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,
[4161]For gold in physic is a cordial,
Therefore he loved gold in special.
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.
MEMB. II.
SUBSECT. I.—_Purging Simples upward_.