many such illusions and voices, which proceed most part from a corrupt imagination. 3 4 Whence it comes to pass, that they prophesy, speak several languages, talk of astronomy, and other unknown sciences to them (of which they have been ever ignorant): 1I have in brief touched, only this I will here add, that Arculanus, Bodin. lib. 3, cap. 6, dæmon. and some others, 2 hold as a manifest token that such persons are possessed with the devil; so doth Hercules de Saxoniâ, and Apponensis, and fit only to be cured by a priest. But Guianerius, 5 Montaltus, Pomponatius of Padua, and Lemnius, lib. 2, cap. 2, refer it wholly to the ill-disposition of the humour, and that out of the authority of Aristotle, prob. 30, 1, because such symptoms are cured by purging; and as by the striking of a flint fire is enforced, so by the vehement motion of spirits, they do elicere voces inauditas, compel strange speeches to be spoken; another argument he hath from Plato's reminiscentia, which all out as likely as that which Marsilius Ficinus speaks of his friend Pierleonus; by a divine kind of infusion he understood the secrets of nature, and tenets of Grecian and barbarian philosophers, before ever he heard of, saw, or read their works; but in this I should rather hold with Avicenna and his associates, that such symptoms proceed from evil spirits, which take all opportunities of humours decayed, or otherwise to pervert the soul of man; and besides, the humour itself is Balneum Diaboli, the devil's bath; and as Agrippa proves, doth entice him to seize upon them. 1 Memb. 1, Sub. 3, of this partition, cap. 16, in 9 Rhasis. 2 Signa dæmonis nulla sunt nisi quod loquantur ea quæ ante nesciebant, ut Teutonicum aut aliud Idioma, &c. 3 Cap. 12, tract. de mel. 4 Tract. 15, c. 4. 5 Cap. 9. 6 Mira vis concitat humores, ardorque vehemens mentem exagitat, quum, &c. 7 Præfat. Iamblici mysteriis. SECT. IV. MEMB. I. Prognostics of Melancholy. PROGNOSTICS, or signs of things to come, are either good or bad. If this malady be not hereditary, and taken at the beginning, there is good hope of cure, recens curationem non habet difficilem, saith Avicenna, l. 3, Fen. 1, Tract. 4, c. 18. That which is with laughter, of all others is most secure, gentle, and remiss, Hercules de Saxoniâ. 1"If that evacuation of hæmorrhoids, or varices, which they call the water between the skin, shall happen to a melancholy man, his misery is ended," Hippocrates, Aphor. 6, 11. Galen, l. 6, de morbis vulgar. com. 8, confirms the same; and to this aphorism of Hippocrates, all the Arabians, new and old Latins subscribe; Montaltus, c. 25, Hercules de Saxoniâ, Mercurialis, Vittorius. Faventinus, &c. Skenckius, l. 1, observat. med. c. de Mania, illustrates this aphorism, with an example of one Daniel Federer a coppersmith that was long melancholy, and in the end mad, about the 27th year of his age, these varices or water began to arise in his thighs, and he was freed from his madness. Marius the Roman was so cured, some say, though with great pain. Skenckius hath some other instances of women that have been helped by flowing of their months, which before were stopped. That the opening of the hæmorrhoids will do as much for men, all physicians jointly signify, so they be voluntary, some say, and not by compulsion. All melancholy are better after a quartan; 2Jobertus saith, scarce any man hath that ague twice; but whether it free him from this malady, 'tis a question; for many physicians ascribe all long agues for especial causes, and a quartan ague amongst the rest. Rhasis, cont. lib. 1, tract. 9. "When melancholy gets out at the superficies of the skin, or settles 8 1 Si melancholicis hæmorrhoides supervenerint varices, vel ut quibusdam placet aqua inter cutem, solvitur malum. 5 VOL. II. 2 Cap. 10, de quartana. 3 Cum sanguis exit per superficiem et residet melancholia per scabiem, morpheam nigram, vel breaking out in scabs, leprosy, morphew, or is purged by stools, or by the urine, or that the spleen is enlarged, and those varices appear, the disease is dissolved." Guianerius, cap. 5, tract. 15, adds dropsy, jaundice, dysentery, leprosy, as good signs to these scabs, morphews, and breaking out, and proves it out of the 6th of Hippocrates's Aphorisms. Evil prognostics on the other part. Inveterata melancholia incurabilis, if it be inveterate, it is incurable, a common axiom, aut difficulter curabilis as they say that make the best, hardly cured. This Galen witnesseth, 7. 3, de loc. affect. cap. 6, 2" be it in whom it will, or from what cause soever, it is ever long, wayward, tedious, and hard to be cured, if once it be habituated." As Lucian said of the gout, she was 3" the queen of diseases, and inexorable," may we say of melancholy. Yet Paracelsus will have all diseases whatsoever curable, and laughs at them which thinks otherwise, as T. Erastus, par. 3, objects to him; although in another place, hereditary diseases he accounts incurable, and by no art to be removed. Hildesheim, spicel. 2, de mel. holds it less dangerous if only 5 66 imagination be hurt, and not reason, the gentlest is from blood. Worse from choler adust, but the worst of all from melancholy putrefied." Bruel esteems hypochondriacal least dangerous, and the other two species (opposite to Galen) hardest to be cured. The cure is hard in man, but much more difficult in women. And both men and women must take notice of that saying of Montanus, consil. 230, pro Abate Italo, 9. This malady doth commonly accompany them to their grave; physicians may ease, and it may lie hid for a time, but they can 8 expurgatur per inferiores partes, vel urinam, &c., non erit, &c., splen magnificatur et varices apparent. 1 Quia jam conversa in naturam. 2 In quocunque sit, à quacunque causa, Hypocon. præsertim, semper est longa, morosa, nec facile curari potest. 3 Regina morborum et inexorabilis. 4 Omine delirium quod oritur à paucitate cerebri incurabile. Hildesheim, spicel. 2, de mania. 5 Si sola imaginatio lædatur, et non ra 4 not quite cure it, but it will return again more violent and sharp than at first, and that upon every small occasion or error;" as in Mercury's weather-beaten statue, that was once all over gilt, the open parts were clean, yet there was in fimbriis aurum, in the chinks a remnant of gold; there will be some relics of melancholy left in the purest bodies (if once tainted) not so easily to be rooted out. 1 Oftentimes it degenerates into epilepsy, apoplexy, convulsions, and blindness: by the authority of Hippocrates and Galen, 2 all aver, if once it possess the ventricles of the brain, Frambesarius, and Salust. Salvianus adds, if it get into the optic nerves, blindness. Mercurialis, consil. 20, had a woman to his patient, that from melancholy became epileptic and blind. 3 If it come from a cold cause, or so continue cold, or increase, epilepsy; convulsions follow, and blindness, or else in the end they are moped, sottish, and in all their actions, speeches, and gestures, ridiculous. 4 If it come from a hot cause, they are more furious, and boisterous, and in conclusion mad. Calescentem melancholiam sæpius sequitur mania. 5 If it heat and increase, that is the common event, per circuitus, aut semper insanit, he is mad by fits, or altogether. For as 'Sennertus contends out of Crato, there is seminarius ignis in this humour, the very seeds of fire. If it come from melancholy natural adust, and in excess, they are often demoniacal, Montanus. 9 8 Seldom this malady procures death, except (which is the greatest, most grievous calamity, and the misery of all miseries,) they make away themselves, which is a frequent thing, and familiar amongst them. 'Tis Hippocrates's observation, Galen's sentence: Etsi mortem timent, tamen plerumque sibi ipsis mortem consciscunt, l. 3, de locis affect. cap. 7. The doom of all physicians. 'Tis 10 Rabbi Moses's Aphorism, the prognosticon of Avicenna, Rhasis, Etius, Gordonius, Vales1 Periculum est ne degeneret in Epi- madness sobolem melancholiæ. 6 Allepsiam, Apoplexiam, Convulsionem, exander, 1. 1, c. 18. 7 Lib. 1, part. 2, Cæcitatem. 2 Montal. c. 25. Laurenc. 11. 8 Montalt. c. 15, raro mors tius. Nic. Piso. 3 Herc. de Saxoniâ, aut nunquam, nisi sibi ipsis inferant. Aristotle, Capivaccius. 4 Favent. Hu- 9 Lib. de Insan. Fabio Calico Interprete. mor frigidus sola delirii causa, furoris 10 Nonnulli violentas manus sibi inferunt vero humor calidus. 5 Heurnius calls cus, Altomarus, Salust. Salvianus, Capivaccius, Mercatus, Hercules de Saxoniâ, Piso, Bruel, Fuchsius, all, &c. 1"Et sæpè usque adeò mortis formidine vitæ In such sort doth the torture and extremity of his misery torment him, that he can take no pleasure in his life, but is in a manner enforced to offer violence unto himself, to be freed from his present insufferable pains. So some (saith 2 Fracastorius) “in fury, but most in despair, sorrow, fear, and out of the anguish and vexation of their souls, offer violence to themselves; for their life is unhappy and miserable. They can take no rest in the night, nor sleep, or if they do slumber, fearful dreams astonish them." In the daytime they are affrighted still by some terrible object, and torn in pieces with suspicion, fear, sorrow, discontents, cares, shame, anguish, &c., as so many wild horses, that they cannot be quiet an hour, a minute of time, but even against their wills they are intent, and still thinking of it, they cannot forget it, it grinds their souls day and night, they are perpetually tormented, a burden to themselves, as Job was, they can neither eat, drink, or sleep. Psal. cvii. 18. "Their soul abhorreth all meat, and they are brought to death's door, * being bound in misery and iron;" they curse their stars with Job, 5“ and day of their birth, and wish for death;" for as Pineda and most interpreters hold, Job was even melancholy to despair, and almost 6 madness itself; they murmur many times against the world, friends, allies, all mankind, even against God himself in the bitterness of their passion, vivere nolunt, mori 7 se præcipitant, his malis carituri aut interficiunt se, aut tale quid committunt. 3 Psal. cvii. 10. 4 Job xxxiii. 5 Job vi. 8. 6 Vi doloris et tristitiæ ad insa 7 Seneca. 1 Lucret. 1. 3. 2 Lib. 2. de intell. sæpe mortem sibi consciscunt ob timorem et tristitiam tædio vitæ affecti ob furorem et desperationem. Est enim infera, &c. Ergo sic perpetuo afflictati vitam oderunt, niam penè redactus. |