shall anon particularly expresse But first it shall be necessary to instruct you of the vessel place and time meet to judge urine and of the manner of receiving it CHAP. IIII. Of the form of the Vrinall and of the place and time meet to judge urine and how it should be received THat urine should be kept to see which is first made after midnight commonly or namely when the patient hath slept long but you must take heed whether the patient be man or woman The order to receive urine that they make not their urine in another vessel first as many use to do and then pour it into the urinall when it is setled for that causeth much deceit and error in the judgement of it And if that the Patient cannot well make it in the urinall either by weaknesse or any other cause then let them make it in another vessel but see that it be clean and dry and as soon as the water is made pour it forth presently into the Urinall altogether and leave no part of it out as some curious folk do use to put the clear part only into the urinall and cast away the dregs as though it stood not with their modesty to bring such foul gear to the Physitian others of such like foolish mind Pour it therefore in wholly and let not the urinall stand open namely in a dusty place but stop it close with a glove or other leather and not with cloth paper nor hay and let it be brought to the Physitian within six hours at the furthest for after that time it cannot well be judged The Urinal Now as touching the Urinall it should be of pure cleer glasse not thick nor green in colour without blots or spots in it not flat in the bottome nor too wide in the neck but widest in the midle and narrow still toward both the ends like the fashion commonly of an egg or of a very bladder being measurably blown for the Vrinall should represent the bladder of a man and so shall every thing be seen in his due place and colour If neither the grossenes of the Vrinall neither the colour nor spots shall let the true sight of the colour and substance of the urine and the contents of it neither the deform fashion of the urinall shall alter the regions or rooms of the urine Likewise concerning the place meet to behold urines The place you must look that it be neither too dark so that your sight should not discern perfectly either the colour substance or contents for lack of light neither yet that your fight be likewise deceived if the place be too light as in open light or beams of the sun The time Besides this also you must mark the time due to behold urines but because there can no one time be assigned certain and exact to judge all parts of it I will briefly shew the order of the things to be considered in their time First when the urine is made while it is yet somewhat hot you shall consider the colour of it for that may best bee discerned then and likewise the thickness of the substance of it which if it be mean shall then be best seen All other things as the bubbles and the contents shall be best judged somewhat after when the urine is somewhat cooled and they be duly setled in their proper places CHAP. V. How many things are to be considered in Vrine NOw leaving this as a brief instruction of the generation of the Water or Urine Four things to be considered in Urine viz. Substance Colour Quantitie Contents and of the manner of receiving it in vessels due with time and place meet to consider it I will particually declare how many things are to be considered in it which are commonly named four that is the Substance the Colour the Quantity and the Contents and the Savour thereto may be added as the fift to the which fift if you shall joyn stableness and order as two accidents common to the first four things but yet no lesse to be considered then they then shall you judge the more certainly Stablenes is called Stableness when the urine continueth certain daies together of one sort And if it alter every day Unstableness Order then is that called unstableness or changeableness to which thing order doth appertain For order is the following of one thing after another as black coloured urine after white green or pale I mean not because that so it ought to follow but only that you must observe how it doth follow For black Urine doth not signifie the same if it follow after green urine as it doth if it follow after white urine so that the order ought also to be marked But now to return to the four first things Substance is called in urine Substance the urine it self in respect of the thickness or thinness of it So that there are 3. Three sorts of substance in urine sorts of substance in urine thick thin and mean Thin substance is called Thin when you may perceive well the joynts of your fingers through the urine Thick And contrariwise it is called thick when you cannot well see your fingers through it and that is in the middle between extream thick and extream thin Mean Colours is called mean Colours are divers but the principall are these six white pale flaxen yellow red and black And all the other colours are contained under these six Light white as Chrystallse snowie As under white ate contained clear as chrystal white as snow and pure as water which three are light whites Waterie Dark white as milke-white horny gray pale flaxen yellow Then are there other three more darker as milk white cleer like horn and grey After white followeth pale colour and then flaxen after it followeth pale and then yellow which may be called golden for it is the colour of pure gold Light saffron saffron colour Claret Red. Crimson Purple Blew Green After it followeth light saffron and then saffron then claret colour and then red after it crimson and then purple and then blue Then is there green of divers kinds as light green green as grasse stark green and dark green There are also oil colours that is popingay green of three sorts as of green light oily Oylie stark oily and dark oily Ash colour After these is there Ash colour like unto lead and after it as last of all cometh black And these be the chief colours Black Now as touching quantity it is also in three sorts much little and mean Quantity Much. Then it is called much quantity when it exceedeth the measure of a mans drinking And then is it called little Little when a man pisseth lesse then he drinketh And that is mean Mean when a mans pissing and his drinking is of like quantity All this must be considered by due proportion The contents are
for you must understand all these ages with perfect health The diversity of Vrines according to the times of the yeer Even as the diversity of ages alters urine so doth the times of the yeer For the more that the spring time draws toward heat the more the urine gathereth high colour Spring departing from pale and flaxen toward pale and light saffron and the inequality of substance changeth into a due equality according to nature and the ground doth waxe thinner and the quantity is more in respect to that is drunk so that about the midst of the spring they return to a mean In the beginning of Summer the colour appeareth pale and light saffron Summer and the substance mean the ground white duly knit and stable but yet thinner then a mean ground And the more that the Summer proceedeth and draweth to the highest the lesser is the quantity of urine in comparison to the drink and the ground changeth from his naturall whiteness to a palish colour and is much lesser and thinner And this thinnesse glystereth withall and inclineth toward golden and saffron colour When Harvest commeth Harvest then the colours do return to a mean again but the thinness and brightness remaineth still the ground also is still obscure and little but yet it is white duely knit and stable And as Harvest goeth forward so the urine returneth to a mean in all things In the middle of winter and thereabout the urine keepeth due quantitie but the colour inclineth toward white and the ground is over great but in all other points it is mean And as Winter goeth on Winter the substance of urine appeareth divers and the colour white the quantity greater in respect to the drink and the contents greater and unconcoct but toward the spring time they return towards a mean as I have before said Yet beside these also diversity of countries causeth diversity of urine even by the same reasons as doth the times of the yeer Countries alter urine For countries that be temperate exactly make urine like unto the spring time And those countries that be hot and dry make urine like unto summer And contrariwise cold and moist alter water as doth winter But countries that are drie and distempered between heat and cold make urine like harvest Meats drinks and medicines Also meats and drinks and order of dier causeth urine to alter and medicines also as not only experience teacheth but also Hippocrates witnesseth in the sixt Book of his Epidemies or raining sicknesses in the fift part and the fifteenth sentence as for example Meats of light concoction Those meats that are light of concoction and good in substance cause good and temperate urine with pure contents but contrary meats cause discoloured urine and thin with strange contents Meats of hard concoction Meats that will not concoct make lesser contents and divers in substance Evill cause greater contents and in nothing duely formed And as the quality of meats doth alter urine so doth the quantity also For if a man have eaten much and not concocted it his urine shall be thin and white and sometime without ground But if this crudity or rawness in stomack continue long the urine will become divers in substance Drinking of wine and in contents Also wine drunk abundantly causeth alteration in urine But now contrariwise if a man doe fast long Fasting long his urine will appear fiery and saffron coloured and thin with lesser ground But if a man suffer famine and do not nourish Suffering of famine his water shall be thin and white with a certain glistering and without ground Moreover exercise and rest changeth urine Labour for through excessive labour the urine changeth from light saffron and at length becommeth saffron coloured with little ground thin and higher coloured then it should be And some time there fleereth on the top a certain fattness specially after overmuch wearinesse But idleness and rest doth contrariwise cause white urine Rest with greater and grosser ground Furthermore sleep Sleep Watching and watching if they exceed measure they alter urine but there is a difference between both sleepe and watching comming of sickness and them both when they be taken willingly in health For if that sickness cause overmuch sleep then is the urine whitish with substance either fully thick or but partly thin and the contents many and undigest Naturall sleep But if that such sleep come naturally the urine is not so white but rather flaxen and the substance mean with greater and well concoct contents Voluntary sleep And likewise they that have watched purposedly and not by reason of sickness their urine is bur little changed But if they watch for any sickly cause Watch in sickness their urine will change but little at the beginning but with continuance the contents will be dispersed and at the last clean wasted and the substance of the urine waxeth thinner and thinner by little and little and the colour inclineth either to white and watery or unto golden saffron oylie or black according as the cause is that maketh it so to change Of alteration by complexion I will write in the next Chapter Now have you heard as touching alteration of urine in health according to diversity of ages both in men and women times of the yeer countries meats and drinks labour rest sleep and watch so that you must have regard to these in all judgements both in health and in sicknesse For if these be not diligently marked they may cause great error as you may well consider What is to be considered in urine First therefore in every urine you must consider whether it be a mans or a womans and what age he or shee is of then what time of the yeer it is and what country what meats and drinks the person used and likewise of labour and rest sleep and watch And then must you consider how every one of these doth alter urine so that if the altering of them from that healthfull urine whereof I spake in the beginning of this Chapter be but such as one of those foresaid things would cause then may it not be judged to come of any disease as for example High coloured water in summer so that it pass not saffron colour or white coloured water in winter should rather be reckoned to come of the time of the yeer then of any sickness and likewise of other things CH AP. VII What be the generall qualities that alter the parts of Vrine BEfore I treat of the signification of the parts of Urine I think it good to instruct you of the generall qualities which cause all alterations in urine whereby you shall perceive not only what every urine doth betoken as I shall anon set forth but also if you mark well this Chapter you shall see the cause why every urine doth so signifie You shall understand therefore that there be four
time of Maceration or soaking is to be judged from the consideration of the things infused for hard and Rosinous things such as Guiacum are macerated to stirre them till the liquor poured on is mingled sufficiently with the oylie matter or is sufficiently tincted or affected with the colour or savour of the medicine for then either other liquor is poured on the same matter and that so often reiterated till such time as it is no more affected with tincture or savour and then at length all the liquors affected are put together and distilled the Extract being left in the bottome of the Vessel or Bladder After this manner Rubarb Rhapeticum Aloes Gentian Cinnamon Nutmeg Myrrhe or else the said liquor affected is poured on the plant of the same kinde and it is twice or thrice reiterated So is Cinnamon Wormwood lesser Centurie Angelico root Zedoarie Galingal the true Acorns and Elecompane root which neither give tincture not are indued with manifest smell or favour they are macerated or soaked for one day or two and then the liquor pressed forth is poured upon a plant of the same kind and this is done twice or thrice In like manner distillation is made in Mechoashau Bryonie Pyonie Masterwort root c. In the Extraction of fresh Flowers of Peaches Plums Roses Flowers Herbs and Roots of Celandine c. There is no need of effusion or putting on of any other moisture but the reiterated pressing forth or the juyce often ought to go before the distillation and the Infusion into the moisture pressed forth of the fresh Flowers and Herbes But to bruise Celandine and distill it and to put the distilled water upon the dry Lees c. is trifling to no purpose in so great plenty of Celandine experience it self in the strength of either Extraction will be testimony sufficient But seeing the Extract of the Roots of Bryonie Ireos and Cuccopintle may be made after three manners That is to say That either dryed they may be infused in spirit of Wine the juice pressed forth out of the fresh Roots distilled Left in a Cellar for a few dayes and then the white troubled water poured forth the white Lees may be dried in the shadow The Question is which way may best draw forth the strengths or vertues of them for persons troubled with the Mother Hydropicks or those which have an ill habit of bodie Quercetan preferrteh the third way I the first Lee reason and experience conclude the controversies and determine it For first heat is required in all the three Effects or Dispositions which here the Spirits of Wine administer to them Secondly Crude juyce is lesse apt because it is it selfe a phlegmatick matter and cannot choose but be corrupted by the moist aire of the Cellar and hath nothing which may preserve it from corruption Thirdly The faculties of these consist not in the thin matter which goeth forth with the Water distilled but rather in the thick earthy matter as their Pouders shew plainly Quercetan in glutinous and clammie roots addeth a half part of white bread in their Infusion that the nourishment mixt with the Medicine may as well by his clamminess incrcase his glutinous strength as derive or convey the Medicine the sooner to the liver and being all moistned with wine placeth them in Balneo till they become red and moreover digesteth the juyce waxing red that it may become the redder being pressed forth for truly the simple man thinketh the red juyce will be sooner turned into blood and so also the red wine and by the long snout of Meleagers Bear before distillation But I say we may more commodiously draw forth the nature from bread exhibited by it selfe but if there be need of extraction of the glutinous or clammy part from corne and drawing the Medicine through the veines all true Phylosophers not such Sophisters will with me preferre decoction far before it with which the thick glutinous Dansick Beer is made if with the said extract made without bread that may be mingled He also infuseth black Hellebar in vinnegar being most adverse to the spleen to draw forth the faculty for diseases of the spleen and will have the proper salt mixed with the distilled waters as also others with the extracts to what end I pray for seeing every faculty which was in the Medicine before calcination by this is taken away whether that he may corrupt the extract or water by his sharpness or by his dryness keep back putrefaction or that beyond others he may seeme to savour better The same man extolleth without any judgement his oleous extract of Guiachum for seeing in the cure of the French disease and the Catarrhe there is first or chiefly required some astriction by which the members may be strengthned together truly for this intention every man understands decoction to be far more needfull and usefull which hath any judgement although a small dose of the extract be fit for those which shall use it especially for delicate and tender persons And in his Extract of mans Skull he is altogether childish as of the Secondine a Calves liver and lungs Pearls and Corrals For what doth he draw forth of the Spirits from the Skull other then a certaine fat and something from the earthy matter and ashes by decoction in Balneo but will that Extract take away the causes of such a disease as the Falling-sickness he will hardly perswade children to it from the Secondine Liver and Lungs what I pray can be drawn the broth of their decoctions yea even the substance it selfe eaten and the powder of the Secondine will it not offer nature the strength it selfe perfecter to be extracted Pearles and Corrals onely beaten will yeeld all their vertue they have received from Gold without any trouble of dissolving or washing with water of corrosive spirits Whether hitherto have not all kinde of preparation of Medicines been unfolded by us Truly they have been altogether But where are their Medicines so much cryed up their Secrets their Magisteries Mercuries Sulphurs Elixirs Tinctures Quintescence This Talkative Chymick Apollo hath invented and framed words without matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from that infernall desire of lying and cousening to gain to his Sophisters authoritie an opinion of subtile wisedome But if we shall speake properly a Secret and Magisterie are the same nor are they speciall but most generall Appellations of wittie Inventions And the tincture is the Extraction of the proper colour which seeing it is not a Medicinable qualitie it ought to be most estranged and alienate from true Physick preparations I omit that for the most part it is sophisticated as for example spirit of wine draweth his redness from white bones and ashes and black Treacle and this every liquor potentially hot will perform especially if the earthy matter bee also endued with heat which Turners doe who shave pure white plates from yellow Amber But this is of an Optick contemplation When we Germans would
declare that nature hath begun to concoct alreadie notwithstanding it is an evill urine for it signifieth that nature hath need not only of great strength to perform that concoction which she hath begun but also that there is required long time to the performance of the same For the which cause Galeu calleth this Of all Vrines the worst Thus have you heard touching crudity and concoction what thin urine doth signifie so that all thin urine betokeneth crudity And beside that doth further betoken as witnesseth Hypocrates gatherings or apostumations stumations in the nether parts of the bodie namely if it continue so very long and the patient escape death Thin and white Furthermore if such thin urine have with it a light whiteness it is a very evill sign For if it be in a burning ague it is a token of frensines But if the patient be fransick alreadie and the urine doth so continue it doth most commonly betoken death And if the escape death the which is seldome scen then shall he be long sick and escape hardly Thin urine also betokeneth divers other things as the stopping of the reins and of the water veins And likewise if a man have had much bleeding or laxe or pissing his urine will be white and thin and almost without ground Like manner in old age and long weakness of sickness Also in young children if it continue long it is a deadly sign Yet thin urine doth sometime betoken the end of sickness and recovery of health as in Agues namely quotidians if at the beginning of them and so after the urine did appear thick and troubled and especially if the colour amend therewith Thin and flaxen And if it be thin substance and of flaxen colour then is it better then thin and white for because the colour is better though the substance bee all one so that though it betoken some weakness and lack of concoction yet not so much as doth the other for the colour is meanly concoct that is to say naturall heat is meanly increased Thin and golden But if it be thin and golden it is yet more better then thin and flaxen for the colour is more exact and this betokeneth concoction half compleat for that which it lacketh in substance it hath in colour Thin and saffron After this is there thin and saffron coloured which betokeneth first lack of concoction and beside that default of nourishment as in a young man that fasteth long And sometime it betokeneth that excess of heat in the inner parts of the body doth cause cholerick humours to abound as in the fever tertian Beside all this it betokeneth thought carefulness and watching and also overmuch labour and taking of heat in the Sun And thus have you heard the significations of thin urine both alone and also with such colours as it can be coupled Now shall you hear what thick urine doth betoken both alone and also with such divers colours as it may be coupled Thick urine which is so I mean when it is first made either it doth continue still thick Thick or else it doth settle and waxe clear If it continue still thick it betokeneth that that disturbance which was in the blond that is to say the rage of sicknesse doth still continue strongly and that naturall strength is but weak This urine is not so good as that which doth settle and waxe cleer For that doth betoken that the disease shal shortly be overcome howbeit there remaineth yet somewhat of that distemperate trouble in the blood yet nature hath the over-hand and expelleth the matter of the grief and therefore is such a urine called good but yet it betokeneth some lack of concoction though not so much as that which continueth troubled and thick still Also thick urine if it be exceeding thick doth betoken death as Hypocrates saith And the urine that is thick and troubled like beasts urine doth betoken head ach either present already or shortly after to come If thick urine appeare in an ague where thin urine went before it betokeneth that the sickness will abate straight waies for it declareth that nature hath overcome the matter of the sickness but if it appear thick at the beginning of the ague and do not waxe thin in process of time it betokeneth plenty of matter and weakness of nature so that there is fear lest nature should be overcome except the colour do amend Thick urine also betokeneth opennesse of the water pipes and reins Thick and white And if it bee thick and white it betokeneth great plenty of raw humours and sundry kinds of flegm to be gathered in the bodies and betokeneth also namely if it be much that those gatherings which might be looked for in sore agues shall not ensue for the matter which should cause them deparreth out by urine but the whiteness of this urine is bright as snow For if it be somewhat darker like the whiteness of milk it is a token of the stone either in the bladder or reins namely if such urine chance in the end and amending of sickness But if the colour of it be grey it betokeneth not only plenty of matter in the body but also that the whole body is possessed with a dangerous sickness whereof oftentimes it chanceth the patient to break out with blisters and heat in his skin Thick and claret Next after this followeth thick claret colour for flaxen yellow nor saffron colour doth not agree with thick urine and it doth signifie that the disease shall continue long specially if the ground of it be also of claret colour But yet this disease without perill of death Thick and red Thick urine if it be red coloured doth betoken abundance of blood as is seen in continuall Agues and in all perillous Agues as witnesseth Theophylus If this water come by little and little it is an evill token for it doth alwaies declare danger And if that sort of urine in such Agues do waxe trouble so that there come with it deafness of hearing and ach of the head with pain in the neck and in the sides of the belly it betokeneth that the Patient shall have the falling evill within a seven night Thick and crimson And if a thick urine have a crimson colour If it bee burning Agues and the Patient then have the headach it betokeneth that a chief criticall sign either is then present or else night at hand Thick and blew But if the urine be thick and blew coloured it signifieth diversly as the persons are that made it For in them that are in way of recovery it betokeneth that the shall escape their grief It signifieth also pain in the water-pipes or else that the party hath runn much And if it appear such in old men and that continue long it declareth not only that the bladder is infected with evill humours but commonly also that he shall be rid of them But if it come after
matter doth avoid and so the sicknes to end And such urine doth appear many times after purgations or other meats and drinks which purge the splene namely if a man do labour upon them that was before diseased of the splcen Howbeit sometime meats and drinks of like colour cause black urine as Galen witnesseth namely after dark red wine and Allegant But in moderate Agues if such black urine doe appear it is a token of death except it be on some Criticall dayes And likewise in sharp agues especially if the savour be strong and stinking unless it come of some grief of the bladder Quantitie of urine Let this suffice for this time as touching colours Now for the quantitie of urine as when it is mean it is a good token so when it is either too much or too little it is an evill sign except it come of such cause as I shewed before that altereth urine in a healthfull man Much in a whole body As first excessive quantitie of urine commeth of much drinking of thin wine as Rennish wine and such like But that shall you thus know for the colour will be whitely and the substance thinner then a mean the contents also will be divers and not duly knit Likewise if there be aboundance of raw humours in a man unconcocted and yet nature persevering strong then is there great quantity of urine and somewhat thin of substance but not so white as the other and the contents of this are better Also as Hippocrates saith much Vtine made in 4. Aph. 3. the night is a token of small sege so that if any impediment let naturall sege then will the quantity of urine be the greater But in this as the colour is mean so is the ground both greater and grosser yet in healthfull folk may the urine by another means also be greater then a mean and that may be by medicines which provoke urine but then is the colour more natural then the last that I spake of and the ground is thinner of substance so that it is dark and scarcely scene and then is there a certain glistering in the urine it self Little urine in a whole body Now contrarie waies and of contrary causes cometh small quantitie of urine For it cometh sometime of lack of drinke or dry meats and then is the colour light saffron with a smal ground but yet somewhat gross Also both meats and medicines that are clammie and apt to stop the water pipes do cause little urine but then is the ground also little and thin Besides these much sege causeth urine to be lesser for if the one excrement be greater then nature would the other must needs be lesse if the body be healthful In this urine as you may partly know the cause of it by the knowledge of the excessive sege so will the urine it self be thinner and the ground very dark thin and not duely knit And thus many waies may this alteration appear in a healthfull body Much urine in a sick body Now in a sick person much urine either betokeneth the dropsie and then is it like water with a raw and diverse ground or else if it be white thin and without ground then doth it betoken the pissing evill And this urine as witnesseth Galen in in his first Book of Judicials is the worst of any other of like sort Diabete I mean which declare lack of concoction for it declareth the decay yea I may say the utter extinction of two naturall powers that is the retentive power and the alterative power also Much urine in colour fierie and light saffron or of any like colour is to be feared namely if it be coupled with evill contents But if it be of crimson or purple colour and so proceed especially if no concoction went before it then doth it encline to evill and betokeneth a certain mortifying and wasting of the whole composition of the body But if much urine come in an Ague namely toward the end and that there went before it little urine thick and rud die then is that a good token 4. Aph. 69. as witnesseth Hypocnates for it betokeneth the Ague to be at an end And this Urine will bee white and thin moderately and will have a mean ground Little uril in a sick body Now little quantity of urine with a grosse ground unduly knit and unconcoct is an evill token for it betokeneth the weakness of the alterative power which is not able to extenuate concoct neither alter the matter and therefore doth it with much difficulty pass forth in such grossnes Howbeit if there follow after it a more thinne urine with the ground well and duly knit and stable then is it without fear For this latter urine as you heard before is a token that the cause of the other is overcome and vanquished This little quantitie of urine cometh sometime in vehement Agues and then is the violent heat cause thereof Sometime also it cometh of the stopping of the water-pipes not only through clammy meats and drinks but also of some disease or grief in them And this now shall suffice for an Introduction as touching the substance colours and quantitie of urine It followeth next Contents to speak of the contents which so greatly help to the right judgement of urine that Hippocrates in his second book of Prognostications doth by them only yen and that by one of them I mean the ground pronounce the judgement of a perfect urine saying That that is the best Vrine Sediment which hath his sediment or ground white duly knit and stable and that continually all the time of the sickness Now seeing this great Clerk and Father of Physick doth thus esteem the ground it shall not seem unmeet that I orderly doe write briefly of those principall things that are to be considered as touching the contents and first of all of the ground which hath alteration as you have heard both in substance colour and quantitie But now as touching the substance then is it only mean when the third concoction in the veins is perfect For the ground is the excrement as you might say of that third concoction and is like in forme to matter save that it is more duly knit together then is matter and doth not smell so evill as it or else you may liken it to thin fleam Grosses ground This Ground is then gross when the veins are replenished with raw humors Howbeit this grosseness or thickness is not alwayes an evill token for sometime it is a sign that nature hath prevailed against the crude humours which caused diseases and doth expell such superfluous excrements And that shall you discerne by the goodness of the colour and also if it come in the declining of the sickness for if it come at the beginning either in the increase of the sickness then are they to be suspected as evill especially if they bring with them evill colours
I conclude that howsoever you make your argument your profession and practise in Physick is hothing worth but rather is false deceitfull unjust unlawfull and not any longer to be suffered I could now if I were not too tedious to the Readers bring and alledge out of the Authors of Physick certaine notable examples of many rash and dangerous cures that hath been done by many ignorant and lewd persons in times past if it were not that the dayly examples appeared alas too much before our eyes in these our dayes I will say nothing now of the City of Salisbury where I dwell what abuses hath been or be there now concerning the Art of Physick A reformation hath been made there not very long agone as touching such matters but yet all things are not so well brought to passe as I would wish and as I thinke good they were I delivered once certaine Articles concerning the honest and lawfull use of Physick unto the right reverend father in God my Lord Bishop of Salisbury which Articles being at the least in my judgement good and lawfull if it would please his Lordship yea and all other most honourable Bishops each of them in his Dioces to admit and put in execution I would suppose imo I would beleeve that Physick should be better and more honestly truly and justly used and ministred then it is now in these dayes And because that I would that every man should see and know what Articles they be that I delivered I have thought it good to take a copy of them which notwithstanding I have somewhat altered and rehearse them here in order Seven Articles concerning the ministration and use of Physick The First It were very meet expedient and necessary that no Physitian should practise Physick in any Dioces unlesse he were first allowed by some University or at the least having sufficient learning in the said Science he were allowed and licensed by the Byshop or his Chancellor in that Dioces wherein he dwelleth The Second It were good and necessary that no Chirurgion should practise his Chirurgery unlesse he could read and write and had knowledge and experience in the simples belonging to his Art And that he presume not to let bloud or undertake any hard cure without the Physitians counsell if he may conveniently have it The Third That no Apothecary should minister of his own head or ordaine any purgation or other composition of Physick for any man or that he should prepare and make any purgation or notable confection without the Physitians advise and counsell unlesse that the Physitian had first seen and viewed the Ingredients whereof the compositions are made and specially the purgations The Fourth It is not decent not profitable for the Common-wealth that any ignorant lewd or ill suspected person be he man or woman should be suffered to make sell or minister Medicines to any body but that such kinde of persons being duly examined and convicted by the learned Physitians of the Dioces should have condigne punishment appointed them The Fifth That no Physitian doe take upon him the name of any degree of Schoole as Batchelour Master of Art or Doctor or cause and permit any writer or Printer so to terme him unlesse he can approve it to be so indeed by any University The Sixth That no Midwife should disdaine to come to aske counsell of the Phisitian as often as any woman being in labour of childe is in danger It were good also that the Midwives were first sworne before they take upon them their office The Seventh It were also good and expedient that as the use of London is granted by an Act of Parliament that the Physitians in every other Dioces one or two or more should have licence to search and view the Apothecaries shop once a yeer at the least and see whether their stuffe and Medicines be good and lawfull or not These Articles above rehearsed I thought good here to alledge although under correction of my superiors because that some occasion may be given to reforme the enormities and abuses in the Science of Physick And here let no man thinke that I meane to speake any thing in any point against the priviledges and liberties granted by an Act of Parliament to the Company or Corporation of the Physitions of London for I mind not nor may not meddle with their priviledges Many there are that beare themselves very stout upon an Act that was made by King Henry the 8. in his daies affirming that Act to make full and wholly in all points for their purpose but they are fouly deceived and farre beyond the marke that they shoot at For whereas the Act presupposeth in them a knowledge of the simples as of herbes rootes and waters and of the vertue and operation of them Alas they can scant tell what a simple meaneth There be a great number of them that knoweth not these common Herbs Buglossum Apium agrimonia for in stead of Buglossum which is Bourage they will take Buglose being deceived by the sound of the word for agrimonia the true Eupatorium They will take Eupatorium Mesue which is described of Dioscorides under the name of ageratum for apium Parsly they take commonly Smallage for Scolopendria called otherwise Ceterach they abuse Harts-tongue And to be short I my selfe have seen some Apothecaries take for the root of Rubia the leaves of Rubus for the root of Mandragora the root of Gentian for Hematites Amethystus for Sempervivum minus the Herb called Thrift or great Stonecrope they have taken little Stonecrope in making their Populeum To the purpose whereas the Act presupposeth a speculation or practise they practise at a venture a thing which they know not whether it be cold or hot dry or moist Item whereas the Act giveth them licence to minister Drinkes for the Stone Strangury and Agues They know not the Stone in the back from the Stone in the bladder neither whether the stone may be wasted and broken by Drinkes and Powders or had out by incision Moreover they know no difference between a Colike and a Stone for they name them both one whereas they be two sundry diseases They know not what Stranguria is nor how many manner of wayes it may be engendred in the body They can scant discerne a Tertian Ague from a Quotidian As for the mixt and complicate Agues they know not what to make of them They call them new diseases because they can give them no other name Now verily if these jolly fellowes had but that knowledge onely which the said act presupposeth them to have it were not so great a danger if they sometimes were permitted to give some medicines for the foresaid diseases But I pray you how many of them have that little knowledge which knowledge is but little indeed in comparison of many other sciences which be not only profitable but also necessary to attain the noble Science of Physick If the other Acts which have been
1. One preparation is made by resolving and separating some or every moistnesse from the drie earthy part as in the calcination of Stones Woods Coales by burning or otherwise drying them 1. Or by drawing forth from an actuall moistness 1. Spirits as from Wine Water 2. Juyce by expression 3. Oyle by expression distillation 2. From a potentiall moistness Spirits Oyle by distillation 2. From an actuall drynesse the most thinne sub till and pure earthy parts by a dry distillation as flowers of brimstone are made When the faculty of the Medicine is drawn either with or without Smell Savour Colour And that is performed by the said Expressions Distillations Infusions Decoctions some times Infusion Expressiō are joyned together w th Distillatiō Decoction For the same faculty is not in a native Medicine prepared by the said wayes or manner for preparation changeth the temperament some more some lesse Seeing that especially on which fire worketh more strongly doth either lessen or consume the moisture and conveyeth in an Eupyreuma and somewhat changeth the faculty or the fiery heat savour and taste mingling the subtiler earthy parts with watry when with his accidentary heat it induceth sharpnesse Nor is any Medicine made more perfect and excellent by any preparation since to the perfection in which every thing is created nothing can be added by art but made more convenient by certaine ends and yet not alwayes seeing many things are more usefull and better without preparation then prepared as the 1. Bezar-Stone and rasping of Harts-horne against poysens 2. Or the same as if in hystericall passions Powder of Amber by the mouth and Balsome exhibited below Nor doth that preparation alwayes excell which taketh away the thicker earthy matter seeing that it is more profitable in many effects then the thin It may be here enquired whether Medicines in the body may be so digested by nature with the help of heat as aliments and whether every or some preparation of Medicines may serve helpfull to this digestion The soule of man in the act of concoction and cure by Medicines useth the same heat the same humours vapours and vessels thorough which also it conveyeth the nourishment and altereth the faculty of the Medicine resolveth the humours and by helpe of the humours the earthy parts and by this meanes in this change resolution diminisheth them and separateth the thicker parts from the thin In like manner the preparation of the first Aliment and Medicament maketh it fit that the Aliment may more easily be digested by the heart and heat and the humour passe thorough the Medicine and draw out his faculty and lead it to the affected part yet notwithstanding some preparation taketh away the vertue or strength as we have said of calcination But this especially differeth between either act That in the Act of concoction the temperament of the first Aliment is changed into the temperament of blood but of this in the temperament of the cure of the parts the soule useth the temperament of the Medicine uncorrupted as much as may be as well to the changing of the qualities not naturall of the humours and parts as to the evacuation of things hurtfull so as the Medicines may not properly be said to be digested or concocted But there are seven principall wayes of Physick preparations 1. Powdering 2. Melting 3. Expression 4. Infusion 5. Decoction 6. Distillation 7. Extraction Powdering is when a dry Medicine is reduced into Powder by brufing or beating it that it may be the easier with liquor either simply dissolved or mixed serving whereto is drying of neat of the Sunne or fire of which sort also is that calcination which is called reverberation To many things in brusing them some liquor is added which prohibiteth the dry exhalation or vapouring away of the smell as Rose-water to certain Aromaticall Spices to Mush Ambergreese c. Water to Almonds least they cast forth their Oyle to the seed of Wild seme with Opium otherwise the clamminess hindereth the brusing or breaking it Ammoniacum Galbanum and such as are of that kinde are dissolved in vineger at the fire 1. There is some calcination imperfect as when all the watry moistness is resolved in the coales something aereall combustible being left and when in like manner Harts-horn by a resolving water the greatest part of the matter which coagulateth or joyneth together by the help of heat is resolved and drawn forth 2. Other calcination perfect as when every coagulation is resolved by fire onely or other helping dissolvers without ashes as is performed in calcination of stones and mettals and when woods are burnt into ashes All things calcined or all ashes have a power of drying and some have a greater some a lesser sharpness The vertue or efficacy of drying commeth 1. Partly from the rarity or thinness in every thing by which it can receive the humours into it self 2. Or from the hidden heat or flame lying in the ashes of stones or lime burnt in which because they are more folid the flame which insinuated it self in burning lyeth hid and after by the contrary qualities of water that is moistness and cold it is brought forth into act whilest the flame lurking extreamly resisteth the qualities of water but nor so in oyle There is greater sharpness in those things whose matter before burning was thick and sharp as Vitriall rinde of an Oake Wormwood c. From this reason we exhibit charcoales to Cattle we intend to fat especially oaken coales that their powder may easily be drawn by the veins and passe thorough them by reason of their thin and subtilness and so may dilate the veines to make them receive a greater quantity of blood may provoke the stomach by his acrimony by his dryness may draw the chyle and blood and thence from may prevent Aposthumes in men especially the coales of the Linden Tree that the grosseness of the blood may be cut least the Spirits should be suffocated Of ashes also some are true as of stones and plants from which all the liquor is truly carried away by the fire some like or analogicall as of metals who appear dry to the Senses but by their power keep in themselves their native liquor by whose benefit they may be poured forth or altogether reduced of which kinde is gold especially From hence may be demanded whether ashes retain or keep any vertue or faculty of the Medicine since the faculty whether hid or manifest is not but in the temparement by smell and savour but in calcination the temparement odour and savour are altogether destroyed for nothing is left but the earthy matter but contrarily in some of them a strange heat is induced native coldness of the earth and acrimony and in all things which have smell and taste a different smell and taste so that I can conclude no otherwise but that there is nothing at all retained of the proper vertue of the Medicine in the ashes The calcination of
correct the power which is offensive to stomack brain and heart and also prepare and fit the flegm by cutting and cleansing it Aloes Parseley seed and the other seed And because gentle purgatives are mixed with strong and vehement pursers there is almost the same quantity of correctors that is ten dragms as of Purgatives which are eleven drams And whereas a dose of Pills ought not to exceed four scruples this Masse ought to be divided into about 20. drams by which name there shall be in every dose of Aloes Scammonie Coloquintida whose highest dose is ij â„¥ and 12. grains of each 15. grains and 3. grains And to every Pill shall have of vehement Purgers 18. grains which dose is therefore the greater because the correctors doe not a little dull and weaken the strength of the Purgers By the like reason round orbicular Pellets or Trochises are framed the strength of Agarick being an enemy to the stomack is corrected by wine in which ginger is macerated and with Tragacanth which is slow and dull an Union is made of the broken and scattered parrs And the sharpness and malignitie of Coloquintida in the Trochises of Alhandal For ten ounces some read evilly so many Dragms for otherwise the Purgatives should be much overcome by the Correctives which were saulty are rubbed with oyle of sweet Almonds for one whole dupe and then they are reduced into a Maste or body by the infusion of four ounces of Rosewater of Bdellium Gum Arabick and Tragacanth of each nine Dragms The Masse being again dryed in the shadow being very small beaten is at length with the said infusion brought into a paste Clysters are profitable in vomiting when the sick hold not those things which they receive at the mouth or when they can receive nothing by the mouth They are good in a hard belly to loosen it and the dregs or excrements and in a fluid or moist to binde the same and to thicken the excrements or mollifie the sharpe For Ulcers in the guts to cleanse and glew them together and for diseases of the belly of the reines and bladder for they can work strongly upon these parts by discussing the vapours and windiness Loosning may be caused in one of full age by a pinte of flesh pottage of decoction of milk barly or emollient herbes of water or whey strained that the passages may be cleansed and of Sugar or hony boyled least windiness may be moved halfe an ounce strained for cleanness sometimes instead of hony we take purgative Electuaries in the same or lesse quantity according to their faculty and the Patients strength and by reason of the disease of oyle or fat by reason of the dryness of the intestines and excrements three ounces or five then we add when the sharpness of the rest is not sufficient to provoke and advance the worke or the sense is duller in the night gut about a dram of salt sometimes we add a yolke or two to wash and cleanse the guts that they may not be hurt by the sharpness of the humours or to dull the stirring or provoking faculty Sometimes if there be no obstruction present for otherwise heat by drying causeth and increaseth obstruction in a cold distemper a Glister is made of Muscadine or Spanish wine with an ounce of seeds discussing winde boyled and strained hot and mingled with halfe an ounce of Treacle So you may gather by these the use of the rest When we would have Clisters kept a good while we exhibite them in a lesser quantity decocted and avoid all sharpe things When either age or custome will not endure Glisters as 1. They that ace troubled with piles or Ulcers of the Fundament are offended with Glysters or if Glysters and Purges doe not work we will draw them from the head or the midriffe as in old diseases or of the stomach then we put up Suppositories into the Fundament of young women to loosen them of Butter or Larde 2. And unto people of full age provoking and cleansing of the root or Beet scraped annoynted with a littie Butter sprinckled with a little Salt and Hony boyled up into hardness whew the Fundament doth not perfectly feele or is moved wee 'l put on it a little purging Powder or otherwise frame some of fit and conveinent matter When Oyles will not cleave or fasten on the parts Art hath invented Ointments which may stick and hold closer to and work stronger Therefore either oyle distilled is mixed with Waxe Manna or the like Aieriall matter for cause of a more exacter mingling by reason of their simpathy and a terrestriall matter by reason of his making up in forme of a liniment 1. And it is called a Balsome because it commeth very near to the nature of a true Balsome 2. Or the juycie parts of the plants are boyled with oyle or butter rather then their juyce pressed out because if they have oylie or spirituous parts in them by this meanes that and the strength of it is extracted and drawn forth which is not in the watry juyce 3. The dry plants are sod with equall portions of Wine Butter Oyle that the aquosity or watrynesse of the Wine may as well restraine the collection of foule corrupt matter and that the fire by insinuating his heat may not change the temper of the ointment and that the spirituous parts peircing by their thinnesse may draw out the spirituous and oylse part which is in them and may com municate it to the oyle Either decoction is drawn to the consumption or the Watry juyce Wine When the watrynes is not mixed with the oyle and gives occasion of Putrefaction By Olives of which oile omphocine is made we understand the wild boyled in oyle according as Theophrastu and Atheneus conceive in their writings because Astringent oile cannot be pressed forth neither from ripe nor putrified Olives nor from unripe which rather yeeld a watery juyce astringent Emollient pultisses are made with emollient decoctions bran and pouders and oyle butter fat honey and the decoction strained forth is mixed with pouders that which is fat is poured upon the hot for that must not be boyled till all things mingled come into the form of a pultiss But those which draw from the inward parts to the Superficies as heat nourishment c. are made of sharp mustard seed and dry figs because they draw and restrain that the mustard seed burn not too much which the day before are macerated in varm water and is bruised and brought into a Masle When we would draw lesse violently we take equall parts of both or two of figs and mustard one of mustard and of figs. Cerots are of a thicker and dryer consistence besides pouders oiles and fatts they take up waxe and rosin which makes them stick and cleave faster especially Turpentine or hard Rosin for the mildnesse and sweetness and they are boyled so long till they soil not the hands The matter of them is various
berries Wheat c. are first to be brused that the water may peirce all the parts and the Spirit with the Oyle may unite unto it If you separate the Spirits from the water by distillation sometimes repeated at the length you shall have the most pure Spirits together with the Oyle from all Plants potentially hot None but a foole will call those Infusions or Macerations putrefaction because this is an innated destruction of heat that the actuation thereof and this is a progress not unto perfection as that but a passage to the corruption of the thing If there be a little part of oyle in it the dry matter ought to be infused into the Spirits that they may peirce the more and draw the oyle with it The purging force taste sweet bitter salt and the colour seeing it is placed in the thicker earthy matter they are not communicated to the humour in distilling nor the smell of the purple violet c. by reason of the smalnes of the odoriferous exhalation as it chiefly appeares in the example of sirrup of Roses purging in whose Distillation the water drawes away nothing but the Astringent facultie under which it stayeth the looseness of the belly without Inflammation the purging part being left in the dregs and this very Observation ministred the first occasion to Extraction If water distilled as for example of Roses bee often poured on fresh Roses the distillation being iterated by so much the more his strength is increased but the same doured upon the Lees forthwith to still as the water of Capons were to spend time foolishly seeing that the qualities of flesh are communicated not by distillation but by decoction When the most subtile earthy matter is mixed with oile only as in Waxe Sulphur Rosins Amber then there is required to the distillation some loosing spirituous matter which may carry the oile along with it an humour and earthy matter which may keep back Empyreuma and Adustion and the ascension of the subtle earthy matter Such loosing things which effectuate all these together are common Salt Sal gemmae Salt-peter Salt Ammoniack plume Allum pure sand ashes of bones burnt pouder of flints and Tiles or Bricks these especially hinder the ascent of the earthy matter Distilled vinegar and spirit of wine have truly a loosing power and carry the oyle with them but to the distillation of Amber are impertinent because they ascend before the Amber melteth and so preserve it not from the heat or violence of the fire If the first distillation of Amber be made rightly there doth not need another in Balneo which they call rectification for so much as the water washeth or taketh away of his colour so much it taketh away of his strength Pitch and Colophonie by reason of their great viscositie and grossness before are sod with rich wine to the consumption of the wine that Allum afterward added may so much the easier passe or penetrate this liquid matter and the oyle separated from the earthy matter may ascend more speedily There is another kind of distilling of oile when hot glowing Bricks or Tiles broken in peeces are quenched in the oil from whence it is called oyle of Bricks because it taketh from the fire his grew heat and from the Bricks his Astriction and being after reduced into powder are forced out by a strong fire that by this means they may also receive more heat and astriction and by the same manner oyle of quick lime is prepared And seeing it is the nature of oile and of oylie things that being put to the fire they are presently inflamed these if they be actually drie they swim above the water contrary to all reason 1. Amongst Oyles are reckoned spirit as I said of salt the water being concrete from the vapours of brimstone set on fire under a bell 1. Extract of Cinnamon which setleth at the bottome in water distilled 2. The moistness which is drawn from Wormes being stopt up with paste in a glasse with heat of an Oven 3. Or which from Couslip flowers and by insolation is drawn forth 4. And when in like manner the white of an egge hung in a pot with Camphire floure of Brimstone or Myrrhe or Tartar burnt mixt with a sharp moisture the dryness vanishing or vapouring away which they received or took from the heat they return into their former watery nature Secondly Oile is sought from stones Jewels Mercurie Antimonie mettals and out of all those things which have now before felt the strong resolving force of fire from Crystall Tartar Corall Pearls Vinegar which hath an extream contrary nature Yea though Salt-peter and Manna also are presently inflamed yet the scarcity of Oyle is much overcome by the earthy and cold waterie matter so that rather that which is oylie in it may be consumed by the fire then separated by distillation from the said matter To draw oyle from blood by distillation is to mock God by whose Ordination nature in the third concoction hath wrought out oyle from blood more perfectly that is to say fat tallow butter which if after the common Liquefaction or coction of flesh and bruised bones from water thou requirest more pure the temparament being unhurt thou shalt some daies of Harvest set in the sun that thou mayest separate the purest from the dregs setled downward But behold how in a matter so hard and difficult they trifle here which exhibite a Mutinie of which it appeareth not whether it be the dryed flesh of a man or a beast and whether it came to a true Balsome or whether it dyed not by poison or whether or not they were not the late carcases of many men rather annointed over with Myrrhe Aloes c. then with true Balsom and though true Balsom was used to the bodies of great men whether in so long a time the force and vertue bee not gone forth and expired and by reason of the corruption which was joyned with it whether the Indian or Succedanean Balsum made from Oyle of Cinnamon Cloves and the like things were not much more excellent Now when your Oyles are distilled and your spirits whether those so mixt in Hermes vessel by boyling them longer it behoveth to mingle them more exactly that from thence they may draw an Elixir which these Triflers call Circulati one of the two Homogeneall principles that is to say of the aire One truly increaseth the heat and smell of the other and the same faculty or strength which is in the smell but here observe the madness of Quercetan above or beyond all his other doatings he mingleth pag. 60. Lips edit 59. Medicines which every on 1. Either strengtheneth the principall parts 2. Refresheth the spirits 3. Breaketh the strength of poysons 4. Resisteth putrefaclion 5. Cutteth grosse thick humours And he calleth it a specifique Medicine to cure inveterate diseases giddiness falling-sicknesse palsie madness melancholy but how that may be called a speciall or specisique Medicine which is composed of