b

rather poyson then a medicine. Th. Erastus concurres with him in his opinion, and so doth Ælian Montaltus cap. 30 de melan. But what do I talk? 'tis the subject of whole books; I might cite a century of Authors pro and con. I will conclude with Zuinger, Antimony is like Scanderbeg's sword, which is either good or bad, strong or weak, as the party is that prescribes, or useth it; "a worthy medicine if it be rightly applied to a strong man, otherwise poyson." For the preparing of it, look in Evonimi thesaurus, Quercetan, Oswaldus Crollius, Basil. Chim. Basil. Valentius, &c.

Tobacco, divine, rare, superexcellent Tobacco, which goes far beyond all their Panaceas, potable gold, and Philoso phers stones, a soveraign remedy to all diseases. A good vomit, I confesse, a vertuous herb, if it be well qualified, opportunely taken, and medicinally used; but as it is commonly abused by most men, which take it as Tinkers do ale, 'tis a plague, a inischief, a violent purger of goods, lands, health, hellish, develish and damned Tobacco, the ruine, and overthrow of body and soul.

SUBSECT. II.

Simples purging Melancholy downward. POLYPODIE and Epithyme are, without all exceptions, gentle purgers of melancholy. Dioscorides will have them void flegm; but Brassivola out of his experience averreth, that they purge this humor; they are used in decoction, infusion, &c. simple, mixt, &c.

Mirabolanes, all five kinds, are happily prescribed against melancholy and quartan agues; Brassivola speaks out of a thousand" experiences, he gave them in pills, decoction, &c. look for peculiar Receipts in him.

Stoechas, Fumitory, Dodder, herb Mercury, roots of Capers, Genista or broom, Pennyriall and half boiled Cabbage, I finde in this Catalogue of purgers of black choler, Origan, Fetherfew, Ammoniack Salt, Salt-peter. But these are very gentle; alyppus, dragon root, centaury, ditany, Colutea, which Fuchsius cap. 168. and others take for Sene, but most distinguish. Sene is in the middle of violent and gentle purgers downward, hot in the second degree, dry in the first.

Cratonis ep. sece vel ad Monavium ep. In utramq; partem dignissimum medicamentum, si recte utentur, secus venenum. Mærores fugant; etilissimè dantur melancholicis & quaternariis. d Millies horum vires expertus sum. • Sal nitrum, sal ammoniacum, Dracontij radix, doctamnum. Brassivola

Brassivola calls it "a wonderfull herb against melancholy, it scowres the blood, illightens the spirits, shakes off sorrow, a most profitable medicine," as " Dodonæus terms it, invented by the Arabians, and not heard of before. It is taken divers wayes, in powder, infusion, but most commonly in the infusion, with ginger, or some cordiall flowres added to correct it. Actuarius commends it sod in broath, with an old cock, or in whey, which is the common convayer of all such things as purge black choler, or steeped in wine, which Heurnius accounts sufficient, without any farther correction.

Aloes by most is said to purge choler, but Aurelianus lib. 2. c. 6. de morb. chron. Arculanus cap. 6. in 9. Rhasis, Julius Alexandrinus, consil. 185. Scoltz. Crato consil. 189. Scoltz. prescribe it to this disease; as good for the stomack and to open the Hæmrods, out of Mesue, Rhasis, Serapio, Avicenna; Menardus ep. lib. 1. epist. 1. opposeth it, Aloes," doth not open the veines," or move the Hamrods, which Leonhartus Fuchsius paradox. lib. 1. likewise affirmes ; but Brassivola and Dodonæus defend Mesue out of their experience; let Valesius end the controversie.

k

Lapis Armenus and Lazuli are much magnified by Alexander lib. 1. cap. 16. Avicenna, Etius, and Actuarius, if they be well washed, that the water be no more coloured, fiftie times some say. "That good Alexander (saith Guianerus) puts such confidence in this one medicine, that he thought all melancholy passions might be cured by it; and I for my part have oftentimes happily used it, and was never deceived in the operation of it." The like may be said of Lapis Lazuli, though it be somewhat weaker than the other. Garcias ab Horto hist. lib. 1. cap. 65. rclates, that the Physitians of the Moores familiarly prescribe it to all melancholy passions, and Matthiolus ep. lib. 3. " brags of that happy successe which he still had in the administration of it. Nicholas Meripsa puts it amongst the best remedies, sect. 1. cap. 12. in Antidotis ; and if this will not serve (saith Rhasis) then there remaines nothing but Lapis Armenus, and Hellebor it self." Valescus and Jason Pratensis, much commend Pulvis Hali, which is

66 0

Calet ordine secundo, siccat primo, adversus omnia vitia atræ bilis valet, sanguinem mundat, spiritus illustrat, mærorem discutit herba mirifica. & Cap. 4. lib. 2. Recentiores negant ora venarum resecare. An aloc aperiat ora venarum. lib. 9. cont. 3. Vapores abstergit à vitalibus partibus. Tract. 15. c. 6. Bonus Alexander, tantam lapide Armeno confidentiam habuit, ut omnes melancholicas passiones ab co curari posse crederet, & ego inde sæpissime usus sum, & in cjus exhibitione nunquam fraudatus fui. rorum medici hoc lapide plerumq; purgant melancholiam, &c. tæpe feliciter usus sum, & magno cum auxilio.

si Helleborus, & lapis Armenus. Consil. 184. Scoltzii.

D

Mau

Quo ego

Si non hoc, nihil restat ni

made

made of it. James Damascen. 2. cap. 12. Hercules de Saxonia, &c. speakes well of it. Crato will not approve this; it, and both Heilebors, he saith, are no better than poyson. Victor Trincavelius, lib. 2. cap. 14. found it in his experience, "to be very noysome, to trouble the stomack, and hurt their bodies that take it overmuch.”

Black Hellebor, that most renowned plant, and famous purger of melancholy, which all antiquity so much used and admired, was first found out by Melanpodius a shepherd, as Pliny records, lib. 25. cap. 5. 1 who, seeing it to purge his Goats when they raved, practised it upon Elige and Calene, King Prætus' daughters, that ruled in Arcadia, neer the fountain Clitorius, and restored them to their former health. In Hippocrates time it was in only request, insomuch that he writ a book of it, a fragment of which remaines yet. Theophrastus, 'Galen, Pliny, Cælius Aurelianus, as ancient as Galen, lib. 1. cap. 6. Areteus lib. 1. cap. 5. Oribasius lib. 7. collect. a famous Greck, Etius ser. 3. cap. 112. & 113 p. Ægineta, Galen's Ape, lib. 7. cap. 4. Actuarius, Trallianus lib. 5. cap. 15. Cornelius Celsus only remaining of the old Latines, lib. 3. cap. 23. extoll and admire this excellent plant; and it was generally so much esteemed of the ancients for this disease amongst the rest, that they sent all such as were crased, or that doted, to the Anticyræ, or to Phocis in Achaia to be purged, where this plant was in abundance to be had. In Straboe's time it was an ordinary voyage, Naviget Anticyras; a common proverb among the Grecks and Latines, to bid a disard or a mad man go take Hellebor; as in Lucian, Menippus to Tantalus, Tantale desipis, helleboro epoto tibi opus est, eoq; sane meraco, Thou art out of thy little wit O Tantalus, and must needs drink Hellebor, and that without mixture. Aristophanes in Vespis, drink Hellebor, &c. and Harpax in the Comoedian, told Simo and Ballio, two doting fellows, that they had need to be purged with this plant. When that proud Menacrates eùs, had writ an arrogant letter to Phi. of Macedon, he sent back no other answer but this, Consulo tibi ut ad Anticyram te conferas, noting thereby that he was crased, atque elleboro indigere, had much need of a good purge. Lilius Geraldus saith, that Hercules, after all his mad pranks upon his wife and children, was perfectly cured by a purge of Hellebor, which an Anticyrian administered unto him. They that were sound commonly took it to quicken their wits, (as Ennius of old, Qui non nisi

t

▸ Multa corpora vidi gravissimè hinc agitata, et stomocho multum obfuisse. Cum vidisset ab eo curari capras furentes, &c. Lib. 6. simpl. med. • Hor.

• Pseudolo act. 4. scen. ult. helleboro hisce hominibus opus est.

potus

u

X

potus ad arma-prosiluit dicenda, and as our Poets drink sack to improve their inventions (I find it so registered by Agellius lib. 17. cap. 15.) Carneades the Academick, when he was to write against Zeno the Stoick, purged himselfe with Hellebor first, which Petronius puts upon Chrysippus. In such esteem it continued for many ages, till at length Mesue and some other Arabians began to reject and reprehend it, upon whose authority for many following lusters, it was much debased and quite out of request, held to be poyson and no medicine; and is still oppugned to this day by Crato and some junior Physicians. Their reasons are, because Aristotle l. 1. de plant. c. 3. said, Henbane and Hellebor were poyson; and Alexander Aphrodiseus, in the preface of his Problems, gave out, that (speaking of Hellebor)" Quailes fed on that which was poyson to men." Galen. I. 6. Epid. com. 5. Text. 35. confirms as much: Constantine the Emperour in his Geoponicks, attributes no other vertue to it, than to kill mice and rats, flies and mouldwarps, and so Mizaldus, Nicander of old, Gervinus, Skenkius, and some other Neotericks that have written of poysons, speak of Hellebor in a chief place. • Nicholas Leonicus hath a story of Solon, that besieging, I know not what city, steeped Hellebor in a spring of water, which by pipes was conveyed into the middle of the town, and so either poysoned, or else made them so feeble and weak by purging, that they were not able to bear arms. Notwithstanding all these cavils and objections, most of our late writers do much approve of it. Gariopontus lib. 1. cap. 13. Codronchus com. de helleb. Falopius lib. de med. purg. simpl. cap. 69. & consil. 15. Trincavelii, Montanus 239. Frisemelica consil. 14. Hercules de Saxonia, so that it be opportunely given. Jacobus de Dondis, Agg. Amatus, Lucet. cent. 66. Godef. Stegius cap. 13. Hollerius, and all our Herbalists subscribe. Fernelius meth. med. lib. 5. cap. 16. " confesseth it to be a * terrible purge and hard to take, yet well given to strong men, and such as have able bodies." P. Forestus and Capivaccius forbid it to be taken in substance, but allow it in decoction or infusion, both which wayes P. Monavius approves above all others, Epist. 231. Scoltzii, Jacchinas in 9. Rhasis, commends a receipt of his own preparing; Penottus another of his Chymically prepared, Evonimus another. Hildesheim spicel.

" In Satyr.

b

* Crato consil. 16. 1. 2. Etsi multi magni viri probent, in 50mam partem accipiant medici, non probem. y Vescuntur veratro coturnices quod hominibus toxicum est. Lib. 23. c. 7. 12. 14. • De var. hist. Veteres non sine causa usi

Corpus incolume reddit, et juvenile efficit. sunt: Difficilis ex Helleboro purgatio, et terroris plena, sed robustis datur men, &c.

2. de

2. de mel. hath many examples how it should be used, with diversity of receipts. Heurnius lib. 7. prax. med. cap. 14. "calls it an innocent medicine howsoever, if it be well prepared." The root of it is onely in use, which may be kept many yeers, and by some given in substance, as by Falopius and Brassivola amongst the rest, who brags that he was the first that restored it again to his use, and tels a story how he cured one Melatasta a mad man, that was thought to be possessed, in the Duke of Ferrara's Court with one purge of black Hellebor in substance: the receipt is there to be seen; his excrements were like inke, he perfectly healed at once; Vidus Vidius, a Dutch Physician, will not admit of it in substance, to whom most subscribe, but as before in the decoction, infusion, or which is all in all, in the Extract, which he prefers before the rest, and calls suave medicamentum, a sweet medicine, an easie, that may be securely given to women, children, and weaklings. Baracellus, horto geniali, terms it maximæ præstantia medicamentum, a medicine of great worth and note. Quercetan in his Spagir Phar. and many other, tell wonders of the Extract. Paracelsus above all the rest is the greatest admirer of this plant; and especially the extract, he calls it Theriacum, terrestre Balsamum, another Treacle, a terrestrial Bawm, instar omnium, "all in all, the s sole and last refuge to cure this malady, the Gout, Epilepsie, Leprosie, &c." If this will not help, no physick in the world can but minerall, it is the upshot of all. Matthiolus laughs at those that except against it, and though some abhor it out of the authority of Mesue, and dare not adventure to prescribe it," yet I (saith he) have happily used it six hundred times without offence, and communicated it to divers worthy Physicians, who have given me great thanks for it." Look for receipts, dose, preparation, and other cautions concerning this simple, in him, Brassivola, Baracellus, Codronchus, and

the rest.

h

• Ahsit factantia, ego pri

* Innocens medicamentu, modo rite paretur. mus præbere cæpi, &c. f In Catart. Ex una sola evacuatione furor cessavit et quie us inde vixit. Tale exemplum apud Skenkium et apud Scoltzium, ep. 231. P. Monavius se stolidum curasse jactat hoc epoto tribus aut quatuor victhus. Ultimum refugium, extremum medicamentum, quod cætera omnia claudit quæcunq; cæteris laxativis pelli non possunt ad hunc pertinent; si non huic, nulli cedunt. Testari possum me sexcentis hominibus Helleborum nigrum Exhibuisse, nullo prorsus incommodo, &c.

VoL. II

I

SUB