Section II. Of the appropriation of Medicines to the several parts of the body

That the qualities and use of these medicines may be found out, and understood by every one, and so my country reap the benefit of my labour, they shall find them presented to their view in this order.

Medicines appropriated.

• 1. To the head.
• 2. To the breast and lungs.
• 3. To the heart.
• 4. To the stomach.
• 5. To the liver.
• 6. To the spleen.
• 7. To the reins and bladder.
• 8. To the womb.
• 9. To the joints.

CHAPTER I. Of Medicines appropriated to the head.

By [head] is usually understood all that part of the body which is between the top of the crown, and the uppermost joint of the neck, yet are those medicines properly called Cephalical, which are appropriated to the brain, not to the eyes, ears, nor teeth; neither are those medicines which are proper to the ears, proper also to the eyes, therefore (my intent being to write as plain as I can) I shall subdivide this chapter into these parts.

Medicines appropriated

• 1. To the brain.
• 2. To the eyes.
• 3. To the mouth, and nostrils.
• 4. To the ears.
• 5. To the teeth.

For what medicines are appropriated to an unruly tongue, is not in my power at present to determine.

Of Medicines appropriated to the brain.

Before we treat of medicines appropriated to the brain, it is requisite that we describe what the nature and affection of the brain is.

The brain which is the seat of apprehension, judgment, and memory, the original of sense and motion, is by nature temperate, and if so, then you will grant me that it may easily be afflicted both by heat and cold, and it is indeed more subject to affliction by either of them, than any other part of the body, for if it be afflicted by heat, sense and reason, it is immoderately moved, if by cold, they languish, and are dulled, to pass by other symptoms which invade the head, if the brain be altered from its proper temper.

Also this is peculiar to the brain, that it is delighted or offended by smells, sights, and sounds, but I shall meddle no further with these here, because they are not medicines.

Cephalical Medicines may be found out from the affections of the brain itself. The brain is usually oppressed with moisture in such afflictions; therefore give such medicines as very gently warm, cleanse, cut, and dry: but withal, let them be such as are appropriated to the head, such as physicians say (by an hidden quality) strengthen the brain.

Again, if you consider the situation of the brain, you shall find it placed in the highest part of the body, therefore it is easily afflicted with hot vapours: this punishes a man with watching and head-ache, as the former did with sottishness and sleepiness, in such cases use such Cephalecs as gently cool the brain.

To make Cephalecs of Narcoticks, or stupifying medicines, is not my intent, for I am confident they are inimical both to brain and senses. Of these, and such medicines as also purge the brain, I shall speak by and by. To return to my purpose.

Some Cephalics purge the brain, some heat it, some cool it, some strengthen it; but how they perform this office peculiarly to the brain, most physicians confess they could neither comprehend by reason, nor describe by precepts, only thus, they do it by an hidden quality, either by strengthening the brain, thereby descending it from diseases, or by a certain antipathy between them and the diseases incident to the brain.

Lastly, For the use of Cephalics, observe, if the brain be much afflicted, you cannot well strengthen it before you have purged it, neither can you well purge the brain before you have cleansed the rest of the body, it is so subject to receive the vapours up to it; give cooling Cephalics when the brain is too hot, and hot Cephalics when it is too cold.

Beware of using cooling medicines to the brain when the crisis of a disease is near: how that time may be known, I shall (God assisting me) instruct you hereafter, let it suffice now, that according as the disease afflicting your head is, so let your remedy be.

Of Medicines appropriated to the eyes.

Take such medicines as are appropriated to the eyes under the name of (Ocular Medicines) I do it partly to avoid multiplicity of words, and partly to instruct my countrymen in the terms of art belonging to physic, (I would have called them [Ophthalmics] had not the word been troublesome to the reading, much more to the understanding of a countryman) as I even now called such medicines [Cephalics] as were appropriated to the brain.

Ocular medicines are two-fold, viz. such as are referred to the visive virtues, and such as are referred to the eyes themselves.

Such as strengthen the visive virtue or the optick nerves which convey it to the eyes (say Doctors) do it by an hidden virtue, into the reason which no man can dive, unless they should fetch it from the similitude of the substance: And yet they say a Goat’s liver conduces much to make one see in the night, and they give this reason, because Goats see as well in the night as in the day. Yet is there no affinity in temperature nor substance between the liver and the eyes: However Astrologers know well enough that all herbs, plants, &c. that are under the dominion of either sun or moon, and appropriated to the head, be they hot or cold they strengthen the visive virtue, as Eyebright, which is hot, Lunaria, or Moonwort which is cold.

As for what appertains to the constitution of the eyes themselves, seeing they are exact in sense, they will not endure the least inconvenience, therefore such medicines as are outwardly applied to them (for such medicines as strengthen the visive virtues are always given inwardly) let them neither hurt by their hardness nor gnawing quality, nor be so tough that they should stick to them. Therefore let ocular medicines be neither in powders nor ointments, because oil itself is offensive to the eyes, and how pleasing powders are to them, you may perceive yourself by just going into the dust.

Medicines appropriated to the mouth and nose.

Apply no stinking medicine to a disease in the nose, for such offend not only the nose, but also the brain; neither administer medicines of any ill taste to a disease in the mouth, for that subverts the stomach, because the tunicle of the mouth and of the stomach is the same: and because both mouth and nostrils are ways by which the brain is cleansed, therefore are they infected with such vices as need almost continual cleansing, and let the medicines you apply to them be either pleasant, or at least, not ingrateful.

Medicines appropriated to the ears.

The ears are easily afflicted by cold, because they are always open, therefore they require hot medicines. And because they are of themselves very dry, therefore they require medicines which dry much.

Medicines appropriated to the teeth.

Vehement heat, and vehement cold, are inimical to the teeth, but they are most of all offended by sharp and sour things, and the reason is, because they have neither skin nor flesh to cover them, they delight in such medicines as are cleansing and binding, because they are troubled with defluxions and rheums upon every light occasion; and that’s the reason the common use of fat and sweet things, soon rots the teeth.

CHAPTER II. Of Medicines appropriated to the breast and lungs.

The medicines appropriated to the breast and lungs, you shall find called all along by the name of [pectorals] that’s the term Physicians give them, when you heat them talk of pectoral Syrups, pectoral rows, or pectoral Ointments.

They are divers, some of which regard the part afflicted, others the matter afflicting.

But although sometimes in ulcers of the lungs, we are forced to use binding medicines, to join the ulcer, yet are not these called pectorals, because binding medicines are extreme hurtful to the breast and lungs, both because they hinder one’s fetching his breath, and also because they hinder the avoiding that flegm by which the breast is oppressed.

Such medicines are called pectorals, which are of a lenifying nature.

Besides, Those which make thin matter thicker are of two sorts, viz. Some are mild and gentle, which may safely be administered, be the matter hot or cold which offendeth; others are very cold, which are used only when the matter offending is sharp.

But because such medicines as conduce to the cure of the phthisics (which is an ulceration of the lungs, and the disease usually called, the consumption of the lungs,) are also reckoned in amongst pectorals, it is not amiss to speak a word or two of them.

In the cure of this disease are three things to be regarded.

1. To cut and bring away the concreted blood.

2. To cherish and strengthen the lungs.

3. To conglutinate the ulcer.

And indeed some particular simples will perform all these, and physicians confess it; which shews the wonderful mystery the all-wise God hath made in the creation, that one and the same simple should perform two contrary operations on the same part of the body; for the more a medicine cleanses, the more it conglutinates.

To conclude then, Pectoral Medicines are such as either cut and cleanse out the compacted humours from the arteries of the lungs, or make thin defluxions thick, or temper those that are sharp, help the roughness of the wind-pipe, or are generally lenitive and softening, being outwardly applied to the breast.

CHAPTER III. Of Medicines appropriated to the heart.

These are they which are generally given under the notion of Cordials; take them under that name here.

The heart is the seat of the vital spirit, the fountain of life, the original of infused heat, and of the natural affections of man.

So then these two things are proper to the heart.

1. By its heat to cherish life throughout the body.

2. To add vigour to the affections.

And if these be proper to the heart, you will easily grant me, that it is the property of cordials to administer to the heart in these particulars.

Of Cordials, some cheer the mind, some strengthen the heart, and refresh the spirits thereof, being decayed.

Those which cheer the mind, are not one and the same; for as the heart is variously disturbed, either by anger, love, fear, hatred, sadness, &c. So such things as flatter lovers or appease the angry, or comfort the fearful, or please the hateful, may well be called cordials; for the heart, seeing it is placed in the middle between the brain and the liver, is wrought upon by reason, as well as by digestion, yet these, because they are not medicines, are beside my present scope.

And although it is true, that mirth, love, &c. are actions, or motions of the mind, not of the body; yet many have been induced to think such affections may be wrought in the body by medicines.

The heart is chiefly afflicted by too much heat, by poison, and by stinking vapours, and these are remedied by the second sort of cordials, and indeed chiefly belong to our present scope.

According to these three afflictions, viz.

• 1. Excessive heat.
• 2. Poison.
• 3. Melancholy vapours.

Are three kinds of remedies which succour the afflicted heart.

Such as

1. By their cooling nature mitigate the heat of fevers.

2. Resist poison.

3. Cherish the vital spirits when they languish.

All these are called Cordials.

1. Such as cool the heart in fevers, yet is not every thing that cooleth cordial, for lead is colder than gold, yet is not lead cordial as gold is, some hold it cordial by a hidden quality, others by reason.

2. Such as resist poison; there is a two-fold resisting of poison.

1. By an antipathy between the medicine and poison.

2. By a sympathy between the medicine and the heart.

Of the first we shall speak anon, in a chapter by itself. The latter belongs to this chapter, and they are such medicines, whose nature is to strengthen the heart, and fortify it against the poison, as Rue, Angelica, &c. For as the operation of the former is upon the poison, which afflicteth the heart, so the operation of the latter is upon the heart afflicted by the poison.

To this class may be referred all such medicines as strengthen the heart either by astral influence, or by likeness of substance, if there be such a likeness in medicines, for a Bullock’s heart is of like substance to man’s, yet I question whether it be cordial or not.

3. And lastly, Such as refresh the spirits, and make them lively and active, both because they are appropriated to the office, and also because they drive stinking and melancholy vapours from the heart, for as the animal spirit be refreshed by fragrant smells, and the natural spirits by spices, so are the vital spirits refreshed by all such medicines as keep back melancholy vapours from the heart, as Borrage, Bugloss, Rosemary, Citron Pills, the compositions of them, and many others, which this treatise will amply furnish you with.

CHAPTER IV. Of Medicines appropriated to the stomach.

By stomach, I mean that ventricle which contains the food till it be concocted into chyle.

Medicines appropriated to the stomach are usually called stomachicals.

The infirmities usually incident to the stomach are three.

• 1. Appetite lost.
• 2. Digestion weakened.
• 3. The retentive faculty corrupted.

When the appetite is lost, the man feels no hunger when his body needs nourishment.

When digestion is weakened it is not able to concoct the meat received into the stomach, but it putrifies there.

When the retentive faculty is spoiled the stomach is not able to retain the food till it be digested, but either vomits it up again, or causes fluxes.

Such medicines then as remedy all these, are called stomachicals. And of them in order.

1. Such as provoke appetite are usually of a sharp or sourish taste, and yet withal of a grateful taste to the palate, for although loss of appetite may proceed from divers causes, as from choler in the stomach, or putrefied humours or the like, yet such things as purge this choler or humours, are properly called Orecticks, not stomachicals; the former strengthen appetite after these are expelled.

2. Such medicines help digestion as strengthen the stomach, either by convenient heat, or aromatic (viz. spicy) faculty, by hidden property, or congruity of nature.

3. The retentive faculty of the stomach is corrected by binding medicines, yet not by all binding medicines neither, for some of them are adverse to the stomach, but by such binding medicines as are appropriated to the stomach.

For the use of these.

Use 1. Use not such medicines as provoke appetite before you have cleansed the stomach of what hinders it.

Use 2. Such medicines as help digestion, give them a good time before meat that so they may pass to the bottom of the stomach, (for the digestive faculty lies there,) before the food come into it.

Use 3. Such as strengthen the retentive faculty, give them a little before meat, if to stay fluxes, a little after meat, if to stay vomiting.

CHAPTER V. Of Medicines appropriated to the liver.

Be pleased to take these under the name of Hepatics, for that is the usual name physicians give them, and these also are of three sorts.

• 1. Some the liver is delighted in.
• 2. Others strengthen it.
• 3. Others help its vices.

The palate is the seat of taste, and its office is to judge what food is agreeable to the stomach, and what not, by that is both the quality and quantity of food for the stomach discerned: the very same office the meseraik veins perform to the liver.

Sometimes such food pleases the palate which the liver likes not (but not often) and therefore the meseraik veins refuse it, and that is the reason some few men fancy such food as makes them sick after the eating thereof.

1. The liver is delighted exceedingly with sweet things, draws them greedily, and digests them as swiftly, and that is the reason honey is so soon turned into choler.

2. Such medicines strengthen the liver, as (being appropriated to it) very gently bind, for seeing the office of the liver is to concoct, it needs some adstriction, that so both the heat and the humour to be concocted may be stayed, that so the one slip not away, nor the other be scattered.

Yet do not hepatical medicines require so great a binding faculty as stomachicals do, because the passages of the stomach are more open than those of the liver by which it either takes in chyle, or sends out blood to the rest of the body, therefore medicines that are very binding are hurtful to the liver, and either cause obstructions, or hinder the distribution of the blood, or both.

And thus much for the liver, the office of which is to concoct chyle, (which is a white substance the stomach digests the food into) into blood, and distributes it, by the veins, to every part of the body, whereby the body is nourished, and decaying flesh restored.

CHAPTER VI. Of Medicines appropriated to the spleen.

In the breeding of blood, are three excrements most conspicuous, viz. urine, choler, and melancholy.

The proper seat of choler is in the gall.

The urine passeth down to the reins or kidneys, which is all one.

The spleen takes the thickest or melancholy blood to itself.

This excrement of blood is twofold: for either by excessive heat, it is addust, and this is that the Latins call Atra Bilis: or else it is thick and earthly of itself, and this properly is called melancholy humour.

Hence then is the nature of splenical medicines to be found out, and by these two is the spleen usually afflicted for Atra bilis, (I know not what distinct English name to give it) many times causes madness, and pure melancholy causeth obstructions of the bowels, and tumours, whereby the concoction of the blood is vitiated, and dropsies many times follow.

Medicines then peculiar to the spleen must needs be twofold also, some appropriated to Atra bilis, others to pure melancholy; but of purging either of them, I shall omit till I come to treat of purging in a chapter by itself.

1. Such medicines are splenical, which by cooling and moistening temper Atra bilis: let not these medicines be too cold neither, for there is no such heat in Atra bilis as there is in choler, and therefore it needs no such excessive cooling: amongst the number of these are such as we mentioned amongst the cordials to repel melancholy vapours from the heart, such temper and assuage the malice of Atra bilis.

2. Those medicines are also splenical, by which melancholy humours are corrected and so prepared, that they may the more easily be evacuated: such medicines are cutting and opening, and they differ from hepaticals in this that they are no ways binding; for the spleen being no ways addicted to concoction, binding medicines do it harm, and not good.

3. Sometimes the spleen is not only obstructed, but also hardened by melancholy humours, and in such cases emolient medicines may be well called splenicals, not such as are taken inwardly, for they operate upon the stomach and bowels, but such as are outwardly applied to the region of the spleen.

And although sometimes medicines, are outwardly applied to hardness of the liver, yet they differ from splenicals, because they are binding, so are not splenicals.

CHAPTER VII. Of Medicines appropriated to the reins and bladder.

The office of the reins is, to make a separation between the blood and the urine; to receive this urine thus separated from the blood, is the bladder ordained, which is of a sufficient bigness to contain it.

Both these parts of the body officiating about the urine, they are both usually afflicted by the vices of the urine.

• 1. By stones.
• 2. By inflammation.
• 3. By thick humours.

Medicines appropriated to the reins and bladder are usually called Nephriticals, and are threefold; some cool, others cut gross humours, and a third sort breaks the stone.

In the use of all these, take notice, that the constitution of the reins and bladder is such, that they abhor all binding medicines because they cause stoppage of urine.

Take notice, that the reins and bladder being subject to inflammations endure not very hot medicines.

Because the bladder is further remote from the centre of the body than the kidnies are, therefore it requires stronger medicines than the kidnies do, lest the strength of the medicine be spent before it be come to the part afflicted.

CHAPTER VIII. Of Medicines appropriated to the womb.

These, physicians call Hystericals, and to avoid multiplicity of words, take them in this discourse under that notion.

Take notice that such medicines as provoke the menses, or stop them when they flow immoderately, are properly hystericals, but shall be spoken to by and by in a chapter by themselves.

As for the nature of the womb, it seems to be much like the nature of the brain and stomach, for experience teacheth that it is delighted with sweet and aromatical medicines, and flies from their contraries.

For example: a woman being troubled with the fits of the mother, which is drawing of the womb upward, apply sweet things, as Civet, or the like, to the place of conception, it draws it down again; but apply stinking things to the nose, as Assafœtida, or the like, it expels it from it, and sends it down to its proper place.

CHAPTER IX. Of Medicines appropriated to the joints.

The joints are usually troubled with cephalic diseases, and then are to be cured by cephalic medicines.

Medicines appropriated to the joints, are called by the name Arthritical medicines.

The joints, seeing they are very nervous, require medicines which are of a heating and drying nature, with a gentle binding, and withal, such as by peculiar virtue are appropriated to them, and add strength to them. It is true, most cephalics do so, yet because the joints are more remote from the centre, they require stronger medicines.

For removing pains in the joints this is the method of proceeding.

Pain is either taken away or eased, for the true cure is to take away the cause of the pain, sometimes the vehemency of the pain is so great that you must be forced to use Anodines (for so physicians call such medicines as ease pain) before you can meddle with the cause, and this is usually when the part pained is inflamed, for those medicines which take away the cause of pain being very hot, if there be any inflammation in the part pained, you must abstain from them till the inflammation be taken away.