If that were true, most of our Italian cities, Montpelier in France, with infinite others, would finde this inconvenience, but there is no such matter. For private families, in what sort they should furnish themselves let them consult with P. Crescentius de Agric. 1. 1. c. 4. Pamphilius Hirelacus, and the rest.

Amongst fishes, those are most allowed of, that live in gravelly or sandy waters, Pikes, Perch, Trout, Gudgeon, Smelts, Flounders, &c. Hyppolitus Salvianus takes exception at Carp; but I dare boldly say with Dubravius, it is an excellent meat, if it come not from muddy pooles, that it retain not an unsavory tast. Erinacius Marinus is much commended by Oribatius, Etius, and most of our late writers.

"Crato consil. 21. lib. 2. censures all manner of fruits, as subject to putrefaction, yet tolerable at sometimes, after meales, at second course, they keep down vapors, and have their use. Sweet fruits are best, as sweet Cherries, Plums, sweet Apples, Peare-maines, and Pippins, which Laurentius extols, as having a peculiar property against this disease, and Plater magnifies, omnibus modis appropriata conveniunt, but they must be corrected for their windiness; ripe Grapes are good, and Raysins of the sun, Musk-millions well corrected, and sparingly used. Figs are allowed, and Almonds blanched. Trallianus discommends Figs, * Salvianus Olives and Capers, which others especially like of, and so of pistick nuts. Montanus and Mercurialis out of Avenzoar, admit Peaches, Peares, and Apples baked after meales, only corrected with sugar, and Ani-seed, or Fennell seed, and so they may be profitably taken, because they strengthen the stomack, and keep down vapors. The like may be said of preserved Cherries, Plums, marmalit of plums, quinces, &c. but not to drink after them, Pomegranates, Lemons, Oranges are tolerated, if they be not too sharp.

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Crato will admit of no herbs, but Borage, Bugloss, Endive, Fennell, Anniseed, Bawme; Callenius and Arnoldus tolerate Lettuce, Spinage, Beets, &c. The same Crato will allow no roots at all to be eaten. Some approve of Potatoes, Parsnips, but all corrected for winde. No raw sallets; but as Lauren

y Montanus consil. 24.

De piscibus lib. habent omnes in lautitiis, modò non sint è cænoso loco. De pisc. c. 2. 1. 7. Plurimum præstat ad utilitatem & jucunditatem. Idem Trallianus lib. 1. c. 16. pisces petrosi, & molles carne. Etsi omnes putredini sunt obnoxii, ubi secundis mensis, incepto jam priore, devorentur, commodi succi prosunt, qui dulcedine sunt prediti. U dulcia cerasa, poma, &c. Lib 2. cap. 1. 2 Pyra quæ grato sunt sapore, cocta mala, poma tosta, & saccharo, vel anisi sem ne conspersa, utiliter statim à prancio vel à cœna sumi possunt, eo quod ventriculum loborent & vapores caput petentes reprimant. Mont. Funica mala auranua commodè per mittuntur modò non sint austera & acida. Olera omnia præter boraginem, buglossum, intybum, feniculum, anisum, melissum vitari debent.

tius prescribes, in broths; and so Crato commends many of them or to use Borage, Hops, Bawme, steeped in their ordinary drink. Avenzoar magnifies the juyce of a Pomegra nate, if it be sweet, and especially Rose water, which he would have to be used in every dish, which they put in practice in those hot Countries, about Damascus, where (if we may be leeve the relations of Vertamannus) many hogsheads of Rosewater are to be sold in the market at once, it is in so great request with them.

SUBSECT. II.

Dyet rectified in quantity.

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AN alone, saith Cardan, eates and drinkes without appetite, and useth all his pleasure without necessity, ani mæ vitio, and thence come many inconveniencies unto him. For there is no meat whatsoever, though otherwise wholesome and good, but if unseasonably taken, or immoderately used, more then the stomack can well beare, it will ingender cruditie, and do much harme. Therefore Crato adviseth his pa tient to eat but twice a day, and that at his set meales, by no meanes to eat without an appetite, or upon a full stomack, and to put seven houres difference betwixt dinner and supper. Which rule if we did observe in our Colledges,, it would be much better for our healths: But custome that tyrant so prevailes, that contrary to all good order and rules of Physick, we scarce admit of five. If after seven houres tarrying he shall have no stomack, let him defer his meal, or eat very little at his ordinary time of repast. This very counsell was given by Prosper Calenus to Cardinal Cæsius, labouring of this disease; and & Platerus prescribes it to a patient of his, to be most severely kept. Guianerius admits of three meals a day, but Montanus consil. 23. pro. Ab. Italo, ties him precisely to two. And as he must not eat overmuch, so he may not absolutely fast; for as Celsus contends lib. 1. Jacchinus 15. in 9. Rhasis, repletion and inanition may both do harm in two contrary extreams. More. over, that which he doth eat, must be well chewed, and not hastily gobled, for that causeth cruditie and winde; and by all

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Mercurialis pract. Med. Lib. 2. de com. Solus homo edit bibitq; &c. Consil. 21. 18. si plus ingeratur quam par est, et ventriculus tolerare posset, nocet, et cruditates generat, &c. s Observat. lib. 1. Assuescat bis in die cibos, sumere, certâ semper horâ. Ne plus ingerat cavendum quàm ventri culus ferre potest, semperq; surgat à mensa non satur. i Siquidem qui semimansum velociter ingerunt cibum, ventriculo laborem inferunt, & flatus maximos promovent, Crato.

means

"Some think

means to eat no more than he can well digest. (saith Trincavelius lib. 11. cap. 29. de curand. part. hum.) the more they eat the more they nourish themselves:" eat and live, as the proverb is, "not knowing that onely repaires man which is well concocted, not that which is devoured.” Melancholy men most part have good appetites, but ill digestion, and for that cause they must be sure to rise with an ap petite: and that which Socrates and Disarius the Physicians in ↑ Macrobius so much require, S. Hierom injoines Rusticus to eat and drink no more than will satisfie hunger and thirst. Lessius the Jesuite holds 12. 13. or 14. ounces, or in our Northern countries 16. at most, (for all students, weaklings, and such as lead an idle sedentary life) of meat, bread, &c. a fit proportion for a whole day, and as much or little more of drink. Nothing pesters the body and minde sooner than to be still fed, to eat and ingurgitate beyond all measure, as many do. "By overmuch eating and continuall feasts they stifle nature, and choke up themselves; which, had they lived coursly, or like galley-slaves been tyed to an oare, might have happily prolonged many fair years."

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A great inconvenience comes by variety of dishes, which causeth the precedent distemperature, "Pthan which (saith Avicenna) nothing is worse; to feed on diversity of meats, or overmuch," Sertorius-like in lucem canare, and as commonly they do in Muscovie and Iseland, to prolong their meals all day long, or all night. Our Northern countries offend especially in this, and we in this Island (ampliter viventes in prandiis & canis, as Polydore notes) are most liberall feeders, but to our own hurt. + Persicos odi puer apparatus: "Excess of meat breedeth sickness, and gluttony causeth cholerick diseases: by surfeting many perish, but he that dieteth himself prolongeth his life," Ecclus. 37. 29. 30. We account it a great glory for a man to have his table daily furnished with variety of meats: but hear the Physician, he puls thee by the ear as thou sittest, and telleth thee," that nothing can be more noxious to thy health, than such variety and plenty." Temperance is a bridle

* Quidam maximè comedere nituntur, putantes câ ratione se vires refectu ros; ignorantes, non ea quæ ingerunt posse vires reficere, sed quæ probè concoquunt. * Multa appetunt, pauca d gerunt. 1 Saturnal. lib 7. cap. 4. "Hygiasticon

Modicus et temp ratus cibus et carni et animæ utilis est. reg. 14. 16. unciæ per diem sufficiant, compu: to pane, carne ovis, vel aliis obsoniis, et totidem vel paulò plures unciæ potûs, • Idem reg. 27. Plures in domibus suis brev. tempore p.scentes extinguuntur, qui si triremibus vincti fuissent, aut gregario pane pasti, sani et incolumes in longam ætatem vitam prorogâssent. Nihil de erius quàm diversa nutrientia simul adjungere, & comedendi tempus prorogare. L. b. 1. hist. + Hor. ad lib. 5. ode ult. * Ciborum varietate & copiâ in cadem mensa nihil nocentius homini ad lutem, Fr. Valeriola, observ. 1. 2. cap. 6.

of

t

*

of gold, and he that can use it aright, ego non summis viris comparo, sed simillimum Deo judico, is liker a God than a man: For as it will transform a beast to a man again, so will it make a man a God. To preserve thine honour, health, and to avoid therefore all those inflations, torments, obstructions, crudities, and diseases that come by a full diet, the best way is to feed sparingly of one or two dishes at most, to have ventrem bene moratum, as Seneca calls it," to choose one of many, and to feed on that alone," as Crato adviseth his Patient. The same counsell" Prosper Calenus gives to Cardinall Casius, to use a moderate and simple diet: and though his table be jovially furnished by reason of his state and guests, yet for his own part to single out some one savoury dish and feed on it. same is inculcated by Crato consil.9. l. 2. to a noble personage affected with this grievance, he would have his highness to dine or sup alone, without all his honorable attendance and courtly company, with a private friend or so, y a dish or two, a cup of Rhenish wine, &c. Montanus consil. 24. for a noble Matron injoyns her one dish, and by no means to drink betwixt meals. The like consil. 229. or not to eat till he be an hungry, which rule Berengarius did most strictly observe, as Hilbertus Cenomecensis Episc. writes in his life.

"cui non fuit unquam

Ante sitim potus, nec cibus ante famem,"

The

and which all temperate men do constantly keep. It is a frequent solemnity still used with us, when friends meet, to go to the ale-house or tavern, they are not sociable otherwise and if they visit one another's houses, they must both eat and drink. I reprehend it not, moderately used; but to some men nothing can be more offensive; they had better, I speak it with Saint + Ambrose, pour so much water in their shooes.

It much availes likewise to keep good order in our diet, ❝ to eat liquid things first, broaths, fish, and such meats as are sooner corrupted in the stomack; harder meats of digestión must come last." Crato would have the supper less than the dinner, which Cardan Contradict. lib. 1. Tract. 5. contra

* Tul, orat. pro M. Marcel. sit vacuus. Gordon. lib. med. 1. 1. c. 11. lictisq; cæteris, ex eo comede.

Nullus cibum sumere debet, isi stomachus E multis eduliis unum elige, re"L. de atra bile. Simplex sit cibus & non varius: quod licet dignitati tuæ ob convivas difficile videatur, &c. * Celsitudo tua prandeat sola, absq; apparatu aulico, contentus sit illustrissimus princeps duobus tantum ferculis, vinoq; Rhenano solum in mensa utatur. ▾ Semper intra satietatem à mensa recedat, uno ferculo, contentus. +Lib. de Hel. & Jejunio. Multò melius in terram vina fudisses. * Crato. Multum refert non ignorare qui cibi priores, &c. liquida præcedant carnium jura, pisces, ructus, &c. Cena brevior sit prandio.

a

dict. 18. disallowes, and that by the authority of Galen. 7. art. curat. cap. 6. and for four reasons he will have the supper biggest: I have read many treatises to this purpose, I know not how it may concern some few sick men, but for my part generally for all, I should subscribe to that custome of the Romans, to make a sparing dinner, and a liberall supper; all their preparation and invitation was still at supper, no mention of dinner. Many reasons I could give, but when all is said pro and con, Cardan's rule is best, to keep that we are accustomed unto, though it be naught, and to follow our disposition and appetite in some things is not amiss; to eat sometimes of a dish which is hurtfull, if we have an extraordinary liking to it. Alexander Severus loved Hares and Apples above all other meats, as Lampridus relates in his life: one Pope Pork, another Peacock, &c. what harm came of it? I conclude, our own experience is the best Physitian; that diet which is most propitious to one, is often pernicious to another, such is the variety of palats, humours, and temperatures, let every man observe, and be a law unto himself. Tiberius in *Tacitus did laugh at all such, that 30. years of age would ask counsell of others concerning matters of diet; I say the same.

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These few rules of diet he that keeps, shall surely find great ease and speedy remedy by it. It is a wonder to relate that prodigious temperance of some Hermites, Anachorites, and fathers of the Church; he that shall but read their lives, written by Hierom, Athanasius, &c. how abstemious Heathens have bin in this kind, those Curii and Fabritii, those old Philosophers as Pliny records lib. 11. Xenophon. lib. 1. de vit. Socrat. Emperours and Kings, as Nicephorus relates, Eccles. hist. lib. 18. cap. 8. of Mauritius, Lodovicus Pius, &c. and that admirable + example of Lodovicus Cornarus, a Patritian of Venice, cannot but admire them. This have they done voluntarily, and in health; what shall these private men do that are visited with sickness, and necessarily injoyned to recover, and continue their health? It is a hard thing to observe a strict diet, & qui medicè vivit, miserè vivit, as the saying is, quale hoc ipsum erit vivere, his si privatus fueris? as good be buried, as so much debarred of his appetite; excessit medicina malum, the physick is more troublesome than the disease, so he complained in the Poet, so thou thinkest: yet he that loves himself, will easily endure this little misery, to avoid a

Tract. 6. contradict. 1. lib. 1.

Super omnia quotidianum leporem ha-‍ buit, et pomis indulsit. *Annal. 6. Ridere solebat eos, qui post 30. ætatis annum, ad cognoscenda corpori suo noxia vel utilia, alicujus consilii indigerent. + A Lessio edit. 1614. Ægyptii olim omnes morbos curabant vomitu & jejunio. Bohemus lib. 1. cap. 5.

VOL. I.

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