particular. Primary causes are the heavens, planets, stars, &c., by
their influence (as our astrologers hold) producing this and such like
effects. I will not here stand to discuss obiter, whether stars be
causes, or signs; or to apologise for judical astrology. If either
Sextus Empericus, Picus Mirandula, Sextus ab Heminga, Pererius,
Erastus, Chambers, &c., have so far prevailed with any man, that he
will attribute no virtue at all to the heavens, or to sun, or moon,
more than he doth to their signs at an innkeeper's post, or tradesman's
shop, or generally condemn all such astrological aphorisms approved by
experience: I refer him to Bellantius, Pirovanus, Marascallerus,
Goclenius, Sir Christopher Heidon, &c. If thou shalt ask me what I
think, I must answer, nam et doctis hisce erroribus versatus sum, (for
I am conversant with these learned errors,) they do incline, but not
compel; no necessity at all: [1278]agunt non cogunt: and so gently
incline, that a wise man may resist them; sapiens dominabitur astris:
they rule us, but God rules them. All this (methinks) [1279]Joh. de
Indagine hath comprised in brief, Quaeris a me quantum in nobis
operantur astra? &c. Wilt thou know how far the stars work upon us? I
say they do but incline, and that so gently, that if we will be ruled
by reason, they have no power over us; but if we follow our own nature,
and be led by sense, they do as much in us as in brute beasts, and we
are no better. So that, I hope, I may justly conclude with
[1280]Cajetan, Coelum est vehiculum divinae virtutis, &c., that the
heaven is God's instrument, by mediation of which he governs and
disposeth these elementary bodies; or a great book, whose letters are
the stars, (as one calls it,) wherein are written many strange things
for such as can read, [1281]or an excellent harp, made by an eminent
workman, on which, he that can but play, will make most admirable
music. But to the purpose.
[1282]Paracelsus is of opinion, that a physician without the knowledge
of stars can neither understand the cause or cure of any disease,
either of this or gout, not so much as toothache; except he see the
peculiar geniture and scheme of the party effected. And for this proper
malady, he will have the principal and primary cause of it proceed from
the heaven, ascribing more to stars than humours, [1283]and that the
constellation alone many times produceth melancholy, all other causes
set apart. He gives instance in lunatic persons, that are deprived of
their wits by the moon's motion; and in another place refers all to the
ascendant, and will have the true and chief cause of it to be sought
from the stars. Neither is it his opinion only, but of many Galenists
and philosophers, though they do not so peremptorily maintain as much.
This variety of melancholy symptoms proceeds from the stars, saith
[1284]Melancthon: the most generous melancholy, as that of Augustus,
comes from the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Libra: the bad, as
that of Catiline's, from the meeting of Saturn and the moon in Scorpio.
Jovianus Pontanus, in his tenth book, and thirteenth chapter de rebus
coelestibus, discourseth to this purpose at large, Ex atra bile varii
generantur morbi, &c., [1285]many diseases proceed from black choler,
as it shall be hot or cold; and though it be cold in its own nature,
yet it is apt to be heated, as water may be made to boil, and burn as
bad as fire; or made cold as ice: and thence proceed such variety of
symptoms, some mad, some solitary, some laugh, some rage, &c. The cause
of all which intemperance he will have chiefly and primarily proceed
from the heavens, [1286]from the position of Mars, Saturn, and Mercury.
His aphorisms be these, [1287]Mercury in any geniture, if he shall be
found in Virgo, or Pisces his opposite sign, and that in the horoscope,
irradiated by those quartile aspects of Saturn or Mars, the child shall
be mad or melancholy. Again, [1288]He that shall have Saturn and Mars,
the one culminating, the other in the fourth house, when he shall be
born, shall be melancholy, of which he shall be cured in time, if
Mercury behold them. [1289]If the moon be in conjunction or opposition
at the birth time with the sun, Saturn or Mars, or in a quartile aspect
with them, (e malo coeli loco, Leovitius adds,) many diseases are
signified, especially the head and brain is like to be misaffected with
pernicious humours, to be melancholy, lunatic, or mad, Cardan adds,
quarta luna natos, eclipses, earthquakes. Garcaeus and Leovitius will
have the chief judgment to be taken from the lord of the geniture, or
where there is an aspect between the moon and Mercury, and neither
behold the horoscope, or Saturn and Mars shall be lord of the present
conjunction or opposition in Sagittarius or Pisces, of the sun or moon,
such persons are commonly epileptic, dote, demoniacal, melancholy: but
see more of these aphorisms in the above-named Pontanus. Garcaeus, cap.
23. de Jud. genitur. Schoner. lib. 1. cap. 8, which he hath gathered
out of [1290]Ptolemy, Albubater, and some other Arabians, Junctine,
Ranzovius, Lindhout, Origen, &c. But these men you will reject
peradventure, as astrologers, and therefore partial judges; then hear
the testimony of physicians, Galenists themselves. [1291]Carto
confesseth the influence of stars to have a great hand to this peculiar
disease, so doth Jason Pratensis, Lonicerius praefat. de Apoplexia,
Ficinus, Fernelius, &c. [1292]P. Cnemander acknowledgeth the stars an
universal cause, the particular from parents, and the use of the six
non-natural things. Baptista Port. mag. l. 1. c. 10, 12, 15, will have
them causes to every particular individium. Instances and examples, to
evince the truth of those aphorisms, are common amongst those
astrologian treatises. Cardan, in his thirty-seventh geniture, gives
instance in Matth. Bolognius. Camerar. hor. natalit. centur. 7. genit.
6. et 7. of Daniel Gare, and others; but see Garcaeus, cap. 33. Luc.
Gauricus, Tract. 6. de Azemenis, &c. The time of this melancholy is,
when the significators of any geniture are directed according to art,
as the hor: moon, hylech, &c. to the hostile beams or terms of &♄ and ♂
especially, or any fixed star of their nature, or if &♄ by his
revolution or transitus, shall offend any of those radical promissors
in the geniture.
Other signs there are taken from physiognomy, metoposcopy, chiromancy,
which because Joh. de Indagine, and Rotman, the landgrave of Hesse his
mathematician, not long since in his Chiromancy; Baptista Porta, in his
celestial Physiognomy, have proved to hold great affinity with
astrology, to satisfy the curious, I am the more willing to insert.
The general notions [1293]physiognomers give, be these; black colour
argues natural melancholy; so doth leanness, hirsuteness, broad veins,
much hair on the brows, saith [1294]Gratanarolus, cap. 7, and a little
head, out of Aristotle, high sanguine, red colour, shows head
melancholy; they that stutter and are bald, will be soonest melancholy,
(as Avicenna supposeth,) by reason of the dryness of their brains; but
he that will know more of the several signs of humour and wits out of
physiognomy, let him consult with old Adamantus and Polemus, that
comment, or rather paraphrase upon Aristotle's Physiognomy, Baptista
Porta's four pleasant books, Michael Scot de secretis naturae, John de
Indagine, Montaltus, Antony Zara. anat. ingeniorum, sect. 1. memb. 13.
et lib. 4.
Chiromancy hath these aphorisms to foretell melancholy, Tasneir. lib.
5. cap. 2, who hath comprehended the sum of John de Indagine:
Tricassus, Corvinus, and others in his book, thus hath it; [1295]The
Saturnine line going from the rascetta through the hand, to Saturn's
mount, and there intersected by certain little lines, argues
melancholy; so if the vital and natural make an acute angle, Aphorism
100. The saturnine, hepatic, and natural lines, making a gross triangle
in the hand, argue as much; which Goclenius, cap. 5. Chiros. repeats
verbatim out of him. In general they conclude all, that if Saturn's
mount be full of many small lines and intersections, [1296]such men are
most part melancholy, miserable and full of disquietness, care and
trouble, continually vexed with anxious and bitter thoughts, always
sorrowful, fearful, suspicious; they delight in husbandry, buildings,
pools, marshes, springs, woods, walks, &c. Thaddaeus Haggesius, in his
Metoposcopia, hath certain aphorisms derived from Saturn's lines in the
forehead, by which he collects a melancholy disposition; and
[1297]Baptista Porta makes observations from those other parts of the
body, as if a spot be over the spleen; [1298]or in the nails; if it
appear black, it signifieth much care, grief, contention, and
melancholy; the reason he refers to the humours, and gives instance in
himself, that for seven years space he had such black spots in his
nails, and all that while was in perpetual lawsuits, controversies for
his inheritance, fear, loss of honour, banishment, grief, care, &c. and
when his miseries ended, the black spots vanished. Cardan, in his book
de libris propriis, tells such a story of his own person, that a little
before his son's death, he had a black spot, which appeared in one of
his nails; and dilated itself as he came nearer to his end. But I am
over tedious in these toys, which howsoever, in some men's too severe
censures, they may be held absurd and ridiculous, I am the bolder to
insert, as not borrowed from circumforanean rogues and gipsies, but out
of the writings of worthy philosophers and physicians, yet living some
of them, and religious professors in famous universities, who are able
to patronise that which they have said, and vindicate themselves from
all cavillers and ignorant persons.
SUBSECT. V.—_Old age a cause_.
Secondary peculiar causes efficient, so called in respect of the other
precedent, are either congenitae, internae, innatae, as they term them,
inward, innate, inbred; or else outward and adventitious, which happen
to us after we are born: congenite or born with us, are either natural,
as old age, or praeter naturam (as [1299]Fernelius calls it) that
distemperature, which we have from our parent's seed, it being an
hereditary disease. The first of these, which is natural to all, and
which no man living can avoid, is [1300]old age, which being cold and
dry, and of the same quality as melancholy is, must needs cause it, by
diminution of spirits and substance, and increasing of adust humours;
therefore [1301] Melancthon avers out of Aristotle, as an undoubted
truth, Senes plerunque delirasse in senecta, that old men familiarly
dote, ob atram bilem, for black choler, which is then superabundant in
them: and Rhasis, that Arabian physician, in his Cont. lib. 1. cap. 9,
calls it [1302]a necessary and inseparable accident, to all old and
decrepit persons. After seventy years (as the Psalmist saith) [1303]all
is trouble and sorrow; and common experience confirms the truth of it
in weak and old persons, especially such as have lived in action all
their lives, had great employment, much business, much command, and
many servants to oversee, and leave off ex abrupto; as [1304]Charles
the Fifth did to King Philip, resign up all on a sudden; they are
overcome with melancholy in an instant: or if they do continue in such
courses, they dote at last, (senex bis puer,) and are not able to
manage their estates through common infirmities incident in their age;
full of ache, sorrow and grief, children again, dizzards, they carl
many times as they sit, and talk to themselves, they are angry,
waspish, displeased with every thing, suspicious of all, wayward,
covetous, hard (saith Tully,) self-willed, superstitious,
self-conceited, braggers and admirers of themselves, as [1305]Balthazar
Castilio hath truly noted of them.[1306]This natural infirmity is most
eminent in old women, and such as are poor, solitary, live in most base
esteem and beggary, or such as are witches; insomuch that Wierus,
Baptista Porta, Ulricus Molitor, Edwicus, do refer all that witches are
said to do, to imagination alone, and this humour of melancholy. And
whereas it is controverted, whether they can bewitch cattle to death,
ride in the air upon a cowl-staff out of a chimney-top, transform
themselves into cats, dogs, &c., translate bodies from place to place,
meet in companies, and dance, as they do, or have carnal copulation
with the devil, they ascribe all to this redundant melancholy, which
domineers in them, to [1307] somniferous potions, and natural causes,
the devil's policy. Non laedunt omnino (saith Wierus) aut quid mirum
faciunt, (de Lamiis, lib. 3. cap. 36), ut putatur, solam vitiatam
habent phantasiam; they do no such wonders at all, only their
[1308]brains are crazed. [1309]They think they are witches, and can do
hurt, but do not. But this opinion Bodine, Erastus, Danaeus,
Scribanius, Sebastian Michaelis, Campanella de Sensu rerum, lib. 4.
cap. 9. [1310]Dandinus the Jesuit, lib. 2. de Animae explode;
[1311]Cicogna confutes at large. That witches are melancholy, they deny
not, but not out of corrupt phantasy alone, so to delude themselves and
others, or to produce such effects.
SUBSECT. VI.—_Parents a cause by Propagation_.
That other inward inbred cause of Melancholy is our temperature, in
whole or part, which we receive from our parents, which [1312]Fernelius
calls Praeter naturam, or unnatural, it being an hereditary disease;
for as he justifies [1313]Quale parentum maxime patris semen obtigerit,
tales evadunt similares spermaticaeque paries, quocunque etiam morbo
Pater quum generat tenetur, cum semine transfert, in Prolem; such as
the temperature of the father is, such is the son's, and look what
disease the father had when he begot him, his son will have after him;
[1314]and is as well inheritor of his infirmities, as of his lands. And
where the complexion and constitution of the father is corrupt, there
([1315]saith Roger Bacon) the complexion and constitution of the son
must needs be corrupt, and so the corruption is derived from the father
to the son. Now this doth not so much appear in the composition of the
body, according to that of Hippocrates, [1316]in habit, proportion,
scars, and other lineaments; but in manners and conditions of the mind,
Et patrum in natos abeunt cum semine mores.
Seleucus had an anchor on his thigh, so had his posterity, as Trogus
records, lib. 15. Lepidus, in Pliny l. 7. c. 17, was purblind, so was
his son. That famous family of Aenobarbi were known of old, and so
surnamed from their red beards; the Austrian lip, and those Indian flat
noses are propagated, the Bavarian chin, and goggle eyes amongst the
Jews, as [1317] Buxtorfius observes; their voice, pace, gesture, looks,
are likewise derived with all the rest of their conditions and
infirmities; such a mother, such a daughter; their very
[1318]affections Lemnius contends to follow their seed, and the malice
and bad conditions of children are many times wholly to be imputed to
their parents; I need not therefore make any doubt of Melancholy, but
that it is an hereditary disease. [1319] Paracelsus in express words
affirms it, lib. de morb. amentium to. 4. tr. 1; so doth [1320]Crato in
an Epistle of his to Monavius. So doth Bruno Seidelius in his book de
morbo incurab. Montaltus proves, cap. 11, out of Hippocrates and
Plutarch, that such hereditary dispositions are frequent, et hanc
(inquit) fieri reor ob participatam melancholicam intemperantiam
(speaking of a patient) I think he became so by participation of
Melancholy. Daniel Sennertus, lib. 1. part 2. cap. 9, will have his
melancholy constitution derived not only from the father to the son,
but to the whole family sometimes; Quandoque totis familiis
hereditativam, [1321]Forestus, in his medicinal observations,
illustrates this point, with an example of a merchant, his patient,
that had this infirmity by inheritance; so doth Rodericus a Fonseca,
tom. 1. consul. 69, by an instance of a young man that was so affected
ex matre melancholica, had a melancholy mother, et victu melancholico,
and bad diet together. Ludovicus Mercatus, a Spanish physician, in that
excellent Tract which he hath lately written of hereditary diseases,
tom. 2. oper. lib. 5, reckons up leprosy, as those [1322]Galbots in
Gascony, hereditary lepers, pox, stone, gout, epilepsy, &c. Amongst the
rest, this and madness after a set time comes to many, which he calls a
miraculous thing in nature, and sticks for ever to them as an incurable
habit. And that which is more to be wondered at, it skips in some
families the father, and goes to the son, [1323]or takes every other,
and sometimes every third in a lineal descent, and doth not always
produce the same, but some like, and a symbolizing disease. These
secondary causes hence derived, are commonly so powerful, that (as
[1324]Wolfius holds) saepe mutant decreta siderum, they do often alter
the primary causes, and decrees of the heavens. For these reasons,
belike, the Church and commonwealth, human and Divine laws, have
conspired to avoid hereditary diseases, forbidding such marriages as
are any whit allied; and as Mercatus adviseth all families to take
such, si fieri possit quae maxime distant natura, and to make choice of
those that are most differing in complexion from them; if they love
their own, and respect the common good. And sure, I think, it hath been
ordered by God's especial providence, that in all ages there should be
(as usually there is) once in [1325]600 years, a transmigration of
nations, to amend and purify their blood, as we alter seed upon our
land, and that there should be as it were an inundation of those
northern Goths and Vandals, and many such like people which came out of
that continent of Scandia and Sarmatia (as some suppose) and overran,
as a deluge, most part of Europe and Africa, to alter for our good, our
complexions, which were much defaced with hereditary infirmities, which
by our lust and intemperance we had contracted. A sound generation of
strong and able men were sent amongst us, as those northern men usually
are, innocuous, free from riot, and free from diseases; to qualify and
make us as those poor naked Indians are generally at this day; and
those about Brazil (as a late [1326]writer observes), in the Isle of
Maragnan, free from all hereditary diseases, or other contagion,
whereas without help of physic they live commonly 120 years or more, as
in the Orcades and many other places. Such are the common effects of
temperance and intemperance, but I will descend to particular, and show
by what means, and by whom especially, this infirmity is derived unto
us.
Filii ex senibus nati, raro sunt firmi temperamenti, old men's children
are seldom of a good temperament, as Scoltzius supposeth, consult. 177,
and therefore most apt to this disease; and as [1327]Levinus Lemnius
farther adds, old men beget most part wayward, peevish, sad, melancholy
sons, and seldom merry. He that begets a child on a full stomach, will
either have a sick child, or a crazed son (as [1328]Cardan thinks),
contradict. med. lib. 1. contradict. 18, or if the parents be sick, or
have any great pain of the head, or megrim, headache, (Hieronymus
Wolfius [1329]doth instance in a child of Sebastian Castalio's); if a
drunken man get a child, it will never likely have a good brain, as
Gellius argues, lib. 12. cap. 1. Ebrii gignunt Ebrios, one drunkard
begets another, saith [1330]Plutarch, symp. lib. 1. quest. 5, whose
sentence [1331]Lemnius approves, l. 1. c. 4. Alsarius Crutius, Gen. de
qui sit med. cent. 3. fol. 182. Macrobius, lib. 1. Avicenna, lib. 3.
Fen. 21. Tract 1. cap. 8, and Aristotle himself, sect. 2. prob. 4,
foolish, drunken, or hair-brain women, most part bring forth children
like unto themselves, morosos et languidos, and so likewise he that
lies with a menstruous woman. Intemperantia veneris, quam in nautis
praesertim insectatur [1332] Lemnius, qui uxores ineunt, nulla menstrui
decursus ratione habita nec observato interlunio, praecipua causa est,
noxia, pernitiosa, concubitum hunc exitialem ideo, et pestiferum vocat.
[1333]Rodoricus a Castro Lucitanus, detestantur ad unum omnes medici,
tum et quarta luna concepti, infelices plerumque et amentes, deliri,
stolidi, morbosi, impuri, invalidi, tetra lue sordidi minime vitales,
omnibus bonis corporis atque animi destituti: ad laborem nati, si
seniores, inquit Eustathius, ut Hercules, et alii. [1334]Judaei maxime
insectantur foedum hunc, et immundum apud Christianas Concubitum, ut
illicitum abhorrent, et apud suos prohibent; et quod Christiani toties
leprosi, amentes, tot morbili, impetigines, alphi, psorae, cutis et
faciei decolorationes, tam multi morbi epidemici, acerbi, et venenosi
sint, in hunc immundum concubitum rejiciunt, et crudeles in pignora
vocant, qui quarta, luna profluente hac mensium illuvie concubitum hunc
non perhorrescunt. Damnavit olim divina Lex et morte mulctavit
hujusmodi homines, Lev. 18, 20, et inde nati, siqui deformes aut
mutili, pater dilapidatus, quod non contineret ab [1335] immunda
muliere. Gregorius Magnus, petenti Augustino nunquid apud
[1336]Britannos hujusmodi concubitum toleraret, severe prohibuit viris
suis tum misceri foeminas in consuetis suis menstruis, &c. I spare to
English this which I have said. Another cause some give, inordinate
diet, as if a man eat garlic, onions, fast overmuch, study too hard, be
over-sorrowful, dull, heavy, dejected in mind, perplexed in his
thoughts, fearful, &c., their children (saith [1337]Cardan subtil. lib.
18) will be much subject to madness and melancholy; for if the spirits
of the brain be fuzzled, or misaffected by such means, at such a time,
their children will be fuzzled in the brain: they will be dull, heavy,
timorous, discontented all their lives. Some are of opinion, and
maintain that paradox or problem, that wise men beget commonly fools;
Suidas gives instance in Aristarchus the Grammarian, duos reliquit
Filios Aristarchum et Aristachorum, ambos stultos; and which
[1338]Erasmus urgeth in his Moria, fools beget wise men. Card. subt. l.
12, gives this cause, Quoniam spiritus sapientum ob studium
resolvuntur, et in cerebrum feruntur a corde: because their natural
spirits are resolved by study, and turned into animal; drawn from the
heart, and those other parts to the brain. Lemnius subscribes to that
of Cardan, and assigns this reason, Quod persolvant debitum languide,
et obscitanter, unde foetus a parentum generositate desciscit: they pay
their debt (as Paul calls it) to their wives remissly, by which means
their children are weaklings, and many times idiots and fools.
Some other causes are given, which properly pertain, and do proceed
from the mother: if she be over-dull, heavy, angry, peevish,
discontented, and melancholy, not only at the time of conception, but
even all the while she carries the child in her womb (saith Fernelius,
path. l. 1, 11) her son will be so likewise affected, and worse, as
[1339]Lemnius adds, l. 4. c. 7, if she grieve overmuch, be disquieted,
or by any casualty be affrighted and terrified by some fearful object,
heard or seen, she endangers her child, and spoils the temperature of
it; for the strange imagination of a woman works effectually upon her
infant, that as Baptista Porta proves, Physiog. caelestis l. 5. c. 2,
she leaves a mark upon it, which is most especially seen in such as
prodigiously long for such and such meats, the child will love those
meats, saith Fernelius, and be addicted to like humours: [1340]if a
great-bellied woman see a hare, her child will often have a harelip, as
we call it. Garcaeus, de Judiciis geniturarum, cap. 33, hath a
memorable example of one Thomas Nickell, born in the city of
Brandeburg, 1551, [1341]that went reeling and staggering all the days
of his life, as if he would fall to the ground, because his mother
being great with child saw a drunken man reeling in the street. Such
another I find in Martin Wenrichius, com. de ortu monstrorum, c. 17, I
saw (saith he) at Wittenberg, in Germany, a citizen that looked like a
carcass; I asked him the cause, he replied, [1342]His mother, when she
bore him in her womb, saw a carcass by chance, and was so sore
affrighted with it, that ex eo foetus ei assimilatus, from a ghastly
impression the child was like it.
So many several ways are we plagued and punished for our father's
defaults; insomuch that as Fernelius truly saith, [1343]It is the
greatest part of our felicity to be well born, and it were happy for
human kind, if only such parents as are sound of body and mind should
be suffered to marry. An husbandman will sow none but the best and
choicest seed upon his land, he will not rear a bull or a horse, except
he be right shapen in all parts, or permit him to cover a mare, except
he be well assured of his breed; we make choice of the best rams for
our sheep, rear the neatest kine, and keep the best dogs, Quanto id
diligentius in procreandis liberis observandum? And how careful then
should we be in begetting of our children? In former times some
[1344]countries have been so chary in this behalf, so stern, that if a
child were crooked or deformed in body or mind, they made him away; so
did the Indians of old by the relation of Curtius, and many other
well-governed commonwealths, according to the discipline of those
times. Heretofore in Scotland, saith [1345]Hect. Boethius, if any were
visited with the falling sickness, madness, gout, leprosy, or any such
dangerous disease, which was likely to be propagated from the father to
the son, he was instantly gelded; a woman kept from all company of men;
and if by chance having some such disease, she were found to be with
child, she with her brood were buried alive: and this was done for the
common good, lest the whole nation should be injured or corrupted. A
severe doom you will say, and not to be used amongst Christians, yet
more to be looked into than it is. For now by our too much facility in
this kind, in giving way for all to marry that will, too much liberty
and indulgence in tolerating all sorts, there is a vast confusion of
hereditary diseases, no family secure, no man almost free from some
grievous infirmity or other, when no choice is had, but still the
eldest must marry, as so many stallions of the race; or if rich, be
they fools or dizzards, lame or maimed, unable, intemperate, dissolute,
exhaust through riot, as he said, [1346]jura haereditario sapere
jubentur; they must be wise and able by inheritance: it comes to pass
that our generation is corrupt, we have many weak persons, both in body
and mind, many feral diseases raging amongst us, crazed families,
parentes, peremptores; our fathers bad, and we are like to be worse.
MEMB. II.
SUBSECT. I.—_Bad Diet a cause. Substance. Quality of Meats_.