Selected quad for the lemma: blood_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
blood_n	amend_v	body_n	great_a	35	3	2.1361	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47787	The temperate man, or, The right way of preserving life and health, together with soundness of the senses, judgment and memory unto extream old age in three treatises / the first written by the learned Leonardus Lessius, the second by Lodowich Cornaro, a noble gentleman of Venice, the third by a famous Italian; faithfully Englished.; Hygiasticon. English. 1678	Lessius, Leonardus, 1554-1623.; Cornarus, Ludwig.; Herbert, George, 1593-1633.; Ferrar, Nicholas, 1592-1637.	1678 (1678)	Wing L1181; ESTC R32465	69,139	222

or because there was not a due space of time left for the perfect concoction of food doth imperfectly digest then that Chylus or juice which it makes of the meats so taken is said to be Crude that is raw or to have Crudity in it which brings many inconveniences First it fills the brain and bowels with many phlegmatick and bilious excrements Secondly it breeds many obstructions in the narrow passages of the bowels Thirdly it corrupts the temper of the whole body Lastly it stuffes the veins with putrid humors whereof proceed very grievous diseases 32. These things might be largely demonstrated but the thing is manifest enough of it self especially the first and the second point I will only therefore explain the third and fourth When the Chylus is crude or malignantly concocted by the stomach and rather corrupted than digested for so Aristotle calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a corruption not a concoction there cannot be bred good blood in the store-house of the Liver out of this kind of Chylus but only that which is bad and vicious For as Physicians affirm The second concoction cannot amend the first Now then from corrupt blood there cannot be made good nourishment in the body but of necessity the whole temper of the body is corrupted and so becomes subject to diseases For the third concoction which is made in the small pores of the body where the blood is assimilated to every part which it is to nourish and lastly disposed to the receiving of the form thereof cannot mend the second By this means the temper of the body through these Crudities is by little and little altered and marred and made subject to many inconveniences Again the crudity of the Chylus is a cause that the veins through the whole body are replenished with impure and foul blood and such as is mingled with many evil humors which in tract of time do by little and little putrifie and at last upon occasion of Labor Heat Cold Winds and the like are set on fire breaking out into great and perilous diseases whereby an innumerable company of men do perish even in the flower of their age These inconveniences a sober course of Diet prevents by taking away the Cruditities which are the cause of all For when there is no more taken in than the stomach can well concoct and afterwards sufficient space of time is allowed thereunto Crudities cannot arise but the Chylus is made good and agreeable to Nature And from good Chylus good blood is bred And from good blood there followeth good nourishment and good temper in and throughout the whole body By this means also the putrefaction of the humors in the veins is avoided as likewise obstructions in the inward parts and those superfluous excrements which do so often vex and molest the head and inward parts and joynts of the body So that a good constitution of the body and health is hereby preserved for they consist in these two things to wit the due proportion and symmetry of the humors both in respect of their quantity and quality and in a certain spongy kind of disposition throughout the whole body having no let nor impediment by obstructions so that the spirits and blood have their free passage and recourse through all parts Nor doth Sobriety only prevent the Crudity of humors and the evil consequences arising thereupon but it doth also consume the superfluous humors and that much more safely and effectually than bodily exercise doth as the famous Doctor Viringus doth learnedly shew in his Fifth Book concerning Fasting chap. 3 4 5. For Labor doth confusedly stir the body and alwaies exerciseth some parts more than other and most commonly only some few parts alone and that ofttimes with a great perturbation in the humors with much heat and hazard of sickness especially of Fevers Pleurisies and several kinds of Distillations upon sundry parts which breed much grief and pain But Abstinence pierceth far more inwardly even unto the very entrals and to all the joynts and knittings in the body and doth with ease and equality make a general evacuation For it extenuates that which is overthickened it opens that which is closed it consumes those things that are superfluous it unlocks the passages of the spirits and makes the spirits themselves the more clear and that without disturbance of the humors without fluxes and pains without heating the body and without hazard of diseases without expense of time or loss and neglect of better imployments Notwithstanding it must needs be granted That Exercise if it be used in due time and do not exceed measure is very profitable and to many necessary Yet ordinarily to such as lead temperate and sober lives and follow their studies being much given to the imployments of the mind there is no great need of long walks or other long continued exercises whereby much time is wasted and lost but it is sufficient if only for the space of a quarter or half an hour before meals they use to swing or to toss a Bar Stool or some such like heavy thing or taking in each hand a weight of Two or Three pounds they strike and swing their arms about them the one after the other as if they fought with a shadow These are Exercises which many grave and worthy men even Cardinals themselves do use and that not undecently in their Chambers And there is no other which I know that doth more stir all the muscles of the breast and of the back nor more rid the joynts of superfluous humors than these forenamed Exercises do CHAP. VI. Of Two other Commodities which it brings to the Body 33. THe second Commodity is That a sober Diet doth not only preserve from those diseases which are bred by crudities and inward corruptions of the humors but it doth also arm and fortifie against outward causes For they who have their bodies free and untainted and the humors well tempered are not so easily hurt by Heat Cold Labor and the like inconveniences as other men are who are full of ill humors and if at any time they be prejudiced by these outward inconveniences they are much sooner and easilier cured The self-same comes to pass in wounds bruises puttings out of joynt and breaking of bones in regard that there is either no flux at all of ill humors or at least very little to that part that is affected Now the flux of humors doth very much hinder the cure and causeth pain and inflamations Our Author doth confirm this by a notable proof in himself num 11. Furthermore a sober Diet doth arm and fortifie against the Plague for the venome thereof is much better resisted if the body be clear and free Whereupon Socrates by his Frugality and Temperance brought to pass that he himself was never sick of the Plague which oftimes greatly wasted the City of Athens where he lived as Laertius writeth libro

Two or Three days together For so they will both be easilier born and with much more benefit For the first day the first region as the Physicians term it is to be purged that is the Bowels The second day the Liver and the third day the Veins in which lies the great drain of ill humors For they who do not live temperately do every day add some crude humor which being sucked in by the veins as by a spunge is afterwards dispersed through the whole body 28. So that after Two or Three years space there is ofttimes such a mass of ill humors gathered in the body as a vessel big enough to hold Two hundred ounces would scarce serve to receive them in Now these humors in tract of time do corrupt and putrifie and cast a man upon mortal infirmities and are the very true ground why most men die so much before their time For almost all that die before old age die by this means those only excepted who are slain by outward violences as by fire sword wild beasts water or the like as also those who die of the stone of poyson of the plague or some such other infection And questionless there be many who with store and plenty of all things in their own houses die and perish through this abundance of malignant humors in their bodies who had they been condemned to the Gallies and there kept at bisket and water might have lived long and with good health This danger therefore may in great part be remedied by purging seasonably at least twice every year For so it will come to pass that neither the quantity of the ill humors will be very great nor be much putrified being evacuated and kept under by this purging at every half years end I have known many who by this means have prolonged their lives to extream old age and scarce all their lives long been oppressed with any great sickness CHAP. V. Of the Commodities which a sober diet brings to the body and first That it freeth almost from all diseases 29. NOw follows the third of those things which we propounded to wit The explication of those Commodities which a sober life brings both to soul and body The first Benefit therefore is That it doth free a man and preserve him from almost all manner of diseases For it rids away catarrhs coughs wheazings dizzinesses and pains of the head and stomach it drives away Apoplexies Lethargies Falling-sickness and other ill affections of the brain it cures the Gout in the feet and in the hands the Sciatica and those diseases that grow in the joynts It likewise prevents Crudity the mother of all diseases In a word it so tempers the humors and maintains them in an equal proportion that they offend not any way either in quantity or quality Now where there is an agreeable proportionableness amongst the humors there is no matter for sickness to work upon inasmuch as the ground of health lies in this That the humors be rightly and proportionably tempered in the body And this both Reason and Experience doth confirm For we see that those who keep them to a sober course of diet are very seldom or rather never molested with diseases and if at any time they happen to be oppressed with sickness they do bear it much better and sooner recover than those others whose bodies are full fraught with ill humors bred through the intemperance of Gluttony I know very many who although they be weak by natural constitution and well grown in years and continually busied in imployments of the mind nevertheless by the help of this Temperance they live in health and have passed the greatest part of their lives which have been many years long without any notable sickness The self same is to be made good by the examples of the Holy Fathers and Monks of old who lived very long healthy and chearful in the height of spare diet 30. The reason hereof is For that almost all the diseases with which men are ordinarily vexed have their beginning and birth from Repletion that is to say from mens taking more of meat and drink than Nature requires and then the stomach can perfectly concoct In proof whereof we see that almost all diseases are cured by Evacuation For blood is taken away either by opening a vein or by cupping-glasses leaches or otherwise that Nature may be lightened The great overflowing of humors in the bowels and throughout the whole body is abated and drained by Purgings and other Medicines Abstinence and a very spare diet is prescribed All which ways of cure do plainly shew that the disease was bred by Repletion For contraries are cured by contraries Whereupon Hippocrates Sect. 2. Aphor. 22. saith Whatever diseases are bred by Repletion are cured by Evacuation and those that are bred through Evacuation by Repletion But diseases by Evacuation happen seldom and scarcely otherwise than upon dearths sieges sea-voyages and the like chances In which cases the adust humor which the heat through want of food hath bred and kindled is first to be removed and after that the body by little and little is to be nourished and strengthened the measure of food being increased by degrees The self-same course is likewise to be held for the repair of Nature when upon great sicknesses the Evacuations have been many whereby the strength hath been much impaired Since therefore almost all diseases proceed from this ground to wit That more food is taken into the body than Nature requires it will follow That he who follows the just measure shall be free from almost all diseases Which thing is also intimated in that famous saying of Hippocrates l. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sect 4. The Rule of health is to eat without fulness and to be diligent in labor Whereby he makes the true course of preserving health to consist in spareness of food and exercise of the body 31. The self-same is confirmed by that which Physicians affirm That Crudities are the Nursery of all those diseases wherewith men are ordinarily vexed Whereupon Galen in his first Book concerning meats of good and evil juice or nourishment saith No man shall be oppressed by sickness who keeps himself warily from falling into Crudities And in respect of these Crudities the common saying is That more are killed by surfets than by the sword And the holy Scripture saith Ecclus. 37. Many have perished by surfets but he that is temperate should prolong his life And a little before Be not greedy upon every dainty and pour not thy self out upon every meat for in many meats there will be sickness Now a sober course of Diet doth prevent these Crudities and thereby cuts away the ground of diseases That which we call Crudities is the imperfect concoction of Food For when the stomach either through the over-great quantity of meats or for their refractory quality or for the variety of them taken at the same time

can bring little grief or hurt to those that are temperate This I found by experience when I was Seventy years old for riding in a Coach in great haste it happened that the Coach was overturned and then was dragged for a good space by the fury of the horses whereby my head and whole body was sore hurt and also one of my arms and legs put out of joynt Being carried home when the Physicians saw in what case I was they concluded that I would die within Three days Nevertheless at a venture Two Remedies might be used letting of blood and purging that the store of humors and inflamation and fever which was certainly expected might be hindred But I considering what an orderly life I had led for many years together which must needs so temper the humors of the body that they could not be much troubled or make a great concourse refused both remedies and only commanded that my arm and leg should be set and my whole body anointed with oyl and so without other remedy or inconvenience I recovered which seemed as a miracle to the Physicians Whence I conclude That they that live a temperate life can receive little hurt from other inconveniences But my experience taught me another thing also to wit That an orderly and regular life can hardly be altered without exceeding great danger About Four years since I was led by the advice of Physicians and the daily importunity of my friends to add something to my usual stint and measure Divers reasons they brought as that old age could not be sustained with so little meat and drink which yet needs not only to be sustained but also to gather strength which could not be but by meat and drink On the other side I argued that Nature was contented with a little and that I had for many years continued in good health with that little measure that Custom was turned into Nature and therefore it was agreeable to reason that my years increasing and strength decreasing my stint of meat and drink should be diminished rather than increased that the patient might be proportionable to the agent and especially since the power of my stomach every day decreased To this agreed two Italian Proverbs the one whereof was He that will eat much let him eat little because by eating little he prolongs his life The other Proverb was The meat which remaineth profits more than that which is eaten By which is intimated that the hurt of too much meat is greater than the commodity of meat taken in a moderate proportion But all these things could not defend me against their importunities Therefore to avoid obstinacy and gratifie my friends at lengh I yielded and permitted the quantity of meat to be increased yet but Two ounces only For whereas before the measure of my whole days meat viz. of my bread and eggs and flesh and broth was 12 ounces exactly weighed I increased it to the quantity of 2 ounces more and the measure of my drink which before was 14 ounces I made now 16. This addition after ten days wrought so much upon me that of a chearful and merry man I became melancholy and cholerick so that all things were troublesome to me neither did I know well what I did or said On the Twelfth day a pain of the side took me which held me Two and twenty hours Upon the neck of it came a terrible fever which continued Thirty five days and nights although after the Fifteenth day it grew less and less Besides all this I could not sleep no not a quarter of an hour whereupon all gave me for dead Nevertheless I by the grace of God cured my self only with returning to my former course of Diet although I was now Seventy eight years old and my body spent with extream leanness and the season of the year was winter and most cold air And I am confident that under God nothing holp me but that exact rule which I had so long continued In all which time I felt no grief save now then a little indisposition for a day or Two For the Temperance of so many years spent all ill humors and suffered not any new of that kind to arise neither the good humors to be corrupted or contract any ill quality as usually happens in old mens bodies which live without rule For there is no malignity of old age in the humors of my body which commonly kills men And that new one which I contracted by breaking my diet although it was a sore evil yet had no power to kill me By this it may clearly be perceived how great is the power of order and disorder whereof the one kept me well for many years the other though it was but a little excess in a few days had so soon overthrown me If the world consist of order if our corporal life depend on the harmony of humors and elements it is no wonder that order should preserve and disorder destroy Order makes arts easie and armies victorious and retains and confirms kingdoms cities and families in peace Whence I conclude that an orderly life is the most sure way and ground of health and long days and the true and only medicine of many diseases Neither can any man deny this who will narrowly consider it Hence it comes that a Physician when he cometh to visit his Patient prescribes this Physick first That he use a moderate diet and when he hath cured him commends this also to him if he will live in health Neither is it to be doubted but that he shall ever after live free from diseases if he will keep such a course of life because this will cut off all causes of diseases so that he shall need neither Physick nor Physician yea if he will give his mind to those things which he should he will prove himself a Physician and that a very compleat one For indeed no man can be a perfect Physician to another but to himself only The reason whereof is this Every one by long experience may know the qualities of his own nature and what hidden properties it hath what meat and drink agrees best with it which things in others cannot be known without such observation as is not easily to be made upon others especially since there is a greater diversity of tempers than of faces Who would believe that old wine should hurt my stomach and new should help it or that cinnamon should heat me more than pepper What Physician could have discovered these hidden qualities to me if I had not found them out by long experience Wherefore one to another cannot be a perfect Physician Whereupon I conclude since none can have a better Physician than himself nor better Physick than a Temperate Life Temperance by all means is to be imbraced Nevertheless I deny not but that Physicians are necessary and greatly to be esteemed for the knowing and curing of diseases into which they often fall who live

well prove 2. 2. q. 141. art 6. and is indeed of it self without proof manifest These allowances then both for quantity and variety are not set out by Founders and Superiors as just measures for every man but with the largest for all in general to the intent that the strongest and they who need most might have enough and the rest might take of that which best liked them yet always keeping within those limits which reason prescribes and in those things which they forbore might have opportunity to exercise their vertue For it is no great glory to shew temperance in the absence of temptations but to keep hunger on foot at a banquet and to restrain the greediness of the belly in the midst of provoking dainties why this is a mastery indeed especially to Novices and such as have not gotten the victory over their appetites It is a great mastery I say and therefore undoubtedly of no small price with God To the intent therefore that the exercise of this vertue and the benefit of the reward that by Gods mercy belongs to it might not be wanting to them that seek and endeavor the increasing of their reward hereafter the Founders and Institutors of religious Societies have perhaps allotted a larger measure and more variety of food than is necessary or they would have every one to make use of Touching this matter we have a very pertinent example in the life of Pachomius faithfully written 1200. years ago as it is extant in Surius 14. Maii. Where it is mentioned that this Pachomius in his Monasteries and especially in those that younger persons lived in would have beside bread and salt some sod or rost meat set before all the Monks to the intent that albeit the most of them were so abstemious that they contented themselves only with bread and salt or some green fruit yet they might have it in their free choice and liberty either to eat thereof or to forbear And so if either for mortification sake or the better fitting of themselves for devotion they should abstain they might exercise a greater vertue since it is a more difficult thing to abstain when meat is set before us and by its presence doth provoke the appetite than when it is removed out of our sight More to this purpose may be read in Jacob. de Paz. Tom. 2. l. 2. de Mortif ext hom cap. 5. Nor will it any thing at all abate from the probability of this opinion to say that in this allowance of variety and abundance there was a direct intention of giving some kind of refreshment to Nature Inasmuch as the refreshment which the Institutors and Founders of these Societies meant consisteth not in this that the true and right measure of temperance should at any time be notably exceeded but that there might be now and then an opportunity of delight ministred through the different and grateful savor of sundry kinds of meats yet so always as this delight should be kept bounded within the limits of temperance and the appetite never fully satisfied For whatsoever exceeds this measure is to be accounted vice be it upon what occasion it will whether of Marriage Dedication of Churches or any other solemn Feasts whatsoever Now that is alwaies excess which proves more in quantity than the stomach can perfectly digest without leaving any crudities at all behind CHAP. III. Seven Rules for the finding out of the right Measure 9. NOw to find out this right Measure we shall make use of these Rules and observations following The first Rule is If thou dost usually take so much food at meals as thou art thereby made unfit for the duties and offices belonging to the Mind such as are Prayer Meditation Studies of learning and the like it is then evident that thou dost exceed the measure which thou oughtest to hold For both Nature and Reason exact that the Vegetative part in a man that is that wherein the growth and conservation of the body consisteth should be so ordered and cherished as that there should arise no offence or damage thereby to the Animal and Reasonable parts of the soul in as much as the Vegetative part is ordained to the service of these other and therefore ought to be of furtherance and help and no ways of hinderance unto them in their several functions and operations Whenever therefore there is so much food taken in upon account of the Vegetative part as proves of any remarkable offence or hinderance to the operations of the superior faculties to wit of the Senses the Imagination the Understanding or the Memory then it is a sign that the fitting measure in this kind is exceeded Now this impediment and offence proceeds from the abundance of vapors that are chiefly sent up into the head out of the stomach which as experience demonstrates would be but sparingly sent up if this measure were not exceeded For they who follow a sober course of life are as apt and ready to all services and imployments of the mind after their meals as before as our Author whom we have annexed to this present Treatise doth oft times testifie and my self and divers others of our Society do daily make proof of Nay those holy Fathers of old who eat only once a day did it so sparingly as they were no whit at all thereby hindered in their performances of the functions belonging to the mind How much more easily than may it be effected by them who divide the quantity and twice a day use moderate refection 10. I said before that those vapors and fumes which cloud and overshadow the clearness of the Brain are chiefly caused by the meat taken down into the stomach Chiefly I say in regard that however this be the principal yet it is not the only cause For these vapors proceed not only from the meat immediately before taken which begins to boil and concoct but also from the abundance of blood and other humors which are in the Liver the Spleen and the Veins which together with the meat fall on seething as it were and send up great abundance of these kind of sooty fumes But a Sober diet doth by little and little diminish this abundance of humors and abates this ill moisture and reduceth them to their due proportions both in quantity and quality so that they do not more upon eating send up these kind of fumes For when Nature doth perfectly govern all the humors of the body by the ministery of the vegetative faculties she doth so order and dispense all things as neither any diseases arise in the body nor any impediment follows to the superior offices and duties of the soul Nor matters it at all that many men addicted to sobriety are accustomed to sleep a while after dinner inasmuch as they do it to the intent that their vigor and the spirits which have been spent and wasted by any labor either of mind or body might be refreshed and restored by