most deceitfull thing of all, as Forestus and some other Physicians have proved at large: I say nothing of Critick dayes, errours in Indications, &c. The most rationall of them, and skilfull, are so often deceived, that as Tholosanus infers, "I had rather beleeve and commit my selfe to a meer Emperick, then to a meer Doctor, and I cannot sufficiently commend that custome of the Babylonians, that have no professed Physitians, but bring all their patients to the market to be cured:" which Herodotus relates of the Egyptians: Strabo, Sardus, and Aubanus Bohemus of many other nations. And those that prescribed Physick amongst them, did not so arrogantly take upon them to cure all diseases, as our professours do, but some one, some another, as their skill and experience did serve; * One cured the eyes, a second the teeth, a third the head, another the lower parts,' &c. not for gain, but in charity, to do good, they made neither art, profession, nor trade of it, which in other places was accustomed and therefore Cambises in † Xenophon told Cyrus, that to his thinking, Physitians" were like Taylers and Coblers, the one mended our sick bodies, as the other did our cloaths." But I will urge these cavilling and contumelious arguments no farther, lest some Physitian should mistake me, and deny me Physick when I am sick for my part, I am well persuaded of Physick I can distinguish the abuse from the use, in this and many other Arts and Sciences; Aliud vinum, aliud ebrietas, wine and drunkennesse are two distinct things. I acknowledge it a most noble and divine science, in so much that Apollo, Esculapius, and the first founders of it, meritò pro diis habiti, were worthily counted Gods by succeeding ages, for the excellency of their invention. And whereas Apollo at Delos, Venus at Cyprus, Diana at Ephesus, and those other Gods were confined and adored alone in some peculiar places: Esculapius had his Temple, and Altars everywhere, in Corinth, Lacedæmon, Athens, Thebes, Epidaure, &c. Pausanius records, for the latitude of his art, diety, worth, and necessity. With all lvertuous and wise men therefore I honour the name and caling, as I am enjoyned" to honour the Physitian for necessitie's sake. The knowledge of the Physitian lifteth up his head, and in the sight of great men he shall be admired. The Lord hath created medicines of the earth, and he that is wise will not abhorre them," Eccles. 58. 1. But of this noble subject how Lib. 28. cap. 7. syntax. art. mirab. Mallem ego expertis credere solum, quam merè ratiocinantibus: neq; satis laudare possum institutum Babylonicum, &C. *Herod. Euterpe de Egyptiis. Apud cos singulorum mo, borum sunt singuli medici; alius curat oculos, alius dentes, alius caput, partes occulcas alius. + Cyrip. lib. 1. Velutivm fractarum resarcinatores, &c. + Chrys. hom. many 66 X u many panegyricks are worthily written? For my part, as Salust said of Carthage, præstat silere, quam pauca dicere; I have said, yet One thing I will adde, that this kinde of Physick is very moderately and advisedly to be used, upon good occasion, when the former of diet will not take place. And 'tis no other which I say, then that which Arnoldus prescribes in his 8. Aphoris. "A discreet and godly Physitian doth first endeavour to expell a disease by medicinall diet, then by pure medicine:" and in his ninth, he that may be cured by diet, must not meddle with Physick." So in 11. Aphoris. A modest and wise Physitian will never hasten to use medicines, but upon urgent neccessity, and that sparingly too:" because (as he addes in his 13. Aphoris.) ❝y Whosoever takes much Physick in his youth, shall soon bewail it in his old age:" Purgative Physick especially, which doth much debilitate nature. For which causes some Physitians refrain from the use of Purgatives, or else sparingly use them. Henricus Ayrerus in a consultation for a melancholy person, would have him take as few purges as he could, "because there be no such medicines, which do not steal away some of our strength, and rob the parts of our body, weaken nature, and cause that Cacochymia," which Celsus and others observe, or ill digestion, and bad juyce through all the parts of it. Galen himself confesseth," that purgative physick is contrary to nature, takes away some of our best spirits, and consumes the very substance of our bodies:" But this, without question, is to be understood of such purges as are unseasonably or immoderately taken; they have their excellent use in this, as well as most other infirmities. Of Alteratives and Cordials no man doubts, be they simples or compounds. I will amongst that infinite variety of medicines, which I finde in every Pharmacopoea, every Physician, Herbalist, &c. single out some of the chiefest. น a • Prudens & pius medicus, morbum ante expellere satagit, cibis medicinalibus, quam puris medicinis. Cuicunq; potest per alimenta restitui sanitas, fugiendus est penitus usus medicamentorum. * Modestus & sapiens medicus, nunquam properabit ad Pharmaciam, nisi cogente necessitate. y Quicunq; pharmacatur in juventute, de flebit in senectute. z Hildish. spic. 2 de mel. fol. 276. Nulla est firmè medicina purgans, quæ non aliquam de viribus & partibus corporis deprædatur. Lib. I. & Bart. lib. 8. cap. 12. 2 De vict. acut. Omne purgans medicamentum, corpori purgato contrarium &c. succos & spiritus abducit, substantiam corporis aufert. SUBSECT. SUBSECT. II. Simples proper to Melancholy, Against Exotick Simples. MEDIC tive. EDICINES properly applied to Melancholy, are either Simple or Compound. Simples are Alterative or PurgaAlteratives are such as correct, strengthen nature, alter, any way hinder or resist the disease; and they be herbs, stones, minerals, &c. all proper to this humour. For as there be diverse distinct infirmities continually vexing us, • Νὅσοι δ ̓ ἀνθρώποισι ἐφ' ἡμέρη ήδ' επι νυκτὶ Diseases steal both day and night on men, So there be severall remedies, as he saith, "each disease a medicine, for every humor; and as some hold, every clime, every country, and more then that, every private place hath his proper remedies growing in it, peculiar almost to the domineering and most frequent maladies of it. As one discourseth, "Wormwood growes sparingly in Italy, because most part there they be misaffected with hot diseases: but henbane, poppy, and such cold herbes: With us in Germany and Poland, great store of it in every wast." Baracellus Horto geniali, and Baptista Porta Physiognomica, lib. 6. cap. 23. give many instances and examples of it, and bring many other proofes. For that cause belike that learned Fuchsius of Noremberge," when he came into a village, considered alwayes what herbs did grow most frequently about it, and those he distilled in a silver limbeck, making use of others amongst them as occasion served." I know that many are of opinion, our Northern simples are weak, unperfect, not so well concocted, of such force, as those in the Southerne parts, not so fit to be used in Physick, and will therefore fetch their drugs afar off: Sena, Cassia out of Egypt, Rubarbe from Barbary, < Hesiod, op. Hurnius præf. pra. med. Quot morborum sunt Ideæ, tot remediorum genera variis potentiis decorata. Penottus denar. med. Quæcunq; regio pro lucit simplicia, pro morbis regionis; Crescit raro absynthium in Italia, quod ibi plerumq; morbi calidi, sed cicuta, papaver, & herbæ frigidæ ; apud nos Germanos & Polonos ubiq; provenit absynthium. f Quum in villam venit, consideravit quæ ibi crescebant medicamenta, simplicia frequentiora, & iis plerunq; usus distillatis, & aliter, alimbacum ideo argenteum circumferens. Aloes i Aloes from Zocotora; Turbith, Agarick, Mirabolanes, Hermodactils, from the East Indies, Tobaco from the west, and some as far as China, Hellebor from the Antycire, or that of Austria which bears the purple flower, which Mathiolus so much approves, and so of the rest. In the kingdome of Valence in Spain, Maginus commends two mountains, Mariola and Renagolosa, famous for simples ; Leander Albertus, Baldus a mountain near the lake Benacus in the territory of Verona, to which all the herbalists in the countrry continually flock; Ortelius one in Apulia, Munster Mons major in Histria: others Montpelier in France; Prosper Altinus preferres Egyptian simples, Garcias ab Horto Indian before the rest, another those of Italy, Crete, &c. Many times they are overcurious in this kind, whom Fuschius taxeth, Instit. l. 1. sec. 1. cap. 1. that think they doe nothing, except they rake all over India, Arabia, Æthiopia for remedies, and fetch their Physick from the three quarters of the World, and from beyond the Garamantes. Many an old wife or country woman doth often more good with a few known and common garden herbs, then our bumbast Physitians, with all their prodigious, sumptuous, far-fetched, rare, conjecturall medicines:" without all question if we have not these rare Exotick simples, we hold that at home which is in vertue equivalent unto them, our's will serve as well as their's, if they be taken in proportionable quantity, fitted and qualified aright, if not much better, and more proper to our constitutions. But so 'tis for the most part, as Pliny writes to Gallus, "* We are carelesse of that which is neer us, and follow that which is afarre off, to know which we will travell and sail beyond the seas, wholly neglecting that which is under our eyes." Opium in Turky doth scarce offend, with us in a small quantity it stupifies: Cicuta or hemlock is a strong poyson in Greece, but with us it hath no such violent effects: I conclude with I. Voschius, who as he much inveighs against those exotick medicines, so he promiseth by our European, a full cure, and absolute of all discases; à capite ad calcem, nostræ regionis herbæ nostris corporibus magis conducunt, our own simples agree best with us. It was a thing that Fernelius much laboured in his French practice, to reduce all his cure to our proper and domestick • Herba medicis utiles omnium in Apulia feracissimæ, h Geog. ad quos i Balmagnus herbariorum numerus undiq; confluit. Sincerus Itiner. Gallia. Qui se nihil effecisse dus mons prope Benacum herbileg s maxime notus, arbitrantur, nisi Indiain, Ethiopiam, Arabiam, & ultra Garamantas à tribus mundi partibus exquisita remedia corradunt. Tutins sæpe medetur rustica anus Ep. lib. 8. Proximorum incuriosi longinqua sectamur, & ad ea una, &c. Cognoscenda iter ingredi & mare transmittere solemus at quæ sub oculisposita negligimus. Physick: Physick: So did Janus Cornarius, and Martin Rulandus in Germany. T. B. with us, as appeareth by a treatise of his divulged in our tongue 1615. to prove the sufficiency of English medicines, to the cure of all manner of diseases. If our simples be not altogether of such force, or so apposite, it may be, if like industry were used, those far fetched druggs would prosper as well with us, as in those countries whence now we have them, as well as Cherries, Artichokes, Tobacco, and many such. There have been divers worthy Physitians, which have tryed excellent conclusions in this kinde, and many diligent, painful Apothecaries, as Gesner, Besler, Gerard, &c. but amongst the rest those famous publike Gardens of Padua in Italy, Noremberge in Germany, Leiden in Holland, Montpelier in France, (and our's in Oxford now in fieri, at the cost and charges of the right Honourable the Lord Danvers Earl of Danby) are much to be commended, wherein all exotick plants almost are to be seen, and liberall allowance yearly made for their better maintainance, that young students may be the sooner informed in the knowledge of them: which as Fuchsius holds, "is most necessary for that exquisite manner of curing," and as great a shame for a Physitian not to observe them, as for a workman not to know his axe, saw, square, or any other tool which he must of necessity use. SUBSECT. III. Alteratives, Herbes, other Vegetals, &c. MONGST those 800 simples, which Galeottus reckons 66 n up, lib. 3. de promise. doctor. cap. 3. and many exquisite herbalists have written of, these few following alone I finde appropriated to this humour: Of which some be alteratives; which by a secret force," saith Renodaus, "and special quality expell future diseases, perfectly cure those which are, and many such incurable effects." This is as well observed in other plants, stones, minerals, and creatures, as in herbs, in other maladies as in this. How many things are related of a man's skull? What severall vertues of corns in a horse legge, of a Wolve's liver, &c. Of diverse excrements of beasts, all good against several diseases? What n Exotica rejecit, domesticis solum nos contentos esse voluit. Melch. Adamus vit. ejus. Instit. 1. I. cap. 8. sec. 1. ad exquisitam curandi rationem, quorum cognitio imprimis necessaria est. Quæ cæcâ vi ac specifica qualitate morbos futuros arcent. lib. 1. cap. 10. Instit. Phar. Galen. lib. epar lupi epaticos curat. Stercus pecoris ad Epilepsiam, &c. extraor |