disease The heauens indeed do oft and much also preuaile in raising allaying increasing diminishing enraging and calming the inward causes but euer by a proportion either with the temper and constitution of the sicke or the humours of their bodies whether originally bred or after by time acquired Saturne is therefore said a great Lord ouer melancholy bodies in like manner the Moone ouer phlegmaticke Iupiter and the Sunne in sanguine Mars in cholericke whether in their seuerall reuolutions apart or their coniunctions and combinations and according to the greater or lesse proportion of their peculiar humors in the bodie and the dispositions of the particular parts of the body they more or lesse exercise their rule Therefore also according as meanes more or lesse accrew to lessen or increase their proportion so more or lesse manifestly are their effects and operations weakned or quickned If the wise Physition foreseeing the euill approach of a maligne and Saturnine aspect by discreete preuention abate and withdraw the melancholy humor from the body Saturne shall thereby want a part of his proportion and as the greater abundance thereof doth necessarily more aduance and promote his efficacie so the exiguitie there of must needs abridge and obscure it The like may be said of all other aspects in their seuerall destined and appropriate humours For the constellation of it selfe simply cannot effect anything nor can build or ruine any being which first hath not the seminarie and prime foundation thereof in it self both as his subiect and his meanes And this is the true cause that the body either by Physick reduced to iust temper in it selfe or to an equall contemper of all the humors or of it selfe strong and healthfull in the most different constellations doth commonly find indifference of alteration And this is the reason that many in the most Saturnine and deadly constellations liue as the contrary also cause that many in the most faire and Iouiall die From this vncontrouersed ground Astronomers generally themselues aduise and prescribe meanes both to preuent the harmes of influences to come and also to redresse them present and giue vnto the Physitions hand powers and remedies to command countermand delay allay and abolish And from this reason Pâ—olomy himselfe the Prince and father of Astrologie in vnfortunate aspects doth aduise to consult the prudent Physition and by his counsell and helpe to decline the maligne constellation For right remedies rightly administred vnto the diseases and their inward causes by the decree of God and Nature necessarily oppugne allay preuent and expell diseases and therefore are not prescribed vnto outward causes but onely vnto the inward And although the outward cause haply first raised or impoâ—ed the disease yet in the cure is not that cause so much respected but his effect which is the disease it selfe or the inward causes by which and through which the outward had admission to their effects If the inward causes the antecedent and the immediate be remoued it is a miracle and a thing supernaturall that there should remaine his effect the disease but the outward cause may be remoued and yet his effect therein not follow him Thus corrupt and hote constitutions of the aire and constellations from the heauen breed pestilent and hote diseases in the body and the diseases still remain when the constitutions or constellations are changed but when the pestilent hote humors and dispositions within the body which are inward causes are throughly remoued there can no such effects continue be farther fed or maintained The outward cause may also be continually present yet particular subiects or bodies feele or participate no effect but if the inward cause grow in quantity or quality vnto the excesse it is impossible it should not in the same moment produce the like sensible effect For example in some heauenly coniunctions or combinations there may arise an hydropicall constellation though many particulars be nothing therwith affected or therto therby inclined but if hydropical humors or causes abound within the body it is impossible they should there be without not only the imminence but present coÌ„secutioÌ„ of the dropsy By these examples it is not obscure that the heauens are a forreine inuasion and therefore more easily admit interception and that diseases are euer to be suspected because euer present Where there is an vnproportioned congruitie or susceptibilitie in the bodie and humors with the heauenly inclination there the heauens haue no edge Where the disease hath once taken possession in the body the necessitie of his effect is absolute and vnauoidable howsoeuer the heauens or any outward causes are disposed He therefore that finding the inward disposition shall for the superstitious feare of starres delay with speed to seeke present remedie or in hope of forrein supply from constellations neglect certaine rescue more neare hand is a foole a mad man or worse then either The first is continually acted by common simple deluded people the other patronaged by obstinate defendants of vaine paradoxes and the third by our impudent Astrologers prostitute for gaine I commend not senslesse morositie in the peruerse reiection of true Astronomie so farre as is commodious for Physicke vse which reason it selfe experience and all the Ancients worthily extoll but with reason and authoritie I dislike superstitious and needlesse curositie in the ouer-religious esteeme thereof He that obserueth the wind shall not sow and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reape saith Salomon Ecclesiastes 114. And I cannot but detest the shamelesse dayly cousenage and imposture heathenishly practised by many vnder the colour pretext and false shadowes of true Astronomy An example here of may not impertinently for better illustration be here proposed A gentleman of Northampotonshire diseased by an immedicable vlcer of the reines was moued by his friends after my despaire of his recouerie signified priuatly vnto them to call the aduice of a famous Ephemerides-master who coming vnto him and not knowing and therefore not considering his disease from the counsel table of his Ephemerides pronounced that if the patient suruiued 3. or 4. daies which we must suppose were of an il aspect vntill the next ensuing Tuesday which was it seemeth a fairer influence he made no doubt of his recouerie and life But he suruiued three moneths or thereabout and in the interim neither did the aforesaid ill disposed starres any apparent hurt nor the wel disposed any eminent good but after the forenamed three moneths the starres brake promise the disease kept touch the gentleman died The reason in the disease was manifest without a new creation or generation a part in it selfe radically and in the whole substance perished can neuer be restored The disease therfore could not lie nor all the heauens could performe either a new generation because the patient could not again enter into his mothers womb nor a new creation because the world could not againe
want true art and the methode of their right dispensation There is no place nor person ignorant with what confusion of good order either by abuse of immunities or impunitie ill prouision or ill execution of good lawes through all parts of this kingdome all sorts of vile people and vnskilfull persons without restraint make gainefull traffique by botching in physicke and hereby besides many wicked practises iuglings cousinages impostures which maske vnespied vnder the colour and pretence of medicining numbers of vnwotting innocents daily in thrall and betray themselues their liues and safetie to sustaine the riot lusts and lawlesse liuing of their enemies common homicides It is a world to see what swarmes abound in this kinde not onely of Taylors Shoemakers Weauers Midwiues Cookes and Priests but Witches Coniurers Iuglers and Fortune-tellers It were a wrong to exempt any that want wit or honestie in a whole country yea and many that haue too much of either must be priuiledged by an old prouerbe to be Physitions because it is no manners to call them fooles And hereby not onely the simple and vnlettered but oft times men of better sort and qualitie casting their eyes vpon some attempts of these barbarous medicine-mongers good oft in their euent and not considering the dangerousnesse of such habite and custome desirously oft times entertaine the messengers and ministers of vnrecouerable miserie vnto their after life For as in militarie designes oft times a bold and foole-hardy enterprise aboue and besides reason and beyond expectation produceth an excellent and admired good in the happie issue yet is it not commended or in any case permitted as being verie dangerous in ordinarie practise or custome of warfare so likewise diuers euents of medicines proue good whose bold vse and rash prescription is dangerous and vnskilfull I do not onely herein pittie the meane capacitie but wonder also at the madnesse of men in their wits who in other kinds of knowledge reuerend yet herein with desire of life seeme oft to haue so little care of their liues It is strange to obserue how few in these dayes know and how none almost labour to know with election and according to reason or reasonable likelihood to bestow in cases of their liues the trust and care of their crased healths but for the most part wanting a right notice of a iudicious choice take counsel either of common report which is a common lier or of priuate commendations which are euer partiall The vnmindfulnesse hereof and the more minde of mindlesse things do steale from men the minds of men Hence euery where preposterous intrusion doth disorder the right and propriety of euery thing and the generall forgetfulnes of that which to euerie one is most pertinent doth beget an itching businesse in that which to euerie one is most impertinent and selfe conceited and presuming ignorance doth pricke forward rash spirits to become more bold busie then modestie doth permit discreete mindes soberly limited within their owne bounds This is the cause that vnwottingly to the poore patient vnwittingly to the vnskilfull workeman and generally for the most part vnobserued of all is the thread of many a mans life ordinarily by vnskilfull hands intangled in such inextricable knots of sicknesse paines and death as no time nor art are euer able to vnfold Vnproper remedies are for the most part worse then diseases and vnlearned Physitions of all bad causes of diseases themselues the worst That therefore men continue not in this generall confusion through voluntarie ignorance euer ignorantly vnfortunate it is not a needlesse learning more studiously to know and discerne good from ill and ill from good beginning with the last first CHAP. II. Of the Empericke RIght reason and true experience are two the sole inseparable instruments of all humane knowledge the Empericke trusting vnto experience alone without reason and the Methodian vnto the abuse of right reason the Ancients haue deuided all sorts of erronious Physitions into these two For ignorant experience and without reason is a false sense and mistaking reason is deniall of reason As therefore vnto these two other ages before so we now may reduce all the faultie practitioners of our time beginning with the Empericke The Empericke is he who reiecteth the disquisition of diseases and remedies their causes natures qualities according to iudgement and vnderstanding and the carefull perpension and ballancing of his action and practise vnto a iust proportion with reason but onely informeth himselfe by such things as oft appeare euident manifest vnto sense and experimentall proofe carrying his heart and vnderstanding for the most part in his hands and eyes taking nothing sure but what he sees or handles and from the differing maners of experience are numbred seuerall and diuers kinds of experience The defect in the Empericke hence appeareth to be want of true methode the habite of right operation and practise according to reason which is art through which defect his actions must needs oft be reasonlesse and by consequent as blind in their intention so likely to be foolish in their issue and execution For there must needs be in all actions want of much more necessary knowledge then sense and experience canne aduance vnto and experience must needes witnesse against it selfe that the longest age of experience doth nothing so fully furnish and instruct in many things as much more speedily doth prudent inuention which though occasioned and helped by bookes and reading which are both keyes vnto all knowledge and also rich storehouses of experiences not onely of one age and countrie but of all times nations yet do they only glut the sense with stories of experiences past but reason and iudgement truly enrich the mind and giue daily new increase and light in before vntried vnexperienced truths Indeede particular experience if it be accompanied with vnderstanding and right reason which is the touchstone of truth and right in nature establisheth and confirmeth knowledge but if experience be no more but experience it must needes proue in many cases a slow guide to lame instruction For as it is with the souldier in the field let his owne speciall experience in armes be neuer so ancient so true so sound yet without a more generall vnderstanding or theorie and a more enlarged knowledge then his particular and limited experience can bring forth he must be lamely fitted vnto many suddaine and oft before vnseene occurrents which the perpetuall mutabilitie and change of circumstances in warfare must needes produce The field the enemie the time not alwaies the same require a diuers and oft a contrarie consultation designe and manner wherein one particular experience by it selfe cannot but be much wanting because the same thing or actiō seldome or neuer happens againe the same in all circumstances one circumstance alone cōmonly altereth the whole cōdition As it is in military affaires so is it
but oft and continually mistake manifoldly much more And thus we haue briefly discouered the Empericke in matters requiring extraordinarie counsell ignorant in cases of his best experienced knowledge yet vnto some circumstances vnfurnished in many matters of substance altogether vnexpert in rare accidents and before vnseene at a maze in true right discerning wanting the eye of right reason in confounding things differing in separating things in their owne nature inseparable dāgerous Now as we haue pointed out the Empericke himselfe so it remaineth that with him and in him we note all that by institution educatiō tradition instruction or stolne obseruatiō deriue their rule example custome from him In this number are all that vsually professe thēselues in confidence of their choyce secrets and excellent medicines commanders maisters of all diseases Such also are they who in all places proclaime open defiance against all maladies with vehement remedies vpon euery light occasision needelesly vnprouoked if diseases presently cānot away either fire them out or pull their hold about their eares with the fall of the disease needelesly hazarding the diseased Oft times a good euent may authoritse it for skill their friendly offer call it good will but their kinde care is too oft seene and proued a keene weapon to wound their friend and the sicke are nor seldome oppressed with being so loued I would it were a slander in these dayes that good will and excellent medicines put to death more liues then open murther For as the most complete armour engins and forts of warre the excellent munition and rich prouision vnto a man without knowledge to mannage them are but instruments without life vntill some better skill put life into them so good medicines being the Physitions instruments and weapons either defensiue for nature or offensiue against the forces of diseases in other hands then his must needes proue as but dead in themselues so ofttimes deadly vnto others To square and leuill their right vse requireth more vnderstanding then is to be found in reasonlesse medicines or yet their senselesse maisters For as in all other affaires where knowledge prudence and discretion haue prerogatiue the attempt is commendable and the issue likely to be happy so also in cases of health wherin wise iudicious dispensation or in rash erroneous the vertue and efficacy of medicines doth liue or die in vse and power It is strange notwithstanding in these dayes to behold with what senselesse madnesse men are become worshippers of medicines and so great ofttimes is their idolatrous folly herein that as if they had gotten some rare good in a boxe I meane some rare secret they presently inflamed with the furie and opinion thereof dare vpon the consused notice of a disease commend with as sacred secrecie and intolerable vsurped titles of infallible absolute and irresistable vertue force as if any particular excellencie were able to coniure the generall casualty whereunto all earthly things must needes be subiect For God hath set downe a law of mutability and changeablenesse to all things created according to diuersitie of circumstances by which all things vnder heauen are continually altered changed and gouerned There is no creature medicine or herbe that hath any such boundles or infinite power as to keepe the same inchangeable or infallibe but there shall be a diuers and manifold consideration and coaptation of the same thing There can be no endeauor meanes way or instrument of neuer so complete perfection or tried proofe directed to what effect issue or end soeuer that receiueth not ordinarily impediment opposition and contradiction whereby those things which in themselues might haply seeme certaine and good by accident and circumstance are againe very vncertaine and euill All ignorants therefore whatsoeuer such are whosoeuer are not Artists had they for all diseases the most choyce and excellent medicines knowne euen vnto God and nature aboue and beyond all knowledge of men yet except therewith they know their due dispensation they cannot but peruert their right vse be they neuer so soueraigne The generall remedies against the common causes of diseases ordained except first rightly administred shall continually and necessarily forestall and hinder the good and benefite from any particular There are no materiall diseases wherein the common remedies are not requisite Such are phlebotomy purgation vomite and the like And wheresoeuer these are requisite if they be not rightly administred all other medicines be they neuer so excellent and incomparable must needs lose their excellent and incomparable vse And none can rightly dispence the generall remedies but those that are more generally learned then the best acquaintance and familiarity which particular medicines can afforde From hence it cannot but be manifest how infinitely blinde good will and zeale do herein daily erre to the destruction of many It were happy if at length the common inconuenience and publike scandall might beget a law and law bring forth restraint For illustration of that which hath bin said it were indifferent to instance in any disease but I will make choyce of some few onely to satisfie for all It is an ordinarie custome in those daies with women to giue medicines for the greene sicknesse other stoppages in young women In which practise if it so happen that no inward impediment frustrate the indeuour they casually ofttimes do seeming present good and blaze the excellencie of their medicine but if ofttimes which they cannot distinguish or obserue the generall cause of the obstruction be not first by the generall remedy remoued or diminished or the immediate cause setled within the stopped parts be not first fitted and prepared to yeeld all their medicines of neuer so great force yea though commonly as strong as steele or iron do not onely no good or small good but ofttimes incorrigible hurt and mischiefes neuer after able to be reformed or by the most learned counsell to be redressed while from the plenty or ill disposition of humors in the body these searching and piercing medicines carry with them into the stopped parts either more or worse matter then was before and thereby there leaue a disease which shall neuer after die except by exchange for a more pernicious In the common knowne disease of the stone likewise many and famous medicines are at this day in many common hands and perhaps truly celebrated yet if sometimes bleeding haue not a first place namely where is present or imminent danger of inflamation of the reines sometimes if vomit be omitted namely where the stomacke is stopt and full vnto euery thing impenitrable sometimes if glysters or lenitiues be not premised namely where the fulnesse of the belly doth presse the passages the bladder and the vreters all other excellent medicines whatsoeuer for the stone do not onely in vaine exasperate the disease but hazard the party much more then the omission of meanes
pedlarie wares remaining keepe shop in their owne hose or else in their guts who wanting other vse imagine them sufficiēt to make cleane the kitchin Let thē that desire their meate in the stomacke should long finde good cookerie take heede who put herbs into the pot It hath bene required and by some imposed that a Physition should be both Surgeon and Apothecary himselfe It is easily decided In iudgement skill knowledge and ability of direction it is very requisite and necessary and the contrary is not tollerable in a true architect but euery particular execution or manuall paines and trauell is neuer vniustly sometime necessarily and oft more conueniently distributed and deuided vnto others whose vicissitude assistance and oft more ready handling thereof is as sufficient nothing inferiour yea for operary proofe and cunning handworke far without enuy superior because the maine and continuall exercise therein doth therein also make the meaner iudgement better apted and more prompt Galen indeed himselfe in necessity want of other whose better and more speciall practise and exercise therein might make it their more proper performance put his owne hand vnto chirurgie but when he found it another distinct office as an ease vnto himselfe and a commodious liberty inlarged helpe to his other imploiments studies and care he thereunto referred hand-operation though euer haply conferred his mind iudgement In like maner Hippocrates refuseth by oath to meddle in Chirurgerie expresly in the extraction of the stone of the bladder and leaueth it vnto those that are therein exercised The fewer offices the lesse distraction where lesse distraction there is the better bent vnto the more maine and proper scope Where therefore with as sufficient supply by others the suffection or deputation may ease of a burthen as indifferently else were imposed there the businesse lesse and the diligence and incumbence equall the remaining taske must needes be completely and absolutely attended perfected Concerning the Apothecarie included in the Physition indeed the first Ancients were Apothecaries vnto themselues because in themselues onely was then newly sprouting in the infancie the inchoation of that skill and therefore as yet they could not communicate perfection vnto others But now time and age haue accomplished it the Physitions eye and skill hath vsed anothers hand both as a needfull and requisite helpe in the mechanicall ministery and also as an aduantage and ease to the more necessary laborious and studious trauels of his mind In ordinarie dispatches therfore it is vnauoidably necessary an Apothecarie be euer at hand as faithfull as his owne right hand and in extraordinarie the Physitions owne heart must onely trust his owne hand and his owne eye witnesse their consent This equitie may satisfie curiositie CHAP. VII Of Practisers by Spels NOw to leaue both Surgeon and Apothecarie the opposition against the vse or need of either doth put in mind in the next place not to forget those who professe the performances vses and end both of Surgeon Apothecary yea and Physition himselfe without their helpe or need such are such as cure by spels and words If men beleeue as reason would and as reasonable men should for men are no men if vnreasonable of any effects from spels among the wise is no true reason or cause and without reason can be no right perswasion Betweene a true cause and his proper effect there is an immediate necessity betweene a cause by accident and his effect there is a mediate consequution but this cause being onely ni opinion can be no more then opinion and in opinion is no truth Some finding spels to do no good obiect as a good they do no hurt This hurt I am assured they do while men haue gaped after such shadowes they oft in the meane season haue lost the substance their life and health which while due season offered vnto them that had learned to know oportunitie bad scholers were still at spelling schoole To speak more seriously of such a toy If the faithfull and deuout prayer of holy men vnto which the promise of God and the blessings of men are annexed hath no such assurance or successe of necessarie consequent without laborious industry and the vse of good meanes how can religion or reason suffer men that are not voyd of both to giue such impious credite vnto an vnsignificant and senslesse mumbling of idle words contrarie to reason without president of any truly wise or learned and iustly suspected of all sensible men It shall be no error to insert a merrie historie of an approued famous spell for sore eyes By many honest testimonies it was a long time worne as a iewell about many necks written in paper and inclosed in silke neuer failing to do soueraigne good when all other helps were helplesse No sight might dare to reade or open At length a curious mind while the patient slept by stealth ripped open the mystical couer and found the powerful characters Latin which Englished were these The diuell digge out thine eyes and fill vp their holes with his dung Words without meaning are nothing and yet so here are best Of nothing can come nothing much lesse good yet so it was and yet it was not so oathes and testimonies auouching the one religion truth denying the othes Thus ofttimes things haply begun in sport and ieast with light minds by vaine opinion grow to sooth and earnest It is strange in these daies to behold how this follie doth laugh euen wise men to scorne while their vnreasonable parts of imagination and fancie so iuggle with their iudgements and vnderstanding that they can scarce containe themselues from beleeuing and consulting with such ridiculous folly Thus able is fancie not onely to deceiue sense but to obscure our reason If there be any good or vse vnto the health by spels they haue that prerogatiue by accident and by the power and vertue of fancie wherein is neither certaintie nor continuance Fancie according vnto the nature thereof can seldome be long fixed vpon any thing because naturally being euer full of fiction it must needs easily and continually be transported Fancie therefore can be no ordinarie or common remedie being but rarely fixedly detained and where it is most earnestly bent yet hardly of long continuance If fancie then be the foundation whereupon buildeth the good of spels spels must needs be as fancies are vncertaine and vaine so must also by consequent be their vse and helpe and no lesse all they that trust vnto them I speake not of inchanted spels but of that superstitious babling by tradition of idle words and sentences which all that haue sense know to be voide of sense as the other diuellish The one if there be no remedie we must permit vnto fooles in the other we cannot denie the diuell CHAP. VIII The explication of the true discouerie of
for a time gayning credit and entertainement by litle and litle secretly vndermine the verie frame and foundation of life We may instance in Tobacco with what high fame and great renowne was it at his first arriuall here in England entertained as an incomparable iewell of health and an vniuersall antidote and supersedeas against the force and capias of all diseases euery man with the smoke thereof in his nosthrils breathing the prayles and excellencies thereof in his mouth But now hath not time and many a mans wofull experience giuen testimonie to right reason and iudgement from the first suspecting and vntill this prouing time suspending the too great name thereof Is not now this high blased remedy manifestly discouered through intemperance and custome to be a monster of many diseases Since the riotous vse of this strange Indian let it be noted how many strange before vnknowne diseases haue crept in vnnaturally besides the former custome and nature of the nation prouing now naturall and customary to the follies of the nation Is it not apparent that the aire of this vapor and smoke by the subtility therof doth sodainly search all parts with a generall distresse oft times to nature And is it not thence probable that by aduantage in the weakest it may oft leaue behinde it especially where it is any time vsed such impression and print besides painefull distention through his inclosed vapour that no time of life no remedies oft times are euer after able to blot out And frō this Nicotian fume grow now adaies doubtlesly many our frequent complaints and euerie day new descriptions of paines according haply to the diuersitie and difference of the parts it chiefly affecteth or the more or lesse extreme vse thereof And men haply led by some present bewitching feeling of ease or momentarie imagined release from paine at some time hereby vnaduisedly with such meanes of their ease drinke into some weake parts such seede of future poison as hauing giuen them for a time supposed pleasing ease doth for time to come secretly and vnfelt settle in their bones and solid parts a neuer dying disease while they liue How many famous patrons and admirers of this simple haue senselesly died in the very time of the idle vse thereof while it yet smoked in their teeth and others liuing in the immoderate burning loue therein haue with the fierie zealous gluttonie thereof as the badge of his mastership in thē sensibly stupefied dried vp their euer after foolish and besotted braines I might giue other instance in these well knowne and vulgar remedies of the named French disease which by a present benumming of the sense cousining and easing of paine do withall for after time inure and leaue behinde them such a rottennes and weaknesse ofttimes of the bones and sinewes as suffereth few of our Mercurials to liue to know their age in health especially who throughly knew the siluer-salue in their youth Hence toward declining age if not before some fall into consumptions and marasmes some lose their teeth some haue the palate of the mouth rotted some the very bones of their head eaten some by conuulsions their mouthes and faces set awry And it is ordinary with most of this sort long before haruest to leaue no grasse grow vpon their paued tops I do not altogether condēne these smoakes but feare their fire and with the Ancients sparingly commend their kinde of remedies knowing their pernicious danger in their ignorant and rash ouervse with their singular seruice in some rare exigents God and nature haply leauing a sting and poyson in them for their too common vitious neede and custome I might here yet farther insist in all other diseases how the vse of the most excellent proper and apt remedies being vnaptly applied either too little or too much too soone or too late before their season or after in some cases at any time or in any maner bring in corrigible and helpeles harmes being in their owne nature harmeles but in their vnskilfull vse pernicious and mortall It is apparent in all mysteries and faculties whatsoeuer that the excellencie of the toole without the excellencie of the workeman doth not bring forth excellencie in the workmanship Hence it must needes come to passe that medicines though wholesome in themselues and of a sauing and soueraigne power without any touch of harmefull quality at all yet being ignorantly or indiscreetly out of time or place disposed or dispensed must likewise bring forth mischiefe in steade of expected good And although many hardened by custome vnto a boldnes of trāsgressing in this kind prouoke oft reuenge of their follie for a time without harme or punishment yet do they not alwayes escape for though happe oft passe by it lights at last and not seldome heauily Cassia is esteemed for a delicate wholesome and harmelesse lenitiue vnto old men children babes women with child and the weakest amongst the sicke yet the learned know it in some cases not onely vnprofitable but of maine mischiefe Rhabarb is said to be the life of the liuer yet in some conditions thereof it is an enemie And for the generall remedies phlebotomy purging vomite sweating bathing and the like reason and experience daily giue demonstration that oft in the same body and the same disease they are variablie sometime necessary sometimes profitable not necessary sometimes neither profitable nor necessary but accursed Sometimes bleeding doth ventilate and refresh the spirits aboue and beyond all other remedies and is the onely key vnto health sometimes againe it doth exhaust and spend their vigour sometime being both profitable and necessary yet vsed out of time or quantity doth no good or vsed vnseasonably doth much hurt Purgatiōs in some estates with preparatiues and in some without preparatiues are harmefull in some either with preparatiues or without preparatiues they are necessary and neuer to be omitted And as there is infinite danger in errour and ignorant dispensation so is there vnspeakable good in the prudent prescription according to the nature quality and seate of each humor according to which it is wisdome sometimes to quicken sometimes to alay sometimes to hasten sometimes to moderate their effects discreete stayes oft making more speedy iourneys Vomits in some diseases are altogether banished and not admitted and in some contrariwise they haue onely priuiledge The like may be said of outward remedies plaisters vnguents cereclothes fomentations and baths which also according to wise and discreete administration or a rash and heedlesse abuse are good or euill And this is the reason that so many famous and renowned remedies now adaies bring forth effects vnworthy themselues for being with such dissolute licenciousnesse euery where and in all places permitted to breake forth out of the prudent awe of vnderstandings guidance how shall they choose but become wild and irregular in the hands of vnskilfull raines that