issuing out of rockes are by some of the antients accounted wholesomest and best It may bee Hippocrates in regard of their excessive cold and that they are not so passible thorow the body rejected them In the situation of springs wee are to consider the soile where it is seated and next the aspect of the Heaven As for the soile the best spring out of high hilly places but worse that spring out of champian and plaine grounds for such water in Winter is hot and in Sommer cold In regard of the Heaven such are commended that runne towards the Sunne rising and have their aspect that way Such as runne towards the West or other parts c are not of that high esteeme although not unwholesome to drinke Now the ground through which waters runne is not to bee neglected The best ground is a good firme clay unto the which the filth and corruption of the water sticketh fast Againe it must runne a swift course by which meanes it is freed from all smell and putrefaction But heere ariseth a question whether water carried through pipes especially of lead may safely be used The reason may bee both in regard of Galen and others antient Authors and famous in their generations Now
the best spring water or good river-water In quantity it must not exceed for so it would hinder the concoction of the stomacke And as for the order it must be drunke as is already in the generall directions of drinke set downe little and often at a meale Vsed before meales it moistneth much dry bodies and cooleth more than sacke or any wine whatsoever be it never to small and therefore fitter for hot and drie bodies than wine or strong drinke Vsed after meales it inhibiteth and hindereth the hot vaporous fumes of strong drinke to ascend into the braine and so is said to resist drunkennesse but I advise weake stomackes to looke unto themselves for feare of too much debilitation proceeding from too much humectation And howbeit in hot countries their water by reason of correction by the splendor of the Sunne-beames is accounted wholesomer than ours yet might ours be farre more used than it is especially by hot and dry bodies especially such stomacks and yonger people especially but this is the mischiefe that such commonly powre downe most strong drinke by this meanes adding fewell to the fire untill Fevers inflammations and such furious diseases in the very Aprill of their age bring them to an untimely death And the poorer sort I am sure might make more use of the same than ordinarily they doe which would better become them than go a begging strong drinke or which is yet worse steale to procure mony to buy it And notwithstanding this our nicity I know som honourable and worshipfull Ladies who drinke little other drinke and yet injoy more perfect health than most of them that drinke of the strongest Two things do most deterre people from the use of this noble antient drinke the coldnesse and the crudity As for the coldnesse howsoever it doth often actually to the palat appeare such yet have I shewed that there is no such intense cooling quality here to be feared The other is the crudity which is indeed nothing else but the abundance of moisture wherewith it is indowed and most offensive to weake and moist stomackes and all is notwithstanding ordinarily imputed to the coldnesse of water Some to correct what they deeme amisse in water use to adde some sugar to it and so thinke all is well amended and is most practised by the female sex But this is no good correction for of this they cannot be ignorant and experience teacheth no lesse that sweet things doe rather hurt than helpe a weake and tender stomacke And besides Sugar being but temperately hot could adde but a little heat to such a drinke if it were as cold as is supposed Againe sugar having no drying quality ascribed unto it but rather a meane moisture it will rather adde to than detract from this moist quality But in my opinion the best correction is by boiling it first and then if thou wilt adde thereunto a little hony or sugar and a little wine vineger which well correcteth the moisture and joined with the other sugar or hony giveth it a pleasant rellish thou maiest make thee a pleasant and wholesome drinke Now as concerning the boiling of waters there is a controversie about the quantity or how much should be boiled away some willing to boile water to the wasting away of the third part others of the halfe which others againe thinke too much and indeed a meane is the best Againe some would have water corrected by distillation which I must needes confesse to be best if not too costly besides that it is not so easy every where and at all times to be effected Some straine it thorow a cleane linnen cloth and some againe boile it with sand Some with corall beaten to powder correct the bitternesse of waters and some attribute a correcting qualitie to Penniroall Pliny reports that bitter waters are made sweet and potable by casting into them a little meale or flowre of wheat so that they may bee drunke within two houres after I doubt this triall would hardly answere our expectation And I am sure the practice of the Prophet Elisha in healing the water with salt was miraculous It is familiar with mariners after the use of evill waters to eat garlicke The Arabian Physitians advise him who is to remove his habitation to a place where waters are not good to carry with him some of the earth where hee lived before and mingle with his water and being well strained drink of it Now because oftentimes water is either somwhat warme and therfore quencheth not the thirst so well or else is not so cold as to please some nice and curious palats therefore partly for pleasure and wantonnesse and partly for necessity especially when all manner of riot and excesse began to reigne amongst many other things were devised severall waies to coole both their water and their wine And it cannot be denied that cold water doth better further the concoction of the stomacke than warme And Galen in Sommer alloweth of very cold drinke yea even cooled with snow and to such especially as labour hard and use much exercise but others that live idly leading a sedentary life and free from imployment either of body or mind he adviseth to drinke water as nature hath produced it without any alteration Avicen wisheth alwaies to eat before they drinke water and to drinke sparingly and often at our repast and out of a vessell with a narrow mouth that so the draught may be the more moderate There were six several waies the antients used to coole their water by means of the aire which was familiar to the Aegyptians as witnesseth Galen In the Sommer saith he the Aegyptians of Alexandria having first well warmed their water and put it up in close earthen vessells exposed it to the night aire and before Sun rising set them in some shadie places of the ground environed round about with cooling herbes Sailers have beene seene sometimes to expose their water to the night aire and afterwards cover their bottles with many clothes and thus it is very certaine it reteineth still the cold quality The reason why they thus boiled their water was because that water once boiled receiveth sooner and easilier the impression of the cold aire as witnesseth the Prince of Philosophers And therefore in Pontus where they fish alwaies in frost they besprinkle their angling-rods with warme water which afterwards congealeth and freezeth so much the harder which serveth them in stead of glue The second way of cooling water is by letting it downe in an earthen bottle into a deepe well howbeit others are of opinion it receives some evill impression from this close water and therefore thinke it better to draw up the water and so set it in it The third way is by injection of some salt peter which afterwards for a while is stirred about with a sticke howbeit this is not so well approved of with whatsoever present
stopping In our countries here we have a custome to adde barme to our bread which other countries as France Italie and Spaine c. use not and therefore I give warning that this be sparingly used in the sickes bread very bitter barme especially which maketh both the bread unpleasanter and hotter in acute diseases and hot bodies As for salted bread Galen himselfe doth not reject it even in Fevers and besides even in the cure of a dry stomack alloweth the use of it Bread for the sickes use is to be used new and not old especially not above two or three daies at the most New bread is two manner of waies used either simply as it is of it selfe or else artificially prepared Simple bread I call such as it is baked when it is so administred to the sicke Bread is againe prepared after the baking and that divers wayes Now whether the one or the other be used the crummes are the best the crust being of an evill quality Ordinary simple bread was used either hot or after it was cooled A late writer sheweth that the antients used hot bread And Hippocrates used hot bread in the cure of that kind of Dropsie which wee call anasarca or leucophlegmatia which neverthelesse elsewhere hee alloweth not of Hot bread filleth suddenly is hard of digestion and drieth much and this later reason might move him to exhibit it in that kinde of Dropsie But cold bread was ever most in request and is also the best especially if not too old as hath beene already proved As for the preparation of bread the antients used either to wash it in faire water or else to mingle it with flesh broth Pliny affirmeth that wheat-bread being washed either in cold or warme water is a very light food for the sicke Now they used to wash their bread two manner of waies either they soaked and steeped their bread in warme water which they often shifted untill such time as it had quite lost all the taste of leaven and salt or else they grated and punned it small and so steeped it in faire water and strained it through a cleane linnen cloth by this meanes making a seperation of the solid from the subtilest parts which subtile thinne part they afterwards boiled untill it grew thicke This washed bread both Hippocrates and Galen used to coole in all kindes of Fevers Wee use rather to wash it in rose-rose-water adding some sugar and currants Neither was it the custome onely to steepe bread in water but in wine also where they were free from any Fever Wee use rathe to toste bread at the fire and so steepe it in wine And that sometimes also they mingled bread with fresh broth is apparent out of the same Hippocrates There are also divers artificiall preparations of bread which may be usefull in some diseases as biscuits prepared with divers ingredients as yolkes of egges annise and fennell and coriander seeds with a little sugar and may be usefull for weake stomakes and rheumatik persons But because few of our Gentle-women are ignorat of the preparation of these and the like I shall not need to insist upon their preparation Besides these there are divers sorts of march-panes made partly for superfluity and adorning great feasts and great mens tables and partly also sometimes for physicall uses as in hecticke Fevers and some pectorall diseases which here to particularize is neither the particular place nor my purpose But before I finish this point concerning bread I must advertise all diseased people that since unleavened bread as pycrusts many sorts of cakes and the like are not so fit even for the use of healthfull people how much more then are they unfit for the sicke Such bread is alwaies very hard to be concocted and apt to ingender obstructions and the stone Now in the Diet of the Diseased there is no small use made of herbs whereof we have spoken already Herbes minister but small nourishment and serve rather to alter than to nourish the body And therefore they are of good use to coole to open obstructions and keepe the body soluble of the which both juleps apozemes and divers decoctions are made according as the nature of the disease requireth We use them likewise in the sickes broths according as we see occasion Now that herbs nourish but little Galen himselfe avoucheth affirming that men cannot live upon herbes although beasts are therewith nourished And Hippocrates affirmeth that those who use this kind of food much live a shorter while than others And Galen upon that place expoundeth the word imbecillis cibus or a feeble food to bee such as yeeld little or small nourishment to the body such are herbes and many sorts of fruits growing upon trees and such saith Hippocrates are both of a short continuance and make them short lived who use them by reason such food maketh but short stay within the body Out of this place then is confuted the opinion of Cardan affirming that such as lived on fruits and herbes were longer lived than those who lived on flesh which hee would prove by the antient fathers and by Eremites living in deserts onely upon such food But this may easily be answered that it was our forefathers frugality free from all manner of excesse and riot and not the quality of their food which prolonged their lives Besides their lives were for other necessary and usefull ends then prolonged as we have heretofore touched As for Hermites and others who live long by the use of such diet I doubt not but with the moderate use of flesh and keeping a moderation in all other things they might have lived longer and in as good health of body whatsoever Cardan say to the contrary Now it may againe be demanded whether fruits may be admitted into the Diet of the Diseased I answere it would seeme that by reason of their waterish juice they should bee excluded yet no doubt they may safely be used at least some sorts as apples for melancholy capers for the spleene pomegranats for hot and cholerick stomacks the quinces in fluxes of the bellie in costivenesse prunes and cherries raisins and currants for the liver and so of divers others according to severall occasions Trallian tells us that the Aegyptian Physitians fed their sicke of Fevers with cucumbers and melons and that by reason they cooled much and nourished little But Cardan altogether disalloweth of any such diet And it were farre more tolerable to use the distilled water of such fruits I doubt not but fruits may sometimes be exhibited to the sicke provided they be first rosted that by such meanes the moist watery juice may either be corrected or dissipated Now the antients had another fashion of rosting their fruits than we have as may by the same late alledged Author appeare who speaking of the use of peaches in
water well boiled and skimmed till the fourth part be wasted away To know whether it be sufficiently boiled or no put into it an egge and if it swimme on the top it is sufficient but if it sincke to the bottome it is not When it is tunned up for better defecation and purging in hot weather especially in hot countries it may be set into the Sunne for certaine daies It may be about a quarter old before it be drunke When it is very old the use of it is condemned even by Pliny himselfe This drinke might be of good use in many infirmities of the body of the brest especially excepting alwaies hot and cholericke constitutions It might be made tarter by meanes of some vineger or some other acid or sharpe juice provided alwaies it exceed not There was yet another drink made of hony in no small request among the antients called Oxymel or sirup of vineger the which is even at this day in no small esteeme and account This drinke is both by Hippocrates and Galen highly commended and esteemed of affirming it to bee of an opening and cleansing faculty without any danger of heat and that increaseth not the Fever and yet openeth and cleanseth effectually and that it is very usefull for all ages A late Writer affirmeth that this is a very wholesome drinke and may safely be used in all Fevers and that there is no better drinke to quench extreme thirst And another saith no lesse in the commendation of it Some differences of opinions there are concerning the composition of this drinke Hippocrates maketh it of hony vineger and water not expounding the quantity of any one Galen mentioneth a threefold manner of compounding this drinke but to none of them addeth he salt as doth Dioscoride Take of veneger one part well skimmed hony two parts let them boile with a gentle fire untill their qualities be well united together With water it is thus made for one part of hony take foure parts of faire spring water and let them boile over a soft fire untill it yeeld skumme and when a great part of the water is wasted away then adde thereto halfe as much vineger as remaineth of the water and boile them well untill there be a firme union of all their qualities together Thirdly it is thus made al the three are at the very first mingled together taking for one part of vineger two parts of hony and foure parts of faire spring-spring-water boiling them untill there remaine a third This Hippocrates often mentioneth though not alwaies under one name We have the composition therof set downe in our late dispensatories Some take one part of vineger two parts of spring water and foure of pure hony letting them all boile untill they attaine to the forme of a liquid sirup I meane not so high boiled as some sirups for it will thus keepe well enough Some againe make it after this fashion take of good hony foure pounds faire spring-spring-water two pounds let the water and the hony be boiled together untill the water be quite wasted away and the hony well skimmed and then adde thereto two pound of good sharpe wine vineger and boile it to the thicknesse of an ordinary sirup This oxymel or sirup of vineger is a very excellent medicine for expectoration or cleansing and cutting tough phlegme stuffing up the pipes of the lungs and exceeding good in many pectorall diseases But many by reason hony is not so pleasant to their palats therefore they use in stead thereof sugar which indeed is not so forcible nor effectuall as the former but we are falne into such times wherein people are all for toothsomnesse and little for wholesomnesse In the composition of this drinke there must a speciall care be had of the hony it is made of that it be of the best such as we have already described The vineger would be of the best sharpe white wine vineger if it can be had and the water must be pure spring water and approaching as neere as may be to our description of such water of best note Besides these ordinary Oxymels there are yet some other compounded with divers ingredients both purging and others as with hellebore with squills and the like all which here to set downe were both tedious and needlesse such as would make use of any such may as occasion and necessity shall require have them prescribed by the learned and judicious Physitian But in the use of this as in many other medicines there is a great error in the ordinary use of it committed and that by reason the vulgar use it promiscuously in any matter whatsoever distilled or falne downe upon the lungs be it thicke or thinne whereas in a sharp thinne tickling rheume this can doe no good at all but rather harme But because this is not the proper place to convince and confute these errors this being spoken but by the way I will here leave this point Neither yet will I insist at this time upon any other compositions made of hony it being only my purpose in this place to discourse of such drinkes as are made of hony and by the way to give a taste what was the opinion of antiquity concerning hony and the high esteeme they had thereof and how usefull a thing it is both in sickenesse and in health howsoever in this degenerate and wanton age wherein we now live it be too much contemned and despised CHAP. XVJ. Of divers drinkes made of barly very usefull for the sicke and in frequent request as ptisan barly-water creame of barley and wherein our formes differ from those of antient times Some thing concerning emulsions both almond milke and others THis graine barly I meane in Greece hath been in no small esteeme and request and that by reason of divers drinkes made therof for the use of the sicke It is temperate in quality in all likelihood and probability howbeit Galen maketh it cold and dry in the first degree Howsoever it is very fit and proper in Fevers and hot diseases and that after severall sorts and fashions prepared And besides it participateth likewise of an abstersive or cleansing facultie whereby it is to good purpose used in pectorall infirmities Of this graine the antients made a water for the sicke from thence called barly-water And of the same graine was there yet made an other composition which they called Ptisan Of this Ptisan Hippocrates maketh frequent mention Of this now wee reteine the name onely ptisan being nothing else saith a late Writer but a drinke made of licorice and a little barly and sometimes without it The ptisan in use among the antients especially with Hippocrates was nothing else but that which we commonly call creame of barly and served the sicke in stead both of meat and drinke It was made of divers sorts of graines both of wheat rice and barly
may be asked whether the sicke may not sleepe after it I answer that it is onely to very weake persons permitted and not to others for whom it is very hurtfull especially if drunke in any great quantity lest head-ach heavinesse and drowsinesse of the whole body follow after Womans milke is best suck'd out of the brest which if the sicke refuse to doe then it is thought expedient that it be milked in a cleane vessell standing in water a little warmish and so presently drunke up Milke of beasts is to be drunke warme immediatly after the milking with the addition of a little sugar rosat or other ordinary sugar in defect thereof The antients added hony and a little salt to it especially when they would have it to purge and so might wee well at this day if our palats were not now adaies growne so dainty and nice that no sweetning now will serve our turnes unlesse fetch'd from Madera Barbary or Brasill Howsoever the poorer sort may use it after this manner The ordinary measure to take at once some would have it to be three or foure ounces or about a quarter of an English wine pint according as the nature of the disease and diseased shall indicate to vs. Galen in a Fever hecticke beginneth with two ounces and then addeth halfe as much more increasing the quantity untill such time as hee saw it sufficient for the sicke Physitians of old were wont to give milke to the sicke in a very great quantity and Hippocrates gaue at once almost five quarts of Asses milke and sometimes lesse But hee giveth onely Asses milke in this abundant quantity so farre as we can read and elsewhere he giveth sometimes above a gallon and a halfe and sometimes above two gallons of this same milke Rondeletius addeth this caution in the use of Asses milke that if it be used to cleanse and purge wee may use an English pint at a time but if it be used for aliment then a lesser quantity will serve the turne lest it trouble the stomacke I dranke as much as was milk'd from the Asse at a time the quantity I remember not But such as have in their health beene accustomed to the use of milke may drinke as much as they please Sometimes the antient Physitians and Hippocrates himselfe also in benigne and milde Fevers and in internall heats used to boile good store of water with their milke and so gave it their sicke to drinke But because milke in its owne entire substance is not alwaies so safe for the sicke besides there being so many cautions to be observed and so many cases wherein it is not safe to exhibite it it therefore being composed of three severall substances the mercuriall or waterish part called serum and in English whey may farre safelier in any disease be exhibited than any of the other This serous substance doth cut tough humors cleanse and loosen the belly and therfore whatsoever milk most aboundeth with this moist substance is most wholesome and although often used yet hurteth least Such are Womans Goats Asses Camels milke for the whey of such milke is accounted good against the Iandise dropsie arising from the obstructions of the inward parts as also against Scabs Morphewes Tetters Freckles of the face and Cataracts of the eyes Of all other wheyes that of Goats milke is esteemed the best for it participateth of a sharpe nitrous quality whereby it cleanseth a thinne and subtile quality whereby it openeth obstructions cold and moist whereby of cooleth and moisteneth in all Fevers it is good against Dropsies Iandise the Spleene melancholicke diseases obstructions from choler diseases in the kidnies and all inflammations The antients used also often to infuse their medicines in whey made especially of Goats milke although sometimes mention be also made of whey of Cowes milke which now is most in request Antient Physitians make mention of two sorts of whey one of the whole substance of the milke as it is and another of milke already skimmed but the first is the best and loosenth the belly most Both these sorts were prepared after a double manner one without commixtion of any other substance called a simple manner and was thus prepared the milke being very hot they suddenly set within it another vessell full of cold water and so by this sudden concurse of hot and cold was made this separation Some would have this vessell of silver some of brasse others care not what the metall be Boiled with a very hot fire it often also quickly curdleth and then by straining one substance is separated from another Another way of separation was called compounded by addition of some other substance rennet juice of the figge tree c. And many other things as well hot as cold will easily curdle milke It is moreover to be observed that whey acquireth unto it selfe divers qualities according to the various preparations thereof for that which is made with rennet is sharper than that which is made without any addition of any other substance That which is made with sowre juices as of lemmons and the like is more cooling and pleasing to the palat and more appropriate and fitting for hot and maligne diseases howbeit more hurtfull for any internall ulceration or excoriation Now for the quantity it must be measured according to the nature and constitution of the patient observing also these cautions following to wit that it be drunke blood-warme in a morning fasting Some give above a pint if for the qualifying of sharpe humours but if to purge then about three pints and Hippocrates to almost two pints more Wee follow rather the Arabians directions who give it from halfe a pint to a wine quart and upwards and this quantitie must be taken by degrees not all at once and the patient must walke a turne or two betwixt as is the manner in drinking of minerall waters And as did the antients so doe we likewise often boile in our whey divers sorts of simples and with us is much used in the Sommer-time for cooling and clearing the blood We use Endive or Succory fumiterre especially dock-roots c. According to the particular occasion and the parties constitution c. Who useth it And this is often used even of healthfull persons Wee make our whey for the sicke after a farre other manner which we commonly call posset-drinke and is made after divers manners In fevers and hot diseases we turne the milke only with the juice of a lemmon and this we call lemmon posset being both cooling and cordiall and in the absenee of lemmons wee may make use of the juce of sorrell or some wine vineger which the poorer sort may use whensoever they have need And in the use of posset-drinke this is to be observed that it be alwaies made cleare for the sick and if it be not so at
this to be the worst of all other roots Dioscoride saith it ingendreth a soft and foggy flesh It is of a flatuous and windy quality as most other roots howbeit some more some lesse troublesome to a weake stomacke being hard of digestion The best way of use is accounted first to boile them and the water being powred out then to boile them againe with fat beefe adding to them some pepper The seed of Turnep is good in antidotes and very good against the plague and all other contagious diseases In the next place we are to say something of Reddishes the which roote contrary to the custome of other roots is eaten raw At what time of our meale it should be eaten our Authours somewhat differ Dioscorides would have it eaten after meales to strengthen the stomacke but sure in my opinion it being of a nauseous quality and provoking to cast hee had but small reason for him But Galen is of another mind to use it at the beginning of our meales taxing both the vulgar errour and some of Physitians also who used it last Some againe tooke upon them to moderate the matter thus if the body be soluble and free from any flatuous matter it should be eaten first but if the body be costive last We use them after a third and different way to wit with our meales as a sauce and as is thought to excite a languishing appetite Now as I see small reason for either of the other two manners of use of this root so see I farre lesse for this and I thinke the controversie might be best decided if this root were left for physicks use it being good against the stone It hath this inconvenient that often eaten it wasteth the teeth eating into them A late Authour giveth us warning that after the eating of Reddishes wee beware of milke-meats for saith hee it turneth them into venome There is a great antipathie betwixt this root and the vine insomuch that from hence some thinke they have found a remedy against drunkennesse Dioscorides writeth that the leaves and roots of wilde-Reddish which wee call horse-Reddish was usually eaten as other pot-herbs In high Germany where they call it meer rettich it is in ordinary use the roote I meane And I remember in Saxony wee had this root first grated and then boiled with our beeefe which made us many times water our plants as well as the keenest mustard but it is hurtfull both for head and eyes whatsoever our palat-pleasers may allege for its commendation The Reddish is of a cutting quality and hot and therefore cutteth tough phlegme The Parsneps are indifferent good boiled and buttered with vineger and pepper They are somewhat hot and yeeld better nourishment than the Carrot is it is somewhat hard of digestion and flatuous yet not so much as many others The Carrot differeth something as yeelding in goodnesse to the former being something moister yet of an easier and freer distribution thorow the body They are commonly eaten with beefe In some countries they make sallets of them especially of red or rather purple-coloured The Skirret root in goodnesse farre surmounteth the others as being of indifferent good nourishment and no enemy to the stomacke a great strengthner of nature and expeller of urine It is somewhat flatuous as the others but not so much Tiberius the Emperour did so highly esteeme of these Skirret-roots that hee sent for great store of them out of Germany where they abounded to plant them in Italy for his owne use there growing none there before That out-landish root brought unto us from the West-Indies called commonly Potato and by some Batato is of the same nature and property or at least goeth a little beyond it but that this pre-eminence it hath that it is according to the common proverb Farre fetcht and deare bought and therefore good for Ladies Another root which hath beene sent from the same soile called by the name of Artichocks of Ierusalem which in leafe resembling our Solanum or night-shade may therefore not without reason be called Solanum peruvianum esculentum radice tuberosa These roots are very windy and ingender melancholy and therefore howsoever at first they were extolled by fames open mouth yet now by reason of these aforementioned qualities their credit is much crackt Iringo roots are also often used both condited with sugar and otherwise They are of a thinne attennuating substance being hot and dry about the second degree They are good to cleanse the kidnies and withall are esteemed to strengthen nature Now come we to our Bulbous roots beginning with garlicke which Galen esteemeth to be hot and dry in the fourth degree and therefore very sparingly to be used especially in hot constitutions of body and the like seasons of the yeer In cold constitutions and countries it may safeliest be use especially being yong It is accounted a great enemy to the eie-sight and an antidot against all poison and contagious infection called therefore Theriaca rusticorum or the countrie-mans treacle It is likewise good against the wind-colicke and the stone in the kidnies and pectorall infirmities where tough phlegme obstructeth the pipes of the lungs In many places of France especially in Gosconie although it be farre South and next unto Spaine yet use they garlick very ordinarily in their sauces but when it is yet greene and before the cloves come to their full strength and bignesse and yet this simple is not so proper for so hot and salacious a people It is also ordinarily accounted good against wormes and all manner of vermine And yet is it strange that is reported of Arnulphus the Emperor who by the frequent eating of garlicke at length had his body so full of wormes that by no humane helpe could he ever be cured But howsoever he was indeed surprised with this disease and with that likewise we call phthiriasis or the lousie diseases his body abounding likewise with this vermine yet the Historie maketh mention that he died of poison The antients thought by caring thrice of garlicke in a morning to turne away all evill from them that whole day following as the antient Poet expresseth It is also indued with this property that some wild ravenous beasts namely the Leopard cannot abide the smell of it And indeed it is rather to be used as physicke than otherwise The evill smell of garlicke is helped by the eating of perslie in a pretty quantity the like is promised by eating of greene-beanes as likewise zedoary And some say that if it beset when the Moon is under the earth gathered when she is in conjunction with her dearest spouse it loseth all this strong smell Onions are also very hot in quality insomuch that Galen ascribeth unto them the fourth degree Onion is an enemy to the cholerick persons and to the eyes and any inflammation of
all cordiall juleps where cooling especially is required They are to bee eaten before other food the which is in all these short-lasting Summer-fruits to be observed There is yet another small fruit not much unlike the former either in forme or operation and in no small request both for food and physicke And although some preferre the Strawberry before the Raspe yet is not this the judgement of all this being accounted more cordiall than the Strawberry And indeed the smell and taste me thinks doe insinuate no lesse unto our senses which occasioned most of the Apothecary shops of Germanie to be alwaies well furnished with the sirup of this simple in imitation of that great Gesner who had it in so high an admiration And although it bee accounted as cooling as Strawberries yet I incline rather to thinke it temperate if not inclining to some moderate heat Howsoever neither of these fruits nourish much and moisten apparently their siccity being very small This fruit is also esteemed good against the inflammations of the mouth and tensills and fluxes of the belly If either of these fruits be eaten in excesse they ingender Fevers The Mulberry as well as the former fruits is of two colors red and white the white is of an unsavory taste and therefore we will leave this tree to the silke-wormes The Poet reports that Mulberries were at the first all white but that afterwards they were died red with the blood of the two true lovers Pyramus and Thisbe They are also to be eaten before meales or with an empty stomacke although antiquity used them after meales as witnesseth an antient Poet. If eaten with a full stomacke they ingender many dangerous diseases And because of their cooling and moistning quality they are best in hot and cholericke bodies young persons and the Summer season and they loosen the belly also much moisten the inward parts are good against thirst and roughnesse of the throat and by some are thought to provoke urine especially our Arabian Physitians and besides are thought to cleare the blood from all corruption for the which cause some have been of opinion they were good against the gout And a learned late Physitian relateth a story out of an old Author that in his country for the ful space of twenty yeers together the Mulberrie trees bare no fruit at all and that for this cause during all that time the gout did so rage that not only men and women children and eunuchs contrary to Hippocrates his rule but even whole flockes of sheepe and goats also were so therewith assaulted that scarce the third part of them escaped free But what should be the cause that Mulberries should either cure or yet prevent the gout I confesse I could never yet finde out and all the colour I can finde for it is that by meanes of loosening the belly they may scowre away superfluous humors the cause of this disease and so may many other simples farre more effectually so that in this it will come short of many others so farre is it from obteining any prerogative above them And why may not this learned mans opinon granting that this story were yet true be a fallacie a non causa pro causa assigning that for a true cause which is none at all Another learned Physitian troubleth himselfe much to find out a cause of it but is faine to leave it as he found it even so must we where none is to be found as I am of opinion there is none Of this fruit is made a sirup for sore throats called Diamoron It is best that is made of Mulberries before they be full ripe which are both more cooling and astringent in this case much requisite There is a bramble growing every where wilde in the fields the berries whereof before they be full ripe may be used in defect of the former The Goose-berrie was not knowne it seemeth in antient times howbeit now with us in frequent use Green Goose-berries are of a cooling and astringent facultie and in stead of verjuice are used as a soveraine sauce to divers sorts of meat and although they yeeld small nourishment to the body yet are they good to sharpen the appetite and against thirst and choler much resisting putrifaction Goose-berries full ripe are not so cold as the former yea rather inclining to a meane temper The full ripe are not usefull for sauces and being eaten in abundance they ingender corrupt humours and in hot cholericke constitutions are quickly converted into choler The unripe eaten raw of hot stomacks keeping within compasse will coole the same but are safelier used being boiled and as they use to speake scalded and a little sugar and rose-rose-water with them they prove a dainty dish for this effect Of Goose-berries not yet full ripe our Ladies and Gentlewomen know how to make a daintie marmalade and many other things fit to refresh the appetite of a weake and languishing stomacke which for brevities sake I here passe by That little berry which the vulgar call Currants although it have no affinitie with them and by the Arabian Physitians called Ribes is of two sorts both red and blacke although the red is most with us in request best knowne and most effectuall both in Physicke and food It is indeed most ordinarily used for physicke although it may well be used also for sauces The ripe Ribes agreeth much in vertue with the unripe sowre Goose-berry howbeit I thinke it rather exceedeth the same It is cold moderatly not exceeding the first degree but exceeding the same in moisture participating of some siccitie and a notable astringent qualitie whereby it strengtheneth a weake stomacke and exciteth a weake and languishing appetite It is exceeding good as the other against all fevers inward inflammations maligne diseases proceeding of putrefaction of humours as also in hot cholericke constitutions and young age But in old age cold constitutions and diseases in the breast and lungs it is not so good the which is also to be observed in other acide and sharpe liquours and fruits Of it with sugar is made that composition commonly called Rob of Ribes Of the like nature and vertue is that berrie which is commonly called Barberries and in vse for the same purposes as fevers hot stomackes fluxes c. They are used both in conserves and also preserved Gerard in his Herball maketh mention of severall sorts of whorts or whortle-berries blacke red and white all of an astringent faculty and are called by a generall name Vaccinia They stop fluxes and casting of choler coole the body for the which purpose the black be the best There is another berry which at London they commonly call Bilberries and in the Northermost part of this Iland Bleaberries well knowne by the blewish violet colour wherewith they die the lips and teeth of the eaters They use commonly to eat them with creame and
better than old as being somewhat moister and pleasanter in taste The best honie ought to be very sweet pleasant in smell of a cleare yellowish colour indifferent stiffe and firme yeelding but little scumme on the top when it is boiled Garden honie is the best and gathered of sweet flowers it is clarified by adding a little water unto it about the fourth part so scumme it while any froth ariseth or while the water be euaporated which is known by the bubles rising from the bottome and if thou wilt have it more pure put into every pound of honie the white of one egge and afterwards scumme it againe in the boiling Honie is good in divers pectorall infirmities the cough shortnesse of breath pleurisie c as also in the stone and of it with divers liquours are made divers drinkes for this same use and purpose whereof more hereafter in the drinkes for the diseased And although honie moderately used openeth obstructions being of an abstersive and cleansing facultie yet immoderatly used it ingendieth obstructions and so procureth many diseases arising from thence A late Writer allegeth that there was a certaine people in Africa which out of flowers made abundance of good honie nothing inferiour to that made by the Bees There is made of honie both a water a quintessence and divers other drinkes Amongst divers others there is one that hath ever beene in no small request amongst our antient Britons and now known by the name of Welsh which is that famous and wholesome Metheglin the which I will here set downe as I found it in a late published booke of Bees This then is nothing else but a generous kinde of hydromel bearing an egge the breadth of a groat or six pence and is usually made of finer honie with a lesser proportion of water namely foure measures of water for one receiving also into the composition as wel certain sweet wholesome herbs as also a larger quantity of spices namely to every halfe barrell or sixteen gallons of the skimmed must Eglantine Marjoram Rosemary Time Wintersavory of each halfe an ounce pepper granes of each two dragmes the one halfe of each being bagg'd the other boiled loose so that whereas the ordinary mede will scarce last halfe a yeere good Metheglin the longer it is kept the more delicate and wholesome it will be and withall the clearer and brighter There are yet divers other sorts of descriptions of this famous drinke and may be altered and accommodated to severall seasons and constitutions and ages There is to be seene in the same Author a long description of a Metheglin which Noble Queene Elizabeth of famous memory had in frequent use Sugar hath now succeeded honie and is become of farre higher esteem and is far more pleasing to the palat and therefore every where in frequent use as well in sicknesse as in health Whether the antients were acquainted with Sugar or no may justly be demanded Certaine it is they knew Sugar-canes and some Sugar they had which naturally was congealed on them like salt as likewise a certaine kinde of liquid Sugar they expressed out of Canes which they used in stead of honie but that they had the art of preparing it as now it is in use and the severall sorts of it with us in our age used doth no where appeare Sugar is neither so hot nor dry as honie The coursest being brownest is most cleansing and approacheth neerest unto the nature of hony Sugar is good for abstersion in diseases of the brest and lungs Thâ— which wee commonly call Sugarcandie being well refined by boiling is for this purpose in most frequent request And although Sugar in it selfe be opening and cleansing yet being much used produceth dangerous effects in the body as namely the immoderate use thereof as also of sweet confections and Sugar-plummes heateth the blood ingendreth the landisc obstructions cachexies consumptions rotteth the teeth maketh them looke blacke and withall causeth many times a loathsome stinking-breath And therefore let young people especially beware how they meddle too much with it And if ever this proverbe Sweet meats hath often sower sauce was verified it holdeth in this particular I remember living in Paris 1607. A young Clerke living with a Lawyer in the City procured a false-key for the closet where his Mistresses sweet-meat lay and for many daies together continued thus to feast with her sweet-meats and loafe-Sugar whereof there was there no small store untill at length hee became so pale in colour leane in bodie and withall so feeble that hee was scarce able to stand on his legs insomuch that the skilfullest Physitians of the Citie with the best meanes they could use had much adoe to restore him to his former health again And to what I pray you may we impute a great part of the cause of so many dying of consumptions in the weekly bills of the Citie of London Surely often admiring at so great a number dying of this one disease to the number for the most part of thirty at least and often upward I have ever esteemed this one of the principall causes Before I leave this discourse of Sugar I must give the world notice of one thing to wit that there is great store of our finest Sugar and which is most sought after refined and whitened by meanes of the lee of lime the which how prejudiciall it must needs prove to the health may appeare so that here it may well be said Sub melle dulce venenum The toothsomest is not alwaies the wholesomest Our forefathers in former times found honie very wholesome but now nothing but the hardest Sugar will downe with us in this our effeminate and gluttonous age I say no further but let those that will not be warned stand to the perill that will fall thereon I have discharged my duty in giving warning to the wise sober and temperate I know there are some intemperate apitian palates who preferre their bellies before health yea before heaven it selfe Verbum sat sapienti A word is enough for a wise man Vineger is a sauce in no small request for seasoning of meat It is as the word importeth nothing else but a sowre wine used both to season and to keepe meats howbeit farr inferiour to salt For although it preserve meat from putrefaction yet will it not keepe it so a long time unlesse it be often renewed That it is very dry even as farre as the second degree is true but as for the other qualities Galen saith it is composed of hot and cold It is of a piercing nature and apt to dissolve hard stones wherof Hannibal had a sufficient proofe while he made himselfe a passage into Italy thorow the Alps in dissolving the hard rocks by meanes of hot vineger with the losse of one of his eyes It is good to attenuate grosse tough and phlegmaticke humors it is not so good for leane
long most of all and is of least use Blacke Pepper is with us in most frequent use heateth much cutteth tough grosse phlegme helpeth the concoction in a cold phlegmaticke stomacke is also good against crudities wind-colicke and cold in any part sinewes or others It is not to be too small beaten for feare of inflaming the blood and other profitable humours of the body it is safelier used in old age than in younger people for whom the too frequent use of it is exceeding hurtfull And therefore it ought not to be so ordinarily without any consideration had either to age or season of the yeere as it is used of every one Let youth therefore take heede how they use too liberally Venison so much peppered and salted in the Sommer-season and to mend the matter after make it swimme in wine It is thought pepper heateth lesse than other spices and this I doe not conceive that other spices are indeed actually hotter but by reason the heat of it is lesse durable and it is not of so terrestrious a substance And for this same cause I suppose long Pepper by reason of a more terrestrious substance and more durable heat is accounted hotter by reason of this durable biting and abiding heat And this I suppose gave the vulgar occasion to call Pepper hot in the mouth and cold in the stomack But let the dullest taste try a small quantity of Pepper and I will appeale to his senses whether it be hot or cold so that I shall need use no other argument to proove it That little hot root which we call Ginger commeth in the second place of spices to be considered And although it be not so intense in heat as Pepper I meane in the degree yet heateth it more by reason of its terrestrious substance It is brought over unto us either dry or else preserved greene in sirup and it is sometimes yea very often preserved after it commeth over being first steeped and boiled in water which notwithstanding yeeldeth much in goodnesse to the former Dry Ginger is very hot and dry and is used to season cold and moist meats as pepper is howbeit Pepper be in far more frequent use either for fish or flesh especially for fish Ginger is good to helpe digestion and to open obstructions to cut and attenuate grosse and tough phlegmaticke humors to discusse winde and helpe to expell it out of the bodie It is better for aged than for young hot cholericke bodies or the like diseases Green Ginger preserved in the Indies when it is yet moist and succulent as it is pleasing to the palate so is it nothing so hot and dry as any other sort and therefore may safelier be of younger people used than any of the other sorts and is good to eat fasting for a waterish or windy and weake stomacke and comforteth the head being good for diseases of the braine proceeding of cold Ginger here with us at home is both preserved in sirup as hath been said already and sometimes also candied to be eaten dry This last approacheth neerest to the nature of dry Ginger and is fittest to bee used of the elder colder and moister age and stomacke That which is heere preserved in sirup is farre inferior in goodnesse to that which is preserved in the Indies And thus prepared they are hardly concocted by a weake stomacke and continuing long there are converted into a tough glutinous substance of the which a late writer bringeth an instance A Bishop of Basile saith he having by the too frequent use of a certaine Minerall water acquired a very cold and moist stomacke to correct this crudity used much this so prepared Ginger notwithstanding his Physitians counsell to the contrary At length he fell into a desperate disease whereof he died His body being opened in the capacitie of his stomacke were found about two pounds of putrified water together with a petty quantity of the aforesaid Ginger some part of it yet continuing still in its owne nature and some part of it converted into a tough blacke glutinous substance sticking to the sides and cels of his stomacke and guts some part whereof hee did also before his death now and then yet not without fainting and swounding often cast up Let others then take warning to use it more sparingly The Clove is a spice brought us from the Molucks in the East-Indies being hot and dry in the third degree It is very much used in the kitchin both for sauces and sticking of meat Cloves comfort the head heart stomack and liver helpe the eye-sight and concoction and strengthen nature They are good against fainting swounding as also against the plague and any infectious disease Besides they are good against all fluxes of the bellie proceeding of cold humors strengthen the retentive faculty and make the breath sweet Of this as of other spices are extracted water oile and other things usefull for the health of mankind whereon I will not now insist But I advise young people hot and cholericke complexions to bee sparing as in the use of all other spices so of this also and of any thing extracted from them The Nutmegge is the fruit of a tree growing in the East-Indies being covered with that spice we call Mace They are accounted hot and dry in the second degree and are good for the same cases for the which Cloves were commended and although they be not altogether so intense in hearing and drying yet are they very astrigent and comfort the noble parts being also very good for moist cold phlegmaticke bodies and cold diseases fluxes c. But still let young hot dry and melancholicke persons carefully take heed what they doe The Nutmeg being yet greene covered over with a greene huske as are our Walnuts is preserved in the Indies and brought us over the which is nothing so hot nor drying as our dry Nutmegges and therfore very comfortable for the head and stomacke especially and may be either eaten fasting in a morning or after meales Mace covereth the Nutmegge partaking of the same nature strengthening all the noble parts being good against cold diseases and against fluxes and spitting of blood There is yet another great fruit brought to us from the same Indies ready preserved called the Indian Nut which is very good likewise to comfort all the noble parts and strengthen nature Cinamon is the inward rind or barke of a tree growing in the East-Indies hot and dry about the third degree and yet in regard of the tenuity of its parts as was before said of blacke pepper is thought not to heat so much as some other spices This noble spice both in regard of the fragrant smell and pleasantnesse to the palat may justly challenge the first place of excellency It comforteth all the noble parts cheereth spirits openeth obstructions both of men and women furthereth the expulsion of the birth sweetneth the breath
satisfaction it may seeme to sooth us up The fourth way is by meanes of ice or snow It was the invention of the Emperour Nero to boile water and then let it downe into a pit of snow Athenaeus saith it was an old invention howbeit others affirme it first found out by Nero. The Turkes at this day familiarly use this kinde of cooling their drinke The fift way is by meanes of deepe cellars wherein in antient times some were wont to set bottles full of hot water and take them out againe colder than any snow In Paris there are some such deepe cellars wherein the smallest wines will seeme to the taste twice as strong as they are in very truth Besides all the premisses water falling from a high place acquireth unto it selfe a greater coldnesse than that which runneth softly in a river and the agitation and much stirring of the water furthereth not a little this cooling qualitie And this for the present concerning the use of water shall suffice what resteth shall be discussed in the diet of the diseased which doth something also concerne them CHAP. XXVI Of wine the various and severall sorts with the right use and for whom it is most fitting IT may be my former discourse of water was to some unwelcome who would more willingly perhaps heare of some more noble liquor and therefore now from the water-pale to the wine-pot Now although this same subject of wines alone might well fill up a larger discourse than this in hand yet will I content my selfe with such things as shall be of greatest use for the health of mankind And because al wines are not alike differing in divers respects it will therefore be for us very usefull to set downe the severall differences Wines therefore differ not a little one from another and that in these respects following The first difference then is desumed from the age for some wine is called Mustum or new wine and others of longer continuance one two or three yeers c. New wine before it be well purged from the lees howsoever it may seeme to please the palat by reason of a sweet pleasant and delectable taste yet is it most dangerous for the health of the body for by reason of the thicknesse grossenesse and as some call it a tartareous substance it is very windy and apt to ingender all manner of obstructions wind cholicke and the stone it selfe c. But among all such wines the white and Rhenish doe least harme and that in regard they make the body soluble and so all corruption is evacuated and so in regard of their short abode within the body they are least of all others offensive unto it New wine pressed out of tart and sowre grapes is of all others the worst The Poet Ovid could well tell whether new or old wine were better when he wishes to drinke wine of the continuance of certaine Consuls that is so many yeeres old And as the new wines are not to be allowed for ordinary use no more are the very old wines better to be liked of for then they become farre hotter sharper and sometimes bitter also As for the certaine determinate time orange when wine might safeliest be drunke no man can certainely determine for some lasted twenty some more some fewer yeeres Cicero at a supper with Damasippus was served with wine of 40. yeeres old But the Emperor Caligula was presented with wine of 160 yeere old Now the nature of such wines was this that they were not to be drunke unlesse mastered with much water Our wines now a daies differ much from those in frequent use among the Ancients the Romanes especially for few of our ordinary wines will continue good for yeeres as theirs did yea a yeere and sometimes lesse will put them to the period of their longest endurance Although I deny not but some of our sackes and some such strong wines will continue good farre beyond this prefixed period The second difference is taken from the substance some being thinne perspituous and very small needing no admixture of water called for this cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as grow plentifully about Paris Rochell and divers other places as along the river of Rhene in Thuringia Misnia c. And yet Cardan thought no such wine grew in those regions Others againe were of a thicker and grosser substance and may therefore be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or bearing much water as being of farre greater force and strength than the former The third difference may be taken from the colour some being white in colour some pale yellow some sadder in colour or of a high golden yellow colour some againe of a blackish intense red and others of a pale red colour The yellow wines are the hottest the red lesse and the white least of all And it is to bee observed that mingling grapes of divers colours the wine becommeth of a mixt colour as the white and red grape mingled together maketh a claret and the more red grapes be in the mixture the higher coloured is this claret and the more white grapes the paler coloured it is approaching both to the colour and quality of white wine as is to bee seene in that wine called from the colour of peach flowre couleur du pesche The fourth difference is taken from the taste sweet sowre sharpe or bitter The sweet are most nourishing such as are commonly the high coloured red wine and some sweet sacks brought unto vs from Greece and other parts such as are our malmesey muscadine browne-bastard Canary and some others of that colour and our high coloured red wines called vin de Graves Some againe are of tarter taste as most of our white and claret Galen was of opinion there were no sweet white wines howbeit divers Provinces of France can now witnesse the contrary And I doubt not but the Wine-brewers of the City of London have so well profited in their profession that they are able to furnish any with as sweet wine of any colour as any other place whatsoever The fift difference is desumed from the smell which in wine is also not a little to be regarded and the wines of best smell are also ordinarily the hottest Among our ordinary wines that which smelleth like the raspe as the French say sent la fram boose is esteemed the daintiest But here my meaning is not of any artificiall smell procured by the wit and invention of the vintner no more than that which already hath bin spoken concerning the substance colour and taste Another difference may yet be desumed from the soile and the naturall temper of the aire where such wines grow And thus in one and the same country are so many severall sorts of wine to be seene differing in goodnesse one from another and yet far more those of one countrey from those of another And thus we may apparently perceive what
make drinke of corne but hath beene in frequent practice in antient times may by the relation of our antient Physitians plainly appeare The Egypptians it would seeme were the first authours thereof But it may be objected that the antients doe likewise condemne this drinke as most unwholesome for the body of man Dioscoride ascribeth to this drinke which hee there calleth Zythum Curmi differing but little one from another a noxious quality against the reines nerves and nervous parts as the membranes of the head especially and affirmeth that it ingendereth wind filleth the body with corrupt humours and leaveth the body using it much the leprosy for a legacie Galen singeth also the same song and confimeth his assertion But whatsoever was the opinion of the antients concerning that drinke and that it was of that nature I will not deny yet I am sure the drinke wee make is both wholesome and very agreeable to our nature and besides is farre otherwise prepared than that of antient times Now of this drinke there are two sorts one brewed without hop commonly called Ale the other with hop and commonly called Beere In Beere then as in wine there are many differences to be considered where the first is taken from the corne it is made of it being sometimes made of one grane sometimes of another and sometimes of more granes mingled together but with us most commonly malt is made of barlie alone which doth also with us heere most abound Some doe also mingle some oats with this drinke and so make it more cooling for Sommer very quicke to the taste and wholesome for the bodie the oat being of it selfe a daintie wholesome and nourishing graine Some to adde strength to their Beere especially that called March-Beere then brewed to last all the yeere adde thereunto a few pease In some places beyond seas they make Beere of Wheaten malt as in some places of Saxony and in Bohemia which much needs be good and wholesome if no errour in the making be commited Another difference againe is taken from the age and duration of this drinke some being very new some very old and kept a long time Very new drinke is very hurtfull for the health ingendring both wind and crudities with obstructions and many diseases from thence proceeding as hath beene said of new wine That which is very long kept must needs be strong as our March Beere and some others and yet are not so good for ordinary use but rather now and then as physicke The best and wholesomest is that of a middle age A maine and principall difference is taken from the strength and is esteemed by the proportion of the malt to the liquor and this varieth much according to severall circumstances as the place where one liveth the persons who are to use it the season and time of the yeere c. This neverthelesse is to be observed that in Winter and cold weather strong drinke is more tolerable than in Sommer and warme weather and to old age there is a greater liberty allowed than for younger people Another difference is taken from the substance thick or thinne and perspicuous or cleare Thicke and muddy drinke is altogether unwholesome and the mother of many diseases and that which is cleare is best and wholesomest providing alwaies that water be not too much master Thicke beere ingendreth wind all manner of obstructions the stone strangury and many more dangerous diseases Againe that difference taken from the taste is not to be neglected some being bitter some sweet some sowre c. And this the age will often alter for very new drinke if much hopt must needes be bitter and very small drinke if long kept especially in Sommer will grow sowre A meane is best that it be not too bitter too hot and heady nor sowre at all and therefore another difference may be taken from the quantity of hoppe that a due proportion thereof be observed it being hot and dry in the second degree and sometimes weaker and sometimes stronger and too bitter drinke is more physicall than is for our ordinary use fitting The best course then is to let the hoppe rot in the drinke as the vulgar people before wee drinke it There is another difference taken from the colour some being of one and some of another colour some pale some of a reddish some of an amber colour c. The highest coloured drinke is not alwaies the strongest and wholesomest That which looketh of a pure transparent yellow amber colour like a pure sacke is reputed the best The best March beere if well brewed and no error committed is often of this colour and the goodnesse of the malt whereof it is made and the fewell wherewith it is dryed maketh yet another difference and often altereth both the colour and taste of the drinke Straw is thought better than wood for drying of malt In some places of this Iland in the Northerne especially they dry their malt with ling or heath called there hadder which maketh very good malt some also use furres or whins as some call them and some againe broome But straw and heath or ling are the best the solider the substance of the fewell is the worse it is there being the more danger of over-drying the malt which may make both the drinke taste worse and sooke with too high a colour The Barlie whereof the malt is made must be good and fresh not light lanke or worme-eaten fusty c. And besides it must not be made of Barly too new before it hath sweat in the mow as husbandmen use to speake and is also to be made in a convenient season I meane not in a hot season of the yeere and therefore commonly called in the countrie cuckow malt The last difference is taken from the water whereof the drinke is brewed and the best if it may be had is to be preferred before the other and in defect of the best the next best is to be chosen And what is the best we have already at large related and we find here that many times our well water maketh the drinke looke of a higher colour than is sutable to the strength thereof And to the water we may adde the fire wherewith it is boiled which I thinke is best to be wood and such as we allowed of in making of malt And yet I confesse good drinke is and may be brewed with sea-coale as wee see in all the city of London and the fewell is not so materiall here as in making of malt where the smoake toucheth it immediately Now all these differences except that taken from the hop are common both to ale and beere the which in our Ale here is but little and in the Northerne parts of this Iland is none at all And because the hop maketh some difference in these two drinkes therefore it will be usefull to say somthing thereof Of the temperature
a tertian saith that being hung up they are to bee rosted by the onely heat of the fire Galen in two or three places explaneth this manner They tooke saith he a high pot which they filled ful of water within the pot above the water they set in grate on the which they layed their fruits and so rosted them at this vapor And St. Ierome writeth that cookes were wont after this manner to rost their phesants which made them farre daintier to the taste Our age hath in use to preserve divers sorts of fruits in the Autumne and so to keep them both for necessity and delight But I wish they bee sparingly used of the sicke especially in Fevers and hot cholericke constitutions by reason that sugar wherewith they are preserved is quickly in such turned into cooler besides that the too frequent use of such things quickly cloggeth and overthroweth a weake stomacke whereof we are to have alwaies a principall regard CHAP. IX Of Flesh and what sorts of flesh are fittest for the sicke and how to be exhibited ALthough wee have already spoken sufficiently both of the nature and nourishment that severall sorts of Flesh efford the body of man yet will wee now say something more of this subject as it hath relation to the sicke That flesh was a strong nourishment Pythagoras was not ignorant saith Pliny who changed the wrestlers diet from pulse to flesh their fat and gluttonous substance having neerest affinity with mans radicall moisture and therefore as well in sicknesse as in health it yeeldeth strength and vigour to the party that useth it But all sorts of flesh are not promiscuously and indifferently to be used of the sicke for among foure-footed beasts some for goodnesse and wholesomnesse are farre before others to be preferred And here for the use of the sicke are principally recommended Weather mutton and Veale Among fowle young pullets Hennes Cocks and Capons Pigeons Partridges Phesants thrush and some others and all these kindes of flesh are common to all diseases and besides there are yet some certain sorts of flesh proper to some particular diseases Such flesh is in a double manner adminstred unto the sicke either in substance boiled or rosted or else their juice drawne out by decoction called broth or else expressed and strained called commonly colices or gelees or lastly distilled and so called destilled restorative water of Capon or any other flesh Besides these aforementioned Hippocrates accustomed to feed his sicke with other sorts of flesh as with the flesh of Hares Hogges Horses Asses and Whelpes which with us are now altogether out of request But a question may be here asked whether flesh be in diseases a fit and convenient food And it hath beene by some Arabian Physitians called into question who forbid flesh in all sorts of fevers and that by reason it is easily by the distempered heat of the fever putrefied and corrupted And by the fame authority was it denied in the inflammation and consumption of the lungs And in the I le of Crete it was not permitted to feed the sicke with flesh Hippocrates himselfe in fractures of the skull forbiddeth flesh untill the tenth day But there he must be understood of solid flesh by reason hee forbiddeth any mastication or chewing But to forbid broths colices or gelees and the like I see no reason and therfore with the same Hippocrates and the generall current of all our best Physitians wee allow of the use of flesh for the sicke Ewes flesh is often used by Hipprocrates and commended by Galen but wee to better purpose use Weather mutton to them altogether unknowne and the which we have from the Arabian Physitians who first used it And in this flesh it is also to be observed that it is colder in quality than either Ewes or Rammes flesh and it is to be observed that the flesh of gelded beasts is both sweeter and cooler than of the ungelded As for Veale the antient Greeke Physitians seldome used it and wee read not of it above once in Hippocraters And for this are wee also beholden to the Arabian Physitians and Averroes in particular who averreth that it may safely be used in all diseases Another antient Physitian would not have the sicke to meddle with it although in health he holdeth it to be a singular good nourishment And some thinke it too moist and that it was therefore in the Easterne countries quite forbidden But it is now without any doubt by all our Physitians admitted into the Diet of the Diseased Hogges flesh was both by Galen and Hippocrates had in high esteeme for the sickes use howbeit it be now altogether banished from the Diet of the Diseased And wee read that Galen gave to the sicke in a tertian Hogges braines and feet as also gives Hogges feet boiled in ptisan for a restorative diet How would this rellish our dainty palats And that Hippocrates himselfe did use it may also appeare by that hee warneth us to eat it without the skinne and Galen in his commentary taketh it for granted that Hogges flesh and Pigges ought to be eaten without the skinne quite contrary to our custome who hold that the daintiest of all the rest but I warne weake stomackes to looke to themselves Young sucking Rabbets are for the sicke with us in no small request yet let them not be too young Now as concerning fowle Galen affirmeth that if compared with foure footed beasts their nourishment as it is farre lesse so is it farre easier of digestion especially the wings of such fowles as are in perpetuall motion and affoord the body a wholsome and subtill nourishment All manner of wilde fowle saith Hippocrates are of a drier substance than foure-footed beasts and whatsoever creatures yeeld no spittle at the mouth are of a drier substance than others And the wilde fowle are drier than the tame of the same kinde And therefore the flesh of the stocke-dove is drier than that of our ordinary Pigeon among all manner of fowle our Hennes Cocks and Capons for the sickes use beare away the bell Neither was it without a mysterie that the Cocke was consecrated to Aesculapius As for the Goose Ducke and other water fowle they are seldome allowed the sicke especially in acute diseases And it is to be observed that in antient times the comparison was betwixt the flesh of the Cocke and the Henne which of their flesh was the best some preferring that the Cocke as for Capons which wee acknowledge both in sicknesse and in health to be better than both the former they were to the antients unknowne Above all sorts of pullaine pullets or pretty bigge Chickens are accounted the best for the sickes use especially if they be of a white colour for such are not so hot as the others and therefore fittest for fevers and hot diseases The antients used
temperate allaying the acrimony and sharpenesse of humors and withall moisten much The yolke of an egge applied to any part grieved with paine easeth the same and according to the coÌ„mon consent of Physitians such things as ease paines called properly anodyna are of a temperate facultie Besides the white of an egge cooleth as daily experience teacheth us And although the white of the egge be cooler yet is it withall harder of digestion than the yolke and therefore Galen in the aforementioned place in a tertian admittteth of the yolke onely And a late writer condemneth much the vulgar erroneous opinion of the heat of egs affirming withall that the Italian Physitians doe ordinarily exhibite them to their patients even of hot constitution of body and the like diseases and that even in the heat of Sommer As for the feare of nourishing too much we esteem that to be a singular prerogative in egges above many other meats that they nourish much in a small quantity as being that which we cheifly aime at in great weakenesses and which we may easily regulate according to our pleasure exhibiting a quantity answerable to present necessity My meaning all this while is of hens egges as being of all others the most temperate and most appropriate for the sickes use Such egges also are esteemed best which are laid of a hen troden with a cocke for others nourish lesse are of lesser quantitie and moisten lesse if wee will beleeve Aristotle In egges also the preparation or dressing is of no small consequence They are commonly either boiled in water with the shell or rosted likewise with the shell or boiled a little in seething water or other liquor without the shells called potched egges or fried in a frying-pan with butter and sometimes with an addition of herbes or others things Of all these preparations the boiled in water without the shell or potched are best and fittest for the sick potched in vineger or verjuice as some use to doe they coole and withall corroborate a hot and weake stomacke The next in goodnesse are accounted those are boiled with the shell in water by reason they are all alike and equally boâ—â—â—d Egges rosted in the imbers or otherwise are therefore held inferior to the former because they are not so equally rosted howbeit if care be had in the rosting I hold them nothing inferior to the other if not better But for the use of the sicke a speciall care must be had that they be not hard Egges fried are worse than any of the former and therefore altogether to be forbidden the sicke Sometimes they have mingled with them divers sorts of herbes tansey especially whereof this composition taketh the name and creame which howsoever used are no waies to be allowed sicke folkes being heavy of digestion even for the healthfull especially for weake stomacks Of Egges also are made caudells which being made of drinke that is not too strong may without any danger be allowed the sicke of the making whereof there is hardly a woman in the countrie I thinke that is ignorant But that we may discerne the good from the bad it is materiall for us to know some certaine markes which may make this appeare The Priests it seemeth in former times as they ever loved their belly well so set they us downe three marks whereby we may discerne the best that an Egge be new laid long in figure and white in colour according to the old proverbiall verse But to know the new laid from old stale and addle wee must yet finde out some more markes New laid Egges are commonly full and the stale empty towards the broder end which is also the cause that stale and addle Egges swim in the water when as the new laid fall to the bottome Besides new laid Egges betwixt thee and the light looke brighter and clearer than the stale and addle ones which looke more darkly and obscurely Another signe is that when it is opened an old and stale Eg the yolke especially disperseth it selfe whereas the new and fresh laid clingeth close together I have the longer insisted upon Egges by reason it is so usefull an aliment for the sicke and the vulgar is so possessed with a needlesse feare of a supposed excessive heat in this food and therefore thought good to remove all such rubs Having heretofore sufficiently spoken of solid flesh as also of egges I come now to speake of some liquid substances made of flesh and fit for the use of the sicke The juice of flesh nourisheth more speedily and easily than the solid substance it selfe It is farre easier saith Hippocrates to be refreshed with drinke than with solid food which is not onely to be understood of drinke but of liquid and supping meats also Whosoever have need of a sudden and speedy refection saith the same Author humid or moist diet is the best to repaire strength And whosoever have yet need of a speedier way it may be effected by smels The antient Physitians therefore taught by experience that oftentimes the sicke was not able to concoct solid food found out this way of suppings The same Authours counsell is againe in another point carefully to be observed that such as are able to digest and concoct solid food to such suppings are to be denied for they exclude the use of other food but to such as cannot make use of any other to such suppings are to be allowed Moreover in the preparation of these liquid substances there must be an especiall care had of cleanlinesse both in the persons that prepare them and in the vessells wherein they are prepared The persons must be neat and cleanly skilfull in such preparations and carefull in skimming off skum and fat offensive to a weake stomacke The vessels wherein they are made must be cleane and free from all filth evill smell or taste The matter of such vessells are best of earth yron or silver but brasse is the worst of all other and what is made therein is likeliest to offend a weake stomake especially if it stand any space in it as experience daily teacheth us Some brasse I confesse is better than other and yet the best bad enough Of all these liquid substances that which we commonly call broth is most ordinary and made after various and divers waies according to the nature of the disease and party diseased and the patients palate Some is made with herbs some without some with plummes as they call them raisins of the Sunne or currants or dried prunes and some without any The variety therefore of broths being infinite it were a tedious taske to enter upon this subject But one sort of broth was wont to be made by the antients of an old Cocke to purge the belly being for that end stuffed with many such ingredients fit for that purpose which is even usuall with us at
this day also I will instance in one fit to be used in pectorall diseases Take an old Cocke and after a long combat with another Cocke kill him pull him and cleanse him of all his intralls then fill his belly with barlie prepared as it ought raisins of the Sunne stoned violet leaves maidens haire a little hysop and peny-riall with a little salt boile him till the flesh come from the bone then bruise him well and squeeze out all his moisture and of this broth take a good draught There are yet many sorts of broth used for severall ends and purposes some to coole some to strengthen and cherish nature c. Amongst restorative broths there is one in frequent use especially in consumptions and great weaknesses made with the outlandish root fetcht us from beyond sea called from the soile China-root The proportion of this root to the liquour is not alwaies the same in every sicke person The China-root must be heavy and not worm-eaten and being thinne sliced must stand about twelve houres by a soft fire not boiling at all but simpering by it and afterward provide a good bigge young red Cocke-chicken well dressed and cleansed from his intralls bruise him and put him to thy China adding ingredients as the nature of the disease and other circumstances shall permit as in pectorall diseases such as wee nominated already more or lesse as occasion shall require which cannot be determined and in other cases the ingredients may be altered accordingly It must boile till little above the fourth part remaine and it looke red in colour being still well skimmed as it boileth and towards the later end adde to your broth the bottome of a manchet and two or three chives of mace and when all is sufficiently boiled bruise your chicken in a stone morter and squeeze out the juice and adde to your broth whereof being sweetned with sugar the diseased may take a little draught an houre or two before dinner supper or both if need be In my opinion the quantity of China would not be under an ounce and seldome exceed two Howsoever in time of need it is safest to be directed by learned counsel which may direct the right preparation and use according to severall circumstances Againe sometimes meat is first well rosted and afterwards pressed out in a presse or otherwise and seasoned with sugar or made a little tart with a little juice of a lemmon or otherwise appropriated to the patients palat as particular occasions shall require which they call in latin expressum or a juice squeezed out of flesh And this is best given by it selfe without any other broth or liquor and this is better for cold constitutions than for hot and consequently for the like diseases Now when the flesh is let boile untill all the substance of the meat be boiled away in the broth and then strained thorow a clean linnen cloth it is called in latine consumptum and in the English a colice and may likewise be seasoned and salted according to the liking of the sicke This colice is either taken of it selfe or else mingled with other broth Another liquid substance there is yet extracted out of flesh which we commonly call a gelee which is made of a capon or a big cocke-chicken and a couple of calves feet and so let boile untill it fall to pieces and being sufficiently boiled the skum and fat being carefully taken off it must bee well strained thorow a cleane linnen cloth and the juice so strained is to bee sweetned with a little sugar and seasoned with a little cinamon and so set on the fire againe to boile a wame or two adding thereto if thou wilt two whites of egges the better to clarifie it After all is done straine it through an Hippocras bagge which being cold will turne to a gelee and may bee coloured with a little saffron or red sanders and with a graine or two of muske or amber-greze if the patient please this may also acquire a pleasant smell This gelee may also bee used either by it selfe or else mingled with broth If there be a Fever it is best to boile it in faire spring-spring-water if there be neither Fever nor yet feare of any then the one halfe or yet lesse may be of white wine which will make it both pleasant to the palâ—t and very comfortable to refresh weake nature Our Gentlewomen have in frequent use a gelee made of harts horne which I hold very good especially in pestelentiall and contagious diseases or in pox and measels is very soveraine Those of ability may adde to it a little of confectio alchermes or de hyacintho and then it will bee very soveraine And if thou wilt have this or any other gelee tart thou maiest adde a little juice of Lemmon or the like to it Besides all these there is yet in use for sicke folkes a forme of restorative distillation made of a capon or other restorative flesh with an addition of cordiall ingredients for that purpose Some find fault with this distillation because of the impression of fire left in it and may bee distastfull to the sicke But this may easily by a glasse still in balneo mariae be prevented But the truth is that by this meanes the phlegmaticke and watry part is onely extracted which hath but very small nourishing power in it since that which nourisheth as witnesseth Galen ought to bee of a tough thicke and glutinous substance to the end it may bee the more firme and permanent These kinde of distillations are very frequent it France and some other countries insomuch that they are to bee found ready distilled in many Apothecaries shops which a learned French Physitian findeth fault withall as being fusty and of no value at all if they be kept but a litle while With us these are not so in request yet to speake mine opinion also since they retaine both some taste and smell of the meat they are distilled of if carefully done although their nourishment be but very small yet see I not why in great weaknesses and a loathing of all food these may not sometimes bee admitted especially since thereby no damage or detriment whatsoever redoundeth to the stomacke or other part it passing so speedily thorow the body There are also some restoratives made of flesh bruised and minced made up in solid formes and may be used in chronicall diseases but are not for Fevers nor other acute diseases But at this present I will dwell no longer on this not this subject of flesh but will say something concerning fish CHAP. XI Of Fish and whether they may be allowed the sicke NOw because sicke persons are not all and alwaies to be fed with one and the same food and some in their sicknesse loath flesh it may then be demanded whether Fish may not be permitted sicke folke although they be not so nourishing are also indowed
with another manner of juice and therefore whereas flesh is forbidden in Lent yet Fish are permitted It may by many places both of Hippocrates Galen evidently appeare that the antient Physitians fed their patients more with fish than flesh Besides when as the sicke loathed their hony water and ptisan Galen allowed them rockie fish boiled in water prepared with leekes dill salt and a little oile Cardan in the Diet of the Diseased preferreth fish before flesh and that because they are of a cooler quality moisten more and nourish lesse And that the Arabian Physitians allowed to their patients the frequent use of fish it may by Averroes appeare Their manner was to fry them in oile by which manner of food their opinion was that the liver was much strengthened A late Writer is of opinion that most of the antient Physitians used to feed their patients with fish rather of custome than that they esteemed them better than flesh And this may yet the better appeare to be true in that the Easterne people and the Greekes especially used and doe yet at this day very frequently use fish as is by a learned Physitian who of late yeeres travelled into those countries well observed But if wee shall in even scales weigh both flesh and fish we shall finde that flesh doth farre surpasse fish in good and wholesome nourishment and that even by the testimony of Hippocrates himself Fish indeed saith he in the same place are a light meat both boiled and broiled both by themselves and with other meat And yet they differ thus among themselves fish of ponds and pooles the fattest especially as river fish also are harder of digestion but Sea fish living neere the shore are lighter and easier of digestion and among them againe fish boiled are easier of digestion than rosted or broiled And therefore in case of restoring strength feed the sick with the former but if thou wilt either keepe the sicke at a low ebbe or yet abate some of his strength feed him with the latter which are lighter and nourish lesse Flesh therefore beeing wholesomer than fish yeelding a more laudable nourishment to the body they are rather by way of permission to satisfie their languishing appetites then otherwise allowed sicke people and that even in Fevers where we affect a moistening diet But then if may in the next place bee demanded what fish are best for the use of the sicke All fish are either bred in fresh waters or in the Sea Sea-fish againe are either such as frequent the shore called littorales or else live most among rockes called Pisces saxatiles or else they live in the depth of the maine Ocean callen therefore Pelagici Galen preferreth sea-fish before fresh-water fish and againe among sea-fish those who live among rockes as the sole sea-perch and the like he accounteth best Neither yet are such as live in the maine Ocean and neare the shore to bee misliked That kinde of fish saith Celsus is lighter that liveth among the rockes than among sand and againe that which liveth among the sand is lighter than that which liveth among mud and slime And therefore fishes living in lakes ponds pooles or rivers must needes bee inferior to the former And yet notwithstanding fishes living in cleere and rocky rivers and which have a quicke current are not to bee misliked such as are the Pyke and pickerell the Perch and carpe The Gonion especially called the river smelt may as safely as any fish be allowed the sicke Galen would have all his fish prepared with his white broth as he termeth it being made as wee mentioned before with faire water dill leekes and a little salt But since Galens time the case is much altered and our European palats have since that time well improved their sense of tasting In acute diseases especially a tart sowre taste gives our patients best content And for this purpose we use not without good reason the juice of a Lemmon as also of a sowre Orange a soveraine good sauce in all Fevers infections and contagions especially both unknowne in Galens time And for a corrective in all fish sauces pepper and salt are with us in most frequent use and request the former not then so much by him used In France I remember there was a frequent use of a broth made of mushels with the yolke of an egge made tart with verjuice of sowre grapes which pleaseth the palat well and is not impertinent for a weake stomacke whereof in my fever I made now and then a triall CHAP. XII Of the Drinke of the diseased and first of Water with the frequent use therof in antient times whether and how now to be exhibited and how before to be prepared and how to supply the defect thereof where it is not to be admitted WHat cruelty it were after so many and various sorts of meat it may be scorched with sealding heat in the heighth of a Fever without a comfortable refreshing with that so much desired drinke those who have beene scorched in this purgatory can best tell and therefore with the assistance of the Almighty I purpose to dwell a little upon this so usefull and profitable a point And how usefull and profitable the handling of this point is may from hence easily appeare that many times the stomacke refuseth all manner of sustenance whatsoever especially in great weaknesse and acute diseases and yet drinke is seldome out of season And in this same particular we see by experience it is a hard matter to make the sicke keepe within compasse But because all times are not alike fit for drinke therefore must we be a little more circumspect in the choice of the time when it is fittest for the sicke to drinke And therefore when the time is not fitting wee must acquaint the sicke saith Celsus that when the fit is over hee shall drinke and that as abstinence from food will shorten the fit so when the fit is over past the lesse he now drinke the lesse desire shall he have after to drinke But because often times little or no food serveth the sickes turne therefore must wee be the more carefull to gratifie them in their drinke Now as for the time if election may have place wee are to make choice of that time when he goeth to rest Celsus in another place would have the sicke in the night time to rest and neither to eat nor drinke if it be possible and drouth be not too urgent in which case hee would not have the sicke too much tormented with thirst But because sometimes the mouth and the throat are drie and crave drinke when as the internall and inferiour parts are plentifully supplied with moisture which is that we call sitim mendosam or a false thirst as there is also a false appetite therefore it wil not be amisse sometimes to wash the mouth throat with a
little cold drinke sometimes with a little faire water and a few drops of wine vineger or some such other liquor and sometimes some preserved or conserved barberries raspes ribes some lemmon sliced and sugred or the like acid things and sometimes a stewed acid prune keeping the stone in his mouth as the manner is or any other like art may be used to deceive this counterfeit thirst But when the house is now all on a fire we must needs have some liquour to quench this heat and extinguish the fire even so when this house of mans body is all on a fire wee must needs have some moisture to quench the same Now what this must be is our purpose here to discusse The most antient drinke and most common to all living creatures is water of the which as in generall usefull to all and in particular as serving for drinke in healthfull persons hath beene already spoken Now we are to speake of it as it serveth for the use of the sicke and whether it bee usefull for all or not The use of water we read to have been very frequent among the antients and especially the Guidian and Rhodian Physitians used it much and that chiefly in acute diseases whom therefore Hippocrates reproveth for not distinguishing the causes of diseases which may often alter our purpose of exhibiting water to drinke in acute diseases especially where there is a burning Fever proceeding of choler And this he there illustrateth by the example of the inflammation of the lungs where he affirmeth that neither staieth it the cough nor maketh spit up eafilier but in a cholericke constitution is altogether converted into choler and besides is hurtfull to the nether parts about the stomacke overthrowing the whole body especially if dranke fasting If there bee any inflammation of the liver or spleene it increaseth the same swimming and floting in the stomacke descending slowly being hard and not easy to bee concocted for the which cause also it looseneth not the belly provoketh not urine nor futhereth any excretion And Galen himselfe also confirmeth this same opinion adding that when as Hippocrates perceived the harmes and mischiefes proceeding from the drinking of water abstained from the use of it in all acute diseases and betooke himselfe to drinks made of hony and water of honie and vineger and sometimes to wine And with them yet agreeth a late Writer who out of divers places of both these Authors compared and parallelled together mainteineth that in acute diseases water is altogether hurtfull And of the same opinion is likewise another learned Physitian yet with this qualification that if a small quantity of water be added to a great quantity of choler it is quickly converted into choler but a great quantity of water drunke tempereth and allaieth the heat of the choler and so overcommeth it whereas a small quantity increaseth this humor being turned into the same Another antient Physitian notwithstanding controlleth this opinion of Hippocrates and affirmeth the quite contrary But to compose this controversie our Authors meaning is to be understood of water actually cold which indeed in pectorall diseases and for the breast it selfe is very hurtfull and hindereth expectoration but being once boiled it groweth thinner and more subtile and then onely fit in pectorall diseases to further expectoration And it cannot be denied that cold water is very profitable and usefull in acute diseases as may even by divers other places both of Hippocrates and Galen appeare and besides most of our antient and moderne writers with one unaminous consent approve of the same But in the use thereof wee must diligently consider both the nature of the disease and constitution of the Diseased And it is the saying of the same Hippocrates whose bellies are hard and apt to bee inflamed they are to drinke the lightest and purest water but whose bellies are soft moist and phlegmaticke such are to use hard thicke and somewhat saltish waters subsalsis is his word Now water is not in all diseases to be used after one and the same manner In burning Fevers water is to be drunke cold in pectorall diseases a little warmish Now that it was familiar in antient times to give cold water to drink in hot acute diseases I shall make it appeare Galen himselfe findeth fault with Erasistratus and his followers for denying cold water in burning Fevers And againe for the same cause reproveth Thessalus and braggeth that hee hath often cured distempered hot stomackes with drinking cold water yea even sometimes cooled with snow it selfe And againe in another place hee cureth that sort of Fever called Ephemere or Diaria that is of one day by this same meanes And in the same booke by this onely meanes hee preventeth this same disease And in another place giveth us yet warning that this is a remedy fit for any sort of Fever providing it be drunke in great abundance A late German Physitian also braggeth how many fevers hee hath by this meanes cured and I know it will seeme no strange thing to heare a Portugall relate what cures he hath by this meanes performed as in his centuries is at length to be seene Neither is it my purpose to spend time and increase the bulke of this booke by relating of such stories And it is not only commended in all ordinary acute diseases but even in maligne and pestilent Fevers also as witnesseth Celsus and is the opinion of the Arabian Physitians who all seeme to have borrowed it of Hippocrates who relateth the story of one sicke of a pestilent Fever who having drunke great store of cold water and cast it up againe recovered presently his health And besides the same Celsus in fluxes of the belly and in all defluxions proceeding of choler commendeth this as a soveraine remedy The point then being reasonably well cleared it resteth to be considered how it is to be exhibited Hippocrates in that hot countrie would have the drinke for the diseased to be exposed to the night aire that so it might receive the morning dew which might increase the coldnesse thereof but because this procureth to it some acrimony some would have other meanes tried as salt-peter snow c. Concerning the which wee have sufficiently spoken heretofore But I would not have any such extraordinary actuall frigidity by any such meanes in this case procured it being so prejudicial to heath howsoever peradventure at the first not so sensibly perceived Now in the exhibition of water to the sicke two things are to be considered the fit and convenient time when and the quantity thereof The time is either generall to wit the course of the disease or particular the exacerbation or paroxysme which we call the fit Concerning the generall time all are not of one mind for Galen and our Greeke Writers would have us wait for signes of concoction in the
water and the many waies were used to coole it its hot countries to please the palate wil easily finde credit with a vulgar understanding hot drinke being of no living creature whatsoever desired and cannot therefore be naturall for thirst is nothing else but an earnest desire of a cold and humid substance Now de facto that there were such hot drinkes in use among the antients if we should deny yet many Authors will make the truth thereof appeare But whether this now used in sicknesse or in health or both as likewise de iure whether usefull for the body or no resteth now to be discussed It hath beene an usuall speech among people that wee ought to drinke as hot as our blood and that for feare lest naturall heat by cold drinke be quite extinguished And it would seeme that the antient Romans had this custome in frequent use for wee read that in Rome there were shops where such hot drinkes were sold called therefore Thermopolia as may appeare by that the Emperour Claudius discharged this custome and tooke quite away all such places And againe Caius Caligula put to death a Master of one of these shops for selling of this warme drinke during the funeralls of his wife Drusilla And from this warme drinke was the Emperour Tiberius nick-named Biberius Caldius mero And in great families one of the servants had the charge of fetching such warme water which was alwaies in a readinesse to be sold the which if he brought too late his punishment was 300 stripes And that the Romans had it in ordinary use especially at their suppers when as they fed most liberally may also by many places of the old Poets appeare And the old comicke Poet Plantus make thereof frequent mention and many other Authors whom for brevity I here passe by A late Writer rendereth a reason why some of the Easterne nations as namely the inhabitants of China and Iapan use warme drinke and yet live long and in good health to wit that by reason of the extreme heat of the ambient aire their stomackes and inward parts are cold and therefore to warme them within use this warme drinke Others againe used this warme drinke onely for wantonnesse to make them cast up their meat and so fill their stomacke againe with fresh food the which the same Authour also out of some antient Writers relateth and that this was a common custome among the Rhodians Some againe were of opinion that the antients never dranke warme water of it selfe but mingled with their wine At least it seemeth it was the custome of some as likewise that nothing might be wanting at a great and sumptuous feast as the Poet intimateth unto us Some againe thinke that although they warmed their water yet that they let it coole againe before they either drunke it or mingled it with their wine at least it seemeth it was the custome of some as of some others to warme both their water and their wine and then to coole them being so mingled before they dranke them Some learned men are also of opinion that these warme drinkes were not alwaies water but some other sweet artificiall drinkes and which people out of wantonnesse were wont to drinke as is the custome both in high Germanie and the Low-countries to repaire in a morning to certaine shops where strong waters are sold whereof they drinke some being mingled with sugar or sweet sirup But certaine it is the best course is to drinke our drinke cold as it is in its owne nature and if in extreme cold as in frosty weather or any otherwise be by extreme cold drinke offended then may they qualifie this extreme quality either by putting a warme tost into it or otherwise abate the extremity of the cold but in no case to drinke it hot And yet we see that even among our selves we have a custome sometimes to drinke warme wine burning it with spices as is supposed to qualifie the heat and strength of the wine and so drinke it warme But in my opinion this is a wrong both to the wine and themselves also burning away the spirit which is the life of the wine they procure unto it an accidentall and adventitious heat more hurtfull to the body than the naturall heat of the wine it selfe And besides although it be often used in cold weather yet to drinke it so actually hot is nothing so good the wine howsoever it be actually cold yet doth it alwaies by a potentiall heat warme the inward parts But let us now see whether warme water were in use with the sicke or no It would seeme to bee more usefull for the sicke than for the whole and the Arabian Physitians administer it in pectorall diseases by reason cold drinke is an enemy to all the pectorall parts And an antient Roman Physitian commendeth it in all Fevers Others commend it in that Fever called diaria or of one day Besides the Greeke Physitians used it ordinarily in diseases of the reines But yet that it is not so good for the stomacke cannot bee denied And although it be not now the custome with us to give our patients warme-water to drinke yet upon divers occasions we use also warme drinks as warme posset drinke to further the operation of vomits and others to provoke sweat And howsoever we use not to exhibite this warme water as did many of the antients yet because we are accustomed for the sickes use and benefit to boile our water with addition of some simples something I will say concerning this point Water boiled is more subtill and of a more sudden penetration than crude as it commeth naturally out of the earth The antients boiled it either with the heat of the Sunne or of the fire And the Persian and Aegyptian Kings were wont to boile their water at the he at of the Sunne were it never so thinne and pure in it selfe With us we have in use a double boiling of water the one by the heat of the fire in ordinary vessells the other by way of distillation to the antients unknowne Which of these two wayes is the best we are now to inquire Our Physitians are for distilled water and must needes be the best Indeed boiled water is to bee preferred before the crude and is farre more familiar for the stomacke but in this distillation hath the preheminence that whereas by decoction many thinne parts are evaporated this is here avoided And indeed by distillation all uncouth taste if any is removed and by reason of this refining and attenuation it will also keep a long time without putrefaction But this point is so cleere that I shall not need to prosecute it any longer And although we are not accustomed to distill ordinary water yet is it very frequent with us to distill waters out of simples of all sorts both hot and cold whereof here
drinke in time of health is neither in time of sickenesse of us to be used especially in hot acute diseases And our wines are commonly so strong that it is not fit to administer them to sicke folkes howbeit if any I thinke our Rhenish were the safest and fittest if it were free from brimstone or such other trash wherewith our vintner wine-brewers doe oftentimes marre our best wines But God of his singular goodnesse hath furnished us with a wine befitting our owne countrie and climat which being also in ordinary use in time of health may freely and without any danger be allowed the Diseased in time of sicknesse But because in imitation of wine this our northern wine for so I may cal it wee are likewise furnished with divers sorts differing in strength one from another we may according to the nature of the disease and constitution of the diseased allow the sicke such as shall be thought most fitting But in acute diseases the smaller the beere be it is so much the better provided it be neither too new too stale nor taste too much of the hop which will make it more heady and hotter Let people therefore beware of their march beere and strong ale in all such infirmities which may as much offend their bodies as strong wines doe others in hot countries But in any case let this beere be very cleere and not thicke and muddy Most of our ordinary people in the country especially are perswaded that wine and strong drinke will recover all diseases whatsoever bee they never so hot and acute And a bottle of good wine is commonly the first physicke they send for to the next market towne But many times before their recovery they are forced to their cost to recant their former erroneous opinion and often cry a too late peccavi Now besides naturall wines made of the juice of the grape onely there bee also severall sorts of artificiall wines made for divers uses some made with purging ingredients to purge the body and so for divers dayes to be drunke according as the Physitian in discretion shall thinke fit and the strength of the patient and nature of the disease shall suffer Some againe are appropriated for other uses as for strengthening of the stomacke opening of obstructions and innumerable others But because these artificiall wines are commonly to best purpose made with new wines when they are new prest out of the grape therefore wee are deprived of the benefit of making such artificiall wines In stead of them wee use to boile in our new wine our wort I meane such ingredients as we thinke fitting for that we intend either purging simples or others as sage wormewood c. And thus wee make severall sorts of diet drinkes and ales for severall ends and purposes But amongst many others there is a drink made with scurvy-grasse much used by our Ladies and Gentlewomen in the spring of the yeere for clearing of their blood Many I am sure make use of this drinke without any use or need at all but only out of a wanton custome and a certaine preconceived opinion of making them looke faire Out of wine is also extracted a noble liquor or spirit called for the noble effects as being esteemed the true balsame of a mans life Aquavitae or water of life This liquour by many hath been much magnified and no small commendations ascribed unto it for the preserving and mainteining the life of man for many yeeres Among many there is an Italian Writer who doth exceedingly extoll and set forth the praises thereof and relateth many histories of such as have by meanes thereof prolonged their lives for many yeeres As one Physitian called Antonius Sapelius who after hee had atteined to 80 yeeres of age by the use of this liquor lived yet 22 more The like hee relateth of another famous Physitian called Iacobus Parmensis who attributed his long life of 90 yeeres to the use of this noble liquor But what me thinks I heare some secret complaints of aurum potabile as though it were somewhat thereby disparaged by meanes whereof notwithstanding they say men may live multitude of yeeres But I heare nothing but words their smoakie promises not being seconded by answerable events as I have already proved But I wish people to be wise and cautelous in the use of this or any other such hot fiery liquor Those of whom this late alleaged Author made mention were Physitians and of a good age and no strangers to the state of their own bodies and well able to judge what might best make for the preservation of their own healths and so might find that benefit therby which another might long seek and at length perhaps for his labour find a late repentance If it be usefull for any it is especially for old and cold moist constitutions and so no question moderatly used now and then it may produce a marvellous good effect in spinning out of divers yeeres the thred of mans life And therefore let youth and hot and dry constitutions be very wary in the use of this or any other such hot waters There is also a spirit extracted out of our Northern wine beere or ale I meane the which although inferiour to the former yet may it well in time of neede with good successe be used That which is most commonly sold under this name of Aquavitae and in most frequent use is nothing else but a liquour distilled out of the dregges and washings of ale and beere barrells and might rather from the evill it breedeth in the body be called Aquamortis The right spirit of wine if it be as it ought will suffer drops of oile to sincke to the bottome and will dissolve Campher besides being once set a fire it is quickly all wasted away And such a liquor would be used onely in extremity in swounding and the like and then but a very small quantity at a time I deny not but it may be of good use also which commeth somewhat short of this absolute perfection howsoever I advise thee as thou lovest thy life and health know well what water thou medlest with and especially shunne such stuffe as I have already disclaimed Somewhat milder than this Aquavitae is that strong water wee commonly call Vsquebach so much in use among the Irish having for this same purpose some Liquirice and raisins of the Sunne and withall some Cloves Mace and Ginger This is likewise cautelously to be used and especially of cold phlegmaticke constitutions and in a cold and moist constitution of the aire But still beware of excesse even in those whom it best befitteth There are yet an infinit other varieties of strong waters both simple and compounded destilled both with wine ale and beere and take the denomination from that simple or simples wherewith they are distilled as Wormwood-water Balme-water Cinnamon-water and the like and they
a physicall food But the immoderate use of this barly-water is dangerous in cold and windy stomacks especially and in hypocondriacke melancholy being it selfe also somewhat windy But by correction this may easily be amended as wee have said already We seldome now use the decoction of barly alone but with addition of other simples as divers sorts of cooling herbes and sometimes of opening roots and some prunes sweetning it with sugar to liking and wee may also adde some juice or sirup of lemmon or some other acid juice as some drops of the acid spirit of vitrioll or sulphure The poorer sort may make for themselves a decoction of ordinary barly a little bruised boiling therewith some cooling herbes and a sticke of licorice or two and after it is strained adde thereto a little white wine vineger and a sticke of cinamon or else some whole mace may bee boiled in it Or they may boile faire spring-spring-water with some mace or without and afterwards adde a sticke of cinamon and a little vineger and sugar or else boile in it a little hony and so may they make for themselves a wholesome and pleasant cooling drinke which they may safely use in all hot diseases Besides these drinkes made of barly wee have yet amongst us the frequent use of a drinke which was not used among the antients made of sweet almonds in manner of a milke and is therefore commonly called by the the name of Almond-milke This milke is much used in Fevers especially and in pectorall infirmities being often also called by the name of emulsion This drinke is sometimes made of water and almonds alone without any addition and after sweetned with sugar or else are boiled in the decoction many other ingredients And howsoever Almonds bee in themselves a little hot or rather temperate yet being prepared and made into an emulsion after this manner they qualifie and moderate the heat of the body and withall doe cut and attenuat tough and phlematicke humors in the breast and further expectoration And this emulsion serveth often in stead both of meat and drinke and is often used when as all other food is refused And I thinke it often with us supplieth the roome of that Ptisan so much and so often by Hippocrates commended although wee have it also in use with us But for the most part we use a decoction made with barly cooling herbes raisins of the sunne stoned and sometimes in pectorall infirmities a little licorice and so make a decoction whereof we make our almond milke The barly may be of our ordinary barly without any other preparation save a little bruising The almonds are to bee blanched in warme water and cleansed from their thinne skinnes unlesse in some loosenesse where we require astriction and then beaten in a stone morter with a wooden pestell the liquor by little and little added and severall times squeezed out untill all the milkie substance be expressed And take heed the almonds be not too old as being then too oilie and withall let the liquor bee warme when it is added to the almonds Sometimes wee adde some seeds unto this emulsion as lettice or poppy-seeds especially in long watching where sleepe is wanting and so give a draught of it towards bed-time Sometimes we adde also some other cooling seeds as melon seeds cucumber seeds especially in diseases of the kidnies and then the greater seeds must be cleansed from their skums and so mingled with the almonds ready blanched and beaten with them and the other seeds mingled and beaten without any other preparation and of these greater seeds we mingle sometimes a greater and sometimes a smaller quantitie and so of the others as necessitie requireth In the sweetning of emulsions or almond milkes we are to observe this caution that in Fevers we adde alwaies lesse sugar for feare of increasing choler but in pectorall diseases where there is no Fever we may be the bolder It is also in the use of these emulsions to be observed that they be neither too frequent nor yet too fulsome or thicke of the almonds and it is best after the expression of the almonds to give it a wame or two upon the fire and then adde some rose-water to it if thou wilt The richer sorts if they please may make their emulsion all with rose-water or strawberry-water If any acid thing as juice or sirup of lemmons or the like be added it must onely bee added to the draught the patient takes at one time otherwise it would quickly sowre it all The poorer sort may use a milke or emulsion like unto this made of the kernels of haselnuts or filberds blanched as are the almonds and made with a convenient decoction of cooling herbs or other things as wee have said already There are yet besides these divers other sorts of emulsions made without almonds for divers intentions as in pestilent and contagious diseases made of many severall cordiall ingredients as namely of the aforenamed seeds and others as also of corall pearle amber harts-horne all extracted with appropriated decoctions or distilled waters fitted and appropriated for that purpose on the which I cannot particularly insist And I have so much the longer dwelt upon these drinkes of the Diseased in regard it doth so much concern the sick as also in regard of the great neglect in this particular point and the wrong and injury is thereby offered the sicke Now concerning milke and what is made thereof if and how it may bee administred to the sicke and so I will finish this point of their meat and drinke CHAP. XVIJ. Of milk of divers kinds whether fit to be used of the Diseased and what is the best how to be used As also of whey posset-drinkes of severall sorts Of butter and cheese and white meats FRom artificiall milke it is high time we come now to natural there being at this time more frequently used both to nourish the body and to alter and change the quality of the humors Milke is milked from divers beasts as from mares asses goats ews cowes c. And womans milke is both used for the nourishment of her owne infant and sometimes also sought for thein consumptions as a principal restorer of decaied nature In Spaine they use Camels and asses milke both in consumptions and dropsies and in old time sowes milke was also in request Asses milke is yet in great request in those countries where such beasts abound as in France Spaine and Italy At this day the Tartars as well as the old Scythians use little other diet either for meat or drinke but mares milke The antient Numidians also used for their chiefe diet mares milke And some particular persons have lived all their life time on nothing else but milke as Plutarch reporteth of one Sostrates And a late Writer maketh mention of a maide living then in the Low-countries sixteene
naturall threefold 335. Drowsie or deadly sleepe ibid. Criticall Sleepe and the severall sorts of the same 336. Sleepe carefully to be procured ibid. The vulgar very shy of hypnoticke or sleepy medicines ibid. Skirret 45. Smelt 90. Snailes and their use See uncouth flesh Snailes whether usefull in Consumptions and Hecticke fevers ibid. Snot and Snevill and the significations thereof 303. Snowtes of beastes 73. Sodomie by a Popish Prelate maintained lawfull and allowed by a Pope 329. Sorrell 30. Wood sorrell ibid. Soule and the passions thereof 341. Spa. See Minerall waters Spa by Aberdene ibid. Sparrow 80. Spells characters and strange words of themselves have no power to produce any strange effect 357. Spices used in Diet 100. Spinage 49. Spirit of wine See aqua vita Spirit of Ale or Beere 1â—3 Spittle and the use thereof 316. Spittle best in condition Severall tasts of Spittle Severall colours ibid. It is to be considered in sicknesse and in health 3â—6 Sprats See pilchards Sterline 80. Stipendary Physitians Intr. 24. Stipends for Physitians would prove very profitable for the coÌ„mon-wealth ibid. Stocke dove 78. Stones of beasts 76. Stones of fowle 82. Storke 81. Stove See Hot-house Strawberrie 59. Sturgeon 89. Succory or Cichoree See Endive Sugar and the vertues thereof whether knowne by the antients 96 97. Sugar and sweet meats much used often prove dangerous and for whom especially 97. Sulpherous Bathes See Bathes Supper See repast Suppositories their use and with what caution to be used 282. Surgeons ought to be carefull They are often too busy with the profession of Physicke Intr. 4. Swan 81. Sweat an excrement of the third concoction 290. Sweating in acute diseases 291. Naturall and procured by Art Sweat diaphoreticall Sweat criticall and symptomaticall Sweat how to bee procured siimples provoking sweat ibid. Swounding in phlebotomy no certaine signe of a sufficient evacuation 247. T Tansey See egges Tarragon 56. Teale 81. Teares their divers kindes and severall significations in sickenesse and in health 293. Tench 93 Tennis play See Exercise Theodosius his cruell execution at Thessalonica His worthy decree and constitution against the sudden execution of Princes decrees 390. Thirst hardlier indured than hunger 109 False thirst Sitis mendosa 183. Thrush 80. Thornebacke See Scate Tiberius Caesar as sharpe sighted as a cat 354. Time 57. Tabacco as strong and violent a purger partaketh as much of a venomous or poisoning quality as any other simple accouÌ„ted therfore most infamous 317 It evacuateth often good and laudable moisture with the bad It is indifferently used of all without respect of any circumstance whatsoever Qualities of Tabacco Violent purging faculty Abuse of Tabacco with the best use It is a strong narcoticke or benumming medicine ibid. Often unseasonably used to further digestion 318 It often causeth crudities ibid. It is much sophisticate For what infirmities fittest In what season of the yeere and with what correction to bee used Circumstances in the use thereof to be considered For whom most hurtfull It is the cause of many diseases and dismall accidents 329 330. Tongues of beasts 75. Tortoise 92. Triballians See Illyrians Tripes See bellie Trout 92. Truffe See Puffe Tunbridge-water 307 Turbot 89. Turkie 78. Turneps of severall shapes and formes and their faculties 44. Turtle 78. V Vdderne of beasts 76 Veale 72. Veines to be opened in severall parts of the body of man 239. Venetians vigorous and long lived 18. Venison 73. Verjuice and the use thereof 98. Vesicatories or blistering medicines See searing or burning Violets 51. S. Vincents rocke-water 307. Vineger The vertues and various use thereof 98. Vomit and the commendation thereof Rejected by some of the antients 280 But very frequently used by others 281 What parts best purged by vomit Often rashly exhibited by Empirickes ibid. For what persons most usefull and for whom most unfitting Preparation before and what after a vomit to be done 280 281. Vrines and their use 309. Best urine in colour and contents Golden coloured urine Blacke urine Vrine a fallacious signe therby to judge either of the disease or issue thereof ibid. Vrines vary much in diseases 310. Criticall excretion of urine Retention and difficulty of avoiding urine Quantity of urine Suppression of urine from divers causes ibid. W Walking a profitable exercise See exercise Walking after supper ibid. Wal-nut See nut Washing and anointing of the body after Washing in cold water 294 295. Washing of the hands Of the head Of the feet usuall with us 295. Washing of the feet in sicknesse 296. Watching what it is and to what function to be referred 332. Immoderate watching hurtfull and how ibid. Water highly esteemed of the antients Antiquity utility and division of water 24. Weighing of water deceitfull Division of usefull waters 25. Raine-water Snow-water Harmes of snow-water Cisterne-water and the correction thereof ibid. Vulgar error concerning the boiling of water 6. Terrestriall or water springing out of the earth Spring-water Best spring-water according to situation place aspect of humours c. ibid. Water carried through pipes of lead whether usefull Water of rivers of pooles and ponds Of wells and pumps and which of all these is the best ibid. Water the most antient and common drinke of mankind with divers observations in the use of drinking water 116 184. Not to be despised for drinke 187 Bad water how to be corrected 117 118 Water destilled to the Antients unknowne Destilled better than boiled 290. Water in great request among the antients Not to be indifferently exhibited in all diseases 184 185 Water how to bee exhibited without hurt and what in the use thereof to be considered ibid. Cold water how to be prepared for the use of the sicke together with the time of use generall and particular the quantity c. ibid. Water warmed in frequent use among the antients Whether usefull for the sicke 188 189. Strong waters of severall sorts and the great abuse thereof For whom most usefull 193 194. Weapon-salve The names Various wayes of preparation Blood sometimes omitted in the preparation It effecteth just nothing Sympatheticall and why Magneticall and why Blood used in the Weapon-salve is taken from any man It receiveth no particular vertue or efficacy from the starres It is accounted sometimes miraculous and sometimes mysticall Confutation of many arguments brought for the confirmation of the weapon-salve and such other cures as are sometimes supposed to be done at as great or greater a distance without any Physitians contact 362. 363 364 365 366. Welling-borrow-well 367. Whey and what it is It may safeier in sicknesse be exhibited than milke it selfe Vertues of Whey Best whey Whey of goats milke and the vertues thereof It differeth according to the preparation or separation 206. Clarified whey 207. Whigge or wigge See sowre-milke White meates and for whom fit 21â— Whiting 90. Wild-fowle See fowle Winds alter the body of man in sickenesse and in health They are of great force 16. Their number natures and properties
citante Stuckio k Luk. 22.27 l In a dagijs m Erant enim tres crateres primus lovis Olympij seu Olympiorum ac coelestium secundus Heroum tertius lovis Servatoris perfecti a ternario numero in quo sit principium medium finis Alij sanitatis sive valetudinis poculum nominant Dictum est item poculum boni Daemonis quod ab initio coenae in extremo convivio antequam surgerent asportarenturve mensae a convivis usurparetur Moris enim erat ut omnes in convivâ—is mensae post ultimam iâ—lam Daemonis potationem removerentur vel ex impio sacrilego Dionysij tyranni facmore videre est Is enim cum Syracusis in Aesculapij famo aurea ante simulacbrum mensa reposita esset patera mero repleta propino inquit tibi Aesculapi boni Daemonis calicem cum dicto auream statim mensam auferre â—usâ—it Stuck antiquit com iv lib. 3. cap. 22. ex Polluce Athenzo Who are allowe to drinke last at their meales Whether wee are to drinke going to bed Answer Not good to drinke betwixt meales Water the most common and most antient drinke of all others a Aquam quidem sua natura frigidam dixerunt Ocellus Hippocrates Empedocles Aristoceles potior medicorum pars imo Strato Philosophus omnium frigidorum primum esse venit At Bernardius Telesius Franciscus Patritius Franciscus Mutus veterum recentiorumque non pauci ab inditu a natura principiis lumine calore stuore mobilitate etus essentiam constituentibê° a viribê° iteÌ„ astionibus generandi multiplici potestate a perspicuitate raritate sapore item tam dulci tamamaro salso c. audeater confidenter omnes aquas ipsum scilicet mare seu Oceanum quod loci magnitudine aquarum copia molis immensstate primatum obtinet omnes item lacus stagna flumma sontes puteos tum ipsas subterraneas aquas Platonis Tartarum aliosque ingentes speluncas cavernas adimplentes ut fluvios subterreneos a metallorum fossoribus alijsque curiosis hominibus tum auditos tum visos c. sua natura calidos eosque tum salsos secundum magis minus tum dulces esse astruxerunt Omnis erum aqua tam subterraneae quam superterranea de aquis enim supercoelestibus hic nobis non est sermo vel amara salsa est uti maria vel dulcis uti flumina fontes lacus c. Nisi per accidens alieno sâ—pore aliarum rerum accessione tingantur At cum omnes aquae fontes flumina ab uno Oceano seu aquarum universitate abysso oriantur neque enim ullos habet fontes sed ipsum fons est scaturigo reliquarum omnium aquarum teste Moyse lussit enim conditor omnes aquas quae sub Coelo erant in unum locum congregari quam postea congregationem mare abyssam vocavit Maria autem aquae sunt amarae ita ut omnes aquae a primordio fuerint amarae ac salsae quas post modum qualitates aquae terrarum anfractus subeundo fontes constituendo amiserunt c. Claud. Deod Panth. Hygiast lib. 1. cap. 18. Correcting of bad watersfirst by boiling 2. By distillation 3. By straining 4. By boiling with sand 5. By Corall beaten to powder 6 By wheaten floure or meale b 2 Kings 2.21 9 By carrying some of the earth of the place Invention to coole water c Lib. de cibis boni mali succi Sixe waies of cooling water 1 By the Aire d 6 Epidem comment 4. e Arist 1 met eâ—r cap. 12. 2 Way letting it downe into a deepe well 3 Way by salt peter 4 Way by ice or snow f Lib. 2. g Bellon observat medicin lib 3. cap 22. 5. Way by deepe cellers 6. Way by motion agitation Divers differences of Wines 1 From the age Mustum or new wine a Gal. lib de cibis borâ— mali succi b Qui properant noua musta bibant mihi fundat avitum Consulibus priscis condita testa merum Ovid 3. de amore Very old wine 2 Difference from the substance 3 Difference from the colour 4 Difference from the taste 5 Difference from the smell 6 Difference from 〈◊〉 soile naturall temper of the aire 7 Difference from the faculties thicke red wines Strong sweet wines of a yellow colour French wines of divers sorts Small wines Or 〈…〉 〈…〉 〈…〉 Wine is dry in the second quantity Ouâ— wines differ much from the wines of the antients â— Caeterorum vinorum tanta cura fuit medicaminu ut cinerâ— apud quosdam feâ— gypso alâ—bâ— quibus diximus modu instaurentur c. Qui marinam aquaÌ„ ejusdem rei gratia ex alto peti â—ubent c. Pix in Italia ad vasa vâ—â—o condienda maxime probatur Brytia c Tot beneficiâ—s piacere cogitur miramur noxia esse in vitium inclinantes Plin. lib. 19. cap. 20. Coâ—â— diseases produced bâ— the use of wine accidentally Vertues of wine moderately used d Psalme 103. Iuâ—g 9 Ecclesiast 31 c. e 7 Politic. Lib. de salubri diata g 3 de sanit tuenda What person it beâ—â— befitteth â—am vero 〈◊〉 larvitrâ— si ultius quam 〈◊〉 caâ—oris au eâ—d gratia vinum abundanter meracum praecipue indulgere Quanto enim vinum calidius est per se tanto maâ—ore venâ—ris ac viscerum omuium câ—â— ore opusest ut superetur aliaqui a minoâ—i acessic crudamque succum auget unde calorem naturalem suffocat morbos innumeros â—arit ac mortem properat Quare vinum esse lac senum non valde prohoâ— censeo potius senibus sensim esse dandum aiturius usque dum in extremo senio constitutis toto vino detracto de ur pro eo mulâ—a aut decâ—ct aqua satius enim est pâ—rmittere catori nâ—turali sensim venire au naâ—uraâ—em interiâ—um quam vine obruere â—enectam facere mis rabiâ—torem breviorem Vaâ—â—â— de sacrâ— philos cap. 20. Wine either drunkâ— pure of it selfe or mingled with water g Mercur. variar lect libr. 7. How we use to dilute or mingle our wine Of the use of Sugar with wine h Arnoldus de villa nova tractatu de vinis Ingredients of our Beere a The antient Egyptians made drinke of corne Herod in Euterpe b Lib. 2. cap. 80. 81. c Lib. 6. simpl mâ—lic Our drinke made of corne differeth from that of the antients and is a very wholesome drinke Divers differences in our drinke to be observed First from the adding or withdrawing of hoppe Secondly from the corne it is made of Third difference froÌ„ the age Fourth from the strength Fifth from the substance Sixth from the taste Seventh difference from the quantity of the hoppe Eighth the colour Ninth froÌ„ the goodnesse of the malt 10 From the water wherewith it is maâ—e and the fewell wherewith it is boiled Hop and the
sicknesse or otherwise as physick for prevention of future infirmities If it be left to election then the most temperate time of the yeere is to be made choice of as hath beene said of other evacuations and the time of the day likewise most temperate as in a morning before dinner and after concoction is perfected In sicke folkes if there be a necessity the ambient aire if not answerable to our desire must be corrected as accasion shall require As for the time of the day as hath beene said already the former daies food must first be perfectly concocted as well in the stomacke as in the liver As concerning the time of the disease it being with us unusuall in Fevers and such acute diseases wee need not so curiously insist upon it yet if there were any such necessity the same time already set downe for the diet and evacuations both generall and particular were to be observed Before entring into any of these baths of any kind whatsoever wee are to see that the body be before cleansed and that the common excrements of urin and ordure first be evacuated for feare of some defluxion upon the feeble parts by dissolving liquifying the humors of the body Neither yet are we to use exercise before it for feare of filling the head with fumes vapors and food must also be refrained from for feare of crudities from whence obstructions and divers dangerous diseases might after insue If the party be not able to absteine let him take some little sustenance in a morning a little biscuit or some cordiall electuary or the like In bathing the party is to abstein from all manner of food as also from drinke and sleep for feare of crudities the mother of a many diseases But if strength should so farre faile that we should feare fainting then are comfortable smells to be presented to the nose or else the crums of a manchet soak'd in good sacke or the like a little marchpane manus Christi or some such comfortable refresher of the spirits speedily to be given the patient As for the continuance in the bath there cannot be one certaine rule prescribed to every individuall person Cold constitutions unlesse very weake may continue a longer time but temperate persons when they begin to grow red may goe forth of it and leane and slender people by long continuance therein are much indāmaged But the strength is that which must alwaies be our best directer In hectick fevers they are first to goe into the warme bath and next into a cold that by this meanes a constipation of the skin may be procured and dissipation prevented Such as in health were much accustomed to bathing in sicknesse more freely may use this meanes and yet if they use oftner than once a day they are to interpose 4 or 5 houres betwixt the two severall times After bathing the party is diligently to be dried with dry clothes in a warme roome and well rubd the head especially and then sent to bed to sweat a while and is afterwards againe to be rubd and dri'd with soft linnen clothes After all this is performed and the body setled then are we to offer the sick some liquid food at first as namely some broth or the like and afterwards in a more solid substance sometimes in a greater sometimes in a lesser quantity according to the nature of the disease strength of the patient custome the ambient aire the season of the yeere c. But as in all other things so are we here to observe the golden mediocrity for all manner of hot baths immoderatly used whether moist or dry doe too much mollifie the body evacuating overthrowing the naturall vigor thereof and if too hot they cause continuall burning fevers debilitate the body from whence proceedeth great faintnesse and finally death it selfe Againe too much bathing in cold water procureth shivering and shaking convulsions and at length an extinction of naturall heat wherein life consisteth CHAP. XVIII Of naturall baths or minerall waters whether leap-yeere called also the bissextil causeth any alteration in these minerall waters or infringeth the force thereof and of the originall and first beginning of this time ALmighty God out of his singular goodnesse and infinite bounty taking pitty upon miserable man-kinde now by reason of sinne made subject to so many sicknesses a due reward of the fame as bee hath affoorded this microcosme man a multitude of soveraigne medicines for his solace in such diseases so among many others hee hath made many waters that spring out of the earth to affoord him comfort in his great calamity of sickenesse Now besides the common waters of severall sorts whereof wee have daily use both in food and physicke as hath beene proved already there are yet many waters that spring out of the bowells of the earth participating of the nature of divers mineralls and metalls the vertues whereof these waters do reteine and are therfore with no small successe often used of the sicke for many and divers infirmities And these by a generall word are by us commonly called Thermae or aquae Thermales from that heat whereof most of them doe lesse or more participate Now that these waters were not at first among antient Physitians in that request they have beene since may by Pliny appeare who wondering that Homer made no mention of them doth afterwards answer himselfe that in those daies there was no Physitian that made use of them although Homer maketh often mention of washing in warme water After Homer Hippocrates although hee seeme not utterly to to reject such waters yet by reason of their running thorow minerall and metallicke veines holdeth them therefore for suspected for the which cause hee never admitteth of them for the use of the sicke And of the same mind was Galen also who never that we reade of made any triall of such waters But the late Physitians as well Greeke as Arabians have introduced the use of them as finding by long experience that in chronicall and long continuing diseases there is not a more soveraine remedy as in old inveterate obstructions of the inward parts and the like Now it is confirmed by the Authorities of a multitude of our best Physitians that some of these waters are hot and some againe cold in their first qualities and some mixt and so in their second qualities depending upon the first they differ likewise according to those mineralls or metalls from whence they borrow their vertues howbeit in generall all these waters participate of exsication Now from what metall or minerall the water taketh its vertue or operation may partly by the colour taste smell the day in the bottome and partly by distillation long boiling evaporation and the dregges left in the bottome be discerned as also the nature of such diseases as are thereby cured And howsover many trust much to distillation yet is it not
so sure a way that we may alwaies trust to it these waters being often of so subtile a nature that they draw nothing but as it were the spirituous qualitie from these solid substances In generall it is to be observed that those which abound in brimstone and bitume are all of a loosening and mollifying nature and doe therewith affect both the stomacke and the liver But such as partake more of the nature of yron alum copper or plaster doe too much condensat and shut up the pores of the skinne by which meanes it commeth to passe that no excrement can thereby be excluded But such as participate of both these extremes are accounted the best and their use alwaies safest for they digest discusse yet alwaies reserving intirely the strength and naturall vigor of all the parts of the body But before I proceed to handle divers particulars concerning these minerall waters I must here discusse a question whether all these minerall waters be at all times of a like and equall force And that this question is not out of purpose nor needlessely propounded may from this appeare in that some have beene and some yet are of opinion that these waters every Bissextile or leap-yeere as wee call it lose a great deale of their efficacie and power and therefore not so efficacious and powerfull against ordinary infirmities In the first place then that the vertue and efficacie of these minerall waters is according to the severall seasons of the yeere and often according to abundance of drouth or moisture is often intended and remitted as wee cannot deny so is not the point in controversie but whether in any one certaine determinate time quatenus such a time howsoever the ambient aire in all the qualities be affected doth produce such an infallible alteration in all minerall waters that during that time they are of little or no efficacie against diseases and this is this leap-yeere now in question And although I am not ignorant that many of the wiser and more judicious have their judgements well enough setled herein yet because not onely some of the vulgar but some of more eminent parts and more sublimate understandings have beene involved in this vulgar errour I shall crave pardon to digresse a little upon this point which in my opinion may not seeme impertinent In the first place then let us take notice of the originall of this leap-yeere and what it is Before the time of Iulius Caesar it is thought that most nations used the computation of the yeere according to the course of the Moone the which because it was uncertaine the Moone in her motion being so unstable and uncertaine therefore Iulius Caesar 54 yeeres before the nativitie of our Lord and Saviour after he had finished his warres taking into his consideration this irregularity of the yeere resolved to rectifie the same And for this same purpose he sent into Egypt for the most expert Mathematicians of that Kingdome and among the rest one Sosigenes from whence as from this Iulius it is called the Iulian so from this same Sosigenes it is called the Sosigenian yeere and therefore whereas before the yeere was ordinarily measured by the motion of the Moone it was then reduced to the motion of the Sunne which finisheth his course in 365 daies and 6 houres These daies he divided into twelve equall parts called by the name of Mensis or measure And because there rested yet 6 odde houres for avoiding confusion which in processe of time might thereby be occasioned every fourth yeere there being just 24 houres remaining these making up a just naturall day were inserted into the moneth of February which before had but 28 daies And yet this computation is not so perfect but that it admitteth of some defects here being added unto this yeere more by the fifth part of an houre than ought and by consequence more added every leap-yeere unto February than ought by 48 minutes the which hath made an alteration in the Aequinoxes and Solstices since this Emperours time about 11 or 12 daies Besides that I say nothing of the motion of the Moone wherein was likewise some defect notwithstanding the course was taken to rectifie the same which made a great confusion in the time of the observation of Easter betwixt the Easterne and Westerne Churches untill the councell of Nice The emendation of this errour howsoever for the space of 200 yeeres by divers Popes attempted yet untill the time of Gregorie the 13 in the yeere of our Lord 1â—82 was never brought to any passe This Pope by the helpe especially of one Lilius a Doctor of physicke tooke such a course to reforme the Calender that the vernall Aequinoxe was from the 10 of March reduced to the 21 to the same day that it was at the Nicene councell Now this could not be unlesse in the Calender and computation of the daies of the yeere there were 10 daies quite cut off And for this cause this same Lilius chose the moneth of October wherein this Pope was borne and tooke quite away from it tenne daies so that when the 5 of October was to be numbred in stead thereof was substituted the 15. and October that yeere had but 21 daies And this is that wee call the Gregorian or beyond the seas account or yeere by reason it is received in those countries beyond the seas where the Pope is acknowledged The which account yet notwithstanding is not perfect nor without exception as I could make appeare if I were purposed to insist upon this point But to come now to our purpose and to answer this point I say it is a thing very ridiculous and an opinion very erronious that this orderly alteration in the computation of time should infuse any new influence into these celestiall bodies which should againe produce so strange and stupendious effects upon these sublunary creatures Now these celestiall bodies keepe constantly the same course they ever did since the first creation these humane constitutions neither adding to nor detracting from these celestiall bodies any new energie vertue or power And if there were any such matter why then did not some such effects follow upon the alteration of Num 1 Pompilius who added two moneths to wit Ianuary and February to the former yeere consisting onely of ten moneths and why followed not there some strange new effects upon the altering of the names of two months Quintilis Sextilis to Iuly August the names of two famous Emperors and finally why followed not there some strange effects upon the alteration of the old Roman Iulian calender where there is no lesse than the difference of ten whole daies betwixt us and the Romanists whch it would seeme should produce new and stranger effects and this would seeme a thing not unbeseeming a papall power who as Gods Vicar generall here upon earth yea and an earthly God too as they would make