generates watery humours, is a regular disease. But the other two are induced by age.

19. The things described in the operation upon the blood are likewise of the greatest use here; but I will select and add a few more.

20. Let wine of sweet pomegranates, or if that cannot be had, a fresh extraction of their juice, be taken in the morning, with some sugar, a little fresh citron peel being put into the glass into which the juice has been squeezed, and three or four whole cloves; and let this be continued from February to the end of April.

21. Let watercresses be used in preference to all other herbs; but young, not old; and let them be taken either fresh, or in soups, or in drinks; and next to them scurvy grass.

22. Aloes, however washed and corrected, are bad for the liver, and therefore should never be taken ordinarily. Rhubarb on the other hand is good for the liver, if three cautions are observed; first, to take it before food, lest it be too drying, or leave some trace of astringency behind it; secondly, to steep it for an hour or two in fresh oil of almonds, with rose-water, before it is infused elsewhere, or given in its substance; thirdly, to take it alternately, at one time simple, at another with tartar or a little bay-salt, lest it only carry off the lighter parts, and make the mass of humours still more stubborn.

23. I approve of wine, or a decoction of steel, being taken thrice or four times a year, to clear away the more powerful obstructions; provided however that it be always preceded by two or three spoonsful of fresh oil of sweet almonds, and be fǝllowed by motion of the body, especially of the arms and stomach.

24. Liquids sweetened, and that with some fatness, are of special service to prevent the arefaction, saltness, parching, in short the old age of the liver; especially if they be well incorporated with age. Let such be made of fruits and sweet roots; as wine and drinks of raisins, jujubes, dried figs, dates, parsnips, bulbous roots, potatoes, and the like, with sometimes a mixture of liquorice. A drink also made from Indian corn (which they call maize) with a mixture of sweet things is very beneficial. It is to be observed however that this intention of preserving the liver in a certain soft and fat state is much more powerful than the other, which only relates to the opening of it, and tends rather to health than length of life; except that the

obstruction that parches the liver is as prejudicial as the other kinds of arefaction.

25. Roots of chicory, spinage, and beet, stripped of their pith and boiled in water till they are tender, with a third part of white wine, and used as common salads with oil and vinegar, are to be recommended; as also are the buds or stalks of asparagus, the pulps of artichokes, burdock-roots properly boiled and prepared; and in spring time broths made of the young leaves of the vine and green blades of wheat. So much therefore for strengthening the liver.

26. The heart receives the most benefit or injury from the air we breathe, from vapours, and from the passions. And many of the observations made before concerning the spirits may be transferred hither. The undigested mass of cordials which have been collected by physicians is of little use to my intention; but antidotes to poisons may be applied with sound judgment to strengthen and fortify the heart, especially if they are of a kind which does not so much destroy the peculiar nature of the poison as enable the heart and spirits to resist poison in general. With respect to cordials consult the table drawn up before.

27. The goodness of the air in places is better distinguished by experience than by signs. I consider it to be best in plains that are thoroughly exposed to the wind; if the soil is dry, and yet not altogether parched or sandy, and grows wild thyme, a kind of marjoram, and some scattered plants of calamint; and is not entirely treeless, but interspersed with some groups here and there for shade; and where the sweet-briar has a musk and aromatic smell. Rivers I consider injurious, unless very small, clear and gravelly.

28. The morning air is certainly more invigorating, though the evening is preferred for enjoyment and delicacy.

29. Air stirred by a gentle wind is I consider healthier than a calm. The best is a wind from the west in the morning, and from the north in the afternoon.

30. Odours are very good to comfort the heart; not however that a good smell is the privilege of a good air. For as some airs are very pestilential, which do not smell so ill as others that are less pernicious, so on the other hand there are airs most healthy and favourable to the spirits which have either no smell or one not so pleasant and fragrant to the sense. general, where the air is good, scents should only be used

In

occasionally; for a continual odour, though of the best kind, somewhat oppresses the spirits.

31. Of all odours I recommend (as I have intimated before) those of plants growing and not gathered, and taken in the open air; such as those of violets, pinks, and gillyflowers, bean-blossoms, lime-flowers, the dust or flowers of vines, clary, the yellow wallflower, musk roses (for other roses when growing give out little smell), strawberry plants, especially when dying, sweet-briar, especially in early spring, wild mint, and lavender flowers; and in hot countries, oranges, citrons, myrtle, and laurel. We ought therefore to walk or sit among the breaths of these plants.

32. To comfort the heart cooling odours are better than hot. The best fumigation therefore in the morning or the noon-day heats is by throwing an equal proportion of vinegar, rose-water, and strong wine on a hot iron plate.

33. Nor let me be thought to be sacrificing to Mother Earth, if I recommend in digging or ploughing to pour a quantity of generous wine upon the soil.

34. Pure orange-flower water, with a slight infusion of rose-water and fragrant wine, inhaled through the nostrils or inserted by a syringe, like an errhine, is good, if not done too often.

35. Mastication (though we have no betel) and holding in the mouth such things as cheer the spirits is very useful, though it be done continually. Make therefore grains or little cakes of ambergris, musk, lign-aloes, lignum rhodium, orrice root, and roses; and let them be made up with rose-water which has passed through a little Indian balsam.

36. The vapours arising from things taken internally to fortify and cherish the heart ought to have three properties. They ought to be friendly, clear, and cooling. Warmth in vapours is bad; and wine itself which is supposed to have only a heating vapour is not entirely devoid of an opiate property. Those vapours I call clear which have more vapour than exhalation, and are not at all smoky, sooty, or oily, but moist and uniform.

37. Among that useless collection of cordials there are a few which should be used for diet; above all ambergris, saffron, and the grain of hermes, of the hotter kinds; and of the colder kinds, the roots of bugloss and borage, citrons, sweet lemons, and apples,

Gold also and pearls, used in the way I have mentioned, may do some good, not only in the veins, but also in their passage, and in the region of the heart; namely, by cooling, without having any noxious property.

38. I am not entirely without faith in the virtue of the bezoar stone, for there have been many trials of it; yet it should by all means be taken in such a way as to communicate its virtue most easily to the spirits. It should not therefore be used in soups, syrups, rose-water, nor the like, but only in wine, cinnamon-water, or distilled liquor of that kind, and that not hot or strong, but weak.

39. Concerning the affections we have already inquired. I will only add this one remark, that every great, constant, and as they say, heroic desire, strengthens and enlarges the powers of the heart. And so much concerning the heart.

40. With regard to the brain, where the court and university of the animal spirits is held, the former inquiries concerning opium, nitre, and their subordinates, and the means for inducing quiet sleep, have some relation thereto. It is certain also that the brain is as it were under the protection of the stomach, and therefore the things which comfort and fortify the stomach by consent assist the brain, and may be transferred to this place. I will add a few remedies, three external, and one internal.

41. I recommend bathing the feet at least once a week in a bath made of lye, bay salt, sage, camomile, fennel, sweet marjoram, spikenard, and the leaves of green angelica.

42. I recommend a fumigation every morning of dried rosemary, dry bay twigs, and lign-aloes; for sweet gums oppre the head.

43. There must be great care not to apply hot things to the head externally; such as all kinds of spices, not even excepting the nutmeg. For these hot things we would bring down to the soles of the feet, and there alone apply them. A light anointing of the head however with oil, roses, and myrtle, with a little salt and saffron, I approve.

44. Remembering what I have said before concerning opiates, nitre, and the like, which so powerfully condense the spirits, I do not think it would be amiss if once a fortnight three or four grains of castor be taken in a morning broth, with a little angelica sced and calamus aromaticus. For these both strengthen

the brain, and excite in that density of the substance of the spirits (which is so necessary for longevity) vivacity and vigour of motion.

45. With respect to the comforters of the principal viscera, I have proposed those things which are both proper and choice, and which may be safely and conveniently transferred to a diet and system of life. For variety of medicines is the child of ignorance; and if it be true according to the proverb, that "many dishes have made many diseases," it is not less true that many medicines have made few cures. And so much for the operation to send forth the aliment from the principal viscera.

VI.

THE OPERATION UPON THE EXTERIOR PARTS, FOR THE ATTRACTION OF ALIMENT.

The History.

1. Although a good digestion performed by the internal parts is the principal thing for perfect alimentation, yet the actions of the exterior parts should also concur. And as the internal faculty sends forth and extrudes the nourishment, so outward faculties should attract and seize it. The weaker also the digestive faculty is, the more need is there of the aid and concurrence of this faculty of attraction.

2. A strong attraction of the outward parts is principally excited by motion of the body, whereby the parts, being warmed and comforted, invite and attract the nourishment more briskly.

3. The greatest care must be taken however that the same heat and motion, which call forth the new juice to the members, do not at the same time exhaust the member too much of that juice with which it was before moistened.

4. Frictions, especially in the morning, are most useful to this intention; but let this friction be always followed by a light anointing of oil, lest the rubbing of the outward parts should make them, by perspiration, effete and exhausted.

5. Exercise, by which the parts rub and chafe themselves, is the next best thing to friction, provided it be moderate and (as has been said before) neither rapid, nor to the utmost strength, nor to lassitude. But in this, as well as in friction, there is