if so much as such meats as moisten the guts and stomach Sc. Pruens Pears Apples Butter Oyl Watergruel Flumory French barly Spinage and many such like moist and anodine Aliments of which hereafter and when the bowels and stomach are over moist relax'd and slippery as in your present Patient what can Physick do more than gradually as Rice does both heal alter bind dry and strengthen especially as it may be cook'd And you would find it Eugenius a hard task to tell me of any one Disease that I cannot hope to relieve or cure by a proper Diet and very little else as safely and surely though not perhaps so suddenly as the proudest Medicine the Chymist can produce What Disease is there that proceeds not from some of the simple or compound qualities and though no man is so compleatly wise as to explicate them in all their causes and effects which makes Mempsis absolutely deny their is any such thing as qualities which is no less absur'd than to affirm there 's no such thing as Summer and Winter or Fire and Water because in all things we know not their causes and effects and yet 't is certain they really exist and are by the Suns absence or more immediate presence made up of such qualities as we call hot dry cold and moist and as certain 't is that all essential Diseases are caused and all Medicines cure those essential Diseases by some or all of those four qualities hot cold dry or moist And what meats are there not as well as Medicines that are not in one degree or other opposite to those causes And if so as so it is what hinders then as strange as the Chymist makes it that food may not perform those cures and if you please not improperly be call'd Physick there being this only difference betwixt Food and Physick that in health Nature i. e. his Archeus requires things Homogeneal or of like qualities and temper to its self but in sickness things Heterogeneal or of contrary qualities to the Disease the neglect of which absolute and necessary distinction makes the Chymist so sceptical as he is Of such force and power is food for the preventing and curing Diseases that I could name you no meaner a Master of Physick than Avicen himself who cured to use his own words innumerable Diseases by Diet and esteemed it so honest as indeed it is safe easie pleasant and useful a science that no good nor wise men but the Chymist would neglect or undervalue it However if Diet should as in some sudden and great Diseases it sometimes does prove ineffectual you are hereby no more prohibited the judicious use of greater Medicines in such great and violent Diseases than the blowing up houses to prevent and put out fires when such natural and rational helps as water will not do it And that I may no longer detain you from what at first I most intended I shall without any more ado in several distinct Chapters propose you a proper Diet for Diseases by the help of which our Cordial Spirits c. I can with the satisfaction of a good conscience assure the Reader that he may safely and with good success especially where the Physician cannot visit the Patient practise on himself and avoid the danger of putting themselves into the hands of Pseudo-Chymists silly Women Mountebanks Mechanicks Fortune tellers and such like cheats And to do this there needs not much more than to be directed or have the opinion of some honest and able Physician whether your Disease be mixt or comes immediately from a hot a cold a dry or moist cause and then as you are directed by these ensuing Chapters to use a mixt or simple Diet contrary unto that cause CHAP. I. Treats of a Cold or cooling Diet for Hot Diseases and Constitutions THere is nothing that we can think on that belongs to Aliments so absolutely necessary so good cheap and easie to be attain'd as wâ—ter without which the whole Universe must stand still or run into immediate confusion It 's peculiar prerogative is to moisten cool relax relieve ease pain evacuate thicken thin and contributes something to all the active and passive five Qualities Dryness only excepted By its cold and moist Qualities it quenches Choler and Lenifies sharp acid salt and adust humours and relieves all inflamations inward and outward and is the only potent refuge for all volatil saline thin and sharp bloods A glass of good spring Water with a little toast and a little loaf-suger mix'd is a very good mornings draught for all hot lean sanguine cholerick and hectick persons So is Water Caudle made thus Take three pints of Water boil in it a little Rosemary or Mace till it comes to a quart then beat up an Egg and put some of the scalding hot water to it then give it a wame or two aad with a little Sugar drink it hot or cold three pints of Spring Water put to one pint of Milk with Sugar-candy or double refin'd Sugar is a drink that Princes may and do often refresh themselves with So also is running Water with a Lemon and some part of the Rine slit into it thin and a little Sugar and Wine put to it or Syrup of Rasberries Baum Violets Mint or Clove gilly-flowers you cannot take too much of it in ardent Fevers out of a bottle cork'd close and a quill run through the cork to drink out of Note that raw cold Water in Fevers Inflamations and Cholerick Thirst being drank at once in great quantity may cause obstructions and many dangerous Diseases as Dropsies c. But if you first boil well the water and use it after it is again perfectly cold instead of obstructing it will deobstruate or open obstructions and may thus be given at any time in all sorts of Fevers either malignant or ardent especially if a little White-wine Vinegar be mix'd with it That Water is best which is insipid or without taste clean light and bright but to make bad water good and good water better boil it well and then let it cool again before you use it Of Water is made Water-gruel the sick man's Food and Physick when the Archeus abhors all Cordials and high Diet this is ever very acceptable and pleasing and consequently not to be neglected by Mempsis himself there are these several ways of making it Take two pints of River or Spring Water boil it first and then let it cool again then put to it a due proportion of Oatmeal a handful of Sorrel and a good quantity of pick'd and well wash'd Currants eston'd Raisins of the Sun and other ingredients as the Disease will permit may also be added â—ye up these ingredients loosely in a fine thin linnen cloth or bag boil them all well together with or without a little Mace Nutmeg Rosemary c. as occasion offers when 't is sufficiently boil'd strain the Oat-meal and press out all the juyce or moisture of the Currants and
best especially if it be not too fine and without leven or spoil'd in making or baking The crum is best for Cholerick the crust for Phlegmatick and moist constitutions or they may eat it tosted the newer it is the more it nourisheth the older it is the more it drys I have known Children cured of the Chin-cough by drinking little and eating much Bread 't is good also against the Rickets and the reason why Fluxes Surfeits Fevers and many other Diseases are so rife in Fruit-time is because Bread is not eaten with them the more moist and liquid our meats are the more Bread is to be eaten with them dry houshold Bread Manchet or Bisket eaten for a Breakfast for Supper or last at meals with a little Wine is the only refuge for Rheumatick and moist constitutions Galen by much study was troubled with distillations but preserved himself many years by eating no other Breakfast or Supper than Bread dipt in Wine and with good Odours Rice made into Bread or dry'd in an Oven and steep'd in Wine or stale strong Beer and then boil'd or bak'd with a little Pepper Seeds or Cinamon is good so are all spiced and Aromatick Aliments Eggs rosted and eaten with Pepper much Salt or Cinamon and a glass of Wine or good Drink after them nourish and dry much All Wild Fowl Partridge old Pigeons Ducks and Geese Stares Thrushes and Black-birds Larks Sparrows Teel and Widgeon Rabbets Beef Mutton Venison and Hare dry rosted dry up Rheum Broth made with Rabbets Rice Sorrel Sage Sparrows c. All sowre things also dry much as Vinegar Verjuyce Orange Lemon Allum posset is incomparable for a gargel to hinder defluxions or take it inwardly in hot and moist distempers Make it thus Take a lump of Roch-Allum put it into a quart or two of boiling Milk stir it till it is very well curdled take off the curd and drink it hot in malignant and putrid Fevers Broths made of China and Sarsa or let all your Beer and Wine be drank out of a Lignum Vitae cup Some have abstain'd from all manner of drink for many months there are many other things that might be added to dry a moist Disease and Constitution which we omit because most of the Diet in the second Chapter against cold Diseases may be used here as a drying Diet. Note That our Ambrosiopaeas or Cordial Spirits at after or before meats may be used while you are under this diet But Milk much Sugar much Drink and all moist things mentioned in the third Chapter must be omitted But Abstinence a spare diet much exercise little sleep especially in the day-time and presently after feeding is pernicious for fat Phlegmatick and moist bodies for hot lean and dry bodies 't is necessary especially in Summer and hot Seasons The Conclusion And the summ of all is this when a Pauper and sick person comes to me I direct him if any no more Physick than is absolutely necessary next I bid him keep a proper diet or take a proper Cordial against his Disease If his Disease comes from a hot cause I bid him keep till he recovers to the Medicines and diet belonging to the first Chapter If from a cold cause then to use no other Diet and Medicines than is contained in the second Chapter If from a moist or dry cause then to the Diet and Directions in the third and fourth Chapter If Diet and our Cordial Drinks do not do then I recommend them to the Stove and Artificial Bath mentioned in the second part of these Dialogues and if then and there they mend not you may conclude their case desperate and more fit for the Divine than Physician Finis part the first Miscelanea Medica OR A SUPPLEMENT TO Kitchin-Physick To which is added A short DISCOURSE ON STOVING AND BATHING WITH Some transient and occasional Notes on Dr. George Thompsons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nec lex est justâ—â—r ulla Quam necis artificis arte perire sua LONDON Printed in the year 1675. HIPPOCRATIS GALENI FAUTORIBUS Speciatim Erudito viro mihique observando Thomae Austen Armigero Mei amicissimo Necnon Egregiè Doctis J. N. T. S. Medicinae Doctoribus PEllaeo Juveni Cultor non sufficit unus Duos igitur tanto Heroi diversi generis obtigisse memoriae traditur Craterum scilicet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hephestionem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab eodem appellatos Quorum ille quidem Regem hic vero Alexandrum coluisse dicitur Mihi quoque in publicum prodeunti analogo quopiam multo magis opus esse quis dubitet Repertis enim libclli causae quam tractat justissimae patronis idoneis alios etiam Scriptoris protectores exquirendos facile persensi Nec mora Vos enim viri egregii illico mihi in mentem rediistis unde quidem ut verius dicam nunquam abestis qui me vestra familiaritate olim dignati sic me sic med omnia utcunque tenuia estimatis vel landare vel saltem excusare parati estis ut aliis hunc tractatum inscribere vel alios mei Defensores adoptare nefas duxerim De meipso more Chymicorum speciatim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 G. T. multa promittere modestia non patitur quamvis mihi non sum tam suffenus ut quidquam de me magnoperè pollicear in utraque tamen Academià educato exactis etiam viginti propè annis in studio praxi Medicinae Chymiae Anatomiae liceat mihi dicere me non prorsus ignarum esse plurimorum sive Dogmatum sive Experimentorum quae alicujus in hâc arte momenti sunt Quapropter navem solvendi hunc oceanum discurrendi copiam facile mihi dandam confido gratum aliquid utile humano generi exponere studenti Valete viri egregiè docti Accipite hoc offerentem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pergite mihi quod semper facitis indulgere meique patrocinium suscipere dignemini perpetuo favete Addictissimo Vestri T. C. Miscelanea Medica OR A SUPPLEMENT TO Kitchin-Physick The Second Part. ALL Physicians whom we ought most to confide in do conclude and have determined it as a most undoubted Truth to cure with contraries and preserve with Cordials according to that confirm'd Aphorism of contraria contrariis curantur Similia similibus conservantur Paracelsus Theophrastus Bombastus Van-Helmont and some of their late conceited Disciples without taking any notice of this distinction do morbum morbo curare and venture to attempt the putting out of fire with fire Or curing hot Diseases with hot Medicines and consequently cold Diseases with cold Hippocrates Galen and their more aged Off-spring on the other hand judge it more reasonable and practicable to put out fire with water and to subdue the cold effects of water by heat or fire and to this end if the Disease be hot and dry as a Fever they advise such Food and Physick as is
cold and moist and hot and dry Meats and Medicines to subdue a disease that is moist and cold never neglecting as is supposed by the Chymist to supply Nature though not the Disease with convenient delightful and proper Cordials always remembring not to nourish but to oppose a Disease with things that remove or alter it by their qualities We are much beholden to the temperament and qualities of things for the preservation of our health and curing Diseases nor is there through the benignity and bounty of God any accident or distemper but hath its remedy assigned it by the matter form temperament or qualities of Medicines knew we but certainly how and when to apply them and therefore it is that Physiology and all the five parts of Physick are more absolutely necessary than the most exalted and accurate Medicines of the Chymist and though by some who know the vulgar neither do nor will know any thing but what is vulgar the Galenist and Chymist are represented as two distinct different and inconsistent things yet 't is certain they both serve but to make up one intire Artist And I could tell you Eugenius not only of some Physicians but some also of your own profession that can compare if not out-do the greatest Don and Heroes as they think themselves of the Chymical and Hermetick Sect And because you may depend upon it for a Truth that all Diseases and Remedies may as well and better be comprehended under some of the simple or compound Qualities than any other invented Idea Name or Notion whatever of the conceited Chymist to this very end the foregoing Chapters in the first Part have given you a practical account of such things as do preserve by their agreement with Nature and cure by their contrariety to the Disease and not to advise people to a Diet that is answerable to their Disease and Physick they are prescribed is to ruine them nor are they by any but conceited Pracâ—tioners and Humorists to be left at large to feed as they think sit on old Cheese Red-herring or to inflame themselves with the more subtil and penetrating Spirits of Brandy Punch and Aqua Vitae which though at first they seem to content Nature and exalt the Archeus or vital and natural heat of our bodies yet they so alter also the natural tone temper and ferments of the pancreas blood and stomach that in a little time they leave them languid faint and vappid By these things the Chymist may for a while seemingly make his Archeus or Nature blaze the better but like a Torch with often beating it will certainly burn out the sooner and 't is rare to find any accustomed Brandy or Aqua vitae Bubber when once sick ever to recover because the frequent use of such things make all other Cordials useless and invalid in time of sickness and when Nature should stand most in need of them Besides they either at first so inflame the vital Spirits as to produce such acute sharp and sudden Diseases as Fevers Apoplexies and the like or else in time as one fire puts out another they extinguish the vital heat and moisture and thereby occasion such chronick and fatal Diseases as Gouts Dropsies Palsies Hecticks Scorbuts Consumptions and death it self In short our blood and spirits may as well be too much agitated as idle and the volatil Salts may stand in as much need of fixing as the fixed Salts of volatizing nor is their less danger in one than the other and how the Chymist only with his hot fiery Cordial Spirits at one and the same time can serve two such different Masters I understand not and must herein submit to better judgements than my own and surely such a modest and mannerly condescention as this would have better become Mempsis than an unmanly disdaining others to magnifie himself nothing being more intolerable and base than inurbanity Nor can I but wonder with what confidence he can pretend as he does page 187 to subdue the irregular passions and reform the sinful inclinations of others by his Medicines when after so many thousand Doses as he says he has taken himself only to animate others as yet he has not conquer'd his own his prevaricating in this is enough on all occasions to call in question his integrity and to make him suspected a Chymist Nor are we so much to conside in the loud Hyperbolies of his Medicines and great brags that are daily made of Pantamagogons Alexi stomachons c. As to some few well digested institutions that may practically relate to the six non-Naturals and a Directory for Diet. Like Food like Flesh like Meat like Medicine was once almost grown proverbial and some old Philosophers by the continual succession of new matter by Aliments have not only affirmed that from sick men we may become sound men but of late the Chymists have so improv'd and advanced the Notion in behalf of their Aetherial and supernatural Spirits that we may say they also become new men and one of the best and most accomplish'd of the Chymical Cabal meaning Mempsis has undertaken on condition his Majesty will be gracious to that profession not only to cure his Subjects of Incontinency Atheism Profaneness and all manner of Sin and Debauchery But will make them also Just Devout Loyal and Religious only by cokesing tameing and tickling the Archeus with his Hermetick and Chymical preparations and to gratifie farther his sacred royal Master for so great a kindness he engages to use his own words pag. 187. of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the powerful operation of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. in plain English his profound skill in Physick to convert Quakers Catabaptists Independents Separatists Schismaticks the multitude of Phanaticks to the Church of England Do this thou shalt have my consent not only to be honest George Doctor George and George the Doctor But Sir George St. George and George the Saint But in good earnest I wish dear Doctor thou hadst conceil'd the Divine and Moral operations of thy Medicines upon the hearts and consciences of poor Mortals because in these his Majesties Dominions thou canst now never more hope for any practice and employ as a Medicaster for surely the profane Cavalier he 'l not meddle with thee for fear of being made a Schismatick a religious Rebel or Round-head Nor will I 'm sure the devout Phanatick for fear of being damn'd for an Atheist a debauch'd and honest Royalist now then or never recant and own the Doctrine of Contrarieties now now or never is the time to make it appear and convince the ignorant Heretical Reprobate and unconverted Galenist that thy Chymical and Hermetick Physick can at one and the same time work such contrary effects as to make the Serpent thy self dear Doctor a Saint a Royalist a Round-head and a Rebel a Royalist Now I say is the time the very time for thee O Mempsis to work these wonders or else
Pig-pork Veal or Trotters let them simper ten or twelve hours by a soft fire in a sufficient quantity of Spring-water with Mary-golds Rosemary Time Savory Sweet-marjoram Mace or Cinamon when 't is almost boil'd enough add to it a crust of bread then strain it To make it more nourishing put to it as you eat it the yolk of an Egg and Sugar Or Take a quart of Sack burn it with Rosemary Nutmegs or Mace then temper two or three new laid Eggs with four or five spoonfuls of it Give it a walm or two with the Eggs and add to it Sugar to your content Thus also for cheapness it may be made with Ale stale-beer or Sider Or Take two or three spoonfuls of Brandy put to it a pint of Ale boil the Ale and scum it then put to it Sugar and drink it Or Take three or four leaves of Sage twelve leaves of Garden or Sea-scurvy-grass shavings of Horse-radish root as much as will lye on a shilling Raisins of the Sun eston'd Num. 20. put them into a quart bottle of Ale or Beer after two or three days you may drink it constantly for your ordinary drink against the Scurvy Dropsie Green-sickness or any cold Disease Egg-caudle and all sorts of broths Bocheets Caudles Cullices Jellies and liquid Aliments made with Flesh Eggs Sugar Sweet-fruit Wine or Aromatick Spices nourish more and sooner than things that are solid and in the substance and on this account no diet can exceed Eggs eaten any ways Take any flesh reer-rosted or boil'd Mutton is best press from it the Juyce or Gravy let it simper over a soft fire with so much white or Rhenish Wine as there is Gravy to which add the yolk of Eggs as you see occasion Sugar and a lirtle Cinamon Nutmeg or Mace drink often four or five spoonfuls of it or eat it with crums of sine Manchet or Naples Bisket The bottom of any well-seasin'd Venison Pasty or meat 〈◊〉 stew'd in a sufficient quantity of Wine and Water or Ale and Water or Water only makes a good stomach Potage All Aromatick Plants all exalted Sauces with Anchovacs Saffron Shalots Pepper Ginger Cloves Cinamon Nutmeg Mace Mustard or Horse-radish roots Chervil Cresses Mint Peny royal Taragon c. Steept slic'd or shred into Sack are good Sauces for cold and crude stomachs Note That Ambrosiopaea's or our Cordial Spirits much Flesh and good Wine moderately taken may be used while you are under this diet Rich aromatick scents odours and perfumes are also excellent Galen counted them the solace and support of his life The sauce and food of his Spirits and that Reverend Divine the learned Hooker found them so to fortifie rature that he could not live withâ—ut them And certainly most distempers incident to a cold and moist brain the original and prime cause of most diseases are prevented relieved or cured by Aromatick Odours these and good Air are says 't is Hippocrates I think the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 charms against all evil CHAP. III. Treats of a moist diet for dry diseases and constitutions MOst of those things mentioned in the first Chapter against hot diseases may be useful also against dry because such diseases as are hot are generally also dry and therefore it is that moisture and dryness are counted passive qualities But besides what are already mentioned in that Chapter there 's nothing can come in competition with Milk and had Gods providence confined us only to this Aliment and bread we had no cause to complain of his bounty 'T is generally suppos'd to be of a cold and moist temper but being nothing else but white blood I rather think it as blood is temperately hot and moist and so like the blood of our bodies that nothing can exceed it for nourishment and therefore 't is that Milk in acute distempers is accounted offensive unless alaid with water Asses Milk for Medicinal use is in greatest repute because 't is not so thick to obstruct nor so thin as not to nourish both which may be performed by Cow-milk either by taking from it the Cream call'd Fleetmilk or putting to it a due proportion of Whey especially if the Whey be first well boil'd and put to it cold and then it will answer all the intents of Asses milk But such as are sound and under no manifest distemper stand in no need of these cautions and directions nor can err in eating it only observing 1. That they do not eat it raw and cold when they are hot 2. Not to eat it on a full stomach or mingled with other meats this makes children so subject to Worms 3. Use no violent motion immediately after it A draught of warm Milk from any Cow 't is but conceit and opinion to count on a red-Cow more than a red-Woman the brown and black of both Kine are best so that they are young well fed and well flesh'd their Milk I say taken in bed about an hour before you rise is an absolute refection for a hot lean and dry constitution if you put a little Sugar or Salt in it you need not fear its curdling or corrupting This trifle made of Milk is pleasant Take a quart of Milk boil in it a blade of Mace then take it from the fire and dissolve in it two or three spoonfuls of fine Sugar then when 't is blood-warm put to it about a spoonful of Runnet stir it and dish it out for a wholesome repast some do it with Cream instead of Milk they are both good There are many of the like nature which this short Essay will not permit of Fish of all sorts is also cold and moist especially those that live in fresh waters but Fish that dwell in salt waters and among Rocks and gravel Rivers are best Fresh-cod Whiting Shads Place Flounder Sole Bream Barbel Smelts Carps Gudgeon Pearch Pikes Roche Mullets Jacks or broths made with these and Oysters Cockles crums of bread and yolks of Eggs are sine feeding for sick maciated people Fruit of all sorts Pears Apples Prunes c. Stew'd rosted boil'd or bak'd are good also against dry Diseases Carrots Cowslips Purslain Letice Asparagus ripe Mulberries Spinache Strawberries Dates Violet leaves Sweet-almonds Mallows Beets Endive Succory Borage Burnet Liquorish Scorzonera Raisins Currants Whey Wheat French barley Oatmeal Puddings Frumety but above all things Flumory the worth of which is known to few 't is made thus Take half a peck of Oatmeal take from it the supersine flowre put it to soke three or four days in a stand or any earthen Vessel with so much water as will more than cover it shift the water every day to take away the bitterness of the Oatmeal let it stand in the last water till it sowre and when you would use it stir it well together and strain so much as you would use at once then boil it up to the consistence of a gelly and eat it at any time cold or hot with a little White-wine or
Sugar Sack Claret Sider or Oat-Ale though it seems worst that sort of Flumory is best which looks cleer and sheer and tastes sharp and sowre Thus also may be made Flumory of Wheat Rice French barley c. Frogs and Snailes are counted good food in France so may Toads Spiders or any Vermine if they come from thence Our English Hens Cocks Veal Lamb Chickens Kid and Capons are I think every whit as good for saline hot and dry bodies If your Lamb and Veal be very young you ought to stick it with Cloves or Rosemary as you do Beef and it eats more pleasant and is more wholesome The brains of most Animals are over moist and Phlegmatick But the Rumps Tails and Tongues of all Beasts but one are temperate and restorative The Lungs also of Flesh and Fowl are good for hot and dry constitutions So are the Eyes Gizards Sweet-breads and feet of most creatures especially boil'd Cassia or Currants boil'd in Chicken or Veal-broth cools moistens and loosneth the belly This is also a good cool moist cheap and nourishing potage boil any Mutton or Veal in water with or without Oatmeal when the Meat is a little more than half boil'd put in it a bundle of sweet Herbs and the green leaves of Marygolds Sorrel Spinage Lettice purslain Violet and Strawberry leaves add to these a sufficient quantity of the tender part of Asparagus or a good quantity of green Pease will do as well especially if you bruise some of them before you put them in Or boil Damask Pruens in two quarts of water after they have boil'd a quarter of an hour put to them a saucer full of wheaten bran let your bran only steep in the hot water till 't is cold then strain it and sweeten it with Sugar and drink it frequently Or steep a pound of Pruens and a very little Liquorish in three or four pints of cold water thirty or forty hours and drink it for common drink Or this Emulsion Take Raisins of the Sun ston'd and Currants of each a small handful Lettice and Purslain seed of each bruised two or three drachms boil them in a Gallon of Spring water to a Pottle then blanch two or three ounces of Almonds and bray them in a stone Morter strain the liquor and put into it the Almonds then strain it again and with sine Sugar make an Almond Milk and drink it blood warm as often as you will In short nothing moistens the body more than much sleep ease and rest and living in such a moist Air as Lambeth-marsh Hackney or Dengy hundreds And though that Air is simply best which is most serene clear sharp and dry Nay our Native Air though by its simpathy with our first matter often times most repairs and mends our decayed Natures yet sometimes a gross thick and moist Air or indeed any Air opposite to the Disease we labour under must by us always be reputed best it being a sure rule that all things cure best by contraries be it Air Aliments Food Physick or any of the non-naturals Note That while you are directed this Diet all things are to be avoided which are forbidden in the first Chapter CHAP. IV. Treats of a drying diet for moist Diseases and Constitutions BRead is so inseparable a companion of life that neither sound nor sick can subsist without it and did I not stand in awe of time and feared prolixity I would write its Paragraph and make man kind sensible how with this Milk or Water and very little else we might contemn the curiosities of a Court and encounter with death it self Epicurus that Cormorant and Monster of men only with his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could entertain himself so well that he could dispute felicity with Kings and in his morals tells us that when he would entertain himself more splendidly he mended his chear with a little Milk and found so much satisfaction by it that he bids defiance to the pleasures which the ignorant and sensual world so much like and cry up in magnificent feasts great entertainments rich Wines costly Meats and Junkets and certainly says our wise man most that have addicted themselves to variety extravagancy and excess have thereby either loaded themselves with new cares or contracted new vices and so become obnoxious to various and great troubles and frequently commit Rapines Cheats violating Justice Faith and Friendship and many times precipitate themselves into grievous Diseases losses and disparagements which by Frugality Temperance and Sobriety they might have avoided Nature requires little opinion much and he that has not this faculty of abdicating from his desires his mind is like a Vessel full of holes ever filling but never full and to him that is not satisfied with a little nothing will ever be enough and whosoever covets no more than that little he enjoys however the world deceived by vain opinion may account him poor yet he really is the richest man alive and the way to make ones self truly great and rich is not by adding to ones riches but by detracting from our desires and what reason is there then says our brave Philosopher that any man should stand in fear of Fortune or court it's favour since few or none are so poor as to want long these things or ever was reduced to a lower ebb than Sallets Bread and Water nor know I whether more than this with a quiet mind and good appetite without which none need eat is worth contending for How many by high drinks and dyet riot and luxurious compotations have dyed on their Close-stools expired in privies and took their leaves of this base world over a Chamber-pot or at least only out-liv'd the conflict with Gouts Palsies Catarrhs Surfeits and many other ignominious Diseases and what great matter can be expected in Church or State from that man whose joynts are infeebled his sinews relaxed his head clowded eyes bleered and mouth full of curses and clamours and all by reason of debauchery excess and luxury which chokes rather than cherisheth Nature and clogs the Veins and Vessels with such superfluous moisture that no Meats nor Medicines can command those unmanly Diseases that are the effects of it and though Bread will do as much as any thing yet unless temperance abstinence or a spare diet be joyned with it all that Physick or Food can do is in vain No persons are more offended with Crudities Worms Fluxes and Defluxions than those that eat none or too little Bread No Flesh Fish or Fruits that we can feed on but putrifie and convert to slime and water for want of it No country no place no people in some sort or other are without it Some bake it some broil it others fry tost and boil it some make it of dry'd Fish some with roots of Plants and Barks of Trees some with Seeds Nuts Acorns Among our selves 't is made of Barley Rye Oats Misceline Wheat of all which Barley Bread is worst and Wheaten
are deficient and cannot do it I leave to the bounty of a prudent and liberal conception It is so contriv'd that 't is impossible for the patient to take cold to faint or sweat beyond their strength and own inclinations nor is there any nuissance in it that is incident to Stoving or sweating in other Baths Place here the Figure AN APPENDIX OR Practical Cautions AND DIRECTIONS To be observed about STOVING AND BATHING STtoving and Bathing are two different things the first may not improperly be call'd a dry Bath the other a wet and when ever you meet with the word Bath you are to understand swearing in something that is liquid as luke-warm Milk Milk and Water or only warm water or water prepared with ingredients proper for the diseased person Note also that a Bath with very hot water drys more than it moistens and contracts the skin and pores rather than relax or open them and serves to supply the intention of a cold Bath or bathing in cold water with such parts persons as cannot safely go into cold water But a Bath of heated tepid or warm water is of so great a latitude that it extends it self to most Diseases and serves to use the words of a learned Author on this subject Dr. J. F. effectually more than any thing Physick is prescribed for to defecate the blood and humours to mollifie the hardness of the Spleen and bowels to moisten cool and nourish a hot and dry constitution and liver to rarifie and resolve also all cold congealed humours and to prevent Barrenness and miscarrying that is occasioned by any intemperies of cold heat or dryness When you meet with the word Stove you are to understand sweating as in a Hot-house without any thing that is moist and liquid You will also sometimes find the word Vaporarium used in this Appendix the meaning of which will be known hereafter The Romans were most addicted to Bains or Baths the Lacedemonians Russians Germans and most Northern Nations to Stoves The Turks French and Italians use both Baths and Stoves and as soon as they come out of the Stove they enter into a Bain or Bath of warm water to wash away the recrements slime mador or mud as it were that stoving without bathing is apt to leave upon the skin By this means also the skin is not only made pure clean and smooth but also plump and fleshy and according as the Bath may be dulcified and prepared it will nourish feed and refresh the limbs and musculous parts more than food nor is there any thing to be done by the natural Baths at Bathe but may be also performed by artificial Baths of Sulphur Bitumen Nitre c. and being advisedly used they do as manifestly answer the expectation of the patient as any remedies whatever in order to which observe these few Directions 1. Never Stove when the blood wants ferment or according to the Notion of the Chymist when the fixed salts of the blood have over-ruled the volatil as in Dropsies and some sorts of Scurvies But when the Sulphur of the blood is too much exalted the fomes of most acute diseases or acrimony and acidity has insinuated it self into the Mass and yet the blood not vapid then the Stove is a proper and most effectual remedy Or more plainly according to the significant apparent and practical meaning of the Galenist Stoving is not so proper and beneficial for weak lean hot hectick dry cholerick maciated melancholy and squalid bodies as bathing nor bathing for cold moist fat corpulent plethorick phlegmatick hydropick constitutions and diseases as stoving The Stove is most proper for the Spring Autum and Winter the Bath for the heat of Summer the Vaporarium is neither bathing nor stoveing but differing from both and to be used by all sorts of persons at any time 2. Before you Bathe or enter into the Stove if your body be not naturally soluble be sure it be made so by Art Take a gentle Clyster over night if you intend to sweat next morning or take the like Clyster in the afternoon if you intend to sweat at night An hour before bed-time and two or three hours after you have eaten a light supper is the best time both for bathing and stoving because you may lie all night after in your bed and have your body well refresh'd and settled by morning Note also that while you are sweating in a Stove Bath or Bed you may refresh your self with Mace-ale Egg caudle Chicken-broth or any convenient Bocheet supping or liquid Aliment 3. When you come out of any Stove or Bath take great care you take not cold For preventing which and many other accidents nothing hath ever yet been invented comparable to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Balneum and vaporarium now all in one presented to you which is so safe so commodious and effectual both for preventing and curing almost all Diseases that nothing ever was or can be advised better for private Families than to have one of them constantly in their houses it being so contrived that it may stand in any bed-chamber with as much conveniency and ornament as a well wrought Chest of Drawers or Cabinet In Italy France Germany Turkie and many other Countries they are so curious and not without good cause so addicted to stoving and bathing that they count their habitations not compleatly furnish'd and well provided and cared for until they have them in their houses esteeming them the most commendable and necessary furniture that belongs to them and scarce a Family of any remark and quality is to be found without them and if our English Gentry especially those that live in the Country remote from Physicians did also take up this custom they would have no cause to repent them of their care and consideration Besides not only their healths but interest and good husbandry might induce them to it it being the most profitable Physician and Apothecary they can make use of Another benefit of having them in their houses is the accommodation of their sevants attendants bedding and linnen and the avoiding many accidents by lying bathing or stoving after strangers by this means also they will be encouraged to use them the oftner at least 't is likely it will induce them not to fail spring and fall those being though no time amiss the most necessary times to prevent Diseases and preserve their bodies in a perfect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 health and integrity the whole year after I know and am well assured that Physicians would frequently advise their Patients to stoving and bathing had they them in their own houses but the charge and trouble on all occasions of providing them does too often discourage both the Patient and Physician By this means also you may avoid Spring and Fall the use of Diet-Drinks Physickâ—ale and the like which being at those times so rashly and promiscuously used as they are do more hurt than good Letting blood also