to give of them to mine after having gather'd them very ripe in a clear day the Choler which is often the cause of all Fevers looses its edg by the cumbrance which it receives from the substance of Plums and because these Fruits oppose the heat and drought of these Diseases they are esteem'd excellent for encountring Bilous Fevers provided that the use be regular and that we take a seasonable time to give them ART IV. Of Mulberries OF all the Fruits that are eaten there are none but Mulberries which are fit for Men when unripe these ought only to be Red drawing toward the Black to be eaten If they are throughly ripe they corrupt so hastily in the Stomach that shortly after they cause in those who eat freely of them Distempers of the Stomach Loosnesses Carbuncles Malignant Swellings and often pernicious and Epidemick Diseases especially if Rains have been rise during the Summer There is nothing which changes it self sooner into Choler and which becomes sooner poyson within our Body than a Black Mulberry Those who have the Stomach foul ought to take good heed of eating them unless they have a mind to be sick in a short time The Red-blacks withstand Corruption more and tho' they are very moist they have nevertheless I know not what of drought through their sharpness and astriction which hinders them from corrupting so soon To use them well we ought nevertheless to mind the praecautions belonging to them and never to eat of them but when the Stomach is empty clean and hot for if a heat be not felt in the Bowels how young and Cholerick soever a Person be I do not advise him to eat of them unless he has a mind to fall into some one of the Diseases which we have spoken of before Mulberries carry their Liquor with them and nothing ought to be Drank after they are eaten they excite the appetite cool the Stomach appease drought allay the heat of the Liver Purge the Blood of its superfluous serosities carrying them off by Urine They blunt the edg of the Choler moisten those that are troubled with Melancholy and Choler finally they make the Belly soluble in those who are naturally Costive I will say much more if Mulberries gather'd from the Tree and eaten in a good plenty can cause the Bloody-flux as we see it every year nature which most commonly has plac't the remedy in the cause of our evils has not forgotten to teach us by experience that these Fruits serve for an assured remedy against the inveterate Bloody-flux if they are given dry to the weight of a Crown in Gold in Red-Wine Since the chief Vertue of Mulberryes is to cool and to keep the Mass of Blood from fermenting by qualifying the parts which serve for sanguification there may be cause to believe that they may be a Remedy appropriated to the Gout as well as all other Fruits For the pain which Gouty Persons feel in the ligaments of their Joints is caus'd but by a Blood and a serosity too sharp which sharpness is blunted by the great humidity of Mulberries they insensibly evacuating it by Urine We need not seek for other proofs than daily experience and that which Hegesander has left us in Writing He relates that the Mulberry-trees did not bear Fruit for Twenty years together and that during all that time Men Women and Children were so troubled with the Gout that other causes could not be then discover'd than the scarcity of these Fruit. ART V. Of sharp Cherries SHarp Fruits in general are enemies to Old and Melancholick Persons when they do not find within themselves an excessive heat they are not edulcorated in their Stomach if I may so call it and are distributed into their Veins without being Concocted and blunted Which is not done without causing in the Mouth little sharp belchings and in the Stomach troublesome prickings and in the whole Body an insupportable heavyness It does not happen so to young People that are Sanguine and Cholerick who have the Entrals heated but if casually the sharpness of Cherries with short Stems eaten fasting causes sometimes in these prickings in the Stomach they need then but to mix Powder Sugar with them to blunt the point of it The most refined Sugar and the whitest which we call Royal is the least proper for the use of Man it heats and drys us too much and through the abundance of its Sulphur and Salt it is entirely opposite to the principles of our Life The finer Sugar is the less sweet it is and the less also it quenches thirst Lime which is a capital Enemy of Man if it be taken inwardly or outwardly apply'd is the chief matter which Refiners make use of for rendring Sugar whiter and more solid and tho' Powder Sugar be made by many repeated Lixivium's nevertheless it ought always to be preferr'd before Loaf Sugar and if we will choose the best of all we must always take that which is the whitest among the browns It is that which is extremely sweet which quenches thirst which moistens and which lenifies the Breast I thought it proper to make this digression for Persons who lovesweet things because Sugar is often set at our Tables for rendring our Fruits more agreeable to the taste Sharp Cherryes exhilerate the Stomach they excite there the Appetite and appease the drought They dissipate the thick humours and by their sharp quality they cut them as I may say and divide them either that they may serve afterward for Food or be evacuated with more ease By all these Vertues they are very proper as well as Mulberries to oppose the cause and the progress of the Gout and experience shews us that Gouty Persons receive a sensible relief by the use of Fruits which qualify the Liver and which correct the Acrimony of the Blood Moreover they powerfully loosen the Belly if they are freely eaten fasting while the Dew is yet on the Fruit and experience teaches us every year that they carry off by a Loosness long Diseases which all the other Remedies of Physick have not been able to Cure The most proper time to eat them is in the Morning fasting either with or without Bread They have moisture enough to oblige us not to drink any Liquor after them As for the lateward Cherries which we call at Rochelle des Guignes with long Stems tho' they may be eaten before Meals nevertheless I allow them to be eaten after Meals they have an agreeable Astriction which contributes to Concoction and which closes the superiour Orifice of the Stomach that it performs its Office afterward much better The sweet Cherries especially those which we call in this Town Guindoux and Guigneaux are much better than the sharp for old Persons and for those who have a nice Stomach they do not prick so much the inward parts and they nourish more Haply there is not any Remedy more agreeable and more excellent for qualifying the Reins and for
they engender and a viscours humidity which they cause are two things which dispose us to be fond of a Woman as we have prov'd at larg in a Dissertation we caus'd to be Printed the last year which has for Title Whether those who Drink Water alone are more amocous than others The Lice which they say Figgs breed in those who use them in excess proceed but from the filth of the Skin and from our excrements which they evacuate by the pores and the evils they cause in us by the Winds they engender proceed but from the ill use we make of them if we eat them with Nuts or Almonds we shall correct all the disorders they can bring us and I can assure you that being so eaten they will be without fault and will do us no hurt still provided that we use them with moderation ART II. Of Nectarins and Peaches I Cannot bear the contempt some Persons have for Nectarins Alberges Brugnons Melicotonys Perses and Peaches nor be satisfied with the reason they bring for blaming them They say among other things that these Fruits are corrupted so easily in the Stomach that it is almost impossible to secure them from it that they produce ill Blood that they cause Fevers that they injure the inward parts that the Persians from whose Country they were brought dare not eat of them by reason of their Malignity and finally that Galen the most knowing of the Greek Physitians always condemn'd them But if it were free for me to explain my self at large thereon and to break off the design which I propos'd to my self I would shew that the ill use which is made of the most excellent things is often the cause that they are despis'd and blam'd Peaches not to speak of the other kinds are a Fruit so excellent and so delicious to the taste that I could freely prefer them before Figgs and Raisins which according to the sentiment of some ought to hold the first rank among Fruits Very far from causing all the evils whereof they are accus'd they cool the Stomach when heated quench the heat of the Liver allay the burning of the Blood during the extremity of the Summer heats and moisten the matter which is then very thick through the drought of the Season If we observe well their praecautions they do not corrupt in the Stomach provided that they are eaten before Meals and that after having eaten them we drink only Water if we find a burning in the Bowels or excellent Wine if we find our selves to have a very moderate heat It is then that they will engender a better Blood than the Herbs we use every day I own that in Persia these sorts of Fruits have Malignant and purgative qualities but since the Trees were transported into Aegypt and have been re-planted in Italy and since cultivated in France they have lost all the Malignity which they had and have retain'd but the purgative Vertue which they have still and which they Communicate to their Fruit. It s this purgative Vertue which causes them to be so much esteem'd of by the Healthy and Valetudinarians who had much rather eat fasting four or five excellent Peaches and drink after them Water or Wine to loosen the Belly than to take a dose of Physick the very name of which raises a horrour in those that take it the most couragiously It s this same property which resides in the Leaves the Flowers and the Fruit of the Peach-tree which kills the Worms in the Bowels which Purges Choler and the Serosities of the Body and stops ev'n Vomitings at Sea as we see written in the Works of Julius of Alexandria If Galen had Liv'd in our days and had tasted Peaches which the Art and Industry of our Gardiners have rendred so recommendable I am certain he would have had quite another opinion of these sorts of Fruit the Peaches which were carryed to Rome in the Time of this Physitian coming by Sea from Sicily or from about Naples were partly rotted before they came thither which made Galen at that time to despise them and to condemn them ev'n as a Food very pernicious for Man Some Persons will correct the ill quality and the great humidity of the Peach by eating it with Bread by exposing it two or three days to the scorching heat of the Sun by eating its Kernel or finally by drinking pure Wine with it True it is experience has taught me that Bread eaten with Fruits which we ought to use before Meals corrects their ill qualities and that by exposing Peaches to the Sun they lose a superfluous humidity which often incommodes us But the same experience has also given me to understand that Peach and Apricock Kernels much charge the Stomach and that besides their great bitterness they are also very difficult to digest that moreover tho' pure Wine be the sole thing which opposes it self to the coldness and humidity of this Fruit nevertheless if we drink much of such as is small or of a mean strength we fall into Vomitings and Loosnesses which sometimes degenerate into a Bloody-Flux Whereas a little of excellent pure Wine corrects by its noble heat the ill qualities of the Peach It s haply this experiment which gave occasion for this Latine Verse Petre quid est Pescha Cum vino nobilis Esca ART III. Of Plums and Apricocks THere are some who prefer the Plum before all other Fruits with Stones and say that there is nothing more delicious to eat than a Black Damson a Great Date or a Perdrigon The Apricock does not come near them it has I know not what of unsavory when it is ripe and of sharpish when it is not so mean while both have very near the same qualities they are both hot in the mean and moist in the second Degree The sweet Plum rejoyces a hot Stomach lenines the Breast Loosen's the Belly and nourishes much more than the Peach provided however that it be eaten before Meals otherwise it corrupts and by moistning too much the superiour Orifice of the Stomach after Meals it makes the Food descend too soon and so causes Crudities which it is difficult afterward to deal with I shall not repeat here the different Maxims which I have laid down in the precedent Discourses concerning the Use of Fruits which ought to be eaten fasting and before Meals I shall only say that its good to cast Plums into fresh Water before they are eaten to the end they may cool and moisten more but provided that they are very ripe and that all have their Stems lest the Water enter there and render them Insipid It s doubtless in order to be more cooled and more moistn'd and to keep the Belly more soluble that some Men eat often Prunes with their Meat and that there are ev'n some who dislike their Pottage if it has not of them If dry'd Plums may be given to sick Persons I do not doubt also but I may be permitted
Arabians had none but Apples that were wild acerb and very unpleasant to the taste that the weakness of the Joints the Worms of the Bowels and the Vertigo's are caus'd but by the excesses which are committed with them or by the ill praecautions that are taken in their use On the contrary Apples which are sweet and Luscious Odoriferous and firm exhilerate the Heart and allay the excess of its heat they correct the Gall of the Liver they dilute the Blood which is too thick and gross in a word they cool and moisten the heated Viscera Moreover whatsoever is said they oppose the drying of the Body and the Ptisick and we see but very few of these sorts of evils where Cyder is common For this drink is friendly to the Stomach which it heats in a moderate way it revives the Heart and opens the Obstructions of the Entrals In a word it is of wonderfull use to Melancholick and atrabilarious Persons that which issues the first from Apples squees'd in a Press is not so excellent as the second and the third resembles the Demy-wine of our Peasants If we mix among Apples a little Powder Sugar they make us spit and cool our Breast But they must be us'd with precaution that is to say that they must be eaten after Meals because they are heavy and difficult to digest that they ought to be forbidden Old People unless they find themselves heated or that they are prepar'd as Pears with Powder Sugar Cinnamon and Water and that finally we ought to drink a little of good Pure Wine after having eaten them In the Distempers which are accompanyed with a considerable heat and drought they give a great relief if we eat a little of them Crud or Boyl'd or that we put of them in Water and I wonder that in France we give our selves so much trouble in seeking Oranges and Citrons for our Diseases when we have a short-start Apple or a Spanish Rennet Haply things which cost much and are often difficult to be had are much better than the common and that they much more satisfy the mind of the Diseased for it is this part which we ought often to Cure in those who find themselves ill Finally Apples do not profit us only by taking them at the Mouth they are a sovereign Remedy for Heart-burnings and for the heats of the Stomach if they are outwardly applied for if a Cataplasm be made of Boyl'd Apples and apply'd hot on the Region of the Heart or on the pit of the Stomach haply we may not find an Epithem more Sovereign in those Cases Also experience has shewn us that the pulp of a boyl'd Apple put hot on Blood-shed and inflam'd Eyes is almost the only Remedy for this evil ART III. Of Grafted Quinces IT s a pleasant Medicine to Purge ones self by eating after Meals Portugal Quinces The Fruit which I so call are the Quinces whose Grafts were brought from that Kingdom and which are almost as pleasant to eat and to behold as a Bon-Cretien Pear at least they have an odour more sweet and Luscious they are yellow as Gold and yield in nothing to those Pears in greatness Figure and Beauty Quinces are cold and dry they restringe also manifestly the parts of the Body where they are apply'd and 't is by this astringent quality that constringing the Stomach in the upper part and afterward the Intestines after that they are eaten they squeese and force out all they meet within their cavity be it Excrement Choler or Phlegm Its what happened to an Advocate of Pergamus of whom Galen speaks who was pleasantly Purg'd after having eaten Quinces after a Meal and having walkt a little upon it so that after all the experiments that we have had of them we ought no longer to doubt of their Vertues Mean while the stirring of the Belly which they cause does not happen but to Persons who have the Stomach weak and nice and who have need by reason of this to fortifie it for these Fruits do not work the same effects in a young robust Man and on the other side if they are eaten before Meals being very far from moving the Belly they make it tardy and it is so that those do who have it ordinarily too moist Quinces have also other excellent Vertues if they are eaten Crud Boyl'd or preserv'd with Sugar they give an appetite they stop a Loosness appease Vomiting withstand an old Dysentery and a Bloody-Flux and if wescrape off them Crud and put the pulp of them hot on the Region of the Heart in the form of an Epitheme when a Malignant Fever attacks us they contribute not a little toward the subduing it Their penertrating and sweet odour revives the Heart and the Brain and it has not been heard said hitherto that Quinces corrupt in the Stomach I very much approve the method which some have of making Wine and Water of Quinces These two Drinks have near the same Vertues unless it be that the Water is most proper for those who find themselves much heated and the Wine more meet for those who do not find any praedominant quality and who are old or Phlegmatick The Water of Quinces which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is made after this manner We take in the Month of October fifty or sixty pints of Fountain-Water of Paris Measure which comes near to our Quart we put into it ten or twelve Pounds of Portugal Quinces pared cleans'd and cut in slices they steep there till the Water has a yellow colour like that of Spanish Wine after which we strain this Water and then let it seeth ore a gentle Fire till the fourth part be consum'd scumming it often and after having put it in a Vessel well fill'd and well stopt we preserve it for the Month of March following The Wine is made after this manner we take at Vintage time Ten or Twelve Pounds of Portugal Quinces prepar'd after the same manner as I have said we throw them into fifty or sixty pints of good Claret Must and after that they have wrought for thirty days we strain the Liquor we put it into another Vessel which we stop up close and we preserve it for use These two Drinks produce good effects in Persons who use of them they fortify the inward parts oppose a Loosness and a Dysentery cleanse the Reins of their filth hinder the Vapour of Wine from offending the Head and secure us from Pestilential Vapours Finally they cause so many good effects that I must pass the bounds of an abstract if I would name them all ART IV. Of Medlars and Services THese Fruits are seldom at our Tables and they are eaten most commonly but in a fancy they are not very agreeable and there is but little pleasure taken in eating them Mean while they are not without their use and contribute something to our Health They are both so near ally'd in qualities that a Person will not deceive