evacuation CHAP. V. To what persons this remedy may safely be administred And whether a woman with child may safely be let blood where some thing also concerning the age fit to be phlebotomised NOw in the next place we are to consider what persons may safely use or not use this so noble and necessary a remedy And we are not alwaies when we deale with the sick to set upon that remedy which the disease doth indicate but must alwaies in the first place carefully consider whether their strength will endure it or no A great disease present or imminent doth indicate phlebotomy if strength age the time of the yeere c do permit But every weaknesse and debility doth not inhibite the use of this remedy The strength then is weakened two waies first when it is oppressed and againe when it is quite dissolved and overthrown Strength oppressed doth not alwaies inhibite evacuation but onely that which is dissipated and prostrated or overthrowne either by the abundance of humors or by their stuffing up ab infarctu as in that Plethoricall disposition whereunto the Wrestlers of old were obnoxious and by interception of the veines in fierce fevers c. the strength is dissipated or prostrated by the dissolution of the substance of the spirits of the musculous or fleshy parts of the body of the spermaticall parts or by the overthrow of their temperature as commeth to passe in Consumptions Hecticke and maligne fevers in great crudities and the like The strength is to be considered according to the triple faculty animall vitall and naturall and are discerned by their severall functions the animall by the functions of sense and motion the vitall by the pulfe and the naturall by the signes of concoction and cruditie although Galen mentioneth onely the vitall as that on which all the others doe depend Strength is altered by meanes of things naturall not naturall and such as are besides nature So then in the first place the temperature of the body hot of a solid and firme substance with large and ample veines may sustaine a large and ample evacuation the contrary constitution either admitteth of a very small or no evacuation at all Againe a hot and moist constitution of body of a soft and thinne substance and often induring great dissipation doth in no wise sustaine any great evacuation A temperature of body hot and reasonable dry with large veines will indure a more liberall evacuation than a body either cold and moist or cold and dry by reason that both these constitutions have but small veines And let this alwaies carefully be observed that such bodies as have small veines and little blood can spare but little if any at all of this so noble and necessary a humor And for the most part in fat folkes the veines are small but if they be larger they endure phlebotomy better than the former Againe severall ages have their strength and naturall vigor for the most part answerable Middle and flourishing age is ordinarily and most commonly lusty and strong abounding both in blood and spirits and by consequent is more able to endure a more copious evacuation of blood But old age decrepit I meane by reason of the defect thereof is to be exempted from this evacuation And children before 14. yeeres of age although their strength in the substance doe abound yet by reason of their soft and tender bodies and by meanes of much evacuation endure a daily dissipation doe therefore either admit of little or no evacuation at all by phlebotomie howbeit we take not alwaies our indication from the age as hereafter shall appeare Againe we are to consider the sex for men generally and most commonly are for the most part better able to beate this evacuation than women such especially as are of a thinne and foggy constitution with small narrow veines And during the time of their menstruous fluxe wee are to abstaine from this evacuation unlesse sometimes in case of necessitie when as it exceedeth in quantity Women with child are likewise unlesse in case of necessity exempted from this generous remedy And here custome commeth also to be considered for such as are altogether unaccustomed to this evacuation using a spare Diet turmoiled with cares and troubles of mind are lesse able to endure this evacuation The contrary is to be understood of such as are thereunto accustomed and feed more liberally Againe things contrary to nature in regard they overthrow the strength do inhibite this evacuation as diseases proceeding from crude and ill humours without repletion as a Dropsie or the like As also great distempers of the principall parts great wounds c. And so doe likewise distension of the nerves paine or gnawing in the orifice of the stomack swounding long-watching immoderate fluxes of the belly spontaneous evacuation of blood so farre as it overthroweth strength or doth suffiently diminish the matter of the disease Neither yet doth it suffice to consider the present estate of the sicke but to forsee also what is likely after to insue By these things wee may then judge not onely who may safely bleed but in some sort aime at the quantity and how often and when we may let blood concerning which notwithstanding wee shall say some thing more at large in the next Chapter But first I will discusse two questions one concerning women with child the other concerning the age and whether age doth indicate Phlebotomy Concerning that therefore which hath been said concerning the sex especially of bleeding women with child ariseth here no small doubt whether a woman with child may safely be let blood or no And great reason there is for this doubt first for that the antient Hippocrates and father of Physitians hath left upon record that there is no lesse danger than of aborsion to let a woman with child blood There is also good reason to succour this assertion for blood being the aliment and proper nourishment wherewith the child is sustained in the mothers wombe if this sustenance be by phlebotomy withdrawne the infant frustrated of its food fadeth and is expelled before the accustomed time of deliverance Now if this question were to be decâ—ded by a jury of women I doubt not but we should have a verdict for the negative unlesse it were composed of some of the wiser sort who perhaps haâ—e sometimes seene this with good successe practised To answer this question true it is that Hippocrates doth totally inhibite this remedy and that as is most probable by reason neither this phlebotomie in women with child nor yet any other was so frequent in his age as it is now adaies As for that which some alledge that the evacuations in his time were so copious and so farre exceeding ours that with good reason he forbiddeth the same I thinke it to be no reason at all for it is not to be supposed that a man of that eminent understanding
so that notwithstanding there may easily be seene such causes as increase blood together with some conspicuous tumor or arising in the veines there following in the body as it were some acrimony and sharpenesse to the sense To draw therefore this Chapter to a conclusion phlebotomy is a most soveraine and excellent remedy not onely in the aforenamed infirmities but also in many other as in all Fevers proceeding of blood as well without as with putrefaction and of any other humor putrified and that both in continuall and intermitting even of Quartanes and head-aches proceeding of blood in the Dropsie proceeding of suppression of blood in Strangury retention or difficulty of urine proceeding of a hot cause and in the Palpitation of heart in health comming without any manifest cause and in divers sorts of obstructions as the Jaundize c. Where these are wanting the strength weake and in the presence of any great evacuation as fluxe of the belly vomits much sweating in young children women with child unlesse in great extremity we are not to use this noble and generous remedy And withall let this rule alwayes be observed that it is alwaies better to use this remedy by way of prevention in the approaching rather than in the presence of the disease Let every one therefore beware how they trust ignorant Empirickes and desperate bold Barber-surgeons to rely I meane upon their judgements in so weighty a matter when there is question of losing this noble elixir of life CHAP. IIJ. Whether in contagious maligne and pestilentiall Fevers and in the small Pox and Measels as likewise in the Iaundize phlebotomy may safely be administred BY that which hath been said already concerning Phlebotomy it is apparent that Phlebotomie in Fevers is a soveraigne and approved good remedy which is confirmed by the common consent of all our judicious and learned Physitians And Galen himselfe is of the same opinion where hee alloweth of this remedy as well in continuall as in intermitting Fevers provided alwaies the strength hold out and the age be answerable But then here ariseth no small doubt whether in contagious maligne and pestilentiall diseases so noble and generous a remedy may be used And it would seeme that the negative is to be holden in that in such diseases commonly the heart the fountà ine of life is assaulted the spirits also infirme and for this cause it would seeme wee should rather use alexipharmaks and cordiall remedies in this case most proper to strengthen and corroborate the vitall spirits and to expell if it be possible this poison from the heart whereas any great evacuation especially of this so usefull for mainteining of life may by the evacuation of spirits rather hinder then helpe forward the cure of such diseases The answere to this question must be by distinction for we must consider that the Pestilence it selfe for I will beginne with the most dangerous setteth upon the body of man after divers manners as sometimes striking suddenly without any shew or at least it is scarce discernible in which case it were a desperate course to attempt any such evacuation but then the onely cure is with antidots to oppugne the disease and by all meanes possible to underprop and uphold the decaying spirits of the patient Againe often and many times and more frequently especially in these our Northerne and cold countries this infection is accompanied with a Fever and often meeteth with plethoricall bodies as living in ease and idlenesse and then I see no reason why phlebotomie should or ought be denied unto such bodies if especially administred in the beginning strength age and other circumstances then concurring And that this hath alwaies been the b practice of the learned both antient and latter Physitians I could make it easily appeare if I were not afraid to spend too much time which by reason of divers matters yet to handle I must husband Now if this hath place in the pestilentiall Fever of all others most dangerous then much more hath it place in other Fevers participating indeed of a certaine malignity howbeit not pestilentiall Of this nature is that Fever which hath now divers times especially of late yeeres swept away many lusty people out of this Iland This Fever is of the nature of putrid continuall Fevers and yet not tied to any one particular kind It is called by reason of the evill quality Febris maligna approaching neare the confines of the pestilentiall Fever howbeit commeth farre short of it in malignity this disease being indeed contagious per contactum onely when as such as are yet free are infected by touching the body that is sicke especially in their sweat and sometimes also by being too neare their breath and therefore wee see it often come to passe that a whole family is one after another infected with the same when as others who come to the sicke by way of visitation goe free provided they be not too busie about them But the pestilentiall fveer infecteth often by inspiration of the ambient aire although they have no commerce with the sicke of the same disease This fever is also called febris petechialis from the little blacke or blew spots like unto flea bits which notwithstanding differ from those of the pestilentiall fever It is also called morbus hungaricus or the hungarian disease by reason it hath been and is very frequent among the people of that nation It is now become a free denison in these our countries the smart whereof hath been of late yeeres experimentally felt here among us Now it may here be demanded whether Phlebotomy may be of any use in this maligne fever The reason why I take upon me to discusse this question is because of the ignorance and error of many people who have conceived so hard an opinion of this so noble and generous remedy in this disease that if the patient die after the use thereof they impute this successe to the use of this remedy and the vulgar often are affrighted at the very mentioning of it and as they are commonly jealous of the best actions of the Physitians and apt to interpret every thing in the worst sense so commeth it to passe in this particular It is true indeed that many after the use of the best meanes doe many times miscary the Almighty who first made man having set downe a period of time for every one which no man can passe and because the skillfull Physitian not being able to dive into the secret counsell of his Maker as being a man and no God useth the likeliest meanes which by reason and his owne and other mens experiences he thinketh fittest to grapple with this strong champion in the which combat the violence of the disease being so great that it will not yeeld to any meanes is it reason that the Physitian for all his care and diligence should be so sharply censured I doe not deny but that
experience was ignorant of the limitation of so generous a remedy according to the severall circumstances But with us this controversie is long agoe decided we finding by daily experience that this in many women proveth a most soveraigne and singular good remedy both for themselves and their children as both my selfe and many other Physitians have by daily experience found to be true And besides it is by an unanimous consent of our late Writers of whatsoever nation fully agreed upon and determined But let us now see whether there bee any reason for this practice Wee see many times some women so abound in blood that all the time they are with child they have their periodicall and monethly fluxe as constantly as at any other time and often also in reasonable great abundance which argueth that besides the infants ordinary allowance there is yet a great deale to spare Besides it is not unknowne that some women cannot goe out their full time unlesse they make use of this remedy Againe doe we not see that even towards the later end when they are now nearest their time of deliverance notwithstanding the infant now growing greater demandeth a greater allowance of food than in former times yet are the brests now filled fuller with this whitened blood than before As also doe we not often see some women to void a great quantity of pure refined blood at the nose sometimes in the beginning Reason 1 sometimes in the middle and sometimes towards the later end of Reason 2 their time What prejudice then I pray you can this bring to a woman Reason 3 Reason 4 man in this case if surprized with some dangerous acute disease by the advice of a judicious and understanding Physitian to prevent a further mischiefe she make use of this remedy It is true indeed the issue and event is not in the power of mortall man and perhaps sometimes some have observed some sinistrous accident to have in sued the use of this remedy which may deterre others from the use of it But by the same reason we may reject the most laudable and usefull evacuation in time of greatest need it not alwaies answering our expectation I can notwithstanding upon mine owne experience testifie that some to whom upon necessity I administred this remedy did afterwards confesse they never found more easie and speedy labour than after they had used both this and some other evacuating remedies being likewise freed from divers accidents wherewith they had beene in former times after their delivery molested Others I make no doubt can speake as much Reason 5 upon their owne experience Besides the same Hippocrates alloweth women with childe the use of strong purging medicines in certaine moneths which is yet in my opinion more dangerous and not so in our power to stop when wee please as for phlebotomy it is alwaies in our owne power according to our discretion as we shall see neede require to take more or lesse and to use reiteration if wee shall not see it safe to take our full allowance at the first But let no man here mis-take my meaning as though I would perswade women desperately and unadvisedly to rush upon this noble remedy nay my meaning is so farre from this that I wish them to be very wary and circumspect in the use hereof but when the case without it is dangerous if not desperate then my counsell is that they rather admit of a lawfull warranted remedy which by the blessing of God is in all likelyhood and probability like to doe them good then to lie still in the ditch and cry God helpe mee and yet suffer none to put to their helping hand But it may be the issue will not answer expectation I answer it is better to admit of a doubtfull remedy than to continue in a desperate case admitting none at all Moreover I wish women to be circumspect and wary whom they set aworke not be trusting so pretious a jewell as thine owne and it may be thy childes life also with some idle prating counterfeit Physitian assuming though undeservedly unto himselfe the name of a Physitian but such a one as thou knowest an Artist experienced in his profession and able to consider of all the severall circumstances here to be taken notice of It is also to be observed that it is not here sufficient to take notice of the strength and greatnesse of the disease in the woman her selfe but to consider the strength of the infant also and how much time is past since her first conception And let this rule alwaies carefully be observed that this remedy be freelier and in a greater quantity used in the three or foure first moneths than after Againe although the woman seeme to be strong and lusty yet I wish the quantity to be but small and rather to be sparing so committing the rest to nature than standing too punctually upon thy set quantity adventure to overthrow both the mother and the childe and if there shall seeme an urging necessity of a larger evacuation then will it be farre better and lesse prejudiciall to either party to divide thy quantity and take it at two severall times Besides phlebotomy upon this occasion there occurres yet another in the which phlebotomy is used in women with childe and that is when now their reckoning is at an end and they upon the point of their labour then some Physitians doe advise phlebotomy in the foot to facilitate and further the birth The which course as it hath beene practised by Hippocrates so can I not altogether disallow of it yet I wish him that shall undertake such a taske to beware lest hee precipitate and eject this guest out of his antient habitation before his lease be out and so according to the old proverb Haste might make waste Now before wee conclude this point concerning the persons who are to use this remedy I have yet something to saâ— concerning the age Wee have already said that children under 14 yeeres of age were not to use this remedy Vpon this then ariseth a question whether the age doth indicate this evacuation or no This is the vulgar opinion that the age simply doth indicate this remedy and therefore they stand punctually upon the number of yeeres without any consideration had to the strength of the party here principally to be considered I answer therefore negatively that the age doeth not simply and in it selfe indicate the strength and by consequent the use of this remedy but wee are rather to consider the state and constitution of body for wee see some bodies to be farre stronger at a certaine age than others at the same age Some children are stronger and abler at eight than others at foureteene and if we may upon urgent occasion let the one blood at foureteene why not the other at eight upon the like occasion Againe as Celsus saith if a young man be weake
and feeble or yet a woman that is not with childe wee ought to refraine from this remedie But a childe that is strong as likewise a woman with childe may safely use this remedy Put the case therefore that a childe having overpast his sucking time of a thick strong constitution of body and full of blood fall into some acute dangerous disease and without the use of this remedy in all appearance irrecoverable it will be the best course without any further delay to let him blood yet not without a due consideration of the time age c. And thus Avenzoar let his sonne blood at the age of three yeeres The like may be said of lusty able men or women sicke of some dangerous disease proceeding of repletion as long experience hath taught us Besides it cannot be denied that some men are abler and lustier at 60 or 70 than divers others at 40 yeeres Why then may not such persons upon urgent occasion injoy the benefit of phlebotomy Some dozen yeeres agoe mâ— presâ—nce was sollicited for an antient Gentlewoman in Bedford-shire about 65 yeeres of aâ—e at that time much distempered with heat not without a Fever and feare of further danger After the use of some small meanes fit for the purpose fearing shee would hardly admit of phelebotomie although in my opinion then useful for her yet I asked her whether shee had ever used this remedy and whether shee durst adventure upon this remedy if need should so require she replyed that for many â—eeres together she had used this remedy at least three or foure times a yeere for divers yeeres together and therefore very willingly gave way to the same which was not without good successe and was very lately alive Moreouer doe wee not by experience often see many both children women with childe and old men and women lose a great quantity of their purest and most refined blood at the nose and often in a farre greater quantity than any Physitian would ordinarily let out of the arme and therefore to conclude this point let not people so much stand upon niceties of age which as appeareth is of no such validity as to withstand and oppose in time of need so noble and so necessary a remedy CHAP. VI. Of the quantity how long the patient is to bleed and concerning reiteration of this remedy in time of need with a confutation of some erronious opinions concerning this point IN bodily infirmities we are not onely to consider what is fitting for them but likewise what nature is able to beare and therefore we are here to use no small discretion lest wee give nature more than it either demandeth or the cure requireth When nature therefore is strong then dare we boldly goe about that which the disease doth indicate for nature it selfe being once set aworke by some auxiliary meanes doth afterwards of it selfe perfect the rest The quantity then of evacuation of blood must answer in quantity to that which aboundeth in the body provided the strength can beare it But because there is no certaine rule and measure of the strength neither doe wee assuredly know or fore-see divers circumstances and accidents to insue after as of the constitution of the ambient aire c. this quantity therefore must needs remaine uncertaine It being notwithstanding in our power when wee open a veine to take lesse or more according to our liking therefore comparing the strength with the greatnesse of the disease and the repletion of the body by the proper signes of them both it will not be very hard by an artificiall conjecture to come very neere to the just quantity But if yet wee cannot so well bring our purpose to passe it shall be the safer course to keepe within compasse and reiterate the remedy another time than standing too much upon our precise quantity indanger the sicke by diminution of strength Now wee must alwaies measure the quantity of evacuation by the quantity or greatnesse of the causes requiring and strength tolerating the same And from the mutuall comparison of the diseases requiring and the strength tolerating this phlebotomy admitteth a three-fold difference for there is one sort of phlebotomy called great or perfect evacuating all or the greatest part of the matter of the disease another profitable but imperfect which detracting some part of it leaveth a lesser quantity behinde which therefore nature may easily overcome there is yet a third so small and little in quantity that not only may it be called imperfect but being so small is also unprofitable and no whit beneficiall The like we may say concerning the strength which is either absolute and in the heigth in a meane declining from the former or weake and overthrowne the first requireth perfect evacuation the next though imperfect yet may prove profitable the last admitteth either of a very small or no evacuation at all The like division may we likewise make of the diseases And if wee would safely proceed in our cure this rule must alwaies be observed that wee lay in even scales the greatnesse of the disease with the measure of strength If the disease be very great and dangerous accompanied with strength answerable we are not to deferre a full and copious evacuation if the disease be lesse yet with full strength a lesser evacuation may prove profitable that the cure may be safe although not so sudden for to use a plentiful evacuation at the first is not alwaies so safe Againe if the strength be but small yet not altogether prostrate meeting with a great violent disease it will be best to divide this evacuation and in the time interceding these two evacuations before wee come to reiteration to refresh and cherish languishing nature In acute diseases by reason of greater danger wee may use a more plentifull evacuation if strength be not quite prostrated but if onely oppressed and languishing we are not to omit but divide it as hath beene said which wee commonly call phlebotomy per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In diseases called chronicall or of longer continuance the longer we thinke they are like to last the lesser evacuation may serve for feare lest nature sincke in the way for in chronicall diseases we are not only to have an eye to the present but also carefully to fore-see the future forces Againe in phlebotomy by way of prevention in approaching of any disease from repletion wee need not evacuate so much as this plenitude requireth as wee see in diseases which require a present and speedy cure The antients I find were very lavish in this kind of evacuation and let them blood often till they swounded and yet is this no certaine rule how long they should bleed neither yet is it safe although both by Hippocrates and Galen in some cases prescribed for neither are such as fall into those fainting fits alwaies sufficiently evacuated neither yet will some swound although they
the purgations used in his time were farre more violent and of more maligne quality than most of our medicines now in ordinary use with us Purge women with child saith Hippocrates when we conjecture the child to be attained to the age of foure moneths or seaven but the last least for feare left by the violence of the medicine the ligaments tying the child to the womb be burst but if the child be either younger or elder we must not use these means Now in these our daies if a woman with child be ceized with any acute disease or the body abounding with bad humors and without purging there be apparent danger may we not administer some of our gentle medicines in antient times altogether unknowne If Hippocrates permitted the use of his helleborate medicines of so maligne qualities and so dangerous for the Diseased why should any be afraid of our gentle and mild medicines There is no such danger of bursting those ligaments by the use of so gentle meanes Is it not farre better to administer some gentle medicine which may prove profitable both to the mother and her fruit Againe if there be any reason in those women that oppose so useful meanes for this sex is as in other so in this action often most opposit to Physitians prescriptions let them answere me how many women they see not only for some daies and weekes but even for moneths together molested and tormented with excessive vomiting that one would wonder that ever they should bee able to hold out to their appointed period And yet through the helpe of the Almighty both mother and child doe very well wherof I need to instance in no examples they being obvious every where Now it cannot be unknowne that the succussion and straining of the body one day in so extreme a manner offereth more violence both to the mother and the child then three or foure dayes would doe with some gentle purges downewards It will be replied this violence is naturall and therefore not so dangerous I answere violence is alwaies violence howsoever procured and the action is alwayes the same whatsoever the instrument be a man may breake his necke as wel by a natural fall from the top of a tower without any violence offered as when he is pusht downe by the hand or otherwise Againe the mother many times for want of appetite and by reason she rejecteth that the taketh indangereth that she goeth with In widdowes and unmarried women we are willing to use meanes to free them from such evill and unpleasing accidents and why shall we let languish a woman in this case All the answere will be that in them we use to provoke their menstruous fluxe which here is no waies to be tolerated far lesse attempted I answere wee may freely with gentle medicines purge away these corrupt and evill humors so offensive both to the mother and the infant without feare of any danger whatsoever Now this is not my private opinion onely but generally of all our best and most famous Physitians wherewith I could stuffe up this my booke and make it swell to a too great voluminous bignesse I will instance but in one of whom I have now and then alreadie in this book upon occasion made mention to wit the learned Ioubert This famous French Physitian of late yeeres hath writ a whole Chapter of this same point only where hee proveth that many womens bodies are farre harder strained many times by blowes falls scolding and chafing than by any gentle medicine and yet never for any such violence miscarry Nay yet further the same Author affirmeth that many gallants dance the gaillards the valt and the like ride on trotting horses are carried in coaches being full to the throat plemees a lagorge these be the Authors owne words and yet for all this never are thereby indamaged Now besides the case they may from hence receive of all those evill accidents wherewith they are molested as casting feeblenesse and fainting shortnesse of breath and the like are all by this meanes quickly cured and why saith the same Author should wee thus suffer a woman to undergoe so much trouble when it is in our power to helpe her And upon this insueth yet another great inconvenience that the childe thus soaked as it were in such corrupt and filthy humours seldome proveth afterwards so sound and healthfull as when the body of the mother is kept cleane from such corruption and for want of this seasonable evacuation in stead of one medicine seasonably administred during the abode in the mothers Wombe the childe is after forced it may be to take a hundreth To confirme this truth I could produce a multitude of particular examples out of severall Authours where this course hath with prosperous successe beene used but to avoid prolixity I will passe them over and instance but in one or two of mine owne experiments A woman of this same towne some 8 or 9 yeeres agoe and great with childe was surprized with a Fever loathing in her stomack and a number of tedious and troublesome accidents her body both plethoricall and cacochymicall and withall much oppressed with melancholy who after she had for divers daies indured these noisome and troublesome accidents at length craved my counsell Her neighbours of the female sexe I meane they being especially in such physicall affaires more pragmaticall than men utterly disswaded her from any physicke whatsoever I confesse I was unwilling if it had beene possible to have meddled in so dangerous and intricate a businesse and where the event was so doubtfull and where if all things succeeded not according to expected desire I exposed my selfe to the censure and slander of so many venomous and virulent tongues yet being thereunto lawfully called I first acquainted both her selfe and husband with the danger both the mother and the childe were in without the meanes and that by the use of phlebotomie and purgation wee might through the blessing of God hope for some good successe howsoever the issue or event was not certaine Both her selfe and husband freely giving way to use such meanes as I in discretion thought fitting in this case to be used by Gods blessing upon the meanes of bleeding and purging both by vomit and direction downewards with cordialls and coolers she went forth her full period of time and brought forth a sound and living childe having in this by her owne confession both easier labour and more freedome from after accidents than in any other before or after Some two yeeres before that another woman of the same Towne being bigge with childe also for a fortnight and upwards was so tormented with excessive vomiting that she was able to reteine neither meate nor drinke in her stomacke whereupon insued great weaknesse and feeblenesse insomuch that shee was much afraid lest this young guest should have forsaken his lodging for want of fresh supply I being sent for and
finding her stomacke pestered and oppressed with corrupt humours I gave her a vomit which wrought to so good purpose that after the administring of some other small meanes for the corroborating of her stomacke within two or three daies not onely her appetite returned her casting ceased but shee in a short time also recovered her accustomed strength and at the time appointed was delivered of a lusty man-childe and although a mother of many children before that time yet by her owne confession never better in and after her labour than at that time And that it may yet still more plainly appeare that a woman with childe may sometime indure without aborsion heare yet of a third who notwithstanding used none of these generous remedies About some fifteene yeeres agoe a woman of this same towne about the third moneth of her conception was surprized with a double tertian with a continuall casting coughing and spitting of blood the which for certaine daies as women in those cases thinke themselves exempted from all physicall helpes shee did neglect hoping it would not long so continue but at length fearing aborsion at the least sent to mee but then absent and therefore sent to another physitian of good account then living within this same towne who after hee had administred one glister this set nature so aworke that for the space of two moneths at least and upwards to all the other accidents this was also added At length the Physitian forsooke her as then irrecoverable especially by reason of her spitting of blood which was supposed to proceed from the lungs In this case she continued some three weekes or neere by and after my comming home shee sent for mee but hearing of all that was past I refused although twice or thrice intreated hearing of so desperate a businesse yet being intreated to give her satisfaction at least by seeing her although I administred nothing At length after I had seene her and well considered of this blood thus reiected I found it proceeded not from her lungs whereof I gave her notice and withall proceeded with cordialls and other things fitting for her cough especially excretion of blood which were by this meanes qualified and the excretion of blood within a few daies was quite staied and although I know both phlebotomie and purgation to be of very good used for these diseases yet durst I not then adventure on any of them but continued this course with diet such as was fitting At my first visiting of her she was now above a moneth quicke with childe and very feeble and for the most part kept her bed her loosnesse left her about a moneth after and her cought and casting together with her Fever forsooke her about a moneth before she was brought to bed and was delivered of a sonne who lived a moneth and was assaulted with fits of a Fever of the the same manner as the mother and died about the end of the moneth The mother notwithstanding all the premisses a few daies after her delivery was assaulted with the measels and afterward recovered her perfect health and lived after that many yeeres It may then plainly appeare that it is not a matter so dangerous as it is deemed sometimes in time of need to give a woman with childe some gentle physicke as shall by a judicious and understanding Physitian be thought fitting and since this hath beene the opinion of all our famous Physitians since the daies of Hippocrates let women be silent and not too sawcie in controlling such a cloud of witnesses of learned and able Artists But let no man nor woman here mistake my meaning as though I would incourage any women to be too bold in this case my meaning is onely this that in case of extremity women should not be so wilfull as to let their neighbours perish without meanes upon needlesse feare or at least indanger their lives in apparent necessitie Hippocrates himselfe giving way to this course as hath beene said alreadie yea even during any time of their nine moneths although freelier in some than in others their physicke notwithstanding being farre harsher and of farre more violent operation than our ordinary medecines as hath beene proved alreadie But withall I wish them still to be very warie whom they trust in so waightie a businesse or else it may cause repentance when it is too late Especially beware of such ignorant and erronious practitioners as I haue alreadie mentioned But this by the way although I hope not out of purpose now I proceed In the third place then in the body to be purged wee are to consider the temperature and constitution which doth either indicate or inhibit purgation The middle or meane temperature and constitution betwixt extremes is fittest for purgation but bodies of drie complexion drie leane loose of foggy thinne soft or very fat bodies are not so fit for purgation nor such as abound in blood are much subject to swounding ond are hardly recovered and such as are apt to cast upon any occasion children also and women plentifully purged by their menstruous fluxe and such as have cleane bodies and observe a strict and good diet and such as naturally are constipat in their bodies and are easily overtaken with fluxes of the belly all such are not so fit to be purged as others although upon occasion necessitie so requiring they are not totally excluded yet must it then be done with great discretion and circumspection and more sparingly than to others But on the other side strong able fleshy bodies accustomed to labour and paines having strong stomackes who collect great store of superfluous and excrementitious matter in their bodies may better undergoe this evacuation Next to the temperature or constitution wee adde the specificall and individuall proprietie of the bodie and this is the reason why some bodies will beare a strong purgation and others againe it may be of a stronger constitution yet are not able to beare halfe so much Besides wee must not neglect custome which doth in some bodies facilitate the use of purgations which they may therefore better beare which in others unaccustomed wee must not attempt unlesse to us knowne to be of a strong constitution Besides the ambient aire the region and place of abode are not to be neglected of the which when we speake of the time of purgation Now besides the strength we must also consider the situation of the part affected which is discerned by the temperature the use figure or forme and sense or feeling of the same And therefore the head requireth stronger purgations than the stomacke and the liver and the stomacke of a quicke and exquisite sense subject to gnawing is gently to be dealt withall And now wee proceed to the humours CHAP. XIJ. Of the humors to be purged of their preparation as also of the body to be purged Of the quantity and reiteration or often exhibition in time of need THat
therewith but prosecute that I have undertaken This grief and sorrow then if too much yeelded unto will to some procure irrecoverable Consumptions will dry up the braine and marrow of the bones hinder concoction and so procure crudities by meanes of want of rest and by consequent prove a cause of many dangerous diseases Now as the excesse is hurtfull to all so to some farre more than to others especially to leane spare bodies dry braines persons inclining to melancholy And women especially if with childe young children who be reason of their sexe and age are lesse able to resist such passions and some by naturall constitution very timorous are more liable to danger by reason of feares and sudden frights than other people It is therefore a very unadvised course most commonly to affright children with bug-beares hob-goblins and the like for there is many times thereby such a deepe impression of feare ingraven in their tender senses that howsoever it doth not bereave them of their lives yet are they so possessed with an habituall feare that they are scarce ever freed therefrom at least untill they atteine to ripe and mature age And some that are yet of a more tender constitution are sometimees ceized with some sudden and dangerous disease if they escape death as Paralyticke Epilepticke Apoplecticke and convulsive fits as I could easily instance but that I cannot dwell upon it Of all others it is most dangerous for women with child and that not only for feare of present aborsion but even for some future feare of some hurt may befall the tender fruit of her wombe I have knowne some little better than meere naturalls by reason of the mothers fright during their ingravidation It hath beene often also observed that even upon men of mature age and judgement the strong apprehension of some future danger hath in them produced strange and sudden effects A late Authour relateth a storie of a young Gentleman whose haire was in one night turned white The Gentlemans name saith he was Didacus or Diegus Osorius a Spaniard Who falling in love with a Gentlwoman one of the Queene of Spaines attendants this Gentleman according to former agreements was got up into a tree growing within the precincts of the court but bewrayed by the barking of a dogge was by the guard laid hold on committed to prison and in danger to have lost his life for attempting any such thing within the precincts of the court The next morning the keeper found this Gentlemans haire turned to a perfect white color as the antientest mans in the countrie and yet their haire in that countrie is ordinary of a blacke colour the which the King first hearing related and seeing it so indeed it wrought such an alteration in his minde that not onely freed hee him from his punishment but restored him to his former liberty affirming that it was punishment enough to have changed the flower of youth with white old age There is in the same Author a like accident happening in the cour of Charles the fifth Emperor whom the Emperor himselfe could scarce beleeve to be the same party that was committed to prison the night before and granted him likewise a gracious pardon And many strange accidents are there out of divers Authours related which for brevity I here passe by Now as other passions excite and stirre up some particular humour as joy stirreth up the blood and anger choler so doth feare and griefe stirre and move melancholy But it may then be demanded whether such passibe contrary to all sorts of people and whether one may ever give way on s thereunto I answer some people are more privileged than others provided alwaies that it be not in excesse and such are principally grosse fat and foggie people with full bodies and such as have their spirits hot moveable And in such people sadnes feare and profound cogitations and cares do somewhat blunt the edge of those hot and fiery moveable spirits and withall do extenuate and take away some part of that bulke of body wherewith they are so burthened the which both Greeke and Arabian Physitians doe with unanimous consent witnesse Such as are of a contrarie constitution of bodie braine or both as wee have said already are by all meanes possible as they love their lives and healths to shun and avoid these passions But in sicke persons especially which is that I here principally aime at there must a singular care and regard be had that as little distaste as possible be given And herein that golden rule of Hippocrates hath chiefely place that it is not sufficient for the Physitian to play his part but the assistants also and attendants and all other things must also be answerable The sicke wee know by reason of his sicknesse hath sorrow enough especially if the party be of a feeble fearefull and pusillanimous spirit the phansie still framing unto it selfe new feares of some bad and sinistrous event And thus wee see through rashnesse and indiscretion of some about the sicke sometimes by relating to them some evill tidings and sometimes putting them in needlesse feares without any sure ground or yet when there is just cause of feare in the sicke yet being indiscreetly revealed to him either by the Physitian or others or yet at an unseasonable time as about the time of rest or before meales may much prejudice the sicke And therefore I advise all those whom it concerneth to be very vigilant and circumspect whom they suffer to come about the sicke wee finding by daily experience that many times ignorant and unadvised people prove the causes of infinite evills to the sicke and that sometimes by disswading them from a laudable and legall course for the speedie recovery of their health prescribed by learned and wise counsell especialy if their shallow capacities be not able as seldome they are to dive into the depth of the Physitians intentions and sometimes also by erring in the maner above-mentioned Such constitutions of body as we named heretofore are not hereby so much wronged providing we goe not too farre My meaning is not here notwithstanding that which hath beene said to forbid any that true sorrow for sinne and a true compunction of heart for offending the Majestie of the Almighty God the which will be so farre from producing those effects of worldly sorrow that on the contrary it will purchase to thy soule more solid comfort and content and more inlargement of true heavenly joy to thy drouping and sorrowfull soule than all the silver and gold of Ophir and both the Indies and all the gracious gems and jewells ever gave to the greatest upon earth that possessed them yea if it were yet possible they were all in one mans possession And as the wiseman saith that Even in laughter there is sorrow so may I as well invert it that even in this godly sorrow is joy in the holy
Ghost and comfort unspeakable Worldly sorrow causeth death saith the Apostle but godly sorrow causeth repentance not to be repented of But many are the volumes written by our learned Devines concerning this subject among others a learned late Divine hath handled this point very punctually in his learned and elaborate Treatise of comforting afflicted consciences But this not being my proper element therefore I proceed There is yet a doubt concerning this point which resteth to bee discussed whether of griefe or sorrow any may dye To this question Galen himselfe maketh answer that one may dye of these passions and to this doe all Physitians assent and experience maketh it so appeare And this same Author seconds his authority with sound reason for in such passions the blood and spirits having a speedy and sudden recourse to the heart to succour the same in so great a need where aboarding it with too great violence and in too great a quantity they leave the outward parts of the body quite destitute of this blood and spirits We see what a strange effect this griefe wrought on good old Heli alas how small is our griefe for matters of this nature when he heard the arke of God was taken And that worthy woman his daughter in law although her husband were a prophane and wicked man yet at the hearing of the taking of the arke she was so much therewith affected that nothing no not the newes of a sonne borne of her womb could give her any comfort or hinder her from following the footsteps of her father in law in giving up the ghost And histories relate that Antiochus Epiphanes or rather as some well call him Epimanes that tyrant being chased out of Persia and hearing also that his generall Lysias was defeated and chased away by the Jewes by reason of greife and sorrow fell into grievous diseases although there was yet in him divine punition to be observed and yet not excluding naturall causes A famous Physitian and now and then mentioned in this discourse relateth a story to this same purpose A preacher of this City Basil he meaneth accompanied with his wife onely in the moneth of November returning from a village not farre from the towne hearing them call to shut up the gates hee ranne before to cause them keepe open the gate untill his wife came in and so entring himselfe supposed his wife had been entred after him the gate was shut and she excluded the keyes being as is the custome immediatly carried to the Burgermaster no entry is of any to be expected for that night as I found once too true by mine owne experience and neither could he get forth to her nor shee suffered to come in to him the night very darke this poore desolate woman all the night filling the aire with her complaints there being no house nor town within a great way of this city passed a part of the night and in the morning of this feare and griefe was found dead at the gate The same Author relateth yet two other stories making to us appeare the truth of this point A company of young wenches in the Spring of the yeere walking abroad in a faire morning they came to the place of publike execution where was still hanging upon the gallowes one who had been lately put to death These wild wenches beganne to throw stones at this dead corps at length one throwing a greater stone than the rest this corps turned round at the which motion this maid apprehended such feare and terror that strongly apprehending this dead corps to be alive with all possible speed shee ranne home still supposing this dead body followed her Being come home she fell into strong and violent convulsive fits and so died suddenly Another young maid about 16. yeeres of age went downe into a grave new digged where had beene layed heretofore some matron of the City of Basil and not as yet consumed this dead carkasse this young maid essayed to lift up by the armes but was presently striken with such a feare and terror that she went home and was seized with so violent Convulsions that her eyes were like to leape out of her head and so presently died and was the next day buried in a grave hard by the other as though this dead corps had called for her company as shee cryed out a little before her death In the late yeare 1630. in the beginning of January my presence and paines was craved for a yong Gentleman living within some few miles of Northhampton then sicke of a Fever Within some two or three dayes this gentleman still continuing very sicke the gentlewoman his wife being now quicke with child terrified with some accidents she saw in her husband and withall fearefull of some future event fell suddenly one morning into strong and violent fits of Convulsions being at other times also subiect thereunto the agitation of her head and armes being so violent sometimes drawne one and sometime another way that much trouble it was to hold her but withall the blood and spirits flying all upwards the nether parts were left so feeble that she was presently deprived of the use of her legs insomuch that she was in a chaire carried into another roome But yet the gentleman her husband recovering shee was in a few dayes freed from all her former fits and feares and at her full appointed time was safely delivered of her burden without any hurt or danger either of herselfe or infant I have the more willingly instanced in these particulars to make every one more carefully and circumspect in avoiding and shunning these passions and whatsoever may provoke or incite us thereunto The remedies shall appeare in the next Chapter where wee purpose to speake of the last passion CHAP. XXXIIIJ Of Ioy and Gladnesse and of the excesse thereof which may also hurt the body and whether any may die of excessive ioy THat the former passions are prejudiciall and often very hurtfull to mankinde especially if they exceed may easily obteine credit perhaps with an ordinary understanding but that joy and mirth so agreeable to our nature and so acceptable to our senses should ever produce any such effect will hardlierreceive entertainment And this may seeme yet so much the more strange in regard this is that we all principally aime at as being a soveraigne and excellent meanes not onely to preserve and mainteine our health but likewise to recover the same being already lost And good reason there is for this Joy being a motion of the minde to the outward parts with a certaine gratefull and delighting desire to lay hold on that which may give us content And yet there is withal such a violent motion and agitation of the blood and spirits that weake and pusillanimous people may bee much thereby endangered And the wise man intimates unto us such a moderation in every thing where hee warnes us to
and abuse thereof What age and constitution it best befitteth Some thing concerning the menstruous flaxe in women CHAP. XXV Of Sleeping and waking the benefit and use thereof in sickenesse and in health The severall sorts of sleepe and what persons may sleep freeliest and who lesse CHAP. XXVJ Of dreames and that of them there may bee made good use in sicknesse and in health Of Noctambuli commonly called Night-walkers or such as walke in their sleepe especially in the night-season together with the reason thereof CHAP. XXVIJ Of the soule and passions thereof in generall CHAP. XXVIIJ Of lustfull love and what hurt is thereby procured to mankind Whether any may dye of love Some thing also concerning Iealously CHAP. XXIX Of amorous or love-potions called Philtra VVhether love may bee procured by fascination CHAP. XXX Of fascination by sight by wordor voice or yet by spells Of Imagination and strange stupendious effects our Paracelsists attribute thereunto together with the absurdity of the same A digression concerning the weapon-salve with a confutation of the chiefe arguments brought for the maintaining thereof CHAP. XXXJ. Of Mandrakes the nature and vertue thereof and whether this planâ— hath any power to procure love CHAP. XXXIJ Of immoderate and passionate anger the hurt thereby procured to the body in sickenesse and in health and antidotes against it In what diseases best and in what worst and whether any may dye of anger CHAP. XXXIIJ Of sorrow griefe and feare the danger and detriment commeth thereby to the body of man and how hurtfull in sicknesse and in health Whether any may dye of Sorrow and Griefe CHAP. XXXV Of Joy and Gladnesse and the excesse thereof which may also hurt the body Whether any may dye of excessive Joy The conclusion of this whole discourse Questions discussed and handled in this Third BOOKE 1. VVHether in the maligne contagious and pestilentiall Fevers as likewise in the small Pox and Measels and in the Jaundize we may safely let blood Chap. 3. 2. Whether a woman with child may be let blood or purged Cap. 5. 10. 3. Whether age doth indicate Phlebotomy and whether this remedy in time of need may not be administred to young children and aged people Cap. 5. 4. Whether the party phlebotomized will every yeere expect the reiteration of the same remedy Cap. 6. 5. Whether palpitation of any part of the body doth argue life to bee confined to that part and that a veine being then there opened the party should presently dye as is by some of the vulgar conceived Cap. 6. 6. Whether we may safely purge and bleed during the dog daies Cap. 7. 7. Whether in Phlebotomy and purging we are to observe the signe with the Moone Cap. 8. 14. 8. Whether Somnus meridianns or Sleepe in the day time bee to bee allowed of Cap. 25. 9. Whether Leap yeere altereth or infringeth the force of minerall waters for that yeere Cap. 18. 10. Whether any simple by its vertue can procure love Cap. 29. 11. Whether love can be procured by fascination or bewitching ibid. 12. Whether Phansie or Imagination doth worke ad extra or without its owne body upon any externall obiect Cap. 30. 13. Whether any may dy of love Cap. 28. 14. Whether Mandrakes have any power to procure love Cap. 31. 15. Whether any may dye of Anger Cap. 32 16. Whether one may dye of Sorrow and Griefe Cap. 33. 17. Whether one may dye of Ioy and mirth Cap. 34. The Introduction to this VVHOLE DISCOVRSE VVherein is detected the lawlesse intrusion of many ignorant Persons upon the profession of PHYSICKE WEll-weighing kinde Reader and comparing that golden sentence of the sage Solomon that of writing many bookes there is no end and much reading is a wearinesse to the flesh with that of the famous Hippocrates vita brevis ars longa the life of man is but short and Arts and Sciences are long and hard to be attained unto I thought it alwaies the part of a wise man to apply his study to that which might prove most profitable either for his owne private or yet for the publike And if ever this was usefull this age wherein we now live requireth this care and circumspection The multitude of needlesse and unprofitable pamphlets that I say no worse wee see daily to pester the Printers Presses in such sort that it were to be wished there might be some restraint and limitation and not every man at his pleasure suffered to vent the idle fancies of a selfe conceited braine so farre many times from doing any good either in Church or Common-wealth that they prove rather the causes of a great deale of mischiefe Scribimus indocti doctique poemata passim But I let passe that which is not in my power to amend and come to the matter now in hand Some few yeeres agoe I stepped forth also my selfe upon the stage to act some part of mine owne profession There I detected and laid open some errours and impostures practised by some ignorant practitioners of physicke in that Semioticall part of this profession which treateth of urine Now Ille ego qui quondam gracili modulatus avena Carmen c. I have now undertaken the handling of an higher taske to wit that part of the Therapeuticke part of physicke which handleth the diet of the diseased which of all other parts of physicke hath most slightly and slenderly beene past over and that as well by the antient as by our moderne and late Writers And since the diet of sound and healthfull people hath beene handled by a multitude both of antient and late Writers both in forraine countries and here at home amongst our selves it is a wonder that the diet of the diseased who of all others have most neede hath hitherto so farre beene neglected Having therefore a long time waited for my elders and better skilled in this businesse and perceiving that no man opened his mouth in the behalfe of the diseased I tooke upon mee to say something rather than to be altogether silent And so much the more was I animated and incouraged to set upon this subject in that I saw it so generally neglected or at least most grossely abused which notwithstanding was so carefully among the antients observed as shall hereafter in the sequell of this discourse more plainly appeare And daily experience doth plainely prove that a small error committed either in the due quantity in the quality in the time or any other such circumstance proveth not a little prejudiciall to the patient And I my selfe have in my daily practice observed this to be true that aliments of the best nature and laudable condition yet taken but at an unseasonable time as toward the time of the exacerbation of the Fever called the Paroxysme and by the vulgar the fit hath after made the patient confesse that sweet meate had sowre sauce And from hence may be evinced the erroneous practice of many
of man together with the manner IT followeth now in order that wee say something concerning the veines to be opened in the body of man Vnder this name veine wee understand besides the ordinary veines the arteries also which by antient Physitians were often opened for divers infirmities the arteries have their originall from the great artery planted in the heart and sending branches thorow the whole body filled with a pure thin subtile and more refined blood than that of the veines and full of the vitall spirits These arteries are not with us usually opened as they were in antient times and that both in regard they are not so easily found also for the difficultie in the solidation there being danger of gangrene or at least of a dangerous tumour called ancurysma which are hard to be cured of these therefore I will say no more The liver is the fountain and wel-spring of blood from whence by the veines as it were so many pipes it is conveied thorow the whole body The two principall or master-veins taking both their being and beginning are the great hollow veine called by our Anatomists vena cava and the other vena porta or the porter-veine From these two especially vena cava are many great branches ful of blood distributed thorow the whole body Of these branches aâ— need requireth either by way of prevention or curation we open sometimes one sometimes another as well for generall evacuation as in great repletions and prevention of diseases as also sometimes to evacuate blood abounding either in quantity in quality or both in some great and dangerous diseases It is againe sometimes used for revulsion and sometimes for derivation as hath beene said already Sometimes also we use more particular evacuation of the veines as by leaches scarification with cupping as afterwards shall appeare The veines usually opened in the arme are sixe Cephalica Basilica Mediana Axillaris and besides these yet two other the one running downe the arme like a cord passing betwixt the thumbe and the formost finger and another runneth out betwixt the ring-finger and the little finger Among all these veines of the arme none more safe to be opened than the Cephalica or humeraria as having neither nerve nor artery under it as the others have These three first mentioned are most usually opened in the arme and sometimes the smaller veines upon some occasions to wit either when the great veins are not conspicuous or perhaps when we feare the strength of the party in which case the salvatella running betwixt the ring finger and the little finger is opened For these great master-veines send downe small branches which are distributed among the fingers All these veines are branches of the great ascendent truncke of the great hollow veine The Cephalica we open to evacuat and pull backe from the head and parts above the necke The Basilica or liver veine to evacuat and pull backe from the liver and all parts beneath the necke The mediana or middle veine drawes as well from the parts above as beneath the necke The Salvatella as well right as left are used to be opened in infirmities of the liver and spleen That which runneth out betwixt the formest finger and the thumb is not so often opened In the head there be divers veines which vpon occasion may bee opened howbeit not all in use there being few Surgeons so skillfull as to open them well There is one in the forehead usually opened for a paine in the hinder part of the head as also for the numnesse and heavinesse of the head and for the inflammation of the eyes called Ophthalmia The veines of the temples and in the corners of the eyes helpe the megrim old inflammations of the eyes scabs and inflammations of the eie lids But wee proceed now to veines usually opened in the foot howbeit there be divers more veines in and about the head which might upon occasion by a skillfull Artist be opened howbeit there is in frequent request phlebotomy of the veines called ravinae in a Squinancy and internall inflammations of the almonds Tensills and Tongue In the foot then there are two veines usually opened the one called Ischiadica or vena poplitis in the out-side of the foot usually opened in inflammations beneath the kidnies especially after the Basilica of the arme hath been once opened Saphena in the inside of the foot we open especially in infirmities of the womb as in retention of the menstruous fluxe c. And these veines are branches of the great truncke descendent of the great hollow veine Many ignorant Surgeons doe indifferently oftentimes open the wrong veine in the foot in women that in the outside for the other in the inside and so doe them wrong In phlebotomy we are likewise to observe a rectitude or answering of the place affected to the place by which we evacuat and this in revulsion is the best way and giveth speediest ease as in a Pleurisie to open a veine in the arme of the same side as if in the right side the right arme if in the left the left arme And Galen himselfe witnesseth that the parts of the body which have this relative situation have likewise a great communion or sympathy one with another as likewise eruptions of blood proceeding from any part of the side affected bring no small profit whereas that which proceedeth from the contrary side bringeth but small benefit or if otherwise it is after a long time But upon many other particulars concerning this point and many other alterations concerning the veines to be opened I thinke it not pertinent now to insist The manner of opening of the veine and the orifice are not to bee passed over Now as for the manner of the section it is of three sorts oblique or slopwise when as wee reiterate this operation the same day transverse or overthwart when as wee purpose no reiteration downe-right when we intend reiteration the next day Sometimes also we make a larger orifice and sometimes againe a narrower A large orifice we use when the blood is cold thicke clammie and melancholicke in Harvest and Winter and in strong and able constitutions And therefore in all diseases proceeding from melancholicke or phlegmaticke blood as in the Fever quartane quotidian madnesse proceeding from melancholy in the braine Apoplexie suppression of menstruous fluxes in women we are to use a large and ample orifice as likewise when we are to make use of a plentifull evacuation Sometimes againe we are to make a smaller orifice and that both to prevent weaknesse to evacuat the thinnest blood and to avoid the dangers which might insue upon immoderate evacuation If the party likewise prove unruly as in Delirations or Phrenesies or yet fall out in the night time the same course is to be taken and the sicke to bee watched lest the opening againe of the orifice should procure a dangerous if not deadly
right use and abuse thereof HAving already at length discoursed of generall evacuations being three in number we come now to some particular the consideration whereof is of no small use as well in sicknesse as in health Now for the affinity it hath with sweat being much of one nature although both at divers passages and in a different manner voided it shall succeed in the next place Of the nature of this excrementitious humour the manner of generation deceit and coozenage of ignorant and erronious practitioners in the judgement by the same and many things which concerne this subject hath beene else-where handled at great length where hath beene sufficiently proved the uncertainty of judging the issue of diseases by this bare signe onely being a signe whereby some diseases only and somtimes may be discerned and yet but a generall one which can neither acquaint us with the strength of the patient a thing of all others in diseases of great moment nor many other particular circumstances wherewith the Physitian ought in so waighty a businesse to be acquainted And there we likewise proved that from thence wee could neither gather any certainty of conception nor yet of the sexe I say neverthelesse that urine is not to be neglected either in sicknesse or in health but withall let other signes not be neglected but have their due desert That urine therefore both in sicknesse and in health which is of a laudable colour and contents answerable doth commonly argue that body to be in best case especially if all other signes concurre as if it be otherwise wee are to conceive the contrary That urine we commonly call best that is of a light golden colour with a meane white coloured even contents and the farther it decline from this golden rule the worse we deeme it as sometimes when it is of an intense red colour it often argueth Fevers or inflammations c. unlesse sometimes by reseration of some small veines the urine be died with this colour And yet the urine of a cholericke man will looke of a higher colour than any other and so if hee shall fall sicke it must needs be of an intenser colour than of a phlegmaticke person and this same phlegmaticke person in health shall have a paler coloured urine and falling into some fever the urine may be also paler than the former and yet the party as dangerously sicke and so I could instance in many other like cases Againe it appeareth sometimes of a blacke colour and portendeth often no good to the party and yet this same colour may often prove criticall and accompanied with like contents It may sometimes againe appeare unto us like pure transparent water without any contents at all signifying sometimes crudity in the first concoction sometimes obstructions with a totall ouerthrow of naturall heat howbeit sometimes it may be accompanied with extreme heat in a burning Fevet with a Phrensie of all others most dangerous c. In generall in sicknesse these colours and contents are very various and changeable according to the nature of the disease and constitution of the diseased on which I will not now dwell nor make any repetition of that which hath beene formerly handled Vrin again faileth somtimes in the excesse being in too great a quanty and sometimes in the defect where little or no urine is excerned In excesse as in that disease called diabete Hâ—drops ad matulam or pot-dropsie whersas by weaknesse of the retentive faculty and want of concoction drinke passeth thorow the body with little and small alteration answerable to that disease in the stomacke commonly called Lienteria being a defect of concoction in the stomacke and guts but with us is but rare As for criticall excretion of urine it is very profitable and helpeth often to terminate the disease Now on the other side there is a frequent defect in the expelling of urine and proceedeth from suppression totall or in part or else by difficulty whereas without great difficulty and paine it is expelled Painfull pissing commeth divers manner of waies to passe as either by the acrimony and sharpnesse of the humour or by the imbecillity or weaknesse of the retentive faculty proceeding often from cold and is sometime occasioned by inflammation ulcer clotted or congealed blood and by the stone c. Suppression of urine proceedeth likewise from divers causes sometimes by meanes of the obstruction or stoppage of the guts and sometimes of the emulgent or sucking veines when as by meanes of imbecillity they are frustrate of their attractive faculty or yet by obstruction It is procured likewise by obstruction or passage of the kidnies or urinary passages and by meanes of the imbecillity of the same By reason of the obstruction of the foresaid passages it is divers waies procured as either by inflammation knob or bunch of either of the these parts or some tough phlegme impacted in and cleaving fast to the place as also sometimes howbeit seldome by reason of some holes and cavities left in the kidnies after the voiding of some stones It is sometimes also caused by meanes of the bladder or parts thereto adjoining comming divers waies to passe as first by reason of the want of sense of feeling by reason of the resolution of the nerve descending from the loines and hucklebone Secondly by reason of the failing of the expelling power of the bladder c. Thirdly by the too great quantity of urine longer than is fit deteined Fourthly by a resolution of the muscles of the nether belly Fifthly by the totall overthrow of the expulsive faculty as in burning Foevers and then proveth for the most part mortall as witnesseth Hippocrates and yet divers other waies commeth this also to passe as by the resolution of the muscle sphincter a stone bunch clotted blood c. And this commeth sometimes to passe by consent of the places adjoining the bladder and urinary passages being also sometimes so shut up that they cannot freely deliver the urine and many times also cannot keepe it long as commeth to passe in women with child All these severall cases are to be cured accordingly and that with a due regard had to their severall causes The totall obstruction of urine proceeding from any cause if long continuing may prove mortall Such remedies as provoke urine we commonly call diureticks or provokers of urine But neither are these in all cases of suppression to be administred nor yet indifferently when there is need are they alwaies without a previous preparation to be used Now in all such obstructions of the urine before we goe about the right cure we are first to procure the expulsion of the urine out of the bladder lest oâ— by the use Diureticke medicines a greater attraction of humors increase the obstruction And therefore in such cases we often use the helpe of a catheter insessions fomentations inunctions glisters
and he himselfe willeth us in the first place ere ever we view the water in diseases of this naure to consider of that which is spit up which may often reveale unto us the causes of the disease and sometimes the indications thereof For that which is spit up reasonable thicke except some other worse matter be joined therewith doth most commonly argue concoction as againe on the contrary that which is very thinne and liquid argueth cruditie especially in the beginning of diseases Very tough and clammy matter spit up in a Pleurisie argueth the length and contumacie of the disease yet if it bee frothie it is a signe it proceedeth from putrefied phlegme That which is spit up of it selfe without any admixture of other matter is good and laudable and yet in a Pleurisie and Inflammation of the lungs argueth the crudity of the disease If it be thinne salt and in a small quantity according to Galen argueth alwaies cruditie and Avicenne addeth the long continuance of the disease and if joined either with matter caruncles or small cartilages or little stones there is no good presaged In Pthisickes or ulcerat lungs if all spitting up faile it is alwaies a dangerous if not a deadly signe If this excrement should too much abound we must looke into the cause and cure it accordingly by good and sparing Diet by light suppers and sometimes none at all corroboration of the braine by perfumes plasters and other things in such cases requisite By that which hath beene said then may evidently be understood how erroneous is the opinion of the vulgar esteeming that all diseases may by the bare inspection of the urine onley bee discerned as also of such ignorant erroneous and covetous Empiricall practitioners who being void of all true sufficiency in the profession of Physicke would by this or other indirect meanes magnifie themselves amongst the more rude and ignorant sort of people CHAP. XXIV Of carnall copulation the right use and abuse thereof what age and constitutions it best befitteth Something concerning the menstruous fluxe in women BEsides all these unprofitable excrements and to be expelled out of the body there is yet a profitable excrement ingendred in the body of man abounding not in quality but in quantity onely and that for a beneficiall and profitable end the propagation of mankind And this is that we call the food of generation which with man is common to unreasonable creatures This excrement then is nothing else save a remainder of some portion of blood after the whole body is served in the third concoction and which being altered and changed into a white colour in the speâ—maticall vessells is in those places reserved untill it be expelled in the act of generation This is not found in the body untill it have atteined to yeeres of puberty and these persons atteined to some reasonable stature all the blood before being imploied to the growth and increase of the body The proper use of this so utile and profitable excrement is the multiplication of mankind and is found both in man and woman And therefore as other excrements so is this sometimes to bee expelled out of the body the which being too long deteined in some bodies especially proveth often the occasion of divers diseases and dangerous accidents But as in all other things so here especially I meane a moderation should bee observed and herein the Lawes of God and man be not infringed The moderate timely and orderly use thereof is in many respects usefull and profitable for besides that it serveth for the propagation of mankinde it inhibiteth also the repletion of the body reviveth the spirits exciteth naturall heat helpeth the agility of the body preventeth phlegmaticke diseases dilateth the pores of the body quickeneth the minde and qualifieth fury and melancholy The immoderate and unseasonable use thereof resolves the spirits cooleth the body hurteth the head eyes nerves and joints ingendreth crudities dulleth the minde and senses procureth a stinking breath pissing of blood consumption of the backe c. And this I say to such as will take warning and will not wittingly and willingly overthrow both soule and body I thinke it is to small purpose to speake to these sensuall Sardanaples of this our licentious and luxurious age our common haunters of whore-houses to brothel birds and the like who will sell their soules and part of Paradise for satisfying a short lasting lust But because such sensuall Epicures are seldome moved with divine threats and scarce ever firmely beleeve there is a hell untill they fall headlong into it therefore if the premisses will not serve the turne let such know that besides the loathsome poxe rottenesse of bones and a world of weaknesses doe often accompany their later yeers if divine punition permit them so long to live besides that as the Wise-man saith that by meanes of a whorish woman a man is brought to a morsell of bread and if hee should yet escape all this yet is he but led like an oxe to the slaughter as witnesseth the same wise Solomon And all that which is in the same golden booke of Proverbes set downe concerning this subject I wish they would read and seriously consider I knew my selfe within these few yeeres a Knight of antient descent having left him by his father of antient inheritance 1200 pounds sterling of yeerely rent to spend who having in a short space wasted all this estate on whores and other excesse was at length brought to that passe that hee had not a morsell of bread to put in his belly but what hee begged or else sharked for and for his lodging hee had some shop doore in the City to lie at a penthis to shelter him from the raine and a hard bulke for his feather bed many that read this can no doubt out of their owne knowledge instance in a multitude of the like examples The age fittest for this act is manly age to the younger sort and old age it being rather hurtfull From hence may then evidently appeare the preposterous course of many who for some sinister respect either for covetousnesse to compasse some great match some great alliance or the like often cause children to marry before ever they know what marriage meanes although not alwaies consummate yet in effect and finished at parents or neere friends pleasure or how to make a free choice which ought to be voluntary and not forced and hence commeth it to passe that both their bodies are debilitated their growth often hindred that which should have turned to the nourishing and increasing of the body being too soone as we have already said turned another way divers diseases ingendred and their issue if they have any they being ordinarily not so fruitfull as others proving often crasie and valetudinary and by the just judgement of God upon such unlawfull matches there is seldome seen that firme love and true affection agreement and
often very truely verified many times for a little land they take a foole by the hand But because it is an easie matter for an ordinary understanding to make a large coÌ„ment upon this Text I here leave it wishing people to be wiser and not so much wrong their children as is now adaies the custome which oftentimes brings the gray-haires of the parents to the grave with sorrow and a too late repentance had I knowne so much c. The antient heathens against this used mans blood against this intoxication and histories make mention of Faustina daughter to the Emperour Antoninus Pius and wife to Antoninus the Philosopher who fell so farre in love with a sword-player that this Emperour asked counsell of all his wisards what was the readiest and speediest way to cure this strong and violent affection and they being instructed by their Master Satan a murderer from the beginning advised him to put to death this sword-player and that afterward Faustina should drinke up a good draught of his warme blood and then get her to bed to her husband which accordingly was performed of the which copulation was ingendred that cruell Emperor Commodus who with his frequent sword-plaies and slaughter of his subiects had almost quite over throwne the whole Roman common wealth And howbeit this woman was thus freed yet is this no warrant for the use of such a remedy although some of the antients have set downe this as a remedy both against this and the Epilepsie The Paracelsists promise wonders of mans blood as Paracelsus himselfe promiseth by a secret made of mans blood to cure all Epileptick diseases And one Ioh. Ernestus Burgravius maketh a lamp of mans blood called brolychnium or lampas vitae mortis Of this lampe of life and death hee promiseth wonders to wit that it shall burne as long as the party of whose blood it was made continueth and goe out at the same instant that the party dieth and withall that as this lamp burneth cleare and quietly without any sparkling the party shall live with freedome from any infirmity either of body or minde but if otherwise it sparkle or the light be dimme and obscure and the flame be sometimes lighter than at other times then it is a token of anxiety heavinesse and the like Credat Iudaeus apella Let them beleeve it who list It is not unknowne how Satan hath from the beginning thirsted after mans blood hence have wee so many sacrifices of mankinde as in antient stories recorded so even unto these our times so many still continue as our Spanish narrations make mention of the Westerne parts of the world And hence was if also that hee suggested to his ministers so many remedies composed not onely of the blood but of divers other parts of the body of man and as our Magicians still teach their too too credulous disciples as an antient Father well observeth But now it may be asked whether one may die of love inseeming not to offer that violence to nature as to extinguish this lampe of life â— I answer that this passion as we have heard may emaciat dry up and exhaust all the radicall moisture of the body And so although it doe not worke such a sudden impression upon the body whereby it is in an instant overthrowne yet doth it by degrees so extenuate and debilitate the whole body that it is thereby often cast into an irrecoverable consumption And with histories in this kind it were easie to make up a great volume Schenchius maketh mention of a maid who being by her parents crossed of a match intended betwixt her and a young man pined away and died many I make no question can instance of many in their owne experience as it were easie for my selfe to doe also but that I hasten to other matter And besides because I thinke few of judgement will make any doubt thereof I will therefore leave it To this place also we may referre iealousie called zelotypia being nothing else but the excesse of love with a continuall feare of being deprived of that they love or at least of having any corrivall which often maketh a man or woman to lose the use of reason insomuch that the minde is never at rest And this feare is merely imaginary I meane without any just cause and sometimes there is too just cause ministred It behooveth therefore both man and woman to be carefull in their choice and afterwards to give no just occasion to bring their reputation in question Some instances of jealousies both justly and unjustly conceived a r famous late Physitian setteth downe A certaine Merchant of a chiefe towne in Switzerland a man of good account and esteeme in that place being divorced from his former wife married another being a maide who bare him divers children After certaine yeeres perceiving his man too familiar with his Mistresse conceived a strong iealousie of his wife which caused him the more narrowly to observe her carriage Vpon a time he fained himselfe to goe a iourney into the countrie about some earnest businesse and yet in the evening conveied himselfe secretly into a chamber next adioining to his owne bed-chamber where he might easily observe what passed and within a short space esâ—ies his man come boldly to his Mistresse where he killed them both in the very act of adultery and then as is the custome of that country laid certaine pieces of mony upon their dead corpses which was a signe that they were taken in this filthy act and might therefore lawfully be killed the matter being afterwards examined hee was acquitted of the fact The same Authour maketh mention of a Doctor of the civill law in the South part of France who was very iealous of his wife and not without iust cause and suspecting her familiarity with a Scrivener so narrowly observed her actions that one day hee comes rushing into the roome where shee and this Scrivener were together being in his owne house masqued and accompanied with many schollers students in law where he first bindes him hand and foot then cut off his nose his yard and afterwards cut his hamstrings and so let him goe the same maimed Scrivener sayth mine Author I saw afterwards at Montpelier going upon crutches and in a miserable and wretched case drawing his lame leggs after him A just recompence for adulterers and it were to be wished we might see some such exemplary punishment inflicted upon such as thus neigh after their neighbours wives since especially Moses law that the adulterer should dy the death which in all the Germane countries is in force is not here with us in force The â— same Authâ—◠〈…〉 yet mention of another evâ—n me jealous of his wife and yet with out any cause This was a scholler newly returned out of France who married Doâ—â—â—â— of physickes daughter with whom a long time before hâ—e had been 〈◊〉 love 〈◊〉 Doctor had a
her understanding c. shee said with a lowd voice I give now no more eare to false and slanderous reports for thou hast within thy selfe power enough to bewitch any And by this meanes was her anger appeased towards this young woman and her owne husband also I wil instance in no more histories but now proceed The absurdity then of this opinion may yet further appeare in this that such as maintein practise such things affirme that the same part of one and the same creature produceth divers effects according to the right left situation in the body insomuch that the bone in the right leg shall cause love and that of the left hatred These amorous medicines therefore are in case to be used as being altogether dangerous and besides unlawfull and by the learned ranked with that sort of witch-craft called Goetia and reckoned for the third sort thereof there being of this same yet divers other sorts on which we will not now insist but leave them to such as delight in such trash which is all forbidden in the second commandement And therefore I thinke I have proved this point sufficiently that these love-potions or philtra are not to be used and that they produce no such effects as are unto them prescribed neither yet can they of themselves force the affection As concerning medicines which provoke lust I hold it altogether unfit for the unmarried to use them and for such married people only who for the better furtherance of procreation of children do desire and crave the aid of the honest and learned Physitian to excite and stir up the force vigor of nature now languishing As for others yea even in wedlocke it selfe merely for wantonnesse to increase their carnall lust I advise all those of mine owne profession that they yeeld no satisfaction to these their disorderly carnall lusts and that as they will not be accessary to their sinne and as they will answer it at that great and dreadfull day when that great House-keeper shall call for a redde Rationem villicationis tuae The like I say of our complexion-mongers who as our Taylors devise new fashions so these are ready to devise new faces to such of our discontented female sexe who not contented with that feature and comelinesse of face which their Lord and Maker thought fitting will yet make use of a painter And I thinke it much derogates from the dignity and worth of an ingenuous and generous Physitian to abandon himselfe to such base imploiments I meane both this last and the former as become better some Bawd than an honest Artist professing so excellent and eminent a calling Sed manum de tabula Howbeit I could yet insist at length on these matters yet I hasten to that which followeth CHAP. XXX Of Fascination by sight by word or voice and by spells of imagination and strange stupendious effects our Paracelsists attribute therunto together with the absurdity of the same THere is yet another erroneous opinion crept in not onely among the meaner and more ignorant but even among some of the more judicious sort that love may be procured by effascination or bewitching and by this meanes some have been strongly perswaded that affections might be forced and the affection of one by effascination as before they conceived of philtra to be procured to another the truth whereof would be a little inquired into That there is such a thing as fascination or effascination cannot be denied as by the antient Poets both Greeke and Latine may appeare but what it is would be considered In this fascination therefore there must needes be an effluxe of something from some body and received againe into some other body In this businesse then wee are to consider the body transmitting the body receiving that which is transmitted the medium or middle space betwixt them and that which is transmitted That which transmitteth is most commonly the eye or mouth the party receiving some tender body apt to receive such an evill impression as children especially the medium or middle space the aire and the thing transmitted a vapour called by the Greekes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now certaine it is that there is no member of the body that doth so abound in spirits as the eye nor that sendeth out more resplendent beames than the ball or apple thereof And it is reported of Augustus Caesar that on whomsoever he had firmely fixt his eye-sight they were forced after a while to winke as in the bright shining of the Sunne beames so cleare and bright shining were his eyes And of Tiberius Caesar it is also written that when he rose in the night time he saw as clearely as any cat And it is reported that in the country of Albania the inhabitants before they atteine to mans age are white haired and that they see better in the night than in the day time These lucid spirits then the carriers of this fascination slowing in that abundance towards the eyes and ejaculated upon the object if these spirits proceed from uncleane blood it is no marvell that some most obnoxious to receive this venomous impression be therewith surprized and such vapors our Authors affirme often to proceed from bleare-eyed persons whereby they may infect others with the same infirmities as likewise that a menstruous woman infecteth the glasse shee looketh into And some write of certaine families among the Triballians and Illyrians who if they looke earnesty especially if angrily upon any one they presently kill them by their bare aspect onely and they likewise write of some women of Scythia and of others living neere unto Pontus having in one of their eyes a double bale and in the other the shape of a horse being very terrible to behold and who being throwne into the water clothes and all could not be drowned Now this fascination among the antients was so frequent that the very brutes were not freed therefrom as may by the Poet appeare Nescio quis teneros c. Many other things might here out of antient Authors be alleged but that I hasten to that which followeth Besides this fascination by sight antient Authors mention yet another kind by meanes of speech and tongue And Gellius maketh mention of whole families in Africke bewitching with their speech and tongue who if they praised much either young children trees corne cattell or any thing else all died and withered away presently Hence have wee this custome derived from antiquity that when wee praise any thing in a high manner wee use a kinde of prayer desiring God to blesse it lest perhaps our tongue hurt it And there is yet another phrase in use among the vulgar especially when any thing prospereth not according to our intents and wishes to say it is forespoken But whatsoever credulous antiquity hath beleeved concerning this matter yet in truth there is no such efficacie in either of these as was supposed I beleeve
yea rather efficacious to the contrary to put out eyes And the better to blind the world and to confirme and strengthen his opinion of working miraculously or as sometimes againe hee sayeth ' mystically hee would have us quite to abandon and abdicate all heathen Philosophie the Apostle giving us warning that we be not therwith deceived But I think the abuse doth not abolish the right use What shall all Universities give over teaching Aristotles philosophicall precepts The scope drift of al is this that we be not tied to the ordinary operation of agents and patients but adhere to Paracelsus and his followers and beleeve their mystical miraculous if not cacomagical manner of curing and so by this meanes must we take for current whatsoever they shall obtrude upon us as may by the question now in hand plainely appeare By this meanes also should all our rationall and methodicall proceeding by our antient Physitians so carefully prescribed be quite overthrowne And what were miracles in the old Law so seldome and that by holy men onely performed and afterwards by our Saviour Christ and his Apostles and is it now in every mans power that can greaze a weapon or sticke at pleasure to worke a miracle We justly tax the church of Rome for their lying wonders and miracles by Gods owne spirit foretold and shall we beleeve that whatsoever strange or wonderous act transcending the ordinary course of naturall agents is some miraculous worke of God Nay wee have no reason so to doe We know there was a Simon Magus who with his counterfeit miracles wonderfully deluded the Samaritanes And have we not good reason to suspect Paracelsus and what he and his followers obtrude upon us of such especially as transcend the course of ordinary agents If he had bin either Prophet or Apostle we might have had a better conceit of his strange cures and yet not so that we would not have his tenents examined tried by the true touchstone of Gods word with the which this doth not agree And that he was too much addicted to infamous magick but that I wil not now so spend my time I could easily make it appeare And that he was no holy man may appeare by his manifold impieties in abusing and wresting many places of holy Scripture to maintaine his phantasticall and impious opinions concerning which a learned writer hath composed a whole tractate As for his wholesome and approved chymicall remedies either of his owne invention or collected from other men I am so farre from disallowing the use of them that being discreetly used I doubt not but they may and doe produce very laudbale and desired effects neither am I or ever was I so rigid that I would refuse the use of any safe and lawfull remedy whosoever were the Author As for that they tell us that if the weapon be exposed to the cold aire the wound will smart and be in paine but not so if kept warme in a close place and free from dust To that I have already said concerning sympathy may serve for an answere And if there bee such a sympathy seeing wounds are much wronged by great noises as shooting of ordinance and the like I mervaile whether such a noise many miles distant from the party wounded but hard by the weapon anointed would annoy the said wounded partie It is by that famous Pare reported that at the siege of Hesdin in France by the army of Charles the fifth Emperour at the shooting off of the ordinance many hurt in the head were extremely tormented whether the weapons wounding them were in the open aire or lapt up warme by the fire-side And I meruaile whether our souldiers now in the Germane warres doe alwayes keep their weapons in the open aire or close lapt up I beleeve it is not the custome either of the King of Sweden or his enemies to lap up their weapons by a fire-side and yet if one should make inquiry hee should find that many of them were notwithstanding easily cured without great paine as many by experience have heretofore found true Some wounds againe in regard of the ambient aire although but small and in themselves seeming secure yet many times prove mortall that I say nothing of the severall constitutions of bodies time of the yeere the country age and sex c. But it seemeth this cure like an Empiricke contemneth and neglecteth all such circumstances As for the signe of life and death by the blood sweaty drops I hold it either imposterious or impious and superstitious the sympatheticall operation being alreadie overthrowne Powder of red sanders being laid upon the weapon being warme and being moister then it may make a shew of bloody sweat and then this is but to cozen the world and if otherwise it is already answered And as for the knowledge of life and death by a lampe made of his blood with the spirit of wine I have already touched it and if any such thing be effected it is more like to bee produced by art diabolicall than otherwise As for that which is alleaged that lying with a menstruous woman will frustrate the operation I hold that the carnall knowledge of any woman is hurtfull to the wounded and this standeth to farre better reason than that the person that anointeth the weapon lying with a woman should be hurtfull to the wound But on these and the like I will not any longer insist but proceed to some examples Now although that which hath beene said already might suffice to prove the invalidity and unlawfulnesse of this cure yet will we say something of these examples also These examples then are of two sorts either of such cures are supposed to have beene performed by the weapon-salve or of other magneticall and sympatheticall cures as the defendant calls them seeming farre stranger than those performed by this ointment As for the first sort then admit they have been performed wherein I will not call in question the relaters credit of what quality soever the question is not here de facto as we say but de jure not whether there hath beene any such cure performed but by what meanes and therefore they are of no validitie And the invalidity of this argument desumed from issue and event I have already in the beginning of this discourse answered Of one of those cure notwithstanding I will speake a word A fellow saith he had his finger cut with a sith and when the blood could not bee stanched the Noble man his Master wished to knocke off the handle of the sith and send him the very sigh to anoint the which the wounded fellow himselfe went about and at the very first knocke he gave the sith that had wounded him the blood stanched In the same place he avoucheth that the same noble personage acknowledged that although there were not drop of blood to be discerned on the weapon yet if hee anointed
smelleth well and some others say it hath a mixt smell I will not call in question S. Augustines credit nor argue the case whether he might be deceived and being no Physitian have some other fruit given him and called by this name but with us sure I am there is no such smell to be found in those that grow in the hottest of our European countries nor such as I smelt in the middest of France nor could learn it of others and it is proper to all our narcoticke medicines to bee of an evill and loathsome smell although growing in a hot climat as we finde it in Opium as also in Tabacco although it be verified in this drug which Divines say of sinne Consuetudo peccandi tollit sensum peccati The custome of sinning taketh away the sense thereof So may I say of this customary use maketh people complaine of no annoyance at all being so inured to this filthy smell This soporiferous and narcoticke quality say our Chymists proceedeth from a narcoticke sulphur whereof this loathsome smell is an individuall assistant Galen also himselfe judgeth of the quality of the simples not only by the taste but also by the smell and such as are of a sweet and pleasant smell not only he but all other Physitians after him account to comfort and corroborate the spirits and principall parts which no man yet ever affirmed of any narcoticke nay nor yet of Tabacco it selfe although growing betwixt the Tropicks in Trinidad Is it then likely that the holy Ghost and Salomon his Pen-man and so well skilled in the nature and vertue of simples would ranke a venomous plant among so pleasant fruits or flowers But put the case that this simple growing in those hot Easterne countries did smell well and lost that loathsome and unpleasant smell incident to such simples which notwithstanding is not likely these hot countries commonly intending their properties and smell as appeareth in Tabbaco c. yet then why may not I with as good reason affirme that many of our ordinary fruits or flowers transplanted into Salomons pleasant garden might much improve their former properties and smells insomuch that they might farre surpasse this plant and fruit and so should be in small request where there were so many better I thinke now I have made it to the indifferent and unpartiall reader plainly appeare that there is small probability that this Mandrake mentioned in the Scripture is our Mandrake And put yet the case it had beene so yet wee see it produced not that effect in her that obtained this plant and she that parted from it had children in a short space But let us yet search a little further into this love-property attributed to it this property is only confined to helpe womens sterility by those who stand stiffeliest upon the point And yet our antient Physitians neither Dioscoride who reckoneth up all the severall properties thereof yea even a violent purging quality equalling if not exceeding Hellebore it selfe Galen nor Pliny make any mention of this property And whereas they make mention of some names tending to that purpose they only relate other mens opinions they never ascribing any such property unto it I will not indeed deny but it might have bin used by witches and Sorcerers in their love-potions as I may call them and so were bones of Frogs haires of a Wolfes taile Hippomanes and such other trash which no understanding man ever thought to be indued with any such quality by wicked people notwithstanding imploied for such purposes And this same late alleaged Author when he alleageth the supposed love quality in this simple groundeth his reason on the cooling quality of this simple fit saith he to coole the hot wombs of those Eastern women as he thinketh it to be incident to most women dwelling in hot countries But what if this simple be hot in quality I think then his building wil soone fall to the ground Galen himselfe joyneth heat with the cold quality in this simple And I thinke let but a judicious Physitian well consider of the purging quality and many other operations in this simple incident at least many of them to other narcoticks also will acknowledge a hot quality predominating in it and then this cooling effect is quite vanished away in smoake And put the case this were yet true then were it onely good for women of very hot wombes and not proper for ever barren woman and withall were not good for women of our cold Northerne climat who are not for the most part so hot wombed as there Easterne women Besides if by reason of its narcoticke and soporiferous quality by reason it provoketh to sleepe and consequently the better to reteine the seed of generation why may not opium henbane or hemlocke doe the like Or why should that plead such privilege above other simples of the same nature and quality Moreover if this plant had beene indued with any such vertue is it likely that Leah who had now for a long time beene debarred from bearing of children insomuch that for this cause she had given her maid to her husband to helpe out her number would so easily have parted with so effectuall a meanes to her sister especially betwixt whom and her selfe there was such emulation and debate To conclude then this point there is no probability that this Mandrake hath any such power or vertue as to make barren women fruitfull and yet farre lesse to procure love or make any love better howsoever it may be that in antient times it hath perhaps beene used as other poisons for this same purpose as I have said already And Pliny himselfe mocketh the Magicians who attribute strange vertues to herbes and divers simples and such as is impossible for any reasonable man to beleeve as namely to open any locke without resistance to drie up rivers and lakes to supply all wants and make enemies to flee But the same Pliny wisely replyeth Where were such herbs when the Romans obteined such victories of their enemies And I could make a many questions to this same purpose although I confesse it were but to small purpose But concerning these things as also concerning love love potions and the appendixes or things thereunto belonging thus much shall suffice for the present on the which I have somewhat the longer insisted by reason I perceived some erroneous opinions concerning this subject to be so ruveted in the mindes of many that it is a hard matter to root them out wherefore if I have trespassed upon the readers patience let this apologie plead for mee that my intention was to profit the publike the which I wish may likewise plead for any former trespasse of the same nature CHAP. XXXII Of immoderate or passionate anger the hurt thereby procured to the body in sicknesse and in health and antidots against it in what diseases best and in what worst and whether any may die of anger THat the affections of
callâ— himselfe Azarias c. and againe chap. 12.15 hee calls himselfe Raphael one of the seven Angells c. a Math. 17.21 b 2 Kings 5 14. It cannot be proved that the poole of Bethesda had in it any healing power c Iohn 9.6 d Coloss 2.8 Heathenish Philosophy is not to be abolished but the abuse to be shunned e 2 Thes 2. Revel 13. f Acts 8.9 Paracelsus was addictted to diabolicall magicke and therefore we justly suspect his mystical and miraculous cures g Possuntne Paracelsici Magiam suam divinaruÌ„ literarum authoritate philosophia physicaeque nomine defendere Autor Andr. Libav c. h Lib. 9. cap. 14. The ambient airâ— much hindereth or furthereth the cure of wounds The like may be said concerning drops of blood on the weapon when the patient traÌ„gresses in Diet. Lying with menstruous women Historie The mystery of this cure new ascribed to the secret or invisible spirit in the blood and not to the salve The salve then is of no efficacie Marke well History of St. Walter Raleigh stanching any fluxe of blood A slender argument Some of the examples alleaged are two like cacomagicall cures Strange manner of the cure of withered members Skin haire and nailes as efficacious as the blood Starre but made a stalking horse to hide a great deale of coâ—enâ—ge i Bodin Daemon lib. 2. ex Hect. Boet. Histor Scot. lib. 2. History of the bewitching a Scottish king by a picture of wax Witches practises Operation of the rose of the Sun Something may bee concealed and somthing not truely related History of cure of the Iaundize at the distance of almost a 100 miles A ball for the cure of the Iaundize at such a distance Note here there is no use of the stars and celestiall bodies which are sometimes so efficacious These balles are said to cure any Iaundize indefinitely without any respect had to cause continuance age sexe c. k Icterus in universum triplex est felleus hepaticus criticus qui sane omnes in multo plures species subsecantur juxta diversitatem causae Felleus quidem fit vel ab immodica plenitudine vesiculae fellis vel parvitate eius aut ab imbetillitate facultatis attractricis eiusdem aut a meatuum obstructione sive eorum sit per quos allicitur bilis sive eorum per quos pellituâ— ad intestina quo regurgitat ad venas bilis praedictum gignit effectum Hepaticus autem efficitur icterus ab Hepatis obstructione scirrbo inflammatione aut calida distemperie ad quod etiam membrum reducitur venarum caliditas exurens totius etiamcorporis Quippe evidentissimum est praedictis rationibus ob infirmatatem secoris icterum fieri naâ—â— multitudo bilis crassae ob scirrbosum tumorem infirmitatem jecoris expultricis tendens per veâ—as in cum effectum fere semper commigrat sic ab eiusdem partis inflammatione quia plus bilis generatur pâ—ri ratione obstructo Hepate quo minus itura bilis in vesicam conscendat Sed evidenti etiam eventu cum â—ecur calidum efficitur quo tempore plus justo flava bilis generatur quam vesicula fellis expurgare potest quo fit ut venas irruens pradictus color oriatur Quem quoque affectum fieri conspicimus venoso genere male affecto nimirumcorrupto aut exhausto in venis in universo corpore sanguine ob earum intemperamentum circa hepaein affectum aut a veneno assumpio vel ei aculato a fera vel a cathareticis non purgantibus quae ut quibusdam placet vel humorem purgandum alunt vel deleteria inficiunt qualitate Vltima autem icteri sors est cum Crititus efficitor qui duplex existit salutaris unus qui cursus fit dum copia bilis sano existente homine molestatur natura aut in morborum indicationibus quae septimo die aut post 7. diebus Criticis incidit antegressis coctionis signis c. Ludo. Mercat Tom. 3. lib. 4. de intern morb circuiâ— cap. 5. de icteri omnibus speciebus History See then how much the learned Artist is often injured History of an Italian Noble man recovering twice a new nose This makes nothing for the confirmation of the matter in hand This artificiall nose might rot off about the same time the slave died casually or yet by reason of a like radicall temperature of the part with the whole There might be a satanical operation l Quod si integer nasus velnasi portio penitus excisa fucrit non sperabilis reâ—â—itutio Ambr. Par. lib. 9. ca. 28 m Isaiah 28.21 n Aut exercetur Magia tacite sive conspicuis signis aut per instrumenta aspectabilia Vtrumque cum peragat diabolus deceptâ—s Magis fraudulenteâ— â—uanquâ—m â—iqui hene sciant se aut câ—â—â—nercâ—â—â—â—iabo â—â—amen pâ—aetendunt lumen natu 〈◊〉 Lumen natura precipere spiritibus immâ—â—â—â— aâ— aâ—sâ—at ad mi◠〈◊〉 Lumen naturae est tempâ—stateâ—â—tere sata â—â—anâ—serâ—c 〈◊〉 montâ—â—per fidem naturalem capita demire hominibus iterumque imponere subito momento coenas exhibere magicas essiagere cornua bibere cribro sisterepridem defunctos tribus jaculis ex aâ—cu aut globulu ex bomberaâ— emissis omne quicquid 〈◊〉 etiam non visum consodere in speculis videre omnia praeterita praesentia futura facta scripta dicta cogitata sanare per maximas distantias colioqui cum co qui est in Persia cum tu siâ— in Hispania in disco lunae legere scripta ab eo qui mille milliarâ—a abest in homine destinato absente ignorante ea perficere quae in homine cerco vel alia imagine qua iste repraesentatur ligatuâ—aâ— physicas inducere iterum demere Inimicitias favores concilâ—are affectâ—sque hominum mutare ad libitum detrahere uni vires in alterum inferre victorias transserre ingentes exercitus voce fistula vel imaginations in fugam vertere mures muscas congregare ut sagas Characterihus sigillis pentaculls alijs ab omni injuriaÌ„se immunem reddere armaturas gladios â—â—lypeosque martios facere quibus saltem visis fundantur bosliles exercitus adjurare boâ—bardas ne explodantur equos ita afficere ut summa celeritate etiam per praecipitia serantur ex hostibus salvum reportent sessorem Canes habere Gamabaas per quos mira effiâ—ias ita parhedros sucâ—ubos succubas cervas aves sacere facere tintinnabula quibus meretrices discernas mutare humanam figuram in leoninam ursinam lupinam osininam c. Sic ludere posse tuesseris chartis alijs ut numquam succumbas avium votes intestigere novacula cutem dissecare baculos in serpentes mutare alia inenâ—â—rabilia patrare qualia facta meminerunt â—iâ—toriae mundana estque vix alius in tota seu antiquitate seu nostro saeculo Magus quem Paracelsus Paracelsistae non commendent admireatur 〈◊〉 aedicent Paracels Mahumetum