in the assaults of diseases where the fight wrestling of nature is not alway in the same part nor in the same forme or maner nor with the same disease nor of the same period all which circumstances in the same subiect cannot happen alwaies to anie sight or sense the same which maketh experience yet are euer present in the generall notions of the vnderstanding whereby the prudent and wise man doth make supplie though experience faile Besides the differences which circumstances make many diseases in themselues and their owne kinde are such as are scarce seene in a mans life some in many yeares some in an age some in many generations therein how can experience giue prescription for those things whereof it hath not had experience for experience is of things oft seene If then the same things be in all circumstances seldome or neuer seene and some at sometime seene which a life or age shall not see againe and there can be no true experience where there is not sight and sense how blinde an helpe must oft experience be Doth not euerie day bring forth somewhat new or strange vnto the day and worthy denomination of the day The French Spanish Neapolitane Italian disease was a stranger sometime in old Albion which now is an English denison The Scorbut not maine yeares since was vnnamed of writers now commonly knowne vnto a common eye The English sweating sicknesse very seldome if more then once here seene nor at all or at least not oft elsewhere To wander yet farther into some more wonder Ruland with other reporteth a tooth of gold naturally growing with the common ranke in the mouth of a child Hollerius witnesseth a child in the wombe to thrust forth the hand at the nauill of the mother and so continuing the space of fifteene daies in the end the child borne liuing and the mother saued Brasauolus mētioneth his cure of a soludier who liued after 3 yeares hauing almost halfe his head cut away with a portion of his braines onely thereby losing his sense and memory neuer eating nor hauing memorie to require at any time to eate but as it was put into him nor redeliuerage at the posternes but insensiblie Albucasis knew in his time a womā carrying one dead child in her wombe notwithstanding to conceiue and quicken of another the dead child in the meane season rotting and falling away by parcels at seueral times But to passe these and many the like infinite receiued vpon credite and report my selfe haue met some accidents in my owne practise for the most part within the space of these eight last yeares worth their memorie In the yeare 1608. an ancient gentleman being neither sicke nor much pained and onely molested with a cough and shortnesse of wind from which his health was neuer free requested my aduice for the preuention of the increase of the former accidents in which also he found vnto the generall seeming vnto his owne sense and some other learned counsaile very chearfull and comfortable amendement my selfe onely suspecting and signifying vnto his friends my despaire Betweene his pulses on the right side and the left in generall manifestly appeared a wondered ods so continuing the space of 12. or 14. daies together On the left side no position of touch no search could finde any pulse at all On the right side the pulses were constantly continually as in his best health manifest strong equall in good order with full distentiō vnto all the dimēsions In the same parts where the pulses on the other side seemed dead all other faculties perfectly liued in naturall heate color vigour sense motiō This was thē witnessed by certaine honorable gentle women present whō well vnderstanding more then sufficiēt for such a taske I therto intreated it cold by no sense be denied It was imagined by some learned dissenting frō my first howres dislike that it was no other but an imperceptibilitie of his pulse and without danger as supposed vsuall vnto him in his health by reason of diuers deepe wounds tenne yeares before receiued vpon that side My experience of the contrarie oft in his former health and also in diuers other his sicknesses confirmed by owne doubt death which determineth all things sodainly and vnexspectedly determined this in so faire a visard so many dayes deceiuing many In the yeare 1604. my paines was solicited vnto a vertuous Lady honorably both in her Knight and her selfe allied and no lesse eminent in their owne worth then lying neare Grafton in Northampton shire I found her left by a former Physition to verifie his prediction by her death She was miserably perplexed with the doubtfull deliuery of a dangerously begunne abortion her owne strength failing and the ordinarie assistance of women in those cases shrinking from her and a deepe die of a mixt and diuers coloured iaundies with extreme paines of her stomacke giuing no rest nor intermission adding feare and sorrow the substance also of her vrine continually troubled confusedly thicke the colour altogether resembling the strained iuice of the grenest hearbe In the terrour of her abortion my indeuour proued vnto her speedily happy and succesfull Afterward according vnto the second indication from the iaundies necessity vrging and her strength then fauouring the worke I commanded her to bleede in the arme which done with good ease and felicitie nature in spite of all indeuour to the contrarie kept the orifice after still open running daily and continually the space of three weekes together and then healing and closing it selfe with her perfect amendment At the same time a sodaine sharpe paine giuing a speciall distinct sense thereof she disburthened of a round white hard stone full of little holes that part which giueth the name and seate vnto the Colike In the yeare 1607. a young woman of 30 yeares age with another graue gentlewoman accompanying her came vnto me requiring aduice in her wondered estate and condition The skin or membrane of her belly from the nauill downeward withered dead and gathered together in likenesse of a rotten bladder or a wet leather bag and in that forme falling flagge from the former close setting vnto the guts and bellie lay continually loose vnto the one side In the yeare 1601. a barbers boy of Northhamptō auoided wormes besides other ordinary passages by vrine In the yeare 1600. a shoomaker of Northampton sometime a bayliffe of the towne falling dangerously sick called my counsell together with an Empericke The other accused the hypochondriaca passio my selfe made knowne my suspition of an abscession in the bulke vaine hope gaue credite to that it rather desired and the patient trusted himselfe with the other Shortly after he was surprised with sodaine frequent swoundings feare of imminent suffocation but by cough and spitting escaped and with wonder in short space filled diuers large basins with
foule purulent stuffe one paroxysme at once sometime before intermission making vp the said measure In this feare and terrour vnto himselfe and the beholders he earnestly sued and againe obtained my aduice He perfectly recouered the purulent collection after the 40 day exhaust and he yet liueth free from the sequeles of any other manifest disease or danger In the yeare 1607. a woman vexed with a palpitation of her heart together with an oft intermission of her pulse by an inward presention mouing from a so daine troubled agitation of her minde would vsually vnto my selfe with others present foretell when her pulse should stand and intermit sometimes two sometimes three or foure pulsations before the intermission The pulse in theiust knowne number and time did euer keepe time with her prediction herselfe nor then nor euer wotting how to feele a pulse by her hand or touching She in this manner continued by vncertaine fits and times the space of 2 monâ—ths or thereabouts while sometime myselfe resorted vnto her being for that and other accidents by her husband called consulted It is reported vnto me by diuers well knowing gentlewomen and others of good worth that a woman dwelling within a mile of NorthamptoÌ„ was brought to bed first of one childe and within twenty weekes after of another quickening of the latter the same day shee was churched of the first It is testified by many now inhabitants of Northampton that from within the wombe of a woman with child then dwelling in the towne her child was audibly heard to cry vnto her owne amazement and the wonder of diuers hearers of credite vnderstanding Anno 1610 a woman of Northampton shire being with child and growing neare the time of her deliuery was extraordinarily diuers dayes pained in the bellie an inch distant from the nauill vntill at length diuers wormes each equalling in length a quarter of an ell sodainly at two distant places did eate themselues a passage through the skinne of her bellie and so came forth and gaue her ease A gentlewoman my late patient and now dwelling in Northampton reporteth vnto me froÌ„ her owne sight with many other eye witnesses that among her owne children a male child being then fiue weekes of age a fortnight together had the breasts full of milke as readily plentifully flowing and spouting out milke as the breasts of a suck-giuing nurse These few instances are sufficient to proue the like contingence of other the like which other times in other manner may and do oft bring forth Neither is euer nature so great a niggard though not to euery eye alike bountifull but euery day almost may pose bare and naked experience He therefore that seeth not but with his eyes of his owne experience where he hath no experience hath no eyes and therefore there is blind and cannot see Since then many things fall out beyond the compasse of experience which by experience make experince blind how then where are no eyes shall an Empericke borrow eyes It is againe answered Though the Empericke haply haue not seene the same with that which seldome or once onely doth happe yet very seldome hath he not oft or at least sometime seene the like and thence vnto the like he fits the like disposing But with the wise the like is much vnlike the same Their confusion is onely proper vnto the foole and the dangerous issue his deserued punishment It is a chiefe point in all learnings truly to discene betweene differing similitudes and like differences Many accidents commonly fall out seeming like yet haue no affinitie and againe in shew the same yet indeede contrarie Contraries haue oft in many things likenesse and likenesse contrarieties easilie deceiuing the vnwotting and vnleamed It is therefore of no small moment or consequence for a Physition truly by a discerning eye to put iust difference This he that cannot do must either through the deceiuablenesse of likenesses confound repugnant remedies which cannot be without great harme and hazard of life and health or by mistaking parities for imparities disioyne helpes better vnited which cannot be without both hinderance and hurt vnto the sicke their safetie and securitie Many diseases ofttimes so liuely mocke one the other that a good eye may easily deceiue it selfe The vlcers of the baldder and the reynes a mole and a true conception a ruptuâ—e and a relaxation plurisies and some kindes of inflammations of the liuer the Colike and some other kinde of the same inflammations diuers kinds of consumptions according to diuers feauers with infinite more in their intricate ambiguities dissemble themselues and deceitfully resemble one the other much thereby oft times perplexing the best vnderstanding Somtimes the most vnlike will put on likenesse and the most like weare contrarietie What more vnlike then death and life death to life and life to death Yet sometimes life appeareth in the shape of death terrifying the beholders with frightfull shewes of inquietude anxietie deliquation sodaine and violent euacuations and exagitations of the whole body when the healthfull crisis is at hand and the victorie of nature in the masterie of her enemie the disease And sometimes death cometh smiling in a visar of life with cheerefulnesse and ouer-pleasing lightsomenesse when the last houre is now already runne and the Sun for euer setting Hence the vnconsiderate and vnlearned to distinguish are easily induced sometimes by vaine hope deceiued to physicke death sometime too fearefully despairing with exequious offices to comber life and the recouerie of death Hence are oft sound parts vexed with needelesse remedïes and the comforts of life imprisoned for an vntimely death It is now the sixth yeare since I was solicited for a woman by the opinion of the dysenterie or abrasion of her guts miserably held for the space almost of a quarter of an yeare vnto the continuall vse of eueryday-glysters and other astringent medicines vntill it was my fortune coming vnto her by good reason to discouer the supposed membranous deiections to be nothing else but skinnes of wormes which first dead after putrified dissolued into small parcels descended with some torment in the similitude of little skinnes The skinnes being found it was an easie matter by a new warrant to fetch the skinners whose thereto appearance confessed the euidence gaue the suspition of the dysentery for euer after free discharge and perfect deliuery In this one instance he that is wise may conceiue many more without number which therfore as vnnecessary and troublesome I will not farther here trouble or awake now sleeping with time past In these like cases sometimes the best perfection the ripest vnderstanding doth and may mistake And therefore the ignorant Empericke who professeth confusion and vseth no light or helpe of iudgment or reason at all but the onely sense of his owne experience how shall he do otherwise
for a time gayning credit and entertainement by litle and litle secretly vndermine the verie frame and foundation of life We may instance in Tobacco with what high fame and great renowne was it at his first arriuall here in England entertained as an incomparable iewell of health and an vniuersall antidote and supersedeas against the force and capias of all diseases euery man with the smoke thereof in his nosthrils breathing the prayles and excellencies thereof in his mouth But now hath not time and many a mans wofull experience giuen testimonie to right reason and iudgement from the first suspecting and vntill this prouing time suspending the too great name thereof Is not now this high blased remedy manifestly discouered through intemperance and custome to be a monster of many diseases Since the riotous vse of this strange Indian let it be noted how many strange before vnknowne diseases haue crept in vnnaturally besides the former custome and nature of the nation prouing now naturall and customary to the follies of the nation Is it not apparent that the aire of this vapor and smoke by the subtility therof doth sodainly search all parts with a generall distresse oft times to nature And is it not thence probable that by aduantage in the weakest it may oft leaue behinde it especially where it is any time vsed such impression and print besides painefull distention through his inclosed vapour that no time of life no remedies oft times are euer after able to blot out And frō this Nicotian fume grow now adaies doubtlesly many our frequent complaints and euerie day new descriptions of paines according haply to the diuersitie and difference of the parts it chiefly affecteth or the more or lesse extreme vse thereof And men haply led by some present bewitching feeling of ease or momentarie imagined release from paine at some time hereby vnaduisedly with such meanes of their ease drinke into some weake parts such seede of future poison as hauing giuen them for a time supposed pleasing ease doth for time to come secretly and vnfelt settle in their bones and solid parts a neuer dying disease while they liue How many famous patrons and admirers of this simple haue senselesly died in the very time of the idle vse thereof while it yet smoked in their teeth and others liuing in the immoderate burning loue therein haue with the fierie zealous gluttonie thereof as the badge of his mastership in thē sensibly stupefied dried vp their euer after foolish and besotted braines I might giue other instance in these well knowne and vulgar remedies of the named French disease which by a present benumming of the sense cousining and easing of paine do withall for after time inure and leaue behinde them such a rottennes and weaknesse ofttimes of the bones and sinewes as suffereth few of our Mercurials to liue to know their age in health especially who throughly knew the siluer-salue in their youth Hence toward declining age if not before some fall into consumptions and marasmes some lose their teeth some haue the palate of the mouth rotted some the very bones of their head eaten some by conuulsions their mouthes and faces set awry And it is ordinary with most of this sort long before haruest to leaue no grasse grow vpon their paued tops I do not altogether condēne these smoakes but feare their fire and with the Ancients sparingly commend their kinde of remedies knowing their pernicious danger in their ignorant and rash ouervse with their singular seruice in some rare exigents God and nature haply leauing a sting and poyson in them for their too common vitious neede and custome I might here yet farther insist in all other diseases how the vse of the most excellent proper and apt remedies being vnaptly applied either too little or too much too soone or too late before their season or after in some cases at any time or in any maner bring in corrigible and helpeles harmes being in their owne nature harmeles but in their vnskilfull vse pernicious and mortall It is apparent in all mysteries and faculties whatsoeuer that the excellencie of the toole without the excellencie of the workeman doth not bring forth excellencie in the workmanship Hence it must needes come to passe that medicines though wholesome in themselues and of a sauing and soueraigne power without any touch of harmefull quality at all yet being ignorantly or indiscreetly out of time or place disposed or dispensed must likewise bring forth mischiefe in steade of expected good And although many hardened by custome vnto a boldnes of trāsgressing in this kind prouoke oft reuenge of their follie for a time without harme or punishment yet do they not alwayes escape for though happe oft passe by it lights at last and not seldome heauily Cassia is esteemed for a delicate wholesome and harmelesse lenitiue vnto old men children babes women with child and the weakest amongst the sicke yet the learned know it in some cases not onely vnprofitable but of maine mischiefe Rhabarb is said to be the life of the liuer yet in some conditions thereof it is an enemie And for the generall remedies phlebotomy purging vomite sweating bathing and the like reason and experience daily giue demonstration that oft in the same body and the same disease they are variablie sometime necessary sometimes profitable not necessary sometimes neither profitable nor necessary but accursed Sometimes bleeding doth ventilate and refresh the spirits aboue and beyond all other remedies and is the onely key vnto health sometimes againe it doth exhaust and spend their vigour sometime being both profitable and necessary yet vsed out of time or quantity doth no good or vsed vnseasonably doth much hurt Purgatiōs in some estates with preparatiues and in some without preparatiues are harmefull in some either with preparatiues or without preparatiues they are necessary and neuer to be omitted And as there is infinite danger in errour and ignorant dispensation so is there vnspeakable good in the prudent prescription according to the nature quality and seate of each humor according to which it is wisdome sometimes to quicken sometimes to alay sometimes to hasten sometimes to moderate their effects discreete stayes oft making more speedy iourneys Vomits in some diseases are altogether banished and not admitted and in some contrariwise they haue onely priuiledge The like may be said of outward remedies plaisters vnguents cereclothes fomentations and baths which also according to wise and discreete administration or a rash and heedlesse abuse are good or euill And this is the reason that so many famous and renowned remedies now adaies bring forth effects vnworthy themselues for being with such dissolute licenciousnesse euery where and in all places permitted to breake forth out of the prudent awe of vnderstandings guidance how shall they choose but become wild and irregular in the hands of vnskilfull raines that
scandalously and continually much hurt it is too ordinary vse and manner generally with all orders of men for since most men are not capable worthy nor vnderstandingly able to discerne a true good it is no wonder that the fewest speake truly good of good Some of these sorts do not simply or absolutely disswade physicke but as an inducement vnto their owne practise and admittance such physicke onely as cometh vnknowne vnto them out of Apothecaries shops or from Physitions hands and directions thereby preferring their owne priuate ointments plaisters ceareclothes drinkes potions glysters and diets because by time and custome they are become familiarly knowne vnto them and now are of their owne domesticall preparation therefore are by their knowledge acquaintance and auouching of them growne into some credite and reputation with them With this insinuation officious promise of their knowne gentle and pleasant medicines and of vndoubted good from this their owne protested proofe and experience many allure the sicke miserably to beguile themselues to exchange reasonable likelihood for personall confidence the knowledge of the right and safe vse of medicines for the knowledge of the composition of their medicines the preciousnesse of time and oportunity of health For the partiall expectation of vncertaine triall these knowne defects as the perpetuall consequences of this ignorance and want of knowledge as they are ordinarily admitted so are they continually manifestly obserued and noted by others harmes and ofttimes too late repentance for since want of knowledge doth euer lamely giue supply to any want what safe expectation or probable hope can the diseased haue of ignorant persons in their distressed wants Old Eue will neuer be worne out of Adams children Alas an apple can do no great hurt It is faire and beautifull vnto the eye pleasant to taste and but a trifle a small matter a little quantity and of excellent quality Adam must needs taste It is good for his eyes it will cleare his sight an excellent medicine to make him see What is more faire more easie more gentle more harmelesse more cordiall more daintie then an apple Eue in good will offered it and so Adam tooke it It made him also see but Adam had bene better still blind A dangerous and incurable leprosie and infection thence seised vpon him which after none but the great Physition of heauen and earth could cure Many medicines are small harmelesse gentle pleasant and in themselues do not hurt But by accident by consequent by circumstance death oft followeth them at the heeles Milke broth butter and many other wholesome meates iuices and fruits in themselues are of common harmelesse vse milde nourishing and comfortable some of them sometimes soueraigne antidotes against many poysons mitigators of diuers paines yet because sometimes against some circumstances against art or reason vsed they proue a destruction vnto the vser and as sometime a smaller dammage sometime a greater so therefore sometime more and sometime lesse obserued Who almost suspecteth a messe of milke or a cup of beere things so familiar and customary in daily vse and diet yet permitted in some conditions in some manner with some error the messengers of death attend them oft faintings swoundings sodaine extinction of the naturall heate anxietie and vexation with other accidents of easie corruption and putrifaction in the one as of stupefaction and mortification in the other This did witnesse a late Sommers sodaine heates wherein the vnaduised hasty satisfying of thirst with cold drinke by heapes in diuers places in Northamptonshire sent labourers haruest people into their graues With these for farther illustration I might number without number many more but vnto the wise and worthy a word is sufficient intimation And thought many ignorants may speake faire and pleasing and commend things that looke smooth and smiling vpon the liking of the sicke yet prouident necessitie will hence be warned to be wise for it selfe not rashly admiting so dangerous flattery nor too swiftly trusting Syrens for their songs nor Crocodiles for their teares but in matters so nearly concerning life and death duly and carefully inquiring and according to the verdict of vnderstanding and reason trying and examining and not forgeting beside the hazard in vnsafe error by vnsufficient Counsellors the losse of time and oportunitie for better helpe which ofttimes is neuer regained And for entertayning so meane counsell in the vse of such meanes as carry a manifest danger and malignity in their nature and vse I could thinke no man so voide of counsell as to neede therein counsell yet because experience of some errors herein past is argument of other remaining possible to come I will onely by one example aduertise and from that example it will be easie for euery one to raise a rule and caution to himselfe It is ordinary with many vnskilfull busie-bodies vnder colour and pretext of gentle and safe dealing to make familiar and ordinary the vse of perillous medicines which haply also they do not so distinguish or repute and therefore cannot be said to lye because they speake their thought yet tell not truth because they thinke not right I was sometime solicited by a carefull mother for her child whom I found by a sharpe and acute conuulsion violently distorted and before time allowed leasure for preparation of remedies swiftly strangled In any propension thereto in the constitution or other disposition of the child was nothing which might apparently be accused and therefore making diligent inquirie after some outward cause I found that the suspition of wormes had occasioned the commendations and vse of of the hearbe Bearefoote which though ordinary and much accustomed for that end among women and oft by good hap without hurt yet we could not but with good reason hereof conuince conferring the present harme which no presumption could vnto other thing impute with the danger and maligne nature of that herbe in production of such like effects although many for the like vse haue in like manner giuen it vnto their children without blame Thus sometimes some men haue deuoured mortall poysons not onely without harme but with good and commodious effect By these conueyances through the like presumption many vnwotting bodies oft bury in themselues vnbewailed because vnknowne Ellebor Quicksiluer Precipitate and the like coloured with better names and at the present vnperceiued Desperate trials sometime bring forth strange deliuerances yet neither is the boldnesse warrant nor the escape encouragement There happen oft in these daies many sodaine maruailed and strange accidents posing the best Physitions themselues without doubt oft raised from causes by these errors vnknowne secret concealed or haply by time before the effect appeare forgotten for secret mischiefs long time insensibly vndermine before the sensible euent appeare For proofe of dangerous customes in ignorant hands I will make one example a light vnto many A woman sometime came to
after described as some say It is not vnusuall with the sicke oft to imagine indifferently as well things inconsiderate and incomposed as truths and therefore are their imaginations of no validitie without better proofe or reason which I thinke before sufficiently satisfied And in this gentlewoman hauing her head where her disease had so manifestly deeply seated it selfe therefore so mightily oppressed it was more easie for any faculitie therein to mistake and erre then to conceiue aright And therefore though it might haply manifestly appeare which may be and is ordinarily rather the abusiue impression of some indiscreete whispering about the sicke that she of her selfe primarily and without suggestion conceiued the forme or shape of a witch yet is that no sound proofe or clearing of the question of witchcraft in generall nor any reasonable euidence against one particular since the trials of truth are not sterred by imaginations It is lastly obiected that certaine witches lately dying for sorcerie haue confessed themselues to haue bewitched this gentlewoman I grant the voluntary and vncompelled or duly and truly euicted confession of a witch to be sufficient condemnation of her selfe and therefore iustly hath the law laid their bloud vpon their owne heads but their confession I cannot conceiue sufficient euiction of the witchcraft it selfe It is knowne euidently vnto men learned that the subtill serpent and deceiuer the diuell doth vsually beguile delude and deceiue those that trust in him by his iugling collusions perswading oft times those actions and euents to be his gratification of their malicious affections which are indeed the very workes of nature and oft times the rare effects onely of hidden causes in nature A witches confession therefore being onely grounded vpon his credite information and suggestion whose nature custome and propertie is and euer hath bene to lie and deceiue is a meane poore and vncertaine proofe of witchcraft though a iust condemnation vnto the witch her selfe being proued an associate with the diuell in any sort Her death therefore doth satisfie the law for her offence but is no sound information of the iudgement of the witchcraft Thus according to that whereof my selfe could take notice in this gentlewoman if more full information of others obseruations in those things that by my selfe were not seene or noted faile me not I haue truly and fully described euery materiall accident and circumstance and to all the knowne or conceiued likely doubts and difficulties therein haue carefully and directly answered and therein also haue I suppose satisfied the ingenuous and reasonable with breuitie at full Now to conclude the former explication of the question of witchcraft in generall I intreate the Reader to call vnto mind the formerly mentioned feares and doubts of witchcraft which vnknowne accidents and diseases easily impose vpon mindes herein vnacquainted and not discerning their cause and reason and in them farther for future good to consider the possible contingence of many more of like nature and sort in other the like cases elsewhere hapning and here vnmentioned In both and with both let also be recalculate and cast the strange and slie suggestions of the fancie and imagination sometimes countenanced by admired casuall euents and chances sometimes applauded by ignorant credulitie and sometimes aduanced by superstition in all and euery of these still with the vulgar sort aduantaging the same error and opinion of witchcraft I haue so much the rather thus farre laboured for that ordinarily herein I see truth and iudgement too much peruerted the diseased their health and life thereby neglected and many times simple ideots and fooles oppressed whose weaknes doth oft seeme guiltie because euer vnable to defend it selfe Euery one in these cases is not fit or competent arbiter it requireth the learned and not learned in word and superficiall seeming but indeed truly iudicious and wise whom euer to preconsult in these occasions is onely safe is right expedient and euer necessary CHAP. IX Wisards THe mentione of witchcraft doth now occasion the remembrance in the next place of a sort of practitioners whom our custome and country doth call wisemen and wise-women reputed a kind of good honest harmles witches or wisards who by good words by hallowed herbes and salues and other superstitious ceremonies promise to allay and calme diuels practises of other witches and the forces of many diseases But these being of the same nature with those before mentioned to vse spels and as they before so these now sometimes onely superstitiously vaine sometimes diuellishly assisted I will referre these vnto them and onely dismisse them both with a short historie Anno 1602. a poore boy of Pychley in Northamptonshire was sodainly surprised with a vehement conuulsion drawing his head and heeles violently backward and in that sort carrying his whole body into a roundnesse tumbling vp and downe with much paine and inward groning The parents of the child posed with the strangenesse presently accused witchcraft sent for a wisewoman her wisedome came vnto them At the same time it fortuned my selfe to be in the towne with a patient of mine a worthy and vertuous Lady there inhabiting who moued me to see the bewitched child and vpon the motion together with her Preacher then liuing in her house I went vnto the place where the child lay There among other standing silent and vnknowne I beheld the fits heard also the wisewoman wisely discoursing and among other things of the like nature declaring vnto the cōpany that the lungs of the child were as white as her kercher With this and some other such like kercher learning I silenty departed When I was returned vnto my patient I there professed my opinion concerning the manner and nature of conuulsions with their seuerall causes amongst the rest not omitting the strange accidents which did oft fall out in such diseases by wormes Not long after when the cunning of the wisard was now growne without profite stale and forsaken the child auoyded a great and long worme and immediatly after recouered without other helpe or meanes and so hath continued euer since Thus the serpent beguiled the woman and the woman beguiled though not Adam many foolish sonnes of Adam At length a poore worme gaue them demonstration of their ridiculous folly Such teachers are fittest for such schollers whose grosse ignorance is euer so farre in loue with it owne preiudicate conceite that though they were brayed in a mortar yet cannot this loue be beaten out of them for any loue of truth or reason I did not therefore trouble them with my patience to instruct them nor they molest me with their impatience to heare CHAP. X. Seruants of Physitions Ministring helpers NoW to fulfill our iust computation of Emperickes and therewith to conclude their mention and number the last but not the least that offer themselues ordinarily in this kind and name are suchas either by oft seruing Physitions or by
returne into the old chaos How vainly then did here the Astrologer gape and gaze after vncertaine starres when the true knowledge of the disease the cause and nature thereof wherein consisteth an infallible ground manifested the certaine issue How foolishly and ignorantly or shamelesly and impudently did Astrologicall simple folly or intollerable imposture either cunningly and wittingly seeme to looke aloft for that which lay neare hand below or simply stumble ouer so plaine truth and tumble into so ridiculous and grosse error And thus it is apparent both how vncertaintly Astrologers fable and how certainly diseases do not lie and who comparing the one with the other cannot see in which truth hath more euidence and trust securitie There is a sober and modest vse of Astronomie either for generall prediction or particular accommodation vnto particular ends both these thereby putting a difference betweene the honest vse and false abuse thereof Ptolomey himselfe hath bounded within that which is either manifestly naturall and according to nature or in reason possible or contingent Whaâ— with these conditions Astronomie doth affoord vnto the benefite of the sicke is to be esteemed and guided by the prudent Physition according to particular necessities circumstances and considerations as either the heauenly inclinations shall seeme proportioned vnto them or they liable to those generall and common causes Whatsoeuer doth wander further or is extended vnto other vses then these is not ingenuous nor proper vnto a Physition but is abuse of time himselfe and others trifling vaine idlenesse foule vnlearned falshood CHAP. IIII. Of Coniectors by vrine AS the heauens themselues are not free from the insinuation of imposture and deceit thus cunningly doth euill winde it selfe into the likenesse shape of goodnes so is nothing almost vnder the heauen created which is not made an instrument a visar and baâ—d vnto adulterate seeming lying and cousenage The aire the fire the waters the fowle the fish and infinite other creatures yea their definite and single parts apart are all made prodigious inchantments and snares of ignorant minds begetting faith vnto falshood and trust and credit vnto vntruth As Art vpon true and proued grounds doth promise according to good reason faire likelihood so imposture vpon wondered and vnknowne conclusions professeth assurance in falshood and certaintie in impossibilitie which while wise men contemne credulous fooles admire and follow Amongst many other the inspection of the vrine is in this kinde too commonly most palpably abused by many that carrie the name and badge of learning It is a common practise in these dayes by a colourable deriuation of supposed cunning from the vrine to foretell casualties and the ordinarie euents of life conceptions of women with child and definite distinctions of the male and female in the wombe which while impudence doth gloriously set forth the common simplicitie doth worship and reuere It is vnknowne to none learned that the vrine is truly of it selfe and properly indication of no other immediate dispositions but such as are of the veines and liuer the bloud and humors the antecedent causes of diseases and the naturall facultie giuing onely coniecture at the diseases of other parts by consequent by the knowledge of the common and antecedent causes of all diseases Erroneously therfore the common sort imagine that in the vrine is contained the ample vnderstanding of all things necessary to informe a Physition and from thence common expectation doth generally deceiue it selfe in the proofe of a Physition by his iudgement of the vrine Vnto the satisfaction of a Physitions knowledge are many wayes and helpes besides the vrine as materiall and in many cases of more speciall moment necessitie and vse In the pulse are properly and soly apparent manifold medications which in the vrine Lynceus himselfe could neuer see This is the cause that many euen vnto the last moment of a languishing life continue in their vrine not onely no shadow of danger but faire and flattering formes of lying safely the pulse onely by it selfe-forewarning the mischiefe The animall facultie the affections of the third region and habite of the bodie and many other particular parts haue their peculiar excretions which onely keepe the propertie of their indication vnto themselues communicating no part vnto the vrine neither is the iudgement by the vrine euer infallible or not deceiuable euen there where it is properly and soly allowed chiefe esteeme diuers impediments both positiuely and priuatiuely forestalling his right estimate positiuely either by assumption of diuers meates drinkes or medicines or when diuers diseases concurring in the bodie together send downe their seuerall or contrary recrements into the vrine and thereby confound the true iudgement of any of them therein or thereby priuatiuely when either by stoppages which diuersly happen in the tortuous windings and turnings betweene the liuer and the veines and conduits thence descending vnto the reines and bladder the substance colour and contents of the vrine are intercepted and the thinne aquositie oft onely issueth by so straight a percolation as can carrie no signe no sight or shew of the naturall estate of the vrine in it selfe or else when the naturall heate withdraweth it selfe vnto some interior intention of nature within When therefore the vrine descendeth in his owne substance quantitie qualitie and contents without impediment or hinderance it is a certaine proper and true demonstration of the true affects of the liuer veines the second concoction and of the diseases of those parts which in his descent it washeth and giueth vnto the wise Physition an vninterrupted certaine iudgement of it selfe as when it descendeth in borrowed liquor and colours it reporteth rather his rubs and interception by the way Hence the learned Physition either by the first immediatly instructeth himselfe to a direct opposition vnto the discouered disease or by the other finding the impediment that hindered the right vnderstanding and discouerie he thereby informeth himselfe to remoue that impediment or else finding it thereby vndiscouerable searcheth it by another disquisition or inuestigation by another way or method vntill he haue attained the right end of a true Physition which is the prudent rescue of the distressed life and health and not the false trumpe of his owne vndeserued praise promoting vnworthinesse to gaine lucre Thus he neither deceiueth himselfe with vaine expectation nor others with lying profession but diuersly in both maketh a prudent and good vse of both according to the indication whether certaine and vndeceiuing or doubting ambiguous And as the ends are diuers of those that view the vrine to coniure vp wonders and those that esteeme the vrine to detect the disease for the good of the diseased so are their vnderstandings differing the one truly directed by reason and iudgement the other by nimblenesse of cousenage and circumuention of simplicity and