1 and change the matter, spirits first, and after humors, by which we are preserved, and the constitution of our body, Fernelius and others will shew you. I hasten to the thing it self: 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. 1. 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 laboring men, if ordered aright, corned, young, of an Ox (for all gelded meats in every species are held best) or if old, such as have been tired out with labor, are preferred. Aubanus and Sabellicus commend Portugal Beef to be the most savory, 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 ægritudinibus capiuntur. Pork. Pork, of all meats, is most nutritive in his own nature+, but altogether unfit for such as live at ease, are any ways unsound of Body or Minde: Too moyst, full of humors, and therefore noxia delicatis, saith Savanarola, ex earum usu ut dubitetur an febris quartana generetur: Naught for queasie stomacks, in so much that frequent use of it may breed a quartan ague. Goat.] Savanarola discommends Goat's flesh, and so doth f Bruerinus, l. 13. c. 19. calling it a filthy beast, and ramish; 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. h Hart.] Hart and Red Deer 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 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 qualifie 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, then there are in all Europe besides) in our solemn feasts. 'Tis somewhat better e Frietagius. + Isaac. mentum. f Non laudatur quia melancholicum præbet ali8 Male alit cervina (inquit Frietagius) crassissimum & attribilarium suppeditat alimentum. Lib. de subtiliss. dieta. Equina caro & asinina equinis danda est homin:bus & asininis. hunted 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 Physitians. 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. i Conies.] Conies are of the nature of Hares. Magninus compares them to Beef, Pig, and Goat, Reg. sanit. part. 3. c. 17. yet young Rabbets by all men are approved to be good. Generally, all such meats as are hard of digestion, breed melancholy. Áreteus, lib. 7. cap. 5. reckons up heads and feet, bowels, brains, entrals, 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 wholsome): 1 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, not good for those that have unclean stomacks, are subject to headach, or have green wounds, Stone, &c. Of all Cheeses, I take that kinde 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. n Fowl.) Amongst Fowl, Peacocks and Pigeons, all fenny Fowl are forbidden, as Ducks, Geese, Swans, Herns, Cranes, Coots, Didappers, Waterhens, with all those Teals, Curs, Sheldrakes, and peckled Fowls, that come hither in winter out of Scandia, Muscovy, Greenland, Friezland, 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 & putrefaciant stomachum, saith Isaac, part 5. de vol. their young ones are more tolerable, but young Pigeons he quite disproves. tomar. i Parum obsunt à natura Leporum. Bruerinus, 1. 13. cap. 25. pullorum tenera & optima. * Illaudabilis succi nauseam provocant. 1 Piso. AlCurio. Frietagius, Magninus. part 3. cap. 17. Mercurialis, de affect. lib. 1. c. 10. excepts all milk meats in Hypocondriacal Melancholy. Wecker Syntax. theor. p. 2. Isaac, Bruer. lib. 15. cap. 50. & 31. Fishes.] Rhasis and Magninus discommend all Fish, and say, They breed Viscosities, slimy nusriment, little and humorous nourishment. Savanarola addes cold, moyst; and phlegmatick, Isaac; and therefore unwholesom for all cold and melancholy complexions: others make a difference, rejecting onely amongst fresh-water 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, 66 Semper plus succi deterioris habent." All fish, that standing Pools, and Lakes frequent, Lampreys, Paulus Jovius, c. 34. de piscibus fluvial. highly magnifies, and saith, None speak against them, but inepti & scrupulosi, some scrupulous persons; but 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 vilifie, and above the res, dryed, sowced, indurate fish, as Ling, Fumados, Red-herrings, Sprats, Stock-fish, Haberdine, PoorJohn, all Schell-fish. Tim. Bright excepts Lobstar and Crab. Messarius commends Salmon, which Bruerinus contradicts, Lib. 22. c. 17. Magninus rejects Congre, Sturgeon, Turbet, Mackerel, Skate. Carp is a fish, of which I know not what to determine. Franciscus Bonsuetus accompts it a muddy fish. Hippolitus Salvianus in his Book de Piscium natura & præparatione, which was printed at Rome in Folio, 1554. with most elegant Pictures, esteems Carp no better then a slimy watery meat. Paulus Jovius on the other side, disallowing Tench, approves of it; so doth Dubravius in his Books of Fish-ponds. Freitagius extols it for an excellent wholsom 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 controversie is easily decided, in my judgment, by Bruerinus, l. 22. c. 13. The difference riseth from the site and nature of Pools, sometimes muddy, sometimes sweet; they are in taste as the place is from whence they be Cap. 18. part. 3. ? Omni loco & omni tempore medici detestantur anguillas præsertim circa solstitium. Damnantur tum sanis tum ægris. 1 Cap. 6. in his Tract of Melancholy. • Optimè nutrit omnium judicio inter prima note pisces gustu præstanti. Non cst dubium, quin pro variorum situ, ac natura, magnas alimentorum sortiantur differentias, alibi suaviores, alibi lutulentiores. taken. t taken. In like maner almost we may conclude of other freshfish. But see more ir. Rondoletius, Bellonius, Oribasius, lib. 7. cap. 22. Isaac, l. 1. especially Hippolitus Salvianus, who is instar omnium solus, &c. Howsoever they may be wholsome and approved, much use of them is not good: P. Forestus, in his Medicinal observations, relates, That Čarthusian Fryers, whose living is most part fish, are more subject to melancholy then any other order, and that he found by experience, being some times their Physitian ordinary at Delph 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 finde Gourds, Cow-. cumbers, Coleworts, Mellons, disallowed, but especially Cabbage. It causeth troublesome dreams, and sends up black vapors to the brain. Galen, loc. affect. b. 3. c. 6. of all Herbs condemns Cabbage; and Isaac, lib. 2. c. 1. Animæ gravitatem facit, it brings heaviness to the soul. Some are of opinion, That all raw Herbs and Sallets, breed melancholy blood, except Bugloss and Lettice. Crato, consil. 21. lib. 2. speaks against all Herbs and Worts, except Borrage, Bugloss, Fennel, Parsly, Dill, Bawm, Succory. Magninus, regim. sanitatis, 3. part. cap. 31. Omnes herbæ simpliciter male, viá cibi. All Herbs are simply evil to feed on (as he thinks). So did that scoffing Cook in "Plautus hold: "Non ego cœnam condio ut alii coqui solent, Like other Cooks I do not Supper dress, Our Italians and Spaniards do make a whole dinner of Herbs and Sallets (which our said Plautus calls canas terrestres, Horace, cœnas sine sanguine), by which means, as he follows it, 66 * Hic homines tam brevem vitam coluntQui herbas hujusmodi in alvum suum congerunt, Formidolosum dictu, non esu modò, Quas herbas pecudes non edunt, homines edunt." Their lives that eat such Herbs must needs be short, Observat. 16. lib. 10. Pseudolus, act. 3. scen. 2. * Plautus ibid. That That men should feed on such a kinde of meat, They are windy, and not fit therefore to be eaten of all inen raw, though qualified with Oyl, but in Broths, or otherwise. See more of these in every z Husbandman and Her balist. b a Roots.] Roots, Etsi quorundam gentium opes sint, saith Bruerimus, The wealth of some countries, and sole food, are windy and bad, or troublesome to the head; as Onyons, Garlick, Scallions, Turnups, Carrets, Radishes, Parsnips: Crato. lib. 2. consil. 11. disallows all Roots, though some approve of Parsnips and Potatoes. Magninus is of Crato's opinion, "They trouble the minde, sending gross fumes to the brain, make men mad, especially Garlick, Onyons, if a man liberally feed on them a yeer together. Guianerius, tract. 15. cap. 2. complains of all maner 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 maner of fruits, as Pears, Apples, Plums, Cherries, Strawberries, Nuts, Medlers, Serves, &c. Sanguinem inficiunt, saith Villanovanus, They infect the blood, and putrifie it, Magninus holds, and must not therefore be taken viá cibi, aut quantitate magná, not to make a meal of, or in any great quantity. d Cardan makes that a cause of their continual sickness at Fessa in Africk, “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, Pairmains, Pippins, as good against Melancholy; but to him that is any way inclined to, or touched with this malady, Nicholas Piso in his Practicks, forbids all fruits, as windy, or to be sparingly eaten at least, and not raw. Amongst other fruits, Bruerinus, out of Galen, excepts Grapes and Figs, but I finde them likewise rejected. C f Pulse.] All Pulse are naught, Beans, Pease, Fitches, &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 Schollars of old, may be for ▾ Quare rectius valetudini suæ quisque consulet, qui lapsus priorum parentum memor, eas plane vel omiserit vel parce degustarit. Kersleius cap. 4. de vero usu med. In Mizaldo de Horto P. Crescent. Herbastein, &c. Cap. 13. part. 3. Bright in his Tract. of Mel. Intellectum turbant, pro◄ ducunt insaniam. Audivi (inquit Magnin.) quod si quis ex iis per annum continue comedat, in insaniam caderet. cap. 13. Improbi succi sunt. cap. 12. De rerum varietat. In Fessa plerumque morbosi, quod fructus comedant ter in die. Cap. de Mel. f Lib. 11. c. 3. |