causes, which are inbred with us, I must now proceed to the outward and
adventitious, which happen unto us after we are born. And those are
either evident, remote, or inward, antecedent, and the nearest:
continent causes some call them. These outward, remote, precedent
causes are subdivided again into necessary and not necessary. Necessary
(because we cannot avoid them, but they will alter us, as they are
used, or abused) are those six non-natural things, so much spoken of
amongst physicians, which are principal causes of this disease. For
almost in every consultation, whereas they shall come to speak of the
causes, the fault is found, and this most part objected to the patient;
Peccavit circa res sex non naturales: he hath still offended in one of
those six. Montanus, consil. 22, consulted about a melancholy Jew,
gives that sentence, so did Frisemelica in the same place; and in his
244 counsel, censuring a melancholy soldier, assigns that reason of his
malady, [1347]he offended in all those six non-natural things, which
were the outward causes, from which came those inward obstructions; and
so in the rest.
These six non-natural things are diet, retention and evacuation, which
are more material than the other because they make new matter, or else
are conversant in keeping or expelling of it. The other four are air,
exercise, sleeping, waking, and perturbations of the mind, which only
alter the matter. The first of these is diet, which consists in meat
and drink, and causeth melancholy, as it offends in substance, or
accidents, that is, quantity, quality, or the like. And well it may be
called a material cause, since that, as [1348]Fernelius holds, it hath
such a power in begetting of diseases, and yields the matter and
sustenance of them; for neither air, nor perturbations, nor any of
those other evident causes take place, or work this effect, except the
constitution of body, and preparation of humours, do concur. That a man
may say, this diet is the mother of diseases, let the father be what he
will, and from this alone, melancholy and frequent other maladies
arise. Many physicians, I confess, have written copious volumes of this
one subject, of the nature and qualities of all manner of meats; as
namely, Galen, Isaac the Jew, Halyabbas, Avicenna, Mesue, also four
Arabians, Gordonius, Villanovanus, Wecker, Johannes Bruerinus,
sitologia de Esculentis et Poculentis, Michael Savanarola, Tract 2. c.
8, Anthony Fumanellus, lib. de regimine senum, Curio in his comment on
Schola Salerna, Godefridus Steckius arte med., Marcilius Cognatus,
Ficinus, Ranzovius, Fonseca, Lessius, Magninus, regim. sanitatis,
Frietagius, Hugo Fridevallius, &c., besides many other in
[1349]English, and almost every peculiar physician, discourseth at
large of all peculiar meats in his chapter of melancholy: yet because
these books are not at hand to every man, I will briefly touch what
kind of meats engender this humour, through their several species, and
which are to be avoided. How they alter and change the matter, spirits
first, and after humours, by which we are preserved, and the
constitution of our body, Fernelius and others will show you. I hasten
to the thing itself: and first of such diet as offends in substance.
_Beef._] Beef, a strong and hearty meat (cold in the first degree, dry
in the second, saith Gal. l. 3. c. 1. de alim. fac.) is condemned by
him and all succeeding Authors, to breed gross melancholy blood: good
for such as are sound, and of a strong constitution, for labouring men
if ordered aright, corned, young, of an ox (for all gelded meats in
every species are held best), or if old, [1350]such as have been tired
out with labour, are preferred. Aubanus and Sabellicus commend Portugal
beef to be the most savoury, best and easiest of digestion; we commend
ours: but all is rejected, and unfit for such as lead a resty life, any
ways inclined to melancholy, or dry of complexion: Tales (Galen thinks)
de facile melancholicis aegritudinibus capiuntur.
_Pork._] Pork, of all meats, is most nutritive in his own nature,
[1351] but altogether unfit for such as live at ease, are any ways
unsound of body or mind: too moist, full of humours, and therefore
noxia delicatis, saith Savanarola, ex earum usu ut dubitetur an febris
quartana generetur: naught for queasy stomachs, insomuch that frequent
use of it may breed a quartan ague.
_Goat._] Savanarola discommends goat's flesh, and so doth
[1352]Bruerinus, l. 13. c. 19, calling it a filthy beast, and rammish:
and therefore supposeth it will breed rank and filthy substance; yet
kid, such as are young and tender, Isaac accepts, Bruerinus and Galen,
l. 1. c. 1. de alimentorum facultatibus.
_Hart._] Hart and red deer [1353]hath an evil name: it yields gross
nutriment: a strong and great grained meat, next unto a horse. Which
although some countries eat, as Tartars, and they of China; yet [1354]
Galen condemns. Young foals are as commonly eaten in Spain as red deer,
and to furnish their navies, about Malaga especially, often used; but
such meats ask long baking, or seething, to qualify them, and yet all
will not serve.
Venison, Fallow Deer.] All venison is melancholy, and begets bad blood;
a pleasant meat: in great esteem with us (for we have more parks in
England than there are in all Europe besides) in our solemn feasts.
'Tis somewhat better hunted than otherwise, and well prepared by
cookery; but generally bad, and seldom to be used.
_Hare._] Hare, a black meat, melancholy, and hard of digestion, it
breeds incubus, often eaten, and causeth fearful dreams, so doth all
venison, and is condemned by a jury of physicians. Mizaldus and some
others say, that hare is a merry meat, and that it will make one fair,
as Martial's epigram testifies to Gellia; but this is per accidens,
because of the good sport it makes, merry company and good discourse
that is commonly at the eating of it, and not otherwise to be
understood.
_Conies._] [1355]Conies are of the nature of hares. Magninus compares
them to beef, pig, and goat, Reg. sanit. part. 3. c. 17; yet young
rabbits by all men are approved to be good.
Generally, all such meats as are hard of digestion breed melancholy.
Areteus, lib. 7. cap. 5, reckons up heads and feet, [1356]bowels,
brains, entrails, marrow, fat, blood, skins, and those inward parts, as
heart, lungs, liver, spleen, &c. They are rejected by Isaac, lib. 2.
part. 3, Magninus, part. 3. cap. 17, Bruerinus, lib. 12, Savanarola,
Rub. 32. Tract. 2.
_Milk._] Milk, and all that comes of milk, as butter and cheese, curds,
&c., increase melancholy (whey only excepted, which is most wholesome):
[1357]some except asses' milk. The rest, to such as are sound, is
nutritive and good, especially for young children, but because soon
turned to corruption, [1358]not good for those that have unclean
stomachs, are subject to headache, or have green wounds, stone, &c. Of
all cheeses, I take that kind which we call Banbury cheese to be the
best, ex vetustis pessimus, the older, stronger, and harder, the worst,
as Langius discourseth in his Epistle to Melancthon, cited by Mizaldus,
Isaac, p. 5. Gal. 3. de cibis boni succi. &c.
_Fowl._] Amongst fowl, [1359]peacocks and pigeons, all fenny fowl are
forbidden, as ducks, geese, swans, herons, cranes, coots, didappers,
water-hens, with all those teals, curs, sheldrakes, and peckled fowls,
that come hither in winter out of Scandia, Muscovy, Greenland,
Friesland, which half the year are covered all over with snow, and
frozen up. Though these be fair in feathers, pleasant in taste, and
have a good outside, like hypocrites, white in plumes, and soft, their
flesh is hard, black, unwholesome, dangerous, melancholy meat; Gravant
et putrefaciant stomachum, saith Isaac, part. 5. de vol., their young
ones are more tolerable, but young pigeons he quite disapproves.
_Fishes._] Rhasis and [1360]Magninus discommend all fish, and say, they
breed viscosities, slimy nutriment, little and humorous nourishment.
Savanarola adds, cold, moist: and phlegmatic, Isaac; and therefore
unwholesome for all cold and melancholy complexions: others make a
difference, rejecting only amongst freshwater fish, eel, tench,
lamprey, crawfish (which Bright approves, cap. 6), and such as are bred
in muddy and standing waters, and have a taste of mud, as Franciscus
Bonsuetus poetically defines, Lib. de aquatilibus.
Nam pisces omnes, qui stagna, lacusque frequentant,
Semper plus succi deterioris habent.
All fish, that standing pools, and lakes frequent,
Do ever yield bad juice and nourishment.
Lampreys, Paulus Jovius, c. 34. de piscibus fluvial., highly magnifies,
and saith, None speak against them, but inepti et scrupulosi, some
scrupulous persons; but [1361]eels, c. 33, he abhorreth in all places,
at all times, all physicians detest them, especially about the
solstice. Gomesius, lib. 1. c. 22, de sale, doth immoderately extol
sea-fish, which others as much vilify, and above the rest, dried,
soused, indurate fish, as ling, fumados, red-herrings, sprats,
stock-fish, haberdine, poor-John, all shellfish. [1362]Tim. Bright
excepts lobster and crab. Messarius commends salmon, which Bruerinus
contradicts, lib. 22. c. 17. Magninus rejects conger, sturgeon, turbot,
mackerel, skate.
Carp is a fish of which I know not what to determine. Franciscus
Bonsuetus accounts it a muddy fish. Hippolitus Salvianus, in his Book
de Piscium natura et praeparatione, which was printed at Rome in folio,
1554, with most elegant pictures, esteems carp no better than a slimy
watery meat. Paulus Jovius on the other side, disallowing tench,
approves of it; so doth Dubravius in his Books of Fishponds. Freitagius
[1363]extols it for an excellent wholesome meat, and puts it amongst
the fishes of the best rank; and so do most of our country gentlemen,
that store their ponds almost with no other fish. But this controversy
is easily decided, in my judgment, by Bruerinus, l. 22. c. 13. The
difference riseth from the site and nature of pools, [1364]sometimes
muddy, sometimes sweet; they are in taste as the place is from whence
they be taken. In like manner almost we may conclude of other fresh
fish. But see more in Rondoletius, Bellonius, Oribasius, lib. 7. cap.
22, Isaac, l. 1, especially Hippolitus Salvianus, who is instar omnium
solus, &c. Howsoever they may be wholesome and approved, much use of
them is not good; P. Forestus, in his medicinal observations,
[1365]relates, that Carthusian friars, whose living is most part fish,
are more subject to melancholy than any other order, and that he found
by experience, being sometimes their physician ordinary at Delft, in
Holland. He exemplifies it with an instance of one Buscodnese, a
Carthusian of a ruddy colour, and well liking, that by solitary living,
and fish-eating, became so misaffected.
_Herbs._] Amongst herbs to be eaten I find gourds, cucumbers,
coleworts, melons, disallowed, but especially cabbage. It causeth
troublesome dreams, and sends up black vapours to the brain. Galen,
loc. affect. l. 3. c. 6, of all herbs condemns cabbage; and Isaac, lib.
2. c. 1. Animae gravitatem facit, it brings heaviness to the soul. Some
are of opinion that all raw herbs and salads breed melancholy blood,
except bugloss and lettuce. Crato, consil. 21. lib. 2, speaks against
all herbs and worts, except borage, bugloss, fennel, parsley, dill,
balm, succory. Magninus, regim. sanitatis, part. 3. cap. 31. Omnes
herbae simpliciter malae, via cibi; all herbs are simply evil to feed
on (as he thinks). So did that scoffing cook in [1366]Plautus hold:
Non ego coenam condio ut alii coqui solent,
Qui mihi condita prata in patinis proferunt,
Boves qui convivas faciunt, herbasque aggerunt.
Like other cooks I do not supper dress,
That put whole meadows into a platter,
And make no better of their guests than beeves,
With herbs and grass to feed them fatter.
Our Italians and Spaniards do make a whole dinner of herbs and salads
(which our said Plautus calls coenas terrestras, Horace, coenas sine
sanguine), by which means, as he follows it,
[1367]Hic homines tam brevem vitam colunt—
Qui herbas hujusmodi in alvum suum congerunt,
Formidolosum dictu, non esu modo,
Quas herbas pecudes non edunt, homines edunt.
Their lives, that eat such herbs, must needs be short,
And 'tis a fearful thing for to report,
That men should feed on such a kind of meat,
Which very juments would refuse to eat.
[1368]They are windy, and not fit therefore to be eaten of all men raw,
though qualified with oil, but in broths, or otherwise. See more of
these in every [1369]husbandman, and herbalist.
_Roots._] Roots, Etsi quorundam gentium opes sint, saith Bruerinus, the
wealth of some countries, and sole food, are windy and bad, or
troublesome to the head: as onions, garlic, scallions, turnips,
carrots, radishes, parsnips: Crato, lib. 2. consil. 11, disallows all
roots, though [1370] some approve of parsnips and potatoes.
[1371]Magninus is of Crato's opinion, [1372]They trouble the mind,
sending gross fumes to the brain, make men mad, especially garlic,
onions, if a man liberally feed on them a year together. Guianerius,
tract. 15. cap. 2, complains of all manner of roots, and so doth
Bruerinus, even parsnips themselves, which are the best, Lib. 9. cap.
14.
_Fruits._] Pastinacarum usus succos gignit improbos. Crato, consil. 21.
lib. 1, utterly forbids all manner of fruits, as pears, apples, plums,
cherries, strawberries, nuts, medlars, serves, &c. Sanguinem inficiunt,
saith Villanovanus, they infect the blood, and putrefy it, Magninus
holds, and must not therefore be taken via cibi, aut quantitate magna,
not to make a meal of, or in any great quantity. [1373]Cardan makes
that a cause of their continual sickness at Fessa in Africa, because
they live so much on fruits, eating them thrice a day. Laurentius
approves of many fruits, in his Tract of Melancholy, which others
disallow, and amongst the rest apples, which some likewise commend,
sweetings, pearmains, pippins, as good against melancholy; but to him
that is any way inclined to, or touched with this malady,
[1374]Nicholas Piso in his Practics, forbids all fruits, as windy, or
to be sparingly eaten at least, and not raw. Amongst other fruits,
[1375]Bruerinus, out of Galen, excepts grapes and figs, but I find them
likewise rejected.
_Pulse._] All pulse are naught, beans, peas, vetches, &c., they fill
the brain (saith Isaac) with gross fumes, breed black thick blood, and
cause troublesome dreams. And therefore, that which Pythagoras said to
his scholars of old, may be for ever applied to melancholy men, A fabis
abstinete, eat no peas, nor beans; yet to such as will needs eat them,
I would give this counsel, to prepare them according to those rules
that Arnoldus Villanovanus, and Frietagius prescribe, for eating, and
dressing. fruits, herbs, roots, pulse, &c.
_Spices._] Spices cause hot and head melancholy, and are for that cause
forbidden by our physicians to such men as are inclined to this malady,
as pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, mace, dates, &c. honey and sugar.
[1376] Some except honey; to those that are cold, it may be tolerable,
but [1377] Dulcia se in bilem vertunt, (sweets turn into bile,) they
are obstructive. Crato therefore forbids all spice, in a consultation
of his, for a melancholy schoolmaster, Omnia aromatica et quicquid
sanguinem adurit: so doth Fernelius, consil. 45. Guianerius, tract 15.
cap. 2. Mercurialis, cons. 189. To these I may add all sharp and sour
things, luscious and over-sweet, or fat, as oil, vinegar, verjuice,
mustard, salt; as sweet things are obstructive, so these are corrosive.
Gomesius, in his books, de sale, l. 1. c. 21, highly commends salt; so
doth Codronchus in his tract, de sale Absynthii, Lemn. l. 3. c. 9. de
occult. nat. mir. yet common experience finds salt, and salt-meats, to
be great procurers of this disease. And for that cause belike those
Egyptian priests abstained from salt, even so much, as in their bread,
ut sine perturbatione anima esset, saith mine author, that their souls
might be free from perturbations.
_Bread._] Bread that is made of baser grain, as peas, beans, oats, rye,
or [1378]over-hard baked, crusty, and black, is often spoken against,
as causing melancholy juice and wind. Joh. Mayor, in the first book of
his History of Scotland, contends much for the wholesomeness of oaten
bread: it was objected to him then living at Paris in France, that his
countrymen fed on oats, and base grain, as a disgrace; but he doth
ingenuously confess, Scotland, Wales, and a third part of England, did
most part use that kind of bread, that it was as wholesome as any
grain, and yielded as good nourishment. And yet Wecker out of Galen
calls it horsemeat, and fitter for juments than men to feed on. But
read Galen himself, Lib. 1. De cibis boni et mali succi, more largely
discoursing of corn and bread.
_Wine._] All black wines, over-hot, compound, strong thick drinks, as
Muscadine, Malmsey, Alicant, Rumney, Brownbastard, Metheglen, and the
like, of which they have thirty several kinds in Muscovy, all such made
drinks are hurtful in this case, to such as are hot, or of a sanguine
choleric complexion, young, or inclined to head-melancholy. For many
times the drinking of wine alone causeth it. Arculanus, c. 16. in 9.
Rhasis, puts in [1379]wine for a great cause, especially if it be
immoderately used. Guianerius, tract. 15. c. 2, tells a story of two
Dutchmen, to whom he gave entertainment in his house, that [1380]in one
month's space were both melancholy by drinking of wine, one did nought
but sing, the other sigh. Galen, l. de causis morb. c. 3. Matthiolus on
Dioscorides, and above all other Andreas Bachius, l. 3. 18, 19, 20,
have reckoned upon those inconveniences that come by wine: yet
notwithstanding all this, to such as are cold, or sluggish melancholy,
a cup of wine is good physic, and so doth Mercurialis grant, consil.
25, in that case, if the temperature be cold, as to most melancholy men
it is, wine is much commended, if it be moderately used.
_Cider, Perry._] Cider and perry are both cold and windy drinks, and
for that cause to be neglected, and so are all those hot spiced strong
drinks.
Beer.] Beer, if it be over-new or over-stale, over-strong, or not
sodden, smell of the cask, sharp, or sour, is most unwholesome, frets,
and galls, &c. Henricus Ayrerus, in a [1381]consultation of his, for
one that laboured of hypochondriacal melancholy, discommends beer. So
doth [1382] Crato in that excellent counsel of his, Lib. 2. consil. 21,
as too windy, because of the hop. But he means belike that thick black
Bohemian beer used in some other parts of [1383]Germany.
———nil spissius illa
Dum bibitur, nil clarius est dum mingitur, unde
Constat, quod multas faeces in corpore linquat.
Nothing comes in so thick,
Nothing goes out so thin,
It must needs follow then
The dregs are left within.
As that [1384]old poet scoffed, calling it Stygiae monstrum conforme
paludi, a monstrous drink, like the river Styx. But let them say as
they list, to such as are accustomed unto it, 'tis a most wholesome (so
[1385] Polydore Virgil calleth it) and a pleasant drink, it is more
subtle and better, for the hop that rarefies it, hath an especial
virtue against melancholy, as our herbalists confess, Fuchsius
approves, Lib. 2. sec. 2. instit. cap. 11, and many others.
Waters] Standing waters, thick and ill-coloured, such as come forth of
pools, and moats, where hemp hath been steeped, or slimy fishes live,
are most unwholesome, putrefied, and full of mites, creepers, slimy,
muddy, unclean, corrupt, impure, by reason of the sun's heat, and
still-standing; they cause foul distemperatures in the body and mind of
man, are unfit to make drink of, to dress meat with, or to be
[1386]used about men inwardly or outwardly. They are good for many
domestic uses, to wash horses, water cattle, &c., or in time of
necessity, but not otherwise. Some are of opinion, that such fat
standing waters make the best beer, and that seething doth defecate it,
as [1387]Cardan holds, Lib. 13. subtil. It mends the substance, and
savour of it, but it is a paradox. Such beer may be stronger, but not
so wholesome as the other, as [1388]Jobertus truly justifieth out of
Galen, Paradox, dec. 1. Paradox 5, that the seething of such impure
waters doth not purge or purify them, Pliny, lib. 31. c. 3, is of the
same tenet, and P. Crescentius, agricult. lib. 1. et lib. 4. c. 11. et
c. 45. Pamphilius Herilachus, l. 4. de not. aquarum, such waters are
naught, not to be used, and by the testimony of [1389]Galen, breed
agues, dropsies, pleurisies, splenetic and melancholy passions, hurt
the eyes, cause a bad temperature, and ill disposition of the whole
body, with bad colour. This Jobertus stiffly maintains, Paradox, lib.
1. part. 5, that it causeth blear eyes, bad colour, and many loathsome
diseases to such as use it: this which they say, stands with good
reason; for as geographers relate, the water of Astracan breeds worms
in such as drink it. [1390] Axius, or as now called Verduri, the
fairest river in Macedonia, makes all cattle black that taste of it.
Aleacman now Peleca, another stream in Thessaly, turns cattle most part
white, si polui ducas, L. Aubanus Rohemus refers that [1391]struma or
poke of the Bavarians and Styrians to the nature of their waters, as
[1392]Munster doth that of Valesians in the Alps, and [1393]Bodine
supposeth the stuttering of some families in Aquitania, about Labden,
to proceed from the same cause, and that the filth is derived from the
water to their bodies. So that they that use filthy, standing,
ill-coloured, thick, muddy water, must needs have muddy, ill-coloured,
impure, and infirm bodies. And because the body works upon the mind,
they shall have grosser understandings, dull, foggy, melancholy
spirits, and be really subject to all manner of infirmities.
To these noxious simples, we may reduce an infinite number of compound,
artificial, made dishes, of which our cooks afford us a great variety,
as tailors do fashions in our apparel. Such are [1394]puddings stuffed
with blood, or otherwise composed; baked, meats, soused indurate meats,
fried and broiled buttered meats; condite, powdered, and over-dried,
[1395]all cakes, simnels, buns, cracknels made with butter, spice, &c.,
fritters, pancakes, pies, sausages, and those several sauces, sharp, or
over-sweet, of which scientia popinae, as Seneca calls it, hath served
those [1396] Apician tricks, and perfumed dishes, which Adrian the
sixth Pope so much admired in the accounts of his predecessor Leo
Decimus; and which prodigious riot and prodigality have invented in
this age. These do generally engender gross humours, fill the stomach
with crudities, and all those inward parts with obstructions. Montanus,
consil. 22, gives instance, in a melancholy Jew, that by eating such
tart sauces, made dishes, and salt meats, with which he was overmuch
delighted, became melancholy, and was evil affected. Such examples are
familiar and common.
SUBSECT. II.—_Quantity of Diet a Cause._