Temperaments in the third of Humors in the fourth of Spirits and natural Heat in the fifth of the parts in the sixth of the faculties and Functions in the seventh of the generation of Man The first sensible principles which are the foundation of the fabrick of Mans body are the first elements of all things from the various permistion of which there results a various temper various Humors have a dependence upon the temper upon the Humors Spirits which preserve and make vigorous the natural Heat To the Humors Spirits and natural Heat all the parts owe their production and sustenance all which cannot be effected without the help of the Soul which being richly furnished with faculties compleates all these operations and is the first mover in the conservation and primary generation of the whole Man And this is the order which Physiology observes in delivering the instructions of natural things which is meerly compositive proceeding punctually from the first principles to their productions till it hath fully represented the perfect and absolute artifice of Nature The First Section of the first Book of Elements The First CHAPTER Of the Nature of Elements Elements are Simple bodies out of which all others are compounded and into which they are at last resolved ELements are called simple bodies because they are not compounded of other bodies of a divers species but only of Matter and Form which are the first principles of all things yet are not bodies The Elements therefore are the first Simple bodies and the ingredients to the composition of all others for it is beyond the reach of knowledg to find a body perfectly mixt which comprehends not in it self the substance of the four Elements which is evidently visible in our bodies which are compounded of four Humors of strait affinity to the nature of the four Elements but this is more clearly manifested from the dissolution of mixt bodies which thereupon flow again into Elements as it is asserted in the definition for example in the combustion of Wood part thereof is converted into Aire as it appeareth by smoak which abundantly streaming from it is changed into aire part alters into water sweating out at both ends part into earth by ashes which are of a terrene Nature lastly part thereof is transmuted into fire as it is apparently demonstrated by the coals and flame But though many bodies in their corruption have not straightway an immediate transition into Elements but by a kind of vicissitude invest themselves in other substances yet they at length in their ultimate resolution retire into those Elements out of which they were conflated as it appears in our Food which in Mans body first is changed into Chyle then into blood and next into the substance of the body which after Death is resolved into Elements but part of this aliment degenerates into excrements which in their dregs partly represent Earth partly Water in Sweat and Urine partly Fire and Aire in Steams which insensibly leave the body being habitually disposed to such transpiration CHAP. II. Of the Number of Elements The Elements are four Earth Water Aire and Fire SOme of the ancient Philosophers held the Elements to be infinite whom Aristotle in his First Book of the Heavens convinceth others contracted the Elements into one only whom Hipocrates in his Book of Humane Nature confutes by the force of this indissoluble Argument If saith he man were constituted by one Element he would not be sensible of any pain The reason which confirms this consequence is this because what ever Sympathize in pain partake of the same sense and are alterable but contrariety is the cause of every alteration if therefore there were but one Element there could not exist any contrariety because nothing is contrary to it self and whatsoever suffers the passion thereof proceeds from another thing But the cause why we precisely oblige our selves to four Elements appears by the first qualities which being four are very distinct one from another to wit Calidity Frigidity Humidity and Siccity which being accidents it is necessary every of them should have its particular distinct and separate subject Nor can it be conclusively objected that there are but two Elements because calidity with siccity and frigidity with humidity are coupled together in one and the same body For if from hence we gather that there are two Elements Calidity being linck'd with Humidity and Frigidity with Siccity we may gather that there are two more besides the probation of four Elements is sensibly confirmed by the dissolution of mixt bodies which are resolved into those four first bodies according to the assertion of the preceedent Chapter CHAP. III. Of the Qualities of the Elements The Qualities of the Elements are first and second The First Qualities are those which are primarily in the Elements and upon which the others have a dependence And they are Active or Passive The Active are those which have chief efficacy in the mutual alteration of the Elements and in the constitution of mixture THese are not nominated Active simply and absolutely as some were of opinion because they only act the rest being purely passive but this distinction is caused only by Comparison because the Action of them is more efficacious than of those others which are termed Passive for that they are more Passive than Active though they be not wholly destitute of action for Humidity acts upon Siccity Siccity upon Humidity And these Actives are Calidity and Siccity Calidity is the first Active Quality the effect of which is the congregating of things Homogeneous and dissipating of Heterogeneous as Aristotle in his second Book of generation Logicians terme those things Homogeneous which partake of the same nature and species Heterogeneous which are of diverse Species which understanding closeth not with this discourse for Heat in the generation of a mixt body doth not only congregate things Homogeneous but Heterogeneous also viz. moist with dry which differ in Species So also different Aliments in the ventricle are congregated by Heat and chylifyed We must then here understand by things Homogeneous those which bear such a relation of similitude to one another that they may be convenient to constitute the nature of one thing and to be converted into it So moist and dry by reason of their unition in generation of a mixt body are called Homogeneous so in concoction Aliments distinct in their Species are Homogencous whereof that part which cannot aptly be reduced to Chyle as the excrements are only Heterogeneous and therefore segregated And there are other proprieties of heat viz. Resolution Operation Incision Maturation and Attenuation Nature is infinitely stored with examples of these proprieties but they are more apparent in the matter of Medicaments which by the vertue of them are very efficacious Frigidity is a first active quality which musters together things Homogeneous and Heterogeneous So water with water wax with wax and any other thing adhering or incident to them as Straws Stone
Wood Sand Chaffe and other things are coagmented together by conglaciation till by Heat dissolving this combination they are separated The work of Frigidity is to allay Heat to a due temperament lest the mixt body should be over-Heated to a dissolution This quality doth not only rally together things Homogeneous and Heterogeneous but also fixeth them to adstriction condensation obstruction and incrassation Cold being contrary to Heat intailes a necessity to the contrary production of effects nor must we comply with Cardan who is of opinion that cold is meerly the absence and privation of Heat and nothing positive which Avicenna seems to intimate who sayes that cold is no ingredient to the operations of Nature But Scaliger learnedly opposeth them both Exercit. 22. And before his time Averroes whose assertion that cold is requisite in the works of nature is established upon the basis of two reasons first by tempering the Heat next by operating in things a consistency and coherence of parts which cannot be effected by Heat whose propriety is dissolution Thus much of the Active qualities The Passive are those which are less Active and therefore in the mixtion of bodies are subordinate to the Active And they are Humidity and Siccity Humidity is a Passive quality whose effect is to make things exorbitant as to their own bounds but easily confined to the limitation of another Arist 2. gene So water wine oyl and other humid bodies diffuse themselves and can only be contained within the bounds of vessels Siccity is a passive quality making things to be easily content with their own limits but impatient to be bounded by any other So wood stones and other such like things do obstinately hold their proper figure nor easily receive the impression of another It may be objected that fire which is highly dry is not confined within its own but rather some aliene boundary which may also be affirmed of dust and ashes To which I oppose that this is by accident and not naturally contingent to fire because of the tenuity of its substance which will not admit such cohibition for there must be a copulation of Siccity with some density that this description may properly be applyed to a substance But dust and ashes in conservation retain their proper figure for they are not a body continued but a contiguity of the smalest parts of the earth which by reason they are so exile can be entertained in any place These four first qualities are found in the Elements as they can in possibility comply For we meet with Calidity and Siccity in Fire Calidity and Humidity in Air Frigidity and Humidity in Water Frigidity and Siccity in Earth The inherence and conjunction of these first qualities are at large disputed with much opiniative Heat of controversy by Professors in Physick to whom for brevity sake we referre the Reader Thus farre concerning first qualities The second qualities are those which immediately result from the temperature and mixtion of the first By this description we casheer from the second qualities colours smel and taste which are not the immediate effects of the first nor so manifestly but more remotely and obscurely depend upon them For this cause some though not significantly place them in subordination by the terme of third qualities In which if there be any difficulty the enucleation thereof must be referred to the doctrine of the Senses because without these perspectives they cannot be brought under a right understanding These are fourteen viz. Rarity and Density Gravity and Levity Hardnesse and Softnesse Subtility and Crassity Aridity and Lubricity Friability and Clamminess Asperity and Laevity Rarity is a second quality produced chiefly by Heat by which things are extenuated to a possibility of dissipation So Water by the Heat of the Sun is attenuated thin and dissipable so clouds easily pierced by the rayes of the Sun are usually termed rare 'T is worth observation that rarity is twofold one which consists in the tenuity of substance and this is properly reduced to the Predicament of quality accompanying Heat as the effect thereof and so the aire is thin the earth thick The other consists not in the tenuity of substance but in the remoteness of parts so we call a spunge rare because of those intervalls and distances of the parts which lodge the aire and this Rarity takes place in the Predicament of Site and is though better understood by us more improperly termed Rarity Density is a second quality arising from Cold by which things become more compact firme and with difficulty dissipable So water congealed by cold so stones and metalls are dense Gravity is a quality produced by cold and density by which things tend downwards Levity is a quality produced from Heat and rarity by vertue of which things make upwards Hardnesse is a quality arising from Siccity by which things yield not easily to the touch Softness is a quality arising from humidity which renders things tangible without a repulse Subtility is the production of Heat Siccity and Rarity by which things are attenuated and fitted for penetration It differs from rarity as the effect from its cause rarity being the Procatarctick of subtility But not all rare things are subtile for there is rarity in the aire but no subtility and some aire is crasse so by our advice our patients remove from gross aire which in many diseases is not good to breath in Crassity is a quality which owes its being to cold and density by which things become Solid and less fit for penetration For Crassity is differenced from density as the effect from its cause for all dense bodies cannot properly be termed crasse Aridity is a quality generated by Siccity which banisheth almost all humor Lubricity is a quality flowing from humidity by which things being rendred slippery deceive the touch So a Snake and a way conglaciated is slippery Friability is a quality arising from Siccity by which things for want of coherency may easily be crumbled So salt and sugar are friable Clamminess is a quality arising from humidity which causeth things to be sticking and glutinous So pitch glue and other such like things are called sticking Asperity is a quality issuing from Siccity by which the superficies of things is unequal and not tangeable without offence So the barks of Trees and pumices are offensive by their asperity Levity is a quality arising from humidity by which things being of an even superficies are pleasing to the touch This quality is not the effect of humidity only but may also be artificially produced when the rudenesse of things solid and dense is polished and plained CHAP. IV. Of the Mixtion of Elements Mixtion is the union of things miscible upon their alteration Arist. 1. of generation Chap. 10. BY Miscibles are understood Elements which are disposed to commixtion by a mutual alteration and reduction to such a temper that they may be united into one From which union springs a new form which is termed the
difficult wholly to expel the morbifick cause The subject Those persons who have a good constitution of body and are once recovered of a disease never suffer relapse but persons of a bad constitution often fall into it For in those the strength of the parts easily dissolves the morbifick cause but in these weak nature doth imperfectly expel the humor Helpful and hurtful Those that cannot regain perfect health being helped but by few things and hurt by many are in danger of a relapse For this signifies that the reliques of the morbifick cause do lurk in the body whence proceed relapses Effects If the actions excrements and qualities of persons recovering differ much from the natural constitution and return not to their former condition a relapse is to be feated in those whose feavers cease without the signes of concoction a recidivation is to be feared Hipp. 2. prog The noxious humors cannot be conveniently expelled unless they be first concocted and therefore although the feaver cease if the signes of crudity appear they shew that the morbifick matter is still retained within and will cause a relapse If after the Crisis is made the patient for a long time voyd thin water and very little coloured t is a signe of a relapse For it shews a weakness of nature which doth not perfect its concoction duly and in order whence arise new and fresh excrements by which we may expect a relapse THE FOURTH BOOK OF Physical Institutions WHICH IS THE HYGIASTICK PART OR TREATISE OF THE CONSERVATION OF HEALTH The Proem THe end of Physick is twofold viz. the conservation of health which is already enjoyed and recovery of that which is lost In the Hygiastick part is handled the former the latter in the Therapeutical That which contains the conservation of present health consists in the administration of six things not natural Those are Aire meat and drink motion and rest sleeping and waking excretions and retentions and the passions of the mind They are called not natural as being between natural and preternatural For those things are properly and absolutely natural which are ingredients to the constitution of a living body and are treated of in Physiology but these are said to be not natural because the right and true use of them preserves the health and then they are referred to natural causes but the preposterous and unlawful use of them produces diseases and then they are preternatural and the causes of almost all diseases as is declared in Pathology But there are some of them that are contained in the rank of things truly natural as motion of the body passions of the mind as the functions do proceed from their faculties but being considered as the use of them affects the body they are called not natural They are also said to be necessary because we cannot want nor be without their efficacy but they do continually and necessarily affect our bodies It may be objected that there are many other things that do alter our bodies which for this cause are to be numbred among those things which are not natural as the heaven water fire earth and the countrey or place of abode and therefore their number must be multiplied I answer That the heaven fire earth and countrey are reduced to aire because they act not on us but by the mediation of air water may be referred to drink if it be assumed but if it be applied as in a bath and lotions we deny it to be a necessary for that we may easily want it and therefore it is to be rased out of the catalogue of things not natural Therefore all this book shall treat wholly of the explication of the six things not natural wherein shall be shewn how to make use of them for the conservation of health and to defend the body as long as may be against the assaults of diseases we will begin with meat and drink because they are of most consequence and therein are most things do offer themselves to consideration CHAP. I. Of meat drink or of the matter of our nourishment NOurishment is that which being changed by the natural heat may be converted into the substance of our bodies and nourish it It differs from a medicine in this that a medicine is defined by Galen 1. simpl to be a thing that cannot alter the substance of our body nor as such be changed into it Yet there is a certain medium between these two partaking of both natures which may both nourish and alter and it is called a medicinal nourishment But there are several sorts of nourishments which are taken out of several things all which things notwithstanding are contained under the several sorts of plants and animals All sublunary things which are used in Physick are comprehended under a threefold head as plants animals and minerals Now every mixt thing endued with a nourishing faculty must of necessity have had life whereby minerals are excluded out of the number of things that nourish In the use of them are to be considered the substance quantity quality order time and hour of taking them the preparation custom delectation age and time of the year Of which we shall treat severally and as a consequence relate the qualities and faculties of those meats and sawces which are chief and most in use and at length discourse the use and substance of things potable CHAP. II. Of the substance of aliments BY the substance of the nourishments we understand the form and matter whereof they are composed Under the word form we comprehend that propriety of the whole substance by which the nourishment is made fit to be converted into the substance of our bodies Whence it is vulgarly said that the meat doth nourish us by reason of the likeness of substance it hath with our bodies Hence meats are said to be of good or evil juyce much or little nourishing according to the analogy which they hold with the substance of our bodies or according to their purity or mixt composure of the heterogeneous parts To the matter hardness softness thinness thickness heaviness lightness crassity tenuity clamminess and friability are related which although they be contained in the rank of second qualities yet because they are inherent to the matter and are therefore called material qualities as proceeding from the various mixture of moisture with driness they are referred to substance or mood of substance Therefore as to the substance those are said to be good and wholesome nourishments which beget good and wholesome juyce and few excrements and which are of a midling substance as being neither over hard thick or close nor oversoft thin or fine Of which sort is bread made of the purest flour of wheat new well baked and leavened mutton kids flesh veal capons hens pullets chickens partridges and other mountain birds and other things which shall be more copiously reckoned up hereafter Meats of evil juyce hard to be concocted of bad nourishment and begetting many excrements are
about to dye the Physician asked him what kind of diet he had formerly used He made answer that he was very much averse to that meat and drink and syrups and soft bed which they then used him to whereas before he had not slept for nineteen years in a bed and for his diet had used altogether onions and cheese and such like and had slept in the open aire onely upon straw The Physician permitted him one night to sleep in straw and to eat onions and salt and to drink cold water and although he thought this would the sooner kill him yet contrary to the opinion of all men the next day he found him sitting at the fire Use and custome is to be observed not onely in the substance bt also in the quality and quantity of meat and time of eating This rule also is borrowed from Hipp. Aph. 17. Sect. 1. It is to be considered saith he who ought to eat twice or oncea day and where to give more or less for much way is to be giving to the time country custome and age When meats to which the body is accustomed being bad do upon any occasion hurt the body they are to be changed and others which are better must be used so it be done by degrees for every sudden alteration is dangerous For many causes do manifest that the change of diet is sometimes necessary as when by such or such diet it appears that the diseases are cherished and increased sometimes age coming on is not able to concoct such meats as were easily digested in youth therefore if it seem necessary for any cause to change the course of diet it must be done by a little and a little which Hipp. teaches Aph. 51. Sect. 1. to empty or fill much and suddenly to heat or cool or to make any other kind of subitaneous alteration in the body is dangerous for every excess is hurtful to nature but that which is done by degrees is safe as at other times so when we proceed from one thing to another This may be confirmed by many examples but especially by the example of Dionysius Tyrant of Sicily who was much given to luxury and drunkenness Who being besieged and compelled by necessity finding that he must leave his wonted custome of drinking suddenly left it off which when he had done a little while he fell into a consumption neither could he recover till he fell to his accustomed manner of drinking again Though had he left that custome by degrees he could have received no dammage at all Those meats are first to be preferred which are most pleasing to a man though they be not altogether so good as those which he doth any way loath This Hipp. expresly teaches Aph. 38. Sect. 2. Meat and drink though it be not so good yet if it be more pleasing is to be preferred before that which is not so though it be better in quality For when the meat is acceptable to the palate it is more welcome to the stomach and the stomach more quickly and readily concocts it On the contrary it rejects that which is not so acceptable so that it neither receives it with greediness nor concocts it with expedition Under the protection of this Aphorisme many flattering Physicians do shelter themselves who to gratifie their patients deny them nothing that they covet But they erre shamefully and are condemned by Galen l. 12. method c. 1. As saith he he shews himself to be cruel that takes awaythe life of the patient with the disease so he that perpetually indulges to the palate of the patient regarding his pleasure not his health is a flatterer And 1. meth c. 1. he inveighs much against those flatterers Those that give cold water if the patient require it who wash when they bid who give wine and snow when they demand it like obedient slaves contrary to those ancient Physicians who were the true sons of Aesculapius who governed their patients as captains do their souldiers or Kings their subjects and would not obey like Getes Phrygian and Thracian slaves Therefore that there may be a certain proportion set down for these things which may be given to sick people Hipp. is to be consulted who thus speaks 6. Epid. Sect. 4. These are the things wherein the patient may be gratified and that the meat and drink may be purely tempered that what they see may be acceptable and what they feel soft but that they may do no harme or such as may be easily repaired as the giving them cold water where need requires and the like where these words are particularly to be noted which may not do any harme or such as may be easily repaired for if those things which the patient requires will do any considerable mischief they are utterly to be rejected CHAP. IX Of meat convenient for every age THe diet for children ought to incline to cold and moist and therefore wine is hurtful The bodies of children being endued with much heat have need of cooling diet Hence wine is dangerous for them because it increases heat and fills the head full of vapours for which reason Galen forbids it them in his 1. lib. of preserving health c. 9. and Plato 2. of laws teaches that children ought not to drink wine till they come to be twelve years of age That moist meat is most convenient for them Hipp. teaches Aph. 16. Sect. 1. moist diet is convenient for feaverish persons but most convenient for children And reason perswades the same for the body all this age being in its prime of growing the increase thereof is not to be hindered by drying meats besides that the substance of children easily dissolves and therefore is to be repaired with moist nourishment which is easily concocted and distributed A greater quantity of meat is to be given to them then to others by reason of the plenty of their heat and the growth of their bodies This Hipp. confirmes Aph. 14. Sect. 1. Those that are growing are full of natural heat and therefore want much nourishment otherwise their bodies would be consumed The reason of this Aphorisme is because the body being soft and tender the substance thereof is consumed by the great heat which must be repaired by store of nourishment By youths and young men a midling diet both as to the quantity and the quality is to be used Youths and young men have a more moderate temper and therefore to be nourished with temperate diet viz. such as hath a moderate proportion of the first qualities The quantity of them also ought to be moderate that is less then in children and more then is used in other ages Young men because they are extremely hot and dry are to use contrary diet that is cold and moist Although the diet prescribed to young men ought to be like the diet of children in relation to the qualities yet as to the substance it must be different whereas the moist nourishment prescribed to children ought
substance To the fifth I Answer That the concurrence of three things cause cogitation Faculty Instrument and Object all which being supplyed the mind operates indefatigably for not only waking but often also sleeping we exercise our cogitations because we use the object of the internal senses but both failing cogitation ceaseth as also in default of the Instrument viz. Animal spirit which is tyred with many operations whence the careful ingeniety of nature hath provided sleep for living creatures by the benefit of which as it were by a truce the Animal actions keep high Holy-day and the spirits are refreshed CHAP. III. Of Innate Heat Innate Heat is the primigenious moisture diffused thorough all the parts of the body and every where replete with implanted spirit and native Heat HEat is a concrete term which signifies not only an accident but the subject to which it inheres There are therefore three things concurring to the constitution of innate heat viz. primigenious moisture implanted spirit and native heat in the spirit is constant heat but this implanted spirit is alwayes in conjunction with this primigenious moisture and confused with it and from them so united results the innate heat The true understanding therefore of these three will cause an easy knowledg of the nature of innate heat and the implanted spirit was at large explained before the primigenious moisture and native heat only rest for explication Primigenious moisture is a humid fat and oily substance diffused thorough all the body by preying on which as its proper food the native heat is preserved Aristotle defines life to be the dwelling of native heat in certain moisture that therefore this heat the Author and preserver of life may long continue in the parts it wants certain fuel no lesse than our fire to keep it from extinction But moisture being two-fold in our body one waterish the other fat and aiery this vivifying heat cannot be fuelled by the waterish but by the fat and aiery moisture as a lampe or candle lighted is not inflamed by waterish but oily and pinguedinous liquor or some such like substance so Trees and other Plants which abound in this fat substance are of long continuance and excellent fuel when they are burned But on the other side green wood in which waterish humidity is as copious or wood of too much growth in which this fat humidity is exsiccated make no good fire But when we discourse of oily and fat substance we understand not that fat or grease which most commonly in women or idlers is collected about the skin and membranes but hardly comes nigh the substance of the bones nerves and bowels for those are not the subjects of vital heat but are rather by their over-growth an impediment to actions But this native and genital humidity according to its copiousness is more useful and commodious to the exercise of all functions and the prolongation of life It derives its original from the first principles of our generation viz. from the seed and maternal blood The first upstart of our generation is abundantly furnished with this radical moisture hence it is that when this is substantialized into the parts of our body the whole masse in the preface of life is very well stock'd with this moisture which afterward by the continual action of the native heat is by degrees as our Age posts away wasted and dryed till it arrives to the last stage of exsiccation whose consequence is the extremity of Age and natural death But the fat and oleous moisture of Aliments is the cause of preservation While this moisture continually suffers under the insulting activity of heat it would quickly fall into a consumption unlesse the losse were recompenced by the accesse of new aliment At the charge of this reparation are fit aliments prepared by divers coctions in which we find two-fold moisture one fat and aiery near related to the nature of the primigenious moisture and makes up the losse of it the other waterish keeping in repair the common humidity of the parts which breaks the force of heat lest it should consume this fat and aiery moisture as appears in Sugar Honey or Oyle when they are boiling that the water mixt with them encounters the forces of the external fire and is vanquished when they remain in their integrity or with smal diminution And though the loss caused by heat is continually repaired by new aliment yet that which is acquired in the place of what is lost is much worse and more impure and deficient both in quantity and quality otherwise it were possible for life to be stretch'd to infinity but this primigenious moisture by degrees decaying and it being impossible to equalize this diminution with any aliment it inferres an absolute necessity of death Native heat is a quality proper and familiar to all living creatures by the help of which they live and act It is in our bodies twofold one the consequent of the first mixtion of the body and parts which after the destruction of the creature removes not as long as mixtion keeps its dwelling which is made out of the foure Elements guarded with the retinue of their qualities the other proper onely to living creatures termed Vivifical because by it as long as it is our guest we obtain the advantage of nutrition growth conservation and life whence Aristotle defines Life as is before mentioned the conservation of this heat in certain moisture It is derived from the first principles as is the primigenious moisture The first principles of generation seed especially is well fraught with many spirits and much heat hence this heat in our first conception exactly commensurates all the parts and as long as it sojourns with us afterward increaseth and preserveth them Conservation proceeds from the primigenious moisture by the ambiency of air and influence of heat The primigenious moisture is the subject of native heat and its ordinary fare which it continually devours for its own safety as a Lamp alwayes needs Oyl for its conservation and Fire the continual addition of Fuel of which as plenty causeth the inflammation to rise higher and withdrawing it a diminution so native heat is increased or diminished according to the proportion of the primigenious moisture But as is before alledged this moisture never increasing but wasting from the very Prologue of our life it happens that the heat also is perpetually diminished to the Epilogue of our life And as our Fires lack not fuel alone for their preservation but also the kind embraces of Air by which they may be refreshed to refocillation for being confined to a narrow circumscription though they have sufficient fuel yet they are suffocated which is evident in Medical Cupping-glasses So our native heat wants the ambient air for commodious eventilation But this air by the benefit of the Lungs is conducted to the Heart which is the principal furnace of heat but to other parts by insensible transpiration by the defect of which the
neither retains its pure nature nor hath a sincere cause to which it may acknowledge its production A tertian feaver excited by sincere choler is called true and legitimate as also a quartan the effect of pure melancholy But those feavers are called bastard spurious and illegitimate when they have a confusion of other humors befides those now mentioned 3. In respect of the place or region in which diseases are generated some are called endemical some epidemical some sporadical Endemical diseases are those which are peculiar to some Region and are in it commonly powerful They are otherwise called vernacular and gentilitious because they are alwayes appendent to one Region by reason of the air aliments c. proper to that Countrey So the Inhabitants of the Alpes are troubled with a Bronchocele the Spaniards are perplexed with strumous swellings the Lusitanians pine away with tabifical consumptions and all these are judged Endemical diseases Epidemical diseases are those which in any Region rage among the popularity In this Endemical and Epidemical diseases are neerly related that they seise upon many and spend their fury upon the popularity But in this they differ that Endemical confine themselves alwayes to the same Countrey but Epidemical are indifferent and inclinable to forain invasions The reason of which is this because Endemical proceed from the peculiar disposition of the air water or dyet of the Countrey but Epidemical are caused by the air alone not infected by means of the place but rather by the malignant influences of superiour bodies The Sporadical are they which neither commonly range abroad nor particularize themselves to any Region They are also termed dispersed and are opposed to Endemical and Epidemical diseases because they are various and driven by contingences do sometimes light here sometimes there So in this or any other Region one is sick of a pleurisie another languishing by a continual or tertian feaver another troubled with a catarrhe nephretical pains gout dropsie or any disease of another nature according to the various nature and constitution of individuals Thus much of the nature and differences of diseases as well Essential as Accidental now it rests that we handle their Changes The second Section of PATHOLOGY Of the Changes of Diseases and chiefly of the Crises The First CHAPTER Of the Changes contingent in Diseases IN Diseases there are two mutations worth our notice either when they metamorphose into some other disease or when they are absolutely and simply dissolved without a transmigration into any other The change of one disease into another is frequently seen when the Apoplexy makes a transition into a Palsie a Tertian feaver into a Quartan a quartan the swelling of the liver or spleen and many other affections turn their stream and run into the channel of a Dropsie Diseases are absolutely and simply dissolved when without the intercession of any other disease they are determined either by health or death But their end in health or death is double To wit leisurely and by degrees or suddenly and unawares When a disease is slowly and by little and little ended in death it is called a Marasmus but when it is so ended in health it is called simply Solution by the Greeks termed Lysis When it is hastily and suddenly ended either by health or death it is called Crisis which is commonly opposed to Lysis or solution it being a frequent expression with Authors that all diseases are terminated by Crisis or Lysis CHAP. II. Of the nature of Crisis A Crisis is a sudden and unexpected change happening in a disease to health or to death HIppocrates and Galen use this term Crisis many wayes sometimes they intend by Crisis nothing else but a secretion of humors as Galen Comment on Aph. 13. Sect. 2. saith That a Crisis is caused by Nature separating the noxious humours from the good and preparing them for excretion But sometimes by Crisis they signifie excretion it self because the best Crisis is compleated by excretion So Hippocrates in his Book of Art terms the excretion of a corrupt bone a Crisis or lastly it is taken for a conflict which upon the imminency of a Crisis is usually waged between the disease and nature But the more frequent and usual acception of it is for judgement which construction hath been from Galen's age to this imbraced by many for Galen in his Comment on 1 Progn witnesseth that judication passed on diseases was derived from the Courts of Judicature and applyed to the Art of Medicine nor truly very improperly for though the things from whence these translations are taken be not altogether like yet the judgement passed in diseases hath some similitude with forensical judgement For in Courts of Judicature in capital causes there is the person that brings the action and the person guilty The person that brings the action maintains a conflict with the person guilty and constantly accuseth him produceth witnesses and menaceth death or punishment But if this accusation be falsly charged upon the person seemingly guilty he pleads boldly for himself and retorts the punishment on him that brings the action but if he cannot stand in contradictory opposition to the accusation he is forced to give up and yield All these things are transacted before a Judge who weighs them all and at last on a certain time gives judgement of the whole matter In the same manner in the Crisis the disease represents him that brings the action nature the person guilty the morbifick cause brings nature into the Court endevouring to overthrow it of this invasion the symptomes are witnesses which declare the whole progress of the contention But nature which is as it were in the capacity of a guilty person defends it self stoutly against its adversary disease whose resistance if she be well fortified she baffles and turns him off as an unjust Plaintiff and thrusts him out of Court but if she want good supports she must submit to the fury of her Antagonist All these things are points of accurate inspection to a Physician who after a serious pensitation of the strength of both parts gives sentence as a Judge and designes that day of judgement in which either the disease or nature shall be cast From hence it is evident that the comparison of a Crisis with Judicature is not wholly absurd and contemptible But to draw neerer to the very definition of a Crisis it being defined by mutation it is requisite to be known that in all motion according to the Philosophers there are many things considerable the point from which the point to which the medium through which motion is made motion the mover and the moveable All these things are perpetually found in a Crisis For the Mover is Nature it self performing coctions separating humors and at last expelling them on the Critical day The Moveable is the Morbifick cause and preternatural humors to which only a Crisis is incident The point from which a Crisis is derived is the augmentation
Five causes of a hot intemperature are alleaged 1 Motion 2 Putridity 3 The vicinity of an hot thing 4 Constipation 5 Meat and Drink over-hot as Galen ch 2. Book 2. of the Causes of Diseases First Motion heats the body by attenuating and violently hurrying the spirits MOtion doth not onely heat things animate but inanimate also as Aristotle 2 of Meteors ch 3. inanimate things by rarefaction because that disposition is previous to heat by which it effected the last preparation of the matter for production of heat potentially out of it But animals do more easily get heat by motion not only by reason of that attenuation but also because the spirits and heat which are actually in them are diffused thorough the whole body and thrust out to the superficies thereof Whence if motion be immoderate it produceth an hot intemperature To motion are also referred anger watching and all other things able to move the humors and spirts Secondly putridity heats the body by external heat which is alwayes introduced in its company Putridity is defined by Aristotle The corruption of native heat in every humid body by external heat But it is necessary that this heat should be very intense that it may corrupt the native heat whence in our bodies it will easily produce a hot distemper Thirdly The vicinity of hot things heats the body by a Physical and Mathematical contact So by fire or Summer sun the body is heated by a Physical contact by things hot applyed as plaisters baths c. and by a Mathematical contrary Fourthly constipation causeth a hot distemper by accident by reason of obstructed transpiration This is chiefly produced by swiming in alluminous water by the application of emplastick and obdurating medicines and other things increasing heat by antiperistasis while they hinder the dissipation thereof Fifthly hot aliments heat the body by producing in it hot humors As the use of onyons garleek spices and such like The causes of a cold distemper are six 1 Vicinity of cold bodies 2 The quality and quantity of things assumed 3 Constipation 4 Rarity 5 Over-much idleness 6 Immoderate motion As Galen ch 3. Book 2. of the Causes of Diseases First the body is refrigerated by external cold meeting with the concurrence of a fit disposition c. in the Patient So in Winter a body is often congealed by over-much cold So bathing in cold water cools the whole body Secondly the excess defect and incomplying quality of aliments can induce a cold distemper Excess of aliment chokes the native heat whence arises a cold distemper so an epile psie or apoplexy is the result of frequent drunkenness The defect of aliment causes the dissipation of heat in the parts as having not food sufficient for its conservation Whatsoever is assumed naturally too cold as lettice poppy mandrakes and the like do very much cool the body by themselves Thirdly much constipation chokes the heat whence proceeds a cold distemper Slight constipation causeth an hot distemper by hindring the dissipation of heat but much immoderate constipatiō causeth a contrary affection by suffocating heat Fourthly rarity dissipates and resolves heat whence by accident it induceth cold Fifthly idleness refrigerates the body for that the native heat languisheth for want of exercise Sixthly the native heat is dissipated by immoderate motion whence by accident it refrigerates Of a dry temperature the causes are two 1 Alteration 2 Resolution First those things dry by alteration which have strength enough to exiccate the body So drying aliments medicines a dry constitution of the air do dry the body Secondly those things dry the body by resolution which cause a greater dissipation of the humidity of our body than can be counterpoised by restauration So violent exercitation the embraces of over-heated air immoderate watches resolves the humidity of the body So humidity is dissipated by the hindrance of due reparation which is caused by care and anxiety hunger or food affording small nutriment such as is very excrementous and astringent because it hinders the distribution of nutritive humor thorough the members Humid intemperatures are ascribed to two causes 1 Alteration 2 Retention of humid things First those things introduce a moist intemperature by alteration which are very prevalent in moistning the body So the immoderate use of moist meats copious tipling of water a moist constitution of the air a bathing in warm water and such like the usual product of which is a moist distemper Secondly a moist distemper is said to be introduced by retention of things humid when some customary evacuation is suppressed Amongst the usual evacuations are numbred not those onely which are sensibly made but those also which are made insensibly viz. by insensible transpiration And these are the causes of simple distempers But the causes of compounded distempers may easily be gathered from those before named viz. by joyning all the causes which the two peccant qualities are able to produce But the immediate causes of compounded tempers are principally peccant humors and these distempers are like the peccant humor for choler causeth the hot and dry flegme the cold and moist and so of the rest But those humors become copious in the parts two wayes 1 By fluxion 2 By congestion Fluxion is caused two wayes viz. when either the humors are expelled by the mission of the parts or when they are attracted by the reception of them In fluxion which is caused by expulsion two conditions are requisite viz. first the strength of the part expelling secondly the imbecility of the part receiving So the liver by its strength expels preternatural humors to the groin or the skin parts naturally infirm producing in them swellings itch and other affections In fluxion caused by attraction two conditions principally concur viz. the heat or pain of the attractive part Attraction is proper to heat therefore the hot parts are prevalent in attraction but being sensible of pain they seek help therefore they attract the humors and spirits to their rescue which after by reason of their copiousness they cannot keep in good order which is the cause of divers affections Secondly by congestion the humors become copious in the parts in default of the nutrition of them So when in some part the aliment is not well assimilated or the expulsion of excrements generated in assimilation then superfluities abound in it by congestion CHAP. IV. Of the Causes of Organical diseases The natural shape of the parts is perverted either in the first generation or after it In the first generation when the formative virtue is unable to fashion all the parts aright which is caused upon three grounds 1 By reason of the imbecility of the formative virtue 2 By the defect in matter 3 By an hereditary disposition First the parts are ill-shaped by default of the formative virtue when a mans parents are of a very infirm nature Secondly by default of the matter viz. when it is peccant in quantity or quality
eat large suppers their sleep is unquietly and interrupted so that the greatest part of them are forced to eat but moderately and some to abstain altogether from eating at night Hence it was wisely said by Manardus Epist 4. l. 6. a light supper is profitable for the eyes and head But that this truth may be more clear we must give some satisfaction as to the authorities and reasons brought to the contrary And first to the authorities of Hipp. Celsus and Galen we oppose that t is true we are by them satisfied that it was the custome of the ancients to eat little at dinner much at supper nevertheless because they eat very little at dinner they had more reason to eat largly at supper And indeed that meal taken at supper had need of more time for concoction then if taken at dinner But in our times when dinners are so large we cannot imitate the ancients at supper And without doubt the ancients had done better if what they did eat at supper they had eaten at dinner and if that which they took at dinner they had taken at supper To this may be added that their hour of supper was not the same with ours for the Romans using to dine but sparingly and eating a little in the morning did sup three hours before sun-set so that they had almost digested their meat before they went to sleep But to the first reason alledged in opposition to this opinion we answer that all sort of rest is not so convenient to help forward concoction when as a soft and gentle motion after meals causeth the meat to descend to the bottom of the stomach and stirs up the natural heat that it may the better intend its work Hence the vulgar verse After supper stand a while Or else walk a mile To the second we say that the vital spirits indeed are more strong in sleep but that they do not flow into the stomach and other parts in that abundance as when a man wakes for in sleep they retire to their fountains but when a man wakes they are diffused abroad To the third we answer that the double space of time coming betwen dinner and supper would require a double proportion of nourishment if the digestion were equally made in both meals But because the digestion is not so soon dispatched after supper as we have shewn that longer time was necessary To the fourth we say that the constitution of wrestlers is not commended by Galen 1. Aph. 3. and in lib. of good habit of body in suas to arts nay he saith that they are short lived and full of diseases To restore and fatten the body meat eaten at supper doth more avail but it produces diseases from the plenty of humors that proceed from that course of diet And therefore persons recovering from a disease are more refreshed by a larger supper but they are in greater danger of a relapse To the fifth and sixth we say that in sleep the heat draws to the center and retires to its fountains viz. the heart and liver Hence better concoctions are made in the veines and arteries whence there is nothing more profitable then sleep to concoct evil humors in continual feavers and there is nothing which more hinders the concoction of them then waking continually Hence drunkards are said to sleep away their surfits fulness of crudity which are caused in the veins by an over-repletion of drink But there is a far different reason for the concoction in the stomach which proceeds more imperfectly when nature is intent upon the distribution of meats already concocted as also on the digestion of the evil humors from which work it is not a little distracted by the concoction of the meats in the stomach especially if there be any quantity The most seasonable hour of dining is about two or three hours before noon which is much wholesomer then either at noon or after By dining at a seasonable hour we gain two things First a longer time till supper that the first concoction may be perfected Secondly because it is then colder which is most to be aimed at in summer which coldness helps concoction Thirdly for that a man is stronger because nearer the hour of his last preceding sleep which produced many new spirits which render the whole body more strong and cheerful and we see every where that those who take their meat in best season live longest and that those who dine later are more diseased and of a shorter life CHAP. VII Of the preparation of the nourishment SOme meats require an artificial preparation to fit them for the nourishment of the body and others are sufficiently prepared by nature that we may take them just as nature presents them to us of the first sort are flesh and fish and the like of the latter all ripe fruits The preparation of meats is performed by coction which is threefold boyling rosting frying or broyling Boyling is twofold either when things are boyled in water and then they retain the name of boyling so that flesh in this manner prepared is called boyled or else when they seeth them in their own liquor over a gentle fire and then they are called pottage-meats Celsus writes that pottage-meats do nourish more then rosted and those more then fryed But we adde that boyled meats nourish least of all because they lose much of their nourishing juyce in the pottage Yet boyling is more praised as to the common use because that which is lost in the flesh is found in the broth Then also flesh grows softer by boyling so that it is more easily dissolved and concocted in the stomach Roasting of mutton is the better if first the flesh be beaten with a wooden pestle as is customary with cookes for so it becomes more tender and loose and more easie to be penetrated by the heat of the fire The other preparations of meat serving to the preservation of health shall be proposed in their particular descriptions But those which are for delight and luxury must be referred to the art of cookery CHAP. VIII Of custome and delight in the use of meats MEats to which a man accustomes himself though they are not so good yet are more profitable then unwonted diet This theorem is confirmed by Hipp. 50. Sect. 2. where he saith that those things to which a man is accustomed by long time though worse yet are less troublesome then things to which a man is unaccustomed For custome is a second nature seeing that meats used a long time do alter nature and render it of the same likeness By nature we understand the temper of the body which becomes like the nourishment to which it is long accustomed Now the force of this custome is proved by many examples in many authors One onely shall suffice us related by Solenander Phys Couns Sect. 5. Coun. 15. of a certain countryman who being brought to the hospital could be cured by no remedies at length as he was
in the Spring is better then that gathered in Autumn as being taken from new wax and generated from new plants Summer Hony is worse then that which is gathered in the Spring because it is more sharp and hot The winter Hony is worst of all for it evaporates from the wax and growes thick CHAP. XXIV Of Drink and the matter fit for Drink PVre water is cold and moist that is best which is clear limpid without any muddinesse or matter swimming in it without any taste or smell thin and smooth which runs speedily through the Hypochondrium and is presently distributed through the body soon hot and soon cold To these marks of good water may be added two more viz. Take two linnen rags of the same weight and moisten them in two several sorts of water and then dry them in the sun if one be dry'd before the other that water is the best when they are both dry weigh them again and if one be lighter then the other that water is the best As to the places whence water is taken fountain water is to be preferred so it have the above named qualities for if it want them it is to be rejected Hip. li. de loc Aer aq sets down other properties that it should flow toward the Eastern Sun especially in the summer That it should glide through clean ground neither muddy nor clayie but through sand and gravel and which is hot in the winter and cold in the summer For that shews that it flowes from the deep bowels of the earth which by Antiperistasis are hot in the winter and cold in the summer Those that rise against the Northern or Southern Sun are worse as being raw and heavy and passing slowly through the body Rain water next to fountain water is counted best and by some preferred before it if it have its due properties which are these that it be brought in earthen pipes into a covered cistern if it passe through a gravelly place if it fall in the spring time in gentle showers and not in storms if it be kept in a very clean cistern and that it wash down along with it no filth from the tiles We have given the first place to fountain water according to the opinion of Hip. Galen and Avicen But there are many reasons why rain-water is to be preferred before it And first Celsus l. 2. c. 18. The lightest Water is Rain next Fountain next River next Well next Snow next Icie-water the more heavie is Lake-water the heaviest of all is Puddle-water Aetius Tetrabib l. 1. serm 3. c. 165. Rain-water saith he is the lightest of all and is most quickly chang'd Hip. l. de Aer loc aq praises rain-water as being light sweet clear and thin for that it being the lightest and thinnest part is drawn up by the Sun Vitruv. l. 8. c. 9. The Water saith he which is collected from showres hath more wholsome vertues because it is drawn up from the most clear and subtle fountains and then strein'd by the motion of the air it descends melting in showres upon the earth Averroes in Cant. saith that rain-rain-water is the best and more excellent then river or fountain-water These authorities are backt also by experience for rain-water being weigh'd proves lightest cools and heats quickly oppresses not the Hypochondrium but passes suddenly through the body having neither in colour smell nor taste any manifest quality The thinness of it appears in this that pulse are sooner boyled in it then in fountain-water Besides all sorts of plants do shew the wholsomnesse of rain-water which are better nourished with rain then with any artificial watring Nay as Pliny affirms reeds that grow in puddles will not come to maturity nor increase without rain And Aristotle 8. l. de hist Animal that the fish themselves which live continually in the water do not live nor engender well in dry years You will say that the humours dissolved into vapours and carried up by their levity to the stars do borrow from them a certain vivifick vertue which it afterwards imparts to the things below It may be objected that snow and hail are of the same matter with rain yet the water which they melt into is rejected by all Paulus answers that snow and icie water is of all the most pernicious because all the thin parts are prest out by the congelation Secondly It may be objected out of Galen that rain-water suddenly putrefies and hath an astringent quality But Paulus answers in these words Let no man imagine putrefying water to be the worst when the proclivity which it hath to alteration proceeds from its vertue not from its vice And Galen himself 1 de fac Alim saith that those things which are easily concocted are easily corrupted and on the contrary those things which are hard of digestion are slow to corrupt As to the binding quality there is an answer given by Avicen who saith that rain-water therefore seems binding because it is presently distributed and passeth presently to the urinary passages Hence it happens that the excrements not being well moisten'd through their drinesse beget astriction for of it self rain-water cannot binde when as it is so thin and airy for those things that binde are of a terrene substance By this which hath been said it appears that rain-water seems to be preferred Yet with the consent of most approved Authors we do prefer the fountain because if it have the conditions before mentioned it remains in the same state and is not altered by external causes On the contrary rain-water requires so many properties which depend on outward things that it is difficult for them all to concur so that if any one of them be wanting it necessarily loseth of its perfection that is if it fall from tiles not well washed or be kept in foul cisterns or be not fill'd up in a convenient time Now there is a doubt when is the fittest time to receive this rain water since there are not a few that do affirm from Hipp. that water preserved in the summer time and descending with thunder is to be preferred by reason that it is the most thin and light But notwithstanding such water by reason of its thinness and lightness hath a certain prerogative yet because in the summer time various exhalations do arise out of the earth which retain something of the nature of minerals and are mingled with the vapours that cause rain therefore those waters are not so commendable which is hence manifest because they do suddenly putrefie and worms are often bred therein For lightning and thunder arise from sulphurous exhalations which do many times infect the air with their smell Besides in the summer time the waters of lakes puddles and ditches contract a putrefaction and the vapours that rise from them are part of the matter of rain which is therefore vitious and easily corruptible For these reasons we prefer that water which is preserved in the spring when
the lakes pools and ditches are full of water and that pure through the plenty of rain which fell in the winter Besides it would be impossible to preserve for the whole year water enough in the summer when there fals but little rain and that not lasting many hours And experience teaches us this at Monspeliers where they use much rain-water and preserve it in the spring and winter that that is best which hath all the properties above mentioned especially for the boyling of pulse whereby they grow extremely soft when as in other waters they retain a hardnesse though for a longer time boyl'd Well-water is thick and heavy so that it sticks in the bowels and begets obstructions yet there 's a great difference between well-waters so that some do contend in goodnesse with the fountain that is if they have the following properties if they have fountains of good water near them for you may then imagine that they borrow their waters thence 2. If they be drawn out of deep wells for such are hot in the winter and cold in the summer and lesse liable to external injuries 3. If the sun do freely come at them For the light of the sun doth purifie them and communicates to them a certain vital spirit 4. If they be often moved and exhausted for by that they are made thin and putrefie lesse 5. If they be well and often made clean 6. If they are remote from privies and dunghils whence they may derive any evil quality Those which have contrary qualities are to be accounted noxious For those which are not deep unlesse they arrive from some fountain are liable to all external injuries they freez in winter are hot in summer like standing pools If they be shut up under roofs they are depriv'd of the light of the sun and are defiled with a slimy muck If they be unmov'd they grow thick remain raw contract putrefaction offend the stomack pass difficultly and hurt the bowels If they are near dunghils and privies they become tainted with an ill smell and savour River-waters contend with well waters for goodnesse and are sometimes to be preferred before them sometimes not so well to be esteemed of But there is great variety in river waters for those are best which are sweet and clear and drawn out of swift and rapid streams and which flow in good grounds and in a temperate region but those are bad which are drawn out of still muddy and troubled rivers or out of great and running streams which receive the filth of sinks kitchings and privies Hence rivers that run by the walls of great cities have much filthinesse in them and generate many diseases unlesse this caution be used that the places destin'd for the drawing of water be there only where no filth or excrement is cast in For otherwise if the water which runs by a City be us'd it is very unwholsome This caution also is to be observed in the use of river-water that it be kept in cisterns for some daies for it settles and all the terrestrial and muddy parts sink down to the bottom The water of standing pools and lakes is the worst of all for by reason they have but little motion they soon putrefie they are thick raw and sometimes pestilent and malignant Snow water also and ice-water are very bad for while they are congeal'd by the cold the more thin parts exhale forth besides they have an extraordinary coldnesse that hurts the stomack which is to be also understood of snow and ice-water preposterously used for though young and strong men do not presently perceive the mischief as they grow old they finde it and it brings them into various diseases of the joynts bowels and nervous parts With us it is in this age now in fashion to drink snow and ice-water to cool themselves and not a few refrigerate their wine therewith Which custome is much disputed about not only among the Physitians but also among the vulgar some praising other condemning it Since therefore we have so fit an occasion to speak our opinion we shall accordingly set down our judgement therein First in the Theorem we have already condemn'd the drinking of water cold with snow but with this addition if it be preposterously used which must be accurately explained for first of all that sort of drink is so cold being generally considered that it seems to be absolutely condemned according to the opinion of Hipp. Aph. 51. sect 1. to empty or fill much or suddenly to heat or cool or any other way to disturb the body is dangerous for every excesse is an enemy to nature but what is done by degrees is safe Therefore when the body in the heat of summer is extraordinarily hot to cool it suddenly with that icy drink seems very dangerous the effect of this danger may be confirm'd by the many examples of those who by using this drink have fell into terrible diseases not a few of which we have seen and cured On the other side they are infinite who extoll this drink to the skies confirming their opinion both by reason and experience The first reason is taken hence that our natural heat uses violently to be opposed and extinguished by two great enemies the cold extinguishing and the heat dissipating which makes our bodies in the vehement heat of summer to be languid and faint the hot air as it were inflaming the parts of our body and dissolving their heat which dissolution cannot be hindred but by the taking and applying of refrigerating things And therefore as in all ages baths and swimming in cold water have been conveniently us'd to temper this heat of the body so also cold drink inwardly taken produceth the same effects Secondly drink is necessary to restore the natural moisture which is continually consumed and dissipated by the natural heat but drink as being moist performs that work yet if heat were joyned with this moisture it would forward the resolution of the moisture and therefore generally men desire cold drink in the very winter time to temper that internal heat and stop the resolution But it is much more necessary in the summer time when there is a great dissipation of the moisture through the intense heat of the bowels Lastly the coldest drink us'd in the summer is best as appears by the testimony of many men who affirm that they have been freed from many diseases by drinking water cold with ice or snow Also in Spain and Italy from the time that this drink came in use malign and pestilent Feavers are lesse common in the summer then formerly But our opinion is this First there is no doubt but that drink moderately cold is most convenient for all men And therefore it hath been an old custome for men to preserve their Wine in cellars under ground for their use in summer and to draw water out of the deepest wells if they be good and to mix them in their Wine if not good to
cool their Wine in the wells themselves And we can teach them to make their Wine more cold that way if they put down the pots of Wine into the well so low as the nose thereof do not touch the water for the air which is near the water is more cold and pierces the bottles sooner then the water it self But for drink cool'd with ice and snow which hath a more intense and freezing coldnesse there is more difficulty in that Therefore as to that the above mentioned Aphorism of Hipp. is of great force to cool or heat much and suddenly is dangerous To the resolving of which doubt we say that in a countrey and season very hot it may be us'd by young men of a strong nature hot temper and free from ill humours For then the bowels require such things as are strong and forcible especially where they have been us'd to such drink with much exercise But to others who are aged or very young and have weak entrails of a flegmatick or melancholy temper and full of excrementitious humours living an idle life and accustoming themselves to little exercise and much venery it is most dangerous Seeing therefore there are so many circumstances required to make this drink usefull and those found in so few men it is better to abstain from it and to use drink cool'd after the same manner as I have related which is most convenient for the preservation of health But because the custom of cooling Wine with ice is now so much in fashion that many are forced to drink it at banquets wanting other drink whence I have seen many very much to suffer We have thought it worth the while to invent a way to make it lesse dangerous And therefore we give this precept that before they drink they eat good store of meat and those hot salted and peppered by which the stomack being heated may be able the better to resist the vehement coldnesse of the drink Next let him drink but little and that but little mingled And to satisfie thirst recompense the smalnesse of the quantity by often drinking for so the harm of that cold drink may be pretty well avoided The same caution they may observe who are of a hotter temper who in the dog daies are very fiery and subject to burning Feavers and therefore drink this sort of drink hoping thereby great benefit that they do not use it for some few daies but in a little quantity and often drinking Wine generally considered in the active qualities is hot in the passive dry It cherishes our heat strengthens the heart increases the spirits refreshes the strength purges choler by urine and forwards the expulsion of all the excrements By Wine generally considered we mean that which principally deserves to be called Wine and which growes in hot or temperate Countreys and is pressed out of ripe grapes and rightly made in the tub yet there is so much difference that some is hot and dry in the third degree some in the second and some in the fourth degree But that which is pressed from unripe grapes which is sowre and sharp deserves not the name of Wine But concerning the passive qualities of Wine great difficulty arises by reason that both authorities and reasons differ therein For first Aristot 17. Prob. sect 3. saith expresly that Wine is hot and moist Secondly Gal. 3. de caus puls c. ult affirms that Wine speedily nourishes by reason of its moisture and that so much the more because it is hot Thirdly Gal. 1. de san tuen c. 11. forbids Wine to children for many causes but especially because it moistens them too much and fils them with vapours and in the same place he writes that Wine moistens what ever is immoderately and extraordinarily dry Fourthly Gal. 5. de san tuen c. 5. saith that Wine is most fit for old men not only because of the weak heat which then they have but because of its moisture Fifthly Plato 2. de leg saith that Dionysius gave Wine to men as a remedy against the hardnesse of old age that they might seem to wax young again their bodies being softned in Wine as iron in fire Sixthly Hipp. of diet That black sweet Wines and thin sweet Wines do moisten Seventhly The juice of ripe grapes of which Wine is made is hot and moist Hipp. 2. de diaeta Eighthly Wine is most grateful to humane nature which is hot and moist Ninthly Wine is good for melancholy people who require moistening whence the proverb As long as they are moistened so long they are cured On the contrary that Wine is dry seems prov'd by the following reasons and authorities First Gal. 8. simpl de vin That heat and drinesse are equally proportioned in it Secondly Paulus Aegineta l. 7. c. 3. confirms this opinion of Galen Thirdly Aetius tetrab sec c. de vin saith old Wine is hot in the third degree Fourthly l. 2. Synops c. 15. he saith Wine is dry in the second degree And c. 16. in the third degree if it be very old Fifthly Wine contains much spirit being of a fiery nature and easily inflam'd Sixthly It is good for flegmatick and being immoderately drunk it provokes thirst and parches the bowels whence a red colour and pimples in the face of drunkards Seventhly It is most useful for the cure of ulcers as Gal. teaches 4. meth c. 5. but ulcers are cured by cleansing and drying For the decision of this controversie there is a double distinction to be observed the one as to moisture the other as to the Wine The moisture is twofold actual and potential and both these natural or artificial Wine is either unripe sowre and imperfect or ripe and perfectly concocted Then secondly it is either new or old and both these either strong or small These things premised we say that Wine is actually moist when as every fluid substance is actually moist Potentially it is dry if it be ripe generous and not too new as we have set down in the Theoreme But that which is crude and acid very new as also sweet is more predominantly moist For being raw it abounds with a flegmatick watry moisture rather natural then accidental being new it abounds with much moisture that is consum'd by fermentation in the tub Having thus premised these distinctions we shall let alone the authorities and reasons brought for the drinesse thereof and only answer to those that are brought for the moisture thereof To the first we say That Aristotle cals Wine actually moist not potentially To the second we answer That Galen considers Wine as it nourishes in which respect it is moist actually and by reason of that actuall humidity it is easily distributed and changed whence we say that it speedily nourishes To the third we reply That Galen forbids children to drink Wine not that it doth potentially but actually moisten them for it heats and fils the head with vapours and so causes many diseases but chiefly convulsions To
that in buying ground the wholesomnesse of the air is first to be lookt at For no sound man ought to lay out his money in a pestilent air though never so fruitful a soil when the enjoyment thereof is so hazardous And therefore a temperate air both for heat and cold is to be sought almost begirt with a hill which neither freezes with continual frost in the winter nor too much evaperates in the summer nor at the top of a hill subject to all wind and weather An exquisitely tempered air as it were in the middle between hot and cold moist and dry fits a contrary constitution best So it is better for those of a hot temper to live in a moist air and for those that are of a colder temper to live in a hot air those that are dry love a moist those that are moist love a dry aire But when every one cannot finde out an air fit and proper for his constitution we must supply by art what nature denies Thus a hot air is to be cooled a cold air heated a moist to be dry'd a dry air moisten'd If for a hot body we want a cold air which is not such either through the situation of the Countrey or house it must be brought to a coldnesse by often watering by the use of cold flowers and plants by opening windows to the north that the wind may cool the house If the air be cold it must be heated with good fires all the crannies and inlets of the house must be stopped up to hinder the approach of the cold or else to live in a stove as the Germans and all the northern people do A moist air must be dry'd by suffumigations and fires a dry air by irrigations of waters must be moisten'd A hot air renders the body hot melts the humours attenuates and dissolves them weakens the natural strength if the heat be immoderate weakens concoction and makes life short Aristotle would have the Lybians and those that inhabit the sun burnt parts of Lybia to be short liv'd because the sundries up their natural heat and hastens age through the drynesse of the body A cold air cools the body thickens bindes and helps concoction increases plenty of urine causeth Catarrhs and other diseases of the head if the cold be intense The heat being driven inward by the force of the ambient air is more strong and vigorous Therefore Hipp. saith that the belly is hotter in winter by which heat concoction is the sooner performed Cold air increases urine by reason that the pores of the body being shut the humours that were to expire being kept within condense and are carried to the passages of the urine and therefore the matter of sweat and urine is the same so that the sweat flowing out there is lesse plenty of urine and the sweat being stopped there comes forth a greater plenty of urine So common experience teaches that in winter time and when the North wind blows men do pisse in greater quantity But in the summer time and when the South winds blow in a far lesse quantity but if the cold be intense it causes catarrhs through the coldnesse of the brain cold being very hurtfull to the brain as Hipp. teaches in Aph. A moist air softens the skin moistens the body increases excrements makes it slow and heavy brings a dulnesse upon the wit A dry air dries the body diminisheth the excrements makes the body nimble and the senses quick A troublesome cloudy air fils the body full of ill humours and impure spirits increases flegm in the flegmatick Daily experience teaches that in moorish plashy places or near great rivers or which have a thick and troubled air through any other cause putrid and malignant Feavers are most common CHAP. XXVI Of the seasons of the year TO the air are referred the seasons of the year because of the great variety in them Astrologers have divided the year into four equall parts So that the Spring should begin the Sun entring into Aries and end when he leaves Gemini The Summer from the beginning of Cancer to the end of Virgo Autumn from the beginning of Libra to the end of Sagittarius and Winter from the beginning of Capricorn to the end of Pisces But the Physitians and divers people measure the seasons of the year by the temper of the air and as the air in some places is naturally more hot in others colder there the summer there the winter is longer So Hipp. defines the winter in Thasus where he liv'd 3. de diaet From the setting of the Pleiades or the beginning of November to the vernal Equinoctial the Spring from the vernal Equinox to the rising of the Pleiades or the 7. day of May the Summer from the rising of the Pleiades to the rising of Arcturus or the middle of September Autumn from the rising of Arcturus to the setting of the Pleiades By which computation four moneths and ten daies are allowed the Winter and as many to the Summer but two moneths only and some daies to the Spring and hardly two moneths to Autumn In the Northern Countreys the cold is most fierce in the Equinox that the Winter season may be said to last five moneths and more Prosper Alpinus l. 1. de med Aegypt c. 7. writes that the air is remperate in Aegypt and that the Spring flourishes in January and February that the Summer begins in March and lasts to the end of August that Autumn is in September and October and that the Winter lasts only November and December therefore from the temper of the air the times of the year according to the doctrine of the Physitians are to be defin'd by the following Theorems The Spring is the most temperate of all the seasons of the year and is in the middle between the first qualities neither being over cold and moist as in the Winter nor over hot and dry as in the Summer Hipp. in his Book of Humane Nature saith that the Spring is hot and moist which is to be understood in comparison of other seasons for in respect of the Winter it may be said to be hot in respect of Summer cold but considered in it self without any other relation it may be said to be temperate Which Galen shows in his first Book of Temperaments by common experience For seeing that we do not freeze as in Winter the Spring keeping its natural constitution nor are oppressed with heat as in the Summer nor abound with humors nor are tormented with drought nor feel any manifest excesse of these qualities we must necessarily judge the spring to be temperate But this moderate temper is not to be found through the whole course of the Spring for at the beginning it resembles Winter and at the end it is like Summer The Spring is the most wholesome season of the year according to Hipp. Aph. 9. sect 3. The Spring approaching our bodies which were bound in Winter begin to be loose and
Coindicants do not a little conduce and especially the forming of the parts the situation and connexion So the Ventricle is purged by vomit and stool the hollow part of the Liver by dejection or loosnesse the convex part by provocation of urine chiefly To the guis we apply remedies through the fundament In the same manner Correpugnants are to be considered which prohibit the use of the remedy For example the inflamed orifice of the stomack might be externally refrigerated if the nearnesse of the Diaphragma did not hinder it and so also the outward calefaction of it when it is cool'd is hindered by the lappet of the Liver which lies upon it CHAP. VI. Of the first and most general principle of Curation ALL methods of curing are taken from this first and most general principle Contraries are cured by contraries Although there is no disputing of principles they being to be granted for true and unquestionable as Galen teaches of this principle of Curation that in Physick 't is as certain that contraries are cured by contraries as in Mathematicks that twice two are four and that this principle is not only bred in men by nature but also in beast Yet there are some objections which at first sight do seem to question the truth thereof 1. Tetanus is a cold disease yet is cured by cold water pain is eas'd by pain vomit by vomit loosnesse by loosnesse 2. All contraries are made more intense by the approach of contraries as if a man put his hand to the fire when it is num'd with cold it is more tormented also if a man put his burnt finger into cold water it torments him more then if he should hold it to the fire or dip it in Aqua vitae 3. Purging medicines are proper remedies against peccant humours yet they purge those humours by a familiarity not a contrariety which they have with those humours 4. Nature useth to cure both hot and cold diseases with which it can be at no contrariety 5. Diseases have no contrariety of number magnitude or figure by which they may be taken away To satisfie these Objections we must say that the word Contrariety hath a larger signification with the Physitians then with the Philosophers being not only with them considered as to the form but as to the effect and operation For what ever can remove a thing which is besides nature or induce a contrary effect whether it be by it self or by accident is named contrary So Rhubarb is contrary to choler as it purges it forth so Iron and fire is contrary to superfluous flesh because it takes it away which being thus premised it will be easie to answer these objections To the first we say that the Tetane is cured by the effusion of cold water by accident the heat being increased by Antiperistasis in the interior parts pain is taken away accidentally by pain while the new pain draws to it self the cause of the new pain vomit is cured by vomit loosnesse by loosnesse the cause being evacuated which occasioned them To the second we say That the contention of contraries is troublesome to nature if it be sudden and vehement but if it be moderate and convenient it is very agreeable so the hand benumm'd with cold being held to the fire is tormented because there is too sudden a contention of contraries but being put into luke-warm water or wrapp'd in warm linnen it come to it self so the finger being burnt and held to the fire or dipp'd in Aqua vitae is eas'd in respect of the cause for the hot things draw forth the fire fixed in the part which the water drave farther in To the third I answer That though purging remedies are of a familiar substance with the peccant humours yet they may effectively be said to be contrary because they purge them and draw them out of the body To the fourth I answer That nature is contrary to all diseases by reason that it concocts and expels the cause of them To the fifth we say That those things are effectively contrary to number magnitude and figure which do take away or alter them as iron fire ligatures and the like Those contraries as much as may be ought to be equal among themselves That equality is indicated from the nature of the disease and the morbifical cause which indicate a sudden removal thereof But the strength part affected and time of the disease and other circumstances are equally repugnant to them Therefore in the Theorem is added this particle as much as may be because the equality of contraries is not absolutely necessary to curation but only to the more commodious curation if the rest agree The equality of the remedy in respect of the disease is doubly considered either according to the degree copiousnesse or magnitude An equal remedy as to the degree is that which hath the same recesse from the mean as the disease Thus a cold remedy in the second degree is equal to a disease hot in the second An equal remedy according to the magnitude and copiousnesse is that which besides the degree of its quantity being exhibited once twice or more times may purge out the disease In this sense a moderate and vehement remedy may be said to obtain an equality against any disease when as being vehement once or twice taken being moderate oftner used it avails to remove the disease Moreover equality in degree is so either actually and really or else in respect only of the operation Thus in similar diseases there is granted a degree of contrariety existing in act as a hot remedy in the second degree us'd to a cold disease in the second degree But in diseases as to the form of the part magnitude or number the remedies are said to be equall according to the operation which they make appear in restoring the form magnitude or number of parts By that which we have above said may all the objections be easily resolved which wont to be brought against the contrariety of qualities of which the chief are these 1. Hipp. 6. Epid. saith contraries must be used by degrees and with intermission 2. Galen forbids efficacious and violent remedies at the beginning commanding us to begin with the weakest at first 3. The efficacy of cold is lesse then that of heat the efficacy of moisture lesse then that of drought and therefore are not to be opposed in an equal degree 4. To hot and cold diseases in the fourth degrees must not be exhibited remedies hot and cold in the fourth degree for they are poyson 5. If all diseases were cured by equal contraries the proportion of the agent should be equall in all things to that which suffers and so the same suddennesse of alteration and so all sick people would be cured in the same time 6. Reduction according to Galen ought to be made in sound bodies by equall contraries and in sick persons those which are most strong ought to be used because the