SUBSECT. I.—Of Physic which cureth with Medicines.

After a long and tedious discourse of these six non-natural things and their several rectifications, all which are comprehended in diet, I am come now at last to Pharmaceutice, or that kind of physic which cureth by medicines, which apothecaries most part make, mingle, or sell in their shops. Many cavil at this kind of physic, and hold it unnecessary, unprofitable to this or any other disease, because those countries which use it least, live longest, and are best in health, as [4079]Hector Boethius relates of the isles of Orcades, the people are still sound of body and mind, without any use of physic, they live commonly 120 years, and Ortelius in his itinerary of the inhabitants of the Forest of Arden, [4080] they are very painful, long-lived, sound, &c. [4081]Martianus Capella, speaking of the Indians of his time, saith, they were (much like our western Indians now) bigger than ordinary men, bred coarsely, very long-lived, insomuch, that he that died at a hundred years of age, went before his time, &c. Damianus A-Goes, Saxo Grammaticus, Aubanus Bohemus, say the like of them that live in Norway, Lapland, Finmark, Biarmia, Corelia, all over Scandia, and those northern countries, they are most healthful, and very long-lived, in which places there is no use at all of physic, the name of it is not once heard. Dithmarus Bleskenius in his accurate description of Iceland, 1607, makes mention, amongst other matters, of the inhabitants, and their manner of living, [4082]which is dried fish instead of bread, butter, cheese, and salt meats, most part they drink water and whey, and yet without physic or physician, they live many of them 250 years. I find the same relation by Lerius, and some other writers, of Indians in America. Paulus Jovius in his description of Britain, and Levinus Lemnius, observe as much of this our island, that there was of old no use of [4083]physic amongst us, and but little at this day, except it be for a few nice idle citizens, surfeiting courtiers, and stall-fed gentlemen lubbers. The country people use kitchen physic, and common experience tells vis, that they live freest from all manner of infirmities, that make least use of apothecaries' physic. Many are overthrown by preposterous use of it, and thereby get their bane, that might otherwise have escaped: [4084]some think physicians kill as many as they save, and who can tell, [4085]Quot Themison aegros autumno occiderit uno? How many murders they make in a year, quibus impune licet hominem occidere, that may freely kill folks, and have a reward for it, and according to the Dutch proverb, a new physician must have a new churchyard; and who daily observes it not? Many that did ill under physicians' hands, have happily escaped, when they have been given over by them, left to God and nature, and themselves; 'twas Pliny's dilemma of old, [4086]every disease is either curable or incurable, a man recovers of it or is killed by it; both ways physic is to be rejected. If it be deadly, it cannot be cured; if it may be helped, it requires no physician, nature will expel it of itself. Plato made it a great sign of an intemperate and corrupt commonwealth, where lawyers and physicians did abound; and the Romans distasted them so much that they were often banished out of their city, as Pliny and Celsus relate, for 600 years not admitted. It is no art at all, as some hold, no not worthy the name of a liberal science (nor law neither), as [4087]Pet. And. Canonherius a patrician of Rome and a great doctor himself, one of their own tribe, proves by sixteen arguments, because it is mercenary as now used, base, and as fiddlers play for a reward. Juridicis, medicis, fisco, fas vivere rapto, 'tis a corrupt trade, no science, art, no profession; the beginning, practice, and progress of it, all is naught, full of imposture, uncertainty, and doth generally more harm than good. The devil himself was the first inventor of it: Inventum est medicina meum, said Apollo, and what was Apollo, but the devil? The Greeks first made an art of it, and they were all deluded by Apollo's sons, priests, oracles. If we may believe Varro, Pliny, Columella, most of their best medicines were derived from his oracles. Aesculapius his son had his temples erected to his deity, and did many famous cures; but, as Lactantius holds, he was a magician, a mere impostor, and as his successors, Phaon, Podalirius, Melampius, Menecrates, (another God), by charms, spells, and ministry of bad spirits, performed most of their cures. The first that ever wrote in physic to any purpose, was Hippocrates, and his disciple and commentator Galen, whom Scaliger calls Fimbriam Hippocratis; but as [4088]Cardan censures them, both immethodical and obscure, as all those old ones are, their precepts confused, their medicines obsolete, and now most part rejected. Those cures which they did, Paracelsus holds, were rather done out of their patients' confidence, [4089]and good opinion they had of them, than out of any skill of theirs, which was very small, he saith, they themselves idiots and infants, as are all their academical followers. The Arabians received it from the Greeks, and so the Latins, adding new precepts and medicines of their own, but so imperfect still, that through ignorance of professors, impostors, mountebanks, empirics, disagreeing of sectaries, (which are as many almost as there be diseases) envy, covetousness, and the like, they do much harm amongst us. They are so different in their consultations, prescriptions, mistaking many times the parties' constitution, [4090]disease, and causes of it, they give quite contrary physic; [4091]one saith this, another that, out of singularity or opposition, as he said of Adrian, multitudo medicorum principem interfecit, a multitude of physicians hath killed the emperor; plus a medico quam a morbo periculi, more danger there is from the physician, than from the disease. Besides, there is much imposture and malice amongst them. All arts (saith [4092]Cardan) admit of cozening, physic, amongst the rest, doth appropriate it to herself; and tells a story of one Curtius, a physician in Venice: because he was a stranger, and practised amongst them, the rest of the physicians did still cross him in all his precepts. If he prescribed hot medicines they would prescribe cold, miscentes pro calidis frigida, pro frigidis humida, pro purgantibus astringentia, binders for purgatives, omnia perturbabant. If the party miscarried, Curtium damnabant, Curtius killed him, that disagreed from them: if he recovered, then [4093]they cured him themselves. Much emulation, imposture, malice, there is amongst them: if they be honest and mean well, yet a knave apothecary that administers the physic, and makes the medicine, may do infinite harm, by his old obsolete doses, adulterine drugs, bad mixtures, quid pro quo, &c. See Fuchsius lib. 1. sect. 1. cap. 8. Cordus' Dispensatory, and Brassivola's Examen simpl., &c. But it is their ignorance that doth more harm than rashness, their art is wholly conjectural, if it be an art, uncertain, imperfect, and got by killing of men, they are a kind of butchers, leeches, men-slayers; chirurgeons and apothecaries especially, that are indeed the physicians' hangman, carnifices, and common executioners; though to say truth, physicians themselves come not far behind; for according to that facete epigram of Maximilianus Urentius, what's the difference?

But I return to their skill; many diseases they cannot cure at all, as apoplexy, epilepsy, stone, strangury, gout, Tollere nodosam nescit medicina Podagram; [4095]quartan agues, a common ague sometimes stumbles them all, they cannot so much as ease, they know not how to judge of it. If by pulses, that doctrine, some hold, is wholly superstitious, and I dare boldly say with [4096]Andrew Dudeth, that variety of pulses described by Galen, is neither observed nor understood of any. And for urine, that is meretrix medicorum, the most deceitful thing of all, as Forestus and some other physicians have proved at large: I say nothing of critic days, errors in indications, &c. The most rational of them, and skilful, are so often deceived, that as [4097]Tholosanus infers, I had rather believe and commit myself to a mere empiric, than to a mere doctor, and I cannot sufficiently commend that custom of the Babylonians, that have no professed physicians, but bring all their patients to the market to be cured: which Herodotus relates of the Egyptians: Strabo, Sardus, and Aubanus Bohemus of many other nations. And those that prescribed physic, amongst them, did not so arrogantly take upon them to cure all diseases, as our professors do, but some one, some another, as their skill and experience did serve; [4098] One cured the eyes, a second the teeth, a third the head, another the lower parts, &c., not for gain, but in charity, to do good, they made neither art, profession, nor trade of it, which in other places was accustomed: and therefore Cambyses in [4099]Xenophon told Cyrus, that to his thinking, physicians were like tailors and cobblers, the one mended our sick bodies, as the other did our clothes. But I will urge these cavilling and contumelious arguments no farther, lest some physician should mistake me, and deny me physic when I am sick: for my part, I am well persuaded of physic: I can distinguish the abuse from the use, in this and many other arts and sciences: [4100]Alliud vinum, aliud ebrietas, wine and drunkenness are two distinct things. I acknowledge it a most noble and divine science, in so much that Apollo, Aesculapius, and the first founders of it, merito pro diis habiti, were worthily counted gods by succeeding ages, for the excellency of their invention. And whereas Apollo at Delos, Venus at Cyprus, Diana at Ephesus, and those other gods were confined and adored alone in some peculiar places: Aesculapius and his temple and altars everywhere, in Corinth, Lacedaemon, Athens, Thebes, Epidaurus, &c. Pausanius records, for the latitude of his art, deity, worth, and necessity. With all virtuous and wise men therefore I honour the name and calling, as I am enjoined to honour the physician for necessity's sake. The knowledge of the physician lifteth up his head, and in the sight of great men he shall be admired. The Lord hath created medicines of the earth, and he that is wise will not abhor them, Eccles. lviii 1. But of this noble subject, how many panegyrics are worthily written? For my part, as Sallust said of Carthage, praestat silere, quam pauca dicere; I have said, yet one thing I will add, that this kind of physic is very moderately and advisedly to be used, upon good occasion, when the former of diet will not take place. And 'tis no other which I say, than that which Arnoldus prescribes in his 8. Aphoris. [4101]A discreet and goodly physician doth first endeavour to expel a disease by medicinal diet, than by pure medicine: and in his ninth, [4102]he that may be cured by diet, must not meddle with physic. So in 11. Aphoris. [4103]A modest and wise physician will never hasten to use medicines, but upon urgent necessity, and that sparingly too: because (as he adds in his 13. Aphoris.) [4104]Whosoever takes much physic in his youth, shall soon bewail it in his old age: purgative physic especially, which doth much debilitate nature. For which causes some physicians refrain from the use of purgatives, or else sparingly use them. [4105]Henricus Ayrerus in a consultation for a melancholy person, would have him take as few purges as he could, because there be no such medicines, which do not steal away some of our strength, and rob the parts of our body, weaken nature, and cause that cacochymia, which [4106]Celsus and others observe, or ill digestion, and bad juice through all the parts of it. Galen himself confesseth, [4107]that purgative physic is contrary to nature, takes away some of our best spirits, and consumes the very substance of our bodies: But this, without question, is to be understood of such purges as are unseasonably or immoderately taken: they have their excellent use in this, as well as most other infirmities. Of alteratives and cordials no man doubts, be they simples or compounds. I will amongst that infinite variety of medicines, which I find in every pharmacopoeia, every physician, herbalist, &c., single out some of the chiefest.

SUBSECT. II.—Simples proper to Melancholy, against Exotic Simples.

Medicines properly applied to melancholy, are either simple or compound. Simples are alterative or purgative. Alteratives are such as correct, strengthen nature, alter, any way hinder or resist the disease; and they be herbs, stones, minerals, &c. all proper to this humour. For as there be diverse distinct infirmities continually vexing us,

So there be several remedies, as [4109]he saith, each disease a medicine, for every humour; and as some hold, every clime, every country, and more than that, every private place hath his proper remedies growing in it, peculiar almost to the domineering and most frequent maladies of it, As [4110]one discourseth, wormwood grows sparingly in Italy, because most part there they be misaffected with hot diseases: but henbane, poppy, and such cold herbs: with us in Germany and Poland, great store of it in every waste. Baracellus Horto geniali, and Baptista Porta Physiognomicae, lib. 6. cap. 23, give many instances and examples of it, and bring many other proofs. For that cause belike that learned Fuchsius of Nuremberg, [4111]when he came into a village, considered always what herbs did grow most frequently about it, and those he distilled in a silver alembic, making use of others amongst them as occasion served. I know that many are of opinion, our northern simples are weak, imperfect, not so well concocted, of such force, as those in the southern parts, not so fit to be used in physic, and will therefore fetch their drugs afar off: senna, cassia out of Egypt, rhubarb from Barbary, aloes from Socotra; turbith, agaric, mirabolanes, hermodactils, from the East Indies, tobacco from the west, and some as far as China, hellebore from the Anticyrae, or that of Austria which bears the purple flower, which Mathiolus so much approves, and so of the rest. In the kingdom of Valencia, in Spain, [4112]Maginus commends two mountains, Mariola and Renagolosa, famous for simples; [4113] Leander Albertus, [4114]Baldus a mountain near the Lake Benacus in the territory of Verona, to which all the herbalists in the country continually flock; Ortelius one in Apulia, Munster Mons major in Istria; others Montpelier in France; Prosper Altinus prefers Egyptian simples, Garcias ab Horto Indian before the rest, another those of Italy, Crete, &c. Many times they are over-curious in this kind, whom Fuchsius taxeth, Instit. l. 1. sec. 1. cap. 1. [4115]that think they do nothing, except they rake all over India, Arabia, Ethiopia for remedies, and fetch their physic from the three quarters of the world, and from beyond the Garamantes. Many an old wife or country woman doth often more good with a few known and common garden herbs, than our bombast physicians, with all their prodigious, sumptuous, far-fetched, rare, conjectural medicines: without all question if we have not these rare exotic simples, we hold that at home, which is in virtue equivalent unto them, ours will serve as well as theirs, if they be taken in proportionable quantity, fitted and qualified aright, if not much better, and more proper to our constitutions. But so 'tis for the most part, as Pliny writes to Gallus, [4116]We are careless of that which is near us, and follow that which is afar off, to know which we will travel and sail beyond the seas, wholly neglecting that which is under our eyes. Opium in Turkey doth scarce offend, with us in a small quantity it stupefies; cicuta or hemlock is a strong poison in Greece, but with us it hath no such violent effects: I conclude with I. Voschius, who as he much inveighs against those exotic medicines, so he promiseth by our European, a full cure and absolute of all diseases; a capite ad calcem, nostrae regionis herbae nostris corporibus magis conducunt, our own simples agree best with us. It was a thing that Fernelius much laboured in his French practice, to reduce all his cure to our proper and domestic physic; so did [4117]Janus Cornarius, and Martin Rulandus in Germany. T. B. with us, as appeareth by a treatise of his divulged in our tongue 1615, to prove the sufficiency of English medicines, to the cure of all manner of diseases. If our simples be not altogether of such force, or so apposite, it may be, if like industry were used, those far fetched drugs would prosper as well with us, as in those countries whence now we have them, as well as cherries, artichokes, tobacco, and many such. There have been diverse worthy physicians, which have tried excellent conclusions in this kind, and many diligent, painful apothecaries, as Gesner, Besler, Gerard, &c., but amongst the rest those famous public gardens of Padua in Italy, Nuremberg in Germany, Leyden in Holland, Montpelier in France, (and ours in Oxford now in fieri, at the cost and charges for the Right Honourable the Lord Danvers Earl of Danby) are much to be commended, wherein all exotic plants almost are to be seen, and liberal allowance yearly made for their better maintenance, that young students may be the sooner informed in the knowledge of them: which as [4118]Fuchsius holds, is most necessary for that exquisite manner of curing, and as great a shame for a physician not to observe them, as for a workman not to know his axe, saw, square, or any other tool which he must of necessity use.

SUBSECT. III.—Alteratives, Herbs, other Vegetables, &c.

Amongst these 800 simples, which Galeottus reckons up, lib. 3. de promise, doctor, cap. 3, and many exquisite herbalists have written of, these few following alone I find appropriated to this humour: of which some be alteratives; [4119]which by a secret force, saith Renodeus, and special quality expel future diseases, perfectly cure those which are, and many such incurable effects. This is as well observed in other plants, stones, minerals, and creatures, as in herbs, in other maladies as in this. How many things are related of a man's skull? What several virtues of corns in a horse-leg, [4120]of a wolf's liver, &c. Of [4121]diverse excrements of beasts, all good against several diseases? What extraordinary virtues are ascribed unto plants? [4122]Satyrium et eruca penem erigunt, vitex et nymphea semen extinguunt, [4123]some herbs provoke lust, some again, as agnus castus, water-lily, quite extinguisheth seed; poppy causeth sleep, cabbage resisteth drunkenness, &c., and that which is more to be admired, that such and such plants should have a peculiar virtue to such particular parts, [4124]as to the head aniseeds, foalfoot, betony, calamint, eye-bright, lavender, bays, roses, rue, sage, marjoram, peony, &c. For the lungs calamint, liquorice, ennula campana, hyssop, horehound, water germander, &c. For the heart, borage, bugloss, saffron, balm, basil, rosemary, violet, roses, &c. For the stomach, wormwood, mints, betony, balm, centaury, sorrel, parslan. For the liver, darthspine or camaepitis, germander, agrimony, fennel, endive, succory, liverwort, barberries. For the spleen, maidenhair, finger-fern, dodder of thyme, hop, the rind of ash, betony. For the kidneys, grumel, parsley, saxifrage, plaintain, mallow. For the womb, mugwort, pennyroyal, fetherfew, savine, &c. For the joints, camomile, St. John's wort, organ, rue, cowslips, centaury the less, &c. And so to peculiar diseases. To this of melancholy you shall find a catalogue of herbs proper, and that in every part. See more in Wecker, Renodeus, Heurnius lib. 2. cap. 19. &c. I will briefly speak of them, as first of alteratives, which Galen, in his third book of diseased parts, prefers before diminutives, and Trallianus brags, that he hath done more cures on melancholy men [4125]by moistening, than by purging of them.

Borage.] In this catalogue, borage and bugloss may challenge the chiefest place, whether in substance, juice, roots, seeds, flowers, leaves, decoctions, distilled waters, extracts, oils, &c., for such kind of herbs be diversely varied. Bugloss is hot and moist, and therefore worthily reckoned up amongst those herbs which expel melancholy, and [4126] exhilarate the heart, Galen, lib. 6. cap. 80. de simpl. med. Dioscorides, lib. 4. cap. 123. Pliny much magnifies this plant. It may be diversely used; as in broth, in [4127]wine, in conserves, syrups, &c. It is an excellent cordial, and against this malady most frequently prescribed; a herb indeed of such sovereignty, that as Diodorus, lib. 7. bibl. Plinius, lib. 25. cap. 2. et lib. 21. cap. 22. Plutarch, sympos. lib. 1. cap. 1. Dioscorides, lib. 5. cap. 40. Caelius, lib. 19. c. 3. suppose it was that famous Nepenthes of [4128]Homer, which Polydaenna, Thonis's wife (then king of Thebes in Egypt), sent Helena for a token, of such rare virtue, that if taken steeped in wine, if wife and children, father and mother, brother and sister, and all thy dearest friends should die before thy face, thou couldst not grieve or shed a tear for them.

Helena's commended bowl to exhilarate the heart, had no other ingredient, as most of our critics conjecture, than this of borage.

Balm.] Melissa balm hath an admirable virtue to alter melancholy, be it steeped in our ordinary drink, extracted, or otherwise taken. Cardan, lib. 8. much admires this herb. It heats and dries, saith [4129] Heurnius, in the second degree, with a wonderful virtue comforts the heart, and purgeth all melancholy vapours from the spirits, Matthiol. in lib. 3. cap. 10. in Dioscoridem. Besides they ascribe other virtues to it, [4130]as to help concoction, to cleanse the brain, expel all careful thoughts, and anxious imaginations: the same words in effect are in Avicenna, Pliny, Simon Sethi, Fuchsius, Leobel, Delacampius, and every herbalist. Nothing better for him that is melancholy than to steep this and borage in his ordinary drink.

Mathiolus, in his fifth book of Medicinal Epistles, reckons up scorzonera, [4131]not against poison only, falling sickness, and such as are vertiginous, but to this malady; the root of it taken by itself expels sorrow, causeth mirth and lightness of heart.

Antonius Musa, that renowned physician to Caesar Augustus, in his book which he writ of the virtues of betony, cap. 6. wonderfully commends that herb, animas hominum et corpora custodit, securas de metu reddit, it preserves both body and mind, from fears, cares, griefs; cures falling sickness, this and many other diseases, to whom Galen subscribes, lib. 7. simp. med. Dioscorides, lib. 4. cap. 1. &c.

Marigold is much approved against melancholy, and often used therefore in our ordinary broth, as good against this and many other diseases.

Hop.] Lupulus, hop, is a sovereign remedy; Fuchsius, cap. 58. Plant. hist. much extols it; [4132]it purgeth all choler, and purifies the blood. Matthiol. cap. 140. in 4. Dioscor. wonders the physicians of his time made no more use of it, because it rarefies and cleanseth: we use it to this purpose in our ordinary beer, which before was thick and fulsome.

Wormwood, centaury, pennyroyal, are likewise magnified and much prescribed (as I shall after show), especially in hypochondriac melancholy, daily to be used, sod in whey: and as Ruffus Ephesias, [4133]Areteus relate, by breaking wind, helping concoction, many melancholy men have been cured with the frequent use of them alone.

And because the spleen and blood are often misaffected in melancholy, I may not omit endive, succory, dandelion, fumitory, &c., which cleanse the blood, Scolopendria, cuscuta, ceterache, mugwort, liverwort, ash, tamarisk, genist, maidenhair, &c., which must help and ease the spleen.

To these I may add roses, violets, capers, featherfew, scordium, staechas, rosemary, ros solis, saffron, ochyme, sweet apples, wine, tobacco, sanders, &c. That Peruvian chamico, monstrosa facultate &c., Linshcosteus Datura; and to such as are cold, the [4134]decoction of guiacum, China sarsaparilla, sassafras, the flowers of carduus benedictus, which I find much used by Montanus in his Consultations, Julius Alexandrinus, Lelius, Egubinus, and others. [4135]Bernardus Penottus prefers his herba solis, or Dutch sindaw, before all the rest in this disease, and will admit of no herb upon the earth to be comparable to it. It excels Homer's moly, cures this, falling sickness, and almost all other infirmities. The same Penottus speaks of an excellent balm out of Aponensis, which, taken to the quantity of three drops in a cup of wine, [4136]will cause a sudden alteration, drive away dumps, and cheer up the heart. Ant. Guianerius, in his Antidotary, hath many such. [4137]Jacobus de Dondis the aggregator, repeats ambergris, nutmegs, and allspice amongst the rest. But that cannot be general. Amber and spice will make a hot brain mad, good for cold and moist. Garcias ab Horto hath many Indian plants, whose virtues he much magnifies in this disease. Lemnius, instit. cap. 58. admires rue, and commends it to have excellent virtue, [4138]to expel vain imaginations, devils, and to ease afflicted souls. Other things are much magnified [4139]by writers, as an old cock, a ram's head, a wolf's heart borne or eaten, which Mercurialis approves; Prosper Altinus the water of Nilus; Gomesius all seawater, and at seasonable times to be seasick: goat's milk, whey, &c.

SUBSECT. IV.—Precious Stones, Metals, Minerals, Alteratives.

Precious stones are diversely censured; many explode the use of them or any minerals in physic, of whom Thomas Erastus is the chief, in his tract against Paracelsus, and in an epistle of his to Peter Monavius, [4140] That stones can work any wonders, let them believe that list, no man shall persuade me; for my part, I have found by experience there is no virtue in them. But Matthiolus, in his comment upon [4141]Dioscorides, is as profuse on the other side, in their commendation; so is Cardan, Renodeus, Alardus, Rueus, Encelius, Marbodeus, &c. [4142]Matthiolus specifies in coral: and Oswaldus Crollius, Basil. Chym. prefers the salt of coral. [4143]Christoph. Encelius, lib. 3. cap. 131. will have them to be as so many several medicines against melancholy, sorrow, fear, dullness, and the like; [4144]Renodeus admires them, besides they adorn kings' crowns, grace the fingers, enrich our household stuff, defend us from enchantments, preserve health, cure diseases, they drive away grief, cares, and exhilarate the mind. The particulars be these.

Granatus, a precious stone so called, because it is like the kernels of a pomegranate, an imperfect kind of ruby, it comes from Calecut; [4145]if hung about the neck, or taken in drink, it much resisteth sorrow, and recreates the heart. The same properties I find ascribed to the hyacinth and topaz. [4146]They allay anger, grief, diminish madness, much delight and exhilarate the mind. [4147]If it be either carried about, or taken in a potion, it will increase wisdom, saith Cardan, expel fear; he brags that he hath cured many madmen with it, which, when they laid by the stone, were as mad again as ever they were at first. Petrus Bayerus, lib. 2. cap. 13. veni mecum, Fran. Rueus, cap. 19. de geminis, say as much of the chrysolite, [4148]a friend of wisdom, an enemy to folly. Pliny, lib. 37. Solinus, cap. 52. Albertus de Lapid. Cardan. Encelius, lib. 3. cap. 66. highly magnifies the virtue of the beryl, [4149]it much avails to a good understanding, represseth vain conceits, evil thoughts, causeth mirth, &c. In the belly of a swallow there is a stone found called chelidonius, [4150]which if it be lapped in a fair cloth, and tied to the right arm, will cure lunatics, madmen, make them amiable and merry.

There is a kind of onyx called a chalcedony, which hath the same qualities, [4151]avails much against fantastic illusions which proceed from melancholy, preserves the vigour and good estate of the whole body.

The Eban stone, which goldsmiths use to sleeken their gold with, borne about or given to drink, [4152]hath the same properties, or not much unlike.

Levinus Lemnius, Institui. ad vit. cap. 58. amongst other jewels, makes mention of two more notable; carbuncle and coral, [4153]which drive away childish fears, devils, overcome sorrow, and hung about the neck repress troublesome dreams, which properties almost Cardan gives to that green-coloured [4154]emmetris if it be carried about, or worn in a ring; Rueus to the diamond.

Nicholas Cabeus, a Jesuit of Ferrara, in the first book of his Magnetical Philosophy, cap. 3. speaking of the virtues of a loadstone, recites many several opinions; some say that if it be taken in parcels inward, si quis per frustra voret, juventutem restituet, it will, like viper's wine, restore one to his youth; and yet if carried about them, others will have it to cause melancholy; let experience determine.

Mercurialis admires the emerald for its virtues in pacifying all affections of the mind; others the sapphire, which is the [4155]fairest of all precious stones, of sky colour, and a great enemy to black choler, frees the mind, mends manners, &c. Jacobus de Dondis, in his catalogue of simples, hath ambergris, os in corde cervi, [4156]the bone in a stag's heart, a monocerot's horn, bezoar's stone [4157](of which elsewhere), it is found in the belly of a little beast in the East Indies, brought into Europe by Hollanders, and our countrymen merchants. Renodeus, cap. 22. lib. 3. de ment. med. saith he saw two of these beasts alive, in the castle of the Lord of Vitry at Coubert.

Lapis lazuli and armenus, because they purge, shall be mentioned in their place.

Of the rest in brief thus much I will add out of Cardan, Renodeus, cap. 23. lib. 3. Rondoletius, lib. 1. de Testat. c. 15. &c. [4158]That almost all jewels and precious stones have excellent virtues to pacify the affections of the mind, for which cause rich men so much covet to have them: [4159]and those smaller unions which are found in shells amongst the Persians and Indians, by the consent of all writers, are very cordial, and most part avail to the exhilaration of the heart.

Minerals.] Most men say as much of gold and some other minerals, as these have done of precious stones. Erastus still maintains the opposite part. Disput. in Paracelsum. cap. 4. fol. 196. he confesseth of gold, [4160] that it makes the heart merry, but in no other sense but as it is in a miser's chest: at mihi plaudo simul ac nummos contemplor in arca, as he said in the poet, it so revives the spirits, and is an excellent recipe against melancholy,

Aurum potabile, [4162]he discommends and inveighs against it, by reason of the corrosive waters which are used in it: which argument our Dr. Guin urgeth against D. Antonius. [4163]Erastus concludes their philosophical stones and potable gold, &c. to be no better than poison, a mere imposture, a non ens; dug out of that broody hill belike this golden stone is, ubi nascetur ridiculus mus. Paracelsus and his chemistical followers, as so many Promethei, will fetch fire from heaven, will cure all manner of diseases with minerals, accounting them the only physic on the other side. [4164]Paracelsus calls Galen, Hippocrates, and all their adherents, infants, idiots, sophisters, &c. Apagesis istos qui Vulcanias istas metamorphoses sugillant, inscitiae soboles, supinae pertinaciae alumnos, &c., not worthy the name of physicians, for want of these remedies: and brags that by them he can make a man live 160 years, or to the world's end, with their [4165]Alexipharmacums, Panaceas, Mummias, unguentum Armarium, and such magnetical cures, Lampas vitae et mortis, Balneum Dianae, Balsamum, Electrum Magico-physicum, Amuleta Martialia, &c. What will not he and his followers effect? He brags, moreover, that he was primus medicorum, and did more famous cures than all the physicians in Europe besides, [4166]a drop of his preparations should go farther than a dram, or ounce of theirs, those loathsome and fulsome filthy potions, heteroclitical pills (so he calls them), horse medicines, ad quoram aspectum Cyclops Polyphemus exhorresceret. And though some condemn their skill and magnetical cures as tending to magical superstition, witchery, charms, &c., yet they admire, stiffly vindicate nevertheless, and infinitely prefer them. But these are both in extremes, the middle sort approve of minerals, though not in so high a degree. Lemnius lib. 3. cap. 6. de occult. nat. mir. commends gold inwardly and outwardly used, as in rings, excellent good in medicines; and such mixtures as are made for melancholy men, saith Wecker, antid. spec. lib. 1. to whom Renodeus subscribes, lib. 2. cap. 2. Ficinus, lib. 2. cap. 19. Fernel. meth. med. lib. 5. cap. 21. de Cardiacis. Daniel Sennertus, lib. 1. part. 2. cap. 9. Audernacus, Libavius, Quercetanus, Oswaldus Crollius, Euvonymus, Rubeus, and Matthiolus in the fourth book of his Epistles, Andreas a Blawen epist. ad Matthiolum, as commended and formerly used by Avicenna, Arnoldus, and many others: [4167]Matthiolus in the same place approves of potable gold, mercury, with many such chemical confections, and goes so far in approbation of them, that he holds [4168] no man can be an excellent physician that hath not some skill in chemistical distillations, and that chronic diseases can hardly be cured without mineral medicines: look for antimony among purgers.

SUBSECT. V.—Compound Alteratives; censure of Compounds, and mixed Physic.

Pliny, lib. 24. c. 1, bitterly taxeth all compound medicines, [4169] Men's knavery, imposture, and captious wits, have invented those shops, in which every man's life is set to sale: and by and by came in those compositions and inexplicable mixtures, far-fetched out of India and Arabia; a medicine for a botch must be had as far as the Red Sea. And 'tis not without cause which he saith; for out of question they are much to [4170]blame in their compositions, whilst they make infinite variety of mixtures, as [4171]Fuchsius notes. They think they get themselves great credit, excel others, and to be more learned than the rest, because they make many variations; but he accounts them fools, and whilst they brag of their skill, and think to get themselves a name, they become ridiculous, betray their ignorance and error. A few simples well prepared and understood, are better than such a heap of nonsense, confused compounds, which are in apothecaries' shops ordinarily sold. In which many vain, superfluous, corrupt, exolete, things out of date are to be had (saith Cornarius); a company of barbarous names given to syrups, juleps, an unnecessary company of mixed medicines; rudis indigestaque moles. Many times (as Agrippa taxeth) there is by this means [4172]more danger from the medicine than from the disease, when they put together they know not what, or leave it to an illiterate apothecary to be made, they cause death and horror for health. Those old physicians had no such mixtures; a simple potion of hellebore in Hippocrates' time was the ordinary purge; and at this day, saith [4173]Mat. Riccius, in that flourishing commonwealth of China, their physicians give precepts quite opposite to ours, not unhappy in their physic; they use altogether roots, herbs, and simples in their medicines, and all their physic in a manner is comprehended in a herbal: no science, no school, no art, no degree, but like a trade, every man in private is instructed of his master. [4174]Cardan cracks that he can cure all diseases with water alone, as Hippocrates of old did most infirmities with one medicine. Let the best of our rational physicians demonstrate and give a sufficient reason for those intricate mixtures, why just so many simples in mithridate or treacle, why such and such quantity; may they not be reduced to half or a quarter? Frustra fit per plura (as the saying is) quod fieri potest per pauciora; 300 simples in a julep, potion, or a little pill, to what end or purpose? I know not what [4175]Alkindus, Capivaccius, Montagna, and Simon Eitover, the best of them all and most rational, have said in this kind; but neither he, they, nor any one of them, gives his reader, to my judgment, that satisfaction which he ought; why such, so many simples? Rog. Bacon hath taxed many errors in his tract de graduationibus, explained some things, but not cleared. Mercurialis in his book de composit. medicin. gives instance in Hamech, and Philonium Romanum, which Hamech an Arabian, and Philonius a Roman, long since composed, but crasse as the rest. If they be so exact, as by him it seems they were, and those mixtures so perfect, why doth Fernelius alter the one, and why is the other obsolete? [4176]Cardan taxeth Galen for presuming out of his ambition to correct Theriachum Andromachi, and we as justly may carp at all the rest. Galen's medicines are now exploded and rejected; what Nicholas Meripsa, Mesue, Celsus, Scribanius, Actuarius, &c. writ of old, are most part contemned. Mellichius, Cordus, Wecker, Quercetan, Renodeus, the Venetian, Florentine states have their several receipts, and magistrals: they of Nuremberg have theirs, and Augustana Pharmacopoeia, peculiar medicines to the meridian of the city: London hers, every city, town, almost every private man hath his own mixtures, compositions, receipts, magistrals, precepts, as if he scorned antiquity, and all others in respect of himself. But each man must correct and alter to show his skill, every opinionative fellow must maintain his own paradox, be it what it will; Delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi: they dote, and in the meantime the poor patients pay for their new experiments, the commonalty rue it.

Thus others object, thus I may conceive out of the weakness of my apprehension; but to say truth, there is no such fault, no such ambition, no novelty, or ostentation, as some suppose; but as [4177]one answers, this of compound medicines, is a most noble and profitable invention found out, and brought into physic with great judgment, wisdom, counsel and discretion. Mixed diseases must have mixed remedies, and such simples are commonly mixed as have reference to the part affected, some to qualify, the rest to comfort, some one part, some another. Cardan and Brassavola both hold that Nullum simplex medicamentum sine noxa, no simple medicine is without hurt or offence; and although Hippocrates, Erasistratus, Diocles of old, in the infancy of this art, were content with ordinary simples: yet now, saith [4178]Aetius, necessity compelleth to seek for new remedies, and to make compounds of simples, as well to correct their harms if cold, dry, hot, thick, thin, insipid, noisome to smell, to make them savoury to the palate, pleasant to taste and take, and to preserve them for continuance, by admixtion of sugar, honey, to make them last months and years for several uses. In such cases, compound medicines may be approved, and Arnoldus in his 18. aphorism, doth allow of it. [4179]If simples cannot, necessity compels us to use compounds; so for receipts and magistrals, dies diem docet, one day teacheth another, and they are as so many words or phrases, Que nunc sunt in honore vocabula si volet usus, ebb and flow with the season, and as wits vary, so they may be infinitely varied. Quisque suum placitum quo capiatur habet. Every man as he likes, so many men so many minds, and yet all tending to good purpose, though not the same way. As arts and sciences, so physic is still perfected amongst the rest; Horae musarum nutrices, and experience teacheth us every day [4180]many things which our predecessors knew not of. Nature is not effete, as he saith, or so lavish, to bestow all her gifts upon an age, but hath reserved some for posterity, to show her power, that she is still the same, and not old or consumed. Birds and beasts can cure themselves by nature, [4181]naturae usu ea plerumque cognoscunt quae homines vix longo labore et doctrina assequuntur, but men must use much labour and industry to find it out. But I digress.

Compound medicines are inwardly taken, or outwardly applied. Inwardly taken, be either liquid or solid: liquid, are fluid or consisting. Fluid, as wines and syrups. The wines ordinarily used to this disease are wormwood wine, tamarisk, and buglossatum, wine made of borage and bugloss, the composition of which is specified in Arnoldus Villanovanus, lib. de vinis, of borage, balm, bugloss, cinnamon, &c. and highly commended for its virtues: [4182]it drives away leprosy, scabs, clears the blood, recreates the spirits, exhilarates the mind, purgeth the brain of those anxious black melancholy fumes, and cleanseth the whole body of that black humour by urine. To which I add, saith Villanovanus, that it will bring madmen, and such raging bedlamites as are tied in chains, to the use of their reason again. My conscience bears me witness, that I do not lie, I saw a grave matron helped by this means; she was so choleric, and so furious sometimes, that she was almost mad, and beside herself; she said, and did she knew not what, scolded, beat her maids, and was now ready to be bound till she drank of this borage wine, and by this excellent remedy was cured, which a poor foreigner, a silly beggar, taught her by chance, that came to crave an alms from door to door. The juice of borage, if it be clarified, and drunk in wine, will do as much, the roots sliced and steeped, &c. saith Ant. Mizaldus, art. med. who cities this story verbatim out of Villanovanus, and so doth Magninus a physician of Milan, in his regimen of health. Such another excellent compound water I find in Rubeus de distill. sect. 3. which he highly magnifies out of Savanarola, [4183]for such as are solitary, dull, heavy or sad without a cause, or be troubled with trembling of heart. Other excellent compound waters for melancholy, he cites in the same place. [4184]If their melancholy be not inflamed, or their temperature over-hot. Evonimus hath a precious aquavitae to this purpose, for such as are cold. But he and most commend aurum potabile, and every writer prescribes clarified whey, with borage, bugloss, endive, succory, &c. of goat's milk especially, some indefinitely at all times, some thirty days together in the spring, every morning fasting, a good draught. Syrups are very good, and often used to digest this humour in the heart, spleen, liver, &c. As syrup of borage (there is a famous syrup of borage highly commended by Laurentius to this purpose in his tract of melancholy), de pomis of king Sabor, now obsolete, of thyme and epithyme, hops, scolopendria, fumitory, maidenhair, bizantine, &c. These are most used for preparatives to other physic, mixed with distilled waters of like nature, or in juleps otherwise.

Consisting, are conserves or confections; conserves of borage, bugloss, balm, fumitory, succory, maidenhair, violets, roses, wormwood, &c. Confections, treacle, mithridate, eclegms, or linctures, &c. Solid, as aromatical confections: hot, diambra, diamargaritum calidum, dianthus, diamoschum dulce, electuarium de gemmis laetificans Galeni et Rhasis, diagalanga, diaciminum dianisum, diatrion piperion, diazinziber, diacapers, diacinnamonum: Cold, as diamargaritum frigidum, diacorolli, diarrhodon abbatis, diacodion, &c. as every pharmacopoeia will show you, with their tables or losings that are made out of them: with condites and the like.

Outwardly used as occasion serves, as amulets, oils hot and cold, as of camomile, staechados, violets, roses, almonds, poppy, nymphea, mandrake, &c. to be used after bathing, or to procure sleep.

Ointments composed of the said species, oils and wax, &c., as Alablastritum Populeum, some hot, some cold, to moisten, procure sleep, and correct other accidents.

Liniments are made of the same matter to the like purpose: emplasters of herbs, flowers, roots, &c., with oils, and other liquors mixed and boiled together.

Cataplasms, salves, or poultices made of green herbs, pounded, or sod in water till they be soft, which are applied to the hypochondries, and other parts, when the body is empty.

Cerotes are applied to several parts and frontals, to take away pain, grief, heat, procure sleep. Fomentations or sponges, wet in some decoctions, &c., epithemata, or those moist medicines, laid on linen, to bathe and cool several parts misaffected.

Sacculi, or little bags of herbs, flowers, seeds, roots, and the like, applied to the head, heart, stomach, &c., odoraments, balls, perfumes, posies to smell to, all which have their several uses in melancholy, as shall be shown, when I treat of the cure of the distinct species by themselves.