and no externall thing happen which may change the urine perhaps the womans urine may be in some respect discerned from the mans but otherwhiles not at all when oftentimes it is unknown from whence the urine is brought to the Physician And so it is to be understood which some Physicians write concerning the difference betwixt a mans water and a womans for because men are said to be hotter and are given to exercises they make thinner urine and higher coloured with fewer contents but women because colder make whiter urine with a larger sediment A whitish colour saith Fernel is a signe not onely of cruditie but of the Sex likewise But even the hottest man may make such urine by reason of the causes that change urine Therefore in this there is no certainty and it is too much rashnesse to pronounce any such thing by urine Concerning women with childe A woman cannot be known to be with child by urine it is a greater doubt and it is ordinary with women for this cause alone to send their waters to a Physician Avicenne teaches to know it by a sediment like unto carded cotten and by some other markes But seeing experience shewes the contrary he is deservedly to be rejected It is not necessary for every urine of a woman to have a sediment but that only which is well concocted First Hippocrates who hath exactly searched out all the signes of conception never made mention of urines Secondly the urine is not changed by the graviditie it selfe but onely by the suppression of the flowers which as cannot be denied may alter the urine by the reflux of blood and excrements into the veines But that same change of urine may appeare as well in Maids by the stopping of their flowers yea in all diseases that arise from the like suppression as also in the obstructions of other internall parts Thus urine will manifest here no proper or peculiar thing Wee see urines sometimes of a low colour as happens frequently in obstructions sometimes very high coloured sometimes like to the healthfull when the woman with childe is in health sometimes thinne sometimes thick such as may likewise be seen in other affects But if the woman bee sick the urine is so changed by the violence of the disease that all the signes of being with childe if there bee any are obliterate Thirdly that the knowledge of graviditie is not so easie Hippocrates himself shewes who after he had reckoned up many probable signes of it as if those were not certaine he betakes himselfe to some Empyricall signes Aphor. 41. lib. 5. If you would know saith he whether a woman hath conceived or no give her some water mixed with honey to drinke when shee goes to sleep if shee feeleth gripings of her belly shee hath conceived if not she hath not And in his booke of the Barren he saith Stampe Honey and Anise well together dissolve it in water give it her let her sleep if she feele gripings about her navell shee is with childe but if not she is not So that hence it may appeare how hard a thing it is to know if a woman be with childe before the stirring of the infant when besides many other signes Hippocrates hath recourse to such Empyricall signes How foolish then are they that professe themselves to be able so easily to divine that by urines Avenzoar a Physician of principall note among the Arabians reports that he was deceived in his own wife although hee had seen her urine and had other signs whereby he could know a woman to be with childe if the knowledg thereof were so easie Saxonia relates that he was judged by Physicians to be a * mole Or false conception and that his mother did take many medicines to destroy the conception which yet did not prevail And to this opinion do all the modern Physicians assent who have written of the diseases of women Hither is to be added a certain fable A merry story which hath been related to me as a story by men of good note and this is it A certain maid did carry her Mistresses urine to a Physician and having by chance spilled it not knowing now what to doe she catched the urine of a Cow which at that time by good hap staled and carryed it to the Physician he gave answer that the patient did eat too many sallets Indeed the Physician was worthy to be commended for his skill who could divine that I say this is a fable because I have heard the same in divers places of sundry Physicians as also because it is alwayes ascribed to some Physician that is dead the like to whom is no man living And its true indeed no man this day is living or ever was that could certainly know a beasts urine from a mans If the urine be like to that of beasts that are accustomed to the yoke Aphor. 70. lâ—b 4. paine of the head is either present or will ensue saith Hippocrates noting that a man may make urine like in colour and consistence to that of beasts Therefore hitherto it hath been doubted in what respects a mans urine might be discerned from other liquors I know there are some rules and marks prescribed by Avicenne and others whereby they may be discerned from each other but they are all false and uncertain And nothing is more easie then to deceive a Physician though wary by shewing him him other liquours and urines But if a man may make urine like to that of beasts how can a Physician not knowing from whence it comes discerne one from the other CHAP. III. The Solution of the arguments that seeme to favour looking into Vrines SOme that too much approve Ouroscopie or looking into Urines do use the authority and arguments of Hercules Saxonia a very learned Physician heretofore among the Italians who desired to patronize a little Ouroscopie For he would have not only the causes of diseases but also their Idea's magnitude and states to be known by urine not in generall only but also in particular whose opinion we will briefly lay down First saith he urines shew diseases in distemperature without matter and with matter A hot distemper without matter is either universall or of a determinate part and this is sometimes without a fever sometimes with a fever An hot universall distemper doe these urines shew to wit reddish saffron colour greene black fatty atomous branny or scaly sediments and sharp urines Neverthelesse these doe not shew a distemper without matter but with matter for urine hath not these colours but by the mixture of humours hence in a diary fever Galen writes that the urine is made somewhat reddish through the mixture of choler Moreover 1. ad Glauc cap. 2. 3. method cap. 2. 10. de crisib cap 12. these doe only betoken a hot distemper in generall not any particular sort of it for a hot distemper may be Synochus a burning fever or a tertian it
may also be a phlegman or erysipelas of some part The same Galen doth aver that a hot distemperature of the parts may be discerned by the very same urines what therefore can the Diviner say if urines doe only shew a disease in generall and not in particular how will he know by the urine rather the heat of the reines then of the liver or of the whole body Secondly he objects that urine is as it were the whey of the humours which are distributed into the substance of the parts so that when the whey is severed it carries with it the excrements of those parts and thereupon it may shew their affects But I answer the alteration of the whey is so diverse that it cannot be discerned what part especially hath altered it Again the excrements of many of the parts are the same and unlesse of the contents the urine be extraordinary as matter dregs or the substance of some parts the whey will shew nothing in particular or yet when these are apparent except there be other signes can we scarce know whence they come unlesse out of the bladder it selfe as bran doth argue an affected bladder Thirdly he teaches in my judgment a very vaine thing to wit how the whey of the liver may be differenced from that of the veins as if the liver had any whey proper to it self or as if the whey of the veines be not first digested in the liver Now this he teaches to know by the quantity and substance because the whey of the veins is more in quantity and thicker in substance then the whey of the liver which is false for the quantity of the whey is from the moyst matter which is taken in which first passes to the liver before it come to the veines but if the urine be more in quantity then the drink that was drunk it is necessary that some other thing must be mixed therewith Fourthly he sayes that Galen would have the urine looked into in a plurisie and the diseases of the lungs But we said before that in such diseases Vrine notes the event of the disease and not the disease it selfe urines serve not for discerning of the diseases but for the fore-knowledg of the event The same may be said of a cold distemper which in generall we grant may be discerned by urine but never in particular for in Diabetes in the beginnings of fits in an ill habit of the body dropsie lethargie and other diseases although urines may be crude yet they doe not shew the affects of these parts more then others Therefore he is mistaken when he sayes that a cold womb may be discerned by urine because in respect of its vicinity the distemperature of it is imparted to the urine Notwithstanding why shall a crude urine rather shew the wombe than the liver Againe if the urine distill into the bladder high coloured by some hot cause the wombe although cold shall not bereave it of the colour which it hath from the mixture of the choler and although the wombe being somewhat hot may give some colour to the Urine yet being cold it cannot take away the colour which it hath contracted some other way Fifthly he saith that the humours may flow from all the parts in the bladder and therefore the Urine will shew the severall diseases of them I answer First the secondary humours doe not return unlesse there be a melting of the whole body Secondly the humours once departed out of the vessels doe seldome returne againe into the vessels but are purged out through the habit of the body Object But saith he there is the same matter of sweat and urine and the matter of sweat is without the veines Therefore when through want of sweating the urine is increased the whey returnes into the veines Sol. I answer it is false for the matter of sweat is onely without the veins when we doe actually sweat but not when we are about to sweat But no man sweats of his own accord unlesse he be not well Againe although the humours doe returne into the veines yet they will not shew the peculiar affects of the parts as if a matterie urine flow out it will indeed manifest that matter is purged out but whether it flowes from the breast or from some other part not the urine but other signes of the affected part will shew Lastly he uses the authoritie of Aviâ—enne who writes that urines which have in them a thick and clammy water are signes of the paine of the joynts which notwithstanding is false for a thick humour may proceede from some other cause but enough of this CHAP. IV A * Breaking of urine troubled urine in diseases is not alwaies a good signe NOthing is more ordinary then to heare the people hoping well of the sicke when they see the urine which is pissed out bright and cleare It is oftentimes an il signe afterward to be troubled which notwithstanding is not alwaies true but rather on the contrary it may be an ill signe where it is to be noted that urines are either pissed cleare and continue so or they are pissed cleare and are afterwards troubled or they are pissed troubled and remaine so or else afterwards become cleare either being set to the fire or by laying downe some thick substance which settles in the bottome of the causes of which urines much may be said which appertaine not to this place The best urine is that which is meane in colour and consistence Best urine what recedes from this is evill Therefore if it be thinner then right it betokens crudity But that which is pissed cleare A troubled urine betokens a disease coming on in those that are well and is afterwards troubled in them that are in health notes some danger of a disease because it indicates a crude humour which nature sets upon to concoct it therefore it is pissed cleare but the heat and spirit being lost it is troubled for heat makes all things equall In the sick it shewes an increase of the disease But in the sicke it betokens an increase of the disease especially if the substance quantitie colour and other signes be naught now if in them that be in health such urine notes feare of a disease how shall it shew concoction in the sicke When any healthfull man falls into a disease his urine doth not necessarily become thinner then right and then againe thicker and troubled but it is rather troubled from the begining and shewes a future disease Therefore a troubled urine is never good for from a thinne urine to a meane which is according to nature the passage is not made by a troubled for the thinne comes neerer to a meane then to a thick urine If therefore a yellow and thinne urine become yellow and thick and troubled it betokens not concoction but danger because of the increase of corrupt matter as Montamus well observes Therefore they are to be condemned that
that there is no sympathy betwixt the stomach and the hands because there is a threefold reason of sympathie A threefold reason of sympathy First of vicinitie the second of familiaritie of function the third by communion of vessels which things we may apply to the Liver and the hands For betwixt them there is no vicinitie or nearnesse in regard of scituation no familiaritie of function if there be any sympathy it must be of the third kinde to wit by communion of vessels but the vessels that issue out of the Liver are not carried to the hands alone but to the whole body In the hands besides the veines there are arteries which convey to them a greater heat from the heart Therefore from the hands ought not to be inferred rather the heat of the Liver then of the heart Besides the heat of the Liver is perpetuall or at least of long continuance but that heat of the hands is fugitive 6. Epid. Sect. 2. text 32. Fen. 13. lib. 3. tract 1. cap. 3. 4. Colliget cap 4. often goes and comes again Againe other Authours attribute it to the Spleen to wit if the Spleen tend upwards but if it incline downwards the lower parts are said to be hot * Avicenne will have long fingers to shew the magnitude and heat of the Liver but * Averrhoes laughs at him And the man whom thou knowest saith that the shortnesse of the fingers betokens a little Liver and herein it appears that he knew not wherein the power of forming did consist and considered not but in the parts themselves but let him goe with the rest Which are the words of Averrhoes who believed not that the signes of the temperature or conformation of the Liver could be drawn from the hands seeing there is no more peculiar sympathy between these parts than others Therefore Galen in Arte parvâ when he explicates the signes of an hot Liver omitted that figne of the heat of the hands as did the rest of the Greeks Aetius Aegineta and others Argenterius in his commentary on the forenamed place of the Art of Physick blames Galen for omitting this sign But more rightly do others defend Galen because that signe is nothing else then the vaine imagination of the vulgar for not onely the hands but the whole body is necessarily made hot neither is that heat of the hands permanent but unstable and uncertain CHAP. XII Of them that complaine of a hot Liver but a cold Stomach IT is a common and ordinary thing for many to complaine of the heat of the Liver and coldnesse of the Stomach because they feele winde and crudities in their Stomach together with some running heats in the body as in the face hands and feet But these are to be admonished of some things First it is certaine that the Stomach because it is a spermaticall part membranous and bloodlesse and white is of a cold temperament The Stomach is naturally of a cold temperament but to thinke that the heat of the Liver can hurt it is an absurditie For Galen writes that it was fenced about by Nature on every side with hot Intrailes that it might more compleatly execute its functions it lies in the middle between the Liver the Spleen the Caule and the gut Colon and is encompassed with them on every side that like a cauldron among a great many fires it may be made hot by them wherefore Riolanus in his Anthropographie doth not thinke it a thing probable that the heat of the Liver should diminish the heate of the Stomach but rather augment it Secondly it ought to be observed that the forenamed symptomes doe often happen in them that be in health that have a hot temper of the bowels but use an ill diet For by too much drinking either of wine and of Ale and Beere abundance of crudities in the belly doe grow and swimmings belchings windinesse and spittings doe arise for it is an ordinary thing Strong drinks breed cold diseases for cold affects to proceed from too much gulleting even of hot drinks which do not happen by a distemper of the part but through the fault of him that takes them In the mean while the Liver drawes unto it the thinner spirits of those drinkes whereby it is enflamed and so distributes too hot blood to the whole body Thence it is that they seem to feele heat in the body and cruditie in the Stomach at the same time And so they falsly accuse the contrary distempers of the parts not blaming their owne intemperance But if they would live soberly and use moderate drinkes they should experience no such matter Thirdly some are troubled with it although they live soberly and such are hypocondriacke persons whose * They are the parts contained in the belly hypocondres are hot and dry and obstructed which evill is very common in this country and it arises most commonly from the aforesaid cause namely a disordered diet But in them the Stomach is not made colder by reason of the vicinitie of the hot hypocondres but because many melancholy and flatulent humours are cast into the stomach which vitiate concoction whereupon they thinke they have a colder stomach than indeed they have Thence it is that Physicians demand how it comes to passe that hypocondriake persons seeing they are oppressed with a hot disease doe neverthelesse abound with winde and cruditie◠The cause whereof although some Physicians referre to the cold Stomach yet it is better as we have said to referre it to the corrupt humours weakning the temper of the Stomach from whence proceed not onely tart crudities which come from cold but also nidorous belchings which doe arise from heate especially if the party cat nidorous meat as fried Egges and the like Hence one sayes well that the symptomes in an hypochondriake passion are many of them cold but the cause is hot CHAP. XIII That the Husband cannot breed his Wives childe AMong very many Errours this seems most worthy to bee laughed at that the husband is thought to bee sick and troubled with the same symptomes wherewith a woman with child is wont yea and many will have this thing to be confirmed by experience I had a patient sick of a Feaver with a very high coloured and troubled urine who would not be perswaded of any other cause of his sicknesse then his wives being with childe I doe not remember that I have read of it at any time nor heard it observed in any place but in England It is certaine that women with childe in the first moneths of their conception are wont to bee troubled with very many and sundry symptomes especially they that are of cacochymick and impure bodies Now they doe usually arise from the retention of their Flowers For seeing Nature is wont to use that Flux not only for the purging out of superfluous blood but of corrupt and vitious humours also such blood being retent and kept in they are likewise retained
custome and inclination of nature to a mans own Country aire and usuall manner of diet which wee acquire by little and little without changing of that proper and inbred temperament which we derive from our parents from whence it comes to passe that some live better in their owne Country aire although unwholsome than in another Avicenne saith that an Indian would be sick if he were in Sclavonia Although that is not always true for it may be that some Englishman may live more healthfully in Spain than in his own native Country CHAP. XV. Of them that referre almost all diseases to a Cold. IT is a thing very frequent and ordinary when any falls into a disease or is not well to blame some externall cold from which he hath not carefully preserved himself And indeed this may oftentimes be the cause of many diseases For the aire is attracted by us continually by inspiration and transpiration and it doth impart its qualities to us whatsoever they bee But it hurts most of all when the pores being opened through heat a cold comes of a sudden for it obstructs and stops them presently from whence by reason of the fuliginous vapors retained fevers doe ordinarily ensue in cacochymick bodies but in others pain wearinesse difficulty of breathing Cold aire being inspired makes the gristles of the lungs become stiffe so that the lungs can scarce bee dilated Hence oftentimes the vessels of the lungs are broken and of other parts also and the bloud runs into some capacity and putrifies corrupts and stirs up naughty symptomes But concerning this thing it will not be amisse to give some notice of a few monitions First that all that blame this cause are not therefore sick by reason of it for there are sundry other externall causes of diseases Therefore commonly they that live in a cold aire reap not any evill thereby but the same parties even in the height of Summer and being well clad with cloaths doe notwithstanding complaine that they get cold to their hurt the same may be said of other externall causes of diseases In one and the same City there are many that breath in the same aire use the same exercises and the same diet yet when they fall into diseases they are troubled with sundry and in every respect different diseases If any man shall say that he is sick through a surfeit of meats or drinks perhaps he had eaten or drunk as largely a hundred times before and without any harm to himself which in like manner may be said of cold aire and immoderate labour when many a time hee hath endured a colder aire and undergone the same labour without receiving the least hurt it is a wonder how now he should bee sick thereby So we often see the last meat or that exercise that one hath last used or the last cold which he hath taken before the disease to be blamed as also the last remedy is thought to have procured health Where it is to be noted that these are called externall causes and that they doe not alwayes and at every time affect the body but then onely when an inward disposition lurks in the body and a morbous preparation which such causes do stir up Secondly they must take notice that those externall causes doe vanish away and continue not but their effects to wit the diseases stirred up by the inward causes do remain in the body and therefore the contemplation of externall causes is not always necessary for the knowledge or curing of diseases but of the internall alone which stirre up and foster the disease For wee see a disease that hath had its beginning from a cold aire neverthelesse not to be cured although the temper of the aire be changed but often to continue hard to be cured From whence also Thirdly it is to be noted that remedies are not to be measured according to the nature of externall causes for they indicate nothing For so hot things should bee alwayes good for them in whom cold hoth been the cause of the beginning of a disease which is not true for many times cooling things doe profit more From a cool aire as we have said many times burning feavers doe arise as also from baths that are too cold whereby the pores of the body are stopped and the fuliginous vapours retained by which the bloud is inflamed If the people doe here as usually they are wont encounter the disease with remedies that are of a heating quality they will be so farre from vanquishing the disease as that they will rather increase it more In this case inward cooling medicines and as Galen often teaches letting of bloud is the principall remedy In the eighth book of Method hee lets bloud in a diary that is generated by the obstruction of the skinne lest there follow putrefaction For though the externall cause bee cold yet the internall to which alone the cure is to applyed is often hot and is made so by reason of the corrupt humours that are kept in POPVLAR ERROVRS The Third Book Of the Errours about the Diet as well of the Sound as of the Sick CHAP. I. Of the goodnesse of Waters HIppocrates Galen Avicenne and other of the principall Physicians doe so commend the drinking of water in diseases that next to the letting of bloud they attribute thereunto the chiefest place in curing burning feavers and it is also the ordinary drink of many Nations Yet now a dayes some doe so much abhorre from the use thereof that they think it almost present poyson Now they think that the waters in England in respect of the coldnesse of the Climate are more crude and not so pure and wholsome as those in France Spain and the hot Countries And indeed every one ought to be solicitous of the goodnesse of the waters The best is discerned by the smell colour taste levity of it in the hypochondres and by the quick and speedy receiving of heat and cold So as that is best which is bright and cleare to the sight tastes and smells of nothing at all as also which is the lightest thinnest and soon passes through the belly Since then such water may bee found every where Good waters even in cold climates even in the most frozen Countries and I have often found such in this Country we may conjecture of their grosse errour that doe generally condemne their owne Country waters Now this is their errour that by the coldnesse of the Country they reckon the goodness or unwholsomenesse of the water hence they think that it is excessively cold and therefore crude and hard of digestion which Hippocrates calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which thing is not to be admitted for the water borrowes not its crudity or goodnesse from the Sun because the heat of the Sun cannot warm the water in the bowels of the Earth for it cannot penetrate so far which scarce pierces through the roofs of our houses unto us This doe the cellars under
offended with the Pestilentiall aire Hence it is that old men are not so soon infected with the plague as young men are because of the coldnesse of their bodies as also Plinie observes But in that this plant is said to be good for poysoned wounds and the bitings of venemous beasts it followes not therefore it must have an antidotary faculty for the Spaniards did first use sublimate for such wounds and wee doe usually prescribe divers things which in their proper nature are not preservatives against poyson but are either such as draw out the venome or that extinguish it as an actuall cautery and such like And it may bee that Tobacco may likewise bee good for that too although it hath no proper or peculiar vertue for to resist poyson CHAP. XXXV Of the unseasonable use of Cordialls BEcause in all diseases speciall care ought to bee had of the strength of the patient it is no wonder if the sick be so desirous to have their strength preserved from whence arises such a frequent use of cordiall remedies Therefore it is that some are often blaming Physicians because they doe so seldome prescribe Cordialls and Antidotes for them especially at night and when they lye down to sleep Notwithstanding the unseasonable use of them doth most commonly more hurt than good as doth Triacle Mithridate and the like For not every thing that is said to be cordiall doth by and by strengthen nature nay it may destroy it and thus the drinking of cold water doth more help one that is in a Fever than Aqua caelestis Imperialis Triacle water or any other strong water whatsoever And it is to be observed that the imbecillitie of the heart and the decay of the strength which depends upon the spirits in the heart may proceed from divers causes now every sort of remedy is not convenient for causes so different But if the cause of the disease bee encreased by some kind of remedy although it may be sayd to be a Cordiall the Cordiall is no better than poyson to the sick as if an hot remedy bee applyed in an hot discase the diseaseis increased and the sick is not a whit strengthned but made weaker Therefore they are too blame who without judgement and skill doe prescribe these cordiall and strengthning medicines Moreover it is observable that it is possible that Triacle Mithridate and other such like which are in most frequent use may doe much hurt For as Galen saith 5. Simpl. they are a meane betwixt the body and poysons so that there is the same proportion betwixt the body and the Antidote that there is betwixt the Antidote and the poyson and therefore hee saith that all those things that are of the nature of Triacle Cordials do hurt if there bee not matter within to work upon and Mithridate being taken in too great a quantity do hurt the body as also unlesse there be some poyson within upon which they may worke I know this comparison of Galen doth not please Averrhoes that subtle Physician and Philosopher 5. colliget cap. 23. who notwithstanding confesses that they do the body no good at all unlesse they bee taken in a stomach that hath in it some poysonous matter for them to worke upon and therefore saith he they are not good for them that be in health but become as poyson to them as likewise do all those things which are commonly called Bezoarticks For by their forcible working unlesse they bee discreetly administred they hurt the body like poyson and therefore Galen forbids Triacle to them that are hot and dry as also to children Although therefore I do not absolutely dislike the using of these sorts of medicines nor judge them to be venemous or pernicious yet hence it follows that they are to be used very warily for they have qualities in them that are many times very hurtfull to the body except they meet with an object in the body for to worke upon And therefore corroborating and cordiall remedies are to differ according to the variety of diseases hence it is that some of them are cold some hot some temperate some corroborating the heart with an occult and unexplicable property some resisting poysons which cannot bee fit for all those different causes from whence a decay of strength may come And therefore those things may very fitly be numbred among Cordials which doe relieve nature by evacuating the causes of diseases and by altering which thing many of our ordinary Cordialls doe not performe and such remedies ought to be called Cordialls by accident onely neverthelesse they are the most certaine of all others Lib. de viribus cord Therefore Avicenne saith very well that in seven respects a medicine may bee said to bee cordiall First because it recreates the spirits as wine Seven kinds of cordiall remedies egges broth and those meats that are easie of digestion and of good nourishment And indeed the strength is much augmented by meat seasonably administred but if it bee unseasonably taken it is much impaired by it as wee have said already Secondly because it doth cleare and purifies the spirtis as Pearles and Silk Thirdly because it compacts the substance of the heart by hindring the resolving of the spirits as doth Garrabe terrae sigillata Bolearmoniack but these are not good for all because they are astringent remedies which in some cases may doe much harm Fourthly because it is delectable to the heart as are sweet things and odiferous as Aqua caelestis Imperialis and Maria. Fifthly because it doth corroborate the heart by manifest qualities as that which is temperate as Borage Buglosse Gold Sixthly because it doth purifie by evacuating the melancholick humour and by purging out whatsoever is hurtfull to the heart as do Myrabalanes Seventhly because it corroborates the heart by an occult qualitie as the Hyacinth But all these severall things cannot be proper for all causes but now adaies when the people desire comforting and cordiall medicines they doe not meane broths or bloodding or purging but Triacle Mithridate Strong waters good Ale burnt Wine and such like which oftentimes may not onely do harm to the sick but to such as are in perfect health too CHAP. XXXVI Of the Errours about the Bezaar Stone BEcause we have been treating in the precedent chapter concerning Cordialls something is to be said of the Bezaar stone which is now adayes had in such familiar use being thought by many to be endued with an admirable vertue of corroborating the heart and a very strong Cordiall to which neglecting all others they fly as to some sacred anchor But they erre in three particulars First in that they attribute too much to that stone Secondly in that they are ignorant of the quality of it Thirdly in that they do not mete out a due quantity of it Concerning the first some derive the name of the stone from the word Paser What the Bezaar stone is which among the East-Jndians
for drinke and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a cuppe Seeing therefore the hornes which are carried about for the Unicornes horne are diverse in colour magnitude and figure it is probable that they come from diverse creatures Therefore whether it be the horn of the Indian Asse which Aelian commends or of the Rhinoceros or of some water creature it is all one so there be experience of the vertue of it Wherefore I would not curiously enquire whether it be an Unicornes horn or some other creatures so it be good and efficacious yea and it is no matter whether the creature hath two hornes or but one Yet it is most certaine as we have said before that Elephants teeth and Whale-bones and Sea-horse teeth and common hornes burnt and those which are digged out of the earth which we have spoken of and other counterfeit and artificiall hornes Elephants and Sea horse teeth commonly sold for Vnicornes hornes are commonly sold for the true Unicornes horne Cardanus saith that Elephants teeth may bee made so pliable by art that they may be made streight like hornes and so set out for the Unicornes horn Neither give eare to them saith Amatus the Portugall who when they goe about to try an Vnicornes horn do infuse the scrapings and powder thereof in water which they say forthwith is troubled and bubbles up for you may perceive the same to happen from the scrapings of any bone infused in water as you may make triall in Ivory So likewise we must take heed that wee doe not give credit to other such experiments which some use to prove the goodnesse of the Unicornes horne for they say that if poyson or some venomous creature be neare unto it it sweats as if it did suffer and were affected with the poyson as also they bid make a circle of the powder of it into the middle of which or into an hollow horn they put a spider which if she passe over they will have it to bee a counterfeit horn but if she burst and die it is naturall all which are false but enough of this CHAP. XXXIX Of certain distilled waters ordained amisse for to drive away feavers BEcause it is such an usuall thing here in England both for men and women to hoard up remedies for divers diseases and to communicate them to one another for secrets we will speak somewhat of certain feaver curing waters which many use especially for agues the which although sometimes they may do good yet many times they are hurtful and pernicious In some Physick-Authors also such waters are found described Quercetanus in his Pharmacopoeâ restitutâ as he calls it names two which he saith are speciall waters for all sorts of feavers especially agues but principally for bastard and exquisite tertians so confidently doe these Chymists make promises of health 1 ad Glauc 3 de simp med Galen himselfe prescribes worm-wood a very hot plant for Tertians and in another place he commends cammomile for the same There are some that will provoke sweat with such hot things And in generall all those waters that I have seen were distilled out of hot simples which adventurously they will use in any intermitting feaver many times to the great hurt of the sick First therefore it is to be noted that intermitting feavers are caused by divers humours both hot and cold unto which one and the same remedy cannot fitly be applyed Secondly seeing that every disease is cured by its contrary it is certain that cholerick humours are inflamed more and increased by the use of these hot remedies and so of an intermitting feaver it may become a continuall Thirdly the cause of an intermitting feaver most commonly lies in the mesentery veines the panereas and other the first passages which dregge it is too dangerous to bring into the habit of the body by such remedies lest the bloud of the veines be polluted especially in cholerick feavers whose cause is for the most part thin and very moveable Fourthly Galen forbids to use vehement and hot remedies in the beginning of a quartane ague which is caused by a cold and dry melancholick humour and he tels a story of Eudemus a Philosopher who in that he did unseasonably use triacle for a quartane ague of a simple it became a double quartane whom neverthelesse Galen cured with the very same remedy seasonably and rightly administred Therfore these hot things are good in those feavers only which are procreated by cold humours or in a bastard Tertian in which there is a great quantity of flegmatick humours mixed with the cholerick Aguish waters not to be used till the humour be concocted or when there are very gross and stubborne obstructions and the bowels very feeble and weakened but not before the concoction of the humour thus Galen for a quartane prescribes a medicine of succus cyrenaicus but not untill the humor is concocted So hee commends wormewood in a Tertian but utterly dislikes it before concoction In like manner and by the same reason these hot waters are to be rejected but after the concoction of the morbous humour in a stubborne disease they may be profitable Therfore these hot things are not to be rashly administred in feavers for one that had adventurously used them in a quartane feaver of a simple made it a double quartane as we said before And there is the same cause of feare likewise lest the same happen by the use of these waters The advise of a learned physician ever requisite Therefore let the advice and counsell of a skilfull learned and faithfull Physician bee alwayes taken who may appoint convenient times for all remedies Nor let the people rashly trust to their Receits as they call them for they are even the hand of God when they are administred by a skilfull Physician but as it were a sword in the hand of a mad man when one meddles with them who doth not well understand the rules of Physick CHAP. XL. That Iuleps and other cooling Potions are to bee administred in a large dose I Have often observed when Physicians prescribe Apozemes Juleps and other cooling potions for them that bee sick of feavers that the by-standers doe usually administer them in a very little dose as but 2 or 3 spoonfuls But here is to be noted that those remedies that are prescribed to prepare the humours are not of the nature of them that contain much strength in a very little quantity but contrary wise seeing they work by the first and second qualities unlesse there be a proportion in quantity betwixt the humour that is to be altered and the Physick it is but in vaine prescribed for if they doe notovercome the humour they are overcome by it and corrupted In a very hot feaver if the aforesaid Juleps be either altogether denied The necessity of cooling and altering juleps in feavers or but sparingly administred the body is dried by the heat of the feaver and decaies so as
curing this or any other disease but only to shew to the people their Errours that they may have alwayes recourse to a Physician if they be sick Although oftentimes greater danger is like to happen by the physician then by the disease and men presently give credit to every one that professes himself to be a Physician I who write these things for my owne part reckon not neither who nor how many they be that practise physick whether learned or unlearned even as it is with them that be sick if they doe but consult with some Physician in name only they care not what he be if he can but stammer out a little Latine and they falsly stile him Doctour of Physick though he be ignorant of the very principles of physick and never read Galen or Hippocrates POPVLAR ERROVRS The Second BOOK Of the Errours about some diseases and the knowledge of them CHAP. I. Of the deceitfull judgment of Vrines NOw is the most common Errour to bee refuted which first gave occasion to this Treatise for hee is scarce thought worthy to be a Physician who cannot by Urines judge of diseases and their circumstances which Errour even Physicians doe too patiently foster It was of old very ordinary with the Arabian sect and it was a common custome also in France in the times of Valescus and Gordonius Plantius in the life of Fernel relates that that most excellent physician was wont to look into urines that were brought from abroad unto him which abuse not withstanding he approves not but reprehends them which like Southsayers doe prophesie many things of the absent sick party Pisse-prophets by only looking upon the urine That there was very great fraud therein the bookes which Gordonius and others have set forth concerning the cautions of urines doe plainly shew wherein a Physician is taught how he may deceive the people as also take heed to himself of their subtilties Yea to this day among the Germanes this custome is in force even whether the Physicians will or no of whom many doe speak sharply against it Heurnius Foresins Sennertus and others but most excellently Fuchsius in the beginning of his chapter of urines he calls Physicians that peep into urines asses cheaters pisse-drinkers unworthy with whom good men should contend seeing they more esteeme of the gain they get by urine then of truth it selfe But now a dayes in France and Italy the Physicians have quite abandoned this foolish custome of divining by urine First urine is the whey of those humours which are in the veines Now the humours are causes of very many diseases and therefore urine will shew what humours are there But diseases are not in the veines they are all in the substance of the parts Vrine shews not diseases but their causes They will not therefore indicate the diseases but the causes of them only But from the same cause there are many diseases The burning fever frenzie jaundice every sort of erysipelas and herpes proceeds from choler If a very cholerick urine be brought can the pisse-prophet tell which of these diseases doth trouble the patient perhaps he will conjecture that choler is predominant Secondly as in diverse diseases Vrine varies every day and sick parties as we have already said the same urine may appeare so in one and the same sick man it is various and changes every day that if to day a sick mans urine bee brought to a physician and againe to morrow unlesse by some other way he know the disease he shall scarce judg it to be the urine of the same disease Yea the water is of one sort in the beginning of the paroxisme of another in the increase and of another in the height Thirdly the same water may appear in contrary diseases The same urine â—n contrâ—ry diseases even though they depend on contrary and altogether different causes As for example let the pisse-prophet resolve me If a white and clear water be brought is he well or sick that made the water A man in health having drunk much wine or beer and ale may make such urine as is dayly seen A sick man may labour of a very violent burning fever with the frensie Diabetes is when whatsoever is drunke is pissed out again even as it was drunk choller being carried up to his head he may be troubled with the Diabetes or the obstruction of the bowels or liver or with the weakness of the stomack or the stone or some other diseases but which of these diseases will he suppose it to be Will he judge the frenzie to be of a cold distemper Moreover a bilious urine may be made in phlegmatick diseases through the obstruction of the passage by which choler is carried to the intestines Fourthly diseases whose cause is not contained in the veines cannot be knowne by the urine for many diseases do not so much as alter the urine Such are externall diseases luxations roughnesse or smoothnesse of the parts yea the quartane ague it self which is an inward disease although it be an effect of the melancholy humour yet it holds forth no signes of it in urine neither in the fit nor out of the fitt Gilbertus an English man in his praxis in the chapter of the quartane ague and Richardus a very learned man as Arculanus reports in his Commentaries upon the first section of the fourth cannon of Avicenne the second tractate chap. 65. did ingenuously professe that by urines they could never know the quartane feaver not the epilepsie nor a woman to be with child O that in our times Physicians were so ingenuous and free These are the words of Arculanus that learned Physician in whose time this custome of divining by waters was very rife I doe not believe saith he that a quartane fever can be knowne by the water alone because of the great agreement of the quartan with the quotidian in urine and especially in the beginning Of which opinion chiefly was Gilbertus an English man in the first booke of his praxis in the chapter of the quartane reproving some ignorant habbling fellowes that professe themselves to know all sicknesses by urine as many Physicians in Lombardie even at this day mockers of men who as they say by urine know all diseases even the putrid feaver who neverthelesse when they are present and consider all the signes yet know but very little For as master Richard the most learned and experienced of all the learned saith looking upon these pratlers and boasters of their judgment in urine that in their much speaking are eloquent but in reason slender and mute in his most excellent treatise of urines whose singular learning to be compared with none in many things he saith he followed he blames them in these words Some prating saith he and arrogant fellowes doe exceede beyond all due bounds and interlace learning with rules invented by their owne authoritie But I call God to witnesse that neither by care nor art
the Earth manifest which in the height of Summer are exceeding cold But if the Sunne bee not the cause of this much lesse can the parts of the world which are hot onely because of the propinquity or remotenesse of the Sunne Therefore others doe more rightly blame the cold or heat of the earth it self for if the heat of the earth be moderate the water is well concocted but if there be burnings in the earth it breaks out either hot or warmed so as all sorts of water may spring forth in any part of the world which is especially to be understood if they be drawn out of the fountaine it selfe before they bee altered by the cold aire To this adde the manner of transcolation for that is the purest What water is the best not which lyes open towards the Sunne or runnes Eastward but that which is best strained For in its own nature it is a simple body which unlesse it be tinctured with some other mixture will alwaies in every place be of equall goodnesse Therefore that which is well strained and so purged from dregs is the best in as much as it comes nearer to the integritie of its owne nature and is free from the mixture of another matter Therefore seeing this is done by the transcolation and thorough-straining there is no doubt but every where good and evill waters may spring forth as the straining through is made better or worse Now this depends upon the nature of the earth On this Errour hangs another An Errour in not boyling beere well that they do but lightly boyle thinne beere made of water oft-times impure enough for by a light boyling it cannot be amended nor the cruditie taken away and hence doe happen the evills which Authours attribute to crude waters that they are thick heavy to the belly stick long in the bowels cause swimmings are easily corrupted and doe not distribute well the nourishment for drinke should be very light and passible They doe worse who drinke it very new as many are wont especially in the North parts of England for so it doth neither please the palate nor is wholesome to the body for it is heavy in the hypochondres by reason of the abundance of dregs and it causeth obstructions the meane thereof is the best being well boyled and throughly purified CHAP. II. That the linnen of the sick ought often to be changed IT seems to the common people to be a hainous offence often to change the linnen used about the sick For they think that the sick are enfeebled and weakened thereby This Errour Hollerius in his chapter of the burning Feaver and Rondeletius in his chapter of the Feaver Synochus have noted among their countrymen and reproved but they give no reason for it yet they bid that the linnen about the sick bee often changed For by long keeping of them three inconveniences doe happen to the sick To wit 3. Inconveniences by foule linnen the transpiration of the body is hindred sweat and filth are hept in their shirts which doe putrifie and contract an ill favour the sweat and filth doe obstruct the body and so double the heat Which three things what great hurt they bring to the sick and the healthfull also all Physicians know Hippocrates bids that all things be kept clean about the sick and Galen studies by all meanes to preserve transpiration free that the cold aire may be attracted and filthy vapours excluded especially in continuall Feavers in which for the most part the Feaver comes by the obstruction of the pores of the skinne Therefore these being obstructed both by the filth and the sweat there followes a retention of the fuliginous vapours and thereby the Feaver which was before is encreased or is kindled afresh On the contrary it can scarce be that he whose body doth transpire well and so is free and open should fall into grievous and dangerous diseases The Ancients that did not use linnen did keep a frequent use of baths and frictions whereby the body was opened and cleansed Adde to this that the excrements being retained doe putrifie and the sweat stinks from whence succeeds an encrease of the feaverish heat nor doth that evacuation by the pores of the skin commodiously ensue Therefore it is very good often to change the linnen about the sick and when they sweat diligently to wipe or cleanse their body CHAP. III. Of Lessius his Diet-booke LEssius the Jesuite a most learned man in his Eloquent Diet-booke hath so endeavoured to mote out every mans course of Diet that he would have twelve ounces to be a sufficient quantitie of meat for any man and fourteene of drinste which he that will observe ought to refuse no kinde of meat which the people uses nor shall he easily fall into diseases through fulnesse or ill humours but shall alwaies be furnished with a lively body and cheerfull mind All which is true of sobriety in the generall 6. Epid. Sect. 4. aph 20. For the study of health is not to eat too much-meat and to be quick to labour But that quantity of meat seems to me not to be agreeable with the opinion of Physicians for the same quantitie of meat cannot be sufficient for all men but it must be diverse in respect of times and places kindes of meat exercises labours and nature of him that takes it He seems to have accommodated that course of diet principally to religious men In Summer a lesse in Winter a greater quantity of meat is convenient because th◠* belly is hotter 1 Aph. 19 and sleep longer as saith Hippocrates Because therefore one body differs from another one nature from another and countries differs times of the year ages and the nature of meats are diverse a certain measure cannot be prescribed Some meats are very nourishing of which a small quantity doth suffice some nourishing but little which ought to be given in a greater quantitie Therefore Hippocrates in his book de veteri Medicinâ said well that neither the measure nor waight nor quantity can be known nor any other certainty be found then by the sense of the body So Galen teaches 2 Aph. 27. that such a quantity is to be administred as may not burden the stomach 1 Aph. 5. And Hippocrates is plaine that a slender diet is more dangerous for those that are in health than a full diet To whom Celsus doth assent who perswades to meat twice a day Capa lib. 1. rather than but once and alwaies to eate liberally so that it may be well concocted The same Celsus writes that a man in health and that is at his own libertie ought to tie himself to no lawes yea that sometimes he should eat and drinke liberally Diet is indicated by the strength now the strength indicates a preservation of it selfe but such a diet doth not preserve but diminish strength Diet is threefold and exhaust naturall heat Physicians make a threefold
things which they can no where make to appeare CHAP. X. That milk mixt with water is good for those that are in consumptions BEcause among the remedies for those that are in a consumption of which we have spoken in the precedent Chapter milk doth not challenge the last but the chiefest place we will speake something of it it being for this purpose much better than gold for it nourisheth refrigerateth and confolidateth ulcers and it is profitable for many other things Yet in administring it divers eautions are to bee observed Cautions in using of milk which the Physician ought to consider lest he doe more harme than good for it is soone corrupted in the stomack For sometimes it turnes into a nidorous and burning savour sometimes it growes tart and sowre or curdles in the stomack When it becomes tart and sowre a little honey or sugar may be boyled in it for the coldnesse of the stomack is the cause of the tartnesse but if it turne into a burning savour it is corrupted through heat and then it is good to put thereto a good deale of water But the people like not this mixture Yet most excellent Physicians have allowed of it for it moderates the heat hurts not the milk it selfe and is good for hecticks and such as are in a consumption in respect of its cooling and moystning especially if it be Cows milk which at this day is most ordinary of all 7 Epid. Hippocrates ministers Cowes milk with a sixth part of water both because this milk is by its owne nature somewhat thick and also because it quickly turns into a burning savour 5 Epid. tex 56. And he tels a story of Pythocles who ministred to the sick milk mingled with much water 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And there is the same reason why Avicenne and others doe prescribe butter-Milke because it is more watery and so doth refrigerate more So Galen commends Asses Milke because it is very thinne full of whey and hath very little curd therefore it is most fit to amend drinesse and to temper heate But if such milk cannot be gotten it will not be amisse to bring Cowes milk to the temper and consistence of Asses milke which a mixture of water doth most fitly performe This not onely the Ancients but the moderne Writers doe observe Gordondus Ioubertus Hollerius and others Hollerius in his chapter of Phthisis and the Hectick saith If belching doe * savour of burning Nidorous a little water must beboyled with the milk Which counsell if many would follow they should perceive more benefit from the use of Milk than they usually do CHAP. XI That the common proverbe is false Milke must be washed from the Liver BEcause this so familiar and ordinary Proverbe is not of any great moment we will speake but little of it Many when they eat Milk do presently drink Beere or Wine and say that Milk must be washed off the Liver For which saying there is no reason for then the Milk is not yet come to the Liver but is contained still in the stomach and therefore there is no sence why it should be washed off the Liver But they must rather stay three or foure houres after the taking of the Milk for then is the first concoction of the stomach finished and the milk is in the Liver that it may be turned into blood Secondly no reason enforces why milk should be washed from the Liver rather than other meats for there is the same reason of all meats which necessity urges to be contained in the Liver that they may be changed into blood Thirdly it is sure that by this meanes the Milk is curdled in the Stomach The evill effects of curdled milk and so is afterward more easily corrupted more slowly concocted and burdens the stomach for Milk curdled in the Stomach is reckoned among poysons and I knew a man that by this meanes dyed suddenly Let them therefore observe it that use to eat milk that they doe not unadvisedly drinke Wine or other liquours that dissolve milk seeing that by the use of them milk is soon corrupted in the stomach waxes sowre and becomes hurtfull CHAP. XII That strong Beere or Ale should not be drunk in the morning fasting THis is the most usuall custome of all that in the morning after they are risen they must have their morning draughts of strong Beer or Ale and sometimes of Wine I know that by very many Physicians that custome of drinking in the morning any sort of drinke whatsoever it be is by no means approved because that moystning doth dissolve the strength of the stomach loosen and debilitate it so as that the body becomes afterward more replete with crudities But I am not of their minde at all for a mornings draught so that it be not of strong drink helps forward the distribution of the meat Small beer best for morning draughts purges the stomach and as they say well cleanses it tempers naturall heat moystens the body and which I think most true hinders the generation of the stone for it tempers and moystens the Kidneyes as many of our ancient and moderne Writers prescribe broths of Butter Mallowes and other such things for to temper the Kidneyes why not by the like reason small Beere which doth coole moysten and is diuretick But yet singular heed is to be taken that in the morning while the stomach is empty The evill effects of strong drink in the mornings strong Ale or other such drinkes be not powred in for they hurt the nervous parts from whence the Gout paine of the joints inflammations of the bowels and other grievous diseases may arise for by reason of their subtiltie and great force of spirits these drinkes do insinuate themselves into the nervous parts insomuch as they are usually troubled with paine of the joints that are eagerly delighted with such drinks and therefore advisedly is wine forbidden them that are Gouty Neverthelesse the diversitie of natures is to bee considered here for they that are of a temperament somewhat moyst because they need but little drinke ought not to drink in the morning fasting But they that are of a dry constitution both may and ought to drink fasting but not strong drinks for by them the nervous parts are sooner offended and dried Galen confirms this in his Comment upon the 21. Aph. lib. 2. where he saith that if before the use of meats any man use a liberall drinking of Wine hee is very much troubled with Convulsions and taken with Frensies and in his Comment upon the 20. Aphorisme lib. 6. Among the causes why so many are vexed with the Gout and paine of the joints he reckons this that they drink strong drinks before meat for they do very soon offend the substance of the nerves as doth carnall copulation Also Plutarch in his Symposiacks disputing whether new diseases may breed or no produces this as a cause of new diseases that they
familiar use in England but is used by other Nations as the onely and most convenient food for children After the fore-teeth are come forth let the childe by little and little be accustomed to chewing and use flesh minced very small and bread which with a little chewing it may swallow easily downe Note Here note also that when infants begin to be accustomed to meats it is very good for one houre to abstaine from sucking of the breast lest the milke being mixed in the stomach with the other meats and too long kept there be corrupted Many Authours doe observe that children are scarce ever troubled with wormes while they use Milke alone which yet I doe not beleeve to bee alwaies true CHAP. XVIII That a man may drinke liberally for health sakes I doe not desire here to bee thought a Patrone of Drunkennesse being a vice which I hate exceedingly I commend and approve of Sobrietie as a Vertue beseeming a man For I know how many evils drunkennesse doth bring upon the body and minde Nor doe I like the custome of some of the Ancients who thought it wholesome for the body to be drunke once a moneth I will onely intimate thus much that there are some cases in which it is very profitable according to the opinion of Physicians for a man to drinke wine liberally As for that ordinary drunkennesse which is too familiar with many although it bee commended by the Ancients to wit the Grecians who loved drinking and fuddling it is very dangerous and not undeservedly reckoned among the causes of diseases Concerning that we speak not in this place but of the extraordinary use of Wine profitable for the curing of diseases 1. Probl. c. 2. Aristotle demands the reason why diseases are cured through excessive drinking and in the cited place he gives the answer whereupon many thinke and write that a Quartane may be cured by drinking of wine which thing experience sometimes confirmes because the causes of diseases and their remedies are contrary to one another hence it comes to passe that by the excesse of one another may be reduced to a temper Moreover Amatus the Portugall gives the reason because nature is stirred up to cast out the matter already concocted by vomit sweat or siege Furthermore Hippocrates writes Aph. 21. lib. 2. that a Dog-like appetite is cured by the drinking of Wine He call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which word is signified sometimes the onely drinking of strong Wines as also a liberall drinking of them even to entoxication and Galen in his Commentaries writes that hee hath cured that disease by the liberall pouring in of Wine and they will have this word to bee derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pectus because the breast is made hot with wine liberally taken as the valour of great Cato is said to have been enflamed by wine They are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that have drunk largely and yet are not drunk but have their memory reason and ability of discerning still free Clemens Alexandrinus allows wine to Christian old men 2 Paedag. so as they doe not exceed the bounds of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore Hippocrates in the aforenamed Aphorisme prescribes a somewhat liberall drinking of strong and pure Wine because by its heating it cures hunger proceeding from a cold cause and refreshes the spirits and revives the strength And in another place hee writes the very same thing of the Strangury The liberall drinking of Wine Lib. 7. aph 48. and letting of blood cures the Strangury and difficultie of pissing to wit when it is generated of windinesse or a cold distemper or of some obstruction And in many places hee commends a liberall drinking of wine for divers diseases Lib. 1. cap. 95. Paulus Aegineta allows it because it provokes urine and sweat Object But the morall Philosopher will object this is contrary to good manners Solut. and against Christian Lawes I answer I doe not here goe about to plead for drunkennesse which if it ensue that will bee by accident in respect of the nature of the partie that drinks it For if to two patients both sick of the same disease a Physician prescribe a pinte of Wine perhaps one of them will be drunk the other not for the intoxication followes by accident in respect of the Physician seeing that some men are inebriated at the first or second draught others not but with many reiterated Therefore the Physician doth not command drunkennesse although sometimes he perswade to a liberall drinking of wine Moreover it is the part of the same Artist to prescribe the remedie and its quantitie but if the remedie may lawfully and without sinne bee used the quantitie also may be used without sinne otherwise the remedie would be in vaine and unprofitable Lastly hee that doth use such a remedie not with a lust to sin or for pleasure but for his healths sake only doth scarce seem to have committed â—asin CHAP. XIX That red cloths are not to bee preferred before others for the voyding of the measils THat in the measils and small pox the endeavour of nature purging out the humours into the habit of the body is to be assisted it is manifest by the verdict of Physicians and seeing that Nature it self teaches it therefore every one even the most ignorant among the people knows it And therefore the ambient cold is diligently to bee avoided lest the noxious humour return back again from the habit of the body to the inward parts Wherefore many doe use to cover the sick with red cloaths for they are thought by the affinitie of the colour to draw the blood out to them or at least some suppose that it is done by force of imagination And not onely the people but also very many Physicians use them But that colour of the cloath seemes to me to be superstitious for the colour operates not unlesse it be by accident as it moves the sight and phantasie which afterwards being set a worke by the likenesse of the colour drives the blood to the extreame parts But so it would suffice to lay the colour before his eyes for when they adhere to the body and in the night and under the bed-cloathes they are not seen Secondly the cloathes doe not draw out the humours except as they heat the body open the pores and keep out the externall aire which things not only red cloathes but all cloathes of what colour soever may doe but white best of all Thirdly Amatus the Portugall Valetius and others that according to the custome of the vulgar doe approve of red cloaths doe yet straitly charge that they touch not the body because they have in them a certaine astringent quality from the tincture and mixture of allome And therefore although I doe not altogether disallow them yet I thinke it a vaine thing to regard the difference of colours Yea rather I would commend the whitest White
disease doth indicate evacuation either by blood-letting or by purging it cannot be that custome should indicate and betoken these remedies because as we said it hath reference to nature but one and the same remedie cannot be betokened by diverse things If in any man abundance of blood or some other such cause require blood-letting lest he fall into some grievous disease Nature will not necessarily the next year require the same remedy unlesse he labour with the same disease unto which nature custome hath reference because only the cause of the disease and not nature doth indicate this remedy If therefore he must be let blood againe it is in respect of the cause of the disease not because of custome Nor doth it follow if this year Socrates his blood be so faulty that there is need of evacuation that there shall be the like faultines the next Spring for both the temper of the man and of the aire and his manner of diet may be changed Otherwise diseases should never be perfectly cured if he that hath been once abundantly vacuated must necessarily relapse into the same disease Therefore custome it self doth not urge unto a reapplication of a remedy but permit the same because accustomed evacuations are lesse hurtfull and they that are accustomed to it may more boldly admit of evacuation Thus custome alone makes nothing unto future evacuations unlesse there be the cause of a disease with it but if some diseases use to return every yeare as the Gout pain of the joints melancholy and the like because the causes of these diseases do lurk in the body it is very good to prevent them with convenient remedies as Galen saith he did in his Comment upon the forenamed Aphorisme which remedies are convenient to be applyed not for assuefaction and custome but in respect of the causes of the disease which so often as they appear ought to be corrected with such remedies But all diseases are not of that nature that there is eminent danger of them every year and therefore there is no fear of accustoming a mans self to Physick except the disease also be made accustomary and familiar The remedy that cures the disease is not the cause of the return of the disease afterward which it should be if use should inforce a necessity of the remedie because only the cause of the disease requires evacuation from whence it would necessarily follow that the use of evacuation doth afterward encrease the cause of the disease unto the administring of the like remedy CHAP. IX That no regard is to be had of the Stars for letting of Blood and Purging IT is an usuall thing with many in taking Physick to observe the Signes to wit whether the Moon be in this or that Signe which is thought to governe this or that part Others take notice of the Conjunctions and Oppositions of the Starres when they must Purge or let Blood as when the Moon is in Conjunction with the Sunne they think it to be a dangerous thing to use these remedies 4. Fen. lib. 1. Some do advertise saith Avicenne that Cupping-glasses be not applyed in the beginning of the moneth because the humours are not yet swelled up to the height nor in the end of the moneth because then the humours are lessened but in the middle of the moneth when the humours are in their height following the increase of the Moon at which time also the braine is increased in the Skull and water in the rivers that ebbe and flow Which his interpreters do referre to other of the great evacuations during the same cause And here two opinions are to be weighed the one of Hippocrates and Galen the other of Astrologers Hippocrates in his Book de aëre aquis locis advises to observe the great changes of times and seasons and the Solstices that we neither administer Physick in them nor Cauterize the parts about the belly nor make any incision till at least ten daies after Now by those great Changes he understands the variations of heat and cold which happen at the Solstices Equinoctials under the Dogge-starre and before the Dogge-starre and at the rising and setting of some Constellations For hee addes Both the Solstices are very dangerous but especially the Summer Solstice so both the Equinoctialls are perillous especially that in Autumne the rising of the Starres are also to be observed principally the rising of the Dogge-starre Arcturus and the setting of the Pleiades Because at those times diseases do either end or else are changed These things therefore according to the opinion of Hippocrates are to be known in respect of the sudden changes of the aire which are wont to happen at the rising of some Starres Some to the forenamed Constellations do adde the Moon which hath great dominion over these inferiour things and experience shewes that it hath much soveraigntie over the humours of the body and * Galen also acknowledges the same But Astrologers have gone further for they attribute the signes of the Zodiack to the severall parts of the body and when the Sun and Moon are in those signes they hold it a dangerous thing to use remedies which concern those parts over which those signes are thought to have dominion and the common people in reading of Almanacks which come forth every yeare are very cautelous in observing them whereof wee will treat more at large in the following Chapter But if all these observations of Galen and Hippocrates be true there will scarce any time remain for administring Physick for in both the Equinoctialls Solstices at the rising and setting of Arcturus and the Pleiades we must forbear ten daies and before and under the Dogge-star at least forty daies so likewise according to Astrologers we must abstaine from Physick in all the Oppositions Conjunctions and Quartile aspects of the Moon All which if they should be superstitiously observed there would be no time left for Physick although we neglect those Starres whose influence is not yet observed some of which may perhaps hurt as much as the rest The Starres are not to be considered in the curing of diseases as they are in the Firmament but for their influences and those alterations which they make in the Aire as Hippocrates forbids purging under the Dog-star only because of the heat of the Aire Neverthelesse whatsoever the alteration of the Aire be the same cannot be equally good nor alike bad to all for evacuation but to some it will do good to others harm according to the different constitutions of men nor was there ever such a temper of the Aire and Weather which was not more or lesse healthfull or hurtfull to some For some Natures in Summer 2. Aph. lib. 3. some in Winter are better or worse saith Hippocrates so likewise some diseases are made better or worse in regard of other accidents 3. Aph. lib. 3. and so are some ages according to times places and manner of diet because the influences of the
very difficult Neverthelesse these reasons are of small force in a cold Climate because in England the heat is not so intense and violent in the Dog-dayes especially in the * Kingston upon Hull Northern parts of England where I write this where neverthelss they feare the biting of this Dog as much as in Spaine and therefore there is no cause to feare that our bodyes should be too much inflamed or that they should be weakned or that the humours should be too forcibly drawn into the skin Again our remedies are much more gentle than those which Hippocrates used Our remedies are moregentle than the Ancients as are Cassia Tamarinds Sene Rubarb and the like which doe neither inflame the body nor trouble the humours And Lastly because though wee should use strong remedies And our preparations better yet we can so prepare them and administer them in such a quantity as shall offer no violence to the body But seeing that Hippocrates his Country was exceeding hot and that all his drugs that he used were very violent and hot it is no wonder that he was so wary of that time of the yeare But in this Country those dayes are not so hot Besides Hippocrates did not say absolutely that we must not purge at all in the Dog-dayes but only that purgation is difficult not impossible and therefore seeing that at this time of the yeare there are very many acute diseases which cannot be cured without bloud-letting and purging the Physicians of hot Countryes as Spaine Italy the South parts of France and the like doe very wisely use purging remedies but not so frequently nor violent But some are of opinion that wee should abstaine from purgation not only because of the violent heat of the weather but for the malignant effects of the Star and the Ancients did attribute so much to this Star * It is accounted the most principall star of the first magnitude that for eminencie sake they called it the Star as having some more than ordinary power above the rest not onely over the body but the minde also so that both men and beasts especially dogs are then more sick than at other times and dogs are thought to go mad through its influence Wherefore Galen also forbids blouding at this time But all the mischiefes which Plinie reckons up to proceed from hence are not of infallible credit for they are seldome or never observed to happen here in England Again it is an absurd thing to think that any of the Stars are mischievous for they are all benigne and propitious to man and those things which the Ancients have written concerning this Star doe not correspond to experience We see every yeare there are divers degrees of heat and not alwaies the same because the power and influence of the Star is altered by the diversity of Conjunctions and Aspects so that those malignant effects if there be any of the Dog-star may be hindred by the aspect of other Stars Nor doth it necessarily follow if there be a great hear this yeare that there shall be the same the next yeare Wherefore there is no cause alwayes to feare purgation under the Dog-star or all the Dog-dayes for if this day be exceeding hot peradventure to morrow the weather will be more temperate only at this time of the year we must use remedies more sparingly and those not so strong as at other times for even those remedies which Hippocrates did ordinarily administer to his Patients are scarce at any time prescribed by us no not in winter To this our opinion do assent Ioubertus in his Popular Errours Mercurialis Argenterius Hollerius in his Commentaries upon the forenamed Aphorisme Fernelius Fuchsius Valleriola Claudinus Vallesius and all that have written of this subject It shall suffice us to conclude this Chapter with the testimony of Iacobus Hollerius a most judicious and learned man Note This precept saith he takes place in Hippocrates his Country and such like places which are very hot but not in these Countries now he speaks of Paris in France where he lived for besides that we have gentle and easie medicines which we use as Cassia Catholicon Asses milk c. We doe here experience no time of the year to be more wholsome and temperate especially when the East-winde blowes then the Dogge-dayes so as experience shewes that diseases begunne in June and July are wont to terminate in August even under the Dogge-starre Wherefore if a disease happen in those daies wee doe not feare many times to open a veine and to administer strong Physick Neverthelesse if there happen a vehement and canicular heat of weather as we have in France oftentimes even in the moneths of May and June we follow the advice of Hippocrates both in letting blood and prescribing purges Where he shews that that very number of daies is not to be regarded but only the heat of the weather is to be observed which if it happen in the Moneth of May before the Canicular daies yea what time soever it happens Hippocrates his rule is to be observed I might adde here that there are divers opinions concerning the rising of the Dogge-star for with the Ancients it rose sooner than now it doth but with us it rises at those times when it is not wont to be so hot and therefore at that time purgation ought lesse to be feared concerning which thing we may see more at large in Dionysius Petavius a most learned man But that it may appear what great difference there is betwixt England and Greece which was Hippocrates his country we may observe what Hesiod saith Lib. 2. operum to wit that their Harvest did begin at the rising of the Pleiades at which time the Spring is scarce begun with us For the Pleiades do rise in the Moneth of April after the old account or not long after the beginning of May. CHAP. XII That Purgations are often to bee reiterated BEcause Physick as we have said is tedious and irksome many doe expect a perfect cure by one only purging medicine and they think the disease exceeds the capacitie and skill of the Physician and if after a Purge once taken it be not cured Nor are they willing to hear that the remedy is to be reiterated little knowing for what causes Physicians are forced to renew Purgations It were indeed to be wished that diseases could be cured with one cathartick alone which thing although it sometimes happens yet it is not alwaies so and truly a Drugge that makes a full and perfect purgation Note ought not to be administred without diligent heed taken because all vehement catharticks are exceeding adverse and hurtfull to nature Therefore a perfect evacuation ought to be prescribed only when the strength of the sick can bear it the matter but little and thinne and nature it self leads the way when the humours are fully concocted and all the passages in the belly are open But if the humours
Drugges as also to restrain the violence of it if it hath purged too vehemently and there is the same reason for the possets spoken of Yet it is not alwaies necessary to forbid them cold drinks Cold drinks good in some cases during purgation for without harm yea with very much profit they may be sometimes drunk But some Physicians command cold water if the stomach be hot that the acrimony of the drugge may be taken away So saith Aetius Terrab prim serm 3. cap. 133. If they be easily purged after they have drunk the medicine wee will give them cold water to drink John de Vega Viceroy of Sicilie being sick took a purge which wrought but slowly His Physician offered to the Viceroy the broth of a chicken without salt but Philip Ingrassias that learned Physician comming to visit him gave him a pint of cold water with a little sugar presently his disposition to vomit and the gnawing of his stomach was stayed and the purge wrought very well then together with great thanks to Ingrassias he gave him the silver bowle worth fifty Crownes wherein he had drunk the cold water as he himself relates in his book concerning the drinking of cold water after Physick And Sanctorius hath the fame story in his comment upon the Art of Galen We need not therefore so much fear cold drinks as Beer or Ale in them that are purged especially at meales for seeing it is permitted to take a little meat 4. or 5. hours after the Physick why should coole drink be denyed especially if he that is purged be not actually sick but took Physick only to prevent diseases But let us hear what Mesue a most excellent Writer saith He in his third Theoreme treating of the causes that hinder the working of a purge saith that if it happen through the weaknesse and debility of nature the working of it may be furthered by the drinking of a little cold water If the expulsive facultie be feeble or the operation and working of the medicament bee remisse and weake give the sick a little water moderately cold and an hower after some astringent thing and thereby the Medicine will worke effectually And in the same Chapter If the Physick doe not worke but cause grievous symptomes in the body besides the forenamed helps saith he the drinking of very cold water as Rusus saith takes away the malignity and acrimonie of the Drugges And in another place he blames them that drinke fat broths too soon after they have taken Physick Theor. 4. cap. 5. canone 1. because they do loose soften and fill the stomach and so beget loathing of meat and nauseousnesse although he confesses that there is a time to use them and therefore he commands rather to use strengthning drinks among which he reckons thinne wine of a pleasant smell and quick allayed with water warmed a little with the sun or the fire Then he addes but let him beware of sweet wine thick and troubled as also of water both exceeding hot and extream cold for the hot water looses the stomach and dissipates the strength thereof and the cold extinguishes the feeble and gentle heat of it From whence it is evident and clear that after one hath taken Physick it may be sometimes lawfull to use cold drinks and not to limit themselves alwaies to the use of their hot possets CHAP. XVI Of them that will never be purged but in the beginning of the Spring MAny that are wont to be sick of an anniversary disease to whom therfore some remedies are made familiar by custome do neverthelesse only use them in the beginning of the Spring fearing greatly the end of the Spring as being too near the Summer but herein they erre exceedingly For these remedies are prescribed to preserve from diseases them that are yet in health but would be sick if it were not prevented with the use of Physick Now this ought to be done especially during the Spring because at that time of the year the body is in its vigour and strength and it is the most temperate season and the humours which are as it were asleep in Winter are stirred up by the heat of the Spring whereby they do more easily yeeld to Nature and Physick also But the same humour is not predominant in all but divers in divers men either in respect of their peculiar manner of living or in regard of the particular natures of men for some are Cholerick and others Flegmatick hence it is manifest that neither the same evacuation nor the same time of evacuation is convenient for all Secondly the Spring time in some places begin sooner in others later in respect of the diverse scituation of the countries For Physicians do not limit the times of the year by the space of three Moneths as Astrologers count them but esteem them according to the temperature of the aire Thus many times Winter is very cold and sharp in England when the Sun enters into Aries in the beginning of March at which time Astrologers make the beginning of the Spring Wherefore they that stand in need of the forenamed evacuations let them take care that they be prescribed not according to the computation of Moneths but according to the temperature of the aire yea though it were the end of May May the best month for taking physick which I account to be the safest and fittest Moneth for that businesse because then the weather is most seasonable and temperate most like unto naturall heat and the strength of the body is most vigorous like as in Countries that are much hotter than England Physicians do preferre this Moneth But Galen according to the diverse constitution of mens bodies would have some to bee purged in the beginning others in the end of the Spring Best to purge the flegmatick in the be ginning of the Spring They in whom Fleame is predominant must be purged in the beginning of the Spring for the humours that are gathered together in Winter are melted by the temperature of the Spring so that except they be purged out they are easily diffused throughout the whole body and cause grievous diseases But as for them that are cholerick And the cholerick in the end it is best to purge them in the end of the Spring lest the hot humours be inflamed by the heat of the ensuing Summer and so putrifie and beget Feavers Ad chap. 47. lib. 6. So saith Galen in his Commentaries One that was wont every Spring to be sick of a Tertian hath not been troubled with it these many years I having purged him from choler in the end of the spring for at that time it is best to purge such but as for Epilepticks Apoplecticks Arthriticks Melancholicks and as many as are sick through the grossenesse of the humours are most fitly purged in the beginning of the spring CHAP. XVII That purging ought not to bee rejected although the sick doe eat no meate IT
reject clysters as being perillous and dangerous Physick but they are grossely mistaken for clysters are the most gentle and innocent Physick of all for they never touch any noble part in that they goe not beyond the great guts and therefore if the disease require it we sometimes adde to them very sharp remedies which another part of the body cannot endure and yet they are administred without any harine to the body at all Much lesse can mollifying and cooling clysters hurt the body which we prescribe in feavers and other diseases in which there is nothing except the quantity which might not be taken by the mouth Clysters good in many respects Now a clyster is profitable for divers parts of the body as the braine the eyes the stomack and all the inward parts for it doth not only loosen the belly but also by its liquid substance it doth deterge and cleanse the tunicles of the bowels from many grosse and viscous humours which cleave thereto and besides it lyes like a fomentation upon the kidneys and the bowels and therefore it oftentimes brings that out of the body which a reiterated purgation can never doe Galen experienced this in himselfe who being grievously tormented with the cholick with a clyster made of the oyle of Rue purged out grosse tough and viscous fleagm Seeing then the use of clysters may be so profitable they need not for the future be feared but ought rather to be more familiarly used 3 things necessary to be consideâ—ed Therefore I would admonish the people of three things First that they use a clyster before bloud letting and unto this doe all Physicians advise lest the impurity of that first region bee attracted by the empty veines and so the bloud bee tainted Secondly that if the belly be costive and there seems to be a necessity of taking a purge by the mouth it be first asswaged with a gentle clyster that the excrements may be more easily voided out For the belly being costive hinders the operation of the cathartick and seeing there is in every medicament a certaine generall vertue and propensity to purge out the excrements besides that proper power whereby it doth draw unto it selfe by a peculiar propriety the humours that are most familiar to it if the belly be very costive and the excrements hard they they cannot be extruded without great paine and gripings of the guts and many times the strength of the Physick is spent in thrusting them out and the humours that are attracted by the Physick not being purged out but kept within the bowels cause gripings the pain of the colick vomiting frenzie dizzinesse of the head and many such symptomes Hippocrates seems to have pointed at this when he saith Aph. 9. lib. 2. If one would purge let him first make the belly soluble Now seeing that by many wayes the belly may bee made soluble this by preparing clysters is not to be neglected and Galen commends this counsell Sect. 4. dâ— victu acut * Et aph 72. lib. 7. And in another place Hippocrates saith When one would purge the belly it is good to make it soluble and if thou wouldest make it fluxive upwards it is good to stay the belly if downwards to moisten it Now the belly cannot be more fitly moistned than with a clyster Thus Galen shewing for whom purging is convenient among the causes through which evacuation succeeds not well when one hath taken Physick reckons this for one Oftentimes saith he hard and dry ordure in some of the guts hinders evacuation Thirdly not only before purgation but also after it will not be amisse to inject a gentle deterging clyster as the best Physicians doe advise for to wash away the reliques of the humours which sometimes stick to the bowels For a clyster cleanses the guts and taketh away whatsoever noxious matter is left after a strong medicine especially if it bee of that sort of medicines which have Scammony for an ingredient for it by the sharpnesse and acrimonie thereof doth corrode the intestines and there is the same reason concerning all other strong medicines as among others Valleriola saies well in lib. 3. locor com cap. 16. CHAP. XXI That Clysters are not well injected by bladders SEeing then the administring of Clysters is such wholsome facile and harmlesse Physick we will in brief observe somewhat touching that manner of injecting clysters by an oxes bladder tyed to a pipe This I confesse is no very grosse errour for we see it many times well enough injected this way and it seemes to be the ancientest custome for I read in Galens fifth book of Method that the use of such bladders was very frequent in old time But now it is left off in many places beyond the Seas and that manner of injecting is altogether unknowne but they use a Syringe or a hollow pipe of tin or brasse and that with better conveniencie for it is both more easily injected and also more safely A near way for injecting Clysters and sooner and which availes very much in this businesse it goes higher and passes into all the great guts For seeing naturally a clyster doth not go beyond the great guts by reason of a certaine valvule placed in the beginning of the gut Colon and the end of Ilion it would be much to the commodity of the sick if a clyster could but goe so farre for so a great benefit would accrew to them by the washing of the guts But a clyster that is injected by a bladder doth not ascend so high but stayes in the strait gut and in the beginning of Colon. It were well therefore that these Syringes were brought into use of which almost all our Apothecaries except those of London are destitute But sometimes it happens that a clyster is vomited out of the mouth although but seldome I do not remember that ever I observed it save twice in two patients which happens when the forenamed valvule is loosed by reason of a vitiated and corrupted peristaltick motion of the bowels which opens an unwonted passage to the liquor yet how this can be done I doe not conceive I would rather think it comes to passe because the aforesaid Valvule is broken by some preternaturall cause and cannot any more execute its office Therefore if any man that is ignorant of the art of Physick chance to observe such a thing let him neither blame the Physician nor the Clyster seeing that no Physician can foreknow this but let him accuse the particular constitution of the sick and know that nothing happens then which hath not been heretofore nor let him be troubled at such an event CHAP. XXII Of vomits that possets ought not to be drunk immediately after one hath taken a vomit IT is not my purpose in this Chapter to treat of the commoditie and profitablenesse of vomits to the body of man I wil only give notice of thus much about the use therof that there are some
wax growes foft So Diphne for my love feeles changes oft Thus Hector Boetius and others doe report of some that have beene roasted with a gentlte heat by an imâ—ge of wax laid to the fire as Duffits King of Scots So they cause heat or cold and other affects when they list upon them that are absent the which all men grant cannot bee done by naturall causes Who have not heard that Witches which have anointed themselves with a magicall oyntment have been carried through the aire But that which Paracclsus writes in his Chapter of Invisible diseases makes much for our purpose if any man be hurt a foot or hand or some other member is to be drawn after the forme and shape of that which is hurt or if you will a pourtraicture of the whole body and it must be anointed and bound up and the man shall be free from paine yea and hee sayes that some who have been sick of other diseases have been cured after the like manner Who can beleeve that this is done by naturall causes and yet it is as easie in this to have recourse to magnetical vertues and sympathies and the spirit of the World as in the weapon-salve Here are examples of Magicall cures at distance which are in all respects like to the anointing of the weapon for as the image is anointed and bound up for the curing of the wound so is the weapon and as the Image laid to the fire or exposed to the frost doth burn or congeale him that is absent so doth the unguent laid upon the weapon and as the King of Scots in Boëtius was almost consumed in the waxen Image so the same may easily from the anointing of the weapon happen to him that is wounded if he that annoints it doe malitiously lay it to the fire or in some place that may communicate its harme to the person wounded and who sees not that this may be also a sort of Witchcraft If he that doth this by the help of the image douse the Devill who is the spirit of this world as an instrument to set on the charm it is likely that this magneticall cure as they call it hath the very same Author which they call by this name that they may cloak their knavery with a seeming shew of naturall actions And deservedly may the remedie be suspected even because of the Authors of it who were suspected for Magick For Paracelsus and Crollius do in divers places commend Magick and will have it to be a thing very needfull for a Physician But suppose wee that there is nothing magicall in it at all yet wee will further prove it to bee false and altogether a frivolous forme of curing Fifthly if then the spirit of the blood doth effect all these things and the ointment hath analogie and familiarity with the spirit which is in the blood why cannot other diseases likewise bee cured by the strengthning of the spirits and the balsame of blood For Crollius confesses that the cure is made by the balsame of blood and indeed the spirits and the vertues of the balsame in the body doe perfect all the cure Sixthly if according to Hartman the fixed salt of the bloud would not draw the spirit out of the ointment without the annointing it followes that there is no magneticall vertue in it at all because a corporeall contact is necessary and from hence it will follow likewise that without the corporeall contact it cannot worke at distance nor diffuse its strength so farre as to the person wounded The bloud hath the vertue either in it selfe or from the ointment If in it selfe then is the ointment in vaine Not from the ointment because what sympathy with the spirits of the partie is attributed unto it it hath it from the blood flesh fat and mosse which are ingredients in the composition by reason of the spirits which are thought to bee in them it followes then that the ointment hath no vertues in it which did not lie before in the spirits and so we conclude that the ointment is in vain also Seventhly the spirits which are in the blood fat and mosse are either of a diverse nature or of the same If they be of a diverse nature among themselves without doubt they are also of different operation and have not the same manner of sympathy with all the parts but the spirits of bloud have a greater affinitie with the blood the spirits of flesh with the flesh and the spirits of the Mosse with the Skull And therefore that the cure may succeed the better and sympathy be preserved besides the blood of the person wounded both his fat and his bones ought to bee mixed with the ointment on the wepon that a compleat cure may be performed and the magneticall vertue be without faile carried to the affected parts for verily there is not the same sympathy in the aforesaid spirits But if those spirits be all of the same nature that curiositie in adding thereto blood fat flesh and mosse is in vaine and superfluous when onely the blood which containes in it all those spirits may suffice Eighthly I have read a story of a horse whose feet had been hurt with a naile A horse shod in the quick cuted by this salve for the cure whereof the naile was aunointed with the aforesaid ointment and so the horse became sound againe And Crollius also relates the same From whence it follows that there is a certaine sympathy and familiaritie betwixt that ointment and the spirits of a horse and a certaine learned man confesses that there is the same vertue of healing in a man and in an horse Which if it be true in vaine is mans bloud preferred before an horses bloud for those things which are the same to one third are the same among themselves yea Crollius faith that not onely a horse but also all creatures that have flesh and bones may be cured with this ointment And in very deed if this manner of curing were certaine and infallible even any vulnerary ointment would bee as fit as this for the vertues thereof might bee conveighed to the sick by meanes of the spirit as well as the vertue of this ointment Ninthly seeing that the cure not onely of simple wounds but also of great and inward wounds is oftentimes perfected by Nature alone without the help of Art for to unite and to generate flesh are the works of Nature and not of Art and Crollius confesses that naturall Balsame doth work in this magneticall cure it is a wonder why that liniment is not rather applyed to the sick himselfe why it cures not ulcers seeing every wound doth at length become an ulcer and seeing bloud may flow also from ulcers and the principall indications of a wound are found likewise in an ulcer Why is it not also used for the curing of wounds made by Pistoll-shot and for such wherein there is a losse of substance Why hath Crollius excepted the wounds