The Anatomy of Melancholy Part 17

7_, if she grieve overmuch, be disquieted, or by any casualty be affrighted and terrified by some fearful object, heard or seen, she endangers her child, and spoils the temperature of it; for the strange imagination of a woman works effectually upon her infant, that as Baptista Porta proves, _Physiog. caelestis l. 5. c. 2_, she leaves a mark upon it, which is most especially seen in such as prodigiously long for such and such meats, the child will love those meats, saith Fernelius, and be addicted to like humours: [1340]"if a great-bellied woman see a hare, her child will often have a harelip," as we call it. Garcaeus, _de Judiciis geniturarum, cap.

33_, hath a memorable example of one Thomas Nickell, born in the city of Brandeburg, 1551, [1341]"that went reeling and staggering all the days of his life, as if he would fall to the ground, because his mother being great with child saw a drunken man reeling in the street." Such another I find in Martin Wenrichius, _com. de ortu monstrorum, c. 17_, I saw (saith he) at Wittenberg, in Germany, a citizen that looked like a carca.s.s; I asked him the cause, he replied, [1342]"His mother, when she bore him in her womb, saw a carca.s.s by chance, and was so sore affrighted with it, that _ex eo foetus ei a.s.similatus_, from a ghastly impression the child was like it."

So many several ways are we plagued and punished for our father's defaults; insomuch that as Fernelius truly saith, [1343]"It is the greatest part of our felicity to be well born, and it were happy for human kind, if only such parents as are sound of body and mind should be suffered to marry." An husbandman will sow none but the best and choicest seed upon his land, he will not rear a bull or a horse, except he be right shapen in all parts, or permit him to cover a mare, except he be well a.s.sured of his breed; we make choice of the best rams for our sheep, rear the neatest kine, and keep the best dogs, _Quanto id diligentius in procreandis liberis observandum_? And how careful then should we be in begetting of our children? In former times some [1344]countries have been so chary in this behalf, so stern, that if a child were crooked or deformed in body or mind, they made him away; so did the Indians of old by the relation of Curtius, and many other well-governed commonwealths, according to the discipline of those times. Heretofore in Scotland, saith [1345]Hect. Boethius, "if any were visited with the falling sickness, madness, gout, leprosy, or any such dangerous disease, which was likely to be propagated from the father to the son, he was instantly gelded; a woman kept from all company of men; and if by chance having some such disease, she were found to be with child, she with her brood were buried alive:" and this was done for the common good, lest the whole nation should be injured or corrupted. A severe doom you will say, and not to be used amongst Christians, yet more to be looked into than it is. For now by our too much facility in this kind, in giving way for all to marry that will, too much liberty and indulgence in tolerating all sorts, there is a vast confusion of hereditary diseases, no family secure, no man almost free from some grievous infirmity or other, when no choice is had, but still the eldest must marry, as so many stallions of the race; or if rich, be they fools or dizzards, lame or maimed, unable, intemperate, dissolute, exhaust through riot, as he said, [1346]_jura haereditario sapere jubentur_; they must be wise and able by inheritance: it comes to pa.s.s that our generation is corrupt, we have many weak persons, both in body and mind, many feral diseases raging amongst us, crazed families, _parentes, peremptores_; our fathers bad, and we are like to be worse.

MEMB. II.

SUBSECT. I.--_Bad Diet a cause. Substance. Quality of Meats_.

According to my proposed method, having opened hitherto these secondary causes, which are inbred with us, I must now proceed to the outward and advent.i.tious, which happen unto us after we are born. And those are either evident, remote, or inward, antecedent, and the nearest: continent causes some call them. These outward, remote, precedent causes are subdivided again into necessary and not necessary. Necessary (because we cannot avoid them, but they will alter us, as they are used, or abused) are those six non-natural things, so much spoken of amongst physicians, which are princ.i.p.al causes of this disease. For almost in every consultation, whereas they shall come to speak of the causes, the fault is found, and this most part objected to the patient; _Peccavit circa res s.e.x non naturales_: he hath still offended in one of those six. Monta.n.u.s, _consil. 22_, consulted about a melancholy Jew, gives that sentence, so did Frisemelica in the same place; and in his 244 counsel, censuring a melancholy soldier, a.s.signs that reason of his malady, [1347]"he offended in all those six non-natural things, which were the outward causes, from which came those inward obstructions;" and so in the rest.

These six non-natural things are diet, retention and evacuation, which are more material than the other because they make new matter, or else are conversant in keeping or expelling of it. The other four are air, exercise, sleeping, waking, and perturbations of the mind, which only alter the matter. The first of these is diet, which consists in meat and drink, and causeth melancholy, as it offends in substance, or accidents, that is, quant.i.ty, quality, or the like. And well it may be called a material cause, since that, as [1348]Fernelius holds, "it hath such a power in begetting of diseases, and yields the matter and sustenance of them; for neither air, nor perturbations, nor any of those other evident causes take place, or work this effect, except the const.i.tution of body, and preparation of humours, do concur. That a man may say, this diet is the mother of diseases, let the father be what he will, and from this alone, melancholy and frequent other maladies arise." Many physicians, I confess, have written copious volumes of this one subject, of the nature and qualities of all manner of meats; as namely, Galen, Isaac the Jew, Halyabbas, Avicenna, Mesue, also four Arabians, Gordonius, Villanova.n.u.s, Wecker, Johannes Bruerinus, _sitologia de Esculentis et Poculentis_, Michael Savanarola, _Tract 2. c. 8_, Anthony Fumanellus, _lib. de regimine senum_, Curio in his comment on Schola Salerna, G.o.defridus Steckius _arte med._, Marcilius Cognatus, Ficinus, Ranzovius, Fonseca, Lessius, Magninus, _regim.

sanitatis_, Frietagius, Hugo Fridevallius, &c., besides many other in [1349]English, and almost every peculiar physician, discourseth at large of all peculiar meats in his chapter of melancholy: yet because these books are not at hand to every man, I will briefly touch what kind of meats engender this humour, through their several species, and which are to be avoided. How they alter and change the matter, spirits first, and after humours, by which we are preserved, and the const.i.tution of our body, Fernelius and others will show you. I hasten to the thing itself: and first of such diet as offends in substance.

_Beef._] Beef, a strong and hearty meat (cold in the first degree, dry in the second, saith _Gal. l. 3. c. 1. de alim. fac._) is condemned by him and all succeeding Authors, to breed gross melancholy blood: good for such as are sound, and of a strong const.i.tution, for labouring men if ordered aright, corned, young, of an ox (for all gelded meats in every species are held best), or if old, [1350]such as have been tired out with labour, are preferred. Auba.n.u.s and Sabellicus commend Portugal beef to be the most savoury, best and easiest of digestion; we commend ours: but all is rejected, and unfit for such as lead a resty life, any ways inclined to melancholy, or dry of complexion: _Tales_ (Galen thinks) _de facile melancholicis aegritudinibus capiuntur_.

_Pork._] Pork, of all meats, is most nutritive in his own nature, [1351]

but altogether unfit for such as live at ease, are any ways unsound of body or mind: too moist, full of humours, and therefore _noxia delicatis_, saith Savanarola, _ex earum usu ut dubitetur an febris quartana generetur_: naught for queasy stomachs, insomuch that frequent use of it may breed a quartan ague.

_Goat._] Savanarola discommends goat's flesh, and so doth [1352]Bruerinus, _l. 13. c. 19_, calling it a filthy beast, and rammish: and therefore supposeth it will breed rank and filthy substance; yet kid, such as are young and tender, Isaac accepts, Bruerinus and Galen, _l. 1. c. 1. de alimentorum facultatibus_.

_Hart._] Hart and red deer [1353]hath an evil name: it yields gross nutriment: a strong and great grained meat, next unto a horse. Which although some countries eat, as Tartars, and they of China; yet [1354]

Galen condemns. Young foals are as commonly eaten in Spain as red deer, and to furnish their navies, about Malaga especially, often used; but such meats ask long baking, or seething, to qualify them, and yet all will not serve.

Venison, Fallow Deer.] All venison is melancholy, and begets bad blood; a pleasant meat: in great esteem with us (for we have more parks in England than there are in all Europe besides) in our solemn feasts. 'Tis somewhat better hunted than otherwise, and well prepared by cookery; but generally bad, and seldom to be used.

_Hare._] Hare, a black meat, melancholy, and hard of digestion, it breeds incubus, often eaten, and causeth fearful dreams, so doth all venison, and is condemned by a jury of physicians. Mizaldus and some others say, that hare is a merry meat, and that it will make one fair, as Martial's epigram testifies to Gellia; but this is _per accidens_, because of the good sport it makes, merry company and good discourse that is commonly at the eating of it, and not otherwise to be understood.

_Conies._] [1355]Conies are of the nature of hares. Magninus compares them to beef, pig, and goat, _Reg. sanit. part. 3. c. 17_; yet young rabbits by all men are approved to be good.

Generally, all such meats as are hard of digestion breed melancholy.

Areteus, _lib. 7. cap. 5_, reckons up heads and feet, [1356]bowels, brains, entrails, marrow, fat, blood, skins, and those inward parts, as heart, lungs, liver, spleen, &c. They are rejected by Isaac, _lib. 2. part. 3_, Magninus, _part. 3. cap. 17_, Bruerinus, _lib. 12_, Savanarola, _Rub. 32.

Tract. 2._

_Milk._] Milk, and all that comes of milk, as b.u.t.ter and cheese, curds, &c., increase melancholy (whey only excepted, which is most wholesome): [1357]some except a.s.ses' milk. The rest, to such as are sound, is nutritive and good, especially for young children, but because soon turned to corruption, [1358]not good for those that have unclean stomachs, are subject to headache, or have green wounds, stone, &c. Of all cheeses, I take that kind which we call Banbury cheese to be the best, _ex vetustis pessimus_, the older, stronger, and harder, the worst, as Langius discourseth in his Epistle to Melancthon, cited by Mizaldus, Isaac, _p. 5.

Gal. 3. de cibis boni succi_. &c.

_Fowl._] Amongst fowl, [1359]peac.o.c.ks and pigeons, all fenny fowl are forbidden, as ducks, geese, swans, herons, cranes, coots, didappers, water-hens, with all those teals, curs, sheldrakes, and peckled fowls, that come hither in winter out of Scandia, Muscovy, Greenland, Friesland, which half the year are covered all over with snow, and frozen up. Though these be fair in feathers, pleasant in taste, and have a good outside, like hypocrites, white in plumes, and soft, their flesh is hard, black, unwholesome, dangerous, melancholy meat; _Gravant et putrefaciant stomachum_, saith Isaac, _part. 5. de vol._, their young ones are more tolerable, but young pigeons he quite disapproves.

_Fishes._] Rhasis and [1360]Magninus discommend all fish, and say, they breed viscosities, slimy nutriment, little and humorous nourishment.

Savanarola adds, cold, moist: and phlegmatic, Isaac; and therefore unwholesome for all cold and melancholy complexions: others make a difference, rejecting only amongst freshwater fish, eel, tench, lamprey, crawfish (which Bright approves, _cap. 6_), and such as are bred in muddy and standing waters, and have a taste of mud, as Franciscus Bonsuetus poetically defines, _Lib. de aquatilibus_.

"Nam pisces omnes, qui stagna, lacusque frequentant, Semper plus succi deterioris habent."

"All fish, that standing pools, and lakes frequent, Do ever yield bad juice and nourishment."

Lampreys, Paulus Jovius, _c. 34. de piscibus fluvial._, highly magnifies, and saith, None speak against them, but _inepti et scrupulosi_, some scrupulous persons; but [1361]eels, _c. 33_, "he abhorreth in all places, at all times, all physicians detest them, especially about the solstice."

Gomesius, _lib. 1. c. 22, de sale_, doth immoderately extol sea-fish, which others as much vilify, and above the rest, dried, soused, indurate fish, as ling, fumados, red-herrings, sprats, stock-fish, haberdine, poor-John, all sh.e.l.lfish. [1362]Tim. Bright excepts lobster and crab. Messarius commends salmon, which Bruerinus contradicts, _lib. 22. c. 17._ Magninus rejects conger, sturgeon, turbot, mackerel, skate.

Carp is a fish of which I know not what to determine. Franciscus Bonsuetus accounts it a muddy fish. Hippolitus Salvia.n.u.s, in his Book _de Piscium natura et praeparatione_, which was printed at Rome in folio, 1554, with most elegant pictures, esteems carp no better than a slimy watery meat.

Paulus Jovius on the other side, disallowing tench, approves of it; so doth Dubravius in his Books of Fishponds. Freitagius [1363]extols it for an excellent wholesome meat, and puts it amongst the fishes of the best rank; and so do most of our country gentlemen, that store their ponds almost with no other fish. But this controversy is easily decided, in my judgment, by Bruerinus, _l. 22. c. 13._ The difference riseth from the site and nature of pools, [1364]sometimes muddy, sometimes sweet; they are in taste as the place is from whence they be taken. In like manner almost we may conclude of other fresh fish. But see more in Rondoletius, Bellonius, Oribasius, _lib. 7. cap. 22_, Isaac, _l. 1_, especially Hippolitus Salvia.n.u.s, who is _instar omnium solus_, &c. Howsoever they may be wholesome and approved, much use of them is not good; P. Forestus, in his medicinal observations, [1365]relates, that Carthusian friars, whose living is most part fish, are more subject to melancholy than any other order, and that he found by experience, being sometimes their physician ordinary at Delft, in Holland.

He exemplifies it with an instance of one Buscodnese, a Carthusian of a ruddy colour, and well liking, that by solitary living, and fish-eating, became so misaffected.

_Herbs._] Amongst herbs to be eaten I find gourds, cuc.u.mbers, coleworts, melons, disallowed, but especially cabbage. It causeth troublesome dreams, and sends up black vapours to the brain. Galen, _loc. affect. l. 3. c. 6_, of all herbs condemns cabbage; and Isaac, _lib. 2. c. 1._ _Animae gravitatem facit_, it brings heaviness to the soul. Some are of opinion that all raw herbs and salads breed melancholy blood, except bugloss and lettuce. Crato, _consil. 21. lib. 2_, speaks against all herbs and worts, except borage, bugloss, fennel, parsley, dill, balm, succory. Magninus, _regim. sanitatis, part. 3. cap. 31._ _Omnes herbae simpliciter malae, via cibi_; all herbs are simply evil to feed on (as he thinks). So did that scoffing cook in [1366]Plautus hold:

"Non ego coenam condio ut alii coqui solent, Qui mihi condita prata in patinis proferunt, Boves qui convivas faciunt, herbasque aggerunt."

"Like other cooks I do not supper dress, That put whole meadows into a platter, And make no better of their guests than beeves, With herbs and gra.s.s to feed them fatter."

Our Italians and Spaniards do make a whole dinner of herbs and salads (which our said Plautus calls _coenas terrestras_, Horace, _coenas sine sanguine_), by which means, as he follows it,

[1367] "Hic homines tam brevem vitam colunt------ Qui herbas hujusmodi in alvum suum congerunt, Formidolosum dictu, non esu modo, Quas herbas pecudes non edunt, homines edunt."

"Their lives, that eat such herbs, must needs be short, And 'tis a fearful thing for to report, That men should feed on such a kind of meat, Which very juments would refuse to eat."

[1368]They are windy, and not fit therefore to be eaten of all men raw, though qualified with oil, but in broths, or otherwise. See more of these in every [1369]husbandman, and herbalist.

_Roots._] Roots, _Etsi quorundam gentium opes sint_, saith Bruerinus, the wealth of some countries, and sole food, are windy and bad, or troublesome to the head: as onions, garlic, scallions, turnips, carrots, radishes, parsnips: Crato, _lib. 2. consil. 11_, disallows all roots, though [1370]

some approve of parsnips and potatoes. [1371]Magninus is of Crato's opinion, [1372]"They trouble the mind, sending gross fumes to the brain, make men mad," especially garlic, onions, if a man liberally feed on them a year together. Guianerius, _tract. 15. cap. 2_, complains of all manner of roots, and so doth Bruerinus, even parsnips themselves, which are the best, _Lib. 9. cap. 14._

_Fruits._] _Pastinacarum usus succos gignit improbos_. Crato, _consil. 21.

lib. 1_, utterly forbids all manner of fruits, as pears, apples, plums, cherries, strawberries, nuts, medlars, serves, &c. _Sanguinem inficiunt_, saith Villanova.n.u.s, they infect the blood, and putrefy it, Magninus holds, and must not therefore be taken _via cibi, aut quant.i.tate magna_, not to make a meal of, or in any great quant.i.ty. [1373]Cardan makes that a cause of their continual sickness at Fessa in Africa, "because they live so much on fruits, eating them thrice a day." Laurentius approves of many fruits, in his Tract of Melancholy, which others disallow, and amongst the rest apples, which some likewise commend, sweetings, pearmains, pippins, as good against melancholy; but to him that is any way inclined to, or touched with this malady, [1374]Nicholas Piso in his Practics, forbids all fruits, as windy, or to be sparingly eaten at least, and not raw. Amongst other fruits, [1375]Bruerinus, out of Galen, excepts grapes and figs, but I find them likewise rejected.

_Pulse._] All pulse are naught, beans, peas, vetches, &c., they fill the brain (saith Isaac) with gross fumes, breed black thick blood, and cause troublesome dreams. And therefore, that which Pythagoras said to his scholars of old, may be for ever applied to melancholy men, _A fabis abstinete_, eat no peas, nor beans; yet to such as will needs eat them, I would give this counsel, to prepare them according to those rules that Arnoldus Villanova.n.u.s, and Frietagius prescribe, for eating, and dressing.

fruits, herbs, roots, pulse, &c.

_Spices._] Spices cause hot and head melancholy, and are for that cause forbidden by our physicians to such men as are inclined to this malady, as pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, mace, dates, &c. honey and sugar. [1376]

Some except honey; to those that are cold, it may be tolerable, but [1377]

_Dulcia se in bilem vertunt_, (sweets turn into bile,) they are obstructive. Crato therefore forbids all spice, in a consultation of his, for a melancholy schoolmaster, _Omnia aromatica et quicquid sanguinem adurit_: so doth Fernelius, _consil. 45._ Guianerius, _tract 15. cap. 2._ Mercurialis, _cons. 189._ To these I may add all sharp and sour things, luscious and over-sweet, or fat, as oil, vinegar, verjuice, mustard, salt; as sweet things are obstructive, so these are corrosive. Gomesius, in his books, _de sale, l. 1. c. 21_, highly commends salt; so doth Codronchus in his tract, _de sale Absynthii_, Lemn. _l. 3. c. 9. de occult, nat. mir._ yet common experience finds salt, and salt-meats, to be great procurers of this disease. And for that cause belike those Egyptian priests abstained from salt, even so much, as in their bread, _ut sine perturbatione anima esset_, saith mine author, that their souls might be free from perturbations.

_Bread._] Bread that is made of baser grain, as peas, beans, oats, rye, or [1378]over-hard baked, crusty, and black, is often spoken against, as causing melancholy juice and wind. Joh. Mayor, in the first book of his History of Scotland, contends much for the wholesomeness of oaten bread: it was objected to him then living at Paris in France, that his countrymen fed on oats, and base grain, as a disgrace; but he doth ingenuously confess, Scotland, Wales, and a third part of England, did most part use that kind of bread, that it was as wholesome as any grain, and yielded as good nourishment. And yet Wecker out of Galen calls it horsemeat, and fitter for juments than men to feed on. But read Galen himself, _Lib. 1. De cibis boni et mali succi_, more largely discoursing of corn and bread.

_Wine._] All black wines, over-hot, compound, strong thick drinks, as Muscadine, Malmsey, Alicant, Rumney, Brownb.a.s.t.a.r.d, Metheglen, and the like, of which they have thirty several kinds in Muscovy, all such made drinks are hurtful in this case, to such as are hot, or of a sanguine choleric complexion, young, or inclined to head-melancholy. For many times the drinking of wine alone causeth it. Arcula.n.u.s, _c. 16. in 9. Rhasis_, puts in [1379]wine for a great cause, especially if it be immoderately used.

Guianerius, _tract. 15. c. 2_, tells a story of two Dutchmen, to whom he gave entertainment in his house, "that [1380]in one month's s.p.a.ce were both melancholy by drinking of wine, one did nought but sing, the other sigh."

Galen, _l. de causis morb. c. 3._ Matthiolus on Dioscorides, and above all other Andreas Bachius, _l. 3. 18, 19, 20_, have reckoned upon those inconveniences that come by wine: yet notwithstanding all this, to such as are cold, or sluggish melancholy, a cup of wine is good physic, and so doth Mercurialis grant, _consil. 25_, in that case, if the temperature be cold, as to most melancholy men it is, wine is much commended, if it be moderately used.

_Cider, Perry._] Cider and perry are both cold and windy drinks, and for that cause to be neglected, and so are all those hot spiced strong drinks.

Beer.] Beer, if it be over-new or over-stale, over-strong, or not sodden, smell of the cask, sharp, or sour, is most unwholesome, frets, and galls, &c. Henricus Ayrerus, in a [1381]consultation of his, for one that laboured of hypochondriacal melancholy, discommends beer. So doth [1382] Crato in that excellent counsel of his, _Lib. 2. consil. 21_, as too windy, because of the hop. But he means belike that thick black Bohemian beer used in some other parts of [1383]Germany.

------"nil sp.i.s.sius illa Dum bibitur, nil clarius est dum mingitur, unde Constat, quod multas faeces in corpore linquat."

"Nothing comes in so thick, Nothing goes out so thin, It must needs follow then The dregs are left within."

As that [1384]old poet scoffed, calling it _Stygiae monstrum conforme paludi_, a monstrous drink, like the river Styx. But let them say as they list, to such as are accustomed unto it, "'tis a most wholesome" (so [1385]

Polydore Virgil calleth it) "and a pleasant drink," it is more subtle and better, for the hop that rarefies it, hath an especial virtue against melancholy, as our herbalists confess, Fuchsius approves, _Lib. 2. sec. 2.

inst.i.t. cap. 11_, and many others.

Waters] Standing waters, thick and ill-coloured, such as come forth of pools, and moats, where hemp hath been steeped, or slimy fishes live, are most unwholesome, putrefied, and full of mites, creepers, slimy, muddy, unclean, corrupt, impure, by reason of the sun's heat, and still-standing; they cause foul distemperatures in the body and mind of man, are unfit to make drink of, to dress meat with, or to be [1386]used about men inwardly or outwardly. They are good for many domestic uses, to wash horses, water cattle, &c., or in time of necessity, but not otherwise. Some are of opinion, that such fat standing waters make the best beer, and that seething doth defecate it, as [1387]Cardan holds, _Lib. 13. subtil._ "It mends the substance, and savour of it," but it is a paradox. Such beer may be stronger, but not so wholesome as the other, as [1388]Jobertus truly justifieth out of Galen, _Paradox, dec. 1. Paradox 5_, that the seething of such impure waters doth not purge or purify them, Pliny, _lib. 31. c. 3_, is of the same tenet, and P. Crescentius, _agricult. lib. 1. et lib. 4. c.