the Medicine is deduced into act The time of sweating As for the time of sweating first of al it is sufficient if the patient sweat one hour afterwards by degrees let him rise to more But the manner of sweating is various most do suffer their Patients to sweat in bed which that they may do the easier bottles ful of warm water or hot brick wrapt up in Cloaths must be placed under the Arm-pits and sides of the Patient Some provide a wooden Mantle such a one as Andreas Tenzelius hath discribed and set forth in Exeges Chymiatre which manner of sweating is not a little toublesome But not without cause most men do prefer before al kinds of sweating in this disease that which is in a bath or sweating place as that which brings less trouble to the sick when as weak Patients sweating in their bed may use a Bath and a sweating place and the heat of the bath may be made more intense or remiss at pleasure be made dry or moist as the condition of the sick requires yet a moist hath and gently heated by the Vapor of hot water is most commodious whenas that hot vapor of the Water doth open and Lax the pores of the Skin that the sweat flows the easier and without any trouble to the sick but dry baths are altogether laborious and ought not to be used in dry and Melancholy bodies But those sweating baths are twofold Baths twofold first of al those gaeat ones in which a body may walk such as are our baths so commonly called in which many at once may sweat and be washed such though they be used for the cure of this disease by Barbers in Italy yet they ought to be eschewed whenas if one that is lightly infected receive that which exhales from another grievously infected he may be infected more and 't is more commodious that every sick body sweat by himself Then there are baths or smal sweating places in which one alone closed up may sweat such are made of bords of wood Joyned together which again are twofold some which can receive a man upright Without bowing of his body Jul. Palmarius discribes it de lue Vener Cap. 17. of a Square figure seven Foot high and four foot long and broad whose description you may see there With us others are in use made up of boards mutually receiving and received by one another square but oblong of that bredth that a man may without any impediment set and extend his Arms but two stories high one where the Patient sets so high that as he sets he may put forth his Head through a hole of the bords strictly fitted for the neck but the lower part is of that depth that if the Patient setting stretch forth his Feet he cannot reach the lowest board and it hath a little door through which the sick may go into it and a window behind which may be opened upon neceffity and it hath another little door towards the feet through which an Iron or brass Vessel is put in ful of stones or refuse Iron red hot and a Pipe in the upper part of it over against the Vessel through which either plain hot water or some convenient decoction is poured on the stones or dross by degrees as much as the Patient can endure from whence the Vapor exhaling diffused al through the body doth provoke sweat and though after this manner the head be thrust forth yet that doth no hurt neither is it unprofitable even where the head is affected for though it stands forth yet that sweats plentifully enough in the interim the Patient doth not attract again by drawing in his breath those filthy Vapors which do Evaporate from his body but the free and pure ayre by which he is refresht that he doth more easily and happily endure sweating But in what bath soever sweat is provoked after the sweating is over the bath ought to be opened that those filthy Vapors may be blown away and discussed by the free Air. The most convenient time for sweating is the morning When we must sweat yet somtimes we may sweat after noone in which case the strength of the Patient is to be considered for there are some who wil easily endure sweating twice a day other who but once others who are not able to endure sweating once every day But the Medicines which moue sweat must be taken upon an empty stomach and an hour or two after the taking of the Medicine sweat must be urged But we must sweat so long as the strength of the Patient wil bear it How long and if the patient sweat in a bath or sweating place and is not able to endure any longer the heat of the bath he must be laid in his bed in which afterwards sweat wil flow of its own accord and without any loss of strength the sweat must afterwards be wiped of and after sweating the cold ayre must in no wise be admitted But how often we must sweat How often and how long the use of these Medicines is to be continued cannot be defined in general They commonly teach that these decoctions are to be continued for forty daies yet somtimes twenty five daies or thirty do suffice and somtimes in a more grievous Disease we must persist in the use of these Medicines til sixty daies and more For we must sweat so often and so long til the Malignity of the Disease is overcome and the vitious and vitulent Humors are discussed by sweating and al the Symptomes cease especially the running of the Reins and Callous skars For as long as these last We must remain in the use of these Medicines Nay though al the Symptomes do vanish yet it is good so to continue the Medicines for some daies that also the Maligne dispositions of the parts may be taken away that there be no fear of a relapse But after noon though sweat be not moved yet the same decoction given then may insensibly discusse the vitious Humors and destroy the virulent disposition imprest both on the parts and Humors CHAP. XX. Of other common Alexipharmaca BUt some trust not to those Alexipharmaca alone Common Alexipharmaca as Guajacum Sarsaparilla China Root and Sassafras wood but add also common Alexipharmaca This was first done by Fernelius who gave to those that were to drink the decoction half a dram or one dram of this Opiate or Alexipharmacal antidote which is prepared thus Take of the Leaves of water Germander Fernelius his antidote half an ounce Poley of the mount Penny royal white Hore-hound Origanum Calamint St. Johns-wort centory the less French Lavender ground pine Germander Spikenard of each two drams of the Seeds of Anise Fennel Parsly wild carrot Libistick Rue Basile Clary Cresses of the Berries of Bay Juniper of the Seeds of Male Piony of each half a dram of the Roots of round Birth-wort Gentian Dittander Valerian Asarabaccha of each one dram of Nut-megs
which there had been boyled the Root of the greater Dock which having drunk up when he could not be cured by any other remedies of the Physitians he made a great deal of white Water his Urine being like Milk and so was freed from all his pains Or Take Sarsaparilla one ounce Sassafras Wood half an ounce the Root of the Clove Tree one ounce Citrine Saunders two drams Infuse all in three pints of Water for twenty four hours and afterward boyl the same and give of this Decoction one draught in the morning either alone or else with Harts horn Topicks The Body being thus in a due manner evacuated Topicks and the Antecedent cause that would have augmented the Disease being once taken away we then come to the very moderating of the pain and the taking away of the Conteining Cause of the pain and swelling and so unto the Topicks But if Topicks shall presently be administred before those Universal and General Remedies shall have been first made use of the Patient shall receive from thence far more hurt then benefit For either the matter which Nature endeavoureth to thrust forth to the Joynts is driven back unto the more inward parts from whence very grievous Symptoms are excited or else it is impacted into the Joynts and so the pain is exasperated or else the part is effeminated and made weak and loosened and so the flux is increased Which being not commonly taken notice of and Topicks being oftentimes most unseasonably and without any caution at al administred the sick persons do for the most part receive more hurt then good from them and from hence it was that the common and received opinion had its first original to wit that the best course is to administer nothing at al unto the pained Joynts And the truth is that it is fir becter to apply nothing call but to commit the whole business to Nature then to make use of such Medicaments as are altogether unfit and improper Now the Topicks that are applied they respect either the pain only or else withall the Cause of the pain to wit the Humor that now and formerly hath flown in exciting both a pain and a swelling Mitigaters of Pain The Pain in this Disease for the most part is a most grievous Symptom Mitigaters of Pain and which is most troublesom to the sick parties and which they most of all Curse and Bann as Lucian hath it in the beginning almost of his Tragopodagra and therefore also it is that they most of all desire the removal thereof And indeed it is altogether necessary that the Physitian should have regard thereunto because that if it be too great it causeth a restlessness dejecteth the strength and by attracting the Humors it augmenteth the Malady and so deservedly draweth our care unto it for its removal as Gaien in the 12. of his Method C. 1. and thereupon it sheweth and pointeth us unto the asswaging thereof by Anodynes Now Anodynes or Mitigaters of pain have likewise this Good and benefit going along with them to wit that by loosning the parts they make that the Humor that before flowed only unto the interiour parts about the Joynts comes now also to flow and be diffused unto the Ambient and fleshy parts And hence it is that the pains in the Gout before the swelling of the part are most Vehement and Intollerable and that so soon as the part affected beings to swel they are much Mitigated But now these Anodynes of what kind they are we have told you elswhere in our Institutions to wit such as mollifie and loosen the part affected and yet do not discuss the very Cause it self And here they may be provided of Goats Milk newly drawn out of their Dugs as also white bread and Milk together with the Yelks of Eggs and a little Saffron as likewise of the Leaves of Marsh-Mallows Mallows Colewort or Cabbage laid upon the place affected as hot as the Patient can wel endure them as also of Mallow Seeds Seeds of Marsh-Mallows Quinces Fleabane and especially the Mucillages of them Cassia newly drawn out of the Pipe with the Decoction or Water of Nightshade which as Avicen tels us is the best Remedy that can be unto which if there flow any hot Humors thereunto we may add some of the Oyl of Roses or Rose water but if the flowing Humors be cold then we are to add thereto the Oyl of Camomil and instead of Cassa out of the Pipe we may likewise make use of the Rob of the Elder Tree of white bread and Wine and indeed if the Humor be more hot red Wane but if cold or betwixt both then white Wine with the pouder of Camomile flowers and Oyl of Roses of Cheese new made of sheeps Milk and imposed upon the pained part and often changed of fresh-made Ox or Cow dung in the first beginning of the Spring as also the Water that is distilled out of it Amost useful Remedy also is the Mucillage of Fleabane Seed extracted with the Water of Roses or Night shade unto which somtimes a little Vinegar may be added and this Medicament is by Serapton and others very much commended In the very first beginning of the Disease Solenander taketh the thick stalks of Hendock and sils them with Salt and then stoppeth them with Clay or Paste and puts them in a moist place that the Salt may dissolve which liquor he keeps in a glass and with Clothes applieth it unto the pained part And he oftentimes also made use of this Cataplasm Take Mallows the whole Herb Root and all cut it into very smal pieces and boyl it in equal parts of Wine and Vinegar in a new Earthen Vessel until a third part be wasted away and then mingle therewith the thicker Bran of Rye as much as will suffice for the making of a Cataplasm and apply this hot unto the grieved part Forrestus relateth that he knew one that added hereunto a little Barly flower and that of the Water Lentile boyled in Milk with Camomile flowers and so reducing them into the form of a Cataplasm he put them upon the part affected with miraculous success as one could judg no other of it And here also very useful is the Yelk of an Egg reduced into the form of a Liniment with the Oyl of Violets and so is also the Water of the Sperm or seed of Frogs which perhaps have in them some kind of Narcotick quality Adrianus Spigelius writes that among the Moravians there is in use a very notable Remedy and noble experiment for the speedy cuting of the Gout-pains to wit the Water of Meadow Sweet distilled with its Roots and Flowers and this water is likewise in frequent use among the Silefians And it is also very convenient to foment the part affected with the Decoction of Parietary or Pellitory of the Wall And very many there be likewise that make use of Oyls and Fat 's But here we are to give you
quality of the liquor for some boyl the wood in water some in Barly water some in distilled waters others in wine others in Whey and others in broth of Flesh L. Septalius lib. 7. adnimadu nu 204. reprehends those who deny that the decoction of this wood may be made in wine only when as nothing is more fit to extract the faculties of medicines than wine and the water of wine he had spoke righter than the spirit of wine and therefore he prepares his decoction with wine which he useth when the disease is inveterate with an evil habit of body and a cold matter predominant after this manner eight ounces of the bark of the best holy wood grossely poudered being infused in forty two physical pints of the best white wine for two days the wine being first heated and alwaies kept hot those two days in a double vessel or in the ashes afterwards with a slow fire boyl it away in a double vessel to the consumption of the third part which let the sick make use of both in the morning instead of a syrup and for his drink at meales let him take in the morning seven ounces an hour after move sweat but at dinner and supper let him not exceed fourteen ounces But though we grant that wine is most commodious to extract the vertues of vegetables yet this cannot be denied that by boyling the strength of wine doth vanish and when the spirit is exhaled there is left a nauseous phlegme less profitable than plain simple water And therefore I am of that opinion that either the wood is to be boyled in water and towards the end the wine is to be added or else the wood is only to be a long while infused in wine or to be boyled in a double vessel that nothing be lost but by no means to the Consumption of the third part Therefore most commonly and rightly the decoction is made in pure water which doth both a little correct the Heat and driness of the Medicine and further the distribution and provocation of sweat yet if the body and especially the stomach be cold and weak and the Patient accustomed to wine Wine is not unprofitably mixt with it as was said even now and shal be said hereafter for by the admistion of Wine the stomach is less hurt and the vertue of the Medicine doth the easier penetrate to al the parts And a different proportion of the wood to the water is observed according to the age constitution of the body and season of the year The proportion of wood to the water and they take to twelve pound of water from three ounces of the wood to twelve for if the season of the year and the body be hot 't is safest to take a less quantity of the wood and in a longer time to perfect the Cure than by too strong a Medicine to damnesie the patient especially at the beginning of the cure and before the superfluous Humors in the body be abated and sweat begin to flow easily and exquisitly and the patient be accustomed to the Decoction afterwards by degrees you may take more of the Wood which unless it be observed the Patient is easily brought into danger And Eustachius Rudius writes Lib. 5. de Morb. occult Cap. 13. That he hath seen patients who by this error viz. too great a quantity of the wood given on the first daies have fallen into a Feaver that afterwards they have been forced to abstaine from the use of the decoction to their great detriment but where there is no such thing to be feared in those of ripe years we commonly add to one pound of the wood rasped or turned smal twelve pound of water in an earthen Vessel glased and let it infuse twenty four hours in a warm place afterwards the vessel being wel covered boyle it with a gentle fire til half or the third part remain and let the decoction cool in this vessel stil covered afterwards strain it Fallopius Lib. de morb Galli cap. 46. After what manner 't is to be boyled disputes whether it be better to boyle it with an open fire or in a double vessel as was said or in Balneo Mariae and reprehends them who hold that the decoction made in Balneo is more dilute or less powerful and that the decoction made in Balneo is more excellent than that which is made with an open fire he endeavors to prove by the example of distilled waters which by the balneum are made most excellent when as there is no adustion in them but the greater eliquation which is made in that hot and moist doth render the decoction more excellent but experience teacheth otherwise which reason also doth confirme For though out of some moister plants as Roses Violets Lilly of the vallies and the like being fresh whose vertue consists in the volatile part as the Chymists speak the best waters are made in balneo without the affusion of water yet in hotter plants especially in Roots and woods whose vertue consists in the oyly part their vertue can never be extracted by the too gentle heat of a Balneum as happens also in many seeds but they must be distilled by a †Vesica through which by the vehicle of the water A chymical Vessel those more fixed parts may be elevated when as then the whol vertue of Guajacum doth consist in that oyly and rozeny part and there is need of strong boyling that that may be extracted the gentle heat of a Bolneum cannot do it but it must be boyled in an open fire which nevertheless causeth no adustion if there be added a sufficient quantity of water Some for the better gust and that the bitterness and acrimony may be abated a little before 't is boyled enough add of Raison and Liquorish of each one ounce and you may add Sugar or some Julep to rellish it Aurelius Minadous de virulen Vener Cap. 4. holds the Decoction ought chiefly to be Dulcorated with Honey for he thinks that a smal quantity of Honey if it be boyled with it and Skimmed wil rebate al the bitterness and the Decoction acquire a greater power to cleanse attenuate open and make fusil the Humors and strengthen the parts which we grant may take place in phlegmatick bodies and especially in a cold stomach so whenas honey doth easily turn to Choller we think it cannot safely be used in chollerick bodies hot and dry but more conveniently and safely Raisons Liquorish or Sugar Some also in those who have a hot and dry Liver do add towards the end of the decoction a root or two of Succory one or two handfuls of Endive Sowthistle but whenas such decoctions are to be continued along while we must have a care least by the admistion of such things they be made ingrateful and provoke nauseousness in the Patient besides whenas for the most part there is boyled at one time Decoction enough for many daies but the
Cloves Pepper Saffron of each four scruples of Cinamone Myrrh Castor Styrax Calamite of each three drams of good Honey as much as is Sufficient make an Opiate Jul. Palmarius Fernelius his Scholer followed him who as was said before in Lib. 1. de lue Vener Cap. 7. writes that Fernelius was most averse from the use of Quick-silver and first dared to promise the Cure of this Disease without the help of that and did take care for the compounding of many Alexiphatmaca at his House which he administred against the Mischeif of this Disease with Guajacum and also without it two of the which which he found to be most excellent and efficatious he describes the first was discribed even now the other is this Take of Divils-bit Scabious Burnet flowers of Marigold Mullein Plantane Balme Rue Broom Origanum Rosemary flowers Red Roses of each three drams of the Seeds of Citron Sorrel Fennel blessed Thistle of the Roots of Dittander Gilliflowers Tormentil round Birthwort Gentian Zedoary Roman Woolfesbane of each two drams Hartshorn shavings of Ivory Wood of Aloes Yellow Saunders Choice Cinamome of each half an ounce Saffron Cloves Nutmeg of each two drams And he relates that he called the first composition the greatet Opiate the other the less and that he gave for a dose half a dram of either with the like quantity of conserve of Bugloss and half a scruple of Mithridate and somtime without Mithridate but that he after Fernelius departed this life out of them both did compleat one adding also certain other Medicines which he found to be prevalent against poysons and most fit to provoke sweat the description of which is this Take of water germander half an ounce of divels-bit scabious burnet Palmarius his antidote Poley Mount peneroyal calamint white sweet smelling Horehound origanum mint St. Johns-wort centory the less French Lavender Germander Ground Pine Plantane Balme rue Time Elder each two drams of Hyssop the lesser Sage Oake Ferne vervin both speedwels each two drams Flowers of Betony Marigould Mullen Broome Rosemary Jasmin Sage Red Roses St. Johns wort Bugloss Burrage Violets Water Lilies of each three drams Seeds of Anis both Parsleys wild Carot Scarlet Graines St Johns Wort Libistick Rue Lovage Basil Berries of Bay Juniper seeds of both Pionies Hartwort of each on dram and half Seeds of citron Sorel Blessed Thistle Fennel of each three drams of the roots of male Piony Round Birthwort Gentian Sweet cane Flowerdeluce of Florence Sweet Cyprus each one dram of Angelico Dittander Gilliflowers tormentil Zedoary Romane Woolfesbane of each three drams and an half of choice perle three drams and hal of Harts horn Shavings of Ivory each one ounce wood of aloes yellow saunders bone of the heart of a hart both currals each half an ounce choice cinamon one dram and half Balsome wood if it may be had one ounce of al pretious stones each half a dram of Nutmeg mace loves myrrh styrax Calamite Benjamin Saffron Castor each half a dram juice of liquorish one ounce oyl of the seeds of Fennel Anise of Sage mint juniper Nutmeg Cloves red opobalsamum brought out of America if it be to be had of each one dram Let al the the herbs flowers and rootes be gathered at that time they are of greatest strength let them be dryed and kept in paper cases then al of them being reduced into a most fine pouder let them be mixt with wine and honey and be boyled into an electuary til it comes to the thickness of wel prepared mithridate yet the flowers may be candied and kept with sugar that they may be mixt with the other things towards the end of their boyling to one pound of honey mix two ounces of the pouder Let it be kept in a most large earthen vessel whose third part may be empty least it swel up and grow hot neither let it come to that use we shal by and by speake of before it be three years old He ads there also a cordial water and an alexipharmacal pouder their discriptions are these the Cordial water Take Of the leaves of sage mint marioram rue hysop origanum Galmarius his Cordiol water the tops of betony each one handful Bruise them al and put them in a great earthen vessel in a warm place and cover them with the water of blessed thistle that they be under it every day stir them with a stick and before they soure which wil he the fourth or fifth day after Strein out the liquor and keep it casting away the Faeces Again Take of plantane leaves marigold balme mullein St. Johnswort centory the less burnet each two handfuls After they have beensteeped four dayes and streined cast them away and take again of water germander Bivels-bit fennel parsly bugloss burage angelico of each one handful Which also being steeped so many dayes streined and then cast away Take of the roots of angelico dittander tormentil betony Zedoary each half an ounce of galangal three drams Nutmegs Cloves each one dram seeds of Fenel Citron Sorrel Blessed thistle Juniper berries each two drams Shavings of Ivory harts horn wood of aloes Yellow Saunders cinamon each one dram Safforn half a dram make a pouder of it and mixe it with the Liquor streined then weigh out of the amulet against this disease and of choice mithridate each one pound and half of old treacle foure drams and being mixt with the said liquor and pouder and put up in a glass alembick or an earthen one glazed expose them six or eight dayes to the heat of June til they grow hot and be perfectly fermented and at length distil them in a double vessel with a most gentle fire If the same simples be put into a new pot with the water of bastard saffron and be heated fifteen dayes in warm horse-dung there wil be extracted a more excellent Water Take of the aforesaid water three ounces Syrup of Lemmons and Violets of each six drams Make a dose A Description of the Pouder Take of the shavings of Ivory Palmarius his Alexipharmacal Pouder the younger Harts-horn Choice Pearles of each half a dram wood of Aloes Yellow Saunders the bone of the heart of a Hart of each one scruple Seeds of Fennel Coriander prepared of each one dram the Leaves of Mint Plantane Vervin Burnet of each two scruples the Roots of Tormentil Betony Zedoary of each half a dram the dryed flowers of Betony Marigold Broom of each half a dram Sugar of Roses three times as much Make a fine Pouder The dose is one spoonful beforemeat and before a drauft of the sweating drink if the Patient refuse the use of the Opiate And in cap. 13. Lib. de lue Vener where he disputes whether this Disease may be perfectly cured by the use of Guajacum alone or whether there be need of the assistance of other Medicines joyned with it at last he concludes with a distinction that the vertue of Guajacum is neither so great that that
Natural Antipathy it is thought very fit that such as are troubled with the Gout as unto whom Wine is very hurtful do often feed upon Cabbage and Barley Bread And Pliny in his 20. B. and 9. Chapter writeth thus I finde saith he that many have been freed from the Gout by eating the Cabbage and drinking the broth thereof being boyled And many there are that upon very good ground condemn the use of apples and advise the Physitians led hereunto both by Reason and Observation that they forbid the eating of Apples unto such of their Patients as they finde subject unto the Diseases of the Joynts For Apples abound with moisture and this for the most part partaking of some acrimony and such as â—â—th a power of penetrating by reason of which it is that those spots that are caused by the Juyce of Apples can so hardly be gotten out of Linen and therefore do very easily move the Humors Let all fat Meats likewise be avoided and especially fried Meats as such as do not only afford an ill and vitious Nutriment but also corrupt other Meats as likewise Meats overmuch seasoned with hot Spices But a more then ordinary Care must be had in the Choyce of the Patients drink For it is altogether Requisite that he wholly abstain from the Moravian Austrian and Hungarian Wines and such as are like unto these which do most certainly breed the Gout But as for others which in such as are found do not so easily generate the Gout they may be drunk but it must be very sparingly in regard that even these also contain in them some kind of Tartarous matter Among these Wines that are wholesome Solenander in the 24. Consil of his 4. Sect. reckoneth up likewise the Thick Red Spanish Wine which they call Alicant or the Wine they cal Tent and of this Wine he alloweth a moderate use unto such as are troubled with the Gout as being but little or less hurtful for them Others commend and allow of the Pucine Wine as likewise that they bring unto us from the Vale of Telina by reason that they have not in them so great a power of hurting the Joynts And if the Patient perceive that even these Wines also are naught and hurtful for his Disease and that they offend him let him then if he can altogether abstain from the drinking of any Wine in regard that it may so be that for such as are subject unto the Gout even those Wines may hurt and offend them which others drink without any hurt at all And Paulus Aegineta in his Third Book of the matter of Physick Chap. 78. writeth in this manner I have known many saith he who by their altogether abstaining only from wine have all of them sensibly found help For some in the very beginning of their Disease are perfectly freed from their fits and others of them afterwards and in these also the fits come but seldome and when they come they are extreamly painful If therefore there happen from this abstinence nothing prejudicial either at present or that nothing be feared for the future let them abstain from Wine al their Life long But as for those who by this their abstinence have brought a weakness and cold disposition upon themselves and are thereby rendered unfit for their imployments when they have for two years abstaineâ— from Wine after this let them perpetually drink a little thereof at a time and let it first be qualified with Water But as for those that abstain from Wine they ought in stead of their Wine to drink the Decoction of Aniseeds or some such like Seed abstaining as much as may be from Fruits Apples and the rest of those Cooling Fruits Thus Aegineta And in very truth that the Case thus stands we have above in the Second Chap. proved by examples And in our own Countries they that will may far more easily abstain from the drinking of Wine then those in Greece and elsewhere in regard that good beer may every where conveniently enough be had which may supply the place of Wine and very wel serve in stead thereof And although it seem very hard unto many yea and hurtful also unto some wholly to abstain from Wine Yet Nevertheless as it is rightly said by Hippocrates in his 50. Aphorism there is also somtimes a Change to be made unto that which we have not been accustomed unto But if there be any that will not be perswaded wholly to abstain from Wine or if indeed they cannot without great prejudice unto their health as it very often happeneth let them then drink Rhenish Wine but not such as is strong or Crude or else the Pucine Wine also or the like and yet neither these in too great abundance but with al possible sparingness And therefore we like very well of Solenanders advice who in his 4. Sect. and 24. Consil perswadeth us in the use of Wine to have regard unto the Temperament Constitution of the Body Age and â—ustom since that there is great difference in Bodies so that what is good and wholesom for one the same may to another be altogether useless and hurtful And therefore in the use of Wines we are especially to observe what benefit or damage the sick person may receive from it For if it be found that the drinking of Wine hurteth those that are thus affected there must then be a total abstinence from it or if iâ— may not be wholly omitted it must be most sparingly drunk And as for those who in the use of Wine cannot moderate themselves nor observe a mean and set bounds unto their Appetites we think it fitter to forbid the use of Wine unto such persons then to allow it them But yet however al generally are wholly to abstain from Wine in the beginning of the Paroxysm Neither must wine at any time be drunk upon an Empty Stomack but then only when solid food is taken It is likewise very hurtful to drink Wine betwixt Meals in regard that it doth then easily penetrate unto the Liver and excite fluxions Let the Patient content himself with so much drink only as may suffice for the satisfying of his Thirst The quantity of his drink without causing any fluctuation of the food he hath Eaten As for his Sleep and Rest Rest and sleep let them be moderate and let him not Sleep immediately after he hath Eaten and Drunk and when he doth Sleep let it not be above seven or eight hours at the most yet seven hours Sleep he may well be allowed Let the exercise of his Body be moderate Exercise and let it alwaies be before dinner or supper And if the Aphorism of Hippocrates be true in any Disease it is true in this viz. The exercise of health is this not to be oversatiated with food and to be active and industrious in pains taking and in the works of our calling And very good it is for those that are able before dinner somtimes
the Indies also Andreas Caesalpinus lib. 4. de morb Cap. 3. Andreas Caesalpinus writes that he hath another History of the original of this disease delivered by them who were present to wit from an Atetine soldier who served in that war he related that there is a town in the Vesuvian Mount which is called Suma where there is plenty of generous wine which is called Caudy wine which was privately left by the Spaniards in the night when the French had besieged it but they infected their wine by the mixture of blood which they drew from them which were sick in the hospital of St. Lazarus and the French men entering in when they had filled themselves with that wine began to be sick of diseases and symptomes like unto the Elephantiasis But if this were true rather the Elephantiasis than the veneral disease had been thus raised Aurelius Minadous Aurelius Minadous de Virul Vener Cap. 30. propounds a peculiar opinion holds that this virulency did first break forth from the most filthy wombs of most impure Harlots and for this cause because no body that hath lived cleanly or that hath conversed with a cleane woman is taken with this evil but he thinks this evil proceeded first when women were made very unclean when they had received a various mixture of seeds For as saith he one sort of meat is the cause of health in a good stomach but variety of meats doth oppress the stomach and breeds an acid and nidorous crudity and every where heaps up excrements so one seed only is familier and wholsome for one womb and causeth fruitfulness on the contrary the multitude and variety of seeds doth so affect the womb that by its corruption it produceth bad nay the worst of excrements and from that sordid substance there is a corruprion hard to be explained or putrefaction which doth generate such venenate excrements But when as he might easily understand that those rambling lusts were in use not only in the war at Naples but long before when there was publique Brothel Houses at Rome and yet there was no such disease raised he would have his opinion to be understood not of any women but only of the Indian For they by the mediation of the Heaven Air Waters and those places by their peculiar form of feeding did contract this poyson which afterwards by Columbus and the Spanish Army was disseminated in France and hence through the whole world But though it must not be denied that the constitution of bodies is divers in divers Countries and I remember that I have read in the Histories of Navigation That when certain people of Europe had found certain Ethiopian lasses playing on the sea shore and had layn with them presantly some of them died yet how the business is in America is worthy of further inquisition and if there be any such fault in those women 't is probable that comes to pass not so much from the commistion of divers seeds but rather as many Authors report from this That if any one have to do with a woman in India whiles she hath her courses he his taken with that disease for that whenas 't is every where un wholsome and therefore also was peculiarly and severely forbidden the Jewes by God in holy Writ may in a special manner be hurtful in the Indies Therefore lecting these pass let us hold fast this which is granted by al The Veneral disease is contracted only by Contagion that this disease at this day is no otherwise contracted but by contagion and chiefly by lying with those that are infected whence deservedly doth Gabriel Fallopius de morb Gallic Cap. 13. Wittily deride those women who when they were sick of the Veneral disease nevertheless did bost themselves to be chast and said they contracted this disease by sprinkling themselves with the holy water which was infected But this contagion by which only now adayes How many waies the contagion may be contracted we say this disease is disseminated is received divers waies For sometimes 't is transferred with the seed and menstruous blood from the Parents to the Child Somtimes 't is Haereditary and the Disease become Haereditary for when the blood out of which the Seed is generated is infected and vitious the like Diseased seed is generated also the Mothers blood being impure with which the Child is nourisht it Pollutes that which pollution afterwards in those brought into the World doth sooner or later shew it self according to the greater or lesser strength of that virulency which manner of original of this Disease if any one wil deny to be properly by contagion because it is not by the contract of two bodies viz. a sound and a sick he may for al me yet let him know this that then that malignity in the body of the infant is not generated but from the infected parents by the seed or the Mothers blood is communicated to the off-spring But by those that are born into the world the same evil may be contracted two waies the first is when with the nourishment and milk the evil is communicated to infants by impâ—ute Nurses which way indeed is the powerfullest of al for whenas the milk they suck is changed into blood and that is the nourishment of the whol body the poyson this way is dispersed into the whol body and insinuates it self most intimately with it and therefore those that are this way infected are seldome cured and not without a great deal of Difficulty The other way is by contagion so called properly and in specy where first of al 't is enquired whether there be any contagion in the Veneral Disease at a distance so that if one do neither touch with his body one infected nor the fuel which conteins in it the contagion yet nevertheless may be infected with the Veneral Disease truly there is no example given of this cause but what Manardus teacheth Lib. 7. Epis 3. and also some others affirme that there is a French Ophthalmy but when as this Disease of the Eyes in other cases is oftentimes contagiout it is no wonder if one conversing with a sick man that is troubled with a French Ophthalmy and earnestly look upon his Eyes Whether it can infect at a distance that he also may contract luch an Ophthalmy Yet this cannot be granted that as the Plague may be transferred by the Air to others in distant places so also the Veneral Disease may be communicated for dayly experience doth Testesie that Physitians and many others do familiarly converse with those infected with this evil yet are not infected by them Therefore this evil is chiefly contracted by contact and truely most frequently by whorish Copulation when that virulence is communicated to the naked genital parts being soft and porous from the genitals of the other infected person after which manner this Disease was first brought out of the Indies by the Spanish Souldiers infected by
the Indian Women which were sick of this Disease into Italy and disseminated through the French Camp and hence spred throughout all Europe as we said before according to the opinion of many Physitians And though some as we said even now who have been infected with this Disease endeavour to renounce the Cause of it How the Veneral disease may be contracted yet many if they live not chastly yet they live closely and Gabriel Fallopius not without a Cause de Morb. Gall. cap. 10. scoffs at certain chast Matrons as they boasted themselves to be who said they contracted this Disease by sprinkling them with holy water which was polluted he that beleeves this let him beleeve that too which Averroes writes 2. collect cap. 10 that a woman was got with Child in a bath from some seed which wicked men had spent there or with Vallesius let him cotrect the Aphorisme 36. Sect. 6. because many Monks have been sick of the Gout before the use of Venery And truly men contract this evil from Women that are infected How men are infected by women in Copulation because in the act by reason of the concourse of spirits and the motion the Womb being heated Vapors are raised from the Malignant Humors in the womb which are suckt in by the mans yard being of a porous constitution and are received into the veins But the man being infected may infect a sound woman either by his yard if that be infected and exulcerated How Women by men or by his seed although his yard be not ulcerated or both waies for though the seed in men is not always wholly corrupt whenas we see many men infected with this disease do get children yet it is altered infected from whence not only the Issue contracts this evil but also a Woman may be infected by it But though this evil be most frequently contracted by whorish Copulation Other waies of contagion yet by contagion it may be derived to others other manner of waies viz. by sweat if any one sleep in the same bed with one infected with the Veneral Disease and be wet with his sweat then by the filth and Excrements or that flowing from Ulcers and sticking on the Linnen bed or shirt and garments if any one he in them or put them on The same Disease also may be communicated by slaver or spittle so lovers are infected with the Kisses of Whores sick of this Disease and infants by their Nurses or if any one drink out of a Cup or sup out of the spoon which one sick of this Disease did use a little before besides infants may be infected another way to wit if they touch the brests of an impure Nurse with their mouth and that for a double reason either because they suck the infected and corrupted milk of which I speake before or because the breasts and nibbles of the Nurse are exulcerated on the contrary Nurses may be infected from infected infants especially if they be troubled with Malignant pustles or some Ulcer in the mouth for the Nepples of their breasts whiles they are suckt by the Infant grow hot and their pores are more opened whereupon they easier receive in that virulence But no body is easily infected by the breath as was said before and without danger we may be conversant in the same chamber with those that are infected neither are those Chyrurgions and Physitians which cure the veneral Disease and dayly converse with the sick any way infected and if this Disease were contagious by breathing and at a distance the whol world would ere now have been French and the Disease would be more than Epidemious as one writes yet if any one sleep in bed with one infected that he do receive his breath very neer I wil not promise him free from this evil whenas I know Wives that have been infected by their Husbands sick of the Phthisick and afterwards died of it This contagion after 't is received into the body How the Veneral virulency doth penetrate into the body staies not in those parts in which it was first received but after the manner of other poysons penetrates into the innermost parts of the body and truely oftentimes discovers it self presently within a few daies somtimes lies hid a long while And Fernelius writes de abdit rer Caus Lib. 2. c. 14. That it doth somtimes returne and revive after thirty years past and for so long space the fewel of the disease does lie hid as dormant and nevertheless they who think themselves free from al hurt and that they are perfectly sound do corrupt those with whom they lie and beget an Issue possest with that Disease The same is witnessed by John Philippus Ingrassias And Hercules Saxonia de lue Vener cap. 11. relates that he cured an Illustrissimo who had knobs of the French Disease came out upon him five and twenty years after he had taken the Disease But what parts this virulency doth principally assault we said formerly Authors did disagree where we treated of its subject many indeed do hold What parts are chiefly affected that this virulency is chiefly an adversary to the Membranes because the pains do most of al arise about the Periostia and external parts where are many Membranes in the head Legs Arms breast-bone and in them the periostium being eaten off are raised knobs But not only the Membranous parts are affected but others also as the Buboes Tumors Uleers in divers parts rottenness of the bones falling of the hair running of the Reins do testefie And therefore we must enquire for a more common subject which we said above was the Liver and the similar parts dedicated to nutrition and that have consent with the liver for after the contagion hath pierced as far as the Liver though in the interim it may cortupt the parts neer unto that by which the Contagion was received and hath imprinted a Malignant disposition on that Sanguification is hurt and a Malignant quality is imprinted on that blood which is generated in the Liver and so with the blood are generated Malignant Humors which whenas they are troublesome to Nature they are thrust forth to the Circumference of the body and so not only pains are raised in the Membranes but divers Diseases and Symptomes also in other parts and whereas the bones are not free but they are oftentimes affected with rottenness it is no wonder that the neighbouring periostia are affected and most cruel pains raised From al which it doth easily appear The manner of the generation of the veneral disease what is the manner of the generation of this Disease to wit When the contagion of this Disease is communicated from one sick of the Veneral Disease either by the seed and blood of the parents or by the sucking of infected milk or by Copulation or by spittle or by meat and drink or by garments and Linnen to any part of a sound body first of al
the Head and Joynts 23. But chiefly the Nature of the Contagion it self from which the sick contracted the disease doth manifest the force and greatness of the disease for this poyson hath somtimes a greater somtimes a less activity and Physitians do relate who have often had such Patients in cure that somtimes of ten strong yong men who have had to do with the same Whore not one of them hath scaped therefore if it be known from what he or she this evil was contracted the Physitian may the easier judg of the event of the disease 24. Other things being alike this evil is easiest cured which is contracted by Whorish Copulation but that is harder to Cure which the Infant hath sucked in with the milk whenas the virulency goes into the stomach with the milk and hence in the Liver there is generated a virulent blood which afterwards runs through the whol body and Pollutes that But the Hereditary evil is hardest of al to Cure and that which is communicated from infected Parents with the Seed and blood 25. As for the parts affected if the Liver only be affected the evil is the easier Cured whenas it hath a strong expulsive faculty and Medicaments can easily penetrate unto it but the Spleen Kidneys Womb and external joynts are not so easily Cured but hardest of all the Brain and the Lungs because they have a weaker expulsive faculty and Medicaments do not easily penetrate thither 26. From al which 'tis easily collected what wil be the event of the Disease for by how much the more and more grievous diseases and Symptomes are joyned with the Veneral disease by so much the more the sick are indangered by how much the fewer and lighter by so much the less and those chiefly die who to their putrid and Malignant Veneral Disease have supervenient those Feavers they call Gallical for the Veneral Virulency whiles it corrupts the Humors and induceth a Malignant quality into them makes the Feaver worse and also debilitates the innate heat whence neither the Feaver nor that Malignant disease can be overcome by Nature 27. Very many also die of a wasting of the body and a hectick Feaver or rather a slow and putrid one for both the Veneral virulency it self and the pains watchings and other symptomes do debilitate the innate heat hurt nutrition whence follows a wasting of the whol body to which is joyned a slow putrid Feaver raised from the evil Humors 28. Sanguification also being hurt some die of a Dropsie 29. Many also die by reason of Catarrhes falling down on the jaws and Lungs hindering and taking away their breath or the Vessels of the Lungs being eaten by a sharp Catarrhe and first of al spitting of blood being raised then a Phthisick they die 30. Somtimes the Vessels being eaten in two by the acrimony of the Humors and Vomiting of blood caused the sick die by too great a Flux to the stool or by the Womb. CHAP. VIII Of Prevention WHenas 't is safer to prevent a Disease than to cure it Prevention some Physitians endeavor to teach by what means one may keep himself clear though he have had to do with an infected Woman Of which business Fallopius treats in the whol Chapter 89. de Morb. Galli and he writes that he should seem to have done nothing unless he teach how one seeing a handsome Woman and lying with her though she be infected may be preserved from the French Disease and he cals the immortal God to witness that he hath made tryal of it in ten thousand men and none of them was infected and he propounds there two medicaments by which the Contagion received may presently be drawn forth dissipated or dryed up Hercules Saxonia propounds the same de lue Vener cap. 16. and does very much commend them and as Aurelius Minadous speaks of this business many confide that being guarded with those Medicines as with a buckler they may enter the most infected whores and freely ramble al the world over Eustachius Rudius also proposes the like Medicaments Lib. 5. de morb occult cap. 13. But indeed I do not beleeve that those things can be taught with a good conscience by which so many men are encouraged to lust whom perhaps the fear of this Disease might have frighted from it and therefore we wil say nothing of these Medicines but Aurelius Minadous thinks they themselves are deceived that teach such things Cap. 31. de Virulentia Venerea Where he overthrows Fallopius foundation who thinks that this Disease is only communicated by the least purulent bodies which if they be wiped away extracted dissipated this Disease may be turned off and he teacheth that the Contagion doth not only enter by the external parts of the Privities but also chiefly by the internal and runs through the Body and that the infected Vapors and spirits do pass through the internal porosities and are admitted by the Veins and therefore no man can promise himself health and safety from washing which only reaches to the external parts nor from other Medicaments outwardly applied neither can such external Medicaments take away the Pollution conceived within The safect way therefore to avoid this Disease is to abstain from whores and to remember that Whoremongers and Adulterers the Lord wil judg who yet is wont also to punish them in this Life with that most filthy Disease Yet Jul. Galmarius hath another way of prevention of this Disease to wit by internal Medicaments and he writes that he hath found out an antidote or a Mullet by the use of which mens bodies are rendered safe against this Disease yet he entreats and conjures al Physitians and Chyrurgeons that they do not communicate and make known that Medicine in obedience to lustful people and that they make not themselves fosterers of lusts but to them only who must necessarily converse with those that are suspected or defiled But he describes that Antidote Lib. 1. cap. 8. and this is it Take of the Amulet for the Pox and of old Mithridate by Galens description of each six drams Conserve of the flowers of Bugloss of broom of Rosemany of each three drams mix them give one dram or a dram and an half or two drams at the most in the morning two hours before meat eight or ten daies together But if any one suspect himself to be infected he admonisheth that he earnestly use a greater care for prevention therefore let him take of the Alexipharmacal Medicine even now described swallowing a dram or a dram and an half in the morning and before supper for eight or ten daies together whose Verture that it may reach the easier to the more remote parts when they have swallowed it 't is expedient they drink presently after it somwhat of this Julep by which as its vehicle it may be carried into every part Take of the water of blessed thistle burnet Devils-bit of each two ounces of Syrup of the juyce of Sorrel of Lemmons
the water how much time wil be spent in boyling away six or eight pints of water if taking but the half quantity viz. half an ounce of China with six pints of water we suffer the half to wast or two thirds which wil be consumed in less than two houres space the water being less able to resist the action of the fire nor let any one dare to say that we may prevent this inconveniency by making a less quantity of fire and if it he boyled by a slower fire for to extract this vertue out of a more solid substance there ought also to concur a due quantity of fire Out of the remainders another drink is prepared by some for dinner and supper The Second decoction as out of Guajacum Yet Palmarius thinks that al the vertue of that root is transfused in the liquor at the first boyling and therefore for ordinary drink he boyles three ounces more of the root in eight pound of water til two pints are consumed and he ads raisons and liquarish nay some also drink the first decoction at dinner and supper whenas it is not unpleasant to the tast Some also do admonish us that we provide no more of the decoction at once than may be spent in one day whenas it quickly growes sour when 't is cold therefore they command also that it be kept on warm ashes but experience hath taught us that it wil last four dayes Yet because it growes sour that very thing tels us that this root hath in it somewhat spirituous and alimental which is the cause of fermentation and hence of acidity Consult concerning this with Amatus Lusitamus centur 1. curat 98. and especially centur 2. curat 31. CHAP. XVI Of Sassafras wood THey use also for the cure of the Veneral disease that wood which is connonly called sassafras which is imported form the Island called Florida Sassafras-Wood it is of an aromatical taste like fennel 't is hot and dry in the second degree of a thin substance and endewed with an opening discussive and attenuating faculty Its vertues and therefore is commended by them who have sailed to the Indies against long tertian feavers evil habit of the body and dropsie and to strengthen the stomach and against nephritical paines it is comended also for the gout to move the courses and many other diseases to treat of which is not proper to this place 't is used also for the cure of the French pox yet most physitians agree that 't is less effectual than Guajacum and sarsaparilla and the decoction of it is prepared almost as that of Sarsaparilla Chap. XVII Of Sope-wort Last of al sopewort is commended by some physitians for the cure of this disease which is bitter Soapwors accid and endewed with an abstersive and opening faculty and is praised for the French pox and contumacious paines which cannot be over come by other remedies 'T is reported to be the invention of Zapata a spannish Empirick t is used both in the decoction and in substance the decoction is prepared after this manner Take of green sopewort two handfuls It s decoction infuse them al night in eight pound of water than boyl it â—â—l the sâ—pewort is boyled enough then strain one pound of it with half a pound of water and the harbs now boyled and squeez them and reserve it for a mornings dâ—aught to provoke sweat taking seven or eight ounces But that which remains sweeten with raisons or sugar for drink at meales in summer and Cholerick bodies you may add one handful of Sowthistle or basterd Navel-wort But t is a remedy unpleasing to the tast Eustachius Rudius takes of soap-wort six pugils or more and infuseth it in twelve pound of water and boyles it to the consumption of half But as Septallius hath observed t is too great a quantity of water to so sinal a portion of soap-wort But the Root Cheifly is used in substance The pouder and Rudius doth very much commend it in ancient french pains and out of it he prepares this pouder Take of ground pine two ounces of white dittander one ounce and half of Zedoary six drams of the root of soapwort three drams of pearl prepared half a dram Make a pouder for 9. doses but who can take for one dose almost four drams of pouder and the other medicines do far exceed the soapwort which notwithstanding ought to be the basis CHAP. XVIII Of Compound Alexipharmaca BUt though al the medicines hitherto reckoned up Compouond Alexiphbrmaca in the Veneral disease are good to destroy this disease yet some are more effectual then others and besides some have other qualities for the which they are useful sometimes for this sometimes for that end as was said of the simples and therefore seldom one of these medicines is used but for the most part many of them together Indeed if the disease be simple and none of the bowels be affected nor there is no eminent distemper in any part which may hinder the use of Guajacum that wood is the most excellent of al because it resists this disease both by its occult and manifest qualities but if any disease be joyned with it t is oftentimes most profitable to add sarsaparilla and China and there are added by some manny altering medicines of which whenas we spake before in this place we shal ad nothing of them but this that we must have a care least by the mixture of Succories and endives and cooling medicines which are added to moderate the heat of Guajacum which yet is not so much to be feared they hinder sweating which is only to be desired and which brings more benefit then a little heating can do dammage next of al least by the admixtion of other things the drink be made ungrateful and nauseous therefore passing by these that we may speake somewhat of the mixture of alexipharmaca if the nature of the patient be very hot and dry and the humors violently fal from the head on the lungs breast or other parts Guajacum wood is not commodiously given alone whenas it doth farther heat and dry the parts and by its heat make the humors run and move but then sarsaparilla is safer and China more comodious which doth at once moderate the heat and hath an astrictive power by which it stops defluxions on the contrary if the strength be feeble and there be a weaknes of the sight sarsa is not commodious whenas it loosenss the stomach and duls the fight if there be a great consumption if so be it hath not its original from the Venereal disease for then this disease being taken away as the cause that wasting also ceaseth and the body begins to be nourisht better Guajacum and sarsaparilla are not safe But then china is far more profitable as that which moistens substantifically as they speak Yet Ludiciptalius commends Sasaparilla above al the rest against a consumption lib. 7.
animadv num 214. as shal be said also hereafter in the last chapter So if cruel paines molest the patient or gummous tumors or exceeding ulcers be joyned with them Sasaparilla is most profitable which doth discusse the french knobs and easier appease the pains then Guajacum Thus according to the constitution of the Patients and the Nature of the Diseases joyned with it 't is good somtimes to use Guajacum alone somtimes Sarsaparilla somtimes China Root and somtimes to mix al of them in a greater or lesser quantity and somtimes the bark of Guajacum is added somtimes three or four ounces weight to one pound of the wood and they are boyled in fifteen pound of water For examples sake Take Of the wood of Guajacum half a pound of the bark of the same of sarsaparilla each three ounces of China root one ounce and half Infuse them twenty four houres in twelve pound of water afterwards let them be boyled to the consumption of half for a sweating drink Poure on the remainder twelve pound of water let them stand and infuse eight houres afterwards boyl them to a consumption of a third part for drink at meales Or. Take of the Wood of Guajacum one pound the bark of the same Sarsaparilla of each thre ounces Boyl them in sixteen pound of water to the consumption of half Or. Take of the wood of Guajacum China root each one ounce an half Sarsaparilla one ounce infuse them twenty four hours in six poundof water afterwards boyl half away Poure on the residue ten pound of water boyl it to the consumption of three pound Strainit and give it for drink at meales Or Take of wood of Guajacum eight ounces of the bark of the same four ounces sarsaparilla sassafras wood each two ounces Boyl them in twelve pound of water to the consumption of two thirds that there remains four pound towards the end ad four pound of wine Poure to the remainder sixteen pound of water boyl it to theconsumption of half towards the end ad four pound of wine make a drink for meales In this place we must not omit a question concerning the use of purgers Whether purgers ought to be mixt with the decoction whiles the decoction is drank to wit whether they ought to be mixt with the decoction or to be used at the same time with the decoction For some do wholy reject them and hold that purgers are neither to be mixed with the decoction nor to be used apart for this reason because the bodies are wont diligently to be purged before they come to the use of these decoctions next of al because purgers and sweaters do cause contrary motions Others on the contrary do mix purgers with these decoctions that by benefit of them the blood may be purefied and the belly constantly kept loose others do not mix purgers with these decoctions but purge at certain intervals every eighth or tenth day or at a longer distance as need requires which last opinion seemes to me to be trewest For though the body be purged before the use of these decoctions yet some may easily remain and ever and anon be collected and sweating doth purge onely the thinner humors but leaves the thick neither after this manner are there caused contrary motions for that day that purging is ordered sweaters are not administred but if purgers were mixed with the sweaters then there would be contrary motions And besides by the admistion of purgers the decoction being to be used so many weeks it would become nauseous and ingratful Hercules Saxonia also holds de lue Vener Cap. 38. Whether purgers may serve instead of sweaters That purging may be ordered every day to wit in those in whom sweat cannot or ought not to be caused he thinks sweat cannot be provoked in them who either are of such a hard and thick Skin that they can by no means sweat or in those who fal into fainting and swouning fits as soon as sweaters are administred but he thinks they ought not to sweat in whom the Veneral disease possesseth not the Joynts nor the Skin nor the superficies of the body but hath rather taken up its seat about the bowels but this opinion seems not to me to be agreeable to truth for whereas he thinks that some ought to have purgers administred because they cannot sweat by reason of the thickness of their Skin or because they presently fal into swouning fits is agreeable neither to reason nor experience for scarce any one hath so thick a Skin that the pores wil no way open for sweat and though on the first daies sweat doth not prelently follow yet after that the Humors are attenuated by the use of the decoctions the passages and pores are opened then sweat succeeds especially if those Laconick Baths be applied as shal be said hereafter And the Patient may so moderate his sweating that he need not fal into fainting or swouning fits and they that cannot endure sweating wil not easily endure purging Last of al purgers cannot performe the same as those sweaters do But that in some bodies sweaters are not to be administred is salf for though the disease may have its principal seat about the Liver and bowels yet it cannot be but also vitious Humors do abound in the whol body whenas the Liver infected with this disease doth generate virulent blood and distribute it to the whol Body Chap. XIX Of the manner of using these Medicines AS concerning the manner of using these Medicaments The manner of using these Medicines The dose of the decoction first of al the decoction of Guajacum is administred for the most part in the morning and afternoon two hours before Supper In the morning 't is given from five ounces to eight or nine ounces before the evening from three ounces to six ounces the pouder is given to two drams the extract to two scruples Yet somtimes the evening drauft is omitted especially at the begining before the patient is accustomed to the Decoction For what was said above of moderating the quality of the decoction that also is to be observed concerning the quantity of the Decoction to be given that the sick be not offended and overcharged which too much of it which unless it be observed it happens somtimes that the sick fal into Feavers contract Crudities and there is caused a loosness ill habit of body and a Dropsie After the same manner we must give the Decoction of Sarsapatilla China Root and the compound decoctions For though some do prescribe here divers doses yet he shal not erre that shal administer them in the aforesaid manner And indeed after the mornings drauft Sweat we must endeavor that the Patient sweat for expetience teacheth that they that sweat not upon the taking of these Medicaments are â—carce clearly freed from this Disease but that sweat may flow the easier let the Patient sleep one hour after he hath taken the Medicine for so
alone can wholly Extirpate the Roots and whol malice of the Venereal poyson nor so weak that it can perform nothing without the help of others that by the use of that only the Humors be wasted al Symptomes wil at length be allaied and wholly lie hid but yet the taint of the disease which hath already taken possession of the solid parts cannot in most bodies be wholly overcome and extinguisht by that remedy Rondeletius Rondeletius his Treacle Water doubtless followed these men also who de morb Itali commend his Treacle water which provokes sweat in the inveterate Italian Disease and takes away the pains the description of which is this Take of Treacle one pound of Sorrel three handfuls of the flowers of Chamomel Peny-royal Pomegranates blessed Thistle of each two ounces Mix them al in white wine and distil them Of which water give three ounces to drink with three ounces of Sorrel and Bugloss water when the Patient goes into his bed or hot house Platerus also thinks that it is confirmed by experience that the decoctions of other plants besides Guajacum Sarsaparilla China Sassafras can performe the same in this disease as they do and therefore fals into this opinion but evilly That the late mentioned Medicines which are accounted alexipharmaca of this disease do work rather in the cure of this disease by moving sweat then by an occult quality and therefore he thinks that not only a decoction of box wood Juniper Cedar Cypress and Savin Agallochus Rose-wood but also the decoction and Treacle water which are given in Pestilent Feavers are profitable also here Aurelius Minadous de lue Vener cap. 53. Whether treacle be good in the Venereal disease when he had spoken many things in the praise of Treacle at length concludes that Treacle also may be used against the venereal virulency as a most excellent Alexiterum not as if it were to be numbered amongst them which of themselves are said to expel this virulency but amongst them which expel it by accident in as much as it doth strengthen the spirits by a Conformable proportion to them so that they being now made strong are able as the principal agent together with the Treacle as their instrument to overcome the malignity of the venereal virulency The same Author cap. 44. Trochisks Cypheos commends Trochisks Cypheos in this Disease as being such which do principally strengthen the Liver which in this Disease is chiefly affected and free it from Excrementitious Humors which are collected in this Disease being powerful to concoct cleanse and dry up the Excrement and therefore as Galen thought this Composition was to be preferred before al other Medicines written by Asclepias Andromachus and other most Famous Physitians for the affects of the Liver so he thinks the same is to be used and Magnified beyond al others in this Disease But as I wil not disswade any one from the use of such common Alexipharmaca in the cure of this Disease whenas in other cases it is a custome when any one hath drank poyson or any waies taken it and knows not what it is to give treacle and common Alexipharmaca so I wil counsel no body that he confide only in these Medicines and neglect those proper ones And I see it done by very few Physitians as being taught by experience that this Disease cannot wholly be extirpated without Guajacum Sarsaparilla and the like neither doth it follow that therefore because some sick of an incurable French Pox could not be cured by Guajacum wood that we must place more hope in these Medicaments For they that could not be cured by those proper Alexipharmaca wil much less be cured by these common ones CHAP. XXI Of the Cure by Quick-silver ANd this is the chief kind of Medicine for the cure of the Venereal disease Of the cure by Quick-silver and this is the chief manner of curing it For there is also another way of curing the same Disease by quick-silver which was first brought into use by Chyrurgions and barbers afterwards also was applyed by learned Physitians For whenas as was said before by Fracastorius certain Barbars had found out amongst the Medicines of our ancestors for the filthy scab joyned with the pains of the joynts unguents compounded of Mercury and Sulphur other Medicines profiting little they began to use them The use of which being not altogether unsuccessful afterwards quick-silver was used in the cure of this Disease by many learned Physitians But though it be not my purpose in this place to treat of quick-silver which the Chymists cal Mercury but rather of the use of it in curing this disease yet I shal admonish you of a few things in general Quick-silver is reckoned amongst the mettals and 't is called Silver from its color in which it resembles silver Quicksilver whence so called It s wonderful Nature but quick because t is alwaies moveable and its Nature is altogether wonderful which many learned men admire and which hath tortered the wits of many Chymists and deluded their pains For though it be mortified fixed or what way soever it oftentimes seems to be changed yet it is easily reduced to its former quick Nature And though it be reduced into the smallest bodies and transmitted through leather or be otherwise reduced into atomes and a strong form yet it retaines in them its whol Nature and essence and returns to its former quick body Naturalists and Physitians differ concerning its temperament Whether Quicksilver be hot or cold whiles some hold it to be cold others hot Matthias Vnzerus hath collected the arguments of both in Anatom Spagyr Mercu. to alleage al which at large in this place is not our intent for you may consult with him on that business in the alleaged place yet by and by we shal make mention of some of them but Vnzerus himself cap. 12. goes the middle way and holds Matthias Vnzerus his opinion that some natural things have oftentimes in them diverse and wholly contrary vertues and faculties and some of them are manifest others occult and that these depend on the specifick form those on the first qualities of the Elements which he proves by the examples of Wormwood Rhubarb Vineger and others and he thinks Mercury is to be reckoned in the number of these which may be considered both as crude and as prepared the crude he thinks hath mixt qualities and is partly hot partly cold and that diversity is to be attributed to the divers parts of the matter of which it consists some of which are very thin Subtile pure and Spirituous but some are thick earthy and feculent but he thinks that Mercury prepared hath no longer any cold quality but they are wholly taken away by the outward help of fire or by the Application of the menstrua and therefore that it is very hot Hercules Saxonia Hercules Saxonia holds the same de lue Vener Cap. 39. Whiles he
teacheth that this Medicine doth exulcerate and cause heat and inflamation on the other side it causeth numness Palsies and other cold affects and that it proceeds from the inequality of its temperament and because 't is an imperfect mixt body and if it be prepared by calcination that the cold substance doth fly away and that which is left is fire But these authors erre very much The authors opinion indeed it cannot be denied that there are many Medicines which have Heterogeneous parts by vertue of which they produce divers effects which parts also may be separated by the help of art But that Quick-silver hath such parts is fals neither was there yet ever found any Chymist who could show the diverse parts in it and separate them by art for the whol is Homogeneous if there be any thing so in Nature and either it al flies away or al remaines and what way soever it is prepared Quicksilver is Homogeneous at last it al revives wholly Homogeneous and whatsoever Chymist can show any Heterogeneous parts in Quick-silver as in Rhubatb shal be in my esteem a great Apollo Neither is precipitate of another Nature then that which is crude neither doth Quick-silver loose any thing by its preparation and that prepared does differ from the crude only in external form which is caured by the admistion of other things which somtimes are Salt parts as happens in Mercury Sublimate and Precipitate somtimes only watry as when Mercury is reduced into water by a retort without the admistion of any other thing as the same Vnzerits teacheth Lib. 2. de Anatom Mercu. cap. 2. n. 4. for this water is nothing else but the Quick-silver resolved into the smallest bodies or Atomes by the strength of the fire and mixt with watry Vapors or the moist Air. Yet in that there appeare no effects of cold but rather of heat and that very water as other mercurial waters wil dissolve gold in like manner Saxonia is mistaken for Quick-filver is no imperfect mixt body but a body that hath the most perfect mistion and cannot be destroied by any art of the Chymists but every where retaines its form neither whiles it is calcined or rather exposed to the sire for Quick-silver cannot properly be said to be Calcmed do the cold parts fly away and the fiery stay behind but if those parts which are raised up be received they are of the same Nature with those that remaine as is wel known to the Chymist Therefore whenas this Reconcilation is of no force Quick silver is hot let us see who is in the righter whether those who hold Quick-silver to be hot or those that say 't is cold But I think that they are altogether of the righter judgment who think it to be hot for that appears by its great penetrating and corroding vertue so that it penetrates and Eats into Mettals and the flesh nay the very bones are corroded by Mercury precipitate and sublituate And Libavius writes in tract de igne natu cap. 30 that he knew by the relation of a most learned Physitian that a certain Chyrurgion dying by the too frequent use of Mercurial Medicines had his bones plainly britle or frangible But whenas they object first of al The answer of the reasons against it that whiles 't is quick and whol it doth not corrode the cause of that is because it cannot infinuate it self into the body and worke upon it whenas al its parts are most closely knit together nor cannot be mixed with other bodies but the Medicines prepared out of it as Mercury sublimate Precipitate Oyl of Mereury and it there be any more of this kind have a great power to burn and corrode not only by the reason of Salts commixt which is very little but because 't is resolved into the smalest bodies and being mixt with the Salts it can adhere to the body and by the benefit of things admixt most intimately insinuate it self into it Secondly whereas Quick-silver appears cold to the touch that is common to it with steel Brass Lead Wine things of their own Nature hot which by accident feel to be cold Thirdly whereas some also from the effects would collect quick-silver to be cold in that they are very much deceived and they attribute those effects to cold which have their dependance elswhere Truly they that drink the waters infected with quick-silver on the Alps are sick of divers fluxes and are taken with a bronchocele Goldsmiths and others who often deal with quick-silver are seldom healthful and long lived but are obnoxious to numnesses tremblings palsies convulsions lethargies suffocating catarths and appoplexies Thus Fernelius relates of a certain Goldsmith that imprudently admitting the vapour of quick-silver only presently became stupid drowzy and wholly speechless Ferdinandus Ponrertus relates that the same happend to another lib. 1. de vene cap. 3. And Forestus lib. 8. obser 5. writes That a certain yong man learning the Smiths art upon the atching of a Cup with quick-silver had all the hair of his head fell off and that his face became extraordinary pale and all his body tremulous and many others have observed the same And Jacobus Oethoeus in his observat reports That a certain yong Noble man troubled with Crab-lice in his Privities used Mercurial Oyntment to drive them away upon which his Yard grew cold and sluggish and unfit for Venery But here is a fallacy of the cause for quick-silver doth not do these things by cooling but because it hath a peculiar and occult quality that is an enemy to the Nerves and Brain as appears in many other stupifying poysons Fourthly That which is Objected is easily Answered to wit That the damage brought upon mans body by quick silver is cured by the use of hot things as Sage Hyssope Origanum Clary Rue Castor and the like For those Medicaments are not therefore applied to the preternatural affects caused by quick-silver only because they are hot but because they are friends to the Brain and Nerves and furthermore as they themselves grant by a specifick property are enemies to the Mercurial virulency and that such things are not therefore applied because they are hot but because by a peculiar vertue they are friends to the Nerves it appears by this because other hot things as Ginger Pepper and the like which have no specifick property freindly to the Nerves do not perform the same But concerning the Occult Vertue and Propriety of Quick-silver we chiefly meet with two doubts First of all Whether it be poysonous next of all Whether it be rightly applied for the Cure of the Venereal Disease Concerning the former Question Whether Quick-silver be Poysonous Whether quick-filver be Poysonous we have already treated before in tractat de Chym. Aristot consens dissens cap. 19. where we speak of Mercury and we said there That Matthias Vnzerus de anatem spagyr Mercu. did endeavour to prove at large That Mercury is not
danger so bitter hazard but that quick-silver may be applied to external and contumacious Ulcers is known to every body But to evacuate vitious Humors it may be used three manner of waies How many ways quick-silver doth Evacuate either to move by stool and vomit or to cause sweat or to cause Salivation and spitting Coneerning the giving of quick-silver to move by stool or vomit is already spoken before and the Chymists are large in the praise of it and do extol it with wonderful commendations By stool and vomit and Crollius calls Mercury the Balsome of Nature in which there is both a vertue incarnative and regenerative which doth wonderfully renew and purge from al impurities and therefore cals it a divine Medicine to whom Beguinus assents who in Lib. 2. Tyrocin Chym. cap. 3. writes that Mercury is the chiefest Alexipharmacum against al corruption and putrefaction from whom though Platerus do not wholly dissent while he teacheth that this Disease may easily be cured by purging with Mercury and truly in no long time but very speedily being scarce drank twice or thrice from whence is raised a plentiful flux of the belly and also vomiting somtimes also sweat and Urin is provoked yet he cannot deny that it doth perform this by a violent irritation of Nature and not without danger But I would have a Physitian rather timorous than bold and rash in the use of this Medicine 'T is to be given warily for that which Pliny said was the poyson of al things Lib. 37. cap. 6. that wil not spare mans body but offends the stomach Liver Guts and al the bowels and is especiallly an enemy to the Nerves and brain but though the Chymists affirme that being prepared it may grow more mild and that it may not hurt they precipitate it sublime it and prepare flowers of it Aquilam Aurum vitae and other things yet though you expel Nature with a fork she wil stil returne for as it was said even now out of Platerus it purges violently and not without danger and as Fernelius Lib. de lue Vener cap. 17. writes of this business upon the giving of prepared Mercury doubtless he meant precipitate presently from the compass of the whol body Humors of al sorts break forth upwards and downwards with so great force and so violent that the spirits being exhausted and the strength wasted the sick do either die presently or lie some daies without strength like unto dead men somtimes al the mouth is inflamed and contracts a Gangreen putrid Ulcers and very stinking and somtimes the jaws swel that the Patient for some daies is not able to swallow at al although somtimes it work more gently yet it purges violently enough But if it do work more mildely either it retaines the nature of that which is crude or being fixt it doth almost put on the nature of a fixt mettal of the first sort is metcurius dulcis of which Angelus Sala saith in the riper aged it works little unless it be given in a great dose to wit thirty five grains and then it easily raiseth salivation and that this is true a certain Physitian wel known to me learnt to his cost and found it so by experience as we have said de consens et dissen cap. 18. but if it be more fixt it doth not move the belly therefore it must needs be that it have a middle nature if it ought to purge that it may stimulate nature where yet alwaies to hold that medium is very difficult Yet amongst those medicines we have nominated of prepared mercury that which is called mercurius vitae doth easily challeng the first place so that I think it would be needless to make mention here of more medicines prepared out of mercury but we must note this concerning mercurious vitae that it is no pure mercurial medicine but there is contained in it some part of antimony as appears by the vitrum and Regulus which may be made out of the mercurius vitae but can by no art be prepared out of mercury alone but that they may be made of antimony is wel known Yet when we are minded to administer mercurius vitae When it is to be given in the Venereal disease and other mercurial medicines we must diligently consider Mesues rule that it is a grane of wisdom not to come to strong medicines but where weak ones wil not satisfy If therefore this evil be new and gentle which may be cured by gentler purgers and by the decoction of Guajacum or Sarsaparilla we must not rashly come to the use of quicksilver But if the evil be stubborn and inveterate and there be many virulent humors in the body mercurial medicines may be given without danger for then 't is not easily to be feared that it should assail mans body when it hath vicious humors enough to work upon And oftentimes necessity compels us to come to the use of quicksilver and some do hope in vain to affect the same buismess by weak medicines often repeated as by stronger taken plentifully at once For experience hath long since taught us that we do oftentimes spend our time in vain in such medicines given against pertinaceous diseases On the contrary that strong in 〈◊〉 and amongst them quicksilver after once or more times taking have happâ—ly overcome pertinacious diseases whose cause was about the stomach the cavety of the liver the spleen pancreas the cal and from thence was communicated to other 〈◊〉 Sweating medicines made of quicksilver Secondly out of quicksilver are prepared sweating medicines to wiâ—the whitspirit of mercury or the white or red oyl of mercury one drop of which or two are given to drink in treacle water and spirits of Guajacum or some such like decoction to move sweat as also other preparations and fixt medicaments of quicksâ—â—ver and in case that quicksilver performe that for which end it is given and move sweat and discuss the vitious humors by it 't is not so dangerous a medicine Salivation by quick-silver The third way is by Salivation and many indeed do place al their hopes of the cure of this disease in Salivation so that Platerus writeth unless that in the cure by quicksilvet Salivation be raised by the use of it And at last be supervenient the cure doth not succeed neither is it fitting so much to condemne the use of it and wholy to reject it for the faults which happen in the mouth in this cute or for other accidents amongst which convulsions are cheifly to be feared which are wont somtimes to happen if there be any great error committed in the use of it whenas afterwards in the cure the faults of the mouth are easily corrected again On the contrary Fernelius de lue Vener cap. 6. doth exactly set forth this manner of cure and describes its inconveniences so great saith he is the cruelty and harshness of this unguent that the patient presently begins
be often fomented with a linnen cloth wet in the decoction of guajacum and sarsaparila for the same the alum water even now described is very good or if the evil be stubborn some ointment must be laid upon them with pouder of precipitate such as were proposed before or precipitate mixt with foure times as much of the white of an eg which layed upon such excrescenses of the arsehole in 24. houres space extracts and roots them out after wards drying and cooling things must be layed on Some cut off the french warts with Scissers and afterwards take out the root with the medicines even now proposed also if the extream part of the wart be toucht with oyl of vitriol it dries up and falls off Falling of the Hair The falling of the haire wich is joyned with this disease doth happen rather from the knawing off of the roots of the hair than from other causes Falling af the hair both in the head and beard which that it may be cured generals being premized first the hair must be shaved off if the patient wil allow it for al do not admit of it especially religious men whose diseases must be kept private as Hercules Saxonia writes de lue Vener Cap. 38. then astringent things must not be used by the use of which the evil is made worse and ulcers and paines of the head do follow upon it the matter being retained but those things rather are to be used which do discuss and clense away that vitious matter which eates of the haires as a lye in which have bin boyled Guajacum and its bark farsaparilla leaves of fumitory betony scabious southernwood wormwood penyroyal asarabaca agrick and if the skin be dry mallowsmarshmallowes pellitory of the wal must be added then the other medicines must be applied which are propounded lib. 5. pract par 3. sect 2. cap. 3. and 4. al which if they satisfie not particular suffumigation for the head and face must be prepared of quick-silver and cinnabar by which remedy in the space of six or nine dayes the falling of the haire is stayed But for the most part if universal purgers and emptiers be applied and the matterknawing the haires be taken away and proper lotions be used afterwards haire doth succed of its owne accord in the place of that that fel away see more in the place alledged de Alope et Capil deflu Pains Also most grievous pains do often afflict those who are sick of the Venereal Disease The Cure of pains but they are most commodiously taken away by medicines proper to this disease but Sarsaparilla is chiefly good to take them away therefore if the pains be very urgent on the first daies you must take a greater quantity of Sarsaparilla and a less of Guajacum and though the matter being dissolved and melted the pains be encreased til the second week because Sarsa hath an extraordinary attenuating faculty without any astriction of the bowels yet we must not desist from the use of it but the patient must be told of it afterwards when the pain is ceased we may encrease the quantity of Guajacum and China Root may be added also to mitigate those pains but by intervals almost every week give proper purging medicines but to the places pained apply fomentations of Guajacum Leaves of Penyroyal Sage Rosemary Chamomel flowers Oyl of white Lillies also of Rue Scorpions Vipers Guajacum are good if the pain be very urgent we may give also Laudanum Opiate Upon the use of al which if the pain depart not those mercurial Unguents which we propounded before in the universal Cure must be anointed on the places pained or by the addition of wax make Cerotes of them and lay them on the parts pained or some other plaisters above propounded to which also may be added Castor Hermodactil Roots Orice and other Arthritical Medicines especially Vigo's Cerote of Frogs is of good use to lay asleep those pains and this Cerot of Platerus is good too Take of Quick-silver three ounces stir it with one ounce of Turpentine washt with Aqua vitae adding Bears grease the marrow of a Calves Legg of each an ounce and half Oyl of white Lillies Chamomel Dill bayes worms or Foxes of each half an ounce Spike or Turpentine two drams Euphorbium Frankincense of each half an ounce Liquid Styrax six drams Hermodactils two drams Castor one dram Wax as much as is sufficient Make a Cerote Also the aforesaid Lavatories prepared of Mercury formerly propounded applied to the parts pained especially the Legs do allay the pains The Running of the Reins The Running of the Reins The Cure of the Running of the Reins which also is frequent in this Disease is not to be stopt at the beginning nor rashly whenas Nature doth endeavor to purge the virulent matter through that place which if it be supprest flies up to the Head nay infects the whol Body but if it do not stop when the decoction hath been used til the third week let the Region of the Loyns and Perinaeum be anointed with astringent Oyls made of Mastich Mint Roses Mirtle But let Medicines be given of the seed of the Chast-tree Lettice Hemp to which add a double quantity of the pouder of Sarsaparilla and those Medicines may be given either in the form of a pouder or with Syrup of Water of Lillies be reduced into the form of an Electuary 'T is good also if every day there be given two or three drams of Water-lillies with one or two scruples of Turpentine Some also do give for this Running of the Reins green Mercury precipitate or the Rozin of Guajacum and Turpentine which is washt with Violet Water and adding the Yolk of an Egg and the Decoction of Sarsaparilla 't is reduced into the form of a Potion A Consumption At last it often happens A Consumption that either by the violence of the Disease or the Cure not rightly ordered the sick come into a deep Consumption For the Cure of which the common Medicines for a Consumption wil not suffice but there is need of Specificks Which kind of Remedy Audovicus Septalius animadvers Lib 7. n. 214. doth propound and writes that by it he hath wholly freed very many from this disease and from such a Consumption But 't is prepared thus Take of choice Sarsaparilla cut smal six ounces infuse it twenty four hours in fifteen pound of warm water in a warm place in a vessel shut afterwards boyl it with a gentle fire till five pound be wasted then with a spoon perforated take out the Sarsaparilla and bruise it in a marble morter then cast it into the same water again adding two pound of lean Veal Coriander seed prepared one ounce or instead of it so much of the shavings of Guajacum or three drams of yellow Sanders sliced according to the condition of the Patients body and humors and the vessel being covered let it boyl again with a gentle fire till
about the joynts The cause of the gout Solution of Unity in the Gout from whence it happeneth Now this solution proceedeth not as Capivaccius wil have it only from a Compression of the sensible parts about the joynt caused by a preternatural repletion of the Ligaments with a Humor flowing thereto For why the Ligaments are most solid and most thick in so much that in the first place they themselves cannot admit of the Humors and the pain is oftentimes in the highest degree when there is scarcely any swelling appearing and indeed far greater then that it should possibly be caused by compression only This pain is therefore rather caused by the distention and twinging or pricking in the sensible and tender parts about the Joynt But now what the Cause of this distention Pulling and Pricking is cannot easily be explained by reason of the difference in Opinions among Physitians touching the same For some there are that teach us how that the Gout is generated only from a distemper others from a Winde a third sort only from a Humor and some of these will have this Humor to be flegm others Choler others Flegm with Choler others assert it to be Flegm mingled with blood others Crude and Watery blood others say that it is a whey and others there are that admit of all these Humors And indeed some affirm that this Humor floweth down from the Head others again from the internal parts others from the external parts between the Skul and the Skin some again wil have it to flow forth of the Veins and others by both these waies touching which we intend to discourse more at large below in the seventh Question But in brief The neerest causes of the gout that we may here in a word state the Controversie the immediate and neerest Cause of the Gout is a Humor partly distending the parts of a quick sense about the joynt and partly pricking and lancing them to wiâ— the serous or wheyish Humor and yet such as is not waterish but Salt and sharp and as the Chymists call it Tartarous bred in the sanguification in the Liver and in the Spleen and by Nature thrust forth by the Veins and Arteries into the parts about the joynt And indeed this Humor is altogether of a peculiar Nature and much different from these other Humors that breed an inflammation in other parts and it hath its original from the same kind of Aliment that Plants draw from the Earth For in all sorts of Earth there is somthing that is saltish and partaking of a Mineral Nature Which whether we call it the Salt of the Earth or else Tartar with the common sort of Chymists it matters not with me so that we agree in the thing it self And yet notwithstanding it seems not al one to me Whether the Salt of the Earth and Cartar differ whether we call it the Salt of the Earth or else Tartar For Salt is indeed a simple Body of its own kind but Tartar as it is in truth taken here generally in this place by the Chymists is a compound of Salt and Earth yea and of Sulphur likewise From whence also it is that there are constituted Differences of such like Earths and so there ariseth a diversity of the Humor breeding the Gout in divers Bodies and places And from either the abundance or scarcity of this Salt and the mixture of it with other Juyces there arise various differences of Earths so that some of them are dirty others muddy a third sort Clayish a fourth sandy and Crumbling a fifth Limye and in some Earths there is an abundance of that we call Marle in others Chalk and in others there is somthing else that aboundeth and in some Earths in the which likewise Bread Corn grows very plentifully there is so great a store of this Salt that even out of them there may be destilled a certain spirit that dissolveth Metals That Salt or Tartar is attracted from Plants together with their Aliment out of the Earth and hence it is derived into men unto whom those Plants serve for Meat and Drink and unless it be severed and separated in a Convenient manner it is at length mingled together with the blood and being altogether unfit for the nourishing of the Body it is in the end driven down and thrust into the joynts for those Causes that we shal anon declare unto you And this Salt Humor that causeth the Gout oftentimes cometh very neer unto the Nature of spirits as the Chymists call them such as are those of Wine and other Vegetables endued with a volatile Salt as also of Salt Vitriol Nitre and Aqua Fortis which although that they are thin Subtile and Resemble the Nature of Water yet notwithstanding they contain in them a most sharp and biting Salt And this Salt is contained as well in the Arteries as in the Veins from whence likewise it is that being most subtile it exciteth very extream intollerable and most acute pains For it is not requisite that those Humors should alwaies hurt the Body in a thick and gross manner but oftentimes they are made spiritual as we shal afterwards also in the Causes shew you touching Wine And many things there are that teach us the truth of this First of all the very vehemency and fiercenss of the pain it self which cannot possibly proceed from a Flegmatick or watry Humor or else from Blood distending the parts but from a very sharp Humor being oftentimes indeed but little in its quantity and bulk but yet in power very great and most efficacious And moreover it appeareth from this that at length there are generated in the Joynts certain hard knobs and knots out of which there is taken and goeth forth a matter like unto Lime such as also some certain Wines before they be wrackt and taken off their Lees do yield forth which happeneth not at all in other Tumors which are rather turned into Pus then any such matter as this and therefore it sufficiently sheweth that the Gout hath some other peculiar cause that the rest of the Tumors or swellings have not And Thirdly the Causes do argue and prove the same since that there is nothing that maketh more for the generation of the Gout then Wine which most of all aboundeth with such a Salt and Tartar as we mentioned before there being no plant as we shall also further shew you below that doth more attract that that is Salt Clayie and Limye in the Earth then the Vine it self although indeed other Plants likewise as Wheat and Barley do draw unto them the very same matter as the Vine doth but in nothing neer so great an abundance Yea and this matter is somtimes likewise contemed in the Water and from hence it is that now and then such as are Abstemious or that otherwise by reason of their poverty they drink no Wine but Water are yet troubled with the Gout and in some places we find that
of the humors unto the external parts they may also very easily cause some inconvenience and make the pain longer since that the pain is wont to return again in a short time after As for example Take Barly Meal four ounces the Crumb of Wheaten Bread three ounces Milk as much as will suffice boyl them to the consistence of a Cataplasm and then add of the Oyl of Roses one ounce the Yelks of three Eggs Opium one scruple and mingle them Or Take the soft pith of white Bread as much as wil suffice pour thereon of Cream of Tartar a sufficient quantity and then add Saffron one dram Frankincense half a dram Powder of Earth-worms two drams the Yelks of four Eggs Henbane and white Poppyseed of each three drams let them boyl in a double Vessel for half an hour and make a Cataplasm Or Take Leaves of Henbane three handfuls the Berries of Nightshade one ounce let them be boyled til they be soft and then bruised to a Mash then strew upon it one ounce and half of Barly Meal and a little Oyl of Roses and so make a Cataplasm Or Take Barly Meal the soft Crumb of white Bread of each half a handful Leaves of Henbane Mallows Violets of each one handful Flowers of Camomile Rindes of white Poppy of each half a handful Oyl of Earth-worms and Poppy of each one ounce and make a Cataplasm If you think fit you may also add of Opium and Saffron of each one dram Or Take Roots of Mandâ—ake and Leaves of Henbane of each as much aâ— you think wil suffice boyl and bruise them all to a Mash and then add of Barly Meal and Bean meal with Oyl of Roses a sufficient quantity of each and make a Cataplasm Or Take Crude Vitriol two pound Spirit of Wine three pints the Water of the Elder Tree one Quart Mingle them all well together in a Glass Vessel well Luted and then puting to the Alembick and the Receiver in which there may be put the Seeds of Henbane bruised two ounces the flowers of Mullein Elder and Camomile of each two hand fuls let there be a destillation by degrees until the Glass be Fire hot After the distillation let the spirit with the flegm be separated from the Seeds and flowers and so let it be kept in a Glass for use Or Take Leaves of Henbane one handful Nightshade Sengreen the Heads of Garden Poppyes of each half a handful Mandrake Roots one ounce Flowers of Camomile and Mulleyn of each one pugil Seed of Fleabane one ounce and half of Henbane one dram Let them be boyled in Milk for a Fomentation then let the Remainders be bruised to a mash and then add of the Meal of Lin-seed one ounce Barley Meal and Oyl of Roses of each two ounces and make a Cataplasm And there are some also that refer hither the washing of the grieved part with cold Water and indeed this they do by the authority of Hippocrates who in his 5 Sect. 25. Aphorism writeth in this manner The Gout pains of the Joynts as also Convulsions and many more of these kind of pains are lessened and taken away by the large affusion of cold Water and plentiful pouring of it upon the part that is in pain for a Moderate stupifying and benumming removeth the pain And so likewife Donat. Antonius Ferrus in his 2 Tract of the Gout Chap. 9. writeth that he had oftentimes had experience of this Remedy and that when all other Remedies were to no purpose he betook himself unto the pouring of cold Water upon the part as unto his last shift and that the pain was forthwith asswaged thereby And the very truth is that it cannot indeed be at all denied that cold Water being poured forth upon the pained part doth not only drive back but likewise produce a kind of stupidity and benummedness and thereby asswage the pain but it is to be feared lest that by this means the innate heat of the part be destroyed and so a weakness brought upon the part by reason of which the Malady may afterward be rendred more grievous and moreover the Humor may be impacted into the part and there condensed and thickned or else haply by this violent Repulse the Humors may be made to rush unto the more inward parts Repellers or Medicaments that drive back But now as for Topicks Repellers that are directed unto the Cause and in the first place touching Repelling Medicaments we say that although they are by some commended yet alone they have here scarcely any place at all For seeing that Nature her self hath ordained this Motion and that she endeavoureth to drive forth the vitious Humors from the more internal unto the external parts that are less noble if this motion be hindered and the Humors driven back again unto the internal and more noble and principal parts this cannot be done without the extream hazard of the life and hereupon there will arise the worst and most dangerous Symptoms that will not cease unless Nature again expel forth the vitious Humor unto some other Joynt And moreover when the pain is a little mitigated in regard that the matter is diffused unto the external parts that are about the Joynt if by the Repellers it be driven back unto the internal parts the pain happeneth then to be increased and hence it is also that very many cannot so much as endure the cold Air from without neither yet somtimes the external Air although it be not so very cold but that there is a Necessity of covering the affected Member if they expect to have their pain Mitigated And furthermore if the matter hath already flown out of the part into the Joynt by the use of Medicaments that drive back and Cool it is made more thick and impacted into the part and so the Malady rendred more difficult to be cured But yet never the less if by the sudden and overgreat afflux of the humors especially such as are more hot the pain be much increased even in the very first beginning of the sit in so much that it seemeth to cal for all the Care and to require that al the means that are used may be for the removal thereof and that therefore we have a mind to moderate it and somwhat to drive it back we may then indeed make use of Repellers but not of them alone and by themselves but mingled with Anodynes Venefection and Purgation having gone before Like as on the Contrary we are not in the beginning to make use of those Medicaments that are over loosening since that they help forward the afflux of the Humors but we ought in the first place to make use of those Medicaments that do somwhat stop and stay the afflux of the Humors And therefore we may then lawfully add Lettice Sengreen Purflaine Violets Plantane Roses and such Compounds as are made out of them as also what Vinegar we think fit As Take Barly Meal three ounces boyl it in
Oxycrate then add the Yelks of two Eggs Saffron one scruple and mingle them Or Take Mucillage of the Seed of Fleabane extracted with Rose Water two ounces Mucillage of Marsh Mallow Seeds one ounce Barly Meal as much as will suffice the yelk of one Egge and so make a Cataplasm Or Take The water of the Sperm of Frogs four ounces Water of Nightshade of the flowers of Elder and of Plantane of each two ounces Camphire half a scruple and mingle them well together If you think fit the Mucillage of the Seed of Fleabane and of Quinces of each one ounce may be added Or Take Juyce of Henbane Sengreen Lettice of each two ounces Barly Meal one ounce the Yelk of one Egg and Oyl of Roses two ounces Mingle them well together Or Take Red Roses â—ne handful the Meal of Fenugreek Seed Beans and Barly of each one ounce Red Sanders one dram and half Camomile flowers one pugil when they are boyled and throughly bruised you are to add the Yelks of two Eggs Vinegar four ounces Oyl of Roses as much as will suffice and make a Cataplasm Or. Take Water of Night-shade of Plantane of the Sperm of Frogs of each two ounces Oyl of Roses and Camomile of each one ounce Cows Milk three ounces the Meal of Beans Marsh-Mallows and Barly of each one ounce or as much as will suffice Saffron one scruple the yelks of two Eggs Smallage two scruples Make a Cataplasm Some there are that steep Harts-born burnt and prepared in the Water of Mulleyn flowers or else they boyl it in the same Water and in the streyning they wet and soak Linen Clothes and these they lay upon the part that is pained Or Take Mulleyn new and fresh gathered six pound Wine one Quart Let them be Macerated for three whole daies and then afterwards let them be destilled Or Take The Flowers of Mulleyn and fill a Glass bâ—ttle ful of them and then stopping the month thereof very close set it in the Sun for so they dissolve as it were into a liquor wherein you are to wet a Linen Cloath and lay it upon the part affected for the asswaging of the pain If you judget sitter to make use of Oyls Then Take Frogs five of them in Number Earth-worms washed in Wine three ounces boyl them in the Oyl of Roses and strain them Discussing Medicaments But now when the force and violence of the fluxion is once past and gone Discussives and the part become swoln then those things are withall to be mingled which do cal forth the Humor and gently discuss the same and so take away some part of the Cause But now here Physitiaus are wont for the most part of them to be very long and Tedious in reckoning up and distinguishing the several Medicaments which of them are fit and proper in a hot Cause and which of them when the Cause is cold yea and which of them are most convenient for all kind of Humors But although we deny not but that we are in some kind of manner to have respect unto the Condition of the Humor that floweth in unto the Joynts yet nevertheless our chief and main Care ought to be that the ferous and sharp wheyish Humor which is the nighest and most principal Cause of the pain may be called forth of the more deep and close parts in the Joynts unto the external parts and that they be insensibly discussed and yet that this may the more conveniently be so done we may likewise as we said but now have some regard unto those Humors that the aforesaid serous and sharp Humor forcibly draweth along with it and which by Reason of the pain are together attracted to the part that is pained and which are very commonly taken for the highest and most immediate Cause of the Gout Yea and moreover that very serous Humor it self the prime and principal Cause of this Evil is in some more and in others less hot And therefore if the flowing Humor be more hot then the discussing Medicaments ought to be so ordered that they may indeed gently disperse the Humor but yet so that they give no occasion at all for any new afflux And such a like hot Humor inregard that it is withall moveable and thin is easily discussed neither needeth it any stronger Medicaments But if the Humor be less hot or somwhat cold then we may very safely administer Medicaments that are more hot Neither will there be any Cause to fear that then a new flux may easily be excited and therefore for the dispersing of such a like Humor there are necessarily required such Medicaments as are more hot then ordinary But now with what Medicaments that wheyish and as it is so called by the Chymists Tartarous Humore is to be drawn forth and discussed we are here and that for very good Reason diligently to make inquiry For we have elswhere told you viz. in our Tract of Chymic Confil. Diss Chap. 15. that the Medicaments ought in their own kind to be like unto the Cause For there is not any thing that suffereth from every thing neither is there any thing that may be united unto every thing Gum Arabick and Tragacanth and the Gum of Cherry Trees are dissolved by Water because of the neer alliance and agreement in their Natures but but so is not Sulphur and other things of a Sulphurous Nature and those things that are Oyly Sulphur is dissolved by Oyl but not by Aqua Fortis although the said Water is able to dissolve silver and other Metals The hands when they are all foul with Pitch or Turpentine are not to be made clean with Water but with Oyl or some thing else that is fat In burnings we use not to administer cold Water but Linseed Oyl Vernish and the like that may draw forth that fire and burning are to be applied And so in the Erysipelas or other wise called Rosa we ought not to impose those things that are fat and Oyly but ley tempered with Oyl and Sope that is dissolved in Elder Water and the Like which do not at al shut the pores but yet nevertheless they draw forth and discuss that subtile and hot Humor And the very same is the case in the Gout and since that it hath its Original not from a Watery Humor neither yet also from that which is Oyly or Sulphurous as the Chymists speak but from a Humor that is sharp and Salt for the drawing forth and dissipating of this Humor those things that contain in them a volatile and flitting Salt are rather to be administred then those things that are fat and Oyly And experience hath already taught many that the Gout pains are increased by such things as are fat And hence it is that the Chymists do so much commend and not without cause Salt Armoniack oftentimes sublimated dissolved in Wine or some other convenient liquor and so imposed upon the pained part Others commend the Salt of Urine
Treacle touching which the Author of the Book of Treacle to Piso in his 15. Chapter wrireth But it most of all profiteth faith he when any one shall frequently take thereof whiles he is yet well and in health in regard that it consumeth the superfluous humors of the whol body and changeth likewise the temperament thereof And a little after I advise saith he that every man in such like diseases would use Treacle because that it both drieth up the superfluous humors and permitteth not that any other be bred whereupon very many from the use of this alone in the beginning have been altogether freed from the Gout Aetius in the place alleadged hath this description of the Antidote consisting of four things The Antidote of four things by some called a Mystery viz. Take Gentian Bayberries Mirrh equal parts and make a pouder Give hereof every day half a spoonful in hot Water Oribasius in the place alleadged hath another description hereof Take Germander one pound Gentian round Aristolochy or Birthwort of each two ounces Rue seed one sextary Let them be well bruised and searsed Give dayly hereof one spoonful That which is made of seven things hath as followeth Take St. Johns wort one ounce Centaury and Groundpine of each three ounces The Antidote of seven things The Antidote of Cantaury Gentian five ounces round Aristolochy one ounce Agarick three ounces Parsley one ounce Attick Honey sive pound The Dose one dram in three Cyaths of Water But Aetius chiefly commendeth the Antidote of Centaury and he writeth that he knew many cured by the use thereof and that it was so wholsom for such as were troubled with the Gout that the use thereof had enabled many that had been affected herewith fifteen yeers and so wel recovered them that they went journeys on foot and that it was grateful to the stomach convenient for the belly and provoking much urine The manner of making it is thus Take the tops of Centaury the less Roots of Centaury the Greater Germander Gentian round Aristolochy of each alike as suppose one pound Let one dram hereof be given for fourty daies out of hot water and in the other three hundred twenty five following daies of the yeer let half a dram be administred after the same manner And the same Aetius likewise very highly commendeth the Antidote of St. Johns wort The Axtidote of St. Johns wort as that which cureth al manner of Gouts the Disease of the Hips and al diseases of the joynts in general being drunk for the space of one whol yeer that it warmeth and cherisheth the stomach maketh the sight sharp and quick and that it maketh the rest of the senses also mote cleer and fitter for the discharge of their several Offices that it gently evacuateth the Urine and that it is excellent good in the falling-sickness that it freeth from the great and grievous pains of the head and lastly that it mollifieth the Liver and the Spleen when they are hardened into a Schirrus Now the manner of making it is this Take Germander nine ounces Centaury eight ounces round Aristolochy seven ounces Gentian Root six ounces the tops of St. Johns wort five ounces Parsley four ounces Spignel three ounces Valerian two ounces Agarick two ounces Honey well scummed three pound Alexander Trallianus greatly commendeth this Antidote of the Philosopher Heraclitus as much approved of by many Viz. Heraclitus his Antiâ—â—â— Take Spicknard two ounces Gentian long Aristolochy round Aristolochy or Birthwort the best Myrrh Bayberries Rhapontick of each half an ounce The Dose is one dram The best time to take it is the beginning of the Spring and the Autumn and indeed in those places and persons that are cold the Spring time but in others that are more hot the Autumn The same Trallianus preferreth the Diacorallium Antidote before al other Antidotes whatsoever The Antidote Diacorallium which is thus made Take of Corals two drams Mirrh four ounces Cloves half an ounce Rhapontick one ounce Peony Root the like quantity long and round Aristolochy of each two ounces Spicknard four ounces and make hereof a Pouder And of this he giveth in the morning one scruple out of warm water and after it he enjoyneth abstinence from al kind of food for six hours but yer the truth is a shorter time of fasting may suffice maketh the beginning hereof about the Kalends of January and so continueth administring of it for a hundred daies by reason of the long continued perseverance of the Indication as Cappivaccius explaineth it and then for thirty daies he intermitteth the administring of it because of the strength and powers of the body that they may be recollected as the same Cappivaccius tels us And then again he administreth it for a hundred daies mote and so again as before he intermits for thirty daies When the two hundred and sixty daies wherein there were two hundred potions administred are over and past he then giveth it again but now not every day but only every other day and so in a hundred and three score daies he administreth fourscore Potions And afterwards again in two hundred and sixty daies he administreth eighty Potions giving them every thud day until the three hundred sixty five Potions shal have been al taken But he warneth them that take this Antidote that they abstain from Anger Venery Astringent and sweet Wine al kind of bitter Pot-herbs the heads of Fish Crabs and Crevishes Lobsters Eels Hares flesh al kind of Pulse but more especially Beans And many more of such like Antidotes there are to be found in Paulus Aegineta Aetius and Trallianus in the places before alleadged Out of these afterwards in the Ages not long before ours and in our Age also there arose divers other such like Compositions Thomas Erastus telleth us that he had two of these communicated unto him and extolled with high commendations One of them that was given him by an Italian Physitian who called it the Pouder of Jupiter and was imparted unto him by Doctor Conradus Gesner is made in this manner following Take Round Aristolochy Jupiters Pouder such as is right the true Rhapontick of each one ounce Macedonian Parsley seed half an ounce Germander tops Centaury the less and St. Johns wort of each ten drams make a Pouder hereof In the first month give every day one dram hereof out of warm Water and afterwards half a dram for one whol yeer every month you must also order the Patient to take a purge or two or else for such as are flegmatick you may intermingle the Pouder of Agarick with the aforesaid Pouder a little to purge the sick person The other Composition bestowed on me by Dn. D. Christoph Wirsung an Augustan Physitian is thus to be made Take the true round Aristolochy Gentian Rhapontick or Centaury the greater but I think the true Rhapontick to be better the tops of Germander Groundpine or Herb Ivy of each alike
fully touching this Decoction of Groundpine and the advice given by the Physitians of Genoa as we may see in his Epistle to Joachimus Roelandus touching the China Root about the end thereof We think it not amiss neither our time ill spent to give you his words at large as we find them in the said Epistle No man saith he can blame me for administring at a fit and convenient time that Medicament which I find commended by the prime Genoa Physitians as divine and as if it were some Deity and which with the greatest promises that might be of the perpetual banishment of the Articular Disease was some months since sent unto Doctor Marsillus Colla Master of the Horse to the Emperour and one that for his many extraordinary parts and endowments of mind is worthy of more health then what at present he enjoyeth and now again also so brought unto Caesar that for the future we may most certainly conclude and promise him that he shal never more hence forward be troubled with the pain in his Joynts if he please but to make use of this Medicaments Now in very truth the whole description hereof is sufficiently Empirical and containeth in it nothing else but that at the first and in the very beginning of the Malady a purgation is to be administred and then afterwards the Leaves of Ground-pine some call it Herb Ivy or the little and low Oak be cut in pieces whilest they be yet green if they may then be had but I for my own part would rather have it dry and as in all other Herbs that have in them a faculty of drying I prefer it before that which is green and newly gathered and then boiled in white wine and of this Decoction one Cup given in the morning three hours before dinner although in the mean time however it be added that the longer before dinner the Decoction aforesaid be taken and drunk so much the more benefit is to be expected from it In reference to the course of Dyet whosoever maketh use hereof must abstain from all meats that are sharp sour and Salt and the drinking of that Wine is prescribed for sixty daies with this addition that the distilled Liquor or Water of the aforesaid Herb will add and confer much unto the strength of the said wine which seemeth unto me very ridiculous and that therefore for such as are not pleased with the Decoction they are to have the Water given them As for any thing else we find nothing in the whole sheet sent hither unto us besides a great and swelling Title and a large Catalogue underneath of those persons who by the use thereof lived free from the Disease of the Joynts for some years and of such as made use thereof when it was sent unto them in which Catalogue we find Cardinal Dorias to be the first and foremost Thus far Vesalius From whose words it evidently appeareth that he himself gave not his ful consent unto the praise and commendation of this Decoction And very credible it is that it did not benefit al that drank it and yet notwithstanding if we shall well weigh the virtues thereof as they are before propounded it wil from thence manifestly appear that it is indeed a very excellent and precious Remedy in the Gout But this Vesalius rightly tels us and gives us notice of it that the distilled Water cannot in probability add any thing unto the Decoction in regard that the distilled Waters as many falsly think have not all the faculties and virtues of the simple for all the parts thereof are not elevated into the Alembick But now this Herb Ground-pine may be drawn into use many several waies Ground-pine may he used many ways Some take a pottle of Rhenish Wine the purest Water one pint Honey of Roses the fourth or sixth part of a quart Boyl all upon the Coals in an Earthen Vessel and scum them then add of Ground-Pine four handfuls Germander two handfuls Bears Ears or French Cowslips one handful boyl them in a double Vessel for three hours Others take of Groundpine gathered when it first beginneth to flourish and well kept o te handful Wine three pints boyl them in a double Vessel five hours and then strain them But it were far better if the Herb aforesaid were tund up with the new Wine and there let lie that so in this manner a Chamaedryte Wine may be provided without any boy ling at all And if any fear the Wine he may in the like manner prepare an Hydromel or a Chamaedeyte beer likewise Now the use of this Wine is to be continued and so likewise of the Hydromel or the Beer for threescore daies the Body being first well purged and every day during the time one draught is to be taken in the morning And the like may also be made of the Essence of Ground-pine as they cal it and this must be made use of for many daies But it is not here my meaning that any should be kept and held unto certain forms but I would have those Medicaments to be made up and compounded Simple Medicaments according as occasion and the Constitution of the sick person shall require The chief and principal Simples out of which these Medicaments are compounded as appeareth by the forms hitherto prescribed are Germander most useful in all the Affects of the loynts and therefore by some it is also called the Arthretick or Gout Ivy and Lobelius of one dram hereof with Turpentine maketh Pills and greatly commendeth them in all Gouts whatsoever and then in the next place Groundpine of the Virtues whereof we have before spoken St. Johns wort Round and long Aristolochy the lesser Centaury the true Rhapontick Gentian Spignel and the Root of â—lugwort if in stead of the Parsley Roots it be boyled with meat by the use of which a lone many have been freed from the pains of the joynts as Abraham Seylerus writeth in Scholtzius his Consilia Consil 335. unto which may be added the Bones of a Man Coral Crabs Eyes with the rest that have been already mentioned according to every ones constitution For Aetius doth here rightly admonish us as touching Treacle and the like hot Medicaments that they do not only not benefit those that are of a more hot Constitution and temperament but that they likewise oftentimes produce Resolutions that prove incureable But here indeed there are some that determine this to be understood only of such as are hot in the highest degree because that Galen also in his fisth Book of the presentation of health expounding the words of Hippocrates in which he forbiddeth the drinking of Wine unto those that are hot writeth that this is not intended of all absolutely that are hot but that Hippocrates spake it of such as were hot in the highest degree but yet most certain it is that great heed is here to be taken unto the diversity of Bodies and temperaments and that hot Medicantents are
the purge upon the head of the part affected As for example if the pain be in the Hand the defensive is to be placed upon the Shoulder and this may be made and provided of the Flowers of Roser Pomâ—granate flowers Roots of Bistort Tormentill the greater Consound the Rinds of Pomegraâ—ateâ— â—ole-Armenick mingled with the white of an Egg and Rose water or Vinegar Aâ—dâ—ner this Cataplasm being dried and so made hard may not excite Pains and thereby further provoke the flux a little of the Countesses Vnguent or of the Oyl of 〈◊〉 Omphacine is to be added thereto Or else instead of the Cataplasm a swathe that is long enough may be wet in posset in which Oak-moss Red Roses or other Astringents even now mentioned have been boyled and drawn over the upper part as for instance in the Gout of the Feet upon the part above the Knees And those Defensives are to be continued so long as the Purgation lasteth yea for the whole day as we see occasion But now we cannot in general desine with what kind of Medicaments this purgation is to be performed in regard of the great variety there is in Bodies For although the Humor the nighest cause of the Gout be wheyish Salt and Tartarous yet nevertheless this very Humor is in divers Bodies constituted after a different manner and hurrieth along with it other Humors also that abound in the Body Yea and in one and the same Body the same Medicaments are not alwaies fit and proper because that the stare of the Body is not evermore one and the same And therefore the Physitian ought to be present with the Patient when he prescribeth such like Remedies Now for the Evacuating of Serous Humors and Cholerick Ichores such as these following ought to be provided viz. Syr. of Roses solutive de Spina Cervma commonly called the Domestick Syrup Manna Mechoacan Sene the Seeds of wild Saffron and the compounds from any of these as also Electuar Diacatholic Triphera Persica de Succo Rosarum And so likewise in the stronger kind of Medicaments those are of special use that are made of Hermodactiles and among them the Caryocostine Electuary of Bayrus of which we shal anon make surther mention when we come to speak of the Preservation from the Gout Or Take The Choycest Turbith and Hermodactiles of each three drams Diagridium one dram and half Ginger and Mastick of each a dram Sugar six drams make a Pouder hereof the Dose whereof is one dram or a dram and half with flesh broth Or Else let the Patient make use of the Pills of Rhases which as he writeth in his 9. B. to Mansor Chap. 90. will presently make and enable those that keep their Beds to Rise stir and walk up and down and they are in this manner to be Compounded Take Aloes one dram Scammeny half a half peny weight red Roses a double quantity to the former Hermodact half a dram Make pills thereof and give them all at once and yet not without regard unto the strength of the Patient But now although the serous or wheyish Humor be the nighest cause of the Gout yet notwithstanding because that this Humor doth also violently carry along with it other vitious Humors in the Body and especially when the pain cometh the Physitian therefore ought to be present with the Patient when he is to prescribe such various purging Medicaments for the present occasion of the sick Person Vomitories A Vomit is likewise very useful in such as are accustomed thereunto A Vomit and seeing that it may Evacuate the Humor by a shorter way there is no such cause to fear the rushing of the Humors unto the part affected And yet not withstanding we dare not here give such strong Vomitories that may evacuate the Humors out of the very Veins but it will be sufficient if such be administred that do evacuate the first waies and the parts neer unto the Stomach For if there be many vitious Humors residing about the Stomach Spleen and the hollow of the Liver and in the places neer thereunto it may very easily come to pass that these Humors being stird up and down throughout the whole Body they may both penetrate unto the Veins and rush unto the part affected And purges may be likewise appointed unto the sick person after his vomiting yea and if one purgation will not serve the turn it is again a Second time to be repeated Franciscus India in his 2 B. of the Gout and the Third Chapt. doth here wonderfully extol a Vomitory that he maketh of Butchers Broom a sufficient quantity of the pouder thereof given with the defilled Water of unripe Oranges a little warm which as he writeth can with special benefit unto the sick person Evacuate both the Choler and the Flegm not only upwards but downwards also Sudorificks or Sweaters The Body being sufficiently purged Sweaters we are to endeavour that sweat may be provolâ—ed either of its own accord or else by administring of Medicaments For as Crain writeth truly in his 24. Cons if the sweat be at all deteined within and hindered from coming forth especially if the Patient hath been accustomed thereunto it will not be long ere a fit of the Gout come yea and without all doubt the Paroxysm will be much augmented and provoked if in it the sweat be deteined and if the remainders of the wheyish Humor in the Veins be not discussed and Scattered and on the contrary the Paroxysm wil be the shorter if the Serum or Whey be by sweat dispersed But since that in the first invasion of the Gout there is as it were a certain kind of boyling of the Humors and that for the most part there is likewise present a Feaver Sweaters of what kind they must be in this regard hot sweaters such as are Treacle Mithridate and the like are here scarcely fit and convenient because that by them the Humors may be the more inflamed But yet Harts-born either crude or prepared without any burning may be very fitly exhibited either alone or with the Water of Carduus Benedictus And so likewise Diaphoretick Antimony is very useful But if the Constitution of the Body and the disposition of the Humors wil bear it the Decoction of Sassaphrass or Sarsaparilla or Chyna may be administred which yet nevertheless we ought to temper with Succory Endive Sowthitle and Dandelion or Lions Tooth But yet al those things that are useful in the Paroxysms for the discussing of the Humors either sensibly or insensibly they have not all of them their place here in the Cure And so likewise the Decoction of the greater Dock or Burr in regard that it cutteth discusseth moveth sweats and Urms is very useful and Forrestus relateth that Vastellius a Pensioner at Mechlin when he was forced to keep his Bed by reason of the pains of his Joynts insomuch that he was not able to move or stir any one Member he drank warm Beer in the