The Anatomy of Melancholy Part 18

11. et c. 45._ Pamphilius Herilachus, _l. 4. de not. aquarum_, such waters are naught, not to be used, and by the testimony of [1389]Galen, "breed agues, dropsies, pleurisies, splenetic and melancholy pa.s.sions, hurt the eyes, cause a bad temperature, and ill disposition of the whole body, with bad colour." This Jobertus stiffly maintains, _Paradox, lib. 1. part. 5_, that it causeth blear eyes, bad colour, and many loathsome diseases to such as use it: this which they say, stands with good reason; for as geographers relate, the water of Astracan breeds worms in such as drink it. [1390]

Axius, or as now called Verduri, the fairest river in Macedonia, makes all cattle black that taste of it. Aleacman now Peleca, another stream in Thessaly, turns cattle most part white, _si polui ducas_, L. Auba.n.u.s Rohemus refers that [1391]struma or poke of the Bavarians and Styrians to the nature of their waters, as [1392]Munster doth that of Valesians in the Alps, and [1393]Bodine supposeth the stuttering of some families in Aquitania, about Labden, to proceed from the same cause, "and that the filth is derived from the water to their bodies." So that they that use filthy, standing, ill-coloured, thick, muddy water, must needs have muddy, ill-coloured, impure, and infirm bodies. And because the body works upon the mind, they shall have grosser understandings, dull, foggy, melancholy spirits, and be really subject to all manner of infirmities.

To these noxious simples, we may reduce an infinite number of compound, artificial, made dishes, of which our cooks afford us a great variety, as tailors do fas.h.i.+ons in our apparel. Such are [1394]puddings stuffed with blood, or otherwise composed; baked, meats, soused indurate meats, fried and broiled b.u.t.tered meats; condite, powdered, and over-dried, [1395]all cakes, simnels, buns, cracknels made with b.u.t.ter, spice, &c., fritters, pancakes, pies, sausages, and those several sauces, sharp, or over-sweet, of which _scientia popinae_, as Seneca calls it, hath served those [1396]

Apician tricks, and perfumed dishes, which Adrian the sixth Pope so much admired in the accounts of his predecessor Leo Decimus; and which prodigious riot and prodigality have invented in this age. These do generally engender gross humours, fill the stomach with crudities, and all those inward parts with obstructions. Monta.n.u.s, _consil. 22_, gives instance, in a melancholy Jew, that by eating such tart sauces, made dishes, and salt meats, with which he was overmuch delighted, became melancholy, and was evil affected. Such examples are familiar and common.

SUBSECT. II.--_Quant.i.ty of Diet a Cause._

There is not so much harm proceeding from the substance itself of meat, and quality of it, in ill-dressing and preparing, as there is from the quant.i.ty, disorder of time and place, unseasonable use of it, [1397]

intemperance, overmuch, or overlittle taking of it. A true saying it is, _Plures c.r.a.pula quam gladius_. This gluttony kills more than the sword, this _omnivorantia et homicida gula_, this all-devouring and murdering gut.

And that of [1398]Pliny is truer, "Simple diet is the best; heaping up of several meats is pernicious, and sauces worse; many dishes bring many diseases." [1399]Avicen cries out, "That nothing is worse than to feed on many dishes, or to protract the time of meats longer than ordinary; from thence proceed our infirmities, and 'tis the fountain of all diseases, which arise out of the repugnancy of gross humours." Thence, saith [1400]

Fernelius, come crudities, wind, oppilations, cacochymia, plethora, cachexia, bradiopepsia, [1401]_Hinc subitae, mortes, atque intestata senectus_, sudden death, &c., and what not.

As a lamp is choked with a mult.i.tude of oil, or a little fire with overmuch wood quite extinguished, so is the natural heat with immoderate eating, strangled in the body. _Pernitiosa sentina est abdomen insaturabile_: one saith, An insatiable paunch is a pernicious sink, and the fountain of all diseases, both of body and mind. [1402]Mercurialis will have it a peculiar cause of this private disease; Solenander, _consil. 5. sect. 3_, ill.u.s.trates this of Mercurialis, with an example of one so melancholy, _ab intempestivis commessationibus_, unseasonable feasting. [1403]Crato confirms as much, in that often cited counsel, _21. lib. 2_, putting superfluous eating for a main cause. But what need I seek farther for proofs? Hear [1404]Hippocrates himself, _lib. 2. aphor. 10_, "Impure bodies the more they are nourished, the more they are hurt, for the nourishment is putrefied with vicious humours."

And yet for all this harm, which apparently follows surfeiting and drunkenness, see how we luxuriate and rage in this kind; read what Johannes Stuckius hath written lately of this subject, in his great volume _De Antiquorum Conviviis_, and of our present age; _Quam [1405]portentosae coenae_, prodigious suppers, [1406]_Qui dum invitant ad coenam efferunt ad sepulchrum_, what f.a.gos, Epicures, Apetios, Heliogables, our times afford?

Lucullus' ghost walks still, and every man desires to sup in Apollo; Aesop's costly dish is ordinarily served up. [1407]_Magis illa juvant, quae pluris emuntur_. The dearest cates are best, and 'tis an ordinary thing to bestow twenty or thirty pounds on a dish, some thousand crowns upon a dinner: [1408]Mully-Hamet, king of Fez and Morocco, spent three pounds on the sauce of a capon: it is nothing in our times, we scorn all that is cheap. "We loathe the very [1409]light" (some of us, as Seneca notes) "because it comes free, and we are offended with the sun's heat, and those cool blasts, because we buy them not." This air we breathe is so common, we care not for it; nothing pleaseth but what is dear. And if we be [1410]witty in anything, it is _ad gulam_: If we study at all, it is _erudito luxu_, to please the palate, and to satisfy the gut. "A cook of old was a base knave" (as [1411]Livy complains), "but now a great man in request; cookery is become an art, a n.o.ble science: cooks are gentlemen:"

_Venter Deus_: They wear "their brains in their bellies, and their guts in their heads," as [1412]Agrippa taxed some parasites of his time, rus.h.i.+ng on their own destruction, as if a man should run upon the point of a sword, _usque dum rumpantur comedunt_, "They eat till they burst:" [1413]All day, all night, let the physician say what he will, imminent danger, and feral diseases are now ready to seize upon them, that will eat till they vomit, _Edunt ut vomant, vomut ut edant_, saith Seneca; which Dion relates of Vitellius, _Solo transitu ciborum nutriri judicatus_: His meat did pa.s.s through and away, or till they burst again. [1414]_Strage animantium ventrem onerant_, and rake over all the world, as so many [1415]slaves, belly-G.o.ds, and land-serpents, _Et totus...o...b..s ventri nimis angustus_, the whole world cannot satisfy their appet.i.te. [1416]"Sea, land, rivers, lakes, &c., may not give content to their raging guts." To make up the mess, what immoderate drinking in every place? _Senem potum pota trahebat a.n.u.s_, how they flock to the tavern: as if they were _fruges consumere nati_, born to no other end but to eat and drink, like Offellius Bibulus, that famous Roman parasite, _Qui dum vixit, aut bibit aut minxit_; as so many casks to hold wine, yea worse than a cask, that mars wine, and itself is not marred by it, yet these are brave men, Silenus Ebrius was no braver. _Et quae fuerunt vitia, mores sunt_: 'tis now the fas.h.i.+on of our times, an honour: _Nunc vero res ista eo rediit_ (as Chrysost. _serm. 30. in v. Ephes._ comments) _Ut effeminatae ridendaeque ignaviae loco habeatur, nolle inebriari_; 'tis now come to that pa.s.s that he is no gentleman, a very milk-sop, a clown, of no bringing up, that will not drink; fit for no company; he is your only gallant that plays it off finest, no disparagement now to stagger in the streets, reel, rave, &c., but much to his fame and renown; as in like case Epidicus told Thesprio his fellow-servant, in the [1417]Poet. _Aedipol facinus improb.u.m_, one urged, the other replied, _At jam alii fecere idem, erit illi illa res honori_, 'tis now no fault, there be so many brave examples to bear one out; 'tis a credit to have a strong brain, and carry his liquor well; the sole contention who can drink most, and fox his fellow the soonest. 'Tis the _summum bonum_ of our tradesmen, their felicity, life, and soul, _Tanta dulcedine affectant_, saith Pliny, _lib. 14. cap. 12._ _Ut magna pars non aliud vitae praemium intelligat_, their chief comfort, to be merry together in an alehouse or tavern, as our modern Muscovites do in their mead-inns, and Turks in their coffeehouses, which much resemble our taverns; they will labour hard all day long to be drunk at night, and spend _totius anni labores_, as St. Ambrose adds, in a tippling feast; convert day into night, as Seneca taxes some in his times, _Pervertunt officia anoctis et lucis_; when we rise, they commonly go to bed, like our antipodes,

"Nosque ubi primus equis oriens afflavit anhelis, Illis sera rubens ascendit lumina vesper."

So did Petronius in Tacitus, Heliogabalus in Lampridius.

[1418] ------"Noctes vigilibat ad ipsum Mane, diem totum stertebat?"------

------"He drank the night away Till rising dawn, then snored out all the day."

Snymdiris the Sybarite never saw the sun rise or set so much as once in twenty years. Verres, against whom Tully so much inveighs, in winter he never was _extra tectum vix extra lectum_, never almost out of bed, [1419]

still wenching and drinking; so did he spend his time, and so do myriads in our days. They have _gymnasia bibonum_, schools and rendezvous; these centaurs and Lapithae toss pots and bowls as so many b.a.l.l.s; invent new tricks, as sausages, anchovies, tobacco, caviar, pickled oysters, herrings, fumados, &c.: innumerable salt meats to increase their appet.i.te, and study how to hurt themselves by taking antidotes [1420]"to carry their drink the better; [1421]and when nought else serves, they will go forth, or be conveyed out, to empty their gorge, that they may return to drink afresh."

They make laws, _insanas leges, contra bibendi fallacias_, and [1422]brag of it when they have done, crowning that man that is soonest gone, as their drunken predecessors have done, --[1423]_quid ego video_? Ps. _c.u.m corona Pseudolum ebrium tuum_--. And when they are dead, will have a can of wine with [1424]Maron's old woman to be engraven on their tombs. So they triumph in villainy, and justify their wickedness; with Rabelais, that French Lucian, drunkenness is better for the body than physic, because there be more old drunkards than old physicians. Many such frothy arguments they have, [1425]inviting and encouraging others to do as they do, and love them dearly for it (no glue like to that of good fellows.h.i.+p). So did Alcibiades in Greece; Nero, Bonosus, Heliogabalus in Rome, or Alegabalus rather, as he was styled of old (as [1426]Ignatius proves out of some old coins). So do many great men still, as [1427]Heresbachius observes. When a prince drinks till his eyes stare, like Bitias in the Poet,

[1428] ------("ille impiger hausit Spumantem vino pateram.")

------"a thirsty soul; He took challenge and embrac'd the bowl; With pleasure swill'd the gold, nor ceased to draw Till he the bottom of the brimmer saw."

and comes off clearly, sound trumpets, fife and drums, the spectators will applaud him, "the [1429]bishop himself (if he belie them not) with his chaplain will stand by and do as much," _O dignum principe haustum_, 'twas done like a prince. "Our Dutchmen invite all comers with a pail and a dish," _Velut infundibula integras...o...b..s exhauriunt, et in monstrosis poculis, ipsi monstrosi monstrosius epotant_, "making barrels of their bellies." _Incredibile dictu_, as [1430]one of their own countrymen complains: [1431]_Quantum liquoris immodestissima gens capiat_, &c. "How they love a man that will be drunk, crown him and honour him for it," hate him that will not pledge him, stab him, kill him: a most intolerable offence, and not to be forgiven. [1432]"He is a mortal enemy that will not drink with him," as Munster relates of the Saxons. So in Poland, he is the best servitor, and the honestest fellow, saith Alexander Gaguinus, [1433]

"that drinketh most healths to the honour of his master, he shall be rewarded as a good servant, and held the bravest fellow that carries his liquor best," when a brewer's horse will bear much more than any st.u.r.dy drinker, yet for his n.o.ble exploits in this kind, he shall be accounted a most valiant man, for [1434]_Tam inter epulas fortis vir esse potest ac in bello_, as much valour is to be found in feasting as in fighting, and some of our city captains, and carpet knights will make this good, and prove it.

Thus they many times wilfully pervert the good temperature of their bodies, stifle their wits, strangle nature, and degenerate into beasts.

Some again are in the other extreme, and draw this mischief on their heads by too ceremonious and strict diet, being over-precise, c.o.c.kney-like, and curious in their observation of meats, times, as that _Medicina statica_ prescribes, just so many ounces at dinner, which Lessius enjoins, so much at supper, not a little more, nor a little less, of such meat, and at such hours, a diet-drink in the morning, c.o.c.k-broth, China-broth, at dinner, plum-broth, a chicken, a rabbit, rib of a rack of mutton, wing of a capon, the merry-thought of a hen, &c.; to sounder bodies this is too nice and most absurd. Others offend in overmuch fasting: pining adays, saith [1435]

Guianerius, and waking anights, as many Moors and Turks in these our times do. "Anchorites, monks, and the rest of that superst.i.tious rank (as the same Guianerius witnesseth, that he hath often seen to have happened in his time) through immoderate fasting, have been frequently mad." Of such men belike Hippocrates speaks, _l. Aphor. 5_, when as he saith, [1436]"they more offend in too sparing diet, and are worse d.a.m.nified, than they that feed liberally, and are ready to surfeit."

SUBSECT. III.--_Custom of Diet, Delight, Appet.i.te, Necessity, how they cause or hinder_.

No rule is so general, which admits not some exception; to this, therefore, which hath been hitherto said, (for I shall otherwise put most men out of commons,) and those inconveniences which proceed from the substance of meats, an intemperate or unseasonable use of them, custom somewhat detracts and qualifies, according to that of Hippocrates, _2 Aphoris. 50._ [1437]

"Such things as we have been long accustomed to, though they be evil in their own nature, yet they are less offensive." Otherwise it might well be objected that it were a mere [1438]tyranny to live after those strict rules of physic; for custom [1439]doth alter nature itself, and to such as are used to them it makes bad meats wholesome, and unseasonable times to cause no disorder. Cider and perry are windy drinks, so are all fruits windy in themselves, cold most part, yet in some s.h.i.+res of [1440]England, Normandy in France, Guipuscoa in Spain, 'tis their common drink, and they are no whit offended with it. In Spain, Italy, and Africa, they live most on roots, raw herbs, camel's [1441]milk, and it agrees well with them: which to a stranger will cause much grievance. In Wales, _lacticiniis vesc.u.n.tur_, as Humphrey Llwyd confesseth, a Cambro-Briton himself, in his elegant epistle to Abraham Ortelius, they live most on white meats: in Holland on fish, roots, [1442]b.u.t.ter; and so at this day in Greece, as [1443]Bellonius observes, they had much rather feed on fish than flesh. With us, _Maxima pars victus in carne consist.i.t_, we feed on flesh most part, saith [1444]Polydore Virgil, as all northern countries do; and it would be very offensive to us to live after their diet, or they to live after ours. We drink beer, they wine; they use oil, we b.u.t.ter; we in the north are [1445]great eaters; they most sparing in those hotter countries; and yet they and we following our own customs are well pleased. An Ethiopian of old seeing an European eat bread, wondered, _quomodo stercoribus vescentes viverimus_, how we could eat such kind of meats: so much differed his countrymen from ours in diet, that as mine [1446]author infers, _si quis illorum victum apud nos aemulari vellet_; if any man should so feed with us, it would be all one to nourish, as Cicuta, Aconitum, or h.e.l.lebore itself. At this day in China the common people live in a manner altogether on roots and herbs, and to the wealthiest, horse, a.s.s, mule, dogs, cat-flesh, is as delightsome as the rest, so [1447]Mat. Riccius the Jesuit relates, who lived many years amongst them. The Tartars eat raw meat, and most commonly [1448]horse-flesh, drink milk and blood, as the nomades of old. _Et lac concretum c.u.m sanguine potat equino_. They scoff at our Europeans for eating bread, which they call tops of weeds, and horse meat, not fit for men; and yet Scaliger accounts them a sound and witty nation, living a hundred years; even in the civilest country of them they do thus, as Benedict the Jesuit observed in his travels, from the great Mogul's Court by land to Pekin, which Riccius contends to be the same with Cambulu in Cataia. In Scandia their bread is usually dried fish, and so likewise in the Shetland Isles; and their other fare, as in Iceland, saith [1449]Dithmarus Bleskenius, b.u.t.ter, cheese, and fish; their drink water, their lodging on the ground. In America in many places their bread is roots, their meat palmettos, pinas, potatoes, &c., and such fruits. There be of them too that familiarly drink [1450]salt seawater all their lives, eat [1451]raw meat, gra.s.s, and that with delight. With some, fish, serpents, spiders: and in divers places they [1452]eat man's flesh, raw and roasted, even the Emperor [1453]Montezuma himself. In some coasts, again, [1454]one tree yields them cocoanuts, meat and drink, fire, fuel, apparel; with his leaves, oil, vinegar, cover for houses, &c., and yet these men going naked, feeding coa.r.s.e, live commonly a hundred years, are seldom or never sick; all which diet our physicians forbid. In Westphalia they feed most part on fat meats and worts, knuckle deep, and call it [1455]_cerebrum Iovis_: in the Low Countries with roots, in Italy frogs and snails are used. The Turks, saith Busbequius, delight most in fried meats. In Muscovy, garlic and onions are ordinary meat and sauce, which would be pernicious to such as are unaccustomed to them, delightsome to others; and all is [1456]because they have been brought up unto it. Husbandmen, and such as labour, can eat fat bacon, salt gross meat, hard cheese, &c., (_O dura messorum illa_), coa.r.s.e bread at all times, go to bed and labour upon a full stomach, which to some idle persons would be present death, and is against the rules of physic, so that custom is all in all. Our travellers find this by common experience when they come in far countries, and use their diet, they are suddenly offended, [1457]as our Hollanders and Englishmen when they touch upon the coasts of Africa, those Indian capes and islands, are commonly molested with calentures, fluxes, and much distempered by reason of their fruits. [1458]_Peregrina, etsi suavia solent vescentibus perturbationes insignes adferre_, strange meats, though pleasant, cause notable alterations and distempers. On the other side, use or custom mitigates or makes all good again. Mithridates by often use, which Pliny wonders at, was able to drink poison; and a maid, as Curtius records, sent to Alexander from King Porus, was brought up with poison from her infancy. The Turks, saith Bellonius, lib. 3. c. 15, eat opium familiarly, a dram at once, which we dare not take in grains. [1459]Garcias ab Horto writes of one whom he saw at Goa in the East Indies, that took ten drams of opium in three days; and yet _consulto loquebatur_, spake understandingly, so much can custom do. [1460] Theophrastus speaks of a shepherd that could eat h.e.l.lebore in substance. And therefore Cardan concludes out of Galen, _Consuetudinem utcunque ferendam, nisi valde malam_. Custom is howsoever to be kept, except it be extremely bad: he adviseth all men to keep their old customs, and that by the authority of [1461]Hippocrates himself, _Dandum aliquid tempori, aetati regioni, consuetudini_, and therefore to [1462]continue as they began, be it diet, bath, exercise, &c., or whatsoever else.

Another exception is delight, or appet.i.te, to such and such meats: though they be hard of digestion, melancholy; yet as Fuchsius excepts, _cap. 6.

lib. 2. Inst.i.t. sect. 2_, [1463]"The stomach doth readily digest, and willingly entertain such meats we love most, and are pleasing to us, abhors on the other side such as we distaste." Which Hippocrates confirms, _Aphoris. 2. 38._ Some cannot endure cheese, out of a secret antipathy; or to see a roasted duck, which to others is a [1464]delightsome meat.

The last exception is necessity, poverty, want, hunger, which drives men many times to do that which otherwise they are loath, cannot endure, and thankfully to accept of it: as beverage in s.h.i.+ps, and in sieges of great cities, to feed on dogs, cats, rats, and men themselves. Three outlaws in [1465]Hector Boethius, being driven to their s.h.i.+fts, did eat raw flesh, and flesh of such fowl as they could catch, in one of the Hebrides for some few months. These things do mitigate or disannul that which hath been said of melancholy meats, and make it more tolerable; but to such as are wealthy, live plenteously, at ease, may take their choice, and refrain if they will, these viands are to be forborne, if they be inclined to, or suspect melancholy, as they tender their healths: Otherwise if they be intemperate, or disordered in their diet, at their peril be it. _Qui monet amat, Ave et cave_.

"He who advises is your friend Farewell, and to your health attend."

SUBSECT. IV.--_Retention and Evacuation a cause, and how_.

Of retention and evacuation, there be divers kinds, which are either concomitant, a.s.sisting, or sole causes many times of melancholy. [1466]

Galen reduceth defect and abundance to this head; others [1467]"All that is separated, or remains."

_Costiveness_.] In the first rank of these, I may well reckon up costiveness, and keeping in of our ordinary excrements, which as it often causeth other diseases, so this of melancholy in particular. [1468]Celsus, lib. 1. cap. 3, saith, "It produceth inflammation of the head, dullness, cloudiness, headache," &c. Prosper Calenus, _lib. de atra bile_, will have it distemper not the organ only, [1469]"but the mind itself by troubling of it:" and sometimes it is a sole cause of madness, as you may read in the first book of [1470]Skenkius's Medicinal Observations. A young merchant going to Nordeling fair in Germany, for ten days' s.p.a.ce never went to stool; at his return he was [1471]grievously melancholy, thinking that he was robbed, and would not be persuaded but that all his money was gone; his friends thought he had some philtrum given him, but Cnelius, a physician, being sent for, found his [1472]costiveness alone to be the cause, and thereupon gave him a clyster, by which he was speedily recovered.

Trincavellius, _consult. 35. lib. 1_, saith as much of a melancholy lawyer, to whom he administered physic, and Rodericus a Fonseca, _consult. 85. tom.

2_, [1473]of a patient of his, that for eight days was bound, and therefore melancholy affected. Other retentions and evacuations there are, not simply necessary, but at some times; as Fernelius accounts them, _Path. lib. 1.

cap. 15_, as suppression of haemorrhoids, monthly issues in women, bleeding at nose, immoderate or no use at all of Venus: or any other ordinary issues.

[1474]Detention of haemorrhoids, or monthly issues, Villanova.n.u.s _Breviar.

lib. 1. cap. 18._ Arcula.n.u.s, _cap. 16. in 9. Rhasis_, Vittorius Faventinus, _pract. mag. tract. 2. cap. 15._ Bruel, &c. put for ordinary causes.

Fuchsius, _l. 2. sect. 5. c. 30_, goes farther, and saith, [1475]"That many men unseasonably cured of the haemorrhoids have been corrupted with melancholy, seeking to avoid Scylla, they fall into Charybdis." Galen, _l.

de hum. commen. 3. ad text. 26_, ill.u.s.trates this by an example of Lucius Martius, whom he cured of madness, contracted by this means: And [1476]

Skenkius hath two other instances of two melancholy and mad women, so caused from the suppression of their months. The same may be said of bleeding at the nose, if it be suddenly stopped, and have been formerly used, as [1477]Villanova.n.u.s urgeth: And [1478]Fuchsius, _lib. 2. sect. 5.

cap. 33_, stiffly maintains, "That without great danger, such an issue may not be stayed."

Venus omitted produceth like effects. Mathiolus, _epist. 5. l. penult._, [1479]"avoucheth of his knowledge, that some through bashfulness abstained from venery, and thereupon became very heavy and dull; and some others that were very timorous, melancholy, and beyond all measure sad." Oribasius, _med. collect. l. 6. c. 37_, speaks of some, [1480]"That if they do not use carnal copulation, are continually troubled with heaviness and headache; and some in the same case by intermission of it." Not use of it hurts many, Arcula.n.u.s, _c. 6. in 9. Rhasis, et Magninus, part. 3. cap. 5_, think, because it [1481]"sends up poisoned vapours to the brain and heart." And so doth Galen himself hold, "That if this natural seed be over-long kept (in some parties) it turns to poison." Hieronymus Mercurialis, in his chapter of melancholy, cites it for an especial cause of this malady, [1482]priapismus, satyriasis, &c. Haliabbas, _5. Theor. c. 36_, reckons up this and many other diseases. Villanova.n.u.s _Breviar. l. 1. c. 18_, saith, "He knew [1483]many monks and widows grievously troubled with melancholy, and that from this sole cause." [1484]Ludovicus Mercatus, _l. 2. de mulierum affect. cap. 4_, and Rodericus a Castro, _de morbis mulier. l. 2.

c. 3_, treat largely of this subject, and will have it produce a peculiar kind of melancholy in stale maids, nuns, and widows, _Ob suppressionem mensium et venerem omissam, timidae, moestae anxiae, verecundae, suspicioscae, languentes, consilii inopes, c.u.m summa vitae et rerum meliorum desperatione_, &c., they are melancholy in the highest degree, and all for want of husbands. Aelia.n.u.s Montaltus, _cap. 37. de melanchol._, confirms as much out of Galen; so doth Wierus, Christophorus a Vega _de art. med. lib. 3. c. 14_, relates many such examples of men and women, that he had seen so melancholy. Felix Plater in the first book of his Observations, [1485]"tells a story of an ancient gentleman in Alsatia, that married a young wife, and was not able to pay his debts in that kind for a long time together, by reason of his several infirmities: but she, because of this inhibition of Venus, fell into a horrible fury, and desired every one that came to see her, by words, looks, and gestures, to have to do with her," &c. [1486]Bernardus Paternus, a physician, saith, "He knew a good honest G.o.dly priest, that because he would neither willingly marry, nor make use of the stews, fell into grievous melancholy fits." Hildesheim, _spicel. 2_, hath such another example of an Italian melancholy priest, in a consultation had _Anno_ 1580. Jason Pratensis gives instance in a married man, that from his wife's death abstaining, [1487]"after marriage, became exceedingly melancholy," Rodericus a Fonseca in a young man so misaffected, _Tom. 2. consult. 85._ To these you may add, if you please, that conceited tale of a Jew, so visited in like sort, and so cured, out of Poggius Florentinus.

Intemperate Venus is all but as bad in the other extreme. Galen, _l. 6. de mortis popular. sect. 5. text. 26_, reckons up melancholy amongst those diseases which are [1488]"exasperated by venery:" so doth Avicenna, _2, 3, c. 11._ Oribasius, _loc. citat._ Ficinus, _lib. 2. de sanitate tuenda_.

Marsilius Cognatus, Montaltus, _cap. 27._ Guianerius, _Tract. 3. cap. 2._ Magninus, _cap. 5. part. 3._ [1489]gives the reason, because [1490]"it infrigidates and dries up the body, consumes the spirits; and would therefore have all such as are cold and dry to take heed of and to avoid it as a mortal enemy." Jacchinus _in 9 Rhasis, cap. 15_, ascribes the same cause, and instanceth in a patient of his, that married a young wife in a hot summer, [1491]"and so dried himself with chamber-work, that he became in short s.p.a.ce from melancholy, mad:" he cured him by moistening remedies.

The like example I find in Laelius a Fonte Eugubinus, _consult. 129_, of a gentleman of Venice, that upon the same occasion was first melancholy, afterwards mad. Read in him the story at large.

Any other evacuation stopped will cause it, as well as these above named, be it bile, [1492]ulcer, issue, &c. Hercules de Saxonia, _lib. 1. c. 16_, and Gordonius, verify this out of their experience. They saw one wounded in the head who as long as the sore was open, _Lucida habuit mentis intervalla_, was well; but when it was stopped, _Rediit melancholia_, his melancholy fit seized on him again.

Artificial evacuations are much like in effect, as hot houses, baths, bloodletting, purging, unseasonably and immoderately used. [1493]Baths dry too much, if used in excess, be they natural or artificial, and offend extreme hot, or cold; [1494]one dries, the other refrigerates overmuch.

Monta.n.u.s, _consil. 137_, saith, they overheat the liver. Joh. Struthius, _Stigmat. artis. l. 4. c. 9_, contends, [1495]"that if one stay longer than ordinary at the bath, go in too oft, or at unseasonable times, he putrefies the humours in his body." To this purpose writes Magninus, _l. 3. c. 5._ Guianerius, _Tract. 15. c. 21_, utterly disallows all hot baths in melancholy adust. [1496]"I saw" (saith he) "a man that laboured of the gout, who to be freed of this malady came to the bath, and was instantly cured of his disease, but got another worse, and that was madness." But this judgment varies as the humour doth, in hot or cold: baths may be good for one melancholy man, bad for another; that which will cure it in this party, may cause it in a second.

_Phlebotomy_.] Phlebotomy, many times neglected, may do much harm to the body, when there is a manifest redundance of bad humours, and melancholy blood; and when these humours heat and boil, if this be not used in time, the parties affected, so inflamed, are in great danger to be mad; but if it be unadvisedly, importunely, immoderately used, it doth as much harm by refrigerating the body, dulling the spirits, and consuming them: as Joh.

[1497]Curio in his 10th chapter well reprehends, such kind of letting blood doth more hurt than good: [1498]"The humours rage much more than they did before, and is so far from avoiding melancholy, that it increaseth it, and weakeneth the sight." [1499]Prosper Calenus observes as much of all phlebotomy, except they keep a very good diet after it; yea, and as [1500]Leonartis Jacchinus speaks out of his own experience, [1501]"The blood is much blacker to many men after their letting of blood than it was at first." For this cause belike Sal.u.s.t. Salvinia.n.u.s, _l. 2. c. 1_, will admit or hear of no bloodletting at all in this disease, except it be manifest it proceed from blood: he was (it appears) by his own words in that place, master of an hospital of mad men, [1502]"and found by long experience, that this kind of evacuation, either in head, arm, or any other part, did more harm than good." To this opinion of his, [1503]Felix Plater is quite opposite, "though some wink at, disallow and quite contradict all phlebotomy in melancholy, yet by long experience I have found innumerable so saved, after they had been twenty, nay, sixty times let blood, and to live happily after it. It was an ordinary thing of old, in Galen's time, to take at once from such men six pounds of blood, which now we dare scarce take in ounces: _sed viderint medici_;" great books are written of this subject.

Purging upward and downward, in abundance of bad humours omitted, may be for the worst; so likewise as in the precedent, if overmuch, too frequent or violent, it [1504]weakeneth their strength, saith Fuchsius, _l. 2.

sect., 2 c. 17_, or if they be strong or able to endure physic, yet it brings them to an ill habit, they make their bodies no better than apothecaries' shops, this and such like infirmities must needs follow.

SUBSECT. V.--_Bad Air, a cause of Melancholy_.

Air is a cause of great moment, in producing this, or any other disease, being that it is still taken into our bodies by respiration, and our more inner parts. [1505]"If it be impure and foggy, it dejects the spirits, and causeth diseases by infection of the heart," as Paulus hath it, _lib. 1. c.

49._ Avicenna, _lib. 1. Gal. de san. tuenda_. Mercurialis, Montaltus, &c.

[1506]Fernelius saith, "A thick air thickeneth the blood and humours."

[1507]Lemnius reckons up two main things most profitable, and most pernicious to our bodies; air and diet: and this peculiar disease, nothing sooner causeth [1508](Jobertus holds) "than the air wherein we breathe and live." [1509]Such as is the air, such be our spirits; and as our spirits, such are our humours. It offends commonly if it be too [1510]hot and dry, thick, fuliginous, cloudy, bl.u.s.tering, or a tempestuous air. Bodine in his fifth Book, _De repub. cap. 1, 5_, of his Method of History, proves that hot countries are most troubled with melancholy, and that there are therefore in Spain, Africa, and Asia Minor, great numbers of mad men, insomuch that they are compelled in all cities of note, to build peculiar hospitals for them. Leo [1511]Afer, _lib. 3. de Fessa urbe_, Ortelius and Zuinger, confirm as much: they are ordinarily so choleric in their speeches, that scarce two words pa.s.s without railing or chiding in common talk, and often quarrelling in their streets. [1512]Gordonius will have every man take notice of it: "Note this" (saith he) "that in hot countries it is far more familiar than in cold." Although this we have now said be not continually so, for as [1513]Acosta truly saith, under the Equator itself, is a most temperate habitation, wholesome air, a paradise of pleasure: the leaves ever green, cooling showers. But it holds in such as are intemperately hot, as [1514]Johannes a Meggen found in Cyprus, others in Malta, Aupulia, and the [1515]Holy Land, where at some seasons of the year is nothing but dust, their rivers dried up, the air scorching hot, and earth inflamed; insomuch that many pilgrims going barefoot for devotion sake, from Joppa to Jerusalem upon the hot sands, often run mad, or else quite overwhelmed with sand, _profundis arenis_, as in many parts of Africa, Arabia Deserta, Bactriana, now Chara.s.san, when the west wind blows [1516]_Involuti arenis transeuntes necantur_. [1517]Hercules de Saxonia, a professor in Venice, gives this cause why so many Venetian women are melancholy, _Quod diu sub sole degant_, they tarry too long in the sun.

Monta.n.u.s, _consil. 21_, amongst other causes a.s.signs this; Why that Jew his patient was mad, _Quod tam multum exposuit se calori et frigori_: he exposed himself so much to heat and cold, and for that reason in Venice, there is little stirring in those brick paved streets in summer about noon, they are most part then asleep: as they are likewise in the great Mogol's countries, and all over the East Indies. At Aden in Arabia, as [1518]